Part (6)

The island of imagers - Even a new family is still made up of individuals

This is a fan-fiction set on Terahnar the world created by L.E. Modesitt for his Imager series. I have no rights to any of it and don’t claim to. I just wanted to see what a story about a MTF transgender person set in the time just after Rex Regis consolidated Lydar into Solidar would be like.

I want to profusely thank Anne Mouse for helping me get his prose into acceptable shape. Any syntax or grammar errors happened after she sent it back to me in wonderful shape.

About half way through the morning, after tearful goodbyes, Nylinn and I were on our way to see the Teleryan imagers. We were on horse-back with me in front and my bag of clothes tied to the saddle behind Nylinn. We had to follow the roads back and forth around the edge of the city. Nylinn told me that his family was very lucky to be located well away from the center of the city. He said that a Teleryn “ancient imager” had caused the whole castle and everyone in it to fall into a huge hole where the castle had been. Then he dumped dirt and rocks into the hole burying then it all. The earth shook so hard after this tremendous feat, most of the buildings near the hole where the palace had been fell apart and stone and bricks clogged the streets. The result was that most of the oldest part of the city was still in ruins.

We followed a road that went down toward the dock, then turned up hill to what looked like a sahib’s town villa. There were men in green, Teleryn army uniforms standing guard at the gate.

“I need to see the head imager,” said Nylinn. “My niece is an imager and I was told that Solidar was looking for imagers and would take them in.”

“Just wait here while I get someone to take you to the under captain,” one of the guards said.

It looked like this would take a while so we got off of the horse and took him to a watering trough, when another soldier came out and told us to leave the horse there, that they would look after it and follow him.

We walked so fast that I had to run every few steps to keep up. We went into the house and turned down a hall and stopped at an open door.

“Under Captain, this man thinks his niece is an imager,” said our guide.

“Thank you Wyllam, I can take it from here,” said the young man behind the desk.

“My name is Desyrk and I am an Under Captain and an imager. What makes you think that this little girl is an imager?” he asked.

“Just yesterday Joli imaged away a spear that a ruffian tried to stick in my gut,” Nylinn said.

The soldier’s eyebrows seemed to go halfway up is forehead.

“Come with me, young lady,” he said, and came around the desk and put out his hand.

I put my hand in his and glanced at Nylinn and who nodded at me to go on.

We went through a door to a meeting room and stood next to the big table. He took out a coin and put it on the tale. It was brownish and seemed worn, it had an impression of a bird on the side facing up.

“I want you to image another coin just like this one,” he said.

“Can I pick it up and look at it?” I asked.

“Take your time and image a copy here on the table.”

I turned it over and saw what looked like a mountain on the back. The edge was smooth except for a few nicks.

I focused my eyes on the coin and wished that there was one just like it on the table and there it was.

“Well. That’s really something,” he said. “This is a very good copy, you even have the nicks in the edge in the correct places and it’s worn down too. Do you know what it is made from?”

I shook my head and said, “no, I’ve never had one of those before.”

“Well, there’s no doubt that you are an imager. You will have to come stay with us, but we will take care of you. Let’s go back and talk with your uncle,” he said and walked back into his office.

“Skynert,” he called to the soldier standing guard outside his door as we came into his office, “would you please get a glass of fruit juice and a biscuit for this little girl. She’s been doing some heavy work and needs some food to keep her on her feet,” he said, as he sat behind the desk and motioned for Nylin and me to sit in the chairs across from him.

“You are correct, she is definitely an imager and you are most fortunate because my Commander, who is the most powerful imager I’ve ever known or known about, wants us to set up a school for imagers on Westisle. We will provide her with housing, clothes, food and an education in letters and number. We will also teach her how to use her imaging to help the Rex and all of Solidar.”

“We are fortunate that the Rex realizes how useful and important imagers are to creating a just country,” said Desyrk.

“Have you received the finding fee for bring in imager candidates?” he asked Nylinn.

Before Nylinn could answer, the soldier tapped on the door, came in and placed a tray on the desk.

“Drink some of the juice and eat some biscuits. Imaging takes energy and you probably need to replenish yours,” he said.

I sipped the juice and nibbled the biscuits and did feel less light headed.

“No, I didn’t know there was a reward,” said Nylin,

“Here is a voucher that you can use to get a gold coin from the bursar, just ask one of the soldiers as you leave to direct you to the paymaster’s office,” said Desyrk and handed a slip of paper to Nilynn.

“Can you read?” Desyrk asked me.

“Yes, maman taught us how a little,” I answered.

“Alright, go into the room across the hall and wait there for me to come get you at when I finished here,” he said to me and stood up.

Nilynn and I both got to our feet.

“Thank you for caring enough for your niece to bring her to us. I assure you that we will take good care of her and give her a chance to have a productive life,” he said to Nylinn.

Nylinn gave me a hug, and said, “let us know when you can come see us and we will come get you,” and gave me a slip of paper that had their address on it.

The room across the hall was full of books and a desk and a couple of chairs. I found a big book with pictures in it every so often. I looked at the image of a beautiful black haired woman and the name under the drawing was Seloia, daughter of the greater moon. I remembered the stories maman had told us. I lost myself looking through the books and it seemed no time had passed before Under Captain Desyrk called me to follow him.

“You can leave your bag here, we’re just going to have some lunch.”
I followed him to a big dinning room that had several tables. He motioned me to sit across from him a table with just four chairs.

“Is your home nearby?”

“No, my family’s farm in close to Axitil which is west of Hassyl.”

“Did you come here on a ship?”

“I started out on a ship,” and I told him of my journey to Llantiago.

“That’s quite an adventure for someone so young.”

“I am 13 and a half,” I felt my face flush.

“Even for someone who’s 13 and a half that’s still some journey. Tell me about the man with the spear.”

I explained how the two men had surprised us as we came into the clearing and how I had caused the spears to vanish and the man running after us to fall down.

“What did you do that let your family see that you are an imager?”

I explained about the candle and my dream and how my parents had sent me away.

After the midday meal, I went back to the library and continued to look through some of the books. I had never seen so many books in one place. We had a few books that were my mother’s and she had used them to teach us our letters and words. It didn’t seem very long before Under Captain Desyrk came into to say, “let’s go. My work here is done for today.”

We walked down to the harbor and went on board a small sailing boat and were jostled and splashed as we sailed to what, I thought, must be Westisle. It was too rough and windy to say very much so I sat quietly, and remembered my recent experiences on the water. I hugged myself and shivered.

“Don’t worry, we won’t be on the water very much longer,” said Desyrk. “I don’t think we have to worry about any pirates here in the bay.”

I wasn’t worried about pirates, but I was very happy to leave the little boat when we got to the doc. We walked from the dock up a short hill to a gate in a wall that seemed to go on forever both to the left and right of the gate just ahead of us. I could see the tops of several buildings beyond the wall before we went through the gate.

The buildings were like big, two story barns, but I could tell they were meant for people because the door at the end was too small for a wagon and there were too many windows.

“Come with me to the administration building. I need to introduce you to Major Volytr,” said Desyrk.

We walked toward a one-story building just ahead of us. When we entered, he said “please wait in here until I come for you”, and indicated a room to the left of the entry hall.

Under Captain Desyrk rapped on the door that had “Major Volytr” written on it and heard “Come in” from inside the office.

“The good news is that we’ve welcomed an impressive young imager to our collegium,” said Desyrk.

“And the not-so-good-news?” asked Volytr.

“SHE is only 13 years old and her name is Joli,” answered Desyrk.

“I was expecting this would happen, just not so soon. You said she was impressive. How so?”

Desyrk handed two copper coins to Volytr and asked, “which one of these is the original?”

Volytr looked closely at each coin and then asked “she imaged the copy I take it?”

“Yes, and she claimed to have never seen a copper before. Her family put her on a ship to LLantiago and it was attacked by pirates; she was thrown overboard in the fight but managed to get to shore…” and Desyrk gave a condensed version of the story Joli had told him.

“Then, two days ago the she and the family who picked her up were attacked by a couple of men armed with the long bladed spears we’ve seen. She caused the spears to vanish and the one that was chasing them to fall on his face,” he said with a smile.

“If that is true, that is indeed impressive. Where do you suggest we put her? The barracks right now are designed for males, even if each imager has a room to himself.”

“I thought she might stay in the visiting imager quarters until we can modify a room in the female staff quarters, and then, once it's built, the housing for female imagers.”

“That will do for now. Where is she?”

“In the conference room.”

“Introduce me so I can get to know this impressive young person.”

Under Captain Desyrk came into the room where I was waiting, sitting at one of the chairs with my arms resting on the big table, followed by another soldier.

“Joli, this Major Volytr, he is the senior imager here and in charge of all the imagers in this Collegium,” said Desyrk.

I stood away from the chair and bowed my head as I had seen people do when introduced to one of the sahib’s men.

“I am happy to meet you. I hope I can stay with the imagers because my family sent me away,” I said.

“Yes, you can stay here, but you will have to work because we all work at something to keep the Collegium going,” said Volytr.

“I’m used to hard work, but all I know is what you do on a farm,” I said.
“Don’t worry about that now. Let’s get you settled into a room and some new clothes,” said Voltyr.

“Desyrk, please take Joli to the visiting imager lodging and get her settled, then bring her to the mess hall for supper.”

“Yes sir. Come with me Joli,” he said.

We walked out of the administration building, using the door away from the gate. I looked around at all the buildings: so many and of different sizes.
As we walked, Desyrk explained what each of the buildings was used for and what they were called.

“We just came out of the administration building and over there on the left are the barracks for trainee and senior imagers, “ he said and waved his hand toward two long buildings. Just ahead of us in the mess hall,” he said, and noticed that I had furrowed my brow.

“I see that you aren’t familiar with the military names. That’s where we have our meals. There’s breakfast from 5th to 7th glass, lunch or the midday meal is from 12th glass to 2nd glass of the afternoon and supper is from 5th to 7th glass. Do you understand what I just said?” he asked.

“I understand that we have three meals and they are served in that building,” I said and pointed to the building we were coming to.

“The last time I made a mess I had to clean it up by myself,” I said as I smiled to him.

He chuckled and said, “I think you’ll do alright if you keep that attitude”.

He led me to the building to the right of the mess hall and entered through a door in the center of the building, across from the mess hall. There was a woman at a table just inside the door and Desyrk introduced me.

“This is Joli, she is an imager trainee, but we don’t have a place for her in the regular barracks so Major Volytr would like her to use the visiting imager quarters until we can make more permeate housing arrangements.”

“Joli, this is Mistress Holyswryth. She is in charge of all of the support staff,”

I bowed my head and said, “I’m pleased to meet you,”

“You're a polite little girl, that’s good,” she replied. “The visiting imager rooms are bigger than the room you will eventually be given, so enjoy the extra accommodations while you can.”

“If you could get her settled in, I’d appreciate it,” he said, then turned to me and said “it’s a quint before 6th glass. I’ll meet you in the mess at 6th glass.”

I nodded my head and said, “thank you for helping me.”

As he headed out of the door back toward the mess hall, Mistress Holyswryth stood and said, “if you will follow me,” and walked down a hall that led to the right.

She stopped at the last door on the left and said, "This will be your room for now. You have to make your own bed and keep it clean. You can get bedding in the closet across the hall from the washroom. The washroom for women is at the other end of this hall on the right. Do you understand?” she asked.

“You don’t have time to get your towels and bedding before supper so just put you bag on the bed and go get washed up before going to the mess hall.”

“Thank you again, this room is more that I could have hoped for,” I said.

After washing, I made my way into the mess hall. I followed several women into the building and ended up in the biggest kitchen imaginable.

“Don’t stand there with your mouth hanging open, the washroom is over there,” one of the women in the kitchen said to me and nodded her head to the back of the room.

“I’m supposed to meet Under Captain Desyrk in the mess hall,” I replied.

“Well, go through the right hand door and you’ll be in the dining area,” she said as she shook her head.

The dinning area had four tables: three that went the same way, beside each other and one cross wise at the end nearest the kitchen. I found Under Captain Desyrk standing just inside one of the doors at the other end of the hall and went to tell him I was hear.

“Under Captain Desyrk, I’m here,” I said.

He swung around and seemed surprised to see me.

“I didn’t expect you to come in through the kitchen,” he said. “We imagers usually sit at the table over on the right side. The majors and Sub Commander sit at the head table, across the top of the room.”

“Come with me and let me introduce you to the other imagers.”

We walked over to the table where the man had the same badges on his in his collar as Desyrk, except his badge was gold.

“This is Captain Threkhyl, he was one of the first imager under captains.”

An older man with red hair streaked with gray and hard blue eyes nodded in my direction.

“These two young men are imager trainees who have joined us over the last two seasons: Kolyrt, with the blond hair and Evannt. They, like, you are from Antiago”.

“Gentlemen, my I present Joli, our newest imager trainee,” he said and waved his hand toward me.

I smiled and took the chair next to Desyrk. As I did, trainee Kolyrt said “little peppers are often the most spicy,” except he said it in Pharsi, not Bovarian, the language of Antiago. This was a saying my maman would use; it means that what was on the outside could hide what was on the inside.

I answered, “You won’t get burned if you avoid the seeds,” I replied, also in Pharsi, which took Kolyrt by surprise.

“You understand and speak Pharsi, I see,” said Desyrk.

“Yes, maman taught us both Pharsi and Bovarian,” I replied.

“So what did he say and what was your response,” asked Evannt?

“He said that ‘little peppers are often the most spicy’ and I told him that he won’t get burned if he avoids the seeds. It’s a Pharsi saying that means that looks can hide the truth,” I replied.

Everyone chuckled, even the grim faced Threkhyl.

“I see that she can give as good as she gets,” said Threkhyl.

A server placed a platter of some kind of meat and a bowl of steamed vegetables was in the center of the table and we passed them to each other to fill our plates. More food followed until we had as big a meal as I had ever seen.

“If you don’t want wine or hot tea, you will need to go into the kitchen to get something different,” said Desyrk.

“A little of the red would be fine,” I said.

I remember that on year-end or other special days we would have a little wine at our meals and my eyes moistened.

The talk at the meal was about what the other trainees were doing and what would happen next. I was asked to tell the story of the discovery my imaging ability and what had happened to reveal it to my parents. I couldn’t say why, but I didn’t tell the story of my travel to Westisle.

Kolyrt and Evannt excused themselves just after they finished their meals saying that they had studying to do.

“Let me tell you what your tasks and schedule will be for a while,” said Desyrk. “At 8th glass tomorrow, after breakfast, Kolyrt will take you around the collegium to collect a set of clothes, shoes, books and other supplies you will need here. At first glass after noon, you have a meeting at Major Voltyr’s office and he will tell you what your daily schedule will be.”

“The day after tomorrow at 5th glass you will need to be at the exercise fieled on the other side of the staff quarters, the building where your room is. You should wear the exercise clothes and shoes you will get tomorrow. Imaging requires stamina and core strength and we have one of the regular army under captains who is good at keeping us in shape. This a standing order from Major Volytr that all imagers have to do this, so you are included,” he said with a smile.

I walked back to my room, then decided to collect my bedding and towels, so I went to the linen closet and was amazed at all of the folded materials. A young woman, who looked a little older than me, followed me into the room and I turned to her and asked, “can you help me with all of this?”

“Can’t you reach the wash clothes on the top shelf?” she answered.

“Its not that,” I said, “I just don’t know what they are all for. I just got here from our farm near Axitil and we didn’t have all of these things.”

“Who hired you and what is your job?” she huffed.

“I’m sorry, my name is Joli and I’m an imager trainee and I just got here today”

“You are an imager? I didn’t know that there were female imagers,” she said, a little less gruffly.

“My name is Jynen and I am one of the kitchen staff. I want to be a cook but that may take a while. Let me help you set up your room to make up for my shortness.”

“Thank you. I have so much to learn because we didn’t have all these things at the farm.”

She handed me a stack of towels and collected another stack of sheets and a blanket and turned to me and asked, “Which room is yours?”

“Last door on the left,” I said and lead the way.

“This is the visitor’s room. Why are you in here?”

“I don’t know. Mistress Holywreath said this was mine until they can find another place for me”

“Well it really is a nice room, much better than my room, and no roommate. And by the way, her name is Holys-wryth,” Jynen said and laughed. “Holywreath – that’s good, I’ll have to remember it.”

I just shrugged and said I was glad to be here.

It seemed to take just a few minutes to get my bed made and put the towels away and the curtains on the window.

“There, that looks much better,” she said. “Would you like and explanation of the mysteries of the washroom?”

“Yes please, all we had at the farm was a pump house and a privy and I have no idea what to use for what and how to make it work.”

“Meet me in the washroom in a quint, and leave your clothes here except for this robe,” she said and indicated a robe hung on a peg beside the door.”

I put my clothes in the chest of draws and then removed what I was wearing and hung the dress and coat on pegs and put my under clothes in a hamper. I wrapped the robe around me and picked up a set of towels and a wash cloth and headed to the washroom.

When I got there Jynen and a few others were using the facilities. Jynen motioned me over to where she was standing by some bowls, much like the one in Mixy’s home.

“Have you ever used one of these, or one of those,” she asked an pointed first to the bowl and then the indoor privy. “This is called a lavatory and that, a toilet. To the left of each toilet,” she pointed to what looked like a larger toilet without a seat, “is a female washer you use right after you use the toilet to clean your bottom. You can use it anytime you want but it’s really useful during that time of the month. You sit on it facing the wall and the knobs control the water that comes up to clean your bottom. Back there are shower stalls. There are two knobs on the wall. The left is for hot water and the right for cold; the water comes out of the pipe that comes out of the wall above the knobs, way above the knobs in your case,” she said with a small laugh.

How had people thought all these things up, I wondered.

“Because we work in the kitchen and handle food, we usually shower at least every day, usually just before our shift starts; at the 4th glass for early shift and at 10th glass for late shift,” she explained and many times when we come from work. Kitchen work is hard and hot so a refreshing shower is very welcome.

Jynen also explained where I could find soap and lotion.

“Thank you so much for showing me all this. I know you must think I am some kind of dumb wilderness bunny.”

“Actually I had to ask about all this piping and water works, so don’t feel too bad,” she said with a wink. “We girls have to help each other in this sea of men.”

I used the toilet and then the bottom washer. I have never had such sensations in that part of my body. I stood under the warm water in the shower and when I got out and went to my room I could barely climb into my bed.

It seemed that I had just dropped off to sleep and I heard voices and people walking outside my door. I lay still and listened and heard a bell ring four times. It must be the early shift getting ready to work.

I wondered if I’d get back to sleep and before I knew it I heard the bell ring again and guessed it must be the 5th glass. I could still get a little more rest so I just lay there. I let my hands cup my breasts and focused on them, visualizing that they were a little bigger and shaped more like Jynen’s and then they were. Doing this tired me and I dropped off until I heard a bell ringing and it caused me to wake up. This time I got up and dressed in one of the new-to-me blouse and pants that Mixy’s aunt Colbuyn had given me. I reasoned that if I was getting new clothes, I would likely to need to move in ways that would be too revealing to do in a dress.

I headed over to the dining hall to meet with Kolyrt to start my life as an imager trainee.