“That is, if you return from your mission,” Jimmu stated.
There was a momentary uncomfortable silence as everyone let that statement settle.
“What will my mission be?” Danica asked. Jimmu’s meaning hadn’t escaped her.
“We can’t discuss that until you are accepted by The Magic. Then everything will become more clear,” Phil said.
Liam passed her a tray of bacon and sausages. “We have a large staff to maintain the house and grounds. Many of them were Covert hopefuls in the beginning.”
“I think what I’m hearing is that if I’m not accepted by The Magic, I’ll be serving dinner.”
They all chuckled except for Jimmu who said, “That’s correct.”
“I’ve gotten better at making my choices over the years,” Phil said. “The others help me, so it isn’t as difficult now. Everyone except Jimmu agrees you are an excellent candidate.”
Danica’s eyes widened at this revelation and she glanced at Jimmu.
“Don’t take it personally,” he said.
Wilder’s deep laughter filled the room. The green t-shirt she wore declared ‘Go Irish’.
“Jimmu is always the cautious one,” she said, “but believe me, his bark is worse than his bite.”
Jimmu scowled at her.
Danica helped herself to crepes filled with fresh strawberries and topped with whipped cream.
“How long have you been here, Damien?” she asked casually as he refilled her juice.
He smiled at her, “About six hundred years.”
Danica paused, a forkful of crepes halfway to her mouth. She looked at Damien who had moved on and was handing a glass of water to Liam. He was a tall lithe twenty-year-old.
“He looks good for his age, don’t you think?” said Wilder. Everyone chuckled, including Damien.
Danica dared to ask the question that had just come to her. “How old are you, Phil?” She took a bite of crepes and the taste of fresh strawberries filled her mouth.
“She is no age,” Jimmu said shortly.
Phil’s smile was angelic. “I’m not like any of you, Danica. My life did not begin by being measured in years, but if it were, I would be older than your planet’s history.”
The silence in the room was palpable. Danica tried to wrap her mind around this, but she couldn’t fathom it. The delicious strawberries were a lump in her mouth, and she swallowed painfully and pushed her plate away.
“It’s a lot to take in, I know,” Phil said. “I’ve tried to prepare you, but the human mind is so rigid. Once we celebrate your Magic Day tomorrow on your seventeenth birthday, it will all get much easier, I promise. Today is a day to relax and get to know the hotel and the grounds. Then we’ll have your celebration, and you will begin your new life.”
Danica breathed, allowing her shoulders to relax.
“You’re with me today,” Liam said. “I’m going to show you around this morning, and after lunch you’re on your own. Sound good?”
She looked at his guileless eyes and soft curls. An angelic twelve-year-old. Only he wasn’t twelve. He was centuries old, from a different era. Which explains his formal way of speaking.
“Yes. Thanks, Liam. And thank you all for making me feel welcome.” She looked around the table and felt the warmth from everyone—except Jimmu, who scowled.
What is his problem?
Five
Later, as they were leaving the dining room, Liam said, “We’ll tour the hotel first, and then the grounds. Follow me,” and he led her down the foyer to the next closed door. “This is the library.”
He opened the door to a large space with lofty ceilings and books stacked on shelves. Danica gasped at the sheer number, and she noted the ladder on wheels meant to move from shelf to shelf and reach books up high.
“Here in the middle of the room are the devices that have everything catalogued. Whatever you would like to read you will find on the shelves or on these devices. I must warn you that the books on the shelves are unlike the books you’re used to, Danica. They look similar, but they read differently.”
“Differently?”
“You’ll see what I mean when you choose one. It will be a real experience.”
As Danica puzzled on this they walked through the library and Liam pointed out many features. “Over here is the news center. People meet here in the mornings around six and have coffee or tea while they catch up on the latest.”
“The latest news of the Beyond?”
“Yes, and news from everywhere. There are other places around the community with rooms like this.”
“This hotel is strange,” Danica said.
“Strange? In what way?”
“It’s hard to explain. It seems old—like from a hundred years ago, but then in some ways it’s modern and even futuristic.”
“We don’t know a specific time here, Danica. It’s easiest to say we are living in all times, so I guess it will seem strange to you until you get used to it. People who live here in the Beyond are from different times and places and worlds. Everyone can find something here that reminds them of their former lives, and it’s comforting for them.”
He opened a door at the back of the library to what appeared to be a small movie theater. “Yes, it is a movie theater, but we also get visual messages from our associates. It’s more of a media center.”
“Who are your--er, our associates?”
“You will meet them all in time. They’re officials from other communities. But first we must celebrate your birthday. Your Magic Day.”
“You all seem to be putting a lot of emphasis on my seventeenth birthday. Why? What’s so special about it?”
Liam looked surprised. “It’s your Magic Day, Danica. It’s the day that marks your transformation. It’s the day you begin to come fully into your power. You might say it’s your day of re-birth.” He smiled coyly. “It’s the last birthday you’ll ever have and so there will be a huge celebration.
“Was your Magic Day on your birthday?”
“Mine was on my twelfth birthday.”
“And Jimmu’s?”
“His was on his nineteenth. Come, let me show you the rest of the hotel.”
Liam led her from the library to the other rooms on the ground floor: the sitting room, parlor, den, sunroom, kitchen, pantry, commons, gym, spa, indoor swimming pool, study, greenhouse, and ballroom. There was also a Zen-like room for meditation and relaxation, and a chapel that looked like it was straight out of the nineteenth century. Upstairs were the private rooms as well as many unoccupied bedrooms and a large guest suite. As they walked down the corridor where her room was located, Danica noticed the room numbers—25, 22, 19. “These must be Wilder’s, Neith’s and Jimmu’s rooms,” she said.
“Yes, we are all in the west wing. Phil is in the east wing, along with some of the staff.”
At the end of the hotel tour, Danica’s mind was spinning. “I’ll never remember where everything is.”
“Feel free to explore on your own. Even though doors are closed, you may enter any room except for the private rooms upstairs and the rooms in the cellar. You’ll find after a while that there is a logical layout to this hotel. It’s not as complicated as it seems now.”
“If you say so.” She looked at Liam. “What’s in the cellar?”
“There are other portals down there like the one you passed through when you entered the hotel last night. You may walk through all of them in time. Each one leads to a different world.”
“Different worlds?”
Liam smiled. “You’ve glimpsed them in your dreams, Danica. Have you ever awakened from a dream that was so surreal, or so fantastic that you couldn’t wait to tell someone about it?”
“Yes, but I couldn’t always hold on to the dream. I would often forget it before morning.”
“These worlds are fleeting. Magical. They insert themselves into your fantasies and dreams. People like to think that they’re imagined, but they are all too real.”
>
Earnest eyes regarded her. “You must not go through any of those portals yet. If you do, you will be lost without a way of getting back. Phil will help you across each threshold when you are ready.”
“Don’t worry. You’ve convinced me. But I have a question about these worlds.”
Liam raised his eyebrows. “Shoot!”
“Some of the dreams I’ve had have been horrible and creepy. Terrifying.”
“Yes, and so are parts of these worlds. Believe me.”
Danica must have looked apprehensive because Liam gave her a half grin. “Come on, let’s go outside.”
The hotel grounds were elevated from the verdant rolling hills and forests that stretched for as far as the eye could see. After a tour of the gardens, Liam showed her the labyrinth, defined by tall shrubs that arched over the narrow entrance into its dark interior. A faint sound came from deep within. Danica tried to place it. Not from an animal. More like a mournful grieving sound, Danica thought.
“What’s in there?”
“Nothing but the stuff of dreams,” he gave her a sideways glance. “We won’t go inside today. It takes a while to walk through, and you can do that on your own sometime later. Over there is the auditorium.” He pointed to a large building across an expanse of lawn. “That’s where your celebration will be tomorrow morning.”
Then they walked the short distance to the barns. These were no ordinary barns. They were expansive red brick structures beautifully maintained. The doors were white, and all the trim was freshly painted in dark green. White fences surrounded paddocks and pens of all shapes and sizes, including a large pasture where several mares grazed with foals at their sides. In a round pen, an impeccably dressed young woman wearing a helmet was putting a tall oddly colored warm blood through its paces. The horse’s lavender coat gleamed in the sun. Danica kept staring at it and nearly tripped on the threshold of a spacious barn. Inside there were many stalls filled with beautiful horses of different colors. Young men and women were working at grooming, cleaning, mucking, and feeding. Danica was caught up in the bevy of activity.
“Who do these horses belong to?” she asked.
“They belong to all of us. You can ride whenever you want.”
She felt a thrill of excitement. She had always loved horses from afar and had never had the chance to ride one.
“Why are there so many?”
“Some of our people are active in training and competing. They host events here that are quite popular.”
“Here?” Danica was taken aback.
“We don’t live in isolation, Danica. There are other communities, and we all interact with each other.”
“Other communities? You mean apart from this one?”
“Yes—hamlets, villages. You’ll see everything in time.”
They were leaving the barns, walking toward a large one-story red brick building that was obviously not for animals.
Something had been bothering Danica since her arrival. “I’ve noticed that all of the people here are young. Why is that?”
“There’s a short window of time for Magic to become fully present in someone who has the proclivity, Danica. And it’s almost always in young adults between the ages of fifteen to twenty-five. Most of the people who live here at the hotel were between those ages when they came here, and they all have special talents. It’s just that in almost all of them the talent never turned into Magic when they hit their Magic Day, so they never became Coverts. But they are useful in many ways.”
“Do all people have talents that could become magical?”
“No. Many people have talents—it’s been called many things: ESP, or HSP, or mind readers, fortune tellers, seers, mediums, psychics, or Indigo children--but for most, it’s barely actualized. Some are aware they have it and they may experience it infrequently. Only in rare individuals does the talent become tenacious and magical.”
“You were younger than fifteen when your talent turned to magic.”
“Yes, I am an exception to the rule.”
“What is your talent, Liam?”
“I can pass through solid objects.”
She must have looked skeptical because as they came to the one-story building, Liam kept walking, and as he reached the brick wall, he disappeared into it. He was gone!
Where is he?? She looked around in disbelief. Did he just walk into that wall?
After a few seconds he materialized out of the wall and stood next to her. “It works with any solid substance.”
“That’s amazing!”
“It comes in handy.”
Liam opened the double doors to the building, and they went into a wide foyer with a long hallway, and doors on either side.
“This building is one of our training facilities. We have classes of all kinds going on here.”
Danica could hear muffled sounds of people talking coming from some of the rooms. They walked to one of the doors and Liam opened it to a martial arts class. A young instructor was at the front of the room leading a group of people in what looked like karate.
“We have many martial arts classes as well as fencing, gymnastics, ballet, yoga, aerial yoga, and rock climbing. We have an air strip and there are classes in aviation and sky diving. We have a lake where scuba diving is taught as well as sailing and boat racing. There’s a shooting range, an archery range, racetracks for foot racing, as well as tracks for racing cars and horses.”
Liam closed the door to the karate class. They walked to another door and he opened it to a classroom setting where an instructor was teaching a foreign language to a room full of people.
“There are many language classes ongoing. We also have classes in communications, higher math, warfare, strategy, weaponry and engineering.”
“Who are all these people?”
“They are young hopefuls who weren’t accepted by The Magic. We develop their gifts as best as we can, and they are our army when we need them.”
“Army?”
Liam closed the classroom door and gave her a sober look. “There are forces in the worlds that are evil, Danica. Forces that want to destroy everything good. You are here for a purpose. Your talents, once developed, will help keep the worlds safe.”
“Worlds?”
“Yes. This one and the others like the one you came from. If that one is destroyed, this one cannot exist. The worlds are symbiotic. Do you understand?”
“Um, no, not really.”
“One cannot exist without the other, and the evil wishes to destroy all the worlds. It’s up to us to keep them safe. It’s the separation-connection principle. What separates us can be what keeps us connected.”
Danica frowned.
“Like two prisoners who are separated by a thick wall. They knock on it to communicate with each other, so what separates them also connects them.”
Understanding settled on Danica’s face. “So, if the world I came from is destroyed, then this world will no longer exist. We are divided, but we also have a bond that can’t be broken.”
“Yes, and it’s that bond, that connection, that we do everything in our power to safeguard.”
They were walking through a landscaped garden at the back of the hotel. As they rounded a high hedge, they nearly tripped over someone kneeling on the grass. It was the gardener she had glimpsed from her window earlier that morning.
“Shaw! We almost fell over you!” Liam exclaimed.
He stood up. “Hi, I’m Shaw.” He brushed his dirty hands over his pants. Friendly eyes regarded her.
She blushed. “Danica.”
“I’m pleased to meet you, Danica,” and he swept his hat off and bowed. Dark brown curls tumbled around his head. Danica noticed he was much taller than he looked from two floors up.
As he straightened, he said, “Don’t let this guy get all serious on you. He can be a bit of a granny sometimes,” and he gave Liam a playful grin.
Danica smiled, instantly liking Shaw, and he didn’t make any reference about
seeing her naked through her window. She probed his mind, and it was open and filled with curiosity and interest. She knew he wanted to be friends. “Thanks for the warning,” and all three of them laughed.
“Let’s go to the kitchen,” Liam said. “Everyone is on their own for lunch and it’s available until two o’clock. If you’re later than that for some reason, you can beg Peggy, the head cook, and she’ll find something for you. Then I’ll leave you to yourself. Dinner is in the dining room at seven.” He looked at Shaw. “Care to join us for lunch?”
“Thanks, I’ve eaten. Next time.”
“Bye, Shaw,” Danica said.
He waved as they left the garden.
Six
Danica’s stomach growled, and she remembered the small breakfast she had eaten. The kitchen was huge and old with brick walls, slate floors, and modern amenities. Many people worked at different stations around the spacious room. A few young women were making pastries; a couple young men were minding large cauldrons set on massive gas stoves; some were cutting up huge quantities of vegetables. She and Liam walked to an area in the back that had a steam table with a variety of soups, and a cold table with an array of meats and cheeses, greens, and salad fixings. She followed Liam’s lead and made herself a large chicken salad sandwich and filled a small bowl with a delicious-smelling cheesy soup. Everything went into sealed containers, and then into a brown bag with utensils. On the way out the door, they each grabbed a bottle of water from an ice chest.
“All of this stuff is recycled. We have little waste here in the Beyond. I hope you don’t mind if I leave you on your own. I almost forgot a lunch meeting I have today.” Liam pointed up a walkway. “There are tables over there, or the lake is down that path about a quarter mile. It’s a nice peaceful place to sit. Or you can go inside into the commons.”
“Thanks for the tour. This is a great place. I already love it here.”
His smile reached his eyes. “I’ll see you at dinner, and by the way, it’s rather formal. You’ll find appropriate dress in your wardrobe.” He turned and sauntered off in the direction of the commons.
The Acolyte: Magicians of the Beyond Page 3