Speaking in Tongues – Chapter 10 – Celticas

Reading Time:
9 Minutes

“Leave that.” She stopped him from picking up another biscuit. She led him to an open area in front of the window. Two large, flat cushions were sitting on a woven rug. Satü settled onto the navy blue cushion and left the cream cushion for Harry to lower himself onto. “You will learn to access the psionic plane on your own, however today I am going to draw you in with me.” She offered a hand waiting patiently for him to take it.

“Extend your hearing just enough to hear my breath and then follow me. Make sure you are also aware of the feeling of my hand in yours and the cushion under you. You don’t want to go too deep and get lost.”

Closing his eyes he breathed in deep and tried to focus on what he could hear. It was the first time since coming online that he had tried to extend any of his senses. Sound came to him in waves. Coming in and out. It was hard to pull just one sound out. Instead he tried to work through everything he could hear and disregard the things that he wasn’t looking for.

It took a while, but he managed to focus down on Satü’s breathing and his own. Nothing he did allowed him to ignore his own breath sounds. Instead he worked on syncing them with Satu’s so they were one and the same. A tension he had lived with for so long he wasn’t even aware of it, relaxed.

Doing what she had suggested, now that his hearing was so finely narrowed, he kept part of his attention on the things he was touching. The split focus was not unlike playing Quidditch he found, most of his focus was on searching for the snitch, even while he kept an ear on the commentary to ensure he didn’t catch the little golden ball when the points were unbalanced enough to lose the game.

They sat there for a long time. Nothing changing as they breathed together, until the light shining through his eyelids shifted pale blue. Unlike anything he had ever seen before. Sure he was imagining it, he did his best to refocus on touch and sound. Letting vision float away.

Satu tugged gently at his hand.

Sure that he had gotten something wrong, he opened his eyes to see her disappointment in his progress, he was shocked to find himself standing in a field of blue light that went on forever.

“Velkomst to the psionic plane Harry.” Satu was rimed in blue light.

“Thanks.” He whispered as he turned 360 degrees. Taking in the never changing landscape he could understand why having a Guide to anchor him back to the world was a good idea. You could walk forever and get nowhere here, but what would that translate to in the real world?

Shaking himself out of his reverie he turned his attention to his teacher. “Is there more to it than this?” He hoped he didn’t sound judgemental or disappointed. Rather it was fascinating.

“Yes.” Satu closed her eyes and the blue field heaved around them. A forest of towering spruce trees sprung up around them. “If I was here alone, this is what it would look like. This is familiar and comforting to me, so if I don’t consciously shape it, this is what it looks like. Your representation of the plane will come to you the first time you come here alone. But it can also be anything you can imagine. If we were both trying to shape it, whichever of us has a stronger will and a stronger connection the plane would win.” Without any outward sign, a table and two chairs moulded themselves from the earth.

“I do not have kiment’aan, though my teacher did. She made sure I knew what I needed to be able to teach someone else everything they needed to know to make use of their gift. Just as I will teach you everything I know about kimenna’at so that you can teach those that come after us.”

And Draco, Harry realised. His Guide hadn’t had anyone to teach him, so Harry would do it. Once he figured out how to get the prickly Slytherin to talk to him again.

“You want to think of someone you would like to speak to. Choose someone who hasn’t been pasted for too long, a better change of them still being around, but for now, not someone you are emotional about. Is there a distant relative you can call?” She was exhuding an aura of non-judgement and only mild interest in his answer.

Harry found he relaxed at the tone. Unfortunately, he didn’t know the names of any of his extended family. Did he even have any? All four of his grandparents had died before he was born, and he didn’t know any of their names. If they had siblings he coild call was also a mystery to him.

Should he know more about his family tree?

Probably, but realising that didn’t help him right now. Did he know the names of any recently departed?

Quirrell would be funny. He didn’t think Satu would agree. If she knew that bit of his history, which she might not. So his old Professor was an option.

There was Mrs Nygaard who had died in number 10 of Private Drive when Harry was seven. The woman had been a devout christian and had always screamed bible versus at him when she saw him. Less funny than Quirrell and equally as traumatic.

They were the only two people he had direct knowledge of who had died.

History of Magic was still floundering in the 1300s. He could name a few people, but the seven hundred year gap really decreased his chances of any of them still being around.

“Harry?”

He had been quiet for too long.

“I um, can’t think of anyone?” Should he be embarrassed about that? Maybe. He wasn’t. Which didn’t mean he shouldn’t have been.

“That’s okay. I have a few people you can try.” Satu offered. “My Aunt passed away two years ago. Aguta Ullersen. Focus on her name, speak it if you need to. I will tell you about her as you focus. We wouldn’t want to summon the wrong Aguta afterall.” Her smile was kind. Telling him that if he did summon the wrong woman it wasn’t the end of the world. He was here to learn and this was just the next step in that.

“Aguta Ullersen.” He said the name carefully. “Aguta Ullersen.” Each syllable tripped off his tongue as he tasted the shape of it. Part of him was listening to Satu describe the woman he was focusing on. She talked about her Aunt growing up in Tåkeøy where her parents taught her and her three sisters magic. None of them had attended a formal school.

The ghost of a woman wandered out of the mist. 

“Dearvvaš nieida.” Her wrinkled face crinkled further with a warm smile at Satu.

The Guide didn’t see her hear her. She was still murmuring to Harry about Aguta’s later life.

Harry stood and waved the woman toward the seat he had been sitting in. The movement stopped Satu’s eulogy. “Hello ma’am.” Harry greeted, unsure if the old woman even spoke english.

“Hallo šamána. Satu can not hear me.” Aguta didn’t sound upset about the inability to talk to her niece.

“No ma’am she can’t.” They were standing facing each other, neither of them taking the abandoned seat. “Thank you for coming anyway.” He glanced at Satu. “Is there anything you wish to say to her? I think she can hear you.”

“She should be able to.” Satu agreed. “And no thank you. We had a chance to talk before she left us.”

“I told her her students could call on me if they needed to.” Aguta explained. “I had a good life, and will follow my isit into the next life when he leaves this one. For now I am happy to help a new šamána.”

“Thank you ma’am.”

“You are a good boy who is wearing a heavy weight. Einnostus hangs heavy off your shoulders. Control it before it controls you.” With that command she faded back into the mist.

“What is an einotus?” Harry knew he got the word wrong.

“Do you mean einnostus?” Satu asked. “It means prophecy.” She said without waiting for Harry to answer. “Aguta was a seer. What did she say?”

“That I have a prophecy hanging on my shoulders and that I should control it before it controls me.”

“Hmm. Let me think about it. Come, we should return to the castle.” Satu breathed out heavily and with a jolt they were back in their bodies. “Do not try it without me to guide you.” She cautioned him, more stern than he had seen her.

“Of course.” He lied.

The castle was deserted when he left her rooms. A quick tempus told him he still had a little while until curfew, but not so much that he could dawdle.

The common roon was half full when he dropped into an arm chair across from Ron and Hermione. Each in their own armchair clustered around the fire. Hermione was unsurprisingly engrossed in a thick tome. Though Harry could not see the title, he was sure it was horrifically dry.

Ron on the otherhand wasn’t doing much of anything. His erstwhile friend was throwing bits of bark and torn kindling into the flames. “Harry!” Ron exclaimed happily. He threw the rest of the splinters into the first. “Where have you been mate? I looked for you after dinner, but you disappeared.” He sat forward with a cheeky grin on his face. “Were you using your cloak? What’s going on?” He barely gave Harry a chance to answer before he was off again. “I recon you were playing a prank on those nasty Slytherin’s weren’t you? They deserve it, after Malfoy was a prick to you in Potions yesterday.”

“I wasn’t doing anything.” Harry cut in. He knew Ron would only ever see what he wanted to see in any single moment. There was no use trying to disabuse him of his bias. They all just had to live with his tiny view of the world. “I had a lesson with Satu, remember?” He had told Ron about it during dinner, but even when he had spoken over the meal he had known Ron wasn’t listening to him.

“Who? Why would you want more lessons? We have to waste so much of our time with classes already!” He complained. Blissfully unaware of the affronted glare his declaration got him from Hermione.

“I have to learn how to manage my senses or what happened in Potions is going to keep happening, and get worse.” Harry snapped at him. “And Satu is a Guide who came here just to teach me! I’m going to make the most of it.”

From the corner of his eye he could see Hermione’s proud smirk.

“You don’t need some foreign strangers telling you anything! Sentinels and Guides are freaks. Just forget about it as best you can and it will go away.” Ron’s face twisted.

“What the fuck Ron?!” Harry burst from his seat to loom over his ex-friend. “I’m not going to ignore a whole part of myself to make you comfortable. If I did that, I may as well have given up magic to make my family comfortable.”

“I’m nothing like those disgusting muggles.”  Ron yelled.

“From where I am standing you are exactly like them.” Harry hissed.

With a snarl Ron stormed off and Harry dropped back into his chair. Letting his head drop into his hands, he knew their frenship was done for good and he couldn’t find it inside himself to be upset about it.