“
What happened when you were six?”
I
asked
“
Nothing really. When we got there, a
woman lead us to a beautiful home, and this tiny man took one look
at me and nodded, then we left. There were no words at all. I think
Livingston was trying to get confirmation that it was me and not
Drake that was Gauridan.”
“
Why would they know?”
“
We’ll have to see.”
“
Why are you nervous? They’re all
excited.”
“
I don’t know. Talking to Pelhan...going
here...just makes this more real. Sometimes, it’s easier for me to
think of it as a story, separate from us.”
“
How many dimensions are there
again?”
I asked
“
It’s debatable. I think that there are
eleven, but anyone you ask will give you a different answer. You
know they were convinced that Infante was actually divided into
three different ones until my father searched for yours.”
“
Three?”
“
It was because parts of your dimension
are still divided by culture. When they went into an opening and
saw the way people lived, the tone of their skin, and the way they
spoke – they took that as one dimension. Then they’d leave and find
a passage a few feet away that was completely different.”
“
How did Ashten figure it out?”
Landen grinned and looked down at
me.
“Television.”
“
Seriously?”
I thought, laughing out
loud.
“
Yep. That’s how they came to understand
how large it really was,”
Landen thought.
I realized then how it was a small miracle
in itself that Ashten had found my Dad; people lose one another in
that dimension every day. We pushed past the turbulent energy of
Donalt’s dimension and several other dimensions. I recognized that
we were getting closer to the dimension I knew; the green passages
I’d made were everywhere.
The string seemed to go still; the current
could barely be felt. The walls of the string grew whiter with each
step we took, then it was silent; the hum that always lingered in
the background vanished. August looked back in our direction, his
excitement growing. I assumed we were almost there. Landen squeezed
my hand. In the distance, I could see the entire string turning a
light magnificent yellow, and inside the yellow were tiny twinkles
of white light...it was breathtaking. When the yellow had
surrounded us completely August stopped and extended his arm for
Landen to lead. Preston and Libby were sat down so they could come
to our side. I took Libby’s hand, and Landen held Preston’s. I
watched Landen take a deep breath and close his eyes. He stepped
forward, opening his eyes, and we stepped with him - then
everything around us changed.
The grass was so green and vibrant, outlined
with a sparkling white line. The trees stretched out wide in every
direction, offering an inviting shade. They all had flower blooms
on them that were every color of the rainbow. The white energy
danced around them as they swayed in the wind. The sky was amazing;
it looked like a sea of tiny blue pearls with gleams of every color
imaginable to the mind. Birds and butterflies danced through the
sky; they were so beautiful, majestic. I couldn’t move. The beauty
had captured me completely.
Standing just feet in front of us were three
beautiful women. One was very old, and the other two were much
younger. Their dresses where so white, I had to squint to let my
eyes adjust. They had the most beautiful yellow Aura, which seemed
to give them a perfect halo before it fading into pure white. They
smiled and bowed, then extended their arms for us follow them. The
emotion of this place was nothing less than peace. It was more
peaceful than the dimension in which I now lived. There wasn’t a
worry or concern from any of them; just bliss.
I looked back to make sure the others were
behind us, and my eyes were met with wide smiles. We walked down
yellow streets with white sparkles that looked like diamonds. There
were beautiful buildings made in every way imaginable, reminding me
of a palace in a fairy tale. There were several people all dressed
in vibrant colors passing through, and they all stopped and bowed
to us. I felt heat rise in my cheeks; I didn’t know how to respond
to that.
Was I supposed to bow back, smile – what I
did I know? I followed Landen’s lead and nodded with a modest smile
to everyone I passed. As we passed more people, I noticed that they
all gave way to our Aura as if they thought it rude to walk through
it.
At the end of this road was a large,
stunning white home. Beautiful flowers grew from the rooftop, and
the trees reached out to touch the house, making it look as if it
were part of nature. A sudden rush of déjà vu came over me. I was
sure that I had been here; in some way, it felt like I’d come
home.
“
I feel it, too,
” Landen thought.
I swallowed hard as we began to climb the
steps that led to a wide doorway. The glass around the entrance was
colored, and the sun reflected a rainbow that mingled in with the
Auras around them. Inside, there was a vast open space, and wide
columns with trees sculpted into them were scattered all throughout
the room. The ceiling was open in the middle of the room, and
sunlight outlined a square arrangement of pillows. Incense burned
on the table that centered them. The right side of the room opened
up into a breathtaking courtyard.
It was there that a very small old man
wearing all white turned to look at us. His Aura was almost
completely white and stretched well over his small frame. He smiled
proudly, and a numbing sense of peace filled me and Landen. He
walked to the center of the room, and we slowly passed across the
room to meet him.
“You look well,” the man said, looking up at
Landen, then to me
“
Is this Pelhan?”
I thought.
The man smiled. “My apologies for not
introducing myself; I forget that the memory of me is taken from
you,” Pelhan said, looking at me.
I looked up nervously at Landen, not sure if
Pelhan was intuitive or could read my mind.
“My, you have grown. Your father told us how
brave you are,” Pelhan said, looking down at Preston.
Landen pulled Preston a little closer.
Preston had never really grieved over losing his father; we were
all sure that something would trigger it one day, and today would
not be a good day for that. Pelhan smiled at Preston, then nodded
his head to the open doorway that led to the courtyard. A rush of
excitement rushed through Preston, and he let go of Landen’s hand
and grabbed Libby’s, pulling her outside. Landen started to
protest, but Pelhan raised his hand to stop him.
“Please, have a seat,” Pelhan said.
Landen pulled me a little closer and walked
to one of the square pillows. As I was sitting down, I looked back
to see where my father was. He nodded in my direction, still
standing in the doorway with Ashten and August.“We’ll be out here,”
August said into the room.
Pelhan waved his hand, then looked at
Landen. His eyes carefully studied every feature on Landen’s young,
perfect face. “Ask,” Pelhan said, still smiling.
“What did you mean? Memory is taken from
us?” Landen asked, leaning forward, anxious for his answer.
“The memory of your past lives must be taken
in order for you to see the next life experience in its own light,”
Pelhan said slowly, smiling widely.
“You knew us then?” Landen asked.
Pelhan chuckled under his breath. “I am only
two hundred and ninety. I have only known you for your last three
lives,” he said in a causal tone.
I gasped upon hearing his words. This man
was old, but not that old - he barely had any wrinkles in his skin.
What was this place? Three lives – how many were there? It is bad
enough to know that you lived four million years ago, to find a
photo of yourself just a few hundred years ago? My eyes raced back
and forth, and my heart beat rose in my ears. Landen squeezed my
hand, pushing a calm through me.
“Ahh...I presume that you only know of the
one,” Pelhan said to me.
“Actually, we don’t know enough about any of
this. Will you tell us what you know?” Landen asked.
Pelhan crossed his small legs and took in a
deep breath. He then raised his hands, and the smoke from the
incense burning between us started to turn and grow wider.
Suddenly, the white glow that connected me and Landen reached out
to meet the smoke, and images of me and Landen flashed across the
smoke canvas. Everyone around us was nothing more than a blur.
“Your first life was over four million years
ago. As young souls, you faced evil and created Chara, a dimension
of peace,” Pelhan said, watching the canvas with us. The images of
me and Landen moved forward in time.“You see, you had found the
problem in the first life, but the solution would run through many.
You have ruled kingdoms, lived in poverty, inspired revolutions,
discovered new lands. You have played every role and taken
something from those lives to help you today.”
“Why us?” Landen said in a whisper as he
gazed at himself living lives that were oblivious to him.
“We all have a purpose, a gift. Your task is
not any greater than anyone else’s. It is simply...your time.”
I shook my head in disapproval. “It’s our
time for what? It seems like the object is just to tear us
apart.”
Pelhan lowered his hand, and the smoke
canvas fell. He smiled softly. “There are some that pass through
our lives with a given purpose, at a given time...then there is the
one that is meant to spend all of eternity with us. Our soulmates
are a life source; once joined, they cannot ever really be taken
from one another,” he said tenderly. Taking comfort in his words, I
let out a small gasp of air; Landen and I would always be one. “I
heard that you mastered leaving your bodies before you ever met?”
Pelhan said adoringly.
We smiled. “We have to be in deep
mediation,” Landen added.
“Finding mediation in an instant will come
to you soon. Heed my caution - when you leave, asleep or awake, you
must make sure your bodies are safe, that they are not moved. When
your soul rushes back, it comes to the last place it remembers. If
you are moved, and your soul comes back - it will remain lost,”
Pelhan warned.
Landen and I both felt nervous; we’d never
given much thought to where we slept, and it was miracle that we
hadn’t made that mistake already. Landen nodded to Pelhan, letting
him know that we understood and would be cautious. “Could you tell
us what it is that we’re supposed to do with all of these
insights?” Landen asked
“Your destiny is always yours to choose. I
can tell you that in each life of yours that I know, you have
always chosen the path to help those who have forgotten to remember
again. That quest has given you the insight you have today.”
Silence fell in the large room as we tried to
understand what he was telling us. “Do you
choose this destiny again?” Pelhan asked moments
later.
Landen looked at me. I smiled, encouraging
him. “We do,” he answered, still looking at me. “Can you help
us?”
“I can only teach you what you have taught
me,” Pelhan said, smiling widely. “The first lesson you taught me –
when I was only a child – was that ‘there are no straight lines in
nature; every part of life on this earth must blossom toward its
life force.’”
As we let Pelhan’s words sink in, my eyes
looked to the columns with trees carved into them, then to the
doorway that led to the courtyard. I didn’t think I’d ever heard a
philosophy that was so clear before. Pelhan tilted his head, gazing
at Landen and me in absolute wonder.
“You see the beauty in the trees, the
flowers, in the world around you? That beauty was created by the
energy inside of them, stretching to find its life source, the sun.
As souls, we, too, must stretch and find our life force – the soul
that completes us. It is a journey that will take us in many
directions, giving us our own beauty,” Pelhan said.
Landen looked at me and smiled warmly. I
knew he was my life force. If it weren’t for the dreams that
connected us before we’d met, I don’t think I would have survived
as long as
I did.
“Have we always been connected to
Esterious?” Landen asked, looking at Pelhan again.
“Every life you have lived is a part of you
– they live in those moments where a chill crosses your skin, in
that brush of déjà vu. I know you have not lived in that dimension
since you were cast out four million years ago.”
“But, in this life we’re meant to release
those people from Donalt – Drake,” I said, wanting to be clear.
“You are never, per se, ‘meant’ for
anything. You chose this path, and it chose you,” Pelhan said,
winking at me.
That was the second time that I’d been told
that. Rose had told me the same thing the night I had my one and
only fight with Landen. I just wanted to remember when I’d
supposedly chose this.
“Donalt is aging more rapidly now than ever
before, and as the two of you grasp your power, he loses his
energy; soon there will be little left of the powerful man he once
was,” Pelhan said
“Drake will continue in his footsteps,” I
promised Pelhan.
Landen looked to his side at me. I could
feel his dread building.
“Drake is just as human as the rest of us.
At any moment, he can change his path. From my conversations with
Livingston, I can tell you that Drake has a desire beyond what the
mind could imagine; to see across every dimension, to have Willow’s
love.”
“And if he sees, the universe will be as he
wishes,” Landen said.
Pelhan nodded, then waved his hand over the
incense. On a white canvas, an image appeared. It looked like three
large rings encircled inside one another; they were spinning wildly
over what looked that a starlight sky. “This is a looking glass,”
Pelhan said, watching the rings. “The one with Willow’s heart who
stands in the center can see the universe as he intends it to
be.