Souls of the Never

by CJ Rutherford

  “That’s what we’ve always been told; it’s the prophecy...” she stopped short as she saw Katheryne’s eyes widen in shock.

  “Yeah, sorry, we hadn’t gotten round to telling you yet. You, ah....seemed to have other things on your mind.” She paused for a second before going on to recite it.

  “You are supposed to come back to Sanctuary where you will unite the Powers and provide the means to defeat Tenybris. Sorry that’s not word for word; my history sucks.”

  Perri grinned from ear to ear, “You’re in a prophecy… Wow!”

  Katheryne cringed, “God, why me?” she asked looking heavenward, “Couldn’t you just have sent Derren here as a kid and arranged for us to meet as two normal, everyday people? But no, there had to be a prophecy, didn’t there?”

  Perri’s grin widened as she giggled, and even Krista smiled, before bringing them back to reality with a bump.

  “But Kat, none of that matters,” she stressed. “If we can’t get back to Sanctuary, how can we get to Derren?”

  Katheryne’s thoughts flashed in her head, her mind racing as she followed a plan which was unfolding faster than she could ever have imagined. And it was her plan, and this realisation alone shocked her more than anything.

  She knew she wasn’t stupid; her degree proved otherwise, but as these thoughts flashed through her head, she knew what was happening inside her mind was several levels above what a normal person was capable of.

  “You said Derren had upset some of these leaders.” Katheryne spoke quickly now. “Why did he do that? Aren’t these guys supposed to be like, guardians of some sort? If so why did Derren keep trying to cause trouble with them? Surely he trusted them.”

  A strange expression crossed Krista’s face, as she finally comprehended what she herself had never understood about her twin’s confrontational behaviour.

  “He didn’t trust them,” she said, understanding at last, “not all of them, anyway, and definitely not B’ran, though in his case I tend to agree. He’s slime.”

  “And these others he upset,” continued Katheryne, “were they among the supporters who backed up B’ran?”

  Krista visualised the gathering, concentration crossing her features before the penny seemed to drop. She looked horrified as she turned to Kat and Perri.

  “All of them were there, every single one,” confirmed Krista, “and all of them sided with B’ran. Katheryne, if what you’re suggesting is true, there is something very wrong on Sanctuary.”

  “Excuse me,” Perri snapped loudly. “I’m sorry if I’m a bit slow, but what exactly are you suggesting, Kat? Maybe you can slow down a bit so we mere mortals can catch up?”

  Katheryne laughed warmly, “Sorry, Perri, I keep forgetting this is all new to you.”

  “I’ll try to fill in the gaps, shall I?” suggested Krista.

  Katheryne nodded. “Go ahead; I’m still getting my head round it all too.”

  “OK then, Perri,” began Krista, “Sanctuary was hidden thousands of years ago, so Tenybris couldn’t use it to travel instantly to the other realms. If he’d conquered Sanctuary we’d have ceased to exist, and he’d currently be Mr. Big around here. Actually here, there, and everywhere, but you get the picture.”

  Perri nodded for her to continue.

  “So for the last few thousand years, the Leadership have been watching for Tenybris’s return, while all along they’ve been recruiting the Liberi…us…to fight their battles against the leftovers of Tenybris’s armies. But what Katheryne is saying, and I don’t want to admit this but I think I agree with her, is some of the leaders have been operating to a different agenda. Derren didn’t quite know, but he’s a very good judge of character. He must have sensed something unnatural going on.”

  “Didn’t he ever tell you?” asked Perri, and Krista blushed.

  “Yes, he did.” She groaned. “Lots of times, in fact."

  Krista’s face looked horrified, “Oh my god, he’s going to be insufferably smug when we manage to free him.”

  She looked beseechingly at Katheryne.

  “I don’t suppose we could leave him there, just for a year or two maybe?”

  Katheryne smiled and shook her head.

  “No, I suppose not.” Krista grimaced.

  “Which brings me right back to our main problem; how do we get back to Sanctuary to rescue his sorry arse?” Her words hid her deep concern for her brother’s safety, but Katheryne and Perri understood completely.

  Katheryne simply smiled, enigmatically, “I think I need to go and speak to some of my other friends.”

  The Island—Rescue Plan

  Katheryne looked out across the bay, remembering her last time here, and who she’d been with. Now she was alone, she let her emotions slip. She sat on the fallen trunk and wrapped her arms around herself, and sobbed. How would she live with herself if she let something happen to Derren?

  Although she knew she was being incredibly selfish, all she could think about was how broken she would be if he didn’t come back to her.

  Part of her knew he was hurting as much as she was, more so, because he was totally alone among enemies. Enemies whom he’d thought of not as friends perhaps, but at least as allies. Did he even know she was trying to rescue him? No, how could he?

  The success of her plan hinged on so many things, but it was a good plan, she thought, as did Krista. Perri still hadn’t got her head fully round how it was going to work, but she was coming along.

  Katheryne had talked to most of her friends here on the Island...friends who it turned out were the Powers Derren mentioned before...and asked them a simple question. Did they know any Liberi, and could they contact them?

  She was surprised when most of them replied yes. It turned out most had been discovered by the Liberi over the years, but strangely, they had been asked not to discuss them with anyone. It was obviously important to them to remain in the shadows.

  It was only the fact that Katheryne had brought them together to this place, and provided protection from the beast, that they had agreed to trust her in this revelation.

  Also to her surprise, all of them were aware of the existence of Sanctuary, which made her next request much easier once she’d explained her fears. Krista had given her names of Liberi who were friends of hers and Derren’s. She’d been amazed when the islanders knew a different one each, but then she shouldn’t have been surprised, not really. The Liberi had been searching the realities for thousands of years...for her. It made perfect sense they’d find the Powers.

  She took some of them aside and asked them to contact their Liberi, as Katheryne had started to refer to them, and explain what had happened, and ask if they were willing to help.

  So she sat, waiting here for a response to her desperate cry for help, praying that Krista wasn’t terribly mistaken, and her friends could be trusted.

  As she waited, she was suddenly overwhelmed when she realized it had been less than a day since she and Derren had walked along this very beach, afraid to hold each other’s hands in case the slightest touch would spark the fire burning at their core. It seemed like they had lived a lifetime since that first touch, by virtue of how much had been shared between them.

  Her whole being cried out in anguish and loneliness, but as she turned to look into the jungle, to the shielded nook where they had given themselves to each other so completely only hours ago, her breath caught in her throat.

  Derren stood there, watching her in disbelief and euphoria. They ran into each other’s arms, their mouths meeting, their lips parting as they revelled in each other’s presence. Part of her wondered how this was happening, but it was a very small part. She didn’t care; he was here and he was hers.

  Last night had been a release, a rapturous explosion of the pent-up emotions which had been repressed for years, finally given a conduit.

  What happened now was an exploration of each other’s needs and wants, as they clung to each single second in the presence of the other half of their s
oul.

  The sense of urgency was still present; indeed how could it not be? So much time had been wasted already, and the desire for each other was heightened by his capture and forced separation.

  But as they lay with each other, entwined in the limbs of their soul mate, exchanging tender caresses and sharing in the joy of each other’s unexpected presence, they knew it had to end. They had to talk, because the opportunity that Derren’s presence here on the Island granted, increased the chances of Katheryne’s plan tenfold.

  She drew back. She knew Derren understood, though she sensed it was a battle to contain his emotions. Katheryne knew how he felt. She wondered again at the change which had come over her, how completely she wanted this man to take her. She struggled to regain control, but eventually managed to reassert her will.

  “How is this even possible?” asked Derren in amazement. Like Katheryne, he had been caught up with the need they both had for each other, but he had been walking the Never for years searching for her. What had happened should not have been impossible.

  This place, this Island Katheryne had created, was a bridge between realities, which allowed the Powers in each universe to interact consciously with each other. But the only reason he’d been able to follow her last night was because they had been so close, physically as well as emotionally.

  And there was the fact they had discussed and planned his entry to her mind, and by proxy into the Island, beforehand.

  The shield he’d used to hide this fabrication from the beast had taken weeks of probing into Katheryne’s subconscious, and he had only managed to enter for an instant to taste her thoughts so he could complete it.

  In that instant, he’d known she was the one, the Katheryne he’d searched for so long. He’d yearned to stay with her, to reveal his love for her. But the hope had been ripped away as he’d been ejected forcibly from her presence. She hadn’t been ready to accept the truth, he knew now, but at the time the rejection he’d felt had almost destroyed him.

  He thought Krista had sensed a subtle difference in his approach to the inevitable meeting. There had been the dread, as there had been so many times before, and he’d continued his facade of denial of love for her.

  But as he’d pushed the door open and saw her, not just her physical body but all she had within, he’d been suspended in time, unable to move as he witnessed the image he’d kept in his heart look back at him...Look back and return his love, his hesitation and denial, but with an acceptance of the inevitable, of the inescapable bond between their souls.

  But that couldn’t explain how he was here now, when his physical self was so far away, imprisoned behind a barrier on Sanctuary.

  Katheryne didn’t need him to explain his bewilderment. She could sense his confusion, but was still struggling with the reality of what she’d done. As she looked around she saw the island, but then her perception shifted and she saw beyond.

  She perceived the Never for the first time, and marvelled at its vastness. She knew, even as she watched the currents and eddies affect the strands and paths shifting timelessly, she could discern a pattern within it.

  She was so overwhelmed at the sheer scale of it all that she was terrified of this ability. There was nowhere she couldn’t go, and no place she couldn’t see. It crashed in on her, threatening to overcome the limits of her mind, but then Derren was there, holding onto her in the dream, as she knew Perri would in the mundane world.

  Katheryne dragged herself back to him, and he stood holding her gently, but firmly in his arms.

  He balked at her ability, but instinctively he understood what she was becoming. The Foundation. He’d expected the changes to take place over years, as she accepted her power and learned to wield it. But as he gazed at this amazing young woman, whom he loved beyond anything else, he knew she’d been born to the task, and the knowledge was already unfolding within her.

  “You brought me here, Katheryne,” said Derren, beaming at her, “your heart reached out and found me and brought me here.”

  “God, I thought I’d lost you and I sat over there, and just as I broke apart, you were here,” she sobbed, tears of wonder and joy welling in her eyes as she returned his embrace.

  Derren kissed her again, their hearts bounding in rapturous union, and Derren whispered, “My heart, my soul is yours Katheryne, for now and into eternity.”

  The feelings threatened to overcome them again, to shut the world outside a cocoon formed of love and desire, but Katheryne became aware of one of the Islanders standing discretely a short distance away, obviously at odds as to whether to interrupt. It was a battle for them both to wrench themselves out of the other’s embrace, but they eventually parted.

  “Later,” Katheryne promised, smiling tenderly.

  “I’ll hold you to that,” he breathed, and kissed her gently, even that brief contact making her soul soar.

  “You’d better,” gasped Katheryne impishly, as she turned and beckoned her friend to come over.

  The man approached, and Katheryne bowed. She’d tried to learn the proper greeting for all the races present on the Island, and this one was a Calarian called Jip. His real name had turned out to be unpronounceable to her. He had tried for days to teach her, unsuccessfully, so they’d eventually settled on Jip as a compromise.

  He bowed in response, revealing the line of short spikes along the back of his head. Except for these he could have been taken for a human.

  “Hello Katheryne.” He spoke in heavily accented English and bowed also to Derren. “Toshi sends his greeting to you both, and has asked me to tell you he will be returning to Sanctuary as soon as possible. He will wait there for further instruction.”

  “Toshi?” said Derren, wide eyed. “You contacted Toshi? How?” Derren struggled to comprehend the steps already taken towards his rescue. Katheryne smiled at him, laughing at his incredulous expression.

  “What, did you think I would just leave you there,” she purred as she passed her arm around his waist and pulled herself into his chest, “when we have so much unfinished business?” Katheryne looked up to see his expression soften to one of awed affection.

  “When you say it like that, we do have quite a bit to discuss don’t we?” he agreed, mischievously, but his musical voice then took on a serious tone. “It won’t be easy, Katheryne. They’re holding me in a cell below the Arbiters building. B’ran’s group are in control of the major factions of the Leadership, and he has guards everywhere. Even if Toshi manages to get me out we’ll have a fight on our hands.”

  “Which is why Toshi won’t be coming to get you,” beamed Katheryne. “I will.”

  Sanctuary—The Dark Plan

  Derren sat on the bench, looking out at the guards as they gazed back angrily. They stood still on either side of the security desk...at least they tried. One of them stroked the baton on his belt. The other’s eyes narrowed in a grimace. A smile curled Derren’s lips as he noticed an ugly bruise darkening on one of their cheeks.

  He hadn’t gone quietly, and he and Krista had managed to totally incapacitate at least fifty guards before they had grappled him to the ground and bound him. He was gratified to see he’d inflicted some collateral damage in the process.

  The smile had its desired effect as the guard reddened further. If he could just make him angry enough to drop the force shield, the two of them wouldn’t stand a chance.

  The Liberi were the ultimate warriors. They combined physical strength and speed, with a mental ability which granted them power beyond any normal being. Their perception allowed them to step outside a conflict and choose their moment to strike the opponent, almost as if time stood still.

  He decided to up his game a notch. He might as well have a little fun while he waited.

  “So, how are your little friends?” he asked as his lopsided grin grew menacing. “I must say, you all seem to share a common trait. However, I fail to see how a glass jaw and weak wrists would be seen as a benefit to your master’s guard."

&n
bsp; Derren’s grin widened as he witnessed the taunts hitting home.

  He chuckled. “Perhaps you could take classes in animal care instead; though by the smell of you both, I’d guess that animal care is a hobby, not a vocation.” He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

  The guards looked at each other, one of them scowling and grinding his teeth, as he fought the desire – and his orders – to beat the prisoner to a pulp. The other was visibly shaking with rage, his breathing deep and noisy.

  “Oh my, are you alright there? You seem to be quite unwell. Something you ate perhaps. Do you need to go poo poo?” Derren taunted in a child’s voice.

  The guard took a step toward the control panel, and Derren poised himself to strike, but before he could, another person entered the room. The guards resumed their stiffened positions.

  “Well, well,” sneered Derren, “do you two always call in the chief shit herder when you feel threatened?” He shifted his attention to the large, white-haired man who now stood in front of the cell.

  “Hello B’ran, to what do I owe this pleasure? Have you become bored with your little boys already?” asked Derren, derisively.

  “Perhaps these two might serve a purpose in your chambers, as they obviously seem to be completely unsuited to the Corp.” He looked directly at the red-faced guard. “That one even needs to use the little girl’s room.”

  Derren thought the guard might combust, he’d gone so red.

  B’ran was unfazed. He turned and gestured for them to leave, which they did so reluctantly. Derren was quite pleased with himself. Making enemies was so much more fun when they were idiots.

  B’ran took out a device and activated it, placing it on the table. It emitted no sound, but Derren knew instinctively all the cameras and other surveillance devices in the cell had been rendered useless.

  “Got something to hide B’ran? Now that you’ve blinded the cameras, why don’t you get your goons back and have a little fun with me? I imagine you’d get quite a kick out of that, pardon the pun,” said Derren, smiling.