Further Beyond: Ascension

Solsday, 24th of Marcia, 470th year of the 5th Era

The feast had just ended a few hours ago and the night was very late as it was possibly past midnight. While most of his family had returned home to his own Bolon house with full and satisfied stomachs, Parulian was instead summoned by his father the King to the Great Hall of the village. He didn't know for what reason exactly and that made him worried.

Even in the midst of his father's sickness and decline in health, the old man remained as stoic and as equally stubborn as ever. There was no way he was summoned just because his father had missed him or some other such nonsense. Something important must have happened during the feast.

Now that he thought about it, it was highly suspect when he remembered his father calling his son over for discussions with the other elders of the realm. All that yet neither he nor his younger brother were included within the talks. This did little to ease or soothe his mind. Regardless, as a dutiful son to his father, Parulian carried on until he had finally reached the great house.

As he climbed the stairs to the great hall and entered into it, he could already see his old father sitting stoically upon the 'Habangso Holinaga' or the 'Dragonbone Throne'. It was a large-ish throne made from what was said to be the remains of a great Land dragon that was slain by his great ancestor, the eponymous founder of his Clan - Tuan Sigumogo - some twenty or so generations ago.

Next to his father stood his most trusted advisors. They were Bishop Ludwig - who had saved Parulian when he was a child - and the Elder Marasi. Sitting upon thin floor cushions around the hall were the elders of the other great clans of the Realm of Goria. In total, there were eight great Clans who make up the Gorian Realm excluding his own Ruling Sigumogo clan. These were - in no particular order - the Sinatua; the Rapmasari; the Sigompul; the Binangabalok; the Idabagak; the Sipistar; the Siparadian; and the Hutabaru.

The eight clans and their many branches represented dozens of villages and settlements that make up the greater Gorian realm of a total of tens of thousands of people. All the clan heads were present in the great hall and in the middle of the hall - kneeling in front of the Dragonbone throne - was his younger brother Partogi and his sister-in-law Lamria. Clearly something grave was happening, or else none of the most prominent members of the Gorian clans would be here.

"...Father, what is going on here? Why have the great elders been summoned? Is it a war?" Parulian asked as he did not know what to make of the sudden situation. A council meeting in the middle of the night was the last thing he expected to take part in.

"I had waited for this time… In order to question my son and his wife more directly. You are to sit there… and act as my witness." King Parhal said as he pointed to a cushion next to one of the elders. Parulian had so many questions in his mind but decided to follow along with his father's instruction as he sat himself down next to his father-in-law, Tuan Sabam Maroham Hutabaru.

Without waiting any further, King Parhal focused back his attention on his younger, more prodigal son as he spoke. "Togi, I have heard… the most disturbing news about both you and your wife… I did not want it to be true, so I must ask it… directly from you. Are you an apostate?"

Parulian's eyes widened as he heard his father's question to his younger brother. He couldn't believe his very ears and for sure thought he must have misheard his father. He had indeed heard the rumors flying around the village that there were those who still stubbornly clung to the old ways but it was so fleeting and so few and far between, Parulian did not believe it.

Sure, maybe a few of the elders still participated in the traditional rituals, but the Church had never proscribed those things! In fact, so long as the Sovereignty of the Almighty as the One True God was acknowledged, even the ecclesiastical institution that Bishop Ludwig had established incorporated many of the indigenous practices for proper christian worship. The church only really forbade the most egregious transgressions like the practice of cannibalism and blood rituals of sacrifice.

"Father, what is this outrage? How could you accuse your own son of such a stupid thing?!" Parulian said as he protested before he talked to his brother and sister-in-law "Oy, Togi! Don't be an idiot and just sit there! Lamria, you too! Why are you both only staying quiet?!"

Parulian could feel his heart as if it was sinking even deeper into his chest when he saw the two only hang their heads in silence, refusing to answer the questioning of their king. Parulian knew that between him and his brother, he was never the smarter one. He wasn't stupid by any means, but he wasn't his brother.

It was said of the two that Partogi had inherited their father's mind while he had inherited his strength. Always people would paint of him a picture of jovial boisterousness and the strength of his arm and martial prowess was what defined him.

It was because of this ingrained thought within him, even when he himself had noticed the signs of his brother no longer attending church or his frequent outings to the traditional burial sites of the ancestors, Parulian had always told himself that he was reading things wrong and that he was being foolish or perhaps his genius brother had discovered a whole new method of worship from the scriptures.

But now, looking at the scene before him, he started to have his doubts brought up front and center before him.

"Togi…" the King said once more as his face grew even more grim and his raspy voice sharper "Have you honestly… nothing to say…?"

"Father… there is nothing more that need be said." Partogi finally looked up as he stared his father directly into his eyes in a clear sign of defiance "You've already heard all you needed to hear to make up your mind. Did my son and nephew not tell you themselves."

In this defiance the old King got up in anger as he stepped from his throne towards his son. In his weakened state and without the aid of someone else for him to walk, he had an unstable gait and almost lost his balance but he raised his hand to stop anyone from helping him. Slowly and agonizingly as his breaths grew heavy, the King approached Partogi before he slumped down and sat on the ground in front of him as an answer to the direct challenge posed towards him.

The king sat with one leg bent and the other straightened. Around him, a violent yet majestic golden aura started to manifest as the room started to tremble ever so slightly. Though he had not the strength he possessed during his peak - no matter how weakened, ailing or dying he was -, one fact remained. He was still a seventh star Sword Saint and he won't be letting anyone forget that fact any time soon.

"I want… to hear it… from your own mouth…" The King said as his glare intensified. With little anyone could do to stop him, his aura grew larger and larger as the pressure in the air continued to increase. Even the fifth-star Parulian was starting to feel it.

The other Elders who were mostly in the fourth star range also started to feel the aura bearing down on them as it caused them mild discomfort. However, it was clear to everyone that Partogi was suffering the most from the pressure that was being focused on him.

Eventually all of this grew unbearable to the Lady Lamria as she wasn't attune in any way towards the king's aura. As the pressure got heavier, so did it feel like she was losing air and was gasping for it. It looked like in another second she would be fainting from lack of any breathable air. Seeing this, Partogi was incensed as he unleashed all of his aura at that moment to combat his father's oppressive force and save his wife from fainting.

"THAT IS ENOUGH!!!" Partogi said as he held his wife close to him as he covered her within his aura to shield her from the oppressive aura though with him being only in the realm of a fourth star warrior, when compared to that of a swordsaint - even a weakened one like his father - he didn't have much time until even his own barrier would break. "Is this what you call a follower of Christ?! Someone who takes joy in oppressing the weak?!! You are a tyrant! No better than your father before you!"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

At Partogi's comment, for a split second, Parhal's expression became so enraged that his eyes glowed an oppressive golden light. At that moment, he looked like he was the personification of the Archangel Michael.

With a simple swipe of his arm, Partogi's aura was shattered as Parhal stood up once more and was about to send another strike down. The other elders gasped in horror thinking that they were about to witness a filicide.

"Father, stop it!!" Parulian immediately jumped up to try and shield his brother.

"PARHAL!! CEASE THIS INSANITY!" at the same time, Ludwig was ran towards the king, determined to grab him to have him stay his hand. The bishop looked like he cared little for the pressure put upon him as a healer of only the fifth circle against such monstrous aura.

Luckily enough - just as the strike was about to land on Partogi -, Parhal stopped himself abruptly. When the king saw that despite the brave face that his younger son was putting up, he was scared. It was clear from his shaking body and paled face as he held his half-unconscious wife close to him, that he was still the same timid and tender boy who would always run to his mother every time he had thought he angered his father.

For a moment, Parhal felt like the world had flashed before him as before him wasn't kneeling a thirty-eight year old man but a boy who was barely ten, crying with snot running out of his nose telling him that he was scared by a ghost. As that moment flashed by him and the scene returned once more to the present, Parhal had retracted all of the aura he was exuding as he stumbled away. He slowly backed up to his throne before he slumped down on it once more. Soon after, he fell into a fit of coughs as he spat out fresh blood and when he looked up, blood was running down from his nose. It had seemed he spent too much of his strength.

"Father!" Parulian got up as he had approached his father followed by the Bishop. Ludwig immediately put up his hands towards the old king as they glowed in golden aura in order to clot the blood and stop the king from bleeding further. Eventually when he felt that everything was fine only moments later, Parhal had raised his hand once more before gently pushing aside Ludwig and Parulian. He then once more focused his attention upon Partogi.

"I will ask… once more… are... you... an apostate?" Parhal asked, his gaze now clearer than ever

Finally Partogi gave a deep sigh before he raised his head and looked towards his father with a stoic expression.

"I do not consider myself an apostate…" Partogi said as he held his wife who had regained her wit somewhat as she looked at him with meaning.

For a moment Parulian had looked up thinking that this was all a misunderstanding but from what he was about to hear next, he would only grow all the more crestfallen.

"For how can I be an apostate when it is I alone here along with my wife who has chosen to stay true to the old ways?!" Partogi continued "I. Who have chosen to pay fealty to the Great Creator who we know as Debata Mulajadi Nabolon! I. Who have chosen to revere always the spirits of the Great Ancestors who have looked after our people for so long! It is by this tradition that I hold that our ancestor had slain the Great Dragon Siulok Naroa! The very dragon whose bones you sit upon right now! So no! I am no apostate! It is everyone here! Old fools tricked by the foreign fairytales peddled to you by that foreign swindler!! It is you all who are the apostates!"

Parulian could not believe what he had just heard. His brother was well and truly mad. How could he say such things after everything they had been through? After all the oppression the realm of Goria had suffered under the heels of the other Halak Kingdoms for their choice to follow the teachings of Christ? There was so much he wanted to say, to try and convince his younger brother that he was on the wrong path, but once he saw the fiery determination within his eyes, Parulian instinctively knew it would be to no avail.

"Is that how you truly felt all this time, Togi?" Ludwig said as he looked towards Partogi with sincere eyes that were moistening at what he had just heard. In front of him stood a man who was once just the sweetest most tender boy he knew. A man who was once so excited on the day of his baptism that he was jumping with joy. "Am I only worth that much to you? A foreign swindler? When I cared for you in the hospital, when I followed you along to protect you from 'evil demon spirits', When I helped you two deliver little Timotheus and Maria with my wife, losing sleep for you all? All of that and for what? For you to consider me a swindler…?"

Ludwig's voice had sounded like he was genuinely hurt by Partogi's accusations and for a second there, Partogi wavered as he looked away from the Old Ephorus. He was not willing to look Ludwig in the eyes.

Ignoring Ludwig, Partogi still chose to speak. "I bear no ill-will towards any Christian, but I declare that from this day forward, I reject the foreign God Jahowa and all his forms. I reject the blood of your Lamb. And I reject the Spirit you call Holy. I return to my ancestors where they await for my brave spirit in their halls. May their spirits guide me always."

Audible gasps could be heard as the Christian clan elders could barely believe such an open declaration of rejection towards their faith as some of them even began to protest as they stood up. "Cut off his tongue!". "He betrays the God who hath brought us victory over the Heathens!". "Banish him!".

As the room was growing rowdy with unrest, Parhal raised his hand again before once more the room quieted down.

"Then it is done..." The Old King said as he steeled his resolve and hardened his heart "By my right as King and Head of the Clan of the Sigumogo, I strip you... Partogi Bonar Sigumogo... of all rights of inheritance within my realms and declare you and your wife to be Exiled from all the Lands of Goria. You shall not step one foot into these lands so long as I live and draw breath or before you repent of your sin of apostasy. I banish you henceforth as you have until the dawn when the sun rises for you to have removed yourself from this village. You shall only take what items you may carry in a single wagon to be pulled by your bonded tiger. As for your children, you have leave only to take along with you the unbaptized among your offspring."

"Nooo..!!!" Lamria wept hysterically at the thought of having to abandon her younger children "I will not leave my children here with you! I shall take them all with me to Saorma!! YOU WILL NOT TAKE THEM YOU DEMON!!"

"I will suffer not the children be damned for the apostasy of their foolish sires…" King Parhal said with an icy tone "I. Have. Spoken."

"I would rather have you kill me, you old fool!!" Partogi shouted with defiance

"If we were followers of the old ways, we'd have you and your children bound and eaten alive in a pool of your own blood!" One of the elders said disparagingly, mocking Partogi for his beliefs in the old ways which elicited the derisive laughter of the others.

"Look at this fool! Only following the old ways when it suits him!" Another elder chimed in

"If he'd anger a shaman in the Old Ways, he'd have his children eaten by the Homang anyways! Hahahahaha!!"

Partogi could only stand there in the midst of the jeers and insults hurled at him by the Christian elders of the Clans. His hands were shaking furiously as he felt a mixture of great anger, anguish, and shame. Shame that he wasn't strong enough to challenge his father. Shame that he hadn't worked up the courage to have left the village sooner with his family. Shame that he had insulted an old friend to his face despite knowing that never in a thousand years would Ludwig ever have meant any harm towards him or his family. Even when all the others were insulting him for his beliefs in the old ways, Ludwig only stood there, still crestfallen and on the verge of tears.

Just as the room was getting disorderly once more, this time it was Parulian who shouted, "ENOUGH!! The lot of you ought to be ashamed of yourselves! You are all the Elders who lead our great realm and you call yourselves Christian! Such insulting behaviour is fit for a pack of unruly children, not this sacred council! Now I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I do know at least that much!"

As Parulian stood after saying all that, imposing himself upon the room with his impressively large build, the room naturally quieted down again. Finally he looked towards his brother before saying, "And to you, brother, regardless of how you are or what you choose, you shall always remain the brother that I love. But I won't lie and say the things that you have said weren't hurtful or foolish especially for a learned man such as yourself. And though I love you, I have neither the strength nor the will to oppose our father, but what I can promise is this…"

All of a sudden, Parulian knelt on both knees as he planted his face to the ground. "I swear to all the Hosts of Heaven, I shall take care of the children you leave behind, and I shall love them as my own as I always have until my dying breath! I assure you no harm will befall them and they will grow strong and proud, knowing that their father is also a man of strength… So please, brother…"

As Partogi saw the sight of his kneeling brother, all he could do was stand still and stare before he nodded with a frown and dragged his still sobbing and hysterical wife with him as they left the great hall to gather their things and leave the village in exile.

"NOO!!! DON'T LET THEM TAKE MY CHILDREN!!" Lamria was inconsolable throughout the walk and her screams reverberated so loudly throughout the quiet night that many in the village had awoken in fright and had gotten up and outside their houses to see what was going on. It was a truly shameful display as now most everyone would be aware of what was happening. As they saw the Great elders walking out of the Great hall witnessing the scene, the village grew abuzz and started gossiping about what had happened. It took great effort from Parulian to mobilize the guards to disperse the gathering crowds back to their own homes. It was to be a long and excruciatingly painful day, he could tell.

And so it was from that day that a rift had appeared upon the Clan of Sigumogo. A rift that appeared like it was one that wouldn't be mended any time soon.