Blakeshire

by Jamie Magee

  We call energy vim. It’s an amazing power, something as light as air but as powerful as the sun itself.

  We could use Guardian’s tether to trace his vim, to see him in all walks of his course, and subtly we could send dreams through the line of energy; we could send signs to him. I say we, but I mean the Allurest. They are the ones with that connection, and they are the ones that know if he is indeed off course. My job is to keep it secure and call him back when the time is over.

  “Everything is established for you. Your dreams will be immediate. In the first life, they will guide you clearly. As the lives move on, the dreams of us will fade; instead, you will face the consequences of whatever actions you took in that first life, whether they were good or bad. I personally will pull that tether of vim the second your time is up. No matter what age you are or what you are doing, you will be called home. Bear that in mind.”

  One nod. Nothing could make this boy back down.

  Rat-a-tat-tat.

  Guardian smirked at me and from the sleeve of his robe pulled out two sticks and handed them to me.

  I took them with a furrowed brow.

  “Drum sticks,” he said as if he were teaching me a lesson.

  “I know what they are.” I tilted my head. “I just didn’t know that you played,” I said with a peculiar smile.

  “I don’t. You do.”

  “Sure. Allurest.”

  He mocked the beat I always pounded, telling me to use the sticks. Just to amuse him, I played the beat, and then another and another. It was the oddest thing. It was like waking up, finding the keys to your cage, finding a spark to light a fire on a cold night, the warm sun after a cold rain. Instant. Addiction.

  “Told you so,” Guardian mocked.

  “Did you see that?”

  “Me? No. I have lived with a drummer almost my entire life. You’re all alike.”

  I laughed aloud as I thought of Cashton, my other pupil, a boy that had a crest like Guardian and me. He was a musician. I believe his entire family was. More than once, he had tried to get me to come over, but I always made an excuse. I had to watch The Fall. I had to watch for lavender waters, or the moment my twin would cross a line that I could not bear to let him get away with.

  “It’s your vice,” Guardian said to me. “We all have one.”

  “And what is yours, Guardian?”

  “Man of the flesh.”

  “Really?”

  He laughed a boyish laugh. “Flesh of one. And I will return with her.”

  Now he spills it. Minutes before I was to set him free, he unveils that he was not going over there to find balance, peace, or to help, but to find a girl. A girl that he would not return with because no one here would allow a soul born and bred in the dark reality to live here, not in this day and age.

  Anger swelled in me. I had spent far too much of my time with him. There were other crested souls I could have been working with. Cashton’s sister was ready to start her lessons, and I’d heard the other girl was a breath away from her time to leave.

  As if he could read me, he spoke again. “Balance. We are but half, and I must find the rest of my soul to bring the balance we all need.”

  “She’s hurt?” I asked in a ghostly whisper, wondering why he would risk so much knowing that even if he did reach his prize, our world would rip it from him.

  “Not if I can help it,” he said in a deep, reverent tone.

  Other members of The Selected were lining the rampart. No less than a hundred stood on each side of me and Guardian now. Behind us, two piers above us stood Camlin. He was a member of the Hermetic Realm, apparently sent here to watch over our processes, to evaluate them. In my opinion, the only things he ever evaluated were me and my recent pupils. Camlin kept his distance when I worked with Cashton, but for the past few days he had all but breathed down my neck as I prepared Guardian.

  I could feel his smoldering glare on my back. I would not put it past him to stop this passage, to find some way to stop Guardian Falcon. I took it upon myself to ensure that did not happen, using my own vim as a barrier around Guardian. He noticed instantly. “That one is trouble,” Guardian said with unmoving lips.

  “We can handle him. You. Focus.”

  The sun and moon were aligning, and the emerald waters began to rotate, giving a luminescent glow to each of us.

  Guardian shed his white robe and stood before us all. At this moment, he was standing at the threshold of life and death. Creating one with the other. Knowing that he would die countless times before he returned in a few short days.

  “You must hold on to one thought, one desire that encompasses your soul’s desire,” I coached once more. This was the thought he’d been told to meditate on over and over again.

  This was the most challenging crossroad anyone could stand before. He would not return as he left. His soul would carry tracers of the lives he was about to live. His lineage would be blinded to him, and when he returned he would fight the battle to claim who he once was and then finally merge his new past and present into one. No one ever came back the same. Ever.

  Some say the soul is truly awakened on the dark side, that there you understand what is worth fighting for—and what isn’t.

  “I will relinquish fear,” Guardian said calmly, keeping his gaze forward.

  At first I thought that was a far too basic and selfish thought, especially if he had fought for these three days only to find a girl, but something in his tone led me to believe he did not mean that he would not be afraid or that he would ensure this girl would not have fear, but that he would conquer that emotion for all of humanity. It was the most impressive declaration I had heard in recent memory.

  I kept my questions and observations to myself as I spoke what I always said to those that dared to cross this Fall. “Today, the soul you are will perish. Your course will be challenged. You will strive to embrace symmetry whilst fighting egotism. The chasm of your being will never be alone, but at one with all of us. You will hear us in your darkest hour. Embrace the simplest signs, for they are the voices of those who have gone before you and that remain behind.”

  After one deep, shuddering breath, he leapt at the vortex, into the spinning emerald waters.

  I focused my vim on him, protecting him from any harm that Camlin could dare to send his way.

  Right then, something abnormal happened. The spinning waters, right where Guardian was pulled under, started to create a circle, a spinning circle of ice. Its shape was absolute; no jagged edges at all. Even though winter was not far off, those waters were not cool enough for that formation.

  I didn’t have time to understand that awe.

  Once The Fall opened, other souls—or rather, shells of evil—began to seep through. Of all the days Guardian could have chosen, this had to be the worst. Darkness was invading, screaming through the waters.

  Every one of my men prepared for battle, prepared to send those ravaged souls back to where they came from. It was a war of energy, of vim, one that we would win, as we had each time before this day.

  One by one, I aimed a blow of vim at the dark souls. It was a thoughtless process, one that I did without mercy. I doubted in this advance any one soul would have survived. A spike of grief came to me as I realized the chances of Guardian making it across unscathed were near nil. Not good. Especially since his father and brother were watching this passage from a distance.

  Somewhere in this battle of light and dark, through the screams of the damned, my eyes saw something that seized my soul. Lavender waters.

  I am still eternally grateful for every soul that encouraged me to write/ publish my debut novel Insight.... thank you once again.

  I also want to thank my husband, Lem, for listening to my random thoughts and ideas as each of these stories came to life, he is not only the love of my life but the man who keeps me sane on this insane adventure. I want thank my children who inspire me to become more than I am today with a simple glance, and the echo of laughter and
joy that surrounds me constantly.

  I want to thank all of my wonderful beta readers: Sabrina Wells, Jennylynne D’Andrea, Steffini Walker, and Jan Galloway,

  GWE along with Todd Barselow for editing my daydreams.

  Most of all I want to thank every-single reader for sharing this adventure with me! I love you all and I am eternally grateful for your time and support :)!