The Word Guardians: and the Twisting Tales

by Lawrence Yarham

“It’s a safety precaution,” Sam jumped in, still sensing that Yas was struggling.

  “For who?” Akoni asked, confusion rising.

  “It’s been so long,” Yas replied, her voice catching. “I needed to know, for sure.”

  “Know what?” Akoni asked, a little irritated. “It’s me!” Mischief then played across his face. “Surprise! I’m not dead!”

  The quip didn’t help. The conversation had only just started but Yas started to feel frustrated.

  “Where’ve you been all this time?” she started, letting go of Sam’s hand and stepping forwards. “Mom and Dad…” her voice caught again, and she couldn’t continue.

  “I would have come back if I could’ve, you know,” Akoni replied, sensing the difficulty, but missing the mark emotionally. “It’s not been easy for me!”

  Yas’s frustration turned to pent-up anger.

  “Easy?” she retorted. “You have no idea what we’ve all been through. You, and grandpa disappearing! We didn’t know what had happened. You were declared dead, Akoni!” She paused to let that sink in. “Death by misadventure, whatever the hell that is!” She stood there, seething. It wasn’t what she’d hoped she’d say but she couldn’t help herself. Sam stepped forwards and touched her back, but she flinched slightly, not welcoming his touch.

  “You couldn’t have got a message through to us… me… before now?”

  “I guess that’s why you’ve not invited me in then?” Akoni moved his hands across the invisible barrier in front of him.

  Yas stepped back slightly, crossing her arms defensively.

  Sam put his hand on her back.

  “Yas,” he said, trying to reassure her.

  “I need to know whose side you’re on!” she continued, glaring at Akoni.

  Akoni looked at her, his face flashing from hurt to anger.

  “Yours of course,” he blurted out. He paused for a moment, breathing heavily.

  “I’m sorry, Yas,” he said finally, taking a deep breath. He looked up at her with pleading eyes. It had no effect. Yas was still too angry.

  “Where have you been?” she demanded.

  Akoni looked down. “I’ve been stuck,” he started. “Lost amongst realms. Torn into pieces. Seeing multiple stories at the same time.” He looked back up at Yas. “I remember seeing you though in a desert city. A marketplace.”

  Sam remembered. “The hooded figure in Alexandria?” he nudged Yas. She nodded.

  “Yes,” Akoni replied, sadly. “It’s taken me all this time to bring enough of me back together, so I was visible. I could only stay there just for a moment.”

  Yas started to understand the difficulties he had faced. Her anger softened a little, but Janine’s words came to mind. She tried to stay guarded.

  “So, when you appeared to us in Bystead, a month ago?” she asked. “Why then? And why did you set the date for today? Why not before?”

  “Time is not linear here, Yas,” Akoni replied. “I’ve gradually got used to that. It’s difficult to explain. My memory is still scattered, and what I’ve experienced has come from different times and places. As I’ve come back together more, it’s like I’m jumping between fewer threads which are predictable but not always. I knew then that I’d be here now, but I can’t explain why. It’s like different snippets in different order.”

  “So, you’ve been time travelling, then?” asked Sam, curious. He had been intrigued as to how both he and Yas had travelled back in time to meet with Yas’s grandfather just before the Battle for the Peacekeepers. He wondered if Akoni could provide more insight.

  “It’s more like being in more than one place at the same time,” Akoni replied, honestly. “It’s taken a lot of effort to realise where different pieces of me were and pull them back together again. It’s like I’m weaving a carpet so that I’m all in one place.”

  “So, what happened to you?” asked Yas, trying to understand. “How did you become split into all these pieces?”

  Akoni looked pointedly at Yas. “McVale. She confronted me and when I wouldn’t tell her what I knew about the Peacekeepers, she got rid of me the best way she could.”

  “She confronted you?” asked Yas. Her guard was slipping, and she tried to reassert it. There were still pieces of the story she wanted to understand. “But your car? The accident?”

  “She must have done that,” replied Akoni sadly.

  Yas stared off into space and breathed back in the realm. As she tried to understand his side of the story, her compassion grew. She tried to reassert her anger. It helped keep her emotional distance. She still had more questions.

  “So, what happened after you left the house? After the argument?”

  “What? Two years ago? Does that really matter now?” he questioned, a look of disbelief on his face.

  “Yes. I need to know,” Yas replied resolutely.

  “We really have more important things to talk about, Yas,” pressed Akoni.

  “I need to know!” Yas asserted. “I’ve had these questions for so long…” Her voice caught again. Akoni noticed it.

  He nodded and held his hands up in placation. “Okay. Okay!” He took a deep breath.

  “After months of painstakingly collecting snippets of realms and peacekeepers into his journal, Grandpa suddenly decided he was just going to put them all back. He had this idea that McVale was a Controller and that as soon as she had the Peacekeepers, she would no longer need us. I said, ‘so what?’ but he was convinced she was going to make some move against us. I disagreed with him.”

  “Disagreed?” pressed Yas.

  “Alright,” he held up his hands again. “I told him he was being delusional and that McVale was working with us, as part of a team. Not against us. He was adamant, though.”

  “But he was right,” added Yas.

  “Yes,” acknowledged Akoni, sadly. “He saw it all coming. I didn’t…” he paused, shaking his head slightly.

  “Yeah, McVale was a Controller all right,” said Sam. “Backstabbing…”

  “She was very good at portraying someone I wanted to see,” Yas interrupted. “Sounds like she fooled you too?”

  “She totally did,” agreed Akoni.

  “So, what did you do?” continued Yas, sensing that there was still a missing piece.

  He looked down, perhaps embarrassed, or disappointed with himself.

  “What did you do?” she demanded.

  “Grandpa and Mom caught me going through Grandpa’s jacket. I was trying to find the journal.”

  “You tried to steal it?” asked Yas, shocked.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, his eyes meeting hers, then darting away. “I realised that he had control of all the pieces. The journal. The commands to release the Peacekeepers. I needed to have some leverage.”

  “To do what?” asked Sam, stepping forwards.

  “Look, I’m not proud of what I did,” Akoni continued, again tracing his finger along the inside of the invisible barrier. “I wanted to prove to him that McVale was on our side.”

  “And what happened?” asked Yas.

  “We had a huge argument in the hallway. I saw their distrust,” he said, pleading for her understanding. “I had no option. I had to leave.”

  “And go where?”

  “I went to the country mansion realm, grandpa’s private library, and slept there. Then in the morning, I went to the bookstore and told McVale that I’d argued with Grandpa and that I had the journal.”

  “But you didn’t have it,” Yas said.

  “No, but McVale believed I did. That was enough for her to reveal her endgame. I invited her to grandpa’s library. I stepped through and she and Penn ambushed me. They searched me for the journal and when they realised I didn’t have it, they… well, they were mad. They knew they’d shown their cards, so they couldn’t let me leave. That’s when they split me apart.” He looked at Yas again. She could see the anguish in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Akoni. I didn’t know.” Yas’s compassion over
whelmed her desire to remain guarded. This was her brother after all. That had to mean something.

  “I get it,” he replied, finally. “How could you have known?”

  “So,” said Sam, wanting to get the conversation back on track, “We need to find out more about the Controllers. What do you know? Is Penn the mastermind behind all of this?”

  “No,” said Akoni very definitely.

  “But you said he and McVale ambushed you?” Sam continued, a little confused.

  Akoni smiled coldly. “There is more than one group of Controllers at play here.”

  “We know that,” replied Sam, irritated.

  “You mean Orfeo? Index?” interrupted Yas.

  “Yes, and maybe,” Akoni replied. “Penn and McVale were the ringleaders of one group. With them gone, the remainder are in chaos. I don’t know much about Index, but Orfeo is still very definitely around.”

  “Orfeo?” shot back Sam. “The vampire? No, you’re wrong. My dad dealt with him.”

  “Did he?” Akoni shot back. “Whatever he did, it wasn’t enough. I’ve sensed him at times.” He shook his shoulders at the thought. “He’s looking for me. I see him in the dark, high up, with the moon behind him. He’s peering into the shadows, searching. But I’m always just out of sight or watching him. It’s surreal.”

  “Why’s he searching for you?” asked Sam, puzzled.

  “I don’t know,” replied Akoni. “It’s like a repeating nightmare. It’s not just me. He seems to be searching for others, too.”

  “Who?” asked Yas. “What others?”

  “I’m not sure,” he said a little guiltily. “Sorry. It’s like flashes of different dreams and I can’t make sense of them.”

  “So, where’s Penn then?” asked Yas. “The rumour was that he was spread across the realms?”

  “He’s in worse shape than I was,” replied Akoni. “But, yes, he’s around. I’ve sensed an angry, primeval energy. It’s him, I know it.”

  “How?” asked Sam.

  “He’s more animalistic right now. Full of fire, like a…”

  “Dragon?” asked Sam, looking at Yas, worriedly.

  “Yes,” confirmed Akoni, puzzled. His face portrayed a question.

  “Penn changed into a dragon when we fought him,” Sam explained. “Yas defeated him. Split him apart.”

  “Ahh,” said Akoni, understanding.

  “I’ve seen a dragon, piling up treasure in a cave. He was frustrated. Looking for something.”

  “What?” asked Yas.

  “I don’t know,” replied Akoni. “Again, I’ve only seen brief flashes. It was like he was stuck there.”

  “I wonder why,” Yas said, thinking aloud. “Perhaps he’s seeking something to free him?”

  “Maybe,” agreed Akoni, shrugging his shoulders.

  “So, who’s Index?” interrupted Sam.

  “Like I said, I don’t know,” replied Akoni, shaking his head. “I’ve only heard echoes, whispers. Whoever he or she is, they are incredibly good at acting behind the scenes. I can’t get a read on their energy.”

  “What have you heard?” asked Sam, more urgently. He was getting a little frustrated with Akoni and the lack of information.

  “Orfeo is building an army.”

  “What army?” pressed Sam. “The Peacekeepers? Yas stopped that when she freed them.”

  “No, this is something else. This is something he was doing before but it’s become his main focus now.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because the energy changed after the battle. It was all about the Peacekeepers, then it shifted to this. Whatever this is.”

  “So, do you know what he wants this army to do?” continued Sam.

  “No,” replied Akoni, sadly. “There’s been little I’ve been able to pick up on. The difficulty is that as I reknitted myself more, it’s become harder to see other energies.”

  Yas felt a little defeated. They were not getting the answers they were hoping for and it felt like their actions at the battle had accounted for little. She looked at Sam. “It feels like we’ve not achieved much.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up, Sis,” Akoni comforted. “If nothing else, you’ve slowed them down.”

  “From doing what?” asked Yas, frustrated.

  “Penn and Orfeo’s Controllers formed a rocky alliance to get the Peacekeepers. Ultimately, they each planned to betray the other and use the army for their own means.”

  “A power play?” asked Sam. “Destroy your competition?”

  “Exactly,” replied Akoni. “And they’re pissed at you both for having ruined their plans. They’d written off the Word Guardians after Grandpa disappeared, but what you’ve done with your buddies has put them front and centre again. Without Penn and Orfeo, the Controllers are a mess right now. There’s a lot of infighting. I’ve sensed that. But there’s one threat they’re focussed on.”

  “Us?” asked Yas. “The Word Guardians?” This didn’t sound good.

  “Yes,” confirmed Akoni. He paused and looked left and right, then at Yas.

  “Listen…” he said, flinching as he looked left again. “I need your help.”

  “What?” asked Sam.

  “I’ve seen a vision where Orfeo had me trapped,” continued Akoni. “Dad too. It’s not far off.”

  “Trapped?” asked Yas, surprised. “And Dad?” she added. “But he doesn’t believe… It doesn’t make sense.”

  “I know,” replied Akoni. “I can only tell you what I saw.”

  He looked left and right, suddenly concerned, then his image flickered.

  “I have to go,” he said.

  “Go where?” asked Yas.

  Akoni’s image flickered and stuttered again. “I don’t know.”

  He looked scared. “Can I come to where you are?”

  “Woah, hang on a minute!” interrupted Sam. He looked at Yas, shaking his head.

  Yas ignored him. She’d already made her decision. She knew she had to help him, no matter how risky.

  “How do I allow him through?” Yas asked the Great Oak.

  “No Yas!” replied Sam and Red at the same time. “Think about this,” added Red.

  Akoni’s image flickered again. Something shattered out of sight above him, and he ducked as shards of word magic fell around him.

  “Yas?” he questioned. “It’s now or never!”

  “Touch the door, Yas,” said the tree. “It will let only him through.”

  She started to step forwards. Sam caught her on her sleeve and pulled her back. He gave her a questioning look.

  “I have to,” she pleaded. “He’s my brother.”

  Sam paused for a moment, then nodded reluctantly and relaxed his grip.

  Red put his paw over his eyes. “Gahh,” he complained. “Tell me this is just a bad dream.”

  Yas touched the air in front of her and a doorway appeared in response. Akoni ducked again to avoid debris crashing down behind him and then jumped through gratefully. The doorway dissolved behind him.

  “Thanks,” he said awkwardly, lowering his hoodie. He put his hands in his pockets.

  “Who was that?” asked Yas, looking behind him even though the doorway was no longer there.

  “Some of Orfeo’s soldiers, no doubt.”

  “How do you know?” Yas asked, puzzled.

  “They’ve been getting closer and today was a risk. They were likely to find me if I opened up a connection for a long time.”

  “Oh,” replied Yas. She felt guilty for having extended the conversation beyond what Akoni had wanted to tell her.

  They stood there, looking at each other for a moment. Yas didn’t feel compelled to step forwards and hug him. Their relationship had never been as close as that, but she knew she would have regretted not having helped him.

  “Oww!” Akoni said, stepping backwards and shielding himself with his hands. Red was pelting him with nuts. “What the…”

  “You need to go,” said Red.

&n
bsp; “Red, it’s okay,” Yas said, trying to placate him.

  “Is it?” questioned Red, stopping. “You didn’t stick to the plan. Remember me saying about not inviting him in?”

  “You can trust me,” said Akoni, although it wasn’t clear if he was stating it or pleading.

  “Can we?” asked Sam and Red at the same time. They looked at each other and smiled.

  “You know, I’m getting to like him,” said Red, indicating towards Sam. “Great minds think alike!”

  Sam nodded in acknowledgement.

  “Red’s right,” added Sam. “Look, no offence,” he said to Akoni, “but it’s a difficult time. With all that you’ve said, we need to know that we can trust you. And if not, like Red said, it’s probably best if you just leave.”

  There was a difficult silence for a few moments. The Great Oak swished its limbs.

  “You said that you thought that Orfeo is looking for you,” Yas said at last. “Can you tell the Guardians what you know, what you think the Controllers’ next move might be?”

  “Not really,” replied Akoni, looking guilty.

  “Why not?” pressed Yas.

  “I don’t think I’ll be welcomed after I betrayed the location of Grandpa’s private library to McVale and Penn.”

  “The country mansion,” said Yas, piecing together the story at last. She had been puzzled as to why a place that she had visited on vacation in earlier years was also known to the Controllers.

  “Yeah, they weren’t too happy about that,” said Akoni.

  “Why’d you do it, then?” asked Yas.

  “I don’t know. I was angry at Grandpa and Mom. I guess I just wanted to get back at them. It was stupid and childish. Something I regret.”

  “Yeah, it was,” retorted Yas, staring at him crossly. “It’s just like you to do something like that! Not thinking!” Anger had risen within her. It came from a place that she’d clearly repressed. She really wanted to let rip at him, to let him know how his disappearance and actions had affected her life.

  “Hang on,” said Sam, stepping forwards and putting his hand on Yas’s shoulder. “If you’d been missing, how did you know the Word Guardians were pissed at you?”

  “Like I said,” replied Akoni, coldly. “I was able to pick up on some stuff in the realms, especially in those early days.”