The Search for Starlight

by Elyse Salpeter

  Now, he, Desmond and Kelsey were in the library of Desmond’s brownstone on the upper west side of Manhattan. Robbie couldn’t stop pacing from one end of the room to the other, peppering Kelsey with questions and trying to understand why the elders in Pritvhi had hidden his past from him. Why had Master Dov purposely deceived him? His teacher had come into his life two years after Robbie had arrived in Pritvhi, apparently at the exact same time as the death of his parents. Why hadn’t they told him his sister was still alive on Earth? They had to have known. And more importantly, and more alarming, now that Kelsey told him she’d gone to live with the Emperor and Empress after her attack and had been visiting steadily ever since, why had they given him their blessing to kill her if she didn’t turn over the talisman they sought? They’d known all along she was his sister!

  Kelsey sat on the couch, asking herself the exact same questions. But one loomed larger than the others.

  “The Emperor and Empress set us both up, you know,” she told Robbie. She was astounded, furious and so hurt it made it hard for her to breathe. They had all but ordered her brother to kill her, all in the name of the prophecy. She felt like nothing to them but a pawn on a chessboard.

  Desmond reclined in a high wingback with Yeshe resting contentedly on his lap. Kelsey had just explained in detail to Robbie how she’d first come to Xanadu and what Mara had been doing to her lifetime after lifetime.

  Robbie had been justifiably amazed. “So basically you are human, but with a demonic spiritual path?”

  “No. I’m human with a human path. I just happen to have a demonic background,” she clarified.

  Robbie sighed. “Call it what you will so you can sleep at night, but you, at your core, are a demon. The reaction my talisman has to you proves that. You’re just, well, different than all the others.”

  Desmond laughed slightly. “She’s certainly different, you can say that. Add in her god-like background, too, and there’s no one else in the universe like her. You kind of left that part out of your explanation, Kelsey.”

  Robbie glanced at her, confused, while Kelsey raised her eyes to the ceiling and sighed.

  “I’m a bit more complex than most humans, Robbie.” She brought him up to speed about her physical lineage to Kenmut, the Egyptian Decan Sky God. How centuries upon centuries ago he had mated with a human, which started her human lineage and ended with her mother sleeping with Armand Dupuis, getting pregnant with her and now solidifying her godlike lineage as well.

  Robbie just stared at her, his jaw dropped. “This is unreal. So, you’re a human-god-demon living and breathing on Earth, whom I was sent to kill, who happens to be my sister. I’ve never seen or heard of anyone or anything like this before.”

  Kelsey agreed.

  He huffed. “So, you’re telling me that the monks and the Emperor and Empress must have kept you alive all this time in this lifetime, just so you could be sent to find this amulet. So we could meet, just so I could kill you to fulfill the prophecy our own father translated before he was murdered?”

  She pursed her lips. “It certainly seems that way to me. You started your training around the exact same time he died. You sure your master doesn’t know anything?”

  “He does know things but… this? The man has been with me my entire life. He’s like a father to me! How could he know?” Robbie made a decision. “Well, I won’t do it. I’m not going to just murder you so their stupid prophecy happens. I won’t be used like this,” he fumed. He walked over and sat down on the couch next to Kelsey.

  Kelsey removed the paper folded in her pocket, spread it out and read it aloud for yet another time that night. “It will be in this lifetime their paths will all cross together. Heed the signs. The girl needs to live. She is the only one that will be able to find the charmed one. She needs to seek starlight. And then the demon will die by her own blood and be released. If not, all will be lost.” Kelsey shook the paper. “This prophecy mimics my life, Robbie. Our father translated it for the monks who must have known all along what was happening. They probably strung him along just to keep me there in Tibet, just waiting for Raul Salazar to attack us so they could start this continuum. I never lived past my teen years in any epoch except this one. Everyone I have been in contact with in this lifetime is directly responsible for what happened to me and my parents. No one protected any of us.”

  “But why let you get attacked in the first place?” Robbie said. “Why couldn’t they just let all of you live? I mean, you could have died on that mountain and this timeline would have ended, so why even take the chance? Or why couldn’t they have just sent me to get the amulet all these years later without getting you involved? It was sitting with an old bookkeeper. How hard would that have been for me to acquire?”

  Kelsey put her hands to her head and squeezed her temples. “All of this was probably because without this path, I would never have been tested and grown into my powers. I learned an immense number of things over this past year.”

  “What did you learn? Tell me.”

  Kelsey held up a finger with each point she made. “I rid Xanadu of Mara, I stopped a vindictive Decan Sky god from erasing three stars in the nighttime sky, I helped end a Devic war, and I freed the entire staff of Cragg Hill Mountain House from Oni demons who had been controlling them for over one hundred and fifty years. Just to name a few things.”

  “Unreal,” Robbie breathed.

  Desmond piped up. “But your brother has a point. Why kill your parents, Kelsey? If you lived, why couldn’t your continuum move forward with them still alive?”

  Robbie’s nostrils flared. “Maybe because if they were alive, then I would never have been sent to Pritvhi and become a soldier. They’d probably have tried to heal me on Earth, or sent me back to Earth after I was healed from my illness and then none of this timeline would have happened. This means they set both of us up even before you got attacked.”

  “Our father never would have agreed to any of this had he known. I’m sure of it,” Kelsey said.

  “Are you sure of that?” Desmond questioned. “I’m sorry, but he did give you the bracelet. He brought you to Egypt where you got attacked. He then brought you to Tibet to train with the monks. Kenmut even said he knew you weren’t his blood daughter. Benjamin Porter was with you for all these important events. I bet he knew something, if not everything.”

  She stared at him, amazed. “You think he also knew he would die, along with my mother? What father sets up his wife and daughter like that, Des?” She put her hands to her temple and squeezed as if in pain.

  He shrugged. “Bantu Shingen and his brother were set up like that, weren’t they?”

  Robbie’s face crinkled in doubt. “Look, I’ve known about the Emperor and Empress for years. I used to travel to the monastery with my teachers all the time. Master Dov was very close with them. Not once did they share their knowledge about you with me. They can read souls and must have known we were related all this time. That is an abomination to the very tenets of Buddhism. They used both of us, and they need to be made accountable for what they did.”

  “Of course they knew, and I want to know why,” Kelsey said. “Will your elders tell you if you confront them?”

  Robbie clicked his tongue. “Probably not. They hadn’t told me much of anything about you until this point, and when I explained what happened, only then did they give me just a glimpse into your history. And then my Master all but begged me not to kill you. He was very specific about that. I’m a demon hunter, Kelsey! Since when am I told not to kill a demon?”

  “When they know who the demon is, that’s when. Perhaps they aren’t on board with you committing sororicide. This means Master Dov knows who I am. Another secret,” Kelsey huffed. “Maybe this one teacher has a soul. He is probably the only person in the universe asking you not to kill me. Maybe one day I’ll get to meet him and thank him. Desmond, can you imagine the black splotch that would stain Robbie’s soul if he killed me? It would mark him for a millennia,
and no matter how righteous the motive, he’d be destined to spend thousands of years in the hell realms with Mara and my sisters. This teacher obviously knows it. Maybe this man has a heart.”

  “Or an agenda.” Desmond let that thought hang in the air.

  Robbie’s nostrils flared. “What was the second line of the prophesy that said I’d be the one to kill you?”

  Kelsey’s jaw tightened. “Blood is thicker than the realms. When linked, it will bleed and persevere.” And Benjamin Porter translated it for them, probably after a promise that he would save us both, not knowing what it all really meant. You know Robbie, I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to you. You got sick, left for the hospital, and then you were gone. They didn’t even have an open casket at your funeral.”

  “Because I was never actually in the casket.”

  She nodded. “And right after that we went to live in Tibet.”

  Desmond nodded. “And at the monastery is where they taught you how to meditate, and you learned all about Buddhism. It all started there.”

  Robbie nodded. “And my training started two years later, the same time you were attacked and our family died.

  Kelsey spread her hands wide. “Quite the coincidence, isn’t it? Which you should know I don’t believe in. And now, here we are.”

  Robbie balled his fists. “I won’t be part of this plan. I’ll go against them.”

  Desmond leaned forwards. “Both of you, listen. Don’t forget this one thing. I’ve told this to Kelsey every time it seemed like her life was being played with. Paths can change at any moment. In any other lifetime, Kelsey could have lived and things might have been different. But now is when everything seems to be coming together and yet, even now, you have the power to change things with this new knowledge. Without Kelsey getting attacked, she never would have gone to Xanadu and I never would have met her. Without you needing to be sent to Pritvhi, Robbie, your parents would never have gone to Tibet. Without her powers finally coming forward, she never would have been able to do half the things she’s been doing. All of us in this timeline are being used in some fashion to get to this point, and it’s up to us how we want to proceed. The fact the two of you have now met changes everything. I don’t think the Emperor and Empress expected either of you to discover who you are to each other.”

  Kelsey rubbed her chin in thought. “I almost wonder if the Devic war between the Asuras and Trayastrimsa Devas was started by someone, just to have you finally meet me, Des.”

  “What if the Emperor and Empress started it themselves?” he asked, quietly.

  “All for this charm?” She held up the amulet. “For this thing they seek called starlight? The answers are in here with Caim. I have to get him out of this amulet somehow.”

  Robbie stared at her pointedly. “And how do you plan on doing that and still protect the people on Earth? Caim is a dangerous demon. If you release him, you are going to have to get your answers from him and then kill him.”

  “I have no intention of killing him. I just have to figure out where to take him so we’ll be safe.” Kelsey drummed her knee, thinking. She knew she couldn’t release him in the Naraka realms or Mara would find out. She couldn’t take him to Xanadu or the Emperor and Empress would get wind of it. She wanted him all to herself first.

  Robbie eyeballed her. “You’re not planning on killing him when you’re done with him? You’re being compassionate to a demon?”

  Kelsey simply stared at him until Robbie raised his hands in disgust. “This is just not done! You are not to care about demons! They are supposed to be destroyed or brought to the realm where they can pay for their sins in their next incarnation!”

  “Well, too bad. This is how it’s done by me. Get used to it.” Kelsey glanced at Desmond. “Any ideas?”

  He considered this. “What about taking him to Aihika? You’re strong there.”

  “That won’t work. The portals I know about are too far away. We just don’t have time to catch a flight to Alaska. I need to do this now.”

  “Could your sister help?” Even suggesting it caused Desmond to blush.

  “Really? But no. She’d just take him back to Mara and then I wouldn’t find out anything. And I don’t even know how to contact her. I’d have to go back to the palace, which I have no intention of doing right now. Thank you, but no.”

  “You could go ask your father,” Robbie’s face puckered even saying the words.

  “That is not an option. What is wrong with you people? I’m not going back to the Naraka palace!” Her eyes widened as an idea came to her and she snapped her fingers. “Wait, I think I know how to do this. In theory it could work, if I can figure it out.” She stood up and paced as she spoke. “Okay, Desmond, remember when I fought against Ustha and had to go before Anubis, the God of the Underworld? Remember I left you all in the temple? I was thrust into a realm of only pure consciousness. It was the place all of Kenmut’s heirs’ souls went to when Ustha killed them.”

  “Ustha?” Robbie asked, confused. “What, who is that? Another demon?”

  Kelsey closed her eyes and took a deep, exasperated breath. “No, she’s not a demon. She’s the Decan sky goddess who was in love with Kenmut, the god whom I’m physically descended from. Which, so you know, means we’re not even full blood brother and sister since our mother, Margaret, slept with someone else besides our dad and got pregnant with me.” Even saying it still made her cringe. She wanted to be Benjamin Porter’s daughter more than Armand Dupuis’s daughter so badly it made her heart hurt to think about it.

  Robbie listened with his jaw dropped in astonishment. “Kelsey, you are unlike any other demon I know. Demons don’t save people. Demons don’t sacrifice themselves for the greater good over and over again for centuries. And demons are not descended from Decan sky gods.”

  “I’m not a demon, Robbie.” One second I accept that I’m a demon and the next I don’t. I have to come to terms with this.

  He rolled his eyes. “Of course you are. Just… not a regular one.” He shook his head disbelievingly. “Look at me. Consorting with a demon and agreeing to work with one. I never would have thought this was possible just a few days ago.” He stared at her. “Seriously, how do I help?”

  Kelsey’s chin jutted towards his hand. “That ring, where can it take you?”

  “To any realm where there is a demon.”

  “Could you follow me somewhere? Since I am a demon, of course.”

  He considered this. “Theoretically, I suppose I could. I do follow my master to other realms, and we’ve been in pursuit of demons each time.” He held up his hand. “I can go with this ring. It aligns with the chakras of the demons, as long as I see them first.”

  She sniffed. “Well, you’ve seen me already, and I apparently fit the demon bill.” She glanced at Desmond. “I need you to stay behind and watch our bodies. Do you mind? I’m not even sure if this will work. It’s all theoretical until I try.”

  Desmond shook his head. “Don’t worry about me. Just find out what you need to, and come back to me. And don’t forget, someone has to make sure Yeshe doesn’t take his dislike for you out on your face while you’re unconscious.”

  “You could lock the rat in the bathroom.”

  The cat flicked its tail and Kelsey heard a voice in her head. “Forget the cat. Take me to this realm you’re speaking of and release me. Then I will tell you everything.”

  She stared at Yeshe, but spoke to Caim. “I will release you in the only place where I know how. I will try to get you out of your prison if you help me.”

  The cat kept flicking its tail. “Do not take me to Xanadu. Promise me that and I’ll tell you everything.”

  Kelsey nodded. “I promise. Okay, let’s do this.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “So how do we make this work?” Robbie asked.

  “I have the ability to meditate and have it take me to other realms. The way you can go to other realms with your ring is the same way I can do it with my
mind,” Kelsey explained.

  Robbie squinted. “You know that’s only something demons can do, right?”

  Kelsey counted to ten to keep control. She was getting so tired of explaining herself. “Robbie, I’m going to tell you this just once more. Open your mind. What you’ve been taught is not complete. Humans can transport to other realms with their minds. The monks at the Bodhidharma monastery did it all the time. They took me to Xanadu when I was attacked. They astral projected to me and taught me everything I know.”

  He measured his words. “Are you sure, Kelsey? Are you sure someone else wasn’t guiding them and helping them along all this time?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Robbie exhaled loudly. “Look, all I’m saying is that humans don’t have these powers. They never have. Humans need a catalyst to help us do anything with traveling between the realms. My ring. A gateway. A rift in the nighttime sky. A portal. A demon. It has to be something tangible.”

  Kelsey turned to Desmond. “That’s not true. Desmond can flip the realms. I’ve taken him. He’s gone to Xanadu with me. He’s gone to Aihika.”

  “Kelsey,” Desmond ventured. “I only get to Aihika or Xanadu through a portal, like with Finley and the water bath. And I’ve only gone to Xanadu in meditation when I’ve been with you.”

  Kelsey looked back and forth between the two men. “So you’re implying that every time Desmond was with me and the monks, someone was controlling the monks to bring us visions and to places like Xanadu? All this time? I don’t believe it.”

  Robbie laughed. “You don’t see it, do you? Kelsey, you were the catalyst every time. The monks must have made you think they controlled you but you were the one channeling everything. They anchored themselves to you and your abilities, and you just didn’t know, always thinking they were the ones with the power.”