Veiled

by Silvina Niccum

  “Yes, Val, I can hear you,” I told her.

  “I’ve had a premonition, Tess. Henry is in trouble…and doesn’t know it.” Valerie’s voice was still soft and heavy with worry.

  “What kind of trouble? And you don’t have to whisper anymore.”

  “I do have to whisper. I’m in the middle of a very important mission with a mortal that can both see and hear me!”

  “Oh…”

  “Anyway…I just got this premonition, but I can’t leave, so you will have to do something about it,” she said, sounding a little annoyed now.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” I told her, and thought back to the little encounter I had with Henry not too long ago. But there was not much I could do about it right now. My pendant was ordering me back to the Angelic Missions building to wait for Dayspring.

  Once there I found Celeste and Dayspring already waiting for me, and not long after that Alex flew in with a wide grin across his face. He came straight to me and held me tightly.

  “I learned my lesson…thanks to you,” he whispered in my ear. Then he picked me up and jostled me a bit. “You are an angel.”

  Apparently what I had told him hit a chord. He stopped being so judgmental and started noticing all the small things that made the mortals great. In the end he grew to respect them and saw them as wise, in their own right.

  “We have to go,” Dayspring said, impatiently. “We don’t have the whole group, but we need to leave right now, or we’ll be late.”

  “For what?” Celeste asked, but Dayspring took off without an answer.

  We did our best to keep up, but she was very fast. Finally, Dayspring made her descent on the coast of Antarctica. Everything was perfectly white, spiritual snow looked just as white and barren as it did on Earth.

  As soon as we were on the surface, we were greeted by a huge oncoming snowball that hit Alex square in the face. He wiped the slush off his eyes and with a rueful smile scanned the landscape for the culprit. He couldn’t find one before another ball hit him. Next ensued an all out snow ball fight, that after extraneous effort on our part and even with Dayspring’s help, we inevitably lost.

  “It’s all over,” a deep voice called from a snow embankment that grew in size right in front of us. Then the voice took the shape of an enormous Cherub, who himself was as white as the snow.

  “Not until it’s over!” Dayspring shouted from behind us. And in a flash she jumped over us and pounced on the Cherub, knocking him down on the icy ground.

  The Cherub lay sprawled on the ground and Dayspring had him pinned down with all four legs and her tail. A loud laugh erupted from the pinned Cherub, but Dayspring didn’t relax her grip.

  “Gotcha!” she teased.

  The Cherub looked helpless for a moment, but with a sudden movement overpowered Dayspring and turned her on her back, pinning her with his long limbs and one of his wings—the tip of which had her tail.

  “Oh yeah?” he grinned.

  Dayspring looked positively livid before she let her head fall back on the snow, in defeat.

  The Cherub looked at her for a moment, then released her slowly, and with a smile sat by her side. It was hard to read their emotions, because they were hiding them—from me or from each other—I couldn’t tell.

  “How did you do that?” I asked the Cherub.

  Thinking that I meant his strength, he flexed his muscles.

  “No…your thoughts, I couldn’t sense your thoughts at all just now.”

  The Cherub smirked. “Good question, Tess. This little bit of fun has just provided us with the perfect beginning to our training,” he boasted. “By the way, I’m Kerubiel.” He stood and came toward us with his hand extended in form of greeting.

  I extended mine and he took it, shaking it heartily. He did the same thing with Alex and Celeste. Russell and Leo had been there already, and took part in our ambush. Russell had been training with the Cherubs for a while now, and had a gloating glow about him as introductions were made.

  “How is it that we have substance to you?” Leo asked as he watched this exchange take place.

  “Another good question!” Kerubiel exclaimed. “This group is going to be a good one, I can tell already. Are they all here?” he asked the other Cherub that was standing with a solemn looking face next to Celeste.

  “No, we are still waiting for two more,” he responded.

  “You might remember Drymus from our little presentation?” Kerubiel explained as Drymus made his way forward.

  Drymus grinned smugly at Dayspring as he went to her side. His thoughts were easy enough to read, even for a non-Discerner, I should think. He had obviously enjoyed seeing his comrade have the final say on the little wrestling match. Apparently there was a long standing feud going on between them and he was keeping tabs.

  Dayspring sneered in silent reply, but her thoughts were saying, “I can take you anytime.”

  “Bring it on!” the still smiling Drymus replied in thought.

  “I will,” Dayspring continued the unspoken banter.

  Kerubiel turned his head and looked sternly at them, “Cut it out, you two,” he said out loud. Drymus and Dayspring stood still as sentinels, looking forward, both with a smug look on their face.

  Alex chuckled. I had been connected to him during the snow ball fight, so he could hear all I could. Leo wore his same casual smile, but I could tell by his amused aura that he had heard them too. The only ones that had no idea what was going on were Celeste and Russell, who presently looked suspiciously at the rest of us. I shot Celeste an apologetic look, shrugged, and disconnected the link with Alex. He in turn looked as if I had just taken a fun toy away from him.

  The last two spirits that we were waiting for were Dorian and Irene and once they landed, Kerubiel started the training by way of a speech.

  He explained the difference between a Sentinel and a Herald. He said that a Sentinel was more of a protector of things or people, while a Herald’s job was to announce and give warning. Then he told us that as a Herald or Sentinel, we could be pulled from class or any other mission at a moment’s notice by way of the pendant.

  “As you know, the Eternals do not get directly involved in the problems that you or your fellow Earthlings get into,” he said as he paced in front of us with his hands tucked behind his wings. “They will provide aid, and they will give you answers if you ask them, but they are bound by the universal law to not get involved—because that’s the only way for you to evolve. Many times their help will come in the form of a fellow being. Or sometimes they may give you aid in the form of strength to endure a situation. But they will not take the problem away or fix it for you in any way. That’s your job.

  “So here is lesson number one: You make your own decisions, and you let mortals make their own decisions as well.

  “Number two: If you need help or reinforcements, call for them, and don’t complain when help doesn’t come in the way you expected or hoped for.

  “Number three: You have been sent on this mission for a reason. I just want to make sure you understand this point very clearly, because the time may come when you might be tempted to ask yourself why the Eternals are letting this happen right under their noses. And I want you to know the answer in advance. They are not letting this happen. They are sending YOU to fix it.”

  We all nodded in agreement, and Kerubiel looked satisfied. Then he had us practice standing like Sentinels—very boring, worse than being Scribes if possible.

  Suddenly Russell’s pendant started glowing and he left in a hurry, without so much as telling us good bye. Kerubiel snapped his fingers, hoping to get our attention back and then continued with his training.

  We were then taught some basic intelligence gathering techniques and finally how to hide our own feelings from others, so that no valuable information could be leaked by good aura readers. This trick apparently was what I was sensing, when the wall went up in their minds. It was a practiced technique that was very useful against Disc
erners.

  I looked around at our little gathering. It seemed like a lifetime ago that we were searching for secret Herald and Sentinel training grounds. Now we were not only in one, but we were the ones being trained.

  Dayspring cleared her throat in hopes of regaining my attention, and then she shifted her sitting position and closed her eyes. “Find an image that brings no feelings, something neutral, like a lake or this landscape. Once you have your image in your mind, go there. By that I mean put yourself there and stay there. The moment a thought creeps in, you go back to the image.”

  “OK…” both Dorian and I responded.

  I decided to put myself under water, in that ocean I went to escape reality not too long ago. It worked. As soon as I was among the seaweeds all my feelings and thoughts drifted with the hypnotic motion of the tide.

  “Good…” Dayspring said in a soft, soothing voice. “You have both found what I call your happy place. Now you’ll be able to retreat there every time you need to block a thought or a feeling.”

  We sat in the same cross-legged position, retreated in our “happy place” for I don’t know how long. It was easy to be there—having spent so much time there myself.

  “OK, now you can come back to reality,” Dayspring said in a soft voice.

  “How long were we there?” Dorian asked, perplexed.

  “Just under three hours Earth time,” she said casually.

  “OK, Heralds and Sentinels. You are almost ready for your first missions,” Kerubiel announced in his take charge voice. “But first let me explain one last thing. Earlier, Leo asked a question about why you have substance to us. The answer is simple in its complexity. We are immortal beings. Our makeup is different from that of mortals. Our spirits and our bodies are forever united and are perfect. We have organs, just like mortals and they work pretty much the same as they did as when we were mortal, but they are fueled by a substance other than mortal blood.

  “Human blood is red, Cherub blood was blue and…” he turned his head and smiled at Dayspring, “Seraph blood was green. But all three species have a silver colored blood-like substance running through our veins as immortals.

  “This fuel makes it possible for all immortals to have substance to both the spiritual and physical beings. We are a hybrid, if you will, of the two, that’s why we can exist in both environments and be felt by the living, the dead, and the unborn. It also comes in handy for training and…other things.” As he said this a block was put up in his mind and I was no longer able to perceive his thoughts.

  Pendants started glowing the moment Kerubiel was done speaking. Celeste was excited about a mission as a Guardian in Spain, where Max was, and she left right away.

  “Lower Thames St. London, England - wait for John,” my pendant said, and I looked up to see what the other pendants said. Dorian’s nose was crinkled as he tried to decipher his pendant.

  Alex looked up with excitement. “Sentinel! Machupichu, that sounds cool!” Alex exclaimed.

  “Oh…is that what it says?” Dorian said with relief.

  “What does yours say?” Alex asked me.

  “England, ask for John,” I told him, disappointed.

  “We’ll have a mission soon, I know we will,” Alex said reading the very discernible expression on my face.

  “Hey, we are going to England too!” Leo and Irene both exclaimed.

  “Good! I’ll follow you then,” I said, knowing that even with the aid of Heaven’s door, I stood a high chance of getting lost.

  As soon as we landed on Lower Thames St., London, we saw a man running toward us.

  “Ho there, are you here for me?” the man asked.

  We looked at him puzzled. He definitely saw us, but there was something else about him that bothered me. He was different, not a mortal.

  “Maybe…” Leo responded, wary. “What’s your name?”

  “John!” he answered cheerfully.

  My experience after watching mortals for a while now, was that they were out of breath after running a long way, yet this one was not. His breathing was as even as if he had been standing there the whole time. Apparently, I was not alone in feeling apprehensive, Irene clearly did too.

  “Who are you?” Irene said with wonder in her voice.

  “I told you, I’m John,” the man said with a smile.

  “What are you?” I clarified.

  “Ah…well that is a better question,” he said mysteriously. “I’m an Aeonian,” John explained.

  “From where?” Leo asked, and this made the man laugh out loud.

  “Not where—what. Doesn’t heaven teach you anything these days?” He took his cap off his head and scratched the top of his head. “Well…I suppose I’m to tell you. An Aeonian is neither mortal nor immortal, just somewhere in between I guess.” He smiled and replaced his cap. “There are just a few of us, but we are out there, and on occasion we need help as well,” he added wryly.

  “Come on, let’s go inside,” he said after a couple walked by and saw him talking to thin air.

  “Come to think of it…I did hear something about mortals that asked to stay on and live until the end of the world. I just didn’t remember the name,” Leo said.

  “Yes, I am one of those rare people who wanted to stay behind. Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.” John let out a chuckle. “But it’s not so bad you know. There are some benefits to this long life of mine—you, for instance! I get to work with Angels, for crying out loud!”

  “So what happens to you when the world ends?” Irene asked, intrigued.

  “I skip death altogether. I suppose a Seraph will come down and sweep me off my feet and give me a ride up to Heaven in a fiery blaze!” he said with a faraway look in his eyes. “At least that’s what happened to some in the past, so why not me?” he added with a crooked smile and then shrugged.

  “So, you know who and what I am. May I ask your names?”

  “This is Tess and Irene, and I am Leo,” Leo said.

  “Good. Short names, easy to remember and call when in a hurry.”

  “Actually, my name is Leonardo.”

  “Ah, no wonder you go by Leo, your name is a mouthful. What about you, is Tess short for something?”

  I shrugged, to explain the whole Agathess story would be more than just a mouthful. “No, just Tess.”

  He smiled. “OK, so are you the ones They sent to help?”

  We nodded.

  We were now inside a small room, modestly decorated and furnished. John went to a stove and after filling a kettle up with water, he proceeded to heat it up.

  “I need some tea,” he explained. “I’m chilled to the bone!” Then he turned and looked at us, dressed in our light robes. Irene and I had our arms exposed.

  He shook his face and walked to a small fire that was crackling in the hearth, and warmed his hands. “You’d not be wearing those if you were alive. No, you’d be half frozen by now.”

  “How are we to assist you?” Leo asked, coming to his side.

  John turned and regarded Leo for a moment. “You are Sentinels, I hope?”

  “Yes,” Leo said proudly.

  John narrowed his eyes and looked at us suspiciously. “What are your Gifts?”

  “Discerners, all three.” Leo puffed out his chest.

  “Trained, you said?” John asked again, narrowing his eyes.

  “Yes, trained,” I said approaching him now. “What are you hiding? Why are you so suspicious?”

  “Ah!” John jabbed the air. “Good! I was just testing you, you see. I wanted to make sure you knew when someone was trying to hide something, and you did!” Then he let his emotions show, and we were able to discern him fully.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 23

  Once his mind was opened to us we were able to see the whole situation, straight from his head. Apparently he had been on the trail of a woman who had been putting together a book that contained all the secrets of the Cast-outs. In it, the Second One ha
d taught the willing woman to do things that in this day and age would seem like miracles. It contained ways to heal with herbs and powders, which the scientists of the day had no knowledge of. It also contained tricks like levitations, bindings or stiffening of physical bodies and other useless shows of power that most likely looked like magic to the people.

  “Her name is Gertrude. And she has taken residence around here somewhere. She is a witch in possession of a book that holds the secrets to the dark arts.”

  “Yes, we see that now,” Irene said in her sweet soft voice.

  “Oh, well…then you know all about her.”

  “What I don’t understand is how she performs these tricks exactly,” I asked. “Surely most of these tricks are too complicated for her to do. You need knowledge, instruction, and practice.”

  “She’s had that, you can be sure of it!” John said as he took the whistling pot off the stove and set it aside. Then he filled a small strainer with tea leaves and set it on the rim of a cup. “The book contains the instructions on how to perform the tricks, only it is written in the First Language—to make it more impressive I suppose. The Second One doesn’t lack in finesse, that’s for sure.” John poured the steaming water over the leaves and the cup began to fill. He made the process look so enticing, I wasn’t sure why, but I really wanted to taste that tea. Tasting…what would tasting be like?

  “First Language, as in Adam and Eve’s language?” Irene asked, and John nodded as he took a sip of the hot liquid.

  “So Gertrude understands the First Language?” Leo asked.

  “I doubt it. She calls them spells, and she knows what each one of them is about and what they are supposed to accomplish. She recites them and the Second One does the rest. Then she’s got her recipes for healings. Those are in English. But she blesses them in the First Language.” He laughed out loud. “The Second One is having a heyday with this one for sure!”

  John was now sitting in a comfortable chair, sipping his tea, and talking to us as if it we were his next door neighbors who dropped by for a visit. He seemed to enjoy his tea and I watched him intently as he savored every drop.