Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (56 page)

Next came
out
the Balancer Elders.
They walked out in mated pairs, but in a single line. They all took their seats
and
they
too
all had sleeveless robes
. The last to enter was Elder Adela and Alexander and they took the
ir
love
seat on the far end
; closest to the crowd
.
Connor’s
eyes then drifted to
the two
sitting in the large
r golden
seat. The woman was by far the tallest female Balancer
he has
seen
thus
far
and he
r mate i
s just as large. The two of them were as tall as
Connor
i
s, but not as
thickly
built.
Both of their eyes were closely the same bright seaweed green color
,
compared to Sarah’s emerald. Their hair
hung at
about shoulder length and dark brown. At first
he
thought they were
actually
related, but their facial
structure
were completely different.
So those two are
our
bosses…
He
thought to
him
self.
He
remembered being told that those two had control of the five elemen
ts, but unlike them, Sarah and he
could use all five
alone and independently
.

The silence
became
crushing until the doors of the Keepers opened and squeaked, making the s
ound echo in this silent room. He
couldn’t s
ee them coming because the central
high seat blocked most of the
view
.

They each walked upright once
he
saw the Elders moving into their seats. They all walked
as of one mind
and had their hands
behind their ba
ck.
O
nly three males
made up the council
and seven female
s
began
walking to their seats.
The robes of these Elders had only a minor change compared to the other Elders, they all wore sleeved robes that came all the way down to their wrists. Each one had a slightly different gait, but
not many realized that fact
. The way they moved together didn’t seem right for some reason. Mainly the
male
Keeper to
the
far right gained
Connor’s
attention. His eyes
remained
closed and he seemed to be trying to make himself look smaller.
The first one to sit down was the Elder in the center. The moment he sat in the largest
ornate
chair
,
the others sat down as one. His eyes were dark brown and his colleagues eyes
held
a rainbow of colors, but
Connor
couldn’t see the eyes of the last el
der.

The hairs on the back of his neck started standing and he
definitely knew something was
quite
wrong with this picture.
He
couldn’t put
a
finger on it exactly, but
Connor’s
instinct said that there was more to this than what you can only see.

The Brown eyed Keeper stood again and addressed all who were present
.
“I welcome all of you to th
is
quarter century
Mélange meeting. Please go ahead and sit down.”
A
ll sat down quickly
and quietly
.
“For those few of
you who don’t know me, I am Head
Elder Damian.
I am the leader of the Keepers.
I am glad that everyone was able to make it here so quickly
and safely
. Now let’s
go ahead and
introduce the others.”
He looked to his left.

The Changer’s short
leader stood and said “I am Head
Elder Raphael. I am also pleased to see such a terrific turnout. I hope that all of you had a pleasant journe
y, a terrific stay and
have
an amazing time until you leave to return home.” His v
oice was heavily accented like E
lder Adela’s. H
ead
Elder Raphael looked across to the other balcony and nodded.

The two green eyed Balancers stood together while holding hands. The woman spoke first and her
accent
also had the same vocal pa
tterns as the others. “I am Head
Elder Amphrite and this is my mate H
ead
Elder Poseidon. We will keep things as short and as expedient as we can manage. Please
,
I ask
that
no applause
n
or any outburst
arise
during our
convening
.
Also
,
all forms of elemental powers are strictly forbidden during the time we are with you.
Exercise restraint or else you will be excused from the meeting.
Thank you
for your understanding
.”

As the Head E
lders sat down Connor
entered Sarah’s mind and closed off all other’s access.
He
made
his expression turn impassive,
while
continuing to
watch the Elders.
“Sarah, close your mind to everyone, but me.”

Her mind
immediately
slammed shut and she squeezed his
hand.
“Is there something the Matter?”

She had become instantly worried because of
his
strange
mental
tone.

“Did the H
ead E
lder just call herself Amphrite and Poseidon? Like
as
in the Greek Gods
of the sea
?”

She looked straight ahead and masked her facial expressions.
“Yes
,
those two are the ones in the same. Remember that I told you that many myths and legends came from us or the other immortals. The only thing that the stories
of gods
got wrong was the
ir
infidelity. Balancers, Changers and Keepers all mate for life and do not cheat. Unlike us
,
Veronica gets a chance at love once again
since her mate passed away
. Or your sister will if ever something happens to Mark. Remember that we are immortal and sometimes
tend
get bored
over the long, taxing years
. Those who get bored usually do something crazy like becoming a Greek God.
”
She rubbed his hand with her thumb and he turned to see her staring at him
with a twinkle in her emerald green eyes.
“Don’t worry, you will always be my
only
true
Greek God!”

“And you are my Goddess.”
They
smiled at each other until
he
felt that scratching sensation again
,
someone
trying to enter his
mind.

Connor
re
opened
his
mind again as the H
ead
Elder Damian
,
resumed speaking from his chair. His
brown
eyes looked saddened.
“… tell you this, but we have lost five immortals since our last gathering. A pair of Balancers, two male Changer’s and a Keeper have all lost their lives in these past tw
enty five years. Please let the
r
e
be a moment of silence
as we remember those who have fallen
.”
Everyone in the room became
even more
silent
. Connor
heart went instantly out to Veronica because it was her mate which had been
slain
.

A few minutes past and the Head
E
lder began again
“Fellow immortals, I hope you have enjoyed the new facilities that I had made.”
Connor
knew
immediately
he just stated a bold faced lie to everyone.
He
quickly glanced around and
realized that
he
was the only one who knew what
just happened
.
Damian’s
mental
voice sounded c
alm, but Connor
knew it
to be
fake.
“We have been working on making this place for the past fifty years and I
believe it has been all worth the effort
.”
That part was true. H
e smiled pleasantly enough at the crowd and Connor
knew he has been doing this for a long time
for the lies came easy
.
He
judged
the Elder
to be about thirty million years old.
“Now let’s get down to business…”

Damian
went on and on for an hour talking about human technology this and encroachment that.
H
e lost
many
once he began speaking about a new law that the Elders all agreed upon. It was lost on
Connor
and apparently on everyone
except
Mark
and a few others
. Connor
started zoning out and closed
his
eyes and mind to do som
e shadow fighting,
to alleviate the
perpetual
boredom and monotony of the spee
ch
.

He
then
re
opened
his
eyes to see the Elders getting up to leave. Even the Keeper on the far right stood again
,
still
keeping
his eyes
closed. “Is it over already?” He
asked while yawning.
Connor
heard Jack call
him
a “Smartass” under his breath.

Connor
dropped to the open ground beneath
him and
looked up to see Sarah dropping down.
He
stuck
his
hands out and easily caught her
waist
and gently sat her down
on the floor. “Such a gentleman,
” Sarah said
, giving him
a playful grin. “By the way, your shadow fighting thing you do really helped
me
pass the time.”

He
said “You did it too!?”
and
couldn’t help but laugh
.

“Yep, I zoned out a few minutes after you did. It really does help keep your mind sharp when you fight.”

It was forty minutes
later
before
they
were all a
ble to get on the stairs. When Connor stepped up he
noticed
that the lower staircase
i
s blocked by thick iron doors
that were
imbedded in the rock
. He could swear he
heard wind
or machines
blowing
down the dark hole.

Later that night Sarah showed
him how gentle she wanted him
to be.

The next morning
proved to be similar and
routine
.
They
all went downstairs and sat in the same place and listened to the same boring lectures until
he
noticed
two
very interesting
something
’s
.
First,
Connor
over
heard the Elders speaking a language
he’s
never heard before and
he
watched their
expressions
, vocal patterns, tones and pronunciation. It was interesting to watch and learn
, but he realized none understood what they said. He asked Sarah about it later and she explained that they were speaking the first known human language that is only taught and known by the Elders
. Secondly and
v
ery rarely on the Keeper’s platfor
m he
w
itnessed
the eyes of each E
lder glance a certain way, but only
for a single instant. Even Head
Elder Damian glanced once
in the same direction
.