by Jon Chaisson
*
For the first time in her life, Sheila Kennedy knew she was truly at peace. She no longer felt the hard concrete of the floor below her, nor did she feel the cooling breeze at her back that came through the open dock doors. Instead she felt the vague sensation of floating above the city. She opened her eyes, tears bleeding from the corners, and knew instantly that she was seeing with Lighted sight…the heightened senses and perceptions of everything around her, entering her mind and her cho-nyhndah spirit with a new radiance she had never before experienced.
She chanced a look down, and recognized the Waterfront area immediately. She frowned at the blind spot in her vision that obscured Moulding’s Warehouse, which lay directly below. She was outside and above with the others from the warehouse, nearly half a mile up and still climbing.
You are a Protector, a young, bodiless female voice called to her. I know you. You are one of Karinna’s closest friends. She cherishes the friendship, but only recently has she been able to show that to you again.
Sheila wavered. Denni? Pashyo, that was Denni talking to her right now! She sounded so different, so mature! She shivered, first with awe, then with delight as she called out to her, thanking her profusely for accepting her into the fold.
No need to thank me, she laughed. I should be the one thanking you. You’ve sacrificed so much to become a Warrior of the One. Peace, Love and Light to you, Sheila Kennedy.
Sheila opened her mouth to speak, but found no words. This young girl she loved and watched grow up over the last ten years, all this was her doing! The reality of it all was too much. She felt her body sway and tremble, and it took nearly all of her own energy to maintain her position.
“Why are we here?” Sheila called out.
You, Sheila, are here to protect not only me but also my followers. You’re in good company…you will remain close with Alec Poe and my sister.
There were words unspoken here. “Denni, what’s happening?”
The nuhm’ndah and the kiralla. They have returned.
Goddess, if that were true…! “Are you sure?”
Quite, she said softly. I’ve sensed them for some time. You should know who they are, Sheila. You were at St. Patrick’s yesterday.
The shiver turned into a steady tremble. “Oh Goddess…” she whispered. “Then…then the nuhm’ndah weren’t Shenaihu at all…”
Those in charge were in fact Shenaihu, Denni said. But those who broke through Reverend Miriam’s barrier…they are the ones we must watch. They’re the primal spirits, the original, pure spirits. They’re strong, Sheila. Incredibly strong, even more so than anyone realizes. They want something…but I don’t know what it is.
She looked down at her hands; they were shaking terribly. She held herself tightly and felt the world below her fading and evaporating into white. Into Light. She’d dreamed about this place, this otherwhere that she never completely understood, yet had wholly trusted it with her heart and her spirit. This Light was a sanctuary for souls, a middle ground between spiritual and physical realities. The Light curled around her body, warming her, soothing her. Cradling her.
“…I’m afraid,” she whimpered.
Don’t be, she soothed. You are a Warrior of the One, and a Mendaihu Gharra, Protector of Earth. You’ll have the strength. It is why you decided to join me, Sheila.
“I joined to get some questions answered,” Sheila started, felt her words too harsh, and started over, slower and calmer. “I joined because I felt the need, Denni. Not because of any overwhelming devotion to the One of All Sacred. That’s all I can say. It was purely an instinctual move in the spiritual sense.”
Because your soul sang to you.
“Yes.”
An even better reason, Denni hummed.
“I only wish that Nick were here. Or Caren.”
I wish Karinna were here as well…but her fate is different than mine. I will not go against that merely because I want her here.
Sheila looked around the air tentatively. “And what is Caren’s fate?”
She is the Protector of the One. The closest one to me, in spirit and body, and she’s my focus point for it all. I cannot risk losing her. That isn’t to say I’ll risk losing you, Sheila…far from it. As both Warrior and Mendaihu Gharra, you fulfill the dual role of…well, intelligence, I suppose. I need you here to witness it all. You are Mendaihu, my friend. You always have been.
Sheila nearly argued that point, but stopped herself. Denni was right; she had always known, somewhere in her own spirit, of her True Self, yet for many and varied reasons she always refused to completely believe it. She was first and foremost Sheila Kennedy, a female member of the human race living on Earth. She would never forget that, regardless of who she was spiritually.
I admire you, Sheila, Denni said. You know yourself better than others would. That is your strongest form of protection.
She shuddered at the idea and pushed it away. It was several minutes before either of them spoke again, though she could still feel Denni’s presence. She was literally everywhere. She could sense the young girl’s boundless spiritual energy reaching out, web-like, over the entire city, and making its way to each horizon, without hesitation or depletion of strength.
“How do you do that?” she asked.
Do what?
“I don’t know…reach like that. It’s as if you’re a soulhealer in the most extreme sense.”
Denni laughed. Perk of the job, maybe? I’m not pushing myself, but I’m not holding back either. I’m just…setting it free, without any boundaries. After a moment she added: I still don’t know how I’ve become so omniscient, either.
“Can’t be a deity if you aren’t, kid,” she said. Denni was years ahead of everyone else in maturity…and yet so young and naïve at the same time...
It’s strange…I thought I’d be overwhelmed by all this information at my disposal. I’m just not conscious of everything all at once. It’s like I hold the keys to everyone’s Akashic library.
Sheila cocked an eyebrow, amused by the obscure reference. There was truth in Denni’s words; in the many religions on this planet, and under many names and versions, the Akashic library was the spiritual collection of every person’s memories, thoughts, actions and emotions, over many lives and universes. It was a living, ever growing temple of the soul. Perhaps Denni was right…maybe she could tap into this resource after all.
“So what happens now?” Sheila asked after another long silence.
We awaken everybody else.
Sheila frowned. “That’s it?”
That’s all I can do, for now. The nuhm’ndah and the kiralla are spirits I cannot read or control.
“How very sacrilegious of you to say that, Denni,” she smirked. “So you aren’t fully omniscient?”
Denni let out a frustrated sigh. I can’t explain it very well, Sheila. They’re…I want to say that they’re a heightened version of us, maybe an alternate one. All I know is that they did not evolve here on this planet, and that they are much stronger than the Mendaihu and the Shenaihu. I’m not even sure of their origin. It’s…maybe they’re from an alternate Trisanda.
“That doesn’t make sense!”
Of course it makes sense, Sheila, she countered. Did you think this was the only universe in existence?
Sheila blushed and didn’t answer.
I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to scold you like that. But now that I’m here in this otherwhere again, amongst all this Light, I’ve been thinking. It’s been about twenty-five years since the last Embodiment, yes?
“Just about,” Sheila said. Suddenly and unexpectedly her body quivered, sinking down then lifting up again, as if she’d just temporarily slipped out of Denni’s grasp. It unnervingly like an earthquake tremor, and it scared the hell out of her. “What the hell was that?” she yelped. She wavered in the air again, drooping much lower that time. “Denni?”
; I…I don’t…this isn’t the Dahné. I’m not sure what this is—
Her body began to fall again. This time, she did not stop.
“Oh Goddess…Denni!”
Sheila! What’s going—?
Denni cried out in pain and suddenly she was gone.
Sheila could not feel her anymore. She could not feel anyone. She was no longer within the Light, either. She was back in reality, hovering in the sky above Bridgetown, completely alone.
“Denni!”
…falling.
“Denni!”
There was absolutely no way of saving herself. The blind spot below her had vanished, revealing the rectangular flat roof of Moulding Warehouse, the exact target where she would die horribly and violently within the next few seconds.
Denysia, she cried into the silence, her body gone completely limp. The spirits surrounding her had vanished, leaving her utterly alone. Denysia…
Denni, sweetest Denni…where are you…?