The Golden Talisman

by J. Stefan Jackson

  “A long white tablecloth that had lavender tassels and was embroidered with dark green and gold vines covered the table, which was already set with golden plates, utensils, and large goblets. Elegant napkins were folded and stuffed inside the goblets, and large golden trays that were nearly overloaded with a wide variety of fruit were placed on each end of the table.

  “To the right of the table stood a row of twelve, tall and narrow, juniper trees—all of which were decorated with gold and lavender ribbons. They sort of reminded me of Christmas trees that’d been stretched thin and stripped of the usual lights and ornaments.

  “‘As you can see, it’s almost time for the festival to start,’ Genovene told me, slipping her arm around my waist. The courtyard was filled with busy servants hustling back and forth from the tower to the area surrounding the table. ‘I’ve saved the best for last, Jack! Are you ready for the final phase of our tour, to visit my house?’

  “‘Are you kidding? I’m definitely ready for that!’ I told her. I was really excited. But I was also a little nervous, despite the presence of the strange euphoria I still felt. The main thing I’d hoped to do all along was visit the magnificent tower. Ever since I first saw it, I’d been intrigued by what it might be like inside, and now I stood on the threshold of finding out.

  “Twelve steps led up from the courtyard to the colossal building. On the way to the entrance, I heard the sound of horses snorting. I looked toward the far end of the tower’s base on my left and saw Malacai’s carriage and horses. The carriage was unattended for the moment, and its door stood wide open with a footstool resting beneath it. Even from this distance, I could see the plush red and gold interior of the carriage.

  “A high cupola that was supported by a row of marble columns ran along the length of the tower’s base. Two huge muscular guards stood at attention on either side of the doors, and as Genovene and I approached, they bowed before her while pulling the doors open.

  “We walked inside the tower and the guards closed the doors behind us. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dimness, although it appeared the center of the enormous room was illuminated brightly from above. The walls and floor of the room appeared to be made of dark granite that was polished to a high-gloss sheen, which glistened despite the near darkness concealing much of the room.

  “We moved toward the light. When we reached that portion of the room, I instinctively looked up toward the ceiling. The immense base opened up directly into the hollow spike of gold soaring to dizzying heights above us. I couldn’t even see the top from where we stood. It was as if the tower had grown much taller since I’d last taken a good look at its peak from atop the plaza.

  “I started to lose my balance, so I reached for Genovene to steady myself. I then looked up again. The spike was truly spectacular. Not only was it incredibly high, but also several hundred feet in diameter. A gold and marble staircase lined its sides, spiraling up as far as I could see. The rails and banisters of the staircase appeared to be made of solid twisted gold, and the crystal windows I’d seen earlier followed the staircase’s ascent. Like prisms, they channeled sunlight as a rainbow within the shaft of the tower.

  “A crystal tube stood in the very center of the room, running from the floor to what I assumed was the very top of the spike, since I couldn’t see its end from where we presently stood. The entire length of the tube glowed.

  “When I looked over at Genovene, a smile of sweet contentment was upon her face. ‘Welcome to my home, Jack!’ she joyfully exalted, the echo of her lovely voice bouncing from wall to wall as it rang throughout the temple base. She began to shimmer again.

  “‘This is really your...house?’ I asked incredulously.

  “She nodded this was indeed true, and pulled away from me. She then swung herself around with her arms out and her fingers pointed away from her body. She threw back her head in ecstasy as she twirled around me, dancing as a skilled ballerina might’ve done. Her gown floated lightly above the floor as she moved. She spun around me several times and then relaxed into a curtsy directly in front of me. Slowly, she raised herself up, eyeing me coyly. After a moment of silence, she spoke grandly, like she was in some Shakespearean play. ‘Jack, this place is the temple of my people just as surely as it is my home!’ she proclaimed. ‘It’s been my house longer than you could ever imagine, and is my father’s creation!’

  “She paused, making sure I followed her words. ‘My father’s name is Talusha, and he is the protector of my people! He’s the one who gives us life! He keeps us content and happy, providing us always with an abundance of energy, food, and pleasure—and ensures that no one hurts us, ever! That’s why very few have ever heard of us and our wonderful village!’

  “I stood speechless, trying to fathom the significance of what she said and wondering why she was acting so strangely. She nodded and smiled,

  “Genovenemoved closer to me, sauntering without releasing me from her gaze. ‘This is, as I’ve said, our temple,’ she said, drastically reducing the volume of her speech to a sultry whisper. ‘The people here worship Talusha as their lord and savior—their god! In this hallowed place, they let their voices ring out in adoration for him, because they know that without him, our very existence would end!’

  “‘Okay’ I thought, ‘she’s fucking crazy after all!’ A ‘god’ other than the One I prayed to every night for my mom and dad to finally come home? I seriously doubted that Reverend Meyers, the preacher at the local First Baptist church Grandpa sometimes took me to, ever heard of ‘Talusha’. But, then I thought about all of the amazing things I’d experienced up until that moment. Surely something unnatural was going on, right? Still, it seemed ridiculous to consider Genovene’s daddy was worshipped like that.

  “‘Jack,’ she said, interrupting my thoughts. ‘It doesn’t matter if you believe in the divinity of Talusha or not. Before today is over, you will know him. I assure you that I speak the truth!’ Her smile never faded despite my possible insult to her father. A feeling of uneasiness briefly touched my awareness and then quickly subsided. Other than the intense sadness I experienced at the garden’s wishing pool, I still wasn’t able to hold onto any feeling for long or my reasons for having them. They easily slipped through my mind’s grasp along with my questions from a moment before.

  “She moved closer with her consistent disregard for my personal space. I thought she might kiss me as she closed the gap between us to less than an inch. My manhood began to respond, and I was embarrassed she’d notice. The smile on her face turned mischievous and she took a step back from me. She deliberately looked down at the hefty bulge in my shorts, but only for a moment. Awkwardly torn between self-consciousness and the raging fire of my adolescent desire, I was mostly relieved when she looked away from my crotch and turned her intense blue eyes back to meet my own.

  “‘There’s some unfinished business between you and I that’ll need to be addressed before much longer,’ she said. ‘For now, follow me to the chalube’at. It’ll take us up to where you’ll see the most incredible view in the world!’

  “She turned to lead me over to the crystal tube in the middle of the room, laughing softly to herself again. When she realized I hadn’t moved yet, she stopped walking and looked back at me over her shoulder with a mock pout upon her face. ‘Would you rather take the stairs, sweetie?’ she asked, and then winked at me.

  “Genovene awaited my response with her hands on her hips and her shapely bottom upturned ever so slightly. She was driving me nuts. Since the moment I first laid eyes on her, I’d been enraptured by her physical beauty. But, now I felt something else. I felt like my brother Jeremy would feel, as I was overwhelmed with tense excitement and incredible horniness. I wanted to fuck her badly and I wanted to do it right then and there on the temple’s floor!

  “She straightened up and waved her index finger at me tauntingly. ‘Not now, my dear boy!’ she laughed. ‘Just remember what I told you earlier, that if you’re a good boy you’ll get your
just dessert. Keep that in mind while we finish our tour.’ She glanced one last time at my noticeable erection. ‘Are you ready?’

  “Cruelly, my lustful feelings suddenly gave way to one of shame, and I’m sure my face was beet-red. Despite this confusion that I feared might steer me to insanity if it kept up much longer, I followed her like an adoring puppy over to the crystal tube, or ‘chalube’at’ as she called it. I allowed my gaze to follow the tube’s length, craning my neck back as far as I could. But like the very top of the tower where it supposedly led, the tube’s end remained invisible to my eyes. I looked down at the chalube’at’s base, wondering how it worked since there wasn’t a visible doorway for getting in and out of the tube. Nor for that matter, was there any place to sit inside it.

  “I felt apprehensive about getting inside the tube, but walking up the spiral staircase wasn’t something I wanted to do either. Especially since the top couldn’t be seen from where we presently stood. Regardless of which option I chose, I worried that I might pass out from either fear or excitement. I figured it’d be better for me if I were near her if that happened.

  “She moved up to the chalube’at, and then quickly crossed her hands in front of herself with her palms facing inward toward her body. The tube suddenly separated into a series of panels that folded and crossed on top of themselves, forming a narrow doorway. This happened so swiftly and silently that if I’d not paid close attention, I’d have missed seeing it completely.

  “Genovene stepped inside and motioned for me to follow. As soon as we were inside the tube, the panels quietly slipped back into place. I looked closely at the tube’s wall, but couldn’t detect the slightest seam or line. It was as if the doorway had never existed. She moved to one side of the tube and directed me to stand across from her on the other. ‘Hold on tight!’ she cautioned.

  “‘To what?’ I wondered.

  “In the very next instant we were jolted into the air, flying up the tube at an incredible rate of speed. The granite floor below us shrank rapidly until it vanished altogether from sight. With my feet dangling in the air, we rose higher and higher. For the first time, Genovene looked a lot like a witch, although a very beautiful one with her hair blowing in the air, her eyes a pair of flashing sapphires, and her black gown tapered to a point just below her feet.

  “The thrill from this experience was indescribable, as you can surely imagine. I embraced the rush of excitement that filled my entire being. Suddenly, our ascent slowed dramatically when we neared the top. The refracted sunlight obscured the view below us, which was just as well, since I doubt we’d have seen much beneath us anyway. Once we reached the spike’s ceiling, a hole opened up directly above us and we were slowly pulled through it into near blinding light. As soon as we were safely above the hole, it immediately closed beneath our feet and we landed gently upon a solid floor where the hole had been only a moment before.

  “We remained inside the tube until Genovene stepped away from the wall and moved toward the center. I could only vaguely see her outline in the brilliant light, but I thought she was motioning for me to join her there. I moved toward her and once I reached the center of the tube, the panels slid open again, although I could only sense this. The heat from the intense light soon enveloped us from all directions. She then firmly grasped my hands and led me out of the tube. My legs felt like rubber, for I was afraid of being dropped back down the endless cylinder until we were lifted to safety. I was grateful for her steady grip to assist me until normal feeling returned to my limbs.

  “The light remained extremely bright around us. I could barely see in front of me, and then only if I squinted painfully to do so. Genovene let go of my hands and moved a few feet away from me. I glimpsed her outline again while she appeared to be moving her arms over her head in a circular motion, like she held a pair of invisible lassos and was getting ready to rope some unseen steer with them. As she did this, the light dimmed until it reached the point where it no longer hurt my eyes and I could see my surroundings clearly. I found myself standing within a hollow crystal cone roughly sixty to seventy feet in diameter.

  “The floor was a golden circle with engraved symbols on one half of it while the other half was smooth. The chalube’at was somehow joined to another large triangular-shaped crystal that bisected the floor. It reminded me of the sundial that stood in one of Grandpa’s gardens, only this one was incredibly spectacular as the sun’s rays poured down upon the crystal and floor in a brilliant array of colors.

  “Genovene walked around the room surveying its contents and watching me do the same. ‘Some ride, eh?’ she finally said, moving over to me. ‘I’ll bet you’ve never been on an elevator quite like that before, have you? Just wait for the trip back down!’ She laughed and led me to the west side of the crystal cone. ‘This room is the power center for the temple, energized by the sun’s radiation,’ she explained. ‘At times it can be almost uninhabitable in here, like it was when we first arrived, and especially during clear days when the sun’s at its highest.

  “‘The triangular crystal and the golden plate it sits upon operate as a passive battery that continually absorbs energy from the atmosphere around us, even at night or during the coldest extremes of winter. The amount of energy stored up here is more than ample to support our temple, village, and even the surrounding groves and meadows. But if ever this power center were to fail us, we have a far more powerful source of energy that’s located beneath the temple courtyard.’

  “I looked out through the crystal wall of the cone. My head immediately began to swim from dizziness. I’ll bet I was at least three to four thousand feet above the ground and everything below looked so minuscule and far away through wispy clouds surrounding the tower’s peak. The entire village could easily have fit inside the edge of my pinky nail from where we currently stood. Toward the west of us, I saw endless forests and lakes stretching into the distance until they blended with the deep blue of a majestic mountain range. Confused, I moved to the north side of the cone and saw even more forests, lakes, and rivers, with a much larger body of water sitting further in the distance.

  “When I moved over to the east side, I again saw nothing but forests and rivers until my view reached the great ocean beyond. What in the hell was going on here? I then ran over to the south side of the cone, said a quick prayer and looked. All I could see for miles were vast green forests penetrated only by more rivers and lakes that eventually emptied into yet another ocean. I saw a sliver of gold light glowing from many miles away toward the southwest that bordered the ocean’s shoreline. I knew instinctively it was another tower, just like the one I was presently standing in.

  “‘Where’d my home go, Genovene?’ I asked, my growing anxiety causing my voice to crack. ‘It’s gone! Where in the hell are we? Everything’s gone!!’

  “Gently and affectionately, she put her arm around my waist and pulled me close to her. ‘Jack, do not be alarmed or afraid,’ she said softly. ‘What you see before you isn’t the world as it is today, with all of its crime, overpopulation, and blatant disregard for nature. Instead, you’re seeing the world as it was originally intended. It’s the world from many hundreds of years ago before mankind overran this wonderful garden you see all around you. The distant locales you’ve just seen have been brought much closer by the powerful magnification of the crystal in this room.

  “‘The present day world is still with us, which I will show you soon enough. But, to understand my people and our purpose, you must at least have some knowledge of where we started. I can’t show you everything, and we don’t have time to go back all the way to our very origins. Nevertheless, I think when we’re through up here you’ll be glad you came.’

  “I wasn’t so sure of that, but my anxiety abated. She stepped away from me, placing her hands on the side of the cone that faced south and closed her eyes. Immediately, the crystal material began to reshape itself and a short table-like ledge suddenly grew out of the cone’s side and into the room. It was
roughly the size of a small desktop, and she motioned for me to come over and take a closer look.

  “I moved over to her and looked down into the ledge. At first, it was as clear as the crystal cone itself. But, once she showed me how to guide and operate it, I found that it worked like an up-close viewing screen. I could see detailed images of various locations in the primitive world far below us. The ledge could be moved in any direction and would grow smaller if I brought it forward, or larger if I pulled it back. I was puzzled by the fact it remained fully connected to the cone’s wall at all times. Yet, when I moved it around in different directions, not a single seam or crease appeared. It was as if the crystal material in the wall and ledge reconfigured themselves in unison from one moment to the next.

  “I held the object straight ahead and saw the deep green treetops of a lush ancient forest down below. On display in front of me was an aerial view about twenty feet above the trees. I raised it ever so slightly, and the images flew by as I did this. When they stopped, I had a bird’s eye view of a large fluorescent blue snake moving through the undergrowth of the forest floor. I nudged the ledge a tad more and saw the close-up details of the snake’s scales as it wreathed its way along the forest floor.

  “I decided to try another view and pulled back a little. All at once I was staring into a nest of baby finches that appeared to be less than a foot away from me, as my view had retreated into the midst of a large fir tree. A small beetle with bulging green eyes suddenly landed on a branch less than an inch from where my view began. It completely obscured the images of the finches for about a minute as it walked across the branch. I got a better look at its colorful underbelly than I would’ve liked as it left slimy gray droppings on the branch while it passed by. In disgust, I pulled back further until my view was a few hundred feet above the forest.