Awakening

by Melainie Nilles

  By her reaction, she understood what he was saying. At least Jaz had been able to explain that much. "Yeah. That 'attack' in the alley? I took care of the first sent after you."

  A shadow passed through him, a darkness like a daemon, and was gone in the same instant. Was it there already? Watching them? He had to get her out.

  He looked around but saw nothing but bodies dancing amid the flashing colors of light. Those who had considered listening had lost interest.

  "Lilly, you have to listen!" He shouted over the tumult of voices and the heavy beat of the music pounding in his chest. "It's here. Now. You're in danger. At least let me get you home."

  "What? I don't see anything." She crossed her arms, a challenge for him to prove himself, and swayed into the man with her. "Why should I believe you?"

  If that's the way she wanted it, he couldn't do much. "I don't know where it is. They can disguise themselves as humans. It could be anyone here. Please, we need to get you to safety." He gave the other man a long look. Anything was possible, but that would be a bold step for a daemon. He would have to investigate this man, but he didn't have time. All he could do was get her away from him. "You need to learn to protect yourself, and I can show you how."

  "Go. Away."

  "Please, Lilly! I'm sorry about our first meeting. It was a misunderstanding. But I really need to show you the truth."

  The man leaned down and said something in her ear that he couldn't make out.

  "Lilly. This is important. I can save your life." He had to get her away from the other man long enough to explain, but if he used force, she would never believe he was there to help her, not after she thought he had attacked her. "Let me teach you."

  Her eyes narrowed further, her toe tapping its own rhythm out of sync with the music. A second later, she looked up at the man with her and sighed, her shoulders sinking. "You'll leave me alone if I listen?"

  "I can't do that. You'll understand soon. Can we please go someplace safe?"

  She dropped her arms abruptly with a huff of annoyance.

  "Why can't you leave her alone?" the man said.

  "You don't understand. If you care for her, show it. I've been sent to protect her."

  The other man tensed but made no move towards him.

  "I'll go!" Lilly turned to the other man and said something in his ear, which made him smile. After a quick kiss on the man's cheek, she joined Mychel. "Make it quick, before I change my mind." The words growled from her throat and she marched away with stiff steps.

  Good. Now he had his chance to take her from there and at least introduce himself and the Pallora Fen. She would be on the road to Enlightenment soon and forget about this earthly attachment.

  * * *

  Darrac watched her leave with the celemae. A Pallora Fen. Unless he wanted a losing battle, he couldn't risk fighting the man, nor did he wish to expose himself. This Mychel was already aware of a daemon nearby and studied him with suspicion. Darrac would have to tread carefully, and do all he could to forestall her taking the path of Enlightenment. Once she connected to the Shadow Realm, he would have to return to Velok for reinforcements or give up. Either way, he would be forced to admit his failure and would be stripped of his rank. He couldn't risk that, not when he had the support and admiration of most of Torek's forces. He couldn't fail.

  His plans had to change and adapt. Had she given in to the drinks he'd encouraged her to take, he could have destroyed her at her weakest moment. This fledgling had a strong will and a bright soul. He would have to chip away at her resolve. Taking advantage of her post break-up need for a companion would win her trust and lower her defenses.

  He would succeed, one way or another. It would simply take more time than he had anticipated, time he couldn't afford but would need to prove his strength to the others.

  After he finished this mission, he had plans to make to kill Torek and take his place. The leader of Velok had failed too many times. And Darrac wasn't the only daemon dissatisfied with their continual losses to the luriel.

  Chapter 9

  Lilly stepped out of the taxi into a barren street surrounded by buildings with boarded over windows. The world spun and she wobbled. She caught her balance and frowned.

  "This isn't my apartment."

  Mychel stepped out behind her in the light of a lone lamp on a pole and something shifted under his coat over his left shoulder. "No."

  "Where're we? What are up to?" She whirled on him and stepped to catch her balance again, eyeing the open cab door behind him. "Take me 'ome."

  "We are home. Home is within us."

  He must have been joking.

  She looked up at the darkened ruins of an old part of the city and shuddered at the horrid possibilities flitting through her mind. Yet, she felt safest near him; he shone a light that cast aside the darkness. And he carried that sword of his, somewhere…maybe…she hoped.

  She shouldn't trust him, but something in her wanted to, like it had in the club. It must have been the drinks fogging her head.

  The slam of the cab door startled her. The cab zipped away on repulsion jets, the hum fading and disappearing with the stirring of dust in an obvious hurry to leave that spooky area.

  "No—" She didn't want to be left there.

  "They're anxious to meet you, Lilly."

  She returned her attention to Mychel, her mind jumbling on what she had worried about a second ago.

  "Who is?" More than ever, she didn't trust this man and wished she had stayed with Darrac. "Why were you outside my workplace a few days ago?" He hadn't answered any of her questions in the cab. Now she knew why—he intended to finish what he had started.

  She wished with all her heart that Darrac would call or had followed to rescue her. If not, she would resent Mychel and his special group beyond forgiveness for ruining her life.

  "As a trained celemae, we can sense the Awakening in others, fledglings like yourself. We, the Pallora Fen, try to reach them before the daemons do."

  Mychel took a step away and motioned for her to follow. Reluctant but afraid to be left alone in the desolate area, Lilly joined him in entering one of the alleys, but she didn't have much of a choice when she needed him to help her walk because the world wouldn't stop spinning.

  In a low voice, he continued, "We've kept our secret for over seven hundred years without causing a stir to the general public, but the Pallora Fen have been around for thousands of years. There was a time when fear was rampant, daemons razed civilizations, and the Fen were heroes for banishing daemons, but since the Age of Exploration, people turned to science and relegated daemons and luriel to myths. Some religions keep the ideas in their faith, but even religion waned over time. In the Reformation, many celemae died in asylums and for a while, the Pallora Fen were nearly extinct.

  "Now, we don't risk exposing ourselves for fear of hospitalizations and drugs for hallucinations, which delay Ascension and give daemons a chance to destroy us."

  "Your friend Jaz said something like that." She tried to make one of him out of the blur in her vision. He was almost cute in the office-type sort of way. He had that tidiness about him.

  Mychel's eyebrows lifted and his hand pressed her to hurry to a door in a single-floor building completely boarded up. "What did she say?" he asked while their steps crunched on the gravel and industrial debris on the ground.

  "She talked about a few things. I don' remember. I's late and I'm tired." And she wanted to see Darrac again. This was all ridiculous. She'd been drinking far too much.

  When he put his hand on the wall, a digital scan lit up beneath it. Not what she would expect in a rundown warehouse or whatever it was. It looked like a warehouse from the size and lack of normal windows except right under the soffits.

  At a soft click from the door, he pulled it open. "Inside. Quickly."

  Before she could object, his shove sent her stumbling forward. Lilly caught herself on something solid and looked about at the shadows. "Where are we?"

>   A dim light filtered from somewhere ahead, around dead machines and crates of supplies.

  "A safe house," he said from over her shoulder.

  Damn. She hadn't realized how close he'd come behind her.

  "Why?"

  "Because you need to understand and prepare for Enlightenment. I want you to be prepared as soon as possible so you can fight off the daemon attacks. They haven't given up on you, and we can't risk losing you. There are so few born into each generation, and daemons still eliminate a couple hundred a year before we can reach them."

  Lilly shuddered and tried to step softly with him towards the light ahead. A couple hundred eliminated?

  "You mean they're killed?" she whispered, afraid of someone overhearing them.

  "Worse. A celemae who doesn't know how to defend him- or herself is utterly destroyed—body and soul—so that the part of the luriel attached to their soul is also gone and can't regenerate. That person, that potential luriel, is gone forever. They can't return in a new body and the luriel lose one more in their continuing war in the Shadow Realm. And if the daemons win..."

  She tripped on something and stumbled forward, but hands caught her from falling. "Thanks."

  In the partial light on his face, she caught a quick smile.

  His words untangled in her head and she continued more carefully. "When Jaz...ascended, didn't she die?"

  "Death does release the soul from the body and is one way of ascending, but the soul will wander lost for a time if death comes first. Our way—the way of the Pallora Fen—has proven to help those souls reach the Shadow Realm immediately, absorbing the energy of their host body for the strength to cross. Jaz was close to Ascension. What you saw was just that. She didn't die, unless you haven't told me something?"

  Lilly shook her head. The memory from earlier rose up. "Her body disappeared. She was…transformed into a being of light."

  "Good..." He sounded relieved.

  "Good? It looked painful. How can that be good?"

  "She was my mentor, my guide, until I found my path. I only wish I could have been there for her." He let out a sigh and stopped at the edge of a large machine that blocked the light. "I was chosen to be your mentor, and I'll be sure you can defend yourself against any daemon."

  "And the daemons will kill me if I don't learn your ways?" She blinked at the wobbling of his face in her vision and tried to focus on it, but the deep shadows taunted her.

  "Yes. Every celemae they eliminate is one less luriel soldier in the Shadow Realm."

  "Why would I want to be a crusader if all I have to look forward to is fighting a war?" She was no warrior. She didn't want to fight in any war, real or mythical. She studied data at the moon bases and sent back adjustments. Her world was logic and math.

  She was going to wake up from this dream and have a good laugh.

  "If the war in the Shadow Realm is lost, Ahlias and the rest of the universe will cease to exist."

  Well, that put it into perspective. What choice did she have? Two: She could accept what he said and go along with it or laugh it off and risk some dark creature attacking her like the other night, or she could say good bye to her life and the world as she knew it. Nice choice. It would be easier if she didn't believe him, but the daemon over her bed and Jaz's Ascension convinced her that there might be something more to her existence. She didn't want to believe it, but she could no longer ignore what she had seen with her own eyes.

  She wished he was wrong.

  "All right. Fine. Tell me what I need to know."

  He stepped into the direct light with a smile and extended an arm towards it.

  Curious, Lilly crept around the edge of the machine, leaning on it for balance, to see a circle of men and women sitting on the floor around an old-fashioned oil lantern flickering in the center.

  "We all will." He stepped towards the circle, leaving her on the outside to feel conspicuous and awkward.

  When the nearest women relaxed and smiled at her, Lilly took the invitation and approached.

  "You're all a part of this?" she asked.

  "Yes. We are the Pallora Fen," a woman of dark skin like her said. "We are the children of the luriel, the celemae…like you…"

  "Lilly," she said with a quick smile.

  "Welcome, Lilly. My name is Shira. I trust Mychel has told you about our purpose."

  "Kind of." She looked to him in curiosity and the woman's gaze followed.

  "I brought her here to be protected while she learns. We can't delay."

  Shira unfolded her legs and stood. "Come, Lilly." She indicated the circle, her presence bearing something gentle and inviting that inspired trust, unlike the man who awaited her in the center.

  Other eyes opened, watching her with expectation.

  Lilly wanted to hide from being the center of attention but could only follow the woman and wish that the ground would quit swaying.

  "All right. Wha're we doing?"

  "We will teach you to meditate to connect to the Shadow Realm and our brethren." Shira pressed down on her shoulders. "Sit here."

  Lilly knelt down in her tight dress.

  "Not like that," the woman said.

  Mychel joined her and sat down facing Lilly. The faint clink of metal on the cold, concrete floor rang in the room. "Like this."

  Crossing her legs was not an option unless she hiked up her skirt. "I'm sorry, but I—"

  "Here…" He removed his jacket and handed it to her with an awkward expression on his face. The hilt of his sword peeked from over his shoulder, secured by the strap diagonal across his shoulder to waist, unlike what she had seen that first time when he wore it like a typical sword.

  Uncertain, Lilly looked up at the woman, who gave a nod, before taking the trench coat from Mychel. She laid it open on the ground and sat on half. With the rest, she covered her legs. It was still warm. She wanted to get this over with and go home, but she felt safer with them than alone outside in the old part of the city and whatever dangers lurked in the night.

  "Like this?"

  "Yes."

  Shira gave Mychel an accusatory look and stepped aside to take her place in the outer circle once more.

  "Um…" Lilly looked from one to the other, wishing Shira would stay with her instead of Mychel, who slid closer.

  "Close your eyes," he said, "and drop your hands into your lap, and concentrate on breathing deep and long. Let your mind drift. When you're at peace, the part of the luriel inside you will come into your awareness. It won't take long and you'll find a door opening to another world, the Shadow Realm. When that happens, you'll be ready for Enlightenment."

  "Enlightenment?"

  "Letting the luriel part of your soul touch the other side freely."

  "What if it stays?"

  "It won't," the woman said. "You are anchored here until your power becomes too great for the body to contain."

  "How long does that take?"

  "Many years," Mychel said. "Unfortunately, we have so little time to prepare you. You will want to practice meditating often. The more you touch the luriel part of yourself, the more your soul will merge with it and the stronger you'll be. You'll control the powers of the luriel, because you will be on your way to becoming luriel. Then the daemons will be no threat."

  "And a daemon is what you attacked in the alley? Not me?" Seeing the sword hilt over his shoulder brought back her distrust of him being so close.

  He turned his head to peer at the hilt. "Correct. You might have felt the dark void of its presence."

  She remembered that darkness that made her hesitate to leave work. "But a sword?"

  "An extension of my arm and my power. An ancient weapon but effective, and allowed by special license. I can teach you how to use it too."

  "Maybe." She still wasn't sure she wanted to believe any of this. "Tell me more about this war and why the luriel want us."

  "I won't go into too much tonight. Luriel can appear to people in this realm, but they only touch it wi
th their conscious. Very rarely do they cross, because it weakens them, like it does daemons."

  "How's it they can cross back...here, I mean?"

  "Everything is made of energy. That's how you'll know a daemon in disguise. When he uses his power, it touches negative energy. You'll feel it as an inexplicable fear or hatred. Luriel feed off positive energy..."

  "From positive emotions?"

  He smiled. "You learn quickly. Yes. Remember that. Your positive energy will neutralize a daemon's powers."

  It sounded easy enough, if any of this was real. "Then I just have to be happy all the time."

  "I wish it was that easy, but no."

  No? She should have known it would be harder. Ugh. All of this was too much. Her drunken brain refused to assimilate anything more. She wanted to go home.

  "Daemon's seek negative emotions and feed off the negative energy generated by them within the individual. The second one has taken several victims."

  "How do you know?" She shuddered from the images that came to mind with his descriptions.

  "It feels like a void of anger, fear, hatred, lust, greed, and everything selfish among the flow of the world's energy, like a hole in a picture canvas. This one has fed twice."

  "Fed?"

  "Fed. Recharged. They absorb all the energy, building their power. They don't eat like we do. Like the luriel in our realm, they are beings of another substance but need energy in this realm to maintain their power."

  "Wonderful." The sarcasm dripped from her voice. So, daemons could recharge their power to kill her, body and soul, and she had to learn to neutralize that power before they got to her.

  Her head spun with details. She wished she had gone home with Darrac instead of trusting Mychel, who had tricked her. This was too much.

  "I just want to go home and sleep on this." For once, she couldn't wait to get back to work and forget vacation.

  "And let the daemon take you?" Shira said in a stern voice.

  When she put it like that… Lilly swallowed her objections.

  "Meditate and practice touching that energy in yourself. Let it flow freely, Lilly."