Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series (13 page)

“
I hear you Alec,” a voice came from the flames before him, and he saw Bethany’s face and torso within the flame, shaped by the fire. “Why do you call me?”

“
I am so glad to see you again!” Alec cried. “I am alone, without anyone who is a friend,” he told her.

“
You have thousands of followers who would be friends. You have a host of children who love you Alec. You should turn away from the dead and return to the living,” the dead woman said. “Let me return to the place I belong, and you must do the same. This is not the real you, the Alec I loved.”

Alec watched the spirit entity shrink back to ordinary flames in the center of the fire pit, then, dissatisfied with Bethany’s message, he called upon another lost friend. He reached with the power into the vast array of doors and flung open the one where he sensed the spirit of Aristotle was able to be approached.

“
Ari,” Alec spoke affectionately as the form of his mentor rose in the flames, “I don’t have anyone who understands the world I’ve lost.”

“
Alec,” the shade said with sympathy, “you have gained multiple worlds in the process of seeing one pass away. You can participate in the world in almost any way; you can deliver life and hope to almost anyone. Alec, with your abilities you can bring peace to any trouble and calm any roiled spirit. Turn away from the dead, and go out among the living. This is a dangerous and evil thing you are doing,” Ari’s spirit told him, then it melted away.

The night passed, and Alec brooded as he stared at the new mark that had emerged on his arm, a skull, one that seemed to have life within its ominous black eye sockets. The next night he called upon other spirits, but they too rejected his desire for company. He tried again each night but found no peace among the dead, and began to scheme a different way to bring the dead back to life.

As one morning began, Alec gathered lumps of clay, and fashioned them slowly into a human body throughout the day, so that by nightfall the shape lay next to the fire. Alec altered his healing power to slowly convert the clay to flesh, and as midnight approached, he called forth the spirit of Jeswyne.

“
Alec, why do you do this to yourself?” the spirit in the flames asked. “Go back to Anechka and Petr and all the children and the grandchildren and the others who love you so much.”

“
I will go if you will go with me,” Alec said. “Let me move your spirit into this body; let me give you life again.”

There was menacing thunder overhead, lightening ripped across the sky, and a deluge of rain that Alec had not anticipated came pelting down from the sky. The fire began to diminish, and Jeswyne’s spirit dissolved into nothingness.

“
Alec, you have gone too far. I must put an end to this madness before you disrupt all of creation,” Alec saw John Mark standing above him, towering from a height that was not his normal size. “Come with me Alec, to be healed,” John Mark’s basso profundo voice said, and then Alec passed out.

Chapter
12 – A Choice of Worlds

“
Those are your missing memories,” a conventionally-sized John Mark said to Alec. The saintly figure sat cross-legged on the dusty floor of his cave, near where Alec lay sprawled as he awoke.

“
What was real?” Alec asked. “That life with Jeswyne? Was it real? Was the life in Vincennes a dream?”

“
It has all been real, Alec,” John Mark said. “Everything you have experienced since you awoke on the sea has been a real life, affecting the lives of other real people. And as your memories have been given back to you in stages, you have come to know your prior life, and integrated the two together in your psyche.

“
This last stage of memory that has been restored, it too is all real. The good and the bad were real Alec. The love with Jeswyne and your family was real. Your effort to violate God’s law and create life was real too. Now you know everything you have done. Most importantly, you’ve had the opportunity to start a new life with a clean slate in Vincennes, and live it without the pain and despair that was pulling you down in the last years of your old life,” the saint explained. “Your memories were taken from you when you were set adrift, without knowing precisely how you would define yourself in the Vincennes world. Of course, with your values and morals, you rose again to become a champion who would defend justice and compassion in society; I could have predicted that, knowing how good your heart is.”

“
So the life at Oyster Bay I just came from, as consort and king and husband and father and even necromancer, that was a dream just now? How long have I been here dreaming?” Alec asked, still confused.

“
You translocated yourself directly into this chamber from Krimshelm, and you have been dreaming here, recapturing the hidden memories from your past, ever since,” John Mark told Alec. “The world has continued to exist and move forward. Eleven generations of your progeny have sat on each throne, both Dominion and Empire, Alec since your last memories of that land; several weeks have passed in Vincennes since you left Krimshelm. When I took you away from your blasphemous activities in exile, I placed you in the boat in the path of the Krimshelm fishing fleet, but over a hundred years later. And so you were picked up and arrived in Vincennes at a time when that society was beginning to experience the greatest crisis it has ever known.”

“
The challenge to Caitlen’s throne? That is serious, and bad for her and her nation, but it doesn’t seem like it will be the end of the society,” Alec replied.

“”
If you choose to be involved, you will discover much more about what is occurring in Vincennes,” John Mark replied. “And if you choose not to become involved, it may never come to your attention.”

“
What do you mean, if I choose to be involved?” Alec asked.

“
You are back in your own part of the world, Alec,” John Mark answered. “This is the society you know, the one you were born into. You may think that your arrival in this cave is just a place for you to come to so that you can make your memory whole. Well you’ve done that, but now you must decide what comes next, and you must make a commitment.

“
As happened in the past, you have acquired so much power that you begin to upset the balance of life. As you know from your deadened necromancy mark, that power has been taken away from you, ever since you attempted to break the barrier of death and bring a person back to life,” the saint explained. “Now, you are going to have your traveler power removed as well. Your trans-locations place you too far above the limits of ordinary mortals, able to accomplish too many achievements in a way that leaves all others at too great a disadvantage.”

“
But!” Alec began to protest.

“
However,” John Mark resumed the conversation, cutting Alec off. “You will be allowed one more trans-location before that power ends. You could move from here to Oyster Bay, or from Oyster Bay to Michian, or from Goldenfields to Vincennes. The location and time of your last movement are yours to decide, but when that one movement is gone, the ability is gone.

“
You will still be a Warrior, a Healer, and a Spiritual Ingenaire. Your time travel abilities are of course already dis-engaged, as the necromancer powers are and the travel power will be,” John Mark summed up.

“
That doesn’t seem fair,” Alec began. “I know that what I did with the necromancy was wrong, but I was not healthy, not spiritually right. I had lost so much when I lost Jeswyne that I couldn’t cope,” he protested. “It doesn’t make sense to take those other powers away.”

“
You are still the greatest ingenaire in the land,” John Mark replied. “The fact that you can sustain both Healer powers and Warrior powers is unknown throughout history and your Spiritual powers are a greater gift than most people understand, as you are starting to understand. Be at peace with what you have, and make the most of your extraordinary gifts to carry out your mission.”

“
I did not know the Spiritual powers could provide that means for a soul to communicate with another,” Alec admitted. “I learned it from the lokasennii, in a fashion. Who are they? Who were those Ajacii, I fought? What are the other races Bernadina told me about? Are they all real?”

“
They are all real. They are all a part of humanity. Some people were born with greater abilities, and gathered together over time, having children who grew stronger in their ways. They evolved powers like ingenairii, but without being spiritual the way ingenairii powers tend to be, as you have discovered. Some of those races grew extinct, some maintain their isolation from humanity, some mingle within humanity, some are taking on a greater role than ever before,” John Mark explained.

“
Is that the challenge Vincennes faces – the Ajacii trying to assume control?” Alec shrewdly asked.

“
That is a part of it, but not all. The Ajacii suspect, but do not really know what they are being drawn into. Nor do you of course, but you may find out, if you go back, and if you choose to,” John Mark answered.

“
Why wouldn’t I go back? Caitlen is there,” Alec said.

“
And still you will be a shunned foreigner in that society. Beyond that though, you have not seen the blossoming of the Dominion and Michian. The seeds of the society you restored and planted and nurtured have made the nations much more like the vision you had. You will enjoy seeing your legacy,” John Mark explained.

“
It will take me weeks to get back to the Dominion unless I trans-locate, but if I trans-locate I will never be able to find my way to Vincennes,” Alec protested.

“
You have the opportunity to make a choice Alec. You can choose to go to Vincennes, and accept that it will be your home. Or you can chose to remain in the Dominion, and enjoy – possibly even protect – your own legacy of the nation you restored,” John Mark replied.

“
I want to be with Caitlen; she is a good woman, I love her, and I can help her. But the people of Vincennes are never going to love me any more than the people of Michian loved me when I was married to Jeswyne. I’ll end up as lonely and isolated there as I did at Michian,” Alec reasoned. “And if I stay in the Dominion, I will fail Caitlen. And I’ll miss her.”

“
That is your dilemma,” John Mark agreed.

“
If I go back to Vincennes, I’ll never be able to come here to your cave again,” Alec said softly.

“
Alec, you don’t need to be here to pray to God or to know him. You know that,” John Mark replied softly. “I am just a conduit between you and your creator; everyone has their own potential conduit – they have the ability to pray and meditate and know God. It just happens that I am an extraordinary conduit because you are an extraordinary individual,” the spirit of the saint smiled gently.

Alec sighed. “I don’t have to make a decision right now, do I?” he asked.

“
No, Alec. You will make the decision when you are ready,” John Mark answered.

“
I will travel and think,” Alec said. He looked down at the lack of weapons on his belt. “I don’t suppose there are any weapons or blades outside I can use, are there?” he recollected the prohibition on weapons in the cave, something he had learned through frustrating experience during his very first visit to the site.

“
There are no blades near the cave, but you will find a nice outcrop of flint along the eastern wall of the canyon on your way down, and I’m sure you will be sufficiently able to manage with that. You are a blessing and you are blessed. Go in peace Alec, and serve the Lord,” John Mark told Alec, and the saintly figure vanished.

Despite his awakening from a horrible nightmare of recollections, despite the agonizing choice he would face, Alec felt a sense of joy in hearing John Mark’s blessing. He stared out the marvelous window in the cave for a long time, enjoying the vibrant colors of the green mountain foliage, then he left the chamber, and began to descend down the stairs. It would be his last time here, he knew, for he intended to return to Caitlen soon, and he would accept permanent exile from his homeland to enjoy a life with the woman he now loved.

Hours later Alec left the door of the cave, and stood on the cliff area he thought of as the balcony, then climbed down the rungs cut into the stone. He paused as his eyes were level with the ground, and looked at the door in the cliff face. “Good bye, John Mark,” he said softly. “You’ve been a good conduit, whatever that means.”

The sky was darkening, and Alec rushed through the path he still remembered well to find a suitable place to spend the night. He stepped over the location where he vividly remembered killing a lacerta guard, then ran into the small mountainside dell beyond the cave. It was already growing too dark to attempt to descend down the mountain, so Alec picked a spot beneath a large bush and curled up for an uncomfortable night’s sleep. Early the next morning he was awake and descending the mountain side, stopping to collect sharp flakes of flint as John Mark had suggested, then using the flint to cut vines that he tied around pieces of drift wood in the river, the chilly gray waters of the Giffey River, and he let the river current carry his small raft down the river valley towards Goldenfields.

Alec let the river provide the energy for his progress, as his heart struggled with the choice before him. He felt trapped by the thought that he had to accept the permanent loss of something precious to him whichever way he decided to act. In his heart he knew he would go back to Vincennes, but still he longed to avoid the decision to exile himself away from the lands of his first two lives.