Seeking Luminaron’s Blessing

The soft light from many crystalline globes and luminous mosses lining the wide tunnel illuminated the forms of two Ionaequines as they made their way down the passageway and into the heart of Stormgale.  Their cloven hooves made soft clicking noises on the stone floor while their eyes were intently fixed on the wide opening in the distance that signified their journey’s end was near. The two were newly mated, having courted at the sacred mating groves of the Ionaequines not more than a month ago.  Like most warriors, or indeed any Ionaequine who choose to develop their powers fully, they were barren due to the ancient curse that had afflicted their race since the dawn of creation.  They were on their way to the Temple of Requests to an arranged appointment, where they would make their request before the priests of Luminaron and before the lord and elders of their colony, in the hope that they might be granted a chance to prove themselves worthy in Luminaron’s eyes of having a child.
The smaller of the two, Ilhilindrian, an emerald mare, paused a moment.  Turning her head to her companion and mate, she shook her white and gold streaked mane and pawing the ground nervously with one green and gold banded leg.
Her mate, Ilithrion, a pied copper and lime stallion, saw her agitated manner and stopped with her. As sparks of emotion began to glow from the end of her golden tri-pronged ionaphore, he turned his handsome head towards her. Gently he ran his muzzle down the back of her crest and her body, tracing the line of her golden dorsal stripe, trying to soothe her. Glad of his support, she leaned into his shoulder for a second and sighed gratefully, the sparks dying down as she calmed.
“Thanks, my love. Oh, Lithri I’m just so nervous.”
Lithri gently smiled at her in as a reassuring a manner as he could manage, given he himself was a little anxious about the visit they were making.
“I can understand that, Lindri, my dear. But there really is nothing to worry about. We’re just making a request for a trial of parenthood, that’s all. It’s not like we’re actually going to attempt one today.”
Lindri pawed the air with a hoof once more, sparks flaring up again and dancing on the tip of her ionaphore as she did so in her nervousness. Knowing as she did, that she and Lithri were barren and unable to mate and produce foals of their own, and that this was their only chance of having a child, Lithri’s reassurance calmed her only a little.
“But Lithri, we know so little about the trials. What if it’s more than that? What if there is some initial test we have to pass? What if we’re judged unworthy for some reason and the priests won’t accept our request and they turn us away?”
Lithri nuzzled her again soothingly.
“Lindri, I can understand your anxieties, but please relax, my love, there’s nothing to worry about at this stage. We both know we fit the requirements.  We’re both barren. I imagine there’ll be some questions before they officially record our request, but that’s a formality. They’re not going to turn us away as long as we seem in earnest. From what little I’ve heard the priests are sympathetic. Besides, the need to maintain the population is too great for anyone to be turned away, unless there are serious doubts about their eligibility and commitment is deemed to be very lacking.”
Lindri felt her anxieties ease a little as she listened to Lithri’s calm, comforting words, and the two reassumed their journey down the tunnel passageway. Finally, they reached the vast mouth of the cavern that marked one of several entrances to Storm’s Heart.  The complex of temples and living quarters surrounded Storm’s Pulse, the sacred chamber of the Ionaequines. The pair of guards on duty at the cavern mouth nodded to them with a brief whicker of greeting as they passed through.
Once into the cavern Lithri and Lindri halted and looked round, trying to decide which of the tunnels that forked off from the cavern was the one that led to the Temple of Requests. The pair of guards, one a dappled bright red and rose red mare, with mane shading from red to dark indigo blue, the other was a light orange stallion with a burgundy and cream striped mane, seeing the rather lost and confused look on their faces, called out, nickering to attract their attention.
“You look lost and unsure of your way - can we be of assistance?”
Glad for assistance to set them on their right way, Lithri and Lindri turned back to the pair.
“Thanks, that would be helpful,” Lindri said, giving the pair of guards a grateful look. “We’re looking for the Temple of Requests, as we’re on our way to request a trial.”
The dappled red mare trotted up to them and pointed helpfully with her muzzle and ionaphore towards one of the middle tunnels.
“Go straight on until you see a fork; then take the pathway that is marked with the symbols of a large cloven hoof with a smaller cloven hoof between the toes, and a spiral. That is the way to both the Temple of Requests and the Temple of Trials.”
She smiled cheerily at them both, her green eyes full of warmth and good wishes for them and for the task they were about to embark on.
“And good luck and may Luminaron shine his light on you both in the trials ahead of you! Best wishes to you both.”
“Thank you very much,” Lithri said, taking an instant liking to the mare for her friendly, pleasant manner “What’s your name?”
“I’m Cirilitasa,” she responded. “And you two would be?”
“Ilithrion,” Lithri said, “it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“And I’m Ilhilindrian.” Lindri said. “Thanks so much for your help and good wishes.”
“The pleasure’s mine to meet and help both of you,” Cirilitasa grinned. “Now off with you both and good luck once again!”
Nodding a farewell to Cirilitasa and her fellow guard, Lithri and Lindri headed into the tunnel she had indicated. Soon they reached the fork she had told them about, and found the tunnel way marked with the symbols and set off along it. Soon the tunnel widened out into another cavern. A shallow stone ramp lead up to a wide ledge, and at either ends of the ledge, marked by their respective symbols stood the entrances to both the Temple of Trials and the Temple of Requests. Another pair of guards stood at the bottom of the ramp, one a blue roan, his colouration brightening to the colour of the sky on a clear day in his mane and tail. The other guard was a shade of deep blue, with dun markings and a splattered appaloosa blanket that were both the shade of gold. Moreover, Lithri and Lindri saw mingled in his golden mane and tail, were small knots of luminous coloured mosses and small crystals, and realised the marks of an acolyte of Luminaron – and a warrior-acolyte at that.
As Lithri and Lindri approached the ramp, the guards bowed and the warrior-acolyte stepped forward, whickering a welcome.
“Greetings in the name of Luminaron, I am Kyrithorion. Please state your names and purposes at the Temples of Requests and Trials."
Lithri and Lindri bowed back, returning the greeting.
"Ilithrion and Ilhilindrian, here for an appointment to request a trial of parenthood."
Kyrithorion nodded in reply, motioning them up the shallow ramp.
“Please follow me, and I will notify them of your arrival.”
Lithri and Lindri followed the blue and golden stallion up the ramp and along the ledge, going through the entrance to the Temple of Requests and into a small antechamber lit solely by the light of extensive growths of luminous mosses growing on the walls.
As they made to follow the acolyte as he stepped into the small passageway leading into the interior of the temple, he turned to them, motioning them to stop.
“Please wait here and I will be back as soon as I have alerted someone to your arrival.”
Halting in the small antechamber, Lithri and Lindri waited for the warrior-acolyte to return to them. After a nervous few moments, Kyrithorion returned to the chamber.
“I have told the other acolytes of the temple of your arrival and one of them has gone to notify the priest who will be attending to you that you are here. Please continue to wait here and he should be with you soon.”
Having said this, the blue and golden warrior-acolyte headed out of the temple and back to his position at the foot of the ramp, leaving Lithri and Lindri to wait. Several moments passed with no sign of anyone coming to attend to them. Lithri and Lithri waited impatiently, eyes fixed nervously on the entryway out of the antechamber and into the main temple in anticipation.  They shouldered each other for comfort and both pawed the ground in a slightly tense manner, as they awaited the arrival of one of the priests of the temple.
Finally, after what seemed to Lindri and Lithri like ages in their anxiety, there was the soft patter of hooves coming towards them, and a minute later, one of the priests of Luminaron appeared. He was a bright metallic copper in colour, with deep cobalt blue dappling. At his head and legs the copper darkened to the shade of red-copper, before changing once more to red. His tail was a vivid emerald green, as was his mane. Mingled and tangled in the strands of his mane were small red crystal stones. Stopping before them, the priest whickered a greeting.
“Welcome, my children,” he said, his voice kind and warm. “I am Lumorilion. I was told you are here to request a trial?”
His relaxed, gentle manner instantly put Lithri and Lindri at ease, and their fears of being rejected, or that they would need to prove themselves even before their request for a trial would be granted, began to melt away.
“Yes, that’s right,” Lithri said, Lindri nodding her ascent to his words as he did so. “We are Ilithrion and Ilhilindrian, and we do indeed wish to request a trial of parenthood.”
Lumorilion nodded in response. “Very well. If you will come back with me to my quarters, there are couple of details I need to check and discuss with you before we can go to the temple rooms themselves to accept and record your request.”
Seeing brief looks of anxiety flicker across the mated couple’s faces, he smiled warmly at them.
“Now, there’s nothing to worry about. I just need to confirm a few things in order to establish that you are eligible – it’s a formality in most cases.”
Lithri and Lindri followed Lumorilion as the priest led the way out of the antechamber and into a wide tunnel, then turned into a long narrow corridor. Before they left the main tunnel Lithri and Lindri just had time to notice that further along the wide tunnel there was a shimmering, scintillating field of blue-white electrical energy. They realised that the tunnel must therefore lead into the main body of the tunnel, since the electrical field was obviously there as a protective barrier
keeping close to Lumorilion as the priest headed down the corridor, they followed him into a spacious cavern that was lined with mosses. Once inside Lumorilion turned to them.
“Please rest and make yourselves comfortable,” he said, motioning them to lie down. When Lithri and Lindri had done so, he paused a minute in thought before speaking.
“As I said, I need to ask you a few questions to confirm that you fulfil the criteria to be granted a trial before your request can be accepted. First of all, can you tell me whether you dwell in Stormgale or one of the surrounding mountain-forts, and which colony you are from, and what role you have there?”
“We dwell in Frostreach, in the colony of Stormdepth, and we are warriors,” Lithri said.
Lumilorion nodded. “That’s fine. Could you also tell me when you were mated, and which priest of your local colony you went to for your pre-pledging ceremony and at which Martyrium you pledged?”
“We pledged only a couple of moon-cycles ago, and the priest who was present to bless our pledge was Olithorilian,” Lindri answered, feeling it was her turn to speak.  “We actually pledged at the Martyrium of Sihilorion and Amarianala.”
Lumilorion nodded again. “Thank you again. If you will excuse me a minute, I just need to communicate with Olithorilian for a few moments so he can vouch for and confirm your words.” Turning to a thick stone ledge lined with moss where various crystals were perched, he picked one up, blue in colour, and grasped it, closing his eyes. A blue glow emanated from the crystal, seeming to surround Lumilorion’s head and his cobalt coloured ionaphore. For several minutes, the priest was silent, almost in a trance. Then he opened his eyes again.
“Olithorilan has confirmed all that you said. If you could stand up before me, there is one final thing that I need to do, and then we can go to the temple and I can officially perform the ceremony to accept and record your request.  We need to confirm you are both barren, and cannot mate to produce children of your own.”
Obligingly, Lithri and Lindri stood up and Lumorilion took up a second crystal, green around the edge with a clear centre. Pointing it at them, he whispered a few words and the crystal glowed green and two rays of the same bright green light emanated out from it, forking out, connecting with Lindri and Lithri, and passing over their bodies, as if searching for something. As the phosphorescent beams did so, they felt a gentle tingling sensation, and a warm glow spread over them. Patiently they waited; their feelings more in anticipation than anxiety now since Lumorilion’s gentle manner and his reassurances had soothed their fears. They knew that they were mostly likely barren, as they had mated upon pledging.  All Ionaequine couples were encouraged to do so, no matter how faint the chance of their having a foal was and since then Lindri had shown no sign of being pregnant. If the test confirmed they were both barren, they would be granted their request, and if by any chance the test suggested they were both not, then they would go back to the Martyrium to mate once more. Their only real concern was if somehow, one of them was shown to be somewhat fertile, while the other was barren. In order to keep the population up, pairings were encouraged as much as possible between partners who were either both barren or both fertile.
Mixed pairings between barren and fertile partners were discouraged to some extent, and such couples were often either given low priority compared to barren couples, sometimes even turned away when there were a lot of requests already made til the number of requests had dropped. However, Lithri and Lindri knew that they had come to the temple with every reason to believe they were barren, and knew that if by any chance one of them did turn out to be fertile, they were likely to be looked on and treated favourably.
At last, after a few moments more, the beams from the crystal completed passing over them, and then faded away and the crystal stopped glowing.  There was a few seconds pause, and then, as Lithri and Lindri stepped forward, their gaze fixed on the crystal, it’s emitted a gentle humming sound, and its centre turned opaque and smoky.
As it did so, Lumorilion stepped forward, nodding at them with a gentle smile.
“The crystal has confirmed you both are barren and I therefore declare you eligible for a place in the trials. Congratulations. Your colony lord and elders are here and waiting for us, so if you would like to follow me, all that remains is for you to take the Trial Vows.”
Lithri and Lindri exchanged mixed looks of delight and relief, as they exchanged congratulatory nuzzles of affection. Though they know there had been little chance that they would fail this test, and it was merely the very start of their journey towards being parents, they had been a little nervous, so it was still a triumph and a cause for a bit of a celebration, however small. Lumorilion stood for a moment, gently watching them, before motioning them to follow him. Stepping out of the cavern, they followed him as he headed back out into the corridor, then along it and into a wider passageway. A few metres along the tunnel, they could see that the opening ahead was blocked by another scintillating barrier. Lumorilion stepped into the barrier and stood in it, and to Lithri and Lindri’s amazement, as he did so the crystals in his mane parted it, pushing the barrier back against the walls, leaving a clear path which he motioned them through. He waited until they were safely past him, and then he moved forward, and the fields of the electrical barrier instantly sprang forward and rejoined, blocking the passageway. Once through the barrier, they could see the open cavernmouth that marked the entryway to the inner sanctum of the temple. Lumorilion moved forward, motioning them into the temple. Following after him into the inner sanctum, they entered into a huge cavern, with a high domed ceiling. Hanging from the ceiling were many small crystalline stalactites and these together with the crystalline globes that were an integral part of almost any Ionaequine dwelling, emitted soft red, yellow and orange light. In centre of the room, upon a slightly raised platform with a few rough-hewn steps leading up to it, stood an array of six crystalline pillars. They were arranged such that there was one large central pillar which reached almost to the ceiling of the cavern, surrounded and linked to five smaller others arranged in a pentagonal manner around it.  They were marked with many glowing symbols, and waiting upon the wide platform, Lithri and Lindri could see the colony Lord, Telethrondrion, copper with gold dapples and a mane shading from light to deep lilac. With him were the three elders who had been chosen to attend the ceremony: Luminarissa, Gaiathrina & Halycondrilius. Fused to the base of the central pillar, there was a thick circular plinth, upon which stood a large statue of Luminaron, the stallion of the light and the god of the Ionaequines, facing directly towards the main entryway. The statue was also crystalline, and was yellow-white in colour and also glowed, radiating yellow-orange coloured light. Stepping up on to the platform to join the leader and the three elders of the colony, positioning himself so he was directly in front of the statue, Lumorilion motioned Lithri and Lindri to come before him. Once they had taken their places in front of him and the colony lord and elders, he began the ceremony:
“Ilithrion and Ilhilindrian, you have come before me into the presence of Luminaron today, to request that he might grant you a chance to prove yourself worthy of being granted the chance of being parents. In doing so, you realise that to aspire to parenthood is a serious undertaking, for although the raising of a child promises much joy and happiness, it also carries with it great responsibility and duty, for the raising of our young ones is an honour indeed. Through the ages of time, we have come to realise that every foal born or adopted by our people is a special and wondrous gift, to be nurtured and cared for,  so that our people might continue to stay strong and numerous, so that we may honour and serve our divine father. For long ago, our ancestors, in the aftermath of the Dark’s Mare treachery against our lord and father, and after many of them had given their lives to ensure her defeat and imprisonment, swore to Luminaron to guard and watch over these sacred mountains, so that the Dark Mare may remain trapped in the prison she was cast into, that her evil should never again rise to threaten the world and our people. Therefore before you can be admitted to the trials, I ask you to vow before Luminaron as a sign of your acceptance of the responsibilities of parenthood and the honour brings, and of your agreement to uphold the laws and traditions of the trials you embark on.”
Hearing his words, Lithri and Lindri nodded solemnly, murmuring their agreement with Lumorilion’s words. Once they had given their assent, Lumorilion continued on with the ritual, and with the vow.
“Do you both vow, in the name of Luminaron, to respect and uphold the laws and traditions of the trials, to keep them secret and sacred?”
Lithri and Lindri nodded. “Aye, in Luminaron’s name we do.”
“Do you both vow, in the name of Luminaron, to accept the verdict and judgement of the priests of the trial, respecting their decision as the word and judgement of Luminaron, accepting it as final, no matter what it may be?”
Lithri and Lindri paused a moment, as the priest’s words brought home to them the full seriousness of what they were undertaking, realising that if they were unfortunate enough to fail, there would be little chance of any appeal, unless in exceptional circumstances. But after a moment they both nodded, and murmured once again.
“Aye, in Luminaron’s name, we do.”
“Do you both vow in the name of Luminaron, that if you pass the trials and are allowed to adopt a foal, to love your child with all your heart and soul, to care for it the best you can, and protect it with your very lives, but also to respect and honour their past heritage and traditions of the people they came from too?”
Once again, the mated pair nodded. “Aye, in Luminaron’s name, we do.”
At last, Lumorilion came to the final vow of the ceremony  
“Do you both vow, in the name of Luminaron to bring the child up to know, honor, love and serve our divine father, in the custom and traditions of Luminaron and the Ionaequines ?”
For the fourth and final time, Lithri and Lindri nodded their assent. “Aye, in Luminaron’s name, we do.”
Now that the trials had been taken, Lumorilion turned to Telethrondrion and the three elders: “You have heard Ilithrion & Ilhilindrian give their vows in the presence of our Divine Father that they respect and accept the laws and traditions of the trials, do you as the representatives of their colony, vouch that they are worthy candidates and testify in support their eligibility to take the trials?”
Telethrondrion and the three elders nodded their assent
“Aye, in Luminaron’s name, we do.”
Satisfied that all the trials vows had made and observed correctly, Lumorilion turned to the plinth.
“Now that you have sworn the trials vows, by the authority vested in me as a priest of Luminaron, in our divine father’s name and in his presence, I hereby acknowledge your request and place you among the list of those awaiting trials.”
Picking up a bright blue crystal from a ledge near the base of the central crystalline pillar, the priest murmured strange words, and in response the crystal glowed. A beam of pure energy, blue-white, emanated out, striking the central statue of Luminaron, which glowed with even greater intensity, before it sent out a wave of energy, which travelled down and across to the central pillar, then outwards to one of the smaller pillars, ascending up til it reached the top of the glowing symbols marked on it, then pulsed once before fading to leave yet another symbol to those already marked, different from the others. Lithri and Lindri realised that this was a record that they had requested entry to the trials.
Turning to them, Lumorilion smiled.
“I have recorded your request for a trial, and you may consider yourself as trial candidates. As you know, there are many mated couples like yourself seeking to prove themselves worthy in trials as prospective parents, therefore it will probably sometime before your request can be granted and a trial scheduled for you. When that time comes, a trial attendant will be sent out to notify you of when your trial will be held and to inform you further. Return now to your homes, and may the blessing of Luminaron be with you and may he watch over you in your quest for a child.”
Lithri and Lindri nodded respectfully to the old priest as well as Telethrondrion and the three elders, before making their way out of the chamber of records and out of the Temple of Requests, to start the journey back to their home colony.  Their hearts were light and filled with hope at the thought of being parents, though they knew that this was merely the first step on a long journey, with the challenge of the trials yet to be faced. The pair’s dreams would be sweet that night, as they dreamt of the future and of the young one they might someday adopt.