Veiled (15 page)

“
He said that time is
measured by the rotation of Earth around the sun, and that takes
365 days. Then there are 24 hours in each day and 60 minutes in
each hour…” He shook his head. “All I know for sure is that what
the Eternals consider one day is about one thousand of Earth’s
years.”

“
Wow!” I said alarmed by
this new piece of information, and sat up. “Are you telling me that
you’ve waited for me about three thousand years?”

“
Longer if you count all
the other years I’ve been waiting for you to sort out your own
feelings,” he said smugly.

I threw my arms around his
neck, and then it dawned on me that at this rate, the first man and
the first woman who had been placed on Earth were now dead, and
that we needed to get moving if we wanted to be ready for our own
lives.

*****

Thanks to Celeste, news of
our reconciliation spread fast among my clan. It was nice to only
have to explain the story once. She took care of the rest and I was
spared the re-telling, but not the conspiratorial looks and half
smiles.

Katie approached us first.
She was completely void of any ill feelings toward me, and talked
as if we had been the best of friends from the beginning. It was
hard to believe that I had felt jealous of her or ever found her
annoying.

“
So…we have Gifts and
Talents, Warding off Evil Spirits, Family Units, Cultures, and
Customs. Wait! I didn’t sign up for that one,” Alex said as if he
had been tricked into something. “I wanted to go to Freedom
Fighters.” He looked pleadingly at me, while holding the new device
that Henry had procured, containing our agenda. Our part of the
Spirit World was filled with all the devices and technological
advancements that Earthlings would ever invent, and thanks to Henry
we were equipped with all of them.

“
Well, I thought that
maybe you and Russell…” I was cut short by an enthusiastic—“Great
idea! You and Celeste can go to your…Cultures class and Russ and I
will go to Freedom Fighters.”

Before leaving, Alex tucked
the pad somewhere in the folds of his robe and came closer to me.
He cupped my face with his hands, looked steadily into my eyes, and
smiled.

“
Oh, come on you two!”
Russell said with exasperation. “I liked you both better when you
were fighting.”

Alex released me with a
wink and turned toward Russell. “And I liked it better when you
weren’t such an old tart,” Alex responded, and then they left
bickering, as they often did, about inconsequential
things.

Freedom Fighters actually
sounded interesting. Its purpose was to train spirits to think in
ways that promoted freedom. They also discussed what was happening
on Earth at the time and thought of different ways in which to
handle the situations. Also, with the approval of the Eternals and
with a band of Cherubs, they would go down to Earth and help fight
in certain wars.

Personally, it was hard to
imagine Russell sitting there having a philosophical discussion on
the issues. The real reason why I thought he took the class was
because he wanted to help fight a war. They couldn’t fight with
weapons, but the Cherubs could, and the warrior spirits could help
warn those who needed their help. The goal was usually to minimize
the loss of life, and to put an end to tyranny.

Alex told me that he
watched as a number of spirits from the Second Seal of time went
down in a cloud that the Cherubs had formed. He said it was very
cool to watch them go down and he intended to be with the next
group that went.

There were females that
attended Freedom Fighters, and I oscillated between attending that
class or not, but I had to trim my list of classes somewhere and
spirit or not, I could not be in two places at once. Perfecting my
Gift was really my main focus right now, so I headed there happily
with my new aura color. Finally I was going to clash with Agatha’s
own murky aura.

There was a note posted at
the entrance of the Gift of Discernment building that
read:

Milah’s class will meet in
the gardens directly behind the building.

Underneath several
different trees heavy with luscious red fruit, Milah had set up
some chairs in smaller groups of five. I looked at the fruits and
wondered what it would be like to eat them, and what tasting would
be like. If I had to judge by the look of them, I would have to say
that those particular fruits would taste great.

Milah was standing under a
blooming pergola and had her usual little podium that held her
papers and large burgundy-leather bound book. She stood erect,
looking at her students as we filed in. She wasn’t smiling but
wasn’t serious either. Her aura looked calm like water.

“
Choose a seat, any seat,
it doesn’t matter. Hurry now, I want to get started,” Milah said as
she rubbed her hands together.

I waved to Leo and Irene as
soon as they appeared. They sat on either side of me, complimented
me on my aura’s appearance and demanded an explanation for my
absence.

“
It’s been so boring
without you, Tess,” Irene said sweetly. “We haven’t done anything
new though, just practice and more practice.”

“
Yeah…a bit tedious if you
ask me,” Leo said as he slouched in his seat.

“
Attention spirits. I
would like to start class now, so take a seat,” Milah
called.

The last few spirits filed
in and picked a seat.

“
I wanted to start class
by telling you about Sonora, my daughter.” Several spirits made
some side comments about this new piece of information, but Milah’s
stern look put a quick stop to that.

“
She was my daughter in
mortality and still is, even though we look the same age now and
the thirty five year difference between us in mortality means
nothing to us now. Anyway, as I was saying, Sonora is a very gifted
spirit. Both her parents being Discerners and she herself being
one, I suppose she had a very good chance of being good at her
gift.

“
The highest purpose of a
Discerner is to be able to understand people, in ways that others
cannot. Spirits like Sonora can look at a person and know so much
about them that they themselves don’t even know. This gift is
strictly given for the purpose of helping others, and spreading
compassion. You can see this gift as that, ultimate compassion and
understanding.

“
The Eternals themselves
have this gift—of course they have all the gifts—but the reason why
they know what each of us thinks and feels so perfectly is because
of the Gift of Discernment. This gift is what gives them that
ability, and because we are their spiritual offspring we all have
part of their gifts. We in particular have this most wonderful
gift, and it is up to us to develop it and put it to good
use.

“
Sonora always surprises
me with her gift. While in mortality, she was able to help those
who couldn’t help themselves for various reasons. In her time she
became a very sought after counselor. As you work and progress you
will have the opportunity to work with her, and that will be a
privilege to you. I tell you this because many of you are at the
very edge of reading thoughts.”

“
Excuse me?” the plump
male spirit named Thomas, who was sitting in my group,
inquired.

“
Yes, Thomas.”

“
How can we prepare for
her class? I mean, how do we go from seeing auras and knowing what
they mean, to hearing the thoughts of others.”

“
Thanks for asking,
Thomas. I was just about to cover that. In actuality not all of you
will be able to attain this part of the gift. I myself can’t do it
yet. But some of you might still, and you should stretch yourself
in that direction.

“
I can’t hear thoughts
like Sonora can, but I do sense their feelings and I am such a
proficient aura reader that I don’t need to look for too long to
see what the outer aura is telling me about a person.”

“
So you are saying that
even though we may not be able to hear thoughts we can still have
perfect empathy and understanding, like the Eternals?” Thomas
asked.

“
It’s a goal, yes, but I
do have to tell you that I and my husband, even Sonora herself, are
still working on “perfecting” our gift. Perfection will not be
achieved until after we become immortal, and even then we will
still have the rest of the gifts to work on.”

A um of interested murmurs
rose up through the air.

“
So even after we are
immortals we will still be learning and progressing?” I asked,
almost mesmerized by the idea.

“
Yes, Tess. As mortals we
only use about 10% of our brains, which means that there is lots
and lots of room for improvement and evolution. In time, we will
work on attaining all the gifts. Evolution is eternal.”

The next thing Milah had us
do was to take turns reading the aura’s of those in our group, and
discerning what they say. Several spirits let out a groan to
express their exasperation over the tediousness of this job, but I
had never done it before, so I was excited to try.

My absence from class
really showed, out of my group I struggled the most. I could read
the colors just fine, but the interpretations were hard to
remember. I was getting frustrated and my outer aura was starting
to show. Milah saw that, and made her way to my side.

“
It takes time,” Milah
said encouragingly. “Don’t rush yourself, think intuitively. What
does that color make you feel?”

Her advice was actually a
good one. Once I started to see auras with that in mind I had an
easier time of getting it right.

After several more rounds
around the groups, Milah walked back to her stand and opened the
leather book and slid a ribbon in between its pages. She picked it
up and brought it over to the group where I was.

“
I found it very
interesting that you all chose to sit in the same group. I guess it
just proves that your auras are attracted to each other,” she said
as she knelt down next to Leo.

We eyed each other
suspiciously and Milah placed the large book on Leo’s
lap.

* * * * *

Chapter 13

“
Leonardo, please read
from this page,” she ordered.

I turned to Leo with a
sneer. “Leonardo?” I mouthed. He grimaced back, then turned to the
book and began to read:

“
Additional abilities
attached to auras.”
He looked up to Milah
for further instructions.

“
Read on…read on,
Leonardo. The whole chapter,” Milah said and walked
away.

“
Wow!” One of the spirits
got close to the book and stroked the page. “It’s kind of weird
looking at a book that doesn’t exist yet, but looks
old.”

“
Yeah…look at the letters,
they are so fancy.” Thomas added.

“
The book has been written
actually,” Milah said, suddenly close to us again. “It was written
in my planet, but the content will apply to you just the same.”
Then she turned and walked away again.

“
Some aura colors indicate
additional abilities that are unique traits to the personality of
the bearer. The following are additional senses, sometimes referred
to as a Sixth sense and are commonly known as: Clairvoyance,
Clairsentience, and Clairaudience.

“
Clairvoyance
is another way of seeing that which is unseen by
natural eyes. Those with this ability may see into other realms of
existence.

“Clairsentience
is another way of
feeling, or sensing beings from another realm. The person who has
this gift may sense the feelings or presence of unseen spirits,
both of the dead and the undead.

“Clairaudience
is the ability to hear
in thought-form, beyond the physical sense of hearing. The person
who has this gift might be able to hear voices from other realms of
existence.”

“
Nice…” Leo looked up and
smiled at our group.

We had all huddled closer
to Leo as he read on and our auras melted together forming a
colorful dome of interest.

“
How do we find out which
one we have?” one of the spirits asked.

Leo looked back at the
book, and scanned his finger down the page. “OK, here it says…” He
studied the book and scanned each of our auras, making sure they
matched.

“
Tess, you and Liam look
like you are Clairaudient. Thomas and I, are Clairvoyant, and…” He
turned the page hastily. “Samantha and Irene are Clairsentient.”
Leo looked up and smiled at the huddled group.

“
This is so cool,” Thomas
said with satisfaction.

“
No—not cool, you idiot,”
Liam said with sudden irritation. “They are going to think we are
crazy! Ooh, I sense someone from another realm. I think they feel a
little mad because you broke that precious family heirloom.” His
voice was full of sarcasm.

“
What’s an heirloom?”
Irene asked.

Liam rolled his eyes, and
threw his arms up in the air. “Don’t you understand that most
mortals are very unbelieving? They will think we are crazy. I just
got back from a Current Events class where some people were accused
of witchcraft and were stoned to death.”