The Power of Seven

by Peter R. Ellis

  “It’s after me,” September said, feeling the fear she needed to activate the starstone.

  “Of course,” the woman said, “You attract them.” She raised her hand. As far as September could tell she held no starstone or metal or any other object. She merely flicked her fingers. There was no beam of light, no explosion of energy, the giant reptile simply vanished.

  “It’s gone,” September said, open mouthed.

  “Returned to the dark,” the woman said off-handedly.

  “You just made it go.”

  “I manipulated the dimensions of the omniverse, dispersed its elements and relocated the spirit.”

  “But if you could do that so easily, why not get rid of the rest?”

  “Why should I? The experiment is over. The Malevolence can have this paltry little universe.”

  “But the people…”

  “They’re part of it, a combination of four elements.”

  “And a spirit.”

  “Hmm. That is true.”

  September stood in front of the woman and glared at her.

  “I’m not sure I understand any of this but I have learnt that the people here have their lives. If they are overcome by the Malevolence they lose all their individuality and become spirits of hate. That’s not a fate that they want.”

  “It is a waste.” The woman looked pensive.

  September was frustrated and angry.

  “Is that all you can say? Look, I don’t know whether I believe all this stuff about creating whole worlds but you seem to have a power which could save the people of this planet, perhaps save the whole universe. Help me push the Malevolence away and let these people live.”

  The woman chewed her lip and looked at her three fellows. They had stopped their work and were looking at September.

  “The girl has a point,” the man who had been stirring the cauldron said.

  “You know it has been amusing seeing how the intelligences have coped with the limitations of this world,” the other woman said.

  “Why allow it to destabilise now before we’ve wound it up?” the other man added.

  “It is a little annoying allowing the Malevolence to have its way,” the woman sitting in front of September said.

  “So help me,” September insisted, “show me how I can drive the spirits back to the dark.”

  “It will require more than your little bit of egwyddorpum,” the woman said.

  “I realise that. Why can’t the power you used against the Pwca be directed at all the spirits of the Malevolence?”

  “Oh, that was nothing, just a local distortion of the dimensions. To specifically exclude all the parts of the Malevolence from this universe while leaving its occupants untouched; now that is a more difficult task. It would be easier for us to dismantle the whole system.”

  “How can you help me then?” September cried.

  “She will have to work within the confines of this universe,” the other woman said.

  “Yes, using the principles we built into it,” the cauldron man agreed.

  September looked anxiously from one to the other. Did they mean that she had to work with the four elements and seven metals? She remembered Aurddolen’s accusations of heresy.

  “Aurddolen said that there were rumours that the Cemegwr had powers over the elements that no cludydd had, powers that it was forbidden to even suggest,” September said.

  “That is true. We spread those stories to keep our presence here a mystery.”

  “Well is it true? Do you have those powers?”

  “Of course. They are ideas that came from your world. The secrets of the alchemists.”

  “Turning lead into gold. The Philosophers’ Stone. The Secret of Eternal Youth,” September cried excitedly. It all tied in with what she had read on the internet.

  “Yes. The Maengolauseren, a piece of egwyddorpum, is a sort of philosophers’ stone. Our recipes can use the stone to bind all the metals together as one and through the emanations of egwyddorpum spread their power throughout the universe to the sphere of stars.”

  The woman had grown excited. She got up from her chair and went to the man by the cauldron. The other man and woman joined her. They muttered together.

  “Give us the Maengolauseren,” the woman said.

  There was more crashing in the forest, this time from all directions. September glanced at the stone in her hand. It was pulsing with violet light. Pain shot through her hip.

  “Manifestations,” she said.

  “Yes, I know, more are coming,” the woman said, “I told you that you attracted them. Give me the stone.”

  September looked around at the swaying trees and deafening sound of splintering wood.

  “But…”

  “We’ll deal with the manifestations. Give me the starstone.”

  One man and the other woman moved away from the forge and came and stood between September and the forest. They looked into the trees. September made a decision, reached out her hand and passed the starstone from the palm of her hand into the woman’s. She felt naked, powerless. The Maengolauseren had not been parted from her in the Land except when Tudfwlch had torn it from her. She recalled the loss she had felt when that happened and her response – she had killed him. She trembled. The woman dropped the stone into the pot and stirred it with a long wooden spoon. The liquid churned and smoked and glowed violet and red and green. There were smells; some sweet, some acrid.

  Behind her there were screams and roars and the thunder of falling timber. She turned and saw a horde of manifestations pouring into the clearing. There were all sorts, Adarllwchgwin, Llamhigwyn y dwr, Tylwyth teg, Coblynau, Cefyll dwr, Gwyllian, Cwn annwn, and Pwca in grotesque imitations of animals. Overhead was the glow of falling Draig tân and, despite the noise, above it all she heard the chilling moan of Cyhyraeth.

  She shook with fear, defenceless, petrified.

  The man and woman in front of her stood unflinching and like the woman earlier, simply raised their hands and flicked their fingers.

  There was silence. No, not quite. There was a light breeze that made the branches in the treetops rustle. The manifestations were gone, every last one of them.

  September drew air into her lungs. She had forgotten to breathe.

  “There will be more,” the man in front of her said calmly, “There is a powerful attraction between the Malevolence and the Maengolauseren, but do not be afraid. You are safe.”

  September turned back to the cauldron. The other man and woman were still stirring and adding powders and crystals both orange and purple. The liquid shimmered and steamed and then quite suddenly settled and cleared.

  The woman put a spoon into the liquid and lifted out the Maengolauseren.

  “Take it,” she said to September.

  “Is it hot?

  “No.”

  September took it from the bowl of the spoon. Its violet light had dulled but otherwise it looked unchanged by its immersion in the chemical mixture. It was its normal temperature, a little cold against her skin. The man took a flask made from a material like clear glass about the size of a perfume bottle, dipped it into the cauldron and drew it out filled with a colourless, clear liquid which moved like syrup. He fixed a glass stopper in the top of the flask and handed it to September. She held the stone in one hand and the flask in the other.

  “What do I do with it?” she asked.

  “Ask your cludyddau friends to gather samples of each of the seven metals,” the woman said, “Melt them together with your starstone and add the Alkahest. You will be enveloped in the fundamental energy of this universe and reborn as the union of all the elements with the power to eliminate the Malevolence from within its dimensions.”

  “Oh.”

  “But you will need Malice.”

  “Malice? Why?”

  “She is the cause of the disturbance. She has given the Malevolence leadership, directed the spirits to achieve the greatest destruction. You must pull her from the dark
ness that has been her only experience till now. She and you are more than just twins. Your spirits are one. The Alkahest we have given you will rejoin your two parts, make you complete and give you the power you should have had to overcome the Malevolence.”

  “What must I do?”

  “We can’t know the thoughts and feelings of every spirit in the multiverse. You and your mother must find a way of drawing Malice to you when you perform the transformation.”

  September felt frustrated. It seemed that she had been given the key to fulfilling her task but then it had been taken away and replaced with this further problem – how to win over Malice.

  “The future of this universe is in your hands, September Weekes. We will observe whether you can save it.”

  “What? Can’t you help anymore?” September cried. Her head was full of confused ideas, questions. “I don’t even understand who you are.”

  The woman did not reply but simply gave an enigmatic smile. The image of the woman and her companions began to break up, the mirror splitting into shards again. They didn’t disappear in a flash of light as September did when she performed symudiad nor did they depart in a puff of wind or water or dust or flame. The pieces turned and broke into smaller and smaller fragments until they weren’t there anymore.

  September was alone, in an empty clearing carpeted with leaf litter.

  There was a roar from the forest. September turned to look and saw another army of manifestations emerging from between the trees. They were crawling, staggering, running, flying towards her. Each set of flame-red eyes focussed on her. September didn’t think to destroy them; she just thought of Aurddolen in Mwyngloddiau.

  20

  Aurddolen and his companions recoiled as September materialised amongst them.

  “You were not long, Cludydd,” Aurddolen said pulling himself upright, “the sun is still rising in the sky although it cannot be seen behind the dark clouds of abomination and the hordes of manifestations that besiege us.”

  Sieffre held Hedydd in a protective hug while Ilar held onto a table for support.

  “That’s good,” September said, “perhaps we still have time.”

  “Your quest was successful?” Cari asked, picking herself up from the stone floor, “You have a container in your hand that you did not have before.”

  September looked at the flask that she grasped in her right hand.

  “Yes, I found the Cemegwr,” she replied, wondering if indeed she had located them or they had drawn her to them, “They gave me this. They called it the Alkahest.”

  Aurddolen looked sceptical.

  “And what does this Alkahest do?”

  “They say it will unite all the metals with the egwyddorpum of the stars and enable me to push the Malevolence from the universe.”

  “Ah, it is a Toddfa Penbaladr.”

  “A what?”

  “A liquid that can dissolve everything, that can be contained only by a material that we have no power to devise.”

  “It looks like glass,” September said, peering at the small clear container.

  “So these Cemegwr have decided that they are on the same side as us,” Aurddolen said.

  “Well, I think it’s a bit more complicated than that,” September replied, unsure how much she should say about what the Cemegwr were, not that she was certain herself. Aurddolen was however looking at her quizzically.

  “More complicated? What can be complicated about being for or against the Malevolence?”

  September was trying to think of an answer when a blast of air almost knocked her from her feet and Aurddolen and Cari and the others were again blown to the ground.

  Breuddwyd appeared, in a heap on the floor.

  “Mother, what happened?” September knelt, confused because her hands were full but wanting to reach out to her mother. Breuddwyd stirred and heaved herself up, pushing on the floor with the hand grasping her half of the Maengolauseren. She pressed her free hand to her forehead.

  “I found her. I found Mairwen,” she gasped.

  “Where? What is she doing?”

  Breuddwyd sat up, looked around a little dazed, then looked back at September.

  “She’s at the observatory, the Ars…”

  “Arsyllfa,” September filled in.

  “That’s it. She’s brooding. Angry at losing Heulwen and her power here. Anxious about what our return means to her plans. Impatient for the final destruction of this universe.”

  “You talked to her?”

  “No, I wouldn’t say that.”

  “How do you know all those things then?”

  “I’m her mother, September. I understood what she was feeling from the insults she screamed, the bolts of darkness she threw at me and the expression on her face.”

  “Oh. She didn’t listen to you then.”

  “She never gave me the chance.” Breuddwyd hauled herself to her feet and looked at Aurddolen. “I’m sorry about your daughter, Mordeyrn. Mairwen was just using her.”

  Aurddolen looked at the body of the young woman, still lying amongst them.

  “She was lost, like the Arsyllfa, weeks ago. Cari, Sieffre do you think you could remove her body to the House of the Dead? Then we can get on with what we must do.”

  Sieffre and Cari nodded and with help from Hedydd and Ilar, lifted up the body of Heulwen. As they passed through the doorway, September called after them.

  “Oh, and please find all the other cludyddau. We all need to meet as soon as we can.”

  “All the cludyddau?” Aurddolen asked, “What is your intention, Cludydd?”

  September brandished the flask.

  “The Cemegwr said that I needed samples of all the metals from each of the cludyddau. They have to be melted together and then I add the Alkahest.”

  Aurddolen shrugged.

  “I know nothing of this Alkahest, the Toddfa Penbaladr, or the ritual you describe, but if you think these Cemegwr can be trusted it shall be done.”

  “I am not sure that I trust them but I think this is our only chance of defeating the Malevolence,” September said. “There’s one more thing.”

  “What’s that?” Breuddwyd and Aurddolen said simultaneously.

  “Malice must be with me when I do it.”

  “This ‘union’ of the metals involves you and her?” the Mordeyrn asked.

  “Yes. It will end her power and give me control over the Malevolence.”

  “So the Cemegwr say.”

  “So they say,” September agreed.

  “They seem to have been able to convince you of their skills and their good intentions in a short time, Cludydd.”

  “They did.”

  “You found them? They helped you?” Breuddwyd said excitedly.

  “Yes, Mother. I’ll tell you all about it later.” There were many things that September wanted to discuss with her mother but she wasn’t sure that Aurddolen should find out who the Cemegwr really were. How would someone like the Mordeyrn react to being told that she had met the creators of his world and that they didn’t really care much about its inhabitants?

  “How are you going to get Malice to join you in this ceremony?” Aurddolen said sceptically.

  “I don’t know,” September admitted.

  “You can’t bring her here without lowering the dome you created,” the Mordeyrn continued, “and as soon as you do that the manifestations will destroy us all.”

  “Aurddolen’s right,” Breuddwyd said, “Mairwen is very powerful. I discovered that just now. Neither I nor you can overpower her and make her go somewhere she doesn’t want to go.”

  “Well, that’s it. We must lure her to the place where we carry out the union. Make her follow us there. Let her think she is chasing us.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Breuddwyd agreed, “but where? If we choose any settlement there will be people who might get in the way and they will be killed or turned to evil.”

  “We need somewhere we can protect where there aren’t any pe
ople,” September said. They were silent.

  “There is a place,” Aurddolen said, “a place where no people go; far away from any community and far away from the greatest concentration of the spirits of the Malevolence.”

  “Where?” September and Breuddwyd asked.

  “Diffaithmawr.”

  “Where?” they both asked again.

  “The great desert beyond the southern plains.”

  “Where I defeated the Malevolence,” Breuddwyd said.

  “Yes. That’s right. Not even the nomads travel to where you threw back the evil.”

  “Tudfwlch told me the story about how you defeated the Malevolence and I read Heulyn’s account of it,” September said, thinking back all those weeks to when she was new to the Land.

  “I think it would be the ideal place for us to meet Mairwen and finish this for good and all,” Breuddwyd said.

  “I hope the Cemegwr have spoken true and that this Alkahest is the solution we seek,” Aurddolen said. He pulled himself erect, “I must go to see that my daughter’s body is accorded the care she deserves, and I’ll help collect the cludyddau for you.” He nodded to both of them and left.

  September was relieved that she and Breuddwyd were alone for a while. She quickly recounted what she could recall of her conversation with the Cemegwr. Breuddwyd was confused.

  “Were they angels?”

  “I don’t think so. They didn’t wear white or have wings and halos and things.”

  “And they didn’t mention the Holy Father?”

  “No Mother. There was no mention of anything religious at all. She even denied being a god of any sort. I don’t get it but she seemed to suggest that they inhabit a greater universe. I don’t think I saw them as they really are or even the whole of whatever they are. They were like the manifestations of the Malevolence. They had adopted human bodies to be part of this place.”

  “Are you sure they were not the Malevolence? Your Mordeyrn seems suspicious of them.”

  “He doesn’t like having his beliefs questioned, but I’m sure that what the Cemegwr told me was true. They weren’t like anything to do with the Malevolence, and they weren’t filled with hate.”

  “They seem very strange beings and I don’t know what to make of their warnings that our home is being attacked by the Malevolence.”