The Test - The Sooth, S1E1
Will Juniper and Seraphine pass their Sooth test and finally heal their dying father? - 7 min. read
New to the story? Welcome! You have found the first chapter.
The Test
Planet: Mariner
The bright white walls and glassy white floor of the proving room glowed in the sun-like light that diffused from the ceiling. Juniper nodded to the docienne who opened the proving room door. The docienne raised her eyebrows at the bits of cattail fluff clinging to Juniper’s white clothing and then trotted off to retrieve the test subject.
Seraphine sat cross-legged on her azure mat in the middle of the empty room. A painted blue X, the same deep blue as Seraphine’s mat, marked the floor in front of her. Seraphine’s pristine uniform, the one that all Sooth noviciates wore, reproached Juniper more than even her stifled snicker at the bits of sweaty hair stuck to Juniper’s cheeks and forehead. Juniper flushed as she unrolled her mat across from her sister, criss-crossed her legs, and began the breath cycle to quiet her riotous mind.
Close your eyes. Deep breath in through the nose: fill the bottom third of the lungs, then the middle lobes, then all the way to the collarbone. Hold for three. Deflate in reverse order, exhaling through a slightly opened mouth.
Her hidden pond sparkled blue in the sunlight. But why? Yesterday its gray water had matched every other sea, lake, river, pond, and puddle on Mariner, but today this one tiny spot had gleamed the azure color of her youth, the color of her own hair, the official color of the planet itself. How?
“Always make sure you have a sample click with you.” Her father’s eternal command flashed too late. Maybe she could sneak one out of his office without him noticing and make it back to the pond before his eyes lit up and he started asking her to help him pack salted juji peas and chemorrah juice for their research outing.
Juniper began to feel the welcome focus that the breath cycle produced. She could feel her fingertips and her blue mat beneath her, and she held this color in her mind, one clear thought to push out the rest, the goal of the breath cycle. Today the color in her mind refused to stay. It sank and was overlaid by ripples of glinting gray. Then the edges sprouted grassy green.
“The test begins,” said the docienne, who then stepped back to the far corner to observe. Juniper’s heart sped again, flickered in panic. She had focused so intently on the wayward blue that she heard neither the door open nor close, nor noticed the blue-haired man now seated on the X lined on the floor.
Though the dull gray skin on his face and hands flaked off in sheets and clumps on his dingy clothes, his thick blue hair streaked with the silver of middle age showed his l’originale origins. Cloudy splotches worked their way from the edges of his eyes to the pupils, so most of his peripheral vision was gone and probably half of his central line of sight. The tips of his right hand fingers and the palm of his left hand all displayed gaping sores tunneling into the flesh.
Despite the pain he must have been in, he eyes danced with warmth and softness, like Juniper and Seraphine were girls he’d known their whole lives. The familiarity caught Juniper’s breath. He was just like her father. D’gris was nasty business, and soon both men would be bedridden.
Then... She and Seraphine had to pass l'épreuve. It was the only way to heal Papa.
Seraphine’s song rang out in a strong fa centre, and Juniper snapped her eyelids shut. She was not ready. The blue water and the man’s face peeling off in front of her, so like her father’s — they flickered in her brain. What could Seraphine possibly be thinking with fa centre? Neither of them sang particularly well in that range. Juniper gritted her teeth and focused on the sound of her sister’s voice as she sped through her breathing cycle, which she knew would ruin its effectiveness. Seraphine trilled clear and melodious as the notes of her unplanned, wordless song soared near the top of her range and then dove, flicker-like to hover warmly just above the bottom of her register.
After a few minutes, Seraphine subtly shifted into fa centre le minore, which was Juniper’s cue to begin the harmonic. Seraphine had seen Juniper’s taut jaw and coiled fists and drawn out her prelude so Juniper could still herself.
At the start of the next measure, Juniper added her voice to Seraphine’s, and together they wove a lovely dream, a tangled web, a soothing aria that drifted into hymn. Both the girls’ eyes closed as they sank into their song. Slowly Seraphine changed the tune and Juniper followed into a melody they both knew, a lullaby their father had made up for them when they were young. One he sung to them on the warm nights until they drowsed onto his shoulders and he gently swept them up to fold them in their beds.
****
From her corner, the docienne moved only her eyes, missed nothing. This pairing was strong, one of the best she had seen in years. The older one, the Melodic, had stretched out her prelude to give the flustered Harmonic time to prepare herself. The younger one used this time well.
Most noviciates and even many of le compagnon avoided the key of fa centre because of its notorious difficulty to sing. The severity of their subject’s d’gris, though, made it the best chance for cure. A bold choice. Their song’s complexity, too, very unusual this early in a Soothing career. The Harmonic, the more difficult part, wove in and out of the melody line with an intricacy and inventiveness she had rarely encountered.
For several minutes the docienne watched the girls. She noted their cross-legged, straight-backed, closed-eyed posture and searched unsuccessfully for signs of stifled fidgeting or eye fluttering that might indicate a loss of focus. Then she began to watch the subject. At first he swished his head back and forth from one girl to the other, scratched at his peeling skin, pressed the wounds on his hands. Then he settled into a limp calm and closed his eyes, too, quieted by the beauty of the song.
As the docienne watched, the man’s peeling skin sloughed off completely, replaced by rosy, brownish, supple skin beneath. His fidgeting and the pressure he had been applying to his hands stopped, too, and the docienne stood up straighter to get a better view of his sores. Also nearly gone.
She allowed herself a hint of a smile. These days she loved. She remembered her own exhilaration when her illness had been healed from nothing more than intertwined notes in an empty room. Her Soothing had occurred many years ago, but that same feeling returned during every successful Sooth-song she witnessed, which had not been very many. Usually by the time noviciats reached their final proof test, their skills were sufficient to heal their subject, but most of the time it took a few days to show up. The only other one she had seen work so immediately had been her own.
The final notes of the song died off, and the docienne ushered Juniper and Seraphine to the door.
“You will receive your marks in two days,” said the docienne as she saw them off. “Your options will be explained to you at that time.” She gave no indication of their success on her face, but they had seen the man and his newly clear skin as they walked past him.
When the docienne returned to the room, the man stood on the X, surrounded by a pile of dead skin. He stared at his trembling hands. He looked at the docienne, who smiled.
“Please place this under your tongue, Monsieur,” she said as she handed him a small yellow tablet. “Your body has gone through much today, and this will help it replenish itself.”
As he shuffled to the door, the final peelings of dead skin fluttered from the bottom of his pant legs and out the cuffs of his sleeves.
Stay tuned for next week when…
Juniper and her sick father take a field trip to the lake that is no longer gray.
New episodes posted on Wednesday mornings
Just so you know what to expect. See you then!
Episodes 1 - 3 are free. Things start to heat up after that.
About The Sooth
Juniper “Juni” Beauchard plans to become a Sooth so she can heal her father from his terminal illness. But then her skills attract the interest of both aliens who want her to cure their homeworld pandemic and her own Prime Minister who wants Juniper to destroy the aliens. Will she make it back to her father in time?
I am currently revising book one of three and posting the chapters here. Did you find a plot hole, continuity error, typo, something you really loved or that will stick with you? Please post in the comments! Knowing what is or isn’t working helps me make the story even better. Thank you!