Kalani upset me for what she had done, however being brought in front of the Council for yet another scolding, upset me more. We were both hoping Kalani would be given probation, or be held in the compound for a short time. We wished to get on with our lives.
“Kalani Inoke Novo, you have mocked this Council with your actions. Not only did you break a sacred law, you did it for personal reasons. You've both been warned many times the perils you would face if you ever altered the fate of a human without permission. You leave us with no other choice. The two of you will be a reminder for all eternity for all, who believe you can mix your duty and love for each other. Before you were joined in your union, you were lectured that your marriage would fail. Now it has. You must pay for your failings. Kalani Inoke Novo, kneel before this Council and accept your punishment.”
Seconds later, I fell to the floor. Any other time a soul is taken, I would feel power rush through my veins, and then allow a time for my body to readjust. This time nothing but hatred, despair, sorrow, and pain filled my being like never before. Not only was it cruel for the Council to rule with such a vindictive force, but to do it so suddenly.
The only person other than our son and parents, who I truly loved, had been taken from me. It took every ounce of energy left in my body to peer up at the Council and beg them to undo what they had just done. All I could see was the disgusting sneer on the face of Elder Orcus. He seemed to take pleasure in removing my beautiful Kalani’s soul and even more pleasure in making me watch. I wanted to kill every one of the six men looking down on us. The anger and pain was overwhelming.
Exhausted, I slowly pushed my body to stand, pointing my finger at the six men, who would now be my enemies until my last breath.
“Why?" I asked. "Why would you commit such a heinous act on someone, who lived within your rules every waking moment? She was protecting me. I beg you to give back her soul and remove mine. I am the one who deserves to suffer.”
“But you are paying for your sins, Caeles. The Council knows it is far worse for you to watch her suffer every day. It would be too easy for you if we removed your soul too. This is your punishment. As for her, she knew the risks. She contacted me and told me your situation and I gave her a strict command not to leave your home. She disobeyed my command.”
I wanted to jump up on the dais and slit the throat of all six men. The rage pulsating through me was an emotion I had never previously experienced. As I took a step towards them, a warning bellowed in my direction.
“Should you take one more step, you can join your wife with your soul in the abyss. I know you feel anger and despair but it will soon pass. When it does, you will continue with your duty. The emotions you are experiencing will only aid you to become more efficient with your work.”
I knew he was right in that I could never reach him before they removed my soul, but remaining a soul stealer was never going to happen.
“With all due respect to you, Elder Orcus and High Council, my time as a soul stealer ended the second you removed Kalani’s soul. I will not accept any more assignments.”
“Caeles, you might be an educated creature, but you're not very smart. You will continue your missions or more pain and suffering will enter your world. Should you decide to stop stealing, the next to suffer will be your son. If you do not accept the next mission, we will strip his soul in your presence. The next will be your mother, your father. Anyone who represents joy will be taken from you. Do not stand there thinking you can dictate to this Council what you will and will not do. You will continue your duty and will do it with honor. If not, we will destroy everything you love. Now, pick up what remains of your failed past and wait for your next mission.”
I eyed Kalani, knowing my wife would never recover. I felt dead inside. It was as if I had lost my own soul and more. I sat next to her on the cold stone floor and pulled her into my lap. There was little sign of life in her eyes. Her body lay limp against mine. I pulled her into my chest, tears gushing down my face. I begged her to utter a word, anything. Nothing, she was motionless.
Her heart beat against my chest, but it was the only sign of life. Hate now consumed my body. I again looked at the wretched men who did this to her. They were all sitting high in their chairs looking down at the floor watching me clutch her in my arms. My resolve to kill them all was now as hard as the stone floor underneath me.
Hours passed. I couldn't move a muscle. The Council had departed the chamber, leaving me alone with Kalani draped around me. During those hours when I could focus my mind, it wavered between revenge and the good times I shared with my wife and family. She started to gain some of her former self, but not much.
She could speak slowly, but with little meaning. The few words that I could decipher made little sense to me. Her once strong and vibrant personality had transformed into someone I could now sense was fearful of her surroundings. When I looked deeply into her eyes, as I had so many times in the past, I saw emptiness. I knew I had to be strong for her. I also knew it would be impossible to explain to my young son why his mother might never again be able to communicate with him.
I hired a private plane to get her back home. Kalani was in no condition to travel on a commercial airline without drawing suspicion. It wasn't an easy trek home.
No one has ever been able to explain to me why everyone seems to act differently should their soul be taken. Maybe it’s the more you believe, the more you feel the loss. All I knew was that Kalani was not the same person.
I was forced back to work or risk losing more of my loved ones. Maybe the Council would not really take my son’s soul, but I couldn't take that risk. Kalani’s mother and father had been taking care of our son in our home. They were there when we arrived back in California.
Her father was raised and educated to heal, but within seconds he fell to the floor in despair. Her mother’s sorrow manifested itself as she pounded her fists in my chest in anger until she no longer had the energy. It was the second hardest day of my life. Kalani would desperately attempt to communicate, but it was maddening trying to understand her. After the initial shock of it all, we decided to move Kalani and my son to Tahiti, where her dad had his hospital, and Kalani could get care from her mother. I was in no position to raise my son at this time.
The night before we were to transport them to Tahiti, Mikael Sano again came to me in a dream.
“Caeles, develop your powers. Speak with the Doctor. He knows the secret. It's a difficult journey but one you must take.”
This replayed in my brain, until I could no longer stay asleep. I woke to a cold sweat with Kalani’s warm body neatly pressed against me. I didn't understand my dream, but it was worth questioning her father to see if he knew more.
“Doc, I had a strange dream about developing some type of power and you could help me. Does that mean anything to you?"
“What type of power, Cale?”
“I really don’t know, but as odd as this might sound, it was delivered by someone or something that has come to me before. I almost think I am being told to develop the power to restore Kalani’s soul. Does any of that make sense to you?”
“It makes perfect sense to me. It’s your guilty conscience trying to lead you down an empty path. My daughter will never be the same and there's nothing you can do to repair her. I suggest you accept it and move on. You'll have to live with what you did to my only daughter and not let your guilt crush you. In time, maybe I will forgive you, but not today.”
“Hold on, my guilt? I didn’t do this to her. I didn’t want her anywhere near that place.”
“Then why did you call her, Cale? You knew she wouldn't harm find you. The same way you fought to save her back in Hawaii. Did you believe she would do less for you?” Face it. You put her in a position to choose between you or our laws.”
“I did no such thing. I called her to update her. I would have never allowed her to take someone’s soul to rescue me.”
“Oh, you did that for her, and you also set a truck on fire w
ith people inside.”
“Can you help me or not, Doc?”
“I can help you by taking my daughter and my grandson back home with me, other than that you are on your own.”
The next few months, I ripped out a soul every few days. To me they were all faceless people, who meant nothing to me. I no longer cared if I thought they were deserving of it or not.
I was doing exactly what the Council wanted in becoming a heartless monster, but that is not the way it was seen. I was doing my duty in keeping our kind alive. The one thing that I did notice was that because I was stealing more than a soul a week, my mind was becoming sharper, my body stronger. However, even though my body and mind were never stronger, my life had no meaning. I felt nothing. I raced from mission to mission making sure my son would be safe. I considered suicide once, but the thought of leaving my son and even Kalani behind was too painful.
While on a mission in Florida, I stopped in to visit with my parents. I told my mother about the dreams I was having and about Mikael .
"Yes, I know Mikael ”, my mother said. “He's our family guardian. It's time you heard the truth. It was preordained that you would be joined with Kalani. Mikael assisted in seeing that it happened.”
I sat up and moved to the front of my chair.
“What are you telling me? It was an arranged marriage made without our knowledge? How did that happen and why would anyone care if we were married?”
“Caeles my darling son, it's time you learned the truth about our family and the history of our kind. I'm not sure Kalani’s family knows the truth. I assume they do, but I have never spoke with them in fear if they didn't know, it could cause major concerns with the Council.”
“Spit it out, Mom. What are you trying to tell me?”
“How did you meet Kalani?”
I was getting very anxious as to where this was leading. “You know how we met. I was on holiday in Hawaii, wandering around the market place and she asked me for help with her camera.”
“Exactly, and who nudged her in your direction telling Kalani that you were the one who could help her. Who was it?”
“Are you telling me that Mikael made sure that I met Kalani and kept nudging us together?”
“Yes that’s what I'm telling you.”
“Why? What’s all this about?”
My mother took a deep sigh and looked at me with that soft caring look that only a mother could offer.
“The short answer is that your blood is a perfect match with Kalani in order to create more children who can restore souls, like you my son.”
“I don’t restore souls, mom. I take them, or have you forgotten? Stop holding back and tell me what is going on here.”
My patience was running short and my anxiety level was rising.
“Caeles, if you were ever to repeat what I'm about to tell you, it could lead to your immediate death at the hands of the Council. I haven't told you because I was afraid you would not be able to keep it to yourself. This is not to be taken lightly. If the Council knew your true identity, you would be executed.”
Her words were met with great speculation on my part.
“The Council loves my work. There is no way they would harm me as long as I keep stealing souls for our kind.”
“You're not listening to me. Our family bloodlines have been manipulated for the past three generations. It was done to significantly increase the odds that you would develop the power to restore souls.”
“Mom, there were times I felt uneasy taking a soul and yes a few times I would have liked to have given it back.Now with Kalani, I would do anything I could to return her soul, but I do not have the power. I do not think the Council does either. Do they?”
My mother let out a long sigh, as if to encourage me to listen closer to her words.
“The mission of the original one hundred, who were given the power to steal, also had the power to restore. The mission was never about theft, Caeles. The original mission was one of redemption. The original one hundred of our kind would take a soul only long enough to offer redemption and later return it. Most humans, even if they deny it at first, will seek a second chance to see the beauty in our world. Rarely will anyone turn down redemption.”
"If your story is true, then what happened to our powers?”
"As time passed, some did not seek redemption. The Elders recognized that when we kept the souls for ourselves, our own powers grew stronger. Over time, we fed on the poor choices of others and became ever dependent on that power. Eventually, there was no turning back. The power to restore souls was destroyed by the Council. However, they were smart about it. They slowly eroded our powers so that few noticed and greed for more power consumed our kind. As long as we were fed with the souls of others, our kind didn't care who we stole from. The Council made sure the bloodlines were thinned out and anyone who still had the power to restore was sent on dangerous missions and were killed. The others were so dependent on the souls of others that no one saw the horror around them.”
I sat back in my chair, running my hands through my hair and staring off into space, trying to imagine if all of this was true, and what it all had to do with me and possibly Kalani. I then remembered when I was in the compound and had read one small line in a book about restoration. Was it possible we really did have the power to restore?
“Caeles, why do you think the Council was so opposed to you and Kalani being married and removed her soul so quickly? She handed them the excuse they had been looking for so the rest of our kind wouldn't look harshly on their decision. The Council never encourages two, who have the power to steal to marry. They will however allow two like your father and I to join, since neither had the power to steal."
I thought she had delivered enough shocking news for one day, but there was more.
"I have the power, my son, always have. I chose not to tell the Council or your father. Your father comes from the original one hundred bloodlines with his ancestors only one time having mixed with pure human form. He should have developed the power to steal, but he has too kind of a heart. That side of him runs through you. My side of the family tree has never taken a pure human for a mate. Kalani’s bloodlines are direct descendants from the original one hundred without a break in bloodlines as well. However, the records in our official documents kept by the Council don't reflect that fact. They've been altered. The Council believes they have eradicated all the pure bloodlines from the original one hundred. They are wrong. If they knew the truth, we would all be eliminated too, as would your son.”
I suspected this was possible for years, but never wanted to investigate the truth.
“I'm in a bit of shock mom. Why'd you wait so long to tell me?”
“Because, you weren't ready to restore, nor did you have a burning desire to try. The master plan was that my offspring would be more likely to be able to regain the power to restore. As much as it pains me to know Kalani sleeps without her soul, I believe it has a purpose.”
“How were the documents altered?”
“As you know, all of our history of births and bloodlines are kept secure near the site where our original power was granted. As the years passed, our God grew angry with the Council’s decision to eradicate our original mission of redemption. Mikael tells me that rather than destroying us, being a merciful God, we too have been given the chance at redemption. In 1693, there was an earthquake. For several days, no one was able to reach the official documents. Mikael was given the chore to alter the records and make it look like the few remaining families who had not mated with humans did so and remove any chance the Council would find ways to have them mate with pure humans. Mikael asked every other generation not to steal souls to have it appear as if our powers were weakened. This is the reason why I don’t steal. Mikael has been joining those few families since 1693. It has taken this long to regain our original powers. I'm not certain you'll develop the power of restoration, but you must try.”
“How do you know a
ll of this is true mom? Who told you?”
“Mikael of course. He's been sent from the heavens to restore our original powers.”
I sat chuckling in my seat, not so sure all that she told me was true.
“Caeles, I know you are unsure of Mikael . I know your faith is weak right now. You grow stronger in mind and body with every theft. I can see it. However, it’s wrong. You must believe in Mikael . He's a strong spirit sent from the heavens. He knows how to proceed past the gatekeeper, where all lost souls remain, while their owners are alive on earth. I believe him and you must too. Embrace your dreams when Mikael comes to you with his words. Even you must admit he helped you save Kalani back in Hawaii and you in Chicago. Yes, I know about it, he told me. It's time to take the new path he has laid out for you long before you were even born.”
CHAPTER Twenty
Soul Intentions Page 20
