Rhuna, The Star Child

by Barbara Underwood

  Rhuna stopped in her tracks as she realized that the latest addition to The Reigning One’s extensive statue collection was an elegant gold cat. ‘Yellow cat’ in her little daughter’s bright voice resonated in her head. Rhuna took note that this was not the first time Shandi had seemed to foresee the near future.

  Abu-Malech escorted them up the wide and opulent stairs to the upper level where Rhuna had lived as The Reigning One’s guest when she first arrived in Safu on an assignment representing the High Council of Atlán.

  Rhuna could hardly stop herself from running the last few strides to reach the wood paneled door of her former chambers. Inside, she saw her father sitting on the window ledge, looking expectantly at the door. Rhuna noticed that he wore his usual attire of a grey and beige loose tunic with a plain belt, and his feet were bare.

  “Damell!” Rhuna called out, louder and more desperately than she expected. She flung her arms around his neck and squeezed hard for a moment, grateful to be in his comforting embrace.

  “I have to ask you some things,” she said at last.

  “Yes, My Daughter, I am aware of your predicament,” he said softly in her ear. Rhuna pulled away and looked into his sparkling blue eyes.

  “You are?”

  “Indeed I am! Your discussions with your friends concerning the visions in which I am absent, and the conclusions the long-haired Healer has reached. All is known to me,” he said simply.

  “What? But how? No one is supposed to…” Rhuna spluttered and then spun around to look at Aradin, whose face still expressed deep misgivings.

  “Keeper of Justice!” Damell said warmly as he heartily shook Aradin’s hand in the usual manner of greeting. “Although this is our first meeting, you are as my own son!”

  Aradin seemed surprised for a moment, and then reciprocated the heartfelt words. “My personal name is Aradin,” he told Rhuna’s father, whose clear blue eyes sparkled with delight.

  “And I am Damell!” he said, smiling with genuine feeling.

  “Let us be seated close together,” he instructed. “In this close proximity our words cannot be summoned, and therefore I shall answer all your questions today,” he said with an assuring smile.

  “Did you really know that we were coming?” Aradin asked,

  “How did you know what we were discussing in the special room? And what do you mean our words cannot be summoned?” Rhuna asked alarmed.

  “Permit me to explain,” Damell said, leading her and Aradin to the comfortable seating cushions where some drinks had already been set down.

  “My special skills allow me to change the frequency of my personal vibrations, thereby eluding any summons of me by means of the Gazing of the Waters,” he explained casually.

  Rhuna shook her head briefly to indicate that she did not understand. She looked at Aradin, whose dark look of misgiving had returned.

  Damell carefully began his explanation. “Perhaps you have heard some older ones refer to vibrations. You hear them when you transform elements…”

  “I’ve never heard of Atlan Masters hearing…” interrupted Aradin, but stopped when Rhuna began to nod.

  “Yes, it has been louder these past few solar cycles since I’ve been in Safu,” she said excitedly, eager to hear her father’s explanation for this worrying condition.

  “Everything has its own vibration, and the frequency is what makes one vibration different from the other. When we transform elements, we change the frequency of an element with the vibrations of our mind,” he explained.

  “Oh, I think I see now,” said Rhuna, excited about these revelations. She looked at Aradin and saw the frown still deeply set on his face.

  “During my time of exile in distant lands, I was able to develop my inherent powers further, and discovered that by gaining full control of my personal vibrational qualities, I am able to influence and affect many more elements than merely stone, water and fire,”

  “That’s amazing!” enthused Rhuna, and turned to look at Aradin again, who merely returned her gaze with the same expression.

  “The vibrations you sense when focussing your concentration to summon or transform are merely a small part of The Infinite, which binds everything together,” Damell continued. “Certain frequencies cannot be detected by visions, hence my absence in the visions summoned by your friends.”

  “You learned these things on your travels to distant lands?” Aradin asked with a strong tone of suspicion.

  “Exactly so,” nodded Damell with a smile. “At times these places are referred to as the Land on Top of the World,” he explained.

  Rhuna suddenly remembered the visions she had summoned of Gamu-Bet, the strange old woman the Benshi people consulted for all manner of advice.

  “Gamu-Bet!” Rhuna exclaimed, turning to Aradin. “Remember when Gamu-Bet told me things that no one else should have known, and I summoned visions to learn more about her knowledge of those secrets? In one vision I saw Gamu-Bet as a child, talking to a man who looked transparent, like a reflection, and there was snow and ice, rocks and strange buildings.”

  “No doubt you saw the Land at the Top of the World,” Damell said in his usual calm manner. “There are others who have mastered this skill, and in fact, it is practiced in these remote parts of the world,” he said.

  “But why stay hidden from everyone all this time?” challenged Aradin. “Why a disguise? Why evade everyone, even family, for nearly forty solar cycles since it was believed you died?”

  “Yes, Father,” added Rhuna quickly. “All my life, until a few solar cycles ago, I thought you were dead!”

  “Certain people are intensely scrutinizing you, My Daughter, and it is imperative that those ones do not become aware of my existence,” he said somberly.

  “But why not?” asked Aradin, still agitated. “Why is it imperative? To whom? To you? What have you to hide?” Aradin charged at Damell.

  “The Dark Master, of course!” answered Rhuna defensively. “He was almost killed by him, and Damell has stayed in hiding so that the Dark Master – or his followers – don’t know that he didn’t die after all.”

  “Is this truly so?” demanded Aradin of Rhuna’s father.

  “Of course!” Damell answered.

  “But the Dark Master has been dead for many solar cycles – why haven’t you revealed yourself since then?” asked Aradin, still suspicious.

  “What does it matter?” Rhuna interjected defensively.

  “I don’t understand why your father is still hiding from everyone,” Aradin said to Rhuna.

  “These are important questions worthy of thorough answers,” Damell replied with a nod of agreement. “First of all, I was in a faraway land, preoccupied with other serious matters at the time of the Dark One’s demise,” Damell began to explain. “Yet when I finally came to know of his death, other circumstances prevailed upon me to continue my exile from Atlán as well as change my identity.”

  “Change your identity?” asked Rhuna puzzled.

  “Yes, My Daughter. I am known by various other names in the faraway lands I have visited,” he answered.

  “Furthermore, I have grown accustomed to this way of life, to using my mental powers in certain ways, preventing detection by summoned visions.”

  “But why?” asked Aradin again with heightened agitation.

  “It serves a purpose to be as I am,” Damell said with sudden seriousness as he looked sharply at Aradin. “As you must keep your identity as one of The Observers a secret, so must I, for similar reasons, also keep my identity hidden.”

  “Hmm,” said Aradin, and Rhuna knew that he was still not fully satisfied with her father’s answers. “Then I shall return home to our friends while Father and Daughter continue conversing,” Aradin leaned over to kiss Rhuna’s cheek and turned to leave.

  Rhuna watched her husband leave the room, and then turned to her father who handed her a cup of fruit nectar with spices. She savoured the swee
t drink and let its tantalizing flavours refresh her mind.

  “I was getting so confused!” Rhuna said with a laugh of relief. “Faleesh couldn’t remember you, but I’m sure she must have seen you many times!”

  “Indeed she has, and I am certainly well known to her,” responded Damell with a playful sly smile.

  “But then why couldn’t she remember you when I asked?”

  “The vibrations,” he answered with the same playful smile.

  “The vibrations?” Rhuna repeated. “You mean, like not appearing in visions – something like that?

  “Something like that,” he answered with a twinkle in his eye. “My vibrational powers extend to other people’s thoughts, influencing their memory, thought process and perception of a matter,” he explained.

  Rhuna’s head was spinning with questions, and she tried to sort them in order of importance. She took another quick sip of the fruit drink and then asked Damell to tell her more about the vibrations and what he learned in the Land at the Top of the World.

  “But first tell me, do you have visions like I do?” Rhuna needed to know with sudden urgency. “How could you penetrate the energized magnetic field in our special room?”

  “Visions as you experience, My Daughter, developed in my early childhood,” answered Damell. “However, as I became older and more skilled, this ability elevated me to higher levels of knowledge, revealing ever greater possibilities.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Rhuna. “What higher levels, and what knowledge?”

  “I have been preparing you for this,” Damell replied with unusual gravity. “Detaching my Consciousness from my physical body, I am able to be present in other locations without being sensed by anyone.”

  “Detach your Consciousness from your body?” gasped Rhuna with disbelief. Damell smiled and nodded.

  “You are ready to take this step now,” he told Rhuna. “Attainment of this higher level is the reason I have been preparing you, My Child.”

  “Why? Why didn’t you tell me? I thought it was just to relax, improve my Inner Focussing skills and heal from the past traumas…”

  “Yes, and it has accomplished all these goals, has it not? Yet this is only the first step.”

  “But why?” asked Rhuna, suddenly aware that she sounded like Aradin, and was probably feeling the same exasperation.

  “You will need these special skills,” Damell said with gravity.

  “How do you know? Can you also see future visions like Gamu-Bet...and like my daughter, Shandi – your granddaughter?”

  “Accessing The Infinite puts all manner of knowledge at one’s disposal,” Damell said with caution, and Rhuna sensed that he was not going to elaborate on this subject. She thought about her father’s words, realizing that the things she was hearing would completely change her life.

  “So your Consciousness has been in the room with us, when The Observers meet?” she asked, still incredulous.

  “Exactly so,” he answered.

  “And no one can see you? Hear you?” Rhuna asked breathlessly. Damell nodded, still smiling. “And…you can spy on the Dark Ones too?” she gasped, the weight of her question suddenly becoming clear in her mind.

  “And much more,” Damell answered.

  “Do you need to take hallucinatory herbs like we do?” she asked, already knowing the answer would be no.

  “It is possible for both you and me to access this level of Consciousness without the assistance of any substance,” Damell answered. “Only certain people are granted the privilege of this elevated station, namely you and I.”

  “Granted?” Rhuna asked, her mind racing to keep up with the constant new revelations.

  “The Golden Pyramid,” Damell answered simply.

  Rhuna remembered Possessor of Discernment and what he told her at the pyramid when she entered the special little room only very few Atlans knew about.

  “New Arrivals have certain plans for the Golden Pyramid,” Damell continued. “Others have similar plans for less honorable purposes.”

  “New Arrivals?”

  “Newly arrived from Atlán,” Damell answered.

  “Seeking to activate the Grand Pyramid.”

  “Activate?” asked Rhuna startled.

  “Yes. The Golden Pyramid possesses the potential to harness and produce immense energies.”

  “You mean more than the solar, cosmic and lunar energies?”

  “Much, much more. It was built with the purpose of harnessing the earth’s energy by sonic resonation, oscillation and conduction of all the Energies,” he said casually.

  Rhuna said that she did not understand these new words.

  “When you visit the pyramids at the early descent of the sun, you shall encounter the New Arrivals making their calculations and plans,” he told her.

  Damell reached for the tray of drinks and small bowl of nuts and dried fruit, offering them to Rhuna and then taking a sip from his cup. Rhuna realized that she was thirsty and that she needed a brief pause from their intense conversation.

  “Many monumental events are occurring of which you and The Observers have only limited understanding. This is a perilous situation, and immediate action is imperative,” Damell said in a strong and level voice, making Rhuna’s skin prickle with alarm. “However, I shall be with you, assisting and guiding you; yet always from the sanctuary of this chamber,” he added. “Therefore, let us begin without delay! Allow me to guide you in your first journey of Extended Consciousness,” he said with sudden passion, his eyes shining brightly.

  “Now?” asked Rhuna alarmed. Damell reached for several large seating cushions and placed them next to Rhuna.

  “Rest in a comfortable position, leaning against these cushions,” he instructed.

  Rhuna moved with reluctance, afraid she would not be able to achieve the results her father expected.

  “Good. Now, perform the complete awareness and relaxation techniques you have been practicing, and when your mind is at ease, and your Consciousness afloat, command it to rise up and out.”

  “Command it to rise up and out?” Rhuna repeated, shocked.

  “Yes,” Damell answered in his casual manner. “You command the Extension of your Consciousness in the same manner as you command your hand to grasp something, or your legs to walk.”

  Rhuna closed her eyes and began with the Inside Focussing technique she had mastered in her youth in order to focus mental energies more effectively when transforming elements. Atlan Masters proficient in the transformation skills regularly practice Inside Focussing, and Rhuna had diligently set aside a short time for it every day for most of her life. As a result, her mind slipped into the deep and silent mode instantly and without effort, and the next step of deeper mental and physical relaxation had also become easy since Damell had begun to teach her.

  Rhuna’s body began to feel heavy and numb, as if her mind was no longer in direct contact with it, and then she felt her Consciousness begin to float. She remembered her father’s words to command her Consciousness to rise up, and before she was aware of having done anything, giddiness overcame her. A feeling of being suspended in water disoriented her, and she tried to look around but did not recognize the shapes, forms and colours she perceived.

  Suddenly she recognized the coloured floor rug in her father’s chamber, and then the form of two people began to take shape. After a long moment, Rhuna realized that the two people she was observing from a strange angle and from a considerable distance were her father and herself. Alarm and shock registered in her mind as she recognized herself leaning against the large, plush cushions, her eyes closed and appearing to be asleep while Damell sat comfortably nearby, apparently at peace with his surroundings.

  Rhuna felt herself move closer to her father, but the motion in space, without the pull of gravity, made her feel dizzy again. In an instant, she was level with her father’s eyes and looked directly at him, but saw no recognition in them.
Suddenly she realized that he could not see her, and this thought unnerved her so much, that the dizziness engulfed her completely. There was a moment of nausea and struggling to breathe and be upright, and then she was sitting up from the plush cushion with her eyes open.

  “You succeeded,” said Damell simply.

  “I think so,” Rhuna said with a slight quiver in her voice, and then described her experience in detail to her smiling father.

  “Next time, attempt to direct the Point of Consciousness to move around,” Damell said, and Rhuna detected excitement in his voice. “Your Consciousness can pass through solid matter such as walls and other objects, as well as travel vast distances without the restraints of time or other forces that control our physical existence,” he explained.

  “That’s how you could enter our secret room!” exclaimed Rhuna, overcome by awe once more.

  “This step may be difficult at first, and requires some concentrated effort, yet once overcome, passing through matter shall no longer be an obstacle,” Damell explained, and then gave Rhuna a stern look. “Do this only in my presence, here in my chambers, until you become more adept,” he instructed her. “Also, refrain from revealing these things to anyone until the proper time,” he said gravely, and Rhuna nodded obediently.

  “Now it is time for you to return home, as your friends are still waiting,” he said in a much lighter manner.

  “How do you know that?” asked Rhuna as she stood up.

  “The Infinite contains all Knowledge,” he answered with a mischievous smile.

  Rhuna thought for a moment as she began walking towards the door. “So that’s what you’ve been doing in here all this time? I wondered why you never went out…”