by BC Powell
“No,” I say. “Earth is kind of a mess.”
“Your sister is a highly intelligent person, and she’s studying many of the exact causes of what could lead to the destruction of your planet. There’s no doubt that part of the reason she was chosen as a Teller is for your benefit, but we can learn much of the science of your world from her. Between the two of you, Krymzyn will better understand the needs of your world.”
“And then what?” I ask.
She turns her head away from me to gaze at the Tree of Vision. “During Communal, we Disciples share what we learn of other worlds with Krymzyn. If Krymzyn chooses, it may take steps to restore balance on your plane.”
“What kind of steps could Krymzyn take?” I ask.
“That’s yet to be determined,” she answers, returning her eyes to mine. “It’s possible that none will be taken and your world will be allowed to continue its path to self-destruction. But there are numerous ways for Krymzyn to provide help to a world if it chooses to do so.”
“What kind of ways?”
“A new substance growing on your planet that may help your world survive. A new form of life evolving, or a new type of energy. Possibly ideas planted in the mind of a child born on your planet. Or a child born in Krymzyn could be sent to your world. There are many ways to restore balance.”
I let her answer soak in for a few seconds before asking my next question. “Earth is just one tiny planet in an infinite universe. Why is it so important?”
“There are billions of people on your planet. The combined energy from all those minds is immense and not something to be taken lightly. If you take the tip of one tree root and deprive it of water, that tip will rot and die. Although just a tiny part of the whole, the rot from the end of one root can spread through the rest of a massive tree and eventually destroy it. Everything that exists is interconnected, large and small, and the fall from balance in one area can have a great impact on the rest of existence.”
“But you don’t know what will happen to Earth yet?”
“No, we don’t,” Eval says. “But your sister will return, and we’ll gather more information. I don’t know when she’ll return, but I’ll summon you when she does and make sure the two you have time together.”
“Thank you, Eval. That means a lot to me.”
“I know it does,” she replies. “But there’s a more important question lingering in your mind, is there not?”
“There is,” I say, referencing the same question that’s been with me since I was twelve. But I’ve never been able to find an answer. “Why am I here, Eval? Why did Krymzyn choose me?”
“You tell me why you’re here.”
I don’t pause to think about my response, knowing exactly why I chose to be in this world. “I’m here because I love Sash, and Sash loves me,” I say, noticing that in Eval’s presence, the word “love” translates. “But I’ve always felt like there’s something more to it than that.”
“Does there need to be?”
“No, not for me. Sash is why I chose to be here. But the question is still in the back of my mind.”
She nods to me before looking at the Tree of Vision again. “Krymzyn is learning from you, Chase.”
“Learning what?”
“Krymzyn is learning what motivates people on your plane.” After standing to her feet, she locks her eyes on mine. “Learning how you balance the extreme emotions, good and bad, that have evolved in your world. Your plane is one of contradiction in many ways. Your people have the ability for great compassion but also for overpowering hatred. You make tremendous intellectual advancements, but the purpose of many of those is to harm others. You damage your environment in ways that it can’t be repaired just for the sake of personal convenience. It’s difficult to understand what motivates the people of your world.”
“It can be,” I say. “But why me? I’m nothing special.”
“You’re special to Sash,” she replies. “You’re a caring, sensitive person, but you’re also very strong and determined. You didn’t have to seek a life here, but you did. I know that your feelings for Sash ultimately helped you make that decision, but you also embraced the balance of Krymzyn.”
“So I’m here because Sash chose me?”
“You’re here because you and Sash chose each other. You both had free will in that choice. I know giving up life in your world must be difficult for you to accept, but you are surviving. In fact, you’re thriving. Krymzyn saw that potential in you. Very few people from any world would have that kind of determination inside them.”
My eyes roam across the red hills while the pieces of this world gradually fit together in my mind, but I’m still not sure what the image of the completed puzzle looks like. “You talk about Krymzyn like it’s a person,” I say, refocusing my eyes on Eval.
“Krymzyn is much more than just a person or a place.”
“Then what is it?”
“It’s a concept difficult for you to grasp,” she answers. “Krymzyn is life. Think of it as the center of a collective consciousness comprising all that exists—here and in other worlds. Without the balance provided by Krymzyn, nothing else could be.”
I recall the first conversation I ever had with Eval, when I asked her if the Disciples of Krymzyn were “God or something.” I now realize how naïve and oversimplified that question was.
“The thing is,” I say to her, “I’ve never believed in a higher power.”
“Tell me, Chase. What do you believe in?”
I momentarily assess the events of my life, but I already know from deep inside exactly what the most important things to me are. “I believe in my family’s unconditional love for me. I believe in my ability to make wise decisions for my life. I believe I’m able to fulfill my purpose for the balance of Krymzyn and that everyone here will do the same. But most of all, I believe in my love for Sash and her love for me. If that’s all somehow part of a grander scheme, so be it. But that’s all I need.”
The almost imperceptible smile I’ve seen twice from her in the past raises the corners of her lips. “Those are all wise things to believe in,” she says. “I don’t see why you would need anything else.”
“It’s enough for me,” I reply. “I’m curious. How do you know the word ‘love’?”
“As I’ve told you in the past, we learn of many ideals from other planes and the words that go with them.”
“Why isn’t ‘love’ a word here?”
“We don’t need the word,” she answers. “We let the actions of our lives speak for us every moment of our existence.”
“Considering all I’ve seen here, I guess that make sense,” I say. “But to use the terminology of my world, all of Krymzyn is fortunate to have your love, and Sash is very fortunate that you’re her mother.”
For the first time since I’ve know her, Eval is speechless. With a stoic face, she stares at me for a full ten seconds before finally answering, “I take that as a great compliment coming from you.”
“I’m glad you feel that way,” I say. “Thank you again for calling me to see Ally. You have no idea how much it meant to me to be able to spend time with her.”
“I think I do,” she replies.
“Thank you for your time.”
“It’s always my honor.”
As I jog away, I hear her voice call out from behind me.
“Chase!” she yells.
I stop and turn to her.
“Ally told me what happened to you in your world but also what you were planning to do. Knowing the loyalty and compassion inside you, I don’t how you could have survived here with the guilt of taking your own life. Krymzyn saw what was truly inside you—what you wanted most—and found a way to give that to you without burdening your mind.”
“I understand that now,” I reply.
“I want you to know that at the end of each morrow, when I close my eyes for sleep, I do so with great comfort knowing that you and Sash are together.”
I
stand silently for a few seconds without taking my eyes off her. Since being in Krymzyn, I’ve heard many words of encouragement and acceptance. None of those could give me the same deep feelings of warmth and fulfillment that I have from Eval saying that to me. My response is the only one that it should be in Krymzyn.
“I’m honored you feel that way,” I say, bowing deeply to her.
As I return to upright, she approvingly nods her head to me. I sprint across the countryside until I catch up with Sash. Slowing to a walk by her side, I slip my arm around her waist.
“Thank you again for what you did,” I say.
“I hope it brings you a greater sense of peace,” she replies, looking into my eyes. “I’ve worried so much about how you feel.”
“I know you have, and it really does. I feel much better now. It was great to see Ally, and I’m relieved to know that the people I care about in my world are safe. I’m really happy you got to meet her.”
“It was my honor,” she says with a sincere humility that lets me know how much she means the words. “What were you and Eval talking about?”
“We were talking about . . .” I pause. “About balance.”
“Something you know a lot about.”
“I’m learning more every morrow I’m here,” I say.
When we return to our habitat, I sit at the table in my studio while Sash prepares her things for the next Darkness. With a new understanding of Krymzyn, instead of painting, I want to weave together a few loose threads that seem to make sense to me now. After spreading a clean sheet of fabric out on the table and sharpening a marker, I write the names of the Serquatine that I know.
Hycinthea. A hyacinth is a rich blue flower and, as I learned in an art class, Latin for a particular shade of blue. Viridania. Essentially Latin for green. Rosealea. Rose is obviously red. I think back to when I saw all the Serquatine in the pool after Sash had rescued me and the colors glowing from their hair. Blue, green, red, indigo, yellow, violet, and orange. Seven Serquatine, the seven colors of the rainbow.
I write the names of the two Schorachnia I met—Glutano and Superbos. The first couldn’t stop eating nectar, and the other seemed pretty full of himself. I remember a Dutch painter named Hieronymous Bosch. His style and imagery were precursors to fantasy art, while his subject matter was full of religious symbolism. In art school, we studied a fascinating circular painting he’d created that was sliced into seven separate scenes. The images were his interpretations of the seven deadly sins. Glutano sounds like it might be gluttony, and Superbos, I believe I remember learning, is similar to the Latin word for vanity. Two of the seven.
“Sash,” I call out. “Can you come in here, please?”
A few seconds later, she steps to my side, rests a hand on my shoulder, and looks down at the table.
“Do you know the names of the five Schorachnia we didn’t see?”
“Fornicacio, Aviratol, Iratio, Tristano, and Acedio.”
It’s fairly simple to figure out that an English translation of Fornicacio could be fornication, but I don’t know what the other four names mean. I’m almost certain, however, that they represent the seven deadly sins.
“Do you know the Reptalients names?” I ask.
“Castilia, Tempera, Karita, Industrania, Patencia, Benevolina, and Humilitatia.”
“How do they act when you meet them?” I ask after writing their names on the canvas.
“They’re actually the gentlest of the Guardians,” she replies. “They’re female, like the Serquatine, but always complimentary and kind.”
Although the names all sound like Latin words, I only know the translations for a few of them. But as I think about things that come in sevens and recognize the words “benevolence,” “patience,” and “humility,” I conclude that their names represent the seven virtues.
“What about the Aerodyne?” I ask.
“They’re intimidating creatures, all male,” Sash replies. “They’re called Equalbus, Equruber, Equnigrum, Equpallidu, Animu, Angelicusepte, and Chasmatu.”
I have no idea what Animu could mean, but I’m sure “angelicu” is angel and “septe” is seven. The obvious meaning of Chasmatu is chasm. Equus is horse in Latin, and “Equ” is the first part of four of the names, while the second parts of those names are colors. White, red, and black, although I’m not sure what the fourth one’s translation is. There’s no doubt in my mind that those four names are the four horsemen, and I assume that when combined with the other three Aerodyne names, they represent the seven signs of the apocalypse.
“Do the Guardians’ individual names all have a meaning?” I ask Sash.
“Not so much a literal meaning as expressions of concepts,” she replies.
Her vague answer—although I know she’s trying to give me the best one possible—reminds me of how confusing so many answers in Krymzyn are. Of course, as I think about what I associate with the meanings of the Guardians’ names, a larger question comes to mind. Krymzyn translates words for me in a way I understand, so it may all just be the closest to what their true meanings are or put into Earth terms I can comprehend. Maybe in the way Krymzyn wants me to think of them.
“Why do you want to know?” she asks.
“I’m just trying to learn more about Krymzyn,” I answer.
I draw a vertical line. Seven Serquatine to the north, the embodiment of the seven colors of the rainbow. Probably nature’s most beautiful gift to mankind and made of pure light. At the south, the seven signs of the apocalypse flying over a waterfall that plummets off the edge of a cliff to the ground below.
I draw a horizontal line intersecting with the first. The seven deadly sins to the west, and the seven virtues to the east. Where the lines cross, I sketch the outline of the Delta—the heart of the infinite plane of Krymzyn, the center of balance for all that exists.
“What is that?” Sash asks.
“Nothing important,” I say, looking up at her and smiling. “Just the four primary directions of Krymzyn.”
She swings a leg over me and sits on my lap with her face in front of mine. “You’re not telling me something.”
“It’s really complicated to get into,” I say. “Earth concepts that also seem to exist here. I don’t mean to put you off, but can we talk about it some other time? I’m kind of tired from everything that happened today.”
“Of course,” she says, smiling. “Do you feel happy about being in Krymzyn?”
“I’m very happy right now,” I reply, my own smile beaming from my face, and a greater feeling of peace inside me than I’ve ever known. “Why?”
“I was worried you might be sad from your sister’s visit.”
I shake my head. “I’m really not. In fact, I’m happier right now than at any other time since I’ve been here. You were right about Krymzyn doing something to help me find peace.”
“I wasn’t right,” she replies. “Krymzyn was.”
“You know what I mean,” I say.
“I feel your happiness, Chase. And that makes me happy.”
“I love you, Sash. More than ever, I know I belong with you.”
“We’ll always belong together,” she replies. “Are you too tired to cleanse with me in the fall?”
“Are you worried a Murkovin might be hiding behind the water?” I ask, raising my eyebrows.
“No, that’s not why, although I know you’d take care of it for me if there was. What I really want is to see if you have the physical reaction you so often have when I’m unclothed. Like the one you had the first time we were in the fall together.”
I chuckle, remembering how embarrassed I was by my “physical reaction” at seeing her naked for the first time when we were seventeen, even as innocent as that time together was.
“You know what, Sash? I can guarantee you that I’ll have that reaction.”
“I hope so,” she says.
“I promise you, as long as I live, I’ll have that reaction to you.”
She kisses my l
ips. As she leans back from my face, her eyes flare and a brilliant stream of amber flows inside me. Blue suddenly blooms from my eyes, igniting an immense starburst of color between our faces. As our spectrums blend, I peer through the sphere of light and deep to her core. While I immerse myself in the beauty from inside Sash, the depth of her love fills every part of my being.
And I just keep falling.
Chapter 33
“I let the wild sap corrupt my thought,” the man says. “I let it take control of me. Killing her became an obsession.”
“She can’t defeat us,” his beautiful woman of the Barrens replies. “No one can.”
With no other creatures in sight, the two stand side by side in a forest of enormous steel trees on the eastern face of the Mount. Shredding through the sleeping branches of the trees, rich green light illuminates their pale white skin. Blue needles radiate against purple-black bark all around them.
“I need to return to my true path,” the man says.
“You put her death before all else. You became impatient. Have you forgotten how long it took to reach where we are now?”
“I’ll never forget.”
Over hundreds of passing morrows as an Apprentice, and many more as a Watcher, the man slowly consumed the impure sap of the Barrens. In their hidden cavern under a blackened hill, with his beautiful woman at his side, he fought to gain control of the sap. He learned to manipulate the irrational thoughts that attempted to conquer his mind while mastering the dark emotions that spread inside him.
The mental anguish was immense, the physical denial agonizing, but the man prevailed. With her help, he did something no one else ever had. He suppressed the cravings, and the power swelled inside him. But he had the aid of healthy sap from the Delta still in his blood as he took control.
The man had underestimated how overwhelming it would be to consume only wild sap from the Barrens. The energy from black-barked trees polluted his mind and clouded his judgment. He let his loathing for the extraordinary Hunter consume him.
As a child, the man tried to warn the others of how dangerous the gifted young girl was. But they revered her, probably because of their fear of what she could do. When he realized the repercussions his words might have, once having been chastised by the Keepers for telling the other children how dangerous she was, and later by a Watcher for simply pointing out the truth of her circumventing the ways of Krymzyn, he forced himself to silently observe the change she brought. He stood idle and watched as those of the Delta bowed to her will. His hatred for her steadily grew inside him, but it raged out of control when only the sap of the Barrens nourished his veins.