Keepers: Blood of The Fallen (7 page)

“Oh no, Brama! I wasn’t going to take his source. I was only going to lay him to rest. I don’t need such hideous source energy. I’m a collector of the finer things, Brama, you should know that,” he said chuckling.

“But Iron, uh, Sir. He is not your average Navarium. I have battled with him. You should hear what he has to share.”

“Hm. Well, Brama, you have been a trustworthy friend for quite a few cycles. I guess I have to trust you, for now. Ok mutant, speak.”

I told him why Asia and I had come to his land. I informed him of how we meant no harm to anyone, not even Tana, and we were only there to collect her and take her back home. Of course, I was more than prepared to take Tana out. I wasn’t really interested in taking her by the hand and leading her back to the house. I wasn’t even going to put her on a leash. She had to fight whatever was inside of her, and if she lost to it, I would have to kill her. It was simple, but so complicated.

Iron, who had yet to formerly introduce himself to me, loved to call me Moses. During our entire conversation, he never used the word “you,” and I was pretty sure it was because he noticed how I didn’t like my name. I was sure I cringed a little, every time he said it. I was uneasily surprised that Asia was as quiet as she was, the entire time we were in that banquet hall. She usually had something to add. She was usually more knowledgeable about our situations than I could ever dream to be. Most of the time, I just felt like the muscle, but that theory was being put to the test in the new world.

Once I finally got done explaining everything to Iron—what my purpose was—he only had one question for me: “Who are you, exactly?” I told him that I was a Kavar, as far as I knew. I watched as the rest of the people in the room started to look excited. Iron was not impressed, but he had no reason to be. The rest of the guys were all inching closer to me, like they were intrigued by me. I didn’t want to draw any attention to that, but since I did, I couldn’t push them away. They could help me get my objective completed.

“I don’t think I can trust you, just yet. The last I heard, Kavars were not allowed to step foot in the temple, and they certainly were not allowed to approach the High Order. If you’re a Kavar, you’re supposed to know that. You stay behind your border on the East,” Iron said with conviction.

I didn’t really know what he was talking about. Because I wasn’t from his world, I wasn’t given the rules to follow. I didn’t even know anything about a border. My confusion knocked him back a bit. “Where is your dwelling?” He asked. When I told him it wasn’t in his world, he started to show a little perspiration. “Brama, did you see Moses enter our world?” Brama simply shook his head. Brama was aware that Asia and I were not from their world, however, Iron seemed to be clueless.

“We’re clearly dressed differently aren’t we? Don’t you find that to be a little odd, Iron” Asia finally chimed in.

“Yes, little misses, but there are children here. They do strange things with their clothes all the time.”

“Have you ever heard of adidas? That is the brand name of my shoes.”

“A-what? Brand name? No. I have never heard of any of those things.”

“See? We’re not from here. We’re from Earth.”

When Asia said Earth, Brama’s and Iron’s eyes lit up. We heard whispers and gasps all around the room. It was like they knew of Earth, but didn’t exactly know anything about it. Then, the bombshell…

“Earth, you say?” Iron asked.

“Yes,” Asia said, smiling.

“I’m afraid I have a touch of bad news little misses.”

“Bad news? About Earth? What is it?”

“Earth’s fate was decided two cycles ago.”

“Wait…fate? This sounds like you’re going to say something apocalyptic.”

“Indeed, Moses. Earth will be reset. It will be destroyed, to be made new again. There is only one way to rid the precious habitat of the parasitic Navariums. We had no other option.”

“Bullsh-”

“Mo, keep your composure please,” Asia said in a calm voice.

“Did you hear what he just said? How do you expect me to keep my composure when our planet will be destroyed? That means death, Asia. For all of us. And he’s probably going do it!”

“Not for all of you. You two are here. Just stay here,” Brama said, kind-heartedly.

“I’m a Kavar, she’s a fallen Keeper. We wouldn’t be welcome here. I would have to stay on the east. Who knows what they do to fallen Keepers here. This is so messed up. Who do we have to speak to, to fix this?” I didn’t think about telling them about Asia was a bad idea at the time, but it really was.

“The High Order,” Iron said, “they don’t like to talk.”

“They’ll talk to me. Show me where they are.”

Iron, surprisingly agreed to take us to the High Order’s chamber in the temple. We decided it would be best to get a night’s rest before we ultimately walked into our deaths. I still wanted to find Santana, but I couldn’t look for her, only to let Earth be destroyed. Finding her wouldn’t matter if we were all going to die anyway. Because we were so tired, we did manage to fall asleep. Their time for rest had to only be about five hours long, and after doing the math, I knew that it was actually somewhere around one or two in the afternoon back home when we woke up. Iron walked us to the temple, and told us that he couldn’t enter it. He was not a Keeper of the highest order. He was only a Keeper of the Militia, but he was in charge of the militia. That explained a lot.

Brama, who was still sure he would be killed, stuck his sword into the massive silver keyhole in the giant golden door and turned it. He escorted us in. Apparently, all of the militants and knights knew how the temple was mapped out, but they could never enter it. Asia took my hand, and we walked in, behind Brama. There was nothing spectacular about the inside of the temple. As a matter of fact, it looked baron. Even Brama was unimpressed. “This is what they have forbidden us to enter? It has the appearance of a discontinued dwelling,” he said.

IV

From the looks of it, on the inside the temple was nothing more than a run-down church. On the outside, it looked marvelous, like all the rest of the buildings of their world. We walked through the building, with Brama telling us what each room was supposed to be. We went upstairs, about four flights; there was a door at the end of each set of stairs, but we were there to see the High Order. They were on the fourth floor. Brama told us they used to be on the seventh floor, but the fifth through seventh floor was being used for things that were unexplained to him. I wasn’t interested in that; I just wanted to get to the High Order Keepers.

We finally reached the door, and instead of knocking, which was apparently considered disrespectful, Brama shouted to the Keepers, “Permission to enter?!”

There was a faint response: “Come.”

We went in, not knowing what awaited us on the other side of the door. Brama allowed us to walk in first. I was sure he was just afraid of what might happen to him. He was already confused, because he was allowed entry so easily. When we walked inside, a man met us at the door. He seemed to appear out of nowhere. Before we could react, he said, “Speak Kavar.” He had a tight smirk on his face. Upon further observation, the man appeared to be over a thousand years old. He had hundreds of wrinkles in his face, his teeth were yellow, and his hair was very thin and white. His skin was a very pale white.

“I…we only come with a few questions.”

“Ask,” he said, as he stood right in front of us, not more than six inches away from my face.

“Why are you going to destroy Earth?”

He smiled. Then he turned and walked away. We walked into the darkness of the room, and the man lit several candles at once, with what appeared to be just a flick of his wrist. Instantly, we could see that there were skeletons on the wooden floor, and they were all dressed in amazing robes. The old man was also dressed in a really nice green robe, with golden thread outlining it. Asia gripped my hand tighter as she surveyed the room. The old man, who I was sure was a Keeper, smiled and sat down at a small table. He was drinking from an old silver cup, and it looked to be something brown, although I was sure it wasn’t coffee, just like whatever Iron was drinking.

He looked up at us with his red eyes, still smiling with his yellow teeth showing, and said, “So you want to know why Earth is going to be destroyed?” He took a very loud slurp from his cup, and then, proceeded to tell us why Earth was going to die. “Earth was our habitat. It was a beautiful place, meant to be a sanctuary for us. We lived there for several multi-cycles…years as you call them, but like all things, Earth was eventually overrun with the parasitic Navariums. They became something much more than a nuisance that we could keep at bay, and we ended up with an enormous problem.

There was no conceivable way for us to rid ourselves of the demons. We could only learn to live with them: to blend in. You see…Earth was created well before we discovered it. It was full of vegetation and other beautiful creatures before we got there. We were the first beings there after the four-legged creatures and other animals. We lived in harmony with them. We hunted them, but only for nutrients. The Navariums hunted them for sport. Now, they hunt
us
for sport.”

“Ok…wait. Navariums…what did they look like,” I asked.

“They looked like us, of course. Originally, anyway.”

“The Navariums…don’t look like ghosts and,”

“They look like us. They look exactly like us. The difference between us is that they are bloodthirsty, and they do not show regard for others. They are evil. They will kill at will and enjoy it. They explore in other dimensions, and they believe they can create beings, similar to what we have accomplished. Only, their beings are unstable.”

“Create beings?” Asia asked.

“Yes. The time of death and the time of life are synchronized here in Alburia, because each being that is not of the High Order are beings that the High Order created, in the Source Energy Chamber. Your dear friend Brama was created in the Source Energy Chamber, and so was Iron, although Iron was created of different energy than Brama.”

I felt like I was close to figuring out everything that was going on, but I was not quite there. Asia had a look of sureness on her face. After about thirty seconds of awkward silence, I decided to ask my final question. “Can you give us the chance to fix Earth before you destroy it?” What a question that was. He wasn’t ready for that. He sat back in his chair, grumbling. He was so old that I could almost smell his brain as it tried to think of every reaction to his response. He sat up slowly in his seat.

“How?” He asked. He had a great point. I had no idea how we were going to fix the problem, but I couldn’t see myself letting Earth be destroyed. I wasn’t comfortable with that conclusion to my short life. I thought that maybe we could eradicate all of the Navariums, or at the very least start a coalition that would continue to eradicate the Navariums well after we died. “You do realize that you are surrounded by Navariums on Earth, right?”

I felt my knees buckle. I knew what was coming next. “You call them humans, and yes, you are half human,” he said, with compassion in his eyes. Asia gripped my hand so tight that I couldn’t feel my fingers. I could hear her breathing getting choppy. I couldn’t believe it. I knew plenty of people that were good people. I knew so many that did great things in their communities. I knew preachers, doctors, police officers, firefighters, and teachers. I didn’t understand how they were evil. I knew I wasn’t evil…

“How? How are all of those people evil? I know plenty of good people!” Asia shouted.

“Well
Fallen Keeper,
those ‘good’ people are no more than living their everyday lives amongst those who are exactly like them. I mean, think about it. If you were a Navarium, would you go around killing Navariums? Nearly everyone on Earth is a Navarium. The one you seek is a Navarium. She is one that they have been using to draw you two out of the crowd. They have several like her that serve the same purpose. You were fooled, like many of us. But you are safe now. We will go through with our plan soon, so you should stay here and prepare for the new dawn on Earth.”

There was nothing we could do that didn’t involve a global massacre. We couldn’t solve a problem we didn’t believe really existed. The thought of killing people that had been good people their whole lives didn’t sit right with us. “What if the humans don’t know they’re Navariums? What if they are actually just humans? You’re going to kill them off, but what if they are not these evil beings that you think they are? There are evil beings out there, but not all humans are bad.”

“Would you like to show me?”

“Yes.”

“You have ten Earth minutes to prove to me that not all humans are bad.”

“How?”

“Bring back five humans that are not evil.”

We took the deal. He handed Asia a bracelet from his wrist that would allow us to travel through the dimensions with ease, without going to the tunnel. She had to keep the bracelet, because it would only work with the one who could manipulate chi energy; I had no idea how to make it work, but I could see Asia’s. We walked out of the room, and Asia took us back to our dimension.

When we got back, we thought it would be easy. We knew an elderly lady who always had family over at her house. They were all great people that we met during our seven years of peace. We went to the house where they always were, and sure enough, they were all there. We didn’t tell them what we were going to do, because they wouldn’t believe us. I told Asia to take us all back. The aura shined brightly, but we didn’t go back to Alburia. We went to our house. “I have to get Cilandria. I didn’t want her with us, in fear she might get hurt, but maybe she can help us convince them.”

I stood in the living room with a group of confused people, thinking they would all jump on me at any second. Instead, they just all stood around, looking confused. When Asia returned, she had Cilandria in her arms, like she always did. Asia had a huge smile on her face as the owl snuggled up against her chest and underneath her chin. They really did have something special. Even though the people we kidnapped were still confused, they could also see the love between those two.

When Asia took us back to Alburia, we landed in the temple. We just had to walk up the hall, from the top of the stairs, to the small room where the old Keeper was. When we entered the room with the people, who were easily convinced to walk, the old Keeper looked at us and laughed. He told us that the people we brought in with us weren’t good at all. The elderly lady had once accused a man of rape, even though he never touched her; she was only sixteen when that incident happened. The man, her son, went to jail for a weekend for drunk driving. The oldest-younger lady had an affair with her husband, while she was married to another man. The youngest lady there had once been addicted to cocaine. The youngest man was a glutton, who ate a ridiculous amount of food when he was stressed out. To the old Keeper, none of them were good people.

Asia tried to make a case for the family, but the old Keeper just laughed it off. I noticed him cut his eyes at Cilandria several times, during the exchange. “Brama, take these humans to the source chamber.” As Brama escorted the people out of the room, the old Keeper walked over to Asia and the now nervous owl. “Do you remember, Cilandria? Do you remember me? It’s me, Kneulton, the Keeper of Time. I am the last one left…since you left, of course. It’s been so lonely without you. I’ve grown old over the last thousand years, but it is really me. I knew it would be hard for you to return, but I never thought it would take this long.” Cilandria stuck out her wing and rubbed it across Kneulton’s face. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. Then, his wrinkles left, and he looked a few thousand years younger, almost instantly. “Thank you, Cilandria,” he said in a much younger sounding voice.

Quazo had no idea what Cilandria could do, and he didn’t think anyone else did either. However, Kneulton knew exactly what she could do. He motioned for Cilandria to come with him. She hopped off of Asia’s arms—after quite the struggle—and hopped to the other side of the room, where it was still a little dark. Kneulton lit more candles, and we could see Cilandria standing next to a skeleton that was dressed in a purple robe. A single tear fell from the owl’s face. Then, she started to glow. Asia grabbed my hand, and I could feel unusual warmth coming from her. I turned to look at her and noticed she was crying.

I turned back towards Cilandria and watched as she started to glow a bright orange color. She became too bright to keep looking at, so I shielded my eyes with my other hand. When the room darkened a bit, I unshielded my eyes and saw something amazing. Cilandria was not an owl at all. She was a Keeper. Coincidentally, she had the appearance of an Asian woman in her mid to late twenties. Her skin was a very light brown, her eyes were green, her hair was long and dark, and she was crying tears of joy. It had to be a very emotional moment for the two women, who had become so close over the past seven years. I, then, also understood why she had mixed emotions about me. She could, in fact, sense that I was part Navarium.

“Hello Asia. Moses.” She had no Asian accent whatsoever.

“He doesn’t like that name,” Asia said, smiling and still crying. She walked over to Cilandria and gave her a hug.

All of sudden, we heard screams come from a near place in the temple. The three of us gasped simultaneously, but Kneulton said that we shouldn’t worry; Brama was just gathering source energy from the family we brought back. Cilandria turned slowly to look at Kneulton, and Kneulton smiled at her. She walked over to him and slapped him, leaving his head turned. “What happened,” Asia asked Cilandria.

“Knuelton has someone named Brama, a knight I presume, taking source energy from those poor people you just brought here. I assume you were not aware that no one outside of the High Order could see this place without special permission. I am sure you would have been next, had you not brought me with you. You now have my permission. Enough chit chat, as you say. We have work to do.”

We walked out of the room, leaving Kneulton standing there, embarrassed. He was holding his hand up to his cheek, with his mouth hanging open. I was still trying to figure out why Cilandria was an owl. I didn’t understand any of it, but I was sure it was something that had to do with the plan of mass extinction. Asia, on the other hand, wasn’t trying to figure it out; she came right out and asked Cilandria. “Why were you an owl?” Cilandria smiled. Still walking, she turned to Asia and told her it was because she wanted to see if there could be a civilization of Navariums that weren’t so bad. Somehow, I knew it. I knew there could be no other reason that Cilandria would want to be on Earth.

Her smile told us that she did have faith in the people of Earth. I remembered how we found her, and I was surprised she didn’t change her mind when they attacked her. I was still having a hard time figuring out how all humans were actually Navariums, parasitic beings of an evil nature. There was an age-old question, “What is the purpose of life?” I don’t think Navariums can answer that question, because parasites don’t have a purpose in life. They just exist and spread, until there is nothing left but them. After some thought, I could definitely see the parasitic tendencies of humans.

Some families had four children, considered to be the perfect number, but there were others who had twenty children. There were television shows about them, and there were women who would subject themselves to a man who would be married to other women; all of those women would have several children. The pollution and waste had become a major problem. Global warming was an issue that no one really wanted to tackle. The space program was sending people to the moon, but the Earth wasn’t even fully discovered yet. Places like North Korea were locked under a dictatorship that technically was illegal there. America was still full of racism and hatred. Parasites hate each other because the more one takes, the less the other gets to have. They all had different religions, some of which didn’t really make sense, and the religions caused quite a few wars. I could see the need to eradicate the Earth of parasitic people. I couldn’t, however, bring myself to accept genocide as the only way.