The Shamans at the End of Time, page 28
The people climbing the hill were closer now, and he saw them clearly, though his vision was a little blurred. Women. What are they doing here? This is the front line. He passed his hand in front of his eyes and counted his fingers. Then he touched his nose with the forefingers of both hands. I feel normal. Maybe my comrades had to retreat and thought I was dead. Where is my rifle? He looked around and found nothing. I still have my bayonet. What can I do with a bayonet against a rifle? The women had almost arrived; he could hear them breathing hard behind the wall, which was only three feet tall. What are they doing here? We are at war. How long did I lose consciousness for? Could it be days? But I don’t feel hungry.
Four women burst into the open, and quickly walked toward him.
“What are you doing here?” one of them asked him in a language that he did not understand, her voice filled with anger.
“I don’t understand you,” Vlad said. What language is this? This must be another bad dream.
The woman gripped his shoulder and shook him. The pain made him moan, and he could not respond. Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she retreated as fast as she had come to him.
“Are you crazy?” Vlad asked, overcoming his pain. “I’ve lost my platoon. Did you see six men dressed like me?” She doesn’t understand me. “I may be wounded,” he spoke again, just to keep his mind busy. “I may need a doctor. Do you understand me?”
“Shaman,” the woman said; finally something intelligible for him.
“Oh, I am still dreaming,” Vlad sighed and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the strange woman.
“Who are you?” the woman asked again, in a language that Vlad realized was close to the Vlahin language.
A never-ending dream. “I am Vlad,” he said, with a deep sigh. I feel like I’m in the movie Looper. A looper dream, he thought, amused.
“You are a shaman.”
“If you want me to be, I can play that role for you, but I would prefer another role. I am a soldier, even though I like to think of myself as an engineer, but no one asked my opinion when theydrafted me and sent me to fight in a bloody war. And I did not like my last dream.”
“What dream?” She understood only half of his words.
I am getting tired. “I dreamt about some savages. The Vlahins. Does that help?” Maybe this dream is more co-operative.
“Men are not allowed here. They are impure.”
This is what I was missing, to be called impure. “I can bathe, if you really want me too. Just take me to a nice place with hot water and good food.”
“Your mind is impure.”
“I am sorry, but that I can’t change that. I like my mind exactly as it is.”
“But you are a shaman.”
“Yes, I have six Amber Stones. Are you satisfied now?” Andrei’s head will start to fly around me. At least my friends are alive. I hope I meet Catalin soon. When this new dream ends.
“What should I do with you?”
“You can send me a better dream. Please.”
“You must leave the hill.”
“I would like that, but I’ll need a little help. There are some issues with my body.” He stretched his hand out and, reluctantly, the woman grabbed it and helped him stand. Better. “Thank you. You are?” he gestured at her.
“Moira.”
Why couldn’t she have another name? “I once met a woman named Moira, but you look different. She was a shamane too. Why are you dressed like this?” He realized the woman’s dress was somewhere between late roman and early medieval. This timeline must be somewhere in the eleventh century, so at least I am not dreaming about savages again. They look peaceful. Let’s hope that the men are peaceful too. Why are they impure? Too violent?
The woman started. “We all dress like this.”
If you say so. “Where should we go?” I am impure and must leave the place. Why can’t I have better dreams?
“I have to take you to the Shamane. She may want to punish you.”
“Why?”
“Because you came here.”
“The Mother sent me here,” Vlad joked, but the woman covered her mouth with her hand, and looked serious.
“You are a shaman,” she whispered.
Vlad ignored her, and finding that he could walk, he moved to look at the columns. Grouped three by three, they resembled Ionian architecture. They look well maintained. “Ionian?” he asked, but the woman only shrugged. “Greek?”I have to give up. He passed his left hand through his hair, and saw the scar on the back of his hand. This is from when I chased that bear to take his prey. The giant deer. My dream was more than a year and half long. Where am I now? Not where, when? This woman should have made the sign of the cross seeing a pagan in front of her. The Balkans were Christianized some centuries ago. He sensed movement behind him and, turning, saw another woman who was staring at him. “I am Vlad,” he said politely.
“You are a shaman.”
“Yes,” he sighed. Here we go again. “You are a shamane.” He blinked, and stared at the woman again. “Threeand a half Amber Stones.”Moira is a shamane too, with three Amber Stones.
“I am Edna. Let’s go down. Even if you are a shaman, you are still not allowed to visit this place. Moira, double the guards for the Mother’s Sanctuary.”
Moira and Edna... It’s a new dream for sure, but without much imagination. It’s boring to hear the same names again. “I understand that I am ... impure.”
“Men usually are, but that really just means they can’t be left in charge. They can’t rule themselves. Left alone, they are too violent. That’s why women take care of them. You may be an exception. How did you get here? None of our guards saw you climbing the hill.”
“Teleportation,” Vlad shrugged, slightly amused by her reaction. Or something like that.
“What does that mean?”
Vlad scratched his head, and then he remembered Catalin’s words about portals and going from one place to another. And now that he had started to think, he felt the energy surrounding him. “There is energy in this place. It can transport people from one place to another.”
“That’s why this place is sacred, because of the energy, but we did not know about ... teleport...”
“Teleportation. It has happened to me twice, but I have no control over it.” If I was on a parallel Earth before, then I must be in some kind a future that I have created. How many years have passed? He had the feeling that he had returned in his own time, except that it was a different future, created by his actions in the past. I left behind a modern world and returned to a medieval one. Is this ... evolution the result of my actions? They are right to punish me, if this is my work. They are not to know. At least there is no war.
At the foot of the hill, two men, armed with knives, joined them, and Vlad automatically touched his bayonet.
“Our guards,” Edna said. “They will escort us to the village.”
“May I see your knife?” Vlad asked the closest guard, who hesitated, but unsheathed his knife and gave it to him. Bronze, Vlad thought, touching the blade. They are still in the Bronze Age. Or maybe the guards don’t need better weapons. “Do you have other weapons?”
“We have spears and bows for hunting,” the man said, taking his knife back.
“And if there is a war?”
“What does war mean?” the man asked, confused.
“Moduk,” Edna said, gesturing with her forefinger, and the man moved forward, leaving her alone with Vlad. “Why did you ask about wars?”
Moduk, it sounds like Maduk... Vlad thought, annoyed, and for the first time realized how the road was constructed; it resembled Roman work. Via Apia looked similar. It looks like they have a well-organized society, not a Bronze Age tribe. “Just curious,” he shrugged. “So, do you know what war is?”
“I am a custodian of the Mother, and I’ve read many old books. We have not had a war for more than three thousand years. And even those distant wars were not started by us. People from the east invaded our lands.”
“Why did they invade your lands?”
“Their tribes were dominated by males. War was their way of life, and they tried to conquer us, but the Mother helped us to defeat them and, in time, they became like us, accepting women’s leadership.”
“Really?”
“A shamane never lies,” Edna said, her voice controlled.
Quite a peaceful place, no wonder they don’t need stronger weapons. Men are bad, so I am bad too. That may pose some issues for me... “I apologize. Please understand that I come from a different place.” Or from a different dream.
“Shamans don’t always tell the truth,” she said, tentatively.
“Both shamans and shamanes may use different aspects of reality, when their interest requires.” Vlad smiled, apologetically.
Edna raised her hand abruptly. “I have five fingers. Would you tell me I had a different number if your interests required it?”
“That’s too simplistic a question, Edna. Reality must be more complex to allow different interpretations, but if my life depended on it, I could see three fingers on your hand.” He looked innocently at her, and she laughed. At least they have a sense of humor.
“You don’t resemble our shamans.”
“Do you still have shamans?”
“Yes, they live in Sanctuaries.”
Prisons? “Ah, you need them to initiate the young shamanes,” Vlad said, looking away, and a large predatory bird came into his vision. There was a flying bird in the start of my other adventure—or dream. He realized that Edna had not replied. “Not a pleasant subject to talk about.”
“Yes, they help us during the initiation,” she said, sheepishly.
“How strong are your shamans?”
“Three or four stones.”
“What happens to those who have higher potential?”
They are not initiated. “There are no stronger shamans.”
I asked you something different. It may be too delicate a subject for a conversation with a stranger. We may have time for it later. It seems that my dreams are getting longer.“Why do they live in Sanctuaries?”
“It’s better like that.”
“Are they allowed to leave?”
“Satu, our village is there,” Edna said abruptly, pointing toward a collection of houses.
“How many people are in the village?”
“Eight thousand and seven hundred,” she said proudly. “It’s the largest village in the region.”
In my time, the largest city in the area has more than a million... “Who is the Shamane?”
“Mina. She has four Amber Stones.”
Mina... he thought, more and more annoyed by those names.“And how strong is your Grand Shamane?”If this is not another coma induced dream, and this place is real, and so much time has passed since ... since I was here, how is that the names did not change at all?There should have been at least some small alterations. The language has changed somewhat, but I am still able to understand them. But I did not understand the first words of that first woman. Why do they have two languages? Can be that this one is liturgical? Like the Latin in the early medieval times?
“Her name is Selma, and she has six Amber Stones. She is the strongest shaman in half a century.” She looked at him. “You have six Amber Stones too.”
They don’t have much imagination with names. “Does it bother you?”
“No,” she lied, forgetting that a shamane never does that.
They arrived after half an hour of pleasant walking, and he saw that the village was clean. There was even a sewage system that looked efficient to him - there was no foul smell in the village. Compare this with our medieval cities, Vlad thought. They were just a source of infections.
In the central, rectangular plaza, the size of a soccer stadium, Selma led him to the main building of the village. It was four stories, and none of other buildings had more than two floors. “This is the House of the Mother. The Shamane lives and works here. I live here too, close to the library. If you want to take a shower,” she pointed toward a door with an unknown inscription on the frame. “That’s the bathroom.”
Phonetic writing, Vlad thought and pushed the door. Strange how they resemble Latin letters. There were some ten women and men taking showers in the same room, and three children ran among them. They stared briefly at him, finding his clothes strange.
At least they don’t consider water and soap as an enemy. They are used to being naked so, for sure, they are some kind of distant grandchildren of the Vlahins. Having no choice, he undressed, placed his clothes on a bench and went under a free shower. There were two taps, resembling the taps on wine barrels, but these were made of bronze not wood. Showers are everywhere the same. There was a sign on each of them. A variant of Latin letters, again, but it’s a ‘p’ and a ‘d’, nothing in common with water, cold or hot in Vlahin. Which is for hot water? He turned the one on the left, and cold water poured down his spine. “Ouch!” he cried, and stepped back. One of the children, a girl, chuckled, and Vlad smiled at her. She ran to a different shower, hiding behind her mother, who ignored her. The six-year-old girl still watched him, smiling too. He winked at her, then played with the second tap until the water was to his liking. It’s so good, he sighed when the warm water played on his skin. How much I missed showers in the other ... dream.
The Shamane had already been informed about his arrival when Edna brought him in front of her. She was sitting in a chair, which was elegant, but did not look like a throne to him. For a while, they stared at each other.
“I am Vlad.”
“Mina,” the woman said, taking him in. “Take a seat. Why did you climb the hill?” she asked after Vlad seated himself on a chair at her left.
“You should ask the Mother.” I hope you will not accuse me of blasphemy.
“Is this ... teleportation a true thing?”
“Look at me,” Vlad pointed at his clothes. “When was the last time you saw someone dressed like me?”
“Never,” the woman agreed. “You are neither from the Far East, not from the Far South.”
“You mean that I am not like this.” With his fingers, Vlad pulled at his eyelids, hoping that the geography and population of this place matched Earth. I should look like a Chinese or Japanese...
“No you don’t look like them,” Mina said, slightly amused. “Where are you from?”
“It’s difficult to explain.”
Mina’s eyes narrowed, but she said nothing.
“I am from this place, but not from this time.”
“You must be tired and hungry. Tomorrow morning, we will leave for the capital to meet the Grand Shamane.” He is powerful, and I can’t handle him, but he is an interesting man. I never saw this man, that much I know, yet I have the feeling of knowing him.
“May I ask a question?” Vlad asked and she nodded. “Your names, Mina, Edna, Selma and Moira. They are very old names.”
“Yes, they were the shamanes who invented writing, and settled our civilization on a different path. There was another one, Malva. They were blessed by the Mother and their names are sacred, so only the shamanes can have them.”
My Vlahin dictionary, Vlad thought. that may explain the resemblance to Latin letters. His mind became nebulous and, silent, he left the room, led by Edna.
“How do you find this new world?” an unknown voice asked inside Vlad’s head.
He was lying in bed, his head resting on a pillow, in the small room that Edna brought him to. The softness of the bed was a blessing after sleeping for so long in a bag.
“Who are you?” Vlad asked, annoyed; he wanted to sleep. It’s not Andrei’s voice.
“Here, they call me the Mother.”
“A mother with a man’s voice.” Andrei’s head should appear soon. Strangely, how I miss him.
“Does it bother you? I thought things would be easier for you.”
The next moment, Vlad found himself in a room that he knew well: the library of his university. One which no longer existed. He was sitting in a chair, and in front of him, across the small table, sat his favorite teacher.
“I suppose you are the Mother,” Vlad said. “And I suppose that you extracted this,” he gestured around, as the man did not speak, “from my memory.”
“Everything comes from my memory,” the man said. “Even your memories.”
“Am I in a dream?”
“You should already know the answer.”
“Can I return to my world?”
“This is your world.” The man snapped his fingers, and one of the walls vanished. Satu village came into sight.
“And this?” Vlad pointed at the library.
“It’s just a memory now. One cubic mile of a black hole, compressed matter in the middle of the galaxy, stores your old timeline.”
“Is the Torrechiara castle part of that timeline?” Vlad asked with a sudden intuition.
“Of course,” the man smiled, and morphed into Andrei’s head.
“So you are... You pissed me off all the time, there. Why?”
“It was easier for you to talk with an alter-ego than with the Mother. Now, you feel uncomfortable.”
“It was so easy that I thought I was crazy. You just tricked me. I wouldn’t expect such a thing from the Mother. Have I changed ...?” Vlad’s voice wobbled and the Head nodded. I’ve lost my parents.“Why me? What was so special that you chose me for this task? I did not want it. I did not want to lose my...” His voice cracked, and he sat silently, tears running down his face.
“There is nothing special about you. Catalin was my choice. He was well prepared to join the Vlahins. It just happened that you were trapped inside the vortex when I moved him back in time. Without that ... accidental event, you would have been dead by now.”
And my parents still alive... Vlad closed his eyes, trying to calm his mind. “Is there any chance to get everything back?” To get my parents back?
“No.”
“You’ve enjoy it. To destroy my world.” To kill my parents. Unable to control his tension, Vlad stood up, and moved to walk around the room.
