by Justin Parks
Chapter 3
Getting There
Rain spattered against the car as it drove down the winding streets. It created a muffled beat that filled the silence of the car. “So where are we going exactly?” Jin asked.
“Home,” Khronus said with a smile.
Jin smiled and leaned back. “Feel free to elaborate,” he responded.
Khronus leaned back. “Well, what do you want to know?”
“Well . . .” Jin said, thinking. “For starters, where’s home?”
“Eden,” Khronus answered.
“Where’s that, exactly?” Jin asked, still confused.
Khronus took a deep breath and relaxed. “Hmm, this may take a while,” he said, staring out the window, “But we’ve got nothing else to do. A long time ago magick existed in this world. I’m sure you’ve heard stories of magick and monsters in ancient times.”
Jin nodded. “You mean like in legends and stuff?”
“Yes, but those are hardly stories. These things did exist. It’s funny how time forgets. But I digress. Yes, magick did exist in this world. In some small amount it existed in every living thing, but there were special cases. There were special people that possessed excess magick and were able to manipulate it to do amazing things. Those people were us,” Khronus explained.
“Us?” Jin questioned.
“Yes, we call ourselves ayos. It’s a word in an ancient tongue. It stands for creation and for new life. It was the name we chose for ourselves when we left this world,” Khronus continued. “We were often thought of as witches or demons. Some of us were even worshiped as gods. This caused many of our people to be persecuted and killed. We were not the evil people they made us out to be. We were just different. Yet, over the years too much blood had been spilled over ignorance and prejudice, which caused hatred on both sides.”
“What do you mean you left this world?” Jin asked.
“Eventually a time came when four great ayos came together and forged the great pillars that separated the magick from this world; thus, Eden was created.”
“What’s Eden like?” Jin asked.
“Eden is a world of magick. You’ll find things to be very different there. I can’t really describe it. You’ll have to see it for yourself,” Khronus answered with a smile. “But Eden is completely separate from this world.”
“If it’s a separate world, how did you get here?” Jin asked.
“Until recently, you couldn’t travel between worlds. The ayos who created Eden wanted to keep them separate permanently,” Khronus explained.
“So what happened that allowed you to come here?”
“Recently, the southern pillar was damaged, causing a temporary bridge between worlds. We still don’t know what happened to damage it, but it’s never happened before.” Khronus explained looking down and reaching in his pocket and pulling out the core. He stared at it. “However, I suppose all things happen for a reason. After all, it caused me to find you.”
“How did you find me here and why?” Jin asked.
“Well the first part is simple enough. The core led me to you,” Khronus answered. “But as for why, that’ll take longer to explain. We ayos are born with our core’s inside us,” Khronus unbuttoned his shirt slightly and pulled it back a bit to reveal a pale blue orb imbedded in his chest. “You see, these cores are imbedded within us from the time we’re born until we die. After an ayos dies, the core remains and goes into a dormant state. Your orb was dormant until recently.”
“What happened to activate it?” Jin asked.
“I suppose it activated the same time the barrier was damaged. I don’t know much, but this is something that has never happened before,” Khronus explained with a shrug. “Usually, when a core falls into dormancy, it stays that way. The only thing I can assume is that you must be a descendant of the clan the core belonged to. Your ancestors must have been separated when Eden was formed.”
“Why did you come all the way to give it to me?” Jin questioned.
“I was the one who discovered the core. We keep them as memorials. Your core belongs to a very old clan. I believed it was important that you receive it, so I was given permission to seek you out and return it to you,” Khronus answered.
“So, can I have it now?” Jin asked, reaching out for it.
Khronus returned the core to his pocket. “I better hold onto it for the time being. It’d be safer to wait till we get back to the academy.”
“Academy?” Jin asked.
“Yes, more specifically, that’s where we’re going,” Khronus said with a smile. “But I’ll explain more later once we’ve arrived at our first destination,” he said as the car suddenly came to a stop. Khronus and Jin stepped out of the car. Khronus walked up and tapped on the window. It rolled down a bit and Khronus handed some money to the driver before he drove away.
Jin looked around. They were dropped off at a small park. It was still dark and raining. The grass was lush and green, and there were a bunch of small trees. There were lights lining the various stone paths, and in the center of the park stood a large oak tree. No one was around and the park was completely vacant.
“What are we doing?” Jin asked, looking around. “There’s nothing here.”
Khronus began walking down the path toward the center of the park as Jin followed. “No, there’s a connecting point here. I can sense it,” he explained, walking up to the large oak tree. “Yes, I see. This tree is very old,” Khronus said, placing his hand on the tree as veins of green light began to engulf it. Khronus turned to Jin. “It’s time,” he said as they were surrounded by blinding light. Jin reached up, shielding his eyes as the light surrounded him.
“Umm . . . Jin? What are you doing?” Khronus asked curiously.
Jin opened his eyes and slowly lowered his arms, looking around with a surprised and confused look on his face. The two were standing in front of the large oak in a green field with a dirt road to the side. “What just happened? Where are we?”
“Eden, of course. I told you this is where we were going,” Khronus said as he walked down to the road. “Let’s be off. It’s going to take a while to get there,” he said as he raised his finger in the air and pointed to the right; he lingered to the left and then to the right again. “This way,” Khronus said as he began walking.
Jin pulled out his cell phone. No service . . . I guess he’s not a crazy person. Well as far as I can tell for now. He thought as he caught up and began to follow him. The two continued down the dirt path until they came over a hill. They looked down the hill to see a small village. “Yes, we’ll stay there for the night,” Khronus said leading the way.
ToC
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