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Resi wants to go see his family, but it’s not time yet. After the cheering
dies down, the Kokore whisks him away to a different room backstage. The
Kokore apprentice is going to take over responsibilities for the rest of the
ceremony so the current one can explain to Resi what the hell just happened.
He’s waiting here now so she can pass the torch appropriately. The way she
talked about it, he gets the sinking feeling that none of this was an
accident. They knew it was going to happen, and planned for it by
accelerating her apprentice’s experience so he would be prepared for this
moment.
There’s food in here, but he’s not sure if he is supposed to eat it. Some of
it looks like it’s just waiting to be distributed afterwards, but three
courses are sitting separately on a tray on a table. He’s getting pretty
hungry, but he won’t do anything without explicit permission or instruction.
He just waits patiently, recognizing that all will be explained, even if he
doesn’t like the answers. There’s no point in fretting about it until he
fully understands what this fifth house is about.
The Kokore returns. “Okay, we’re good.” She looks over at the tray. “You’ve
not eaten a single thing! The Kidjum elixir makes you hungry, don’t you know
that? It doesn’t work if you just fall asleep. People sleep all the time.
It’s a serious drug.”
“I suppose I forgot that part,” Resi admits. “I am indeed hungry, but I have
no appetite. I’m too nervous. I don’t understand how I could have been
assigned this mysterious fifth house. My subconscious didn’t choose it. What
does aether look like? I don’t remember seeing it as part of my body in the
vision.”
She snags a grape from his plate, and pops it into her mouth before she sits
down. “That was the decision,” she begins. “Most people do not
experience what you did. Yes, everyone has their own mind palace, and it
always looks a little different, but you don’t become the elements.
Or rather, you do, but no one else does. Well, I shouldn’t say that.
It does occasionally happen, but only when the dreamer’s palace is already
very body-centric, like a hospital operating room. Even then, their decision
is always really obvious. They’re covered in dirt, or fully engulfed in
fire, or totally wet, or something like that. The elements were
well-distributed, and not simply on your body, but the composition of
your body. That’s how we knew that you were Aether.”
“We were never told that you can see our dreamscapes. That’s another lie.”
“It’s very important that you not be given all of the information ahead of
time. You know that things were kept from you. It’s our way of life. The
Kidjum is a special, lucid dream state, but it’s not magical. The universe
isn’t trying to tell you where you belong. This is our way of surfacing
subconscious desires.”
“Yeah, that part I know.”
“Again, most people’s visions are unlike yours. They don’t only see
something that represents the House they want to join. They see other things
that they yearn for. It’s often...sexual. And to be clear, I did not
have access to your dreamscape. Someone else was assigned to bear witness,
to you, and to a few others. This is necessary because while I wasn’t lying
when I said it wasn’t magic, it is important. What our dreams show us
lives at the core of our belief system. We can’t just take people’s word for
it. For you, you probably would have ignored the distribution, and chosen
whatever House you thought you should join. If we were okay with
that, then what would be the point of the Kidjum in the first place? We
would just ask you. It would be a lot easier, and save time.”
“I suppose that makes sense, but I still don’t know what this fifth House
is, or why I’ve never heard of it. You said I was the first in centuries. If
that’s true, why isn’t it in the history books?”
She’s been smiling kindly the whole time, but her face grows serious now.
“That’s the result of our last First Tongue of Aether. He destroyed the
evidence. It was his final act of anger. Now everything we know about House
Kutelin was passed down by word-of-mouth. I couldn’t say for sure why our
ancestors played it so close to the vest, but we keep the circle tight to
this day because it might have all been made up. Most of my predecessors and
colleagues don’t believe that it ever happened. For my part, I didn’t think
it mattered whether it was real or not. My job remained the same, which was
to facilitate the ceremony. But I always knew it was a possibility, and
you’re proof of that. And now...I’m out of a job. It’s bittersweet, I would
say.”
“Okay. Now you really lost me,” Resi admits. “Why are you out of a job? Is
your apprentice ready to take over full time? Did I precipitate that
somehow?”
She laughs uncomfortably. “No, the apprentice is out too.” She pauses,
presumably choosing her next words carefully in her head. “As long as you
don’t end up like your own predecessor, the Kidjums are no longer
necessary.” She points at the door with her thumb. “The others out there are
the last round to choose Houses. For anyone who comes of age after today,
you will be the one to choose for them. While my job ends, yours now
begins. You will have access to their subconscious desires. You will see
which of the four Houses they belong to, but you don’t have to do anything
they want. You can move them to wherever you think is best, or choose
it on a whim, or roll a die. You can select your own brethren too, who will
join you in House Kutelin. Everything’s up to you now. According to the
lore, the last head of your House chose all warriors to join him in the
fifth House. He created conflict by consolidating all physical strength into
one place. They used their strength to create a military state, and our
culture nearly fell apart. He underestimated how strong others could be when
backed into a corner. But...I really shouldn’t say any more about the spoken
history. It’s not my place to sway your mind.”
“If this assignment has a history of violence, though, why was everyone
clapping out there? Why are they so excited to risk that happening again?”
“That’s one reason we keep it a secret, so no one aspires to become like
him. They were excited because this is how it’s supposed to be. The
four Houses arose once our ancestors discovered that they were not in the
Garden of Heaven. They had been rescued by time travelers, and brought to
this world in their future. Of course, over time, even that part of
our history has been brought into question; our culture being the last to
still believe. But either way, what we do know is that we started with a
singular voice. We fractured when we encountered the first Bungulan
colonists, who assumed we were crazy, and just forgot that we came here in a
spaceship like everyone else.”
Resi sighs. This is nuts. These weren’t just lies. They were cover-ups. He
does not know who he is, or where he comes from. He thought he knew what
this island was, but he wasn’t even close. He was so ignorant. How can he
ever move on from this?
“I can’t tell you what to think, but I’m here to help. It’s not technically
my job, but if anyone has the requisite skills to serve as an advisor, it’s
a Kokore.”
“I don’t even know your name.”
She finally smiles again. “Caprice.” A colonial given name? Is she Kinkon?
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