DayStar: Immortals Among Us (The Delphi Countdown trilogy Book 1)

by JB Penrose

  “Unfortunately, I know nothing about being the Spokesmon. Just voices in my dreams telling me I’m suppose to remember something. I still don’t understand what it means.”

  She hugged her daughter. “Jesus only referred to you once as the Spokesmon, when he informed me of my pregnancy.”

  “I know the verse,” Rachel told her. “Peter confirmed it’s the same as the one repeated in my own dreams. I wish I knew what it meant.”

  “It’s all such a mystery.” Dalyn hugged her again. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you more.”

  So was Rachel, but she knew she’d have to be patient for the answers. “You mean after all this time you can’t tell me the Meaning of Life?”

  They laughed together. “Don’t you wish?”

  “I’ve got it!” Dalyn began to search inside the sleeve of her desert robe. “I want to give you this.” She brought out a bluish pearl, as large as her fist. It wasn’t really a jewel or a mineral, and it felt warm when her mother placed it in her hands.

  “We call it a rouleau. Each of us have one,” her mother explained. “It’s part of the tasht, a power source the Orygin used; it’s actually how I joined the crew, but that’s another story.” Dalyn shook her head. “It can be your ‘something blue’.”

  Rachel studied the object closely. There wasn’t anything she could sense about it, nor see, but it seemed to pulse with a power she couldn’t explain. “It’s very interesting. Is it tingling?”

  “Almost like a small motor, isn’t it?” her mother smiled. “The night we crashed, Jesus, as the man-Spirit, divided the tasht into a globe for each of us. We’ve carried them now, for 2000 years. I’d really like for you to have mine.”

  “I think I’d like that.” Rachel was surprised how comforting the vibration felt. “Are you sure you can part with it after all this time?”

  “My child, I’m so happy,” her mother kissed her, “that I would give you the world, as I would have done if your childhood had been different.”

  “I have always felt your love. Distance and time,” Rachel thought of Peter, “they have no meaning to us. Thank you for the gift. I wish I had something to give back, but Peter and I had to leave in a hurry.” She thought about her home, her greenhouse, her life, and her friends. Li’Ana would have been very happy for her. “But there is one thing,” she remembered the library. “John has a full set of my novels aboard the Aurora!”

  “You’re a writer? That’s wonderful! I always wondered what talents you would develop.”

  “Well, currently it’s writing. I’m sure, like you, we’ve mastered our share of talents over the years.” Rachel thought of the number of lifetimes she’d experienced, and for the first time she looked forward to the future.

  Curious about the pocket in her mother’s robe, Rachel turned her sleeve inside out and found a double pocket in the hem.

  “Lehur must have brought the robes to you. This is a signature trait for his design,” Dalyn showed her how the rouleau slipped inside the folds. Rachel tested it but felt no weight, nor could she sense it in the folds of her sleeve. “Be sure to give him my love when you see him again. He has been very generous to the school.”

  “The Dalyn schools? Peter told me you are Mother to many. I’ve also met Teddy and Simon.”

  “They are such wonderful people. There is a very strong network of our students after so many centuries of graduates. I love every one of them.” Dalyn sighed, then clapped her hands together and bounced with excitement. She glanced around the room. “What’s next? We want to be ready for your wedding and we need ‘something old’.”

  “I think my necklace covers that.” Rachel’s hand went to the silver cross that hung over her heart. “I’m very happy about receiving this gift, especially in the manner it came to me. Peter said it was a type of magic and now I believe him.”

  “Yes, the school had a way of bringing out the best in a person. Did you realize everyone at the Christmas party was a graduate of a Dalyn School?”

  Rachel shook her head. “A very strong network, indeed. What about Lanier?” Rachel remembered how easily he’d gained entrance into the forest of lights.

  Dalyn nodded. “That man can talk to animals. Oh,” she clapped her hands. “He made this for me.” Dalyn pulled the rosewood comb from her hair. “It can be your something-borrowed. Shall we pull your hair in a twist for the ceremony?”

  “Perfect!” Rachel sat in the chair her mother pulled out from the bureau and examined both of their reflections in the mirror.

  They were similar in size and coloring, with the exception of Rachel’s blue-gray eyes compared to her mother’s dark look. Her parents were still in their desert robes, too; her mother’s banded in shades of vibrant pink and her father’s bold stripes of a leader’s dark blue. She was a blend of them both, and in learning that fact, all of her dreams were now coming true.

  “I’ve searched all my life for the reason I’m different. The answers aren’t exactly easy to believe, but they’re a lot like I expected.” Rachel’s life had never been more perfect than this moment.

  Dalyn ran her fingers through her daughter’s hair and then twisted it in an upswirl and secured it with the comb. She rested her hands on Rachel’s shoulders. “I worried it would be too much of a burden to live as an immortal, especially since I didn’t have a chance to teach you anything about the world.”

  “I always dreamt of late night talks and early morning coffee with my mother. I know we have always been together in our hearts.” It was true for Rachel; the feeling she carried as her strength was just like being in her mother’s arms.

  As if she heard the thought, Dalyn pulled her daughter from the chair to hug her again. “I can’t get enough of you.”

  “I know how you feel.” Rachel squeezed her mother’s slight frame with more strength than she thought she had. “Sorry.”

  “I’m not. It’s exciting for both of us. Oh,” her mother clapped her hands together. “I have something else to show you.” Dalyn searched the labels of a few boxes stacked against the wall for a rough-bound book and carried it to the bed. She patted a spot beside her for Rachel to sit.

  Rachel recognized her own name printed in Hebrew, Roko. Inside was her birth weight and length; on the opposite page was an imprint of her feet and hands. Other pages were filled with text as well as pictures, her first words, her first step, when she began to get her teeth.

  “For centuries I have poured over this book,” her mother said. “Page by page. I was always thankful to have kept such detailed thoughts and records. And Peter was there to capture a few moments with his charcoal. I don’t know what I would have done without his drawings.”

  “Yes, his art. It is part of what drew us together.”

  Rachel stopped on a drawing of herself as a child with her father. Her head was tilted back in laughter at something he had drawn in the sand with a stick. Rachel remembered that moment.

  “He thought it was important that I recognized the difference between a hadaran and a presolu, but I politely informed him that his pictures would have to improve for me to see a distinction!”

  “He still can’t draw, although he has many other talents.” Her mother laughed. “The culture and history of Biatra-IV was important to us in those years. After Jesus was gone we had to stick to what we knew.”

  “I am remembering more of my childhood, now, and recognize most of my dreams as old memories. He was a wonderful teacher.”

  “And a wonderful husband, but we weren’t always a couple, you know. When I joined the Orygin’s crew it never mattered that I was a woman. After the Orygin crashed on Earth I quickly discovered I wasn’t free to travel with them unless I was betrothed to one man.” She laughed. “I resisted as long as I could. It nearly got me killed!”

  “The story of Jesus saving you from being stoned?”

  “It happened more than once, I’m afraid. I had a lot to learn about a woman’s place in Earth’s society during those times. Luckily, we
had a sort-of divine protection. Not that there wasn’t danger, but something, or someone, would always intervene.”

  “I have noticed the same kind of protection in my own life.”

  Her mother nodded. “The only time something bad has ever happened to me was the night you were taken. Oh, Roko, I have missed you. But I never gave up hope, and neither did Peter.”

  Rachel believed her. “From the moment we met I felt like I had always known him, and daily we discover more about how our lives have crossed. I even lived with Sun Liu in the years before she died.”

  “You knew Sun Liu?” Dalyn was surprised, but smiled. “Small world indeed. Peter never loved another woman after they parted. Waiting for you, I see now.”

  “His love has washed away any pain and loneliness I’ve felt from our separation.” Rachel admitted. “And so have your words.”

  “I wish there was time to hear everything about your life.”

  “There’s only enough time for a few paragraphs, but I am happy and well adjusted. I’m sure anything I think I’ve lived through is similar to how it’s been for you.”

  “Not much changes over a thousand years,” her mother agreed.

  “Fashions, friends, yes, but the cycle of life is the same.” Rachel was already thankful for every moment she’d been able to spend with her family. The edge of the bed felt like the edge of a cloud, and sitting there a true calmness settled over her. Whatever the future held, Rachel was confident of her courage to meet it.

  The knock on the door was like an alarm, and Rachel reminded herself she was about to be married. Her father peeked around the door, smiling broadly. “Am I interrupting?”

  “Of course not.”

  He gave them both a hug and produced a bouquet of gardenias from behind his back. “The groom is almost ready. And they’re putting the finishing touches on what used to be the library.”

  “How lovely.” Rachel inhaled deeply. “It’s perfect!” She gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  “What’s special about gardenias?” he asked.

  “I have a greenhouse at home,” she explained, “and Peter was impressed that I forced them to bloom out-of-season.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me. Your mother has the same green thumb. You should taste her apples.”

  “I think I have,” she remembered the dinner at Simon’s. “Do they smell like cinnamon?”

  There were so many ways their lives were similar. Since she’d met Peter her life had completely changed, more so in the last twenty-four hours than over her entire lifetime. Now she was sitting in the same room with her parents and about to be married. It felt like a complete cycle.

  James brought a chair around and sat facing both of them. “If you don’t mind, Mags, I have something to give Rachel.”

  “Why would I mind?” she patted he hands. “I’ve already tried to give her the world.”

  “Actually, this is something I made for you,” he said. “Now I know why I never found the opportunity to give it to you.” James brought out a slender wooden box, beautifully inlaid with design. “I’d really like for Rachel to have this.”

  Rachel accepted the gift, glancing between her parent’s, confused. Her father motioned her to open the box.

  The top slipped off easily and Rachel dropped out a beautiful silver bracelet. The links were individually looped, and the design in the mesh was a compliment to the filigree that framed the face of the watch.

  “Oh, James. That’s lovely.” Her mother kissed him with affection. “He is so talented with his hands.”

  Rachel looked for the mechanism to activate the timepiece. What she found were the controls to the tiny picture screen.

  “I have been loading pictures for months,” he admitted, “of everything I knew you would miss. Don’t bother trying to look at all the pictures now – there’s thousands! Or millions,” he laughed. “I have access to a lot of history. But then I thought,” he smiled toward Rachel, “this is something we could share with Rachel, our history. Are you sure you don’t mind?”

  “I think it’s a wonderful gift for Rachel.” She clapped her hands together. “It can be your something new! Now you are ready to get married.”

  “Are you sure you don’t mind?” Rachel slipped it on her wrist. “This is great! It’s too much to think that I could actually have pictures of you.”

  “All of us,” her father kissed her cheek. “You can record the wedding if you want. It’s also a mini-cam.” James took her wrist and explained how to set the controls.

  “Before we leave,” James pulled them both into to his embrace. “I would like to pray together, as a family, at this most happy moment. I thing they can give us just a few more minutes.”

  The sound of her father’s deep voice made her heart swell with happiness as he expressed his joy at her return. Her mother’s sweet voice added an Amen in harmony with her own. Each of them spoke a prayer of thanks and then stood in silence. Rachel had plenty to be thankful for. Finally, her father offered his arm.

  “Are you ready?”

  One look at her mother, then her father, and Rachel’s heart leaped into her throat. Ready, she told herself. “I am now.”

  They stopped at the balcony outside the door and Rachel peered over the railing. The common room of the crew’s quarters had been completely transformed.

  “Mihrana’s Temple! It’s perfect!”

  “Peter picked the spot. I see you remember your history.”

  She squeezed his arm. “Thank you, father. I remember everything you taught me. Finally, I can distinguish between memories and dreams.”

  Mihrana’s Temple was the highest location on Biatra-IV, with a redstone bridge that arched upward at the crest of the mount between the twin peaks. The rock stairway rose steeply around the sides and dropped to unseen depths below. Nothing was sure-footed about her step, but her parents on either side of her buoyed her step. Rachel was sure she floated toward Peter and the wispy clouds beneath the heights of Mihrana's Temple added to her euphoria.

  “Do you like it?” he asked when she joined him on the bridge. “I hope you didn’t mind the stairs.”

  “I loved and needed the exercise - to manage my nerves!”

  The smile on Peter’s face eased her excitement. He was right; reality doesn’t apply to them, at least, not this reality.

  Her parents stood beside her and Andrew beside Peter. John began by signing a cross in the air in front of them. It lingered in a silvery light before dropping like gentle rain to the ground.

  John smiled. “Let us be glad and rejoice, and join our hearts to His.”

  A soft glow rose from the fallen drops on the floor and began to encircle the couple in a light fog. Rachel felt it clinging to them like a protective wrap, and Peter squeezed her hand.

  “Where there is faith,” John continued, “there will be love. Where there is love there will be understanding. Where there is understanding, there is no time. Where there is no time, there are no boundaries.

  “This is where Rachel and Peter have come today, to a place where there are no boundaries. They stand before us in love without limitations, and we are here to witness their commitment.”

  John leaned over to Peter and whispered. “You do have a ring, don’t you?”

  Peter turned to Andrew, and with a mischievous smile Andrew magically plucked a gold band from behind his brother’s ear.

  “Show off,” Peter whispered as he accepted the ring. He faced Rachel. “I give you this ring with the promise of my love, pure as gold, for all of this life and beyond.” He slipped it on her finger.

  Rachel saw the love in his eyes; she heard the conviction in his voice, and reached up to caress his cheek. With a snap of her fingers and her own mysterious smile, she produced a simples gold band from behind Peter’s ear.

  “Well done.” Andrew complimented.

  “What? How?”

  Rachel shushed Peter’s question with a finger to his lips. “As a symbol of my never-endin
g love, I give you this ring. I promise my love, pure as gold, for all of this life and beyond.” She slipped the ring on his finger.

  They remained holding hands and John placed his on top.

  “We are here to bear witness to your union. May all blessings be yours.”

  Rachel didn’t want to move; didn’t want to breathe. Her eyes were locked with Peter’s and the love from their friends and family supported her where her knees would not. Married! She wanted this moment to last forever. He squeezed her hands between his.

  From where their gold bands touched, a white light began to radiate, and quickly exploded into a mist of silver droplets. Flish! The sound was like an angel’s tear falling, soft, solid, sweet. When her eyes adjusted from the flash, Rachel saw the ground was covered with white lily blossoms. The long stems and porcelain flowers spread around their feet in stark contrast to the redstone. Every girl dreams of her wedding, this was a moment Rachel would never forget.

  “How did you. . .?”

  Andrew backed away from his brother. “It wasn’t me,” he confessed, just as bewildered.

  Rachel shook her head slowly at Peter’s unasked question. She didn’t know how it happened either.

  “Well,” John finally spoke. “It doesn’t get any better than that. I now pronounce you Husband and Wife! All blessings be yours.”

  “All blessings be yours,” the crew repeated in unison.

  Mag’Dalyn hugged the newlyweds first. “All of my prayers have been answered today.”

  “Roko, and Peter,” James wiped his eyes. “Your mother and I are very happy for you.”