I open my eyes slowly. I’m surrounded by four walls and there’s a huge, colorful stained glass window to my left. The dark night sits behind it but the dim light from the chandelier above this bed wakens the many colors in the pieces of glass. Suddenly I remember the face of the Selell, white hair and black eyes glaring down upon me. My hands fly up to rub both sides of my neck. I have not been bitten and it seems as though I am still alive.
Beyond the doorway there’s a hallway lit with the same kind of artificial light the chandelier above the bed emits. I am worried about what or who roams beyond the threshold, but my stomach is pained by hunger. I have never had such desire to eat in my life.
Cl’auta can you hear me? I cry, reaching out to her from deep within.
Still, I cannot feel her presence or hear her voice. I sense that there is a deliberate barrier set up to block me from reaching her.
Motivated by my hunger I poke my head out into the hollow hallway and call out, “Oh ek’k’ka!” Greetings my friend.
I stand still, waiting for a response. I cannot believe I called a Selell my friend. If he is not of the Pact of Gogulon, then he is not a friend—he is a foe. Only silence returns my call. However, the cold that pains me is now soothed by a warm mist that trickles down from above. I take a sigh of relief. This is the first inviting sensation I’ve felt since arriving to this place called Earth. And because of it, I easily step out of the confines of this room and into the hallway.
I reach a staircase and test my buoyancy by leaping over the banister. My feet hit ground. I look up at where I last stood. Strange; my speed is hindered in this realm.
A fruity scent permeates this room with the regal, red velvet furnishings. I take a sniff and the smell leads me past another threshold, down another short hallway, into a place I recognize as a kitchen.
I immediately see the baskets of fruit Ce’lah’ime and I gathered for The Tilt on the counter. I rush over and swipe a ci’ke off the top and bite into the sweet flesh of the purple fruit like my life depends on it. I’m chewing and biting, finishing one fruit and then another. My stomach is full by the fourth ci’ke and the pain in my head goes away and my body is once again energized.
Ad’ru, in here… A voice I once heard whispers between my ears.
After the initial jolt of fear passes, I reach out to touch the world around me. Another life force is near, although the energy confuses me. I gaze in the direction from which it calls. The i’lek’u is ignited within me as I tiptoe in the direction of his voice.
There is another hallway. It’s shorter and a cold draft from the outside is trapped within its walls.
The way out is near, which is confirmed when I reach a tall and wide rustic wooden door. If there’s ever a time to escape and find my way back home, it is now. I grab the doorknob and squeeze it tightly, but suddenly I’m consumed by terror. It’s nighttime on Earth. Selells thrive in the darkness. Also, the air is cold outside and I can barely tolerate it. Yet I feel that my chances for connecting with my sisters are greatly diminished from within the confines of this place. All will be well once I reach Cl’auta, who will then use the power of the mind to lead me to The House of Benel where I will be safe.
I decide to leave, to run away from this creepy manor as fast as my body will carry me. But when I try to twist the doorknob, nothing happens.
I try it again—nothing.
Suddenly it dawns on me that I might be locked inside of here. So I kick the door with my bare feet and pound upon it with the palm of my hand. All I can hear is my own banging and knocking—my efforts are feverish but futile. It’s a losing battle, but I won’t stop, can’t stop. Until…
“Ad’ru,” the male’s voice calmly says from behind me.
Frightened, I twist around and push my back tightly against the door. My heart is knocking against my chest so hard that even as I stand here with my eyes glued to this ominous creature I can feel the vibration in my throat.
It’s him, the creature with long white hair and black eyes. The Selell.
“Who are you?” I wheeze.
I wait for him to answer but he doesn’t say a word. Instead, he continues to stare at me with such intensity that my insides tickle and my head goes light so that it feels like it’s floating above my shoulders. I am sorely confused, unable to figure out why gazing upon him makes me feel this way. A part of me still wants to escape and find my sisters, but I want to stay too, only to be near him.
He can’t stop watching me with furrowed brows. He looks conflicted. So I toss the i’lek’u out of the palm of my hand to subdue him.
“No!” he roars, aiming his own palm at me.
I gasp. The light slams into his hand and returns to me.
“How did you do that,” I say breathlessly.
Still, he refuses to speak. There’s no difference in his expression. What an odd creature, this Selell. I can’t take my eyes off the sweater he’s wearing. It’s a human’s garment and I’ve never seen anything look so attractive on a creature. It’s black. His skin and hair are white. And the way the neckline dips into a V-shape makes the contrast between his skin and the garment more remarkable. I want to touch this being who’s having a peculiar affect on me, but I can’t because he is evil. I know this because he refused the light.
“Did you call my name?” I ask, even though he hasn’t answered anything I’ve asked him so far.
“I did,” He mutters.
It’s remarkable; he hasn’t relaxed the frown on his face as of yet.
“Did you deceive me in the Forest of Naught?”
I notice that he flinches and lifts one side of his mouth into a tiny bit of a smile.
“No,” he says in a lackluster tone.
I don’t believe him.
“You called me Ad’ru? That is my Enuian name.” I push myself closer against the door and ready my palms just in case a battle ensues. This time he will not be able to thwart my attack. “Are you ek’et’ru?” I ask him.
“Ek’et’ru?” He frowns confused.
“Evil incarnate.”
There’s a glow of amusement in his eyes, which have turned opaquely green.
“No, I am not that.” He’s grinning but in a very stranger manner. One side of his mouth is lifted higher than the other. There are intentions beyond goodwill behind it.
“You are a Selell?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“And you know I have the lifeblood?”
“Yes.”
I notice that he’s studying the rise and fall of my chest and possibly how my breaths slip out of my mouth from between my lips. “You don’t want to kill me?”
“No.”
My head stops spinning and my heavy breathing evens out. Oddly enough, I believe the Selell.
“Then what do you want from me?” I reach down to squeeze the doorknob. “Why have you taken me prisoner?”
“You’re not my prisoner,” he says with composed calm.
“Then why have you locked me inside of this manor?” I insist as my eyes travel across the high ceiling over my head. The sight causes the cold and emptiness to seize me. A shiver streaks down my spine.
But once again the Selell’s lips are sealed. I notice that he is not only frugal with words, but he is also a subtle being. His eyes shift subtly to the right of me, his left. And subtly the lines in his neck tighten.
Suddenly, he shifts swiftly and he’s so close to me that I can feel the heat emanating from his skin. This I find odd because from what I’ve been taught, the body of a Selell is ice cold.
“Give me your light, Adore. If that will make you trust me.”
I’m caught off guard by the seductive tone of his voice. I blink myself out of a stunned pause. “You never told me how you knew my name,” I whisper, but my words still manage to echo in the hollowness. I’m determined to remain vigilant because I still sense deception from him.
He glowers at me. “I can’t say.”
I gulp. “But why?”
“I’m already afraid of you,” I confess.
“But I don’t want you to be.”
“Then let me leave.” Once again, there are all the nuances that I once noticed. This time he balls up his fists. I take notice of how his fingers slip against the inside of his hand. His palms are sweating.
“If I could, I would,” he says after a long moment of observing my curious expression.
I look from his hands and back to his face. The two creases between his eyes have sunk deeper. “Why are you so conflicted?” I ask him.
“I don’t know,” he says, looking away from me. He steps backwards. Is it anger that now colors his expression? “But we’re both stuck here, so get used to it,” he snaps.
And he’s gone. I feel deserted by the Selell with the white hair, by my father, my mother, and my sisters. Every part of me turns heavy—my heart, my head, and all of my limbs. Regardless, I carry myself as fast as I can back up the stairs, rushing up the staircase, through the long hallway, and back to the room from which I came.
But as soon as I step over the threshold, I come to an abrupt stop. A different covering is stretched over the bed. It’s thick, white, and fluffy and the hem sweeps the floor. There’s a glass-topped wooden table positioned against the wall beneath a hanging mirror near the doorway where I’m standing and two tall candles burn on top of it, one at each corner. The candlelight casts its orange brilliance against the white wall behind it.
I am almost convinced that my captor has made an effort to make me comfortable, but I don’t want to be contented; I want to go home.
I run to the bed and fall into the depths of its cushiony softness. I flip on my backside, close my eyes and try to contact Cl’auta again. And once again, I do not succeed. Now, I try to reach Falu and Pan’a’tua but they do not respond either.
“Na’ta,” I whisper. Na’ta – who is called Navi on Earth - is my last hope.
I flip around to bury my face into the plush pillow. I’m holding my breath when, in the most splendid moment thus far, it’s Na’ta I hear and, although it sounds afar off, she whimpers, “Ad’ru help me.”
I fly off the bed and am standing firmly on my feet. “I’k suk’ne’tu!” I boldly shout, frantically twisting my neck to search in every direction. “I’m here!” I yell. And wait.
Na’ta has the speed. She will come and sweep me out of here; the stranger with the white hair and dark eyes will not notice that I’m gone.
The thought of leaving him makes my heart float up to my throat. I smash my eyes closed. I’m confused. I want to be saved by Navi, don’t I?
The longer I stand here, the more it becomes clear that Na’ta is not coming for me. I flop back onto the bed and once again bury my face into the pillow.
Time is passing. My head is filled with memories of home until suddenly I’m running at full stride across the green blades of grass that layer my beloved Enu. This is the high grass which leads to the Meadow of Showers. My giggles pinch the air around me. The never-ceasing droplets of warm rain pelt my skin. I’m laughing because Tryst is chasing me.
I’m in the part of the field where the grass grows high enough to swipe the bottom of my chin. It tickles, which is another reason I’m laughing so hard that my stomach tightens.
“Got you!” Tryst shouts as his large orange hands wrangle me into him from behind.
I’m caught. The chase is over. We both let go of our legs and fall onto the grass.
“You are fast, Ad’ru,” he says in English.
He obeys Ce’lah’ime. She tells him to speak to me only in the human’s language to remind both of us that I am not fully of this world.
Only, I am fully of this world!
I am here, perfectly contained in happiness. Tryst flips on his side. His orange eyes meet my emerald eyes. I’m still smiling. Yes, I love Tryst. We can endlessly explore our orb in the long day, running, jumping, swimming, diving, sliding and lying side by side just like this. One of his hands rests on my belly. The tips of his fingers draw tiny circles on the skin of my belly through my wet white pal’k I’m wearing.
But there’s something different about the way he’s touching me. My eyes are closed and I compulsively suck in air between my teeth. His touch is so sensual and my thighs long for him. I felt this sensation before. It’s what Cl’auta felt when the Selell Ze Feldis mounted her on the Ridge of Way.
I force my eyes open to see what’s happening to me because I don’t understand why Tryst is lighting this fire within me. However, it’s a pure white face that’s looking down upon me. I’m shivering because, oddly, it turns cold and because of the anticipation that inflicts me.
His fingers remain on my belly—each one slowly creeps up toward my face. I curl my neck forward to see what he’s doing to me. I don’t understand why he chooses to make me feel this way.
“Stop,” I feebly plead. In truth, I don’t want him to stop. I’m eager to learn what his hand will do next as it snakes upwards between the bone that separates my breasts. The white haired Selell freezes his hand. But he lowers his face closer to mine. This Selell has breath and it’s extremely cold.
“Are you dead?” I whisper.
Although he’s close and my words reach his ears, he doesn’t honor me with an answer. Instead, he snakes his fingers up the round of one of my breasts. My eyes expand. I gulp. What is he doing to me? Why? His lips part at seeing what I see. My brown skin shows through the wet garment that conceals my nakedness. His fingers circle my nipple which has never been touched before, and I tickle all over, although it’s not the sort of delight that makes me want to laugh.
“You know what we are, don’t you?” He asks when he finally chooses to speak.
I can’t answer him. I can’t take my eyes off his fingers and what they’re doing to me.
“Please, stop,” I plead.
“You want me near you, don’t you?” he whispers.
“No…I mean yes.” I shake my head, confused.
His lips are so close that they narrowly touch mine. I swallow hard in anticipation of what is to come.
“You want me near you, don’t you?” he repeats.
I’m unable to speak.
But then the white-haired Selell’s lips move. “Ad’ru,” he says, but it’s not his voice that I hear.
“Na’ta?” I gasp.
Instantly, the white-haired Selell disappears and I’m no longer in the Meadow of Whispers. I’m standing on dry, cracked ground. A blood-red sun bears down over me in this desolate forest. It’s brazenly hot, so hot that my throat heats up with every intake of the sooty air.
“Help me, Ad’ru,” I hear Na’ta whimper in a pained voice from behind.
I whip myself around and my eyes travel up toward the branches of the tree, dreading what I can’t avoid seeing. The branches spiral, twist and turn in precarious ways. The smoky gray wood looks smooth but is sharp at its edges.
You have to come and free me… Na’ta moans.
Tueka’lek’mak! She’s staked through the heart by a branch high in one of the trees. More branches coil tightly around her arms, legs, and even her torso, holding her captive. I clench my chest at the sight of her face. Her normal pink lips are blue and they shiver like she is ice cold in the stifling heat. I can tell that she is weak and barely clinging to the little strength she has left.
I try to push off on my toes to lift off and save her but instead of gaining ground, my eyes flick open. I’m still on the bed in the room where I am being held captive. The Selell with the white hair is standing over me, wearing his usual facial expression. The two corners of his mouth are pulled down and his brows are furrowed. Although I’m shaken by how I had to leave Na’ta, I’m also paralyzed by that look on the Selell’s face.
“Bad dream?” he asks. I’m waiting for him to lean back but he doesn’t budge.
“No,” I hear myself answer him in a small voice. “I don’t dream. What I
experienced was real?”
“All of it?” He lifts his eyebrows curiously. He knows what happened in the Meadow of Showers.
I skip a breath, remembering the way he touched me.
“You’re not used to sleeping?” he says, and it’s strange that he asks that.
I want to answer him but my natural instinct tells me to be very cautious. How was he able to invade my mind and be with me in Enu? Finally, he takes a step back so that I can sit up. I cannot erase the sight of Na’ta in the tree from my memory. How did this happen to her? The last we faced each other, she visited me in the East Orb, at father’s cavern; we stood on the plank, gazing out over the White Sea where I told her all about Cl’auta and Falu. This was after Falu had been fed the mirk by the Selell, who deceived her.
“You must release me,” I say as I move with great speed to stand on my own two feet. I get close to him and clamp a hand around his wrist. I hurry and give him the light, rendering him incapable of wriggling out of my grasp.
He goes stiff as he gazes down to study the hold I have on him. I’m also caught off-guard by what’s happening inside of me. I was growing accustomed to being continuously cold, but the shift in my body temperature is alarming. I’m warm. And it’s not just any warmth; the sunrays that fall over the land of Enu have exploded inside of me, filling me from the tip of my toes to the crown of my head. It’s the best feeling ever; better than basking in the Enuian sun itself.
“Who are you?” I ask past my tightened throat.
“You know who I am, Adore,” he says with incredible repose.
“But you haven’t revealed your name.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“You’ll hate me.”
I determinedly shake my head. “I haven’t the capacity to hate.”
He nods. “I know.”
“You do?”
“I know a lot about you, Ad’ru and you know a lot about me.”
Now I’m very confused. “I don’t understand,” I say, hoping he’ll elaborate.
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