Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (81 page)

Sorono and Veronica smiled at each other, but he said
“Yes, but only in the first room. You can look at the monitors, but you’ll need a special suit to enter the hot room. It would be t
o
o dangerous to survive
without them, even for us
.”

Sorono
walked up and opened the door for
him
.
Connor
felt like a little
kid as he opened the door and he
ran in.

The room
was air conditioned and felt
refreshing. It was mostly white and there were large consoles with many buttons and flickering lights.
T
wo large chairs big enough for a Keeper to sit comfortably
sat beside a desk
. On the wall above the console were gauges reading temperature inside the next room,
electrical output, water level
and some other gages that looked important.
Off to the far wall was a door and next to the door were full body suits for only Keepers apparently.

Sorono
started explaining about some of the features and fail-safes
the plant requiredf
. He explained how he and Damian built this building for the past fifteen years
in anticipation for this meeting
. It was all self contained and didn’t require constant supervision like other power plants. Incase of an emergency the building would send off alarms through the lighting system and give everyone
a minimum of
two hours to escape
before anything catastrophic should occur
.

The entire group
stayed down there
for four hours listening and learning about this place and once
they
were finished
they
walked back up the stairs. While
they
walked
Connor
asked Sorono “You said you ordered the cloth and other materials for the dances. How does that work?”

Sorono looked behind his shoulder and gave
him
a questioning look.
“I had a Balancer who couldn’t be here for the meeting and I contacted him by
e-mail
. I had a communication system installed in all thirty five Mélange meeting locations around the world. This site is the most technologically advanced of them all
for now
. Well my contact gathers whatever I order and air drops them here.
It is a very good accomplishment making the internet…
O
h don’t look at me like a
n ignorant
old
fossil.”
Connor
couldn’t help but smile with him.
“I have had computers for decades
and upgrade them every year
. I
even
have had them custom built for my size. I am actually a fan of your online poker.”

Kara
started
openly
laughing behind
them
. It was the kind that’s contagious and soon everyone was laughing with her. She could barely breathe as she said “Who knew…” She took a deep breath. “…that the all knowing Head Elder actually played online games.” She chuckled some more. “What is your favorite game?”

“Texas Hold
‘
Em. It is an easy to learn game, but knowing how to play is the real trick.”
The rest of the ascent
was quite comical with Kara asking questions about some other games he likes.

Eventually they
all jumped back up to the Elder’s platform and walked down the hallway. The Balancer and Changer Elders went to their own gates. Beside the Keepers stone gate were
their
six packs from
their
room.
Connor
picked up
his
and Sarah’s
while
Mark and Jack followed
his
lead.
He
turned around with the packs as Sorono opened the gate.

With it now open
they
realized there was a new building besides the four big ones. This one was maybe nine feet tall and
fifteen feet wide with a twenty foot length. There were three wooden doors. The building was up against the left wa
ll and close to the sanctuary. Connor
realized the materials from
earlier
were now made into a building. He
knew Sorono had it built
just
for
them
, but
the top Elder
still said
“Here is your new resting place. I had a few Guards come in here to build it while you were with me. I hope it is to your liking. You may choose whichever room amongst yourselves
and will stay as my guests
.”

“Thank you
, O
ld
M
an.” Kara said and ran to the middle door. “Honey, this will be our room. I’m going to go and get the painting supplies from the
temple
building.” And with that she ran off to the golden doors.

Sorono chuckled.
“What a high spirited
hatchling
.”
He looked at Connor
and said
“Supper should arrive
in about two hours. Go
and
settle into your room
.
W
e will
eat dinner later. Veronica and I are going to spend some time in my sanctuary until then.”

“Thank you for doing this for us.
We really appreciate it.
” Sarah said and Sorono smiled.

He and Veronica walked through the large wooden door
of the sanctuary
and disappeared behind it.

Sarah and Connor
took the closest room to the
front
gate. Once they
o
pened the door they
were both shocked at how similar this room was compared to the lodge. There were only three big differences. The first would be that there wasn’t a ceiling light. The second
i
s
th
at
walls were white stone rather than painted wood and finally there wasn’t a closet. There was a bed, a nightstand with a bowl of water and a dresser.

“Home
sweet home!” Sarah said behind them and then sighed. He
tossed
their bags on the bed and sat down. Connor
patted
his
thigh and she walked over to sit on
his
left leg. She laid her head against
his
chest
and then
looked up at
him
with unfocused green eyes. “Connor, do you miss our home?”

“Of course I do. I miss spending hours alone in the woods with the woman of my dreams. Just think, we are now a month closer to going home. And one day soon
our family will grow by one.” He
kissed the top of her head.

“Do you always
know the right thing to say?” H
e
r eyes focused and her smile
soft
ened
.

“I wish. I’m just very observant.”

She smiled a little more. “Well I hope these months pass quickly.”

That night
,
after supper
,
with
everyone
working together they
finalized the six
dances
because th
at
could be danced in pairs
. Each dance ha
d to have a different outfit. With a unanimous decision everyone
concluded
that instead of a masquerade they
would have a costume dance. You could make whatever kind of costume you want
ed, but it must be unique
. The clothing could range from conservative to scandalous. It really didn’t matter
because it was up to the individual
. The Elders all decided to wear normal clothes and participate like normal men and women
and actually associate with everyone
. The allotment time for clothing was from nine in the morning till two in the afternoon. The dancing seminars were held from two till four and the rest was free time.

They
decided that the dance order
would be Ballroom, Tap, Modern, Swing, Latin and finally
ending with
the Costume dance.

The next morning they
were greeted by Sorono and Veronica again, but Sorono was dressed completely different. He was dressed in a sleeveless white robe like Veronica, but
the edg
ing
of his robe was a light blue. He wore what looked like a gold chainmail belt.
Sorono
grinned once he saw the two of
them
exit
their
room.
“I just received a message saying that the items I ordered have arrived. They have already split the shipment of clothing and materials and brought down the women’s materials to level four.”

They
had breakfast with everyone and no one wore their Elder’s robes
for once
. After that,
Connor
and the rest of the men hurried up to level one.
And for each Elder there were two guards to protect the leaders of the meeting.
They
saw well over one hundred large metal crates lining the walls of level four’s stage
and two large mirrors to look at oneself
.

When Jack, Mark, Sorono
, two male Keeper Guards
and
Connor
made it to level one
,
he
saw the same amount of crates
situated
on
the
sidelines of the
football field
. When someone recognized them
a hush settled
over all the men in the room. Connor
started laughing and
his
voice carried off the walls. “Oh come on guys, were here to do the same as all of you
.
We’re here to show our ladies that we can look just as stunning as they can.
We
’
re all equal here so let’s
just
enjoy ourselves.”

“Connor’s right.
Go ahead and open the crates so we can all get to work before the dances
pass us by
.”
Sorono backed
him
up.

No one moved until Xaon spoke up. He was standing close to a crate in the football field.
“
Come on guys, the
y’re
right. Females
aren’t the only ones who can look breathtaking
ly stunning
.”
He turned around and reached up to open the latches. He backed away as the side opened
and fell to the floor
. There were four huge rolls of
colored
fabric on rollers in that box. There w
ere
black, white, yellow and silver cotton sheets.

Then everyone turned their attention to the b
oxes and started opening them. T
here was a separate box of sewing needles and miles of colored thread.
In another box was measuring tape, paper and pencil, scissors and
hangars.
There were feathers and other assortments
in two crates
. There were four boxes that contained leather shoes and
three
more boxes
for tap dancing. There were silks, cotton and some other kind of fabrics in most of the other boxes.
Connor
was amazed at how much diversity Sorono had ordered for th
e ending
celebration.

“Come on boys, let’s get to work!” Jack said as he rolled up his sleeves and blended into the crowd.

The rest of
them
followed suit.

When Connor
arrived at a fabric roller and it was
his
turn.
He
flew up and cut off six
thick
strips of black cotton.
He
made
his
way to the next box and grabbed a
thin needle and matching thread
.
Scissors were a must as were sewing pins.
He was happy he
knew about knots and string
from being an outdoorsman
be
cause he
would have been lost if
he
sewe
d without any knowledge whatso
ever.