by A Y Beltran
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright
Prologue
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
Author’s Note
About the Author
Academy of Light
A.Y. Beltran
Academy of Light, Dead Gods Rising Series Copyright © 2018 by A.Y. Beltran
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
For permission requests, write to [email protected].
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Prologue
The ground shook and groaned like it was a living being who was just awakened from its long slumber. I watched the people run in panic, screaming, wailing. Fears were written all over their faces. I watched the cars screech before colliding with each other. And I watched them explode. I looked up and watched the sun increase in size, moving closer and closer as though it was about to swallow the entire Earth.
“Miss.”
I turned toward the voice. Standing across from me was a young boy with a tattered shirt and a half-smile on his face. But despite the state of pandemonium around us, the boy was calm and unfazed.
“What is it?” I asked.
The little boy pointed a finger at me. I gazed at my arms and down to my feet. A blue flame wrapped around me. My whole body was inflamed.
The boy smiled at me and said, “It’s just a part of the circle of life. The beginning and the end. However, I have to ask. Is this your end? Or is this your beginning?”
CHAPTER 1
I woke up to complete darkness. I didn’t feel anything until a sudden cold sensation crept into my body. It started from my palms, reminding me that they were still there, and then down to my feet. So all right, I wasn’t missing any limbs. That knowledge at least gave me comfort. What I needed to do was to relax and stop thinking about why I couldn’t move any of my body parts; not even my eyelashes, nor my lips. But my mind found a way to sneak an idea into the forefront of my consciousness no matter how ill-prepared I was for it. And so here was the possible answer delivered on a silver platter: buried alive.
‘Don’t scream, don’t scream,’ I told myself many times over and over until another voice joined in.
‘Open your eyes, fledgling.’
Easy to say. I already tried, buddy.
‘Open your eyes.’
The voice was insistent, and so I opened my eyes, but I immediately closed them back.
Too bright.
‘Slowly, do it slowly.’
And when I opened my eyes again, I found myself lying on a moist and sticky white ground. Standing over me was a being with eyes of the purest pearl and a diamond-like yellowish twinkle in the center, and his skin was glowing and emitting golden bright color. But what fascinated me the most was the wing-shaped yellow light protruding from his back.
“I’m Fide,” the winged creature said. “Now get up. Here hold my hand.”
I reached out for his hand and pushed myself up to stand. My eyesight was better this time. But when I surveyed my surroundings, I figured it may need a little bit of adjustment. Except for this person talking to me, everything was white like we were inside a white room with white walls, white ceiling, and white floor. An image of me consumed by a blue flame suddenly flashed in my mind and along with it was a whispered word. Heaven. And so I asked.
“Is this Heaven?”
Fide frowned. His gaze was sharp and assessing like the very mentioned of the word struck him to the core. As I stared back at him, waiting for his answer and getting curiouser and curiouser. It took a while before he found his voice. Thank the god?
“Heaven is the ancient name of Ether. Only higher level angels know that word. So it is perplexing to hear it from a fledgling like you. But regardless of my desire to get to know you and the source of your knowledge, it was not an excuse for me to tarry.”
“So I take that as a yes then. Well, since I’m in Heaven—”
“You’re in Ether.”
“You said they’re the same.”
“I said. It’s its ancient name.”
“Same? Anyway, since I’m in Ether, does it mean I’m dead?”
“No, fledgling, you’re not dead,” he said and then grinned. “You’ve just been born.”
CHAPTER 2
My eyes widened in disbelief. It was a preposterous statement. Did I really hear it right?
“Did you just say what I think you said?”
Fide reacted with amusement. “Of course, I meant everything I said. Lying is counterproductive in Ether.”
“Right counterproductive whatever. But you said…I just got born?”
“Why is the idea incomprehensible to you?”
I tried to think of a good reason, but my mind was a blank slate. I didn’t remember anything. I didn’t even know my name.
“While you’re thinking, let me dress you first.”
Hold up, what? Dress me? But this Fide was quick. Even before I opened my mouth to ask, he flicked his fingers. Only after I was clothed did it dawn on me that I had been talking to him, naked.
He smiled. “It’s all right. It’s expected from a newly born to be confused and disoriented.”
“Are you sure I’m not dreaming?”
“You were dreaming while you were in the Womb. Every infant angel does. But you’re fully aware now that you’re out of it.”
“Womb?”
“Right there.”
I followed the direction he was pointing at and my brows knitted together.
“No way.”
“You stayed there until you were ready to be born. And while in there, you were dreaming.”
The Womb he was referring looked gray, moist and muddy.
“So I was buried in mud.”
“Buried? No, you were cradled.”
I grimaced. Buried or cradled still ended up the same to me. I had been under that mud for what again? Until I was ready to be born? My jaw must have locked, for I had difficulty closing it. Then something popped up in my mind.
“Talking!” I blurted out. “If I was just born, why can I talk? And why am I not a baby, or am I? Do you have a mirror?”
He smiled again. And with his forefinger, he drew an imaginary square of my size. The square gained a dimension and protruded out of thin air. He flipped it back. And right in front of me, a mirror stood.
I didn’t look old. I didn’t look like a child either. I was probably in my teens. My skin was creamy white, but not even remotely close to Fide’s skin tone. My hair was long and fiery red. I didn’t have wings like Fide, but I was glowing. I blinked. My reflection blinked too. I peered closer at my reflection. My eyes were green.
“Orieumber.” Fide’s voice came out in a
whisper.
“What?”
“That’s your name.”
“My name?” I felt a flutter in my heart. “Say that again and slowly please?”
“Oh..rih..ahm..ber.”
“Orieumber,” I said, smiling. “It sounds pretty. Who gave me that name?”
“I did. Or you did. When a fledgling is about to be born, a name flashes in my mind.”
“Fledgling?”
“Fledgling is a new angel. After you attend the Academy of Light, you will become a full-fledged angel.”
I stared at him with my eyebrows squished together, hanging on to every word he said. I gulped and took a deep sigh.
“Okay. So I’m a newborn angel.”
“That is correct.”
“And all angels were born in the mud—”
“Womb,” he corrected.
“Womb I meant to say. And we were born in different sizes.”
“Your birth form was fashioned by the Womb herself.”
“I see. And I was born with the ability to talk.”
“You’re talking in fledgling tongue. You cannot understand the angel-tongue unless you attain the required level of navi.”
“Navi what?”
He squinted his pearly eyes at me as though he was assessing how much information he should reveal.
“Listen. You’re talking in fledgling-tongue, the angel’s first language. I can understand you because there is energy around us that translates every word you say. But when you go to the academy, the books you will read there will appear incomprehensible unless it is within your navi-level.”
“There’s that navi again.”
“Navi is the energy you need in Ether. With a certain amount of navi, you can be able to speak and understand angel-tongue. It’s understandable that you have a lot of questions, but you can’t find the answers here. We need to go. I need to take you to the Garden before another delivery comes.”
“What Garden? What delivery?”
“Garden is where all the fledglings stay while they’re growing their navi.” Then his eyes sparkled. “And be careful with your questions, for every time you ask one, you’re losing a navi. What you have now is just enough for you to exist in Ether.”
“You meant, I’m at navi-level one,” I said, teasingly.
“No. You have navi-basic. Your navi-level is still zero,” he said, grinning.
I frowned.
“Let’s go,” Fide said. “I have to be back here for the next delivery.”
He started moving. Walking a few steps behind him, I followed his lead. We passed through endless rolls of white clouds before he stopped to face me.
“Here.” He handed over a rainbow-colored stone. “Rub it.”
I did what he told me and the little stone on my palm dissolved into a blue smoke and then it disappeared. Warm air brushed my eyes. And for the first time since being awakened, I felt the air on my skin. I ran my gaze around and gasped.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” I asked.
Everything became colorful. The endless tunnel of clouds turned out to be a passageway walled with slabs of colors—red, blue and green—and divided by diamond arches.
“Those arches and vaults were built by the creators,” Fide explained. And him giving away free information without a question? Color me surprised. But did he just say…creators?
If Heaven had a fly, it wouldn’t have much trouble sneaking into my mouth.
“Creators like gods.”
“The Great Era of the Gods.” The ruefulness in his voice piqued my curiosity, but I refrained myself from blurting out any more questions. Not when Fide was inclined to sharing free information.
Fide started walking again, and I scrambled to follow him the whole way. When we reached the end of the tunnel, Fide turned around and pointed out the tunnel we just passed through.
“Look, this is the Delta.”
The opening of the tunnel was triangular in shape. It wasn’t lost on me that Fide’s voice gave an indication that this delta was important.
“No question here, but just a comment. This delta is something special.”
He smiled. He knew what I was doing. I wasn’t asking a question.
“It has its own special history, one that I can’t share.”
My face scrunched up in annoyance.
“Then, buddy, you shouldn’t have mentioned it! Now I’m dying with curiosity.”
He chuckled. “Ori, searching for the answers is what you live for on Ether. You feed on it until your energy grows to your full capacity. And then when you have accumulated enough answers, you make a living out of it. You can trade it for an answer, or for an invention. It’s the currency and a way of life. Now, look around you.”
While his words left me with a simmering interest in this bizarre culture of the Ethereals, my eyes feasted on the beauty of my surroundings. The ground was a blanket of green grass dotted with glittering colors that I thought at first were flowers, but upon closer inspection turned out to be berries. They were in red, green, purple, pink, blue, yellow and other colors whose names failed me. The sky above was filled with huge cotton-like clouds. Does heaven have rain?
“Ether is made of five clouds floating above Constant,” Fide said as we strode on the soft green grass. “The highest cloud is called Primorium, below it is Secundarium and then Tertium. Below Tertium is Quartrium, the cloud where we are now and where I live.”
I wanted to know where the rest of the Ethereals are in Quartrium. It would be great to meet some of them.
“This is Quartrium, got it,” I instead said.
He stopped from walking and turned to me. He gave me a probing gaze. I wished that he could read my mind so he would know those questions thirsting for answers.
“Below us is the cloud Quintium. It’s where we are headed,” he said, continuing his version of Heaven 101 lesson.
This information answered none of the questions I had in mind, but this was better than none at all. I held his gaze as he continued to stare at me. If you’re waiting for me to ask you a question, then you’ll be waiting for a long time.
We continued walking. Soft grass cushioned my bare feet. I still could not feel any wind. It was like I was inside a vacuum of light.
Then I felt it even before I saw it. There was some kind of imbalance above us, and like a coin falling into a smooth surface of the still water, it rippled. The smooth cloud-covered sky furrowed. Then it bulged and increased in size in just a matter of a second. Its center spun before swirling into a giant twister of white clouds. What came out of it was something my eyes were not prepared to see.
A beautiful creature crowned with glowing long yellowish-green tresses. Her eyes were like a pair of suns: fiery and enchanting. Her green shining wings tripled her body size. But that was just the actual size. It glowed so wide that it eclipsed the brilliance of the sky.
“That is Emerald. She lords over this garden,” Fide said.
Emerald appeared to be riding on a giant green butterfly.
“And that is Berdi, her very own creation.”
Emerald hovered past us, dipped and disappeared into the giant sea of trees.
“Look to our left. We’re at the right side of her garden. In the middle is a crown that is her chamber.”
I turned my head to where Fide was pointing. Tall trees prevented me from seeing the crown.
“They are not gods, but their presence is revered here as they are the closest to a god,” Fide said with amusement. There was a slight yearning in his voice. Seeing a god? The statement echoed in my mind.
Heaven, I noticed, was bathed with a variety of colors though one color was predominant in each garden. The sky loomed lower, closer to the ground, as we went farther.
Awe-stricken to the core of my bones, though I was not quite sure anymore as to whether I had one at all, we reached the stairs, an endless series of descending steps. It was steep and intimidating. And worst of all, it had no railings.
“How long are these stairs?” I said, not even hiding my fear.
“It is equivalent to a length of a garden.”
Alright, endless then.
Climbing down the heavenly stairs became more and more arduous. My only consolation was the sturdy feeling of the steps on my feet. Trust was the key element here. I needed to trust that the stairs would not break or disappear under my feet. Although there was no wind, it did not prevent the storm from forming inside my stomach, whatever kind of stomach I had, when our descent became impossibly steeper. I was in constant battle with the ground that seemed to pull me down, urging me downward.