The broo that had called itself Legion had broken off its tale, saying "the spirit is coming."
I could see nothing, and was afraid by now of what the real purposes of this strange thing was. "Be still," the creature hissed, and seeing no alternative, I did not move or speak. The broo started chanting again, and suddenly I saw a ghostly shape above me. Surprisingly, one look at it stripped me of my fears. It was immediately obvious that whatever this spirit was, it was not evil: indeed it could be said to almost radiate health. At the same moment I became aware myself of just how unhealthy I was myself: I felt myself almost a thing of filth before this radiant spirit.
The priest (for so I now knew it be) said a few more words and the spirit entered me. It was a strange sensation; for as it entered I could feel the evil spirit within me struggling to retain its control. It is an odd thing to feel oneself not in possession of one's own body, and that is how I felt for the next few seconds. Then, with a mighty wrench, the spirit that had been in my body was forced out. It was literally ghastly, a grey man-shaped thing with black holes for its eyes and mouth. The broo standing above me took a fetish from its sash, spoke a few more words, and the disease spirit disappeared into the strange object which it held. "We will deal with it later," he said.
"Your lungs are still weak from the disease," the broo said. "The spirit in you
will stay a while longer, and we may be able to find a spell that will restore
you fully." I began to reply, but it said abruptly, "sleep now, and we will
feed you when you wake." He cast a spell again, and again I fell asleep.
When I woke, it was morning. I felt hungry, and I felt healthy. Only when one has been sick does one fully appreciate what it is to be healthy. Although my lungs were still sore, I felt a glow which I had never felt before. I also felt an intense desire to relieve myself, something which I had not done ever since my capture.
I could see no sign of my captor/healer, although I called out. I was still bound, but did not struggle against the bonds, although the sores which I had inflicted on myself trying to escape earlier had disappeared.
Suddenly, the broo appeared once more. In its kind contralto voice it asked,
"if we release you, will you swear not to attack us?" I was irresolute for a
minute, wondering just what my obligations were to a thing of chaos that had
killed Lightbringers, whether an oath to such a thing would hold, and what
obligations I had to a creature that had just healed me. More practically, since
I was without weapons, and in the presence of a creature that was invulnerable
to my magic, I thought that I would be unable to do the creature harm in any
event. Thinking in the end that the obligation could not be too onerous, I
swore by the winds that I would not attack the broo unless it first assaulted
me.
Thus the broo released me, telling me that it had brought some food. Ravenous as I was, I first went around the corner and relieved myself, then returned to see what food the creature had provided. I was not shocked to see that it consisted entirely of fish and nuts and other vegetables, for most of the Healers I knew did not eat meat. Since the creature had shown itself to be master of healing spirits, I no longer feared disease, and no hesitation in eating what it provided.
Whilst I was eating, I pondered how to secure my weapons and personal effects, most especially the item which I had successfully taken from Elkoi. I decided both for reasons of policy and of genuine interest, to get the creature, which seemed more calm today, to finish the tale of its life.
Strange as it the broo was, it resembled most humans I have known in its willingness to talk about itself. After a brief query from me, it resumed its tale where it had left off.
"The Chalana Arroy priestess was not afraid. Indeed, near the end of the
cereemony, as I cut the obligatory strip of flesh from her inner thigh, she
gritted her teeth through the pain, looked me straight in the eye, and said to
me: "in the end my mistress's will is greater than that of your severed master.
She will overcome." I ate her flesh, as my geas required, then finished the
mighty rituals."
"Stranger, I do not think that my spell failed. I am not sure exactly what
happened. I did in fact take her knowledge and spells into myself. Then I fell
hurt, as the priests of Atyar do when their great spells are done."
"But during my recovery, two strange things happened, one after the other.
First, as the Sacred Time followed closely upon Dark Season, when I had cast my
spell, I came to realize that my perception of the world had changed suddenly.
All that Linger had talked to us about years before suddenly came to our
understanding. We had been illumined."
"Illumination cannot be described to those who have not felt it, and we know
enough now of what it means to recognize that it is not the same for different
people. For us, it meant a sudden end to our burning urge to destroy
everything. We were without heart for destruction of any kind at all. And we
no longer were of a single mind, in any event."
At this point, the creature suddenly spoke in its contralto voice again: "I told him that my mistress was stronger than his master, but he did not believe me." It was only then I noticed that its whole story this day up to that point had been told in a single, male voice, and in the singular person.
This reminder of just how strange the creature was that spoke to me made me wonder, once again, if illumination could come to me just from listening to its words. But since I was not being questioned, but rather the questioner, I hoped that this was not true.
The original voice resumed as though it had not been interrupted: "Only two days later, the Dark Lord of High Truths in our temple died, probably at the hands of another temple member. The resulting struggle for power divided our temple. We found myself uncaring as to who might win, although just days before we might have been struggling for a higher place ourselves."
"Then the temple came under attack , probably as the result of the Sacred Time
quests of some other cults. We could not tell aught about our foes except that
they were human. Having no heart for the fight, we fled to the surface and away
from the temple."
"We were no longer in full in control of ourselves or our actions, but swiftly
found again what has always been the case, that one of the few activities that
unite the races of Glorantha is hunting broo. And even our own kind would be
more dangerous for us than before, since we were now a servant of Atyar, not of
Thed."
"So it was that we fled into the mountains, seeking safety in solitude. It was
the harshest season of the year, and yet we eked out survival, for our kind can
survive almost any condition by the power of chaos within us. Indeed, it may be
that we would live forever, were our lives not such as they are, sure to bring
death sooner or later upon any creature."
"After months living alone, we began to feel able to deal with ourselves in some
fashion. Then the affairs of chance, or the will of the Gods, once again took a
hand. We came upon a wounded creature in the hills. At first we did not
recognize it, for never before had we seen a durulz. Surely this is one of the
stranger creatures of the world, and it is hard to believe that chaos had no
hand in its creation."
"Of old we would have eaten the creature and enjoyed its dying squawks, or else
simply watched it die for the very pleasure of it. Now we found no such thrill,
rather, strangely, we felt the desire to cast one of our new spells upon it.
And so we did, and so we healed for the first time. The durulz, amazed, ran as
soon as we had healed it."
"We were almost equally amazed at our own behavior, and wandered, disconsolate,
across the wastes. And then we came upon a shrine of Chalana Arroy. Formerly,
we might have defecated upon it in order to defile it. But now we fell on our
knees in prayer before the shrine. And the voice of the Goddess came to us,
telling us to go to her secret shrine, the place that only her devotees can
find."
"Long was the travel, and the strange the place to which we went. We cannot
tell the road there, nor much of what passed there, for much of it is under the
vow of silence. We can tell you, of course, of how alarmed they were to find a
broo there, where none had ever been before, and how their divinations
established that we did, indeed, want to heal. They were not able to cure all
the ills of the mind and spirit that afflicted us, of course, but they did lay
spells on us that made it easier for us to keep the cult vows, and even built us
this strange structure on our head so as to prevent the evil within us from
injuring others. And, ironically, the curse of Atyar upon us for our defection,
that we should keep our geases but not our gifts, had no effect, since we now
longer have victims whose flesh we must eat, and are forbidden to carry weapons
by our new mistress as well as by our old master"
"Thus it was that we came back to these Mountains, for we are mostly safe here,
and at the same time can offer healing where no other healer exists. And
somehow we have come to love the beauty of these sleeping giants. Of course,
the savage and ignorant still do their best to kill us, but the failure of their
spells to bite, our strength, our old armor and our protective spells have
served to keep us safe so far."
"We have built shrines all across the mountains, so that as we travel all can
find the spells that the Goddess chooses to send. Although we meet few people up
here, many that we do need have need of our services, just as both you and that
troll did." The creature chuckled to itself.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. "What became of that troll? I heard it scream after you took it away." "That was simply a scream of frustration and panic, for it wanted to harm me and could not in the face of my magic, so it ran away."
Suddenly the creature uttered another of its own strange screams, and rose to its feet. "The trolls show little gratitude, we are afraid, and we expect them to return in force very soon. Indeed, you have reminded us that it is best that we depart: you in your direction, us in ours."
"We cast another spell upon you while you slept; it should have restored some of
the strength your lungs lost to the disease; these herbs should help further."
He handed me a small satchel.
"Your weapons and the other items you had on you may be discovered at the base
of the large tree 34 steps down this trail. We lay the usual requirement of our
cult upon you: that you enter the next temple of our faith you come upon, and
tithe them for your healing."
I stood irresolute, wondering what my obligations were to this strange creature that had saved my life and health, although it was an illuminated chaotic monster. The winds of my cult blew both ways here. But I asked: "Is there naught I can do for you, in gratitude?"
The creature replied, "You listened to our tale, and briefly broke our loneliness; do good unto the next creatures that you meet, in return." And it moved away up the trail, so swiftly and silently that within a few heart beats I had lost sight of it altogether.
My goods and weapons, including even the special item I brought you, were where the creature said they would be. Expecting the trolls to return, I travelled far enough away in the day so that they did not catch me in the night.
And that creature, you say, is called the Wild Healer of the Rockwoods? It is a fitting name. I wonder how many years he has been there, and how many more years he will remain?
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