“Alex, sweetheart, can you open your eyes?” It was John asking, and she opened them slowly to see him sitting on the side of the bed to her left. “Hey there, sleepyhead,” he said, smiling down at her.
“How long did I nap?” she asked with no real frame of reference. Alex looked over and noticed that it was now completely dark outside her window.
“Oh, I’d say about two hours.” John paused at her alarmed expression. “Now, Alex, don’t worry yourself. You need it, trust me. We’re all going to have dinner in a few minutes. Do you feel like getting up and eating something, or would you like for me to bring your food here?’ he asked, sounding calm and unruffled by her long lie-down.
“Oh, I’ll come downstairs. Just let me freshen up, and I’ll meet you in the dining room.”
“Very well, I’ll see you there,” he said. He patted her leg and stood to take his leave.
Alex rose and visited the watercloset again to make sure there was no evidence of her earlier nosebleed, and then walked out of her bedroom. Rather than head towards the staircase, she turned towards her left and walked over to the bedroom next to hers. Its door was slightly ajar, and Alex knew that it was the bedroom she had shared with Gaius.
Thinking him downstairs preparing for dinner, she walked over and put her hand on the wood and slowly pushed it open. She had to hold onto the door for support, as the past’s images began to rush in on her quite quickly and with such force. Alex closed her eyes and thought of the door she grasped, willing the inanimate object to pull her back to where she really was.
Finally, when the flashes subsided, she moved forward into the space and stood at its center. This was truly her area, more so than the room at Aeoferth. She saw paintings on the walls that were so familiar. Alex noticed a balcony that she had stood on hundreds, if not thousands, of times. And she beheld furniture that she had commissioned crafted just for their space.
She moved tentatively forward and paused at a large dresser that would make most museum curators speechless to behold. The artistry of the minute details along its edge, and the like-new condition it was in, made her smile wistfully. She ran her hand along the edge and saw the faces of the two old men who had constructed it so very long ago. Alex saw their smiles of pride as well when she praised their craft and skill after its completion.
There was an ornate silver chest on its surface, and she leaned forward, opening its lid. Inside was a staggering collection of jewels, some set in rings, others on bracelets, necklaces, or broaches. Alex had only seen pieces of that quality and size in magazines or in museums her family had taken her to when she was growing up.
There was one ring in particular that called to Alex, and it was slightly smaller than the others. It featured an intense blue stone, most definitely not a sapphire, she told herself. A topaz, perhaps, she wondered. The stone itself was cut into a triangular shape, and it was set in yellow gold with two little sweeps of gold on either side of the singular center stone. It was breathtaking.
Alex reached in and pulled the ring out, holding it up to the light from a lamp which had been left on atop the dresser. She felt the ring vibrating in her fingers, almost as if was begging to tell her its story. Alex was preparing to allow herself to see into the past when she felt Gaius’ hand close over hers. She turned and saw his surprised expression.
“Alexandria,” he said slowly and deliberately, “what are you doing?”
“I’m sorry, Gaius, if I overstepped,” she said, trying to return the ring to its resting place.
Gaius, however, would not let her move away. He placed his hands on Alex’s shoulders and gently held her in place.
“Of course, you have not overstepped. This was your room once, too. I am just surprised to find you in here,” he said, searching her eyes.
“So am I,” Alex confessed in a soft voice.
Gaius removed his hands from her shoulders and placed them behind his back. He nodded in the direction of the ring she still held. “Do you remember this?”
“I was actually about to connect with a memory when you touched my hand. I feel that it is very important to me, but I cannot tell you why. Will you tell me?” she asked, looking up into his eyes, and saw Gaius’ slow smile appear.
“Gladly, Alexandria. It was your wedding ring.” He paused, letting his words sink in. “I purchased the stone from a trader who had recently returned from India. It had such fire and was so clear, like I knew my road ahead with you would be. I asked a stone cutter to cut it with three sides, and he thought I was mad.” Gaius laughed at the memory.
“From our birth, all Nephilim know of the Trinity that came to pass: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, no matter what time we are born to. I thought the shape would remind you of that and of me each day you wore it. I always thought it went well with your eyes, too,” he said, smiling wistfully.
“What kind of stone is it?” she asked.
“It is a blue diamond,” he responded.
Alex stepped over and replaced the priceless ring back into the chest and closed its lid. She moved over next to him and looked back around the room. She remembered trading for a small statue of a horse in full gallop that sat on the mantel. She had thought it reminded her of a mare she had once loved, named Ina. Alex looked at a framed sketch standing in a small easel, and she remembered da Vinci drawing it of her horse and its musculature as a gift for her.
Then, Alex saw an image of them walking hand in hand over to the bed, and she gasped softly. It was covered in a quilt, not the comforter she saw upon it now, and she could see the passion in Gaius’ eyes as he turned her towards him. Alex blinked, trying to clear the vision, and pulled back with all her might to see him before her in the present, and not in such an intimate memory from her soul’s past.
“Come; let’s leave those memories in the past, Alex, and join the others for dinner,” said Gaius softly, taking her hand in his and pulling her from her reverie. He did not release Alex’s hand until he had her downstairs and was leading her through the entrance to the dining room. Gaius pulled her chair out for her, and Alex noted that they were the last to come to the table.
Alexandria was embarrassed because she had been raised to come to the table on time and be seated with everyone else. She offered her apology for being tardy, but the others brushed it off. She made eye contact with Sabina, who smiled at her, but Alex noticed that her friend’s eyes traveled to Gaius, no doubt wondering why the two were late together.
As they ate, both John and Archimedes asked about their day together. Alex did not know if Gaius wanted the details shared, so she let him lead the recounting of their excursions. He told them what a delight it had been to ride that morning and feel the cold, salt air in his lungs. Heath affirmed that the horses were extremely happy and replete when they came back to the stables.
Alex felt safe to interject that she had never ridden bareback before, and they all shared a laugh at that statement.
“Let me guess, I used to do it all the time?” she asked dryly, and they all chuckled once more.
Gaius leaned forward and said proudly, “Well, for a first time, this time around, you looked like a seasoned professional. It was a thing of joy to behold.”
Alex smiled at his praise, and then took an extra moment to study placing a piece of beef on her fork.
“That’s how I felt, too, watching her ride at Aeoferth,” said Sabina, and the two shared a smile at the experience.
Archimedes asked about their trip into the village. Gaius admitted that he had avoided taking Alex to the different museums and holy historical sites that gave the island its common name. He wanted her to visit the present, so he told them about their lunch and how good the lobster bisque had been and about their dessert at the coffee house.
Archimedes started recalling the first time he had ever tasted coffee, and the others joined in to add their recollections of their own experiences as well. Alex felt the ring o
n her right hand with her thumb again and wondered why Gaius had skipped that part of the afternoon. She looked over at him, and he gave her a slow wink as though he were reading her mind. Her cheeks colored slightly, and she turned back to the conversation at hand.
Once dinner was over, they all decided to adjourn to the library together. Alex offered to help John clear the table, hoping to talk with him in private regarding her earlier thoughts about children. Heath, however, shooed her away and took over the task. She tried not to show her displeasure, but Gaius lifted an eyebrow, asking her silently why she seemed dismayed. She only offered him a smile in answer and turned to follow Archimedes and Sabina to Elysium’s library.
Alex had not entered the library there yet, and when she did, she felt like she was back in Aeoferth, only on a slightly smaller scale. They had incorporated a mural there as well, but this one featured mainly angels and majestic scenery. Dark, wooden book shelves climbed to the second story ceiling. There were comfortable chairs scattered here and there, with tables and desks to work on as well. Alex stopped just inside, and Archimedes came to stand beside her.
“You always did love a library, Alex,” he mused. “You said to me once, that if you could have saved the great Library of Alexandria, you would have felt that you had accomplished more in your life. It was a great regret of yours,” he said, rocking back and forth on his heels once more.
She smiled at the action.
“Alexandria,” she whispered, thinking of her name and the once great repository of information and knowledge.
“Yes, but don’t worry. We actually have copies of most items the library contained scattered throughout our own collections. You just hated seeing it lost to the masses.”
Something else was lurking in her memory. Something Alex had heard herself say when she spoke Gaius’ full name to him in the foyer. She looked over and saw that he watched her from a sofa where he had placed himself.
“Your middle name is Alexander?” she asked, surprised that she was just now focusing on this.
He nodded. “My mother chose my second name after Alexander the Great. I am not entirely sure why she felt compelled to do that, but it is who I am. I kept the name in her honor.” He finished his remarks by gesturing to the cushion next to him.
Alex thought that perhaps she would be less likely to fall completely under the influence of Gaius’ aura with an audience, so she agreed to sit close to him. Sabina and Archimedes took seats opposite them, and they all read quietly for a time while they waited for John and Heath to join them.
Alex had picked up a book of Shakespeare’s plays from a stack on a nearby table. She was skimming through Hamlet when her eyes locked onto an all too familiar passage.
“And therefore as a stranger give it welcome
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Alex closed her eyes and let his words sink in, and she felt the power of his character’s observation. There is so much to behold in the heavens and on this earth, she mused to herself. If humans knew a fraction of what she had seen over the course of the last week, could they handle it, she wondered? No, Alex thought, as every frightening alien or ghost movie she had ever been forced to watch with Wallace demonstrated. In her heart, Alex knew that humans did not easily think outside of what reality they understood to be true and definable.
And how would mankind perceive the Nephilim en mass, Alex pondered. Through wide-scale panic and fear, to be sure. But if they were there on the sidelines, quietly protecting, healing and nurturing, they could effectively hold humanity together. They could strive to establish the principles by which their fathers and the Great I Am created all peoples, of all races and creeds. Through the bonds of love and compassion for someone other than yourself, Alex thought humbly.
It was an awesome and breathtaking responsibility. She contemplated how wrong the Greeks had gotten it in their mythology. The image of the Titan Atlas being punished and forced to hold up the celestial spheres, and people’s images of him now holding the earth up, came to her. It was an inspiring possibility to help mankind, not a punishment from what Alex could imagine. Though the trials over the years might begin to weigh heavily if one was fighting the likes of Bertrand and Aagon.
Alex wondered if that was what Gaius had tried to tell her when he held her in her bedroom after her first faint at Elysium. Having someone by your side could make the centuries bearable because there was another to support and share in your triumphs and mistakes. She then thought back to reading John’s mind at Aeoferth and seeing his wife. His human wife.
He had loved her so much, and he had so little time with her. Could she do that with Jack, Alex asked herself. Have him for a little while, and then mourn his passing for the ages. She retreated from the path her thoughts were leading her down and sat back against the cushions, opening her eyes once more.
Heath and John were just coming in, and they moved two more chairs over to create a small circle as Alexandria had seen them do at Aeoferth several times now. She wondered if they were the ones who had taught Arthur the value of the round table, everyone visible and on an equal footing.
Archimedes placed his book down and cleared his throat to get their attention. “I would like to bring up a topic for discussion if everyone is willing.” He paused and looked around.
John waved his hand in the air, urging Archimedes to go ahead without so much formality.
“Alex, Gaius told us what you attempted in the gazebo last night,” Archimedes said calmly.
Alex drew in a sharp breath at his words so casually spoken. She looked over at Gaius sternly, showing him her disapproval, but Archimedes drew her attention back to him.
“Now, now, Alex, don’t get angry with him,” Archimedes chided. “He only shared it because he is very worried about you. Gaius would not betray your confidence; he just doesn’t want you hurt.”
Alex nodded tightly to signal she understood his reasoning. Gaius said nothing but draped one long arm on the back of the sofa, so his hand was close to Alex’s head and neck. She felt him shift on his cushion but did not look his way again for a few moments.
“The reason I bring it up is because I think you had a very astute plan. One that might eventually help us to track Kronis and end this standoff, once and for all.”
As Archimedes finished his words, everyone began talking at once, and they were all voicing their reluctance to see Alex put in such jeopardy or peril. Gaius was the most in opposition to such a plan, and his hand lowered to the back of Alex’s head as if his touch alone would keep her mind from traveling. Archimedes held up his hand to stop the arguments, and finally, everyone quieted down.
“Hear me out friends, please. I don’t suggest that she try this alone. Gaius, you saved Alexandria by finding and holding fast to her aura. You essentially were the beacon home, and she found her way.”
Gaius interrupted him, saying, “No, Archimedes, that is not true. I did not shine a light for her to follow. I felt Alex’s aura and essence being forcibly pulled away, and I fought whatever it was with everything I had just to get her back here. I almost did not,” he said breathlessly.
Alex finally looked back over at Gaius and realized now why he had been so panicked and shaken when she came to in his arms. Had he saved her from dying, she wondered? She laid her right palm out close to his leg, and he reached across his lap, taking it with his free hand so he could keep his left hand in contact with her head.
Sabina looked at their conjoined hands and smiled to herself.
“Well, I for one think it’s too risky,” said John. “If Alex is not in this physical realm, there is no way to predict how long she can be safely gone. And whatever this malevolent force is, it is mired deeply enough in Arianna’s subconscious that we won’t have any way of knowing its intent, or which powers or abilities to advise Alex to empl
oy against it.”
“I can most certainly tell you its intent,” Gaius said in a deceptively calm voice. “It wants her dead. She is not going back there anytime soon,” he stated, hoping to close the discussion.
Alex squeezed Gaius’ hand to try and calm him. He looked down at her and nodded slightly, letting her know he understood her intent.
Archimedes, however, was not ready to let the topic go just yet.
“What I think is, that if we, as a collective, used our auras to hold to Alex’s aura as she travels to this memory, then the sheer magnitude would be great enough to keep her from harm. It could work if we were all together. We could call more of our numbers back from the field to try.” Archimedes let his last thought hang between them, waiting to see if they might concur that it was possible to get at the truth together.
Finally, Sabina answered. “It just might work. I’m sorry, Gaius, I know you don’t want to try again, but it could succeed with all of us there to support the effort. We all know Kronis leads and sometimes guides the others when they will let him. Arianna’s death was his one reason for the ultimate power he now has over the Fallen’s children. He won’t let Alex live for long if she is a threat to that power. So we will have to know how he defeated her – one who should have been far greater than he.”
Sabina paused and looked at Alexandria next. “Again, Alex, this will be your choice. But I think Archimedes is on to something. We will have to find the full story to stop him from taking you again.”
At that statement, Alex felt a pure jolt of fear from Gaius, and she turned to stare into his eyes. “I’m not going to try this search again without help, Gaius. I promise. Please know that I have no desire to see my mortal or possible immortal life come to an end. I will fight for my family, my friends, and myself. No one is taking me away again, I promise.” She placed her left hand on his cheek and felt her aura flow to him.
“I promise,” she whispered yet again.
Gaius nodded and breathed out slowly, taking in her aura to calm himself.
Alex smiled at him. Her eyes studied his as she murmured, “I’ll bet you are one formidable soldier, aren’t you?”
“You have no idea,” Gaius said with an ominous tone that let Alex know he would most certainly protect what was his.
Archimedes rubbed his hands together as if in anticipation of a new project he could put his mind to. Alex could tell he was already plotting and planning, and she caught Heath shaking his head at Archimedes’ eagerness. She and Heath looked at each other and grinned.
All six of them sat together and tried to steer the conversation into more neutral territory. Alex found that she still held onto Gaius’ hand, and she was rubbing slow circles on his palm with her thumb, trying to calm him. When she finally stopped, Alex felt him begin a similar pattern on the back of her head, and it made her groggy.
The last thing she heard was Heath saying that they should have some sword practice in the morning, and Gaius and Sabina agreeing to the plan. Sleep claimed Alex then, and she readily gave in to its call.
Gaius felt her go and continued his contact with her, willing Alexandria to stay put. He did not want to disturb her, so he chose not to pick up his book of poetry again. He just held to her instead. He felt Sabina’s keen eyes on them, and he looked up, smiling briefly at her.
“She’s so very at peace right now, Gaius,” Sabina whispered in awe. “More than I have seen her at any other time this week. I look at her as my friend and sister, yet I know how fragile she still is.” She paused and watched Alex lightly breathe in and out. “I’m glad she came to meet you finally. Please, go easy on her,” Sabina pleaded for her friend’s sake.
“I have no intention of hurting her, Sabina,” he responded quietly. “I want only what’s best for her, whether that is Jackson or me. However, I am not going to let someone else pry her away from me without a fight,” Gaius qualified.
Sabina sat back in her chair and smiled knowingly at her friend. “Of that, I have no doubt, Gaius.”
The group continued reading and talking in hushed tones until the hour grew late. As they began to take their leave, Gaius stood and bent over the sofa, lifting Alex in his arms. He settled her against his chest and inhaled her familiar scent. As he turned to leave with her, Sabina asked if he needed help getting Alex settled for the night, but he shook his head.
He carried Alexandria up to his room and placed her on the bed, taking off her shoes and pulling the covers up over her. He moved a chair over and once again held her hand, settling back for restful slumber.
“Goodnight, Alexandria,” he whispered.
Even though she was lost in slumber, Alex whispered back, “Goodnight, Gaius.”
He looked over at her, surprised by her words. Gaius then closed his eyes, falling to sleep with a contented smile on his face.
Chapter 26
Immortal Reborn - Arianna's Choice Page 30