by Lucia Ashta
Now Lena proceeded softly, as if she spoke only to herself. “I give thanks of gratitude from my heart to the archangels and the angelic realm for their help with this clearing.”
Then a deep stillness filled the air. Lena, Paolo, and Sitting Bear sympathized with the suffering the darkness had imposed on this man.
Paolo broke the brief silence that had filled the space so fully.
“I ask the angels to do a soul retrieval for this man, to return all soul parts that have fragmented off at times of trauma and pain, that he may be spiritually whole and strong.”
Sitting Bear blinked his eyes in amazement at the flurry of small, glowing spheres of light that materialized, traveling toward the man. But the man didn’t witness this miracle. He’d finally broken free of the shackles of darkness, and he closed his eyes in repose.
They drove down unlit dirt roads of the Utah desert, with two angels in human bodies glowing in the front seat, and with the soul of an unknown man celebrating its returned pieces in the back. And Sitting Bear witnessed it all. If he hadn’t been a believer in the magic of life already, he would have been from then on. He grinned a smile bigger than any he ever had before and shared it with the cold, still night outside his window.
Thunder Gods and his siblings, Swift Horse and Sky Elk, traveled these lands together once more. Sitting Bear’s heart leapt in joy and gratitude, and Lena and Paolo’s glow expanded just a little bit more.
Chapter 26
Sitting Bear headed down the concrete steps of the police station first. Paolo followed, and Lena brought up the rear. They were frustrated. They’d spent much of the night reviewing the events with a series of police officers, culminating with the detective who would handle the case. Despite the clearing in the car, their attacker wasn’t talking. He denied everything and asked for an attorney.
But Lena wasn’t concerned with him anymore. She was worried about the conclusion she, Paolo, and Sitting Bear had reached: their attacker was only an underling. Someone else was commanding this middle-aged, otherwise-ordinary man to act. The man possessed neither the determination nor the intelligence to locate them and hunt them down. He behaved like the kind of person who took orders, not the one who gave them. He lacked the passion it took to determine a need for attack and then to orchestrate it. There had to be someone else involved.
Paolo drove them back to the pyramid. There were still a few hours left before sunrise.
“So, if it doesn’t really matter who this man is, how do we find who ordered the attack?” Lena asked.
“We don’t. We wait for him to find us.” Sitting Bear spoke up from the back seat.
Lena didn’t like the sound of that. Patience wasn’t one of her strengths. “Isn’t there something we can do instead of just wait?”
“Yes,” Paolo said, “we can keep doing what we’re here to do. That’s more important than anything else. We continue working toward understanding the pyramid and how to use it. Remember what we went through in Sedona, amore. We have an important reason for being, and there are many vital things we’ve come to earth to do.”
What Paolo said worked. Lena felt encouraged after just those few sentences.
Sitting Bear, who’d seen them glowing like otherworldly beings when they traveled this same road in the opposite direction, nodded to himself in affirmation. To him, it was obvious that what Paolo said was right. Lena and Paolo were on earth to do something incredible. That much was clear to Sitting Bear. He didn’t know exactly what it was, but had they told him they were beloveds incarnated time and again to fulfill a divine destiny that filled the earth with light and changed the world, he would have known that was it.
But he didn’t know that yet. What he did know was that this man and woman were important to the world, and Great Spirit had led him to them. He’d do whatever it took to help them fulfill their divine purpose. And in that way he would also further fulfill his.
“Paolo is right,” Sitting Bear said. “But it couldn’t hurt to speak with the man who intercepted your attacker. He may know something helpful. Do you know him?”
“Yes, I do know him,” Lena said to the window. Her breath fogged the glass. “He came to our campsite—the one where we first saw you—and I spoke with him one night while Paolo slept. I know little about him other than he seems like a good person.”
“Let’s find him tomorrow morning, after we rest,” Paolo said.
“If he wants us to find him,” Lena added. She remembered how elusive Kel had been. He’d just walked off into the night. He was mysterious, a man of his own ways, just as Sitting Bear was. She doubted she and Paolo would be able to locate Sitting Bear if he didn’t want to be found. She didn’t believe Kel was any different.
Where they parked, they could see the pyramid, but were too weary to hike the distance to it. It had been a long day and a still longer night. They’d come down from the adrenaline surge that pumped through them during the attack while at the police station. Now all they longed for was restful sleep.
Even so, Paolo and Sitting Bear organized a rotation of watch and sleep for both of them. Sitting Bear built a healthy fire, and he took the first watch. Paolo unzipped his sleeping bag from Lena’s so he wouldn’t disturb her when he got up to relieve Sitting Bear, but he lay it down close to hers afterward. If Lena wanted to reach out and touch him in the night, she still could.
She smiled at Paolo’s thoughtfulness. They hadn’t had as much time alone as they did in Sedona, and the intimacy they were able to share was limited. Paolo facilitated their closeness in little ways such as this, and it made all the difference to Lena.
Realizing she was under careful watch, and feeling the love for Paolo in her heart, she fell asleep for the second time that night. She wouldn’t wake until the sun broke the top of the pyramid. When her eyelids flickered open, Paolo smiled back at her with bleary eyes. He’d been up since before dawn, giving Sitting Bear the opportunity to rest. But Paolo looked happy. He had a divine purpose, and he fulfilled it with small steps at every opportunity.
“What was that?” Sitting Bear reeled around to look behind him in an uncommon display of discordant movement.
“That was Kel,” Lena said.
“What?” Sitting Bear was more confused than before. What did she mean that was Kel? Could Kel somehow be a wall of energy?
Lena laughed. She couldn’t help herself. Her answer was confusing if you didn’t know what she was talking about. But it was mostly confusing because Sitting Bear considered the infinite possibilities, and that was exciting to Lena. She and Paolo were keeping good company. Being open to unimaginable possibilities was a key prerequisite to allowing them into your life.
“What I meant was that Kel set up the layer of protection you just walked through. He did it the night I met him. He said demons were watching us, and he put up this protective bubble of light around the campsite for us. But then we met you, and we haven’t been back here to sleep since. Kel may have come back here looking for us.”
“Did you notice what kind of car he was driving?”
Lena shook her head. No. “He didn’t have a car as far as I could tell. He didn’t have anything with him. He walked off into the desert until I couldn’t see him anymore.”
Sitting Bear raised peppered eyebrows. This was uncommon behavior for this time and place.
“In fact, he acted a lot like you did the first time we saw you. Kel is a man of mystery, just like you are.”
Now it was Sitting Bear’s turn to laugh. He’d never been called a man of mystery before. Lena was surprised by the lightheartedness of his laughter, but she continued. “As a fellow man of mystery, do you have any idea where Kel may have gone?”
Sitting Bear considered Lena’s question in earnest. He looked all around him, as if he were studying the land and the winds. He closed his eyes in concentration, the better to sense any changes around him. But in the end, Sitting Bear echoed Lena’s words. “No, I don’t. He could have gone anywhere.�
�� That was one of the things he loved the most about his nomadic lifestyle. He could always choose to leave or to stay. On any given day, he could be almost anywhere.
If this was the way Kel also lived, then Sitting Bear admired and understood the man. “The only thing we can do is wait for him to find us. If he wants to find us, he will, and based on the way he acted last night, I think our chances are good.”
Paolo walked over to Lena and draped his arm over her shoulder. He turned his face toward hers.
“You could call to him. If he’s capable of creating this,” Paolo gestured with his other hand to the protective bubble that surrounded them, “he may be able to hear you.”
“You’re right!” Why hadn’t she thought of that?
Sitting Bear studied his newfound companions. He wasn’t accustomed to people speaking and acting this way anymore. When his father died, he lost the one person in his life that interacted with the world with an awareness of the invisible realm. Now, most attributed the inexplicable to something outside of themselves they couldn’t control. They relegated their hopes to prayers for divine intervention without realizing they carried a spark of the Divine inside them. They held divinity within.
Lena and Paolo’s conversation was refreshing. Sitting Bear stood taller than he had in some time. Operating within notions of infinite possibilities was the true way of the emancipated. The secret to freedom lay within a person, not with his external circumstances.
The wind whipped up in a gentle breeze, and the scent of sage bushes and juniper trees filled the air. Sitting Bear breathed in deeply, expanding both his lungs and his spirit, and he had a flash of memory from another time. He saw himself standing in this very spot in the body of Thunder Gods. Sitting Bear looked over at Lena and Paolo, and he could have sworn it was Sky Elk and Swift Horse he saw embrace just then.
Chapter 27
Although accustomed to waking with the sun’s first light, they slept in this morning. By the time they found a place that felt safe to rest last night, it was late, and then they waited for calm to settle within their hearts before sleep could claim them once more. If Thom had reached Kaanra a moment later, the gentle master might not be with them any longer.
That thought concerned all of them, except for Kaanra. He’d made his peace with death a long time ago. Even so, he was grateful his life had been spared. He could still help the twins and Thom, and what they were trying to accomplish was too important for him to go unnecessarily. Especially now that they’d discovered who was pursuing them. They needed to move faster and more carefully than ever. Brazzon was no amateur.
Even I grew up hearing the legends of Brazzon, Kaanra told Asara, Anak, and Thom.
They sat in a half circle in front of Kaanra, who leaned against the trunk of another magnificent tree, extending his legs out in front of him in an unusual display of relaxed comfort. Asara eyed him in the rising sun. She’d never seen Kaanra like this before. For as long as she’d known him, he was always composed, dignified, and elegant in his postures. Today, he let go.
She smiled. She liked this version of the master. She felt as if she were able to peer into his private world right now, his guard down. She liked it very much.
It’s possible that he’s hundreds of years old, Kaanra finally continued, with a buoyant tone of voice that was contrary to the topic of conversation. But life appeared idyllic here, nestled in the forest. All human beings are born from light and, for that reason, there’s light within every person. But when a human soul has been in darkness for too long, there’s little light left within it.
Kaanra paused. I’ve been wondering if Brazzon is still human. I discovered an ancient text within the abandoned portion of the temple library. It had been written long ago in a language I’d never seen before. But this book had drawings, and the drawings showed a man becoming so dark that the soul left his body.
An unwelcome shiver ran down Asara’s body. She’d never imagined the possibility of a person becoming too dark to have a soul. The thought was heavy with foreboding because she accepted what Kaanra said as true. It resonated throughout her body in the way things did when they were right.
She’d learned to accept darkness as a natural counterpart of light that allowed the soul to evolve through autonomous choice. How sad for Brazzon that he should have incarnated on this planet with the possibility of experiencing so much beauty and love, only to forgo it all.
Brazzon gave his soul out of a desire for power. That’s how it almost always is. The dark side tempts people with promises of power and riches, only for the person to realize too late that the light of the soul is far more valuable than any such things.
Asara felt such compassion for Brazzon, this soulless man who lived past most human lifetimes as a prisoner in his own body, that she sent out a wave of love to him from her heart. She wished he could somehow find a way to return to the light and to remember his true essence. The light glowed as she streamed it to Brazzon.
Thom saw it first. He gasped. This time, he didn’t react to the beauty of what Asara was sharing with the world. Instead, he readied them to move. She transmitted a ray of light that emanated from her heart and arrived impeccably at its intended recipient.
The dark raven flew a wide circle around the forest, searching for any sign of where his prey might be. Asara provided just the evidence he was looking for. Though her intentions were pure, she unthinkingly targeted the group of light warriors.
Kaanra looked to Thom. You’re right. We must leave immediately. You still carry the doman?
Thom nodded. He did, and he was already getting to his feet. Within instants, they were all in motion, heading deeper into the forest, with the sole goal of putting distance between them and the beam of light Asara had let out, announcing their location.
The raven turned in mid-flight, adjusted his course, and flew straight toward the source of the light. The light warriors picked up the pace, and even old Kaanra found dormant strength and agility as they ran into the dense trees.
Paolo and Sitting Bear gave Lena space. They wandered off in different directions, further into the nothingness of desert that surrounded them on all sides, with no real direction other than away from the campsite. But they didn’t go so far as to be unable to protect Lena. Paolo and Sitting Bear kept a watchful eye on her, even at a distance. They wouldn’t take any chances after the attack of the previous night.
Lena sat, her legs crossed in front of her with her hands loosely on her knees. She stared off into the endless desert that opened up before her until her eyes began to blur, and she no longer saw anything at all. Then, she closed her eyes.
Her intention was to call out to Kel, to tell him she wanted to speak with him, but once she closed her eyes, her intentions dissolved. Something else, something much greater than her, pulled her in that now-familiar way.
Lena no longer resisted the lure to another time, to another life. In the blink of an eye, in the flutter of a thought, Lena could see what Asara was doing.
But it was more than that. It wasn’t just that Lena could see what Asara was doing, it was that she could feel her. The connection between her and Asara was transforming, becoming something greater than it had been before. Lena didn’t understand exactly what was happening or how important this nexus would soon prove to be. She didn’t realize it was this very link that she had at first resisted, but she now nurtured, that held the power to do the incredible, that which not even she had imagined possible.
Lena held her breath without realizing. Asara and her companions were on the run. The dark raven was after them. It was crucial that they escape. The fate of the planet rested on the light held within the treasure Thom pressed against his heart while he ran, trying to keep it from bouncing with his gait.
The beating of Lena’s heart accelerated as it paired to the rhythm of Asara’s heart. Run faster, Lena thought, and then it was her own feet that pounded against the forest floor, her own breath that grew heavy. She followed Thom a
nd Anak, with Kaanra close behind her. Run! Run, because the fate of the world depends on it.
They ran, dodging tree roots and rocks, until Kaanra could no longer hold the pace. Thom corralled them quickly, signaling to them to stay quiet and follow him. They huddled within a grove of trees.
Thom reached out and took the hands of Asara and Anak who were on either side of him. Asara and Anak held hands with Kaanra. Thom did this not because it was necessary for what he was going to do next, but because he enjoyed the closeness of his newfound spirit family. It was something he’d never had before.
Thom closed his eyes. The twins and Kaanra closed their eyes too in complete trust of Thom’s knowing. Kaanra focused on stilling his agitated breath. He hadn’t run that much and that fast in longer than he could remember. He inhaled deeply, and he exhaled deeply, trying to calm the rapid rise and fall of his chest.
Meanwhile, Asara and Anak engulfed Thom in light. This would give him additional strength if he needed it, and it could magnify whatever he was doing. This time, Asara was mindful to restrict the light so it wouldn’t extend upward or too far around Thom. She intended that it surround him and stay within his energy field, and it did.
Thom felt the light coming at him from both sides, but he didn’t open his eyes, and soon the smile faded from his face. He was focused. The woodland life responded to him eagerly.
The surrounding forest began to creak and groan, and Asara, Anak, and Kaanra opened their eyes to watch. The trees bent toward the ground, tilting their wide-reaching canopies at an angle so they enclosed the light warriors. Tree canopy touched one tree canopy after another until the first and last in the circle met. The limbs and leaves of trees intermingled with those of its neighbors, creating a fortress of foliage.
The sunlight retreated behind veils of dense greenery. The world of the light warriors shut in on itself, and the air grew thick with the intoxicating scents of the plant world. Vines came alive to slide and slither across the ground like snakes. Then the vines climbed. They twirled and wrapped around bent tree trunks, disguising the unusual tree positioning from ready discovery.