Fate of Aorullu, A Warhammer 40K Fan Fiction

Post 12 - Meet the Mentor

Keira reached the glade where the Elder Mentor dwelled. She knew she was one of the few privileged members of her tribe, being permitted to commune with the Elder. The Elder Mentor was an enigma to the tribe as She was known to be the oldest among them. There wasn't anyone in the tribe who could remember the coming of Her, how or when She had started to live with the tribe. There was no elderly enough inhabitant in the village who could relate to a time before the Elder. As far as the current people concerned, She was an ever present part of their world, infinitely wise and uncannily powerful.

But She was also the architect of their very much civilized society, being a constant source of wisdom and justice among them. She was merciless and intolerant in extinguishing any chance occurrence of misdeed in the tribe. Villagers, ever awed by Her presence and power, would not think of causing any mischief and thus, all the excess energy that would otherwise be used to create disorder among men, was put to improvement of their society.

The structure the Mentor dwelled in was unlike any she had seen in her life. Their houses in the village were more earthwork, mostly single-storey cottages of stone and caked with mud for insulation. They led a rather frugal lifestyle, content with what the earth provided for them, some of them raising cattle and chickens but most of them being farmers.

Mentor's house, on the other hand, was a perfectly sculpted piece of architecture, with elongated towers flanking a perfectly cubic central building. The workmanship was like none of her village's craftsmen could achieve. The material certainly felt like stone but it had a peculiar blue gloss to it. What they called towers were also somewhat rectangular prismatic structures but with an eye-defying geometry. They could never agree if they were widening at the top or at the bottom, the view depending on the eye of the viewer.

The glade greeted her with bird songs and the warm afternoon sunlight reflecting on the various angles of Mentor's house. The glade hummed to her senses with a sense of peace and tranquility. No matter how she felt, whenever she came to here,  blanket of peace would settle over her, drowning out other more anxious sentiments. On several occasions when she had brought certain inhabitants of the village for settling some disputes, even the most arrogant of the villagers would turn into meek subjects, as if unable to feel any kind of aggressive feelings.

She approached the glossy building and as usual, a door opened, actually more like slid to the side to let her in. Inside was a big monospace hall challenging one's senses to claim that the building was actually bigger inside than it was looking from outside. Interior walls had a similar look to the outside but with a much lighter shade. There was a diffused luminescense inside, pleasant to the eyes. At a single circular table at the far end of the hall, the Mentor occupied one of the two chairs next to the table.

There was a fireplace inside the wall across the table, several potted plants around the space and couple of shelves lining the walls, exhibiting various small trinkets. It was plainly an effort to make the ambience look cosy and social but the sheer material of the house itself was actually causing too much contrast with the more humanly furniture, maximizing the effect of other-wordliness.