Below, the air is musty and chilled. A spark flicks to life, igniting a blaze that burns at the end of a torch. Terease holds the light high, leading us through an ancient corridor. Niches line the walls; several lead to private rooms for worship, while some hold ancient statues and primitive altars. Other areas are catacombs, several empty and some filled with the dead.
When we reach the end, we enter a low room with a circular domed ceiling, beneath which an elongated stone box sits centered. Terease hands me the torch, and she and Perpetua squat down on either side of the tomb and grip the lid of the sarcophagus. With great difficulty and the gritting of teeth, they push the stone slab to one side. It screeches its resistance, rubbing stone against stone, and an opening appears.
“Come.” Terease waves me forward. She climbs into the stone box, which I can see hides another set of stairs that descend deeper into the bowels of Nocturna.
::5::
The Prophecy
Terease’s hand reaches up and I pass her the torch. With free hands, I lift myself onto the stone box, swing my legs over the ledge, and let my feet drop inside, settling them on a step. Inhaling deeply, I stand and descend the stairs.
Below, the cavern is unnatural, manmade, and cut into stone. Wood beams support the walls and ceiling much like a coal mine.
“Where are we going?”
“We have to travel deep underground so that the Reaper cannot sense us,” Terease explains.
The cavern funnels into a smaller corridor where the land declines steeply, leading to more stairs. Water trickles down the rocky walls making the uneven floor slippery, and a few times I slip and grab on to Perpetua to right myself. The farther we travel, the more the temperature drops. A dewy layer of nervous sweat covers my skin.
Finally we enter what could only be described as a bunker, a cot-lined room filled with tables, maps, radar equipment, and a mishmash of gadgets for who knows what. It’s a command center, looking very much like the inside of a World War II submarine. Many people are working, some are chatting and eating. Gauging the group, I realize that, like Terease, the Reaper has not taken most of these people’s souls. I can tell by their eyes; they’re bright and alive.
Terease leads us behind a curtain to a space that is simple, but as private as it will get in this cramped bunker.
“Sit,” she commands and then drops herself into a deep-cushioned chair, waking a sleeping Animate cat that lays curled on the back. She reaches and grabs a canteen of water from a hook on the wall and offers it to me. Gladly I take it and unscrew the top before throwing my head back and chugging the liquid. When I’m done, I pass it to Perpetua.
“I just saw Bishop’s family. Do you know why they’re here?” My voice catches and I want to break down again at the thought of them weakened and soulless, but I remember Mona’s plea to stay strong.
“They entered the city several hours ago. I tried to reach them before the Reapers but failed. When I arrived, I found the three on the beach, but only after the Reapers had fed on their souls. For their safety, I put them up in the home of an ally.” She relaxes in her seat, resting her pale hands on the chair’s wide arms.
Terease glances at me and continues. “When I spoke to Mona, she said the Society was punishing her for sharing secrets with you and also for fleeing. Apparently, Charlotte showed signs of becoming a Wanderer. Not wanting this life for her youngest child, she fled to hide her away.”
“So she’s here because of me?” My lip trembles.
Terease shrugs. “Her defection with the child would have been enough in the Society’s eyes.”
I bite my lip, wanting to cry.
“I’m sorry,” she says, appraising my demeanor. “Even though the Reapers have taken their souls, they will be safe for the moment.” She leans closer and places a hand on my leg. “And there is a way to help them, to set them free, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. I know you came for other reasons.”
“Set them free?” I allow myself to hope.
“Yes, but first, we have other business.” She reclines in her chair and lifts a leg, anchoring it on a stool.
I nod, remembering why I originally came to this god-awful place. “What do you know about my mom, and why didn’t you tell me she was alive?” Anxious for her answer, I scoot to the edge of my seat.
“Perpetua.” Terease jerks her chin toward the exit.
She nods, not giving off the normal Perpetua attitude, and slips behind the curtain to give us some privacy. It drapes shut, and I look back to Terease.
“Your mom’s been fighting against the Society since before you were born. When you were very young, she realized quickly that she couldn’t keep you safe. If the Society knew she was alive, they’d always be looking for you, to use you as bait, to hurt you for her defiance. Faking her death and hiding within the Underground was the only way to secure your safety until you became a mature Wanderer. She hoped by that time her transgressions would be forgotten. Somehow, she knew it would work out.”
I let it sink in, allowing my gaze to drift along the floor as I fall into thought. Even though I shouldn’t be shocked at what she’s revealing, I find that I am.
“Why did her loyalties change?” I lift my eyes to her.
“Like many of us, she saw the power the Society holds over their members and also the world.” Terease looks away as she traces a pattern of circles over the chair’s arm. “Having the power to manipulate time can sway every event, every election, and every war, corrupting the future, bending it in their favor, and it’s not what our Makers meant for us when they brought us into this world.” Her voice rises with passion as her gaze settles on me. “As the myths say, we were to use the gift of time travel to observe history as a way to improve ourselves, to learn from our mistakes, to reach for higher enlightenment and nothing more.”
“But the Society always told us that the Underground manipulated time too. You told us that!”
She shakes her head of silky black hair back and forth, lips pressed into a line as if to agree but not agree. “At the time, I had to keep up appearances, feed the students a well-choreographed script, one approved by the Society. What I said is true, both sides are corrupt, but it was not always so.” She leans into the conversation, elbows dropped on her knees. “The Underground started out as a movement against the Society and they were pure in their goal, dedicated to the doctrines of the Masters, wanting to return us to who we were before we were stripped of our wings and before Gibeon started moving through time, but something went wrong when Cece took over the Underground. With the invention of crystal dreamdrives, she was able to control all the members with their dreams and fears, turning them into something worse than the Society.” The inflection in her voice rises with her passion.
Suddenly Terease halts her story and stares at me, her eyes narrowed. “Have you hidden the dreamdrives? Are they safe?” she asks in hushed tones.
“Yes, they are.” I think back to the day we fought Cece in Gibeon. “But why did you offer Cece my dreamdrive?”
She leans back again and as she does, an Animate cat jumps into her lap, rubbing itself against her chest, purring. She looks down at the mechanical animal and strokes it from head to tail as she continues to explain. “It’s no secret that Cece has had a special interest in you since your meeting in Rome last semester. I thought showing her your dreamdrive would help us bargain with her and stop the attacks on the Academy, but I never intended to hand it over. I would have died to protect it from her. It’s too special.” She looks at me meaningfully.
“Why? I’m nobody.” I shove my hands between my closed knees, pulling my shoulders inward.
Terease shoos the cat away, and it leaps from her lap onto a nearby table, then she leans forward, looking serious. “Because there are a few of us that she doesn’t control, and we are the ones who will set this world right. You are one of us.”
“Me?” I sit up at the accusation, shocked that there is something I could do.
“Why do you think I have not been able to search your mind like the other Wanderers for all this time?” She looks to the ceiling and rolls her hand in the air at the question.
I shrug. It’s impossible to know what revelations this life will hold.
“When your mother passed in Gibeon and the guards arrested me, pulling me away, I saw clearly that the transition was taking place. It was the first time I was able to see into your mind.” She taps her head. “And that’s when I knew you were ready to know everything.”
Thinking back, I remember. That’s when the darkness that always followed Terease disappeared.
“You, Sera, were able to block me from your thoughts because you’re a Watcher, a potential Chosen. You may have sensed it for yourself, that you’re different from other Wanderers. A very small number of Watchers are born to the Society. However, only a few Watchers ever developed fully into a Chosen.”
Terease stands, crosses her arms, and paces the room in short rotations as she continues. “Your mother was one of them—a Chosen. Like some of the others before her, she took it upon herself to attempt to change our histories, make them right, and fulfill the prophecy of the Masters that has been passed down through the centuries—a prophecy to end the world of Wandering as we know it, set the inhabitants of Nocturna free, and return us to our state of purity. To right our wrongs.”
“End us?” I gulp and turn in my seat to face her.
She nods and continues. “We only know that the outcome will return control of the earth and destiny to its original inhabitants—humans. There is much debate over what returning to purity means.” She stops and regards me. “But there is one thing we can surmise, and it’s that the Society’s corruption will end.”
“Maybe my brain’s just different. That doesn’t mean I’m one of them, one of the Watchers, or that I’ll ever be a Chosen.”
In response she walks to a broken sliver of a mirror hanging on a wall. She lifts her hands to her eyes and gently touches her cornea with her finger. She turns to me. One eye is violet and the other black. She’s been wearing contacts all this time, hiding their true color.
“Violet, like mine and Mom’s. Are you a Watcher too?” I stand to get a better look at her eyes. She allows me to venture close.
“Most like myself, Miss Swift, and many, many others will never completely develop our skills.”
“Skills?” I cross my arms, mirroring her as we talk face-to-face.
“To be the Chosen, you will manifest all three qualities of a team: Wanderer, Protector, and Seer. A Watcher merely manifests a combination of two, but never all three at once.”
Terease circles me, strutting like a cat, looking me over from head to toe. “Sera, you’re a fiercely independent Wanderer. Instinctively you’re always resisting utilizing the abilities of your team, looking to solve problems on your own, even protecting them when necessary. These last several months, you’ve surpassed the abilities of your own Protector. Just now, from a high-rise, I watched you outrun the Time Reaper’s beast, something only few are fast enough to do. Clearly you’ve awakened the Protector within you, and the only quality left to develop is your Seeing ability. In doing so, you will become more than just a Watcher.” She pauses in front of me, pivoting quickly to snare me with her intense gaze. “Do you understand?”
I nod and look down.
“In the last fifty years, only your mother has completed the transition to Chosen.” She lifts my chin so our eyes meet. “And before her death, she secretly confided in me that she has reason to believe that you will do what she couldn’t and fulfill the prophecy.”
My breath hitches in my throat and her hand falls away. The confusion that’s plagued me this last year suddenly settles into focus. For so long I’ve been on a path of my own, a selfish one that often left out my team. A path I couldn’t explain to anyone, couldn’t share with anyone, or change even when I desperately tried to.
“How?” I avoid her eyes, scanning the room. This conversation is not going at all like I’d imagined, and I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll like what she has to say next.
“You must take the Oaths, dedicating your life to the Masters, and be anointed in the Grand Lodge. After that, if our Makers choose you as the One, you’ll complete the transition from Watcher to Chosen.”
“Then what?”
“That’s for you to decide. Will you follow your destiny and return earth to balance and set everyone in Nocturna free? Set Bishop’s family free?” She places both hands on my shoulders. “Or will you live as one of the Society, corrupt, allowing them to control you and every other Wanderer?”
“I’ll do anything to save Bishop’s family and to set everyone free, but how?”
Her gaze drills into mine. “That is something I do not know. Your mother did not share this information with me before she passed. But luckily, Mona informed me that your mother kept a journal.” She steps away and paces again, her voice rising with what sounds like hope. “We believe it may help you understand what lies ahead.”
A hand pulls back the curtain, startling me. Terease spins to face the interruption. It’s Stu—older, a man now, dressed in fatigues. “The Reapers are looming. We must smuggle her out of here before they zero in on our location.” He nods his head in my direction.
“There’s more than one?”
“Three,” he answers. “They’re from one body, broken into three more, and fragmented from time. Really interesting story, actually—”
I hold up my palm, hoping it will halt a science lecture. “Stop. Please, I don’t even want to know how that’s possible.” I’m too upset to hear any more after what Terease just dumped on me.
“Suit yourself.” He shrugs.
Terease marches out of the room with authority, past the curtain and straight toward a large periscope secured from the ceiling of the bunker. She grabs the handles and leans into the eyepiece, looking through it to visually search the surface.
“I thought Terease said that going deeper underground would protect us?” I look to Stu, trying not to stare at his new, older face.
“You’re not like the rest of us. You’re not supposed to be here. Maybe their need to take your life gives them a stronger sense of your location.” He looks me up and down, giving me the leering, confident once-over with drifting eyes the way he used to, but now it’s even more uncomfortable than before.
“Blast!” Terease growls and steps away from the periscope.
A gadget nearby sets off an alarm. The piercing sound, reinforced with a group of red blinking lights, sends everyone running for their workstations. The chaos increases when the machine activates a needle on the seismometer. It jumps and scratches a thin black zigzagging line on a rolling paper drum. They’re tracking the thundering hoofbeats of the horse-beast, recording them like an impending earthquake.
“Come!” Terease barks, racing out of the room. “We need to get you home!”
We rush back through the tunnel, away from the bunker, leading the Time Reapers away from the group. The corridor splits on several occasions but Terease never falters. Without her, I would never be able to navigate the tunnel.
“But Bishop’s family, I can’t leave them here!”
Terease stops and turns, getting in my face. “Sera, I promise you this, the only way to save them is to set Nocturna free and fulfill the prophecy of the Chosen.”
“But—”
“The only way, Sera. They’re already aging. The Reapers have taken their souls, setting their lives on fast-forward, and the sooner you return home, the sooner you can save them.”
I nod, trying to stay strong. It’s the only way I’ll get through this. We take off again, but this time I have a new determination. My path is clear now. I must fulfill the prophecy to save them, to save me, to save all of us.
“So, I’m gonna guess that there’s no Wandering home from here?” I ask, my breath heavy from running.
“Ha! We are not that lucky.” She rushes on.
Finally Terease stops in a new chamber, faces me, and pulls a necklace from inside her black leather jacket. It’s a key on a cord. She lifts it over her head and places it around my neck, tucking the length into my jacket.
“What’s this?” I look down.
“The key to the Member Archives. I believe that’s where your mom’s journal will be. And this too.” She removes a small white case from her pocket and holds it up. “Contacts. Begin wearing them as soon as you return to Gibeon.”
“Why?” I ask as she pushes the case in my hand.
“Because only a few can see the true color of our eyes—other Watchers and sometimes our team. Everyone else sees blue. But recently the Society has developed tests to see past our genetic defenses.”
Almost everyone I’ve ever known mistook my eye color for blue. I stopped correcting them a long time ago. I inspect the case for a moment, then tuck it into my jacket pocket.
She turns to the wall and grabs a large lever attached to a circular metal hatch. Gritting her teeth and using all her weight, she rotates the handle, opening the door with a screech. Hissing smoke rolls out and dirty water pours onto the ground, lapping over our feet and rushing against the far wall with a splash.
Terease laces her fingers together and holds them at thigh height. I step up on them, and she lifts me inside the pipe.
“This tunnel dumps out at Nocturna’s coast. There you’ll find a boat. Row out to Gibeon’s rock, dive into the water, and swim to the dark hole in the ocean floor. That’s where you entered.”
“You’re not coming with me?”
“I’m needed here to help protect the others. Find your mom’s journal and research the prophecy, Sera. It will take courage to become who you are meant to be, but you will. Your destiny awaits.”
Terease closes the hatch before I can say any more and the lever rotates, locking me on the other side.
Seeing Light (The Seraphina Parrish Trilogy) Page 3