Veiled (46 page)

For good measure, Alex
ducked behind one of the many rock formations that hung from the
cave’s ceiling, tucking Dorian behind him.

“
Is she…?” Dorian
whispered.

“
Torturing her?” Alex said
in a low growl. “Yes, I can feel her distress and her
fear.”

*****

I tried to move, get up or
fly away, but I couldn’t—my legs moved but I didn’t. I was
overwhelmed by darkness, but the darkness was not that of space.
There were no stars, no constellations of any kind. It wasn’t even
a pretty black, like the black of the universe. It was desolate and
empty, a dark nothing.

Then I heard her, that
sneering taunting voice I hated so much. I tried not to listen, but
I couldn’t stop the sound from reaching my mind. Agatha was all
around me. I tried thinking of Alex, but I couldn’t hold the
thought, she was overpowering me.

She said so many
things…things I knew to be true about myself, things I didn’t want
to admit, things that I wanted to forget and never think
about.

“
That’s why they separated
us you know…because together we were too strong, we were too
powerful,” she hissed and the voice came from the nothingness. I
wanted out, but I was stuck and try as I might to get away, I could
not. I had to stay and endure her voice. But soon her voice sounded
less and less like her own and more and more like mine.

“
We could have been
greater than the Second One,” she laughed. “Might have even been
greater than the First One, and that is why we were separated. We
could have evolved so rapidly, if only they would have let
us…”

“
No! That is not true! I
never wanted to be stuck with you. I wanted my own freedom. I never
wanted to hurt others the way you want to hurt them,” I shrieked,
trying to make a distinction between us.

Dayspring had had to tell
me what had happened to me when I was an intelligence. I didn’t
remember then, but now...certain flashes of my previous existence
were breaking through.

I remembered feeling
trapped, like now…I remembered Agatha’s thoughts…our thoughts, like
now—Agathess’s thoughts. I remembered hurting other intelligences,
lesser ones—that would inhabit the bodies of animals.

Part of me—Agatha—was
trying to keep them from evolving, she thought it was amusing. I
couldn’t remain quiet…I wanted to be free of her and I wanted to
help those poor intelligences. They couldn’t help themselves, they
couldn’t understand like we could. They were suffering, I could
feel it, and they didn’t know why.

This was too much. I broke
away from her. We became two, the twins. But we were nothing alike,
we were complete opposites. I tried to help those other
intelligences, but I couldn’t, I was now too weak. I was missing a
portion of my essence, I was now just as vulnerable as the rest,
but I understood. They still didn’t. I bargained with her, I traded
their freedom for my own captivity, she agreed, but it was
horrible. She took pleasure in my misery.

I was so alone…all the
time…I had nothing, no one. I experienced nothing, I felt nothing,
and I saw nothing. I wanted to cease to exist, but I didn’t. I
pleaded to the only source that could free me…that’s when They sent
him…my Angel…my love—Alex.

He found me. He was the
only other intelligence I had encountered since the lesser
intelligences left. He stayed close by, where Agatha couldn’t sense
him…but I could. Then the others who were with him, Celeste and
Russell, they distracted her and he freed me.

They told me to fly as fast
as I could. I did. They were faster, but they waited. She followed
them, but was stopped, and I got away. It was Russell who stopped
her, so the rest of us I could get away.

I didn’t see her again
until I was formed and wandered off into that canyon. What made me
go there…my curiosity or my subconscious?

Am I destined to live out
my existence with her? Is she always going to be part of
me?

“
Your choices will dictate
that, yours and hers,”
They said, drowning
out her voice, and restoring my peace. Even in this weird state
that I was in, I could recognize the Eternals when they spoke to
me. So…they were still aware of me, and they still
cared.

“
How?”
I asked them.

I am not sure how, but I
could swear that I felt them smile.

“
It was a choice that
separated you from her. You were never one, you were always two. A
special two—attached. But you found the strength to separate, we
watched and helped.

“
It was a choice that
Agatha made, that kept you and her together here and now. The many
choices that are to follow will determine how this ends, or
continues.”
They came forward, glowing out
of the darkness…they were smiling and had their arms outstretched.
I went to them and they held me—and I felt it! A hug! I felt the
pressure of their arms around me, the tapping of one hand on my
back. I felt the warmth of their bodies warming mine, and I felt
loved, completely loved.

“
One more thing…”
they whispered in my ear.
“The Veil does not erase memories, it blocks them. Your
knowledge, your memories, they will always be yours. When you are
ready you will be able to retrieve them,”
they said, now looking intently into my eyes. Then they were
gone, but the memory stayed. I could still feel the warmth of their
arms in the spots where they had touched me. I could still remember
the pressure of the embrace.

“
Co…mm..ss…hee…not…ick…
Ple…sss…here…”
I heard in my
head.

“
listen…mee”
I was not completely sure, but that sounded like
Alex.

“
Tess…Tess?” Alex’s
beautiful smiling face was before me. Dorian was a ways off holding
Agatha who had her arms bound behind her back.

I felt confused. The room
was dimly lit and felt cramped. There were hollow sounding murmurs
coming from all directions.

I had a lot of questions,
but I threw myself into Alex’s arms, and found contentment there.
His ability to find me…now I knew. It was a gift,a wonderful gift
from the Eternals. They made a way for him to find me, so I
wouldn’t be lost and alone. They gave us this unusual gift so that
we could survive whatever we would be asked to endure.

Somehow they knew we would
love each other…or maybe we love each other because of this gift.
It didn’t matter. He was here now, like he was there then, like he
will be in the next life and the next…and forever.

* * * * *

Chapter 40

Agatha got in trouble—major
trouble. Not only with the High Council, but with the Eternals, and
to make matters worse, with her own Fallen Angels. She swore to her
followers that she was set up, but they don’t believe her. I do,
because I can read auras and hers is a bright shade of livid. All
the Fallen Angels think that she put them all under the effects of
the game in order to get more training herself, thus hampering
their own evolution. Funny, how they had no qualms about doing that
to the rest of us, but when it was they that were wasting their own
training time…then it was different. Eugenia was the main
instigator of this feeling—no doubt she was behind the set up—but I
wasn’t about to say anything.

Agatha’s days as the leader
of the Fallen Angels were over, and she hated me all the more for
it. Somehow I was to blame for her undoing. She even lost Eros, he
left soon after he was found in the cavern, and they didn’t leave
on the best of terms, though I am convinced that in spite of all of
this, he is in love with her. Strange…these spirits are so full of
hatred, yet some of them still have a little room for love in
them.

Dayspring says that none
of the spirits who chose to come to mortality are
all
bad. She says that we
all have great potential for goodness, and that the Veil is the
best way to ensure equal footing in the next life.

I finally got to meet Suy,
briefly though, because he had to leave immediately. I also had a
long chat with Robyn, where I apologized profusely for leaving her
alone. She insisted that it wasn’t my fault, but I will never
forgive myself for that. Apparently we had been standing next to
each other when they had us hooked to those things, and that is why
I sensed her and why I saw her in my own dream crying. I tried to
get her to talk about it, but she wouldn’t, so I let it go.
Eventually, she and Katie got to know each other well and the two
of them are best friends now.

I told Alex and Dorian all
about my experience while I was hooked up to that game thing, and
how I remembered the whole rescue mission Alex, Celeste, and
Russell, exacted when we were intelligences. Alex said he
remembered something along those lines, and said Russell was the
one who organized the rescue. He worked his first miracle then, and
never even knew it.

The next thing on my ‘to
do’ list, is a meeting with the High Council about my future.
Everyone has one of these meetings. Alex just had his. He says it
was very…enlightening. I tried to get him to tell me more about it,
but he said we weren’t supposed to tell. It’s OK. I’ll find out
soon enough. At least I go to this meeting with a new understanding
of who I am, and I have a new sense of trust and confidence that I
didn’t have before. Maybe what Agatha intended for harm, actually
turned out to be for my own good. Perhaps that is how the Eternals
work. It would seem that they let bad things happen, yet they use
those things as a means for teaching us. There is a great sense of
accomplishment in knowing that you just survived something hard,
and came out of it alright. This gives me hope for my next
life.

The High Council’s court is
on top of a mountain, on an island that overlooks the Pacific
Ocean. Only those who have business there go to the island, there
are no training facilities, just the large building and a lot of
beautiful mossy gardens. And through these Dayspring and I walked
extensively as we waited for my turn with the High
Council.

“
What exactly do you talk
about in there?”

“
You get to choose your
path in life,” she said as she lazily swished her tail.

I stared. “You mean I get
to choose how my life goes?”

“
Don’t you wish!” she
laughed. “It’s more like…well…you’ve heard mortals talk about
destiny, right? They often say that they feel like they are
destined for something or other,” she said, pausing under the shade
of a large-leafed tree.

“
Yeah, I’ve heard them say
that.”

“
Well, they do because of
this meeting. You will decide the possible course of your life. The
Eternals are linked to the High Council, and they use their
abilities as seers to show you the direction your life might take.
It all depends on your decisions, of course, but you will be shown
two possible roads your life might take, given two possible
circumstances. Then they will show you the possible outcomes of
either path. You choose the one you think you want to do.”
Dayspring straightened her dreads, and I was struck once more by
her poise and beauty; hers was not just a superficial beauty, it
was a deep beauty, one that shone from the inside
outward.

“
I would like to be like
you…”
I thought, and of course, she
discerned my thoughts and smiled.

“
It does depend on your
choices while you are alive,” she continued, “but let’s say that
you make all the right choices…which path would you rather walk?
The easier path, or the harder path?” she asked
cryptically.

“
Doesn’t everyone choose
the easier path?”

“
Some, but not
all.”

“
Well that’s silly, why
would anyone willingly choose a harder path if they could help
it?”

“
I chose the harder path,
it made me who I am,” she said, with a significant look.

I considered that for a
moment, and then my name was called.

There were twelve of them.
I knew them all, they had been the ones that reprimanded Celeste
and I when we got in trouble for crashing another planet’s spirit
world—one of Celeste’s bright ideas.

They greeted me. Some were
smirking, remembering that incident.

“
Please step up, step up,
Tess. Make yourself comfortable,” one of them said. He was a
particularly short spirit and his head barely cleared the
bench.

“
You’ve been staying out
of trouble I trust?” he asked and chuckled as he did so. A few
other spirits joined him.

I smiled and assured them I
had.

“
Very well, let’s begin.”
As soon as he said this an image appeared in between us. The image
was three dimensional and it was me, as a child.

“
Who do you want to be,
Tess?” one of the High councilors asked.

I shrugged and looked over
at Dayspring who frowned at me. “I…I want to be me?” I said, not
knowing what to say.

“
A wise choice. You have,
after all, accomplished much here,” the short one mused, as if my
answer had great philosophical value.