2119 Words Tonight - Wow, this is really working!

I am having so much fun writing this novel! WOW - it continues to flow and it's awesome! These characters are incredible! I promised to post another excerpt, so I'm going too tonight, but first I need to warn you --- it's hard for me to know just how much this excerpt might spoil anything that happens in the novel. I mean, it's hard not to post something from the novel without it giving away at least some small part, but what I'm saying is that since I don't know where this is headed, I don't know how much of what I post will give away anything plot-wise that might happen. Just covering my bases, I guess. So anyway, here it is. Enjoy. Oh, and please don't pay too much attention to the grammar, spelling, etc, 'cuz it's about getting the words out, not editing those words (I'll do that in December).

This passage is between the main character, Elum, who has returned to Cadreya, the colony where he trained as a guardian and Galagia, a young guardian trainee. The first speaker is Galagia.

“When I was twelve, I had my first remembrance. As you can imagine, it was quite intense and at the time I thought it was a nightmare. I woke screaming in my bed, sweating and shaking, and unable to remember where I was. Nothing around me looked familiar and when my father rushed into the room I jumped out of bed and attempted to escape, not recognizing him and expecting him to attack me. He grabbed my shoulders and held me firmly talking quickly in a language I did not recognize. Then within seconds, my body shook violently and I fell to the floor, my father’s grip loosening under the intensity of the seizure. I lay on the floor for several seconds fully conscious of what was happening to my body, but unable to speak. After the seizure ended, I remembered where I was and more importantly, I recognized my father.”

Galagia’s voice was low and steady as she told her remembrance, not wavering in the least with emotion. The veil she described as having fallen over her conscious as a result of her dream seemed to have descended again and removed her from the present while she recited the event. As I listened, I noticed she had shifted her left arm so her sleeve was inadvertently shifted up to reveal a tattoo around her wrist. The tattoo was of a serpent eating its tail, the traditional tattoo from the colony of Nebili on the third planet from the moon of eleven. The symbol of the serpent eating its tail was an ancient design and the motif used by the artist to create Galagia’s tattoo was obviously familiar with the ancient images. As I looked closer I realized that each of the serpent’s scales were unique and had at their center another symbol, this one a character from an alphabet I did not recognize.

“Guardian,” said Galagia and I looked up at her face with embarrassment.

“My apologies, Galagia,” I said, smiling. “I was distracted by your serpent,” I continued, gesturing to her arm. “The work is quite beautiful and accurate to the ancient symbols, but I do not recognize the characters in the scales.”

“Most people do not see the runea, my liege,” Galagia said, lifting up her arm and pushing up the sleeve of her tunic even more. In so doing she revealed an additional tattoo, this one made up of just the characters themselves, laid out in long vertical lines like text. Looking down at her arm she recited, “Light is essence. Breath is beauty. Go in balance.”

“The ancient message,” I say with understanding, “you were Guardian before,” I state looking up at her face.