by J E Mueller
“Great. Now what about Marella?” Lydia asked curiously.
“Lliam said he found her and they spoke briefly. She’ll be around in case she’s needed but we won’t actively see her.” Danni shrugged. “Probably for the best. Marella is the backup plan anyway, so I wouldn’t want to count too much on that.”
“I’m surprised she hasn't stopped by since I’ve been up,” I mused aloud.
“She has,” Lydia confessed. “She only briefly stopped by and I forgot to mention it. I have no idea what she’s working on, but she said she was too busy to stay. That and it would be in our best interest if she kept some distance.”
Of course she’d say something like that. Taking in all the information I nodded. Things would likely be moving into place soon. “Breakfast, then?” I asked, hoping there was at least time for that.
Of course there was time for breakfast. There was time to gather what we needed together, both normal weapons and ones for spirits, before we ran out of things to do. Lliam hadn’t returned yet, leaving us with no idea of when to be ready. With no more ideas, Lydia sat meditating in our room while I talked with Danni.
“Any other quick tricks I could pick up before this starts??” I asked curiously. I hadn’t mastered any of the current tricks, but it was worth a shot.
Danni considered it for a moment. “Nothing is really quick to learn. You’ve got a lot of the basic knowledge down, but you’ll need to perfect it before you can do much more. Even as I described phasing earlier, it takes concentration, and you’ve yet to learn how to move your physical self with your spiritual self.”
“How is that even possible?” I asked curiously.
“You’re connected both physically and spiritually. Magic is a strange thing at best. It works, and I’m grateful to have perfected it over the years. Even better before I needed it, but there’s no time for that today,” Danni replied, looking toward the window.
“I assume being able to just move into my spirit form with ease is one of the top necessities,” I sighed. It wasn’t hard, but it still took me time. I’d need to practice it more to really be ready. “What are the mechanics for the other part? Moving your body.”
“Grabbing yourself, pushing your energy through your body’s magic, and then moving through the object before grabbing its essence and form with your spirit magic,” Danni stated.
Getting up, she moved to sit by the wall. I watched her do exactly as she said. In a moment she was in her spirit form, had hold of her body, and I could see the magic course through it rapidly just as she pulled herself through the wall. A moment later she reentered the room through the door. It only took seconds.
“I’ve no idea how you do that so quickly.” I shook my head. It was amazing.
“Practice.” She shrugged. “You can do it too, in time. I’m certain of that.”
“Time’s just not on our side. Hopefully we’ll have little trouble today,” I mumbled. A thought struck me. “Can you do that with more than one person at a time?”
“I have two hands.” She said waving them at me with a smile.
“What if a third grabbed hold of you?” I asked curiously.
“If they could control their spirit form and still hold on, then maybe I could move three of us.” She shrugged. “That would be tough to practice.”
“And we don’t have time… but if we survive this, I’d love to test that theory.” I smiled.
“Then I guess you’d better survive it so we can try it out,” Danni replied, winking.
“That is the plan.” I glanced over at Lydia. “I’ve no idea what our chances are.”
“Just better than slim to none,” Lliam commented.
I spun around to look at him. “Oh good, you’re back. What did you find out?”
“We’ve got five people to help,” Lliam replied, “Should be here in less than twenty minutes.” Before I could ask anything more he held up his hand. “They’re heading from the south-west. That doesn’t give you a great route, so you’ll have to loop around a bit, but you’ll at least have your distraction. They don’t know exactly why they are coming here. Just that they need to get here and dispose of the demons in the way. They can’t actually mess up your plan since they don’t know it.”
I nodded. “Can you get to the shrine so we have a clear path?”
Lliam nodded. “I will once the distraction starts. You’ll need me to tell you when they’re here.”
“That’s true,” I agreed, glad he had quickly pointed out the flaw in my plan.
“There’s still a chance they’ll call for help and no one will live through this,” Lliam stated.
I stared at the ground, taking in that fact. Was there any way not to risk others? No seemed to be the only answer. “What choice do we have? If we don’t risk it, we don’t get answers to fix this. Everything we do is basically a game of avoiding sudden death.” I hated that fact.
Lliam nodded. “As long as you’re well aware of that, I’m more than willing to help. Every decision now is more and more likely to lead to someone’s death.”
“We can’t all live, that’s just how it goes sometimes,” Lydia chimed in. For a moment I thought she was replying to Lliam but remembered she couldn’t hear him. She was replying to what I had said.
“I would still rather not make decisions leading to someone's death,” I retorted, feeling tired.
“We don’t get into slaying demons because it’s easy.” Lydia shrugged. “I know my time could be limited, but for every person, every child I have helped and saved, it’s all worth it. I’ll do whatever it takes to knock these demons back into place. And if I die.” She looked me in the eyes. “Then I guess I get to join the fight on the other side. There is no giving up now. Even if the angels weren’t too clear cut on everything that was going on.”
“How are you holding up with that?” I asked softly.
“Pissed off that I’ve been mislead doesn’t describe it accurately enough. You’d think they’d have a little more faith in us understanding the balance and how the universe, works but no.” She sighed. “To be fair, any idiot with a clean enough heart can become Blessed, so I suppose they had to draw the line at something. Even if they picked this to be it.” Lydia shook her head. “I wonder if the Elders know. I hope they do. I hope that’s how they choose people for certain things. It’s so hard to tell.”
“I guess you’ll just have to live long enough to find out.” I smiled at her.
Lydia laughed. “I fully intend on seeing this damned gate issue through to the end. If I’m going to be taken down, you’d better believe it won’t be until much later.”
I hoped she was right.
Chapter 20
Lydia left shortly after and started her morning practice alone in the general direction she expected help to be coming from. I was worried she’d be reckless and try to help them, leaving safety, but there was no way to stop her aside from her being just as reckless and coming with us. Silently, I prayed for my friend’s soul as Danni and I made ready to leave.
The second Lliam appeared we left. All he gave us was a nod and went off toward the gate.
“Do you think this is going to end all right?” I asked Danni quietly as we neared the forest.
“No. But I also didn’t think I’d make it here alive, so I’m okay with being wrong,” Danni replied.
“Sounds like a good thing to be wrong about, I agree.” It did nothing to help resolve my fear, but at least it was out in the open.
Taking a deep breath, I could feel the high energy of demon activity. It was directed away from us, but it was still much too close for comfort. I knew Danni could feel it as well, but we said nothing about it. We pushed on instead, hoping to never need to make a move to protect ourselves.
Somehow, we reached the shrine. Several times a demon felt too close and we’d veer off the trail to stay a safe distance away. But we made it. Seeing Lliam in the distance was an odd beacon of hope.
“So that’s it…
.” Danni whispered, amused. “I can feel the magic, no problem, but a little shrine with broken pillars and a smashed altar? I was expecting something… I don’t know… larger?”
Lliam shrugged. “I think it makes sense. Passerbys would leave it be, unsure what it was. It looks like a family shrine to me.”
“Well, let's get to work.” I could feel a sense of purpose fill me, and another strange thought of what to do next came to me.
Danni paused for a moment but quickly caught up with me. “Do you feel like it’s… it’s telling you what to do?”
Her eyes were wide as I nodded. “It did when I visited here as a spirit too, but I couldn’t move anything.”
“Stones are much harder to move as a spirit.” Dani agreed, helping me move and restack things.
“What do you mean? It’s not impossible?” I asked as we went about the task, instructions filling us magically as we went.
“Not at all. Though it’s so much more difficult and energy consuming to manage. Most can’t actually accomplish it, so it’s no surprise it wasn’t mentioned.”
“But you can?” I asked, surprised.
“I seem to be good at these stranger tasks.” Danni smiled. “Still prefer my guiding role, so hopefully we can get to that soon.”
As we finished moving all the debris, something in me screamed to complete the repair, that the soul needed was here, but I ignored it. Instead, I glanced at Danni.
“Any more instructions on your end?” I asked carefully.
She shrugged. “Guard the altar.”
Nodding, I took a breath and placed my hands on the altar. I could feel the magic humming much more strongly now, but I wasn’t sure what to do. Lliam joined me.
“You need to dive into it,” he stated.
“What?” I asked, surprised.
“Become a spirit and it’ll make sense,” Lliam encouraged.
Of course, that was always the answer anymore. I sat down with my back leaning against the altar and as quickly as I could, took on my spirit form.
The altar glowed a dark but sparkly and pretty purple. Something about the intensity of the glimmer and the depth of the color captivated my attention for a moment. There was more to do, so I pulled my attention back to reality. Danni was only a few steps away watching the forest. She was just close enough that I could see the swirling magic of the altar trying to reach out for her. It had already started swirling around my feet and was making its way up my legs. It didn’t hurt so I ignored it. Once more I placed my hands on the altar and felt like it was trying to pull me inside of it.
This must have been what Lliam was referring to.
Closing my eyes, I let the magic around me take hold and felt myself being whisked away. When I reopened them, I was in a room with black floors and gold walls. The ceiling looked like a stormy sky. Inside the room, there were no objects but, instead there were several dozen people. I knew them all.
They were me.
The ages varied, the genders too. For the most part, none of us looked alike, and yet…. I knew every one of them. Their lives, their stories. Mist was right. I always took up the gate after her, and she always took it after me.
“What do we do to fix this?” I asked them all, hoping they’d already understand.
A much younger me from three lives ago spoke up. “If you find a Creator they can fix this.”
“How do I even find one?” I asked myself. Myselves? I tried not to think too much. The first me nodded my way. I hadn’t lived a long life, but I was there for the creation of the gates. I knew how they worked, and I knew what a Creator’s magic looked like. But that me had an amulet that revealed all the different kinds of magic. We didn’t know where it had gone.
The second me had heard of the amulet, as had the third. The fourth knew the Creator had taken it so it it wouldn’t get lost. Then the Creator was reborn, but somehow all the past versions of myself were sure they still had it, and they were always in this area. A picture came to mind. It was a simple silver plated charm. The oval body had a star, moon, and sun engraved on the front and a planet on the back.
I felt all the knowledge from my past slowly come to my mind. I had never liked the setup, and now was the first real chance I had to change things. But could I change them for the better?
There was a problem though, one that didn’t make sense.
A moment later I blinked against the light of the afternoon sun. It didn’t feel like I was gone too long, but it was hard to tell for sure. Danni hadn’t moved and neither had Lliam.
“Did you get your answers?” Lliam asked me curiously.
“Almost. I have a better direction. Past me also seemed to really dislike this setup, but I’m still powerless to change it, unless I can find a Creator.”
“What would you have the Creator do?” Danni asked curiously.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “Maybe they could create something that doesn’t involve such a hefty sacrifice to fix? Maybe they can just get rid of this extra magic and we could simply have souls go directly to the gate themselves?”
“Who would direct the souls at the gate?” Danni asked. “What about those not ready to cross? How would getting rid of the extra magic help anything?”
Great questions, but only the last I was ready to answer. “Demons and angels would have no power here anymore,” I replied tiredly. “No magic, no deals for souls, no corruption.”
She nodded. “But you’d need someone to direct the souls, and something for the lost souls still.”
“It’s not a perfect plan,” I admitted.
“I wonder if past me has any advice…” She glanced at the altar. “You weren’t gone but a minute so it can’t hurt to check.”
With that said, she was already in spirit form. The swirling magic greeted her eagerly and she let it consume her, vanishing.
“I’ll never get used to this crazy spirit magic,” I said to Lliam.
Lliam nodded. “I wasn’t meant to get used to it either, but here I am…” He shrugged. “Maybe a plane for the lost souls?” He suggested.
“That might work, but that would involve magic, and I really don't know if I like that idea. Why does magic need sacrifices?” I sighed. Magic was my whole life, and here I was wanting to take it down just to end this nonsense. “I don’t want these beings using souls the way they are anymore.”
“The role of good and evil, the balance that needs to continue could continue there somehow,” he suggested. “It’s worth the thought, at least.”
I nodded and considered his words. “I suppose… maybe a place with angel and demon influence, but they can’t harvest souls? The souls can just fight on whatever side they choose and once they grow tired of proving their worth and are ready to cross they could easily be collected.” I shook my head. “Prove their worth? That sounds terrible.”
“Maybe a small plane filled with only the basic angel and demon influence. The souls can choose their own side, fight for what they believe in, and when they ‘die’ again they should be ready to go, having had a chance to fulfill something bigger than themselves.”
“Maybe.” I shrugged.
Danni was back. Her eyes were wide with shock.
“What did you learn?” I asked.
She shook her head and rejoined her body. Back in her physical form, she paced as she thought about whatever it was she had learned.
After a few moments, I joined her.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, surprised.
Instead of answering she just laughed. “You’re looking for an amulet?”
“Yes…” I watched her carefully. “How do you even know that?
“I know where it is.” Danni continued. “How I know that is… I don’t know. It’s a mess to explain. I just wanted to know if there was a way to fix it. I like what you mentioned about not offering up someone as a sacrifice. And there were suddenly answers. The past knows too much. I doubt Mist expected me to see that past. She probably only meant for yo
u to go here…” Her voice trailed off as she got lost in her thoughts once more.
“What are you talking about?” I glanced from her to Lliam.
Lliam shrugged at me. “I’m dead, I can’t make this place work for me.” He grumbled, letting the disappointment clearly show.
“I’m surprised there was actually something to this…” My thoughts felt scattered. So, this trick only worked for the living that could access the spirit realm. “I wish I knew how it worked.”
Danni shrugged. “It only works for those who were part of the creation of the spirit realm. Our souls are tied to the realm and are meant to be continuously reborn to help keep the new generations of guides and so on in check. We’re part of its balance, but even you must have noticed the balance here is disrupted.”
“Some memories are hazy or missing. It stands out but doesn't make sense. How can they be missing?” I finally voiced my concern.
“Someone manipulated the shrine. This wasn’t meant to be a permanent solution, it was meant to change as the world did. Someone wants it to remain the only solution. Likely, they want me dead. It would be an easy way to patch the gate and temporarily keep me from alerting anyone to their plans… Somehow this gate situation may be a blessing.”
“What are you going on about?” I asked slightly scared that she was right. Mist did say she wanted a soul just like Danni’s. Mist was very determined to fix this problem her way, right away, and was very reluctant to let me think things over. She had to leave me with a choice or I’d never agree with her on this… “Danni, are you saying what I think you are?”
Danni shrugged. “Depends on which parts you’ve caught on to.” She gave a nervous laugh and glanced at Lliam.
Lliam shrugged. “I’ve no idea what’s going on, but I’m all for toppling and foiling evil plans. So, who are we bringing down? A why would be nice too.”
Danni paced for a moment, stopped, and started walking again. “Mist isn’t who we thought she was, Lliam.”
“I’d say I’m surprised, but things like this keep happening. Angels aren’t informing us about things, demons actually want to destroy a realm, and now Mist? Sure. I’ll roll with it. She refused to talk to anyone unless they had information and half the information about people who could see spirits seemed to fail. The person she gained information about would quickly be found dead. I thought it was odd until Tella seemed to survive everything. I had at first thought Mist wanted them all dead, but then Tella was fine, so clearly I was wrong. Apparently, I’m wrong again. Clearly, she only wanted Tella alive so this gate thing could be fixed.”