by KT Webb
“I firmly believe that Keira is the new vessel. She has found a way to intervene in a number of situations that all shared the same theme: hopelessness. In all of those situations, she has been able to provide hope and renew the fire within someone in their moment of need,” Dorian told them calmly.
Nora and Kerr exchanged a look. Whitley felt Tahlia squeeze her hand, almost imperceptibly. She squeezed back, knowing that her mother was probably afraid of what that life could mean for Keira.
Chapter Eighteen:
Kerr
Kerr tucked his daughter in and kissed her dark, curly head. She sighed in her sleep and he sat to watch her for a few more moments. From their conversation in the library, he learned that this sweet little girl was going to play an important role in the New Era.
Dorian’s research had only gotten him so far, because there wasn’t a lot of information available about the spirit of hope. Because Tahlia had been the only vessel, little was known about how or when Keira would assume the role. Tahlia had sprung from the sphere as a fully-grown woman with no memory of a life before her arrival. Did she have a life before she became the vessel? Had she once been someone’s little girl with hopes and dreams of her own? Did she exist in physical form at all prior to being released from the sphere?
There were so many questions, but so few answers. None of them were certain what would happen in Keira’s life, and that terrified Kerr more than anything. He stood carefully so as not to disturb his daughter’s sleep.
He made his way to the bedroom he shared with Nora and found her curled up on their king-sized bed waiting for him. Her green eyes met his as he walked in the room.
“She’s asleep,” Kerr told her softly.
“I’m worried about her,” Nora told him as tears sprang to her eyes.
“So am I,” Kerr replied as he joined her on the bed and pulled her close.
Nora rolled over so she was face to face with her husband. She leaned up to kiss his jaw and snaked an arm around his waist. Kerr loved moments like this with his wife. Aside from Keira, Nora was his entire world; he had wholly and completely given himself to her, heart and soul.
“She will be alright. She has a strong support system. We’re all going to help her in any way we can.” Kerr tried to reassure her.
“You’re darn right we will!” Nora said as she gave him a gentle shove.
Kerr laughed at his wife and adjusted his body so he could kiss her, and Nora returned his kiss fervently. They took advantage of the private moment to ignite the passion between them.
As they dressed for bed, Kerr admired Nora’s perfect body. No words could express how much he loved that woman. He felt so much pride in the idea that she had chosen him. Nora caught his eye and threw a pillow at him as he took in the sight of her.
“What are you looking at?” Nora said as she pulled her tank top over her head.
“The perfection that is you,” Kerr told her, plopping back on the bed.
“Right. I’m so perfect. Slightly lumpy, stretch marks, and boobs that are starting to sag.” She laughed.
“You know exactly what I mean. Perfection doesn’t mean flawless. Your body has given us an amazing gift. Your body has given me so many pleasurable moments . . . ” Kerr wiggled his eyebrows in a seductive manner.
“Oh, dear Lord.” Nora snorted as she lay down next to him.
“You don’t have to call me that right now,” Kerr told her.
“Blasphemer!” Nora feigned shock before giggling at her husband.
Kerr pulled her into his arms and adjusted his body so he was wrapped around hers in an arc. He felt Nora relax as he held her, indicating that she had fallen asleep. Kerr closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep as well, but found himself to be restless. He gently released Nora and rolled over.
He sat up on the edge of the bed and looked around the room. The chaise by the window was bathed in moonlight, so he crossed the room to pull the curtains closed. When he looked out the window, he saw Whitley sitting in the grass in the middle of the large backyard. Kerr wasn’t sure what she was doing, but he decided to go check it out.
He made his way downstairs as quietly as possible and eased the back door open. Kerr carefully approached Whitley, afraid he would startle her if she hadn’t heard him coming.
“Hi, Kerr,” Whitley said.
“Hey, Whitley, what are you doing out here?” Kerr asked her.
“Meditating,” she replied, without looking at him.
“Can I join you?” Kerr asked, sitting down without waiting for an answer.
They sat for a few moments in silence, staring out into the rapidly darkening night. Kerr wondered how Whitley had adjusted so quickly to the discovery that she had been gone for nearly five years. She told them it was like she closed her eyes in one place and opened them in another, but Kerr was beginning to suspect she had begun to remember the rest of her time away.
“Whitley, I need you to answer something for me. Don’t be upset, but I’m starting to sense something about you and I need you to be honest with me,” Kerr told her quietly.
Whitley turned to face him in the grass and waited for him to continue.
“You’re beginning to remember your time in the white expanse aren’t you?” Kerr asked her.
“Yes,” Whitley told him. “I remember it all now. That’s why I was out here. I’ve been talking to the other Old Immortals. I can’t see them, but I can hear them, and they can hear me.”
“Why did you lie and say you couldn’t remember anything?” Kerr asked.
“I didn’t at first. When I fell asleep, it all came back to me in a dream. Only, it wasn’t a dream really. I saw the rest of the council, and they told me that while I do not have abilities, I am going to be their bridge to the Evolved and the Virtues. They said we’re going to need their help,” Whitley replied.
“What do we need their help with?” Kerr asked her curiously.
“Here, let’s try this,” Whitley said, holding her hands out to him with the palms up. “It will be easier for you to see.”
Kerr reached out and placed his palms on hers.
A flash of white light sent him reeling as he found himself in a large white room. There were columns running along the edges, and a wide set of stairs leading down on one end. It took him a moment to register Whitley standing next to him.
“Where are we?” Kerr asked.
Whitley shrugged her shoulders and looked around as though she expected to find something familiar. Voices were coming from the direction of the stairs, Kerr walked over to the top and looked down, vaguely aware of Whitley standing next to him again.
“Where did you find them?” a man asked someone in front of him.
“I was looking for a place to start a new city. You asked us to help you grow your world,” another man replied.
Shivers ran up and down Kerr’s spine; he would recognize that voice anywhere. The first man shifted his weight, opening the line of sight to the other man—Absalom. Kerr felt Whitley grab his arm and try to pull him back. Kerr stayed where he was, waiting for the conversation to continue.
“Bring them to me, Absalom. You say they are repentant of their actions, but I must see for myself,” the first man told Absalom.
“Yes, my Lord,” Absalom replied with a deep bow.
Kerr watched the first man make his way up the stairs, catching a glimpse of his face as he drew closer. The Creator. But who was he asking Absalom about?
Everything began to wobble and shimmer as they appeared to stand still while the world moved in fast forward around them. Whitley had taken his hand in hers. He knew she was not accustomed to memory travel as he was. He squeezed her clammy hand in reassurance. Their surroundings slowed to a normal speed and they stood looking at the long table, now full of friendly faces.
The Creator stood at the head of the table, waiting for something as he expectantly stared at the stairs. Kerr turned to see Absalom coming up the stairs with a band of beings behind him. At first glance,
Kerr would have thought them to be human. There were eight in all. A few looked like someone you may meet on the street, but there were others who looked cold and dead. The least appealing were the two who seemed to be suffering from a severe infection or injury. Whitley grabbed his shirt to get his attention. When Kerr turned to look at her, she mouthed one word—Maladies.
“Absalom, please introduce your guests,” the Creator instructed as the Council of Immortals watched the newcomers warily.
“These are the beings I found while scouring the world for more places to grow civilizations. I have now been informed they are our predecessors,” Absalom brazenly told the council.
“Is this true, Father?” Dorian asked the Creator.
“Yes,” the Creator replied sadly.
“How did they come to their present state?” asked a man with deep brown skin.
“That’s Lucien,” Whitley whispered.
“Please, take a seat and I will tell you all a story.” The Creator gestured for the Maladies to make themselves comfortable.
“As you know, when our world first began, it was empty. There was no one here. No animals or vegetation. It is true that I created the world in only seven days, but we all know time had different meaning then. I created light to fill the darkness, I created earth to stand on, and I created the sky to hold the light. But before I went any further, I created angels. My angels were supposed to be my companions, my messengers, and my family. Some of those angels have lived up to those expectations, but some have fallen from grace,” the Creator said as he glanced at the Maladies.
Kerr and Whitley exchanged confused looks.
“After I created you all to be the ambassadors to my next creation—man—I discovered that some of my angels were beginning to plot against me to destroy you. They were unhappy with my plans for you. They wanted to be the ones to have an impact on man. After I breathed life into the first men, the beings you see around you began to attempt to sway them toward their own selfish desires. When I uncovered their actions, I banished them from their place above with me. I sent them as far I could from myself and the creations I had brought to life.” The Creator shook his head sadly.
“But where could you possibly send them?” a woman with black hair and narrow eyes asked him quietly.
“I created a place for them, deep within the Earth. I created the Underworld and banished them there, then I sealed the entrance. Their energies are so strong that they are still sometimes able to infect man, but they are not able to directly impact their lives. They can only take up residence in man’s heart if he invites them in. If he does, then upon his death, his soul will be absorbed by the being whose sin he has portrayed.” The Creator paused to see if there were more questions.
Kerr and Whitley stood watching the Maladies as they watched the Creator with great interest, their faces full of something that could almost be obsession. No one said anything as they processed the information the Creator had laid out in front of them.
“Absalom tells me you are repentant. Would any of you care to elaborate?” the Creator asked.
A young woman with wide, almost black eyes stood. She nodded her acknowledgement to the Council of Immortals, then settled her gaze on the Creator.
“Oh, you are mistaken. We are not repentant. We simply wanted an audience with you. Had to see what all the fuss was about, you know.” She crossed her arms indignantly. “Not impressed.”
“Chaos, you have tried to incite others against me by spreading your lies about who I am. You’ve led men to idol worship and sacrifice. Of course you are the one to stand against me now,” the Creator said, his voice thick with hurt and grief.
Kerr watched as the Old Immortals prepared for a fight. But the Creator held his hand up to calm them. He glanced at Absalom, who nodded his head and pulled something from his robe.
“The sphere,” Kerr exclaimed. He stepped closer to examine it. It had a golden hue, but none of the glow it had in his visions.
“From this moment on, you will be held within this container. You will not see the light of day again. You have proven to me that you are not to be trusted and you cannot be allowed to destroy the world we have worked so hard to create.” The Creator’s voice thundered and shook the room. “I command your energies into the sphere. I command you, the maladies that have tainted my creations, to leave this place at once.” With a wave of his hand, the Maladies were pulled into the sphere.
Kerr and Whitley watched as their bodies appeared to morph and stretch and pull as they were sucked into the device meant to contain them for eternity. When their moans of despair fell silent, the room began to speed around them again. They watched the council come and go. Nights and days passed until time finally seemed to snap back into place around them.
The Creator sat in meditation on the table in the otherwise empty room.
“We fear Absalom may have allowed the Maladies to have a greater impact on his consciousness than he has let on to you,” a voice said from the shadows.
“I believe you are right,” the Creator said calmly.
Two men stepped from the shadows near the stairs and approached the Creator. One was short with blond hair, the other was tall and tan.
“The short one is Marcellus. The Greek god is Rance,” Whitley whispered.
“If we are to create woman, we must do something to keep the scales tipped in our favor,” Rance told him.
“I agree. Bring me the sphere,” the Creator said, still meditating.
Rance crossed the room and placed his palm against the smooth marble wall at the back of the large room. The wall shook and the marble slid aside to reveal the sphere resting on a blue velvet platform. Marcellus carefully lifted the sphere and brought it to the Creator.
“If Absalom accomplishes what I think he will, we need to have a failsafe way to ensure that the Maladies will not be able to do as they please. We must be able to offer man an alternative to the evils held within this sphere,” the Creator told them as he took the sphere from Marcellus.
Kerr and Whitley watched in awe as the sphere began to vibrate and levitate. The Creator was concentrating on it with a furrowed brow. He seemed lost in thought.
“I must put a piece of myself in the sphere with them,” the Creator told the two council members.
Both Rance and Marcellus seemed to regard the Creator stoically. They seemed to know better than to question how he came to this conclusion. They had full trust in their Creator.
The Creator reached up as though he were pulling a hair from his robe. Instead, he pulled a glowing mist from within him. The glowing mist swirled before him, hovering in midair. He held up his hands, indicating that the mist should envelope the sphere. As the mist encircled the golden sphere, it slowly fused with it, giving it the ethereal glow Kerr had become accustomed to from his visions.
“What was that?” Marcellus asked in awe.
“The spirit of hope,” the Creator said simply. “If the day comes that the sphere is broken and the Maladies are released into the world, the spirit of hope will manifest in a vessel. As long as the vessel lives, the Maladies cannot win.”
The world around them shook and twisted as it disintegrated.
Kerr and Whitley locked eyes sitting on the lawn behind the house. Kerr was having trouble wrapping his head around what they’d just witnessed. They now knew the Creator suspected Absalom’s treachery and had prepared for it without his knowledge. They now knew why the Maladies wanted Tahlia dead. If she died, they would be able to do whatever they wanted. They would win. If or when Keira became the new vessel, she would always be a target. They would try to kill her.
Chapter Nineteen:
Dorian
“What do you mean you were there?” Dorian asked.
“The rest of the council has been talking to me. They said we’re going to need their help. Rance and Marcellus were part of the Creator’s plan against Absalom. If they hadn’t contacted me, none of us would have known,” Whitley told him
indignantly.
“Alright. I just didn’t think it was possible that there were secrets between my brothers and me,” Dorian told her.
“They didn’t think Absalom would ever turn. At the time, the Creator didn’t know who he could trust, but Rance and Marcellus had already sniffed out trouble. They had suspicions about Absalom when he showed up talking about happening upon these beings. The Creator knew there was no way he could ‘happen’ upon them,” Whitley told him.
“That makes sense,” Romulus replied.
“I wish I understood what got into Absalom,” Dorian said with a frustrated sigh.
“The council has a theory. When Absalom removed the seal from the Underworld, he was hit with an overwhelming amount of the pent-up energies the Maladies had been hurling at their prison walls for so many years,” Whitley replied.
“But he must have been open to the evils if they were able to infect him so easily,” Kerr said suddenly.
Dorian agreed with Kerr. Something must have changed him before he found the Maladies. Absalom was always so strong, so faithful. He made mistakes, but it was a shock to them all when he convinced Pandora to open the sphere. That day they lost Absalom, but they gained Tahlia.
“The part that has me the most amazed is that Tahlia is imbued with a piece of the Creator. No wonder she developed abilities to match our own. What we still don’t know is where Tahlia came from and why she was chosen to be the vessel,” Dorian told them all.
When Kerr and Whitley had finished with their late night travel through the memories of the other Old Immortals, they fell asleep in the library. They were exhausted from their efforts, but wanted to be sure to speak with Dorian right away in the morning. When Dorian walked in, he found them sleeping on the two couches with piles of books on either side of them. He assumed they had been trying to do some research into what they learned. Dorian woke them, and immediately called out to Romulus with his mind after hearing the gist of what they’d seen.
“We have to tell my mom what we found out about her. We have to tell Nora about Keira’s future,” Whitley told them all sternly.