by A.J. Aaron
“Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much of life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.”
Henry David Thoreau
28
Leyna and I had a great lunch with Alexander and then relaxed, reading some books. I found “The Akashic Experience” by Ervin Laslow in the library, which described much of what Aysel was teaching us. Leyna ate bonbons and read a Danielle Steel novel while wearing fuzzy slippers and sweatpants.
For supper we decided to make some steamed clams with garlic and onion sauce and a bottle of Pinot Grigio with some brie, crackers, and currants. Alexander kept a good selection of foods on hand for whatever anyone might want. Of course, we could probably conjure up our own, but there is a special magic in preparing the food by hand. Maybe it’s the anticipation and the smell of it cooking.
When we were done, Aysel arrived all suntanned and sparkling from the flecks of sand still on her skin. Her hair was tousled and there were bruises on her neck as if she had been strangled.
“Hey there, kiddos. Ready to go to some night clubs?” She looked in the serving bowl and took out half a shell, scooped up a clam and sauce, and tasted it. “Mmm. Leyna, I didn’t know you could cook.”
“I don’t. Sevi made it.” Leyna walked over and brushed the sand off Aysel’s shoulders and the bottom of her back. “Been laying on your back on the beach, huh Aysel? Looks like someone was choking you, too, from the look of these bruises. I’m beginning to see an image of—”
“Leyna, dear, it is none of your business what I do with the other divinities. The Islands were beautiful. Perfect weather and the sand is so soft, you don’t even want a blanket to sit on.”
Aysel spun and the bruises and sand were gone, her hair refreshed and she wore a short revealing clubbing dress, with what must have been six-inch, strappy spiked heels that made her look like she was standing on her tip toes.
“Better now? I guess I should have cleaned up before I got here, but I thought we were family now. Who are you to judge me?” She glared at Leyna, then smiled and tossed her hair back.
Leyna looked sheepish. “I’m sorry, Aysel, I guess I’m still jealous from before, and trying to diminish you however I can. I promise to be better. Yes, I would like us to be family.”
“Good, then no worry.” Aysel kissed Leyna on the lips gently then poured herself a glass of wine. “Where shall we go? The world is our playground.” She took a chair at the table and waited for suggestions.
I gave her my thoughts. “Well, it’s six p.m. here, too early to go out, making it midnight in Europe, and early morning in Australasia. California is still working, and Hawaii is sleeping late. I say it has to be Europe.”
“That narrows it some, my Sevi. Any particular place in Europe?”
“The only places I know are the ones I went to with Leyna. I’m not sure it would be safe for her to go back there.”
“Leyna could be a totally different person if she wanted to. She could be blonde and petite instead of raven and tough.”
“Raven and tough?”
“Got ya again, sweetie. It is so easy to light your wick. You know what I mean. You could be a man. The point I’m making, while giving you opportunities to stay in control and not get angry, is no one would know you were Leyna if you changed your appearance.”
“I know, and thanks for all the training I’m getting. There’s a place I liked in the Stare Mestro called The Frigola Project. Maybe I’ll be a tiny blonde in high heels. I always wondered what it would feel like to be one. What do you think, Sevi?”
“Sounds good to me.”
Aysel took each of our hands. She looked at Leyna, changed her to a petite woman with long silky blond hair down to the top of her rump, and dressed in a similar clubbing outfit to Aysel’s, but a different color. Leyna was feeling her new body while Aysel gave Leyna more cleavage and larger breasts, lips, hips, and bottom with large doe-like eyes.
I had to comment. “Aysel. Come on now, you’ve made her into the epitome of a female sex machine. She’s more of a caricature than Barbie.”
“Is that bad?” Aysel said as Leyna ran off in her one-hundred pound, five foot tall body, clicking in her super high heels to look in a mirror. She screeched and laughed while she came clicking back to us.
A tiny bimbo voice came out of her swollen lips. “I can’t believe it. I look like I was designed by a man, for a man. It works for me. No one will recognize me, that’s for sure. I feel so tiny and sexy! And this voice!” She let out a bimbo giggle.
“Good, now for Sevi.”
I got larger and taller. About six foot two and I noticed my muscles thicken all over my body—not excessively, but firm. Then I felt washed and cleaned and in a black silk suit with a black shirt and super comfortable black loafers. I checked the mirror. My face and hair were the same, just larger to fit the body.
“Okay, let’s go.” Aysel took us by our hands and my skin crawled as we left for Prague.
The bar was as I remembered it. It was one where I watched Leyna as she acquired new victims. It was filled with a mixture of Russians, Czechs, English, and Americans, with some Polish and Germans. The music was pounding downstairs as we all went upstairs to the bar. I saw Martin, an old friend from my last trip.
“Sevi, you look different, but the same and well. How did the lady do? I saw the pictures in the paper.”
“Thanks. Been working out a little, and the lady is fine. A complete recovery. You look well, too, Martin. Can you make us some drinks?”
“I have made a new one, which I think the ladies and you will love.”
“Thanks, Martin, sounds great.”
I gave him my credit card and leaned against a stool while we all looked around the room. There was a bar and a lounge with leather seating and hardwood floors. A light system decorated the walls with changing colors as a huge disco ball hovered, spinning slowly, over the stairs going down to the disco below. Martin came back with the drinks and handed me my card.
“Taste. If you don’t like, then free.”
“Mmm, good.”
“Oh yes, very,” blond Leyna said with those wide doe eyes.
“I’ll have another,” Aysel said then drank it down.
Martin poured her another. “Keep the tab open, Sevi?”
“Yes, thanks.”
We took our drinks to a pit of plush leather seats around a coffee table and sat.
“Leyna, I remember watching you as you collected your victims here. Do you remember doing it?”
“I do, but I don’t remember why I was doing it. It’s as if I were someone else. Like my life before, working at Progpark. I remember some of the things I did and wonder why I did them. But, since it seems like it was someone else, it doesn’t bother me. Just seems odd I did them.” Leyna sipped her drink and looked around the club while Aysel chair danced in her seat.
“Wanna dance?” Aysel prompted with a big smile. “I need to find someone to dance with.”
Bimbo voice spoke up. “I think they’re all checking me out, Aysel. You did too good a job on this body. I wonder what’s going through their minds. Wouldn’t it be something to be able to read people’s thoughts?”
“Leyna, honey, you can. Just open your divinity hearing. Feel the energy and connect to it, then ask for the doors to their minds to open. Ask and ye shall receive.” Aysel motioned with her hands as if offering it up to Leyna.
I watched as Leyna pulled energy through the floor into her. She closed her eyes, showing her eyeshadow, and then they snapped wide open and she screeched and put her hands over her ears.
“Ahh! Stop, stop! That was a little overwhelming. Such a cackle of voices. It sounded like the whole world was talking at once.”
“Well, it probably was. I guess I should have told you to focus it a little tighter. You can hear the world, the room, or one person’s mind.” Aysel sat back grinning.
Leyna’s face flushed red. She squinted, smooshed her lips togethe
r, and concentrated on Aysel. She looked like a baby filling a diaper.
Aysel laughed at the sight of Leyna, the angry bimbo. “You don’t have to squint, and I’m not opening my thoughts to you so don’t bother. We can shield our thoughts from others, too. Try someone else.”
I tapped into Leyna’s head and could hear her bitching to herself about Aysel. Leyna looked at a guy walking by that stared at her from head to toe, then stood at the corner of the bar looking at her. Leyna covered her mouth and leaned over to me while Aysel started laughing.
“He’s thinking bad thoughts about me. He wants me bad. What a creep.”
“Hey, you forget, you were a hottie before, and you’re an even more obvious hottie now. Don’t blame him. Are you gonna take him up on it?”
Leyna gave me a dirty look. “Just when I get myself squared away, you ask me a question like that? No, I just want to be with you, Sevi.” She leaned over and blew me a kiss. The guy staring at Leyna moved on. Leyna turned to Aysel. “Is that why you’re doing this? So you can play around with some guys a little, and test me some more?”
“Honey, I just wanted us to have fun. I also wanted to see if you’d fall back into your old role of victimizing these guys. I guess not. Come dance with me. Sevi, grab our drinks and find a place for them downstairs where we can sit after, then come dance with us.”
I did as my great grandmother told me; I found us a good seat and joined the girls to dance. I tried out the mind reading some more and, if the girls weren’t with me, they’d be receiving plenty of offers.
We did have fun that night. We went bar hopping until four, got a hotel room, and stayed the night. I just couldn’t bring myself to have my skin crawl and travel after all of that drinking. I was afraid we might end up somewhere we didn’t want to be. I think Aysel may have had the same feeling, since she didn’t leave either.
The girls slept in the bed together and I slept on the couch. I thought it might help Aysel and Leyna to become better friends.
“Morning, Aysel,” I said as she came into the living room of the suite, barefoot and wrapped in a hotel robe.
“Morning, Sevi. Shall we climb up to the palace while we’re here? You created all those Czech crowns last night and we shouldn’t waste them.”
“Excellent idea. Let’s wash up, eat, and we can go.”
Aysel harrumphed, blinked her eyes at me twice, and her hair flew around her as she magically cleaned herself and changed into jeans and a tee shirt with sneakers.
“I’m ready. Let’s get the princess up, okay?”
We woke Leyna, readied ourselves, and ate downstairs. Then we were off to hike through the ancient city streets. The city must have been one of the more magnificent ones back then, having been built in the 1300s. It was a perfect seventy degrees. Everything was idyllic.
We walked through the narrow cobblestone streets to the Charles Bridge on the Vltava River. The sun warmed my shoulders as we perused the cart vendors’ wares on the bridge; beautiful paintings from the local artists, some decent looking jewelry, photographs of the city, and so on.
Thirty statues lined the sides of the bridge. All the statues had certain areas on them where Christians had worn off the oxidation on the bronze where they’d kissed it or placed their hands. Aysel walked up to one glistening spot, put her palm on it, and closed her eyes as if in prayer.
“Come here, both of you, and feel this. Just take the energy, asking to feel and hear the remnants where you touch.”
We both placed a hand on the spot where Aysel’s was. A shiver ran through me. I closed my eyes as Leyna tensed while I held her other hand. I saw an old woman asking for youth. I saw a young man asking for love. I saw the crying mother of a sick child and felt her pain. It streamed into me like a rapidly changing movie, full of emotions, feelings, and voices. Just like reading the minds that were in a language other than English, I could understand what they were saying. I stopped, Leyna stopped, and we both looked at Aysel.
“You can connect to any one of them and change their lives. You can touch any object and read from it whatever emotional attachment the person rubbing it had. It’s like a tape recorder.”
Leyna said, “Is that what you do? Help answer these people’s prayers?”
“No. I suppose I could, but in most cases it wouldn’t help them long term, unless it were part of the lesson they were to learn in this life. That is, if the person was supposed to have a miracle in this life and I answered it, it would be proper, but if they weren’t, I would make more of a mess for them, since it would ruin what they were trying to do in this life. The life they chose before they incarnated.
“You could ask to hear the prayers of people as well, like the minds we read, and you could then sort out ones you were able to help.”
Leyna tilted her head and nodded. She swept her long blond hair over one shoulder. “I see. So we shouldn’t solve problems for people at random.”
“No, sorry, you’ll have to be sure it’s the right thing to do. You’ll feel you want to, but you have to ask the question, or else you won’t know for sure and you’ll run around wreaking havoc, being a barnacle on the wheel of people’s progress through the spiral of life. If you want to answer prayers, you have to ask to hear ones that need to be answered. That alone could give you enough work for your immortal lifetime.” Aysel looked at Leyna, who nodded, and then she looked at me and I did the same. “Okay, touch the statue and tell me the year it was put here.”
We did and Leyna and I both spoke at the same time like two shocked students.
“1969!”
Aysel spoke in Gaelic now. A language with a sixteen-letter alphabet and twenty-six implied letters. The old language sounded beautiful, but not many would understand it, which is why Aysel was using it. Leyna and I didn’t miss a beat as she spoke.
What she said was, “Yes, the originals were placed here in the 1600s, long after the bridge was built, but then the statues needed to be replaced and so the originals were put into a museum. They started replacing them in 1965 and the one you touched was replaced in 1969.
“See the information you can obtain? Some older souls, present day witches, wizards, gurus, sorcerers, and so on, can do these feats, as well as the mind reading we did last night. It’s actually one of the simpler abilities of a god, but quite entertaining and useful.”
Leyna and I looked at each other and I could tell she was as much in awe as I was. These powers were a big responsibility. How would we ever decide how and when to use them and not make a mess of things? Leyna grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight.
Aysel grabbed my other hand and tugged us along, continuing to speak in Gaelic as she went. “Don’t worry, I know it seems overwhelming. Maybe that’s why I’m such a flake sometimes. You have to have fun, too. What’s the point of being ever powerful, omnipresent and immortal, but not having fun? You can’t get too hung up on it all. Follow your heart and you’ll know what to do. Just don’t get over zealous, and beware of the downstream ramifications. Look at the alternate paths—especially in politics and large-scale adjustments.
“Sometimes what seems bad at the moment, ends up being the cause of good in the future. If it weren’t for some of the bad guys, we may have destroyed ourselves already. But, their badness caused ripples of goodness to be able to continue from a higher level. Without them, we may have perished.
“Go slow, my children. Enjoy, be blissful, that is your first task.”
Leyna clung to me, her hands around my arm as we walked, as if I prevented her from stumbling. I pulled my arm free and wrapped it around her tiny shoulders and she wrapped her arm around my waist. It felt so good to love and be loved by her. I knew why I went through all that trouble five hundred years ago.
Aysel walked in front. She looked back and picked up speed. We let each other go to keep up with her. We were at a trot when I realized no one except the three of us were moving. Leyna screeched again, stopped, and held her hand over her mouth. Aysel heard her, an
d came back.
“Ah, another overwhelming ability. Kinda neat, eh? You can use this when you want more time to make those last minute decisions. You know, the ones where things are happening fast and you’re not sure what to do.”
People started moving again. “See, they never knew it. Time is remarkable, an illusion—just another dimension. We can exist in time while we can stop theirs. We could bring them with us if we chose to, as well. Nevertheless, it tends to freak them out, so it’s not advisable.” She laughed. “C’mon, let’s cross the bridge into Mala Strana.”
Mala Strana was a town with narrow streets and granite cobblestones like the rest of Prague, but older and quainter. We browsed the myriad of tourist stores and smelled rich foods from the restaurants.
We stopped for some pastries. Cinnamon, sugar and dough were wrapped on wooden dowels and cooked over charcoal. They were fantastic.
Aysel pulled me down so she could whisper in my ear.
“Watch this. We can plant thoughts into people’s heads. I’m going to suggest he give another one to Leyna for free.”
The man cooking the pastry suddenly looked up from his work while Leyna finished her roll. He took one off the rod and wrapped it in a napkin.
“Miss, it seems the one I gave you was too small for one as beautiful as you. I apologize. Please, take another.” He smiled widely as he handed it to Leyna, who accepted his gift.
“Dekuji,” Leyna said with a big bimbo grin.
“Prosim. Prosim,” he replied happily.
“See, sometimes things can make people happy. Even if I did put that thought in his head myself.”
Leyna came over, eating her pastry, and I whispered what happened.
“Aysel, you took my fun away. I thought he did that himself. We can do that, too?”
“Of course. Just use the methods you’ve been using with your intentions and it will work.”
“Isn’t it wrong?”
“No, I don’t think it is life changing. It just made you and him happy for a short time. As I said, you can have fun. It’s allowed.”
Aysel ate the rest of her pastry as she moved us past the embassies for the different countries on the street we climbed. The doors of the embassies were magnificently carved and decorated. The street was steep, but the smells and sights kept us moving upward.
We finally reached the top of the hill where the palace and the cathedral stood. We strode through the yard of the palace up to the cathedral and Leyna had to ask Aysel some more questions. “What can’t a god do?”
“Nothing. Well, they can do nothing, too, but there isn’t anything they can’t do. Along with the things we’ve already done, they can turn people into frogs, have them fall, make people hear or see things, fly and, pretty much, if you can think of it, you can do it.”
Aysel raised her hand. “Oh, sorry, except we can’t stop wars, and we can’t stop people from killing other people. Well, we can, but the ramifications of interference, as I said earlier, must be checked very thoroughly, or fixing a bad, can make a real, real bad. Lastly, free will reigns. We can put thoughts in their heads, make them feel things, but they ultimately decide what to do.”
“So after it’s all been said, we’re kind of powerless?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. We can have lots and lots of fun. We can help situations, too, but you will need to be cognizant of any ramifications.”
“Okay, so what are all the seven gates? Why does learning the seven gates make us a god?”
“It is the definition of the seventh gate, that’s why. Let me explain the gates.”
We walked past the cathedral headed toward the grape vines planted on the hill. On the way, we saw a group of tourists in front of a bronze statue of a naked, teenage boy, looking skyward. A spot on the statue, where everyone rubbed him, was polished and shining. Girls were giggling as they looked at his shiny male part. They were deciding whether they should do it. We all got a laugh and kept walking.
Aysel continued teaching. “The first gate is aligned with the first chakra. Chakra study is another way to get here over lifetimes, and all of this is in the Akashic records, by the way. The first gate gives us the feeling to want stuff, and the drive to get it. Trying to gain fulfillment through material things, right Leyna?”
“Oh yeah.”
“The second gate is for sexuality, desire of any kind, the center of physical strength and enthusiasm. The center for creation and creativity, sociability, friendliness, and self-worth. This gate energy is required to fire all other gate energies.
“When the third gate has been achieved, self-esteem and self-worth, gut feelings, intuition, and spirituality occur. Spirituality means the spirit inside of the machine. It supplies energy in the form of heat, power, and enthusiasm. When the third gate is open, you have found your own gift, work that gives you pleasure and makes you feel fulfilled. When you’re at your third gate level of development, it's appropriate to build a positive self-image—ego. You will let go of it at the sixth. The third gate is the force behind our will.
“In the fourth gate is the ability to give and receive love. People feel exceptionally good about themselves. When this gate is attained, the heart opens wide, a person’s sexual and power centers are enhanced and people find they’re writing, lecturing, or singing with a new zest, which other people find irresistibly attractive and even charismatic.
“The fifth gate is the center for communication. Through this, you can learn to accept your true nature and acknowledge your divinity. Psychic ability is here, and access to the Akashic records.
“The sixth gate holds higher intuition, metaphysical knowledge, and psychic ability. Whatever you can conceive here, you can achieve. Our aspirations are literally created here. Think it and it is.
“Finally, the god gate, the seventh. You become the divine nutcase. Sound familiar? We are utterly beyond laws and norms, unpredictable, and unaccountable. Your behavior could very well be considered antisocial, amoral, and incomprehensible. Your morals are according to your own ethics.
“You have the potential to transmute matter into energy and energy into matter as we’ve seen. Sexuality isn’t likely to be as interesting as it was, though it still isn’t too bad, trust me,” Aysel said with wide eyes and a big grin. “But since you have a form of energy exchange that’s quite ecstatic now, though it is not focused at any particular part of the body, body sex is not quite as pleasurable as the energy exchange is.
“Since all the bodily cells can be transmuted and renewed, you’re capable of immortality, miraculous healings, and raising the dead. I say yuck to that, though. I’m ready for a refreshment.”
Aysel looked around then continued. “Since you both have all the knowledge you need now, you’re there. The only thing that will change is you’ll grow better at everything through your experience and use of the Akashic records.”
Aysel walked up to a cart where a vendor was serving local wines along with coffee and tea. We joined her.
“We’ll take three spiced wines, please.” She must have placed a thought in the girl’s head, since the girl winked at me and handed me a larger glass than the rest. I thanked her, “Dekuji Vam.”
“Prosim,” the girl said as she smiled and winked at me.
I nodded my head and smiled. “Thanks, Aysel, not necessary though.”
“Just playing, Sevi. Mmm, good wine. Love the spices.”
We walked the path toward the grape vines and were able to look out across the city from the height we had climbed. The view was tremendous.
Leyna tapped my cup to hers and sipped as she wrapped her arm in mine and looked at the view. “Beautiful, isn’t it? Sometimes I’d come up here and sit on the grass looking out. It was one of the few things that made me feel good.”
Aysel commented, “You needed to do more things like that, Leyna, and you wouldn’t have gotten in such a state as you were. That’s all water under the bridge, though.” Aysel sipped her spiced wine as she looked at
the view.
As I looked out, something changed. The traffic sounds below stopped, the chirping in the trees stopped. The clouds just hung there motionless. I breathed in a sulfur-y stench. I looked at Aysel and heard Leyna gasp.
Aysel grinned a little and shrugged. “I think I forgot to tell you one other thing.” She looked around and we all saw that everyone was frozen in time.
“Aysel, did you do that?”
“Not me, but I think I know who it is. Michael, come here quick, Seth is here!”
