Divinity: Transcendence: Book Two (The Divinity Saga) (10 page)

“Then you do know why
you continue to help them, Cam`ael— former Chief Angel of all Powers.” She said. With her last lingering statement, she ghosted away.

Hearing
her address me by my formal title yet again, as the other angels had done when I released the two chosen for Elohim, befuddled me.

I
shifted back into the drivers’ seat, shutting the cruiser door, and started up the engine with a quick glance in the rearview mirror.

Morning Star hadn’t left the area
— no surprise. He was engaged in flirtatious conversation, offering false comfort to several young girls, who were no doubt defenseless in their vulnerable states of fear. They were hypnotized by both his charm and his looks, and one of them was the blonde one, Logan.

Already knowing
that I zoned in on him, his eyes met mine and he winked with a smirk. It was nothing more than a sneer of jealousy for holding a conversation with an angel.

Shit.

V: Starling:

                          
 
I
followed Durien out into another wide-open corridor, flanked by an expansive, well-manicured courtyard to the left of us. It was complete with a small pond and beautiful trees that resembled weeping willows. A fragrant, sweet, floral scent tickled my nose when the breeze rustled gently.

“
This is one of the smaller courtyards. This whole area here is probably about less than a third of this entire place. You only need to know where the most important areas are; like the dining hall, bathing rooms, tailoring, herbalist, alchemists, and stuff like that.” Durien began to explain.

             
              I wasn’t trying to be rude. I was too busy marveling at it all. The unnatural sky above caught my attention. It wasn’t as dark as I thought it was. It was more of a purple blue and the moon looked wrong, like the color of pink chalk, with a hint of yellow and blue mixed in. There were thousands of stars though, and it niggled at the back of my subconscious, as if I should have been seeing something in them.

“Why does the
moon look like that?” I asked him.

He turned to look at me.
“This is the spirit realm. It’s a completely different dimension—one of many, actually.” He replied.

I glanc
ed over at him curiously.

“A dimension? Not like heaven or hell?” I asked.

“Neither, but all the beings and creatures that you never thought existed before, exist here. Not all of them are bad though.”

I stopped
walking, and looked at him with alarm. “Creatures like what?”

“
Angels, demons, imps, shadows, all kinds of dark beings, light guardians, and of course the devil himself.” He grinned.

             
              I shivered at the mere mention of those words, not because it scared me, but because it all sparked a memory in my mind. A memory that I couldn’t quite piece together fully.

“How long have y
ou been here?” I asked him, as we continued to walk down the long corridor.

“I don’t even keep track of time anymore. Th
ere’s no point, and you’ll come to find out why soon enough.” He replied. “This way.” he motioned with a nod of his head. We made a right at the end of the ‘T’ split corridor.

“So
, you just train and live here day after day?” I asked as I bit into a strawberry.

It was incredib
ly sweet and juicy. The explosion of flavor completely overwhelmed my taste buds, rising into the back of my throat and my nose, reminding me of why I absolutely adored strawberries in the first place.

“Wow, these are really
good. Want one?” I offered, holding one out to him.

He de
clined with a shake of his head. “No thanks. I come back every now and then to train and do brandings, but I don’t stay here for more than a few daybreaks at a time.” He replied.

“Oh, that’s right. You live in the human world.” I remembered Lira saying in the dining hall
. Durien was a veteran.

He nodded.
“Yep.”

“How long before you can decide?” I asked.

He shrugged a shoulder. “It depends. You need to learn about the spirit world around you first. Understanding what you are now, what you can do, and the role you play in all of it, is important. Learning how to fight comes secondary but it’s highly crucial. You won’t master it overnight, although I don’t think it’ll be difficult for you to do.” He smiled.

I nodded.

                            It was silent, as I finished my strawberries. There was so much that I wanted to ask, I didn’t know where to start.

Durien spoke again, “There’s going to come a time, when we’re all going to have to go against darkness. Not just us, the human race I mean. We’re the frontlines though. We have the abilities, the wit, and the divine backing. We’re the shields against the darkness. Training is about ninety percent of why we’re all here.” He gestured with his hands as he spoke. He too, gazed off into the distance at the sky above.

I wasn’t even sure wh
at to say to that. There was so much that I didn’t know and understand. I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to understand, but I was here. I was not going to become a prisoner, a slave, or die— again. Who knows where I’d end up this time.

“So, how long have you been a warrior
?” I asked him again with intrigue.

He gave a crooked
smile and glanced over at me. “A while. I died at eighteen in a car crash. My car took a nosedive straight into the Mississippi, back in nineteen eighty-three. My body was never found, naturally of course.” Durien began.

I choked on a piece of strawberry, nearly
spraying out bits of red colored spittle, as we both stopped walking again.

“You alright?” he
asked with a smirk.

I looked at him in awe
, swallowing the rest of the strawberry with a cough. “Nineteen eighty three? You still look eighteen.” I replied, and wiped my mouth, followed by another short cough.

“
Like you even know what year it is now. Immortality does that to you.” He then laughed.

I looked him over. He was
fit, with a firm muscular build despite his size, which wasn’t much taller than I was.

I was about to argue
, but he was right. I wrinkled my brow in confused puzzlement.

I didn’t know what year it was.

“Well, I’m sure it wasn’t nineteen eighty three when I died.” I then said.

“How do you know that?” He eyed me playfully with a dimpled smile.

I couldn’t answer that. I pressed my lips in frustration, trying to remember…something, but it was like looking at a bunch of blank photographs in my mind.

We continued to walk
.

“
I’m just messin’ with you. It isn’t nineteen eighty-three. In fact, in the human realm, it’s two thousand and thirteen right now —and you’ll forever look six…I mean nineteen.” He said purposefully and then laughed.

I eyed him wryly
.

“How come you remember how you died?” I asked.

“I didn’t. Out of curiosity, I did a little research on the internet. All my searches brought me to Vicksburg, Mississippi. I began sifting through past newspaper article archives and obituaries in that city. Then, I Googled my name and pieced it all together myself.”

I was quie
t for a moment. I could do that too I guess…if I really wanted to know, but I don’t think I do.

“
Why didn’t you just go back there yourself?” I then asked.

He shrugged a shoulder and shook his head. “
Going back to where you lived is the first thing you’re gonna want to do when you’re thoroughly trained. However…” He held up a finger, “Showing up where everyone who knew you, and knows that you simply disappeared without a trace, can be disastrous, especially if many years have passed. What seems like only a few days here, is actually a few weeks in the human realm. A few weeks, ends up being a few months, and a few months, ends up being years…get my drift?” He explained.

I slowly nodded. I was trying to wrap my brain around it.

“Remember, you’re immortal. You’ll still look about the same as you did when you were mortal. Visiting or making your home, if you decide to, where you lived when you were human and disappeared, can have some repercussions. Interacting with family and friends that you remember for leisure isn’t forbidden, but it is discouraged for obvious reasons.” He finished.

I
understood that, but I eyed him with curiosity anyway. “Disappeared? You mean people don’t know that we’ve died? That’s stuff that they usually put in the news, or in some police report, isn’t it? That’s how you found your accident, right?” I asked.

He grinned.
“Not for everyone. Memories and knowledge can be altered. All chosen go missing without a trace from those we know, and who know us. Then we die alone in obscure places. It’s all predestined. When the time comes, it happens, and nothing can be done to change or stop it. It has to be that way, because we’re retrieved and brought here by Seraphim soldiers. No one in the human realm, apart from divine warriors, can ever witness or know it.”

We die alone. Th
ose words brought on a deep sense of sadness in me. Though it was a morbid thought, I was still struggling to remember anything about myself. Maybe even— how and where I had died.

Did I even want to know?

We passed a several other warriors, all going the opposite way. I caught the indiscreet sideways glances, followed up with airy whispers. When I turned around to listen in on their words, I saw three warriors, all staring back— at me.

Durien stopped and
turned around to face them too. “Problem?” he asked with a hint of sarcasm and attitude. He held out his arms, as if waiting for them to say or do something in response.

What was the deal? Mean mugged in the dining hall
, and now in the corridor by people who didn’t even know me. This was a Divine Hall wasn’t it? I was a divine chosen too or I wouldn’t be here, right? So, why was I picking up so much untrusting and suspicious energy from them?

The three guys didn’t take on Duriens
’ challenge. They continued walking with one last glance back at me, and then shaking their heads without further incident or comment.

“A holes.” Durien said, watching them before turning his attention back to me
.

W
e continued to walk.

             
              I was tickled at Duriens G rated curse word. I assumed because it was forbidden here, or maybe he was just being a gentleman in my company.

“What’s going on? Why are people looking at me like that?” I asked him.

“Don’t even let it bother you. It isn’t everyone. You know, no matter where or what you are, you’re always gonna have haters.” Durien shrugged off.

“Yeah
, but I just got here. How can people be hating me already?”

“They don’t hate you, believe me.” Durien replied.

I raised both brows. Yeah okay, I then thought.

Durien was
right; the hall was a huge place. We’ve been walking for a quite a ways. The entire hall remained pretty quiet, except for the occasional whisper of conversations, amid the trickling lull of a gentle fountain somewhere nearby.

A
sudden thought entered my mind after the incident, and I broke the brief silence. “How many of us are there?” I asked.

“Here or worldwide?” He asked.

“Worldwide.” I replied slowly, in curious fascination.

He thought for a moment.
“I’m sure there are many hundreds of thousands all over the world by now.” He said.

That was good, big numbers for us meant more strength against darkness.

He seemed to read my personal comment. “But that’s nothing compared to how many the darkness has.” He added.

I sighed.
“You said we die alone. Will the people that knew me—still know me, even if I never saw them again? And will I remember them?” I asked.

Durien nodded.
“Yeah eventually. They certainly will remember your disappearance, so that’s something to consider and remember. As for me, I make it a point to stay away from Mississippi. Way too many friends and relatives between the two.”

I gav
e him a solemn look. “I bet that’s hard though. Knowing that you want to see them but you can’t.”

We made a right
, the corridor split into yet another ‘T’, but there was a single arched opening on the right side, before the end.

He sighed and thought for a moment, a glimmer of sad
ness passed briefly in his eyes. “I can, I just choose not to. It was hard in the beginning, but I look at it this way. The best way I can show them that I’m still around, is to continue to protect them, being what I am now. You know what I mean? Besides, it’s our memories that are erased, not our knowledge. Remember that.” He raised a brow and pointed at me.