Nivah walked through the sacred orchard in solemn silence, gazing as walked at the perquisite black of the sacred rose. She avoided walking too close to the fragrant rose though as the scent was known to cause loss of consciousness and only the order of the Scared Way were allowed to inhale its scent.
Row upon row of the black rose bushes covered the center of the orchard, while on the sides all colors of roses grew in contrast to the stark black roses Nivah knew that this was not just a design created for pleasing the eyes, it was essential to contain the growth and scent of the sacred rose, and as far as she knew it worked.
Nivah reached the door of the outer sanctum, pushed it as slowly as she could and delved inside. She knew that door if pushed harder was known to cause a huge gush of wind, something to do with its magical essence, and this could blow off the prayer candles at the end of the huge chamber, this in turn would ensure that her mentor, Galina, to blow a few choice words in her face.
Galina was the apprentices master for the order, an honor so highly regarded among all novices and apprentices, and even the junior priests and priestesses differed to Galina. Nivah assumed that the main reason for this deference was the fact that all of them went through their apprenticeship under the silver haired woman.
Nivah walked on light feet to the outer alter, the one that was joined to the inner sanctum’s alter through the middle fire conduit, gave a fast prayer to the reigning masters, then quickly went into the apprentices room. Inside, Galina stood in front of six novices with fire raging behind her green eyes.
“Who gave you permission to approach the sacred rose bushes?” Galina said in a tight restrained voice. “Do you think that you are above the order? Do you think that you have been touched by the sacred masters? Do you even fathom the degree of damage you did to the sacred rose bush by touching it?”
“Mistress Galina.” The oldest novice, a girl called Stefania, stood firmly against the onslaught of Galina. “It called us.”
“What?” Galina jumped a step forward to Stefania.
“It called us.” Stefania stared stolidly at Galina. “Nobody should deny the call of the sacred rose, right?”
Galina turned suddenly and stared at Nivah. “What are you doing here?”
“The master of rituals sent for me.” Nivah swallowed hard. “I came to tell you that I can’t perform my duties as a novice today because of that.”
Galina stared at Nivah for a solid minute. “He must have called you for the initiation ritual training.” She looked back at the three novices. “Take them with you to him, and tell him that they were called.”
Nivah bowed and looked at Stefania and company, then turned and left the chamber. Midway towards the annex of rituals she turned to the three novices. “What was it like?”
“Other worldly.” A tall brown skinned boy that Nivah knew as Faroan, smiled wide. “We literally saw another world.”
“There was a girl.” The youngest of novices, Myraah, a girl of around thirteen years of age, younger than Nivah by three years jumped in front of Faroan. “She was dressed in strange clothes and had some strange device over her head.”
“And we know her name.” Stefania gave Nivah a smug look. “She must have a seed of a master for her to be shown to us.”
“The sacred rose never makes a mistake.” Nivah said in reverent tones. “I think the master of rituals would be very interested in meeting her.”
“He must, she is important.” Faroan kept his radiant smile. “She had a black radiance exuding from her the entire time.”
Nivah gasped. “A natural born master? Could it be?”
“I think it could.” Stefania nodded. “And her name was very exotic as well.” She raised her head and looked at the sunless sky above their heads. “Emily, they called her in the vision Emily.”
Nivah looked up at the sky with Stefania, may be this Emily would lead the sacred order to restore the sun, then hope could be restored to the land. “We really need the sun back.” Nivah whispered as they neared the gates of the annex.
If you liked this story, please check the first part here: The Black Rose, Part one. You can also check some of our other stories, here: The old Road, part 1, and here All That Water, part 1.
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