Xander slowed his violent, restless struggle for freedom. Dumbstruck, he seemed reflective, and with a newly owned clarity, which he had not collected since the two had met.
Maximillian began his next words with the demeanor of someone who had said all he could. He got up from the chair, talking as he did. “The Shroud is a thing devoted to evil. Though they claim good, they do not adhere to the faith.” Maximillian adjusted his black trench coat, smoothing out any wrinkles. “Acquire your own mind on matters. Amend your conduct. Refrain from the strong desire for prestige and domination. Malum is an apostate and a renegade.” Maximillian squatted, gently holding his large hands on both sides of Xander’s face. “But you’re a quick learner, with good, natural tendencies. I wish you peace, Xander. Hopefully we’ll meet under better circumstances next time.” Maximillian stood up and walked past him. “Just to let you know, there’s a leap zone not far from here. I should be able to catch an aperture to California in a few minutes, and this part of the Sphere Atlas will be safe from Malum once inside the castle walls.”
Tack, tap, tack, tap. Maximillian’s footsteps faded from loud to quiet, from near to far. The round room promptly smothered with a deafening silence.
Drowsiness rushed in upon Xander, covering his head in warmth, his eyelids grew heavy, the room swung, and the only sound was of the hypnotically rubbing rope against the wooden beam above.
Pockets of light through holes in the ceiling provided a glimpse of stars and sun as time passed from day to night, night to day, and then night again. Sometimes it was cold, and he shivered. Sometimes it would deluge, and soak him. Xander, unprotected from the elements, found them both uncomfortable and stimulating.
Certain words swirled inside Xander’s brain, recapping Maximillian’s sincerity. Xander hallucinated in and out of consciousness. He began to wonder if he had dreamed the entire thing, or if it was somehow a test of loyalty to the Shroud. Yet still, in his heart, he felt something, he was not sure what he felt, but it was an unsettled agitation, a doubtful regret, a stain not easily shaken from off his soul.
At the same time, along the southern route, a far-stretching meadow of
green grass tussled in a salty breeze along high ocean cliffs. Seagulls flew as misty ocean waves boomed, crashing against the bluffs at high tide.
To the left of the cliffs, which Revekka had visited once before, a sea of cobalt beyond the tall overhangs melded with the azure sky in the distant expanse until the two, it seemed, merged as one.
To the right, a heavily wooded, remote area covered the earth’s floor with browns and greens in intertwined shadows full of reeds, scaly leaves, bristly brambles, and enclosed by groups of smothering vines.
Revekka swayed gracefully as if carried by the wind. She ambled, strolling upon plush, low-growing grass that grew in long and short rows upon the cliffs to the left, while the gloomy, wooded glen sat to the right. Flower clusters dotted in patches, and Revekka inhaled their pleasant fragrance. Straight ahead, the imposing castle appeared sturdy and aloft.
The castle’s pointed, highest tips rose above the tree tops, yet the fortress was still some distance away from her place, so Revekka enjoyed her casual advance.
Among the longer growing spurts, the grass drooped and swayed in symphony with the air. The wildflowers dazzled rich, charming hints under the carpeted pasture, each clinging to a delicate slice of existence the world offered, yet too few appreciated. Single rays of sun warmed, while hazy clouds of sea spray watered. A slight breeze brought forth pollinating winged bugs, which first collected and without command, dispersed with harmonious wisdom a bounty of good things throughout the lands.
The dark, primeval forest watched with its eyes upon Revekka. The undergrowth reached out in a despondent, edgy hunger. Twisted branches, fallen trees, moss, and thorns stained the forest floor russet from age and time. The woods trembled with an occasional swooshing gust, and tightly compact, it hid many secrets among its moist, jade flora. From the open grassy meadow, the woods looked clean and dense, but just inches into their border, the forest dumped twigs and dried leaves all over the ground in compost heaps of unkempt and unsightly mounds.
Revekka knew she was being observed as she slowly, and with calm grace, roamed the open field. “I know you’re there. You can come out now.” She invited softly.
Dead leaves crunched. Krish, krush, krish, krush. The ground rustled with footsteps from tree to tree inside the dense forest.
A beautiful girl appeared. She was a teen, with medium-length blonde hair and frosted tips. She wore a pair of hip-hugging jeans, a halter-top, a banded leather belt around her hourglass waist, and had French manicured fingernails. Unblinking, she stared at Revekka from the edge of the woods.
Sniffle. The girl rubbed underneath her nose. Tears began to flow from the outer corners of her eyes. She pointed a single French manicured nail at the tip of a bound scroll bulging over top of Revekka’s crosswise, long strapped, shoulder bag. “If I don’t bring that back to Malum, he’ll kill me.” She folded her hands together. “Please, you have to help me!”
“Come with me to the castle.” Revekka casually looked at her bag, and then with a single finger, tucked the scroll back into her purse, pushing it down inside.
“No!” the girl frantically blurted. “He’ll get me!”
“Not in the castle, Malum won’t. It’s the safest place on Earth.”
The girl’s tone lowered sharply. “You don’t understand. I need that scroll.”
Her lips firmly pressed, Revekka thought for a moment. “I assume you’ve been told about me, and the scroll.” She faced the girl, tilting her head at different angles, trying to get a good read. “I know who you are, Vanessa. And I know Malum probably told you to kill me before I spoke a word, and yet here I still live.”
Vanessa’s unfriendly, frosty beauty, and undaunted appearance, settled flat, unmoved, but even-keeled, yet branded an unconcerned bother. “So, I do what I wanna do. I’m my own person, not some puppet like you, so don’t try to psychoanalyze me.” She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t know me.”
“You’re not even your own person.” Revekka smiled. “Malum’s playing games with you…with all of you,” she earnestly offered.
“I know what he is,” indifferent, Vanessa said. “I know what I’m doing, so spare me your sanctimonious advice.”
The two stationed at a distance from the other. Revekka in the middle of the field while Vanessa walked out from the edge of the woods.
Revekka remained composed and sure. “That high-sounding, pompous talk is Malum, not you.”
“Blah, blah, blah. What do you know?”
“A few things.”
“Like what?” Vanessa stayed gently disagreeable.
“Like, Vanessa, you’re a talented girl, but dishonest.”
“Whatever. Snooze.” Vanessa fanned a yawn.
Revekka ignored her, and continued. “You’re feisty. You’re endowed with beautifully curved, ornate shapes. However…you are also full of schemes and trickery.”
“Screw you!” Vanessa shouted, her forehead pulled tightly downward.
Revekka struck a nerve. “You beguile and mislead with charming delight.”
“Yeah, so…” Vanessa smirked. “I’m good because I’m bad. That’s why I’m every man’s type.” She narrowed her eyes again.
“You don’t have to coax or cajole for people to like you. You have enough good inside you still. But on your present course, you won’t live long enough to see it.”
“Is that a threat!?”
“No.” Revekka tipped her head. “It is truth.”
“Tsk, tsk.” Vanessa slowly wagged a single French manicured fingertip back and forth. “The Shroud offers me status, not just a bunch of outdated creeds and doctrines like the knighthood.”
Revekka countered, “The Shroud is self-serving, with
an agenda more terrible than you can imagine.”
“Whatever.”
“Vanessa, you can still help us bring everything into harmony. I sense the condition of your heart is still good.”
“Ha-ha-ha.” Vanessa laughed, with a tilting of her head backward. “You’re so out there. Give it up.”
“I’m a listener, so you don’t have to do this.”
“Do what?”
“This!” Revekka threw her hands out toward Vanessa. “Acting like you’re too cool for everything and everyone.”
“It’s not an act.” Vanessa’s face developed its first ugliness. Though she tried to look away until it flamed out, she was irritated. “No more talk. Give me the scroll…NOW!” she screamed.
Ever peaceful, Revekka’s words searched for a way into Vanessa’s hardening heart. “Malum didn’t tell you what this is, did he?”
“Errg.” Vanessa growled. “Stop playing mind games. I should have killed you before you spoke, at least that would have saved my ears the aggravation of hearing your psychobabble.” She started walking with clear, focalized intent toward Revekka.
Revekka remained where she stood. “This scroll is one part of the Sphere Atlas, and with any luck, the other half is inside the castle by now.” Vanessa, some distance away, marched with a relentless stride, so Revekka kept speaking. “The Sphere Atlas, when combined, does the most wondrous thing.”
“I don’t care.” Vanessa clinched her perfectly lined, white teeth hard.
“The Sphere Atlas is an instrument of peace and discovery.”
“Fascinating,” Vanessa blankly said, still intently honed in on her hostile approach.
“You’re not every man’s type. You’ve been hurt by someone. Betrayed maybe?”
“Shut up!” Vanessa shouted, her eyes shooting an obstinate glare. “Listen, here’s something you don’t know, we already have the other half of the scroll.” She grinned.
“You’re lying,” Revekka accused.
Vanessa sneered. “Am I?”
Shaken, but not stirred, Revekka calmly spoke as Vanessa closed in. “Yes. I feel it clearly now. You loved him. He loved someone else. You hated her.” Revekka looked away for a moment, then back up in puzzlement. “No, it’s worse than that. What did you do?”
“God!” Vanessa yelled as she neared. “If you shut up now, I’ll kill you painlessly.”
Revekka disregarded her. “Let go of your anger.”
Rizzz. Vanessa summoned a translucent pair of silver sai. The strikers discharged an initial, bright, rapid burst of flames, though they themselves were not on fire. They were not the typical weapons materialized by immortals, but the narrow, long daggers appeared devastating for an up-close assault. Her knuckles bent around the sai securely. Vanessa’s hands blanched as she clutched the knife-edged batons. The short daggers extended out a foot, with U-shaped, shorter curved prongs on each side of the blade. Though not the preferred weapon of most immortals, in her skilled hands, they were instruments of pure destruction. “You really want me to let go of my anger? Huh? Do you?” Vanessa yelled.
“You really don’t get it?” Revekka shook her head. “I’m trying to help.”
Vanessa seethed. She stomped through the long grass, her boots crushing flowers, smashing a path over any delicate thing until it was broken, twisted in half, or crushed. “No, you don’t get it. Give me that scroll. I don’t wanna have to…” She left the rest to Revekka’s imagination.
Her feet squarely upon the earth, Revekka kept enlightening Vanessa without surrendering a portion of her ground. “You don’t need this scroll. The Shroud might. Malum might. But you don’t.” Still speaking with a steady pace, Revekka looked to the castle and discovered her ease, almost reasoning if in a classroom, as a threatening menace to her safety advanced ever closer. She continued trying to persuade. “Come with me. Leave this path. Start a new life. The past can’t hurt you if you don’t let it.”
“Do I look like someone to be trifled with?” Vanessa’s tone turned deep and low, with a wailing madness. In a show of power, she backhanded her sai against a small eight-inch thick tree sprouting from the field. Swash! The top half of the tree fell sideways onto the field. Flap. She carved through in one gash, and cut the tree in half without even breaking stride.
Unfazed, Revekka spoke louder. “Your spirit is in a state of flux.” She waved her hands across the air. Using the ocean mist, she created a lovely, but brief image of familiar things she thought dear to Vanessa, much in the same way she did for Vincent, yet it seemed to have no effect on the girl. “Don’t you want to know more?”
“When the time is right, Lord Malum will tell me what I need to know.” Vanessa objected, with a gleam in her eye. Her brilliant white teeth compressed, her vivid pink lips plumping outward and up. “Information is sacred, and shouldn’t be shared with just anyone. That’s the problem with you and the knights, you want to expose all of our knowledge to the world. Well I won’t allow it!” she heatedly said, now running in a straight line toward her mark.
Revekka calmly held her grace. Acting helpless and unarmed, almost as
if she intended to sacrifice herself, yet even with Vanessa upon her, she kept speaking as before, calm and confident. “You’re not getting the scroll.” Revekka closed her eyes and tilted her chin up toward the heavens.
Vanessa jumped at full speed, hurling herself some ten feet through the air. One leg was straight and the other bent upward as she flew. With the sai stretched over her head, the daggers pinpointed a goal, aiming in line with Revekka’s heart.
Revekka leaned to the side, easily stepping away from the airborne landing. The two were now face-to-face.
With an assassin’s discipline, Vanessa moved with deadly precision. Her assaults resembled a fluid poise of artistic jabs, kicks, swings, and yet, each time, she missed completely.
Revekka balanced on one foot, flipping backward, springing away. Her long maxi dress acted as flowing drapery, blinding Vanessa. Revekka appeared still, waiting it seemed to be gashed, yet every time she evaded Vanessa’s attacks, and continued untouched.
Rizzz. Swoosh. Shmm. Over again Vanessa mounted violent blows, using every part of herself, weapons and all. Revekka did not deflect, repel, or engage in any form of combat. Rather, she dodged each aggressive action with an illusionist’s flare.
The two bounded around the field.
Vanessa soon lost her breath, tiring from swiping at nothing except air. Revekka appeared at ease, becoming more comfortable, and as if practicing Yoga, she bent and flexed more easily than she had in the beginning.
Vanessa sucked her stomach inward and breathed out hard. “Stop moving. Fight me!” She leapt quickly as Revekka remained motionless just feet in front of her.
Full of ire, the internal reflected Vanessa’s abstract heart. She was not misunderstood it seemed, yet rather, only malicious intent persisted inside the girl with the beautiful exterior.
“You really want to kill me. I can feel it.” Revekka stared into Vanessa’s undaunted eyes.
“Well duh, what gave you that impression?” Vanessa mocked. “Now be still…”
“No.” Revekka reached out and gently touched Vanessa’s forehead with a fingertip, while whispering the rest in her ear. “You be still.”
Vanessa froze in place, after straightening and withdrawing her daggers. She was paralyzed. Her face lost all expression. She simply ogled the beautiful field, sea, trees, and sky, yet she appeared lost inside the peaceful thoughts of her own mind, blinking sporadically, speaking slowly, and resembling a ponderous amnesiac.
“I never…I never realized how amazing this place was.” Vanessa’s character mended passively. “How could I have not seen all of this before?” She began to cry. Her mascara lined off her face in swells.
Revekka formed a sad smile. She rested her hand on Vanessa’s shoulder,
walking past her, uttering only two words once more. “I know,” she said, before continuing toward the castle.
Vanessa remained unmoving, even tranquil on the field, her back facing the departing Revekka, who only looked back with a moping glimmer. For she knew knowledge was the easy part. Anyone could be taught, but getting the heart to connect with the brain was sometimes an impossible task.
Not long after, Revekka discovered a winding dirt trail. The dusty road looped along two parallel worn lines up the hillside, with bands of fresh grass maturing between the clearly worn tire marks. Straight ahead, a solid, firmly fixed, medieval castle of large granite blocks, with a massive wooden gate, pointed spires, and hundreds of heavily armed archers dominated the highland with a balance of majesty and power.
Torches hung from the side and top walls, burning both day and night around the imperial structure.
Revekka heard the bell tower toll. She held a distant focus toward the steeply ascending castle. Deep, flat ravines and jagged rocks lined along duel vertical banks. The jagged rocks of the ravine were hundreds of feet wide and with a perilous depth. The deep quarry both entirely surrounded the fortification, and connected to the mainland with only a single lane, stone bridge, which by all accounts, seemed easy to cross.
Along the backdrop, the elongated gorge hollowed into what appeared a bottomless pit, making the single lane stone bridge the lone passageway for all would-be visitors to the castle.
The castle dominated the land. An immense forest was to the north and east just outside its walls, and the ocean protected the reinforced structure to the south and west. The castle was an imposing refuge, aloft on a flat plain along the mountainous region, and near, but not on, or overlooking the sea, yet it was protected by the ocean’s rising slopes, bluffs, and booming waves. All of this, and the castle stood out for the world to see, but it did not attract attention, for it was completely hidden to the human realm, because only those with trained eyes were able to see its grandeur.
Something Eternal Page 26
