The Man Described

There was a soft drumming sound coming from somewhere as I studied the problem in front of me. The words had to be in the right order for me to pass the test and move on to the next lesson. I glanced to my left and stared at the arrangement of candles for a moment and parlayed that to a look around the room. Hard wooden desks and unyielding wooden stools were pushed to face the walls and everything was immaculate. Even the three students in the windowless room with me practically sparkled with holiness. My voice sounded distant when I finally spoke. "Where is that drumming sound coming from?"

"You are drumming your fingers on that piece of armor that you insist on wearing to my study room," Brother Johnathon said in his most insistent tone. "Celestial is an easy language to grasp. Just write the sentence."

"I keep getting the words backwards," I said and I put my hands back on the table. "I know the right words, but I keep getting them out of line. Order is important, right?"

"Walther, order is everything," Brother Johnathon said as he pulled over an empty wooden stool. He aimed his gleaming teeth and large ears at me and knitted his brows to let me know he was serious and that I should listen carefully. "In Prendorian, adjectives come before nouns. Use a sentence with a subject, verb and object for me."

"All right Brother. Prince Edward is a weaselly man." I straightened in place, pleased with myself.

The good Brother rubbed his temples. "Subject matter aside, that was good. In Celestial, the adjectives come after the nouns. Use the Celestial structure in Prendorian." He showed me his palms. "When you are ready."

"Okay", I said, hands flat on the table. "Prince Edward is a man weaselly, sinister, duplicitous, vile, wicked, ..."

Brother Johnathon touched my arm as he said, "that's good."

"..., black-souled, damnable, repellent, detestable, stinking, ..."

"Enough," he said, raising his voice loud enough so that the other students swung a careful eye in our direction. Brother Johnathon stood and spoke through a tight expression. "Let's step outside for a moment, Walther."

With a bounce, I was on my feet and out in the hallway a few steps behind the Brother. "I got it. And I like it, you can go on just forever with the description."

Out in the hall, he leaned in like he was sharing a secret. "Walther, it is unwise to speak like this in front of others," he said.

I chucked him in the shoulder and grinned, "You're assuming that I don't want Edward to know that we're coming for him. I do." I knocked on the breastplate. "That's why I wear the armor to class." Someone coming down the hall toward our class room caught my eye. In a half-second, I knew it was my pious brother. "Oberon..?"

Oberon looked up from a small wooden box that he had in his right hand. He was more than a little startled. The little box snapped shut. "Walther, what are you doing here in this part of the church?"

"I told you I was going to learn to speak Celestial." Smiling, I jerked a thumb at Brother Johnathon who was waiting patiently.

Oberon turned his head to the side a little. "I thought that was a... Were you trying to be funny?" He kept moving and walked backwards to see what I was going to say.

"I am funny." We said goodbye with a shrug and I turned back to my teacher. "So I'll focus on the lessons from here on out." I threw an arm around my teacher's shoulder. "Do you know where I can get some holy water?"

"Why?" His eyebrows reached for his receding hairline and almost made it.

"A few months back, we were under Larrae and we ran into something that smelled like vomit, rust and wet dog. It turned out to be something called a Chain Devil."

Brother Johnathon stood in the door to the study hall. He motioned at the little desk with my unfinished lesson. "I think we can work something out, if you can focus on your studies."

-- by Bill