Arnica Read online

  "And these are the ones WE will identify and assist," M'Lu said.

  "Why are these two female strangers special?" C'Lea asked.

  "They are accompanied by two Sha'Kars," M'Lu said calmly.

  "Sha'Kars!" two voices said in unison.

  M'Lu smiled at their excited expressions. "I can not see any more than that."

  "Once they are on Arnica, all on Allint will know of their presence!" Ji'am said.

  "And most of Arnica. Their energy is quite distinctive," C'Lea said.

  "Yes. It will cause a stirring on Arnica," M'Lu smiled. The wind moved the beads on the sides of her skullcap, tickling her cheeks. Casually she removed the head covering, enjoying the wind ruffling her short hair. The Queen took a deep breath, appreciating the taste of the snow from the mountains and the chill it carried.

  "The trembling is a fearful yet wondrous stirring in all life on all dimensions. By opening the heart all can share in the experience. For those that see nothing but horror, and abandonment in the chaos, they will lash out, and strike anyone that approaches them in compassion and aid, but these souls shall mercifully perish. The trembling shall build into a wonderful boom, and within the sound new life becomes on Arnica," M'Lu said.

  "Ready yourselves to carry the sword of the Justice Maker and be not one to cover your eyes when your sword sets about the work of discernment. Be not righteous nor above anyone, for it will distance you from the moment."

  She studied the two souls before her, seeing beyond physical and spiritual, looking long at what their burdens would be, and where she might be needed with a word or thought of encouragement.

  Ji'am nodded and bowed respectfully, "I'll see that those leaving Allint not feel it is a disgrace nor does it have to be a permanent move."

  When his footsteps were no longer heard on the stone steps C'Lea turned to her sister who returned to staring out at the snowcapped mountains on the island.

  M'Lu mind-thought to C'Lea.

 

  M'Lu gave a slight nod at Commander O'Malley who had returned and took position near the door.

  "We will reinforce the palace," she looked at O'Malley to let him know he was included in the conversation should he care to add something, "and then all things the royal household is responsible for, libraries, schools and other cultural displays. If the documentation and evidence of the life works of a civilization are destroyed it becomes a great wounding to the citizens' psyche."

  "This is one of the lessons in class. To destroy the spirit of a group, undermine its culture, its myths, and heroes through misinformation, over expectation, deceit, and lies.

  Destroy it's artworks, and ignore, subdue, or kill those that show talent. Divide and conquer by introducing a system where there are those that will always be looked down upon. Make it where few can rise above the mundane drudgery of their birth without a violent revolution. Make it where self-hate becomes an art that is honored, and pride decried as a vice. Make it where love becomes conditional, and elusive. And learning centers become burdened in rules and memorization with little time given to creativity, fun, and exchanging ideas," C'Lea listed. "Even if the citizens of Arnica were able to rise above Allint's destruction, it would take many lifetimes to undo the damage it would cause to all life forms."

  "Yes." M'Lu took a seat at the table, resting her elbows on the table and chin in her hands, "I am suspicious, Lea, that a disruptive and ghastly energy is at work on Allint and that it is the cause of mother's condition."

  C'Lea stood silent, but the eyes in her cap glittered as if a silent sentry was awakened. "Mother is possessed?" she asked slowly. "I don't feel it."

  "Mother is a good container. In my meditations early this morning, I was taken to Father's grave on Teore." M'Lu extended her hands toward C'Lea. C'Lea took a seat and linked her fingers with M'Lu's.

  "Walk with me, sister."

  C'Lea's thoughts merged with her sister's and effortlessly, M'Lu took them to the gravesite of their father, a replay of the vision M'Lu had.

  C'Lea gasped when she felt a malevolent energy near the grave and near their mother who had fallen asleep, leaning against her consort's gravestone with a book in her lap. Their mother visited the site once a week and read aloud something from her deceased consort's favorite books. A dark shadow descended on her unprotected form and the Queen had awakened with a cry. Both girls remembered that day well. Their mother had arrived back from her customary visit…changed…and withdrew to her room as if ill.

  Both pulled back.

  "What is it?"

  M'Lu turned to O'Malley. "Since you did so much of the foot work on affirming what we discovered in the other realms, please brief Guardian, Commander."

  "It is my honor to do so. This entity is something the first group of off-world colonists brought with them. Now it is what the black soldiers are feeding through their actions and thoughts. Not all these foreigners worship this thing but there are enough to sustain it, and now with the dark soldiers' actions its power is growing stronger. It has left various polluted resting spots on the 3rd continent and has a few on Allint that the Ju'n has provided it."

  "But mother…" C'Lea looked from one to the other worried.

  "It does not command her." M'Lu made a blessing sign before continuing. "I believe she is containing it. We must find a way to get it out of her."

  "Banishment ritual." Mentally C'Lea went over one that she knew to be especially powerful, hoping whatever had taken over her mother would get a headache in return for what it was doing.

  "This creature is not from here, and is not bound by what the spirits of this planet are bound by," Commander O'Malley explained.

  "Therefore not frightened by the same curses," M'Lu added. "I do not want to loosen it to roam unrestricted."

  "Can we communicate with it or with mother?"

  "I do not want to communicate with it and I dare not with mother. If she opens to us it may let that thing in too."

  "Then we must get someone that can."

  "The Sha'kar the two women have brought with them will have the solution."

  "Why not ours?"

  "Because they are in meditation on the 4th density, keeping the path cleared for us.

  I don't wish to disturb them unless it's utterly necessary."

  "Nor I," Commander O'Malley agreed.

  "What if they don't help us?"

  "Then we will have the entire continent of Allint to pray for guidance. Right now, Allint needs to become rededicated in her inhabitants' heart. A regiment of monks on the outer islands in the ashrams that are uncontaminated are already at work cleaning the ley lines on Allint, and whatever surrounding islands that are contaminated. They will monitor the cleansing to make sure it rises at a rate that will not scorch those that have unwisely remained."

  "When you make your announcements in the Queen's Hall, some may challenge your proclamations."

  M'Lu smiled.

  "We have sent royal invitations for twenty-two learned peoples from the various continents. They will recertify what makes a good teacher, with the monks from Heloise, whose reputation is indisputable, giving their input, and WE shall also contribute." She grinned mischievously. "The best part of all this is that it will be done in public and anyone that wishes to partake may. WE shall make this a carnival atmosphere. WE will have satires, plays, and clowns to poke at all self-delusions and pompous displays. It will not be limited to Allintan's performing, so there shall be some very good satires. WE have sent a message to the I'un clan to have it held in Chinland in the city the Ju'n had commandeered from them, and contaminated enough to have lowered the energy so any commoner can visit. That will certainly get a message across to the peoples of Allint."

  "And to those that wish to invade Allint. Mother would say you are throwing down the proverbial gauntlet. Gauntlet. Just what it is we are throwing down?" she asked Commander O'Mall
ey.

  "A warrior's glove, Guardian," he said.

  "Why does a warrior throw down a glove?"

  "It's an indication a warrior wishes to challenge another."

  "I used it correctly then." C'Lea looked pleased. "It is exactly what you are doing, M'Lu. Assure me you are not taking on more than what you can handle. As you said, Commander O'Malley is quite stretched himself."

  "WE know how to delegate, and WE know when to let things develop on their own," M'Lu said. "During the time that WE are in Chinland, you must remain at mother's side. That is when this dark one will make a consorted effort with the Ju'n to slay mother, thinking she is alone."

  "Kill her!"

  "This entity needs mother's power. I feel it wishes to claim her physical body and some of her worldly power. Have courage sister. That will not happen."

  "I hope you're right. How will you combat a whole clan and this thing? They know you."

  "They do not know ME. And they do not know you…or mother. They have tried.

  I have sensed them trying to enter my dreamtime when I sleep outside of the palace. I have sent them on wild chases through the woods, believing that it was my dream they were in. And WE are not alone."

  C'Lea stared hard at her sister. "That is why you told me not to sleep anywhere but in the palace and at our farmhouse and to always have five Kiuzu guards with me."

  "WE did not know at the time who had the arrogance to attempt to invade OUR

  dreams. WE realized it had to be a group because no one person on this planet is strong enough to penetrate OUR barriers, whether WE are asleep or awake. They are foolish in their distain of OUR energy. They hold onto their male pride as an old man to his flaccid member as he gazes at what he could have been."

  It was a phrase their mother often used when referring to T'La and his remarks regarding the all female Royal Household. The three laughed.

  "Mother's method of handling this entity shows us that it is containable, and that she does not wish to do it harm, but it takes all her energy and attention."

  "Sometimes, I think they are very ignorant, bordering on stupid," C'lea said.

  "They are not so stupid to have thought of this and it has been planned very well,"

  Commander O'Malley cautioned.

  "What they did not anticipate were the off-worlders sending anyone to remove the dark soldiers, their prize weapon of distraction. They also did not believe WE would figure out that mother is not demented but rather holding this entity. Though the Ju'n are not the only one's involved, they are responsible for the contamination of the ley lines beneath Allint. WE can feel their influence. There are also scattered pockets on the 3rd continent that have their feel. They have been practicing for a long time before they tried it on Allint. It has been these contaminated pockets that the off-world colonists have settled around and where the black soldiers set up their fortress."

  "How have they been able to hide this from us, from the monks, from anyone?

  And how are they managing to set up a stronghold in the sacred cavern?" C'Lea asked.

  "Off world technology. Used for the benefit of the few and at the injury of others," Commander O'Malley said.

  "It seems we are piloting a boat on a stormy sea, and we have to keep pausing in bailing out the water to see what direction we are heading." C'Lea looked into her sister's eyes. She realized that though she identified her as her sister, Queen, and High Priestess, and though she thought she was someone familiar to her, M'Lu was more than the roles she filled, living in more than one dimension and assimilating information that as Guardian, she knew of only a small amount. The eyes that stared back at her were more than pools of power. They were the readers of the signposts to get Arnica to the next point in it's enlightened development.

  C'Lea smiled at her sister, feeling centered again. "I feel that there is so much more to learn. I just wish mother was here to give her words of guidance and assurance."

  "And to think we both were thinking, before mother changed, that she should let us have more responsibilities."

  Both laughed at themselves and silently sent blessings to their mother.

  "How did an entire clan became corrupted without any of us noticing? This took a lot of planning and setting the atmosphere for it to not be noticed – long before the offworlders brought their weapons," C'Lea said.

  "Yes. Now that WE have parted the veil WE can see many plots and petty retaliations. It has been covered by distractions, like the increasing incidents of seemingly random violence, nonsensical destruction of property, and the taking of life on the other continents. Each individual with different reasons and issues are responsible. Unhappy spirits and waifs from generations past have been at work here as well. They found a way in through the energy around the gates linking planets; thus, their entrance from their planets to ours. This destructive energy has a foreign entity guiding it that WE cannot fathom. WE must practice Justice Making. WE fight, yes, but on OUR terms, with empathy and justice for those that are hurt." M'Lu appraised her older sister and best friend. "We are lucky Mother trained us both for our positions so early in our development. It makes me believe she knew of this thing's coming, and this was the way she chose to handle it."

  "Then that we shall," C'Lea said softly.

  "Let us prepare with a cleansing ritual. The monks have started the preparation.

  Be has assigned himself and his grandmother, Mi, as our guardians for this experience."

  M'Lu smiled at her sister. "We shall walk from this temple truly as translucent as the alabaster jar on auntie's table."

  Commander O'Malley quietly followed the two sisters to the baths, deep in his own thoughts of the disturbing increase of violence around their beloved planet, Arnica.

  H'ya was escorted by the Commander and two of his warriors to a boat that was waiting at the docks. H'ya was not himself. An unfamiliar heaviness weighed him down and there was deadness from all things around him.

  The Kiuzi were to deliver H'ya to the small village Sha that sprung up around the temple Reatrate. Queen M'Lu determined this was where H'ya was to begin his life of restitution.

  Chapter 2

  The carnival in Chinland was in its second day of shows and discussions. The Queen was in council with the twenty-one heads of the clans who had requested an audience to speak with her. There would have been twenty-two, but it was the Ju'n clan the others wished to discuss, so they were excluded amid dramatic objections and most shocking of all, veiled threats from the Caladia's clans.

  A'un K'Zar, from the mountainous lands in central Allint, Buckestar, was the clan leader to Catalls and chosen as the speaker. B'un J'Saf , from the foothills and mountains in Maidenslands was attended by his four nieces that were training as leaders amongst the scattered urls. They were Benitians who, like the Micas, wandered as nomads, but unlike the Micas, loved the mountains instead of the open plains. The species, part Centaurs and Human were represented by their clan leader C'un M'Iso from the farming community in Hutsvilee. D'un L'Mat from the northern state of Breetmound was clan leader for the species that was part Coripus and Zanzars. Clan leader E'un J'Ara from Tulose on the Northern coast represented Malalise. F'un D'Jon from Lankershire, a state on the Eastern shores was clan leader to the mixed species of Human and Maligro. G'un B'Jam, the clan leader to the Elfs, was from the land called Finhorn covered mostly by forests and deep rivers, and had two of the highest waterfalls on the continent. H'un A'Kade was from the farming regions in the central lands and was newly elected clan leader to the mix Micas and Human. I'un R'Sey from the western state that ran along the entire coastline, Chinland, was seated on a tall mound of cushions. As the host to the other species, she sat higher than everyone but the Queen. She was a Heliodrop.

  The chair for Clan leader J'un D'Ede of the species Caladia was empty.

  K'un L'Ora clan leader to the Cowashian, produced some of the most loved artists.

  They lived in the desert where few cared to experience. L'un E
' Loo, clan leader of the Humans was assisted to his seat by his wife who gave him last minute instructions no doubt, which he took with seriousness, each touching in a caring way as they parted.

  M'un E'lle, the youngest clan leader was Coripus, a species that would rather do business in the dark. The noble N'un H'ana of the Centaurs tossed his tail as he waited impatiently for the members to take their seats. Clan leader O'un N'Emo of the species Masnians was dusting his seat as if he had something to clean off. P'un N'ella, species Gustian greeted his neighbors then proceeded to greet each member, with a slight bow who returned his greeting their own way. Q'un A'Vian, a Breatharian, was holding onto his staff tapping it impatiently. R'un K'Anda clan leader of the Dwarfs carefully brushed his long beard under the table before he took a long deep drink of the water before him. Most of his clan lived inside of the mountains in caves and tunnels, some natural and some they created.

  K'Anda's arrival was well looked for by Queen M'Lu. When she and her sister were younger, he had entertained them with wonderful tales from his species memory of exploits on other planets. S'un H'Elm, his clan, forest people as much as the Elves, was from the species Pan. The Queen had never heard of a Pan that did not play the flute with a hypnotic lure to dance, to quiet a restive mind, or to invoke anger and fear. They were a powerful enemy to anger. T'un L'Ean, from the royal line, was Zanzar as the Queen.

  Since the Sha'Kar, her species found the higher realms of spirituality easier than most to attain and also fell the hardest when they went rogue. Next to Clan leader L'Ean was Clan leader U'un H'Anzu. Most of his clan resided scattered about the continent in rocky areas.

  Gnomes liked the rocky areas, because few did. They also settled in grasslands, near bridges that covered slow moving streams. They could grow anything anywhere and were sought after by those having any problems growing editables, herbs and flowers. V'un C'Luna, species Maligro, was the last to be seated. She pulled her elegant robes close to her and nodded to K'Zar that she was ready. Though she was the elder of her clan, she took an active role in teaching the young, and not just of her clan. Everyone suspected one of her students made her late to the meeting, and none harbored resentment.