The Rivening

Cloisters

"My dear, what were you thinking coming through in the middle of the day?'

Connie woke up to a beautiful, smiling, grey-haired woman, gently stroking her arm. Heterochromia eyes.

The woman stared kindly at her, spoke like an Ireland native, "My god, it's true. Arden's love child."

Connie tried to sit up and the woman softly pushed her back, "Rest. You need rest. It's always that way after the passage."

Connie lurched up again, "Peter. Where's Peter? Is he all right? Are we in Dahria?"

"He's resting. You'll see him soon. Yes, dear, you're in Dahria."

"Oh, thank god. We made it. Please take me to him."

"You need to renew yourself first." The woman got up and moved a tray with food and drink to the table beside Connie's bed. "Finish it all. You'll feel tired after. Sleep. When you wake up, someone will take you to Peter." She turned to go.

"Wait. Who are you? How do you know Arden? And about me?"

"All in good time. I am Rennish. You're in the community of Ladore, in the domain of Crustic, in Dahria." She smiled. "Everyone knows, or knows of, Arden. Now sleep."

Connie quickly ate and drank everything on the tray. She was parched and famished. And while it did increase her fatigue, she pushed herself off the bed. No way could she rest, not until she'd seen Peter.

She reached a hand to steady herself on the wall of the small room and carefully made her way to the open door. Outside was a covered walkway surrounding all four sides of a large, lush garden courtyard. It was raining.

She went to the edge of the walkway, rested her hand on a pillar, and peered across. The two-storied, stone quadrangle building had simple, elegant lines. The overall design was reminiscent of a medieval monastery cloister, but the feel was more Frank Lloyd Wright.

The interior of the courtyard was filled with raised beds of flowers, early vegetables, and many plants Connie didn't recognize. Flagstone paths crossed the courtyard. In the center a fountain base surrounded a tall curvy, intricate metal sculpture. Guidewires ran from the sculpture to the top of the eaves of the quadrangle. One wire per side stretched between the artwork and the middle of each eave. She wondered if the wires were holding the sculpture in place, though it appeared to be quite sturdy.

She peered around to see if there were guards nearby, like the rough people who picked her up outside the passage, but saw no one. Maybe Peter was in a nearby room, similar to hers.

A muted grinding noise started, and she paused to watch as translucent, triangular shaped fabric coverings began emerging from under the eaves along the guidewires connecting to the statuary in the middle of the courtyard. When the leading points of the four triangles were almost at the artwork, their adjacent sides nearly touching, the coverings snapped together as if magnetized.

This created a funnel for the rain to channel down onto the top of the artwork, setting it in motion. Its elaborate swirling mechanisms came alive in cascading waterfalls and gadgets flipping their counterbalanced features as they filled and emptied with the surging water. Gradually the basin surrounding the structure began filling up. Connie was captivated.

"You have nothing like that Earthside?"

A man spoke gruffly next to her. The water symphony from the courtyard had muffled his approach. Connie remembered the voice. He was the man who spoke with James before going through the passage. She couldn't recall his name. He stood beside her like an intimidating bouncer. Taller than Connie, likely double her weight. His curly blonde hair pulled back in a dishevelled ponytail. He wore a thickly textured, tunic-like, maroon-coloured top with the sleeves rolled up, over what looked, surprisingly, like a regular pair of blue jeans.