Balance of the 12

by Ania Bo

“Not necessarily. I believe she knew it was a possibility, and she prepared for it. If she couldn’t get what she wanted, she was going to ensure we all paid for it. She was made of greed.” He gave her a sad smile and looked out at the land.

  A scream sounded behind them as the Regenerator’s face screwed up in pain, and several Zaend women came to her side. The other eleven Creators watched her knowing exactly what was about to happen. “I-I’m about to go into labor,” the woman screamed as another contraction made her double over in pain.

  Lucidum and Shasta sprinted inside at the sounds of commotion, right up to the upper level where they found three Zaend women already helping with the delivery. The mother’s cries terrified Shasta, as she had never witnessed a birth before. A pregnant Reader always gave birth alone, except for a doctor and a midwife, and the birthing process was never spoken of afterwards. Looking at the woman now with her face and hair all sweaty and her face twisted in a look of excruciating pain, she saw why the administration had made them ignorant of the process.

  With another scream from the Regenerator, Shasta had to turn away, and her eyes fell on a flutter of white fabric that disappeared behind a cracked door. Curiosity got the better of her, and she left the others, heading for the door.

  She looked through the crack hesitantly at first. When she couldn’t see anything, she pulled the door open slightly to get a better look, and what she saw caused her to take in a sharp breath. She had almost forgotten about the other Creators. The eleven young women sat on the floor hand in hand, their eyes closed. Shasta noticed their mouths were moving as they quietly recited a chant using words she could not make out.

  Another scream came from down the hall, and the Creators winced in unison. They tightened their grips, readying themselves, as Lucidum’s voice rang out and a baby’s cry filled the air, “The first human of the new age!”

  While those outside celebrated, Shasta was forced to cover her mouth as a cry attempted to escape. With their eyes still closed, the Creators fell slowly, as if a force were cradling their heads and gently laid them down on the floor. There they stayed, their hearts no longer beating, but a smile left on their faces.

  Shasta moved slowly away from the door, uncertain whether she felt ashamed for intruding on their private deaths or thankful she now knew they felt no pain as they died.

  When she returned to the others, Zeorgan saw in her eyes what she witnessed. He took an arm and put it around her shoulders. “Do not weep, Visionary Reader. Look what they have given us.”

  While a few Zaend women were covering the bodies of the other Creators with respect and prayers, Shasta glanced over at the Regenerator. She looked tired but she was alive, and her eyes shone with joy. She had given birth to a healthy girl, and Shasta couldn’t help but smile as the new mother reached out to hold her child.

  When the baby was taken out to be shone to the survivors, a celebration broke out. Though the world was still in a state of mayhem, the people saw a ray of hope.

  Kajleh smiled, leaning toward Shasta as she stood beside him. “Now we can start over.”

  Shasta nodded hopefully. Her eyes instinctively looked around for the companions she had lost but remembered she would never see them again.

  “Let us honor all the heroes that are no longer with us,” Lucidum said to the crowd that had gathered around the baby and her mother. “Let our stories tell the next generations of their courage as we build a better future. They will always be remembered as heroes and balance keepers!”

  Kajleh embraced Shasta, and they looked at the baby Lucidum was holding with hope. The new world was about to start along with the cries of a newborn baby.

  ***

  Around the rest of the world, the effect of the nuclear fallout was catastrophic. And the ones who were not with the Zaends were trying to survive and find their way to the Land of Balance.

  The single landmass that made up their world was plagued by powerful earthquakes which triggered more earthquakes, causing it to split, and seven separate continents emerged. Great floods overtook the lands, and many people from many races were unable to survive, and the world as they knew it was swallowed by water and fire.

  Those who fought in the Immortal Savannah faired the worse, after the destruction of Atlantis. They were quite close to the nuclear fallout. All were killed by the blast and the unstoppable flood of giant waves.

  The Thae immediately took to the waters upon seeing the clouds of destruction and swam as fast as the waters could carry them away from the mainland. The Ilih took shelter in their underground homes, diving deep into the earth to wait out the earth’s destruction, while the Dvay used their abilities to travel through the dimensions to leave the earth, but most of them weren’t lucky enough to survive. Yet the nature of the Balance was in harmony with all dimensions. Once a race was annihilated, other dimensions were affected as well. Their plan of returning when the land was no longer inhospitable didn’t work for most of them. The Jatuk found the radiation to be but an irritant with their thick shells, but the earthquakes, fires, and floods had taken some of their numbers, and they retreated to the mountaintops to wait out the destruction. The Hikar were also unaffected, as it was difficult to destroy light, but they wept for the loss of life and retreated to the skies.

  The humans, being the weakest of the races, found themselves completely unprotected with no shelters or airships to whisk them away. Those not affected by the blast were swept away in the floods, and the rest were killed by the overload of the Balance. The Baresm also were hit hard, but they were strong people. A small number of them survived, and soon they would begin to rebuild their population on their new continent. Like all the other races.

  And Shasta, with the new power she had, meditated outside of the temple time to time to witness all those cries of pain. She did her best to decode the earth as much as she could and let her Kama record all with the hope of leaving information about the world to the next generations. At the end of the day, a Reader was always a Reader.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Present Day

  It was an endless emptiness again. Jane and Samuel were left alone in a deafening silence. The sorrow, joy, sense of loss and gain, and surprise they felt from what they witnessed cut deep and left them breathless as they continued to think in a dark emptiness. It was Jane who first woke with a loud and deep breath as though emerging from underwater. The little room was still lit by the same weak light, and Jane wanted to turn around and look at the Chancellor, but the woman no longer levitated between her and Samuel.

  As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she looked around the room half blind until the butler bent down and shone a light in Jane’s pupils. At that point, Samuel woke up with a gasp, and the butler quickly switched sides to prevent him from falling.

  “Be calm, take deep breathes,” Chancellor Liz warned Samuel. She was calmly putting the Kamas back into their box as if she hadn’t witnessed history for the first time.

  Jane was happy to see her because she had so much to ask. Through the decoding process, she felt Shasta’s every experience, even her power. She trembled, afraid of what it all meant.

  Samuel, on the other hand, ended the quiet when he held the butler by the arm and said, “Zeorgan?” His eyes were fixed on the missing piece of the man’s ear. His eyes were charmed by the reflections of history.

  The butler smiled but did not answer. “We don’t use that name anymore,” Liz said without turning to face them.

  Jane tried to stand to ask her questions, but Zeorgan stopped her by offering her clothes back. She suddenly remembered she was naked and blushed. She put the dress on in a hurry and stepped next to the Chancellor who was busy with sealing the boxes.

  “What happened after that?” Jane asked, needing to know.

  Liz looked at her and explained, “A very long period of peace began. The humans were blessed and privileged as they had suffered so much. Shasta made a brave decision. And all the other races agreed to hide among hum
ans. They made them forget the existence of other races. Mankind was safe. We helped them, looked after them, gave them the technology they needed and did our best to stabilize their population. And for hundreds of thousands of years, everything has been on track.”

  Samuel was still looking at Zeorgan with admiration. He interrupted Jane and asked Zeorgan “How can you be still alive?”

  Zeorgan smiled but didn’t answer. Liz did instead, “Magic of existence.”

  This was a question they clearly didn’t want to answer, but Samuel would eventually find out.

  Jane shook her head, trying to get back to why they were here. “Who is our enemy now? Which race is going to be annihilated?”

  Liz shook her head and Zeorgan glanced to the floor. It was obvious they didn’t have the answers. “I wish I could tell you, but unfortunately I can’t.”

  The idea of not knowing anything struck Jane and Samuel hard, and uncertainty covered their hearts like a curtain. “Where is the Regenerator?” Samuel asked, hoping it was the easiest question to answer. He was looking at Zeorgan for the answer, but the butler turned his back to tidy the room. He was obviously trying to escape from so many questions. Jane and Samuel turned to the Chancellor again with disappointment.

  She rolled her eyes and answered, “Somewhere cold I would guess.”

  “You don’t even know that!” Jane was so upset. They felt as if they had been left in the dark. Even Shasta and Dwade knew more than them. “How can we protect a woman if we don’t know where she is?” she snapped sarcastically.

  Zeorgan answered without looking at them, “The Balance will show you the way. It always does.”

  Samuel smiled. “So fatalistic you are.”

  Liz laughed at his comment. “See? You learned more than you realize.”

  Jane shook her head. “We couldn’t even know all the races.”

  Liz was still calm, and her calmness annoyed Jane more. “You will, you learned more important things than knowing every race.”

  When Liz finished what she was doing, she pointed to the clothes the butler brought to them, and they both remembered they were still not fully dressed. “Get dressed,” she ordered.

  “What do we do now?” Jane asked as she dressed.

  Turning to Jane, Liz said, “What now? Now is today. The question is ‘What happens tomorrow?’ As for what you must do, you must set out immediately. You’ll do your duty. You will soon find out who your enemy is, why the war is occurring, and where the Regenerator is.”

  Jane and Samuel stood to get dressed, but many questions plagued them. Their hearts were left in the past, and they had difficulty thinking about the present. As the Chancellor prepared to leave the room, the light overhead flickered, and a Hikar appeared in the room. It was a young warrior, and it wore its Hikar diamond around its neck.

  “Chancellor,” the Hikar said with a quick bow. “They’re coming, and there are many of them. We need to evacuate now.” He looked at Jane and Samuel, making it clear he was speaking to them.

  “Who’s coming?” Jane asked.

  Anxiety and impatience showed on the Chancellor’s face. “You asked me what you had to do, here’s your answer. Hurry up and run!”

  “Why are we fleeing? Shouldn’t we fight?” Samuel chimed in. It had never been part of Samuel’s training to immediately flee. Running was always the last option, at least that’s what he had been taught.

  “Live today to fight tomorrow. Trust me,” Liz said in a hurry.

  The Hikar soldier saluted Samuel and said, “You’ll have the opportunity to fight later. For now, you must go. We will fight on behalf of the Balance, brave Protector.”

  As she walked toward the door, Liz came eye to eye with Zeorgan. The butler nodded, knowing what he must do. Liz smiled at the old Zaend. “See you soon, and don’t be late my friend.” With uncanny speed, she ran in her silk dress and high heels, and Jane and Samuel tried not to lose her as they hurried down the dark corridors.

  Before, the dark tunnels had been empty when Zeorgan led them through, but now many Hikar soldiers ran in the opposite direction in a single line. While Jane and Samuel would have been shocked had they not decoded the past, now they felt as though the decoding had never ended. They couldn’t help but grin at the soldiers as the visions came alive before their eyes. The soldiers were wearing their neckbands and were dressed the same as their ancestors had.

  When the three of them reached the entrance to the dilapidated mansion, they expected to walk out into Atlantis with the Glass Pyramid standing before them in all its glory. But instead, they found themselves still in the present where they faced the garden and saw a black Ford Expedition waiting for them with its engine running. It was dawn, but they had no idea how long they had been in the past. Jane and Samuel frowned in disappointment, almost hoping that an Atlantic aircraft would have been their transport.

  “Get in the car,” Liz commanded. “You will be taken to Professor Brown’s home. We’ll be in contact later.” She slammed the door to the Ford once they were safely inside and mounted a horse that must have been at least twenty-four hands tall. She kicked the sides of the horse with her bare heels, as she had discarded her shoes, and the animal galloped into the woods.

  Jane and Samuel stared at each other speechless. Samuel searched for enemy soldiers with the hope of identifying them, but there were none. The Chancellor knew who the enemy was, she had to, but she didn’t share any information with them. They wanted to talk about the Chancellor and what they had seen but after everything they witnessed, but they didn’t know who they could trust. They glanced at each other, silently agreeing they shouldn’t trust anyone but each other.

  That was perhaps the biggest lesson learned from watching what Dwade and Shasta went through.

  The driver turned to the back seat and said, “Buckle up,” then the SUV hurtled ahead at full speed. Samuel noticed their driver was an Ilih. He was so short that his head barely looked over the dash. The SUV skidded as the driver took sharp turns at high speeds. Jane and Samuel weren’t fully aware of where they were. They were still thinking about Shasta and Dwade. They could feel the pain Dwade had right before he died, and the sorrow Shasta carried in her heart.

  Samuel looked at Jane, knowing they had a special bond now. “A reader is always a reader,” he said to her.

  She smiled “We will achieve our goal without letting any of us die.”

  Samuel nodded. As the car was going as fast as a falcon, they watched through the window with an uncertainty of the future. They were scared, worried about what they did not know, but they had faith in themselves. With the guidance of the Balance, they would protect existence at all costs.