by W A Rowland
Letting Cindy go, he could see things beginning to slowly move forward again as time began to reassert itself on the room. This room, where both the astral and the physical and all of the other world’s existed as one. He didn’t have to fight Julian when he was here.. He had some friends who would happily do it for him.
Liam closed his eyes, and just as when he enhanced one of the others, he looked at himself, his desires, and his needs. He found his core and the connection there, and he ripped it open. Astral energy rushed through him into the room. Silver white mist appeared around him as he opened himself completely, his mind set on accomplishing one simple goal: stop Julian.
He heard Cindy gasp from behind him as forms began to coalesce from the mist. People and things not meant for the physical world any longer. Things he’d never have the power alone to summon forth. But here, in this place, he could bring out an army of them. And he knew the first one he’d be calling. So, it was, as time began to once again crawl forward to its inevitable end, Bast, the goddess of Egypt, his friend and mentor, stepped once more into the physical world. She glowed bright before them as she grew in size, matching Julian’s bulk. He heard Cindy cry out as the goddess took one of the few moments left to them, to look at her, and smile.
Then with a mighty bellow, Bast reared back a massive hand, and brought it forward just as time regained full control and met Julian’s leap head-on. The force of the punch was so strong and sudden that Julian yelped in surprise as he impacted the far wall.
Already wounded, he took a moment to get up, and in that time, two more larger-than-life figures joined Bast. On her right a man. He had a masterful build and his face was regal. He was similarly dressed to Bast, and in his right hand, he held a Kopesh sword. This was Ra, Egyptian god of the Sun, and Bast’s father. The two shared a mischievous glance that had to be genetic and then started forward, but Liam wasn’t interested in them anymore, because to Bast’s left, stood Lily. His Lily, but not as he knew her. This Lily was much older and wiser looking, and dressed in a long flowing gown of flowers and vines. In one hand, she had a ball of bright blue light and in the other, she had two small flowers, and on her back were wings of pure light exactly as Lily had summoned during her fight with Sadism. As Liam watched, she drew back her right hand and let fly a blast of pure astral energy right into Julian’s chest, leaving a crater behind where it had struck.
The mighty creature bellowed and tried to fight, but each blow was met by either Bast or Ra, and for each strike, he received two in return. Goddess Lily shot powerful beam of energy into Julian, each time searing a part of him off. Even with the divine onslaught of these spectral guardians though, it wasn’t quite enough. Julian bellowed as he landed a hit on Bast.
“I will not die. I am of the in-between. I am both physical and spectral. I will not die!” he bellowed as Ra cut off one of his hands, and he backhanded Ra with the other.
“It’s a good thing we’re in-between the worlds then, isn’t it?” Liam said, and with a concentrated force of will, he let loose the floodgate. The energy flowing out of him tripled; dozens of past demis flooded out to join the fray. Here, where the worlds met, it wasn’t even an effort to break open a portal for them to come through. Liam heard Lily gasp as two small girls ran out and joined her goddess form, both looking like a picture-perfect version of her as he knew her, right down to her favorite yellow sundress. Both of them had her infectious, mischievous smile as they clung to the goddess’ skirt while she blasted away at Julian.
Liam kept going though, not distracted by Lily’s sudden outburst; the gate was open and he just let the forms flow out. Zeus, Odin, Thor, Vulcan, and so many Liam couldn’t recognize or name. Ancient demis of eons past came out, each with their own axe to grind, each bound to one goal: stop Julian.
The wolf was quickly overwhelmed, the onslaught of powerful beings of pure astral energy being too much for even the black beast to handle. He was soon consumed in a tide of power the likes of which the world had never seen, and would never see again if Liam had anything to say about it.
Within minutes, there wasn’t a trace of Julian left, both his astral form and his physical form totally dissolved away by the combined might of the guardians. The curse of the Wolf of Gaul had finally been lifted, and Julius Caesar was finally, truly, dead.
With the final death of Julian, the demis of the past all congratulated one another, shrinking down to more manageable sizes, some hugging old friends, others seeing long dead lovers or siblings. Thor even walked up to Liam once he was back to a normal size and gave a mighty bellow, slapping him on the back, and telling him it was a “fine scuffle indeed!” And to call if he ever had need again, before the god of thunder dissipated back into astral energy.
In ones and twos, the pantheons of the world likewise said their goodbyes once more and dissolved away, their souls riding the connection back to the astral plane. The last to leave were Ra, Bast, and the strange goddess that looked exactly like Lily. Bast pulled her father over to where Cindy had collapsed to the ground sobbing; seeing Bast there was too much for the woman, who had probably only minutes ago learned that Bast had died. And now here she was getting introduced to her adopted grandpa. Liam left them to their brief reunion; sure Bast had some private things to tell Cindy in the time they had, and instead turned to the other goddess and her two little girls as they approached him.
“Thank you. That was quite the adventure, wasn’t it, girls?!” she said looking down at the two clinging to her leg who both gave enthusiastic nods.
“I did have a question,” she said quizzically, a tone Liam knew very well. “Why did you bring me out with the first?” she asked.
“I’m not sure what you mean?” Liam said.
“Well, you called me. When the doorway opened, I heard you calling for me to come through, but I don’t know who you are. Are you a friend of someone I know?” she said quizzically.
“Yeah, you could say that, I guess. I’m Liam, by the way. Never had a proper introduction,” he said holding out his hand to the tall, beautiful goddess, who gently took it in her own.
“Aine, of the Tuatha de’ Danann, very pleased to meet you, Liam,” she responded regally.
“And who are these two?” he asked in a friendly manner gesturing to the two little girls clinging to her skirts.
“These are my daughters,” she said, gesturing to one.
“This is Siobahn,” she said and then gesturing to the other, “and Aileen.”
Liam heard the names in his head at the same moment Aine had said them. Lily knew their names; she knew these little girls.
“Well, Aine, Siobahn, and Aileen, I just wanted to say thank you for coming. It’s been a pleasure to meet you,” he said in his most genial voice, almost like they all hadn’t just gotten done killing an un-killable monster.
“Thank you, Liam, and please, call on us again anytime. I feel like we would get along splendidly,” Aine said with a genuine smile, and taking her girls by their hands, they faded away.
“I think we already do,” Liam said to no one in particular.
“No, don’t go,” he heard Lily cry quietly inside his head, and he knew she was talking about the girls, her girls.
“It’s ok, Lily, they’re safe. They’re with a goddess after all,” Liam said comforting her as she cried.
It was several more minutes before Bast, Cindy, and Ra were finished, which Liam spent talking with Lily and helping her to get herself back together. Seeing her long dead daughters, much less her own self was a huge shock for the poor woman, so Liam understood that she was quite rattled by the whole thing.
While that was going on though, Ra was doing the typical grandfatherly thing and giving Cindy so much sage advice she could barely think straight, all the while Bast just stood by grinning from ear to ear. Cindy had calmed significantly from her initial shock and was now chatting happily with them as if they were old friends who’d just been apart for a few days, and she’d see them again next w
eekend.
Liam eventually got pulled over, appropriately threatened by both Bast and Ra that they would be watching him and what the consequences would be if he did anything to hurt their Cindy. And then after being thoroughly scared out of his mind, and receiving a parting hug from Bast, the pair finally said their goodbyes once again, and father and daughter faded away into the light.
Liam closed the gateway in his core that had been letting them stay, and looked up at Cindy. She still had tears in her eyes, but she also had a smile now. Liam wrapped her in his arms for a long hug, and they made their way out of the chamber. As they walked, Liam found the perfect words to express what he was feeling in his heart. The only words that really mattered to him in that moment, and ones that he never thought he’d be able to say, and actually mean.
“Time to go home.”
EPILOGUE
Liam and Cindy had exited the chamber to many disgruntled faces. The effects of the chamber had long worn off, but Jax was sporting a nice black eye. Hand was a little upset when Liam had thrown up a barrier as the big man ran up to them. But once Liam had explained that the last time Hand had done that, he’d almost caved in Liam’s skull. The big Samoan was much more understanding of his caution.
Of course, none of them remembered the events of the chamber once the effect of the anchor had worn off, and the only injury that anyone knew the cause of was Jax’s black eye, which Hand had apparently given him when he suggested that they just leave, and come back after the fight was finished.
The rest had all attempted to re-enter the chamber, but Liam’s string of kinetic fields had kept them out for the majority of the fight, and they’d given up on entering by the time the fields had died. It was only when Cindy and Liam emerged did they know that the fields were disabled.
Sarah, of course, tried to go back inside, but at both Liam and Cindy’s insistence, she was kept from doing so, the group believing them that bad things would happen if anyone entered.
Their discussion on how best to re-seal the chamber was short lived, as none of them really wanted to cut out their soul cores to re-use Bast’s lock, as the five cores that had been used to open the door had gone mysteriously missing. Also, because Cindy revealed that Ra had let her in on the secret to his amazing locks.
“Just hide the entrance really well, and build something more interesting nearby and give that one all sorts of crazy contraptions and spinning dials and such. People will be so convinced that there must be something behind all of the hardware; they won’t even realize that there’s not actually a lock at all!” he’d said with much chuckling at his clever ruse, which had worked for over five thousand years.
So, once they had returned to the bunker, Steven had gotten Hansen to portal him, Michael, and Thea back to properly disguise the entire complex while Michael created a facsimile nearby, complete with spinning locks, and fancy mechanical contraptions that did nothing at all, but make loud noises and break when put under pressure. He’d chuckled to himself at the possible future people who would be stumped by his senseless engineering.
Kat and Rich had taken Jessica to a local hospital, and in a call with Liam later had told him that the doctors never expected her to fully recover from the trauma. All she would say to anyone was the word “Black.” She’d been committed to a local care center immediately, where she’d live out her days as comfortably as they could make her.
Not for the first or last time, Liam reminded himself that the Blacks had gotten exactly what they deserved and his only regret was not getting to kill Black himself. This news had soured his mood until Cindy had told him that Reggie said Joshua wanted to see them that night. Knowing that this meant he’d also probably see Bast, Liam had immediately cheered up. He’d cheered up even more when Cindy had suggested that they should go together from her room, and gave him a quick kiss before running off.
So, Liam and Cindy went jointly to Joshua’s cabin that night, Liam taking them through Cindy’s core. The beautiful Latina in her ravishing gown, cuddled next to him comfortably on Joshua’s couch, Reg and Lily nearby in their own chairs, as they chatted with Bast and Joshua about the nature of the guides, and Joshua finally let slip the truth.
Each guide was a demi who, in their lifetime, earned the attention of the guardian so much that when they died, it offered them an option. They could simply pass on to the outer planes where their souls would enjoy their afterlife or they could return to the astral plane as guides, each choosing a form and a paradigm to help the new guardians of the planes.
Since time wasn’t really a thing in other planes, the version of Lily that Liam had summoned was Lily after she’d served as his guide for an amount of time that Joshua refused to disclose. When the exchange happened though, the guardian didn’t allow the demis to retain their memories as a guide, but when they completed their time as a guide, they moved on to the afterlife, memories fully intact.
So Aine had been pulling Liam’s leg the whole time with her “who are you?” routine. Which, if he really admitted to himself, was exactly what Lily would do if given the chance. His suspicions were confirmed by her giggling in the background. Yeah, she knew what she did, or would do; word tenses were even harder to get down now.
Instead of puzzling through which tense he needed to use, Liam instead decided to just enjoy the time he had in the present. Up until Bast asked if he wanted to know how many babies he and Cindy would have, making everyone blush or laugh. Liam quickly started to nope out of there, while Joshua ranted to Bast about messing up the timeline. But as he turned around, he caught Bast mouthing the word “twins” to Cindy, who had the biggest smile on her face Liam had ever seen.
The assembled group finally got Liam to sit back down for one last point of order. As Bast had indeed died, despite Liam’s best efforts, moving her soul to the astral plane prematurely, Curiosity’s time as a guide was up. Bast, being the single most accomplished demi of the era, had been offered the position as the new guide of Curiosity, which she’d accepted without a second though.
So, before the old Curiosity set off for his long awaited and well-earned afterlife, he and Bast hugged for a long time like best friends being parted, which they were. And after he shook everyone’s hand, the curious little man disappeared. Bast took a deep breath then, tears still in her eyes from saying goodbye to her closest companion for over five thousand years, and she nodded to Joshua who, in his usual manner, grabbed her head without any warning or second thought. When her eyes opened, the old Bast was gone. This was Curiosity now. And in line with her given trait, her very first words as the newest guide were a very excited “well, who are all of you?!”
* * *
The moon once again rose over the forest, no longer frozen. This night, it sensed that something special had happened, but it couldn’t for the life of it figure out what that was. The world below had turned, just as it had for eons, and the people had gone about their lives.
As usual, the moon was bored and looking for entertainment. The last few nights had been the same as always: dull. Sure, there had been a fight one night and someone used some magic. Auras had gotten out of control and a building had blown up. But the sun had said that the moon had missed the best showdown for the past 200 years the day before. One that shook the foundation of the planes themselves, or so the sun had said.
The moon would have given anything to see something like that. As for tonight, the only interesting thing it could really see were two figures walking through the forest. But these weren’t the normal mundane mortals; these were some of the special ones. They didn’t have the flashing emotional auras of the others; these shone bright white. In fact, they were two of the brightest auras the moon had ever seen.
It had even heard once, from a passing comet, that the brightness of a mortal’s aura is proportional to the strength of its soul, and that the strength of one’s soul could tell it how important they would be in the events of the world below. The moon calculated that if that was the case,
the two beings below must be two of the most important people on the face of the planet at that moment. And as Cindy and Liam stopped their walk and gently kissed in the moonlight, the moon determined that it would have to keep an eye on these two. Just not right now, because that would be impolite.
The End
About the Author
W.A. Rowland is an author based out of Fairbanks, Alaska. He published his first book in 2019 and is currently working on several more titles, including the sequel to Dire Symbols and a series of novelettes to accompany it. More information as well as a free novelette can be found on his website, where you can also sign up to be notified when new books are released.
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Also by William Rowland
Dire Symbols is the first book in what will eventually be a three book series.
Book two: Ominous Signs is planned to release mid to late 2020.
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