A Division of Souls - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe (9 page)

Anando let out a small, joyful laugh.
If
only you knew where you really were
, he said.
You've met me
before, Caren. Here on Trisanda.

What??
A shiver ran through her body.
Trisanda…the Meraladian homeworld? She couldn’t have been there,
light years away! Impossible! She had no ability to enter Light at
will, nor had anyone else in her family. She was safe and sound in
her apartment, snoring away on the couch.

…or was she?

Open your eyes.

She felt warmth. Natural warmth, a sensation
of sunlight on her skin. Curious, she opened her eyes.

And indeed, all was Light. Pure energy, warm
and inviting, enveloping her entire body in a cocoon, protecting
her, and illuminating everything around her in a crystal clarity
she’d never witnessed before. And it was absolutely, heart-achingly
beautiful. It was…

Home? She recognized this place, she was
sure of it. She’d been here before, years, ages ago…lifetimes
ago.

Anando,
she whispered.
Where am
I?

She stood in a wide field of grass bordered
by tall, narrow trees. The sun hung lazily in the afternoon sky,
bringing out the vibrant colors of an autumn day. An extremely long
wood table sat in the middle of this field, weighted down by plates
and baskets of all kinds of meats, breads and vegetables, as well
as bouquets of flowers and large, unlit candles. A hundred or so
people surrounded the table, chatting and laughing excitedly.
Something fantastic had happened, and they could not contain their
glee. Though she couldn’t quite make out the words, she understood
that they were all speaking of someone’s long-awaited return. Caren
smiled despite herself; surely they weren’t excited by her
presence?

Moving closer, she was startled by the fact
that she recognized certain faces, those of people she was sure she
didn’t know in reality. Two men were having a heated discussion,
each one trying to convince the other that they knew this prodigal
someone personally; in her mind, they were friends and coworkers of
her father’s from when he was her age who loved to bicker at each
other. Another man spoke in hushed tones to his beloved, promising
her that he would introduce her to this someone, and she blushed
and smiled at him; in her mind they were friends she’d known in
school, a loving couple that had always been together. There were
five siblings of varying ages, three boys and two girls, who were
laughing and joking while they stuffed their face with the
delicious food before them; in her mind, they were her younger
sisters and brothers.

And yet on Earth, in real life, they did not
exist.

She could not deny this sense of closeness,
of relation to them. Their aura…their essence felt so familiar, so
familial
to her! Despite everything her mind told her, they
were here, in front of her. She could hear them, see them…if she
reached out, she could even feel them. She caught her breath —
suddenly all made sense! This was not her lumisha dea at all, but
truly another plane of existence. She really was on Trisanda! She’d
found and recognized another family…her
astral
family, her
spiritual kin. And at that very moment, those closest to her
turned, saw her, and acknowledged her. Some waved, but mostly she
felt ripples of emotion, of affection…a soulsensing of love.

For a brief moment, she felt
this
was
her true home.

Anando,
she whispered again.
Am
I…?

You are where you need to be,
he
answered.
I am here with you, because it was time for you to see
this. I’m here for you. Keep that in mind, Karinna.

She shivered…those words, they were so
familiar to her. He’d spoken them tenderly and honestly, at some
point in the past…in the deep past. Her heart skipped a beat, fully
expecting his next words. A memory, hidden deep within, not in her
mind but in her spirit, had been safely hidden away —

I will be your guide and your anchor,
he said.

A stray tear left her eye and fell down to
her quivering lips.

…
allei aiya, Karinna.

And in that very moment, a veil had been
lifted.

She felt another, stronger ripple of
emotion, a deep, unconditional love, stronger than anything she’d
ever felt in her life. An energy within her soul that reached far
past any emotional connection she’d ever had. It went beyond logic
and reason, it went to the very heart of her being. This was her
higher self. It was her Mendaihu self — no, it was higher than
that…much higher in her spiritual consciousness than that. It was
her Trisandi self. Her ancestral soul. Anando was…
Goddess…he’s
my…
she gasped. Here, on Trisanda…he was her
cho-shadhisi
, her soul mate! Her heart raced at the
realization, and she shivered with both excitement and awe. From
the deepest confines of her own soul, she knew this to be absolute
truth. Anando had returned! He had come for her!

…
allei aiya,
she responded.
Anando…where have you been?

On a long journey,
he answered.
A
soul-seeking journey.

Yes,
she thought.
I remember.
He’d left for a deeper part of reality in search of…in search of
what? The answer held itself away, just out of her reach. She knew
she had this answer, but had forced herself to forget it. She
stirred, frustrated.

I believe my journey was fruitful,
he
said.
We will speak of it soon.

Caren trembled. Something ominous in those
words.
Wait —

*

Caren woke up with a stiff neck and the
sound of a car alarm going off outside. It had grown dark; she
guessed it to be some time in the early to mid-evening hours.
Disoriented and surprisingly ravenous, she stared up at the ceiling
in an attempt to get her bearings. A blanket partially covered her
body, keeping her warm. She must have slept at least seven hours,
uninterrupted…that was a personal record. The haze of fatigue still
clouded her senses and she lay there for a good few minutes, trying
to adjust to her surroundings again. Physically, she felt so out of
it, it bordered on embarrassing to her duty as an agent for the
ARU. Mentally, however...

Mentally, she felt perfectly fine. Alert.
Centered. And that surprised the hell out of her.

Immediately she thought of Denni. Food could
wait—she wanted to see her sister first. Craning her neck, she
could just about read the clock in the hallway. Indeed, it was
close to nine in the evening. She expected her to be in her
bedroom, finishing homework or reading. With some effort, she
unwrapped herself from the blanket and pushed herself up. Slowly
she made her way down the long hallway to the rear bedrooms, her
bare feet making no noise on the carpet. Denni's door was closed,
but she could see a dim light from just under it and muted beats of
purepop music wafting through.

She rapped softly on the door. “Den?”

“Yeah,” Denni mumbled, her voice laced with
annoyance.

“Can I come in?”

There was a pause; the sound of music
stopping and Denni's grumbling. “Door's unlocked.”

Caren bit her tongue. Her sister had every
right to be angry with her, and let it go. She pushed the door
open. Denni was sitting on her bed, tapping distractedly on her
school tablet, scrolling through a text. She was quite diligent
with homework for a kid her age, which made Caren proud. She never
had to hover over her sister like most parents. It was a small
comfort that she could trust her judgment in her absence.

“Hey,” Caren said, attempting a smile.

“Hey,” she responded flatly.

Neither spoke for a few moments, instead
testing each other's boundaries. Denni looked at her, not entirely
with a cold stare, but not exactly a warm one either. She
understood Caren's job, though, even at her young age. She
understood that she wasn't mad at Caren directly, but at what
Caren's job took from her. She also understood the danger Caren
placed herself in almost every day. The longer she was away from
her, the more anger she focused on her sister's job. That alone
gave Caren even more incentive to change all that, starting now.
She’d do her damnedest to be there for Denni, no matter what it
took. She crossed the room and sat down next to her on the bed.
“Told you I'd come back to you,” she offered, taking the girl's
hand. She didn't pull away, and Caren breathed a sigh of relief.
She smiled inwardly, knowing that deep inside, her sister would
understand.

“Huh.”

“Listen,” she said, both hands grasping
Denni's now. “I know I missed seeing you today. Tell you the truth,
I can't promise I'll be there every time you need me to be
there--as much as I hate to say that, Denni, I can't lie to you.
But I'm trying, sis. Goddess knows I'm trying.”

Denni's eyes met hers. Softened. She had
forgiven her. “I know,” Denni said. “Thanks.” She reached over and
gave her big sister a tight hug. “I just get worried sometimes.
Thanks for calling this morning.”

“I’m glad,” she said, smiling. She pulled
away from the embrace and faced her. “So what did I miss
today?”

Denni beamed. She never talked much of what
happened during the day when she came home from school, but always
jumped at the chance whenever Caren asked. It was often talk about
schoolwork, the local boys she swore she didn't like but flirted
with anyway, and what she had done during lunch period with her
best friend Amna. Caren listened with rapt attention, asking
questions and laughing along with the jokes, enjoying this time,
treasuring it.

For now, for a little while, it seemed as if
everything had gone right again. Caren felt at ease with herself
and with Denni. The awakening ritual, while still on her mind, was
not first and foremost. She had done as much as possible workwise
and let it rest. Poe could handle it if anything came up. Right now
she had her sister, and that was all that mattered.

Later on, after she had wolfed down
leftovers and Denni had gone to sleep, Caren finally retired to her
own room. Still distressingly out of order, it was nonetheless her
sanctuary. Without changing out of her shirt and sweats, she
climbed into her bed and closed her eyes. Sleep would come
eventually, but for the first time in ages, her insomnia had not
been caused by stress or nagging thoughts about her job. Instead,
her thoughts were of the dream she'd had earlier. Only now did she
let herself remember it in full detail, after she had made peace
with her sister.

Anando...?

She searched her mind for that name and came
up with nothing, yet a faint hint of recognition had been tapped.
She had to have met him somewhere, at some time. Try as she might,
she could go no further than that, but it was a start. And given
that it had not been an adverse recognition, she accepted it and
let it go for the night. Glancing sideways at her bedside clock,
she saw that it had not hit midnight yet, and reveled in that fact.
She turned over, buried herself under the sheets, and closed her
eyes.

CHAPTER SIX

Poe

Ambient deepspacer music drifted from the
car speakers, just underneath the squabble of the ARU commlink.
Alec Poe paid little attention to the back and forth of his fellow
officers, his mind instead on the meeting with the two Mendaihu
siblings. He’d been avoiding the comm since yesterday afternoon,
when the public fallout from the ritual had wound down to a guarded
but steady calm. He certainly hadn’t calmed down, not by a long
shot, but he had to appreciate the public’s willingness to assume
all was back to normal for the time being. They knew better than to
lose themselves in paranoia and fear, especially after Governor
Rieflin’s speech the other day. The man had pulled an amazing and
unprecedented feat by being completely transparent about what was
going on, a move his predecessors would never have taken. The man
had gone live on all the channels the morning after the ritual and
he didn’t hold anything back. He explained the ritual in simple and
understandable terms and whatever side effects it might have
caused, and where anyone could go for assistance. It was an
extremely dicey thing to do, but he’d pulled it off. The Sprawl may
still be on edge, but at least they knew someone was in charge.

He shifted his car fluidly into the passing
lane, streaming past a line of tour cars and family transports. The
roads had been crowded over the past month and especially on I-91,
the major north-south highway that cut its way through the
province. The travel season was nearly over, and tourists were
heading back home. He shot a glance at each of the drivers as he
passed them. Their eyes were focused solely on the road ahead of
them, determined to cover as many miles as they could before
sundown…no one in the vehicles talked, or even gestured for that
matter. They might not have shown it or talked about it, but they
knew something was coming.

He shrugged off his discomfort, thinking
about that night. It wasn't often that he pulled an all-nighter.
How could he have slept? Unlike Caren, he had witnessed the entire
ritual firsthand. For the rest of his life he would remember
looking out his kitchen window at one in the morning, his heart
skipping a beat when he saw the bleedover suddenly appear, as if
the Goddess herself had made that deep, jagged incision into
reality until it bled a rich crimson cloud of pure, unbridled
spirit. He would remember the seconds it took for the initial pulse
and the shockwave to reach him, not so much a thunderclap as a deep
tearing
of the air and a blast of psychic energy that
knocked him backwards and nearly eviscerated his inner soul. He
would remember the time that dragged between those sounds and the
fated call from Chief Inspector Farraway. Almost exactly five
minutes.