Tag Archive: plaza of the masters

May 22

In the Company of Angels: Episode 13.1 – The Aftermath

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In the Company of Angels, Episode 13.1 – The Aftermath

When she realized that Polly was gone — gone for good — Jill collapsed upon the stone plaza floor, sobbing. During the actual march of Polydora and the Ferrumari people into the gateway, Jill was too caught up with the singing and with Polly’s last command to her to fully comprehend what was happening. The wave of triumph from the ancient servant race of Obaratus had carried Jill along. Theirs was the song of a people who had reclaimed their ancient homeland, and who had also, for the second time in their history, overcome an evil that might easily have spread to other planets and destroyed other peoples, cultures, and worlds, including Jill’s own.

But now everything was finished, and the song of the Ferrumari was hushed. In the eerily still aftermath, Jill could not contain her grief at the loss of her friend. It was the loss of a connection to another soul that she had not felt, she realized through her sobs, since her father had disappeared more than a year before. Now, with this new loss, the old grief came back to Jill, and she felt more deeply abandoned then than she thought anyone could ever feel.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up. It was Sam. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. Tears had welled up in his eyes as well, and she felt waves of grief flowing from him as he tried hard to fight back his tears. He stood with her for a few moments, unable to speak, and Jill saw, through her own tears, another figure approaching them both. It was Azarias.

“Sam, I’m going to need your help,” the tall man said softly.

Sam nodded, and Jill sensed a flood of relief coming from him. Having a job to do, she realized, allowed him to push his sorrow away for a time. It would be back, he seemed to know, but this was how he had learned to cope with his own pain. Jill wondered, then, what Sam might have suffered through on other framerunning journeys. Or was this way of coping related to something else? Jill knew Sam lived with his uncle. She had never asked about his parents before, and she suddenly felt like she had been a very poor friend.

Sam squeezed her shoulder again and said, in a thick voice, “I’ll be back soon,” and then he walked with Azarias away from her and toward the closed gateway. Jill watched them as they went. Azarias was speaking to Sam in hushed tones.

Mr. Luke came over to her and helped her stand up. He, too, was struggling with his own grief, and this grief surrounded him and pressed down on him like great iron weights. He had likely known Polydora, Jill realized, longer than anyone else — other than Azarias, perhaps — and Mr. Luke had probably spent more time with Polly than any other human being ever had.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Luke,” Jill said to him. She stretched out her arms, and Luke leaned down and hugged her tightly. When he finally let go, Jill saw that tears were flowing freely down his cheeks. He pulled out a handkerchief and mopped his face. Then he blew his nose loudly.

“There. I needed that,” he said. “I can’t remember when the last time was that I cried. And I hope it is a very long time before I have cause to do so again. I’m afraid this was not in the least the sort of trip I had planned for your first experience of framerunning…I’m so sorry. So very, very sorry….”

He covered his eyes and the tears again streamed down his face.

“It’s alright, Mr. Luke,” Jill said, and she hugged him again. There was something about realizing that her own pain was shared by all of them that helped make the loss of her friend ever so slightly more bearable. A part of her changed forever at that moment, and Jill realized suddenly that her tears were already drying in the gusty Orbaratan breezes.

Azarias and Sam returned, and Jill noticed that Sam had a strange look in his eyes.

“Luke,” said Azarias, “I know that we all need some time to recover from what has happened, but there are a couple of things that need attending to, and they simply cannot wait. Forgive me, Jill….

“Luke, I need you to do something: two things, in fact. First, I need for you, with Jill’s help, to try to recollect, to the best of your ability, the actual moment of your coming through the painting of Orbaratus from The Gallery. Then I need you to sketch that moment. Think in terms of an image taken from the vantage point of someone watching you all go through the painting from a location elsewhere in The Gallery. It’s very important that you keep that intent in mind as you make the sketch, alright?”

“You mean the intent that the sketch represent that precise time?”

“Exactly.”

“Alright, that shouldn’t be too difficult,” answered Luke.

“And, Jill…” said Azarias, “I know we’ve not formally met, but that will have to wait. Right now, I need you to help me with something.”

“Yes, Sir?”

“I need you to watch Luke very carefully and help make sure that he gets the image right. I want you both to recall as many details as possible, but only those that you are both quite certain about; if you don’t remember something clearly, don’t include it in the sketch.”

“Where do you want me to sketch it?” asked Luke.

“On any suitable surface. This one over here, for instance.” Azarias gestured toward one of the monolithic pillars in the plaza that had not been toppled by the earthquakes, and that had smooth stone surfaces on two of its four sides.

“Sam and I need to attend to another task. We will have to do some mazerunning while you’re both working on the sketch. When we come back, I’ll need you to do a second sketch, but for now, concentrate on the one of The Gallery with all of you in it, including the painting of Orbaratus. It needs to be complete enough to framerun safely.”

“By all of us?”

“No, by me alone. But, because I wasn’t there, it likely needs to be more detailed than if you were running it yourself.”

“It won’t take more than an hour or so,” said Mr. Luke.

“Good. That will suffice. We should be back by then.”

“Do you mind my asking what this is all about?” asked Luke.

“I can explain later, but not now; time is pressing. All will be made clear….”

Mr. Luke nodded. He reached into his drover coat and once more pulled out a piece of chalk. Then he turned to the monolith and studied the first of its two blank sides. Jill watched Azarias and Sam walk together toward an adjacent wall made of the metallic mineral with which the Ferrumari had built so much of their city. They spoke for a moment, and then quickly disappeared into the wall together.

“What’s it like, Mr. Luke? I mean, being in the Maze?”

Mr. Luke shuddered. “It’s not like anything else I can describe. Very unpleasant: for me, anyway. I’m sure at some point Sam will take you through the Maze, but you should never, ever, try it on your own! It’s far too dangerous! It is very, very confusing, and it’s easy to mistake real images and real exits within the Maze for reflections, and vice versa. Have you ever been in a hall of mirrors at a circus or a carnival? You know, the sort of thing they have in a ‘fun house’?”

“Yes, once, when I was very small. I went with my father.”

“Do you remember how confusing it was?”

“Yes, I think so. Sometimes you’d walk right into a mirror, thinking it was a way out, and at other times, you’d be unable to find a way out because you thought it was just a reflection.”

“I couldn’t have described it better myself,” said Luke. “Take that, and multiply it by about a thousand, and you’d have a sense of how confusing the Maze can be.”

“But not to Sam?”

“Apparently not. But that’s because that’s his gift…his particular talent. He never seems to be confused by what he encounters within the Maze. But he would find — and in fact does find — your ability to feel and sense the emotions and thoughts of those around you to be just as strange and hard to understand.

“But, let’s get back to the business at hand. Let’s think about this sketch. When we first came through the painting, I know Sam went through first, correct?”

“Yes, and then came Polly and then me….” Involuntarily, Jill’s eyes filled with tears once again.

“It’s alright, dear. I’m having the same trouble. Just take a deep breath….”

Jill took several deep breaths. “OK, I’m better now. I’m sorry. Alright, let’s see…I was holding onto Polly’s hand when we came through the frame….”

Luke began sketching while Jill sat down on the plaza stones near the monolith and watched him. First he drew in the shape of the painting itself upon its easel. Then he roughed in a figure wearing a drover coat — himself — with Polly and Jill standing just past him, walking forward. Then he consulted with Jill on what other items had been in the jumble of odds and ends surrounding the painting and the easel at the time. As they talked, more and more of the sketch took shape. Soon all of the lines were in place, and Luke used one lighter and one darker piece of chalk to begin sketching in the shading of the scene more fully.

After about an hour, as he had predicted, Luke stopped and stepped back from the pillar. Before him, on the flat, greyish surface of the stone, was a drawing that, far from being a simple sketch, was approaching a very realistic scene.

“Azarias should find that workable,” Luke said aloud. He looked over and discovered that Jill had fallen asleep where she had been sitting. He stepped over to her, took off his drover coat and spread it out beside her. Then he gently lifted her over onto the coat, covering her with it to keep her warm.

 

       [ To read Episode 13.2, click here…. ]

Apr 30

In the Company of Angels: Episode 11.2 – The Broken Gate (cont.)

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In the Company of Angels, Episode 11.2 – The Broken Gate (cont.)

“I guess I don’t understand. Whatever would drive the Amenta to destroy a world…any world?!” Luke asked Azarias. They were passing through the flat in London , and Luke was once again downing a mouthful of chocolate. Azarias glanced at the letters on the table, noting that none had been taken other than Luke’s.

Azarias was, Luke noted with some envy, apparently untroubled by the act of framerunning. But it then occurred to Luke that he had never been entirely sure into which of the three primary categories of the Order the older man fell. He knew that he had some Empathic capabilities, and was also capable of Rendering images; perhaps he had Navigator skills as well. “Some people have all the luck,” he thought to himself as he downed another mouthful of chocolate. “I just know I’m going to weigh 300 pounds by the time I’m his age,” he thought ruefully.

From Father Hildebrandt’s “squirrel’s nest” of a storage room, Azarias had retrieved a staff that appeared to be wrought entirely of matte silver. Atop the rather plain shaft was a large blue crystal. Azarias had said that they’d need it, but he had not elaborated further, fearing to waste too much time on their return to Orbaratus.

“I’m sorry, what was your question?” asked Azarias.

“My question is: what is the point? That is, of the Amenta getting an entire planet to destroy itself?”

“Ah! That might better be asked of Father Hildebrandt than myself; it is more in his line, you might say.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, because it has to do with the nature of evil: of what it seeks and of how it grows.”

“That’s pretty heady stuff…”

“Yes indeed! But, since we need to find your portal — where is it, by the way? — let me answer you succinctly. What are the Amenta after, you ask? Souls. That’s all. It’s really that simple.”

Souls?!”

“Souls. I’ll explain more when we have a better opportunity, but where is this portal? I am unable to discern it, even though I am holding one of the sapphires.”

Luke looked around the room; he still had his ring on, and was only confused for a moment. The grey light from Orbaratus was almost identical to that coming through one of the living room windows, and the portal was in front of one of these, making it difficult to pick out from the background.

“There it is,” he said, pointing.

“Ah! Well then, shall we?”

Luke looked through the portal before he stepped through, and he was glad that he did so. “There’s something wrong,” he said. “The horizon is wrong.”

They looked through the glowing frame and saw the plaza on Orbaratus; but it was as if a giant had tilted it upon its side.

“Either the world through the portal is undergoing some tremendous upheaval,” said Azarias, “or your base image sketch has broken away from its moorings and fallen upon its side.”

“I’m guessing the latter,” said Luke, “although I drew it upon a huge block of stone and it would have taken quite a blow to fell it. We suffered an earthquake just before I made the sketch; I wonder if there has been another since I left?”

“We shall soon see,” said Azarias. And with that he stepped through the portal, found gravity to be pulling him sideways, and thus half-rolled and half-crawled out onto the plaza. Luke followed right behind him.

What they saw when they regained their bearings shocked them both. The plaza was swarming with black shadows, and a roaring and howling filled their ears. As they stood, they perceived the gateway at the other end of the plaza, and it appeared to be the nexus of all of the turmoil and confusion. Yet, within that heart of  darkness, they could yet perceive a single bright figure, standing alone: it was Polydora.

“Come,” said Azarias, “there is not a moment to lose.”

    o o o

The raven had been put into a wicker basket with plenty of openings that would allow the bird to breathe, and even to intermittently eye its captors reproachfully. It croaked and clicked at them, and at least once, Jill could swear, it said something that sounded like Latin, although she couldn’t identify the words used.

Sam had initially entangle himself in the selfsame blanket that Jill and the Professor had prepared for the bird when he dived through the portal. There were several moments of sheer panic and confusion when both he and the raven had come careening through the canvas at nearly the same time.

Somehow, they had managed to isolate the bird from the boy, and the former was held tightly until a suitable repository for it could be found. The Professor had discovered an old basket that a friend had brought him back from Ethiopia a few years before. It was a pretty thing, and something he rather hated to part with, but he had no qualms in offering it up for the bird’s safekeeping.

The three of them, with raven in tow, had returned to the attic once the bird was safely tucked into his temporary home. The painting of Orbaratus has been turned around and uncovered. Jill knew that time was pressing, and that they’d likely broken every Framerunner rule in taking the Professor into their confidence, but she somehow sensed that it would be alright in the end.

“Professor, I wanted to ask you, where did you get this painting? I mean, the one we used to come here?”

“It was given to me by a friend at Oxford. Painted by a dystopian writer: one named Acasi Simaov, if memory serves. I don’t believe his works ever caught on, but my friend liked the painting and he bought it at an estate sale. He thought I’d like it since I had been working on books on space travel to other worlds. It’s a strange painting, and I never got around to framing it or hanging it, which is why it is still here in the attic.”

“Well, Sir, if you ever decide you don’t want it, I know of a group of people who would be interested in keeping it safe for you,” said Sam. “I don’t know who is in charge there these days, but let me write them a note and jot down an address for you.”

The Professor brought him an envelope, some paper and a pencil, and Sam wrote a quick explanation to the Abbot Primate of the Benedictine order, outlining in general terms that the painting was of Orbaratus and might need safekeeping. Then he added the address of the Monastery de Sant’Anselmo to the outside of the envelope.

“There, Sir,” he said to the Professor. “If you ever decide to part with it, just pop your own note in with mine and send the painting with the envelope to that address. It’s entirely up to you, of course, and without access to a crystal, it’s unlikely that the painting could cause any further mischief. But, ya never know….”

Then there came the awkward moment of having to say their goodbyes.

“I wish we had more time for me to ask more questions,” said the Professor, “but I also know that to do so might cause even more harm than may already have been done. I shall have to either hope to see you again some day, or to spend some time speculating, for my own benefit, what framerunning might be like. In any event, it has certainly been a very interesting and thought-provoking afternoon!”

With that, Jill and Sam bid the Professor the best of luck with all of his works, clenched tightly hold of their crystals, and disappeared into the painting of Orbaratus. The Professor rubbed his eyes once he was sure that they were gone, and gone for good. He then left the painting as it sat for the remainder of the day and all of the next. Thereafter, he boxed it up and shipped it to Rome, where it came, in due time, to be in the hands of Father Hildebrandt.

        o o o

When Jill and Sam arrived back upon the Plaza of the Masters with the raven and basket in tow, they were astonished at the change. The howling and roaring that had greeted Luke and Azarias was, if anything, louder still, and thunder, wind, and lightning had blown up from the south. They, too, could see that all of the movement and noise centered near the gateway at the other end of the plaza, and they knew that’s where they would be needed. They could not make out precisely what was happening, but they saw two figures heading toward the maelstrom before them.

“I think that’s Mr. Luke!” yelled Sam as he picked up the basket, “and I’m betting that’s Azarias with him!”

They narrowed their eyes against the gusting wind, and Jill was forced to put her hands over her ears to try to block out the howling. She was feeling even more queasy than usual, and although Sam had immediately started toward the gateway, when he looked back at her and saw how pale she was, he returned and fed her some chocolate.

“You gonna be OK?” he yelled in her ear.

“I think so. But that noise; it’s driving me crazy!” said Jill.

“Just Howlers, but more than I’ve ever heard at once. And you usually don’t see them, ever, in the daylight. They’re the things that look like flying sheets of black tissue paper, and they’re thick as smoke over by the gateway. We need to get over there, because we have the two crystals that the raven stole. Let me know when you feel well enough to walk….”

“We shouldn’t wait,” Jill yelled back at him. “I’ll be alright. Let’s just go!”

They turned back toward the gateway and followed Mr. Luke and Azarias into the heart of the storm.

 

       [ To read Episode 12.1, click here…. ]

 

Feb 20

In the Company of Angels: Episode 6.2 – Parting Company (cont.)

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In the Company of Angels, Episode 6.2 – Parting Company (cont.)

 

“I can see that there are wooden beams that come down to the floor”, said Luke, “and they meet somewhere above the portal: atop a wall, probably, or perhaps at the peak of the roof. I can also see other shapes scattered about: maybe they’re odds and ends, like you’d find in a  storage space…? Some of them do, in fact, appear to be covered with cloth, and everything has a thick layer of dust on it.”

Sam beamed at Jill and nudged her. “Mr. Luke can see stuff better than anybody. I think it comes from his being a Renderer. I remember one time my trying to draw a frog, and he was coaching me. He kept shaking his head and saying ‘You’re not looking properly, Samuel!’” Sam had altered his voice to mimic Mr. Luke’s.

Jill giggled. “You do that very well!” she said under her breath.

Sam grinned. “Yeah, but I never could get the frog to look right, Honestly, I couldn’t draw my way out of a paper bag! But I’ll bet if you showed Mr. Luke anything, he could draw it, and so life-like it’d scare the heck out of you!”

“So, is that the main thing Renderers can do? Draw?” asked Jill.

“It’s a lot more than that. They can sketch the simplest thing and framerun it…even better than I can, because they’re the ones that drew it! You’ll see for yourself if Mr. Luke goes to find Azarias. You would already have seen it if there’d been a surface for him to draw on down in the street; up here, it would be easy, ‘cause he could use any of these stones as a canvas.”

“Alright,” said Mr. Luke, “If you two will be so kind as to stop chattering, I think I have a plan. I can see nothing immediately dangerous through this portal, and I would definitely like to know what we can learn about that bird. It was a raven, by the way; did any of you notice?”

Sam winked at Jill but said nothing. Polly remained silent.

Luke looked around at everyone. “Here’s how I suspect we ought to proceed, but I’m open to suggestions. I believe that I ought to consult with Azarias, provided I can find him. So, I will attempt to framerun back to London. I’ll explain the situation to him and see if he can shed any light on what might be happening here. If he deems it necessary, I’ll bring him back to help us.

“Sam, if you and Jill are willing, I’d like for you both to explore this frame and learn what you can about what’s on the other side. Most importantly, I’d like you to see where the raven came from. There’s something very peculiar about a bird that can framerun! My suspicion is that the creature may have stolen the third crystal, but perhaps you’ll find that out once you’ve caught up with it.”

“How much exploring do you want us to do, Mr. Luke?” asked Sam. “I mean, yeah, we may find ourselves in an attic or a crawlspace or something, but if we see no signs of the raven, what then? Do you want us to snoop around a bit?”

“Only if it seems safe. We have no idea which of the Iconic Realms may be on the other side of that frame, so there may be dangers that we’re not expecting,” said Mr. Luke.

“You mean like wild boars in Narnai?” Sam was grinning.

“Ahem! That, Samuel, was not my fault. And, for our purposes here, it is ancient history! No, I mean that we don’t even know if what looks like an attic means that there will be human beings there that built it! Aside from that, remember that the portal could also lead you back to earth, but at a different time than our own. If that appears to be the case, you need to touch nothing and return immediately; we can’t risk meddling in a time-tethered realm.”

“A what?” asked Jill.

“Sam will explain it to you. But, Sam, remember: prudence first! And although she’s just learning to use her abilities, have Jill help you to find the bird; she may be able to track it down even if you can’t. For that matter, she may be able to alert you to the presence of people or dangerous creatures before you would even know they’re there.”

Sam nodded. “We’ll be careful.” Jill looked at Sam and swallowed.

“Polly,” said Mr. Luke. “If you don’t mind, I’d like for you to remain here so that you can keep an eye on this new frame and on the stone gateway and its crystals. I don’t know if you could get through the portal to help Sam and Jill if they needed it in any event, but you can watch their progress as long as they are within sight. And you can also help them sense what’s in the space before they jump in blindly…you may be able to tell them who or what is near the picture on the other side before they framerun it. Also, if anything happens to them or to the doorway, you should try to follow me back to London through the sketch I’m going to draw.”

Polly nodded. “I shall stay here. This is still my home, and I fear nothing on Orbaratus, even if some danger lurks behind the doorway.”

“So, does this plan suit everyone?”

“Works for me,” said Sam.

“Me too,” said Jill, “although I still think that portal’s kinda small….”

Polydora simply nodded.

“Good. Then it’s settled. I’ll be off first…” Mr. Luke walked toward one of the monoliths that littered the plaza, drew a piece of chalk from a pocket in his drover coat, and then quickly and expertly sketched a rectangular doorway through which could be seen a sofa and a window beyond it. It was a very simple sketch, and one that only took him a minute or two to draw onto the stone surface. But, once he was satisfied, he bowed to the others.

“I shall return as soon as possible. If anything goes seriously amiss, Polly, please come after me. And you two,” he said, turning to Sam and Jill, “remember: caution! No heroics! Jill, do your best to rein Sam in if he threatens to do anything rash!”

With that, Mr. Luke turned his ring around on his finger and stepped into his drawing.

Despite Sam’s comment about Renderers, Jill was still astonished and gasped when he disappeared. She had seen the bluish glow on the sketch even as it was being created, but this was the simplest of images: nothing like the painting that they had traveled through to reach Orbaratus, nor any of the pictures in her library that she now knew had been framerun by Mr. Luke and Sam…and Rusty.

“Wow!” she said. “That’s really amazing! So, can he do that to go anywhere? At any time?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” said Sam. “‘Course, he can’t Mazerun, so I guess that’s something I can do that he can’t. But who wouldn’t like to be able to step through their own drawing and go to the North Pole, or to Wonderland, or to Lothlorien?

“That said, I never got around to asking you,” said Sam. “Can you draw anything yourself? Ever taken any of Ms. Craig’s art classes at school?“

“Yes, once, and it was a total disaster,” said Jill. “I was lucky to get a ‘B’, which she gave me just because she felt sorry for me. It’s definitely not my thing. I doubt if I did any better than you did with your frog sketch for Mr. Luke. I mean, I can draw really simple things, like stick figures or smiley faces, but nothing like Mr. Luke.”

“Yeah, Mr. Luke’s pretty spectacular. I think Azarias can draw, too, but I’ve never seen him do it. But, enough talking: we have a job to do!”

“Yes, we do!” said Jill. “So just how should we proceed with this?”

“I should look first,” said Polly aloud. “I wish to make sure that all appears safe on the other side of the raven’s frame.”

From within her head, just after Polly had finished speaking aloud, Jill heard Polly speak to her separately. “Go slowly with Sam, little one. He doesn’t sense things well, nor the way we do. You should trust what your feelings tell you is happening, and slow him down if the need arises.”

“But how can I slow him down?” thought Jill back to Polly.

“Just tell him what you feel, and remind him that Mr. Luke told him to trust you. He will listen to you; perhaps even more so than to Mr. Luke.”

“Why would he listen to me?!” asked Jill.

In her head, she “heard” Polly laughing softly at the question. “He will listen. Trust me, little one,” came the response. Jill looked up at Polly questioningly, but the Ferrumari betrayed no emotion on her serene, metallic countenance. Instead, she stepped toward the raven’s frame. Grasping her crystal tightly in hand, she stooped and thrust her head into the dark portal. She stood there, as still as a statue, peering into the darkness.

Nearly a minute passed before Polly pulled her head back out of the frame. “I cannot tell for certain, but I believe that the world on the other side of this frame may be your planet, the Earth. I cannot say if it is your own time or some other. But, there are at least two people in the house, for that is what the structure appears to be. I think that this portal, in fact, leads into a crawlspace or side attic of the house. I can detect no sign of the raven, but perhaps he has simply flown from the attic space; that you will have to determine for yourselves.”

“Can you tell us any more about the people that are in the house?” asked Sam.

“Very little. They are both on the same floor as the attic space, and in fact appear to be quite near to the portal, just on the other side of a wall.”

“So this space is on an upper story of the house?”

“I believe so,” said Polly. “I cannot tell you much about the floor below, but there are living things surrounding it; plants, birds, trees. The attic is most likely on the first floor of the house, and the main part of the house is below.”

“You mean it’s on the second floor of the house then, not the first….”

Jill thought for a moment. “No, Sam, I think she means the first floor in the British sense. That is, the floor above ground level. Is that what you mean, Polly?”

Polly nodded.

“OK, then. We’re going into a crawlspace with folks around, So, let’s be as quiet as mice!” said Sam.

Jill had never experienced such a thing before, but she received the psychic equivalent of a nudge from Polly, and looking up at her, she saw that the Ferrumari was smiling. “Yes, be as quiet as can be,” Polly said to Sam.

The bottom of the frame was just about at waist height, or a little above. Grasping the sapphire on the pendant around his neck tightly, Sam bent down and squeezed through the opening.

Jill watched him disappear, gave Polly one last glance, and then followed him into the darkness.

Polydora watched them both enter the portal, and then bent down and looked through it to make sure that she could see them on the other side. She saw Jill stand upright, dust herself off, and then turn back and wave.

Polly waved back. Then she stood back up straight and looked around at her home — at Orbaratus. The wind was still whistling around the empty stone monuments. Otherwise, it was quiet; as quiet as she always remembered it. She was once again alone in her world; in a world filled with ghosts and even perhaps with dangers that she had never known before. But it was still her home.

Polly breathed deeply of the air of Cenurbus. It smelled as it always had: flinty. It was a smell that she only noticed consciously when she returned with Luke, Jill and Sam. When she had lived here for those many hundreds of earth years, it was just part of the background — she had had no other world with which to compare it. But now she recognized the smell of her home. She could detect nothing obviously amiss now, either in the smells or the sights of Cenurbus.

That was when the rumblings began again, and Polydora knew that another earthquake was coming. But there was something else, past the seismic sounds, that she sensed. For the first time ever, Polly thought she could detect the slightest presence of other living creatures: creatures that belonged to this world, just like her. And Polly sensed that these beings must be awakening somewhere deep, deep beneath her: under the very stones at her feet….

                [ To read Episode 7.1, click here…. ]

 

 

Feb 13

In the Company of Angels: Episode 6.1 – Parting Company

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In the Company of Angels, Episode 6.1 – Parting Company

Polydora grabbed Jill by the hand and pulled her away from the doorway just as a large stone from the cliff face above it broke off and splintered onto the pavement. It landed where Jill had been standing. Luke took Jill’s other hand and the three of them followed Sam out onto the open plaza.

The earth heaved around them and they heard cracking sounds as planters and stone pillars splintered. Looking past the edges of the plaza, they saw dust and debris falling from the buildings below them and on either side. Then the motion of the earth, which was beginning to make Jill a bit dizzy, ceased. The rumbling continued for some time, punctuated with the sounds of additional objects falling and crashing below them. Then there was silence.

“Jill, are you alright?” asked  Luke.

“Yes, I’m fine, but I wouldn’t have been without Polly….”

“Is everyone else OK? Sam?”

“Sure, I’m fine, said Sam. “But what happened? Polly, do you get a lot of earthquakes on Orbaratus?”

Polydora shook her head. “This is the first I have ever experienced here.”

“I can’t help but wonder if it has something to do with the missing stone,” said  Luke. “It can’t be just a coincidence that it would be gone, Polly would sense someone or something else here, and then we’d have an earthquake, all at nearly the same time. There is more going on here than we know. Something isn’t right, and we may need help to figure out just what.”

“Help? What sort of help?” asked Jill.

“We need to get Azarias involved. Polly, do you know if he has ever come to Orbaratus?”

“Of course he has! He was among the first to visit my home,” said the Ferrumari. “In truth, he was the first human being I ever saw; nay, even the first living creature I ever encountered other than myself.”

“Then he is certain to know more about Orbaratus than we do; he may even know things you are unaware of, Polly. I’ll see if I can find him and at least talk with him. If need be, he may want to join us here.” Luke tugged at his beard for a moment.

“Mr. Luke, you said, just before the earthquake, that you thought we were in great danger. What made you say that?” asked Jill.

“If my understanding of the verses Polly translated is correct, then the three crystals that were placed around the stone doorway were put there for a reason: to prevent someone or something from escaping from whatever lies beyond the doorway. I don’t know why the crystals we use would be capable of such a thing, but perhaps these are not the same stones; perhaps they do something entirely different.

“Polly, you mentioned the Masters, and the fact that they have been gone for many thousands of years….”

“Yes,” said Polly, “the histories are not clear; they had become the stuff of legend by the time the wars broke out among my own people.”

“But do the histories say what happened to them or where they went? Was there a plague? Or a war?”

“Perhaps. The histories mention wars and madness, but it is not clear what was their cause. It seems that as the madness, whatever it might have been, spread, the Ferrumari began to fight against the Masters; not for independence, but to bring a halt to the bloodshed and the violence.”

“So, is it possible the Ferrumari may have had to imprison the Masters? Is that what you’re thinking, Mr. Luke?” asked Sam. “In that case, that doorway may lead into some sort of a dungeon, or maybe the Masters are cryogenically frozen, like Khan was in Star Trek!”

“Khan?” asked Jill, “You mean Genghis Khan was in Star Trek?!”

“No, no. A different Khan. And it was in the movie, not the TV show,” said Sam.

“Well, I never saw either. I told you I didn’t  watch much in the way of space stories….”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Still — whatcha think, Mr. Luke?”

“About the Masters being locked behind that door? It’s a possibility; that’s why I want to ask Azarias. He may have spent some time in the archives here and may know better why the stones were placed there and what they were trying to protect against, if anything.”

Jill had been listening to Luke, but suddenly, she didn’t know why precisely, her attention was drawn away. She had had a sudden sense of movement, and of being watched. She glanced up to see what might have attracted her attention, and just then a black form flew right past her toward the stone doorway. It fluttered there for a moment, and then wheeled around and came back, flying right past all of them. Jill noticed that Polly, too, was watching this creature, and both of them instinctively tried to follow it.

“What’s happening?” asked Sam. “Where are you both going?”

“They’re chasing a bird, Sam,” said Luke, also turning to watch the creature.

The bird, for that is clearly what it was, emitted a harsh croak as it fled. It was large and black, and it flapped wildly toward to the plaza’s edge; then, suddenly, it was gone! Jill and Polly, who had been running just behind it, looked over the edge of the chasm to the street below, and then back at each other.

“It disappeared!” Jill shouted back at Sam and Luke.

“What do you mean, ‘disappeared’? You mean it flew down into the street?” Sam asked as he came panting up to the plaza’s edge.

“No, I mean it’s gone! Like, gone from this world, gone!” said Jill. “I…I can’t sense it anymore. Can you, Polly?”

“No, it is no longer on Orbaratus. It is not hiding, nor so far away that I would be unable to sense it” said Polly.

Luke smiled. “You’re right of course, both of you, but you weren’t paying close attention. It didn’t just vanish; it flew through a frame. Turn your rings back around again and you’ll see for yourselves.”

Jill turned her ring around and clenched her fist. Suddenly, right before her eyes, she could see a window open up in the air, ringed in a bluish light. It was a patch of darkness just in front of her, but much smaller than the portal they had used to come to Orbaratus.

“Huh!” said Sam as he came up to the frame. “Doggone bird must have had a crystal attached to it, or maybe it’s got one in its talons?”

“That, Samuel, is a very interesting observation,” said Luke. “What would a bird be doing with a sappire?”

“Maybe it picked it up. Maybe it stole the one from the doorway!” said Jill.

“We don’t yet know if the crystals on either side of the doorway are actually the same as the sapphires we use to framerun,” said Luke, “but if they are, and if, in fact, the bird has taken that stone, then we’d have answered at least one of our questions. But we still have too many remaining ones!” Luke sat down on a bench near them and rubbed his eyes for a few moments.

“Mr. Luke, we could always follow the bird and see where that portal leads us,” said Sam. “That might tell us more about what’s going on here.”

Jill looked at Sam, and then at the portal. It was perhaps a foot and a half wide, and nearly two feet tall. “It would be a tight squeeze!” she said.

“Naw, I’ve gotten through smaller,” said Sam, “But, let’s see what we can see without even going through….” Sam stepped toward the portal and moved back and forth, then up and down, trying to see what he could observe in the darkness beyond. Luke stood up and joined him.

“OK, it’s dark, so it’s tough to make out much, but it seems like maybe it’s a cave or an attic or a crawlspace of some sort? I can kind of make out wooden beams. What can you see, Mr. Luke?”

Luke repeated Sam’s motions, peering intently into the dark rectangle hanging in space. “Yes, I think you’re right, Sam. It definitely looks like it might be an attic, but where, exactly? And why in the world would someone, somewhere, have a painting or a sketch of the Plaza of the Masters that we know nothing about?!”

                [ To read Episode 6.2, click here…. ]

 

 

Feb 05

In the Company of Angels: Episode 5.2 – Orbaratus (cont.)

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In the Company of Angels, Episode 5.2 – Orbaratus (cont.)

 

“That doesn’t sound good,” said Jill, “That doesn’t sound good at all! I mean, this place is already spooky enough as it is….”

“Sam, what color were the gems?” asked Mr. Luke.

“Hard to tell because the light was bad, but they looked dark: blue, maybe?”

“Do you think, by any chance, that they might have been sapphires?”

Sam whistled “Holy smoke! I didn’t even think about that! I can go check if you’d like.”

“I’m not sure how we would determine that, to be truthful,” said Mr. Luke. “But, while we think about it, if Polly no longer senses anyone else up there, perhaps we should all go and see the place for ourselves.”

Polly stood poised, listening for a moment. “No, no one remains,” she said.

“Then, would it be possible for you to take Jill up to the cliff top? I know I’m too heavy for you to carry, but Sam can get us both up there together through the Maze. Sam, what do you think?”

Sam grinned. “I’ll be able to, but you sure won’t feel very good when we come back out.”

“Kindly don’t remind me,” said Mr. Luke, looking pained, “But, it is a risk I am prepared to take. Jill, Polly, we’ll meet you up there.”

Sam clutched his crystal in one hand, and Mr. Luke’s wrist in the other, and the two of them stepped through the adjacent wall.

Polly picked up Jill in her arms. “Are you ready to fly, little one?” she thought to Jill.

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be!” Jill thought back to her.

Then they were off.

Jill would remember that flight for the rest of her life. She had been in airplanes before, of course, and knew that takeoffs were noisy and sometimes frightening affairs, so she closed her eyes and braced herself for the jolt of the launch. But Polly’s wings lifted them both effortlessly into the Orbaratan sky, and their rise was so gentle that Polly might not have noticed that they were airborne except for the change in the breezes surrounding them. She cautiously opened one eye and saw that they were already five or six stories above street level and rising slowly, banking back and forth over the deepening chasm below them.

Far from being frightened now, Jill looked eagerly out at the ever-expanding horizon. She saw that the city of Cenurbus was built, as Polly had said, on steep mountain ridges with nearly vertical canyons between them. The city reminded her of photographs she had once seen of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and, as in Rio, there were long graceful arches bridging the canyons; but there were no trees or vegetation of any kind.  She also saw many balconies and plazas that led from the structures built into the cliff walls. But she rarely saw staircases, and it occurred to her that, of course, the Ferrumari would not need them, since they could fly!

Polydora reached the uppermost levels of the cliffs but remained close to the walls lest their flight be noticed by unfriendly eyes. Nevertheless, Sam had been correct; it was both brighter and more blustery in the upper reaches of the city, and even Polydora could not prevent the occasional stomach-wrenching gust of wind from altering their flight. Jill clasped her cloak tightly around her to keep warm. But she was soon able to distinguish the rooftops and the plaza that Sam had described. The mountain rose higher just at the plaza’s far edge, and there were benches and the remains of pots or planters scattered throughout the space in addition to the stone pillars.

“So it was almost like a garden,” Jill thought to herself.

“Yes, it was,” Polly thought back to her, “but that was many centuries ago, long before I came out into the world from the place where my parent had hidden me. But I have seen pictures of how it was, once upon a time….”

To Jill’s astonishment, she now saw faint images flashing through her mind’s eye. The planters were filled with shrubs of every hue of the rainbow. Some had great circular leaves and others reminded her of weeping willows, or of weeping cherry trees. There were tall palm-like plants and low trailing vines. Yet, despite the vivid colours, the overall effect was pleasing, and Jill thought that the Ferrumari must have had great skill in the artistic uses of colour, texture, and shape.

“There were, in fact, many great artists among my people,” Polly thought back to Jill. “And I can show you some of their works in the galleries and museums that were spared during the dark times….

“…that is, once we have solved the mystery of who else may have come here.”

Jill felt a slight wave of dread coming from the Ferrumari, and she realized then how disturbed Polly must be that her home world had, somehow, been violated.

But now Jill saw Sam and Mr. Luke on the plaza. Sam was standing next to the shimmering wall that enclosed the plaza. He was watching them fly in while Mr. Luke was seated on one of the stone benches. Polly lightly touched down next to them, and then she set Jill down upon her own two feet.

Mr. Luke was once again munching on a chocolate bar. “I think next time I’ll take the stairs,” he said between bites.

“That would have taken you weeks,” said Sam. “Besides, I never even saw any leading up here.”

“Of course not, Samuel. It was a feeble attempt at making a joke. The Ferrumari didn’t bother much with stairs.” said Mr. Luke. “But, I’m better now. Going back down, I may opt for a sketch…running one of them, especially one of my own, doesn’t make my stomach do belly-flops the way the Maze does.”

The four of them turned their attention to the plaza. It was fairly large, and despite the crumbling stonework and the wear and erosion of many centuries, it still held a haunting beauty. There were paths worked into the multi-toned flagstones, and these threaded through the planters and stone monoliths that punctuated the space. Jill noticed that there was writing on many of the stone structures. “What do they say?” she asked aloud.

“They are short histories,” said Polly. “This path is itself like a walk backward through time. It begins with events near the time of the Apocalypse, and then traces Orbaratan history back through the ages until the time of the disappearance of the Masters. A visitor, or a pilgrim as they were called, did not need to read the writing on stones at all if he didn’t wish to; all of the Ferrumari had telepathic powers, and these stones have crystals embedded within them that retained images, songs, and performances from other times. A pilgrim could actually experience history in addition to simply reading about it. But now the crystals are mostly silent. I can sense very little of their original contents.”

“I’ll bet there needs to be some power source to make them work,” said Sam. “And I’ll bet that energy source has long since stopped working. Whatcha think, Mr. Luke?”

“Possibly. But, Polly, does anything look different to you now compared to your earlier visits?”

“No,” said Polly, “it is just as I remember it.”

By this time they had followed one of the winding paths past the empty planters and benches and were approaching the cliff wall at the back of the plaza. Jill could see a huge cutting in the cliff base and an immense doorway. A slab of stone filled the space, and its surface was covered with writing.

“More history, I suppose,” Jill thought. “Then she noticed the blue gems that Sam had mentioned. They were large — nearly the size of a half dollar — and were embedded in more of the mirrored glass-like material that seemed so prevalent throughout Cenurbus. They were round in shape, but were nearly the same colour as the sapphire Jill was wearing on her finger, and they were on either side of the stone door, roughly at Polly’s eye level.

“There are the two stones,” said Sam.

“Yes, but there should be a third,” answered Polly. “Look at the top of the door.”

They all looked at the lintel above the door. It was not as obvious to Mr. Luke, Sam, and Jill because they were not as tall as Polydora, but they could see, in the dim light that filtered down from the overhanging rock, a round setting of the mirrored glass. But it held no stone.

“The third gem is gone!” exclaimed Polly. “And now I remember why that is important! In addition to the writing on the stone door itself, there is a rhyme written upon the lintel. It speaks of the three stones that were originally set here.”

“What does the rhyme say? Can you translate it for us?” asked Mr. Luke.

Jill sensed rather than heard Polly’s thoughts as she tried to recast the rhyme into English.

The original Orbaratan language must, Jill thought, have been quite beautiful to hear spoken aloud. But the tone of these verses was dark and ominous.

“Here is what it says,” said Polly, “although this is but a rough translation. The original verse in my own language conveys great authority; they are words of warning and command, but they read something like this:

 

‘The three blessed stones that seal the thrones on high,

defended by the Ferrumari troth,

restrain the Masters, who, suspended lie,

chained and wrapped in cold funereal cloth.

Yet they will wake and wend a woeful doom,

should none of that great Warden Race endure,

fell acts of terror then they shall resume,

unless the sealing stones remain secure.'”

 

“But what does that even mean?!” asked Sam.

“It means,” said Mr. Luke after pondering for a few moments, “that we are likely in very grave danger.”

The words were scarcely out of Mr. Luke’s mouth when they all heard a sound like distant thunder that grew and grew. Even as it roared about them, they felt the stones beneath their feet heave and buckle.

“Earthquake!” yelled Mr. Luke. “Quickly, get away from the door and out onto the open plaza!”

                [ To read Episode 6.1, click here…. ]