by Ania Bo
“Welcome, Samuel and Jane. Very good of you both to join us, though the hour is late. Please follow me.” The butler slowly turned around and didn’t let them say or ask anything. It was obvious from his attitude that they were only meant to follow him, not talk to him.
There’s no way the Chancellor lives here, Jane thought. She was looking down, trying to watch her steps due to the broken floorboards, when the butler stopped in the middle of the corridor and took out two blindfolds from his pocket.
“If you will excuse me,” said the butler, “but I’m afraid I must cover your eyes.”
Jane’s eyes widened in surprise, but Samuel wasn’t bothered by the request. He was used to fighting blindfolded, but this was clearly Jane’s first time. She held the blindfold uncertainly in her hand, giving him a curious, confused glance. Samuel didn’t mind because, at this point, he would accept anything that would take him to the Chancellor. He heard that no one had ever seen her face except a select few. He wondered if he would have to speak with her blindfolded. That made him snicker as the butler firmly tied the cloth around his eyes.
Then he tried to tie the second over Jane’s eyes, but she stepped back.
“Is this really necessary? She invited us here. Who are you by the way? Why should we trust you?” Her questions seemed endless. The butler silently showed the harmony tattoo on his wrist to her. She knew what the tattoo meant. The Professor had the same, yet there was a little difference; the butler’s tattoo had an eye in the middle of the sign which meant he was at the highest rank and one of the Watchers who protected the Balance. Jane had been taught not to judge anyone’s appearance. She even remembered that once the Professor told her, “Be respectful to every existent thing, none can really know on whose hands the future lays. The energy that you beam is your own strength. Use it right!” She rolled her eyes and decided to listen to the Professor’s advice one more time.
The butler respectfully tied the blindfold over Jane’s eyes. He took hold of her arm, and she assumed Samuel’s, then led them through the mansion.
Samuel tried to keep track of their route as he focused on every turn and listened as heavy doors opened and closed in front and behind them. He heard the butler’s fingers as they typed rapidly on a keypad, and a massive door slid open in front of them letting in a rush of cold air. His training served him well, and he knew he could easily find his way back to the entrance if the need arose. He sensed they were going down a sharp incline before the path flattened. They had to be underground.
The butler pulled them left then right, then right then left. Samuel was certain they were backtracking, and he finally just gave up on tracking their progress and abandoned any ideas of escape. He was just going to have to trust the butler and hope the Chancellor was at the end of this maze.
It must have been another fifteen minutes before the butler came to a halt, and Samuel’s and Jane’s lungs filled once again with fresh air. The butler untied their blindfolds, and they found themselves in a room so bright they had to shield their eyes. The butler bowed to a figure in front of them then exited through the large double doors behind them. Once Samuel’s eyes adjusted, he noticed the room was built in a strange triangular shape, and the ceiling was more than six meters high. Whoever designed the room didn’t seem to think it needed much decoration. It housed only a black leather swivel chair, a tuxedo sofa, and the largest crystal chandelier Samuel had ever seen.
“Welcome, our Visionary Reader and Protector. I salute you with respect,” the figure in front of them said.
The voice was not aged as Jane had predicted; it was a young woman’s voice, both jubilant and sorrowful at the same time. The Chancellor moved closer, a thin female figure sauntering toward them. She had silky black hair running down to her waist, and with her snow-white skin and beaming eyes, she appeared both gentle and dangerous. She wore a long black dress with a deep V-neck and stiletto heels that made her tower over her stunned guests. Her name suited her much better now, and Jane smiled politely back at Chancellor Liz who couldn’t be much older than she was. Then again, Readers could live to be very old so it was impossible to pinpoint her exact age.
Samuel knew he unabashedly stared at the Chancellor with wide puppy-dog eyes. People frequently spoke about her immense power, but nobody told him anything about her astounding beauty. Maybe it was because so few people knew her.
Liz went on speaking in her soft voice to Samuel. “I’m sure you know why you’re here, Samuel, why you’ve been trained for such a very long time.”
“Yes, Chancellor, to fulfill my duties as the Protector,” Samuel responded with precision.
Liz nodded in approval. “Today, you will learn much more about what that actually means.” She threw him another smile and took a couple of steps toward him, circling him, looking him up and down. “You have built up some muscles since the last time I saw you.” She slowly touched his shoulders.
When has she ever seen me? Samuel wondered. The notion that the Chancellor spied on him made him uneasy.
“You will need them, but more importantly, the monks have prepared your mind and your soul. I am glad to find you well prepared for time is running out.” Liz stared into his eyes. She was so close he saw the freckles beneath her eyes.
Samuel didn’t say anything, feeling as if she touched his soul. A kind of electricity flowed throughout his entire body. But as soon as she took her hand off his shoulder, the sensation vanished. He bit his bottom lip and stared her down, awaiting an explanation.
“Don’t rush into it, Samuel. All the darkness in your head will soon be chased away by the light.”
For a long moment, Liz stared Samuel down, but then the corners of her lips curved in a smile. She shifted her eyes to Jane as if she heard Jane’s thoughts from earlier. Jane didn’t even have time to glance away. It was possible she had heard every single thought since they stepped into this house; she was the Chancellor, and she had the power to decode anyone or anything which meant she could hear their thoughts, see their pasts and futures.
Liz sighed heavily. “I hear your curiosity, and I truly understand you. Your task is still unclear to you; you are here for answers and think I am your reference point. Also, I know that you think I’m the one at the top, that I’m the one who holds all the answers that will soothe your soul. But in the system of existence, there is no top. Everything is one. Let me show you why I can’t be your anchor.” She turned and lowered her dress so it rested just below her lower back. She pulled away her hair to reveal the scars left by deep whip wounds crisscrossing her white skin. “There are problems even a chancellor cannot solve, nor circumstances she cannot prevent. Sometimes power is not enough to stop horrible, horrible things.” She pulled her dress back up then faced Samuel and Jane again. “That is why we need you to protect the Balance. One is never as powerful as the many; the universe is a collective of power. If we want to win this fight against the darkness, we need to be united.”
Jane was shocked to the point of breathlessness at the sight of such horrible scars. “What happened to you? Who would dare?”
“Your enemy, Jane. When the Balance is broken, destruction begins. Only the deranged enjoy breaking the Balance and playing the role of the Creator.”
An anguished smile appeared on Liz’s face. She recalled the long years she spent in the dungeons and the pain she suffered. She blinked a couple of times to regain her composure, and then she began to laugh, a hysterical laugh that reverberated off the walls.
Samuel hoped the woman hadn’t completely cracked.
Jane began to panic because the energy in the room increased so much, she felt like she was about to lose control. Her hands tingled. Samuel looked at her with eyes offering help. Jane subtly shook her head to say she was fine, but she wasn’t, and she could feel it in her bones.
Liz looked to Jane and said with a voice firm, but kind, “Don’t worry, your power is amplified by my own. You must do your best only to focus on yourself and the light in y
ou. You both need to listen very carefully to what I tell you. Today is not a day to waste time.”
Jane visibly cowered at the Chancellor’s chastisement, but Samuel was trying to figure out how she could be so kind and gentle one moment and then a callous despot the next.
Liz cleared her throat loudly, ignoring the insult the man just thought. “Our first step is to connect the Protector and the Visionary Reader.” She pointed to each of them respectively. “You are in this together, and during times of peril, you will only have each other to depend on.”
Samuel turned to Jane and tried to give her a friendly smile, but Jane’s head remained bowed. She looked miserable, holding her hands tightly together as if struggling for control.
Liz went on, oblivious to Jane, and Samuel could tell she enjoyed hearing herself speak. “Next, your energy channels must be combined before you are truly connected.” Samuel and Jane glanced at each other then she was ordering them what to do. “Stand side by side. Now, close your eyes and let your souls be free. Don’t move under any circumstances.” She pulled out a dagger, which made Jane immediately stiffen. “Just a small cut on the nape, dear. No big deal.”
Jane nodded. Liz ran the blade of the dagger across Jane’s nape. She flinched but otherwise remained silent. Liz did the same to Samuel, but he didn’t even react. Liz sheathed the dagger back at her hip then placed her hands over the cuts she made and closed her eyes. Samuel and Jane bent backward, gasps slipping from their lips as though a strong magnet was pulling them toward the floor.
Liz’s voice sounded so deep and loud, it was like someone else was talking. The eerie tone of her words filled the whole room as she repeated, “Here and now these two souls exchange their energy to become one. One in the way of the Balance, one in the way of the existence, one in the way of harmony!” Three times she said those words while she put Jane’s blood on Samuel’s wound and Samuel’s blood on Jane’s wound. Then she clasped her bloody hands together, and both the Visionary Reader and Protector returned to an upright position.
“Now you have a reference point. A new life lays ahead of you,” she announced with the joy of delivering them what they were searching for all their lives. She paused for a moment as she collected her thoughts. “The war is on our doorstep, and unfortunately there are not enough words to tell you what you are to face, so I have decided to show you.” Samuel and Jane turned to each other, unsure of what she meant. “I want to take you to the era before the last Great War. You will witness the lives of an ancient Protector and Visionary Reader, and by doing so, you will fully comprehend your mission. I want you to be very careful and keep every detail in mind. Hopefully, their experiences will light your path.”
Samuel and Jane were frozen in place. Samuel, being human, didn’t understand the seriousness of what the Chancellor proposed. She wasn’t going to take them days or weeks into the past but millions of years when Atlantis was truly alive.
Jane was in a panic. What she had learned from Professor Brown was enough to let her know that such an exercise was dangerous for all of them, especially Samuel. Decoding that far back into the past could kill them.
As Liz clapped her hands twice, the butler returned. “Get the room ready. We’ve lost enough time as it is.”
The butler nodded and showed the way for Samuel and Jane. Out of fear, her knees began to buckle as they walked, and Samuel quickly held her arm and waited for her to calm down. As she started to breathe too heavily, the room spun around her and she clung to his arm.
He felt a strange obligation to comfort her, wishing she had gone through some of the same training he had. It would help her. “Calm down. You’re going to be fine,” he promised.
“No, we’re not! You have no idea how dangerous this is. This type of decoding is forbidden,” Jane objected.
“Don’t you have any faith in me, Jane?” Liz interrupted. “I assure you that every precaution has been taken. We would never risk the lives of the Protector and the Visionary Reader unnecessarily. The twelve races would not allow it. Follow my faithful butler and see the room we have prepared.”
Jane and Samuel followed the large man, Jane a bit more reluctant than her partner. This time their eyes were not blindfolded. It seemed secrecy was no longer necessary. A hidden door on the back wall opened, and they entered a cold corridor behind the door. The walls were made of stone and lined with small lamps that dimly lit the passageway. As they walked through it, Samuel’s excitement visibly grew in his glimmering eyes, while Jane just wanted to hide in one of the cracks in the wall. When they came to a crossroads, they turned right and walked on for a bit more. The butler touched a stone in the wall, and a steel door opened in front of them.
Beyond it was a dimly lit room. There were no windows, and the room was quite cold. Two white exam tables were visible in the semidarkness along with a mat that lay in the middle. Both tables had a monitor and a stand for an IV drip attached on each side. The duo realized they had failed to understand how complicated this whole process really was. Jane looked at Samuel with worried eyes.
He was also confused and did not have anything to say to relieve her. “We don’t have any other choice but to trust her. We cannot hide from our fate,” he said under his breath.
They approached the exam tables when the old butler addressed them. “Take off your clothes, please.” When neither made a move to do so, he waved them on. “Quickly now, there’s no time to be embarrassed, no time to waste at all.”
They glanced at each other, and the blood drained out of Jane’s face as she clutched her dress protectively. Samuel was no stranger to being naked in front of other men, but a woman? They both just stood in awkward silence.
“Now, please.” The butler’s voice was stern as he held out his hand for their clothes.
Jane had never been more self-conscious in her life, and she discontentedly started to unfasten the buttons on her dress. Samuel followed suit, and Jane couldn’t help but notice his defined muscles, even in the dim light once his long-sleeved shirt was removed. When he started on his dark jeans after kicking out of his boots, she quickly turned her back to Samuel to try and create some form of privacy. Her dress fell from her body, and she quickly removed her undergarments, not believing this was happening.
Once she was undressed completely, she turned back around slowly, covering herself the best she could. Samuel wasn’t, however, and Jane’s cheeks burned hot as her gaze couldn’t help but flicker down then away. His lips curled in a slight smile, but she was relieved that he could at least keep his eyes focused on her face.
“Please lie down on the exam tables,” the butler said as he took their clothes to another table in the corner of the room.
Samuel puffed out his cheeks with a breath and shrugged. He climbed atop his table and sat down. Jane hesitated a moment longer, then did the same, covering her chest the best she could.
“Where’s the Chancellor?” Jane asked, furiously. This was nothing like what she expected. The butler looked at her but otherwise ignored her question.
The fact that she had not received a reply made Jane even more upset. She tried to focus on anything but Samuel’s figure, but it was difficult to draw her eyes away from this very handsome, very naked man. The butler walked around to Samuel’s side, a needle in his arm. He asked for the Protector’s arm and once he had it, injected a serum into his body. After he tossed the needle away, he picked up a new one from the medical cart behind them and came to do the same thing to Jane. As the needle neared her skin, she stared at the butler with fearful eyes, unable to stop herself from shaking.
“I respectfully suggest you relax. Please have faith in the Chancellor,” he told her softly.
She let out a breath and tried to do as he said. He stuck the needle in her skin just as the Chancellor entered the room carrying a small box. She stopped at a marked point on the floor in front of the mat. The butler placed a small table down, and there she placed the box. Jane knew that box was meant to hold Kam
as. Her excitement increased. As the Chancellor opened it, she motioned for Samuel and Jane to watch.
“Now, I will take you to the beginning of the last Great War. Together you will see how your ancestor the Protector fought, how yours,” she said, shifting her gaze to Jane, “the Visionary Reader supported the Protector, and how you can successfully protect the Regenerator. Only a small few of us have witnessed what you are about to see. More importantly, you will meet the twelve races. Your initial aim should be to get to know the twelve races as much as possible—their origins, personalities, physical characteristics, their culture. On your journey, they will be your friends and your foes. To be one step ahead of them, you need to know them better than they know you. And this final test will be the end of your training before your true journey begins.”
Jane stared at her, still panicking. “But how are we going to decode millions of years into—”
Liz raised her hand and silenced her. “Let me worry about that. All you need to do is keep calm. I ask you to remain fearless and tranquil during this process. You will experience extreme emotions that will increase your pulse and blood pressure which could potentially destroy our connection. Remain as peaceful as you can and leave the rest to me. To keep you alive is my duty; to learn as much as possible is yours.”
Jane had no choice, but to surrender. This woman was bold, a woman who dared to decode data from millions of years ago and transfer it to two other people. This was crazy! Such an experiment could easily cause a short circuit even in a Reader’s brain. We are about to dance with death. Jane inwardly groaned. All they could do now was trust the Chancellor.
Liz motioned them to lie back and they did. She took three objects from the box. One was a medallion—which looked like the one she currently wore. The second was a bracelet made from wooden spheres, and the third was a silver locket that was severely damaged and looked old and tarnished. She placed all three objects around her right wrist, then laid down on the hard mat.
