Immortal Reborn - Arianna's Choice

by Natalie D Wilson

“Alex, we are gathering in the ballroom this afternoon before a late lunch,” said John. “Not everyone will be there to begin with. You’ll meet more of us over the next few days. We don’t want to overwhelm you but, honestly, we won’t know your limits. You will have to gauge your emotions and your body’s response to us and let us know if all of this becomes too much, alright?”

  “Okay.” Alex nodded her agreement.

  “Wait,” said Jackson, before the group went any further. “Alex just said something to you.” He looked in the direction of Archimedes. “What did it mean, Haley… something or other?”

  Archimedes smiled at Jackson. “It is from a very old tongue. One never recorded and not often spoken amongst even us. It meant, ‘Greetings of our kind, be upon you always.’” He looked back down at Alex. “I’m very encouraged that you spoke in our tongue. It was you who taught the language to me, you see.”

  “Now, Mr. Campbell, there may be many languages spoken among us, but we’re not trying to keep anything from you. Just simply ask, and we will interpret. I’m sure Alexandria can help you with that,” he finished.

  Alex looked at Jack, nodding her agreement. “He’s right, Jack. It’s what I do at the U.N. I can understand about twenty languages.”

  John, Heath, and Archimedes all started to laugh.

  “Oh, Alex,” corrected Archimedes, “you speak far more than twenty.”

  “Well, how many do you think I speak?” She looked perplexed, wondering if Archimedes somehow knew she had been keeping the last few she had mastered from her superiors at the U.N.

  “Why, all of them, my dear!” He chuckled once more. Archimedes tapped his finger to his nose again as he had done in her vision of the past. “Yes, we’re going to have so much fun. Now, we’re heading to the ballroom. Can you lead us to it?”

  Alex looked at all four gentlemen before her, unsure if Archimedes was teasing or serious.

  “Oh, he’s serious,” said Heath, grinning. “You used to live here, Alex. You built this home. Just feel your way through, and I bet it’ll come back to you. Come on, give it a try,” he encouraged, nodding at her as if that would get her moving.

  Alex turned her back to the four and closed her eyes. She imagined herself walking in through the main doors sometime in the past, and she started to see a hazy image of herself in a riding dress with large hounds flanking her. She was walking towards a table that no longer sat in the entrance and depositing her gloves there. She turned and started walking off to the left of the grand staircase. Alex decided to follow herself and the dogs. It felt correct to go left.

  One of the dogs sprinted ahead, and she heard herself laugh at the hound’s playfulness. It was happy to be home. Alex was aware that all four men were following her, and that none of the Nephilim had corrected her direction yet. They continued down the corridor, past several drawing rooms, a music room, and a study to a set of ornate double doors. She saw herself and the dog, which had remained at her side, go through one of the doors, as it had been left open in the vision. Alex reached forward and slowly turned the door handle. She glanced back once at her companions, noting that they all seemed to be smiling. Well, she thought, Jack looked stunned and amazed, but he was slightly smiling at her.

  Alex turned and walked into the grand ballroom, stopping just inside its entrance. It was immense in size and proportion. It looked to be almost as large as the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, which she had viewed as a child on a tour her family had taken. Now, Alex was sure that she had seen the Hall as Arianna during an earlier visit, too. But this ballroom was not as ostentatious and heavily decorated as the Hall at Versailles.

  Its understated elegance was delicate and regal, gentle on the eyes and senses. Pale blues, yellows, and creams adorned the room. Numerous chandeliers hung around the area, giving off light overhead, and windows all along the left wall allowed natural light to soften the space. An expansive mural stretched across the entire length of the ceiling, depicting scenes of angels and humans working and living side by side. Its floor was an intricate pattern of wood, perhaps the original parquet, Alex mused. Couches and chairs were arranged along the sides of the cavernous space to allow for rest and conversation, and stone statues and busts were scattered in and around the seating areas.

  One particular statue caught her eye, and Alex walked over to it and let her fingers trail down the sides of the little faun’s figure and back up to his reed flute that he was happily playing. She thought of her childhood fascination with Narnia and Mr. Tumnus, wondering how long her soul had enjoyed the stories of mythical creatures. Alex looked up when she heard a door at the far end of the ballroom open, tensing a little at the unknown. Jack moved forward and came to stand beside her.

  One after another they came, slowly filing into the room with her until they numbered forty-two. With each new face, Alexandria noted something familiar, something that she recognized. The way one’s hair stood straight up, the gait of another, the dimple of yet another. They all had some quality that made her feel a tentative familiarity. It appeared to Alex that they hailed from every continent on the earth. Nephilim of all races and both genders had come to welcome her. She smiled at this because, to her, it meant that the angels had found beauty in all of God’s people, and it made her proud.

  The first to break away from the group was a tall, muscular man with light brown hair and a mischievous glint in his startling green eyes. He approached her and extended his hand, trapping her palm between both of his as he shook it gently.

  “Alexandria, I am Elrick. It’s so good to finally see you.” His Scottish brogue was extremely thick, but she understood him perfectly.

  “Thank you. I’m glad to be here,” Alex responded in kind. “Have we known each other for long?” she asked, hoping that he would not take offense to her lack of memories.

  “Oh, you could definitely say we have. Yes, indeed!” Elrick laughed, a big booming sound that caused many others around him to laugh as well. “You’ve been saving my hide again and again for hundreds of years. I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for you. Can’t wait to have a little sparring match with you again.” He grinned crookedly at her.

  Sparring sounded dangerous and scary to Alex. Perhaps he would go easy on her, she hoped.

  Elrick’s boisterous tone broke through the reverie, and others began to move forward. A stunning, raven-haired lady approached her next and rather than shake her hand, the lady gathered Alexandria in a tight hug.

  “Oh my, I always hoped we’d get this chance again! Welcome back!” she said softly. When she pulled away, her eyes looked moist, and Alex could tell she was trying hard to keep her tears at bay. “I am Sabina, dear friend.” She reached forward and pushed Alex’s hair off of her forehead and smiled into her eyes.

  Alex began to see images of herself with this woman helping slaves they had freed from a Roman market make their way out of the city. She saw them strolling through a street in Jerusalem, and Sabina was animatedly talking with her hands as though she were trying to convey something of importance to Alex.

  “I remember you,” said Alex, nodding her head slowly.

  Sabina’s eyes shone brightly with her pleasure and delight that she was still somewhere in Alexandria’s collective memory. Sabina glanced encouragingly over her shoulder at this small victory.

  “Do you remember me, too?” asked a man with red hair, pale skin, and freckles. He was tall and lean with very intense eyes. He moved forward and stood before Alex expectantly.

  From his accent, Alex knew him to be Irish, but flashes of the past were not coming of their own accord with him. She looked directly into his blue eyes and concentrated on the set of his jaw and the way his eyes narrowed as he stared down at her. Alex began to remember something about his eyebrows.

  They were in a small row boat, and she was teasing him that they were too lon
g and bushy, suggesting that he trim them. She then saw him standing with her and several others on the deck of a ship discussing how they should hold the approaching bad weather back to protect their mortal crew. She heard someone call his name from starboard, saying, “Benen.” Ah, this one likes water, she thought to herself.

  “Benen? That’s you?” Alex asked.

  His intense gaze melted into a relaxed and grateful smile.

  “Yes, I’m Benen,” he confirmed, reaching out to touch her shoulder.

  And with that, others wanted to find out if Alex remembered them as well. They began to come closer, and she could tell that they were trying to contain their excitement, but their anticipation got the better of them. She looked at each one in turn and began to recall names.

  With each remembered immortal, Alex found it easier and easier to bring forth the memories. Each one seemed to need to touch her as well as if to reassure themselves that she was real and actually with them.

  “Tabor,” Alex named a stocky and slightly shorter man with whom she actually remembered laying stone on a wall behind Aeoferth Hall.

  “Nikolaj,” she said to a man with dark blonde hair who could have easily passed for a model, he was so stunningly beautiful.

  “Conleth, I remember you falling from a large steed at full speed. You broke so many bones that day!” Alex exclaimed over the painful memory she had glimpsed.

  “Yes,” he nodded, “and you helped set every one before I healed incorrectly. You’re quite good at that. You’ll see,” Conleth encouraged her.

  Ughh, Alex thought, hoping she would not be called on anytime soon to do such an unpleasant chore.

  “Iain,” she named a particularly tall and handsome man, who smiled disarmingly down at her. He chuckled and took Alex’s hand in his, and then made quite a show of bowing over her palm before he released her and backed away a step.

  More and more Alexandria saw and called their names as they came to her. Guymon, Rawley, Weldon, Paulus, Youko, Sibel, Jaqen, Daiki, Abdalla, Reuban, Porcia, Abeo, Malkia, Nassor, Ahadi, Flynn, Braddock, Albion, Tomoko, Lena, Urvine, Makoto, and so many more. Alex was in a vortex, caught between a past that seemed vast and deep, and the present sea of faces before her.

  While Alexandria recalled as many Nephilim as she could, it seemed she was just barely skimming the possibilities of what her mind was capable of. It felt to Alex like there was a tangible film or mental block that was keeping more of the memories from flooding in. She was working on recalling a particularly eager young immortal’s name when she felt a slight shift in the atmosphere. Another had entered the room, and he was taller still than all of those assembled.

  Easily six foot five or more, a Nephilim entered who effortlessly pulled her attention in his direction. Alex had no doubt that he would have been one of the ‘heroes of old.’ He stood a little behind the crush but his eyes pinned hers, and Alex focused on him rather than the man before her. The others near her noticed him now as well and turned, parting to the side and allowing him to advance.

  She saw this man in battle with armor on, leading a group of humans on horseback across a green field not yet littered with the gore of warfare. Alex saw him picking up a man and holding him by his shoulders off of the ground so that his feet dangled wildly in the air. He was shaking him with anger because of the small, bruised and battered boy who lay at his feet on the ground. And she saw him laughing at a long, well-worn dining table, singing much too loudly after consuming too much ale.

  Alex saw herself pointedly reprimanding him and calling him back to her, even though he looked like he would rather do anything else than listen to what she had to say. Finally, she saw him coming to her aid when she was lying on the ground after receiving a rather hard blow that should have ended any mortal being. He was lifting her and carrying her back to her horse.

  “Rohan,” she breathed. Alex knew she had nothing to fear, but this immortal radiated pure power, and she could feel the tension rolling off of him.

  His voice sounded gruff and hoarse at the same time, but he cleared it enough to speak her name, “Arianna.”

  Archimedes stepped forward in an attempt to chastise him. “Rohan, you know we cannot call her by that name. We all agreed.”

  “No, you all agreed. I never did.” He turned his scowl back to Alexandria. “I mean no disrespect, but I cannot call you by any other name. You are Arianna to me, and I won’t play false witness to my friend. Not now, not ever,” he said, shaking his head at her to emphasize his words. The entire assembly collectively held their breath, unsure what direction this would take.

  Jackson, who had remained quiet thus far, stepped closer and placed his hand on the back of Alex’s left elbow, letting her know that he was still there. John started to interject, but Alex stayed him with her hand. She took a step forward and craned her neck back to look Rohan directly in the eye.

  “In this lifetime, this is my first meeting with you, yet I know you are as surly and brusque as you ever were. Have you not softened a bit with age yet, Rohan?” she chuckled. Her laughter helped to ease the tension that had built around Rohan’s displeasure. Alex reached out and touched his arm, and the two felt a distinct jolt surge through their bodies.

  “I know myself as Alexandria. But I am here willingly to learn, so don’t scare me away, okay?” She grinned and angled her head, hoping that she had him on her side.

  “I am on your side. I always have been,” Rohan said, his voice thick with emotion.

  Alex’s eyebrows went up at his statement. So he was one of the immortals who could hear her thoughts, she realized.

  “I sure can,” he grumbled.

  Alex threw caution to the wind and opened her arms, enfolding Rohan’s broad chest in a hug. She could not reach all the way around him, but she squeezed him with all her might. Rohan’s hands shakily patted her back, then he too was hugging her, and Alex thought she might not be able to breathe if he squeezed any tighter.

  She felt the rumble of laughter in his chest before she heard the surprising sound. It was filled with such mirth and joy that it briefly took her breath away. Rohan picked her up and swung her around, burying his face in Alex’s hair, then he finally settled her back on her unsteady feet. He smirked as he looked down at her.

  “It’s really good to have you back,” he said soberly.

  Alex nodded at him, not liking the lump that now sat in her throat.

  The emotions were running thick and heavy with everyone now, Alex could feel it. She looked at Archimedes, then to John for help. She finally needed a few minutes to herself.

  “Say no more,” said Archimedes, smiling warmly at her. “I think I speak for everyone gathered here today when I say that we are more than pleased to have you with us, Alexandria. We welcome you, dear one.” He held up his hands to the assembly as he said, “Let us adjourn to the dining hall, and Alexandria will join us in a little while, once she has had a small respite. Everyone.” He gestured towards the doors, putting his request into action.

  Many of the Nephilim moved in to hug or touch Alex as they walked out of the ballroom and finally, John came over to speak to her.

  “Alex, there is no hurry. You and Jackson take all the time you need. You can stay in here or go up to the third floor to your bedrooms, or just meander about. I think you can find yours, Alexandria; it’s the one that has always been yours when you stayed here. Jackson, we have placed you right across the hall from Alex, and your luggage has already been taken up for you both.”

  He squeezed Alex’s arms and patted her. “I am very proud of you, you know? You exceeded all of our wildest hopes for this first meeting.” And with that, John leaned forward, kissed her forehead, and then headed out with the others. Alex looked up into Jackson’s eyes and found that he was looking pretty pleased with her too. She shrugged at him because she did not know what to say. She felt like she was r
unning on pure adrenaline and emotion at the moment.

  “Would you like to sit down or walk it off for a bit?” Jack asked, gesturing to the seats lining the space.

  “Hmmm, I think I’d like some fresh air if you can stand the cold.”

  He chuckled at her suggestion. “No worries. I think I can stand it if you can.”

  The challenge, once issued, was all the agreement she needed. Alex nodded at him and headed for the large windows, which were actually glass doors at the bottom. She thought that the room must be lovely on a cool day in late spring with all of the windows flung open. But before Alex connected with another memory thread, she pushed the thought from her mind and walked outside with Jack.

  Chapter 12