The Universe Parallel

by Traci Harding

  ‘And so are you,’ she noted.

  ‘I’m Sermetic originally, thanks very much.’ Mythric obviously didn’t hold a lot of love for the Phemorians. ‘But my parents and grandparents were born of the ancient royal line of men and women who escaped Phemoria before it fell into the hands of spiteful spinsters.’

  Like Father, Taren noted on the quiet, and she wondered how they might be related.

  ‘So are you going to tell me why we are here in …?’

  ‘Norrodon’

  ‘Norrodon.’ Mythric clicked his fingers, as he realised there were some buildings he might have recognised, if he’d just taken a little longer to take the scenery in. ‘So, why are we here in Norrodon on this miserable day —’ As he looked to the storm above, he was startled to see a large figure of a man descending out of the sky towards them. ‘Not to worry, I think I can guess.’

  As Mythric pulled his weapon, Taren turned her sights and weapon towards the cause of his concern, and was about to fire when all the air seemed to retract from around her and she found herself struggling to draw a breath. In her panic she dropped her weapon and looked to Mythric, who was embroiled in a freak attack of a different kind.

  All the water on the rooftop was drawing itself in towards Mythric, where it was climbing and covering his body like a watery animal intent on smothering him. Immersed in his struggle against the body of clinging liquid, Mythric protested as the fluid obelisk rose to engulf his head and silence his cries for help.

  The assassin floated down to land on the roof, as though he’d just blown in on the breeze, and watched with a smile as Taren and Mythric slowly died before him. ‘That is what you get for serving an evil and cruel regime,’ he said without remorse.

  Taren was faint, and suddenly it was no great mystery how this man had killed without leaving a trace of evidence. Visualise. She urged her oxygen-starved brain to manifest a psychic restraining device, which she willed to clamp and lock around the ankle of their assailant and then to activate.

  On the verge of blacking out, Taren was finally able to draw breath and realise that her will had overcome her assailant’s efforts.

  Mythric burst out of his water cocoon and fell to his knees to cough up water and gasp in air.

  Vadik was down on one knee trying to pry the restraining device from around his ankle. ‘Get it off!’

  Taren grabbed up her weapon from the ground and aimed it at their attacker.

  ‘You bitch!’ His furious sights turned to her. ‘There is only one way you could have done this to me … you are one of us!’ Vadik spat in her direction, although his shot fell short of the mark.

  ‘Yes, I am one of you,’ she admitted freely, ‘and yes I work for the MSS, because knowing an enemy is the best way to overcome it.’

  ‘What?’ Mythric fell on his behind, amazed, and not in an adverse way.

  ‘Vadik Corentin, today is your lucky day …’ Taren ignored Mythric, ‘… as provided you answer a simple question, I am prepared to set you free.’

  As Vadik had already murdered several MSS agents he was very surprised. ‘Why should I believe you?’

  ‘Because you were not meant to be captured today,’ she told him, and both Mythric and Vadik were floored by her answer.

  ‘You’re a pre-cog,’ Vadik figured.

  Amongst other things, she thought to herself.

  Thanks to her many visits to Oceane and wearing her Juju stone — which was as powerful as breathing Oceane air every day — Taren’s powers were becoming more diverse, and she felt that she was finally transpiring into the masterful psychic that the healer Cadfan had said she would become.

  ‘What was meant to transpire today I cannot allow either,’ she stipulated, ‘as it would mean a dear friend of mine would be killed.’

  Vadik was beginning to catch her drift and forced a grin to suggest, ‘What if I were to leave Maladaan today?’

  ‘You can’t let him go!’ Mythric objected. ‘He’s a killer.’

  Taren looked to Mythric, not impressed by the argument. ‘And what are we?’

  ‘We haven’t killed anyone recently,’ Mythric said and then reappraised. ‘How will we explain it to the chief?

  ‘You saw how easily he overpowered us.’ Taren awarded the prisoner his due. ‘But, not before I got the name of his informant out of him, which is what the chief and I really desire to know.’ She threw the ball back into Vadik’s court and he seemed reluctant to spill the beans. ‘I have the power to set you free on any planet you care to name and I will supply you with all the papers to stay there.’ Taren manifested the said visa papers in her hand ‘So, Harry Cane,’ Taren read out his new identity and then looked to Vadik, who was smiling at her play on words, ‘I put it to you, would you rather keep your informant or your freedom?’

  Vadik Corentin was no idiot. ‘I choose the remote island of Lappis on Frujia, thanks.’ He smiled broadly to accept the offer. ‘Once I am standing on the beach there, with those papers in my hand and this thing off my ankle, we’ll have a deal.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ Taren stated and looked to Mythric. ‘Are you coming?’

  ‘I don’t know what the beach on Lappis looks like, do you?’ Agent Zeon outlined a small snag, and Taren had to concede that was a good point.

  ‘I know what it looks like.’ Vadik reached inside his protective clothing and produced a folded piece of paper that he held out towards Taren. ‘I have been envisioning myself there for years, but I never thought I’d actually make it.’

  Taren moved to retrieve Vadik’s offering, and Mythric was at her side instantly; clearly he didn’t trust Corentin.

  ‘I’m not going to hurt the little lady and risk this opportunity, I assure you.’ Vadik grinned at Mythric, suspecting now that he was psychic too — he’d have to be one to want to defend one. ‘Who are you people, anyway? If you work for the MSS why aren’t you restrained?’

  ‘We’re asking the questions here,’ Mythric reminded the prisoner, as Taren opened the piece a paper to view an untouched tropical paradise.

  ‘Well this will certainly beat prison, hey, Harry?’ Taren nodded to confirm that the image would serve them nicely.

  ‘Look,’ Vadik was curious, ‘are you guys building some kind of secret psychic army to bring down the MSS? Because if you are, I want in!’

  ‘Is that what we are doing?’ Mythric put the question to Taren. Although he’d only discovered her adverse feelings about the MSS this day, he had suspected and he’d had the same feelings for as long as he’d been in the service.

  ‘When the time is right,’ Taren told Vadik, ‘I will be sure and look you up on Lappis.’ She handed over his picture to Mythric. ‘I’ll see you there.’ She walked up to Vadik and held out a hand to him. ‘Are you ready?’

  The assassin hesitated. ‘How do I know you will not take me straight to MSS detention?’

  ‘I guess you don’t,’ Taren told him, ‘but if you don’t take hold, that is definitely where you are going, so what do you have to lose?’

  Put that way, Vadik overcame his instinct to mistrust and taking hold of Taren’s hand he was swept away by etheric light to the Maratosh system, where, upon the planet of Frujia, the remote island of Lappis was to be found.

  The sound of the sea, the smell of the saltwater air and the intense heat all registered to the senses and rapidly intensified as Taren, Vadik and then Mythric materialised on the empty stretch of coast. The colour of the water here was aquamarine green and the jungle beyond the beach was thick and lush. It was hard to know whether to run to the shade of the trees or to the cool relief of the water.

  ‘Whoo-hoo!’ Vadik cried out like a man possessed. ‘Is this an illusion?’ His eyes filled with tears to be standing inside his dream.

  ‘No illusion, Harry,’ Taren confirmed with a smile, heartened that such a potentially terrible situation could be transformed into a dream come true. ‘Now, what about that name?’

  ‘One moment,’ Vadik begged her patie
nce as he stripped off his excess clothing. ‘It won’t feel real until I hit the water,’ he said and took a running jump into the calm, warm water and then surfaced, splashing and laughing like a loon.

  ‘I think he’s a bit excited.’ Mythric walked over to join Taren, who nodded to agree, keeping her eyes firmly planted on the prisoner. ‘And you, Timekeeper, are full of surprises. Was it Yasper who was destined to be killed today?’

  She was a little winded by the query, but her eyes did not leave Vadik. ‘It was Yasper, yes. His death set off a chain reaction in my life that it has taken me ten years to repair … and now I shall know who was ultimately responsible for his death and my sad twist of fate.’

  ‘Whoa.’ Mythric was shocked by her claim. ‘I sure would hate to be in that person’s shoes right now.’

  Many islands away in Frujia’s pleasure capital of Kotan-Bathaar, Jazmay and Yasper were holed up on a private yacht that Jazmay had chartered and sailed out into the middle of the lagoon, where she’d anchored for the night.

  Jazmay had never learnt to sail, but since she had begun wearing her Juju stone, her psychic powers were strengthening and there was nothing she could visualise that she couldn’t make happen, including sailing a boat.

  Yasper had never been sailing and was amazed to have an instant affinity with it; Jazmay knew this would be the case as Jahan had loved this form of recreation. Yasper was so high on the experience, full of questions about Taren’s future past and how she and Abi had met, that he’d completely forgotten about cheating death.

  ‘So who is this guy in Taren’s future?’ Yasper queried from his reclined position on the bowsprit, where he’d been since dinner many hours ago — the sun was yet to set.

  ‘What did Taren tell you about him?’ Jazmay was wary of this topic.

  ‘Not much, that’s why I am asking you.’ Yasper sat up. ‘Was he one of the crew on that space project you were talking about earlier that took the sample from Oceane?’

  ‘Why does it matter,’ Jazmay appealed, ‘if your future is with someone else?’ Her reply was rather more impassioned and annoyed than she would have liked, and she took up her cup to get another drink.

  ‘You know about her?’ Yasper crawled right in off the bowsprit to pursue Jazmay downstairs into the cabin. ‘What do you know, Abi?’

  ‘Nothing.’ She waved off his interest but he grabbed her hand and held it.

  ‘Is that why you are being so nice to me?’

  His question made her heart stop. He knows! No, he can’t. But he suspects. She felt ill prepared to confess her feelings, having known this incarnation of him less than a day; she’d not expected their attraction to be so intense this soon. ‘Taren is my mistress, my charge —’

  ‘But Taren said that she owed you? So why do you claim to serve her?’ Yasper was confused.

  ‘That is not for me to say, but Taren requested I be tolerant of you,’ she told him coolly, though she could not let go of his hand.

  ‘Tolerant?’ Yasper queried gently, his large blue eyes burning a hole into her soul. ‘Abi, apart from being dumped this morning, this has been one of the best days of my life!’

  To hear him say so was very gratifying and it was impossible to pretend she didn’t care. ‘I’ve waited for ten years to hear you say that again.’ She gasped at her own honesty and fearful tears.

  ‘Ten years?’ He was stunned but overjoyed as she nodded to assure him it was quite true. ‘I get the feeling I’ve been asking all the wrong questions today. I was so sure Taren was the one, but … and I know this is going to sound really shallow, but, now that I’ve met you I feel —’

  Jazmay couldn’t wait for him to reach a conclusion and kissed him.

  ‘Ooops,’ Yasper uttered in the wake of the passionate moment. ‘I guess you’ve sucked my genetic memory clean out of me?’ He made a joke of it as he couldn’t have cared less.

  ‘Not to worry.’ Jazmay grinned. ‘I’ve wrapped my lips around your genetic code before.’

  ‘Oh, to be in touch with my cosmic memory,’ he sighed, delighted, as she led him off towards the main cabin.

  ‘Is it true what they say about Phemorian women killing their mates?’ Yasper wondered as he allowed the exotic warrioress to lead him into temptation.

  ‘Would you be deterred?’ she replied playfully.

  He considered. ‘Highly unlikely,’ he said, having been evermore captivated by her beauty throughout the day.

  ‘Good.’ With one great tug she drew him into the cabin and cast him onto the bed. Like an animal stalking prey, she straddled his form and drew down close to go in for the kill. ‘Then perhaps you’ll get lucky and I’ll make an exception in your case.’

  ‘Not so fast.’ Taren startled them both with her arrival in the cabin.

  ‘Taren!’ blurted Yasper, feeling guilty.

  ‘Yasper!’ exclaimed Mythric, who arrived right behind Taren and was shocked to find Yasper clutching another woman when he’d only just taken up with their commander. But noting the beauty of the woman in his team mate’s arms, all he could say was, ‘Wow.’

  Yasper objected to the invasion. ‘You said we were over.’

  ‘And we are,’ Taren assured him, sounding more than a little awkward. ‘I don’t have any problem with this. I just need to speak with Abi.’

  ‘Right now?’

  ‘Right now.’ Taren reached out and grabbed hold of her arm and the next thing Jazmay knew she was leaving her love behind.

  ‘What in the universe is going on?’ Mythric appealed to Yasper, as the women vanished. ‘Who is the Phemorian?’

  ‘I have no idea, really,’ Yasper admitted and had to smile. ‘My future lover, methinks.’

  ‘But the commander just spent all day fighting to save your life.’ Mythric was completely baffled by their break-up.

  ‘I know that,’ Yasper said. ‘At first Taren’s strategy completely baffled me too, but I do believe that it’s beginning to make a lot more sense now.’

  ‘To you, maybe,’ Mythric scoffed. ‘I really should have taken the day off today like the Timekeeper told me to. But no, I had to know what was going on,’ he scolded himself in retrospect. ‘Now I’m embroiled in … I still don’t know what.’

  Yasper’s nod allied to his sentiment. ‘Sure feels good though, doesn’t it?’

  Mythric, despite his ignorance, had to agree.

  It was dusk on the Isle of Lappis now, and the heat was not unbearable on the open beach.

  Jazmay ripped herself from Taren’s clutches the second they arrived on the beach and stumbled backwards to refrain from hitting her charge. ‘You could have waited for me to climb off of him before you dragged me off here!’

  ‘It was you!’ Taren pointed a finger at Jazmay and let fly with a few harsh truths of her own. ‘You were Vadik’s informant! Thanks for warning me, Jaz! Were you hoping he would knock me off and ensure I was out of Yasper’s life altogether?’

  ‘No!’ Jazmay denied the accusation. ‘That was not the way of it.’

  ‘It all makes sense now …’ Taren wasn’t listening as she already knew the truth. ‘How the assassin could have been getting the information at the same time it was being decided; you have the chief’s memory for the next ten years!’ So furious was Taren that her anger burst through into the physical world in the form of a great wave of force that shot out in Jazmay’s direction. The etheric impact knocked Jazmay clear into the water where she landed on her back with a great splash.

  ‘I trusted you!’ Taren knew she was out of control, but she couldn’t prevent the release; this anger had been bottled up for a decade.

  Jazmay staggered out of the water coughing and spluttering, and waving her arms about in a plea for Taren to hear her out. ‘I didn’t know Yasper was going to be on that mission!’ she exclaimed in her own defence. ‘I swear to you I have been faithful to your cause since I committed.’

  ‘Liar!’ Taren challenged.

  ‘No, I swear … I forgot that I’d
even sold those mission details, as that was all ten years ago for me!’

  ‘Do you have any idea what you did to me?’ Taren screamed out her years of pent-up frustration that had resulted from ignorance and manipulation. ‘After his death, I allowed them to take my memories and much of my personal power along with it. I forgot my motivation, my reason for being —’

  ‘I know!’ Jazmay yelled back, in tears. ‘I carry your memories too! Why do you think I am here now, supporting you?’

  ‘Supporting me, ha! You’re here for Yasper … but I don’t know how interested he’ll be when he discovers it was you who arranged his murder.’

  ‘No, please,’ Jazmay appealed, seemingly weary. ‘I beg you, don’t tell him.’

  ‘Hold on.’ Taren pretended to have a coherent moment. ‘It cannot have been you who set these events in motion in the very first place … or can it?’ Taren actually knew the answer to this question — Vadik had enlightened her — but would Jazmay tell her the truth, or lie to save face?

  ‘I …’ Jazmay was fiddling with the Juju stone band on her upper arm.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Taren was annoyed by Jazmay’s distraction.

  ‘I’m trying to lift this bloody thing away from my skin!’ she barked, becoming frustrated. ‘I cannot lie to you when I am wearing this! I can’t even think bad things about you!’ She grumbled her woes and Taren found the claim most interesting — her guardian was working even harder than imagined to ensure her people remained faithful.

  ‘Then tell me the truth,’ Taren demanded.

  ‘Yes!’ Jazmay yelled in spite. ‘Yes, it was me! As a Valourean I was assigned the task to make skin contact with Chief Ronan and glean from him any mission directives he might have planned for the immediate future; unfortunately for you and Yasper, his final mission was one of them.’

  ‘So you did not forget what you had done, nor did you forget the powerful assassin who would be awaiting me this day.’ Taren sought a full confession.

  Jazmay shook her head remorsefully. ‘I did not forget. But in my own defence, I did not know that you intended to take Yasper’s place on this mission, only that you intended to make sure he wasn’t on it.’