Brother Thief (Song of the Aura, Book One) by Gregory J. Downs Page A

Shrine looked like. He was stunned.
     
       The enormous rectangle had a carved, arching roof supported by a veritable forest of marble-sand pillars. Alcoves in each wall housed giant statues of men and women with kind, thoughtful faces- and sometimes no statue at all, but a large, rounded, unshaped hunk of marble-sand that would one day be carved like the others.
     
       In the open space between the walls sat rank upon rank of long, white benches that were one with the rest of the structure. Three separate rows stretched back into the soft shadows, leaving open two lanes that ran up to the circular, open space where Gribly now stood, unnoticed.
     
       The Shrine’s round tower was as wide as the stone-gable roof behind it, slightly higher, and just as sparse in its furnishings. Gribly presumed the ancient builders had not bothered much with the useless fanciness and trappings of the modern nobles, and that suited him just fine. The vibrantly colored windows sent a cascade of heavenly light down on everything under them. And it was that everything that took Gribly by such surprise.
     
       Smooth, empty iron chandeliers hung down from the high ceiling. Steps began at the edges of the circular space and proceeded higher and higher until they flattened out on a round space that was man-high and ten yards wide every way. An unfurnished, square altar was set there, adorned only with a small stone angel carved on each corner.
     
       Ringing the steps and the altar, lit up in the glorious light from above, were a number of stone statues three times man-high. They depicted saints or spirits, human but elfin too, and each bore inscriptions at their feet. Most were male, but a few were female. Some were dressed as warriors and some as scribes, some as kings and some as beggars, but each looked divinely inspired.
     
       Gribly was speechless with fear, but the fear felt good… holy.
     
       What IS this place? He wondered. His frantic, small mind felt smaller already: confused, but happy, too. It made no sense, and he gloried in the nonsensicalness of it all.
     
       No, that wasn’t right. That wasn’t what he was feeling. What was going on????
     
       Then, as he cowered in the shadows, too happy to stay and too scared to approach the altar, he recognized one of the farthest statues as something he knew. Some one he knew.
     
       “Traveller!” he gasped, and quickly sped around the round steps to the other side of the tower, where he fell to his knees in front of the statue. “It’s you! I mean, it’s not you , but…”
     
       Turn around , something inside told him. And REMEMBER.
     
       He turned, stood up, and took in the sight of the altar, statues, and Shrine again. And then Traveller’s words came back:
     
       I am part of the Aura, and the Aura serves the Creator.
     
       So that was it. That was what the Shrine was: the house of the Creator. The other statues were the other parts of the Aura! If the thing the Creator had created was so powerful that it manifested itself as multiple beings , then how much more infinitely powerful was the Creator Himself!
     
       I need time to think, his tired mind told him. This is too much. All of it- my gift, this place, these statues and this elusive Creator- all of it is too much to take in a day. Traveller can answer my questions if I see him again…
     
       “Come on, Dunelord,” he grumbled under his breath, feeling exhilarated but exhausted. “I need to find you. Lauro needs to get at you. Where is the best place to meet you ?”
     
       “Right here,” rasped a voice behind him. “The Dunelord would love to meet you here…” Gribly jumped so high he landed on the marble-sand steps with a whump and lost his breath. A passage behind the statue had opened up and two men had come out without him noticing.
     
       The one who had spoken was tall and thin, in white robes and long gray hair, with a yellow cinch at his waist and a