Veiled (43 page)

“
He will,” Nancy assured
as she walked back to their dinner.

“
What makes you so
sure?”

“
I feel it. He’s the one
for her, just like you were the one for me.”

“
What…past tense already?”
Russell teased.

I didn’t dare stay any
longer. The feeling that I was doing something wrong by neglecting
my Sentinel duties, was overpowering. I said goodbye to Katie, and
Alex flew with me back to the door.

“
Well…” Alex started to
say with a sigh. “It looks good for them.”

“
Yeah, and that means that
you are not far behind,” I told him.

He nodded and kissed my
forehead before pushing me through to the other side.

I tried calling Robyn
again, and I got no answer—again. Now I was worried, so I started
for the Angelic Missions building to see if I could get any
information from the billboard. But as I was heading there I was
instructed to present myself back at the Archives and Records room
for my new assignment—as a Scribe—once more.

Luckily I didn’t have to be
a Scribe for very long before I was ordered back to the Angelic
Mission’s building. So the first thing I did was stop by the
billboard to check on Robyn. There I noticed that Alex was now
listed as “undercover” and Robyn was listed as “unreachable” which
was weird. I looked back at the list, Dorian was also “undercover”
and Katie was reassigned to class, Jase too.

I looked around the lounge,
and that old uneasiness of being all alone came back to me. I truly
hated this. I felt so uncomfortable standing there all alone, not
knowing anyone. There were a few scattered groups here and there,
talking in hushed tones. Then I noticed that their auras were all
the same—somber.

Several different windows
were broadcasting from different parts of the spirit world where
the latest disappearances had taken place.

One of the windows was
reporting that several spirits that had been missing had been found
wandering in a remote area of the spiritual Australian bush, with
no recollection of what had happened to them or how they had gotten
there. I listened to several disoriented spirits who thought they
had been in class all along when in reality they were
not.

“
I thought I was in my
Earth’s Cultures class. We were covering the crusades,” one of the
spirits said.

“
Surely you know that the
crusades were over several hundred of years ago?” the reporter
asked.

“
No…I just…we just covered
it,” the poor spirit said, dismayed by the realization that he had
just missed hundreds of years in a class he cared nothing
about.

“
Where are the Eternals,
and why aren’t they doing anything about this?” one of the spirits
shouted from behind and several others shouted in
agreement.

This brought to mind
Kerubiel’s admonition that
“…the time may
come when you might be tempted to ask yourself—why are the Eternals
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.”

Another window was
suggesting that the latest string of missing spirits had all been
trained Angels—Sentinels and Heralds among them.

In every case there were no
witnesses, and the most concerning thing was that Discerners had
not been able to sense any of the missing spirits’
consciousnesses.

One of the reporters
finished her update, by mentioning that all missing Angels were
listed as “unreachable”. I flew back to the billboard and stared at
Robyn’s name—it was listed as “unreachable”. I was flooded with
guilt. This was my fault, I left her all alone and now she had been
taken. I had been sent to fix this problem and instead I
gallivanted off to watch Valerie’s and Dane’s lives unfold, because
it was pleasant. Now Robyn and many other spirits were paying the
price for my escapade.

* * * * *

Chapter 37

“
Alex…”
I ventured to connect, knowing full well I shouldn’t. But
when he didn’t respond, I felt worse.
Great! Another rule I’m breaking!
I
thought.

“
No need to dwell on that
now,” Dayspring said from behind me. “The important thing is to
find her and all the rest.”

I turned to face her,
feeling mortified. It wasn’t in Dayspring’s nature to coddle, but
her smile was the closest thing to it.

“
What can I do
now?”

“
When I was alive and
faced with a problem, I dealt with it head on. During my time a lot
of my comrades were taken prisoner, and it was up to me to get them
out.” Dayspring’s tail twitched and swayed a little, her eyes were
intent on mine. “Robyn was last seen at the Gift of Interpretations
building. She was looking for Suy.”

“
Yes…we were there looking
for him. He was the first Sentinel to disappear. Do you think
there’s a connection between that building and who’s been taking
them?”

“
I don’t know,” Dayspring
said as she smoothed her dreads so they fell evenly on both sides
of her face.

“
Will the missing spirits
be harmed in any way because of this?”

She took a moment before
answering, and seemed more interested in her hair than my answer.
“Yes and no. You’ve seen what it’s done to some spirits.” She
glanced toward one of the windows.

Some of those spirits, who
were found in Australia, looked very angry and resentful toward the
Eternals.

“
Like I said, Tess…adverse
situations bring out the real person inside of us. That is when our
alliances are truly tested. For some…it started before life even
began!” she gave me a piercing look.

I looked down again,
ashamed of my own behavior. I may not have doubted the Eternals,
but when push came to shove, I ditched my job and now others were
paying the consequences.

I flew out determined to
find these missing spirits. Dayspring called after me, but I didn’t
listen, I was going to fix this, one way or another.

I paused outside the Gift
of Interpreting Languages building and looked at it for a moment.
The building was a pyramid with a large stone entrance at the
bottom and no door. Outside the building stood several clusters of
spirits who seemed to be engrossed in their own conversations. All
their auras shone normal. Except one spirit was wearing a hood, and
I couldn’t see their aura. I glided past this spirit to see if I
could sense something. If the spirit had nothing to hide, I would
be able to catch some stray thought or feeling form her, but she
seemed to be engrossed in whatever she was reading.

I tried to be cautious and
aware of my surroundings as I came into the building. I looked at a
chart and quickly found the name of the teacher who had taught the
last class that Suy attended. As I made my way to the class room, I
passed another hooded spirit and this time I did sense something.
But before I could focus on what I was sensing, my vision blurred
for a moment. When my vision cleared the hooded spirit was gone,
nowhere to be seen or felt.

I shook of a feeling of
disorientation and found the classroom I was looking for.
Fortunately there was no class in session and the teacher was
seated behind his desk with several scattered books all over. He
had some odd looking glasses attached to his face. When he heard me
come in he looked up and the glasses, or whatever he was wearing,
made his eyes look about five times bigger than their normal size.
I could see now that the apparatus was more like a helmet with
thick round spectacles coming off of it and gave him a bug like
look.

“
May I help you?” the
teacher asked, and I got the strangest feeling—like I had
experienced this already.

“
Y-yes…I’m looking into
the disappearance of a Sentinel named Suy. He was last seen in your
class,” I said, trying to focus my senses on the strange feeling I
was getting.

“
You are not an
interpreter, are you?”

“
No, what gave it
away?”

He grunted something and
looked back down at his work. “So you are looking for Suy as well?
I must have talked with dozens of Sentinels already, but none so
recent. Why are you looking for him now?”

“
Because, he is still
missing and so is my partner, Robyn, who was last seen in this
building searching for Suy.”

“
Robyn…yes…she came here
just like you looking for him. She disappeared too?” He shook his
head. “Something odd is happening here, something very
odd…”

“
So you spoke with her?” I
asked eagerly.

“
Yes just as sure as I’m
speaking to you now,” he said, and that feeling of déjà vu, hit me
once more.

“
Can you remember anything
about your conversation with her?”

“
I told her the same thing
I told all the others, no doubt you read my statement.
Unfortunately I have nothing to add to it. Suy vanished before I
could ask him what was wrong.”

I tried to get him to give
me more information, but he just kept repeating the same thing over
and over again. “He just disappeared…he seemed distracted…next
thing I know he was gone.” His lack of concern was
eerie.

“
Listen,” he finally said,
“I’m not a Discerner, I don’t know why he left my class, I just
know what everybody is saying, in every language from every planet
that I have visited.”

“
Impressive,” I said
sarcastically. “Sorry I bothered you.”

“
I’m sorry I can’t shed
more light on this, it is very disconcerting what is happening
here, but I just don’t know much…no one does,” he said
apologetically.

“
Yes…well, thanks for your
time.” I turned to leave, but turned back. “May I ask you one more
question about Robyn?”

He looked at me with half
veiled eyes, and then nodded.

“
When she was interviewing
you, did she seem nervous in any way?”

“
No. Cool and collected
like the rest of you. Now if you don’t mind…” he pointed to his
desk, “I have a class that I have to get ready for.” The professor
looked down at his desk and then looked back up. “Err…good
luck.”

I glided out of the
building and stood by one of the thick columns at the entrance and
marveled at the lack of clues I had to go on. How could so many
spirits just vanish without a trace? No one sees anything, nothing
seems to be out of the ordinary, yet they disappear!

A large reptile with sharp
teeth crossed my path, unconcerned by the many spirits that
surrounded it. On Earth people would be scurrying out of its way,
but here, no one cared. Then an idea occurred to me. “Katie!”
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and I was now
desperate enough to get Katie and her particular gift on the case.
If spirits didn’t have any information, maybe the creatures might
have some, and Katie was the only one who could find
out.

“
No…I’m not in class,”
Katie said brightly when I called her. “I’m back at the Eternals’
court!”

“
What are you doing
there?”

“
Volunteering.”

“
Well…I need your help. We
need to find the missing spirits and you need to interview some of
the…locals,” I told her.

“
Come here first,” she
insisted.

I didn’t want to go, but
the next thing I knew, I was gliding through a perfectly manicured
orange colored garden. Luscious, juicy looking fruit and soft
flower petals adorned every plant and tree. Children were running
and laughing everywhere I looked. One of them looked at me and told
me to follow him.

“
But…I’m looking for
Katie!” I said to the boy, whose face was covered in freckles. He
looked oddly familiar. I had seen him before, but not
here.

“
She’s right here! I’ll
take you to her,” he said, signaling for me to follow.

He led me through different
paths, each one a different hue. One was yellow, another one was
red, and another bright pink. Finally we got to the entrance of the
butterfly sanctuary.

I entered much against my
better judgment and I felt weird like I couldn’t quite control
myself. There, on the mossy ground lay Katie and Robyn! They were
both looking up at the butterflies that fluttered above
them.

“
Robyn!” I called to her,
and she simply turned her head with a pleasant smile on her
face.

“
Hi, Tess!” she said, and
then went back to looking at the insects.

I raised my eyebrows, not
believing what I was seeing. “Robyn, I’ve been looking for you!
They have you listed as ‘unreachable’ that means…” I shook my head
in frustration.

“
I know what it means,
Tess. But as you can see, I’m perfectly fine!”

“
But…” I looked all around
me, I felt so odd. There were lots of children around, playing and
having fun, but I could sense none of them. Katie, who looked like
she was having the time of her life, to me felt like…she wasn’t
even there!