by A Y Beltran
“It is. But I’m a different kind of angel,” he answered with an enigmatic smile that triggered an onslaught of questions in my mind.
“I do have a lot of questions. But you have helped me already. Just ask me so I can return the favor.”
He grinned. “What I told you is considered worthless information called common knowledge.”
Oh. “But can I see you again?”
“You will see me around.”
He walked toward the door and then turned around as if he suddenly remembered something. “Most fledglings who faced the Hybrid reached this house with energy almost completely drained and wounds all over their body. But you emerged from there with only one wound. That in itself is a feat. You earned my respect.”
The Hybrid? The monster has a name? “Thanks,” I answered.
When Traquus left, I walked over to the mini-library and pulled one book out. I needed to fix the wound so I could go to the garden and talk to Venir. The thought of hearing Venir’s voice motivated me further to learn faster.
This house turned out to be the application of energy in healing all sorts of wounds, big or small, deep or shallow. The second house taught me the different colors of energy and what they were called. Although it provided an explanation about where they came from and how their characteristics and behaviors differed from each other, there was only little explanation as to how to summon them.
The book in my hand had the more advanced summoning lessons than the lower houses. I did not really get a good handle of energy-summoning except for one, the silver energy Sylfur. The blue energy Blo was bendable energy while the red energy Rood was about strength or power. Out of Rood, I could create fire, extreme light or anything that when intensified could transform into elemental weapons. Unfortunately for most angels, this kind of energy was very hard to conjure. But Rood was not the hardest to summon. It was the white energy Hwit.
I closed the book and got another one. I just wanted to know how to re-attach this gaping cut on my face that started to sting now that I was aware of its existence.
“To fix a cut or laceration…” I read. The book instructed me to use the green energy, Grona. Most elements around us had Grona. To summon it, I needed to break a sub-atomic particle, and fuse its energy with the energy I found from another sub-atomic particle.
So I gathered the materials, followed the directions and was amazed when the green energy came out of it. I found a receptacle filled with the kind of water found at the lower house gardens and made a mirror out of it. Using the Grona, I stitched the cut. It did not take long and the wound on my face vanished, leaving no scar to remind me of what I went through in the fourth house.
The garden here was different from the other houses, and it was not used for any recreation but for a demonstration of skills. It had a huge sculpture of an archangel holding his beautiful sword up as though he were ready to slay something with it. It captured his beautiful face and muscular build. Below the sculpture was the name, Archangel Michael.
I found a good spot in the garden to conduct my air-streaming activity. It was behind a huge Kalaskig tree with blue fruits. It was isolated enough that I could see anyone coming this way.
I touched the bracelet that Venir gave me. To create an air-stream, I had to make a token, which could be any object that bore an imprint of the person you were trying to contact. The bracelet was laced with Memor energy and remembered Venir as its creator, so turning it as a token was as easy as showing a picture of the person you were trying to find.
Then I called out the air mentally. Materials like air, water, or even sand understood angel-tongue, but you needed to communicate with them in your mind.
The air that heard my telepathic voice came to hover around the bracelet. Then I told the air particles to find Venir and carry my voice to him and his to me. At my command, they moved away from me to find Venir and once they found him, they would go back and touch my bracelet and then back again to Venir creating an air-current between us. Only a few heartbeats had passed before the token bracelet glowed, a signal to inform me that Venir was found and that a link was established.
“Venir, hey,” I said like I had forgotten what to say.
“Ori? Where are you?” Venir’s voice came through the bracelet.
“I’m at the fifth house now. I passed the fourth house,” I answered.
“You’ve made it! Congratulations! You might probably be the fastest angel to finish the trial.”
I could be or could not be, but the pride in his voice was making me feel like there were little angels fluttering their wings inside my stomach. I would like to keep the happiness in his voice, so I was thinking of not telling him everything about what Traquus told me.
“So are you going to visit me here soon?” His voice was so hopeful that I felt an urge to lie and tell him ‘yes’ I would. There was no way Traquus knew everything about doors. There had to be one leading back to the lower houses.
“Soon,” I replied. “But I have to finish a few tasks here in the higher houses.”
Silence. And then…
“Ori, tell me everything.”
Busted. And so I did.
“But I’ll find out. Every house I go, I’ll look for one. I promise you that, Ven, I’m telling—”
“Hey.” This simple ‘hey’ from him had the ability to calm me. “It’s okay. I’ll wait for you regardless of how long it takes you to finish the houses. Or I might see you soon because I think I’m ready for the fourth house.”
“You are?” My voice may have come out shrieking. But who would care?
“Yes, I’ll fly over there and contact you before I come in so you would know if I’m already inside. Alright?”
“Do we really have to end our communication? I think it’s possible to keep it open?” I asked.
“Alright, let’s try it then.”
I entered back to the hall while talking with Venir and our link did not break. I told him about Traquus, the angel we’d met before and how his wings changed color.
“That’s strange,” he said. “But then again, what is normal here can be perceived strange to a fledgling like us.”
I flew back to my room. “Hey, tips for the fourth house, learn how to write a verse especially about the story of creation. That’s where I got stuck.”
“Duly noted. I’m here now.”
“What? Where?”
“At the fourth house. I’m standing right here in front of the portal,” he replied.
“Let’s keep our communication on and see if it works in there.”
“Okay, here it goes.”
Silence.
“Venir? Answer me?”
Nothing.
While keeping our link open, I picked another book to read. I hoped Venir would turn out to be the fastest angel to finish the fourth house, beating my record, because I already missed him.
Instead of following the instructions in the book, I found my own way of summoning energies. I used the silver energy Sylfur to call upon other energies like Rood, Blo, Gel, and Hwit since they were attracted to Sylfur.
I also found Sylfur to be good as a weapon. Who needs the Rood when you can just break apart any energy by throwing the Sylfur into it?
“Impressive!” Traquus said when we met at the garden. “Let me guess, with that silver energy you can also summon other energy?”
I nodded. “I’m assuming you already know how to do this?”
“I don’t do it the way you do. But yes I can summon the energy I want.”
“Really? How do you do that?”
“By calling them to me. Consciousness. I think of them, and they come. But you will get there. You need more experiences.”
“And navi, yes, I get that,” I said. “And yet you’re still in the fifth house instead of moving to higher houses. Were you waiting for someone too?”
He grinned. “What made you think I’m a student here? Not all angels who are in the academy are fledglings. Some of t
hem come here to re-learn, hone their skills, and acquire more navi. The academy is the place for growth. Tell me if you are done with this house and I’ll accompany you in the next house and if I find you befitting my company, I may continue to do so until you reach the last house.”
“That’s a great proposition. I am very honored and grateful for it,” I said. “But I already have a companion, I’m just waiting for him to finish the fourth house. You’re free to join us though if you want.”
I smiled.
“I admire your loyalty, but it may take him a while to finish the fourth house. Why don’t you come with me to the sixth house and then come back here to the fifth house when he arrives.”
“This is not another trick to get me to the other house only to discover that I can’t come back here.”
He grinned again as though I was amusing him thoroughly.
“I like your wariness. Come with me then.”
I followed him. We flew back to the hall and walked through the Common Area, which was on the ground floor. The rooms were all located way above the ground, and flying was the only means to get there. We walked through the door and stood outside the house.
“So there’s a door,” I said, smiling.
“Look down.”
I did as he instructed and saw nothing but mist.
“I’ll trade you rare information if you tell me what’s down there.”
With a bemused smile, he said, “How rare is your information?”
If the portal to the Metropolis deemed it worthy enough to give us passage, this same information might be worth more for an angel.
“Is the knowledge about Ether’s different dimensions rare enough for you?” I said.
Traquus’ jaw set and his eyes were fixed on me with suspicion.
“All right, let the trading begin.”
And I told him about it, everything that I read in the book. How the dimensions were like pockets or layers of Ether imperceptible by ordinary senses. It took an archangel-level of navi to even perceive its existence. I watched Traquus’ reaction to it. There was no smile on his face. His eyes narrowed on me, sharp and assessing. Then it belatedly dawned on me that, for someone receiving this rare information, Traquus gave no hint of excitement. It almost seemed like…
“You already knew it, didn’t you?”
He shifted his gaze to the mist below us.
“It’s another dimension of nothingness,” he said. He sounded dismissive of it.
His answer confirmed my suspicion that he already knew about dimensions. Yet he still accepted my trade.
“What will happen to someone who falls down there?”
“He will be flying forever unless he finds his way back here.”
Reassured that I could still go back to the fifth floor anytime I wanted to, I flew to the next house with Traquus.
Traquus’ manner of flying was so different. He did it so well and elegantly like he was part of the air. He was unhurried and talked to me as though we were at a table with a cup of tea and not thousands of feet above the ground. Traquus flew with no regards to his direction like his wings knew where he was going. His eyes never left me as he listened to me talk. But I couldn’t fly that way. I had to look up, approximate my distance to the next house so I could adjust my speed.
“Trust your instinct. The air beneath you is at your behest,” Traquus said.
“I see you can read minds too.”
“I can read minds, yes, but I can’t read yours.”
I was only teasing, but his confirmation that he could, indeed, read minds added more to the mystery behind Traquus’ identity.
“So you can’t read my mind? I wonder why.”
“I’m sure I’ll find out soon,” he said in a voice that was so confident it was borderline cocky.
The sixth house was identical to the fifth house. This one was focused on communication. Traquus took me to the Lounge at the Common Area to see the available room to use. The rooms were coded in colors: red for occupied and white for empty.
“Are you staying?” I asked.
“No. But I’ll be back when you’re ready to go to the next house.”
“How can I tell you when I’m ready to go?”
“This is the house of communication. Figure it out,” he said with his enigmatic signature smile.
The house surpassed my expectation. Books upon books showed about the many ways to communicate. And the garden was used to practice it. I knew now the more effective way of using air-streaming. I wanted to share it with Venir, so I was growing impatient. If there was a door back to the fourth house, I would have searched for him there. That was how desperate I was to see him.
I pulled a book from the shelves that served as the mini library inside my assigned room and started reading while hovering on air. I knew a lot about air-streaming since I had been practicing it quite often with Venir. The information here, however, brought air-streaming to a whole new level. It used objects like orbs, crystal balls, or stones as tokens. It instructed me to use the Blo energy instead of air. I would have to trap the blue energy inside an orb and then would link the orb with the other one. The trapped Blo would have no other places to go but between these two linked orbs. When activated, it would carry not just the voice but the image of the person carrying the linked orb. This was just like the one we saw in one of the stores in the Metropolis.
The main objective of the house was to create at least one form of this kind of communication device. I would need a partner to accomplish this. I already had one in mind, but he was still in the trial house.
With a heavy sigh, I went down to the Common Area to search for a partner. Then suddenly a blinding light appeared, making everything turn bright.
CHAPTER 15
I forced my eyes open and trained it on the source of the brightness. It did not take long before my eyes got accustomed to it and saw the form past the light. My mouth hung open when I realized what had caused all of it. Two giant angels with huge wings were standing in our midst.
These were archangels.
I recognized one as Emerald with her glowing wings of green. Although I didn’t know the name of the other archangel, the color of her wings gave away her identity. I read somewhere that archangel Sapphire was the only one who could emit this kind of blue glow. Blue and green light lit up the whole area.
“I’m sure they came because of the Great Riddle.”
I glanced over my shoulder to see who was speaking behind me.
“Hi, I’m Malachy.”
Malachy was a pleasant looking angel whose smile added brilliance in his already brilliant inner glow.
“Orieumber,” I answered. I moved to stand beside him and whispered.
“You meant that darkness, right?”
“Yes, it’s common knowledge. Angels called it the Great Riddle. Some angels called it the Great Mist. Depends on which angels you talked to.”
“I was in the first house when it happened. We lost five angels.”
“As far as I know we also lost five angels here. Since I’ve been here I’d experienced the Great Riddle three times already. And every time it appeared, five angels went missing. And I think they’re here to investigate.”
“And why are they investigating it now?”
“Because as you said, five angels were missing in the lower houses. It never happened before,” he replied.
“How do you know all of this?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “There was a great influx of angels coming from the lower houses who were asking questions, sharing this information that it became common knowledge and no longer worth-trading.”
“Michael will be apprised about this.”
I turned my head to look for the owner of the melodic voice and heard my angelic heart beating so fast when I locked eyes with the speaker. Sapphire’s deep blue gaze was so penetrating it felt like she was examining my insides.
She gave me a look that clearly meant ‘who the fuck are you.
’ The cursing part was of my own, for I was certain the archangels could have used better language.
They disappeared after that.
“You understand them, do you?” Malachy asked.
“You don’t?” I replied, perplexed. I really thought everybody could understand them.
“They’re using archangel-tongue. And no one here, at least no one I had met could speak that language.”
“They said Michael will be apprised.”