The Power of Seven

by Peter R. Ellis

  “That’s right. That’s what Heulyn’s book said; but how?” September asked.

  “The Maengolauseren will show you the way. That’s why it has brought you to us.”

  “The stone brought me here?”

  “As it brought you to the Land.”

  “What for?”

  “To learn how to wield the power of arian.”

  “Oh, how do I do that?”

  “By performing a task.”

  “What task?”

  The circle of spirits around her took each others’ hands. The faces of each one looked at her.

  The scene changed. September staggered at the sudden shift. One moment she was standing on the silver Moon and then, well, where was she? She heard the groans before she took in the sights around her. She was in a large tent. There were beds on which men and women and children lay moaning and crying with pain. The floor between the beds was filled with more tormented people, some lying on blankets, others on bare earth. The cries of agony hurt September’s ears and when she looked at the nearest patients she was filled with revulsion. Each had grotesque open wounds or missing limbs which oozed blood and puss. There was a stink of rotting flesh. September felt that she was going to be sick, that she may even faint, except that there was nowhere to fall other than across one of the hideously wounded people.

  “Why am I here?” September cried, trying to hide the scene from her eyes but unable to shut out the wailing or the stench. What had the spirit of Arianrhod meant by saying she had a task to perform? How was this hellish scene connected to the serene, clean Moon? Then she remembered when Tudfwlch was wounded and how she used the silver of her locket to heal him and how Arianwen had used her silver bracelet to heal Eluned. Of course, silver was the metal of healing. Was that her task? To heal all these people? But she had no silver. She only had the Maengolauseren in her hand. What had Arianrhod said? The Maengolauseren will show her the way. The starstone was her link to the energy of the universe. Perhaps it would do her bidding and help her to heal them She felt a wave of sympathy and pity wash through her. She wanted to help. She raised her hand holding the stone. Blue mist swirled within it. What now? Perhaps she should say something. It came to her.

  “Be healed,” September shouted. At once blue light flowed from the stone down her arm and body and legs and spread out across the floor of the tent. It covered the bodies of the people on the floor then over the beds, submerging all the wounded in the blue glow. It spread out to fill the tent as far as she could see. The cries of the sick and wounded died away. A breeze of clean air blew away the noxious smells of decay. The blue light slowly sank into the ground revealing the patients. Their wounds had disappeared, their bodies were made whole, the skin, white and brown and yellow, smooth and unmarked. The men, women and children stood and began to express their thanks to their healer.

  September was back within the circle of silver wraiths, again standing on the surface of the silver Moon. The spirit of Arianrhod stepped forward.

  “Well done, Cludydd. You have tapped the power of Lleuad and arian, the healer.”

  “But I just waved the stone and asked for all those people to be made well.”

  “Exactly. You used the Maengolauseren to do good. You could have taken yourself away, swept the wounded from your sight. You may have seen the people as servants of the Malevolence and commanded the Maengolauseren to destroy them. You could have just saved yourself. Instead you showed pity and used your power to heal. You fulfilled your task. Now you know you can call on the energy of Lleuad and the power of arian at any time. We know you will use the skill for the good of all.”

  “Um, thank you,” September murmured, trying to take in what had happened and what Arianrhod had said. The starstone would do anything she wanted, if she made the correct choice of action. Despite her revulsion she had acted to help the people out of sympathy and compassion instead of simply protecting herself, and in her response she had drawn the power of the Moon through the starstone.

  “Goodbye and good luck with your task,” Arianrhod said, “we trust that you will push back the Evil and restore goodness throughout the universe.” All the spirits raised a hand to wave to September. She wanted to ask more but she felt herself rising from the surface, leaving the Moon behind her.

  She was in space again, the Moon receding beneath her feet. She looked up and saw the Sun above her, but she did not seem to be heading exactly towards it. She strained her neck to see where her trajectory was taking her. She saw a small, pale white disk that grew rapidly. Where was she heading now?

  The Earth and Moon became tiny dots while the white planet became larger until it filled her sight, with the Sun, now over her shoulder, also larger and brighter. I’m travelling through the Solar System towards the Sun, September thought, so the next planet must be Venus. She had learnt that the planet was a fiercely hot world covered in an atmosphere of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid but she descended to a shining, smooth ocean of silver liquid with no hint of atmosphere to hide the Sun. Her feet touched the surface of the liquid but did not sink into it. It looks more like mercury, September thought.

  As on the Moon, she was soon surrounded by spirits to the horizon but these were men and women glowing with a silver coloured light. They were unfamiliar but then September recognised a face; it was Eluned, and next to her was Heini. Both of them were cludydd o arian byw. This must be the planet Mercury.

  “Hello, September,” the spirit of Eluned said. September was delighted to see Eluned looking, at least in spirit form, fit and well. It seemed so long since she had last seen her lying injured on a bed in Amaethaderyn. Nevertheless she was confused.

  “It’s lovely to see you Eluned but I thought I was coming to Venus not Mercury.”

  “Mercher is the next planet closest to Daear after Lleuad,” Eluned replied.

  September was quite sure it wasn’t the same at home, but she was getting used to things being different here.

  “You look well, Eluned, or am I just seeing some kind of ghost of you?”

  “This is my planetary spirit, September. I still live on Daear, but it is a true reflection. I am fully recovered from my injury.”

  “That’s great. I’ve been worried about you. You saved me from the Ceffyl dwr.”

  “No, you saved me, September, by wielding the Maengolauseren.”

  “Well, I did something, I’m not sure how.”

  “That is why you are with us now; to learn how to wield the power that lies within you.”

  “That is what the spirits said on the Moon. They gave me a task which showed how I can use the stone to heal like the silver that Arianwen has.”

  “Yes, and here you will discover the power of arian byw.”

  “I already have. The mercury you gave me helped me find the stone when it was lost at the bottom of a lake. It turned me into a mermaid.”

  “I’m glad my gift was of use, but its powers were limited. With control of the Maengolauseren you will be able to call on the power of Mercher directly.”

  “You have a task for me like the Moon people had?”

  “Yes. It will lead you to an understanding of the secrets of arian byw. Good luck Cludydd.”

  She was back on what looked like Earth. A grass-covered plain stretched ahead of and around her. In the distance was a hazy, purple range of mountains. The sky was blue with fluffy white clouds. She felt warm although she appeared to be only clothed in the blue white light of the Maengolauseren. The place was unknown to her and could have been her home, Earth, or the Land, or indeed somewhere else entirely. There was just one other feature. A path stretched in front of her, a sandy coloured line that snaked across the green plain until it was lost in the distant haze.

  September looked around. She was alone. What was her task? She looked at the starstone that she still gripped in her left hand. It was clear and dark but offered no clues. For want of anything else to do she started to walk along the path. She tried to think. What were the
special qualities of mercury, or arian byw as Eluned preferred to call it? In her first task she had needed to show sympathy and then the healing power of silver was channelled through the stone. There was a clue there. An emotion triggered the reaction of the stone. Previously when she had used the starstone it was because she had experienced fear and anxiety. So what emotion would enable her to use the power of mercury? The metal had the property of changing its shape; it was liquid, and hence it gave its bearers, such as Eluned, the ability to change their shape, or the shape of other things. She remembered the shock of seeing Eluned change into the dolphin and, before that, appearing as a tiger. Her abilities were unexpected, surprising. That is it! September danced with glee. The emotion I’m looking for is surprise. Eluned used the surprise appearance of the Adarllwchgwin and the Ceffyl dwr to change her shape. The shock of the loss of the Maengolauseren had enabled her to use Eluned’s gift to become the mermaid. The power of arian byw was to react to the unexpected, to change oneself or one’s surroundings.

  She had been walking for some time while thinking, just following the path across the endless plain. She had no idea how much time had passed. The sun did not appear to have moved. The mountains, she decided, must be miles and miles away because they did not appear any closer than when she had arrived. There seemed little chance of a surprise here; the more she walked the less change there appeared to be. The landscape was featureless and nothing could creep up on her. If anything unexpected was going to happen it was going to be due to her. Then she understood. The trigger was to do something different, unpredictable, unexpected. But what? She had been a rather unimaginative child, had always done as she was told, a bit boring really. How could she suddenly do something different?

  She stopped. Why was she following this track? It didn’t seem to lead anywhere. She was just plodding along it because it was there. That was what paths were for. As always, she was following convention; keeping to the path laid out for her. She made up her mind. September stepped off the path and walked across the grass. She felt the starstone come alive in her hand. It felt hot. She ran and skipped.

  “I want to fly,” she shouted at the top of her voice.

  She was swooping through the air, skimming across the plain at speed with great cobalt blue wings stretched out beside her. A flap of her arms and her wings scooped the air and she rose. Her nose and mouth felt strange; she had a beak. She wiggled her bottom and her tail wagged. She was a bird, flying; yes, she really was flying. Soaring up into the sky she headed for the mountains. They appeared closer. Snowy peaks, craggy cliffs and deep valleys appeared. She banked and swept down a cleft between sheer rock faces then, climbing, she headed for the summit of the highest mountain.

  She was back on the silver-white plain of Mercury with the spirits of the cludyddau around her.

  “Well done, Cludydd,” Heini said.

  “Yes, September. We knew you could do it,” Eluned added, clapping her hands excitedly. Murmurs of approval came from the other spirits.

  “I think I’m getting the hang of these tasks now,” September said, feeling proud of herself, “I have to find the right emotion to trigger the action I want. It took me a bit of time. I’m just not good at puzzles; never have been”

  “But you were excellent September. You soon realised that with arian byw you have to be ready for the unexpected,” Eluned said.

  “Now you can go on to your next appointment,” Heini said. Already September felt herself lifting off the ground.

  “Goodbye, and thank you!” September called as the crowd of spirits receded, each individual waving.

  In moments she was back in the blackness of space, the planet Mercury dropping away from her. She felt buoyed up by her success at solving the riddle of the task and filled now with the power of silver and mercury she looked forward to her next encounter. Surely it must be Venus next. She looked up. There was the Sun, still a little off to her right but ahead, growing quickly, was an orange disc.

  A hot world with a poisonous, corrosive atmosphere; that was what she remembered about Venus. But that was in her universe. Neither the Moon nor Mercury resembled what she had learnt in school so Venus too would be different. Which metal was connected with Venus? She wracked her brain to recall; it was so long since that first meeting with the Mordeyrn when he had presented the metals and their bearers to her. It would not be long before she found out as the disc grew quickly to fill the sky.

  She was standing on an orange plain and approaching her was the expected throng of spirits. This time they shared the orange hue of their planet. She remembered – copper, of course, and there was Catrin, who had given her the little speaking horn, and Anarawd together at the forefront to greet her.

  “Welcome, Cludydd, to Gwener,” Anarawd said.

  “Thank you, this tour is fun. It’s nice to see you again Catrin, so I can thank you again for my present. It saved me after Cynddylig drowned and the boat sank.”

  “I am pleased, Cludydd,” Catrin replied, “it was given to you to be of use.”

  “Now the Maengolauseren is teaching you its power,” Anarawd said.

  “Yes, I’ve learnt how to control the powers of silver and mercury. Now I will have to find the emotion that gives me the power of copper.”

  “That is true. Efyddyn draws its energy from Gwener and our task will show you how,” Anarawd continued.

  “You have all the love we can give you,” Catrin said.

  She was nowhere. She felt as though she was standing on a white floor with whiteness all around her. Were there walls and ceiling or did the whiteness just go on and on? There was light but it had no source; it surrounded her. She was alone, simply clothed in the blue haze of the starstone.

  “Hello. Is anybody there?” she called, but her voice even sounded faint to her own ears so obviously it didn’t carry. She felt isolated, far more so than on the vast plain of the previous task. At least on Mercury there had been colour and perspective. She sat down, crossed her legs and wrapped her arms around herself. She had to think.

  What were the skills of the bearer of copper? The little horn that Catrin had given her allowed her to speak to Aurddolen across hundreds of miles, and she had seen Catrin wield a pole that captured electricity from the air to fire a bolt of lightning at the Gwyllian. That meant that copper somehow allowed communication and channelled electricity. The bearers of copper must provide a link between the widely spread communities across the Land and the conduction of electricity gave them a useful weapon against the Malevolence. But what emotion was needed to trigger it?

  September rocked and tapped her hand against her forehead. Something Catrin said was a clue, she knew it was. What did she say? “You have all the love we can give you.” Of course! How could she be so dumb? Venus was the goddess of love. Love was the emotion. It was love for her people that enabled Catrin to create the communication links, love for her fellow villagers that enabled her to protect them by blasting the Malevolence’s monsters to dust. So, September had to feel love in order to draw the power of copper from the Maengolauseren. There was only one problem, she couldn’t think of who she loved.

  The starstone was gripped in her left hand. She unfolded her fingers and looked at the dark, lifeless pebble. Perhaps love of her mother and father would do it. Did she love them? Of course she did, they had brought her up, looked after her, protected her when people called her names. The stone remained cool and unmoved. That love was not strong enough. What about love for her sisters and brother? Gus was usually annoying but her sisters were pleasant to her; she must love them. The starstone did not respond. She had girl friends but she couldn’t honestly say she loved them. No boy had ever shown any interest in her so that was a non-starter. Hold on though. What about Tudfwlch? They had got on well and she had grown to like him until he was injured. Having to kill the monster he had become still hurt her. She felt grief, but it wasn’t love and the stone remained dark. Sieffre had shown a lot of concern for her and she liked
him. They had even kissed. The starstone remained resolutely unchanged. That was all; there was no-one else she could feel love for.

  She was stuck; trapped in this white prison because she did not feel enough love for anybody. She might be imprisoned here forever if she couldn’t find the key to love. She felt sorry for herself. Herself? Did she love herself? Most of her life she had been disappointed with herself. She was slow to learn, no good at anything, fed up most of the time because everything she tried failed. She was useless at every sport she attempted, she couldn’t even catch a ball; clumsy when Mother showed her how to sew and cook, and when she’d picked up Julie’s clarinet she couldn’t even get a sound out of it. Whenever she gave up something, she ate to make herself happy and then was disgusted when she put on weight and looked fat. There it was – she didn’t love herself. That was why the Maengolauseren was lying in her hand lifeless. She was going to be stuck here forever.

  Catrin’s last words went around her head, “You have all the love we can give you”. Catrin thought she deserved her love and the love of the other copper bearers. She remembered the joy of the spirits of the Moon and Mercury when she succeeded at their tasks. They loved her. She had solved their problems. She recalled how Aurddolen, Berddig, Sieffre and all the others had congratulated her each time she had driven off the manifestations of the Malevolence. They thought she would succeed. Here, she was a success and she was learning new skills with the starstone.

  September stood up, stretched her back, felt the strong taut muscles in her body. She loved the body she had here. Yes, love. She did love herself. The stone in her hand suddenly felt hot. She looked at it. It was glowing. She clasped it in her hand and raised her arm and shouted out,