“Well, I certainly don’t want to get Rasa into any trouble. I’ll take whatever help I can get. It’s already been so long since Jena went missing and I would do just about anything to hold her again!”
Bryon walked into the kitchen during the lull in their conversation and wondered if he had interrupted their conversation. He thought about turning around and leaving, but Barla looked up and saw him in the doorway. She smiled at him and waved for him to come into the kitchen. He felt himself grinning back at her as he crossed the room.
“I hope I haven’t interrupted your discussion,” Bryon said apologetically as he sat down at the table across from Juila.
“Oh, not at all, Bryon. I was just telling Amanda stories about Gravin and Rasa growing up.”
“Barla noticed my birth crystal, and she has an idea where maybe Rasa can help me locate Jena if I use more advanced techniques with the pendant and the elemy.”
Bryon was surprised to see Amanda appearing and sounding so upbeat. She had been so forlorn the evening before; he was having trouble following what had just been said to him. “When can we go see her?”
Barla considered Bryon’s question before answering, “I think I’ll ask her about it during my weekly call at the end of the week. She is terribly busy all of the time, so I hate to interrupt her studies for a personal matter. I can’t imagine she wouldn’t want to help considering Jena is a member of her family, even if she doesn’t know it yet!”
Amanda was slightly disappointed Barla had not offered to call Rasa that very moment, but she understood her personal problem was not a top priority for everyone else. She acknowledged Bryon, Alena, Ahn, and Barla had spent a considerable amount of time helping her during her two visitations to Tuala and she could hardly expect them to do more. As frustrated as she might be she had learned very well the importance of patience.
Bryon spoke up again into the silence, “I believe we should think about heading back to Kirma. Unfortunately, I have to go to work today for a meeting with a new buyer which could not be rescheduled. We won’t have to rush out of here since the meeting is right before lunch. I’m sorry, Amanda.”
“Don’t worry about it, Bryon! I got to stay longer than I thought and I’m really grateful to think we might have another lead to follow up on since everything else seems to have run dry.” Amanda picked up her pika juice and finished drinking the contents of the glass before she pushed her chair back to get her things together for departing. “I’ll be ready to go in a few minutes. I just have to gather the few items we brought for Juila.”
Barla picked up Juila from the high chair and gave her a hug. She was sorry they were leaving so soon, but she understood the reasons. She reached into her tunic pocket and removed an envelope which she handed to Amanda. “I wrote this letter for Diane last night after you went to bed. I wasn’t sure how much time we would have today, and I wanted to be prepared in any event. With your luck, you might pop back over to Earth unannounced.” She smiled to take any sting which might have been in her words.
Amanda smiled at Barla’s reference to her unconventional transport both to and from Tuala. She knew she was prone to accidents and general clumsiness, so she was not offended in any way. Reaching out, she took the offered envelope and tucked it carefully into her pants pocket. Her only hope was the next time she went to Earth it was at a time of her own choosing and with a daughter in each arm.
Amanda walked over to the faucet and rinsed out her glass. She set the glass in the sink before turning around and looking for anything of hers or Juila’s which needed to be gathered. Smiling at Barla, she said, “I’m going to get our stuff together.” She walked to the living room where they had spent the previous evening and picked up a few toys and put them in the diaper bag which she still used for Juila’s many accoutrements even though she had not used a clout for almost a year.
She went upstairs to her room and gathered her outfit from the day before out of the bathroom. Amanda searched the bedroom for any other personal items. She always felt as though she were leaving something behind and had a compulsive need to look in each place several times before she could feel confident she had everything she came with.
Chapter Eight
DESCENDING THE STAIRS, Amanda could see Bryon standing in the hall accompanied by Barla holding Juila on her hip. She wished she could have spent more time with her aunt and once again regretted not getting together with Ahn and Barla sooner. She now felt as though she had wasted so much time searching empty leads for Jena when she could have gotten together with Rasa much sooner and probably already been home with both children.
Amanda unconsciously patted her pants pocket to be sure Barla’s letter was still there. She could feel the crinkle of the paper and knew it was secure. She walked up to the trio and announced, “I believe I got everything gathered. I’m ready to go whenever you are.” She tried to sound more cheerful than she felt.
“I can take Juila now,” Amanda spoke to Barla and held out her arms to her daughter.
“I’d like to carry her back to the telepod for you. I really miss having a little one to care for; they are so innocent and trusting. They just make me feel younger when they’re around.”
“I don’t mind at all. I was just thinking yesterday before we came over that Juila is starting to get too heavy to be carried all of the time. If she gets too heavy let me know and I’ll take over.”
Barla smiled at Amanda and whispered to Juila, “I don’t think you’re heavy at all. You’re just perfect!”
Bryon walked ahead of them in the hallway and opened the front door. He made a gallant gesture for the women to precede him and carefully closed the door behind him as he followed the ladies. “It’s too bad Ahn had an emergency at work. It would have been nice to be able to say goodbye to him.”
“I didn’t realize Ahn wasn’t home. I just thought he was upstairs sleeping.” Amanda looked at Barla with some confusion. “Is everything okay?”
“Oh sure. I was telling Bryon about Ahn’s early departure while you were getting your things together. These kinds of things happen pretty often, so I don’t even worry about them anymore.” Barla shrugged her shoulder to indicate her acceptance of the matter.
They walked at a leisurely pace toward the telepod landing ground. Their conversation remained light-hearted as they neared the grassy plateau. They rounded the last corner and were surprised to see several other telepods surrounding their own, including a bright red one which stood out from the others; something big must have happened for so many to be parked there at the same time.
Barla reluctantly handed Juila over to Amanda as they stood outside the open door of the waiting telepod. Without hesitating, Barla hurriedly hugged Amanda with Juila sandwiched between them. She whispered into Amanda’s ear, “I’ll let you know what I find out from Rasa. I’m so glad to know you are my niece.” She pulled back and squeezed her arm gently in farewell. “Feel free to come back to visit or stay anytime. We have so much more to catch up on. I love you.” She stepped backward, trying unsuccessfully to stem the flow of tears.
Amanda felt close to tears as she smiled back, “I love you too, Aunt Barla. We are only a patil call away. We’ll talk soon.” She turned and walked up the ramp to get them both settled for the return trip.
Bryon entered the small telepod and palmed the door closed. He joined Amanda at the front of the craft and took the left controller seat. Once fastened in, he began the start up procedures and took note of the green indicator lights on the control panel. Once the crystal drive was activated, the telepod rose to hover several inches above the ground.
He concentrated on the coordinates of his own home and then allowed his hand to rest on the activation module. He felt the few seconds when darkness overwhelmed his senses, and absolute nothingness took over. A moment later they were hovering over the landing pad at his house in Kirma. Bryon switched to the manual controls to steer the telepod to the ground and performed all of the shutdown procedures. B
ryon decided to leave the vehicle parked outside since he was going to be leaving again relatively soon.
He was glad he would have a few minutes at home with his wife before he had to go into the office. Barla had given him permission to tell Alena anything he felt she should know about what was going on. She thought it might aid in finding Jena, so full disclosure was imperative.
Bryon followed Amanda out of the telepod. He carried the baby bag since Amanda was still holding Juila and she was definitely enough burden for any one person. He rushed ahead to open the front door before Amanda reached the opening and gallantly gestured for her to enter the house ahead of him. Before he even had the door shut behind him, he could hear Alena talking to Amanda inquiring how the trip went.
Amanda was happy to be back home even though she wished to hear more family stories from Barla. Because she had a new angle for finding Jena she wanted to discuss the possibilities with Alena.
“Have you two already eaten? Let me put something together.” Alena did not even wait for an answer as she turned and headed toward the kitchen. Due to the early hour of their return, she correctly assumed they would be ready for breakfast. She accessed the elemy and had scrambled eggs, fried foxl slices, and toast prepared on four different plates already set onto the table before everyone was even seated.
Amanda’s eyes widened at Alena’s display of power and smiled up at Bryon as she settled Juila in her special seat at the table. “That power sure does have its uses, doesn’t it, Bryon?”
Bryon nodded agreement and looked swiftly toward Alena to see how she would react to the odd statement. Just as he had predicted, Alena looked quizzically at Amanda and then toward Bryon to see if he thought it was strange as well. Bryon smiled at his wife and said, “Sit down, Alena, we have a lot to discuss. We may as well be eating while we’re talking.”
Alena chuckled at Bryon’s comment since he was always hungry. She sat down next to Bryon and across from Amanda and wondered what revelations had been discovered on their visit with Ahn and Barla. It must have been very eventful with how cheerful the pair seemed when they had walked into the house.
After making sure Juila was getting started on her breakfast, Amanda faced her own plate at last and inhaled the wonderful scents while declaring, “This smells heavenly. Thanks for putting this together so fast. Why don’t you start telling Alena what you discovered from Ahn, Bryon?” Amanda picked up her fork after a quick prayer of thanks and started eating the succulent meat while it was still quite warm.
Bryon cleared his throat and said, “We thought we had another lead on Petre, but it turned out to be a false report because of the reward being offered. It’s been so long now since Petre’s been seen I’m surprised people are still thinking about him even with the reward.
“Maybe there’s been a resurgence of interest since Captain Issyn had a sighting of him. He must have said something to his crew about it and got them talking in the bars once they went ashore. Anyway, we know Petre is still out there, and he will eventually have to make landfall. The only trouble is we don’t have any idea of where or when it will happen.”
Amanda nodded her head in affirmation as she was just swallowing her bite of food. “We have another avenue to search which Barla thought of; her daughter, Rasa. I don’t know if you know she is a student of Jehoban and very talented with her skills. Barla seems to think she will be able to teach me some advanced techniques for searching for Jena using my crystal.”
“But why would she do it? I’ve heard Jehoban’s students guard their time jealously. It hardly seems in character for her to want to help a stranger.” Alena looked from Amanda to Bryon and suddenly grasped there was more to this story. She could hardly wait to find out what the missing piece was going to be. She raised her eyebrows in expectation at her husband.
Bryon recognized her look and knew he only had a few more seconds before she lost her patience and started asking questions. He smiled in anticipation of her reaction to the news as he started in on the first part of the story, “We discovered Barla is actually Amanda’s mother’s sister.”
Alena drew in a quick breath and said, “Really? How did you find that out?”
Amanda interrupted before Bryon could continue, “I found out while I was gone for those mesans when everyone thought I was dead. I wasn’t just missing, Alena, I was gone.”
Alena’s confused expression said more than any words.
“I’m from Earth, Alena.” Amanda let those three words sink in for a few moments before she continued. “As you can probably figure out, and we would like for you to keep it to yourself, that Barla is also from Earth. When she was eighteen, she had a similar accident to my own in the sea and ended up here in Tuala. Neither of us had any advance warning, or any idea of what had happened. She fell in love with Ahn when he rescued her from the water, and she decided to stay in Tuala and live with him rather than try to find a way back to Earth.
“When I went missing from here, I accidentally found myself returned to Earth. With my girls both being here, I didn’t have much choice but to return. However, while I was in my own world, I was able to get back together with my parents. I had a note from Barla in my pants pocket from before I came to live with you and Bryon.
“I always kept the note with me since I never knew when my opportunity to depart would happen. At home, my mother recognized Barla’s handwriting and then we found out she was really my mother’s lost sister. I’d never met her as she had gone missing before I was even born, so I was just as stunned.”
Alena was simply staring at Amanda in open-mouthed shock. She could hardly believe the tale she was hearing. She knew people from Earth existed, but she imagined they would somehow be dissimilar enough for her to be able to tell the difference. Now Amanda was informing her she actually knew two people from Earth and she never even had any clue.
Well, it wasn’t exactly true, Alena thought to herself, there were times when Amanda did or said things which made me wonder about where she came from. But not this! Then a thought suddenly burst into her mind and out her mouth, “But I performed the service where you received a birth crystal! It’s not possible!”
Amanda automatically reached up and wrapped her fingers around her prized possession. She nodded and replied, “Remember how odd the ceremony turned out to be? The first crystal evaporated to dust and the second one appeared before you even asked Jehoban for it.
“Barla seemed to think Jehoban is trying to help me in my quest to find Jena or at least to protect me while I’m in Tuala. It was because of this crystal Barla had the idea that, while Jehoban probably wouldn’t give me more assistance than He already has, His student…my cousin, Rasa…would most likely be more than willing.”
“I see,” Alena replied even though she had more questions swirling rapidly through her brain. There were so many thoughts she could not even bring one to the forefront to vocalize. Finally, one thing broke through, and she blurted, “But both of your children have birth crystals.”
“I wondered how long it would take to get around to that situation,” Bryon interjected as he could see the next topic was uncomfortable for Amanda. “We think Petre may have had his way with Amanda while she was being held captive on his water craft. That would mean her children were actually half-Tualan and eligible for birth crystals. When Amanda returned to Earth, Nealan was adamant they didn’t have sex, so the children most likely are Petre’s.”
“Like hell they are!”
Alena’s outburst startled everyone in the room. All eyes were staring at Alena to explain her inflexible denial.
“Rapists don’t have any claim to the products of their sin! He may be their biological donor, but they are not his children!”
“Alena, I’m sorry, it was a poor choice of words on my part. We all agree he doesn’t have any claim on them, but it does explain why he took Jena. As Frasnia had said before she didn’t think Petre knew Juila even existed or he probably would have tried to take her as well.
” Bryon picked up his fork and continued eating until the tension in the room dissipated.
Alena seemed somewhat mollified with Bryon’s apology. She folded her arms defiantly and declared, “Those children are Amanda’s alone. As far as I’m concerned, they don’t have a father!”
Amanda smiled at Alena’s obstinacy on the matter and said, “I’ve always known that! When I thought Neal was their father and he was still on Earth, I really was alone in the matter of raising the children. That hasn’t changed because we found out Petre is most likely their biological father.” She looked toward Juila who was busy pushing her food all over her plate and onto the tray of her chair.
For the first time, she noticed how blue Juila’s eyes were and how brown both Neal’s and her own eyes were. While it was not impossible for two brown-eyed parents to have a blue-eyed child, it was not very common either; something like a twenty-five percent chance if either one of Neal’s parents or her own parents had blue eyes. She remembered vividly Petre had the same bright blue eyes as those staring back at her right now. While Petre’s eyes were filled with wicked imaginations, Juila’s were full of curiosity and wonder; there really was no comparison when she thought of it that way.
“Another curious matter to consider is Rasa herself. Her mother is from Earth, but her father is from Tuala. Rasa’s crystal talent was so impressive as to catch the attention of Jehoban Himself. It stands to reason since Jehoban is the Creator of everything, then He already knows who Barla really is and Rasa is more than she appears. Does the mix of the two races create a more powerful talent? Juila has already shown advanced skills for her age, don’t you think?”
Alena considered these new revelations carefully and finally had to agree with Amanda’s assessment of the situation. She was also going to have to reconsider her perception of old souls being in Tuala. Thinking to herself, Jehoban obviously didn’t mind if they were living in Tuala so why would the Elders make such a big deal about them? Weren’t the Elders supposed to be representatives of Jehoban? There’s something not right about this situation.
Ascension Discovery Page 61
