by Jared Stone
Willow looked at him quizzically. “I would imagine – him being immortal and all – that a one month timeframe doesn’t seem like a very long period at all from his perspective…,” she said dryly.
Lucian frowned. “Well, he could at least give us some sort of hint, for crying out loud! For all we know, he could be building some massive army to come and wipe us out, or just waiting until we come to him to just kill us immediately. We’re completely in the dark here….”
“Yeah, well,” Willow said with one eyebrow raised in poorly-cloaked judgment of the boy’s defeatist attitude, “I still think you haven’t been open enough to the possibility that the universe will provide guidance for you. Stop struggling for answers so much, and maybe a solution will just present itself.”
Lucian rolled his eyes. “Ha! Yeah, don’t I wish!” he exclaimed, leaning back in his chair. “How nice would it be if all my problems just solved them-selves and the universe just provided everything I needed right when I needed it!?”
No sooner had the boy finished saying this than several rapping knocks of a knuckle could be heard against the door to the room. Willow and Lucian first turned to look at the origin of the noise, then back to look at one another, perplexed.
“Are you expecting some more company?” Willow asked Lucian. Still on her lap, Shadow’s head was tilted with ears erect, staring at the door in anxious anticipation.
“No…,” said Lucian nervously, climbing off of the bed and walking toward the door. For some reason, he felt apprehension at the thought of having an unexpected visitor, though it occurred to him that any villainous mastermind plotting his destruction would likely not bother to knock and patiently wait to be let in. And, no matter what the potential risk, he certainly didn’t want another instance of the sword-wielding greeting which had awaited Blake upon his return. Grabbing the handle and twisting, Lucian slowly opened the door and peered out, careful to place his body between the gap and Shadow behind him, lest an RA peek in and see him lying there.
Standing before him was a gorgeous blonde woman, clothed in a form-fitting golden dress accented with bright peacock feather earrings. Her long, silky hair flowed down from her head and over her shoulders and chest, blending in so well to her golden attire that it was almost imperceptible over her garments. She stood elegantly in the hall with her hands folded gently in front of her, long nails delicately resting upon her own flesh. Her resplendent emerald eyes showed sadness and concern upon viewing the boy at the door.
“Dareia!?” Lucian blurted out in shock over this very unexpected visitor. He hadn’t seen the High Priestess of Hera since Gus and he had traveled to Rome to acquire the Spear of Longinus, and he had never imagined that she would one day be there, in the United States, standing at his dorm room door.
“Lucian, dear,” Dareia said, reaching one hand out toward the boy. “I made arrangements to come to you as soon as I heard about Argus! I am so sorry you had to witness such a horrific thing!”
“Uhh, thanks,” responded Lucian, still reeling from the unexpectedness of her arrival from across the world. Peering around the priestess, Lucian caught two freshman boys standing frozen in a doorway, staring with mouths agape at her supple, golden curves. Though their shameful behavior seemed not to bother Dareia in the slightest, Lucian almost felt embarrassed for them. “Why don’t you come in?” he said hurriedly, holding the door open wider in invitation. Dareia smiled and nodded politely before gracefully gliding over the threshold. With one last judgmental glare at the salacious boys across the hall, Lucian closed the door behind her.
As she entered the room, Shadow immediately leapt to his feet on Willow’s lap and excitedly rushed to the base of the priestess’ dress before Willow could catch him. Yipping and barking while bouncing up and down, the frenzied wagging of his tail nearly swept him off his stubby little puppy feet.
Looking down in surprise, Dareia held her hand up to her mouth, her long nails glistening in the lights from above. Alarmed that the priestess was appalled by the attention from the frantic puppy, Lucian quickly swooped in to lift Shadow off of her dress as the puppy squirmed and kicked in overwhelming excitement. But, in place of strict condemnation, Dareia instead began to laugh heartily.
“Oh my!” cried the priestess, unable to hold back her roars of laughter. “I never thought I would live to see the day!”
“H-Huh?” Lucian stammered, placing Shadow onto the ground once again and standing to look at Dareia. The puppy instantly careened back toward the golden woman’s feet, tripping over his own legs and face-planting into the floor.
“Oh, Argus! What have you done to yourself!?” she exclaimed, still looking down at the puppy beneath her.
“Excuse me!?” Lucian blurted out, certain that the priestess was merely confused.
Still laughing, Dareia looked up at the flummoxed boy. “Of course…. You cannot sense….” she said thoughtfully, her chuckles now slowly dissipating. “This diminutive animal here is, in fact, Argus,” she clarified with a motion of her outstretched palm. She acted as though this should be a humorous, but not surprising, fact, merely saying it without preface to the two baffled students before her.
Lucian’s face was suddenly overtaken by shock and bewilderment. “N-No,” he asserted, “Gus is dead. I saw him die. In my arms….”
Dareia’s exuberance almost immediately dropped from her face, and she stared at Lucian seriously. “So…, he never told you?” she inquired of the boy.
“Told me what?” Lucian responded.
“Sounds like reincarnation to me,” Willow chimed in from the bed for the first time since Dareia’s arrival. Lucian and the priestess both turned to look at her.
“Smart girl,” Dareia stated after a pause, pointing toward the bed and gazing upon Willow almost proudly. Averting her eyes back to Lucian, she then added, “Yes, Argus has quite the penchant for dying. He has actually died many, many times before, yet he is always born again into a new form. I have seen his face change countless times over the years, but this!” The priestess let out another little chortle. “This is the first time to my knowledge that he has ever been reborn as an animal!”
Lucian shook his head adamantly. “No, no…,” he insisted. “There’s no way!”
Dareia’s face held no signs of doubt. “I assure you, there is no question in my mind,” she countered. “This is most certainly Argus. There are few other energy signatures with which I am more familiar than his. And, though I must say I generally despise canines, he certainly has become an absolutely adorable little creature!”
Lucian glanced down at the puppy formerly known as Shadow. The big brown eyes stared back up at him, and, for the first time, he could swear he saw his dear friend staring back within them. It seemed too fantastical to be true, yet the boy found himself slowly beginning to believe.
“But…,” Lucian began, “it just makes no sense. Gus died a month ago. This puppy is at least a year old!”
Dareia shook her head. “Such seeming incongruities would only be problematic if time were linear,” she explained. “While it is true that humans perceive time as occurring in a straight line, the actual reality is far more complex. Reincarnation exists outside of the spatial and temporal bounds we all experience, where events may unfold concurrently in planes of simultaneous time. Though the Argus that we knew in this linear timeline died one month ago, the death of that form may have served as the flame to ignite another life over one year ago. The great masters say that, because all phenomena is inherently empty of existence, no actual soul is transmuted between beings; instead, the life of one being leads to the generation of the other, just as a candle may light a second candle without losing its flame.”
Lucian just stared at her blankly.
“I realize that this is all very difficult to wrap one’s head around at first,” Dareia stated sympathetically. “But I insist that this is, in fact, Argus.”
“But why a dog??” Lucian finally sputtered. “If he could have
been reborn whenever as whatever, why not come back as a 30 year old man again?”
“That is a very good question,” Dareia answered pensively. “And I am able to think of only one explanation. Very great masters throughout history who had perfected the skill of rebirth were often said to be able to make a great aspiration to be born under specific circumstances. The Dalai Lama has foretold his future births for centuries now, so that his followers might know where to search for him in his next life. I can only surmise that Argus’ ardent desire to be near and helpful to you during these troubled times drove his energies to be reborn within the vicinity, both spatially and temporally, of this very moment. However, although great masters have been able to successfully affect the conditions of their rebirth, Argus is undoubtedly less adept at such skills. Argus has had thousands of years of practice with reincarnation, but, even still, a great master he most assuredly is not….”
The priestess chuckled lightheartedly at the end of her explanation, but Lucian still just stood there speechless. The boy had experienced some weird stuff in the previous few months since arriving at school, but none of it had quite prepared him for something of this magnitude. Gus was back. He had been right near him for days now, and Lucian hadn’t even realized it. Although naturally skeptical of such things, he had learned to trust what he was told from individuals like Dareia and Gus, and so he made the conscious decision to accept what she was saying.
“Cool,” Willow stated, as per usual victim to none of the same mental hang-ups as Lucian.
Turning to face the girl once again, Dareia said, “I am sorry, dear, but I do not believe that I caught your name.”
Standing up, Willow walked over and boldly stood before the priestess. “I’m Willow,” she announced, “Lucian’s only friend here.” Lucian glared at her, wondering why she felt the need to add the “only.”
“It is truly a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Willow,” Dareia responded. “You are obviously a strong and confident woman. I expect great things in your future….”
Lucian could swear he actually saw the girl blush at the priestess’ words, and she looked down bashfully as a smile forced its way onto her otherwise stoic face. “Thank you…,” she mumbled quietly before consciously suppressing the smile again.
Touching Willow’s arm gently, Dareia added, “And you have a very pretty smile. You should be proud of it. Life is too precious and fleeting a gift to take too seriously….”
Glancing back up, Willow locked her green eyes with Dareia’s own. The priestess’ face displayed a look of sympathetic understanding, as if she beheld a faded picture of herself from times long past.
“So, where are you staying, Dareia?” Lucian cut in awkwardly.
Taking her hand off of the girl, Dareia turned back toward Lucian. “I own some property not a long drive from here,” she replied. “It was an asset I procured quite some time ago, when an… issue needed to be addressed in the area. Given the current circumstances, I imagine that being close to you could have its benefits until your business with the necromancer is resolved.”
Lucian was once again surprised. “How did you know about the necromancer?” he inquired.
Dareia let out a “Ha!” that Lucian thought seemed more for show than genuine amusement. “Lucian, dear, I have many friends all over the world. Very little goes by without my notice.”
Why does everyone always have to be so cryptic!? Lucian thought to himself in frustration.
“Well, we are very happy you’re here,” Willow said flatly. “Maybe you can give us a bit of guidance. Golden Boy here was just complaining about not having a clue what to do….”
There she goes again…, Lucian murmured in his head. He cast his eyes away from the two women to once again look down at the puppy, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that it was actually Gus. As he continued to mull over this and all that they had been through over the past few months, thoughts of fighting Zagan and discovering an even more elaborate plot rose in his mind.
“Dareia…,” Lucian then spoke up, “do you know anything about someone named Samael? We’re thinking he might have something to do with all this necromancer stuff.”
Dareia was the one who appeared shocked this time, though her reaction was quickly stifled. “I fear that I am familiar with that name, yes,” she said seriously. “He has emerged several times throughout history with various purposes, though he has yet to ever succeed in his efforts. The last I heard of him, he was responsible for the theft of a sacred amulet in what is now Turkey, but that was over two hundred years ago. Since then, his name has been but a dark shadow of times long past. However, I must ask: how did you come by this name?”
Lucian opened his mouth in preparation to explain to the priestess all that had happened since they last saw each other, yet his attention was pulled away from this when the doorknob twisted forcefully and Blake barged in.
At first completely unaware as he entered, Blake pulled his key from the doorknob, then looked up and stopped dead in his tracks. He stood there with one hand on the door and his mouth hanging open, practically drooling. His eyes were fixated solely on the glamorous priestess in the form-fitting dress who stood before him.
“Blake!” Lucian said, pleased that his roommate had arrived home in time to meet Dareia. “This is Dareia, one of Gus’ friends. She’s the one who gave me the spear to help us defeat Zagan, and now she’s come to help us with our necromancer problem! I was actually just about to mention you….”
Blake remained completely still, stricken dumb by his infatuation for the gorgeous priestess. “Hi…,” he finally choked out.
“Hello to you as well, boy,” Dareia said in return, both condescendingly and apathetically. “You are the one who, at one point, hosted the demon, Zagan, are you not?”
Lucian found himself no longer even surprised by Dareia’s inexplicable knowledge of recent events. It at least appeared he would not have to explain quite as much as he had anticipated.
“Y-Yes,” Blake confirmed clumsily.
“And do you retain any memories of what occurred while under possession?” Dareia asked, taking more of an interest in the boy than she initially had upon his stumbling entrance.
“A bit,” Blake said shyly. “Just pieces of their plan. Nothing very helpful, though….”
“I see…,” said Dareia, reaching up and running one sharp nail across her collar bone as she silently thought about something. “Well, you are quite fortunate to have escaped unscathed,” she then continued. “I have witnessed many men throughout history who have met with far worse fates. Pray, tell me, how were you able to successfully emerge unharmed?”
“Well, actually…,” Lucian interrupted on behalf of his awestricken roommate, “he’s not totally okay. There’s still some kind of dark energy inside of him that could be dangerous to his health, but we have Panhavant working with him to fix that.”
At the mention of the tiny sage’s name, Lucian had a shocking realization that he had unfairly judged the old man for his reaction to Gus’ death. There was no doubt that Panhavant was keenly aware of Gus’ powers of reincarnation, and Lucian’s grief and wrong understanding had blinded him to the sage’s wisdom.
“How very interesting…,” Dareia said, appearing almost surprised. “I had not anticipated such a turn of events.” She looked over at Blake once again. “You might prove to be very valuable to us after all, boy. There are very few outside of those possessed who command such sources of demonic energy.”
“Thank you…,” Blake said wistfully, perhaps not fully grasping what the priestess had even said.
Willow rolled her eyes. “Well, I, for one, feel that things have gotten a little crowded in this tiny room.” She picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. “Let’s all go to my apartment and finish this conversation there. I’ll make us some tea.”
Dareia turned from Blake and smiled at the girl. “That sounds lovely. Thank you, dear,” she said with another touc
h of her hand on Willow’s arm.
12 - Protection
Wednesday, December 17th
The five companions left the dorm and began the walk across campus to Willow’s residence. It was a frigidly cold night with barely any humidity in the air, giving one the sensation of walking through the vacuum of space as the snow crunched under each step. Lucian, Blake, and Willow were all bundled up, though Blake chose to do so to a lesser degree, no doubt in a prideful display of masculine virility. But even his attempt to brave the elements was no match for Dareia’s; she glided effortlessly down the path wearing nothing but her paper-thin, sleeveless golden dress. Lucian had never considered until this moment what type of footwear Dareia would prefer, as her dress had always covered her feet entirely; but, thinking back, he had never heard her footsteps as she came near, and he found himself wondering if she was, in fact, barefoot the whole time. Even if this was the case, the cold seemed no matter for the priestess, who moved and acted as if she was traversing a meadow of flowers in the summer. Of the three students, Blake seemed the most amazed by the woman’s fortitude, keeping his eyes fixed on her every move as her golden form floated across their whitewashed surroundings. As they walked, Gus gleefully pranced around the company, leaping from snow bank to snow bank before diving head-first into the powdery piles in his bumbling puppy fashion.
Smiling in amusement at the playful antics of his dear friend, Lucian turned to Dareia. “Dareia,” he began, “if this is Gus, why is he so… puppy-like? Why can’t he talk or something?”
The priestess looked over at the boy, seeming more annoyed than amused. “Lucian, this is real life, not some fanciful children’s novel! In general, most mortal dogs do not have the ability to talk. Although Gus maintains his identity as a unified coalescence of energy – what some would call a ‘soul’ or ‘ātman’ – his temporal existence is still constrained by the brain of his physical body. Gus is only able to think to such an extent that his material frontal cortex will allow. In a dog’s body, his cognitive abilities will be greatly diminished when compared to that of his human body.” She paused for a second and then smiled. “Well, perhaps there is not that much of a difference,” she added with a wink.