The Book of the Blue House

Calon

The White, the Grey, the Black and the Brown Orders have, in the last millennium, replaced the Older Orders at least in the Sendic Kingdoms. But in the Royan lands and the Far South, the ancient Orders are still revered, the Mages of the White Tower, the Women of the Rootless Isle, the Grey Sisters and the Azul Ierateío. Scorned by the New Orders as the Blue Whores, of the Old Orders, the Azul Ierateio alone have a presence in the city of Kingsboro, and in the councils of the King, though that is surely due to change under the next reign….

-taken from the notes of Adeltos Derek Annakar

Conn and Derek were spreading out a cloth on the floor when Nialla and Sara came in with baskets of smoked fish, bread and cheese, and Sara said, “No. We’ve been walking all morning, and we’ve been up since before sunrise. I’m not crouching on the floor. Bring out the table.

Conn groaned a little and said, “You’re going to have to help. We’ve been up with laundry and…” Conn stopped because they had been up with laundry and then that had ended, and the rest of the morning had been he and Derek alone.

“We’ve been all over this city, and I think that Jon is stuck in Purplekirk, so I’m going to see him this afternoon,” Nialla said as they went into the kitchen and pulled out the table. She and Sara worked at pulling out the table wings while Conn went into the kitchen and brought out cups.

“How many people are coming?” he asked Derek.

“I have no idea,” the black haired priest said, amiably.

“My brother almost came,” Sara said, shuffling off her cloak.

“What happened?” Conn asked.

Sara shrugged.

“He didn’t.”

Cal entered the room followed by a tall, but awkward looking young man. Cal, carrying a covered tray, kicked the door, and when he saw Sara he kissed her on the cheek and she hugged him.

“You smell like you’ve been to the gooseruns.”

“Are you telling me I smell like shit?”

“No, I’m telling you you smell like outside. You know I’m not catty like that. If I wanted to tell you you smelled like shit—”

“You’d tell me the truth.”

“I always do. Most of this is for lunch and here, but this strawberry wine is for you. You take it back to your place downstairs. Do not give it to Gabriel.

“Do not give what to Gabriel?” Gabriel demanded as he entered followed by the boys across the hall who heard the beginnings of lunch.

“But who is your friend,” Sara said.

“If you would give me a chance to tell you,” Cal said, gesturing to the tall, wolfish young man, “This is Matteo, and I’m sure you know who he is because you introduced him to me this morning.”

“Yes, this is true,” Sara said, “and yet we didn’t get his name, and we’re all glad to have you for lunch, Matteo. Please don’t mind us. We’re like this all the time.”

Derek leapt to shake his hand.

“Hello, Matteo, I’m Derek.”

“Matt,” Matteo said. “Matt is fine.”

“You have a deep voice,” Nialla marveled, and because this seemed to embarrass Matteo, Conn took Derek’s lead, shook his hand and said, “Welcome,” even though he himself had just come yesterday.

Lorne was last in with Brian, and by then, Derek had pulled his hood over his head and started the blessing. He pulled it down sharply and looked at Lorne.

“What?” Lorne said, unimpressed, and reached for fish only for Derek to smack his hand and continue the blessing.

“Yes,” Brian thought, if he could be like Derek, so inviting, so handsome and yet so… sacred and right, and with a sense of his duty! That’s exactly what he would like to be.

“Matteo is new to the temple,” Cal explained, and Brian, a drumstick in his hand leaned forward and said, “I’m a novice. Are you a novice?”

Matteo looked like he didn’t know how to answer. Nialla thought that he was a bit rough looking, but shy at the same time, and it was Lorne who said, “No, Matteo is a postulant. He’s seeing if he would like to be part of us.”

“Yes,” Matt said at last. “Me and Brother Cal,” he looked to Cal, trying out his name, “had a long talk about things. But I don’t want to just be sitting here doing nothing.”

“Sometimes nothing’s the best thing you can do,” Derek said.

“I don’t see how that could be,” Matt differed.

“It gets you sorted out,” Derek told him. “And most of us, when we come here, could do with some sorting out. Figuring things out. Figuring ourselves out.”

Matt nodded and he said, “I didn’t think I’d even be wanted here.”

“Why would you say that?” Brian said, sounding shocked and a little reproving.

Matt simply said, “Cause I’m ugly.”

“What?”

There was genuine shock and upset from the Blues around the room.

“Who told you that?” Lorne was almost sharp.

“My old man,” Matt said. “He used to say you’re nothing to look at at all, but you’ll do.”

“I don’t think you’re ugly at all,” Brian said. “I think you’re lovely.”

Matt looked surprised and turned red.

“That brow of yours! And those eyes! You’re quite amazing, really.”

“You could do with some feeding though,” Lorne noted, judiciously, as he broke off a husk of bread.

“There are all kinds,” Derek said, seriously, “in the Temple, For God has many faces, and comes in many forms. God needs all kinds and there are all kinds of people. You’re more than welcome, Matteo. You have to let us know if there is anything we can do.”

“Yes,” there was a chorus of agreement around the room.

“And you also have to tell us when to leave you alone,” Lorne said, “A busybody’s an awful thing.”

“Oh, I’ll be such a busybody if we live on the same floor,” Brian said.

“You do,” Cal said. “I gave him Ussek’s old room. But that doesn’t mean you’re to be a nuisance.”

Matt gave a gruff smile and said, “I don’t mind a nuisance. I probably need a nuisance in my life.”

“Tonight we’re going to leave you fine friends,” Derek said, squeezing Conn’s shoulder.

“All priests attend evening chapel, and then we all have supper together this night. No getting out of it. We will bring Matt with us so he can see how we live. Would that suit you?”

Matt nodded.

“Excellent,” said Derek.

The storm had begun late in the afternoon, and Matteo felt glad he was here. Of course, had he not come to the Order and come to his new chamber, he would have still been in the temple milling about in one of the common rooms. Or, apparently, he would be like that boy Conn and those others he met at lunch, just living in the temple like family members.

The thunder boomed again.

He could still do that, but it wasn’t a serious thought to him. As much as he didn’t understand what a Blue Priest was, he understood that he should probably be one, that when he saw Derek saying the blessing, when he was with these kind men who rose above whatever they had been through, what he still could not rise above, he thought he should at least try to be like them. He had never been one for religion, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about God or the Gods or any of that stuff. He just tried to live his life, and he didn’t want to go in for silly things. His brother had run off with Ahna Ahnar and his mother had gotten the Fervent religion and the shame to go along with it. Somehow he had never understood that these Blue Priests were just that, priests, and they practiced a religion. He was surprised when they said the blessing at lunch, surprised when he went up to the hall with Derek and Cal and the others, and surprised when he had been in the presence of the Abbot. Had this man, who was not old but seemed old and wise and above so much, been like him? Long ago? And then they had all come to the large chapel upstairs, singing, the candlelight mellow. There were Blues old and young, short, tall, brown, red, white, black, in the hooded smoke blue robes, or the lighter hoodless robes like Brian’s. Some in tunics and some in trousers or dungarees.

They had sang back and forth, old songs in a language he didn’t know, and not knowing it made it better, and then suddenly, it had been Derek who came to the middle of the chapel and led them, singing:

Videt omnia,

Sciat omnes,

Omnia diligit

Omnem filium quem recipit

Hic omnia complexus est omnia,

Dat omnia

Possidebit omnia

After this there were were two men, one in his hooded robe with a shock of hair and wide golden shocked eyes in a monkey face that made Matt want to laugh, and another one, short and in a tunic, limping with his leg at a broken stance, and Matt did not laugh at him. He seemed kind, but dignified and Matt immediately dismissed the idea of him as a cripple. With well formed shoulders and olive skin, thick dark hair and a dimpled chin he was incredibly goodlooking, sweetlooking really, and they lit the incense spot and filled the chapel with the smell of frankincense, though Matt did not know to call it that.

Then they all drew together, and were no longer formal as they sang the last song. A light was lit before the image of a woman, a goddess or a saint Matt did not know, and they all sang, some with their arms thrown over each other, and Matt felt Cal’s arm thrown over his and on the other side of him, Lorne’s as well while they swayed. Matt felt good to see there were even some old and crusty or just simply ironic men who would have no part of all this swaying and affection. It seemed that anyone belonged here.

As they were leaving, the Abbot caught Matteo’s hand and he was accompanied by Brian and the young man with the limp.

“How do you find it?”

“Find it? I—I like it, Master,” Matt said, feeling the gruff roughness, the too deepness of his own voice, feeling awkwardly tall and skinny.

Suddenly he said, “If you want me to, I can start…. Doing what Blues do immediately. I’ll attend in the Temple.”

The Abbot smiled kindly, like there was a joke, but that Matteo perceived he was part of the joke, not the cause of it.

“Blues do more than you think, and that is not for you yet. If ever.”

“I want to earn my keep,” Matteo said, almost desperately. “I don’t want to be… I’ve never been a burden. I’ve never just sat around. If you all go to the men, I can too.”

The cripple, Matt didn’t know what else to call him, said, “We’re not like that, Matt. That’s not how we earn our keep. It’s a gift, and the truth is the Order is richer than you know. There’s too much of people telling people to earn their keep. Right now you need to be here because…. I’m talking too much,” he stopped himself.

Matt did not want him to stop. He was beautiful to look at, and his face was wise and sweet. The marmoset faced young priest was standing with them too now.

“No, Quinton, you were not wrong,” the Abbot said to the young man with the crippled leg.

“But Matteo, if you want to earn your keep, you are not the only one who feels that way, and we all do earn it in the end. Why, Connleth came just yesterday and he’s more than earning his keep on the fourth floor. Can you imagine, boiling laundry at seven in the morning! Now you, Matt, go to the kitchens in the morning with Quinton.”

The handsome little man with the bent leg nodded.

“He’ll show you around and… well, would that work for you?”

Matt smiled a little too deliriously, and grasped the Abbot’s hand shaking it.

“I’m no layabout. I’m serious, I promise,” Matt said.

The Abbot embraced him, He had been in this house for a long time, and in every young man, whatever became of him in the later years, he saw their insecurities upon entering the Blue House. Cal had wanted people to think he was unbreakable. Derek had wanted to prove his intellect, and now Matt wanted to prove that he could work hard. All of them had wanted to prove they were sincere, and all of them had gradually needed to learn the lesson that they were loved. As, followed by Marmoset, the tall, gawky young man went off between Brian and Quinton, who loped quickly with his crippled leg, the Abbot was sure Matt would learn this lesson too.