The First Pillar

by Roy Huff

  “As you increase your ability to control objects of great power, you will simultaneously train your heart and mind to hear the soft subtle emotion of objects that have little or no energy. Once you have accomplished this objective, then you will be ready to accomplish your end goal. For now, let’s just focus on not being overpowered by emotion.”

  I slowly reached for the compass while simultaneously squinting my eyes and making a funny facial gesture. I think my body was subconsciously apprehensive about being overwhelmed again upon contact.

  “No, Owen. Don’t force it. Just calm your mind, and let the emotions flow over you like you are sinking below a violent ocean in a massive storm with fierce waves pounding the surface. As you fall farther down, the waves no longer have control over you and you are able to feel the steady currents that are flowing just beneath the surface.”

  My face relaxed, and I slowly let go of the tension. The muscles in my eyelids eased, and I imagined sinking below the surface in a powerful hurricane.

  My hand made contact with the compass. Once again, I felt a flood of powerful emotions. The sensation was almost as intense as before, but it quickly quieted down. I tried to follow the advice of Cleophas to ignore everything until something grabbed my attention. It was difficult to steady my mind and stay focused, but the secret was to do as he suggested and just let go. I tried to let the torrent of intense pressure and stimuli flow over me like the surface of the ocean.

  Every so often I could sense a memory or feeling pushing over a cloud of other minor emotions. It was starting to come together slowly, but the overall impression was still a bit jumbled. I could grasp a few pieces here and there, but I was still having difficulty making sense of it all.

  I gave it a few more tries with no success. Then, suddenly, it started to make a little more sense. The torrent of other noises started to fall away, and an image of what was happening began to come together.

  The first emotion I could sense was terror, sheer, utter unadulterated terror. There was also an oppressive evil. I wasn’t sure how they were both connected, only that they were. I could not sense any memories attached to the emotion, but I had a feeling it was because I had just started to learn to control the connections.

  Anika also sensed something else. It was a void, an unknown mysterious void that was absent any thought or feeling. She had not seen The Other In Between and did not recognize what it was, but she could feel the sense of loss from those who had been ensnared by its reach.

  Dante felt only pain, not emotional pain but physical pain. He felt a horrible sharp prickly feeling that started on his hand and spread all over his body.

  Dante lacked the finesse that Anika and I had applied to sensing the emotions associated with the objects. This had the unfortunate side effect of converting some of the raw emotion into physical pain, and he was knocked momentarily unconscious.

  Cleophas gently touched Dante’s shoulder.

  As with The Keeper, Cleophas possessed the power to enter one’s mind. He entered the mind of Dante and released him from the confusion and pain that had been brought on by the contact with the map.

  “You must learn to take it slow, Dante.”

  Cleophas mentally assisted Dante just enough to teach him the process and allow him to sense the emotion that was tied to the object.

  Dante could now feel great sadness. It was sadness over the loss of someone to The Other In Between.

  For some time, we discussed the emotions and feelings with Cleophas and Avery. I had pieced together what I believed was the likely scenario that was connected to the events of all three objects.

  The evil I felt was when Them had tricked Toe into providing them assistance. The terror was what Toe experienced when his actions resulted in his wife Nissa being sucked into The Other In Between. This is what Anika and Dante saw and felt.

  “You are correct, Owen. That was the event that was associated with these three objects.”

  For the next several hours the grad students brought out additional objects for us to practice our new skill. We continued to examine them and look for connections to some emotion or event. One after the other, we gradually improved our ability to mute the unnecessary noisy emotions and hone in other details that might be important.

  I was glad that Anika and Dante finally had the opportunity to see and feel what I had already known. I finally felt that they could now fully appreciate the concern that I had been feeling over the last several weeks.

  While I did not want them to be burdened by the same concerns, it was necessary if they were going to have any hope of helping me along the way in my quest of stopping Them from making further gains in the land of Everville and our world.

  At that moment, a thought occurred to me. I wondered if I had been subconsciously preventing myself from being drawn into Everville and The Keeper’s thoughts by my desire for normalcy. Despite my willingness to defeat Them, I had let my own desire of having a true college experience prevent me from seeing what I needed to see. Perhaps if I made some mental effort, I could consciously transport my mind to Everville.

  I applied the same technique we had just learned. This time, I imagined myself in The Keeper’s thoughts.

  “Good. You’re learning.”

  I had successfully transported my mind to Everville. I was with The Keeper.

  He closed his eyes.

  EVERVILLE CHAPTER 23

  THE VALLEY OF DARKNESS

  We returned to the previous moment in The Keeper’s memory.

  Dagda had fastened Carwyn as best he could to the stone sticking out of the underground river. A few moments passed, and Carwyn began to regain consciousness. After some initial confusion, he tried to assess the situation and figure out the best course of action.

  They had been transported a significant distance downstream. He could see several large rocks a little farther down the river sticking out from the water. The protruding edges of the sides of the walls were close enough to the river surface that they might be able to climb up if they could reach one of them.

  Carwyn could also see a tiny sliver of light a little bit farther down. It was the entrance to The Valley of Darkness. He decided to swim to the rocks in order to try and get closer to the edge of one of the tunnel walls.

  Carywn put Dagda on his back as he prepared to swim to the next rock. He pushed off and swam in the direction of the stone. The force of the river was too strong, and the powerful current caused the right side of his body to slam hard into the stone, causing a sharp pain.

  They slid past the first rock and were pushed farther downstream. Fortunately, Carwyn did his best to ignore the pain and managed to grab onto a large hook-shaped section of the next rock and regained control.

  He looked carefully at the flow of the water. He could see the current flowing slightly to the left, so he decided to make a go of it and swim to that side of the wall.

  After a few minutes of resting to catch his breath, they swam to the edge. Carwyn was able to grab onto some roots that were sticking out of the tunnel wall and climbed his way up to the surface.

  He rested momentarily until the howling wind started blowing into the tunnel from the valley, which was making Carwyn feel uncomfortably cold. He was soaking wet and shivering uncontrollably, so they started walking until they reached the valley entrance.

  As they emerged from the tunnel and the underground river, Carwyn could see large snake-like creatures swimming in the water. One of them appeared to be looking at Carwyn from beneath the surface. The darkness from the tunnel had prevented him from seeing the aquatic creatures before. It was a good thing he had not been able to see them, as it would have likely reduced his willingness to swim to the river’s edge if he had been aware of their presence earlier.

  His attention turned to the valley. He could see a stark contrast in the sides of the valley where the sunlight was permanently absent, compared to the small sliver of land that received a few hours of sun each day. The valley was sh
aped like a pair of curved hands half cupped inward on each side. There was a small band two thirds of the way up on both sides that received direct sunlight and was covered in lush green trees. Just above and below the tree line was an area of grey moss. Beyond that, the valley was completely barren; it was comprised of mostly caves and highly contorted rock formations.

  They arrived just as the sunlight had reached the tree line. It would provide enough ambient light to keep the valley visible a few more hours.

  Dagda pulled hard on Carwyn’s dripping wet clothing.

  “What is it, Dagda?”

  Carwyn looked closely but didn’t see anything.

  A few seconds later, he thought he heard a momentary sound.

  Carwyn looked closer, panning across the valley as he attempted to trace the origin of the sound.

  In the distance, he could see a little dust being stirred into the air close to the ground. He could see a few other fainter trails of dust just a little farther back.

  His eyes were fixated on the dust trails as he tried to make out what was causing them.

  As the trails got closer, black objects started to emerge near the ground within the clouds of smoke until he could finally make out a few features.

  They appeared to be some type of animal. He could now see dozens of them. They were moving with tremendous speed in their direction.

  Dagda pulled a little harder, then they bolted.

  Carwyn ran with the intensity that one would expect from someone who just discovered they were being chased by a pack of ferocious wild animals.

  He ran and ran without looking back until his curiosity finally got the best of him.

  He quickly glanced back, being careful not to slow down as he did.

  The animals had halved their distance and were quickly gaining on them. What had appeared to be a few dozen, now easily looked like hundreds.

  As the pack got closer, he could see more features of the animals. They bore a great resemblance to large wild dogs, but they were much larger than typical dogs. Standing on all four legs, they must have been at least six feet tall and perhaps eight feet long. They had dark brown scraggily fur coats; and even from this distance, he could make out their teeth.

  More disturbingly, he could see other trails of dust behind the animals all across the valley. The creatures had been alerted to their presence, and it was not clear just exactly how many more of the animals were out there waiting to join the hunt.

  They feverishly looked for a place to escape and hide as the animals drew closer and closer. Carwyn looked in vain to find some place for refuge just before his pants got snagged on a rock formation. He desperately tried to remove the pant leg that had gotten stuck in the rock crevasse, but he continued to fumble. As often happens when he got anxious, his hands were simply not willing to cooperate.

  Dagda quickly went to work trying to free Carwyn’s leg. The small size and limited strength that normally restricted Dagda’s ability to assist was right now his greatest asset. His fingers were just the right size to unhinge the piece of clothing that had made its home between the two rocks. Within moments, Dagda had succeeded.

  They escaped just in time but had lost significant distance between themselves and the animals; it was becoming clear that they were not going to be able to outrun the creatures.

  Nevertheless, they ran with even more intensity than before, hoping by some miracle to escape the grasp of terrible-looking animals.

  They approached a large rock formation. The first dozen or so of the creatures were less than a few feet away. In another second, the animals would be biting down into their juicy flesh.

  Suddenly, several pairs of arms pulled them off to the side. They were taken to a cave by mountain dwellers who then rolled a large stone into place blocking the entrance of the cave.

  Carwyn and Dagda looked at each other in disbelief, then looked at the mountain dwellers with facial expressions that conveyed both intense gratitude and exhaustion.

  The mountain dwellers did not appear to have the physique necessary to fight off the animals, but they were clearly much more intelligent and were very adept at using it to their advantage. They were about average human height, but skinnier, with long lanky fingers and toes. They were also able to change their skin color to match with the background like some species of animals, if and when they desired to do so. Needless to say, this provided a definite advantage when surrounded by fierce predators.

  The mountain dwellers looked at Carwyn with curiosity and skepticism, but Carwyn had been overcome by intense gratitude and reached for the closest mountain dweller he could find to plant a great big squeeze. Dagda followed suit but had to limit his embrace to their lower extremities.

  The mountain dwellers looked a little puzzled at their response, a typical reaction from a solemn and pessimistic species.

  The inside of the cave was a fortified temporary residence that was used during the brief period of light within the Valley of Darkness. The mountain dwellers would venture from mountains and into the valley each day to look for food in the land of vegetation. They would also look for special stones for tools of various purposes from the rock formations and caves near the valley floor. Caves like these were used to store their goods and to stay hidden from the creatures that inhabited the valley.

  Carwyn gazed at Ewan, then peered across the cave that was now his refuge from the ravenous creatures that were banging against the massive stone blocking the entrance. Carwyn and Dagda both wondered how long the stone would prevent the hundreds of wild animals that were waiting for their first opportunity to demolish the stone and rip them to shreds. Fortunately, the stone was more than sufficient and had strength beyond any stone in the earthly realm or even in the land of the Fron. It had protected the mountain dwellers numerous times before and would protect them again today.

  Carwyn had squeezed the mountain dweller called Ewan. He spoke with Ewan about his journey and what he had learned regarding Them as well as the darkness seeping into the Deep Woods. Ewan listened intently, but did not give away any of his thoughts through his facial expressions.

  “As happens from time to time, the inhabitants of the eight border realms sometimes collude with Them. At the moment, we have no investment in this conflict. Them can be persuasive. Them are determined and relentless. Them will look for a weakness, then exploit it. It may take years or centuries, but once Them find willing alliances they will make their move. We owe our allegiance to no one. I can speak for the rest of us when I say that we are not optimistic about the future. Them have been making slow but steady progress. I don’t look forward to it, but there will likely be a day when we are forced to ally ourselves with Them in order to save our people.”

  Carwyn looked disappointed, but he believed given enough time, he could persuade Ewan and the mountain dwellers.

  At that moment, I willingly released myself from the mind of The Keeper and his memory of The Valley of Darkness. I had gleaned a great bit of wisdom from The Keeper’s past. I was going to have to find the inhabitants who had been persuaded by Them in the current breach and then convince as many as possible to reconsider. That would be no easy task, for sure.

  This bit of revelation also uncovered a few more questions that needed to be answered. What power did Them hold and how were they able to persuade anyone to join their cause? What was their cause? Perhaps if I knew this, I could find a way to defeat Them and convince the inhabitants of the eight border realms to break their alliance with Them. The Keeper was leading me to the answers through his experience with the mountain dwellers and his quest to stop the breach that led him to become The Keeper.

  I was still not sure how the time thing worked with Everville or my home. I knew I would find direction in his mind, but I also felt it was time for me to get back. The Keeper understood my thoughts, and I focused on returning back to Easton Falls.

  The instant I focused my desire on returning, I was back home.

  EVERVILLE CHAPTER 24


  THE FRIENDS WE KEEP.

  Sipping on a white chocolate mocha at just the right temperature always did wonders for my mental status. Drinking it allowed me to clear my thoughts. It helped me refocus on whatever it was that I needed to accomplish. Today was no different.

  Prior to class, Zee had brought our team and some outside advisors to the café to discuss strategy. Before Zee began to speak, he looked around just to make sure no one else was there who might overhear our plans. I listened intently as each of the team members and advisors gave their suggestions.

  Most of the discussions focused on techniques for both training and method of play. As each technique was discussed, I tried to mentally visualize the techniques in action and imagine myself using them. I took down notes to make sure I would not forget, but it was really pointless as I rarely looked at my notes after writing them down. They tended to collect dust in my top drawer.

  A member of our team, Jacob, started discussing a technique that was rather successful at earning points in some of the games. It was, however, somewhat controversial and technically against the rules. From the sound of it, it seemed to be used prolifically in the games, and the judges turned a blind eye.

  I didn’t feel comfortable with using a technique that was banned, even if it was widely used. Nevertheless, I listened to Jacob speak as he proclaimed the necessity of its use.

  “Listen, nearly all of the most recent games were won by this technique. If we don’t do this, we will likely lose.”

  I hadn’t said anything, but I got the distinct impression that Jacob was directing his comments towards Anika and I. Since we were the only two members who hadn’t participated in prior games, it made sense.

  “Well, I think we should focus on the techniques that aren’t illegal to improve our skills. I have a problem with cheating, and I think it will prevent us from focusing on improving our game.”