"Are you not defying tradition coming this far?" Netu whispered as Pere tugged side by side with him down the slope of Vidya Valley.
"Who cares anymore about what anybody thinks?”
"You’re attempting to hold a tiger by the tail, Pere."
“Let it bare its fangs," Pere declared. "I know its fixtures too well to be scared.”
"It pays to be cautious though."
"I’ve long thrown caution to the wind. You can’t stand on both sides of the divide and hope to win a war," she said with a dark grin. "I’ve been doing it the sublime way for God knows how long and have got the hell for it. It’s about time I do it my own way. I want to please no one but me."
"What if your way turns out rough and injurious to self?"
"Well, my luck."
"Ill-luck perhaps."
"Not after all these years of hard-line training. I don’t have to lecture you on this, do I? Our conditioning in the Brotherhood has been to endure great travails, a humbling of the mind and spirit, accepting every trial on the path as an act of providence. Do you expect me to ride the horse of fate and accept unnecessary jolts at this point of my spiritual growth? Swallow ample ‘don’t do this, don't do that’ and you simply lose your sense of direction."
"Well," Netu said laughing. "I’ve never known you to be so witty, full of nerve and conceptions."
Pere Mejeii gestured shyly. "Ah, well, the Brotherhood gets one wizened each and every day." She brightened and gazed at Netu in an accusatory manner. "You are a lot wiser I should think with your vacation and all that?"
Netu raised a mischievous eye. "Don’t go sounding that vacation crap like everybody’s been telling me, Pere. You just talked about riding the horse of your fate, and you believe I’m naive not to see the wisdom in it?"
The subtle force of Netu’s words jolted Pere to a sharp halt. "Wait a second Netu!" she said frisking him on the shoulder, halting his pace. "I hope you’re not thinking what I’m thinking in my head?"
Netu affirmed with a lizard-like nod. "That’s why I’ve been kind of stubborn about coming back," he said walking ahead of Pere.
Pere caught up quickly with him. "Don’t do that Netu," she gasped.
"I shouldn’t? Why?"
She fidgeted. "There’s a reason."
"What’s the reason?" Netu demanded, halting.
"The Brotherhood sisters are here for a reason." Pere Mejeli’s gaze drifted to a posh villa on the lower bed of the slope of Vidya Valley.
A cold realization crept into Netu Deo’s head and rendered it temporally numb. A hint he had tried to downplay when Pere, Fiara, Timi, Manda and others appeared at the same time and place to welcome him, came succinct now with meaning. They were at Vidya Valley to fetch him with their spiritual dragnets.
"I believe the reason why we are here has a lot to do with you," Pere broke in. "Two days before we came here, I saw something I intend to divulge here."
Netu’s pace slackened, and his marked quizzical stare took over. "And I reckon," he mumbled kindly, "it’s crucial, not so?"
"Yes," admitted Pere. "It’s important. There was this huge lamp, a golden antique lantern with an astounding glow, entrusted to Timi for cleaning and safekeeping in my trance-flight. Half way through the cleaning, she broke the fragile lantern bulb. Perhaps due to her recklessness in handling it. Darkness descended and overwhelmed the whole arena where Timi did the clean-up. Then I saw this bright light, a bright hue on the other side, off our area. Father Manu was furious and everyone he sighted including Timi got his ire over the broken golden lantern bulb. He asked me to take over the lantern from Timi, mend it quickly, do a diligent clean up and let it glow again. But he said we should go and fetch you right away or he won’t ever step back to our side of the pervading darkness. He would only return on the condition that we mend the lantern and fetch you. In the revelation, Father Manu released a list of would-be scouts, ladies predominantly. The second day after this spiritual drama, the actual manifestation of the revelation took place. All the ladies short-listed as scouts for the mission were whisked from Danabi City to Vidya Valley. That’s how we came here.”
Pere Mejeli paused to reel home the import of the narration. “The motive of our coming from what I’ve told you is obvious. We are here to bring you back whatever way we can," she went on anticipating his assent or defiance.
Netu stood there speechless for a moment. The sheer intrigue of their complex scheming bewildered him. I’ve never ever had a wrong hunch. I’ve just proven this again with Pere’s revelation, he thought. Some wild fantasy they must be up to if they think they can bring me back to the Brotherhood so easily. And they think I’m the shattered lantern that invoked darkness on their psyche? Or is my absence in this bigoted society of puritans the cause of darkness they seek fiercely to redress? Dreamers they all are!
He whistled, concealing his racing thought with a passive grin. "I recognized this fact from the minute I set my eyes on you, Timi, Fiara, Manda, Pa Smand and Dullab. It’s too compact a team of brotherhood veterans for a sensitive person like me not to notice. And knowing this - I mean what your mission is all about - how do you hope to accomplish your objective?"
Pere could not help but laugh. "Psshaaw!" she exhaled, stomping ahead graciously. "Why do you think I’m divulging all this to you? I thought if you knew our position relative to yours it would make it easier for us to handle."
"And you are sure I’ll concede?"
"Not by a long shot. I was gambling on how close we were in the past. I had to take the risk to alert you and to plead with you to understand our standpoint."
Netu circled his long arm around her shoulder in a dispassionate way and said, "Of course, I understand.”
Pere flinched but allowed his arm to linger on her shoulder. Night had swept over the spawn and the residents at the guard post would not see the comforting arm on her shoulder despite the sea of filtering dim light points around the neighborhood.
They walked in close contact in silence for a few metres. Netu perceived her jumpy stead and replaced his stray hand to his side. Luckily they did not encounter any late arrivals to the Brotherhood as it often was on the street. Only two cars had sped past since they left the gate and there had been no other encounters with Brotherhood adherents.
Every so often they cackled without care and bumped into each other along the street and each time a strong electric charge whirred between them. Upon the Brotherhood’s hardline teachings both of them had gleaned some rare lessons, enough to dissuade their minds of the kind of emotion they felt being close to each other.
Netu wrestled with his own kind of sentimental mind games. Walking next to Pere Mejeli in the early night had its pleasures akin to the imagination of heaven's splendor. Yet a dreadful thumping troubled his heart, mixing and grading his emotion into two distinct levels: joy borne on the fragile wings of fear.
The pleasures her solicitous presence wrought in his heart enchanted him like the colors of a butterfly - beautiful and thrilling in the refined points on the canvass, but dark and grotesque in the other parts. This picture of Pere prevailed upon his swift thought - one tender frame with two different realities.
His momentary fear soared on fragile wings owing to the darker tint of her personality. He trusted her and would risk even an oath regarding her sincerity. Yet she had a dreary past that threatened his onward peace and their present chat along the street. Predestined or not, she had begun to assume a role now in his life that frightened him. And this went far back as Atlantis.
A splurge of memory overwhelmed him as they walked. Three years sped backwards in Netu's mind to the Brotherhood’s headquarters in Danabi City and a secret rendezvous he had had with Pere Mejeli flipped back into perspective.
Persuaded by Netu’s determination to find a plausible link to all of the Brotherhood’s staunch adherents and their past incarna
tions into a book of enduring history, Pere had agreed to a rendezvous with him in the Brotherhood’s press gallery keeping faith with his promise of absolute secrecy. Her bid to court what he termed “New history.” He had assured her of Father Manu’s consent with his pet project and that the outcome of the meeting would be confidential.
Coming on the heels of a sour, platonic relationship with Pere, it seemed a great gain on Netu’s part to have convinced her to the project. The harvest was even greater than he had envisaged. Pere’s undeniable weakness for his idealism and charisma earned for him a harvest of never heard of secrets.
"In the Nibi kingdom of pristine Riagena, I was a queen who was deified later," ventured Pere Mejeli as Netu began to take notes while recording her voice on tape.
"I’m still being worshipped until date by the Nibi progenies. Back then I was a revered queen. Powerful and awed even by rival kingdoms, my people the Shanis rallied around me for their spiritual and material well-being. We never had a sour moment during my reign. We expanded our kingdom as often as our whims allowed and devoid of the great tribal upheavals and insurgence that plagued the era. Perhaps my deification after my transition was simply to immortalize their pragmatic queen. They often consulted my spirit for guidance or protection and the results were profound. It has ever remained so."
“Are there relics to this effect?” Netu goaded. “Can you adduce from your present contact with the Shanis if this Nibi deity does actually exist? Is it not just one of their myths?"
Pere nodded. "Relics abound all right. I’m the renowned Natum of Nibi Kingdom - the deity is the relic of my queenship. Check it out if you will."
"I’m only checking facts - the book has to be factual, well-researched, you know, well-articulated."
“Okay.”
"What would you place the time of your reign as - the century?"
Pere’s eyes which glazed with enviable pride now were fixed on the floor in thought. She pouted with a vague recollection of an untrained historian’s mind.
"I’m afraid I can’t be as exact as you expect, but it’s likely about fourteen centuries ago - the tradition has endured to date though," she said, refocusing her gaze on Netu.
“I’m aware the Nibi Kingdom florished long before the invasion by the offsprings from our sister continents. That much I know,” Netu said. “But this Natum factor in the notoriety of that prosperous and chivalrous kingdom is certainly new knowledge. Not history’s fault, I must admit. I think I hadn’t delved real deep into the root of that epoch before."
Pere made no comment.
"Where do we wheel to next?"
"Uhmn," Pere murmured. "Wheel on to Mars."
"Mars?" Netu asked in wonderment.
"Sure, Mars."
“Ah, yes, I remember, the Martian war! Let’s hear it from the lady. I heard you talk about it some time ago. I’d be glad if you’d tell me everything you know about Mars.”
Pere leaned forward on the conference table in the quiet press gallery. Her thick lips parted in a valiant smile, intimidating in spite of its pleasant need.
"I'm a Martian incarnate," she said without inhibitions, "and as a matter of fact, the lady commander of their fleet of warships."
An admiring, but quizzical look spanned Netu's face. "You don't mean...?"
"A woman can be the commander of a planet’s fleet?" responded Pere.
Nodding Netu said, "I was imagining the thrill of it. Isn't it rather too wanton for a...?"
"Now, see who is sounding so out of tune," Pere cackled in her sleek leering way. Her ambience was momentary. She became a mask of seriousness the next moment. “As I realized not long ago, that is how it was. In Mars, I’m not the passive girl you know here. I’m mean, ruthless, astute and, a damn good commander of the Martian forces.”
"Come on, Pere! You are the limit."
"For being frank? Cut the humor Netu."
They laughed, argued, joked and cheered again about the might of a planet commanded by a woman of great candor, foresight, and will of steel. Pere it seemed had an edge over Netu’s apparent male chauvinism.
"I wait for the next anchor," cued Netu.
"Atlantis!" Pere proffered.
Netu flinched. Atlantis. The name bore a sharp needlepoint through his memory, routing flickers of distant guilt. At the same time he perceived sensations overwhelming the instinct of guilt in him rooted in the mysteries of Atlantis.
He saw in this suggested excursion of Pere a great chance to unravel his remarkable place in the history of Atlantis. He had a rather faint glimpse of that dispensation as the Tonka Manu whose rage ended it all. But he knew little or nothing about the antecedents that provoked his rage. He wanted to unravel the varied participants on Atlantis’ stage and who they were in the Brotherhood of Father Manu or in present incarnations. If Pere was willing to disclose her role in the end of Atlantis, then he was willing too to draw up a pattern from her tale. He would add her facts to what he knew and construct a permanent link between the denizens of Atlantis now incarnated as residents in the Brotherhood.
"Atlantis?" he gasped.
"Why, you look surprised?" Pere quizzed, perceptive of his eagerness. "I can tell when you are excited. What’s Atlantis to you?"
"Atlantis means many things to many people, I’m not an exception. You are the one on focus, remember? For the purpose of your curiosity, take this hint. I was a denizen of the civilization and, I’ve discovered I played a unique role in it. But let’s leave it at that till we are through with the missing pieces of your part."
"Shy, not so? I suppose you expect me to tell you all I know about Atlantis, so why hold back what you know from me?"
"Cue me in later."
"No. Let me hear you spill now, even a little of it will be a great spur," replied Pere.
"Ever stubborn, won’t take no for an answer," Netu joked. "All right, I had something to do with the end times of the Atlantis civilization. That’s all I know."
"I can’t figure a damn thing out of the smokescreen you’ve pulled on so smartly."
“Your role in Atlantis, Pere.”
“Evasive son of a gun!" Pere said, laughing. "I guess you won’t budge.” She paused for effect. “I'd say I was responsible for the demise of Atlantis,” she resumed, her countenance and tone reflecting a modicum of remorse. "I’m confused as to why I was picked for the sordid role, but it was my fault Tonka blew up the civilization the way he did," she trailed-off.
Netu adjusted his sitting position, inclining now on the conference table. A feeling of conquest welled on the inside of him. His vision of Pere glared as fate’s reluctant porter molding the myths surrounding the yet known facets of Atlantis into a singular picture of reality. Self-unconsciously, she had begun to posit a link between herself and the other denizens still unravelled in the tragic drama of that great epoch. He wondered what level of shock she would have if he told her he was Tonka Manu. He allowed her to reveal more and take him to the shores of his past.
"I’m listening," he urged, staring raptly. "How did you cause the Manu to blow up Atlantis?”
Pere hesitated, trying to recollect vague outlines of bitter times, impulsive actions and reactions.
"What I did," she said with deep emotion, brushing the polished top of the long conference table with a forefinger, "could be likened to what Miss Gehu did to Father Manu some time ago at Danabi City. I’m sure you heard about Miss Gehu’s antics?"
"Right, I heard the sad story,” said Netu. He had heard of Miss Beauty Gehu’s vexed notion of defiance in Father Manu’s office during a session of reprimand witnessed by numerous residents and non-residents at the Brotherhood's headquarters. Accused of an unholy plot in the Brotherhood along with few others, Miss Gehu - he heard - had tried to redeem her image by employing strange aggression. Like a wounded bull, she had torn her blouse to pieces and an inconsequ
ential fraction of her skirt in the process. Half-naked before stunned Brotherhood members, she had wept pleading her innocence. In the act an unprecedented taboo had been committed. Later as the rumor went, Father Manu pardoned Miss Gehu because she sent a team of elders to assuage his anger.
"It’s absurd to find one such state of confusion and with vengeance on mind, but there are times in life you just want to prove your innocence in some inexplicable ways. I doubt what my intent really was but when the allegations refused to abate from all sides, I felt I had to kick back where it hurts most. Enraged beyond measure I tore my clothes before Tonka and the other Atlanteans in the reception lounge of his spatial mansion - weird sort of dementia you'd say. This you would agree was a sacrilege of grave consequence. I did not realize the wrath I had incurred for the entire civilization at the time. When I got home, many strange occurrences - natural phenomena though they were - began to take place on an alarming scale beginning with a violent hurricane. Well, I never thought I had anything to do with the havoc or the hurricane or the danger signals in the bleak sky. As a result, I was least prepared for the shock that came towards dusk."
Pere Mejeli paused and looked at Netu Deo with pained calm, like an animal denied of skin, slowly recovering from an agonizing bruise in the softest corner of the heart, at lost for words or sound.
"It must have been harrowing," Netu prompted.
She shrugged off the agony of recall and came alive again. "Harrowing is understating the facts, Netu. It was hell! The way this whole damn past was revealed to me - I see it all so clearly even as I talk with you - my three children and I, two vibrant boys and a beautiful girl, were in an aerophibian, driving towards another section of Songhai the capital city of Atlantis to visit a close friend. There was calm in the hitherto thunderous, murderous sky and the beautiful neighborhood was peaceful as we approached my friend’s house. We went through routine check at the gate and drove into the vast grounds of the property anticipating happy moments ahead. But by a certain quirk of our predestination, an unseen time bomb of wholesome terror was unleashed on us at the nick of time. In hindsight, I see it all as the most bizarre of fate ever to grace any era of human existence because it tampered with life itself." Pere paused on a forlorn note.
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