Secrets

by Shannon Pemrick

  “Because you’re a coward.” His eyes widened with shock at my insult. “I don’t know why you think I’m someone from your past, and frankly I don’t care, but I can see why she wouldn’t want you. No one wants a coward. No one wants to rely on someone who would be so foolish as to make a pact just to appear better than they really are.”

  Anir roared in anger, and this time I was unable to keep Maiyun calm. She panicked, and before I could do anything, she was running off into the dark woods. “Maiyun, no, come back! Maiyun!” When she didn’t come back, I turned and glared at Anir. “Now look at what you’ve done.”

  “That look… it’s the same. Lifetimes of rebirth, and you still are capable of that same look.” He sounded almost sad. “That look broke me. It’s the look that made me see how wrong I was, and how much I had hurt you.”

  “Well, if you’re looking for a pity party, you’re going to have to search for it from someone else,” I spat. “I have to go find Maiyun now, thanks to you.”

  “Please don’t leave me again,” he begged as I walked away.

  “I can’t walk away ‘again,’ because this will be the first time I’ve ever walked away from you,” I said. “A soul like mine, it could never be allowed to have more than one life.”

  He sighed. “Even in this life, you see yourself as some mere stone, instead of the gem you truly are.”

  I sighed in aggravation and trudged through the water. I wasn’t going to correct him again, and I wasn’t going to get in that debate with a stranger, especially when I had something more important to do. I needed to find Maiyun. Arcadia said she was a preserved spirit, but I wasn’t sure if she could be corrupted or not. I wasn’t going to be the reason Acadia couldn’t have her companion follow her around anymore.

  I called for Maiyun over and over as I tried to find her. Due to the nature of this plane, she didn’t have much of a scent to track. My heart started to feel heavy when I continued to receive no answer. I was starting to worry about her. I wanted to blame that dragon for showing up and scaring her, but I knew it was my fault. I wasn’t able to keep her calm, after all…

  I stopped walking when the sound of a child crying echoed into my ear. This perplexed me. Why would a child be here? Being too curious for my own good, I followed the sound until I came to a small girl with pale skin and dark hair sitting on a rock. Something didn’t quite feel right about her as she cried, but I couldn’t place what.

  The girl’s crying slowed to a sniffle when she noticed me approaching. “W–who are you?”

  “My name is Eira,” I told her with caution. “Who are you?”

  “Dela,” she sniffled.

  “Hi, Dela, why are you crying?”

  “‘Cause… ‘cause I’m lost and scared…” She started to cry again. “I don’t know where I am. This place is scary! Mean people walk around here trying to scare me, and they talk about being dead. I want to go home! I want my mom…” She stopped crying when she noticed the lantern in my hand. “You’re not one of those mean people who says they’re dead. You can help me!”

  “I’m not sure if I can, Dela,” I said.

  “But you can bring me back to my mom!”

  “Dela, this is going to be hard to understand, but you’re dead.” Something wasn’t right about this girl. Even as a spirit, she would know she was dead. I had been told that time and time again, even when they’d try not to believe it happened, they’d still show signs of knowing the truth.

  She blinked. “What? No, that’s not true. That can’t be true.”

  “Yes, Dela, it is true.”

  She shook her head. “No!”

  “Then tell me, what were you doing before you ended up here?”

  “I was going somewhere,” she explained. “We were in the car. Dad was driving us somewhere when I fell asleep. Then I…”

  Something in her eyes told me this wasn’t right. Something wasn’t right about her, but I continued to play along. “You woke up here, right?”

  “No, I didn’t wake up. This is a bad dream,” she insisted. “Mom says when I’ve been bad I can dream about a place like this. It’s a place where bad people go when they die. I thought she was saying it to scare me…”

  “Dela, I’m sorry, but you’re not dreaming.” I needed to get through to this girl. I needed to find Maiyun, but my job as shaman was making that difficult now.

  “No, I’m not!” she shouted. “Tell me how to wake up from this place!”

  I sighed with aggravation. “Dela, stop this.”

  “Take me away from this awful place!”

  “No, Dela, I can’t take you anywhere, because you were sentenced here. You died and you were sent here.”

  “No I wasn’t,” she insisted “I’m just a kid. Why would a kid be sent to a place like this?”

  There was the slipup I was looking for. “You’re not a child. You’re just disguising yourself as one.”

  She looked at me with hurt eyes. “Why are you being so mean?”

  “You can’t fool me, corrupted spirit. You can’t get me to believe your masquerade.”

  She scowled. “How? Tell me how you knew.”

  “It’s in your eyes,” I explained. “You can’t hide your true nature, because your eyes give you away.”

  She glared at me. “You’re one to talk.”

  I chuckled. “I never said I was trying to hide. You can’t use me as a tool, because I refuse to be used like one again, even if that is my purpose. You can’t possess my spirit, because you’ll just wind up here again… because no matter how much good I try to do, no matter how much I try to make up for my past, I will end up here too.”

  “But you live now. You will give me life once again!” The little girl changed shape into a large, black, featureless sprit and came at me.

  Staying calm, I closed my eyes and felt the spirit phase through me. I opened my eyes and turned to face it, to see it, trying to understand why it was unable to touch me. “I’m not afraid to die. It’s what I deserve, after all, but I have a job to do, and until that job is completed, I can’t die. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have someone to find.”

  The spirit snickered. “You’d better hurry before it’s too late.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “You were just a distraction, weren’t you?”

  “Arcadia should know better than to leave that pup alone in this place.” It chuckled and began to disappear. “It’s so full of fear here, it’s intoxicating.”

  Cursing, I took off into a full sprint. I didn’t care how much noise I was making, or how much attention I’d draw to myself. I was not going to take that spirit’s words as some sort of bluff.

  My heart skipped when I heard Maiyun whimpering and growling. I didn’t stop running until I found her, and was horrified by what was going on. Maiyun, sopping wet from her run, was crouched down as low as possible without submerging her face in water, while dark, featureless spirits surrounded her. Some occasionally reached out to grab at her.

  I growled and threw the lantern at them, knowing full well I couldn’t conjure up any fire from my chest. “Leave her alone!”

  The spirits scattered in an attempt to avoid the light, and the lantern crashed to the ground just past Maiyun. Taking the opportunity before the spirits collected themselves, I rushed over and wrapped my arm around her protectively. She whimpered, and I hushed her quietly while keeping an eye on the spirits. There were getting closer again, and I thought I could hear them hissing out terrible things they wanted to do to the poor wolf. When a spirit tried to reach out, I retaliated, and it shrunk back but didn’t leave.

  I didn’t understand what they wanted from Maiyun. I couldn’t understand where Arcadia was for that matter. Shouldn’t she be able to tell there was an issue, or was the problem she was dealing with a bigger one?

 
I held Maiyun tighter when the spirits started to move closer as a group. Whatever they wanted, they weren’t waiting for it now. Pulling Maiyun into a more protective embrace, I closed my eyes. “It’s going to be okay, Maiyun. I’ll protect you.”

  Maiyun licked my elbow and just as she did, a warm feeling grew inside me, feeling as if it were projecting outwards. I assumed it had to be my courage as the spirits tried to harm us. Since I wasn’t afraid, and they were howling in anger, or what I speculated to be anger, it was the only explanation.

  The sloshing of feet running through the water toward us echoed through the area. I didn’t open my eyes, even after the noise stopped, until a hand touched on my shoulder. “Eira?”

  I opened my eyes and looked at Arcadia. “Hey.”

  “You two okay?” she asked worriedly.

  I nodded and stood up, making sure I was still touching Maiyun, in case she was still a little scared. “Yeah, we’re fine, thanks to you.”

  She tilted her head. “Me?”

  I looked around. “Yeah, you got rid of those spirits, right?”

  “Oh, that, yes.” She pat Maiyun on the head gently. “Care to tell me what happened?”

  “Shortly after you left, some dragon spirit started freaking out at me. It scared Maiyun to the point that she ran off, even as I tried to keep her calm. I chased after her and found her being attacked, and did my best to protect her. Then you showed up.”

  Arcadia looked at me curiously. “What dragon soul?”

  “He called himself Anir.”

  She nodded. “The ancient soul you heard prior to me leaving your side. He didn’t give you much trouble aside from scaring Maiyun off, did he?”

  “No, he was just bothersome. Kept calling me ‘Ancient Soul’ and tried to convince me I was someone from his past, just in a new body, as if I had been given a second life or something like that.”

  Arcadia started thinking. “Interesting…”

  “Souls can be reincarnated, right?” I asked. She nodded. “How often does it happen?”

  “Tricky question,” she admitted. “There are no set rules as to when or why a soul should be given another life, especially now with Rashta missing. She used to say when and why, but now souls are just reborn at random. Some souls are never reborn, while others are reborn multiple times.”

  “I’m not an ancient soul, am I, Arcadia?” I questioned.

  She shook her head. “I’m afraid I can’t answer that.”

  “Why not?”

  She chuckled. “Because I don’t know.”

  “Oh, okay.” I found that quite strange. She was the keeper of this plane. Shouldn’t she know things like this? “Can gods be reborn?”

  She looked at me funny. “Excuse me?”

  “Well, you said Rashta was missing, and she’s the goddess of judgment and rebirth. Couldn’t that mean she could have died, and been reborn into a new life with a new identity?”

  Arcadia shook her head. “I don’t think that would be possible. My reasoning is, if we are no longer believed, in we lose our status as gods, therefore a god cannot be reborn while he is believed in, because we can’t die. Death is required for the rebirth process to happen. Besides, if that were the reason for her disappearance, Genesis and Zoltan would know.”

  “I suppose…”

  “You don’t believe me,” she guessed.

  “It’s not that. I’m just thinking.” Truth was, I wasn’t sure what to believe. Why does it feel like she’s hiding something?

  “I should show you the way back now,” Arcadia stated. “I’ve kept you longer than I had intended.”

  I nodded and followed her as she started to walk off. Maiyun picked up her lantern and then happily followed us. I patted her on the head as I mulled over everything that happened. Between the confrontation with Anir and the information Arcadia had given me, my mind was trying to piece together a puzzle I wasn’t sure was solvable, or that didn’t want to be solved at all.

  Chapter 16

  My pace was quick as I headed for Genesis’ and Seda’s room. Seda informed me of an assignment that needed special handling, and I wasn’t going to say no. When I reached the door, I pressed my back against it when Argus appeared in the hall. These halls may be bigger than the ones in the back of the house, but it was still easier to just let one person pass at a time. But he surprised me when he stopped in front of the door as well.

  “Are you going into their room, too?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  He grinned. “Well if they want both of us, then this should be interesting.”

  Want us both? That was a strange thing to happen. I couldn’t remember, besides during a skirmish, when Argus and I had ever worked on an assignment together. Not that I was against the idea, I just wasn’t sure how the two of us could accomplish an assignment together when we had vastly different skills.

  I opened the door, and the two of us strolled in to find Genesis reading some papers, and Seda, like usual, was meditating. She told me once why she did it so often. It apparently not only helped with obtaining important pieces of information from the Life Timeline, but it helped with keeping her psychic ability in check. She said it wasn’t uncommon for the average psychic to meditate up to ten hours a day. Although she seemed to be rather alert, so I had a feeling she wasn’t meditating as hard as she should have been.

  Genesis looked up from her papers. “Oh, good you’re both here. I have a very important assignment for the two of you to work together on.”

  Argus and I looked at each other and then back to her.

  “Okay, go on,” I urged.

  She laid her papers out on the bed and I ventured closer to get a better look, even though I figured I wouldn’t be able to read them. To my surprise, they were coded in the symbolic language I had created.

  “The Council has been having the rest of our team doing a lot of surveillance, and they uncovered something interesting. According to the reports, inside the military outpost in Quadrant Four, there is a research facility disguised as a supply house.”

  I looked over some pictures that had been printed out on the papers. The building looked exactly like a supply warehouse. “You said this post was in Quadrant Four. This wouldn’t happen to be the one at the end of Cypress Street, would it?”

  Genesis nodded. “Yes, that’s the exact one.”

  “That one has a lot of security,” I said.

  “Yes, I know.”

  Argus chuckled. “I think I get what’s going on here.”

  Genesis grinned. “Good. But I’ll spell it out to make sure. The Council believes this research facility has some valuable information we could use. I’ve volunteered the two of you to infiltrate it and take whatever you can. Eira, you were an obvious choice, being able to slip in and out of a location without being detected with relative ease. I’ve chosen you, Argus, because it’s not soldiers we have to worry about protecting the place. It’s the technology. Knowing this, I knew you’d be the best choice to help her get into the building.” She grinned. “And I found some old paperwork on you, showing you had once been up for selection to be trained as an assassin.”

  I looked at him with surprise and he looked away and rubbed his neck, embarrassed. “Yeah, but I didn’t make it past the first selection.”

  “So?” I asked. “The fact that you were up for selection, when you weren’t designed to be an assassin, is very impressive in its own right.”

  He smiled meekly. “Thanks.”

  Genesis looked between the two of us. “So, are you okay with him working with you, Eira?”

  I nodded. “I have no issues with any part of this assignment. I trust Argus will be an excellent partner in crime.”

  Argus laughed. “I’ll try not to let you down. But I do have a request.
”

  “Go on,” Genesis said.

  “I think it would be wise to have at least two lookouts,” he suggested. “That way we have eyes outside of the building.”

  I nodded. “Good thinking. We don’t need any surprises.”

  Genesis nodded as well. “I agree. I’ll assign Rylan and Raikidan to help. I believe they will be best suited for that task.”

  I nodded in agreement and then looked at Seda. “Would you mind letting Rylan know? I’ll fill Raikidan in after this.”

  She smiled. “Of course.”

  I then looked back at Genesis. “We’ll leave at sundown to take the advantage of the cover of darkness.”

  “You know best.” Genesis looked at Argus. “Bring whatever tools you believe you’ll need. While the rest of the council believes what we’re looking for will be creations laying around on a table or stored in a secure safe, I suspect the information we are really looking for will be blueprints or plans, stored on computers, and will need to be constructed later.”

  He nodded. “I understand. I’ll bring the best, most lightweight equipment I can. Eira, is there anything you need me to bring?”

  My brow furrowed in thought. “Uh… not that I can think of specifically. I’m not as tech-savvy as you, so as long as you bring what you think will help, I’m fine.”

  He nodded again. “I’ll try not to let you down, then.”

  I placed the paperwork back down on the bed and headed out of the room to inform Raikidan of the plan.

  I listened for the sound of guards before noting the coast clear and slipping out of the shadows. Argus was close behind and almost as quiet as I was, impressing me, what with all the gear he carried. I could see why he had been selected and, with a bit of training, would do quite well as an assassin. But I’m sure he was rather happy to have not been picked. I know I would have been.

  We came up to the entrance of the building, and Argus immediately went to work hacking the lock while I kept watch. At the sound of scattering pebbles, I activated my heat sense ability and scanned the area. No warm color signatures moved about, but I wasn’t going to take any chances and let my guard down for a second.