When she came back, only a minute later, Trendon said, “I’ll have the filet mignon and spicy potato wedges, please.”
“And I’ll have the barbecued ribs and spicy mashed potatoes, please and thank you,” Baltor ordered.
“You got it,” she said with her right thumb up.
She was just about to leave, but Baltor asked, “Excuse me, miss? I’ve got a quick question for you.”
Turning around with a smile on her face, she asked, “Yes?”
“How do you like your life?”
Looking a little confused, she answered with a question, “What kind of a question is that?”
Speaking at a volume so only she and Trendon could hear what he had to say, Baltor answered, “We’re about to offer you the opportunity of a lifetime…an opportunity few of us in this universe are ever granted!”
“What opportunity’s that?” she asked.
“Do you want to one day become united with the Truth that exists within this universe, no matter the cost, of which there will be a definite cost for anything so valuable?”
Though Trendon looked surprised to hear Baltor bluntly ask these questions, he remained silent.
“I guess I’ve always wanted to know that Truth, yeah…my name is Marina, by the way. What are your names?”
“I’m Baltor, and this is my friend, Trendon.”
Having remembered hearing the first name in history class, nearly five years earlier, Marina’s eyes scrunched in recollection, before she said, “You bear the same first name as the last ruling sultan—and come to think of it, you look just like him too. Wow—even your armor and sword handles I see look exactly the same, now that I’m taking a closer look. Are you the immortal Sultan Baltor Elysian the XVth who left for Hell fifty years ago, and said he would one day return if this world screwed up?”
“Yes, the very same, but don’t bow as I don’t need that type of attention,” Baltor instructed. “Now, will you please answer my last question?”
She asked, “Which last question?”
“Do you want to be united with the Truth,” Baltor asked.
Without hesitation, she answered back, “Yes is the answer…”
“Good. When is your shift over?”
“At one in the morning.”
“Perfect,” Baltor replied. “There will be a black warhorse parked outside in front of the bar after you get off your shift…ride her outside the northern exit of Pavelus; and once outside the city walls, keep riding north up the coastline at top speed. Your answer will inevitably arrive…”
Now she looked not only uncertain, yet suspicious—until, that is, when she heard Baltor’s voice begin to say inside her mind, I speak only Truth. If Truth is what you seek, then you must place into me your Trust. At the same time, my Trust in you must be earned—and to earn it, you must master the new world you are to face all on your own—I will help you only one time, so think wisely before you call out for my help. Once you have finally mastered this world, I will then come and apprentice you in the countless other worlds and realms that simultaneously exist…
She thought back, “What do you mean by master?”
Baltor answered aloud, “Even that answer you must figure out on your own, Marina.”
Still thinking, she asked in her mind, How do I know that this is not a trap, or that I haven’t been drugged, or that I’m not just simply going crazy?
Having had read all her thoughts, he again answered aloud, “The horse you will get is the grandson of a powerful stallion, named ‘Grasha.’ If you really know your world-history as you say, you know exactly whom this horse’s lineage comes from. Trust me that this is neither trick nor trap, nor are you on any drugs, nor are you crazy, in order to answer most of your unvoiced questions.”
“Okay…” she said with a bit of reluctance. “If this horse doesn’t look like he can outrun any and every other horse in this world, I can already promise you I’m not going. I will go straight home and have the bouncer escort me all the way until I’m safe inside.”
Nodding his head, Baltor said, “Understood.”
“All right, let me go put your food orders in,” she said.
After she had left, Trendon took a nice-sized drink of his beverage. He said in Russian, “Well done.”
Baltor responded, “Thank you.”
Trendon took another nice-sized drink, before suggesting, “I’ve got a few good ideas for you to consider…if you want to hear them?”
“Absolutely.”
Trendon suggested, “After you conduct your briefing later tonight, as well her transformation should she still willfully agree in the end, what do you think about the possibility of planting the seeds of cah-su-cahn berry bushes in the middle of a vast jungle on a different planet, and then simply burying her corpse in the middle of it all? After all, she’ll have the answer to her vampirism right in front of her face, although it’ll be best for her to figure out the solution to her problem on her own, as she develops herself in this new world.”
Without waiting for an answer, he continued, “Of course, if you don’t like my suggestions or ideas…you can come up with your own.”
Baltor replied right away, “Actually, I really do like the sound of your suggestions. I like them a lot—but where? This planet? Earth? Aquantis?”
“Actually,” Trendon answered, “how about the world I was born on? Called Thorenza. It’s a world filled with magic and creatures of all types and alignments—creatures like fairies, dwarves, goblins, light and dark elves, wizards-or-warriors, heroes and villains, and even dragons of all alignments…the current era of this world nowadays is the equivalent to Earth’s 22nd Century.”
At this point, Baltor began nodding his head affirmatively, as he was beginning to really like Trendon’s ideas.
Meanwhile, he continued relaying his ideas, “Specifically, I would suggest putting her in the very middle of the continent. Near the southeastern borders is a coliseum that is twice the size of the one here in Pavelus. This coliseum is used by enslaved gladiators of many humanoid races—all trying to win their freedom through deadly sporting events.
“Tens of thousands of spectators come to watch the games, held once a week…oh, and on the northwestern side of the same continent is a Magic Conclave where I once belonged and even ruled for a century…
“To tell you about all the other ‘wonders and horrors’ Thorenza holds is like trying to say all the wonders and horrors about Sharia, Earth, Aquantis, or any other civilized planet out there…in other words, there is a ton of variables out there for her to choose from. Yet, in the end, she will have but two choices—good or evil.”
Baltor nodded his head, and said, “I appreciate your assistance.”
“As always, I only reveal the possibilities—still, it is up to you to make that final decision, Master Watcher.”
“True.”
“Finally, just so you know, after we are done with setting her up on her new world, you and I must say our final goodbyes…oh, and the ship is yours to keep…and one final thing, don’t forget to get your books from the address in Mississippi. Okay?”
“Sounds great,” Baltor said with a smile.
Only moments later, Marina arrived holding a tray—on the tray were two plates stuffed with steaming food, as well two more filled mugs of ale.
Before setting everything out on the table, she suggested, “I hope I don’t sound rude and all, but where you gentlemen are sitting is not a good spot to eat. Might I suggest a booth until you’re done eating?”
Both men nodded their heads affirmatively, before rising up out of their seat. They followed her to a nearby booth.
Once she had set everything onto the table, including two cloth napkins and the silverware, she asked, “Holler over if you need anything else. Okay?”
“Thanks,” both men said. In the next moment, they began to eat their “extraordinarily delicious meal,” occasionally washing down the food with a drink of their ale.
&n
bsp; Once dinner had been concluded, soon after, Baltor observed that the couches remained unoccupied. He asked in Russian, “Want to go back to the couches?”
Trendon nonchalantly shrugged just his left shoulder, before answered, “Nah…I’m fine here. How about you?”
“I’m good…actually I’m stuffed!”
“Good to know,” Trendon said with a smile.
“Well, you ready to pay our tab and get to the ship? We’ve got some preparing to do.”
Trendon answered, “Yeah.”
Coincidentally, Marina arrived yet again—looking at Trendon alone, she asked, “Do you guys want another round?”
Trendon answered, “No thanks. Can I just pay the bill now, please?”
“Sure,” she chirped, while holding out the bill in her left hand, so only Trendon could see it. “Everything, including dinner, runs to twenty-five parsecs.”
“Here’s a thousand parsec piece,” Trendon said. “Keep the change.”
“Wow! Thank you soo much! I’ve never been tipped that much before…not even close.”
“No problem,” Trendon said with an appreciative smile. “You are an extraordinary waitress.”
All the while, Baltor remained silent, observing and noting that she had not looked his way one single time since returning.
Still, he chose this time to telepathically say in her mind, Don’t forget—the black stallion will be waiting outside for you, after your shift is over. Ride north along the coastline at top speed…and I feel very confident that you will one day soon unite with the Truth of Truths, otherwise known as “Gnosis…”
As soon as she had begun to hear the psychic-message, she cast her eyes over at Baltor and listened—and when he had completed, she immediately thought back, This better not be a trick or a trap…that’s all I can say!
Having heard it, he answered, It’s not, Marina…I promise.
After clearing her throat, she said aloud, “Well, gentlemen, have a great night! Again, thank you so much for the great tip.”
“No problem,” Trendon said with a smile. “Good night.”
She left to tend to the bill with the group of three men still in the bar…at the same time, Baltor and Trendon stood out of the booth, exited the bar, walked down the street to the right, entered the alleyway, and entered the portal that led them back to their spaceship.
Once inside the cockpit, Trendon said, “I’ll get the horse for you, tether him in front of the bar, and be back. Take the captain’s seat, as I’ll be your navigator.”
Baltor replied, “Okay, Trendon.”
Only five minutes later, he returned…Baltor had been sitting patiently in the commander’s seat with the seatbelts buckled.
After Trendon had donned the helmet, as well the joystick, he launched the ship up two thousand feet up into the air—once at that height, he guided the ship until it hovered outside the northern entrance to the city. Of course, the ship remained invisible and silent.
At two in the morning, both men observed a woman wearing a black cloak, riding the stallion, and exiting the north part of the city—without delay, she veered her horse northwest, and launched him into a full gallop…meanwhile, Baltor and Trendon followed nearby in the spaceship at a height of two thousand feet.
Nearly an hour later, thanks to Trendon’s willful thought, Baltor now donned the gray robes of ‘A Master Watcher.”
Taking that as his cue, he began to open a portal nearly a hundred feet in front of Marina’s position—in the next moment a tiny prismatic diamond appeared in the middle of the air.
The horse—having become extremely nervous at being fifty feet away from the portal that was getting bigger and bigger and brighter and brighter—immediately reared back onto his hind legs—Marina flew off the horse and crashed hard into the sand…the horse continued to run the opposite direction.
By the time he had stepped through the portal, ten seconds later, she was only now starting to regain her wits—this time Baltor’s eyes glowed like prismatic diamonds!
The portal instantly shut. Enshrouding the beach into its natural state of darkness, except for the fact that both moons in the sky were in a full eclipse—one right over the other. Oh, and of course, Baltor’s prismatic pupils.
“Greetings, Marina…I am about to give you a choice that I have never given anyone else, since I first became an immortal more than 2 centuries ago…”
Though she kept her hands in front of her eyes, despite the fact that no other lights were visible except from the two full moons above, she asked with great fear, “What—what choice is that?”
Baltor answered, “Should you agree, I will make you my apprentice—but first you must master your reality on your own before I show you the countless amount of other worlds and realms that exist out there. Understand this also…there will be an initial cost for the type of immortality I offer.”
She asked, “And what cost is that?”
“You must first master the world that I’m about to send to you, as ‘a vampire,’ in your superstitious understanding of the word.”
“But, I don’t want to be sucking peoples’ blood at night, and sleeping in cobwebby coffins—that’s gross!”
Baltor answered right away, “Your first solution will be right in front of your face when you first return back to the world of the living, even though I had to figure out that problem entirely on my own…
“As for the second solution, that is something that you will have to figure out, as you master your new realm and in your own way. When this is finally so, I will come and find you, and ultimately apprentice you to become a master of the entire universe like I am. ”
Marina asked, “How do you mean “master…?’ Like how you did it—controlling an entire planet?”
“I’m not going to answer that question, nor any other technical questions, as it is up to you to figure out the answers for yourself…so, as my Time is short yet incredibly busy, do you agree to my terms or not?”
“Umm, can I think about it?”
Pointing his right index finger straight up into the air, Baltor said, “Absolutely! You have precisely one hour to make up your mind—should you not agree, then I will let you go back to ‘your old life.’
“However, no matter which choice you make, you must always keep our encounter a secret. If you agree to everything I’ve said, I will take you to your brand-new life…never previously fathomed.”
“Okay, I’ll think about it right now,” she replied with hesitation—with a snap of his finger, Baltor disappeared into the ship.
For the next hour, Marina sat not only on the beach, yet on the “crossroads of life and death.” After all, she had always wondered about “the mysteries of the universe,” and pondered that perhaps the one-and-only Sultan of this entire planet—who left this planet thirty years before her birth—was right! After all, not a single person had a shred of a doubt that Sultan Baltor Elysian the XVth was “a powerful immortal” when he had been around…but none knew, except for she, that he was “an actual vampire!”
At the very end of that hour, she thought to herself, So, that was the way he conquered the world, by becoming a vampire first…
Not even one second later, Baltor reappeared right in front of her. He said, “Well, Marina…have you made a decision?”
“Umm, I…I agree.”
Baltor stated telepathically, Before we commence, I have two rules for you. One, never reveal on what you’re about to become to anyone. Two…never create another vampire without my expressed consent, even if you learn how—break these rules, even once, and I will destroy you and your creation back into oblivion in the very next moment! Do you understand and agree to my two rules?
With ever-growing fear, Marina nodded a few times, but not so much because of the verbal threat.
It was because, as soon as she had finished asking her question, Baltor’s figure had quickly begun to transform from a human and into something else—at first, it was the fingernails, wh
ich transformed into foot-and-a-half long claws, and then it was the hands, which tripled in size, and turned to onyx. The human face had already nearly completed transforming into the face of an onyx-black gargoyle beast—along with a set of vampire fangs pointing down from its mouth, a set of curvy horns protruding up and outward from its forehead, and of course, the glowing red eyes!
Abruptly, Baltor's gray robes disappeared, revealing a crystalline/muscle-packed chest, arms and torso that had already been growing quite rapidly, along with everything else. Erupting from behind the abominable beast that now stood at twenty feet tall—two very large sets of clawed wings spreading themselves out into the heavens!
As the creature drew closer, only a few seconds after the transformation was complete, Marina managed to stammer out, “Why me?”
IT answered in a hollow whisper, “Because you have been found worthy….”
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
When the veteran/author, J. Eric Booker, is not creating his literary or musical masterpieces upon “cloud 9,” which is seldom, he and his business partner run their own mobile recording studio, called BluColla Inc. Despite the fact that J. Eric Booker hasn’t attended a single day of college, it is in his belief that though an education is important, it is not the crux to writing or music—it is the imagination and the determination.
To learn more about the author, please check out his websites:
www.soundcloud.com/e-main-1
www.facebook.com/j.eric.booker
www.amazon.com/author/j.eric.booker
www.goodreads.com/jericbooker
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, I’d like to thank my wonderful family! I’d also like to thank.
Brenton Wilson
Brian Kuhn
Chris Burke
Dave Barr
Dave Jones
The War of All Wars Page 47