The Realms of Ethair (28 page)

We’re standing on it. Basco, are you in?”

“
Almost there…” The man’s hand moved in
precision, pointing, tapping, pushing and pulling sideways in the
air. The youngest among the Guards, his head was shaved with three
stripes on each side and the middle portion tied in a braid. An
earring flashed red in one ear, blinking at every movement his
hands made. “I see another firewall. Could be that lab.” His
fingers moved rapidly over an invisible keyboard. “And…we’re…in.
Aha! Hm. Interesting but…not surprising. We have a matching copy of
the lab’s layout with HQ. I’m pulling out our—”

“What’s interesting?” Mindy asked.

“
This island is manmade and it’s not meant
to stay in one place. Anyone who gets a glimpse of it will think
it’s just one of the Philippines’ islands that appear during low
tide. They’d only see a small, uninhabited piece of land because of
the cloaking device surrounding the area. But that’s not all of it.
Our island is part of a bigger manmade land mass and when the
“party” starts, it means the convergence of all islands into one.”
Beside the laboratory’s floor plan, the map Basco showed the
Pacific Ocean and the countries near it. Red markers, representing
the islands, moved towards the center of the ocean. Their own was
on its way to merging with the others. “One grand
reunion.”

“
Something bigger is going on. We shouldn’t
have come here,” S7 said. When Liyanna didn’t respond, he shook her
by the shoulders. Mindy blocked the Sentry about to lunge at him.
“What’s wrong with you?”

Liyanna
stared blankly ahead. Something was tugging at her
consciousness repeatedly ever since she stepped foot in the third
dimension. She remembered its significance just now. It was the
cord that connected her to her bonded mate. It was getting weaker
and this drove her to project her astral body to find out what was
happening.”

“
Arty?!” Arturion held the
Cord
, a
three-inch thick white rope, in both hands. He chanted to himself.
The
Cord
thinned a
centimeter. She gasped. He was trying to break the bond. “Arty,
don’t do this!”

Slowly, his eyes met hers. “I’m sorry. I
didn’t know – the bond.”

“We put it there” she swallowed. “A different
lifetime.”

“You should never have come for me. I didn’t
ask you to save me.” Head bowed, he continued the mantra.

“Wake up!” The sting of her cheek jolted her
back to her physical body. In front of her, a Sentry loomed over
S7, who sat on the floor glowering at his attacker.

“
Sentry Martel,” Liyanna called. “Find
Pellinor and take him to me.” The Sentry reluctantly turned his
back from the ex-spy. He bowed to her and disappeared.

She looked at her team. “You are right,
S7. We shouldn’t have come here. Basco, send a message to the
nearest squad that we’ll be joining them.” She edged closer to the
boundary of their circle. “I’m sorry.” Light swallowed Liyanna, the
last she saw was Mindy staring at her with sadness. She was the
only person who could easily read Liyanna without eavesdropping on
her thoughts.

Liyanna
followed the fading
Cord
. Midway, it vanished. Panic made her lose control of her
Merkaba. She dropped on the floor, her elbow disturbing a table
filled with laboratory equipment. One Erlenmeyer flask, which stood
too close at the edge, dropped with a crash. Glass scattered in all
directions. The liquid it contained sizzled and dissolved
everything it touched. Burnt rubber invaded her nose. The chemical
was slowly eating away the sole of her shoe. It had also come into
contact with her jeans, the holes down her pant leg as evidence.
She retreated from the spillage, careful not to break anything
while looking for a place to hide. Men were getting closer, drawn
by the sound coming from the lab. A hand pressed on her mouth,
making her stiffen.

It is I,
Liyanna
, Pellinor said.
He pulled her to a corner behind a desk.

Two scientists entered. The same ones she
had sensed. They had come to investigate where the sound had come
from. Pellinor’s Glamour found its way toward them. Instantly, the
incident was forgotten and they returned to their initial
task.

“
You left your circle.” The man speaking to
her wore a clean laboratory coat which looked a size bigger than
his thin frame. His shaggy hair hid pointed ears and his eyes were
like a cat’s. “The witch wouldn’t let me return to my true form,”
he explained.

“I can’t find him.” She gasped for air.

“Then, there’s no point in completing this
mission.” He offered a hand to take her far away from this
place.

“
The energies—” Liyanna could feel the
energies overwhelming her physical being. Without the bond, there
was no one to share it with. In an hour, moving would feel like
wading in deep water. Liyanna would be lucky if she even lasted for
three days.

Her vision blurred. She was seeing two Pellinors
instead of one. Her hands and feet were cold.
Liyanna was quickly losing control. Her
present environment was overpowering her hypersensitive senses. All
she wanted was to curl into a ball and be left alone.

It seemed a long time had passed when she
felt the energies passing through her became bearable. Her head
cradled in Pellinor’s arms, she opened her eyes to see his trained
on hers. She stared back and averted her gaze when he
would not.

“How are you feeling?” Gently, Pellinor
helped her sit up.

“
Better.” Liyanna wondered on how he was
able to help. She noticed he had not released her hand and gave it
a pointed look.

“
I am a part of Mother Ethair. I’m
siphoning your surplus of energies to Earth. As long as we have
physical contact, you’ll be fine,” he explained. “If you still have
his crystal, you can use it as a focus. It will lead you to
him.”

Clutching the stone, she concentrated.
Liyanna saw the same vision: Arturion floating in a stasis chamber,
with tubes attached to him. This time, however, she looked outside
the tank. The contraption was connected to cables attached to
machines that three scientists were operating on. The monitor’s
screens reflected on their faces. It flashed red. Not a good sign.
The men were also entering commands into the system. She glanced at
Arturion and examined his aura. It was fading just like her
mother’s before she died. Quickly, she looked at the screens. His
vital signs were dropping one by one... The scientists were
shutting down the machines.

Taking Pellinor with her, they reappeared
behind the scientists. Liyanna snatched Pellinor’s blow dart from
his belt and tranquilized the men, while her partner loosed two
bolts in rapid succession towards the stasis chamber. The first put
a dent on the surface, the second hit the same spot. The glass
cracked and extended outward. Inside, a bubble formed. Pellinor
ducked behind the computers with Liyanna. The water burst from its
container, swamping the whole laboratory. A warning bell blared
within the facility. Steel bars appeared behind them from ceiling
to floor. It divided the laboratory into three rings. It encircled
the damaged chamber, the area where the scientists work, and the
last two feet away from the wall and the door. It wouldn’t be long
before security guards arrived. Thankfully, Arturion’s body had
been swept away from the chamber. He lay prone on the floor,
deathly pale and naked. She placed two fingers on his neck. The
pulse throbbed faintly, then went painfully still.

“No, no, no! You can’t die.” She could See
his spirit lingering beside them. “Arty, stay with us. The bond –
if you give up now, you’ll be taking me with you.”

I’m sorry
,
Arturion said.
You’ll have to find another way. You have
to go now. He set this trap knowing you’ll come if you knew I was
in danger. He had them kill me…

“
Live. Please.”
Liyanna gathered healing energy into her hands and
used it to energize his heart. More energy poured into her as she
gave him more.

Let me go.

Seconds painfully ticked by when Pellinor
suddenly said: “Liyanna. He’s breathing.” He pulled her hands
away.
Liyanna saw
Arturion’s chest rise and fall. At the middle of it, a faint line
appeared. The bond was weak but intact. Liyanna had saved him and
the energy she shared with Arturion would sustain him. But there
was one last thing she must do before going home.

‘
Could you take him home?” Liyanna smiled
when Pellinor hesitated. “I’ve drained my excess energies reviving
him. I’ll meet up with the others,” she promised, seeing no need to
tell him that she might not be able come back.

“
Be safe.”
Pellinor covered Arturion with his coat, hefted
him into his arms and disappeared.

She waited. The warning bell went dead as
well as the electricity. It was Reno’s doing. She counted six
seconds before the generator reactivated the lights. Liyanna hoped
they got everyone out.

A deep chuckle echoed within the walls of the
laboratory. A leg passed through the door, then a head. A tall,
pale, blonde man in his thirties crossed the room, unhindered by
the solid objects in his path. Power, dark and dense, exuded from
him. He gave her a once over and said: “We meet again, sister.”

Suddenly, an invisible force slammed her
against the cage. The bars shuddered at the impact, reverberating
in her bones. Liyanna had not even seen him blink.

“Rather, half-sister.” He paced languidly.
“It’s not nice to invite yourself and not say hi to the guest of
honor.”

“I thought I was invited.” She leaned heavily
at the bars.

“
Oh, you’re the entertainment. Yes, it fits
you better than a guest.” He tapped his chin, thoughtfully. “You
never learn, do you?” The man seemed to expect an answer. The
problem was, memories of her past life failed to give her details
of what he was talking about. “You look so much like that woman.
Shall we see where your similarities end?” His lip curled into a
smile.

Glass from the damaged stasis chamber
lifted off the floor. One of the smaller pieces zoomed past him and
continued its path towards her. Liyanna dropped to the side at the
last moment, the glass nicking her ear. She reached for the staff
on her back but decided against it. There wasn’t enough room to use
it. The staff would only hinder her movements.

“Lucky save, that one.” He clapped his hands.
“Let’s do it again.”

Three more came at her. She rolled away
from one and kicked the other two as her legs flew in an arc above
her. Liyanna got to her feet, sensed another attack at ten o’clock.
The glass whizzed past a centimeter from her nose. Pain stabbed
her. A two-inch wide fragment had lodged itself on her left
shoulder. Blood oozed from the wound. She tried to pry it out and
ended up almost blacking out in pain. It had embedded itself in
bone.

“Aw. We’ve only just started.” For a moment,
he looked genuinely disappointed until it turned into a wicked
grin. “Let the dance begin.”

Five large pieces of glass from behind him
sped towards her. One of these, she observed, went through him. As
Liyanna avoided the attacks as much as possible, she realized two
things. First, this man liked to play with his victims. Second, she
was losing focus as pain lanced down her arm and shoulder. To
detach herself from her injury, she focused on defense and observed
her torturer. She began to see little things about him: how his
facial features didn’t quite catch the laboratory’s lighting; how
he could move around unobstructed by inanimate objects and vice
versa; how his shoes weren’t ruined by the wet floor; how the
puddles remained undisturbed in his wake; and how he kept his
distance from the bars separating her from him. When she got the
chance to move closer to her opponent, she could see right through
him. A hologram? But it didn’t make sense when he has an aura. As
she bent low to avoid getting her head sliced open, she picked a
piece of glass in each hand. The smile on the man’s face turned
into a scowl. A dozen jagged glass shards threatened her from
opposite directions.

Liyanna
threw her weapons towards him, twisting in midair
and narrowly avoided being sliced to pieces. She landed in a
crouch. One of her own had struck a solid object attached to the
hologram. It was in his breast pocket.

“
You cannot harm me, Liyanna,” he said,
brushing the front of his suit.

Liyanna
kept her face blank. She had gotten accustomed to
his attacks by now. He was serious when he said dance. The man was
making her move to a rhythm through shards of glass. The knowledge
boosted her confidence. Eventually, calmness overcame pain and
fear, enabling her to initiate her Merkaba.

It was time to end it.

Light surrounded her being. It protected her
from further injury as she advanced on her enemy and plucked the
object from his pocket, taking her directly to the mastermind of
this sadistic game.

The place she arrived in was dim. There
was a light behind her. She turned around saw a large screen
looming before her. It showed the place she had just escaped from.
Liyanna looked around her. People in formal gowns and suits had
their eyes fixed on her. She was standing on the platform with Fred
at the speaker’s lectern. He held a larger version of the tablet S7
had loaned from the security guard. The bronze pocket watch she had
snatched earlier matched Fred’s aura.