Souls of the Never

by CJ Rutherford

  “You just need to keep this half inside you safe and intact.” He glanced down to where his hand touched her, “so that when we do find each other again you can heal the fracture.”

  He kissed her, each of them tasting the saltiness of the others tears on their lips, and suddenly Katheryne knew Chran was wrong.

  She was certain, totally without doubt now, that whatever Derren she met would become hers again when their souls touched. For she knew the love for him she held within her would be enough, because it was limitless and eternal; and as her awareness drew outwards, she looked down at the two bodies below, witnessing the energies flowing through them.

  It was one constant aura of golden light which at once completely enveloped them, before shifting to a shaft that passed through both hearts, before intertwining their whole beings. And between the two bodies was the single soul that bound them together, unbreakable and irresistible.

  She had dreaded this moment of parting for days, and had done everything she could, made every excuse to delay it, but as Katheryne watched the scene below her, she knew she perceived a constant in the universe. And she knew, even as she soared upward, with Sanctuary now an insignificant pinprick of light below, she wasn’t leaving Derren. How could she leave something behind when she carried it inside her?

  She stretched beyond, and the whole of the Never was below her now, like she was somehow detached from it. She struggled to comprehend what just happened. Surely the Never was limitless, she thought, but as she looked out, she perceived a curvature stretching over the horizon.

  She thought dimly back to a high school geography class where the subject had been infinity. Infinity, if she recalled correctly, definitely did not have a curvature, of this she was certain.

  So if the Never wasn’t endless, what was it?

  Around her was utter blackness, the true void of nothingness she had thought the Never was. She was overcome with a feeling of vertigo, as her consciousness attempted to comprehend the sheer scale of it all.

  And as if her consciousness listened to her, she suddenly held the Never suspended weightless in the palm of her hand. It was so small, but she was still able to reach in and perceive the smallest, most insignificant thread within it.

  My God, what am I? Katheryne thought? God? Goddess? No, she could never be so arrogant as to think that. The being who was Katheryne shivered in relief at her mortality. She was still her, of this she was certain.

  But what am I? She asked herself again.

  ‘You are hope!’ She heard the voice speak from everywhere at once. It almost overwhelmed her as the power behind it flowed through her, and she knew however powerful she was destined to become, would be nothing compared to this being.

  Suddenly, the presence was there before her, and she looked on in wonder as a form took shape. She expected a vision of angelic power, but appearing before her was the form of an old man, ancient even, though he still had the aura of power unlimited coming from him.

  “Yes, yes that’s much better,” he said brightly, as he ran his hands down over himself, inspecting his body as if it was somehow alien to him.

  He wore a simple robe of brown cloth, tied with a sash rope as a belt. His hair was curly, but as white as snow as it tumbled down over his shoulders. His face, although ancient, possessed an ageless quality and an unmistakeable warmth.

  “It’s been so long since I took form I’d forgotten what I looked like.” He winked mischievously at Katheryne. “Still got it though haven’t I, the ability to make an entrance?”

  Katheryne gaped at his expression. This being who had just appeared before her, the one she knew possessed unlimited power, had just smiled and winked at her.

  He could see she was astounded and completely confused, so he waved his hand with a flourish and a laugh; they were back on the Island.

  It was identical to the beach she left just a few minutes ago, but Katheryne knew it wasn’t quite right. As she looked across to see the old man studying her with a look of curiosity in his ancient eyes, he smiled in satisfaction.

  “Very good, very good indeed, you can tell this is all a construct.” He waved his hand indicating their surroundings, but it wasn’t a statement that required an answer. “I thought it might be a little more comfortable to have a familiar place where we could talk.”

  Even his voice seemed ancient, thought Katheryne, but it was warm and friendly and she felt herself relaxing. She couldn’t be sure if the calmness overcoming her was natural, or some sort of spell being cast, but she knew there was no malicious intent; and there was the fact she was still curious.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  The old man looked aghast for an instant. “Oh my, where are my manners. Oh my, oh my indeed,” he continued, seeming to be caught off guard and acting flustered. “It has been so very long since I’ve talked face to face with anyone, you see. How rude of me.”

  He gave himself a shake, smiled warmly again, and bowed deeply before her. “Please forgive an old man’s ramblings my dear. My name is Olumé.”

  Katheryne reeled in shock. Derren and Krista had told her of the legends, and the name most prevalent and revered above all others was Olumé. It had been he who had hidden the magic, and halted Tenybris’s first assault on the universe.

  Her expression must have betrayed her thoughts as Olumé chuckled warmly.

  “I suppose I should be glad some people remember me after such a long time,” he said still smiling. “Now let me look at you. Stand up straight dear, stand up...it’s not every day I get to see my greatest ever creation.”

  Katheryne stood straight and still on reflex, but the shock caused her head to swim and she staggered. Olumé was there holding her hand to steady her. He may have looked ancient, but the hand was as firm as a rock as Katheryne felt his strength support her.

  “I’m sorry Katheryne,” he said, embarrassed, “I had quite forgotten about the correct use of timing and tact.” Olumé managed to be bashful and mischievous at the same time, and Katheryne delighted in his ability to make the contradictions seem totally natural.

  “I had no right to confront you with this before ‘preparing the ground’, as they say. Please sit down.” He waved, his wrist twisting in another extravagant flourish.

  The fallen tree trunk appeared from nowhere, and Katheryne sat carefully, still feeling a faint dizziness.

  She looked up at him as another similar trunk appeared and he too sat down. He seemed ancient, but his movements belied his appearance as his bearing upon the trunk was almost regal. It might have been a gold leafed throne, such was the serenity he possessed.

  “I don’t understand,” she said in wonder. “What do you mean? How can I be your greatest creation?”

  Olumé pondered where to begin. He had his directness under control now and was obviously careful about how to continue.

  “Hmm, well, creation may have been a bit presumptuous of me,” he joked. “Of course I didn’t ‘actually’ create you...it’s more like you are the culmination of a plan I put in place thousands of years ago.”

  This made Katheryne only slightly less confused.

  “How is that possible?” she asked, incredulously. “How could you plan for one person to be born at the right time, after thousands of years have passed?”

  Olumé smiled smugly and laughed his impossibly childish laugh. The sound could only be described as magical, and Katheryne was caught up in it as she smiled also.

  “It was a very good plan,” he said, chuckling again. “One of my best, and even if I say so myself, I’ve made some fine plans over the years, even before my death.”

  Katheryne’s jaw dropped open. How could all the power she sensed be coming from someone that wasn’t even alive?

  “Yes, Katheryne. I’m dead,” confirmed the being who had been Olumé, however the smile remained on his face.

  “Oh, I’m still me,” he said mischievously, “but what you see before you is a remnant of my soul, left here for the so
le...if you’ll pardon the pun...for the sole purpose of assisting you with your current dilemma.”

  All these revelations were too much for Katheryne to take, but she made herself concentrate, and gradually her head stopped trying to explode. But as her mind calmed, other questions came to her, ones that she never in a thousand years had expected to be able to ask.

  Olumé’s remnant sat still, but was aware of the curiosity fighting to get free.

  “Ask your questions Katheryne. We have a short time before we need to go.”

  Katheryne couldn’t quite believe she was here, talking to a being, even the remnant of one, who had been dead for millennia. She had so many questions but time was short, so she sought the one which had bothered her for so long.

  “Why did you let Tenybris win?” she asked. “I mean, it’s obvious to me that when you were alive, you were so much more powerful than he was. Why didn’t you stop him when you had the chance to?”

  The being sighed, as if he had been dreading this very question, and it was with a hint of sadness that he looked at Katheryne and spoke.

  “Yes, I was more powerful than Tenybris, you are correct in that observation Katheryne,” he said quietly. “But to stop him…to kill a friend, even one who had fallen so far as he had, would have left its mark on me. Even though I would have done it with the very best of intentions, I would have awakened a beast inside of me which would eventually have grown to make what Tenybris has become seem like a kitten beside a lion.”

  “You see, our race…The People we simply called ourselves, we are…were, I should say, the embodiment of innocence. Before Tenybris’s fall, we had existed for thousands of years in peace, as the Land gave us everything we needed. There was no greed, for why should there be when you had everything your heart desired? But our desires were pure and unselfish, and unfortunately open to exploitation.”

  “Outsiders came,” he continued, “and though the vast majority were friendly to the People, and respected the Land, there were those who were unscrupulous and greedy. They began to use the People’s bond with the Land to grow rich and powerful on their own worlds. The balance of peace in the universe was in danger of being interrupted, so I knew I had to act.”

  Katheryne sat with a look of wonder on her face as he went on with the tale.

  “My father and I created a simple enough spell, one which was completely harmless to the visitors to the Land, but one which halted the exploitation of my simple people instantly. You see, Katheryne, I knew that the driving force behind these crimes was greed. So without greed they were no longer a danger.”

  Katheryne gaped, “You took away their greed?”

  “No…no that would have been…un-neighbourly of me,” he grinned. “No, I simply masked their greed while they were on my world. They could travel there with the worst of intentions, but as soon as they stepped foot in the Lands, they no longer wanted anything more than they absolutely needed.”

  Katheryne smiled as what he had said caused her to laugh.

  “That’s brilliant,” she giggled, “God, you must have pissed them off.”

  Olumé’s remnant laughed along with her.

  “Yes, I do recall some resentment being directed toward me as they departed,” he chuckled. “I can’t for a second think why, can you?”

  Katheryne was still smiling, but felt another question coming, so she calmed herself before speaking.

  “So, what happened? It seems like you had everything in hand.” she asked.

  The being was suddenly sombre.

  “Yes, it did appear that way, and for many years it was.” He sighed, as if what he was about to say was incredibly hard for him to admit.

  “The People did not travel beyond the Lands Katheryne, for obvious reasons. We were bound to it and we loved it. I was the only one who ever felt...inclined to wander among the outside.”

  Katheryne could clearly see moisture in Olumé’s eyes.

  “Tenybris, however, left on some mysterious errand, and it was on the planet of Sanctuary that something happened to darken his soul. Beings, frustrated with their inability to exploit my people, did something that turned him away from the light.” Olumé sighed deeply.

  Katheryne looked at him in shock. “These people did this? I can’t believe that anyone could have been so spiteful and stupid to unleash him on the universe.”

  “Oh, I don’t think they had any idea of how far their little plan would get out of control,” said Olumé, grimly. “No, I think they were simply trying to engineer a…change of management as it were, so they might be able to negotiate better terms with Tenybris.”

  Olumé grew sorrowful again as he continued.

  “The seed they planted within Tenybris lay dormant for years. I doubt he even became aware of his growing dissatisfaction until over a century had passed,” said Olumé bitterly.

  “If only I had been more vigilant I might have been able to save him, but by the time I perceived how much he had changed, it was too late to help him.”

  “But I couldn’t kill him Katheryne, because don’t you see?” he was clearly pleading for her to understand. “In a way I was responsible for what had happened to him. It was my spell that drove those others to carry out this act.”

  Katheryne balked at this. “There’s no way you’re to blame for the evil and jealously of others...you couldn’t have known what they would do.”

  Olumé smiled back in gratitude. “Thank you my dear. You may be right, but the deed was done, and it was too late for me to stop it. So I had to do my best to mitigate the unfolding disaster…which is where you come in.”

  “This big plan of yours again, huh?” she asked.

  “Yes, my plan. Although the plan to bring about your existence is only one of many that are slowly coming together.” He hinted, but gave nothing more away.

  “The plan to shape humanity was, as I have said, one of my better ones. Even in the beginning of your evolution your race was a contradiction.” Olumé smiled as he teased Katheryne.

  “You are capable of so many differing levels of emotion. With love and hate at either end, you are one of the only races in the universe that can feel both at the same time.”

  “Well, there’s a thin line between love and hate,” Katheryne said smiling.

  Olumé chuckled. “Do you realize you are probably the only race in existence who would even understand that phrase?”

  His face darkened. “The People are a race of purity and innocence as I have said, but they are a race capable of vast extremes. Indeed, until Tenybris’s fall, my entire race had been utterly pure, with no evil thoughts ever having entered their lives in thousands of years. A lot of that was because of the rarity of travel beyond the Lands. The Lands themselves were the source of the purity, so while the People resided there, their innocence was incorruptible.

  “But once a seed of evil has entered into one of us, as it did with Tenybris whilst off world, the path to the other end of the extreme is irresistible. There can be no halting the fall until hatred has taken the soul and twisted it to evil.”

  He turned and looked intensely at Katheryne as he spoke. “And that is why I could not kill Tenybris, Katheryne, even if I had wanted to. I couldn’t do it because if I had, I would have set myself on the path toward hatred. I would have been terrible Katheryne, believe me when I say that Tenybris’s atrocities would have paled into insignificance when compared to mine.”

  As she looked at Olumé she was frightened, but was certain what he said was true.

  “And I didn’t want to, because he had been my friend for centuries before the fall. We were closer than brothers, so at the end of my life I rejoiced, because if everything I had planned came to fruition, my friend’s soul would be saved.”

  As Katheryne watched, a tear ran down Olumé’s face. He sat there on the fallen trunk, clinging onto a hope he had no way of knowing would ever end in success. She began to stand but he moved first.

  “But for now, we have a soul t
o save.” He snapped his fingers, and as he stood up, the island was gone and they were again in the void of blackness.

  Katheryne felt as if she had more to say, as if more remained unsaid, but Olumé’s actions made her remember the purpose of this meeting.

  “So you can tell me how to travel in time?” Katheryne asked hopefully.

  Olumé looked back in amusement. “No my dear, you already know how to do that…look.” He gestured as the globe of the Never appeared before them and she was drawn deep inside it, flying faster and faster until she abruptly stopped.

  Before her was her mother’s soul, floating serenely through the Never as it prepared to pass on and become one with the void, her essence to be reborn in new life.

  Olumé was there at her side, watching her closely as she reached out and touched the globe of light and energy, feeling the confusion within, but receiving back a flood of love as it seemed to know who was there.

  “Mom.” Katheryne’s eyes were wet with fresh tears as she poured her own love back into the sphere. She turned to Olumé. “What do I do? Can I hide her somehow from B’ran, before he feeds her to Tenybris?”

  Olumé’s features grew dark as a shadow seemed to pass over them, but he brightened as he spoke.

  “You don’t understand Katheryne,” said Olumé gently, as if he spoke to a child who needed gentle guidance to come to the right conclusion.

  “B’ran has already done this,” he said indicating the globe of essence. “The accident your father witnessed was no such accident. It was the being, Dwenn, who reached in and ripped your mother from you all.”

  Katheryne’s whole being reeled in shock. She felt like she couldn’t breathe as Olumé made this revelation, but she made an effort and slowly recovered as he continued, seemingly unaware of the effect his last sentence had had on her.