Dawn Of The Aakacarns

by John Buttrick

  “You are correct, of course,” Roddy replied, giving her words due thought.

  At the time of the incident with his brother the motives and circumstances were different. “I tasked Jubal with finding new ways to wield potential and in so doing made him powerful, yet even now he has no desire to seize power from me. The situation is not the same as it was with Ra, yet you are correct my love, and so I will contemplate an appropriate disciplinary action.”

  “Good, now that a decision has been made, you can go to sleep,” she replied, sleepily.

  He had made a decision to think about an appropriate punishment, which did nothing to quiet his mind. After tossing and turning, slumber gradually took him to the place of dreams, worlds filled with frustration until a comforting melody drifted up from the mists of creativity. Each note seemed to lessen the negative feelings that had troubled him so. Each refrain emboldened his spirit, giving him strength, and a sense of invincibility. He took that energy and focused it through the crescendo-ring his good friend had made for him. The tune became chaotic and unpleasant to the ear, yet when he tried to will the Aaka to end; it was as if a permanent Da Capo had been added. Nothing he tried would make the Melody cease playing or cease drawing on his pool of life-force energy.

  “Stop,” he shouted at the top of his lungs and the world trembled.

  “We are doomed!”

  The voice of Semiramis invaded his dream.

  Roddy sat bolt upright on a bed that was moving all over the marble floor. Semi’s ball of light floated near the ceiling, showing vases and artworks of glass falling to the floor and shattering. Countless voices were screaming in fear. “The children,” she shouted, “We must get to the children!”

  He sprang out of bed and grabbed his robe, shrugging into it as he ran with her by his side. Down the hall they fled in their nightclothes to the chamber of their beloved sons. The door flew open just as they arrived and out stepped Pennella, holding Tammuz in her arms. Carolouis followed her out with Sennacherib.

  “Come we must flee to the courtyard,” Roddy told the governess and her assistant.

  They stared at him, eyebrows raised in confusion, as if they had no idea what he had just said. “Outside, we must go outside,” he shouted.

  “Brreitm jjttfp cbtfgkl?” Pennella spouted absolute nonsense.

  Carolouis began jabbering, her eyes filled with terror, and continued speaking nothing but gibberish.

  “It is my worst nightmare,” Roddy shouted, “I stand in the midst of disaster giving commands people are unable to comprehend.”

  “Husband, this is no dream, we are awake and must leave now,” Semi reminded him.

  Rather than waste valuable time trying to speak to people who had no idea what he was saying, he beckoned with his hands for them to follow, and together they ran through the halls that were filling with Weapocarns and servants fleeing every which way. Roddy mentally performed, I Will Be Heard, summoning the potential, and said, “EVERYONE, THIS IS YOUR KING. FLEE INTO THE STREETS AND STAY AWAY FROM TALL STRUCTURES,” his voice thundered across the city, amplified by the Melody.

  It was impossible to know how many people understood his words but perhaps some lives could be saved. Minutes went by and he could only hope his warning was being heeded.

  “MY FELLOW NEPHILIM, RISE UP AND SAVE THE PEOPLE!”

  Jubal’s deep voice boomed throughout the city.

  “I understood him!” Roddy shouted

  “As did I,” Semi confirmed while hustling everyone along down the hall. “At least there is one other person we can communicate with, once we get outside.”

  They ran out into the courtyard along with everyone else. People were speaking but no one seemed to understand what the other was saying. Officers walked up to their king and spouted incomprehensible words and then raised their arms as if to give up. His own cousins, Bernochen and Zadock, fellow Nephilim, could not understand him.

  The sky above Semidon was bathed in blue and the entire city lay starkly visible in the middle of the night. Buildings were collapsing, the ground continued to shake without a moment of respite, and people were stumbling and falling. A column fell, crushing three men as Roddy looked on in horror.

  “Look!” a voice called out, drawing his attention away from the grisly scene.

  All eyes were drawn to the right, to the source that illumed the night. Rising into the sky above the pyramid belonging to the Instructor of Aakacarns was a giant hawk, wings spread wide in majestic glory, and sending hundreds of radiant beams downward. Each shaft of light held a person. A rare feeling of awe rippled through Roddy’s entire being, thrilling his body, soul, and spirit. “I knew he would do something spectacular with Metamorphosis.”

  A human figure glowing pink like the plumage of a flamingo joined the shining bird of prey, beams of light radiated downward and began raising people up off the shaky ground. Vashti had responded to her husband’s call. All over the city glowing human forms, each in a unique hue, floated up above the chaos, adding their luminescence to the night like tiny stars. They immediately began rescuing the powerless. The Nephilim were responding to the Instructor of Aakacarns and performing the duty given to them by the ancients.

  “He kept his word to stay at home,” Semi observed, “Above it at least.”

  “And is again reminding us of what we ought to be doing,” Roddy added, and summoned the potential for Levitation.

  Semi cried out in horror, “My tower!”

  The tallest structure in the largest city ever made was trembling, fractures formed like lacework and grew wider, racing up and down the tall building until chunks started falling off. Stone fragments plummeted to the ground and moments later the entire monument to Semi fell and was transformed into a giant pile of rubble. The twelve towers, places of refuge built to preserve life from a future flood, shook like dogs shrugging off water, and then disappeared in billowing clouds of dust.

  Roddy shot up into the air, being more worried about his people than the buildings. He had never asked his friend how to wield a Melody from so many focal points at once. A careful watch of the glowing hawk showed Jubal was not picking one person at a time, but pulling them up by the score.

  Nimrod took note of the people below him, fleeing and stumbling, but instead of focusing on one, he thought of himself as being in the wild and aware of all the life around him. It was a survival instinct developed over many years walking in an environment in which being unaware of the presence of a venomous creature would mean death. He thought of all those people as things he needed to be aware of and then focused his life-force energy at them. Beams of light, over a hundred, burst from him, lancing down, and snatching people to safety above the turmoil below.

  Semi floated beside him with Pennella, Tammuz, Carolouis, and Sennacherib, secured in her energy field.

  Elegant homes of the wealthy and palaces belonging to judges and administrators shook and fell apart, streets buckled and split open. A huge fissure formed right across from the largest government building, grew wider, and then swallowed the courthouse whole. Another violent tremor closed the chasm, leaving an uneven line where the place of justice once stood. The earth shuddered again and one Administration building after another developed fissures that began a crumbling process which quickly led to total collapse, reducing the once great edifices to piles of debris.

  Nimrod floated and watched as his city fell apart, all the work, all the planning, all of it crashing down. “When the disaster hits and you fall, remember that it was me who had your back and was trying to pull you kicking and screaming from the brink,” the parting words of his friend came to mind.

  “Jubal chose correctly,” Roddy admitted. “What have I done?”

  A thunderous roar from below drew his attention and caused him to gaze upon the fall of his own house while the cold night air whistled past his ears, giving him the shivers. The dome of the palace cracked open like an egg and the shaking foundation shifted and bucked until the royal
residence was no more than a mound of crushed stones.

  -----

  Jubal stood at the window on the fifth floor of his pyramid, but unable to derive much enjoyment from the view. Each of the three chambers on the top level had a window, his faced the river. After the birth of the twins the guestroom had become the nursery, where Vashti was at that very moment. The girls were hungry and he did not have the necessary equipment to satisfy them. Laara lie sleeping in her own bed, dreaming of things only a child of her age could imagine.

  Pan, Natura, Bast, and Ursa had gone home; Jubal had to insist because they still wanted to stand with him even after he confessed to Roddy. Such loyalty did not deserve to be punished and Jubal would do everything in his power to shield them. The punishment was his alone to bear, that was how he saw it, which was part of the reason he stood at the window in the middle of the night instead of lying in bed. The other reason had to do with his failure and the wrath to come because of it. He knew not when or in what form the greater divine punishment would come, but knew it was only a matter of time before everyone would be experiencing it with him.

  He could see the street lamps lighting the avenues and boulevards and could not shake the feeling of experiencing the calm before a storm. The choice given to him by his friend had been made; the names of those who helped and the locations of the settlements would not be given up voluntarily. Jubal remained under house arrest based on a friendship that was on shaky ground at the moment and it dawned on him even the closest of earthly ties could be broken if enough tension was applied.

  “Even though I think you made the wrong choice in confessing,” Vicky’s voice came from the open doorway, “I will stand with you in the morning when Nimrod arrives.”

  He motioned with his hand for his sister to come stand next to him, and she did, as he continued to stare out the window, looking for what, he did not know. “Victoria, you can be irksome at times and as volatile as a bottle of one of Thoth’s distilled beverages, but I love you.”

  She put her arm around him and chuckled, saying, “Back at you brother.”

  He turned his head to look her in the eyes. “Roddy will suspect you and I doubt would hesitate to use Truth Speak on every member of this household.”

  “I know,” she replied. “He will use the Aaka to compel you to name me and the others if you do not give us up voluntarily. After your confession and taking responsibility for what happened, I am not sure what you will do.”

  He hugged her a little tighter. “And yet you are still here. Well, just so you know, I have made up my mind.”

  “Well, are you going to leave me in suspense?”

  Jubal shook his head. “I will not give him the information he seeks.”

  At that moment a harmonic wave rippled outward in the night. He turned in the direction of the epicenter and his eyes were directed toward the grand palace. “What is happening?” Vicky asked, letting go of him, and no doubt feeling the continuous effect.

  Light, yellow like the breast of a hooded warbler, beamed out of every window and opening of the royal residence. “Roddy is casting an Aaka,” he answered her.

  “I see, but to what effect?” Victoria clearly thought her brother would know such a thing.

  “We shall soon see,” Jubal had no better answer. “I do know the energy is being amplified because this is much more powerful than anything a Jade-trident could produce unaided.”

  The light grew brighter and suddenly the entire structure was within a brilliant sphere. A tremor shook the world and the crystal vase on the night-table fell to the floor, shattering and sending water and tiny shards flying in all directions. “I think this is the beginning of the wrath to come,” he commented and speaking the words somehow made him sure he had come to the right conclusion.

  The sphere engulfing the palace brightened again and then suddenly expanded outward. A wall of energy slammed into and right through Jubal. His head spun and the next thing he knew Victoria was lying on the floor beside him.

  “What just happened?” his sister asked while getting back to her feet.

  Jubal stood up, feeling no different other than a sense of confusion that had come and gone in the space of a few moments. The tremors increased, shaking the city, and causing buildings to groan with the strain of holding together.

  “EVERYONE, THIS IS YOUR KING. FLEE INTO THE STREETS AND STAY AWAY FROM TALL STRUCTURES,” Roddy’s voice bellowed across the city, amplified by the Melody.

  “What do we do?” Vicky asked with her eyes wide and blinking rapidly.

  People would not be safe alone in the streets. Where were the Aakacarns?

  “If I stay above my home, no one can accuse me of breaking my word,” Jubal spoke more to himself than to his sister.

  “What are you going to do?” She asked, this time with a determined gleam in her eyes.

  “I am going to rise in the sky and save as many people as I can.”

  “I will go with you,” she insisted.

  Jubal shook his head. “You stay here and protect my girls.”

  She opened her mouth as if to argue but then looked into his eyes, shut her mouth, and nodded affirmatively. It was the most important thing she could do for him, and they both knew it. Victoria ran out of the room.

  Jubal began mentally performing every Aaka he could think might be useful in the next few minutes, summoning the potential for each, and then adding Da Capos for quick casting. He raised his right hand palm up and sent solidified blades of air in a wide spray, shattering the window into tiny fragments.

  “MY FELLOW NEPHILIM, RISE UP AND SAVE THE PEOPLE!”

  His admonition reverberated throughout the city and he levitated up and outside of his fifth floor window, floating near the apex of the pyramid and glowing bright enough to illumine the entire city. People were fleeing into the streets as Roddy directed, but they were running in every direction and needed something or someone to look to. He could feel the hawk figurine lying against his collarbone and decided to feed energy into it.

  Copper-colored feathers sprouted and he grew taller even as his feet formed into talons. Up he went with wings spread wide, doubling the brilliance radiating from him, and then focused on his frightened neighbors who were gazing upward and looking to him for deliverance. He imagined having twice the quills of a porcupine and included in his awareness everyone quivering below on the tremoring ground. Streams of light burst forth from his imaginary quills, touching and pulling to safety men, women, and children.

  No more than a minute later Vashti levitated up beside him and then up from the ground, first a few, and then scores of Nephilim ascended into the night sky, shining like a swarm of fireflies, and all of them began expending the essences of their life-forces on behalf of the people in danger below. Even the seven Aakacarns Roddy left behind joined the effort and began lifting people to relative safety.

  From his point in the sky Jubal could see people running from their houses, but scores were running to the dome-shaped house he had created. Taller, more massive, homes were crashing down around it, yet the simple dwelling stood. Using his ring, he focused Shield Another, an Aaka created by Roddy to allow an Aakacarn to protect someone other than himself. It was not meant for objects, certainly not any the size Jubal wanted to protect. An indigo beam shot from the diamond in his ring and struck the top of the dome, light spread from that spot and in moments covered the entire structure, including the foundation. He added a Da Capo and fixed his gaze on his own home and soon it too glowed with an energy field.

  He began placing shields on as many homes as he could and adding Da Capos. Even though he did not need to concentrate on the notes or continue to point his ring at any object once the Da Capo was in place, the energy to power it all was draining his life-force. Thirst grew as he added more homes to those under his protection, twelve in total. He had failed to meet his responsibility and so took it upon himself to save the few that he could. People were fleeing into those places of refuge he was
creating and hundreds would die if he let those shields drop. At the same time he knew people floating in his energy beams were also depending on him to keep them safe.

  Thanatos was floating above the penal compound and similarly rescuing people, although he had them in wagons and was using one beam to hold at least twenty men aloft in a single wagon. The healer had a score of wagons in the air. Three whirlwinds dropped out of the sky, the first took the roof off the huge rectangular building, the second touched down, tearing at the walls, and the third took apart what little was left. Miraculously, not one had touched the wagons being held by the collector of the dead.

  In the sky around him, holding people aloft in the energy beams were his fellow Nephilim. Jubal could not see their faces well enough to identify them; it was the auras he recognized. Poseidon held more than thirty people safe from the tremors below, Hades and Zeus did the same. Apollo snatched a man off the street in a radiant beam barely a moment before heavy chunks from a nearby build crashed down on the spot.

  Loki rescued a woman and child from a falling tree, using a lasso of air to yank them up and away at the last second. From a distance Jubal could see the silver-blue aura of Oden, the yellow-green of Thoth, and an aura like the petals of a butter cup; Athena working with the other two in order to save hundreds of elderly people from collapsing stone walls that would have crushed them flat. Bast, Ursa, Pan, and Natura were in the sky with Jubal, doing their part to snatch people from death and thus limit the loss of life. A silver-green shield, the color of Ares life-force, formed over a house. He was following his uncle’s example. Hopefully more Aakacarns would do the same because Jubal dared not add another drain on his pool of energy; doing so would kill him and the people depending on him for protection. Had it not been for the crescendo on his finger he would have been dead already.