The Seal of Solomon

by Jeffrey Ellis

  “Get us to medical and keep this place on lockdown until Anna clears it,” said Chelsea as she nearly fainted.

  Sebastian was sweating and having muscle spasms. Chelsea was light headed and not able to stand. The guards got them to the elevator and took them up. Both lost consciousness in the elevator. The guards carried them to the infirmary and helped the doctors get them onto beds before returning to their posts. They had to reopen the wound Chelsea seared shut to fix internal bleeding and stabilized her but Sebastian was a different story.

  They had never seen venom of this nature and standard treatments didn’t work. He was dying. They notified the High Lord and word quickly spread. Ra and Nefertiti went to the infirmary and saw him. Anna was there with William who was sedated but doing okay. His skin was being regenerated with dermal patches and they would put in artificial eyes once his face was healed.

  “How are the champions doing?” asked Ra.

  “William will recover as will Chelsea. I am uninjured. Sebastian has been poisoned by a reptile creature and we don’t know enough about its venom to cure it. I think he’s dying,” Anna said to Ra.

  “Can I see this creature?” he said.

  She pulled up an image from their data files and showed him.

  “That’s a beither,” Ra told her.

  “I thought beithers looked like giant snakes. I’ve never heard of a humanoid version,” Anna replied.

  “They are rare, but they exist. You need Boudicca. This creature is from her homeland and if anyone knows how to cure its venom then she will,” Ra told her.

  Anna immediately contacted Boudicca over a video conference. “Boudicca, I know you don’t like New York and if it weren’t an emergency I wouldn’t ask. Sebastian has been exposed to a venom we’ve never seen before and don’t know how to treat it. Ra says the creature is a beither and you might be able to help.”

  “I will come. His life is more important than my distaste for your cities. I will ask Sir Bruce to provide me a shuttle,” she said.

  About twenty minutes later, Boudicca and Trish arrived and were immediately taken to the infirmary. Boudicca’s discomfort was obvious, but she hid it as best she could. She went over to Sebastian and took his hand then closed her eyes and hummed.

  “The venom has had a long time to act. I don’t know if I can save him, but I will try. Trish, I need your help, but it will be a struggle,” said Boudicca.

  “The venom of a beither is both magical and mundane. It’s not just a question of cleansing his body but also his spirit. I will have to enter his mind and fight the effects from within. It’s not usually how this would be done but with it, this far progressed we have no choice. The physical venom will have to be purged from his body. It will have to be cleansed drop by drop from his blood.”

  “This is not without danger for everyone and it would be better if we have Chelsea to join us. Her natural bond with him and her stronger connection to their life will help ground him and pull him back from the doorway,” Boudicca told them.

  “Chelsea is fine, and I can wake her for you but she must stay on the IVs,” said the doctor. “She’s weak though.”

  A few minutes later Chelsea came over to them. She was clearly upset and unable to hold back the tears when she saw Sebastian. Boudicca hugged her.

  “Will he be okay?” Chelsea asked.

  “I can’t lie to you. I don’t know, and I need your help to save him. The venom that’s in him is going to be difficult to purge and your presence will help pull him back if it can be done. You’ll be inside his mind and being inside someone’s mind is difficult,” Boudicca told her.

  “I’ve shared his mind before, we dream together,” said Chelsea.

  “This won’t be like a dream. You will be inside the mind of a dying man. This is not going be like anything you’ve experienced. You’ve been through a tough fight are you sure you’re up for this? You’ll have to be strong. If you’re not recovered, I can ask Ra or Nefertiti but they don’t have the connection to him you do,” Boudicca told her.

  “It’s okay, I can do it. For him I can do anything,” Chelsea said.

  “Trish will handle the venom in his blood while Chelsea I will handle the venom in his mind,” Boudicca told the group.

  “Trish?” asked Anna.

  “Trish has been developing her skills and is fully capable of cleansing the venom. I have confidence in her,” said Boudicca.

  “I’ll do my best,” said Trish.

  “You’ll be fine. The Mother will guide you,” Boudicca told her.

  Trish went over to Sebastian and climbed up on the bed, straddling and sitting on him and put her hands on his chest. Boudicca took one of his hands and instructed Chelsea to take the other. Trish’s hands started growing tiny vines that spread out over Sebastian and drilled into his skin at various points over his body.

  Chelsea looked concerned and Boudicca told her, “It’s okay. She’s going to draw out the poison and into herself. The plants will create a counter for the venom and destroy it. Now concentrate.”

  #

  Boudicca and Chelsea both closed their eyes. When they opened them, they were on a rocky outcropping surrounded on all sides by a glowing energy that seemed to be flowing in every direction at once. A man in a reddish-gold robe wearing a crown and carrying a staff with an orb like the one Mordred possessed atop it stood at the edge staring into the energy patterns.

  “What is this?” asked Boudicca.

  “I don’t know. I thought you knew what to expect,” Chelsea replied.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this. It feels incredible,” Boudicca replied.

  “Malka, my love. It is rare we are here together but your presence is always welcome as we wait for a new beginning,” said the man.

  He turned around and faced them.

  “You’re not Malka, yet. At least not fully and you’ve brought a guest. This is unusual,” said the man.

  “You look like Sebastian, you’re so familiar. Who are you?” said Chelsea.

  The man laughed. “It’s always difficult making the transition and the memories are slow to return. I am Baldric, your husband,” he said.

  “This is Boudicca and she’s here to help me save you or Sebastian or whoever you are,” said Chelsea.

  “She is welcome to stay with us and see us on our next journey but how can you save me? I am dead,” he said.

  “You’re not dead. The beither venom is being purged from your body and we’re here to cleanse it from your spirit,” said Boudicca.

  “Beither? I’m not familiar with that word,” he replied.

  “Who are you,” said Boudicca.

  “Malka has not told you? I apologize. I assumed you knew us but her memories are not yet coalesced so allow me to introduce us. As I said, I am Baldric and I was the last king of the Atlanteans and this is my queen, Malka.”

  “King and queen of Atlantis?” said Boudicca. “That’s a bit hard to believe. I know you’ve lived multiple lives but to say you’re from a land that’s barely more than legend and not only from Atlantis but it’s monarchy, that is somewhat of the fantastical leaning,” Boudicca continued.

  “Legend? How long has it been since the betrayal and loss of our beloved land?” asked Sebastian.

  “We don’t know for sure, there are no records and only legend and rumor. If Atlantis were real, it was at least twelve thousand years ago,” Boudicca told him.

  “What are your thoughts, Chelsea?” Boudicca asked her but Chelsea didn’t reply.

  Chelsea walked towards the man and as she did, she changed. Her clothing transformed into a reddish gold robe and a crown adorned her head. Her shoulder length hair grew long and hung in golden blond curls to her waist. She walked to Sebastian and the two embraced.

  He put her hand to her head and said, “Remember.”

  “My love, we have to return. We can’t move on this time,” Malka said.

  “My body may not be dead but I can feel it dying and my t
ime in this life is ended. I prepare for the next as we always have,” he replied.

  “That’s why we’re here. We came to help,” Chelsea told him.

  “My apprentice is purging the venom but it was too far progressed to cleanse your spirit without entering it directly,” Boudicca told him.

  “Someone purges the poison? There may yet be a chance,” he said.

  “Where are we? I’ve entered people’s minds before and never seen anything like this,” asked Boudicca.

  “You are adrift on the great Weave where Malka and I always return waiting for the rebirth,” he told her.

  “The what?” asked Boudicca.

  “The Weave. It’s the essence of magic and the source of all arcane craft,” he told her.

  “How is that possible that we can be inside magic?” she said.

  “The Weave was the source for Atlantean power. We were taught by the dragons to access it, to draw directly from it,” Malka told her.

  “We were a land of grand wizards who pulled their power directly from this Weave but our source of power was our undoing. Atlantis was betrayed from within by those jealous and wanting more power. Our alliance was shattered by a people we accepted as friends. They waged a war of magic. The war caused the dragons to shatter our land and left Malka and me in this cycle of rebirth. When our bodies die, our spirit waits here for rebirth and,” but as he was speaking the platform they were on started shaking.

  “That’s never happened before,” he said.

  The patterns in the energy distorted and the calm flowing patterns turned to spikes and chaos like static interfering with a video signal. A figure rose from below the platform, gargantuan and dark, a shadow cast against the energy patterns behind it. The darkness coalesced into a solid form and the beither was there.

  “It’s the beither!” shouted Boudicca. “Its hold on your spirit is taking form,” she told them.

  “That’s a Saurial. He’s changed though. What has time done to your great race?” said Baldric.

  The creature breathed, and the acid sprayed towards them. Baldric raised his staff and an invisible barrier protected them, the rock outside the barrier was sizzling and smoking where the acid made contact.

  #

  Trish was in pain and she screamed but did not let go. Blood was trickling from her nose and eyes and she was breathing hard. Nefertiti went over to her but when she got close, Trish’s skin hardened and turned to the blue stone again and vines covered in barbs shot out from cracks between the stones towards her barely missing as Nefertiti jumped away. The vines receded but her skin stayed as it was.

  Several of the guards who had carried Sebastian and Chelsea up to the infirmary had remained and pulled out their weapons.

  Nefertiti yelled, “NO! Take no action. She is reflexively defending herself and will not threaten us if we stay away. She is acting on instinct to protect herself and Sebastian as she tries to heal him. I should have known better than to approach her.”

  The vines that were piercing Sebastian grew longer and he was virtually covered in a carpet of bright green vines with small lilac flowers that looked like morning glories growing from them.

  Trish was shaking, almost convulsing.

  “Is she okay?” Anna asked Nefertiti.

  “I’ve never seen someone of her fledgling skill attempt something so difficult but Boudicca has faith in her and we should trust in that judgment. This type of magic is her domain, not mine, and we should have faith in her decision,” Nefertiti replied.

  The flowers turned red then began to darken and grow larger. Sebastian’s body was convulsing violently but Trish did not relent. The blood from her nose and eyes was joined by a flow from her ears. The flowers darkened further, turning the color of coagulated blood, then black. The blackened flowers shot from the vines and landed on the floor around them, withering quickly. A small centipede crawled from each, with Ra and Nefertiti stomping them as they got some distance away from the table and safely away from Trish.

  The vines receded as Trish and Sebastian stopped convulsing and she collapsed on him then fell towards the floor. Ra rushed to catch her and the vines whipped out at him though with far less fury than before. He suffered quite a few lacerations and punctures from the thorny vines but held on to her and carried her to one of the nearby beds. He laid her on the bed and started pulling the thorns out as she dropped into sleep and the vines receded. A doctor helped Ra get the thorns out of his skin and used dermal glue to close up the cuts.

  A doctor ran over to Trish, cautiously approaching her and after he was sure the vines were not coming started looking her over.

  “Is she going to be okay?” asked Anna.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like that before and I really don’t even know how to treat her. The monitors show her blood pressure at zero, internal body temperature at a thousand degrees, the maximum it can read despite her...skin...being cool and she isn’t breathing but she’s obviously alive. I think she lost a significant amount of blood and normally we’d start a plasma drip and platelet boosters but I don’t know how to get a needle through whatever that is on her skin and even if I could, I don’t know if her blood is even human now. She’s made of rock or something,” said the doctor sounding utterly confused.

  “It’s Scottish blue sarsen stone because she’s part Stonehenge or something. I don’t really know how it works and Boudicca can’t put it in terms anyone can understand. It will eventually return to normal but I can’t say how long it will take,” Anna told him.

  “In that case, all we can do is wait,” the doctor told her then he looked at Anna.

  “Part Stonehenge? Really?” the doctor asked.

  “Yea, Stonehenge,” Anna replied.

  “Huh. That’s different,” he said.

  #

  The beither saurial thing breathed the acid again and once again the spray deflected harmlessly off the shield, but the shield wavered a bit. It opened its mouth for a third blast, but it stopped and shuddered. It started roaring and a huge flash of light emanated from it. When the light faded, the reptile was standing on the platform. It was still huge and easily doubled the height of Baldric who was tallest of the three.

  “It’s weakened. Trish must have drained the venom and we have a chance now,” Boudicca told them.

  The reptile snarled and circled around the outside of the platform.

  “We have no weapons and I’m not sure my magic will work in here,” Boudicca said.

  “You’re in the Weave and you’re a powerful sorceress. You don’t need weapons. You are a weapon. This is the essence of pure magic so use it,” Malka told her.

  To illustrate her point, Malka glowed, and the glow pulled from her body and formed a spectral version of herself. It launched at the reptile and merged into it. The thing screamed in pain as dozens of spectral hands shot out from it from random locations as if it were sprouting new limbs and they continued to grow in length until they extended into the energy patterns around them. The reptile was being stretched and pulled in every direction and the tendrils held it firmly in place as it screamed and dropped to its knees.

  Boudicca closed her eyes and the energy around them pulled inwards and flowed into her. From her came four tendrils of energy that coalesced into the four elements, earth, wind, water and fire and spiraled around each other into a beam that struck the reptile. When it cleared, the creature was bleeding, broken and beaten.

  Baldric walked up to it. “Saurials were once great and I am sorry for what happened to your people after the war. You tried to kill me, but I can see into your mind and you’re little more than an animal now. Whatever happened to your people in the aftermath I will undue if your people still live and if ever I have the opportunity. You have my word on this but all I can do for you now is end your suffering. Go into the weave and be at peace,” he said. He put his hand on it. Blue fire covered the creature as it dissipated into energy that was absorbed into the Weave around them.r />
  “Who betrayed you?” Boudicca asked.

  “There is no time. With the creature’s venom purged, and it’s hold on my spirit broken, I can feel myself being pulled back to the world of the living. Malka and I will have no memory of this,” he said.

  “Why?” asked Boudicca.

  “It’s intentional. We choose to forget. As Atlanteans, we discovered how to draw power directly from here and it is more powerful than the world can handle. It tore apart our society and crumbled our nation. This power cannot be brought into the world again and if we have the memory of it then it’s possible for those memories to be taken and open the doorways again. We forget because we must,” he told Boudicca.

  “But I think someone has opened one of these doors,” Boudicca told him. “If we can access this, then we can stop him.”

  “No. We will find another way. You can feel it, can’t you? This is magic unchained. We will find a way to stop Mordred but it will not be with this power. It’s too dangerous to unleash again,” Malka told Boudicca.

  “We need this. This is incredible. I’ve never experienced anything like this. Who are you to say otherwise? What gives you that right?” Boudicca asked.

  “It makes no difference. The magic of this place will make us forget and our time here is ended,” Baldric said. “Before you are expelled from my mind, I have some advice for you. I can feel the essence of your magic. You draw your magic from nature and see that as your strength but it is your weakness. Magic flows within in all things, natural or otherwise. You limit yourself by forcing that unnecessary connection. Let it go and become more than you ever imagined. You don't need access to this place to access powerful magic. It comes from within. Your connection to this Weave is like all things. It is innate and always there even if you can't draw on it directly. You will not remember this consciously but my words will be there in the back of your mind. Take them to heart.”

  #

  Boudicca and Chelsea woke up still holding Sebastian’s hands. Chelsea and Boudicca looked at each other.