by H. R. Moore
However, Anita’s surprise was quite different to Cleo’s. Apart from the city, which didn’t feature, this was identical to the cliff in her mind. To her surprise, she felt afraid. She had never been here before, so how was this place in her head and why without Kingdom? Alexander smiled sheepishly and sent a nudge to the edge of her energy field, but it had no impact and Anita’s mind started to race. Was it someone from Alexander’s family who’d put the cylinder in her head? Was that how the cliff had got there? Did Alexander know something? Had he brought her to Kingdom under false pretences?
Alexander felt Anita’s energy turn wary, wishing they were alone so he could reassure her. He had wanted to warn her before the trip, but he hadn’t been able to get anywhere near her since drinks at The Island, Marcus had practically been her shadow for the last few days.
They pulled up to the front door, Cleo talking at a hundred miles an hour about how wonderful the house was and how lucky Alexander was to have such a spectacular view, but nobody was really listening. They climbed out of the car to be greeted by the housekeeper, Mrs Hudson, who ushered them inside. They entered to find themselves in an enormous glass topped atrium that basked the internal courtyard in light, Alexander quickly whisking them away from the feathery space to show them to their rooms. They climbed one side of a double staircase, turned left at the top and followed the corridor to the end, where Alexander opened a door to reveal Cleo’s gargantuan quarters.
‘You’ll be in here Cleo. Your bags should already be waiting for you. We’ll see you downstairs for supper at eight, that should give you enough time to freshen up?’
Cleo barely heard what he said. She was preoccupied with the extravagant four poster bed and view over the bay. ‘Uh-ha. Yep, sure thing. See you downstairs,’ she replied, not even looking at the others.
Alexander dropped Bas off in the room next to Cleo, before leading Anita over to the other side of the house and opening an understated door into a smaller, but truly beautiful room. Anita, who had thought nothing but suspicious thoughts since she had seen the view, softened as she took in the proportions. It was big, but not ostentatious, full of gorgeous draped fabric, and had a weightless, carefree feel to it. The ceiling to floor windows let in so much light that the room seemed to almost radiate it, and provided an uninterrupted view out over the perfectly manicured lawns that seemed to skip to the edge of the cliff and then jump off into the sea below. But the jewel in the crown was the sight of Kingdom, which seemed to almost levitate above the sea. There must be so much power in the city, thought Anita, that it wouldn’t be surprising if it was supressing its energy, causing it to lift a little off the ground.
Alexander had been watching Anita as she took in the room and the view, searching for the right words to apologise. ‘Anita,’ he started almost hesitantly, ‘I’m really sorry.’ She turned slowly to face him, quizzing him with her eyes, but didn’t say a word. ‘When we arranged to come to Kingdom I knew I had to tell you. I was going to tell you in our next lesson, but Marcus hasn’t let you out of his sight long enough for me to get anywhere near you.’
Anita could see Alexander was telling the truth and could feel it in his energy, which he was making no attempt to hide, but she wasn’t ready to let him off the hook quite yet. ‘Why didn’t you tell me when we first meditated to the cliff?’ she asked, her tone neutral.
‘I didn’t really know how to.’ He paused, looking, if Anita was not mistaken, a bit embarrassed. The impervious Alexander embarrassed, wonders never cease, she thought. ‘I thought you would be suspicious of me if I told you, and I have no explanation for how the cliff got into your head, I have no idea why it’s there. And I thought it best to keep anything personal out of our lessons. You know how Marcus feels about us spending time together at the best of times, can you imagine how he’d react if he found out one of the places in your head was here?’
‘How would he find out?’
‘You might have told him.’ He said it matter of factly and it felt like he had just shot an arrow through her arm. Not a fatal blow, but painful none the less. He didn’t trust her.
‘I need time to get ready for dinner,’ said Anita, clearly indicating it was time for Alexander to leave. Alexander looked for a moment like he might refuse, before whirling around and gliding back through the door, his energy supressed so Anita couldn’t read it. He opened the door next to Anita’s and entered his room, resisting the urge to slam it closed behind him. He unconsciously made his way to his bed, his feet leading the way, his mind racing through replays of what had just happened as he sat down and then lay back on the fluffy duvet, running his hands through his hair and then holding them there, each one pulling on a section of his dishevelled mane. You total idiot, he scolded himself. That couldn’t have gone any worse if you’d tried.
*****
As eight o’clock neared, Anita left her room and went to find Cleo. She wasn’t going to tell her about what had happened obviously, but she felt like some company, so she tiptoed past Alexander’s room in her floor length goddess gown (another purchase from Temple Mews when she’d been told she would need to dress for dinner) and gold sandals and went in search of her best friend.
Anita got to Cleo’s room just as Cleo was coming out. She looked spectacular, as always, in a floor length silk chiffon dress that wafted around her legs as she walked. ‘Hey,’ said Anita, ‘you look amazing.’
‘Thanks. You don’t look too bad yourself,’ she smiled back, feigning surprise.
‘Very funny.’
‘Ready to make our grand entrance? I think the boys have already gone down.’ Anita nodded, turned around and headed for the staircase. They made their way down the sweeping stairs and into the atrium where the others were already sitting, sipping spectacular looking cocktails from crystal glasses. The boys stood up when they entered and Anita thought how funny it was that getting dressed up could bring out one’s best behaviour, as she was introduced to a man named Anderson.
‘Anderson is a relic specialist,’ said Alexander to Anita, ‘and Anita is an energy specialist, she works in the Observatory with Bas,’ he said to Anderson.
Anita blushed. ‘I’m not sure I would quite describe myself as a specialist,’ she said quickly, ‘but I do work with Bas, who definitely is one. But a relic specialist? How interesting,’ she chirped, deflecting the conversation away from herself, ‘I had no idea such a profession existed.’
Anderson looked a bit shifty, ‘well it doesn’t really, not officially. The Descendants, specifically Austin, banned it a couple of years ago, not sure why, but they tend to just let me get on with it.’ He smiled a smile that said ‘no more questions please’ and turned to introduce his wife. ‘Anita, this is my wife Arabella, she assists me with my research.’
‘Hello,’ said Anita warmly. Maybe she could make friends with Arabella, who could shed some light on what exactly a relic specialist does. ‘It’s so nice to meet you. And what great timing,’ she said, quickly pressing on before someone else butted in. ‘We’re going to see the relic tomorrow, for me it’s my first visit, and it’d be so great if you could join us?’
Anderson looked shifty again, like he was trying to find the right way to say no, but before he could, Arabella agreed. ‘Yes, of course we will. It would be our pleasure.’ She knew Anderson wouldn’t like it, but Arabella had heard a great deal of gossip about Anita since they had got back to the city, so she wanted to see for herself what all the fuss was about.
After a couple more lethal, yet delicious cocktails, Mrs Hudson ushered the group into the dining room. It was like the rest of the house, large, spacious, light and sophisticated, but not in any way grand or stuffy. The whole house felt like it wouldn’t be out of place on a mountain top amid the clouds and the dining room was no exception. Anita found herself between Alexander and Anderson at dinner and pointedly turned away from Alexander so as to shut him out of the conversation. She was still feeling hurt after the revelation earlier and had no intentio
n of making life easy, not for a little while anyway.
The meal was delicious; whoever Alexander employed to do his cooking was extremely skilled, and when Anita overheard Alexander telling Arabella that a lot of the food had been grown in the garden, caught on the estate, or fished from the sea, she relaxed her stand against him. It was becoming hard work to keep up without looking petulant anyway.
They were just getting onto a spectacular cheese course, when Bas couldn’t contain his excitement any longer and asked, ‘Anderson, if I’m not mistaken, you used to study energy, especially energy transfer. What made you change your focus?’
Anderson smiled warmly at Bas. ‘Yes, I did indeed. I worked with your father at one point as I spent a great deal of time in the Observatory when I was younger. Energy transfer and destruction is a fascinating area. Of course there is no way to truly destroy energy, you just have to find ways to hinder its transfer from potential to actual, divert it, or find ways to use it up at a faster rate, however energy transfer is a much more delicate topic. I studied it for years. Back then there was a great deal more interest then there is now, as that was effectively what people were doing when they transferred secret messages…’
‘…hang on, what?’ Interrupted Cleo, annoyed that she couldn’t quite keep up, especially when it was about her specialist subject. ‘What do you mean people transferred secret messages? Who did and why?’
Anderson waited for a few moments, hoping that someone else would step in and explain, but given that nobody took up the reins, he continued. ‘A few decades ago, the world was a dangerous place. Peter was born into the Body bloodline and this caused widespread disruption, panic, conspiracy theories, prophecies that the world was now doomed, and crucially, powerful factions began to form. Some rallied behind the Descendants, believing they would find a way to free the world before Peter ever came to power, some turned to the academics for answers and funded research into the relic and the energy, and one group formed with the aim of keeping the energy steady, so we could go on living normally regardless what happened with the relic. This group was called the Institution; they were particularly elusive. They took great pains to hide their work from anybody and everybody, but especially the Descendants, for whom they had a significant disregard, thinking they weren’t doing their bit to free the world.’
Anita shot a look at Alexander to see how he was taking this slight, but his face was as steady as his energy, so she turned her attention back to Anderson.
‘But as I am sure you can imagine, views questioning the authority of the Descendants were seen by many as treason, so the Institution had to operate in the shadows, passing messages carefully and without evidence between members. To do this they used a method where they would plant a message in the brain of another, the message taking the shape of a brass cylinder. When the person next meditated, they would come across the brass cylinder, open it in private and respond in the same way. This process is essentially a transfer of energy from one person to another and nobody to this day really understands how it’s possible, hence the research people are doing into areas such as this.’
Anita knew from Cleo’s energy, not to mention how still and upright she had grown in her seat, that she had hundreds of questions she was dying to ask, but instead she nodded along with everyone else, pretending to understand exactly what Anderson was talking about.
‘Everything eventually settled down, I think people had had enough of living their lives having to look over their shoulders, and people started to use brass cylinders to store energy instead. Either they would store information and memories that they wanted to share with people, or information and memories they wanted to hide. The fascinating thing about this was that if someone stole a cylinder with someone else’s memories, the energy would strain to get back to its rightful owner. This breaks all the rules we understand about how energy works and is why it lures so many academics in to study it, it’s truly baffling. I used to study energy transfers like this, however I came across the idea that maybe sending the relic home had something to do with energy transfer, so turned my attention to the relic.’
‘How did you come across that idea?’ asked Anita, captivated like everyone else, except Alexander, who was observing Anita.
Anderson closed down as soon as the words were out of Anita’s mouth and she immediately regretted saying them. Luckily, Alexander came to her rescue, ‘poor Anderson. He comes over for a friendly dinner and ends up doing a post-dinner key-note. I think it’s time to take coffee and nightcaps in the library.’
Anita shot a grateful look in Alexander’s direction before following the others out of the dining room. Something interesting definitely going on there, she thought as she entered the library and helped herself to a walnut liquor on the rocks in a beautiful crystal glass tumbler.
Several hours later, after Cleo and Bas had retired to bed, Arabella decided it was time for them to make their way home. They thanked Alexander for a wonderful evening and he got up to show them out, leaving Anita alone in the library with a view out over the bay. Feeling pent up after all the talking and more frustratingly skirting around the edge of some very interesting topics, Anita left the library and headed to the cloakroom where she selected a floor length, black hooded cloak for herself and a floor length red cloak for Alexander. She swung her cloak round her shoulders and fastened it using the heavy, ornate broach attached to its neck before heading to the front door. Alexander appeared just as Anita got there and was about to close the door behind him, but before he got a chance to, Anita threw the red cloak at him and disappeared through the door and down the steps, without so much as a backwards glance to see if he was following her.
Alexander stood dumbfounded for a second, watching Anita start to run across the grass towards the cliffs, weighing up his options before giving fully into temptation and flying down the steps after her, throwing his cloak over his shoulders in an easy movement as he went.
Anita could feel Alexander’s energy chasing her and her energy soared as he closed in, her sky high heels slowing her down as she sprinted. Adrenaline pumped through her veins and pushed her energy higher still, her cloak and dress streaming out behind her, an ecstatic smile on her lips. She had just about reached the edge when Alexander caught up, grabbed hold of her hand to slow her to a stop, and spun her around to face him. As he did it an explosion of tingles cascaded through their fingers then raced around their bodies. They locked eyes to question and at the same time affirm that the other could feel it too. Without moving his eyes from hers, Alexander pushed his hand flat against Anita’s and held it up to chest height in between them, mirroring the position with his other hand. Anita responded and lifted her free right hand to place it flat against his open left palm, feeling the tingles intensify as the energy coursed between them. Alexander half smiled then very slowly moved first his left then his right hand a few millimeters away from hers. She inhaled deeply, spellbound as the tingles continued even with a gap between them. Alexander leaned his head forward and murmured, ‘sit down,’ his piercing blue eyes caressing hers. They effortlessly and elegantly sank to sit cross legged on the floor, hands and eyes maintaining their positions. His intention was clear, so she lightly closed her eyes and made her way to her Centre, where she knew she would find him waiting. Anita went through the usual flight, fall and duck through the door into the tent and she inwardly beamed when she saw Alexander’s glorious, half-naked form in its usual position on the low bed in the corner.
She made her way towards him, noting that this felt different to normal. She felt more connected to him, almost as though she were in his warm, protective embrace. She sat down cross legged on the bed in front of him and was about to speak when the world around her blurred and she was jolted to a new location. She looked around and realised she was on the lawn she’d just run across in the real world, so funny she thought, that she was in the same place inside her head as outside. But whereas when they normally meditated here there was sun
light streaming down, playing on the water below, now it was night time with the moon and stars casting only a soft, romantic glow. Anita wondered why it was night time here when her Centre had still been basked in light. She looked around to see where Alexander was to ask him, when she caught sight of his toned form pelting across the lawn towards her, echoing the game from minutes before. Without thinking, Anita’s body responded and she whirled towards the sea, running as fast as she could towards it, her dress, heels and cloak slowing her down as before. Alexander (also dressed as he was in the outside world) caught her, but this time, as he spun her around he pulled her to his chest, his face inches from hers, hands moving to her hips, scared she might step away. His eyes were mesmerising and Anita felt her stomach somersault as he bowed his head and lightly pressed his forehead to hers, closing his eyes to savour the moment, breathing deeply to drink in her jasmine scented perfume. Without seeming to command it, his mouth found its way to hers, her soft lips cautiously meeting his. He placed delicate kisses on her and she responded, mouths exploring each other, movements becoming more confident. They eventually pulled apart, Alexander stealing a brief final kiss, before smiling wryly down at her. They sank to the floor to sit cross legged as they were in the world outside, although this time their knees were touching and their hands were joined.
After a few moments of silent and surprised contemplation, Anita felt guilt start to invade her thoughts, so she broke the silence. ‘Why’s it dark?’ she asked. ‘The cliff is normally filled with sunlight when we come here.’
Alexander smiled cautiously. ‘Because we’re no longer inside your head. We’re inside mine.’
Anita was shocked, but her energy was steady, more intrigued than angry. ‘This is one of the places in your head too?’
