by KT Webb
“She took me into her fort and said she decided to think of it as a cave. As soon as she did, we appeared inside here. When I came out, I realized we were not in a cave at all,” Kerr told her.
“No. You’re in Guatemala, with our daughter,” Nora said with a hint of frustration.
“This is where the Old Immortals lived. This is Mutul,” Kerr told them. “Nora, Thatcher, some of our mortal ancestors are from here.”
“That’s great,” Nora said, sounding utterly unenthused.
She took a deep breath in the humid air. She needed to get Keira and Kerr home.
“Alright, you two, I don’t know how you got here, but I’m going to take you home,” Nora told them.
“Mommy, you’re never going to get through there without me,” Keira said, pointing back at the opening of the temple they stood on.
Nora dropped to her knees in front of her daughter. She felt the temperature drop to a more acceptable level. Nora was thankful to have Hadley along. Nora and Thatcher had done their parts by shielding them and providing light respectively.
“What do you mean, baby?” Nora asked her daughter.
“You need me to open the door, remember?” Keira told her.
Nora didn’t know what to say to that. She looked at her daughter, then back at Kerr.
“Open the door to what, honey?” Kerr asked.
“Duh! To Eternity,” Keira told them.
Hadley was dancing back and forth on her tip toes, trying to get Nora’s attention.
“Yes, Hadley?” Nora asked her patiently.
“This is a door to Eternity. This location will take us directly to the mountain!” Hadley told her excitedly.
“Yes, mommy!” Keira squealed, pulling on her mother’s shirt.
Nora looked down at her daughter, unsure how or why she would know anything about opening a portal to another plane. She smiled at Keira and pulled her in for a hug.
“What made you decide to come here now?” Nora asked her.
“I felt like you needed me,” Keira told her.
“Alright, I’ll let you open the door, but then you have to go home,” Nora said.
“Sorry, mommy, that’s not how it works. I have to go with you. So does daddy,” Keira said, putting her foot down.
Nora was taken aback by the firm response she received from her daughter. She wondered how her daughter could be so certain, but decided that she had to have faith that her amazingly powerful little girl knew what she was talking about. Nora looked around at the other Evolved, and they all seemed to have come to the same conclusion she had.
“Alright, honey, what do we do next?” Nora asked her.
Keira smiled and took her mother’s hand, signaling for the others to follow her.
Chapter Thirty-Three:
Thatcher
One moment they were heading into the darkness of the temple opening, the next they were standing at the foot of a mountain.
Thatcher looked up at the enormous mountain in front of him. It was so tall he couldn’t see the top. The place seemed to be long abandoned and empty, yet everything was in perfect condition. The foot of the mountain boasted a large cave mouth that appeared to be the only entrance.
As his eyes traveled higher, he saw structures jutting out from various levels. The structures mainly mimicked Greek architecture, but there were hints of other traditions along the way. The clouds appeared to be covering the top of the mountain, hiding the Great Hall from view.
“Holy crap,” Hadley said into the stunned silence.
Thatcher smiled at her warmly. She was staring open-mouthed at the mountain before them. He looked at Kerr, then at Nora still grasping Keira’s hand. They had arrived.
“So, now what?” Thatcher asked.
“We go inside,” Kerr said with a shrug.
“We explore,” Hadley said.
“We see the Creator and get some answers,” Nora finished.
Keira took off running toward the mountain.
“What are you waiting for? Can’t you hear it?” Keira called over her shoulder as her dark curls bounced around her face.
Thatcher exchanged a confused look with the other Evolved. He hadn’t heard anything. He strained his ears for a moment, waiting for the hint of a sound, when it hit him.
“It’s laughter,” Thatcher said in awe. It was more than just laughter, it was laughter that called to his soul. It felt like coming home.
The others seemed to pick up on it too, and they began to follow Keira with excitement. When they arrived at the foot of the mountain, they didn’t hesitate as they stepped into the yawning darkness. As soon as they stepped through, they found themselves in a sparkling room filled with light.
Thatcher tried to take it all in—the tiny balls of multi-colored light were floating everywhere; the twinkle of each little orb gave the room a prismatic quality. It was breathtakingly beautiful. The large entry filled him with an elation he had never experienced.
“What is this?” Thatcher asked.
Nora turned to him, tears running down her face. “These are the souls that haven’t gotten to live in our world. Some are yet to be born, and others were lost or taken before they took their first breath.”
“How do you know?” he whispered in awe.
“Call it mothers’ intuition, but I feel them. My heart breaks for the lost potential, but I can’t help but feel the hope and happiness that they will be given another chance. They’re all so beautiful,” Nora told him.
“Wow.” Thatcher couldn’t think of anything to sum up his feelings.
Keira came running over to them to tell them they had to go up the stairs. Kerr and Nora followed her, but as Thatcher began to fall in step behind them he saw Hadley staring at the lights, unmoving. He went to her, unsure of how she was feeling.
“Hadley, it’s time to go upstairs,” Thatcher said gently.
“Thatcher! Look! This one is ours,” Hadley whispered excitedly.
“What?” He was surprised by her words.
“I feel it. I could hear this little one calling to me.” She pointed directly at a twinkling green light.
“Hi there, little guy.” The light grew slightly brighter at Thatcher’s words. As the light brightened, another emerged from behind it.
“Amazing,” Kerr said behind them.
Thatcher turned and grinned at his friend. “Apparently, we’re having two babies. These two.” He pointed.
“Yeah, well, you’ll have to ask me a certain question first, won’t you?” Hadley teased as she slowly turned to head for the stairs where Nora and Keira waited for them.
Thatcher cleared his throat and got down on one knee. Hadley turned around and her jaw dropped. Thatcher had been carrying the ring around with him for nearly a year, waiting for the right moment.
“What are you doing?” Hadley asked.
“Hadley, I have been in love with you for what feels like a lifetime. You are an amazing, intelligent, beautiful woman, and I don’t deserve you. But for some reason you’ve chosen me.” Thatcher paused and pulled the ring out of his jacket pocket.
Hadley was crying tears of joy, quietly waiting for him to continue.
“I want to spend eternity loving you. What better place to ask you to be my wife than in Eternity?” Thatcher asked. “Hadley Anne Callaghan, will you marry me?”
She nodded her head and held out her hand. The ring slid onto her finger, and she giggled as she threw her arms around his neck. He kissed his fiancé and held her for a few moments as she stared into his eyes.
Nora and Kerr approached them and offered their congratulations. Keira ran over to see what the fuss was about. Thatcher felt as though his heart could burst with happiness; he was surrounded by his family, and Hadley was going to marry him.
They made their way up the stairs, each step bringing them closer to the laughter they had heard before they entered. It wasn’t constant. The sound reminded Thatcher of a distant party. They came to a landing after climbing for what coul
d have been hours or seconds.
The landing was circular and had doors lining the curved wall. Thatcher approached one of the doors and pushed it open. Inside he found what appeared to be a bedroom. The room looked as though it had been deserted long ago. He noticed a golden statue sitting on a table near the open-air windows. Thatcher had seen the statue before; it was a woman, blindfolded and holding her scales high.
“Thatcher?” Kerr called to him from the door.
“I’m in here. Look at this,” Thatcher said, pointing to the statue.
“You shouldn’t be in here,” Kerr told him carefully.
“Why? It doesn’t look like anyone has been in here in years,” Thatcher told him.
“Exactly. This was Absalom’s room,” Kerr replied.
Thatcher looked around him once more. His eyes took in the room that had once housed a mass murderer. He didn’t see anything that would have indicated what Absalom would become. He felt a shiver run through him as he glanced back at the statue of Themis, Goddess of Justice. How could someone who admired something as noble as justice have become such a monster? He couldn’t help but think about what he’d read in the History of Old Immortals all those years ago. If Absalom had been rotten from the beginning, why did he care about justice?
“I don’t get it,” Thatcher mused aloud.
“Hmm?” Kerr made a questioning sound.
“What made him change?” Thatcher asked. “I mean, this statue stands for justice, for a balance between right and wrong. But he went completely off the rails.”
Kerr looked at him for a moment as though deciding what to say. “The thing about justice is, it is never fair in the eyes of all those affected by its touch. When justice is brought to a killer, the family of the victim may feel relief, but those who believed the killer was innocent would view the ruling as unfair.”
Thatcher thought about that for a moment. “For Absalom, justice wasn’t about right and wrong, it was about balance. Maybe he was unhappy with the love the Creator felt for man, just as the Maladies were upset by the love the Creator felt for the Council of Immortals. He wanted to ruin the perfect creation of man by corrupting and harming them. Absalom thought that he was correcting the balance of power by destroying the descendants of the Old Immortals. In his mind, he was delivering justice. What a twisted freak.”
Kerr nodded emphatically and gestured for Thatcher to follow him.
Thatcher began to follow Kerr, but stopped and gave the room one more look. There was something final about standing in this place; something that left him feeling at peace.
“I forgive him. I can’t really explain it, but I’m not going to be angry anymore. He killed his own son trying to do what he thought was right. I don’t agree with what he did, but I have to forgive him,” Thatcher said with finality.
“Yeah, you do.” Hadley’s voice came from behind him.
She opened her arms and he went into them willingly. Thatcher knew she’d been waiting for him to let go of the rest of the anger he was clinging to. Standing in this room, he finally found the strength he needed to let go and move on.
“Let’s go. They’re waiting for us in the hallway. Let’s go see if we can find out where that laughter is coming from,” Hadley said before she planted a quick kiss on his cheek.
Making their way up the next flight of stairs, they realized they would reach the source of the laughter when they made it to the top. It was strange, because Kerr described the laughter as a man’s voice, but Nora described it much the same as Thatcher heard it, as both a man and a woman. Hadley and Keira could hear a whole room of people. None of them could explain the differences in what they heard.
Finally, they saw a bright white light at the top of the stairs ahead of them. As they reached the top, they came face to face with a room full of people they had been aching to see.
“Thatcher!” His mother rushed forward to pull him into a tight embrace.
He was so shocked to be in his mother’s arms that he pulled away to look at her face. When he did, he saw the joy etched on every inch. Glancing up, he saw his father standing proudly behind her.
“Dad? Mom?” Thatcher asked uncertainly.
“It’s us, Firecracker,” his father said, bringing back the memory of his childhood nickname.
“I’ve missed you so much,” he said. Then realizing he needed to say more, he told them what was on his heart, “I’m so sorry I couldn’t stop the fire.”
“We know it wasn’t you, son. You were so young. We’ve missed you too,” his mother said with a serene smile.
A small cry escaped Hadley as Thatcher was crushed into a strong hug with his parents. That small cry was all it took for him; he began grieving lost time and rejoicing in the reunion through his tears.
Chapter Thirty-Four:
Kerr
The room held more people than he could count. He scanned the space before him and realized it was set up to be comfortable and functional. There were couches placed all around, and everyone appeared to be having wonderful conversations.
He felt his father before he saw him. Kerr strode into the crowd, leaving Thatcher in the arms of his parents. A group of men were gathered around his father, and they all held the same features as Kerr.
“Kerr,” Cole Mason exclaimed.
He stood staring at the man he had seen burst into flames all those years before. He choked back tears as his father closed the gap between them and pulled him into a strong embrace.
“It’s so good to see you, son,” Cole said into his son’s neck.
“You too, dad. I never would have imagined I’d see you again,” Kerr told him.
Cole nodded his agreement. He glanced over Kerr’s shoulder, his eyes growing wide. Kerr turned to see what had caught his father’s attention. Nora was holding Keira and approaching them with a small smile on her face.
“Dad, this is Nora. She’s my wife. And this is our daughter, Keira,” Kerr told his father proudly.
“I know, son. It’s wonderful to meet you both. I’m a grandpa!” He laughed and reached for Keira.
Kerr smiled widely as his daughter hugged his father. He was witnessing a moment he never thought he would see. Nora took his hand as they were approached by a man who bore a striking resemblance to Kerr.
“I am Keiran,” the young man said.
“Oh, wow,” Nora said breathlessly.
“I am honored to meet you both,” Keiran told them.
“It’s nice to meet you too,” Kerr replied, still reeling from the idea of standing in front of Romulus’ son.
“We would like for you to meet Keira. We named her after you,” Nora told him with a grin.
Keira smiled shyly at her many times great-grandfather and gave him a small wave. Kerr heard Nora inhale sharply beside him and felt her grab his arm. He looked up in time to see a woman who looked remarkably like his wife walking toward them.
The woman came up to them, smiling through the tears in her eyes. She laughed out loud like the joy was bursting from her body as she stopped in front of Nora.
“Hello, Nora,” she said carefully.
“Hi, mom,” Nora said in a state of shock.
“You’ve grown into such a beautiful young woman,” her mother said as she reached up to touch her daughter’s face.
Nora leaned her head into her mother’s hand and closed her eyes.
“I wish I could remember you,” Nora told her mother apologetically.
“Oh, baby, you were so young. How could you have remembered me? You were only an infant. I only wish we’d had more time together,” she said sadly.
Kerr didn’t want to interrupt this special moment, but he wanted to make sure Nora’s mom met her granddaughter. He cleared his throat and reached out a hand to introduce himself.
“I’m Kerr. I have the honor of being married to your daughter,” he said proudly.
“Of course. I’m Elizabeth Lowell. It’s wonderful to meet you. And little Keira too,” Elizabeth sa
id with a smile.
A man approached them from behind Elizabeth and introduced himself as Nora’s father, Donovan. Nora hugged both of her parents, but still seemed to be shocked by the whole situation.
Kerr soon found that the room was full of those who had been murdered by Absalom in his quest to destroy the Evolved. They met descendants of the rest of the council and shared a warm and friendly conversation with Thatcher and his parents. He remembered that Nora and Thatcher’s mothers were sisters when he saw them together and knew the resemblances couldn’t be denied.
“Nora, this is your aunt, Sophia,” Elizabeth told her.
Sophia nodded at Nora and introduced her to Thatcher’s father, Ross. Kerr was pleased to see that Sophia had immediately latched on to Hadley as they stood with the rest of the Evolved.
They found their way to some couches and spent what could have been days sharing stories and reminiscing about the times they had actually shared with their families. Of course it occurred to Kerr that they were all able to keep tabs on them while here in Eternity, but the idea that they had all been just outside of reach every time he had a vision was almost too much for him to comprehend.
Keira had fallen asleep in his lap. He shifted her weight slightly and her curls fell across her round face. Kerr noticed Cole, Elizabeth, and Donovan watching her as she slept. He couldn’t imagine how they were feeling as they talked to the children they’d been forced to leave behind. And it must have been even more difficult to spend time with the grandchild they would have to watch grow from afar.
A quiet crept over the room and the people around them slowly seemed to fade away until the only people left were the Evolved and their parents.
“It is time for you to continue on your journey. You still have another stop to make before you will arrive at the Great Hall,” Cole told them.
As each of them said their goodbyes, they watched their departed family members slowly fade until they were left standing in an empty room.
“Come on, guys, let’s get going,” Hadley said.
Kerr could feel the strain in her voice. She was the only one who hadn’t faced a long-departed relative. He could imagine how concerned she was over the possible reactions they may have. But as far as Kerr could see, the meeting with their parents had left Thatcher, Nora, and himself feeling rejuvenated for the journey ahead.