by L. A. Boruff
The room we slithered into was a large, mostly empty room; in the center of the room sat a low wooden pedestal and on it was a large, golden ball that reminded me of the Fabergé egg that Bion, a friend of our parents, brought back from layer one. There was a line going through the center of the sphere and a clasp on one side that you had to unlock to open it. This golden ball was calling to us, pulling at us, and it wanted the two of us to touch it.
"Sister, what do we do. I can't stop myself. Nothing, I do is working!" The alarm in Calista’s honey-toned voice had my heart racing.
So close now, my hand stretched out unbidden as if seeking my destruction.
"I don't know!” I whispered in horrified dismay as my hand and body betrayed me.
“Electra! Who has the power to command us this way?” My sister begged me for the answer.
My upper body rose up slightly to bring me closer to that shining orb. Both of us reaching out at the same time.
Thinking hard, a name floated up from the depths of my memory. "Only the Mother of us all could," I responded, praying it was her and not some unknown evil entity.
"Gaia, the Mother? Why? She has not been active for hundreds of years,” Calista’s eyes were wide in shock.
We’d both prayed day after day, hoping the ‘All Mother,’ would return to us. The world seemed to be dying and our species along with it. There were so few of us left now. It was as if the very Earth was turning against us. Then, there were the poachers from the other layered dimensions that were killing us off even faster. It was one of the reasons we didn’t stay in this shape very long now. Once the Earth turned from us, our powers began to diminish, leaving us vulnerable.
Could it be Mother Gaia that called us here? Praying with all my soul, crying out in my desperation, scared it was something that would harm my sister and I, and not the divine Mother.
“Mother save us,” I begged.
My fingers only inches from the golden ewer, a voice reverberates through my mind causing me to wince in pain.
My children, my cup will not harm you, drink of it. This nectar will only help you in the days to come. I have called all my children and prepared the way. The time of re-joining is at hand. Search out and assist my guardian, she will need your help in the years to come. She is young and alone on a world that will soon only know chaos. This is my task for you. Do you accept?"
Now, the voice came on the wind whirling and twisting around us as if cradling us in its currents. Joy, excitement, and hope filled my exhausted body as if I’d been empty only moments before. Yet, there was also fear, the fear of disappointing Gaia, and she would turn from us once more. This was something I would avoid at all costs.
In sync, we answered, “Yes, Mother. We accept.” The words echoing off the walls of the room only to rebound and become louder.
Then, a thought occurred to me. How were we to find this guardian? Hoping Mother Gaia had not left us again, I asked. "How will we know her Mother, and how will we find her?"
The wind whispered. Follow the path once you leave this place. It will guide you to a tear between the layers. Once through it, look to the west, she is traveling there with her young daughter, who is my vessel. Protect them. Take now of my grace and you will be able to cross the layers. I will have more instructions soon.
Once more, we answered in unison, "Yes, Mother." We bowed our heads and reached...
2
October 12, 2026
A soft whimper escaped. “Shh, my darling all will be well,” I murmured softly to my sleeping child.
Darkness was rapidly approaching; the last rays of the sun dipped behind the tall buildings around us. It was that time of night between twilight and before true darkness arrived, my heartbeat faster at the knowledge the other hunters would be sent out now that the dark of night was fast approaching. Please, let me have lost them, my only thought.
Stretching my senses out, I searched around me for any sign of our pursuers. Nothing, yet. Mother of us all, please help us find safety, a mantra constantly on my tongue. Exhaustion bowed my shoulders. These last months had been hell keeping ahead of the ones pursuing us, determined to take the last of my kind down.
Another quiet almost imperceptible whimper escaped from the most precious thing in my universe. I cradled my daughter protectively to my chest as she shifted in her own exhausted dream-filled slumber. A humorless smile momentarily graced my lips.
Kia was a seer, a gift or nightmare from her father’s genes; only time would tell. Still, a child, my child, should never have the seeing thrust upon them so young; these visions should only awaken when the child was older. Much, much older. As a mother, I died a little each day when I couldn’t protect her from the things she was forced to witness. Then, there were our inherited species gifts we had been given as guardians to master, so much on such innocent shoulders. We were the last of our kind as far as I was aware. My parents died protecting me when I was fourteen, and I have been running and hiding ever since.
A night of loneliness when I was seventeen produced Kia Skye Ember who was now almost four years old in age yet way too old in spirit and already haunted to her very soul. I tried to blink the tears away from my inability to protect her from the horror of those visions, but a few slipped past the armor I’d built up over the last six years. That armor was so thin and brittle now, and I didn’t know how much longer I could last before it became too much. Another restless stirring had me hugging Kia tighter to me as I glanced down at her tousled, curly, auburn locks. Then once again, I recognized that just by looking at her, she always made me stronger than I thought I could ever be.
Kia settled and returned to stillness for the moment, so I turned my attention to finding one of my family’s boltholes or safe havens before full dark found us. It was near here, I knew. Snagging my phone out of my jean pocket, I searched through the information my parents had left me so long ago. Mom had been a computer genius, thank all the fates above. She’d taught me all her tricks, and while I wasn’t a genius when it came to technology. I was good at riding her coat tails.
The one good thing about our kind was we lived a long damn time, with lots of time to learn. I snorted, Yeah, right! The better way of saying it would be: long-lived if we weren't hunted into near extinction. My parents and clan had built a lot of safe havens over their long lives, all over the world and in most major cities. Money was something else we also had plenty of, but most of it was traceable in this day and age of rampant technology.
The ones looking for me were well versed in using that same technology. I’ve only been able to survive on the cash left at each of the refuges that I’d managed to get to, but it only gets you so far when you are trying desperately to stay off the grid and hidden. Scrolling through the names and locations, I finally found the one closest to me, and it was only a few blocks away.
Bringing up the map application, I hit start; while adjusting the backpack a little better, I set off at a brisk walk. Every now and then, I looked between the large buildings around me, catching a glimpse of the cloudscape of oranges, yellows, purples, and whites as twilight caught up with me. The streets around me were practically deserted. This was the warehouse district, and everything started shutting down at dark, which at this time of year was around five in the evening. The phone had said it was now 5:07 p.m. and sunset looked to be around 5:26 p.m. tonight, so I picked up the pace. The artificial lights flickered on with a high buzzing sound before settling down into the constant low hum that would stay that way unless one of them burned out. The building my phone took me to looked like an old warehouse in need of a little tender loving care and was right on the edge of respectable.
What couldn’t be seen, and my family had taken great pains to conceal, was the whole thing was constructed of rock and steel so thick and strong that I was pretty sure not even a warhead could penetrate it. The old building was wearing a façade of distressed corrugated metal so that it blended in with the rest of the old buildings and warehouse
s around it. Most, if not all, of our homes were built up before technology, before the human species had overrun the world, and before we had begun to be killed off over the last hundred years. My clan had been thousands upon thousands strong, but as technology killed the environment, it had also weakened us to the point that we were easier to dispatch. Nature sustained us, and from whence, our powers were derived. Unfortunately, humans had damaged the Earth and thus damaged us. It still took a lot to take us down, but it could be done far easier than ever anticipated by my family.
Reaching the door at last, I breathed a sigh of relief. I quickly put the first code in, waiting for the first of the two doors to open to what I hoped would be our haven in the months to come. Shivering a bit while I waited, I felt around Kia to make sure she was still cozy and warm. It had gotten colder as darkness approached, plus it was October. Sending my senses out once more, I was reassured that we were safe for the moment.
Looking up, I spotted a bevy of doves and a crow. The skitter of tiny feet had me looking over my shoulder to see a rat huddled in the alley for warmth, peeking from beneath an old discarded newspaper. A prickling sensation of being watched ran up my spine and had my eyes roaming the area, where I finally spotted the glowing yellow eyes of a predator staring at me from behind a garbage can. Its dark fur blended well against the grey brick of the building and the big black, trash bin. It raised its muzzle to the barely seen moon and howled.
This should be where I said a joke, I thought with amusement. A crow, a rat, and a wolf…. Three such diverse animals, yet they helped keep me sane and I was beyond grateful they were in my life.
Are you staying out here? I asked, my three bonded companions.
A pompous voice responded in my head. Yes. Why you even ask, I’ll never know. Has our time together taught you nothing nestling? Of us?
Nestling? I’m older than you are by close to fourteen years, bird brain! I retorted.
Maybe in human years, but we crow’s mature much faster than you, flightless ones. My bonded companion scoffed before he flew by my head, clipping my ponytail, making it swing even higher in the wind.
My other two bonded companions merely gave an affirmative as they were not as articulate as my crow. I knew they were as tired of traveling as Kia and I were. The sound of crackling dried up leaves and vegetation filled the night as the wind picked up. Nature was rapidly preparing for the first snowfall of the year. I knew deep in my bones that this was going to be a rough winter. Gaia was pissed and intended to show it to the world. The coming days were not going to be easy for anyone, death would find many, and my poor wee one had seen it all. Gaia was done with the humans’ reign of destruction, and life as we knew it here on Earth and the other Earth-like layered dimensions would never be the same again.
An evil smile graced my face at the thought of what was to come.
3
October 12, 2026
Shaking my head, I brought myself back to the present finished, entering the code for the first door, which led me into a small room. The entry way was the only thing that had any technology associated with this building. The room I’d entered was bare bones and the size of a small office. There was a chair and desk, which held a computer system that was out of date by ten years, an old telephone, a bench to each side of the entryway, and nothing else. Well except for the two mirrors on either side of the entrance.
I walked up to what looked like a rock wall facing; it was directly across from the front door. Placing my palm in the very center of it, a connection was forged between me, the rock wall, and the metal within the building. A door appeared, parted in welcome, and allowed me to enter the second entrance. I didn’t normally go through the third or final doorway of the bolthole as this section contained rooms that were along the lines of an extremely large house. Which I guess was a good thing, since the third and final door was a last resort type of entry.
The warehouse that was not a warehouse was around six blocks in length and was the same in width, height, and depth, and that was only the approximate dimensions of this second abode. The third entrance and the one we rarely had to go to were similar to one of those panic rooms I’d heard humans discuss a time or two, except it was a dimensional pocket in space. It had all the amenities of home, and we could live there for up to a year if we had to, but it didn’t have sunshine, rain, or anything truly living in it. Oh, there were plants and vegetable gardens, but it was only maintained through our natural magic. Unfortunately, like those same veggies and plants, we primordials needed the sun, moon, and the elements of nature to help us recharge, which was why a year was the max we could live in that pocket dimension and survive.
Like I said, this was an extremely large building. The inside was six floors in height, with each room being around fifteen feet from the ceiling to the floor and then went down another ten floors underground. The house was intended to be a command center and to hold most of our clan, now it held only Kia and me. We could rattle around in this structure for days and possibly even get lost. The good news, this would be our fortress in the days, weeks, and months ahead.
The roof of the building was made out of a type of quartz that allowed sunlight and energy to pass through into a stone base made up of energy elements and crystals that helped power this monstrosity of a building. The roof’s skylights were covered in an unbreakable, filmed glass, which in turn covered the quartz solar collectors so that any would-be thieves would be shit out of luck trying to find egress into the building.
Each of our safe havens were fairly similar, although some were smaller than others. This was the main one and the largest. I’d spent the last six years working my way to this location. This was where Kia and I were going to hole up and ride out the storm to come. Walking through the door, I paused to gaze around. It was just as I remembered it. I was last here when I was around the age of ten. We’d come because my parents were still grieving the loss of my grandparents and were determined to upgrade all our safe havens. It was as empty then as it was now. If I remembered correctly, there had been only a few remaining distant clan members and none of them stayed together anymore. It had been too risky. I pushed the memories away the best I could with the anniversary of my parents’ death fast approaching.
Scanning the room now as an adult, I saw an open floor plan, set up here on the ground floor in sections. The door from the office opened directly in the middle. To the right were the family and entertainment section, while here in the middle was some game and pool tables. Then to my left was a long dining table that would have fit hundreds and had many years ago. Further on was the big dining bar with stools and a long bench that curved around the end in an L-shape. Just on the other side of that was the state-of-the-art kitchen that ran on quartz solar power and the natural power of the stone collectors. Matter of fact, everything in this building ran on natural energy all the way from the top to the bottom ten floors.
Taking the backpack off, I laid it next to the now shut door I’d just entered. Reaching up to my shoulder, I unclipped one side of the harness; then holding onto Kia a little more firmly, I reached across to my other side and released the other clip. Then carefully shimmied out of my coat and hung it on the hooks that lined the wall on either side of the door trying not to wake Kia each time I had to transfer arms. I reached down and grabbed the backpack throwing it over my left shoulder since Kia was now on my right with her head on my shoulder and headed for the kitchen. Using my chin to hold the backpack in place for a second so it wouldn’t slide down my arm, I sketched a quick rune in the air, which released the stasis charm that had been placed on the building to preserve its condition. The bummer part, it could only be used on non-living things.
With Kia still held tightly to my chest, I headed towards the kitchen to prepare some food for her and me, but first, I went to the door just past the kitchen on the left-hand side. Opening the door, I found it just as I had left it; my toys were still strewn about on the floor. The twin bed against the wa
ll made rather messily if I was honest, I thought with amusement at my ten-year-old self. Pulling back the covers, I carefully laid Kia down and finished stripping the harness from her as well as her coat and shoes. Covering her, I bent further down and kissed that precious forehead. Turning and without closing the door, I went back to the kitchen and opened the fridge. I released the preservation spell. It was full as I knew it would be; my parents always refilled the pantries and coolers before closing up one of the boltholes. Grabbing some beef and veggies, I set about making a stew for us and left it to simmer and cook for a few hours.
Going to the right-hand side of the kitchen, I opened another door that led into the bedroom my parents had used while here. There were around fifty or so other rooms in this place, some for sleeping and some for other things. I could still feel the echoes of those that had come before me. There was something so sad about this building, what had once been filled with people and happiness now lay empty and lonely. Sighing a little dejectedly at all that empty space surrounding me. Nope, I wasn’t going down that path as it was long ago and before my time, so I shook free of it. Kia and I would make the best of what we had.
This room too was familiar; it was a large room with a massive bed, easily three times the size of your standard king bed, to the right of me. The sitting area was dead ahead across a large open space, while to the left was the ginormous bathing room and closet. The good news, since the whole place had been placed in stasis, the closet was well preserved, so there were plenty of clothes for me to choose from on the female side, which was on the left, or if I’d been male the clothes on the right would have worked. Mostly it held my parents’ clothes as they had normally used this room. Other rooms held entire wardrobes for all ages as they were updated and replenished each time my parents or another clan member had stopped in. This hadn’t been done in a little over ten years, so they were a little outdated, but not by much.
