by Jon Chaisson
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Anchors
Abandonment. Saone felt it more than anything else, and it stung.
This must be how it feels, she thought as she crouched to the floor of the office. To abandon everything you truly believe in. To be abandoned by all that you love. She wiped a stray tear from her eye as she watched the warehouse floor through the long hallway connecting the two rooms. With her limited field of vision she could still see the hundreds of people huddled all over the floor, all in some meditative trance that she could not understand. Kryssyna stood above her, leaning against an empty desk with her arms crossed, waiting patiently for her to make the next move.
“You never got a hold of your dad, did you,” she said.
Saone shook her head. “No…he wouldn’t answer me.” She grimaced and faced the wall behind her, knowing it was in the same direction as the Mirades Tower. “What the hells are you doing up there, fadayin?” She shook her head and stood up, feeling the strain as she stretched her muscles out again. “Nrgh…ouch. Shouldn’t have stayed in that position for so long.”
“Definitely lacks the stamina of a True Warrior,” Kryssyna said, grinning at her.
Saone shot her a nasty glare and continued as she paced the room. “He knew something, damn it all, and I’m not sure what. He knows what Denni’s doing right now, this second, and he won’t tell me what it is. He expected the Gathering and the Cleansing. He knew it would lead up to this, but what am I missing…?”
“You mean he and Nehalé are working together?”
Saone came up short. “What? No! Not in the least. He knew the plot well beforehand, I want to know if he knew who the characters were.”
Kryssyna smiled. “Interesting choice of words. This coming from the daughter of the producer of the latest Johnny Goto movie.”
“I’m serious!” Saone laughed at her friend’s odd joke despite her frustration. “You’re in a good mood, aren’t you?”
Kryssyna stepped up to Saone and gently took her hands. “It’s the Rain, Saone. The Cleansing of the Spirits has already begun. And despite our plans, we’ve become part of this cleansing.” She pulled Saone close and embraced her. “You and I, we were born Shenaihu, but we both had our spirits altered when Nehalé performed the Awakening. You by force, me willingly. We’re both cho-nyhndah now, and we’re still making our peace with that. And as much as it pains me, I admit Nehalé’s right. Better a peaceful unity than an eventually unstable segregation.”
Saone shivered. “What do you mean?”
Kryssyna took her face and held it in her hands. Her light blue eyes were wide, willingly inviting Saone to take hold of the spirit within. “Listen, Saone. Your father, the Dahné, wants another season of Embodiment where we’re at constant odds with each other. No, don’t even tell me otherwise. You know very well he’s scared to death of what would happen if we had peace instead. To him, it would mean the Shenaihu lost. He sees it only in reaction — for every move Nehalé makes, he has to respond in kind. And all his plans were turned into Mendaihu positives. The nuhmn’dah spying on Denni’s parents back then? The hrrah-sehdhyn now? It’s as if Dahné Lehanna is handing the Mendaihu this victory.”
Saone huffed in frustration. “And he doesn’t give up this easily, either,” she said. She frowned at her in defeat, but despite her annoyance, she couldn’t stay mad at her. She couldn’t be mad at her, especially when she was telling the truth.
“So what are we doing here, shadhisi?” she said, arching a brow at her. “If it wasn’t our fate to stop the Cleansing process, why are you and I here? Are we to be cleansed as well? And if so, why aren’t we in some meditative state like those out there?”
Because your fate has not been completely fulfilled, Saone.
Saone gasped at the voice that came from nowhere, and everywhere. “D...Denysia?”
I was so very glad to meet you, Saone Lehanna, she said. Saone recognized the voice, and yet it sounded wrong somehow — no, not wrong, but changed. Peaceful, wiser. And despite our lack of communication, I could feel you. I only recently realized you were Natianos’ youngest daughter. It’s only by chance now that I could feel your presence here at the warehouse, and found you had not left at all.
Saone’s jaw trembled as she spoke. “Den…Denysia? Is that you?”
She felt a wave of positive energy, of pure love, wash over them in reply. Yes, Saone, she answered. It’s me.
“Where are you?”
I…am everywhere, she answered. I am in each and every person’s conscience right now…although I’ve managed to narrow my attention down to just those directly involved. I believe I’m currently carrying on conversations with about five thousand people at once at this very moment. She let out a youthful laugh. And I don’t even know how I’m doing it.
“You’re…” Kryssyna started. “You’re the One of All Sacred.”
Of course I am, but still…I’d like to know how I’m doing all of this. I’m not going to just accept it blindly. I’m stubborn enough to want to know why I can do everything I’m doing.
Saone stared into an empty space, focusing on the girl’s presence. Slowly and awkwardly she pulled out of Kryssyna’s embrace and sat down on the desk. She glanced down the hallway again at the meditating people, and wondered what kind of conversation she was having with them at the moment. Were they praising her as some otherworldly goddess? Were they talking about the more mundane things in life? What was she asking them to do?
Were they asking what would become of their old soul, once the Cleansing did what it was supposed to do?
I need your help, Saone. I need help from both of you. You are unaffected by the Rain of Light and the Cleansing, for some reason I still can’t figure out. Perhaps you are both cho-nyhndah already…?
“Yes,” Saone said, and for the first time she found herself accepting that truth without mortification. Yes, she was cho-nyhndah. It was time to embrace that now. “Kryss and I were both pure Shenaihuza. We can trace our lines back to the original Trisandi tribes. But we…well, it’s a long story.”
A ripple of something happy, perhaps amusement, emanated from Denysia’s presence and washed over them. All the better, she said excitedly. There’s only one way we can end this Cleansing, you know…this isn’t something that’s going to just burn itself out. Nehalé Usarai opened the door to this otherness, and opened it far too wide, far too early. I’ve managed to contain it, thanks to the hrrah-sehdhyn barrier, but it needs to be closed again, before everything falls out of control.
Saone felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as the memory of Nehalé’s ritual came rushing back into clear view. Her pain and agony at the foot of the Tower…all that energy siphoned out, and that vision…the vision of blistering white light, burning and obliterating everything…all this time, she believed that had been the Rain’s doing. She’d believed what she saw was the Rain spiraling out of control, destroying Bridgetown. How wrong, how dreadfully wrong she had been! She hadn’t been caught in the Rain at all, but in the connection of pure Light, of both Shenaihuza and Mendaihuza spirit forms…and she had witnessed their terrifying strength firsthand.
The only way to stop it was to let her father, a Shenaihuza, perform the closing just as he’d planned.
“Goddess…” she whimpered. “Denysia…I—I can’t do that!”
You can and you will, Saone. There was a hint of force to her voice. You know this is the only way it can happen.
“Denysia…I can’t,” Saone cried. “People are going to die!”
Not if I can help it.
“What can you do?” Kryssyna called out. “You just said yourself that you can’t close this by yourself. How can you say you can save these five thousand people you’re talking to?”
By continuing to talk, she said. I shall be their anchor in these worlds.
“An anchor?” she said, eyes wide. “How do you expect
to hold the spiritual bodies of five thousand people while their bodies burn to cinders?”
Faith, she said. Both Kryssyna and Saone were sure there was a hint of mischief in that one word, for they both looked at each other with looks of pained inevitability.
“I was afraid you’d say that,” Saone said. “A cryptic and religious answer to an ethical scientific fact…the worlds have enough of those, Denysia. I’d like some proof.”
Proof you shall have, she answered. First we must close the door.
Saone let out a curse, grudgingly accepting her vision as prophecy. She closed her eyes tight and lifted her head to the ceiling, wishing that Kryssyna would not have to become part in this. This was her vision, her supposed fate, and not Kryssyna’s. She had sworn never to lead her into danger unless she had volunteered willfully, and this time she dared not ask. She did not want the both of them to die, when it came down to it. She would die for her…but not with her.
This includes the both of you, Denysia said.
“I can do without the invasion into my brain, Denysia,” she said with more than a hint of anger.
Kryssyna took her hand and squeezed it tight. “Don’t worry about me, Saone…I think I know what she’s up to. There’s still a way out.”
Saone pulled away, staring at her. Was there a way out of certain inevitable death that she did not know about? Apparently Kryssyna did know, for she now had a peaceful smile crossing her lips. She drew a finger across her forehead, pushing back an errant strand of hair. “Think about it,” she said. “Peace, Love and Light, Saone. They truly are what is protecting us — not just you and I, but the thousands out on the floor. And everyone else out in that world.” She let out a small giggle and embraced her again, giddy with emotion. “All we need to do is keep the three energies bound together, keep them in everyone’s mind and heart.”
Saone didn’t fully believe it herself. If she could feel that unconditional love she felt when Denysia touched them…and if she could feel that love now, even with only her voice to hear, then maybe there was a chance after all that these people would survive. What stories they could tell years from now, she mused, a ridiculous grin crossing her own face. Those touched spiritually by the One of All Sacred…the followers of the One.
“Lead on,” she called out into the air. Inspired by the moment, she recited a prayer she’d remembered from her youth. “I am yours, Dearest One…I come to you with my spirit and my love, to lay down and pass into countless realms for you. And, ultimately, for all of the universes and realities.”
I am honored, Denysia said quietly. You shall be remembered in my heart.
Saone laughed…it was the only reaction that made sense right now! “…and you in mine,” she said. She took Kryssyna’s hand and led her to the hallway door. “It’s time.” They walked out the door together and into the Light…
