Quintessence Journal Two: The Five

The first chapter of book two in my Quintessence Trilogy. In this book, The Five come of age to face perilous destinies.

The Five.

            Five is the number of musicians in a quintet. All amphibians, reptiles, and mammals possess five fingers or toes on each limb. Five is an Eisenstein Prime with no imaginary part and is a Fermet Prime. Five is a congruent number. Five is conjectured as the only odd, untouchable number as it is not the sum of distinct positive integers, that is, the area of right triangle with three rational numbered sides. There are only five Platonic Solids, and five is a Square Pyramidal Number. The universal sign of protection is the Khamsa, a depiction of an upheld right hand displaying five fingers, an amulet of protection also called the Hand of Fatima. The Perfect Fifth is the most constant harmony and forms the basis for western tuning systems.

             There are five notes per octave called the pentatonic scale, which forms the basis of the Gaian Intellect Mergence that remained inoperative in Eddy’s home epoch. The Five, the number of musicianers that saved our future world: Jon the Seer, Kriss the Guide, Trill the Intimate, Steev the Tactual, and Reeq the Perceptive�"

            The Muse of the Five’s treatise on the number five and The Five of the Revelation.  

 

Chapter 1

Young Steev

           

Music matches the universe’s natural forces sounding in unison and harmony with the cosmos’ ethereal vibrations and the eternal divine�"ancient prophesy of The Five.   

 

            Within the Walled City of E’drag T-Nava, in the shadow of the Gnid’rocer Yrt’sudni Fastness, and inside a classroom of the Oligarchy’s imposed school, young Steev stoically withstood the passive pain inflicted on him for his outspoken opinions.      In this particular infraction, Steev had told a small gathering of his classmates his statement of truth behind the Oligarchy’s restriction and technological intervention of music that goes counter to the inherent natural wonder found in music. Steev told his classmates that only heartfelt music composed and performed in conjunction with the harmony of Quintessence could be called music�"not the blatant manipulation of musical productions of untalented individuals. He thought that he had spoken low enough and far enough from school officials to speak his mind in safety, but apparently, the Oligarchy eavesdrops even in the schoolyard.

            “Steev Powel!” The school sentinel had shouted. “You are to cease your unfounded speech this moment! You others�"back away from this criminal!”

            The other children scattered on the run knowing the punishment for associating with a known troublemaker is a likewise punishment. Steev gallantly or fool heartedly stood his ground. The sentinel grasped him by the cuff of the neck and lifted him off the ground.

            “Where do you hear such nonsense?” The sentinel shook him. “Tell me right now you embodiment of trouble. Tell me!” He shook Steev again and set him down but didn’t let him go. “No matter. Your instructor will know what to do with you!” The sentinel shouted, more for the benefit of the gaping students than for Steev’s. As they rose up the school’s stone stairs, Steev’s dragging feet bumped on every single stair’s edge. The sentinel burst through the door and dragged the silent Steev to his classroom.  

            ***

            Kneeling on scattered wheat kernels, Steev faced the classroom’s corner with his back turned to classmates. Those few moments prior, Instructor Gruin had taken over from the sentinel by vocally disciplining him, throwing the wheat to the floor in the corner, dragging Steev’s trouser legs up above his knees, and ordering him to kneel and repent his preposterous spoken contentions.

            Unfortunately, this wasn’t Steev’s first offense. The imposed punishment could have been either on the wheat for a longer period or more of the lash�"Steev had felt both miseries before. Only a few painful minutes into his sentence, Steev’s own weight forced the stone-hard kernels into his knees’ flesh, slowly biting into his skin and flesh to force the kernels solidly and painfully against his knee bones. An hour of excruciating pain and penitence was the instructor’s imposed sentence this time, up from only twenty minutes the last time nine days ago.

            His repeated infraction was always for speaking his mind against the Oligarchy’s abuse against natural music. His grandfather was the source of the outspoken speeches, but Steev vowed never to reveal this fact. He knew what the Oligarchy did with outspoken adults�"they became examples that the public didn’t care to acknowledge or they’d simply disappear.

            In careful, quiet sessions, his grandfather had recalled and passed the old sagas from his own ancestors about music derived from the heart, when artists could perform what and when they desired without interference or censor. He told of those ancient times when technology wasn’t forbidden, when it was a part of every person’s life rich or poor, for good�"and bad assuredly in the time before the atrocious technological war. Grandfather told Steev that even though the Oligarchy preached technology was bad, he knew that they used it secretly for their own evil purposes. 

            Steev’s Grandfather Leon recounted some of the benefits technetronics afforded to the youngster who was quick to grasp and embrace the ancient concepts both beneficial and depraved. Steev particularly became interested in grandfather’s stories of the wondrous music�"special, long, and complicated compositions that told stories of heroism but also of far-flung travels and fantastical wonders. The Oligarchy strictly forbade those types of musical composition or any other music they didn’t have their manipulative fingers in during its formation. Steev ached to whisper these blasphemous topics to enlighten his classmates because he felt it was his duty to do so.

            Despite his intense pain, Steev followed the exemplified lecture his instructor provided on his bad example’s behalf. His classmates apparently remained motionless feeling Steev’s pain in their own knees perhaps or perhaps not providing an ounce of perception of siding with him to the instructor and receiving their own like punishment. He heard not a rustle of clothing, not a cough or sniffle, not a scribble of pencil on paper as Instructor Gruin’s voice raised deep to broadcast in an antagonized fervor manner.

             “As our glorious society’s leaders remind us, ‘Technology leads to temptation, greed, and decadence.’ These blind defenders of peaceful technology are blind to its danger and should be punished, if not banned, to the wilds and fate of the rogues far outside our protective boundaries and the protective embrace of our glorious Executive.”       Steev could visualize the glare and feel the focal point of the instructor’s vehemence on his heated, sweating back. Instructor Gruin continued with his harangue using Steev as the malevolent model for a few more moments until he paused for a rasping breath. He finally decided to ignore the dissenting pupil in his admitted and deserved pain to return to the standard history edification concerning the rise of the latest Executive, the exploits of the Lord Equestrian, and the establishment of the Oligarchy’s Society of a Better Man.

            Steev’s knees throbbed in anguish and sweat ran down from his forehead into his eyes. He squeezed them shut, and he dreamt of being in a place of joy and happiness far from this city of restrictions where music flourished and it soothed, yet excited. The place he thought of first was in a grove of shady trees where a sliver of a brook cut dark ribbons through rock and grassy earth. He remembered as a small child, sitting on a boulder with his grandfather in the warm and quiet sun. His grandfather had produced an apple from his pocket along with a pocketknife. He cut slices of the juicy apple and shared them with Steev. Unable to maintain the blissful visualizations any longer, Steev returned to his agony.

            His knees excruciating, Steev dipped his head into the room’s corner and forced himself off the kernels’ tortuous abuse by pressuring his forehead against the rough hard, paragat wall with his neck muscles. He scrunched his cramped toes further under his body, tensed his feet and leg calves and raised his body mere millimeters to remove some of his weight from his painful knees. Careful not to lift too high and raise the suspicions of his ranting instructor, he nevertheless heard two wheat kernels dribble to the floor as they dropped from their painful, reddened indentations in his flesh�"tick-tick. He sucked in a breath, expecting a pause from a suspecting Gruin, but no, the instructor lectured on in his booming monotone on topics drilled daily into pupils of all ages. The distress of his torment lessened as Steev’s mind drifted back to that special place, deep in the woods and his reminiscence�"

            “Mister Powel! Have you ascertained the significance of your chastisement?”

            Gruin’s booming voice brought Steev instantly back to Earth twice-fold. His imagination and concentration instantly lapsed with his weight falling the precious millimeters back down on the wheat. The severe throe shot up from his knees, legs, and back. He gasped, almost crying out.

            “Oh, ah yes sir,” Steev whimpered out in his pain, his mind whirling for the appropriate, preferred response. “I was in disagreement with one of our great society’s principle founding tenets and proposed to disgrace to myself before our illustrious Executive, and er Lord Equestrian.”

            “Good, you are hereby released from your atonement,” snapped Gruin. “This had better not occur again for more severe punishment will be implemented. We all remember what happens to those who disobey, do we not class?”

            “Yes, sir. We learn to obey the Oligarchy’s rules,” the class intoned.

            Slowly Steev stood, unwound, and stretched his sore, stiff muscles. He returned to his seat with his muscles nearly refusing to bend as he sat. He glanced up to see Gruin brandish the whip at him, but he turned away to busily look in his ledger and jot notes.  The gray, heavily bearded instructor never looked up again as he released the students, and Steev gathered his books and tablets from his desk. The other pupils departed in an orderly fashion and last to depart, Steev pushed open the weighty door to step outside. The hot blazing sun struck his classroom-accustomed eyes. He remained on the steps of his classroom permitting his eyes adapt to the effulgence along with his ears and nerves adjusting to the assaulting noise and activity of the city. As the door closed behind him, Steev entered the harsh environment and the center of the Oligarchy�"The Walled City of E’drag T-Nava.

            Common people and Punx of all ages streamed along the avenues of the city on business known only to them. Aeolian dust hung in the air above the crowded avenues from the heavy foot and horse traffic. The hard, sharp edges of the concrete buildings faced Steev and cut into his already downtrodden heart and beaten soul. Similarly, from the spoked avenues of the walled city, he could see the peak of the Singing Odeum over a nearby gray granite edifice. The odeum’s roof cap glinted in its blue and gold tiles, rising several stories above the plain subservient buildings and remained the single, main focal point of the entire city. The shiny Odeum sprouted a shiny lightening rod atop a pointed spire. Nearby was the expansive reddish stone walled Fastness of the Oligarchy Executive and the mysterious Lord Equestrian.

            ***

            In the past few months, there seemed a lingering disquiet about the fastness. Common people, in hushed tones and furtive glances, discussed perceived goings on inside. The Executive hadn’t been seen in those months since before the Lord Equestrian exerted his overbearing hand of power that exceeded the already unbearable control of the Oligarchy. The adults around Steev didn’t know where this new lord had come from for no one had seen or heard of him before, but he wielded force with his army of Tagents over the common people in E’drag T-Nava. In his little time of reign, the Lord’s reach had exceeded the Region of K’Cor E^isser~gorp  His brutal Tagents and mutant Punx came and went to outlying places unknown on missions untold in rapid succession as no one had remembered before. It was during this changeable period that young Steev had first seen the heavier than aircraft flying over the city.

             Sporadically, the noisy craft buzzed and sputtered overhead spewing a trail of black smoke whenever it flew, and its appearance scared human and animal-kind alike. This display of technology, albeit crude technology fascinated Steev and his grandfather who embraced the memories of ancient useful and peaceful technetronics, but in this case knew the HTAC was only a show of power and an additional abuse of power. At these instances, Steev’s grandfather Leon whispered the ideas and concepts of music becoming more powerful with peaceful technology, but reminded him that true music came from the heart of the player while embracing the warmth of Quintessence. Grandfather said that he knew the Oligarchy was up to no good using evil technetronics to bolster their holdings over humankind. Steev embraced the core beliefs that endeared him to his grandfather, who along with Steev’s mother had incurred the wrath of the Oligarchy. Now that his mother lived a life subdued in a strange way, the Tagents became more insistent on grandfather holding his tongue on these rebellious topics or he too would become “an example.”

  ***

            Steev stepped down the school’s stairs and turned to the side avenue beside the classroom, knowing it as the shortest distance to his home in the purlieu outside the city’s walls and away from the thickest throng of population. A double-column of six Tagents trotted by from behind, and Steev glanced back to see them more or less in quickstep with their once tan uniforms threadbare, faded grey with buttons missing. Inherently lazy, these Tagents moved quicker than their normally slow plodding pace. Citizens jumped out of their way as the military unit wound down the avenue toward the fastness, out of sight and hearing. Maybe something happened there, but Steev knew not to interfere.

            Steev slung his banded books over his shoulder and continued on his way on this less populated route. Making dusty steps, the street’s surface, paved in cobblestone some eons ago, had not seen for decades due to the accumulation of daily filth. He made two turns in making for the nearest arched wall gate. The sun’s estival warmth soaked through his clothes to caress his sore muscles. The nearby cramped buildings’ shadows grew shorter with their height as he approached the outside ring of urban dwellings. As he neared the city gate, he recalled that he pitied these low-status city dwellers because he hated school or doing business here�"he felt lost so out of place in the city.

             A better-clothed man than the Tagents, obviously an Oligarchy-employed man, stood on a pedestal at the intersection of avenues near the bulwark’s exit. The man shouted his parlance of the twelve main canons of the society to the passersby, but no one stopped, no one paid attention for everyone was as well versed in the canons as this loud mouthpiece of the Lord Equestrian. Seemingly many mouthpieces, some say spies, in untold numbers as well, roamed the city’s interior and exterior from the highs of the rich city center to the lows where Steev lived. Suddenly, Steev’s hearing pricked when something the speaker shouted something different, not one of the well-known canons. Steev listened as he continued on his way.

            “�"and it is our illustrious lord’s wish not only, it is everyone’s responsibility under the Oligarchy, to deliver the truth of our perfect society to our surrounding neighbors and assimilate them into our way of life and thinking. We all�"”

            The loud man suddenly broke off his spiel when he, Steev, and the surrounding milling crowd heard a ruckus somewhere near the fastness. They froze as the few Tagents that had lingered on their own to keep an eye on the populace, turned and rushed toward the city center of the fastness. Steev couldn’t restrain himself from what sounded like real excitement and not the flailing of some poor citizen who had failed to donate his allotted share or had spoke his thoughts aloud.

            Immediately, the milling crowd moved as in one mind and headed toward the fastness. Steev wondered if perhaps an uprising had taken place to dethrone the Oligarchy and the new upstart lord no one knew. Steev heard murmurs among the crowd, but he picked up nothing new. He sprinted in the same direction, dodging, turning, and ducking through the thickening throng. He swerved into a side alley that he knew would be less crowded and afford a view of the fastness’ front door. Steev only had to jump a sewer ditch, a running cat, and a pile of trash in that order to emerge from a tight alley between two buildings that would allow only a single person to pass.

            Despite lined Tagents demanding the people to back off and go home, the crowd grew by the second around an apparent confrontation. Steev heard voices from the fastness gate, but he could not make out the words, and with his child’s height, he could not see over the shoulders or between the bodies that blocked his view. He forced his way through the crowd, eliciting a few grumbles from the men and women as he bumped, shoved, and twisted to the front where the Tagents held the crowd’s advance. Consciously shy of exposing himself this close to the center of control, he stopped behind the first line of bystanders. He peeked around the legs of those standing in front of him.

            A large contingent of Tagents on horses and on foot held a strangely dressed man in custody that held the reins of a large, rather striking and powerful horse. They shoved the man toward the lord who sat haughtily at the table outside the fastness door. Next to him, a beautiful red-haired woman sat, but to Steev, she appeared uncomfortable�"like she’d rather not be there. A Tagent officer off to the side held another anonymous old man by an arm.

            From what Steev gathered from the heated discussion, the lord wanted or had a partnership with this equestrian but decided the equestrian had crossed him or caused trouble. The equestrian didn’t appear freighted by the lord’s threats and this apparently enraged the lord. A woman behind Steev whispered that this strange man could be a hero of an uprising, but someone answered her by telling her to just watch a moment and see him become a dead man in short order. A Tagent holding the crowd back glared at them and told them to shut up.

            The equestrian seemingly ignored the lord and turned to the red-haired woman, he spoke to her in a calm voice about encountering her daughter, ‘Betsy’ Steev heard mentioned and the knowledge seemingly soothed the woman. The equestrian man held out his hand to the woman. At first, the woman didn’t look up. When the man opened his hand, she slowly gazed at what he held. She still didn’t care about the tiny thing the man held out, but slowly, she pinched it up. The red-haired woman jolted as if encountering sudden pain and dropped the tiny thing that bounced and rolled like a shiny coin. The lord, the woman, and the Tagents watched the coin-thing bounce across the table to the slate floor of the courtyard. After that, the situation became hard to follow for youthful Steev.

            The Lord pulled his gun and raised it shoot the equestrian, but the woman knocked it down. The gun fired downward, and the people around Steev screamed, cowered, and backed off leaving Steev exposed in front of the crowd. Enraptured, little Steev watched around a Tagent’s legs that had turned from minding the crowd to watch the action enfold. The man grabbed the woman who tried running away as the Lord shouted, “Find that thing!” or something to that effect. He dove under the table trying to find the coin-thing, Steev imagined. The Tagents acted confused and didn’t offer help to the crazy-acting Lord. Suddenly, a strange haze enveloped the people and the big horse. The crowd gasped with the sight and backed off some more.

            The equestrian held the woman by the shirt, as the Lord crawled around on the ground and began beating on the man’s foot. The man smiled as he spoke to the old man and the Tagent officer. Steev heard only part of the statement with the man asking the two to “go back” with him to wherever that was. Steev and the crowd couldn’t follow the conversation at all with everyone acting confused, jostling about in alarm.

            Suddenly, a hazy mist like a hot, humid summer day grew thick and blurry and�"just like that�"the three people and the large horse were gone�"vanished with nary a whisper. People in the crowd screamed, murmured, or simply turned and ran away. Steev stood there transfixed with the Tagents not knowing what to think of the bizarre scene. A second later, his sore knees weakened in his realization that he had witnessed a life-changing event�"or as he hoped, a Oligarchy changing�"or better yet, ending event.

            When the Tagents gained their own wits about them, a captain faced the remaining, murmuring crowd.

            “You people, all of you,” the captain leveled a finger and rotated about to envelope them all including Steev. “Forget you saw anything here, today. Discuss nothing�"tell no one�"this did not happen. If�"” He raised his voice. “If we hear any words spoken of this event, the retribution upon you will be swift and merciless.” He looked around at the staring, unmoving people. “You heard me! Go now and don’t speak a word!”

            Steev bolted into the retreating crowd, eager to be lost among the others to the Tagents that he imagined identified him as one of only a few children watching the strange event. He didn’t care what the Tagent had said against speaking about the event, Steev would tell his grandfather. Maybe he would have a viable explanation.

            Trotting out through the gateway, he stopped and took a deep breath almost as it was the first time he could draw a fresh breath the entire day. Though the city’s squander continued immediately outside the city wall, at least beyond, in the near distance there were trees, grass, and crops grew in the only lifestyle Steev knew.

            After witnessing this significant event that would absolutely upset the balance of power in E’drag T-Nava, Steev hoped it would mean a major shift from the constant control and abuse of the Oligarchy on his parents, his grandfather, and the other people who lived in the city purlieu of squander and drudgery.

           

            Steev found in the following weeks that it didn’t change, for not so surprisingly, Executive Sinfield came out of exile to reassume his reign after previously banished by the Lord Equestrian. Years would pass before the prophesied shift from this hard life would occur for little Steev, his grandfather Leon, and the poor downtrodden indwellers of E’drag T-Nava. Throughout those years, he would wonder what had actually occurred on that memorable day.

 

The book Quintessence Journal Two: The Five is available for purchase online at the usual retail sites. Thank you for your support, Neal