Ascension Discovery

  “Okay,” Petre replied as his hand lifted to take the chit from Elder Debbon. With the object in his hand, Petre turned around and walked slowly the way he had hurriedly come before. He felt as though he were in a daze as he walked through the open front doors, down the garden path, and past the guarded gate. He never even suspected that Elder Debbon might have spelled him into doing as he wished, nobody was able to do that to Petre MacVeen.

  Chapter Seventeen

  ELDER DEBBON WATCHED as Petre left his surgery. He was surprised that his leaning ability had actually worked on Petre. It never has before, he must really have been rattled by Jena’s accident, he thought to himself with a satisfied smile at his success of getting rid of him. He turned on his heel and left the surgery through the same door the young woman had taken Jena. Debbon knew he would be able to find Jena in the kitchen so he went directly there.

  He watched from the doorway as Jena was finishing her bottle of milk. Debbon walked over and looked down into her face. He was struck by the thought that her eyes were the exact shade of blue as Petre’s. As though she knew she was being admired, Jena shifted her gaze and looked directly at Debbon. She continued to stare in a way that suddenly made Debbon uncomfortable enough to look away first. He realized her power was growing as she was becoming more content with a full stomach.

  Now that he was not feeling pressured to perform in any way he was able to start thinking about the implications of Jena being the girl from his vision after he finished pulling thoughts from Petre’s head so long ago. He had to think hard for a moment to remember the name of the girl who was also being questioned. Amanda was her name, she was the visitor from Earth. I wonder how she plays into this scenario?

  Debbon watched Jena push the nearly empty bottle away from her mouth and reach her hands up to himself. Without thinking about it, he lifted her and cradled her in his arm. Her power was a physical presence surrounding her body, he was surprised nobody else had commented on it. Maybe she was reflecting his own power? He would have to test her abilities to find out where her strengths were strongest.

  He carried her over to a chair by the window and settled himself down to admire this bright little child. He sat her up on her knees so she could face him. She waved her arms around with excitement while she smiled and cooed at him. Debbon was clearly enchanted by this little mystery. He leaned forward and smelled her freshly washed hair.

  She appeared to be ready to go with him for observation. He lifted her up against his shoulder and carefully walked through the kitchen, down several hallways, and ended up in his study. He laid her down on the plush rug in the middle of the room, and he sat down on the floor beside her.

  Now that she was comfortable he drew a ball of energy and let it hang from his hand just out of her reach. He wanted to know if she would recognize it, but was surprised when she created a ball of her own and suddenly merged hers with his.

  Expanding the scope of the energy, Debbon made an object appear within the ball, leaving it suspended within. Not knowing how this was done, Jena giggled and continued to stare at the floating object. Her hands were flailing to try to reach it, but she was lying down. Debbon had an idea and got up from the floor. He went to his desk and retrieved several smallish objects and set them on the floor near Jena, but not close enough for her exploring hands to grab.

  Pointing at one of the objects, he said to Jena, “Move one of these items into the ball, Jena. Can you do that?” She did not appear to understand what he was talking about. To show her what he meant, he used his mind to move an envelope off of the rug and move it into the ball of energy. “Now you do it,” he encouraged. Before he knew it was happening, all of the objects were gone from the rug. He stared in disbelief at the empty space beside Jena. She was waving her hands and giggling again. He returned his gaze to the ball of energy and saw all of the objects from the rug turning in circles around each other. Debbon clapped his hands and with a huge grin on his face he exclaimed, “Well done, Jena! Well done!”

  Jena was encouraged by his praise, and she started to giggle as well.

  “Can you take them out of the orb now?” He demonstrated by taking the ball of twine from the sphere and dropping it onto the rug. Jena’s eyes followed the progress of the orb and Debbon could see comprehension register in her eyes. In the next instant, all of the objects, including the original object which Debbon had placed there, were lying on the rug beside the ball of twine. Again, Debbon encouraged her ability by clapping and exclaiming, “That was perfect, Jena.”

  Imagining all of the things Jena would be capable of under his tutelage, he was more certain now than ever that Jena belonged with him instead of Petre. He wracked his brain trying to come up with a plan where Petre would willingly give Jena up to him. He laughed out loud as the most brilliant idea came to mind; a plan Petre could not possibly refuse.

  Picking Jena up he took her back to the kitchen and handed her back to the young woman who had taken care of her earlier. “Make sure she gets a nap for the next couple of hours,” he instructed as he hurried back to his study.

  He turned on his patil and performed a quick search of any records on a female with the first name of Amanda. If she had anything to do with this child, then he wanted to find her right away. There were very few entries on anyone with a matching first name, but one, in particular, caught his attention; a death notice. He pulled up the record for further review and noticed that Bryon Kesh was the person who had reported the accident and missing person report. He had to assume it was the same Amanda in question as Bryon was the person accompanying her when Debbon first became aware of the girl from Earth.

  With that avenue turning up a dead end his thoughts swiftly turned to his next plan of action. He used the patil to contact his legal advisor. “I need you right away,” he spoke excitedly when Miorlen’s face appeared on the screen.

  “I’m at your service whenever you require,” Miorlen answered politely.

  “I’d like to ‘port you to my office right now.”

  More than a little surprised at his request, Miorlen responded with the only possible answer, “As you wish, Sir.”

  Not waiting for another second, Debbon teleported Miorlen right from where he sat directly in the chair opposite Debbon in his office. He gave Miorlen a few moments to readjust himself from the rapid transport by disconnecting his call from the patil. “Thank you for coming here so unconventionally. I have an urgent matter which must be attended to right this moment,” he spoke in a rush.

  “I gathered as much. What would you like me to do?” He was intrigued since he had never seen Elder Debbon so flushed with excitement. This must be something big, he thought to himself.

  “I’m going to need a birth certificate and a betrothal agreement drawn up.”

  “That seems pretty standard, I can get those written within the next couple of days. Do you need anything else?”

  “No, you’re not understanding me, Miorlen, I need these documents completed within the next two hours.”

  “But that’s…” he started to say ‘impossible’ until he realized to whom he was speaking and changed it to, “Let me know the names for the birth certificate and the betrothal agreement. I will have them done within two hours.” He grimaced at the thought of failing the Elder now that he had promised the impossible.

  “There’s a small problem with that,” Elder Debbon started and then he had an idea occur to him, “I’ll give you what I know. I’ll find out the rest in a couple of hours, you can enter it in when I receive it and print it immediately. I don’t have to remind you that the betrothal agreement must be air tight and rock solid. There can’t be any loopholes in it!”

  “Of course,” Miorlen answered and wondered what in the world was going on.

  Debbon handed Miorlen a pad of paper and a pencil and instructed him to write. “The birth certificate is for a girl child named Jena MacVeen. As you can guess, her father is Petre MacVeen. Her mother’s name was Jessa. I don’t kn
ow her last name. I also don’t know Jena’s birthday yet, but I do know she’s approximately six-mesans old, which would make her birth year 3443. Like I said, I’ll get the exact date when Petre returns from town.”

  Miorlen scribbled rapidly on the pad of paper, but his mind was whirling even faster at the implications of what Elder Debbon was contemplating. Was he really going to betroth his son to Petre MacVeen’s daughter? What could possibly drive him to this crazy idea? He wondered if he were being pranked until he looked up from his writing and saw the look of pure excitement on Elder Debbon’s face. This is real, he thought, how amazing!

  “Okay, now for the betrothal agreement. I want it between Jena and Willian. Effective immediately,” he mused in thought for a minute.

  “What does Chelesa think of this match?” Miorlen asked innocently.

  “What?” Debbon asked rhetorically as he came out of his reverie. He then understood what had been asked and replied absently, “Oh, Chelesa doesn’t know about it yet. I’m sure she won’t mind.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Miorlen replied under his breath as he continued to write.

  “What was that, Miorlen?”

  “I just said that I thought you should probably let her know about it before you sign the documents with Petre. Like you said, it will be irrevocable. An unhappy wife lasts forever just the same,” he said as diplomatically as possible.

  “You could be right,” Debbon conceded, much to Miorlen’s relief. He hated to think of the paperwork, not to mention the expense if his wife contested the betrothal. A person in the Elder’s position could not afford to have discord in his home made known to the public. This would definitely make the news circuits!

  “Okay, I’ll take care of discussing this with Chelesa while you draw up the documents. Where were we?” He mused for a second before he snapped his fingers and continued, “The betrothal document must contain an abandonment clause. Make sure it’s buried somewhere deep within an exceptionally boring paragraph. Make it the standard three days, I’ll have to be fair, even if it makes me cringe to think Petre might actually read the document just for the pure enjoyment of getting one over on me!”

  Miorlen was entertained by Elder Debbon’s verbal musing. He had never seen him this agitated before, and he was starting to wonder what this Jena must be like to make the Elder go to so much trouble. She must be alluring.

  “Okay, the last thing to discuss is the bride price. It must be enough to satisfy Petre’s greed, but not enough to seem as though I’m buying the child from him. What would you consider a sufficient price without being ostentatious?” Debbon looked directly at Miorlen for the first time since he had brought him to his office.

  “Well, your status could be part of the price, so it wouldn’t have to be as high a taj amount as if you were a person of lower status. That’s really significant to people like Petre, bragging rights that his daughter is betrothed to an Elder’s son. Let’s see, he probably doesn’t have much means, being the deck hopper that he is, so I believe we could offer him five thousand taj and not bring criticism from your constituents,” he reasoned out loud.

  “Perfect, make it happen.” Debbon clapped his hands with glee. “Feel free to use my office to get the documents drawn up. Leave them on the patil so when Petre gets back, you will easily be able to add the details as I receive them from Petre. I’ll set up a one-way voice device so you can hear our conversation without worry of interrupting us with your typing.” He signed off of his patil, got up from his chair behind the desk, and offered the vacated seat to Miorlen. “Thank you,” he said to Miorlen as he left the office.

  Thinking about what Miorlen had said about talking with Chelesa, he agreed it might be a good conversation to have in person. As he stood in the hall, he gathered elemy to his birth crystal and translated himself the several gania away to his private estate. He materialized in the front entryway hall and surprised several maids with his sudden appearance. “Sorry to startle you,” he said to nobody in particular. “Does anyone know where I may find Chelesa?”

  “She’s in her study this time of day, Elder,” replied one of the older maids shyly.

  “Thank you,” he replied as he took the left-side hallway to go to her office. He took long strides in his excitement to deliver his news. Never thinking she might not be expecting him, he opened the door to her office and walked in before realizing she was not alone. “Excuse me,” he stammered as he came to an abrupt halt, “I didn’t know you had a visitor.” He started to turn around when his wife’s voice stopped him.

  “What is it, Debbon?”

  “I need to talk to you privately,” he stated promptly. “Let me know when you’re available. I’ll be in my office.” He turned around, shut her office door, and walked across the hall to his own private office. For some reason, he felt deflated that Chelesa was not available immediately. Then he scolded himself for being so assuming of her time. Of course, she had other things going on, she was the wife of an Elder. She had responsibilities to the community. She also was a co-founder to their enlightenment program. He sat down wearily in his desk chair and sighed at having to wait at all.

  About ten minutes later, Chelesa appeared in the doorway to his office with raised eyebrows and a smile on her face. “To what do I owe the honor for your mid-day visit?” She walked through the office and seated herself in the other office chair across the desk from Debbon.

  Relieved that Chelesa was able to get away to meet with him so soon, he blurted out, “I found an amazing girl today, Chelesa! She was absolutely stunning, you’re going to love her!”

  “What are you talking about, Debbon?” Chelesa asked with a considerable amount of confusion evident on her face.

  “I met this girl, her name is Jena, and I think she’d be a perfect match for Willian. Just wait until you meet her, she’s…no, wait, I want to get your opinion of her without me telling you.”

  “Are you talking about a betrothal?”

  “Yes, didn’t I just say that?”

  “Yes, but I didn’t believe you were serious. What happened today? I think you have some serious explaining to do!” Chelesa folded her arms across her chest which was never a good sign.

  “Come with me back to the Residence. We have at least an hour before he returns. You can meet her, she’s just amazing!”

  “Before who returns. Debbon, what is going on?” Chelesa was getting angry now that Debbon seemed to have made up his mind on something as important as a betrothal without even consulting her opinion. She did not like this at all!

  “Do you trust me?”

  “Most of the time,” she conceded.

  “Then let me teleport you to the Residence. Meet Jena and then tell me she’s not perfect for Willian. Okay?” Debbon fairly pleaded with her. He stood up and held out his hand to her.

  She could feel the energy start to build up around him. He was going to leave without her if she did not decide immediately. She had never seen him in this type of mood before, she had to go with him now or forever wonder what he wanted her to see for herself. Chelesa stood up suddenly and thrust her hand into her husband’s outstretched hand. Mere moments later, Chelesa found herself standing in her husband’s office with a startled Miorlen looking at the two of them with an amazed expression.

  “Sorry to interrupt you. This was the only room I knew would not have anyone standing right here at this time. It seemed safest. We’re going to go see Jena,” he explained as he pulled Chelesa out of the office by the hand he still held.

  Not knowing exactly where Jena would be at this time, he returned to the kitchen to inquire. Another of the servants told him she was resting in the first guest room on the second floor. She said that the young maid was still with her to monitor her sleep. Thanking the kitchen servant, Debbon rushed through the corridors, up the stairs, and down the hallway until he came to the closed door of the first guest room.

  He turned to Chelesa and said, “Close your eyes and tell me wh
at you feel?”

  Chelesa was confused, but she complied with his request. She let her other senses take over and was surprised to feel an unexpected energy. She smiled and opened her eyes when she said to Debbon, “I think I’m beginning to understand why you’re so excited. Let’s go in there, I want to meet her.”

  “Good, that’s what I thought you’d say!” His smile positively beamed as he quietly opened the door.

  Motioning for Chelesa to precede him into the room he whispered, “Feel the energy around her.”

  She walked over to the bed where the little girl was asleep. She could almost see the pulsing buzz around her body. Chelesa instantly glanced at Debbon to see if he were noticing what she had. His smile confirmed her suspicion. She leaned closer and looked carefully at the girl’s features. Even while sleeping she was a stunning little girl, and Chelesa wondered what she would look like with her eyes open. After studying her for a few minutes, she realized she was almost holding her breath with anticipation. She had seen enough, and she needed to talk with Debbon. She motioned for him to leave the room with her.

  Debbon was smiling big enough to hurt his cheeks as they left the room. Without preamble he asked, “You felt it too, right?”

  “I’m surprised the neighbors don’t feel it,” she confessed with a grin to match his. “I can’t wait to meet her parents to begin the negotiations. Did you say they were coming back in an hour or so?”

  “That’s the only problem,” Debbon’s smile faded as he turned to the serious matter of her parentage.

  “What’s the problem? Who wouldn’t want to betroth their daughter to an Elder?”