“He was very real when I stood in the life flow of the trees with him. You must try.” Araman looked up at her. “You can’t give up.”
“You stood in the life flow of the trees?” She raised an eyebrow at him.
“Our ship landed on a planet in the middle of an asteroid storm.” Araman watched as she looked to his mother and then back to him. “He does exist.”
“I am truly sorry.” The Cin’ Goh turned away.
“I know of a way but it puts you at great risk Araman.” His mother stepped up behind him. The healer turned on her heel.
“He would have to be tested.” Black and shining red hair tumbled down from the wrap. “He may not be strong enough.” She challenged. “Helena, you would risk your own flesh?”
His mother squared her shoulders. “He is the son of the daughter of the greatest Dia’ Qui that served Shinwa. I know you can feel the strength in him. He may not look like one of us, but my son is Shinwa and carries the web within. Dy’ Nar appeared to him, Cin’ Goh.”
The Cin’ Goh scrutinized Araman. “He is strong I grant you, but he does not know the ways of the chakkras. The test is not an easy for one who has been raised with our ways. He may carry the web but he has not been taught even if the mighty Dy’ Nar appeared to him.”
“Give me the test.” Araman stood to his full height. “I will not fail Brea.”
Helena moved beside her son. “I can prepare him.”
The healer gave her head a slight nod. “The test shall be by his own accord.” She gazed down to Araman with eyes that matched his own. “If you should forfeit your life, then take comfort that you and your Chatam Pritam will cross together.” She gave her hand a clap.
“We will start the preparations. You have until the Moon crests the horizon tomorrow Helena to prepare your son.”
His mother put a hand on Araman’s shoulder. “Come Son.”
He put a strong hand over it. “I demand the test now. The sooner I can prove to you that I am strong enough within my web, the sooner I can help Brea.”
The Cin’ Goh stared at him for a moment before a thin smile crossed her lips as if he were a child amusing her. “So be it.” She clapped her hands three times. “In one of your hours, be prepared.” The healer turned to a younger cowering female approaching from behind. “Set the altar and light the fires.”
Helena tugged on her son’s arm. “Come, I will take you to the Dia…”
“I will not leave her side again.” Araman touched a lock of gold hair. “What is this test, Mother?” He asked softly still looking down at Brea.
“To see if the Heart of Shinwa will accept you. If it does recognize your energies you will become one with them. The pain is great and not many try it.” She answered.
“And if it doesn’t recognize the energies?”
After a pause he turned to face her. Helena shrugged. “I know not what to tell you Son. I was never strong enough to tempt the fusion. But I know strength when I feel it. You must not be afraid to give in to it.”
“Why, when I have already combined with Brea must I take this test?” Araman wanted to know.
“At this moment while Brea sleeps, the heart of our world is mingling with her energies. She is protected by the very energies that take her. It is why you must not fight, as your instinct will for control of it.” She continued quickly as Araman opened his mouth to ask another question.
“My father was the strongest of Dia’ Qui serving Shinwa for many years longer than most. His father before him was stronger than his father. It is the way with males of our kin. Dy’ Nar also appeared to him.”
“Who is this man?” Araman’s curiosity finally got the better of him.
“Dy’ Nar is a great healer and teacher. It is only a chosen few that he comes to. It is said that his people's world Abeth was destroyed by their own greed for what lay under the ground and death lay in their wake. He as a spiritual leader was not a destroyer and he with his followers was granted life among the trees. The trees provide what they need and permit their energies only to be used when there is an unbalance in the universal energies.” She gave a little smile. “For some reason you and Brea are at an imbalance that could cause a rift in the continuum of the forces.”
Santari was correct, they were hard to understand at times but he caught her drift. If he lost Brea, war would ensue for he would demand Oleander’s blood for hers. This would lead to chaos in the quadrant.
Helena followed her son’s thoughts. “You see now why Dy’ Nar came to you. It is not every Shinwa that is blessed with his help.”
“I am only half Shinwa Mother.” Araman pointed out turning his gaze to his mother.
“The outer half. Inside I feel the web. Tell me Son have you ever felt the energies exploding from within.”
Araman was about to say no when he remembered the episode on the beach of Orpheaus Six. He nodded. “It was after Brea and I cleansed.”
“That is your web.” His mother looked behind him. “In order to gain control of the web within you must give in to the web.”
The healer’s attendant came over to Araman and offered him in silence a large round cushion. He took the pillow with a soft word of thanks to the shy girl. Araman gazed down at it and then to his mother.
“It is time to ready yourself my son. Heed your great father’s words.” Helena reminded her son. “Brea knows you’re here and is searching for you. Let the heart lead you to her.”
“How do you know this?” Araman held his breath.
His mother smiled up at him with her eyes mixed of green and gold. “I can see auras.” She pointed to Brea. “Hers has only grown a little stronger since you arrived.” Helena took the pillow from him and put it on the floor in the middle beside the table that Brea lay on.
“What do I do?” He tried to hide the panic in his voice to his mother.
“Sit on the pillow and breath.” Helena instructed leading him to the cushion. “Let your energies seek her out and guide you.” His mother gently pushed him down. “The Cin’ Goh arrives. Show her what you truly are.”
Araman gave a nod as he straightened his back. He took a deep breath as he heard the healer moving about behind him. As he took his second breath he could feel his senses lighten. At first, he fought the sensation from taking over him as it burned through him.
“Become one with it.” His mother’s voice penetrated his head.
Another breath and the burning intensified.
“He is not Shinwa.” The Cin’ Goh spoke. “He will be consumed.”
“Araman.” Brea’s faint lilt called to him.
With his next inhale of spicy air, Araman felt the rush of the heart of Shinwa flowing past him. His aura instinctively reached for it and as it did, a hunger of wanting to feel the flow within him rose. As Araman released his breath slowly, more tendrils surfaced from the magma of his core. This was, he knew, his web within connecting.
The cushion rose from the floor with Araman sitting cross-legged and still, lifting him to Brea’s level. His mother looked over to the Cin’ Goh.
“You see now I speak the truth of his web within.” Helena’s voice was a whisper. “Look how he lights the chamber and you have not yet begun your preparations. He does not need the juice of the tunneling seed as you do.” Her smile widened, “And look Cin’ Goh, I see the Abeth colors coming forth.”
The healer turned to see Araman floating by Brea’s side in a soft white light that shielded both he and the woman he was trying to save. It shimmered with blues and greens as it blanketed the couple. A smile crossed the healer’s face when she saw where the energy was emanating from. The center of Araman’s heart chakkra was glowing.
Araman was not aware of the voices whispering behind him. He could only sense the rushing of energy from the planet’s core. It stood before him violently twisting upwards like the core of a threatening Terrian tornado. Columns of blood red, fleshy pink
“Araman, you must not enter.” Brea’s voice was
weak.
“Brea!” Araman yelled for her. “I’m coming.”
With a deep inhale, his body became lighter as he let his energies soar upwards. He glanced at his arms that were now only rays of light spread out before him. Beams of energy extending out from his chakkras wanted to touch the flow before him. Something held him back as he tried to join with the spinning vortex.
For his human mind, his wanting to dive into the volatile energies was akin to jumping into a raging river without a floatation device. Getting in was not the problem, but getting out would be, he realized.
He let one tendril of his energy connect and pulled back as though he had been burnt. The current of the flow was faster and stronger than it seemed to move at Araman’s first glance. He felt Brea’s aura briefly in the giant swirling column. He took a deep breath and pushed himself into Shinwa’s core.
He discovered the currents of the energies inside moved at different paces. He followed the stream upwards jumping from flow to flow as though Araman were riding waves. Again he felt Brea pass by. He reached out but she slipped past.
“Brea!” A deep boom quaked the chamber from the reverberation of his voice against the energies.
Araman used every ounce of strength reaching out for her with his aura until he touched her. He could feel the weakness inside Brea. In her light the fractures to her chakkras showed in black running throughout her aura like a spider’s web. With another push Araman held her energy in his.
“Go back Araman.” Her words were soft.
“No. I told you, I would die myself before bringing harm to you.” Araman reassured her. His energies swarmed around hers.
“It’s too late Araman. I am almost one with Shinwa. I am too fractured to fight my way back.” Brea was tired and ready to give herself over.
“Then I will fight for you.”
Araman held her close. He was frantically trying to figure out a way to save her when he saw the top of the vortex. Like the eye of a storm, it was calm. Holding Brea with his aura, Araman maneuvered his energies along the flow to the center and forced himself through into the eye.
He had hoped getting her out of the core’s energies would help but the light of her aura was diminishing faster. Araman fed her his energy in the attempt to give her strength but it was futile. He was losing Brea to Shinwa.
Araman let out an exasperated sigh. “Please, not again.” He spoke out loud. “I promised her.” His words were a silent plea against the vortex as it spun around them. The energy would not heed his words.
He looked down to Brea becoming a gray shadow. An unfamiliar feeling washed over Araman. He felt utterly helpless to save Brea. Turmoil of emotions churned in the center of his heart, pushing against his restraint. It was a losing battle.
Araman threw back his head and released a scream upward through the eye of the storming energy. His being physically convulsed as his aura forced out the negative venom from within his soul. Anger, betrayal and hurt bawled into one and ripped out of Araman like a flare against the night. It burst and the tiny sparks were absorbed in the ripples of the calmer energies above.
Araman then felt a sensation glide over him like a thousand feathers touching at once filling the void left by the brutal exit of the poison. He felt warm and serene connected with all things and beings. As his mind relaxed with the tides of the ocean of energy he felt a trace of Brea beside him.
“Join with me.”
“I am too weak,” she answered faintly.
“Trust me.” Araman centered the energy from his heart chakkra to Brea’s fading essence. “Listen to my heart Lyra, it beats for both of us. It can be the web for both of us.” He felt a slight slackening within his heart as a stabbing pain sparked then ebbed away. He had found her heart chakkra and with a strand of his aura he was plugged into her.
The outer dimension of Araman’s energies surged out in threads like fine silk paving the road ahead of his web extending out. The strands connected to the walls of Shinwa’s chakkra with sparks. Once Araman’s web was completely linked, the storm swirled around the two souls in the center of a spinning sphere.
Araman felt the waves of energy using his aura as the conduit to reach Brea. With each surge that passed through him, he could feel the tie with her become stronger. He focused on Brea’s fractured web and using the energy pulsing through him he began to mend her shattered chakkras.
The light was so intense from Araman’s core the on-lookers in the room had to step back and shield their eyes from the brilliance. Inside the sphere Araman’s head was thrown back as an intense column of white energy forced its way down his throat and heart chakkras filling Brea through him.
“Araman.” At the sound of Brea’s voice, the sphere above opened its eye and resumed its cyclone. Araman’s web slipped back within his aura leaving a single strand still linked with Brea.
“Care to come back with me?” He asked holding out his hand to her. The shadow was no longer threatening to overtake her as he watched her aura brighten and become stronger. He felt the energy of her hand join before leading her up and out of the vortex into the night above.
The instant Araman thought of his body, he slammed down into it with a jolt. He was not sitting as he started out but lying on something hard and cold. He heard the soft sound of a sigh beside him and opened his eyes staring into pools of pale jade surrounded by long black lashes.
“You must learn to land softly or you might hurt yourself.” Brea smiled at him.
Araman laughed at her admonishment of him. It was so good to see her awake and looking at him. He pulled her into his arms and buried his face in her black and gold hair.
“Promise me Brea, you will never sacrifice your web again.” He begged of her in a whisper. “I am your Chatam Pritam. We go together.”
Brea looked up into his blue eyes searching hers for the promise. He had risked his own web to heal hers and called himself her Chatam Pritam. He had brought her back from the deepest shadows of her world. Her mouth met his briefly.
“I promise.”
Chapter Thirteen
Brea waded out into the ocean lifting her layered tunic up as high as she could. The hem still glided along the surface soaking up a little of the salty water. She looked up into the bright sky wishing for the calm blue of Olean. She preferred it to the purplish haze of Shinwa.
Brea could not recall much of her ordeal nor did she want to. She was content with the outcome. She smiled at the thought of Araman’s tender blue eyes staring down at her demanding she promise never to risk herself again. They sparkled with a hint of silver. The sign he had touched the heart chakkra of Shinwa.
A sigh escaped her lips. Brea was missing her Beebles. She was also missing Olean. She looked around turning and facing the black sand leading up to the dark deep green of the trees. Olean was light and colorful during both day and night. She missed the garden Araman had built for her pet and the scent of the flowers mixed with the night air.
“Brea!” His large blonde frame emerging from the path followed Araman’s deep voice. “You should be resting Lyra.” He stopped at the water’s edge.
“I have rested enough.” She smiled. “I am restless and needed to think.” She let her hem go as she stepped out of the silky water onto the cushioning sand. “I am missing your home.”
Araman smiled. “Just as I was thinking we could stay.”
Brea looked up at him with thoughtful eyes. She swayed her head from side to side slowly. “Our place is not here.” She told him thoughtfully. “We need to stop Oleander.”
“Not we, Brea but Olean will stop Oleander.”
“No Araman, I have felt what they can do to us with a machine by sending volts of man made energy through our webs. Now they have made enemies of Shinwa. Their offer of protection was false.”
“You’re right. It is why I have spent the entire morning along with Santari convincing your council to accept Olean protection against Oleander.”
Brea’s eyes widen
ed. “You would go to war for Shinwa? Why?”
“Because, Shinwa is a treasure chest my dear.” Santari strolled up behind. “While Araman was with you, I scanned your planet. Oleander doesn’t want your teachings or to learn your skills. They want what’s underneath and on the surface. Everything here, including the people, is made up of the precious metals. Have you not noticed how even the smallest speck of dust is metallic?”
“But they told us…” Brea’s words trailed off. The memory of a woman sneering over her, as she lay strapped to a metal table, crept into her mind.
“You are too weak to defend yourselves.” The delight on her torturer’s face, Brea did not understand at the time. The thought struck her that Oleander wanted them weaker.
“They want our metals?” Brea confirmed what Santari was saying.
Santari nodded. “Oleander has a weapon that can extract anything large or small from a distance. Right now, Oleander has to trade for the metals to make such weapons. They are finding trading partners a little rare with their growing hostilities. Shinwa is rich in the metals needed and then some. Offering protection was one way of getting to it. You falling into the hands of Araman, I’m guessing, was definitely not in their plan of things and they will change their tactics.”
“Oleander knows they are stronger than us. They can come and take what they want with that machine without our knowledge. Why harm me with one of their devices?” She questioned out loud.
“You might have been the test subject. If they come and extract the riches of your planet, it will destroy it, Brea. Shinwa would collapse. What Oleander was not expecting was for you to return here as evidence they are not promising protection but a pillage.” Santari looked over to Araman. “The arms they are moving through the moons have already indicated they are gearing up.
In the mean time I have contacted the fleet and sent a message that we were safe. I did not however reveal the location and jammed the communications channel to avoid a trace back.” He grinned. “I figured Oleander might be trying to trace the pod.”
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