Chapter Four
NEALAN HATED MORNINGS. They always started with an intense headache and his eyes felt as though they had been scratched with sand paper. It seemed as though each day took longer for him to feel better than the one before. He pushed the covers off of himself and looked over at the woman who had started sharing his bed over a mesan ago.
He pulled his legs to the side of the bed and groaned as his feet hit the floor. The joints in his knees were aching as well as every other joint in his body. He wished he could explain the pain away by the weather turning, but where he lived was a temperate climate year around. The only thing which would make him feel better was the cup of steena tea he would have at work.
After looking at his timepiece, he realized he was going to have to rush if he were going to be at his job on time. Even though he found his work to be fulfilling, it always seemed as though there were something else he should be doing with his life. Try as he might, he never could figure out what was missing. Until he had his morning tea, it was pointless to even consider using his aching brain.
There were five minutes until Nealan had to report to his shift so he stopped off at the commissary to get his usual blend of steena tea. He had tried getting tea to have at his house, but the blend never seemed to relieve his aching body like the ones here at work did.
The old woman had a sad smile on her face as she handed him the cup of hot liquid. “Have a good morning, Nealan,” she said.
“Thanks,” he mumbled as he turned away from her and took a sip of the hot tea. With experience, he knew he would not feel any relief until at least a quarter of the liquid had been consumed. He wished the woman making the tea would make it cooler so he could imbibe it quicker. With slow steps and small sips, he moved in the direction of his cubicle in the office building.
Several people acknowledged Nealan as he passed and he merely grunted in reply. None of them seemed to take offense at his lack of enthusiasm. In fact, the other people seemed to be feeling the same way he did this early in the morning.
He reached his desk and sat down gingerly in the high-backed chair. With a sigh of relief to be off of his aching legs, he cradled the tea between his hands and enjoyed the warmth of the cup on his fingers. After a few more sips, he would have to log into his patil and begin his day.
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Vinia felt Nealan get out of the bed. She pretended to remain asleep since she hated his morning attitude. The first time she had attempted to talk to him in the morning, she thought she had made a grave mistake in moving in with him. After all, she had her daughter to think about. If Nealan were a mean man, she would not be able to stay with him.
By the time Nealan came home from work, he had been like a different person. He was the man she had fallen in love with and wanted to spend her time around. Over the past mesan she had seen the same problem emerge every day and then be gone by the second hour after rising. It was the most peculiar change in personality.
She had once asked him if he had seen a wise-woman to see if there were anything which could be done about it. Nealan had not been very happy with her suggestion so she stopped asking. Instead, Vinia had inquired of a wise-woman on her own. What she had learned did not make her very happy.
Her suspicions were confirmed when they had received a special delivery from Nealan’s work on the first weekend after she had moved in. They had sent him a cup of the blend of tea he preferred. After Nealan had consumed most of it, his mood had improved immensely. Vinia had asked if she could try his drink. Being in a much better mood than when he had started the beverage, he gladly offered her his cup.
She sniffed the minty smelling liquid before she took a small sip of her own. At first, she believed it to be a strong blend of steena tea until an aftertaste lingered on her tongue. Within a few minutes she could feel herself becoming very sleepy and her fingers began to tingle. She hastily drank several glasses of water to dilute the drug which had been placed in his tea.
The wise-woman had told her the symptoms of resh addiction. She said it was very uncommon in people of Tuala, but not impossible. She had also told Vinia about the taste and effects of the drug on someone who was not used to its potency.
She would have left that very day if it had not been for her daughter. They needed a place to live since they were no longer near the people from their village. Nealan was a very amicable person and she was happy with him most of the time. She wished he had more interest in her daughter. He mostly just ignored her, which Vinia preferred over him expressing an unnatural desire to be around her alone which was why she had left her village.
As if the thought of her daughter had awoken her, she started to babble from her crib in the second bedroom. Vinia pushed back the warm covers and slid her feet into her slippers before leaving her bedroom to go across the hall to retrieve her little girl.
The moment Vinia opened the bedroom door the little girl held out her arms and said, “Mama!”
“How’s my little Danika this morning?” she asked as she crossed the room and picked up the standing girl in her arms. “Are you hungry?” Danika nodded solemnly and Vinia had to laugh at her reaction to the question. She must have been quite hungry since she was over an hour later waking up than usual. She must be growing again, Vinia thought to herself as she walked into the kitchen with Danika in her arms.
Even as she entered the kitchen she had created the warm cereal to feed Danika. She sat her down in the high-chair and put the tray in place. Vinia grabbed the bowl from the counter behind her as she pulled up a chair and began feeding Danika. She would normally have let her eat on her own, but she did not feel like cleaning up the large mess she was most likely to make.
Danika had other plans for her breakfast. She kept shutting her mouth just as Vinia brought the spoon to her lips. Her other new tactic was to turn her head at the last second and then giggle as her mother would put the spoon of cereal on her cheek.
Finally, Vinia gave up and set the bowl and spoon down onto the tray and said, “Okay, I get it. You want to do it yourself. Right?”
Danika picked up the spoon easily in her fisted hand and plunged it down into the bottom of the cereal bowl. She brought it up heaping with dripping food. She shoved it toward her mouth just as nearly all of the food dripped off of the not-so-level spoon.
Danika’s expression when she put the empty spoon in her mouth was comical. Vinia laughed at her daughter’s mishap and then decided she was hungry as well. She encouraged, “Try it again, dear. Watch the spoon as you pick it up. You might find more food on it that way.”
The little girl seemed to understand what her mother was saying since she was much more successful on her second attempt. As she happily munched on the soft mush, she made happy noises and her other hand slapped the tray in front of her. Her little feet began to flop up and down as she continued to fidget around while she ate.
Vinia created a plate of scrambled eggs and fried foxl and inhaled the wonderful aroma before she picked up her fork to eat. Just as she was about to take her first bite, she was interrupted by a knock on the front door. She set down her fork and said to Danika, “Mommy will be right back.”
She had no idea who would be calling at this hour of the morning so she opened the door cautiously. To her surprise, she found the wise-woman, Copa, outside. She stood for a moment with her mouth hanging open in shock before she remembered her manners and said, “Copa, I never expected to see you here. Come inside, please!” She stood to the side and gestured for the elderly woman to come into her house.
Copa swiftly entered the house and looked around to see who else was about. “Are we alone?”
“My daughter’s in the kitchen eating. I should check on her,” she said as she started walking back to the kitchen. “What brings you here?”
“I heard you were here from the local wise-woman. I wanted to find out how you and your children were doing,” she said as she followed the younger woman into the kitchen.
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��My children,” Vinia said quietly. She sat down wearily in the chair and said, “Please take a seat, Copa. I was just going to eat breakfast. Would you like me to make you something as well?”
“No, my dear, I’m fine. But, please eat your breakfast while it’s still hot. I can’t stay long,” Copa said cryptically.
Vinia ate her food hurriedly. She felt as if she were being rude eating in front of her guest. She saw Danika had managed to spread her food far and wide, but she also appeared to be satisfied enough to be finished. With a few thoughts, she had all of the dishes cleaned and put away as well as Danika made presentable again.
She picked Danika up out of the chair and said to Copa, “Let me get Danika set up with some toys in the living room and we can have a few minutes of privacy to talk about whatever has brought you here.”
A few minutes later Vinia sat down on the couch next to the tiny, old woman. “Tell me what has brought you here, Copa.”
“I did not tell you before because it did not matter,” she said cryptically.
“What did you not tell me, Copa?” Vinia was confused as to what the wise-woman was trying to tell her.
Instead of answering her questions, she asked her own, “Where are your other three children, Vinia?”
Vinia looked down at her folded hands and spoke quietly, “I had to do as you suggested.”
Copa looked up at her in alarm and asked, “What brought it about?” Her visions were only possibilities of the future, by no means a certain outcome. She had hoped this vision would not come to pass.
“I overheard Grobin talking about taking Valentina as his wife. His wife, Copa, not his betrothed. Valentina wasn’t even eight anons old yet. Mosan scoffed at him and said he was crazy. Grobin insisted she was plenty old enough for what he had in mind. Mosan continued to laugh at Grobin which upset Grobin to the point where he said he would do it the next day.” Vinia stopped and took a deep breath to calm her racing heart.
“Also, Jon was very sick. When I asked Grobin to bring in an Elder or a wise-woman to help him, he scoffed and said there were too many men in the colony as it was. He had the audacity to say it would not matter if Jon died and then he left. It was the last straw.
“I grabbed the samara you gave me and took the children out into the woods where you had shown me was the strongest place. I said the words you told me to say, and then the children were gone. They had disappeared as though they had never existed.
“Copa, please tell me they are still alive! I have tried and tried to reach them through their birth crystals, but I have never even felt a spark of life from any of them. I have worried continually about whether I did the right thing.”
“It will all be fine, Vinia,” Copa said and patted Vinia’s hand comfortingly.
“It hasn’t seemed like it. I had Danika early because of all of the stress I had been under. Grobin was furious with me when he came calling the next morning. He told me his intentions with Valentina and I told him he would never touch my daughter. He actually struck me across the face with his fist before he tore apart my house looking for the children. Grobin insisted I tell him where he could find Valentina, but I told him she was forever out of his reach. Finally, he left and I sat down on Jon’s cot and cried until bedtime. I was so alone.”
“He didn’t find the samara when he searched your house, did he?” Copa asked hastily.
“No, I hid it in the woods before I returned home from sending the children away,” she replied and held back a shiver as she remembered the feel of the power as it surged through the crystal skull when her children disappeared. She had wanted nothing more to do with it and hid it in a small hollow near the stream and covered it with rocks, branches, and dried leaves.
Copa seemed to brighten considerably with Vinia’s confession of hiding the stone. She knew Vinia had no idea of the significance of the stone and she was not about to reveal it to her for fear of Vinia’s mind being read by Elder Vargen. When she had heard Vinia had been living within Elder Vargen’s jurisdiction she had been afraid he would feel the power of the samara and investigate. She could not let the powerful artifact fall into the corrupt Elder’s hands. All would be lost if it were ever to happen.
“How is your little one?” Copa asked.
“She is fine now. Like I said, she came early, almost a mesan early. Grobin seemed inordinately pleased to see I’d had another daughter. When she started walking at about seven mesans he kept showing up wherever she was playing. While I watched him I could see he was planning something for Danika and I was not about to stick around to see what vile plot he could concoct for her. In the evening, I packed up all the belongings I could carry and I walked away from the colony for the last time.”
“You did the right thing, my dear,” Copa said as she again patted Vinia’s hand. Even as she touched the woman, she was reading her mind. She could see the truth to her words and knew if she had stayed, Danika would have been taken by Grobin as his betrothed. Her mind saw the scene as clearly as if it had happened in reality.
It was a gift and a curse to see the possibilities of people’s futures. She was glad Vinia had acted as fast as she had. Unfortunately, Vinia had put herself in a position of another hard decision. She only had a short time yet until the decision would have to be made. It would turn out to be a curse and a blessing, but it had to be of her own accord. Time would tell.
“I’m glad to see all has turned out well, Vinia,” Copa said as she stood slowly from the low couch. “I must be on my way. Should you have need to speak with me in the future, please contact your local wise-woman and let her know your need to reach me. She will be able to get a hold of me and I will come to you.” She had walked to the front door by this time and she put her hand on the knob before she said her last words, “I’ll see you again soon.”
“Okay,” Vinia said even though she was very confused with how their conversation had gone. She had no idea why she had told Copa all of the sordid details of the colony she had left. She had never planned on telling anyone how bad it had become in the backwoods community. There was something about the particular wise-woman which encouraged a person to share even the most intimate details about a person’s life. She slowly shut the front door she had been holding like a life-line as the woman disappeared around the corner of the block.
“That was really weird,” she mumbled to herself as she leaned her back against the closed front door. She felt a sense of relief at telling someone where her children had gone. If anything happened to her, then there was at least one person on Tuala who would care about the location of her children.
It was then she realized Copa had not answered her question about not being able to sense the children’s birth crystals. No distance had ever kept her from seeing her children. She guessed the distance across the realm into Earth was too far for the power of their crystals. It made her sad to think they would not know what had really happened. They had not even known they had a sister on the way.
Danika had been the only thing keeping her going after the children had been sent to Earth. At first, it was just keeping herself healthy to keep the baby thriving. Then after she had been born, she had to maintain a good diet to nurse the baby. Afterward, it had been about keeping her baby safe from the lusty intentions of their colony leader.
She sat down on the couch and turned sideways to watch her daughter play on the floor contentedly. She was glad to finally have a house and some security. Even Nealan’s mood swings were better than any alternative she could have had if she had remained living with the colony.
Her use of her birth crystal had been frowned upon in the colony. They believed it to be witchcraft to use the power which was their birthright. She had never agreed with their belief even as her own mother had not. She had learned everything she knew from her mother.
She had begun to teach her own children in the privacy of their house. Vinia had been very diligent in letting her children know the skills they were learning with their ne
cklaces was not to be shared with anybody in the village. She had been so proud of their ability to learn so rapidly.
Since they were on Earth, she supposed they had forgotten all about what she had taught them, even though they had only been gone for just over an anon. Her biggest hope was them finding a good family to take them all in as a group. The idea of them being separated from one another was another personal nightmare of hers.
At almost eleven mesans old, Danika was a very bright and inquisitive child. She had more opportunity to interact with children her own age which helped her develop social skills. Back in the colony, her other children kept mostly to themselves because they were considered an oddity. Triplets were not common. Danika was not going to live that kind of life, Vinia would make sure of it.
Chapter Five
ELDER DEBBON READ Elder Daven’s message regarding Amanda’s need for help. He wondered what assistance he could render for a woman he had never met. With his curiosity piqued, he typed up Daven’s patil code and waited. A few seconds later, Daven’s face appeared on his screen.
“Elder Daven! I’m glad you picked up. I just read your message. How may I be of assistance?” Debbon asked with a smile on his face.
“Elder Debbon, I’m afraid this has become quite complicated. Amanda is going to attempt to take back a person from Earth who is being held by Elder Vargen in his Old Soul Engineering Facility. Do you have any ideas on how we may assist her in this quest?”
This was clearly not what he had been expecting to hear. He could not see any benefit to this particular mission and he asked, “What is the purpose of this journey? How will this help fulfill the prophecy?”
“I’m unclear, Elder, but Jehoban said we would need to render our assistance when requested. There has to be a reason, or she would not be asking for help,” Daven replied uneasily. He did not like how Debbon was scowling through the patil.
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