*****
Dazed and confused, his eyes still adjusting to the strange light permeating from everywhere yet originating from nowhere, Steffor got to his feet and studied the thorny hedge. The organic wall, adroitly pleached from a species of bush he could not identify, was about ten yards wide. He craned his neck and followed the wall over a hundred feet before it disappeared into a ceiling of dense gray clouds.
Steffor turned around and peered down a long trail with no end in sight. Carpeted by a spongy green, short turf and framed by sinister hedgerows extending from the sides of the dead end wall, the trail presented the only means of exit.
I guess it is intended I go this way.
With peevish determination, Steffor started down the path. Moments into his walk, the amnesic residue coating his befuddled mind dissipated—a condition disconcertingly familiar to how he felt moments after he emerged from Calivera's table. As it did, he became cognizant his staff’s absence. His confusion compounded when, while frantically searching for the staff in the vain hope that it might be stowed within his garments, he realized his Guardian garments had disappeared, replaced by a strange silver colored singlet. Skin tight but barely perceptible to the touch, the narrow v-neck suit exposed shoulders and legs just above the knees.
What is this place? Why am I so slow on the uptake?
The moment he stood up his senses would have normally logged the texture, smell and color of the weird lawn. By the first step, he could estimate the length of each blade within hundredths of inch. Why now, having traveled over a hundred yards did he struggle to register any of these basic senses. Let alone just now realizing he was barefoot and no longer wearing the garments that had not left his body since becoming a Guardian.
On impulse, Steffor extended his right arm and tried to shift a pulse of the Source. Nothing. The Source surrounded the strange place but he could not shift. He searched for the Deeds, hoping they might reveal some precedent to what he now experienced, but could not locate the Mysticnet to access them. Steffor sat down, crossed his legs, closed his eyes and tried to meditate. Due to altered sense of time, he could not decipher how long he meditated but certain it was well past the normal amount of time required to open a connection with the Provider.
For the first time, Steffor panicked in earnest. It is all so stale! Real but lifeless, as if the Source once flowed here and all that remains is an empty shell.
"Have I died?" Steffor asked aloud. No, he told himself, confused as I may be, I know this is not the afterlife.
"You are both right and wrong," said a voice in his head.
Steffor jumped to his feet and spun around in search of the owner. "Who said that?"
"Come down the trail a little farther and find out for yourself."
The voice had an ominous tone but Steffor knew it was something else about it that swirled trepidation in his gut. Steffor headed back down the trail, robbed of the compass that always showed him the direction to go at every crossroads, for the first time believing he had no other choice.
After what Steffor estimated to be a mile, the trail issued into a wide, gradually ascending glade. As Steffor scaled the hill, the grass field continued to expand to his left and right as the gray blanket above rose higher in the sky. Within thirty minutes of steady hiking, the hedgerow walls were but faint arboreal sides to a gray dome. Within the hour, Steffor reached the top of the hill and stopped at its peak to gaze upon a setting that was both strange and familiar.
Like a wave about to curl, the hill was the same height in either direction with a steep decline that fed into dense woodlands. Positioned a thousand feet over the highest tree, Steffor scanned the top of the forest for miles without finding a discernable end; the distant tops blending into the featureless gray backdrop. Despite his eyes not finding it, he innately sensed the mysterious hedgerow encompassing it all.
With just a quick survey of the front line, awed by the wide variety of species contained within the forest, Steffor soon lost count of all the different species. Strange as the forest appeared, he recognized characteristics in each species comparable to the many diverse regions within Provider.
Subtle movement caught in his periphery brought his attention to an area below, in a small, semi-circle opening within the tree line. A man stood in the middle of the clearing with hands on hips, blatantly watching him. Steffor took in the strange vista for another moment, released a long sigh and then proceeded down the steep incline. Forced to turn his body in a sharp oblique angle and skid awkwardly down the first third of the way down. As he reached the bottom and stood upright again, he looked back toward the clearing but could not locate the stranger anywhere.
Steffor reached the edge of the semi-circle a few minutes later. He searched the expansive line of trees within the indent for the person he was both certain he saw moments ago and the owner of the voice that had invaded his mind. The dozens of trees lining the half ring were each different: from rangy, conical firs bristling with abundant evergreen pine needles to stout oaks with sprawling limbs and broad leaf hoods to towering redwoods with its fractals soaring above the rest. The diverse collection of trees had a weird calming effect on Steffor.
His eyes adjusted to the unusual tapestry of intersecting branches, leaves and vines, allowing his sight to penetrate beyond the ring. To his left, his eyes detected a blur of activity followed by the familiar crack one makes when walking on a debris littered floor. In no mood for games, Steffor bound over to the spot in a few strides and halted before a squat, menacing looking tree. The trunk, a thirty-foot wide mass of limbs, rose but ten feet before its six serpentine boughs coiled up and away from its top. An enveloping network of gnarled branches that sprouted from the main boughs accentuated its threatening appearance.
"This one is my favorite!"
Steffor looked through the enclosure of tangled branches and found the stranger casually leaning against the trunk. Dressed in the exact same body suit, the man was observing Steffor's reaction to his sudden appearance with a coy smile.
"Who are you? Did you bring me to this place?"
The stranger pushed off the trunk and stepped forward with a theatrical air. "I am Raistan, God of Fury, Ruler of the Six. No, I did not bring you to this wonderful haven. But I have been expecting you."
"How is it that you have been expecting me?" Steffor asked cautiously.
This man is dangerous! Do not let your guard down, Steffor thought despite Raistan's unassuming appearance. Just tall enough to be above average for a Citizen, Raistan could have been a striking figure in his youth, but those days were long past. Aged and gray like Kilton but Raistan was paunchy and sallow.
"The same way you sense I am dangerous, despite me not being the physical specimen such as yourself or your friend, how do you pronounce it...Kill-tun." The smile on Raistan's face grew as he appeared to relish Steffor's elevated confusion.
"We are the same, you and me. Did you know that?" Raistan said before Steffor could compose a reply.
"I can honestly say I didn't. Please enlighten me."
Figure it out Steffor, he will not string you along for much longer. The sudden ability to sense what the other was thinking and feeling disturbed Steffor more than the potential threat posed to his physical well-being.
"Alright, I think it only appropriate you understand from which you came so that you too can make an informed decision. But first, let’s get acquainted."
Before Steffor could flinch, the web of branches nearest him shot out with ferocious speed and knocked him facedown against the turf. Like rangy fingers, the branches cocooned around his body, making it difficult to breathe and impossible to move. Immobilized, the branches swiftly swung him around to face Raistan.
Raistan stepped close to Steffor's face. His chin quivered as he sneered, emoting a dangerous concoction of hostility and delight. With violent force, Raistan smacked him across the face then cupped his chin with a quick upper cut and squeezed his cheeks.
"Oh,
how I hate you brother!" his body shook as he sprayed Steffor's face with the acrid words.
Steffor felt Raistan's hatred as if it were his own.
"Sickening, isn't it," Raistan said, taking a step back as he shoved Steffor's head with a last second rake of his fingers. "To feel the energy of a soul that utterly repulses your core essence, as if it were your own."
The gravel voice had regained its composure but anger still lurked on the fringes, ready to strike without warning.
A wave of painful dry heaves wracked Steffor’s body. Sickening does not give the sensation justice, Steffor thought with despair.
"Indeed, the feeling is most unwelcome," he honestly replied once composed.
Raistan laughed. The laughter brought tears to tender eyes that belied the evil within.
"Yes, most unwelcome," he said.
He studied Steffor as the last few intermittent chuckles subsided. For a moment, Steffor sensed compassion in the man as sneer transformed into an amicable grin. Then, with no warning, Raistan lunged at Steffor, smashing right fist into his nose. A barrage of punches followed, snapping his defenseless head in every direction. After the first half dozen, audible "cracks", Steffor lost track of how many times he heard bones break in his face. Blood flowed freely from his nose and gashes, blurring his vision and causing him to gag with each breath.
"Wow, you are built solid," Raistan said as he turned away, out of breath and shaking the feeling back into his hands. "The pain is real here, more tolerable for some reason but real all the same." He was pacing now, moving from the trunk to Steffor.
"For example, this woman's ability to hold on to life is unprecedented in all my years of torture." He pointed at a section of branches behind the trunk with an upheld left hand, commanding them to do his bidding as they swept around to present Leanor.
"Fourteen punctures! Can you believe that? I once reached eleven with a spry juvenile but I prolonged that one on purpose, cautious not to pierce any major organs or arteries. But this one...well...started as an experiment and evolved into a curiosity."
Elevated a few feet off the ground, needle tipped, barbed branches suspended Leanor’s body a few feet off the ground. The wicked branches pierced her body, torturously weaving in and out of flesh and bone to spread arms and legs taut.
The morbid scene threatened to consume Steffor's last shred of resolve. He searched Leonor's face for some sign of life and detected a slight rise in her chest. As if sensing his desperate probe, Leonor opened her eyes and stared hard at Steffor with surprising strength.
"None of this is real Steffor! No matter what happens here, we will all live on through you."
"Shut up!" Raistan shouted, commanding a thick branch from above with a swift, downward swing of his fist, bludgeoning Leonor across the head. Death was instant as the blow caved in her skull. Yet he still raged at her, yelling, "This is all too real! You speak of which you do not understand!"
Panting with rage, Raistan wheeled around and rushed at Steffor. He braced himself for another beating but Raistan pulled up at the last second and chose to berate him with words instead. "Don't believe her, this is as real as it gets for you and me. Once it is done stringing us along and no longer has any use for us, what do you think will happen?"
"What are you talking about," Steffor gritted through tears and blood. Leonor was a good person, this I am sure. And what of Calivera? How did they get separated? Why is she even here? The mystery behind the woman that was once Mystic only grew with her death.
"You really don't know, do you?" Raistan tilted his head to the side, looking at Steffor with renewed interest and a modicum of pity. He sensed pure joy well up inside the man, repulsed by the realization that the source was his pain and anguish. "I could become addicted to you," Raistan said in an impetuous whisper.
He broke his trance on Steffor, turning his back to him to resume his demented pacing. "I apologize for making some broad swooping assumptions. Let’s back up and connect the pieces, shall we?"
Steffor was no longer paying attention. Instead, he replayed Leonor's dying words in his head, finding strength in their repetition. This is not real. Life continues with me.
A branch pushed him under the chin, forcing him to look up. "Pay attention to me, this is important."
Steffor looked at Raistan through slit eyelids. He stood next to Leonor, inspecting her body. "At first, the sudden appearance of this woman and..." with two swift motions of hands and arms, the branches swung back around the trunk while a new set came around carrying Calivera, "...this one was a mystery."
"Steffor," Calivera spoke his name with relief and the same palpable passion he heard at their last parting. The shock of seeing Calivera shattered all attempts to escape from this cruel and unwanted reality. Anger, an emotion laid dormant for countless lifetimes, erupted with primal force, restoring his will to fight.
"Release her!" Steffor roared with such ferocity Raistan flinched.
"That's the spirit! Fan those embers deep inside. Trust me, you are just getting started."
Regretful for the outburst, Steffor tried to calm himself as he studied Calivera's condition. Outside of few scratches, she appeared to be unharmed. Wicked branches wrapped around her arms and legs and suspended her in a spread eagle position similar to Leonor, only not as tight. Clearly frightened, the look of resolve in her eyes gave Steffor hope.
"My ability to resist the charms of this one has been very limited," Raistan said, looking up and down Calivera's body with a lustful leer. "She's got the entire package, the body, the face, but it is her energy source that is driving me mad. So pure, it’s like a beacon to me, begging to be molested. If that other one had not been so peculiar, I would have started on her long ago."
Keep him away from Calivera that is all that matters now. He wants me or something from me. Give him what he wants.
"You are correct Steffor, I want something from you," Raistan said without taking his eyes off Calivera. He then pointed at Calivera with his left index finger and in doing so released a thin branch from the group coiled around her right arm. The branch snaked the length of her body, the razor sharp end randomly cutting along the surface of her tunic, leaving a trail of small lacerations as it moved before Calivera's trembling face.
"Stop! I will tell you whatever you want to know, just don't hurt her," Steffor pleaded. The branch stopped moving, poised inches from Calivera's face.
"Good. Now we can make some progress before we run out of time," Raistan said, briefly looking up to the sky before he turned back to Steffor. Steffor followed his gaze and could have sworn, though the lighting remained the same artificial mid-day brightness, that the clouds had gotten several shades darker.
"It will not tolerate my being here much longer. For that matter, neither of us belongs here anymore."
"What do you mean by it?"
"The inter-dimensional power that is connected to everything, the being that makes the laws we live by and can change them as it sees fit. The very creator of our world."
"Do you mean the Provider?"
"The what? Wait, you actually have a name for it. Fascinating! Tell me, does this Provider communicate to you in any quantifiable way?"
"The Deeds record all life experiences and are available to all Citizens to learn from. Is this what you mean by quantifiable?"
"Yes. Yes! What about its energy, can you manipulate it to do your bidding?"
"Yes, we call it shifting."
"Can anyone shift?"
"Yes, but the skill and ability varies according to the person's race and life experience."
"Fascinating!"
From their shared connection, Steffor knew Raistan's fascination was real. How is it he knows nothing of the Provider? We are cut from the same cloth, him and me, this I cannot deny. But where does he hail from?
"I hail from the other side, from your Provider's twin." Steffor stared at Raistan in disbelief even as the explanation began to answer his soul's deepest q
uestions.
"Just as I am your twin." A new type of smile crossed Raistan's face as he watched the undeniable reality sink into Steffor's heart.
"When I recently arrived here, instinct told me this was our birth place, where it, we, our father, our mother, first began to imagine our opposite worlds. It did not take long for the memories of those early lives to surface. Reliving those experiences was...exotic. It was then, as I emerged from the long flashback—forever changed—that the two women appeared atop the hill just as you did. They reeked with your energy. Well at least this one did. The other had traces of your signature, but it was as if she received it vicariously. Most peculiar. But this one, it’s almost as if she swam in the very depths of your soul. It was then that I expected your arrival..."
Raistan's voice faded into a faint echo and then disappeared completely as an onslaught of once dormant memories consumed Steffor’s consciousness. His body tensed in anticipation as he tried in vain to resist the data rushing to the surface.
The first scene to unfold was that of him and Raistan, or the energy that made up their true selves, living in this strange forest alone, dependent on the other to survive. They were happy, adventurous memories of the two of them exploring their surroundings. Unlike now, the forest teamed with a diversity of animal and plant life, some he recognized from the Provider, others alien.
Those early incarnations were about basic survival, the constant search for food and shelter from their dangerous environment. Lives were short, and all ended with a violent death, a continual fight to escape from flesh eating plants or demonic beasts.
Steffor lost himself to the torrent emotion surrounding those early memories and experienced the short-lived victories and the all too frequent and painful losses. Repeatedly, he relived the brutal anguish of watching his brother or sister slip from his hands and meet a brutal end.
Then memories of the first betrayal surfaced. At first, the changes in his sibling were small and seemingly insignificant: secretly hoarding food, choosing to run first and warn of danger second, always taking the more protective shelter for himself. The selfish transformation took place over many lives, forging an instinctual guard within Steffor of his sibling but not fear. He still loved Raistan despite the early development of his self-preservation modality and Steffor continued to risk his life time and time again to save the only being in his life.
Their lives finally reached the ultimate crossroads that would forever lead them down separate paths. Young men, in their prime, the accumulated experience of hundreds of lifetimes in the unforgiving environment at its apex, the duo were an exquisite unit. The daily challenge to survive had tuned senses into a perfect orchestra of movement and action, making the brothers as formidable as any creature living within the strange forest. Full of vigor, the two believed themselves immortal so long as they were together, making the memory of Raistan's betrayal all the harder to relive the second time.
On the hunt of a giant stag for days, they had worn down the magnificent beast and were closing in for the kill. The thought of fresh meat consuming all thought, Steffor blundered into a web deftly concealed between two birch trees. Tangled in the sticky cords, Steffor was helpless against the onslaught of creatures pouring in from camouflaged confines within the branches above.
Steffor’s frantic screams for his brother’s aid echoed for miles. Standing ten yards away, shifting from Steffor to the hordes of spiked appendages and venomous fangs, Raistan gave his brother one last glance before he bolted from the scene, never to return. Steffor relived the agony to the end, fed on for days before the mercy of death finally arrived.
Then the five appeared. It was the same existence but now, to his soul's relief, he shared it with others, not just the malevolent creature he once called sibling. They learned to exist with others, experiencing new, intricate bonds of love, along with harmful divides of hatred. Steffor fought for love. Raistan competed for allegiance. Their lives spent with the five were full of beautiful tributes of compassion and dark homage of evil.
The last life Steffor and Raistan coexisted in the same world, began with ten other souls. Unlike past lives, Steffor began that life unaware of his counterpart. The forest, while stocked with the same variety of animal life, was less dangerous; where survival was less demanding, providing the mind time to invent, to improve. He and the five chosen to be in his life lived a life of solitude, building a small village where they coupled and raised their offspring in a self-sufficient community.
The forest and land was larger then, a man could roam the woods and fields for weeks and still find uncharted territory. Game and fruit baring trees and bushes were abundant. They took what their world would yield and reveled in each other’s companionship. Time passed gracefully and Steffor and his fellow patriarchs experienced three generations, with a fourth soon to emerge, when Raistan reentered his life.
In the still of night, the savage barbarians surrounded their simple village and attacked Steffor's family with ferocious attainment. The last memories of that life was of his great granddaughter's scream as she was ripped from his slumbering arms, the confused chase from his hut to find village ablaze then discovering the mutilated bodies of his sons and daughters and witnessing the raping of his children. A swift crack of club to the temple answered his prayers for death, Raistan's maniacal face squatting down to relish Steffor's torment the last sight to see before taking his final breath.
"I hate you!" Steffor screamed.
"Good for you! Soak in those memories, wallow in that anger. Let it fill you up." Raistan yelled with delight.
Consumed by rage, Steffor struggled in his bonds and felt them give moments before Raistan casually raised his hand and slowly closed his fingers into a fist. Several ribs cracked as the branches constricted. Seconds away from blacking out, Raistan opened his fist to release the pressure just enough for Steffor to take in several shallow breaths.
"I loved you! I protected you! I sacrificed so much for you!" Steffor bellowed.
"Weakness, all of it weakness. You have always been weak and deserved everything you got. Life is about survival and yet, after all this time, you refuse to accept that basic law."
"So finally, now, while a shell of what it once was, you recognize this place as our long lost home. Our origins, the proving ground for what we would soon become. I do not know exactly why we have been delivered here but I sense it was not part of the original, master plan. We were destined to depart this world from the beginning, but not like this. Something has gone awry and it has had to adjust. No matter, now that I am aware, I do not intend to ever leave. I had reached the limits of growth in my world as I imagine you have experienced in your own, naive way. But the discovery of your world has changed everything, the potential growth of my power is now infinite!"
Like the eye of a storm, a clarifying thought emerged while he listened to Raistan's diabolical monologue. He shifts the Source. It is with a skill I have never witnessed but it is shifting all the same. If he can do it, so can I. Kindled by the deep seated hatred of his opposite, motivated by the love of his soul mate, Steffor flamed the forge deep within and began to reshape his reality.
Raistan had his back to him again, studying Calivera as he spoke. If he had turned around, he would have seen the amber halo forming around Steffor. But he had become complacent in his perceived control, drunk with joy at the prospect of elongating Steffor's suffering.
"Oh, I will learn from my past mistakes and take my time this go around. No more wholesale destruction and mass consumption. No, the purity of just one being in your world is worth ten thousand in mine. It deserves respect and precise study. I will be departing to your home shortly Steffor and leave you and our father to proceed as you will. But first, I must taste of this lush fruit."
The desire to destroy Raistan was the target on which Steffor poured his focus. He left the protective confines of the Provider's cove and dove into the swift currents of the true Source beyond. The undertow of energ
y pulled him under as he allowed the current to consume him, surging his being with immense power. The need to neutralize his adversary overshadowed the terror of his transformation.
Steffor sent forth his energy and, like a sponge, the organic life soaked it in. His current spread rapidly from tree to grass blade and filled hollow fibers of the contrived world. Steffor would have fallen victim to his growth at that moment if not for the hedgerow barrier that halted and contained his commitment to eternal expansion. He probed the energy flowing within the arboreal fence and recognized it as the Source. Altered from how it appears in his home world, Steffor sensed its purpose was to shield this place from the outside. He also sensed the shield was weakening.
Raistan is the cancer! Steffor concluded, remembering the black tumor infecting the flow of Source. He has gone through a similar transformation and has been seeping into the Provider's well of Source ever since. Will I do the same?
The branches that held him disintegrated with a burst of golden light. Raistan turned to see Steffor standing before him, pulsing with life.
"What...noooo!"
Steffor shot his arms out as Raistan contorted to shift the branches, projecting a diffusion of golden beams. The act obliterated the branches, reducing the tree down to original boughs, scarring the serpentine limbs with hundreds of scorched nubs.
"Your reign of destruction is over brother! It is time for you to depart," Steffor proclaimed.
Incensed, Raistan twisted his body and swung his arms in one motion, manipulating a neighboring oak bough to swing down toward Steffor. The move took Steffor off guard, producing a shield of energy just before the log slammed flush across his chest. The impact launched him ten yards away to land flat on his back. Steffor regained his feet instantly.
"Enough!" Steffor infused the surrounding ring of trees with his charged energy and obliterated them with his thought. Raistan looked around the empty field in disbelief. Calivera, a few yards behind him, rushed over to inspect Leanor's limp body.
"Very imaginative," Raistan said as he turned back to face Steffor. "I clearly have much to learn."
"We have learned all that is required from you. Your time away from us is over."
"I will never rejoin you!" Raistan shouted like an impotent child. "You lost the right to tell me what to do when you chose to leave me, when It left me," he said pointing to the darkening clouds.
"We never left you. The objective always required us to travel great distances apart, but we have always been connected, as we always will be."
"I no longer ascribe to that plan."
"You must. We need you."
"I don't need you."
A static explosion above jerked their heads up in unison. A symmetrical ring of electric blue light expanded downward, its edges crackling with discharged magnetism, replacing the dark clouds with clear blue skies, shaking the ground with greater intensity the closer it got to the dome’s outer rim.
"Your chariot awaits brother," Raistan said.
The ring was moments from reaching the hedgerow walls.
"The reunion has been an unexpected pleasure, but the time has come for us to part ways. Forever."
A tingling pitch, comprised of infinitesimal vibrations, coursed through Steffor a second after the mysterious ring of energy slammed into the hedgerow walls.
Something pulls me away!
Steffor looked over his adversary's shoulder, locked eyes with Calivera and teleported his fading being to her.
"We will always be together Steffor, our bliss is eternal." Calivera caressed his heart and calmed his fears. "Trust in the Provider as you trust yourself."
"He will hurt you in ways I fear you may never recover."
"The flesh is but a vehicle, he can never destroy my true self. We all have a role to play."
"I will not allow it to happen."
"I love you Steffor." Calivera kissed his soul one last time before the world around him disappeared.
Known Afterlife (The Provider Trilogy: Volume I) Page 43