Galactic Energies (7 page)

“Does it hurt here?” she asks me.

I try to remember where the pain is located when you twist your ankle. I had some actual injuries a few times when I played soccer.

“No, it's a little higher up. Right there!” I answer.

“Drink up, come on. Or do you just want to lie there and suffer?” Irene asks me.

I look at the medicine. The water is tinged with purple. Usually I don't like taking medicine, but I don't want to offend her. I down the entire glass in four swallows. In the meantime, she starts spraying my perfectly healthy ankle.

“All done! How do you feel?” she asks, putting my foot back on the floor.

“Thanks, Irene. The pain seems to be going away.”

Without responding, she gets up and puts everything back in the kitchen. I get up too. Or, better said, I try to get up. My foot remains frozen on the ground. I try to move. It feels like it's glued.
What kind of medicine did she use?
I try to pull my leg up with my hands.

“Don't waste your energy. You won't be able to move it,” Irene says.

She's sitting on the kitchen table. She's holding a glass of wine in her hand. She looks at me and sighs. “Oh, sweetie,” she continues. “Look at how scared your little eyes are! You can't move your little foot anymore? Wait for me to help you.
Eina ta sturam!
”

My foot, ankle and calf slowly start to shine with the same color as the effervescent medicine. I rub my eyes, thinking I'm hallucinating.

“What the...?”

“Don't worry, it's a little trick for apprentices,” Irene tells me. She places the glass of wine on the table and comes towards me. “But it works, doesn't it?” she asks me, caressing my cheek. “Don't tell me that you've never seen anything like it? Cloradil must be very good at hiding things.”

“Cloradil?”

“You don't even know her real name? What do you call her, then, that adorable little creature who makes your little dinners?”

“Anna? Are you talking about my wife?”

“Your wife? Do you really think she's your wife?”

I don't know how she was able to freeze my leg, but this woman is definitely mentally insane.

“You still don't understand? Magic, spells...you think it's all made up, don't you?
Al fami spes eriat.
”

My foot begins to slowly rise through the air. When it's up to my waist, I lose my balance and fall over the back of the sofa. But the foot doesn't stop rising upwards. It pulls me along with it. My back rises off of the cushions. When my foot manages to touch the ceiling, I find myself hanging with my head down, firmly anchored.

“You find it easier to believe me now?” Irene asks me, just a few inches away from my head.

I think about Anna. Why did I walk into this house? I don't know who this woman is, and I really want to be home with my wife, eating one of her delicious weekend dinners.

“Listen, Irene, I think I made a mistake coming into your house. Please forgive me. Now, though, I want to leave and go home to my wife.”

“Oh, little Antelmo, did I scare you? You're right, I'm the one who should be asking you to forgive me, I was very rude. Go home. Your family is the most important thing. Go right ahead.
Is medil ancorat.
”

I'm back on the floor, standing. I try to move my foot. This time it lifts without any problems. I have a thousand questions, but something tells me that if Irene is willing to let me go now, it's better that I hurry up and get out of here as soon as I can.

“Ok, goodbye.”

I go to shake her hand. She doesn't move. I turn around and head towards the front, place my hand on the doorknob and open the door to thick, thick fog.

The woods and the trees have disappeared. I kneel down on the threshold. I feel out in front of me, where the little front path must be. My hands grope about in the void. I lean out further. I try to reach my hand underneath the house floor: nothing.

“If I were you, I'd be careful not to fall,” Irene advises me.

A frigid breeze cuts through the fog. I feel like I'm freezing. I close the door.

“We're not in your forest anymore, dear Antelmo.”

“So where are we?” I ask.

“I'm sure you'd rather not know.”

“Irene, who are you, really?”

“I'm the best friend of Cloradil, your wife. You know, we really love each other. We were so close!”

The sarcasm in her voice is palpable.

“And what do you want from me?”

“From you? Let's say there are a couple things we need to work out.”

“Where are we?”

“We're headed home.”

“Home?”

“Yep. The Kingdom of Turlis.”

“Where's that?”

“It's not very close to Earth. But I have to go now. See you later.”

I'm dreaming, I must be dreaming.
Irene heads towards the door, opens it, takes a step out and disappears into the void.

I follow her to the door, but there's no trace of her in the fog. I hurry to close the door so that the icy air doesn't freeze me.

I'm alone.

4

Alone. In a house flying through the thick fog. I still can't believe it. I pull the curtains away from the window to look outside. Fog.
No, I don't think we're anywhere near the woods around my house
. Cloradil, my wife, what does she have to do with magic? No, none of this makes any sense.

I was hanging upside-down with my foot glued to the ceiling. And half of my leg was glowing! How does a human limb glow from inside?

There must some sort of logical explanation for all of this. Maybe I can find it in this house.

I head towards the kitchen. I look through the fridge and pantry. Nothing out of the ordinary. The only place left to explore is upstairs.

A queen-sized bed, a bathroom and a little room for kids with a bunk bed. It's all decorated in the same style. This house seems old. It's not the type of furniture you normally see in a cottage in a residential area where real estate costs two thousand Euro per square foot.

I look through the dresser and the closet in the master bedroom. The clothes stored here are flimsy, and at least twenty years old.

If Irene was really a witch, wouldn't she at least make herself a more fashionable wardrobe?

And what if this house wasn't hers?

Where am I going? And why?

The questions continue to spin through my mind.

“
Alia fas no sdreil imas catel biron
.”

Oh my god, I know that voice: it's Anna, my wife.

“
You can still do it. There's no time for explanations, but you can still save yourself. You need to have faith. Open the window and jump out. Don't be afraid, I'll save you.”

The voice seems to be coming from the fog. I rush to open the window, which lets out an unpleasant squeak.

The freezing air immediately gives me goose bumps. Outside of the house, in the fog, the temperature seems to be plunging dozens of degrees below zero. I turn towards the bed, take a sheet and wrap it around my body. Even now I feel like I'm freezing.

I turn back to the window. I hang outside of it. Where is her voice coming from?

“Don't wait. There's no time to spare, you can't go back anymore,” my wife's voice continues.

“Anna, where are you? Why can't I see you?”

“Antelmo, don't dilly-dally. You'll be lost forever in just a few seconds. I won't be able to do anything for you. Climb out the window. Come back to me. I need you.”

“Anna, please, answer me. Where are you?”

“Do it now. You're almost out of time.”

I lift my right leg over the windowsill. I try to see if I can make anything out beyond the window, but it's all fog. And cold.

Holding on to the sill, I lift my left leg. I'm terrorized by the idea of falling into the void.

“Stop!”

It's Irene's voice. Her figure appears in the doorway of the bedroom.

“There's nothing outside there. If you do, you die.”

I feel entirely hopeless. I'm terrorized by the idea of letting myself fall into the void, but I can't stay in this house any longer.

“Come here, Antelmo. There's no sense in sacrificing your life. You've already given too much to Cloradil,” Irene says.

“Antelmo, my love, there's no time left. Do it for me. Do it for us. Come back to your wife. I'm here, waiting for you.”

Again, it's my wife's voice, it's Anna. All I want is to be back in her arms. She's right. I've always trusted her.

In the meantime, Irene has moved closer to me.

I lift my left leg over the sill. I'm outside of the window. I hang onto the outer edge of the sill for just a moment and then let myself go.

A tight grip grasps me and starts to lift me. With my head just barely beyond the sill, I notice that it's Irene's hand.
But how can she be so strong?

She pulls me up inside the window and I let her. I want to resist but I'm still not completely convinced that jumping into the void was the right thing to do. I'm afraid.

“Antelmo, my love...”

Anna's voice is even further away.

“That's an echo-voice,” Irene seems to be reading my mind. “She launched it with the mistrofal of the Earth once she understood where we were headed. That's why she didn't answer you. Those were just words chasing after you. She couldn't hear you. And if you fell into the void, you would simply have died.”

Rage rises up inside of me.

“I don't believe you! I don't know who or what you are, but that was my wife! Why are you doing this to me? How could you have kidnapped me and made me prisoner in this house?”

“You were the one who entered this house out of your own free will. It was your choice. Perhaps Turlis came into your heart and showed you the right way.”

While she talks, I hear the last echo of Anna's voice.

“Antelmooo...”

With a sudden twitch I lunge towards the window and leap outside. Just before my body is completely outside of the house, a very strong flash blinds me and forces me to close my eyelids. I feel my face hit the wet ground.

I open my eyes. The house is still in front of me, but now it is pure white and splendid. The walls are made of white marble. Inside the bedroom, the closet, dresser and bed are now encrusted and embellished with gems.

Irene is covered in white veils. Her hair is pulled back into a braid that wraps around her head, like a crown.

I look around. I'm on a small lawn, sprinkled with flowers of every color and type. Just a little further from me there's a bubbling brook, beyond which the forest begins. I see lots of little hills in the distance. There are many other gleaming little houses. The sky is astoundingly bright.

Something attracts my curiosity in the soft shadow of a house near me. The sun is shining right at me. There shouldn't be a shadow pointing towards the star. I turn around. Behind me I see three other suns, one similar to the first, the other two much smaller.

I have no idea where I am. But this is definitely not Earth.

5

“We need to get moving. Unfortunately we couldn't land closer to the Palace. We still have a little ways to go here. Enondil should be here any minute.”

I'm still on the ground, admiring the enchanting landscape that spreads out before my eyes.

Irene talks to me from inside the bedroom. I think she's doing something in the closet, which is shining with a thousand colors of light.

“What is this house, Irene?”

“It's my house. You knew that, right?”

“Yes, sure, but usually women's houses don't serve as means of transport between a forest and another planet.”

“In fact it took a lot of time to prepare this transport. We've spent decades scanning thousands of planets looking for you and, once we found you, the operation took years to prepare.”

“The operation? What kind of...?”

“Here's Enondil. Come on, let's go, we don't have a moment to waste.”

I turn around and see a man inside of a gigantic bubble coming towards me, full speed ahead. The man is comfortably lying on a couch created from the same material as the bubble and suspended in the middle of it. When he's just a few yards away, I recognize him and instinctively get up to run and hide.

“No, no Antelmo, don't run away. It's Enondil. He'll come with us.”

“Enondil? It's the policeman who wanted to shoot me!” I protest, rather exasperated.

Enondil jumps down from the bubble and heads towards me.

“He still doesn't remember anything?” he asks, turning towards Irene.

“No, nothing. Less than nothing. Cloradil knew what she was doing,” Irene answers.

“Cloradil, you mean Anna, my wife. Where is she? Is she coming with us too? When can I see her?”

Irene and Enondil exchange a knowing smile.

Enondil says: “Let's leave now, or we could be too late. Come on,” he continues, turning towards me.

We enter the strange bubble. Our bodies pass through the walls, as if they were only made of light. The sofa, on the other hand, is elastic and bears our weight. The bubble rises into the sky.

“What is this...vehicle? How did you build it?” I ask.

Irene smiles: “We didn't build it. We manifested it.”

“Another illusion?” I ask, not very convinced.

“
Ois midal musri gan
,” Enondil recites.

The bubble becomes a pyramid and the walls take on a light blue glow.

“The bubble is better, a little more aerodynamic, but the pyramid will work,” Irene explains.

An immense noise rips through the air. We instinctively bring our hands up to our ears and look towards where the deafening noise is coming from.

“It's her. Bring Antelmo to safety. I'm going to...” Irene says.

I don't hear the end of her sentence. A beam of dim light, from a point in the sky above us, shines towards us and pushes me down.

Falling from this height, impact with the ground will surely kill me. It's over. Instead I find myself in the water of the bubbling brook I saw in front of Irene's house.

The beam disappears. I try to go up to the surface. A powerful force magnetizes me downwards. I look down to find out what it is. I see that a luminous surface has opened between two rocks. It seems as if the magnetizing force is coming from there.