Elora Pt. 4: Consulting the Dead

If you have just now found this story, be informed that this is the fourth chapter in my ongoing story Elora. I strongly suggest reading previous chapters before reading this one, as it is a sequence. For all the rest of you, Enjoy Chapter 4...

London

A narrow back alley between two buildings which are situated extremely close to each other but not quite touching. An alley, which is dark, and almost impossible to spot and navigate and even more difficult to stay in for an extended period of time. That’s how Damion liked to think of cloak projections. Essentially, it was indeed that, an overlap between two otherwise distinct realities, difficult to get into but unassuming enough to provide a safe place for people to talk in peace, mostly used to communicate with entities of other realms, like the spirit world. If casted properly, cloak projections could be the safest place in the entire universe, since they materialized in two different realities simultaneously, creating a bridge, a hallway of sorts, and yet, they didn’t really tie to either of those realities. The only people who could enter one of these — or even sense its presence, for that matter — were the ones explicitly invited or allowed by the one casting it.

Damion wasn’t exactly fond of casting and working inside cloak projections; but he was one of the best at handling those the mystical world had seen in a long time. Damion seemed to handle cloak projections as easily as he handled the bronze staff that let him communicate with the spirits of the dead.

In fact it was this ability that had first exposed him as a sorcerer to the enchanted mansion where they all lived now. During his early to mid teenage years, he had discovered that he could transport himself to a dimly lit place where nobody could bother him. And although after spending a couple hours in one of these places he would experience headaches that lasted for many hours after, it was the only respite he could think of from his otherwise hellish life.

He had a small and happy family, but he never learned the intricacies of blending in. His peers teased and bullied him all day and the teachers didn’t expect too much of him. On the contrary, everyone simply thought he was another of the dim ones. Some tried to help him, but more often than not, it turned into situations which he just wanted to run from. And he ran to his own world. The rudimentary cloak projection which existed between his bedroom and the realm of the spirits he called the cupboard of friendly demons.

It was after one rather unfortunate incident — where he had unintentionally trapped one of his bullies in a cloak projection whose other end connected to a graveyard in hell — when Arsoz had found and brought him to London. The other kid was never going to be found, and Damion disappearing along with him was a dirty but easy solution. Since then, Damion had learned to control his ability a great deal better. He still had terrible headaches from creating cloak projections, but he had not needed to create one for over four years now. Damion felt a little under-confident that he would be able to do what Arsoz asked of him now because of the time that had passed since he had casted one.

The projection that Arsoz wanted him to open was going to host some really high profile sorcerers this afternoon. Well, not really the sorcerers themselves, rather their spirits to be correct. But what difference did it make really. Consciousness is just energy riding through the cosmos with a driver’s license of its own.

Damion started by making the necessary arrangements in Arsoz’s study. He rolled the carpet away, pulled the curtains down, almost closed, leaving a thin slit open to allow a dim beam of light to fall obliquely on the floor. He set about removing as many obstacles from the room and putting them near the walls. It had taken him almost an hour, even with Natasha with him, who helped him lift the more heavier items. They didn’t talk much after the first few words they shared at the start regarding Kavya.

“How is she?” Damion asked, pausing in between placing some books away from the floor on the wall shelves and picking up some more.

“Shaken, but she’s going to be fine.” Natasha didn’t need to be told who he was talking about. “It must have been one hell of a shock.”

“Yeah, I wonder how it happened with Elora. It was really scary.” Damion said, picking the last of the books from beside the window, just as Natasha pushed the marble shelf to one corner. “I hope Arsoz has some idea of what he wants to talk to them about.”

“I’m sure he does. You’ll probably learn a lot from them there.” Natasha said.

“Yeah, I hope so too.”

A soft knock at the door almost made them jump. It was Sofia. ‘Arsoz wants to know how much longer it would take you both.’ She moved her fingers, and Natasha interpreted them for the both of them.

‘We’re almost done here, I’m just leaving too.’ Natasha signed back. Then she turned to Damion. “All the best Damion. Bring some good news.”

“Thank you.”

Damion sat at the center of the hall, his bronze staff placed horizontally in front of him. He brought his breathing under control, then focused. He focused on the people he needed to invite and allow inside his cloak projection. Arsoz, obviously. Regina Makarosh, the only other sorcerer Damion knew who could talk to spirits. There had been others before her, of course, But none who he had interacted with. He had solicited help from her spirit a few months before on an especially tricky exorcism. She had helped him capture the demon away from the world of the living. The trait to talk to spirits had not shown up in any other sorcerer since her death seventy years ago, until Damion was born. Naoko Ishida was going to be there as well, the great researcher of telepathy from the nineteenth century. She didn’t have any abilities of her own, but she had the kind of knowledge about telepathy that could teach real telepaths a thing or two. And finally, Arsoz’s great grandfather, Arsoz the seventh, who was the leading authority on the gem of marzanna. He wasn’t alive during one of the awakenings, but the amount of knowledge he had on the subject surpassed anyone else. If only, he could have taken some time to review and correct the literature available on the subject while he was alive, Damion thought.

“Are we ready, Damion?” Arsoz spoke in his heavy yet gentle tone from the door.

“Yes,” Damion replied, opening his eyes, “take a seat, we’re ready to begin.”

“Good , good. Everyone else is where they are supposed to be, I believe.” He said, sitting down before Damion, mimicking his pose, folding his legs. Damion didn’t quite worry about the others. It was true that cloak projections, in some recorded instances, have been unstable enough to injure innocent bystanders. But he was confident that nothing of that sort was not going to happen here. Especially considering that the mansion provided a safe environment to practice any sort of mystic art, with each of its rooms a fully sealed off chamber when it came to sorcery.

Damion lifted the staff and focused on what he wanted to do. The curtains billowed slightly and then it began. The glistening tiled floor seemed to ripple, as if a very thin layer of water was spilled everywhere. The walls came next, turning from a solid ice blue to a dark paper mache gray, and finally looking like a double exposed film. The picture frames hanging from them could still be seen, but a more rock like pattern appeared on them as well. They were in a deep dark cave with water on the floor. They were in London, in the twenty-by-twenty foot hall on the third floor of an enchanted mansion as well. Both locations coexisted and yet, both locations were pulled away from their original realities at the same time. A fire appeared next, in one corner, where a few seconds ago there was a marble bookshelf. The books seemed to be on fire, but nothing was burning. Finally, faces materialized out of thin air. Two women and a man. All three of them were in the man-made hall, Arsoz’s humble abode. Damion and Arsoz were in their deep dark cave, the long dead spirits’ resting place. Both perspectives were real, both realities had a gap in them.

People new to experiencing a cloak projection would find it very difficult to keep focus on one thing at a time. It is comparable to sea-sickness, only here the water and land coexisted, forming not a swamp, and yet, there was no way to distinguish between the two. Fortunately none of the attendees this afternoon were novices in that particular regard. Arsoz rose up from where he was sitting, his feet causing mild ripples in the water on the floor without getting wet even a tiny bit. He spoke to Naoko first.

“It is my understanding that Damion here has already communicated our purpose of visit.”

“Yes,” she replied. Her voice sounded young, strong even, as if she was perpetually a teen. The cave made her voice sound more fuller, but the eerie echo made it a little unnerving at the same time. “And the way I understand it, Elora is not doing so well.”

“Yes, everything I’ve seen so far points to her soul being split into two self conscious but interdependent halves. I wanted to talk to you first to rule out the possibility that telepaths might be more susceptible to this.”

“No. Telepaths are not particularly susceptible to anything more than any of the other traits are. You can forego that possibility. Although, I did suggest to our Damion here that you should bring her along so I could get a better look at her.”

“I understand what you wanted, but I’m afraid I can’t do that right now. I need Elora to be in the mansion.” He turned to his great grandfather next, dismissing the subject at its onset. “Forefather! I wish to understand if the awakening of the gemstone has anything to do with the situation we are in.”

Arsoz the seventh’s voice was even boomier than Naoko. Maybe it had something to do with how deep his voice was. “Arsoz, I am not fond of the way you talk to us, and your approach to all of this. You are just trying to eliminate possibilities instead of trying to directly ask the right people the right questions. But I can also not disagree that it has been effective so far in your life.” He ran his hand through his beard. “We all know to some degree what circumstances surround the awakening of the gemstone, but having no first hand experience of it myself, I don’t know what help I can be. You would have done better to summon the one who was alive during the last awakening. You see, there are things that happen during an awakening, some of which can only be described and understood by people who have seen and felt it first hand.”

“Forefather, having experience of an awakening, and having learned and understood all the awakenings before your time are completely different things. I prefer to have the largest store of knowledge by my side rather than a single one off experience.”

“Merlin forbid that that policy of yours doesn’t turn against you in the near future.” An eerie smile spread on his beard-covered lips. “Look arsoz, the awakening has different effects on different people. The chosen one will have hallucinations, he will be forced to learn the ways of the stone, and after a while, he will do so willingly too. It has occurred in the past where the overwhelming knowledge and power has made the chosen ones lose their grasp on reality—”

Arsoz cut him off suddenly. “You mean that the stone can make mistakes while choosing its wielder for an awakening?”

“No, it’s merely a temporary thing. Once the awakening has run its course and the gem is completely in your reality for its tenure of awakening, the chosen one will be imbued with the necessary strength to wield it.” He clarified. “Now, talking about how the awakening affects the sorcerers, well, it is a little harder to tell what would happen, mostly because the gem affects different traits differently. The gem has a strong psychic impact, one that can be felt all over the world right from the beginning of the awakening phase. That is how Elora is supposed to be able to find and trace it as well as the chosen one. The mere presence of the bond between the gem and the wielder has a pulse associated with it that any telepath can pick up.

“Let me give you an example. You have in your apprentices someone who wields water, right—” The elder one asked, Arsoz nodded, “—she can sense the stone once it is in your reality because of its affinity with water and coldness. Like I said, different traits interact differently with the stone. However, what has happened with Elora doesn’t seem to relate with the awakening whatsoever. The awakening does not have an impact so deep as this on anyone, not at this stage, and not when it hasn’t fully awakened as well.”

“Then the gem has nothing to do with it?” Arsoz asked in a flat tone.

“What I am saying is I do not know how this could happen.”

“Why did you summon me here?” Regina asked, rather impatiently. Damion looked at her once, his mild distaste of her nagging at him.

“I was just getting to that. But I guess I can speed up here.” Arsoz turned to her. “Just over a couple weeks ago, Damion had conducted an exorcism in Norway. There the spirit gave him a message before leaving the body of the child it had possessed. I have the note with me.” Arsoz said and took out the note and proceeded to hand it to Regina.

Damion had been bracing for this moment in the cloak projection, as it was trickier to pull off seamlessly. Interacting verbally in a cloak projection was easy, the vibrations carried over a little scratchy but effortlessly. However, transferring matter properly was another story. He wished sorcerers like David and Kavya could teleport stuff between realities too. But for now, he needed to focus. Simply showing her the text wasn’t enough. There could be things in the note that were not apparent to Arsoz or Damion, but which Regina could feel. So sending the little scrap of paper to the other side was important.

Damion focused. Ripples formed on the water on the cave floor from all directions. The curtains in Arsoz’s study billowed inwards slightly. The projection shrank a few inches. Regina extended her hand to receive the slip of paper too. For Arsoz and Regina it was as if he had handed it to her. But for everyone else looking at it, the slip momentarily disappeared from Arsoz’s hand and appeared in Regina’s. The delay was exaggerated for the viewers looking in from a distance. Damion sighed as he saw the paper appear undamaged in her hand.

Regina read it a couple times. She looked back at Arsoz. “Now there’s a word I haven’t seen used in a long time. Artisan. Who was this spirit?” Arsoz looked at Damion, who at first didn’t notice that Regina had asked her the question.

“I—” Damion stammered a little. His deviating mind lost control on the projection for just a split second and then he picked it back up. “I didn’t get his name. All I had time to figure out was that he was an old one. The child—”

“Never mind the child, he’s safe, right?” Regina said, “Tell me what was the threat he gave you to let him write this down.”

“He said he would burn the boy’s eyes.” Damion said. Regina’s face showed a momentary expression which he couldn’t quite read. But it seemed as if she thought that there was something wrong with the note itself.

“That’s too easy.” Regina muttered softly. Then she turned back to Arsoz, sweeping her gaze on the rest of them. “Arsoz, are you aware of beings called munharif?”

“No,” Arsoz said at once.

“It’s a middle eastern term for deviant. But in the mystical world it has been used for a long time to refer to artisans who went to the dark side. Spirits of munharifs often threatened to burn the eyes of the host that they possessed. It is an inherent trait that their spirits develop. This they usually did to blackmail the relatives of the possessed in order to get something or make them do something. But all the same, it is quite strange and worrying that they used the threat to deliver a small and quite vague message like this.

“I’m sure you know about the dark stain.” Regina continued. Arsoz nodded. “And I also hope that you have already tried all your apprentices to look into them for it.” Arsoz nodded again. Damion was both surprised and relieved that Arsoz had tested all of them for something. “And you haven’t found anything out of the ordinary. Well, that’s not a surprise. Listen, Arsoz. I do not know what it is, but I feel like there is something different about this awakening. I don’t know about the rest, but I am not going back to sleep. There are too many coincidences here. A spirit goes so far away from its resting place to deliver a vague and cryptic message like this. Then one of your apprentices gets their soul split into two. A telepath no less. This does not look good. Have you found the chosen one yet?” Arsoz shook his head. “And you need her to find him.” Arsoz nodded. “So, yes, I think you need our help a lot more than a mere cloak projection would allow.”

“Regina, I understand fully. But at this point, I cannot arrange for you to be in our realm.”

“Scared of how it would look on your life’s work if you wanted to arrange dead human bodies for one or more of us to possess temporarily?”

“Call it whatever you want, Regina. But I am not going to take such steps so soon.”

“Suit yourself. But don’t say later that we didn’t warn you.” Naoko, who had been silent all this time, spoke suddenly.

Now it became a little clearer for Damion as to why Arsoz didn’t like coming into cloak projections. He felt it himself as well. It wasn’t only the despairing tone with which they were speaking, it was the despair they evoked in the visitors themselves. Give in and let us back into the land of the living. Yes, that was the gist of what they were trying to say here. And even though it was quite easily possible for sorcerers like Arsoz or even himself — acquiring bodies wasn’t a big deal — to bring them back. And even though these were good spirits, they had been good sorcerers and people, it wasn’t the right thing to do. And Arsoz understood it perfectly.

And after all that was said and done here, what knowledge did they really gain? They only succeeded in eliminating a couple more possibilities, which they could have done themselves, given enough time. And so when Arsoz told him to sever the link between their worlds, he was more than willing to oblige.

“What are we going to do, now?” Damion asked, once they were back in Arsoz’s study, and the spirit realm had completely gone from the room.

“We are going to find the chosen one.”

“Why didn’t you bring the slip of paper back with you?”

“You mean this one?” Arsoz produced the slip of paper from inside his robe. Damion’s eyes became saucers. That must have been the look of realization he had seen on Regina’s. She must have sensed that she was being duped with a fake. Arsoz smiled. “I did not give her the original. Tell me Damion, did you not feel something when you took the note from the child?”

Damion thought hard. He had indeed felt something. A slight sense of something odd about the otherwise ordinary slip of paper. But it was so subtle that he had simply chalked it up to the heat of the moment. “I did. But I don’t know what it was.”

“I had felt something odd when I had taken it from you too. I had borrowed your trait momentarily when you handed it to me the first time. But then no matter which way I tried to handle it, I never felt it again. That’s how I knew that your trait can detect whatever it is.”

“But Regina could have told us if she too felt it.”

“That’s the thing you need to understand about the ones from the other side, Damion. Nothing comes free with them. No matter how white their spirits are. If I were to hand her the real one, yes, she would have unlocked all the secrets in it, if there are any, but then she would have had leverage on us to bring her back with us. Now, what I want you to do is take this back, and learn from it what you can. I suppose you would need to go back and do some studying. Maybe the young one can help you in the library. After all, she practically has the shelves memorized by heart.”

Damion thought he saw a very slight smirk on Arsoz’s face. But he let it slide for the moment. If Arsoz truly was privy of his feelings towards Kavya, he didn’t need to voice it any stronger. He took the slip of paper from him, felt the slight tinge of something on his finger again, a feeling like static, but not quite. It didn’t evoke any sense of familiarity in him.

He nodded once more at the wisened sorcerer, and left the room.

Elora was in her room, meditating. She was trying to focus hard on the people around him. She felt everyone’s presence. Kavya in the first floor balcony, Natasha and Sofia in the kitchen, David on the roof, Damion leaving Arsoz’s study and Arsoz, sitting quietly near the window. She could see all of them. What she could not see was what they were doing, or what they were thinking. Her trait allowed her to speak to people via their minds, and receive messages from them if they were explicitly directed to her. But all other thoughts of a person were completely hidden from her.

She had read the old books. Telepaths could do the whole bi-directional thing. They could talk to anyone through thoughts, and they could read others thoughts as well. Then why can’t I? She screamed in her head. It was both confusing and frustrating to her. It frustrated her as to how easy it was for someone to just block her out of their minds.

Why did I have to be the broken one? She thought again. Her trait didn’t seem to be complete and now apparently her soul was broken in two. It scared her. It scared her because she had no memory of what had happened the previous night. And if it was true that the other half of her soul had left her body, then it was even more terrifying. She had no recollection of anything during the time she had laid on the kitchen floor, motionless. She wanted to be in control of herself, and yet, it seemed like her life wanted to go in a completely different path.

‘I hope she is going to be alright. We all need her, don’t we?’ She felt someone speak. It was like hearing the words, but she was distinctly aware of the difference between when someone was talking to her through voice and when the words were sent to her via thoughts. It was Kavya’s voice.

It was Kavya’s voice. Elora’s eyes shot open. Was Kavya talking to her? The words didn’t convey it as such. She was being referred to in the third person. So that left only one other possibility. She was talking to someone else. But who? She closed her eyes again. Damion was with her; the presence was distinct. If she was talking to him about her, then she was not talking to her. Then how did I hear her?

Elora focused again. And yet, just like the details of a dream disappear within two minutes after waking up, the chain of words disappeared from her mind. There was nothing more. No more words about her from Kavya. She could still feel their presence, but could feel no other thoughts.

“I hope she is going to be alright. We all need her, don’t we?” Kavya said to Damion. He had come straight to her room after coming out of Arsoz’s study. After listening to a concise account of everything that had happened in the cloak projection, she had grown more upset. She didn’t know what was more worrisome. The fact that they still didn’t know who the chosen one was, or the unidentified problem that Elora was suffering from, or her own feelings in the entire chain of events.

Kavya was distraught. And Damion understood it completely. She wasn’t mature enough to take all of these things into account. As a matter of fact, neither was he, but he had been part of this world a lot longer than her. And yet, in that short time, she had acquired enough knowledge about so many things.

“Yes, I hope so too. We really do need her. We have to find the chosen one, and for that we need to get her better. And Arsoz thinks the only way to figure out why it happened to her is hidden in this note.” Damion said to her, pulling the note out from his pocket.

“He gave it back to you?”

“Yes,”

“So, how can I help?”

“I sense something whenever I touch this note. And apparently it can only be felt by sorcerers having my trait, who can talk to spirits.” Damion explained. “But the problem is, I don’t exactly know what it is I am feeling when I handle it. Maybe there’s something in the old literature which can help me understand it, or can help me do it the right way. And nobody knows those ancient spell books here other than you and Arsoz. And he is busy. Have you read something like it among those?”

“First thing, they’re not spell books. And second, what do you think I am? The wikipedia of mystic arts?” She smiled, Damion laughed. “Let’s go to the library and see if we can find what you are looking for.”

To Be Continued...