by Tina Engel
Poseidon laughed then, and said, “You know better than that.”
I wasn’t perplexed by his response, but somehow I knew that Lily was something else. I also figured that I wouldn’t get more information from him on this matter, so I changed the subject to keep him talking.
“Is Stephan, working for you, as is the fey on the ship who got close to Rose? Will the venom that was put in me, end up killing Rose? She was an innocent pixie.”
Poseidon laughed, a hearty laugh, before he spoke. “There is no living creature on this planet or anywhere in the universe, as humans call it, which is totally innocent. It will be what it was meant to be, I just sped things up a bit.”
“But Stephan” I continued, “he is working for the Dark One, but I think you are interfering with him as well, are you not?”
I swallowed hard and continued, “Stephan is evil and vile, so does that make you evil? Lily doesn’t think so, but I am starting to have my doubts. You seem to be playing God.”
Poseidon started to laugh then, and shaking his head, he said, “No child, I am as good as Lily is.”
I asked then, “What do you know about Stephan and aren’t you interfering and helping him to get me? Why does Stephan want to take me to the Dark One, and then have me for his own?”
Poseidon replied in a matter of fact tone, “Stephan has a very special role to play, be it good or evil, it remains to be seen, and it is up to each individual, in the end.
“Knowing that Stephan was working for the Dark One, I became curious, was it because he believed in what the Dark One wanted, to be all powerful, destroy those who tried to destroy him so many years back, or was he just trying to gain his father’s respect and … well, love?
“Even the strongest of animals have a weakness, deep down and that can save them or destroy them.”
“But why Stephan, he isn’t a water fey, like you. How can you even be in contact with him?” I asked, feeling angry now, not understanding the significance of his interference.
“Child,” Poseidon said, “He is more than what you see and plays a much larger part than anyone realizes.”
Poseidon paused then, took my hand in his, the one with the ring, and as he touched the stone, its color changed to the emerald green of his eyes.
He then looked into my face and continued, “Stephan and Brett are bound together. Good and evil go hand in hand, happy and sad, beginnings and endings, the sun and the moon, and the humans’ god and their devil. You can’t understand one completely, without the other, now can you?
“Lily brought Brett into this situation, shall we call it, a long time ago, to even the playing field so to speak, when the future showed Stephan’s role in the success or failure of all life. I am not helping Stephan, I never have, but I am watching him closely.
“She is overseeing it all, but I have been around a long time and my opinion is important, and is heard, even when she doesn’t want to hear it. My opinions matter. This is my home, not hers.”
I started to open my mouth to speak, but he put his hand up to stop me. He had a look of concern then and said, “Enough Princess, our time is up. I may have said too much, but it has been a real pleasure.
“The ring now, will strengthen your perception of what is the right thing to do, even if others tell you differently or the human, emotional part of you, gets in the way.
“The substance that my creature injected into you has increased your strength to do what you must, when the time comes. The desire for another’s blood, will only strengthen. Don’t run away from what you know is right. You are not a child anymore, it’s time you took your place, even though she wants to think of you as a child.”
I said then, “I see Rose, but no one else seems to. Well I do believe that Lily does. And then I change into someone else, something else, white, silvery white, like I am right now.” as I lifted my lower body, the fish tail. “The substance that the creature put into me, is that helping me to see what is real in this world of confusion and chaos too?”
Poseidon let go of my hand as he smiled, and with a twinkle in his eyes, as if he knew that I was starting to see things and understand, he turned and swam away, towards the back of the city, but before he turned into the great white shark, he said, “You must go see Proteus, now.”
Poseidon and the city disintegrated before my eyes, my fish tail disappeared and I was standing in the ruins again, with legs.
Brett was sitting on a crumpled pile of rocks, not far from where I was standing. I walked over and sat down next to him. He said nothing, looking at me, waiting calmly for me to explain. I realized that while I was there with Poseidon, Brett and I were not connected, he couldn’t see what I had seen.
We were both perplexed by this and I realized that I wasn’t just seeing that other world in my mind, but that I actually had been there, and Brett was still in this world. We had been separated in two different dimensions and we could not feel each other during that time.
I shared with Brett what Poseidon had said and held out my hand to show him the ring. I was starting to understand what exactly he was meaning when he said that the ring would help me to see things differently, show me the things that I wasn’t ready, or refused to see.
I chose not to share with Brett the part about Brett and Stephan being bound together. I didn’t think he would like it much, and I didn’t need a distraction right then.
Brett suggested we get out of there, find our way out of the city and back to the ship, but as he stood up, taking my hand in his, I told him he must go back alone.
Brett’s eyes widened with surprise as he shook his head and spouted with firmness, in his voice, that I would be accompanying him back to the ship, if he had to drag me there.
I laughed at his display of being my protector, but I knew that I still had another agenda down here. I knew my dream wasn’t just a dream, but a vision and it was time to meet Proteus, the fey who believed for so many years, that I was his daughter. Was the vision actually how it would happen, or just a possibility? I didn’t know, but I was ready to face him. I had to.
“Brett,” I said, “I must meet with Proteus.” But before I could continue, Brett bellowed, “No!”
I just gave him a quirky smile, took his hand up to my mouth, and kissing it softly, I said, “Brett, you can’t always be near, to protect me. I know it is your job, as you say, to keep me safe but I have a job to do also, and I must meet with him, alone.”
Brett started to open his mouth to argue again, his eyes were turning red, really red, and as I put a finger to his lips, a tingling sensation pulsed through my body and I was sure it did his too. We both inhaled deeply, and the need I had for him was painful.
We were connected, I could see his thoughts, not just hear them, and he was in just as much pain as I, his need for me to drink from him. His desire was great, his need for me, but in a way that I didn’t understand. I saw him then, on the ground, in my arms, our pain combined.
Brett moved back, letting go of my hand, letting my finger drop from his lips, and the connection was gone. I could only hear his thoughts, not see them.
“Emilee,” Brett said calmly now, “he wants you and if you go to him, he will hold you and I may not be able to save you. I can’t let you go, especially not alone. I was given the task to keep you safe, and I must do that until the end.”
When he said, “the end”, Brett had a strange sadness in his eyes, and I felt a stabbing in my hearts, as if this wasn’t going to end well.
Before I could respond to Brett, I heard him, and so did Brett, a voice that said, “Emilee, I’m waiting!”
It was Proteus, I was sure, and he knew we were here.
“Brett, I can do this and must. I am stronger now and will not be fooled by Proteus or anyone. Go back to the kelp forest and wait for me. I will be okay and I have no intention of being his prisoner, or accomplice in allowing evil to enter the humans’ realm or Terrafirma. Please believe in me.”
Brett reached up and stroked my chee
k, and as he did, the wonderful vibration was there, we were connected and I felt even stronger. I was ready to face this fey, with Brett’s strength and support, behind me.
“I do believe in you Princess.” Brett said with a sad smile, “and I always will.”
He kissed my hand, turned, and headed over to the edge of the crumpled city, hoping to find a safe passage along the mountain which the city was built up against, and find his way back to the kelp forest to wait for me.
I knew somehow that he would be fine. Proteus had no intention of harming him or the rest of the crew up on Adam’s ship, at this moment. He was ready, however, to do so if he felt the need. How I knew this was perplexing to me, but I did, my thoughts were different now, stronger and much clearer. This was to be a meeting to size up both of our strengths. He knew I wasn’t going to work with him. He knew.
Chapter 11
We meet at last
The road has been long,
We have rules to follow
In peace and war.
I watched Brett until I could see him no more and when I turned around to face the direction of the city, there stood a fey, a male guard. He said nothing but turned and headed back to the city, and I knew I was to follow.
I wasn’t afraid, I walked with my head held high, as we walked down the middle of a stone road, with fey on both sides watching, pointing and I heard several saying, “It’s her.”, or “She’s come.”, and one female said to another, “She is just as majestic as her mother.”
He was standing there in front of a grand throne, arms crossed over his bare chest, just as in my dream. His glare was intense but there was affection in his blue eyes; a light shimmering blue. It was him, Proteus, the one I thought was my father and he had believed it too, but did he still?
As I looked around this grand room, I was in awe of the beauty that I saw. There were large tapestries, the pictures of beautiful water fey, great battles, and places I had never seen before, on land and beneath the waters. It was exactly like my dream.
We were in the underwater palace but the room had no water. All was dry and we were breathing air. Proteus had legs, not a fish tail. So this was his true fey form. Was he able to walk on dry land? I wondered.
It was just he and I in the room, just like my dream, I was here at last.
We stood staring at each other for I don’t know how long, and I was starting to feel uneasy and childlike, but unlike in my dream, I stood taller and released the anxiety that was starting to creep into my mind and the uneasiness disappeared. I could feel the ring on my finger, it was giving me a sense of ease. I knew that I was safe, that Proteus would not, or could not, harm me.
He put his arms down at his sides then and his expression changed to relief and pleasure as he descended the steps that separated his throne from the rest of the room. His arms reached out as he approached me, and held me in a loving embrace. I wrapped my arms around him also in an uncomfortable fashion, knowing that I should be hiding my displeasure about being here, better than I was.
When he released me, Proteus took my hand and led me over to a bench, where we sat. Again I looked around and was in awe of the beauty surrounding me and the fact that this room and the city was dry, a barrier between water and city.
Proteus reached out and softly touched my cheeks, the shell that would create a shield around me, if I felt the need for protection. His smile was genuine, he knew what it was, and who gave it to me.
He said then, “Not many receive this gift. It is special and he must believe you are special too. The longer they kept you from me, the more I realized that you could truly be the one and I knew you would come back to me, on your own.”
Proteus then put his hand on my back in a fatherly manner and I was ready for his reaction but it was not the reaction I was expecting. He touched the area where the wings had been and would protrude again when the time was right.
Proteus smiled then, a smile of pleasure as he stood and stepped away from me. I expected shock or confusion but it was as if he was aware of my wings.
I stood up then, as my wings were released, large, shimmery and colorful. I wasn’t afraid, I felt strong and confident.
“I came here of my own free will, not to stand beside you as your daughter. You are not my father. But I need to find out what this place has to do with me and what part you are to play in my discovering my true self, and where I belong.” I said, confidently.
His eyes turned red as his shape started to change, and the room filled with sea water. As Proteus’s legs transformed into a large fish tail, I became the fey that I was in Andean’s great lake, with one exception, my wings were still outstretched. I understood now, why they were covered in tiny scales, not feathers. My skin changed to silver white, but my fish tail had a slight rainbow shimmer, like my wings.
Proteus, smiled then, an eerie grin as he said, “You are the one. He told me you were but I remained skeptical, until now. The wings were the last sign, you are a part of both of them. She should have protected you better. Why she let you come down here alone is beyond me.”
At that, Proteus turned into a great white shark, but not as large and grand as his father, Poseidon. He came towards me with great speed, but instinct took over and my wings came forward with such force that they pushed me backwards as they forced Proteus away.
Proteus turned back into his fey self with frustration across his face. He said, as he waved his hand, that held a long staff with a golden ball at the top, which I hadn’t seen before, “You think you closed the door, but really you destroyed it. The creature that she gave you which attached itself to your hand, and all the others of its kind, she believed were working for her. She had put them there to protect her side of the door, keeping everyone away, guarding it.
“She created those tiny beings knowing that when the time was right, they would go to the other side, cling in one mass to the door and become one, solid, a material that nothing could penetrate. The doorway would be closed for good.
“But he found out, so long ago, and with my help and the help of another… water fey…” and Proteus smiled a wicked smile and chuckled.
He continued then, “We changed their body configuration, their internal fluids that allowed it to melt the metal that the door was made of when the creatures joined and became one.
“That water fey…she has connections to others, familiar with minerals, metals and such…what luck it was to find her in a very vulnerable time in her life.” And Proteus grinned and raised his eye brows in a way that led me to believe that I knew who this water fey was.
“She tried to stop the beast from wrapping its tentacle around your ankle, my blasted father always getting in the way. But it doesn’t matter. Even with the substance that flows in your body and those wings, you will not succeed.
“Now the door is just a simple rock wall that can be crushed, blown open for him to come and extinguish these pitiful humans, along with all in Terrafirma who try to stop him. Fools, all of them and you, just a child, they thought you could be their savior.
“He will take over, opening each doorway, one at a time, to all the worlds, and dimensions, in which life exists, and those that have no life as yet, and conquer them all. This speck of dirt that you call earth is really just a doorway to all that is out there.
“You will be alongside him, willingly or not, to help. I will see to that, as will Stephan. After all, Stephan will stop at nothing to have you for his own and only when he has what he wants, will Stephan be granted the prize he most desires, you.”
I held up my hand with the ring, as the stone, now emerald green, shone brightly. Proteus gasped at the sight and said with a tremble in his voice, “What? My father will pay for his interference.”
I realized that my meeting with Poseidon was not planed, therefore not foreseen by the evil forces. He was afraid of this ring and what it could do.
“No bother, dear Princess. Daughter by blood you may not be, but you will serve him, I swear
, if by the death of me.”
Proteus laughed then, waved the staff and a flash of light blinded me for a moment and he disappeared.
Suddenly the water receded, all was dry again and I transformed back into my more human or fey self, with legs. The ground began to tremble. My wings, still spread out, with strength and agility, lifted me into the air as a pillar tumbled towards me and crashed to the ground, shattering into pieces, where I had been standing.
The large chandeliers that hung from the ceiling swayed gracefully, as if positioned in just the right places to do little damage to them. A few of the tapestries came loose in a corner here and there, and the sound of falling rocks from afar filled my ears. Then all was still.
I lowered myself back to the ground and my wings slowly disappeared into my back, but now I knew, could feel, that they were there whenever I needed. I thought of them coming out again, and there they were, spread wide and glorious, shimmering as the lights that were surrounding me touched them.
I felt him then, not Poseidon or Proteus but him, the Dark One who everyone was afraid of. He was in my mind, searching for something, a memory or thought, I wasn’t sure. Then I heard from afar, “Emilee, be strong, hold tight to your beliefs.”
I looked around, thinking someone had entered the great room without me realizing, but it was empty, only I was there. It was a woman’s voice, not a man’s, and when the voice spoke, he left my mind, as if afraid.
There was movement along the wall to the left of the great throne. A tapestry that had partially fallen during the disturbance, drooped a little more, bringing my attention to it. Behind the tapestry was a circular area that was all aglow and shimmering, moving in streaks as if being stirred with a large spoon.
I walked over, and moving the rest of the cloth, could see the entire area. The shimmering light died out and it was replaced with an opening to a tunnel.
Again I heard, “Emilee, continue. Its time to come home.” The voice wasn’t urgent or aggressive, but I knew that whoever it was wanted me to come into the tunnel. It was a woman’s voice, not a man’s so I was relatively sure it wasn’t him, the Dark One. But could it be a trick.
