“It looks perfect,” Rhuna observed. “Now I need your help to bring the crystal blocks over here from the quarry.”
Goram merely grumbled and then asked when he would be needed for this chore.
“After the sun has set, of course,” Rhuna answered. “I don’t want everyone to know what I’m doing.”
“Of course not. People might think you have an aberration of the mind!” he scoffed. “Let us depart quietly after the evening meal. You have not told your father about this yet?”
Rhuna shook her head. “I don’t know if it will work. Besides, I don’t think he’d like it somehow.”
“I wonder why not,” Goram said sarcastically.
Rhuna ate hastily without savouring the delicious evening meal, and then waited impatiently for the sunlight to fade before quietly leaving the house. Even though she was certain no one had heard or seen her leave, she had an overwhelming feeling that Hari Tal was aware of her secret plans. She tried to push thoughts of the strange little man out of her mind, but only succeeded when she had approached the road leading to the quarry and saw Goram there.
“You brought lights,” Rhuna observed, pointing to the items in Goram’s hand.
“They are the charged crystal lamps commonly used in Judharo,” he answered. “We shall need them on this road away from the lights of the city.”
Rhuna nodded in agreement as they proceeded along the road leading to the abandoned crystal quarry. They walked in silence, and Rhuna found the darkness of night and the starry expanse above both soothing and stimulating.
“Hari Tal makes me feel strange,” Rhuna said into the night, startling Goram.
“Hmm, he is certainly odd,” Goram agreed in a whisper. “We need the lamps now,” he said after a pause, and gave Rhuna one of the crystal lights he had been carrying.
Rhuna gasped when she saw the light of their lamps reflected ahead of them, creating coloured, scattered beams and auras.
“What is that ahead?” Goram asked astonished.
“My pillars!” exclaimed Rhuna when she recognized her handiwork. “I didn’t know they would reflect light in the dark like this! How beautiful,” she said with a sigh of awe. They approached the pillars in reverential silence and continued to look at the stunning array of coloured lights around them.
“Where did you find this crystal?” Goram asked, admiring them and giving them a sensual stroke with his hand.
“Down there,” Rhuna pointed. Goram took his lamp to the ledge and examined the entire area carefully before looking at her with piercing green eyes.
“How?” he asked sternly. “By yourself?”
“Yes, by myself, but I’d rather not say how, exactly,” she responded, hoping Goram would not become uncooperative if she refrained from telling him about making herself weightless.
Goram scrutinized her face intensely for a while and then blinked hard.
“Very well. Not now then, but one day I shall know all your secrets!” he said with such determination that Rhuna felt threatened.
“Let us begin – I want to get home to my wife!” he said gruffly as he prepared the wooden stretcher bars and ropes.
Rhuna stepped aside into the dark so that she could concentrate, and once again she focused her mental energy onto the magnetic energy fields surrounding the crystal pillars in order to make them almost weightless.
“Good,” said Goram as he positioned the large pillars onto the stretcher with the ease of moving an air-filled balloon. Rhuna lifted the crystal slabs with the same ease, placing them on top of the pillars, and then assisting Goram with the ropes to attach them to the stretcher. Rhuna then led the way, carrying the stretcher bars at her hips and using the lamp to guide her along a different path to the site of energy line convergence chosen by Goram.
When they arrived at the site, Goram removed another item from his large cloth bag, and gave Rhuna one of the two large scoops to dig and move soil. Rhuna tired after a while and commented on what hard work it is to toil the land. She continued to dig after she had rested a short while, and when the holes were an arm’s length deep, she and Goram moved the crystal pillars in place. Goram hurriedly scooped the soil back into the hole around the base of the pillars while Rhuna focused her mental energies on the forces surrounding the pillars to return them to their normal weight.
Finally, they moved the almost weightless crystal slabs above their heads, fitting the ends into the slots which Rhuna had made. The other ends of the slabs also joined neatly together to create a crystal gateway. When everything was in place, Rhuna used her mental energy to return all the crystal slabs to their proper weight.
“Let us go home now!” Goram said impatiently. Rhuna gave a satisfied sigh, and then silently followed Goram through the night back to her father’s home.
Rhuna and Goram approached the door to her father’s home, and Hari Tal opened it before they reached it. Damell stood behind Hari Tal and gave them both a searching look as they entered the house.
“Where have you been?” Lozira screeched as she lunged towards Goram.
“We were perplexed when you were not in your sleeping chambers. She became anxious when she could not find you,” said Damell sternly. “Therefore, I took it upon myself to locate you by means of The Infinite…”
“So you know that your daughter has an impossible plan,” said Goram smugly.
“No,” answered Damell. “Only that she has created a crystal gateway. For what purpose, Rhuna?” he asked as he turned to her.
Rhuna summarized what she had learned at the Forum of Crystal Dynamics, and how her plan had developed from observing that the movement of time can be controlled by the use of crystal power.
“If I can go into the time lapse, I could prevent what Gatherer of Sage did to Aradin!” she said excitedly. Her enthusiasm quickly turned to dismay when she saw her father’s expression of horror.
“You cannot! You must not, Rhuna!” he shouted.
“Why not?”
“It is forbidden! It is too dangerous!” Damell spluttered, then quickly regained his composure. “Allow me to investigate this problem further, by means of The Infinite. It is safer!”
“Of course, but I want to do something, too!”
“Rhuna!” he said gripping her upper arms tightly. “Assure me you shall not attempt this time transition to alter events with Aradin!”
Rhuna was shocked by her father’s vehement insistence. “Yes, Father, I assure you…” she said with some reluctance.
“Be patient and allow me to undo the Dark One’s mind control!” Damell urged, gripping Rhuna’s arms more tightly. “You shall resist interfering?” he asked again.
“I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do, Father,” Rhuna said firmly.
“Good,” Damell said with a sigh of relief, releasing his grip on Rhuna’s arms. “Let us return to our beds,” he added after a long and awkward silence.
Rhuna solemnly ascended the stairs to the sleeping chamber of her father’s house, and slowly prepared herself for bed. Before lying down, she lowered herself onto the floor in the position for Inside Focussing, taking slow and deep breaths to calm her inner mind. The tranquil, dark silence came quickly after daily practice, despite the emotional turbulence she felt inside. Rhuna breathed out loudly as her mind returned to full awareness of her physical surroundings, but as she looked at the bed in front of her, she decided she was not tired enough for sleep yet.
Rhuna thought about her father’s words and his stern expression which made her feel chastised like a child for building the crystal archway. The feeling of chastisement, in turn, reminded her of her mother, and then she recalled the last time her father had spoken of her. As she recollected this conversation in which he told her that her mother had died recently, she realized that she never investigated the cause of her mother’s death as he had suggested.
Closing her eyes again and reclining slightly on a cushion behind her, she allowed her body to release her Extended Con
sciousness into The Infinite. Rhuna experienced the usual moment of dizziness as her Extended Consciousness floated free, and then he concentrated on the plane of The Infinite that would show her events of the past. At first, Rhuna thought that her surroundings reminded her of passing through clouds in her Rapid Transport Enclosure. She wondered if the whitish fluff had substance, and tried to reach out to touch it. Instead, her Extended Consciousness received purely mental stimuli from all around her. When she focused on more than one thing at a time, her senses became overloaded, and she had to filter out the information she needed while ignoring the superfluous impressions.
Rhuna willed her Extended Consciousness to move into the past, to the last moments of her mother’s life on the distant and isolated island of Chinza. As the fog around her formed into shapes and colours which emitted sounds, smells and emotions, she began to recognize things from her childhood.
The scent of moist soil mixed with farm animals suddenly plunged Rhuna into memories of the primitive hut she had shared with her mother during the unhappiest part of her early life. The sensation of being barefoot on the dewy soil evoked more memories, and suddenly she perceived the eerie stone statues that had invaded her island. Her thoughts returned to the cause of her mother’s demise, and immediately the image of a woman stooped over a fire in front of a straw-thatched hut appeared.
Rhuna could smell her mother’s soap on her skin, and she reacted emotionally to all the sights, sounds and smells of her early life. With great effort, Rhuna managed to push away all the distracting memories, and then watched from a distance as her mother ate some meat that had been roasting over the fire.
The mental image Rhuna suddenly changed to the interior of the hut, where Rhuna’s mother kneeled in agony, clutching her abdomen and retching violently. In that moment Rhuna’s mind received all the information she sought, and she instantly knew that her mother had suffered from the poison of contaminated food.
When Rhuna finally willed her Extended Consciousness to return to her body, she was immediately aware of intense exhaustion. She tumbled into her soft bed, but despite her extreme fatigue, Rhuna was unable to sleep for most of the night. Her mind replayed the events, the emotions and sensory impressions she had experienced in The Infinite, over and over until the first rays of sunlight filtered through her window.
“What an awful way to die!” Rhuna said when she had told her father what she had observed. “I couldn’t sleep well afterwards.”
“You look exhausted,” Damell confirmed with a stern expression. Rhuna noticed that her father also bore dark shadows under his eyes.
“Are you getting any closer to undoing what…”
“No,” Damell answered abruptly, and Rhuna sensed his deep frustration.
“Is there someone else who could help?” she asked weakly as despair took hold of her.
Damell shook his head and then stopped suddenly. “Should I not make any progress in the next six solar cycles…”
“Rhuna!” a calm and confident voice called out, interrupting Damell’s words. Rhuna turned to see Lozira and Goram enter the main room, and her gloomy mood immediately lifted when she saw her daughter’s appearance.
“You look so much better!” she said, giving her daughter a quick hug and kiss on the cheek.
“I feel better,” Lozira answered with a nod. “At first, I wanted to die rather than be controlled by the Dark One,” she said slowly.
“She has accepted the situation – to a point,” Goram added as he put his arm around Lozira.
“How did the Dark Master control just one part of my mind?” she asked Rhuna, and then looked questioningly at Damell.
“This is precisely the answer I seek!” Damell said shaking his head in dismay. “Do not fret, however. It is only a matter of time until we find the remedy!”
Damell smiled reassuringly at Lozira and then at Rhuna.
“If I could only force him...” Goram began as he spat with rage.
“You cannot touch him!” Damell retorted. “The Dark One is too cunning and strong at this time. He would surely harm you, should you attempt to accost him in any way,” Damell warned.
“Yes, yes,” Goram muttered as he nodded with resignation.
Rhuna left her father’s home and walked through the Forum area before leaving the city through its large gate and following the path that led to the pleasant green oasis. When she arrived and looked at the imposing crystal columns, she realized that it required only one more small step before it was completed.
Removing the metal implements she had packed some days earlier, she assembled them to make a lever that opened and closed a circuit of energy, and then placed it in the slot she had cut into one of the crystal pillars. She recalled what she had learned at the Forum of Crystal Dynamics, and then checked her work once more to be certain that everything was in its correct place.
Rhuna stepped back and admired her work briefly, her eyes following the course of energy flow from the earth below, up one column and through the curve of the arch and then down again to the ground. Suddenly, Rhuna remembered Shandi’s words about going through a big door to see her mother, and was once again in awe of her small daughter’s ability.
Taking a deep and fortifying breath, she assessed how much energy to release into the crystal archway to produce a time lapse of less than one solar cycle. She closed her eyes to concentrate on the time of her mother’s death, hoping that her added mental energy would help define the exact time in the past. When she switched the lever, she sensed a small vibration which quickly escalated until her whole body trembled. At the same time, Rhuna heard a painfully high-pitched squeal which made her head ache.
Rhuna heard a sharp crackle and looked up to see many small sparks bouncing on the surface of the crystal, quickly growing larger until they became bolts of lightning that reached high into the sky. A green mist began to form in front of her, just as she had seen like in the demonstration at the Forum of Crystal Dynamics, and it formed a veil like a curtained portal.
Rhuna carefully put one foot in front of the other, and slowly walked through the misty green curtain. Suddenly, she was aware of opening her eyes, as if she had momentarily lost consciousness. The distracting sounds had stopped, and she only heard the twitter of birds, the buzz of an insect, and the occasional rustle of the breeze through nearby leaves. The lovely grassy area appeared the same as before, welcoming her to sit down on the lush greenery.
As soon as she was comfortable, Rhuna began the process of accessing The Infinite with her Extended Consciousness, and she realized with delight that the task was becoming easier with each attempt. She willed her Extended Consciousness to journey to Chinza, the small island of her childhood, to see if her mother still lived.
To her surprise, she saw her mother tending the vegetable garden near her small hut and Rhuna felt thrilled that the crystal archway had taken her back in time. She focused her attention on the slab of meat that her mother would soon prepare in a broth for the evening meal. She recognized the pale meat of a large lizard which she often ate as a child when the people of the nearby village could not catch enough birds to eat.
Rhuna noticed that the meat radiated a grey mist which was at first hard to distinguish from the overall foggy appearance of past events in The Infinite. After concentrating afresh on the day her mother fell ill and the food that caused it, Rhuna was able to clearly define what she sensed with her Extended Consciousness. The lizard flesh was indeed exuding poisons, yet not enough for a human being in the physical world to smell or taste. Rhuna quickly decided on the best action to take, and engaged her mind’s power to transform.
Rhuna thought about her transforming powers in the physical world which were limited to transforming stone and metal, while The Infinite allowed her to transform everything. She felt a sudden rush of euphoria as she realized the unlimited power she could wield with greater skill.
Before long, the meat appeared much darker in The Infinite, and Rhuna then became
aware of a stench which she recognized as rotten meat. She was satisfied that her mother would throw the meat away as soon as she turned her attention to it.
Rhuna willed her Extended Consciousness to return to her body, and then opened her eyes as she inhaled deeply. The fresh scent of grass invigorated her senses, and she felt elated at the special feat she had accomplished. She stood up and turned around, then felt paralyzed by the cold shudder that rushed over her.
The crystal archway was nowhere to be seen.
Rhuna gasped, then looked from side to side, turned around completely and then released a loud and anguished wail. She slapped her forehead with both hands as she realized the rash foolishness of her actions. In her shortsighted enthusiasm and ambition to reach the unattainable, she had not considered that the archway of her present time could not exist in the past in which she now found herself.
“Oh, what have I done?!” she cried out, and once more turned around in a vain attempt to find the crystal archway. Her legs began to wobble from the shock of the horrible realization that she was trapped in the past, and she lowered herself to the ground to recover.
Her mind began racing as she thought of being in Varappa already before she had even left Safu, and whether she could simply build another crystal archway the same as she had done in her present time which would enable her to return. The thoughts made her weak and dizzy, and then disorientation overwhelmed her.
Rhuna opened her eyes and slowly focused her sight on a face hovering above her. It took a moment for her to realize that she had lost consciousness, and then warm comfort flooded over her as she recognized her father’s face.
“Oh, Father, it’s you!” Rhuna said relieved. “How did you get here? Where are we?”
“You are outside the zone of the energy field in the crystal gateway,” he answered grimly. Still disoriented, Rhuna looked aside and saw Goram looking down at her.
Rhuna- New Horizons Page 18