Spectral Vibrations

by Mercy DeSimone

  “Uh huh. So what are you going to do with the squeezable weasel?” she asked tilting her head slightly.

  “I thought I’d put him out in the garden to find a new home,” I said reaching for the small, furry body, only to have him nip my finger.

  “Ouch! Hey, buddy, haven’t you ever heard you shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds you?” I protested, reaching again, only to unleash a frantic stream of chirping once more.

  “You know, as totem animals go, Chipmunk has some very important magic. They’re considered a harbinger of something good coming. They also symbolize adventure, and know how to jump between worlds and realms.” My mother had a far away look in her eyes as she recited the chipmunk’s traits as if he was a deliberate symbol sent to me by the gods. I’ve seen this look in her eyes before. There’s no distracting her when she goes down this path.

  “Chipmunk is a sign of intuition and synchronicity. You should probably keep the little squeazel around for a while,” she said before turning on her heel and heading back to her shop.

  “Squeazel?” I called after her, as she disappeared through the doorway. “What the hell is a squeazel?” Looking down at the striped, furry body on my shoulder I muttered, “You better be housebroken.”

  Present Day

  Staring off into the half-light, Squeazel chitters annoyingly on my shoulder. It’s too damn early for that, but he seems as restless as I’ve been all night so I can’t be too harsh. Running my fingers lightly down his broad stripes my head cocks at a soft chiming sound coming from below in the valley. Red rocks bleed to the scrabbly brush of desert sage and wildflowers. In the distance I can see the irregularly patterned shadow of an abandoned medicine wheel, charred wood embers creating a pile of ash amidst the wreckage, along with a stray, broken beer bottle.

  Angrily I wonder who was stupid enough to light a fire here in the dry, summer conditions - tourists, no doubt. Brushfires are always a concern this time of year. One careless match and the mountainous scrub can flare into a ravenous beast, destroying valleys and homes, especially as dry as this season has been.

  Watching the blaze of light that begins to flare at the horizon, my eyes swivel back and forth across the mountain in constant motion. I continue to scan, searching for the source of the soft chiming sound that seems to be fading in and out of the wind. The electric buzz along my spine intensifies as if energy is pouring out of the rocks, up my spine and through every nerve ending, setting the fine hairs on my arms to stand at attention.

  Sedona is known for its energy vortexes. In fact, the vantage point where I’m sitting near the airport is known as a minor vortex here. Personally, I’ve never felt the pull of the energy, but the mystics like my mother all insist that the energy has its own frequency, you just need to learn to tap into it.

  There are nine major vortexes in Sedona, places like Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock and Boynton Canyon. For the most part, I try to avoid them because that’s where the tourists flock. But I’ve always liked this small vortex near the airport. And I’ll hike Cathedral, Bell and the others off-season when the tourists have gone into hiding for the winter or high summer.

  We especially get a lot of international travelers among the ‘mystics’ and the ‘new age crew’ who like to dance in the moonlight and pretend to honor some ‘pagan’ or ‘wiccan’ rituals to harness their supposed powers. Once it was learned that Sedona and mystical places like Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids were all on similar ley lines, it was like a beacon for those who believe aliens have created landing sites around the world as gateways. After all, there’s a reason why Area 51 was built in this region, and why organized ‘raids’ on the site have become evermore popular.

  The ‘Pilgrimage of the Pagans’, I like to call it - those who trek around the world in search of meaning in the cosmos. It never seems to occur to them to try to manufacture some basic meaning on their own. Although, who am I to judge? I laugh mirthlessly. I’m sitting in the mountain desert, living near my mother, with only a chipmunk as a companion. That does not make for a great profile on the dating sites, not that I’m looking.

  While I don’t buy into all of the new age mumbo jumbo, I’ve been forced to at least learn the concepts and understand the principles of energy. And as a geologist, I do understand that the geological prominence of the red rocks create vibrational energy, harmony and sound.

  When I was a kid, I used to be a lot more interested in learning about the spiritual theories as a way of bonding with my mother. Having a shaman as a mother is a tough gig for any kid. But I loved her energy and way of relating to the world. Even if she was an old hippy who believed in free love, and made no money selling rocks and remedies in her new age ‘portal’ as she liked to call it. Thank God her parents left her some money before they died. But for all her flights of fancy, she was a smart businesswoman, and she knew enough to invest in real estate at a young age. She would never be able to live on the proceeds of her business without the income from all of her side properties.

  I used to tag along as she would take groups of tourists out in jeeps for “energy tours”. They would climb rocks, walk an impressive medicine wheel of dusty rocks, chant in the moonlight, and pull their totem animal cards. Afterward, everyone would pretend to feel re-energized by their inner light; let’s face it the placebo effect is a wondrous thing. Then Martina would sell them sage and incense and crystals to take home like talismans to ward against the negative energy in their lives.

  Suzanne used to scoff at all of the ‘remedies and rituals’ as she liked to call them, which didn’t exactly endear her to Martina, but they never spent much time together since we devoted most of our time to traveling the world. The few times we came back to my home here in the mountains Suzanne was impatient to get back to what she deemed to be civilization. Having grown up to ex-pat parents in London, Arizona was too far off the international circuit for her comfort. She liked the bustle of the city, and she needed to be closer to a hub for international flights.

  Sighing once again, the buzz intensifies as the sound of chimes becomes more frequent. Swiveling my head to the left I see red dust begin to swirl among the brush before settling, and then swirling again a few feet away before settling once more. A soft violet glow begins to waver before my eyes and I search the vicinity for a source. There must be something nearby refracting the light like a prism dancing before me.

  Stepping off the rock perch, Squeazel hurries down to my pocket and burrows inside as I start to walk toward the whirlwind of light dancing near the edge of the trees, becoming more distinct the closer I get. It’s like the color has substance, almost like the arc of a rainbow that shimmers as water sluices off a garden hose and refracts in the sunlight. But the rainbow is getting larger and more distinct as the sunlight begins to rise fully into the horizon, and the outline of a body unexpectedly begins to materialize before me.

  Stopping abruptly, my jaw drops as my hand reaches toward the object in my path just as a woman materializes. Startled pale violet eyes meet mine and widen briefly before her body collapses limply at my feet, as I stand stunned in the morning light wondering what the hell just happened.

  Chapter Five

  Tanzy

  The weight of my being makes every step forward a battle. Light begins to blaze across the sky above me but the energy propels me toward an unknown energy. A faint vibration draws me across the valley, each step intensifying the vibrational signature until I can feel it seeping into my soul. Oddly, I can’t sense any emotion around it, so it must be organic in nature, but I’m hopeful it will lead me to some form of native inhabitant. Well, at least a friendly one.

  The valley is beautiful. Wild foliage straggles across craggy stone surfaces, growing through crevices, ready to trip the unwary. Small creatures slither across my path, one with his back arched like a crescent, tail raised as if in warning. Its hardened exterior reminds me of Jasper’s scales and I feel a pang of worry again, wondering if he made it off-planet safely, although I
feel confident I would have felt something if his vibration had shattered. Our frequency was still fairly new, but there was no doubting the strength of that bond. As much as I know Laz is hurt by my bond with Jasper, he fights the feelings so as not to weaken our bond. It’s my greatest wish that we could become a true Triad, but power constructs rarely play out the way you expect or hope. At least he’s benefitting indirectly from the chain effect of my power boost and his connection to Jasper.

  As I crest the next rise the vibration blazes into an intense buzz throughout my entire body, distracting me in a way that is almost painful. The closest I’ve ever come to experiencing such agony was during a healing session with a female whose silica was cracked in a discord.

  Rescaling a being is one of the most challenging healings to learn. Not only do you have to lift the being’s vibration enough to seal the cracks, you have to lend vibration in such a way as to heal the spirit and rescale it back to its proper light waves. It’s that ability that makes empaths so rare and valuable. Regular healers can mend the silica, but they can’t heal the aura.

  My being begins to bend under the pressure of the vibrational wave ricocheting from the source ahead, battering me as if begging for entrance into my core. It’s just as well that my body has anchored since I believe that kind of intense pressure would fracture my silica if it doesn’t let up soon. My breathing shallows as the effort of pushing forward against the energy begins to drain my strength. Just at the point that I feel like I can’t possibly push forward any further, my body recoils as if pushing through a wormhole. The energetic rebound forces my eyes wide as my body tenses, and I find myself staring at the male unexpectedly standing before me, his startled expression the last thing I see before darkness overtakes me and I sink to the ground in relief.

  Part Two

  Krysalis

  Chapter Six

  Tanzy

  Krysalis - Year of Enlightenment 2089

  My being hums with pleasure as sensations race up and down my spine, invading every neuron of my being, as the soft chiming becomes more resonant.

  “Laz,” I inhale, my nerve endings singing as the sensations continue to dance like fire along my meridians, the music cresting until I feel our combined breaths echoing in an accelerated rhythm.

  “Zirc, Tanzy! Your resonance is so beautiful… it never fails to energize me.”

  Vibrations continue to caress my body as his aura flashes, blending with mine until the bleeding of tones ignite in a flash of white and ecstasy suddenly rocks us. Our breaths hitch and stutter as we come down the scale, heightened from the enhanced resonance to a more manageable level.

  The layer of silica which reflects Laz’s sculpted form continues to glow as I come down from my high, lying limp and sated, when I suddenly see a wicked glint flash in his eyes. His body begins to hum once more, quickly beginning to repeat the process. Unexpectedly, my neurons begin to fire once again until my core is shaking with desire, waiting for the build up to yet another flash. Just as suddenly I feel the energy back down once again, leaving me frustrated where I initially felt so satisfied.

  “Laz!” I sputter, realizing he is playing with me. “Enough with the pauses. Either energize me or pull out, for Vishna’s sake,” I beg, pulling the pillow from under me to launch at his head.

  The light tenor of his laugh grates on my nerves as my power cycles up and down looking for the release of a charge. Not until his hands begin to smooth the violet of my aura do I finally begin to relax again, not fully soothed from his upcycling, but knowing I’ll get the chance to make him pay in the future. He’s never left me wanting; I know he’s just banking his energy for a bigger flash, but I can’t help but feel a bit disgruntled at having my fulfillment snatched away so quickly.

  You see, I know Laz’s being as well as I know my own, having been raised in the same Quarry. Even though he’s a few yarns older, we’ve been companions almost from the beginning when I landed at the Orphan Compound after my mother’s death. We even reached our awakening at close to the same time, since males tend to mature later than females. Oddly, those closest to us seemed surprised when we matched frequency. I can’t say we necessarily expected it, but it only seemed right to bond our friendship formally after so many yarns together. Even though no one was completely certain what color I was.

  Laz and I both started as deep Indigos; then I started to exhibit the glow and tendencies of a Violet, like my mother. Usually, the deeper the color, the greater the strength of a being’s frequency. It’s rare to exhibit secondary colors which made me unusual, and an object of curiosity - something I hated. It also made me tend to withdraw from all of the curious eyes and energy that seemed to follow me as I got older.

  While it’s not impossible to match frequencies with other hues, especially those in the same color value, it’s an advanced meld and a power boost for those who achieve it. Especially now when there are so many fewer beings to match against. It happens more frequently in the blue values, Blue to Indigo or Indigo to Violet, because our nature is inherently more healing and nurturing in origin. Although, once I started to exhibit Violet tendencies, I think everyone believed we weren’t as compatible as originally assumed.

  I always had a feeling that Laz and I were meant to be together; in fact, we’ve been a Duo for several yarns now, ever since we were elevated to our current societal placement. Even when we were younger, before we were taught how to manipulate our vibrations, I always felt a low level comfort whenever Laz was around. It’s why I let him befriend me even when it didn’t make sense. There was always something more than companionship that drew me to him.

  Most likely I would have remained a scientist or healer, spending my days in the lab with Laz, if I hadn’t had the strength of another strong Violet to upscale me. But power boosts are funny constructs, and it’s hard to predict what will propel a being to empath range. Truthfully, the memory still haunts me.

  Several yarns ago, we had been called to attend to our mentor, whose silica had been shattered in a discord, when I suddenly began to feel his Unlightening.

  Flashback - Krysalis Year of Enlightenment 2085

  Amet lay as if already spent, the slowing beat of his soul’s vibration becoming a staccato thump, the pitch lowering as he stared at me with serious eyes. Despite his teachings, and the healings I’d been allowed to attend as an apprentice, I’d never before seen the shattered soul of someone I knew. The reality was more horrific than I had ever imagined. Watching the cracks and striations in Amet’s silica continue to craze and spread throughout his entire being was as unnerving as it was fascinating.

  “Tanzy, it is time for you to rise,” Amet’s labored breath wheezed as the uneven, slow beats became longer between sets.

  His vibrant purple aura had already drained to aqua, the paling consistent with the lowering of his vibration. I startled as I realized I could suddenly feel his thoughts, even though the tonal quality of his hum had lowered past audible levels. His chagrin and building panic were evident as he clutched at the covers draped over him, shivering at the heat seeping from his being through the cracks in his silica.

  “The universe needs more empaths, and the Spectrum will need healing.”

  I’m confused by a jumble of feelings as I try to separate my own consciousness, which is commanding my being to flee from the room, from the regret and despair that Amet and I share. Shocked, my eyes fly to his as I finally register what he’s telling me.

  Spectrums are not only rare, they are the ultimate power. There has only ever been one Spectrum in power during my yarns of enlightenment, and I’ve never met any of them personally. They are the ultimate authority on Krysalis, ruling from the Color Counsilary Chambers in our capitol. Amet has been their personal empathic healer for almost as long as this Spectrum has existed.

  While others have tried to unseat the current Spectrum throughout the centons, their attempts were considered more a nuisance than a serious threat. At least that’s what we’ve been l
ed to believe. Mostly because a full power Spectrum requires a Green tuner, and Jaden has been the only Green tuner on Krysalis in the last two centons. Since Jaden rules with the current Spectrum, any uprising would need to have his support because he is irreplaceable.

  Usually the attempts were made by members of the minor Counsils which consist of Duets, Triads, and Quads—most of whom are in the same color values or covalence. It’s rare to share power, even within the same color, among more than three beings. Consequently, Quintets are pretty much non-existent now, because only a Green can tune the left and the right color triads to full value. There are a few low-level tuners, mostly Yellows or Indigos who can refine their own color schemes, or boost a bond between analogous colors from red to yellow or blue to violet, but strong Green tuners have become extinct on Krysalis.

  Amet was one of the most powerful Violets that I had ever met. It was rumored for years that he was next in line to join the current spectrum if Chalce’s charge ever terminated. He always denied the rumors, but I’ve often noticed the side glances beings gave him, and the way they treated him with ultimate deference, so as not to give any offense. I knew there was a story there; I just wasn’t able to coax it out of him.

  Laz and I both were surprised and honored when chosen to join Amet’s covalence, especially at such an early stage of experience, but it was considered a privilege to be under his tutelage. As a respected teacher and adjunct to the Spectrum, it was assumed that anyone chosen for his mentorship was being groomed for a position of responsibility. Under Amet, our covalent teams were given the tasks of researching and developing programs that would affect the lives of all Krysalins and further the existence of our planet.