by Otto Schafer
Inside the dojo, Breanne, along with the others, listened intently to the incredible story the floating teacher guy was telling. These other kids were obviously having a hard time with this. How could she blame them? She wouldn’t believe any of this if she hadn’t seen it for herself? Apep, what he did – it was horrible, unthinkable, and impossible all at the same time.
She felt the sudden chill of a draft as it blew gently across her arms, raising goosebumps. She glanced around at the others. She wasn’t the only one who felt the cold. The cute geeky girl was hugging herself, vigorously rubbing the backs of her arms to try and shake off the shiver. The equally geeky kid with the oversized glasses – what was his name? Pete, she thought – he noticed the cute geeky girl hugging herself and removed his jacket. Without saying a word, he gently draped it over the shivering girl’s shoulders. She threw him a shy smile. Then she noticed Breanne watching her.
The geeky girl narrowed her eyes and scooched over next to Breanne, then leaned in close.
“It’s getting cold. Feels like a storm is coming,” Janis said evenly.
Breanne nodded.
The geeky girl refocused on the teacher guy, who was about to tell Garrett his part in this whole crazy story.
But before he could get to that, Pete interrupted. “Wait a minute, sir. I don’t understand. If this were all true, where did these space aliens go, and why is there no evidence of any of this in the history we’ve been taught? I just feel like if there were a race of aliens breeding with humans, and if earth were a breeding ground for dragons, wouldn’t there be some evidence?”
Breanne couldn’t argue with this kid’s logic. But while the others questioned the truth of the karate guy’s story, she did not – could not. Her skeptical mind clashed with what she had seen and felt over the last twenty-four hours, and while part of her instinctively wanted to mount a logical and scientific argument for this nonsense, the other part of her mind swam with questions of her own.
Mr. B nodded his understanding. “After their arrival, it took them twelve hundred years to build their army of half-breeds and dragons. This part they had done in secret, in another part of the world. Remember when I said they needed humans to be intelligent and work together? In order to go home, the old ones needed to reopen the gate from this side. To do that, they needed manpower to construct a great monolithic structure. This structure would be used to harness the energy from the God Stones in the way necessary for the gate to open. They fooled the humans of the five cities into aiding in their construction. But something else was happening – as the centuries passed, some humans were beginning to learn how to tap into the power themselves. This must have felt like a true bonus to the old ones at first as they raced to construct megalithic structures. Some of the most powerful human mages could levitate stones weighing several hundred tons. Others could superheat stones and actually shape them somehow.”
“Like at Sacsayhuaman in Peru?” Breanne asked.
“Oh! Right,” Janis said. “Scientists have debated about how the structures were truly created.”
“There is no way they could have superheated stones and manipulated their shapes – no one then or even now possessed that kind of technology,” Breanne said.
“Exactly,” Mr. B said. “The limestones at Machu Picchu and Sacsayhuaman were superheated until pliable, then placed using magic, without the need to physically touch the impossibly hot stone.”
Breanne found herself nodding slowly at the absurdity of it, but unable to find in her mind a more logical explanation.
“After more than twelve hundred years of work, they were ready to open the gate and lead the army through the portal and back to their own world. Once again, they ripped open the fabric of space That’s when things went horribly wrong. Once again, the portal wreaked havoc on the world, but this time the change in temperatures was catastrophic, resulting in the instant incineration of the ice caps. This rapid melt resulted in a flood unlike anything the world had ever seen.”
“Oh my God!” Janis exclaimed. “The great flood! It’s been written about by practically every culture of the ancient world!”
“Like the story of Noah’s Ark?” Lenny asked.
“Precisely!” Mr. B said. “But that’s just one of many stories of a great flood. Look in the history of any culture or religion, and you will find stories of a great flood. The flood was so great, in fact, that it wiped out the five cities and all the massive monoliths were lost. Thus, without the monoliths to harness the energy of the God Stones, the portal closed.”
The fluorescent lights of the dojo flickered.
Mr. B blinked, glancing up towards the lights with sharp eyes.
Everyone followed his gaze.
“What is it?” Lenny asked.
Mr. B pressed his lips together. “Time, Lenny. I fear we don’t have much left. Let us press on.”
The group exchanged uneasy glances.
“Most of the humans from the five cities were lost in the flood, but some survived, as did the old ones,” Mr. B continued. “But with their portal destroyed, along with most of their army, the old ones were forced to start over. Only now, what humans from the five cities survived no longer trusted them.”
“I wouldn’t trust them either after the last time,” David offered.
Mr. B nodded. “Right, so, with the humans no longer trusting them, the old ones sought out new humans in a different part of the world to trick into building their portal, and they found them – in Egypt. Once in Egypt they started over by building the Sphinx and using it as an offering to the first king of Egypt.”
“Wait, you’re saying these old ones built the Sphinx?” Peter asked.
“In Egypt? Oh, yes,” Mr. B said, “and that’s just for starters. Over the next thousand years, many humans flocked to Egypt after hearing of the gods who could build great structures. So, the humans came, and they worshiped, and they helped construct new monoliths – great structures that in time would allow the old ones to once again open the portal.”
“Oh no! They were going to do it all over!” David said.
Mr. B nodded. “Yes, that was their plan. However, as I was saying, from the original five cities’ flood survivors, seven were special. These seven were known as the Seven Sages. They were the most powerful human magicians on earth. They suspected other humans had survived the flood and that they would be hunting and gathering and breeding. They began to travel and teach others they found their knowledge of the stars, their math, and their language. Unlike the old ones, their purpose was true. They wished to rebuild society and create new cities.”
“Seven Sages,” Breanne whispered to no one.
“I’m not surprised you have heard of them, Breanne. The Seven Sages are written about on the walls of Mayan temples, in Sumerian tablets, and in Egyptian hieroglyphs, and as I am sure you know, on Easter Island there are even seven massive statues facing out to sea. What you wouldn’t know is that these statues represent the sages themselves.” Mr. B waved a hand. “The sages traveled all over teaching, and soon they learned the old ones were at it again.”
“In Egypt?” Janis guessed.
“Yes.” Mr. B nodded.
“Sorry, but you started this story thirteen thousand years ago, and now we are talking early Egypt, which must have been thousands of years later. How many years have gone by?” Breanne asked. “If the old ones are aliens, they aren’t subject to human biology, but how long do humans live in this story? Your Seven Sages from the original cities have to be really old by now, right?”
Her question elicited curious nods from the others.
“Ah, good question, Bre. You’re paying attention,” he said. “Under the power of the God Stones, in humans with a fully opened third eye, aging slows drastically.”
“How drastically we talking here?” Paul asked.
“For a human, I don’t know. Near as I can tell, it could have slowed as much as one hundred years to every one year. Give or take. It’s dif
ferent for everyone.”
“Practically immortal!” Pete exclaimed.
Suddenly Mr. B looked very sad. “No, Peter, death is still possible, especially when life is stolen.”
“What? But wouldn’t that mean these sages could still be alive now?” Garrett asked.
They all stared, confused, waiting for him to elaborate – but he did not.
Drawing in a breath, Mr. B shook off whatever unwelcome thought had invaded his mind and continued. “Once the Seven Sages arrived in Egypt, a great battle ensued. When the old ones realized they couldn’t win, they escaped with the God Stones. This time, however, the seven old ones split up, each taking one of the seven God Stones. Each old one fled to a different part of the world, where they would build new kingdoms with new pyramids. They planned to reunite when their forces were strong.”
Paul frowned. “It is good they were stopped again, I guess, but those old ones needed to be put down – permanently. Also, you said in the beginning that eight space aliens, old ones or whatever, came here with the God Stones, but you just said seven old ones escaped with seven stones. What happened to the eighth?”
Mr. B nodded and continued. “When the old ones fled with the God Stones, one of the seven sages turned on the others, attacking them. When he failed, he tried to flee with the old ones. It turned out this sage had been keeping a very dark secret. He was covertly working with the old ones. In fact, he was leading them. He had only been posing as a human, a traitor in their midst. The ultimate betrayal.”
“So, this traitor, he was actually one of the old ones?” Lenny asked.
“The eighth alien guy,” Paul said.
“He was indeed, but a different breed,” Mr. B said.
Garrett shook his head, struggling to take it all in. “I still don’t understand what any of this has to do with me.”
“Context, Garrett. I will get to you, but to understand you need the full context.” Mr. B looked back to Lenny. “Simply put, he came from the same world as the old ones. He was leading them, but he was not the same species of… well, of alien as the other seven were. Unlike the old ones, he was able to use magic to disguise himself as a human. You could be looking right at him and never know he was anything but human.”
Lenny raised a brow. “So, they were different races of aliens.”
“Here, think of it this way. I come to your world and I bring seven grizzly bears with me. You see what I mean? I look a whole lot different than a grizzly bear, but we’re both aliens,” Mr. B said.
Lenny nodded.
“Ever notice that all the good stories throughout history have a traitor?” Janis asked.
Pete smiled and nodded. “Judas, Benedict Arnold…”
“And Brutus! Et tu, Brute?” Janis added.
Mr. B waved a hand dismissively. “The great king of Egypt wanted to have the traitorous sage killed, but the leader of the Seven Sages convinced him to only imprison the false sage.”
“I would have executed him on the spot,” Paul said.
Nodding his agreement, Mr. B looked down at the floor again. “In hindsight, I wish he had been killed. But faith played a part, Paul. The king of Egypt was convinced because one of the sages, we’ll call him the leader, told the king of a great prophecy still to come, and the king listened, and he believed. So it was that the false sage was cast away into a prison of darkness deep beneath the sands of Egypt, where he could never escape.”
Breanne listened intently, chewing the nail on her thumb.
“The six remaining sages spent hundreds of years tracking down each old one, seven in total, and each time they defeated one, they took his God Stone,” Mr. B said. “Each time they found an old one, they discovered them building new pyramids, superconductors, to harness the power of the God Stones. They were preparing for the day they could reunite and open the gate back home. But worse, the great deceivers were breeding with humans, as well as enslaving them. One by one, the six sages sought out each old one and rallied whatever native humans they could find to join with them and overthrow the old ones and their armies. The battles raged viciously, and by the time the last old one was defeated only the leader of the six sages remained. The other five had been killed in the horrific battles.
“Finally, with all seven old ones defeated, and all seven God Stones collected, the only sage left alive returned to Egypt. The sage shared with the king his tales of battles – the great armies he had defeated, and the heroic deaths of the other five sages. The last remaining sage explained how he ordered the old ones to be imprisoned on each continent. How each were placed into a deep underground chamber, hidden and guarded, buried and forgotten. The king asked, why not killed? The wise sage reminded the king of the prophecy still to come, and why it was so important that the old ones not die, but be cast into a dark slumber until the time the prophecy would be fulfilled.”
The lights in the dojo flickered again.
Mr. B paused, shifting nervously. “The question became what to do with the God Stones. To the surprise of the sage, the king decreed the God Stones too powerful for this world and their magic too great for any one man to possess. Thus, it was decided that for the world to be as it once was, the God Stones must be sealed and hidden until it was time for the prophecy to be fulfilled.”
Breanne swallowed. Could her family have initiated some eons-old prophecy when they opened the Ark?
“And so the king of Egypt decreed that it would be the last sage, keeper of the prophecy, who would be given the burden of hiding the stones, keeping them safe until the time the prophecy would come to pass.”
“Wow! That’s crazy,” Paul said.
“So, teacher guy, what about the traitor sage?” Janis asked. “They just locked him up forever in darkness? Did he just die or is he still in a pit somewhere? I mean, doesn’t it seem kind of harsh?”
“No! It wasn’t harsh. He is a soulless creature void of anything good. If anything resembling a soul ever existed in him, which I am sure it did not, it has long since been replaced by a black abyss of evil!” Mr. B said, his voice uncharacteristically venomous.
A heavy awkwardness hung in the quiet moment that followed.
Mr. B closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath, followed by a slow, calming exhale. Then he opened his eyes, his sense of calm seemingly returned. “His imprisonment under the sand ended a thousand years ago. Now, as foretold by the last sage, he has returned and obtained the God Stones. He will stop at nothing to finish what he began so long ago.”
Breanne flashed back to her dream with the Knight Templar Hugues and what he had told her. His name is Apep, and he will stop at nothing to get the stones. She shuddered as her mind stitched together what this man was telling her with what she had seen and heard from the bottom of the pit.
“Please tell me this sage who escaped wasn’t… wasn’t Apep?” Bre’s voice was shaky. She knew the answer already, but she clung to the last moment of silence before she heard it.
Mr. B nodded sadly, gazing at her as if he could read her emotions. “Indeed, he was.”
Breanne bowed her head to her chest.
“So, you’re saying this guy – the false sage – is… is still alive?” Garrett asked.
“He is.” Mr. B said. “Breanne has met him.”
Breanne took a deep breath and raised her head. Everyone in the circle was watching her, waiting for her answer.
Breanne looked from one to the other. “Well, remember how I said that my father had opened the Ark containing the stones and then passed out? Well, after that, Apep took the God Stones – they just levitated out of the Ark and into his hands – and then he tried to kill us!” With all eyes locked on her, she launched into a summary of the Oak Island story and what had happened there. The part about Jerry dying right in front of her elicited a gasp, and Bre had to fight off tears. What was important was to tell them what she knew about Apep, to convince them that he was real – and dangerous. “I can’t tell you what he is, but he isn’t human
– he… he had kind of blueish skin, and pointed ears I think, and his body seemed to, like, I don’t know, grow or something.” She shook her head. “I know this sounds crazy, but it’s true.”
“One hundred percent,” Paul said.
The room was silent. The teacher guy believed her, but what about the others? What about Garrett?
Garrett reached over to her, took her hand in his, and squeezed. His eyes met hers consolingly. He didn’t say anything, but she felt his reassurance and for the briefest moment she knew that everything would somehow be okay.
Paul looked suspiciously at Mr. B. “Excuse me, Mr.… B, is it? We tell you this Apep guy killed our friend and tried to kill us, and you don’t seem surprised by any of it. It’s like you already knew? Why don’t you tell us how you fit into this and how you know so damn much about us?”
“Of course, Paul, please forgive me,” Mr. B said, as if responding to a longtime friend.
Paul’s scowl deepened.
“Apep could not stand the thought of losing the power of the God Stones, or the thought of being stuck on earth with no way back. Before the deep pit was sealed, he promised the last sage that, no matter how long it took, he would find the stones and, when he did, he would watch this world burn before returning to rule his.”
“Let me guess. The other sage is you, isn’t it?” Paul asked.
Everyone in the room sucked a breath in and held it, weighty and expectant.
Mr. B’s face twitched, and he looked at Paul and then at Breanne. “No, but I believe you both have met not only Apep but my dear friend… the last sage?”
Heads swiveled to look at them in bewildered surprise.
“What do mean, met him?” Paul said defensively, as if being accused of some sort of criminal activity. “What the hell are you talking about? We’ve met no sage!”
