Veiled (26 page)

The Cherub looked at her
for a moment, then released her slowly, and with a smile sat by her
side. It was hard to read their emotions, because they were hiding
them—from me or from each other—I couldn’t tell.

“
How did you do that?” I
asked the Cherub.

Thinking that I meant his
strength, he flexed his muscles.

“
No…your thoughts, I
couldn’t sense your thoughts at all just now.”

The Cherub smirked. “Good
question, Tess. This little bit of fun has just provided us with
the perfect beginning to our training,” he boasted. “By the way,
I’m Kerubiel.” He stood and came toward us with his hand extended
in form of greeting.

I extended mine and he took
it, shaking it heartily. He did the same thing with Alex and
Celeste. Russell and Leo had been there already, and took part in
our ambush. Russell had been training with the Cherubs for a while
now, and had a gloating glow about him as introductions were
made.

“
How is it that we have
substance to you?” Leo asked as he watched this exchange take
place.

“
Another good question!”
Kerubiel exclaimed. “This group is going to be a good one, I can
tell already. Are they all here?” he asked the other Cherub that
was standing with a solemn looking face next to Celeste.

“
No, we are still waiting
for two more,” he responded.

“
You might remember Drymus
from our little presentation?” Kerubiel explained as Drymus made
his way forward.

Drymus grinned smugly at
Dayspring as he went to her side. His thoughts were easy enough to
read, even for a non-Discerner, I should think. He had obviously
enjoyed seeing his comrade have the final say on the little
wrestling match. Apparently there was a long standing feud going on
between them and he was keeping tabs.

Dayspring sneered in
silent reply, but her thoughts were saying,
“I can take you anytime.”

“
Bring it on!”
the still smiling Drymus replied in
thought.

“
I will,”
Dayspring continued the unspoken
banter.

Kerubiel turned his head
and looked sternly at them, “Cut it out, you two,” he said out
loud. Drymus and Dayspring stood still as sentinels, looking
forward, both with a smug look on their face.

Alex chuckled. I had been
connected to him during the snow ball fight, so he could hear all I
could. Leo wore his same casual smile, but I could tell by his
amused aura that he had heard them too. The only ones that had no
idea what was going on were Celeste and Russell, who presently
looked suspiciously at the rest of us. I shot Celeste an apologetic
look, shrugged, and disconnected the link with Alex. He in turn
looked as if I had just taken a fun toy away from him.

The last two spirits that
we were waiting for were Dorian and Irene and once they landed,
Kerubiel started the training by way of a speech.

He explained the difference
between a Sentinel and a Herald. He said that a Sentinel was more
of a protector of things or people, while a Herald’s job was to
announce and give warning. Then he told us that as a Herald or
Sentinel, we could be pulled from class or any other mission at a
moment’s notice by way of the pendant.

“
As you know, the Eternals
do not get directly involved in the problems that you or your
fellow Earthlings get into,” he said as he paced in front of us
with his hands tucked behind his wings. “They will provide aid, and
they will give you answers if you ask them, but they are bound by
the universal law to not get involved—because that’s the only way
for you to evolve. Many times their help will come in the form of a
fellow being. Or sometimes they may give you aid in the form of
strength to endure a situation. But they will not take the problem
away or fix it for you in any way. That’s your job.

“
So here is lesson number
one: You make your own decisions, and you let mortals make their
own decisions as well.

“
Number two: If you need
help or reinforcements, call for them, and don’t complain when help
doesn’t come in the way you expected or hoped for.

“
Number three: You have
been sent on this mission for a reason. I just want to make sure
you understand this point very clearly, because the time may come
when you might be tempted to ask yourself why the Eternals are
letting this happen right under their noses. And I want you to know
the answer in advance. They are not letting this happen. They are
sending YOU to fix it.”

We all nodded in agreement,
and Kerubiel looked satisfied. Then he had us practice standing
like Sentinels—very boring, worse than being Scribes if
possible.

Suddenly Russell’s pendant
started glowing and he left in a hurry, without so much as telling
us good bye. Kerubiel snapped his fingers, hoping to get our
attention back and then continued with his training.

We were then taught some
basic intelligence gathering techniques and finally how to hide our
own feelings from others, so that no valuable information could be
leaked by good aura readers. This trick apparently was what I was
sensing, when the wall went up in their minds. It was a practiced
technique that was very useful against Discerners.

I looked around at our
little gathering. It seemed like a lifetime ago that we were
searching for secret Herald and Sentinel training grounds. Now we
were not only in one, but we were the ones being
trained.

Dayspring cleared her
throat in hopes of regaining my attention, and then she shifted her
sitting position and closed her eyes. “Find an image that brings no
feelings, something neutral, like a lake or this landscape. Once
you have your image in your mind, go there. By that I mean put
yourself there and stay there. The moment a thought creeps in, you
go back to the image.”

“
OK…” both Dorian and I
responded.

I decided to put myself
under water, in that ocean I went to escape reality not too long
ago. It worked. As soon as I was among the seaweeds all my feelings
and thoughts drifted with the hypnotic motion of the
tide.

“
Good…” Dayspring said in
a soft, soothing voice. “You have both found what I call your happy
place. Now you’ll be able to retreat there every time you need to
block a thought or a feeling.”

We sat in the same
cross-legged position, retreated in our “happy place” for I don’t
know how long. It was easy to be there—having spent so much time
there myself.

“
OK, now you can come back
to reality,” Dayspring said in a soft voice.

“
How long were we there?”
Dorian asked, perplexed.

“
Just under three hours
Earth time,” she said casually.

“
OK, Heralds and
Sentinels. You are almost ready for your first missions,” Kerubiel
announced in his take charge voice. “But first let me explain one
last thing. Earlier, Leo asked a question about why you have
substance to us. The answer is simple in its complexity. We are
immortal beings. Our makeup is different from that of mortals. Our
spirits and our bodies are forever united and are perfect. We have
organs, just like mortals and they work pretty much the same as
they did as when we were mortal, but they are fueled by a substance
other than mortal blood.

“
Human blood is red,
Cherub blood was blue and…” he turned his head and smiled at
Dayspring, “Seraph blood was green. But all three species have a
silver colored blood-like substance running through our veins as
immortals.

“
This fuel makes it
possible for all immortals to have substance to both the spiritual
and physical beings. We are a hybrid, if you will, of the two,
that’s why we can exist in both environments and be felt by the
living, the dead, and the unborn. It also comes in handy for
training and…other things.” As he said this a block was put up in
his mind and I was no longer able to perceive his
thoughts.

Pendants started glowing
the moment Kerubiel was done speaking. Celeste was excited about a
mission as a Guardian in Spain, where Max was, and she left right
away.

“
Lower Thames St. London,
England - wait for John,” my pendant said, and I looked up to see
what the other pendants said. Dorian’s nose was crinkled as he
tried to decipher his pendant.

Alex looked up with
excitement. “Sentinel! Machupichu, that sounds cool!” Alex
exclaimed.

“
Oh…is that what it says?”
Dorian said with relief.

“
What does yours say?”
Alex asked me.

“
England, ask for John,” I
told him, disappointed.

“
We’ll have a mission
soon, I know we will,” Alex said reading the very discernible
expression on my face.

“
Hey, we are going to
England too!” Leo and Irene both exclaimed.

“
Good! I’ll follow you
then,” I said, knowing that even with the aid of Heaven’s door, I
stood a high chance of getting lost.

As soon as we landed on
Lower Thames St., London, we saw a man running toward
us.

“
Ho there, are you here
for me?” the man asked.

We looked at him puzzled.
He definitely saw us, but there was something else about him that
bothered me. He was different, not a mortal.

“
Maybe…” Leo responded,
wary. “What’s your name?”

“
John!” he answered
cheerfully.

My experience after
watching mortals for a while now, was that they were out of breath
after running a long way, yet this one was not. His breathing was
as even as if he had been standing there the whole time.
Apparently, I was not alone in feeling apprehensive, Irene clearly
did too.

“
Who are you?” Irene said
with wonder in her voice.

“
I told you, I’m John,”
the man said with a smile.

“
What are you?” I
clarified.

“
Ah…well that is a better
question,” he said mysteriously. “I’m an Aeonian,” John
explained.

“
From where?” Leo asked,
and this made the man laugh out loud.

“
Not where—what. Doesn’t
heaven teach you anything these days?” He took his cap off his head
and scratched the top of his head. “Well…I suppose I’m to tell you.
An Aeonian is neither mortal nor immortal, just somewhere in
between I guess.” He smiled and replaced his cap. “There are just a
few of us, but we are out there, and on occasion we need help as
well,” he added wryly.

“
Come on, let’s go
inside,” he said after a couple walked by and saw him talking to
thin air.

“
Come to think of it…I did
hear something about mortals that asked to stay on and live until
the end of the world. I just didn’t remember the name,” Leo
said.

“
Yes, I am one of
those
rare
people
who wanted to stay behind. Be careful what you wish for, you might
just get it.” John let out a chuckle. “But it’s not so bad you
know. There are some benefits to this long life of mine—you, for
instance! I get to work with Angels, for crying out
loud!”

“
So what happens to you
when the world ends?” Irene asked, intrigued.

“
I skip death altogether.
I suppose a Seraph will come down and sweep me off my feet and give
me a ride up to Heaven in a fiery blaze!” he said with a faraway
look in his eyes. “At least that’s what happened to some in the
past, so why not me?” he added with a crooked smile and then
shrugged.

“
So, you know who and what
I am. May I ask your names?”

“
This is Tess and Irene,
and I am Leo,” Leo said.

“
Good. Short names, easy
to remember and call when in a hurry.”

“
Actually, my name is
Leonardo.”

“
Ah, no wonder you go by
Leo, your name is a mouthful. What about you, is Tess short for
something?”

I shrugged, to explain the
whole Agathess story would be more than just a mouthful. “No, just
Tess.”

He smiled. “OK, so are you
the ones They sent to help?”

We nodded.

We were now inside a small
room, modestly decorated and furnished. John went to a stove and
after filling a kettle up with water, he proceeded to heat it
up.

“
I need some tea,” he
explained. “I’m chilled to the bone!” Then he turned and looked at
us, dressed in our light robes. Irene and I had our arms
exposed.

He shook his face and
walked to a small fire that was crackling in the hearth, and warmed
his hands. “You’d not be wearing those if you were alive. No, you’d
be half frozen by now.”

“
How are we to assist
you?” Leo asked, coming to his side.

John turned and regarded
Leo for a moment. “You are Sentinels, I hope?”

“
Yes,” Leo said
proudly.

John narrowed his eyes and
looked at us suspiciously. “What are your Gifts?”

“
Discerners, all three.”
Leo puffed out his chest.

“
Trained, you said?” John
asked again, narrowing his eyes.