Flower Readings

by Lilliana Rose

  “Thank the Queens.” Her pouch was on the table, and the vial was alongside it. She picked up her pouch and clicked it open. Two dried flowers were in the glass tube. She turned the container over in her hands, familiarising herself with their energy. She felt a pulse of information from then and instinctively knew she had to finish the reading.

  It was too risky to leave it for much longer. His psyche could fragment but if she completed the reading he could die. She wished there was a third choice. It felt like the cloud of energy around them changed. She returned the flowers to the vial. It was something to deal with later, not now. It was enough to know she had them in her possession and she wasn’t going to finish the reading for him, at least not yet.

  She picked up the small container of liquid she’d taken from the ship. A shot of static electricity flew out and anchored in her hand. “Ow.” She picked at the energy in her hand as if a thorn had lodged there until the pain eased. She tried again, but this time she ignored the bursts of electricity as she held up the liquid.

  She wanted to taste it, to confirm what she thought it was. If the Queens have been producing this, then we are in for another war. There was no way she should risk tasting the liquid. Who knew what would happen or what it would do to her? She’d worked with the energy of flowers long enough to know to avoid such a hazard.

  There were procedures she’d developed, from researching through electronic books, but she largely used her intuition and learned to be cautious. She had to feel the Energy first to make certain the liquid was safe. Maybe, set up some experiments with other plants to see how they responded to the liquid. Right now, there wasn’t time for this, or even the resources to set up such experiments.

  Without the distraction of feeling space-sick, she felt the vibrations of the liquid more intensely. The walls of the container provided only a weak barrier. She twirled the slender vial in her fingers, watching the liquid roll around, and the bubble of air bob along the side. The liquid pulled on her energy heightening her curiosity.

  She slipped into the Energy now, not caring about anything else, but being embraced once again in the Field. When passing between the worlds she saw a fading image of a crown, and remembered her dream, but the scene changed and she stood at the crossroads. She had a foot in each world, the left in the living and the right in the Energy Field.

  Triena moved along the edge, aware of her hand holding the vial and the patterns of energy forming around her essence. A small shock wave went through the Energy threatening to disrupt her balance. She re-established herself between the worlds and she felt the power of both the physical and Energy Field vibrate through her. The intensity of being able to access each world made her dizzy. She held onto her balance and the light-headedness dissipated. The liquid felt safe to drink.

  Her curiosity too strong to ignore, she popped off the lid. The sound felt out of place, a noise echoed both in the physical and astral plane at once. The liquid spoke to her through the Energy, tempting her as if it was a forbidden fruit. Vapors wafted from the vial. The smell of roses pricked at her memory. An image of a dark rose blossom formed in her third eye. The fragrance and the image helped Triena to relax and trust the energy of the liquid. An urgency to know more overcame her.

  She held the old-fashioned, corked lid in one hand watching the liquid glisten in the low light of the room. Her tongue tingled with anticipation. Time slowed. Her vision sharpened. All she could see was the liquid on the cork.

  Just a little bit.

  She lifted the cork to her mouth. She held it at an angle causing liquid to pool at the end. A drop quickly formed and vibrated, as if it too couldn’t wait to join with her. It trembled with anticipation. The small drop exploded onto her outstretched tongue and she felt the animal energy take hold of her body and mind. So much more intense than the plant energy she was used to and her balance teetered between worlds.

  Something felt wrong. This Energy tried to control her. Plant energy never did this. It was like the animal Energy had been pre-programmed.

  Instinctively Triena fought against the Energy, tried to move away, but she couldn’t. It wound itself around her essence, trapping her between the two planes. She pushed and pulled her energy, trying to change the pattern that unfolded. A scene began to play out. Normally in the Energy Field, the Energy didn’t involve her in the message. She served as an observer to what happened and didn’t play center stage.

  She managed to keep herself calm while she fought down wave after wave of panic. Slowly, she came to grips knowing she was stuck. She smelled blood. Her stomach churned. A forest landscape formed around her. The swift change in energy nauseated her. She dry-retched as her body was forced to twist and turn into a different shape.

  She looked down at her hands, but she’d changed, morphed into an animal. She had hooves, her hide smooth. A deer. She flicked her tail and her ears stood erect. She knew a deer was hunted. Pain gripped her hind legs and she moved, dragging her injured leg behind her, a hind leg that wouldn’t support her. The bushes rustled nearby, sending a fresh wave of adrenalin through her animal body. Something pursued her. She couldn’t run, only drag her suddenly heavy body, leaving a trail of blood.

  A sharp pain near her chest caused her to crumble to the ground. Her eyes remained open as birds scattered in fright from the trees. Green shades blurred around her. A woman stood next to her, a knife in her hand and began cutting at the muscles above her front leg. Each slash an insight into the energy bled out in red forming a pattern she couldn’t read. Triena’s deer form felt every slice of the knife. A burning fire ripped her body apart as the woman used Triena’s shape to look for patterns in the Energy. Life pulled away from her body as the hunter fed on the deer energy. Darkness crept in, a silent fog, blurred with the agony. Triena struggled to hold her awareness as the energy forced another change.

  Warm and thick with muscles, she roared into life. A lioness. Again she smelled blood, which heightened her senses. A deer carcass lay nearby, half eaten. She licked her mouth. Her long tongue slipped over bloodied sharp teeth.

  Something fired. Metal exploded in her mind and she dropped to the ground. A different woman stood by her as the surroundings faded into blackness. A knife came towards her. She roared, but no sound emerged. She didn’t want to give up her lion energy. It swept through her form and changed her again.

  This time she was herself. This time she stood holding a knife. She screamed, knowing what she had to do. A dog lay injured nearby. Blood dripped from the knife. She’d already started what this Energy guided her to do. To kill. To suck at the dying energy of the animal to find the patterns. She couldn’t do this. She threw the knife down, but when she turned, she still held the knife.

  Each time she threw away the knife. In the next moment she held it again. The dog whimpered. There was only one thing to do. She moved to the dog, with the intent to put it out of its misery and not to pull it apart, sucking at its dying soul. Not to absorb its Energy. Something took hold of her, an alien force. She began the process of pulling apart the organs while the dog slowly died. Its spirit fed her, showed her the patterns, as she screamed her protests to being forced to do this. The dog’s energy faded. She stood with bloodied hands and arms, crying. Tears rained down her cheeks. What evil had she done? A new animal energy now pulsed in her veins.

  Welcome, Priestess. You are worthy.

  The scene dissolved and she was left standing in darkness, clean once more. It felt as if each of the animal’s spirits clung to her, their instincts sharpening hers. Triena breathed heavily, scrambling to make sense of this. None of the pieces fit together. Tainted with animal energy, she tried to brush it out of her aura but it stuck there.

  Exhausted, she wasn’t sure if the thoughts were her own or what she’d consumed. It was only a drop, but its power changed her, ripped holes deep in her energy. There was a distinct sequence of events. It was all planned, but this wasn’t what she’d been told the Queens believed. T
his wasn’t what she had been taught before being exiled.

  This was too violent and the Queens stood to eliminate this. She didn’t want to think about what would’ve happened in the program if she had failed. Grief ripped at her throat. This wasn’t what the Queens were meant to be doing. How could it all go wrong? She forced herself to breathe. This was far from being over. Triena realised she was now entangled in something she didn’t want to be a part of.

  Still between worlds, she looked in both directions, to the physical, and to the energy, in amazement. How did I keep my balance? She felt the strength of the animal power hold her. Something didn’t feel right. This wasn’t what she was used to, she didn’t have the stomach for this energy. Plants were gentler, not so bloody.

  The animal energy loosened its hold on her and disappeared into the astral plane. She expected herself to be unbalanced now the energy left, but found she was steady. She moved along the boundary between the planes. It was easy. Surely the program hadn’t caused this?

  Now free, she moved to go back to the physical plane. As she gathered herself to find the path back, she noticed something glowing in her periphery. A white light, soothing and peaceful beckoned.

  She turned. The crown hovered in front of her. This wasn’t part of the program. This was something else. Is it related? She went to move to the crown but it pushed her back. She stood still, looking, waiting for the message.

  A shadow of a woman took form under the crown. Triena squinted in the energy to try and see if she could see the face or some other distinguishing feature. But, it just kept out of her reach. There was something familiar with the shape.

  Will you reveal yourself?

  The crown dimmed, not answering her silent question. Triena moved closer, but the energy of the crown pushed her away. She took a deep breath, letting out her frustration. Whatever it was, the Energy wanted her to know she couldn’t work it out. It was as if the message had been fractured and broken into different pieces. Each piece had a different message and the decoder had been lost, so the pieces couldn’t go back together again.

  She did know it was harder to read the Energy for yourself and the process couldn’t be forced. Everything would be revealed to her all in good time. It was time she had an issue with. She didn’t have the time to wait around for the Energy to help her. She had to find a place where the Queens wouldn’t get her and get the chip out of her arm.

  The Energy went black and there wasn’t any use staying here any longer. Her mind ached from the program she’d been forced to endure and there were too many questions floating in her head.

  Triena began moving along the astral path, back to her body. She stood holding the vial, thinking, one hand on the table to keep herself stable. Her essence floated back gently into her body as she withdrew from the Energy Field. The power of being able to control this process vibrated through her body. What she did was an achievement very few of the Energy Readers managed. It was part of the initiation into the level of priestess, the level before becoming Queen.

  Where did I learn this?

  A memory began to form in her mind. She was young, standing at the gates with her mother. The scent of roses strong, but there was only barren land around the castle. No plants, just a few mosses growing on the wasteland, fighting with the high altitude and lack of rain. A strong wind teased her thick coat and she gripped her mother’s hand tighter. The scent of roses again. They were her mother’s favorite essential oil. It was rare even back then.

  “Open the gates,” her mother commanded as she had the right. The gates remained closed. They stood there all afternoon. Her mother yelled until she was hoarse. The wind carried her voice as if it was a lost leaf, tumbling the sentences in the air until they broke into words. The wind kept playing, breaking up the words into letters, until they were lost and forgotten.

  Her mother yelled out again. “You promised you’d take her. Here she is.”

  Triena remembered being hungry and thirsty, but she didn’t dare interrupt her mother’s ranting. She’d never seen her like this before and she was scared. She needed to pee, but she held on. Her bladder felt like it was going to burst.

  “The deal is over then. I’ve kept my side.” Her mother tugged her hand and turned away from the gates. Triena’s legs struggled to move after standing still for hours.

  Then there was a thunderous crack behind them. Triena nearly wet herself from the sound. The war made everyone edgy. It was why her mother dragged her on a week’s pilgrimage to the castle. It was the last place on Earth that was liveable. By then everyone else moved out to the planets and moons of the Universe.

  “We will accept her,” called a woman from the gate.

  “Of course you will. She’s my daughter,” her mother had said.

  Triena hadn’t thought anything of that statement until now. She did know the skill with the Energy was passed down through the genes, mother to daughter. She never saw her mother use the energy skill. But, that was a long time ago. Maybe, my memories were distorted? She wasn’t sure how that could’ve occurred and dismissed the thought.

  “I can take you no further.” Her mother bent down and looked at her. There were tears in her eyes. “Learn well, my daughter, and learn fast.”

  “Hurry up,” yelled the woman.

  “Go. You’ll be cared for here and kept safe from the fighting.” She led Triena back to the gate. The woman looked angry. The energy formed a fiery set of flames behind her, and it seemed like she wanted to throw them at Triena and her mother.

  Triena remembered the roughness of her mother’s hand, and how it held her firm. Her mother wasn’t scared, but she was. Triena didn’t want to be left there. She didn’t know this place. Her mother never talked much about the Queens. Triena wanted to go back with her mother to their cave. She didn’t want to be here, exposed on the side of a mountain, especially with that woman looking as though she’d beat her.

  “I love you.” Her mother kissed her on her forehead, turned and walked away and didn’t look back. Triena screamed for her to return, but her mother kept walking. Through tears, she watched her leave. Then the woman forced her inside, pinching her arm when she refused to walk. By the time she was inside she’d forgotten what roses smelled like, replaced inside by the cold energy of stone.

  The memory faded. Tears slid down her cheeks. How could’ve I been so stupid? She looked at the vial and replaced the lid. There was no going back now. She knew she wanted to taste the liquid again, to feel the animal energy pulse through her body. But, she also knew the scent of the liquid, roses, tricked her into tasting it. It wanted her now and it sought to claim her. She forged her own path with the energy of flowers and didn’t want to change. Flower energy was given, not taken like what happened when using animal energy.

  What do the Queens use this for? She couldn’t quite make sense of this all. Her thoughts tumbled violently in her mind. She felt them move and rip into her brain.

  She struggled to inhale, gasping, as the energy from the liquid came for her. It had been cheated out of life and it was angry.

  She fought to keep conscious and standing. Her skin prickled with fear at the thought of dying. This was different from the space sickness. Here she could see the choice, accept the pain and die or fight and live. She fought and tried to breathe in again. It was as if the air was now water and too heavy to move into her lungs.

  Her vision blurred. She didn’t have enough air to make her vocal cords work and she screamed silently. The room rocked from one side to the other and she knocked over the chair. The deer, the lion, the dog came to take back what was there. Triena only just managed to keep standing as she held onto the edge of the table.

  The liquid claimed her. She felt it take hold inside of her. Blackness edged in and suddenly she knew she could no longer fight. She wasn’t going to win, not this time.

  So take it. Take me!

  Chapter 11

  “You really want this?” asked the
Priest.

  “Yes, of course.” Braklen had trouble concentrating after what he started in bed with Triena.

  “You agree with this, Marory?”

  The old woman nodded her head. “It’s for the best. The chip needs to be removed. It’s a priority.”

  “Please, Priest Junqi,” said Braklen. “This is for the both of us.”

  “I see.” Priest Junqi ran his hand through his white hair. “It’s been a while, since we had to arrange something like this.” His forehead creased as he thought. “If you two could get along, then the chip wouldn’t be an issue.”

  “Not that simple.” Braklen stared into the full cup of tea in front of him. He knew this was an ordinary cup of tea and not like the tea Triena made for him. Yet his stomach knotted as he remembered the pain from drinking the tea. He wished, not for the first time, he hadn’t put the chip in her arm.

  He couldn’t get her out of his mind, which was made worse by feeling her naked body. There was something familiar about her, like she was meant to be in his life. A past memory that had fractured over the years. Other things haunted him now, the faces of the people he’d killed, and the eyes of the people who worked for him.

  The blood, the starving, the constant travel seemed to have rendered his mind unable to order thoughts anymore. Or maybe he didn’t want to. He looked at the Priest. “So can you help?”

  Priest Junqi looked tired. Braklen wasn’t sure he would help, or could help.

  “Things have changed a lot around here,” said Priest Junqi. “Things are much slower than they used to be. The Queens’ grip is far and strong.”

  “Will you help us?” Braklen repeated.

  Priest Junqi took a deep breath. “Well …”

  A crashing noise from within the home stopped him. They sat still, listening. Braklen expected armed Peacekeepers to storm the room, but when that didn’t happen he breathed out a sigh of relief. Since ditching the pack, the Peacekeepers hadn’t turned up, but he was still on edge.