Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (68 page)

Suddenly
her
husband’s emotions changed
to something strange
.

Sorono didn’t slow his pace
, but
Connor stopped cold as h
e only focused on the ceiling. Sarah
ran up beside him because
there was
an emotion flow through him that
she’s
never felt before.
She
placed a hand on his cheek, but didn’t get a reaction. “Connor, what’s wrong? Say something…”

A shadow covered Connor and
Sarah
.
She looked up to see large h
azel eyes staring down at
them
.
“Connor, snap out of it. I know what you are feeling, but we must continue for now. When we are finished speaking with the others I will have exactly what you need… CONNOR!”

Connor finally blinked and looked down at
Sarah
. “I’m sorry about that. I don’t know what came over me. Please continue.”
He
apologized while
sh
aking
his head
from side to side
.

“I know exactly what is wrong, but that will have to wait
until later
.”
Sorono lifted his head and looked behind
them
.
“For now we have a job at hand
that takes priority
.”
She
turned around to see the room filling with all who
’ve
followed. Sorono
turned around and continued walking.

Connor grabbed
her
hand and whispered. “Please, don’t allow me to look up again. Keep my mind occupied.”

She
knew the perfect way to keep his mind entirely occupied, but not in the
company of others. She
settled for
holding his hand with both of
her own
and
began
rubbing
them gently
.
They
started following Sorono together and just when his eyes started rising
she
would
brush her
hip against his
thigh. It seemed to work.

Sorono walked up to the white stone gate and pushed it back.
T
he gate swung inward to reveal four large
circular
buildings
made of marble
and each one i
s perfectly smooth and didn’t have any outside markings
. The three
buildings
in the back were domed, but the largest building in the center
of the room
had an open roo
f. The four buildings were all at least four stories high
.
She
knew then that Sorono had a
liking
for marble if he w
as the one to supply these meetings
. Once everyone followed them
inside the Elder’s private quarters did Sorono
eventually
close and bar the gate with a
petrified
oak tree as a lock.

Sorono walked around the waiting group. He walked around until
he stood before Conn
or and Sarah
. H
e took a deep breath and said
“Besides the Elder Keepers, you are all the first to enter the sacred temple in over ten million years. Remember what I have said. Hold all questions until my story is over.”
He
suddenly
looked down at Connor.
“Except for you. As it is
right now
, your authority is higher than everyone present
,
except for mine
that is
.”
Sarah
heard several gasps behind
them
.
She
turned around to see shocked faces all around except from the former H
ead
Elder Damian and his
E
lder companions.
Every
E
lder from both the Changers and the Balancers were all completely shaken from this unexpected news.
“Now
everyone please
follow me.”
Sorono turned around and walked to the central building in the very back of the room.

They
made it to the steps and walked up. Before
them
were two solid gold doors. Each door was at least twenty feet tall and ten feet wide. The door on the left looked like clouds in the sky and the door on the right had an image of an oak tree in the ground. Sorono placed a hand to each door and pushed the heavy and thick doors open with the greatest of ease. He
walked in first and Connor and Sarah
followed while still holding hands
.

The floor was completely flat and didn’t
hold a single chair. Not that she
was expecting one.
This building had
intricate
paintings built right into the walls, but it looked like the paint and the
walls
were one.
The
markings looked like the ones they
saw when
they
first entered the mountain.
She
couldn’t find a single blemish or paint chip
, but knew the paintings were ancient
. The
circular
walls and even the roof was painted. The thing was they weren’t individual paintings, but one long continuing and spiraled painting. It started in the bottom of the room and looked like dirt and something
dark swirled
inside it, but she
couldn’t tell what
exactly she was looking at
.
T
hen the painting spiraled
to the right
and became grass, then
moved on to become
trees, water, fish, animals, dinosaurs, cities, an explosion of colors, man
,
more cities and finished spiraling to the roof to become a
bright blue sky. Sarah
then looked down to see the white marble floor had an entire black X
painted across
its surface
. The space in th
is
room easily could sit four times the amount of people than were here.
So there was plenty of space to move around and see everything
that this room held
.

Sarah noticed
the expressions of
her
family, all the Guards and even the other Elders as they had their first look at this
immense
and sacred
room.
They were just as impressed as the next person.
Every jaw
remained
open as they took in the exquisite building and a
ll the images it had to offer. She
could see Kara studying the room
differently than everyone else and she
remembered that
her sister-in-law
i
s also a
skilled
painter. She wasn’t just admiring the paintings, but actually studying them.
The sound of everyone shuffling in this building echoed
in many intervals
.
A few were so impressed they let out
a few long whistles, some of them were silently chatting to each other and their mates and most
others
remained quiet and took in the beauty
of this temple
.

Sorono sh
ut the doors and closed
everyone
in. T
he sound of the closing doors silenced all noises and movement. Sorono stood by the beginning of the painting of the dirt and the mysterious object within. He cleared his deep
reptilian
throat and all eyes turned to him.
“Connor, will you please join me. This story concerns you the most.”
Connor’s hazel eyes were piercing and calm at the same time as he looked down at
Sarah
.
She
gave his hand one last squeeze
and
smiled. He squeezed back and their
connection
disengaged
as he walked forward. When he finally stood beside Sorono, the giant looked down with his hazel eyes.
“Very good. What you need to know about this room is that this one
continuing
painting that circles the entire room is actually a very quick timeline since this planet was b
rought to life
.”

“I gathered that from the way things started from the dirt and grew into the age of the dinosaurs. I’m guessing that central painting with the large explosion was where the meteor hit sixty five million years ago and humans now rule where at one time your race did.”

“Very good. I see the Hallowed Mother
made her child well
.”
Connor’s brow furrowed.
“Do not worry about that name. I will get to her shortly.”

Sorono turned and looked at the start of the picture. He pointed and began
speaking a lecture
to all who were gathered
.
“When our planet was not
h
ing
more than
a giant mass of
molten rock,
dirt and ice
,
a unique event occurred. Somehow our planet was jumpstarted with a very rare form of energy. This energy gave our planet a will and a life of its own. Some of your people call her Mother Nature or Gaia or some other name
to represent the giver of life
. We call her the Hallowed Mother. Names are nothing but a way to identify her. They all m
ean the same thing
to her because she i
s
the
true
mother of
l
ife.

“When her consciousness
first fully awakened
,
she gave her energy to her surface to create the first
basic
life forms. She was lonely as you can imagine and wanted company
or
to have
some
form of
entertainment
.
W
e’ve yet to understand what her reasoning was
for starting life,
even now. Well things changed over the millennia’s and so did her creations. She watched with intrigue on how some of her
original
children created new abilities and others adapted to defend against those qualities. Like how prey makes their bodies camouflaged to confuse their
stalking
predators.”
Sorono started walking around the room. Connor slowly followed. The rest of
them
were entranced in the story and no one uttered a single word.
“While the species kept evolving and
making new and
unique tricks to survive, the
very
first species
that bega
n to dominate
all others
were the first mortal Keepers. Like humans
,
our brains had begun to grow and more options opened to us. We started as
small primal
tribes and then developed cities and sciences
, just how your race has
.”
Sorono stopped to point at the growing city.
“We began growing and getting more
knowledge in sciences. We were actually
close
the
same
point
technologically
of where you humans are right now. We learned how different elements behaved differently and what happens when you combine them. We had become the very first sentient species since the planet started.
And as to the slight humanoid qualities that you evolved primates and we evolved reptiles share is because of convergent evolution.

“Later on I’ll explain why that is.
”

Sorono then pointed to a blue and brown swirl. It was circular and about as tall as
Sarah
i
s.
“The Hallowed Mother watched with curious eyes as she w
itnessed
her children
becoming smarter
. Then she had become saddened at how destructive and cruel we had become to each other
and our surroundings
. She then created powerful guardians. These guardians were granted direct life from her very womb. Then her
first
child broke free to the surface
world
. Once he did he became the very first immortal.”
Connor raised an eyebrow.
“No I am not the first immortal
nor have I ever met him
. Please let me go on.”
And so he did.
“This first immortal’s name was
Afleen. When he arrived to the surface he was but a newborn
babe
. He grew up and learned
about the world,
thanks to a female who had lost a child and took him under her protection
and love
.