AWOL

by Traci Harding

‘Well the good news is no one has any chance of getting here inside three years from now,’ Telmo announced with cheer, and tapped Ray’s nose to dispel her fearful expression. ‘So we have a little time to form a plan. Meantime, let’s go check out the mad man, he’s pretty funny.’ Telmo led her away from the pending confrontation.

  ‘The only thing that has been stopping me from pursuing my wife was not knowing where she was.’ Mythric swept off Aurora’s grasp. ‘What must she think of us?’ Mythric was shedding tears of frustration. ‘She stood by me for thirty years, for many of which I was completely wasted, and the second I get a chance to repay that loyalty, I’m helping to resurrect her enemy?’

  ‘I know it makes no rational sense,’ Zeven appealed, ‘but it makes sound spiritual sense. Stop seeing this through Mother’s narrow sights and try to see the broader view.’

  ‘We are of the House of Vidor,’ Mythric protested. ‘We are warriors! Not psychoanalysts! Zaman Vidor, time warrior, that is what your name means!’

  ‘Spyridon Vidor, spirit warrior, that’s what your name means!’ Zeven countered. ‘I’ve lived up to my name, isn’t it time you lived up to yours?’

  Normally, this argument would have ended in a punch up, or with one of them storming off to do exactly what he wanted anyway, but there was no true anger behind their words to one another — here on Oceane, they could only speak the truth and think the best of one another.

  ‘Then what do you suggest, all-knowing one?’ Mythric calmed down and opened himself to being advised.

  ‘Just stay put, see us through this.’ Zeven motioned to the unit containing Khalid. ‘You are going to have to convince yourself that my path is righteous before you’ll have any chance of getting Mother to see it that way.’

  ‘Well said,’ Aurora awarded in support. ‘She’s already attempted to restrain and kill Taren. I know Satomi is more fond of you,’ she was quick to add. ‘But Satomi has not had to live, or be dead, without you for a very long time … making yourself absent for a bit might aid Satomi to realise where her heart and priorities truly lie. This is not good versus evil here, this is love versus fear.’

  ‘I fear her love for me will prove no match for her love of her home planet.’ Mythric was disillusioned by their resolve.

  ‘I am quite sure she had more wonderful experiences with you in one year than she had in her entire life on Phemoria, which is why she was prepared to leave it all behind for you once,’ Aurora disagreed.

  ‘No, that was because she was fleeing from a curse and being hunted by Valoureans,’ Mythric was cynical. ‘But it was neither of those threats that got her in the end.’ His hallowed sights rested on the stasis unit containing Khalid’s body.

  ‘As far as Satomi knows, you know nothing about what Zeven is up to,’ Aurora stated. ‘Which might get you closer to her and back in her favour, once the shock of all that’s happened has worn off.’

  ‘That’s dishonest.’ Mythric grinned. ‘Aren’t the righteous supposed to be truthful?’

  ‘Honesty is not about what you say.’ Zeven gave his view on the matter. ‘It is about what you intend. If your intentions are for the greater good then there can be no regret, for whether you are evil or righteous is, in the end, only judged by yourself.’

  ‘No.’ Mythric appreciated their advice. ‘I cannot let Satomi go on thinking we are all against her … that I am against her.’ Mythric reached for the armband containing his Juju stone to remove it, but Zeven gripped his father’s wrist to prevent him.

  ‘She won’t trust you, she’ll just torture you to find out what you know.’ He released him.

  ‘Well you know, a bit of S&M with the Valoureans might not be entirely undesirable,’ Mythric made light of it.

  ‘I’m serious!’ Zeven would have thumped his father, if he wasn’t full of so much good will. ‘And if Mother does let you in … then you shall be my nemesis, and she’ll have someone else under her command who has PK! Then Ray will not be safe anywhere! In fact that will be the first assignment she hands you, to test your loyalty.’

  Mythric resented that. ‘I would die before I would endanger Ray, and if she is wearing a Juju and I am not, then I cannot reach her.’

  ‘You don’t know what Satomi is capable of!’ Zeven was impassioned, but not angry. ‘You’ve already been surprised by her several times today.’

  ‘You’re right,’ Mythric freely admitted it. ‘But it is all beside the point.’

  Zeven raised his brows, eager to be enlightened.

  ‘If it was Aurora, what would you do?’

  It was a loaded question, and both men knew Mythric had won the argument — right or not.

  ‘I will betray no one,’ Mythric resolved, as he pulled the armband containing the Juju off his person. ‘Not you, not AMIE, not Thurraya, and not your mother.’

  ‘You can’t be on everyone’s side,’ Zeven rationalised, as Mythric placed the item in Zeven’s hands.

  ‘Watch me.’ Mythric’s resolve hardened.

  ‘There is an old proverb that advises …’ Telmo returned to the debate, ‘that the person who says it cannot be done, should not disturb the person doing it.’

  ‘So you agree with him?’ Zeven was surprised by this as Telmo was always so logical.

  ‘Is there any point in arguing?’ Telmo submitted. ‘We must all do as our hearts compel us. What you have achieved with Khalid most would consider impossible … should we not give Mythric the opportunity to achieve the same with your mother?’

  ‘He’s right.’ Mythric was given renewed hope and slapped his new associate on the back for it — Telmo tried to look flattered, although he wasn’t the boisterous type himself. ‘You’ve managed to play both sides and stay true to both,’ Mythric put it to Zeven. ‘Why can’t I? Would that not be advantageous to me living up to my birth name?’

  ‘Um … Mother hates me? And you’re next.’ Zeven didn’t want to accept he was about to let his father deliver himself to the Phemorians for torture. ‘But go, be tortured, see if I care!’ Zeven lost his temper for only a second. ‘No, actually I do care,’ he admitted in a complete emotional turnaround. ‘That’s why I’m pissed!’ He hugged his father with force, and Mythric returned the gesture.

  ‘I know,’ Mythric assured him, and with a slap they released each other. ‘But this is me versus a planet of women.’ His mood took an upswing. ‘I think the odds are in my favour.’ With a wink, Mythric vanished, and Zeven was left rattled.

  ‘It was all going so right.’ He was frustrated by where the course of his actions was now leading. ‘My main objective in kidnapping Khalid was to avoid a war between Sermetica and Phemoria so that the psychic bill of rights could be passed, and I achieved exactly the opposite!’

  ‘Which only shows us that if, by taking Khalid out of the equation, the result is still the same, then we have still not addressed the root of the problem,’ Telmo deduced. ‘But we can continue to chip away at it, by dealing with what we know we can do right now.’ He moved to bring Khalid out of stasis.

  ‘Are you staying with us then?’ Zeven queried his wife, hoping her things were also in the suitcase she had brought with her.

  Aurora looked around at the shack and the boys club that would be occupying it. ‘What would I do here?’

  ‘You could help me with Khalid,’ Zeven proffered. ‘Teach him how to act around a lady.’

  ‘Ha,’ she scoffed. ‘I’m yet to teach you!’

  ‘Harsh.’ Zeven held his heart, faking hurt.

  ‘I’d just end up playing house maid to you all … I think I’ll pass.’ Aurora screwed up her nose, sorry to disappoint. ‘But Taren assures me that she’ll bring me to visit Ray whenever I wish. And I can look in and see what’s happening with you all at any time.’ She pointed to her head — referring to her power for remote viewing.

  ‘Just like when Ray was a baby, and you’d leave her with me on Frujia whilst running missions for the triple S.’ Zeven pointed out that this wasn’t the first time
the family had been split apart, and Ray adapted to the situation far better than her parents did.

  ‘Uh, the good old days.’ Aurora sighed at their current woes. ‘I’m going to miss you guys.’

  Zeven gave her a kiss and a hug, seeking reassurance for them both. ‘Will you stay here in the hut with Ray while we resurrect Khalid?’ he requested. ‘Just in case it doesn’t work, I don’t want Ray to witness him dying on us.’

  Aurora nodded to agree. ‘In any case, I’d like to thank him personally for protecting our daughter.’

  ‘That will mean a lot to him, I’m sure.’

  ‘How do you want to do this?’ Telmo requested, as the compression seal on the stasis unit disengaged with a hiss of cold air around the rim of the lid, whereupon it slowly opened.

  Zeven turned his attention to dealing with Telmo’s query. ‘I’ll just teleport him out to that big flat rock out yonder.’

  ‘Which rock?’ Telmo moved closer to the balcony so he could view the location for himself.

  ‘It must have dropped from out of the mountains since last I was here, but it’s perfect for what we need.’ Zeven looked to Telmo who was frowning. ‘Is there a problem?’

  ‘No problem,’ Telmo assured. ‘You are right, it does suit our need perfectly.’

  ‘You are going to make him better?’ Ray came back into the dwelling, and took hold of her mother’s hand.

  ‘We hope so, sweetness.’ Zeven winked at her as he and Telmo laid their hands upon Khalid.

  ‘We’ll watch from here, okay?’ Aurora drew Ray close to her as Zeven and Telmo teleported Khalid’s diseased body out into the wild weather of Oceane.

  Upon landing they were all instantly soaked by the torrential rain as they lowered the patient’s body down to lay comfortably on the rock, and there was still room for Zeven and Telmo to crouch either side of him.

  ‘Is it working?’ Ahura jumped out of the water and landed firmly on his feet upon the block also.

  ‘As with us, the wounds are washing away,’ Telmo called over the weather, ‘but —’

  As the blood and flesh of the wounds were washed from Khalid’s body, the debris turned into a glowing blue liquid that flowed down from Khalid over the rock and into the surrounding water, which had also begun to glow.

  ‘Liquid light,’ Telmo posed, inspecting his own wound to find it had merely washed away as Zeven’s had.

  Zeven was exulted by the spectacle, and bemused by it. ‘How is that even possible?’

  There was a rumble deep within the earth that unnerved them all.

  ‘Earthquake?’ Zeven feared.

  Telmo shared his apprehension. ‘Etheric quake.’

  ‘Pardon?’ Zeven began to panic as the rumbling of the earth increased in measure with the spread of the glow outwards through the water of the wetland — a storm of light more intense than the tempest above.

  ‘My girls!’ Zeven noticed the event had reached the water below the hut, and was of the mind to teleport to them as the landscape shook violently and he was forced to kneel to keep his balance. He looked to the rocky mounds around them, to observe that they were not so much crumbling, but transforming — as if another landscape was punching its way up through the existing one.

  ‘What’s happening?’ Zeven looked to Telmo who was holding Khalid in place.

  ‘I think we may have located the Dropa city,’ he replied, his voice reverberating with the trembling of the earth.

  ‘His blood is a key!’ Ahura laughed with insane delight.

  Khalid suddenly gasped into life. ‘I remember!’ he cried, in rapture. ‘Karmandi!’ His entire body began exuding the same blue-white light.

  ‘Whoa!’ Zeven exclaimed.

  Telmo struggled to stand and looked to Ahura. ‘Home.’ He smiled, his arms flung wide to embrace the experience.

  ‘What’s that pretty light mean, Mummy?’ Thurraya and Aurora gazed on in amazement as the bright liquid light began to illuminate the site where Khalid was being healed.

  ‘I have no idea, baby.’ Aurora was enchanted by the pretty phenomenon as it spread through the water beneath the hut they were in.

  ‘I think everything is going to be just fine,’ Ray deduced with a clap of her hands, but as the ground beneath them began to tremble, their mystified expressions turned to frowns. ‘Or maybe not.’

  As the rumbling intensified Aurora was momentarily confused as to whether to lead her child back into the swaying dwelling, or into the glowing, churning waters below. ‘Ray.’ She crouched down where they were. ‘Do you have any charge left from Daddy? Can you get us back to AMIE?’

  ‘I’ll try.’ Thurraya held her mother, and closed her eyes tight a moment. Then opening them again she shook her head. ‘It’s not working!’

  ‘Never mind.’ Aurora grabbed Ray up into her arms as the stilted supports of the hut were heard to creak and crack with stress. ‘It’s going to be okay.’ She headed down the stairs to take her chances in the water, and once clear of the dwelling, she stood thigh-deep in the water, clutching her daughter close.

  ‘Look, Mummy!’ Ray pointed back to where they had just come from.

  Aurora swung about to observe the hut fading from existence, and she backed up slowly and carefully, stunned beyond rational thought, as a huge temple manifested in its place.

  9

  VOID OF FEELING

  Aware now that Satomi could shapeshift, and her image no longer served as a reliable psychic marker, Mythric teleported himself to the Qusay’s private audience chamber on Phemoria, which was located behind the throne room proper in the royal palace. Fortunately for Mythric, he’d been invited into this chamber — that no man had been inside for eons — by the Qusay-Sabah Clarona the day the timekeepers had removed the cursed crown from her head. In that instance the Qusay had requested that he fetch her sister’s remains from the crypt beneath the House of Vidor on Sermetica, and return her to Phemoria, where she could rest in the peace. Naturally he had been beyond overjoyed to find his only love had been placed in stasis at the time of her death, and pooling the talents of fellow timekeepers, Dr Kassa Madri, Swithin Gervaise and Ringbalin Malachi, they had been able to bring Satomi back to life and heal her of her death wounds. It was hard to believe that all that good will and intention had led here — to the brink of war.

  The chamber was empty at present, but as the Qusay usually took her meals herein, she was bound to enter several times during her working day. He needed to get his wife alone if he was to have any hope of getting her to hear him out.

  This room was lavishly adorned with furnishings and decorations, so it wasn’t difficult to find somewhere to hide. When one of the several side-doors to the royal chamber opened, Mythric concealed himself behind a bulky, floor-length curtain.

  A house servant entered with a tray and placed it upon a small dining table, then turned about and, to Mythric’s shock, headed in his direction. He was not so intimate with what behind the lounge looked like to envision himself there; he could have shifted to behind another curtain, but she was bound to open them all. As she neared, he was quick to step towards the side of the window and hold his breath as the maid drew the heavy curtain aside. She reached under the curtain for the tasselled end of the silk rope, which he was quick to direct into her hand and when she hooked the rope back on to its heavy metal fastener on the wall, Mythric found himself tied up inside the curtain. Still, he breathed a sigh of relief when she moved on to the next one. It was moments like this that he wished he’d learned Zeven’s invisibility trick.

  Mythric, like many people who had the Powers, had spent much of his life denying he had any and doing his best to drown them out with alcohol. If a task could be completed without using any supernatural force, it was his natural instinct to use the mortal means.

  Like wriggling out of this curtain. He could have teleported out of the situation, but in this instance he would have betrayed himself as when he was halfway through shimmying out of the bind, another door o
pened — this time it was the double doors that led into the courtroom. At the sound of several heavy-footed people entering — he guessed Valoureans — Mythric stayed put and listened while they did a lap of the room, including checking behind the curtains; if Mythric had not been bound inside of one, he would have been found.

  ‘All clear, Majesty. There are guards posted outside every door.’ ‘Thank you, Captain, that will be all.’

  Mythric was surprised to hear not Satomi’s voice, but that of the Qusay-Sabah Clarona. Was the timekeeper’s intel wrong? Had Satomi been deposed already? Or had his wife just shifted form to assume the appearance of her sister?

  He waited for the Qusay to be seated and eating her lunch before he teleported himself into the middle of the room. ‘Hello, my love.’

  As the Qusay spotted him, she smiled and placed her eating utensils aside. ‘Spyridon Vidor. I suspected she might send you next. If you are here to try and romance me into giving up my birthright, I’m afraid you will be sadly disappointed.’

  ‘I came of my own accord, and I would never ask you to give up what is rightly yours,’ Mythric posed. ‘But as the crown of Phemoria is rightfully yours, why are you wearing the guise of your sister?’

  ‘It was easier than trying to explain that I’d been resurrected from the dead after thirty years.’ She took a sip of her wine. ‘I guess you regret that now. My sister certainly does.’

  ‘To see you living and breathing … I have thought of little else for thirty years.’ It was off-putting trying to pour his heart out to the Qusay when her appearance was of a woman he barely knew. ‘My only regret is that you believe that your family have somehow betrayed you.’

  The Qusay was angered by that statement, and stood. ‘Have you discovered what our son is up to?’

  Mythric nodded, solemn. ‘He is healing a man I wanted to kill.’

  ‘Past tense?’ she noted.

  ‘Khalid is dying, Satomi, from wounds he sustained saving our granddaughter’s life.’

  ‘What?’ She was shocked to a smile, which departed very quickly as her anger returned. ‘And our son is trying to save him?’