Chapter 7
Arturion
Adrenaline still coursed in his veins as he stepped out of Sinta Lake, more commonly known as the Lake of Mirrors, for the second time in a week. All his senses sharpened that he could identify each organism his eyes rested on, hear the sound produced by its frequency, and smell or taste its scent. This capability had made him a competent Gate Keeper and constantly served him well in his missions. In the past, he hoped, but now he prayed that it would not fail him.
The events of the other night remained stark in his memories. Sola, his foster father, and Sara were right about Karina and with everything.
After Sola had debriefed him, Arturion returned to Karina’s house and found himself engulfed in thick smoke and his surroundings in flames. A groan from the ceiling was the only warning he had of its subsequent collapse. Instinct kicked in, he ducked sideways, the falling wooden beam narrowly missing his leg. He landed near the burning staircase, his face mere inches from the flame. Its tongue licked at him singeing several strands of the hair that covered his forehead. Then, he saw the hazy gray shape on the wall, which was neither shadow nor soot.
The moment seemed to stretch as he and It appeared to take each other’s measure. A tale meant to frighten children from staying outdoors came back to haunt him.
Man fears the unknown.
a shadow is shadow if known,
an unknown shadow is not a shadow,
It is feared.
The Others dance with unknown,
The Others play with fear,
they consume it…
and with it goes the mind,
until man becomes a puppet to be played with and
a servant to do Their bidding.
A trickle of fear crept into Arturion’s heart that he could almost smell it leaking from his skin. The gray matter, a Zertan creation, perceptibly grew an inch.
All his years as Gate Keeper should have prepared him for this possible confrontation. Yet, he was not ready.
It loomed above him.
“Kriss-tii-naa.” A collection of voices sibilantly whispered in his mind.
“Tina!” Someone screamed outside, snapping him out of his panic. A tendril of It shot out to grab him. He clamped his eyes shut and willed himself to initiate his Merkaba.
The air smelled of earth and green things, a home away from home. He lay sprawled on the grass, his breathing coming out short as he inhaled the clean air. His mind worked double-time, trying to reassess the situation at hand and how to salvage it.
Sara’s prophecy rang in his ears. The Zertans would return for Karina, he was sure of it now. They would use leverage to get to her. It was no longer Karina’s life at stake, but also her family and friends.
A small plan began to form and with it his heart ached, making him gasp sharply. He would lose her friendship, he realized. No. The mission is more important. She – her life is the mission. Duty comes first before personal feelings. I’ve taken an oath. I must finish this. To see her safe and alive should be enough. It will have to be enough.
His feet moved on its own taking him to where Sola had said she would be residing. His stride lengthened with urgency and slowed only when he caught sight of the house at a distance. Light shone through the windows invitingly. He resisted the urge to let himself be known to its occupants, unsure of how she would receive him.
He laid his palm on a nearby tree and asked its spirit the permission he needed. Without further ado, he climbed it and found a position where he could have the best view and still remain unnoticed. Securing himself on a branch, he watched the two women by the window. Arturion felt relieved at the sight of Karina. Kala proved to be good company when he saw his friend smile at something the girl had said.
Worries about prophecies, the future, and the plan he had put into motion crowded his mind. He concentrated on the scene before him. Gradually, the tension in his shoulders eased and trivial thoughts replaced his other concerns. He had been so preoccupied in making sure of their escape that he had not had the time to notice his friend’s change of appearance. Her hair was longer now and her features sharper. She had considerably lost weight since his last visit to Karina’s home.
The fear in her eyes during last night’s Merkaba had pained him. Arturion had lost control of the situation. It was his fault for underestimating the Zertans. He had not anticipated that They would make their move so soon.
At this distance, he could already smell the change in her aura, a subtle scent of lavender. Its density was almost indiscernible to those sensitive enough to feel it that she could have been mistaken as a member their community. The transition has long been underway.
It should have been next to impossible for the Zertans to find her. How had they learned about her?
Karina’s head turned to his direction. Unconsciously, he leaned back into the shadows, bumping against the tree, and shrank his aura fearing detection. The size of her aura had grown larger that it covered most of the forest. If she was more adept with her abilities, she would have immediately sensed his presence; worse, identified his exact location.
At present, his heart raced at the possibility that she might have felt him nearby. His misgivings remained unrealized as Kala distracted her with a crystal tablet. They were both in deep conversation as they shared the object between them. At some point, Kala met his gaze and he knew that she would not give him away.
Arturion descended from his perch and thanked the tree spirit for granting his request. When he asked if he could repay the kindness, the tree spirit appeared. She had taken the shape of an ethereal young woman with dark almond-shaped eyes.
“Answers in return for the favor.”
Arturion nodded.
“Why do you hide, Gate Keeper?”
“Because,” he stared past the spirit. “I am afraid.”
“She is light and air and of earth. You have nothing to fear.”
“Yes, but I have failed her. I fear losing her friendship.”
The tree spirit smiled wanly and shook her head, retreating within her tree.
Arturion had turned to leave when he heard the spirit’s whisper through the rustle of her leaves. “I will be your friend, Keeper. I am Mira. Call my name and I shall heed it.”
Chapter 8
Arturion
Sola sat across him. His foster father’s head bowed in thought after he had brought the news. Sara placed her hand over Arturion’s. It was a habit of hers to make physical contact with those near her. As a child he had sought for his mother and her small gestures had helped him feel that he was not quite alone in the world. He began to treat her as he would his mother as time passed.
“Are you certain that your plan worked?” Sola’s eyes bore into him.
“Yes. Reno and his Black Guards helped cover the trail.”
“The Others. Your encounter with one of Them. This is the flaw in your plan. How would you deceive them when they have sent Theirs directly? Usually, Their humans do the dirty work. Rarely do They involve Themselves.”
“My encounter turned out to be a defective prototype – a drone someone released. Reno has imprisoned it in a concealed location until the Galactic Federation sends one of their representatives to transfer it to a more secure area.”
“They are still at war with the Cabal.”
The Galactic Federation (GF) is a large collective of beings from different parts of the galaxies and universes formed with the sole purpose of achieving a harmonious existence or universal peace.
The Cabal is another organization responsible for numerous atrocities in the world. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in Japan, year 1945, were suspected to be a part of the Cabal’s machinations. The nuclear bombing had caused a chain of events in the universe and reminded everyone of the devastation that occurred after Atlantis engaged in a nuclear war. The last incident, the March 11, 2011 tsunami and nuclear terror attack in Japan, had been the turning point, which caused the GF to engage the Cabal while
keeping mankind ignorant of the ongoing war.
The Federation has been watching activities on Earth closely to prevent another incident from happening and to ensure the long-awaited evolution of the planet and its inhabitants comes to fruition.
“They are neutralizing most of the fear and chaos the Cabal has been organizing. As for the Others, they have lost the advantage. They will not touch Kris –Karina’s sister and friends when they believe her…dead.”
“True, unless she comes back from her supposed death,” Sola acknowledged. “The immediate danger has been averted. We have to thank Reno and his people for their efforts.”
“Karina’s life is still in danger,” Sara said softly.
The two men looked to the high priestess for an explanation.
“You may have forgotten the dangers of her transition.”
“I brought her here heeding the prophecy.” Arturion frowned.
“The prediction refers to the Zertans.” At the mention of the name, Sola started to protest but the high priestess held up her hand. “Hush, my son. It will not do to turn your superstitions on me. I have lived far too long to know that superstitions gain strength with belief. They can be as human as they wish to be for all I care. Their lust for power – control and domination – knows no bounds, but they are gradually and steadily losing their hold on Karina’s world no sooner than the Cabals. They cannot follow the dimensional shift. They are simply stuck in the lower dimensions for as long as they hold negativity at the very core of their beings.
“Our human friends, on the other hand, are a very young race. They are fickle by nature but they are redeemable. Their small acts of kindness have proven that they are not entirely a lost cause. Some of them will remain in the same dimension with the Zertans, while others – certain others, who want a change for the better, will be taken along by Mother Earth’s ascension; choose to accept assistance from Arturion and his fellow Gate Keepers; or, simply be reborn. They always have choices. Karina has made hers.” Sara leveled her gaze at him.
“I compelled her.” For all his grand words in Karina’s living room, Arturion felt that he had decided for her. He dropped his gaze to his tea, which had gone cold.
“Have you spoken with her yet?” By the tone of her voice, she already knew the answer. “You must speak to her. It will benefit you both to clear the air between you.”
“What of the danger to Karina?” Sola reminded.
“She will survive?” Arturion asked.
“The future is not set in stone. She may or may not survive. It will depend on her choosing. She chose to trust you; thus, she chose to survive. It is important that she receives support from a friend. To abandon her now would weaken her determination to live.”
Sara refilled their cups and sipped her tea deliberately. She had said her piece and let her words hang in the deepening silence.
Blue light flashed in Sola’s left sleeve. He withdrew an oval mirror from a hidden pocket in his robes. He looked into it for a moment and passed the object to his foster son.
Instead of seeing his own reflection, another person’s face was displayed on the mirror.
“Do they know?” Reno’s voice spoke in his mind.
“Yes.”
“Then, you can share this news with them later. The Black Guards are investigating on the people who have made contact with Karina. It will take time to gather all the data we need.”
The Order of the Black Guard is well known for bending the ethical standards of their world when it suited their purposes. They were formed as countermeasure against the Zertans and the Cabal and regularly monitored both parties’ activities. Reno had been taken aback when their records failed to show any connection of the Zertan’s knowledge of Karina’s existence. As Commander of the Black Guard, he took his Order’s shortcoming as a personal blow and decided to deal with the matter directly.
“No mind reading,” Arturion said. He wouldn’t put it past them to employ Senka’s skills to look into an individual’s memories.
Reno glared at him. His mouth set into a thin line. The man was clearly unhappy that a Gate Keeper would apply himself in the Black Guard Order’s methods.
“At least not to Aly, Mindy, Nica and Liza,” he added to appease his friend. “Karina would never allow it.”
“If it would ease our honored guest, so be it.”
The sarcasm was not lost on him. Reno has been his friend even before his mother’s death. His best friend knew him enough to know that the request was more for his peace of mind than Karina’s sake.
“At ease, brother. I shall try my best to keep my overenthusiastic Guards on a tight leash.” A dark bushy brow arched upward. “In the meantime, try not to get yourself into trouble. Your brush with a Zertan drone was dangerous enough.”
“What is the general status of the situation?”
“Thanks to our time traveler, Vito, the official and unofficial report within the Zertan’s organization is that Karina is truly dead. We will continue to monitor their movements.”
“How is her sister?”
“I thought we agreed to keep this objective.”
“If I speak with Karina, she would ask,” Arturion reasoned.
“You’re right. You can tell her that the woman is still grieving, but she is holding up well,” Reno said in annoyance.
Arturion’s mouth twitched. Reno had attended the funeral posing as Karina’s former colleague. He had unwittingly seated himself beside Aly, who would not cease from crying. It was an uncomfortable position for the Commander, unused to seeing so many tears shed by one woman, let alone a tiny one. He had tried to comfort her as best he could, which turned out to be a serious mistake. The river of tears became a dam that had broken loose. In a matter of seconds, a number of the visitors shared their sympathies with Aly.
“Don’t you dare laugh at me, Gate Keeper,” Reno said sternly. “It was hard enough to approach an attractive woman when I am not as pretty as you are. Never have I dreamt that a Black Guard’s nightmare turn to reality as all those eyes turned on us.”
“It could have been worse.”
“Yes. There is, however, a tall, thin young man who seemed to be asking too many questions. From what I’ve gathered, his presence was not entirely welcome.”
“Peter?”
“Yes. Mindy was making dagger eyes at him. There might be something behind it. We’re doing a background check on him just to be on the safe side.”
A crash erupted in the background. Reno’s head swiveled to the source of the commotion. “I have to go. My apprentice has a habit of breaking my mirrors at the Comms station,” he said drily. “I’ll keep you posted if there are changes.”
The image in the mirror swirled and in its place his reflection stared back at him. When he looked up, Sola had already gone to attend to a local issue.
He relayed Reno’s message to Sara hoping she would manage to speak to his foster-father within the day.
She joined him outside the perimeter of the temple and quietly viewed the magnificent tree at its center. Some of the people who passed them by greeted or exchanged a few words with the high priestess at his side.
It was still early in the morning and every tree branch and leaf were moist with dew. The sweet and earthly smell gave him comfort. Every time he came back from a mission, the scenery waiting for him always took his breath away. He had started wondering if he had made a mistake in his choice of career. Sola had given him a year to think it over.
Two years had gone by and he was still undecided. The scenery lost some of its allure now. In his subconscious, he knew that it remained unaltered and it was him who had changed.
“Arturion,” Sara called, breaking his reverie. “If you wish to speak with Karina, she’s staying in Cara’s house.”
Chapter 9
Arturion
The exterior of the house looked a little different from how he remembered it. The walls were concealed with vines and other creepers, making the wh
ole structure look like it was naturally a part of the landscape. The wooden arched door had been polished to a sheen, “Pure Heart, Pure Mind, Pure Spirit” etched in Merleinan script:
It was his mother’s old home, which he had adamantly refused to live in.
In the past, Sola had tried to coax him to take an interest in it. His foster father eventually stopped when he came of age. The high priestess, however, was made of different mettle. She would drop subtle hints here and there whenever she had the opportunity. But the latest and most obvious of her suggestions had left him running toward it and the person he had been avoiding.
The windows were no longer shuttered with wooden panels. It had been pushed to the side, revealing curtains that billowed at the occasional breeze.
He stepped through the threshold. Instantly, his extended senses were overwhelmed. A heady mix of lavender and rosemary assaulted his nostrils. His ears picked up a high pitched ringing and his eyes were almost blinded by the brightness of the aura emanating within. He turned down most of his extended senses to a minimum and focused on his physical sight to search for Karina.
Strings of multicolored beads hung in place of doors in each room. He entered one after another. The place had been recently cleaned and aired. The linen room attested to that; the cabinets almost empty save for the crisp white sheets carefully stacked in a wicker basket. The enticing smell of food wafted from the next room – the kitchen. Freshly baked bread, fruits, cups, a knife and a jug of water were laid out on the table. Kala or one of the novices must have left it for Karina’s noonday meal.
The rest of the house was still and quiet, it was impossible to believe that someone was inside it. The tell-tale signs of presence were the food and the aura that had overpowered him when he arrived.
A tube-like passage led to the annex. Glass shards adorning the walls illuminated the area. At the end of the hall, was another curtain of beads. This one, however, had ancient symbols engraved around it. He slipped his hand through the entryway and peeked in. It was his family’s archives. Sara had mentioned its contents offhandedly. Valuable information was stored here, including the origins of his forefathers leading to his parents’ history.
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