Willow Bloom and the Dream Keepers

by E. V. Farrell

  Well, that’s one way to throw you in at the deep end, Willow mused. But she was beaming, thrilled by the realisation that nothing would ever be the same again. Her world had just taken a massive leap into the unknown! Willow lowered her head and kept reading, unable to stop smiling.

  She found out that each Light Keeper family had a Helper family to assist in holding open and protecting the portals on the Earth because, should a portal be disrupted, it needs to be re-established as quickly as possible to allow a travelling Light Keeper to arrive home safely. Without an anchored portal a Light Keeper could find themselves trapped anywhere in the “between.”

  The hairs on the back of Willow’s neck stood on end as she recalled her father’s words. She imagined being caught between the worlds, floating in space and blackness. How would you breathe? Did being a Light Keeper give you super powers when you left Earth? With no oxygen or protective gear, a Light Keeper would be done for – unless you were stuck inside the portal and then you would stay safe somehow? (Although that didn’t sound too good either.) She shook her head and took a deep breath to break the stream of discomfiting thoughts.

  “Helpers, acquire knowledge through their family and the Keeper community. This Knowledge is passed down through each generation. The Helper’s tasks are such that they live in close proximity to their assigned Light Keeper.”

  That’ll be Dad, she thought.

  Turning the page, she found that the words were still translating. “All Light Keepers and Helpers are bestowed with a unique device to assist with opening the Doorway to the Dream Keepers’ world … These devices are bonded with the TriGamon by an invisible force and –”

  She stopped reading. The words had jumped a quarter of a page, leaving that area empty. Diagrams began to emerge, as if an invisible ink pen had been poised, waiting for her to read the final sentence before drawing. “Co-ool,” she murmured. “The book must be able to sense what I’m reading … I think … maybe.”

  She leaned in for a better look. The first diagram was of a three-dimensional triangle, a pyramid, with words and symbols engraved on the outside, while the next two showed how it opened out and then seemed to be able to fold back on itself, forming the original pyramid again. A smaller diagram next to the third picture suggested that it could fold itself into a flat band too. It looked a bit like origami. Then a final sketch of the pyramid was drawn, focusing on a small crystal in its centre emitting some kind of light beam. Below the drawings it said the device was called the TriVrata, and that it enabled Light Keepers to enter the secret Doorway to the Dream Keepers’ World. Reading all of this in such an incredible ancient book made it seem more real – possible even.

  She read on. “As the TriVrata can only be activated within the Sanctuaries, a Light Keeper must always live within close range. The Dream Keepers’ World, ‘Thera’, resides within the Akasha Galaxy, with the city of Mondria being the Light Keeper’s entry point …”

  Willow’s mind raced away again. Reading the names of this whole new world made it feel so much closer. And there was a city!

  She touched some of the images bordering the page, and one by one, they lit up. A silver archway, a golden door – even an image of Peonie. A few of the symbols looked familiar too, reminding her of the Egyptian hieroglyphs and the ancient “I Ching” hexagrams she had seen in some of her parents’ books.

  Her mother’s voice floated up the stairs, calling her for dinner.

  “Coming, Mum!” Willow took one last look at the page then closed the book. As she lowered the lid of the storage box, a blue glow briefly appeared on the symbols etched within the wood. Curious, she lifted the lid again, though she half-expected it not to open, at least, not with such ease. Perhaps the blue glow wasn’t a lock afterall.

  “Mmm, this looks good, thanks,” Willow said, reaching for a piece of naan bread to go with her vegetable curry. Chewing happily, she gazed out the window at the dark swaying shadows. A strong breeze had picked up, whispering a steady ssshh outside. It was nice to be inside, all warm and cosy in her magic Cottage.

  “How goes the reading?” her father asked. “Any questions yet? Need any help?”

  “Yes, actually. Do we have a TriVrata?”

  “We do,” her mother answered.

  “Can I see it?” she asked, leaning forward.

  Her mother gazed at her before answering. “Sure, but first you have to finish reading the TriGamon.”

  “But … can’t I just have a quick look?”

  “Sorry, Willow. They’re the rules,” her father said. “Our hands are tied. Salad?”

  Willow sighed. “Seriously …?” and took the bowl from him.

  “All would-be Light Keepers have to abide by the same rules,” he explained. “There are no short cuts. Given your age, there are definitely no short cuts.”

  “O-kay, o-kay, I get it.” She dipped another piece of naan into her curry then turned to her mother. “Mum, what’s with the glowing symbols on the box? I thought it was a lock, but I opened it again with no problem.”

  “You thought correctly,” her mother answered. “Only we can open it. To anyone else, it would look like a beautifully carved wooden block with a fake lid. And the box cloaks the Book from airport sensors and any dark magic too.”

  “That’s so cool,” Willow said. Between mouthfuls she asked, “So how long have Light Keepers been around?”

  Her mum sipped her water. “It’s never been really clear – only that they go back thousands of years. The original history was lost centuries ago, though some believe that several ancient crystals still exist here on Earth and contain the Light Keepers’ history.”

  “Do you believe that?”

  “I’d like to think it’s possible. Maybe I’ll discover one, some day,” she said. “Fortunately, we still have the TriGamon. Some very brave Keeper families, at the risk of endangering themselves, gathered as many books as they could during darker times and hid them in secret caves all across the world. They were eventually recovered and handed down through the centuries to help those who would one day become Light Keepers.”

  Willow looked at her mother a little perplexed. “I don’t get it. Why didn’t the Dream Keepers help them or at least warn them? You’re talking about when they used to burn witches at the stake, aren’t you?”

  “Yes. And the time of the Spanish Inquisition, too. We may not fully understand why, but the Dream Keepers aren’t permitted to directly interfere with humanity’s journey. Storing and protecting our dreams is how they assist our world. We have to bring the Light into our world, through our dreams. And how we think and behave has a direct effect on those dreams. You see, even though we have some of their devices, we don’t yet have the knowledge to create them. One day I’m sure we’ll have the scientific know-how, but until then, the devices are on loan, so to speak.”

  Her father placed his cutlery down. “Willow, we have to step out into the unknown on our own. That’s how humanity evolves. So when we discover something for the first time – or uncover something that has been hidden – it’s because we’re ready for it.”

  “Fine,” she said with a sigh. Though she really didn’t see the harm in getting some extra assistance. “So how exactly did our family get involved in all of this?”

  “Well,” her mother said, “we became Light Keepers through one of my – your – ancestors: Florence Tavia Attwood. Somehow, she became Awakened, even though our family had no previous history.”

  “So we became Light Keepers by accident?” Willow asked.

  Her mother shook her head with a smile. “No. It wasn’t an accident. The physical universe works on mathematical principles – laws – right down to the smallest scale. But that’s your father’s domain. To put it simply, everything and everyone in the universe is governed by these laws. We don’t fully understand them or know why certain things happen but it’s all to do with how the universe balances itself and evolves.”

  Thomas’s lips were twitching. Willow
knew that if she gave him the slightest encouragement, he would seize the opportunity to begin a lengthy discussion on mathematical formulas. Normally she would be okay with that, but not today. Today there were so many other things to know. “Okay,” she said, avoiding him and making direct eye contact with her mother instead.

  Audrey gave her daughter a knowing look and continued: “It was a huge shock to Florence’s parents finding out that their daughter had been Awakened – just as it was for us this morning to discover that you had been Awakened. But even more so for them because we, at least, knew about the Light Keepers’ world. Imagine a knock on the door by complete strangers, who then come in and explain to you that there is this whole other world and that your daughter is somehow a part of it.”

  “A bit like Harry Potter!”

  “I guess so,” her mother agreed. “Now, Florence’s parents could have just as easily ignored them or thrown them out for being mad, like Harry’s uncle did, but, thankfully, they were open-minded. They admitted their suspicions about some of Florence’s ‘differences’ to these strangers, and gave permission for her to be trained as a Light Keeper. The rest, as they say, is history.”

  “Who’d have thought that our family was so – awesome!” Willow looked at her mother and dared to ask the question again. “Why, then, hasn’t there been a Light Keeper in our family for so long?”

  “Willow, it’s complicated,” she said. “What I can tell you right now is that there are several communities around the world that we work with from time to time. We all help each other with the protection of the Light Stream – be it for dreams, white spells, surveillance, protective fields … The Light Stream is the conduit for all of these things.”

  Spells! Magic communities! She’d always hoped those things were true. “Go on, Mum. Why have you stopped?”

  “Just thinking … I’m making sure I get everything in the right order. Remember, we weren’t exactly prepared for this today. It’s all in here,” she said tapping the side of her head, “but I just need to make sure I don’t mix it up and confuse you.”

  “Okay,” Willow replied.

  Her mother’s eyes narrowed in concentration and then her expression lifted. “All right, here goes,” she said. “About a century ago, it was decided that the magic communities needed to become more active. There had been a shift in what was needed to balance the Earth. The Light energy that created the Light Stream was being directed towards assisting more and more Earth people in becoming aware of their full potential. It wasn’t necessary to have as many Light Keepers at the time, so there were fewer Awakenings: there were just enough to maintain the Light Stream for dreams, but no more.”

  “I can’t believe everything’s so organised, so planned.”

  “It’s a lot to take on board, I know,” her mother said. “There were – there are many families who haven’t had a Light Keeper for generations.” She reached over and took Willow’s hand, holding it firmly. “But the fact is that you have been Awakened. And, as Peonie put it, the Protocol has changed.” With that, her chest heaved and her eyes glazed over. She stared at Willow blankly.

  “Mum? What’s wrong?”

  Audrey let go of Willow’s hand. “Sorry, it’s just …”

  “Willow,” her father said, “you can’t possibly understand the implications of your Awakening. It’s unprecedented. If someone as young as you has been Awakened, then something – something very significant – is going on in our Universe with the balance of power.”

  “Okay, so now you’re scaring me. You mean a good versus evil type of thing? Seriously? I thought that was just sci-fi stuff.”

  “We’re not trying to scare you, Willow. But we are trying to help you understand that Awakening at this time, with the change to the Protocol, means something quite different to what it would have meant only months ago. Something has changed that we don’t understand or even know about yet. Being in the Keepers’ world means you have entered into a realm of knowledge and responsibility far beyond anything most humans would ever imagine – no pun intended – and which no Light Keeper in our lifetime has ever had to deal with. We have entered a period marked by uncertainty.”

  Willow swallowed hard. The tone in her father’s voice was something she only rarely heard. She wouldn’t believe most of it normally, except that it was coming from her father. Black Magic and the power struggle between good and evil. How was the world going to handle a battle of that magnitude when most people had no clue that it was even going on?

  Her father’s fingers rubbed his chin in contemplation. “The Universe, Willow, has to maintain balance. It’s how it exists. Everything is constantly in motion, changing, adjusting. Sometimes the changes need to be bigger, like your Awakening so young. I can’t say we were expecting to hand the TriGamon over to you when we got up this morning! You know, I …” He stopped himself and his dark eyes softened. “Hey, don’t let your dinner get cold.”

  Willow held back the urge to press him further. She picked up her fork and scooped up some rice and curry. “Peonie told me about the gatherings you and Mum go to every year. Can’t believe I never picked up on it! I usually sense things like that.”

  “Aah, we may have had something to do with that,” Thomas said, leaning back in his chair with a smile. “We used an energy field similar to the one around the Cottage so you couldn’t sense what we were doing. It was necessary. You were too young to know.”

  “Well it sure worked.” Willow eyed her father curiously. “How old were you when you found out that you were a Helper?”

  “Seventeen. And I began my training not long after.”

  “Did you end up being a Helper to someone?”

  He nodded. “Her name was Emelyn. I can recall the first time she introduced me to Peonie and the Wood Folk like it was yesterday. That’s why I asked you those questions. I had to make sure it was really Peonie that you saw.”

  “Yeah, I figured that. So did anything ever go wrong? When you were on duty?”

  Thomas cleared his throat. “Well, maybe one or two things …”

  “Like what?” Willow pressed.

  “Hmm, I think my daughter wants to take some joy from hearing about her father’s mishaps!”

  Willow smiled her sweetest cherub impression. “Who, me?”

  “I’ll give you just one screw up,” he told her. “I can’t be tarnishing my reputation too much in one day. One time, when we were about to activate the Doorway, the portal’s energy field was disrupted and began to weaken. That means you have to find a stronger energy site in the Sanctuary in order to open the Doorway. Anyway, I grabbed the TriVrata and set off again, but somehow along the way, I dropped it.”

  “No way!” She couldn’t believe her dad was capable of such an error. He was so meticulous about everything.

  “Yes, way,” he said, shaking his head at the memory. “I can’t explain to you how devasted I was. All I could think about was how it could end up in the wrong hands if I didn’t find it. Such a stupid mistake.”

  “What happened? What did you do?”

  He drew in a long, slow breath, and he was obviously far away in the woods, many years earlier, when he spoke next. “Several Wood Folk retraced our steps with us and picked up on the energy signature the TriVrata was emitting. It was so dark that night – not even a sliver of moon was out to help us see … The relief I felt when they found it and handed it back to me was something I’ll never forget. If it had got into the wrong hands … well, I’d hate to think. Replacing a TriVrata can only happen via a new TriGamon, and creating one is a monumental undertaking. And the dreams that could have been delayed, because of what I did …”

  “Thomas,” Audrey cautioned him. “I don’t think …”

  Willow’s father gave a little shake of his head and straightened himself in his chair. “I think that’s enough said about that episode but it was certainly a lesson to me to never just pop the TriVrata in my coat pocket so casually without zipping the pocket up.
You sometimes have to run through the woods in search of a portal, and in the dark over bumpy ground …”

  “Whoa, that’s intense.” Willow stared at her father. She tried picturing him a lot younger, which was pretty hard, and imagined how stressful it would have been for him to lose such an important device. “Is that why you stopped being a Helper?”

  “No, I went on for several more years. I am mostly competent, you know,” he added playfully. “When your mother and I married and moved here, your Aunt Mary took over as Emelyn’s Helper. Then we had you and I stopped being a direct Helper altogether. The Keepers’ world doesn’t permit parents with young children to perform duties.”

  “Because they could disappear out in space or something?”

  “Partly,” her father agreed. “You know, it won’t be long before you understand the Keepers’ world as much as we do, and possibly more,” he said. “But all is revealed at its given time – I know that Universal Law very well.”

  “If you mean the Universe shows you something when you’re ready, then I guess today was ‘a given time’,” she said. “I mean, seriously – my parents do magic!”

  “A bit of abracadabra …? I s’pose so,” her father said.

  Up in her room, Willow read well into the night, delving deeper and deeper into the magical world of the Dream Keepers.

  An Unexpected Turn of Events

  Willow sat in her maths class staring out the window towards the sky. She was imagining herself travelling through space across the seven galaxies to reach the Dream Keepers’ world. What would it be like? And what would the Dream Keepers look like? What if they had three arms or three eyes! Or no arms or eyes … That would be odd …

  “Willow? You coming? The bell’s gone.” Harriett was standing over her, a violin case hooked over her shoulder.

  “What?” Visions of three-eyed beings quickly dissolved. She shut off her laptop and pushed back her chair. “Yeah, coming.”

  “You looked like you were in another world just then,” Claire said. “Anywhere exciting?”