Wasting Time
Chapter Eleven: By the Morning's Light
Evoli met him right after breakfast, bright and early, though the little Air was yawning widely as if he would have rather slept in a few more hours. Riya didn't have much sympathy for him, but he did try not to be too perky. The clear air seemed to make him more alert and awake; ever since he'd come here, he felt like he had more energy. Of course, that just might have been the novelty of the whole situation, but Riya was still willing to bet that clean air had at least something to do with it.
The pair trekked around the dome of the city in the bright morning light, along a walkway big enough for three Earth dragons to walk side-by-side along it without brushing each other, and chatted off and on about whatever came to mind. Riya learned a great deal about the life of a dragon kit in Sanctuary, for Evoli and his sister had spent the whole of the past year there preparing for the bonding ceremony and taking classes. Their parents and older sister lived in a village deeper into the mountains and had sent the pair of them to the city specifically hoping that they would be able to get involved in this curious project of Aloia's. For his part, Riya shared how he got involved in the bonding project on Earth. He omitted a lot of his motivations, because he still had no idea what the dragons as a whole thought about UNIS and Mars, but he could be honest about how much he wanted to meet more dragons. Evoli even found some of the jokes he'd played on the cadets quite clever; he especially liked when he'd convinced Michael that the bathrooms were haunted.
They then moved on to talking about psionics and magic, a subject Riya now knew he knew frighteningly little about, even with the psi training he'd had on Earth. Evoli was describing the different mental tricks he knew in the area of psi known as telepathy-- there were four different psionic disciplines, after all: telepathy, working mind to mind; telekinetics, mind to matter; metabolics, mind over matter; and olimancy, a kind if divination which specialized in seeing future possibilities-- when they stepped from a smaller, human-sized staircase beside a much larger one set into the side of the mountain. They had reached the other side of the city and, as Evola had the night before, Evoli was leading him into the trees and up a gentle rise.
Even though he was prepared for it this time, the Air cathedral still took Riya's breath away. It was every bit as big as the Earth cathedral, and built with about the same layout, but while the Earth cathedral had carried about it a kind of powerful majesty, the Air cathedral was designed to show a playful beauty. Its three towers were slender, topped by golden spires, and joined by delicate arches, its walls spilling flowers through the oddly cloud-like gold working on top of them. The buildings themselves were of a pale gray stone and slightly translucent-- quartz, Riya guessed absently, struck by the way the light filtered through them, illuminating what could only be sculpted reliefs inside the stone itself. How they managed such a feat, Riya had no idea.
Completely fascinated, Riya let an unusually cheerful Evoli lead him through the massive entryway and across a pavilion much like the courtyard for the Earth cathedral, but where everything there had been green and ivy-like, here the haphazardly cobbled pathway was overrun by small, yellow flowers and the walls were climbed by creeping roses, the very same that fell over to the other side. Somehow, the flowers only enhanced the presentation of the scenery within the walls, rather than hid it.
The doors here, too, were wood, but of a curious white-gray color. They were inlaid with sparkling gold and milky white-gold, intertwined and interlaced in patterns like stylized winds and clouds. They stood open, unlike the doors to the Earth cathedral, and there were a few dragons just inside, in the round entry-way at the base of the largest tower. They only glanced at Riya and Evoli, though, more concerned with their own conversation. That was fine by Riya, because he was busy trying to take in the mosaics covering this wall: fantastic shades of yellow, gold, orange, and blues and violets of all colors, depicting Air dragons sporting amidst fluffy clouds in skies of azure, powder, and midnight blue. The scene faded from daylight to darkness as one looked around the room. Tiny stones, possibly diamonds, glinted in the nighttime sky, and a magically lit sun shone down on the room from just above the corridor leading further in. More natural light flooded in from windows set much higher in the tower.
"This is amazing," Riya said simply, turning around in the middle of the room-- the floor bore a circular sunburst pattern, white and yellow in the middle with points of gold and a contrast of deep blue at the edges-- trying to see it all.
Evoli giggled. "It's not quite as grand as the Light tower," he said, very pleased at Riya's reaction, "but it's still pretty nice."
"There's one more spiffed out than this?" Riya said. "I don't believe it." If dragons could blush, Evoli would have been, taking the compliment to his race's place of worship as if it were a praise directly to himself, as representative of that race. Riya tore his eyes away from the glittering mosaic to grin at him. "C'mon, what's further in?"
"The real temple," Evoli said proudly. "Wait 'till you see it, it's even more amazing." He started down the corridor at a trot, and Riya had to job to catch up with him, taking one last look around before turning to follow. The corridor itself was lined with lacey-looking arches of more gold-- This has to be the most expensive catedral of the lot, all this gold,-- and magical lights set into the walls, tiny pinpoints of yellow glow like stars against the darker gray of the inner walls. Riya could see the brightness of the sunlight streaming through stained glass windows at the end of the hallway, and hurried forward, eager to see what this temple looked like.
Though Riya couldn't quite say it was more breath-taking than the mural on the inside of the entry tower, the temple itself was certainly stunning. So stunning, in fact, that Riya had to shield his eyes and for a few moments upon entering he couldn't see: light was literally everywhere. The walls were almost entirely window, from floor to ceiling, and once Riya could see again he saw and appreciated patterns with dragons in the glass, captured in flight and what looked like dance, surrounded by more lacey gold work. The dais here held not a planter like the Earth cathedral, but a shifting ball of magic that glowed with all the colors of the cathedral and shed rainbows at random. Behind it, in the largest single window-art in the building, rose a single Air dragon with a pale, visible breeze surrounding him, globes of power over each forepaw, and wings curving towards the sky.
"That's Lord Makani," Evoli said softly-- just as Evola's had in the Earth cathedral, his voice echoed just a little. "In the big window."
"Who?"
"He's the Air lord, kind of like our god-- under Asuka, of course." That name, Riya had heard, though only in passing. He understood that particular deity to be the leader, so he didn't ask about her. "I've never met him, but my mother did... she's our village's Aer'venae leader."
"Air-what?" Riya queried, looking around. There were several dragons in here, as well: some lining the walls, beneath the windows and staring up at them as if in contemplation, a few by the corner entrances to the second and third towers, and two on the dias, to either side of the magical light source, or whatever it was.
Evoli giggled again, this time as his ignorance of something he obviously thought was common knowledge. "Aer'venae. The Air dragon priesthood. Those two are part of it, too, though much higher up than Mom is."
"What're they doing?" Riya watched them curiously as they reflected rainbows of light back into the magic.
"Refreshing the holy magic," Evoli answered promptly, and before Riya could ask, he continued: "Each cathedral has something of the Lords in them, something of their magic. We have a big ball of holy magic that Lord Makani left there. The Fire cathedral has a bowl of flame that never goes out, started by their Lord, Pyralis; Earth has a box of flowers that don't grow anywhere else, planted and made to bloom by Lord Nitesh; Water has a dish of water blessed by Lord Cascata big enough for a human like you or a very small kit to swim in; and Light has a plate with a beam of light from Asuka, herself, reflected from it to the ceiling."
"Wow," was all Riya could say, amazed by all that. "You guys sure have a... a tangible religion. Back on Earth, it's all myth and guesswork."
"That's wierd," Evoli said, making a face. Riya laughed.
"Thanks for showing me this place. It's... beyond cool."
"You should see it when there's a service going on, or when Makani is here," Evoli said, as if trying to downplay it, but ducking his head and smiling in that shyly pleased way of his that said he was happy with the compliment.
Evoli spent the next hour leading Riya around, explaining the history behind each of the dragons immortalized in glass: ancient heroes, mighty spell-casters, gentle priests, and learned scholars. Evoli was incredibly knowledgeable; it seemed that history was his favorite subject, behind magic. They had only gotten through one side before Evoli gave a start and exclaimed, "Oh no, it's late! It's almost lunch time!" and the two of them bolted for the cathedral doors, laughing. They only made it to lunch five minutes late, out of breath and bright-eyed, but Riya personally thought it was quite worth it to miss a few minutes of idle chatter to have seen that.