Veiled (4 page)

“
What in the Eternal’s
universe is that!” I said indignantly.

“
An intelligence, you
idiot! Don’t you remember?”

“
No, not at all,” I
assured her.

“
Oh, come on. How could
you not. I mean, sure you may not remember everything, but you must
have some recollection, flashes even?”

“
No, no recollection, no
flashes.”

“
Odd…”

“
Is it? You remember being
an intelligence?”

“
Yes, a little bit. I
remember trying to figure things out by doing what this one is
doing.”

“
Um…what is it
doing?”

“
See, how it shapes itself
around things…it’s trying to understand what we are. Oh, come on,
you have to remember!”

“
Sorry, I
don’t.”

“
Well, here you go, little
one,” Celeste said to the blob before gently sliding it off her
hand and leaving it floating in space. As soon as the intelligence
was free, it took off flying at an incredible speed. All we could
see was a flash of silvery light, and it was gone.

“
I wonder why I can’t
remember anything.” It seemed that I now had something new to worry
about. “Let’s see…I fall through space and feel choked to
death—literally—then I can’t remember a thing about my previous
existence…what else? Help me out here.”

Celeste laughed and nudged
me again. “Oh, just forget about it. What difference does it make?
Everything will work out in the end—trust me,” she said with that
surety that came so natural to her. Did she ever doubt? Did she
ever fear?

* * * * *

Chapter 3

The rally at the moon
proved to be a bigger gathering than I first anticipated. There
were thousands of spirits, and they were all as excited as we were.
Several other spirits came to greet us as soon as we came into
view, and my clan melted into the sea of transparent
forms.

Three little female spirits
hurried over to me and Celeste and when Dorian saw them coming, he
too joined us.

“
Hi, Luz,” Dorian flashed
his most dazzling smile at her and casually placed himself at Luz’s
side. This move was not missed by Celeste who elbowed me in the
stomach for it.

Luz, Amor, and Paz were
identical, I had no idea how he knew who was who, but somehow he
could tell. They hardly ever separated, and were always giggling
about something.

They were very pleasant,
and Dorian who was always happy himself was naturally drawn to
them, Luz in particular.

“
Hi, Dorian!” was the
triple reply.

“
Can you believe they are
capturing spirits now? Who would have imagined?” Luz commented, her
words a flurry of excitement.

Paz and Amor huddled around
us.

“
Yeah, we were just
talking about the same thing,” Celeste added.

“
Max seems to think that
we need to come up with some sort of strategy to protect those of
us who are undecided,” Amor whispered, as if she were telling a
secret.

I noticed that at the
mention of Max, Celeste straightened up a bit and shifted
uncomfortably.

“
How would we know who is
undecided?” Celeste asked.

“
Well, we took a vote
earlier in our clan,” Paz said softly as she looked around, afraid
of being overheard. “We didn’t want to assume anything; we just
wanted to see if we needed to start right here—in our own clan,”
she whispered.

“
And we did,” finished
Amor. “Eros and Richard are undecided. Max has been talking to
them, but Eros doesn’t seem to see the logic.”

“
Really?” said Celeste
with a sudden interest. “Richard? That seems odd; he is so
decisive, so sure of himself all the time.”

Celeste thought much more
of Richard than I did; there was something about him that I didn’t
like. I had mentioned this to Celeste before, but because I was so
vague, she dismissed it as me being anti-social and judgmental.
Still, I was not as surprised to hear that he was
undecided.

Richard was arrogant and
conceited, but he liked Celeste, so he was always guarded around
her. Eros was worse if possible. He was outright antagonistic,
quick to anger like Russell. But unlike Russell, Eros did not get
over it quickly.

The odd thing was that the
spirits in his clan liked him, or at least tolerated him. I knew
that Max was very protective of him, and that was another puzzle.
Max was a lot like Dane, patient, gentle, kind, very thoughtful and
quiet. Why he cared so much about Eros was beyond me.

I was usually like
this—noticing things about spirits that others might not notice—I
believe it’s because I’m a Discerner and that means that I should
be able to read spirit’s natures. Really good Discerners can do all
sorts of things like read minds and even communicate telepathically
like the Eternals can through the Link, but so far I have only
proven to be very inept at it. All I can do is sense the good or
the bad in spirits…and apparently, fall through space.

The other spirits in my
clan have certain things that make them special too, and over time
we have learned to rely on each others’ hunches, feelings, and
premonitions. Some are really impressive, like Valerie’s
premonitions. She’s always telling us, “Oh I wouldn’t do that if I
were you…” meaning, “I’ve had a premonition and whatever you are
about to do will end badly.” She can be a bit of a doomsayer, but
she can’t help it I suppose. If she senses something, she has to
say it—and she does.

Dorian is a seer, he can
actually see things in his mind, and he saw Henry coming to join
our clan, before it actually happened. It’s fun to see him
contradict Valerie, just for the fun of it—it drives her
nuts.

Alex has the gift of wisdom
and the added ability of finding me anywhere I seem to roam. I
often wonder why he can do that as well as having the gift of
wisdom, but such things are so random. Either way, I personally
think that he needs to work on expanding his homing abilities, to
include other spirits.

Celeste’s gift is more
subtle; it is faith. It manifests itself through her confidence in
everything. Her confidence in the Eternals not only makes her
strong and fearless, but her personality is such that it infects
all those around her. You can always feel like anything is possible
when you are around Celeste, and that is why she is so popular and
loved by everyone.

Henry has the gift of
knowledge, and he is always reminding us of it. Dane, the gift of
healing along with Nancy, and Russell…well his is the coolest, the
gift of working miracles! Not that he has worked any yet—a sore
subject with him.

We were told what our gifts
were when we were formed, and some of us have been trying to
develop our gifts. Frankly, I don’t know how to develop mine, but
if I ever sense something about someone, like in the case of
Richard, I say it loud and clear—even if it falls on deaf
ears.

There is one more thing
about me that not even I can explain—I wander. I don’t even know
how it happens…it just does. I’ll be somewhere one moment, and the
next thing I know I’m not! Like now, how did I end up back here?
When did I leave the rally? Not long ago I was telling my clan to
get out of here, and now… here I was again! What is the matter with
me?

As I was turning to fly
back to the rally I heard something. Filled with curiosity I turned
back and followed the sound. This time, I didn’t feel the same
oppression I felt before, instead I felt a pull toward the sound or
presence. I couldn’t quite explain it, I knew I was doing something
wrong, and I knew I should leave, but the curiosity I felt was
overpowering.

I felt a tinge of guilt,
but I quickly pushed it aside by telling myself that I would not be
missed for a little while, and while I was here I might as well
find out what had me so spooked.

Whatever noise I had heard
was gone now. There was total and complete silence as I glided
forward through the narrow canyon. But silence only lasted for a
brief moment. As I approached a sharp left turn—I heard voices,
spirit voices.

Part of me felt drawn to
them. I wanted to know who they were and what they were talking
about. Another part of me, the one with common sense, told me to
turn around and fly off as fast as I could in the opposite
direction. But I pressed on, intrigued by what the voices were
saying.

No one would be able to
hear them here, yet they whispered. There were mostly male voices
and one female, at least one that had spoken.

I stopped and stayed on the
other side of the rock, quiet, hoping not to be discovered—because
these spirits didn’t feel right to me. Didn’t I have enough
weirdness to last me for a long time? Why was I so curious, and why
did I ever leave my clan?

Suddenly I felt fear
running through my frame, and a great dislike. I couldn’t explain
it. I knew I should leave but I stayed paralyzed to the spot. There
was definitely something wrong with these spirits,
something…evil.

“
But master, I will not
leave you,” said a male voice.

“
You will not leave me, I
am sending you and you must obey,” an icy voice replied.

“
Master, the Veil, how
will I remember…”

“
You have pledged yourself
to me; your soul will always belong to me.”

“
You will recognize our
call, when you are ready,” the female added smoothly and slowly as
if trying to control her temper.

“
I still
think…”

“
NO! You think wrong!” the
female barked, all her patience gone.

After a brief pause, the
icy male voice added, “You, all of you, will be our spies on the
other side. You will be able to do things we will not. If we are
cast-out, we will not be able to infiltrate certain places, high
places. You will.”

“
I pledge myself to you
master.”

“
I too.”

“
And I.”

“
How about you Ca…” began
the female, but was cut short.

The long pause, made me
nervous. What if they found me here? I obviously knew too much. Now
I realized how dumb I had been. I had just been told about spirits
who were getting captured—and what did I do?

Before I could answer my
own questions they were there, right in front of me. How had they
gotten here so quick, and how did they detect of my
presence?

I was frozen with fear, I
couldn’t think or move. I was face to face with the female, who
looked familiar, though I couldn’t remember ever seeing her, and
the Second One himself.

“
So…Tess.” He tried to
make his voice sound casual and friendly, but it fell short—very
short. “Beautiful canyon isn’t it?” His gaze never left
mine.

I remained silent, all the
happiness, all the warmth within me had disappeared. I felt
desolate, desperate, lost. I remembered Dane’s words about all the
light, truth, and enjoyments being gone when a spirit dies. I
remembered the screams and the choking feeling.
“Oh no!”
I thought to myself.
“I don’t want to die!”

Seeing that I was not
answering, the female added, “Interesting that she is here,
in
this
canyon,
while there is quite a large rally of loyalists, just over there,
on the moon.” Her voice was smooth again and low.

“
Yes…very interesting. I
wonder what Tess is looking for here that she can’t find among her
friends,” the Second One answered with a sneer.

They were right; what was I
doing here, and why had I come? Stupid, stupid me.

“
Maybe she wants to know
what we can do for her,” the female said brightly.

“
No!” My strangled croak
came out a lot louder than I had intended. They however were not
startled at all, but they acted as if they had been. Then they both
smiled broadly and laughed.

“
Well…then, she must be a
spy,” the female said with an appraising smile.

“
I was just taking a
stroll. I didn’t realize this canyon was some sort of special
gathering place for the rebellion,” I said, summoning up any
strength I had left.

The Second One narrowed his
eyes, but kept smiling the smile of someone who enjoyed watching
others suffer.

At that moment I realized
that he had to be stopped. If I survived this I would do anything
in my power—whatever that was—to stop him from becoming our next
ruler. He wasn’t concerned for our eternal evolution and
well-being—he enjoyed the panic he saw in the eyes of those he
tortured. He liked being powerful, feared, and obeyed.

“
We are everywhere, dear
Tess, even on that moon where your
friends
are.” His voice was
smooth—his version of friendly. “You are all seriously misguided in
thinking you will win. We will have the support we need to rule
Earth, and you can help me,” he said, looking
unconcerned.

“
You can’t win and I will
never join you! What can you possibly hope to achieve? You will be
cast-out and never evolve beyond what you are now. The Eternals
will not let you exist anywhere but Perdition,” I spat. The Second
One cringed at the mention of the Eternals. “All your hopes now
rely on others, and they may fail you too,” I said spitefully as I
ventured a glance at the female. I had no idea where I found the
strength to speak, but I was proud of myself for doing
so.