Authors: CJ Rutherford,Colin Rutherford
He turned and looked intensely at Katheryne as he spoke.
“And that is why I could not kill Tenybris, Katheryne, even if I had wanted to. I couldn’t do it because if I had I would have set myself on the path toward hatred. I would have been terrible Katheryne, believe me when I say that Tenybris’s atrocities would have paled into insignificance when compared to mine.”
As she looked at Olumé she was frightened but was certain what he said was true.
“And I didn’t want to, because he had been my friend for centuries before the fall. We had been closer than brothers so at the end of my life I rejoiced, because if everything I had planned came to fruition, my friend’s soul would be released to the oblivion of the Never, to be reborn as all of us eventually are.”
As Katheryne watched, a tear ran down Olumé’s face and he sat there on the fallen trunk clinging onto a hope he had no way of knowing would ever end in success. She began to stand but he moved first.
“But for now, we have a soul to save.” He snapped his fingers, and as he stood up the island was gone and they were again in the void of blackness.
Katheryne felt as if she had more to say, as if more remained unsaid but Olumé’s actions had made her remember the purpose of this meeting.
“So you can tell me how to travel in time?” Katheryne asked hopefully.
Olumé looked back in amusement, “No my dear, you already know how to do that…look,” he gestured as the globe of the Never appeared before them and she was drawn deep inside it, flying faster and faster until she abruptly stopped.
Before her was her mother’s soul, floating serenely through the Never as it prepared to pass on and become one with the void, her essence to be reborn in new life.
Olumé was there at her side watching her closely as she reached out and touched the globe of light and energy, feeling the confusion within, but receiving back a flood of love as it seemed to know who was there.
“Mum.” Katheryne’s eyes were wet with fresh tears as she poured her own love back into the sphere. She turned to Olumé. “What do I do? Can I hide her somehow from B’ran before he feeds her to Tenybris?”
Olumé’s features grew dark as a shadow seemed to pass over them, but he brightened as he spoke.
“You don’t understand Katheryne,” said Olumé gently, as if he spoke to a child who needed gentle guidance to come to the right conclusion.
“B’ran has already done this.” he said indicating the globe of essence, “The accident your father witnessed was no such accident. It was the being Dwenn who reached in and ripped your mother from you all.”
Katheryne’s whole being reeled in shock and she felt like she couldn’t breathe as Olumé made this revelation, but she made an effort and slowly recovered as he continued, seemingly unaware of the effect his last sentence had had on her.
“True, the experiment your father was carrying out at the time provided her with a clearer, more accessible victim. I’m sure Dwenn was delighted when your mother was lit up like a nova by the unfortunate side effects of it.” He almost cackled at this point but managed to stop, and as he searched Katheryne’s face he became saddened as he saw the effect the news was having on her.
“He could never have suspected anything like this would have happened, my dear, so don’t judge him harshly,” he said. “As a matter of fact his experiment was a total success, except for the unfortunate consequences of course.”
His bright manner angered Katheryne but he laid his hand on her arm as he realised that yet again he had gone just a little bit too far.
“I’m sorry Katheryne; I need to mind what I say. I apologise for being so...flippant.”
Katheryne felt the sincerity and regret flowing from him, so she reached and patted the hand smiling.
“So,” she said, “Now what? If I’m too late to stop B’ran and Dwenn now, can’t I go back further?”
“There is no need,” Olumé explained, “Everything we need is in place now. I just have to show you what to do.” He continued in his bright voice but Katheryne sensed something change.
She had a brief glimpse of something she didn’t understand. Olumé was hiding something from her but she couldn’t imagine what or why he would do so. But she had a task ahead of her so she decided to let it go for now.
“OK...show me what I have to do,” she said, hesitantly.
There was no hint of deception on Olumé’s part as he continued, so Katheryne thought she must have been imagining something.
“First you have to understand that if your mother’s soul stays in the Never, it will eventually be found by Tenybris. Part of Dwenn’s spell is causing it to linger for much longer than it normally would.”
“So I have to hide it? The same way that Derren hid me?” she asked.
“No,” replied Olumé, “No trick of concealment would be enough to fool Tenybris. We have to send the soul somewhere else.”
Katheryne looked at Olumé, confusion on her face.
“But there is nowhere else,” she said. “The Never is all of existence isn’t it?”
Olumé paused. He had a thoughtful enigmatic look on his face now.
“It...used to be.” He was smiling that smug smile again.
“Ah, is this another of your plans?” Katheryne smiled back at him.
“Yes, and another of my better ones again,” he laughed as he rubbed his hands together. “I’m sure you’ve heard of the Veiled Lands?”
She nodded. “The place where you hid the magic from Tenybris, right?”
“Yes, yes...well in a few moments, if I have...planned it right,” another chuckle, “a rift will open in the Veil and you will have the opportunity to transport your mother there.”
“We’re going to send her to the Veiled lands?” Katheryne’s heart soared as she saw a way to save her mother, “You mean she’ll be alive?”
“She will survive yes,” said Olumé, his tone not conveying total confidence, and the feeling he was hiding something reawakened inside her.
“But she will be unaware of who she is until much later in her life. She needs to be mature enough to accept the tasks before her at the proper time, which is why we have to send her back in time at the same time as we transport her through the rift.”
“But isn’t that dangerous?” asked Katheryne, remembering the conversation with Krista back in the Chapel, “What about the risk to the future if she does something wrong?”
Olumé swelled with smugness, “All planned for my dear. She’ll not be in this universe so any action she takes there will have no effect here, you see?”
“Right...I think,” said Katheryne doubtfully, but another question arose urgently.
“OK, you say that whatever she does won’t affect this universe,” she pondered, “but what about the Veiled Lands? Couldn’t she somehow damage them?”
Olumé smiled and looked on Katheryne with an expression of the utmost pride.
“You have exceeded even my greatest expectations my dear,” he beamed. “Yes of course, you are right, but that is also something I have planned for.”
He might have been about to say more but Olumé expectedly looked around as if he tasted the Never, before fixing Katheryne with an intense stare.
“It’s time, are you ready?” he asked.
“But I don’t know what to do,” she said panicking.
“I told you, that’s what I’m here for,” laughed Olumé as he reached out and took her hands, grinning and somehow managing yet again to take her concerns and worries away.
He took her hand and guided her as she used her mind to search for the image he painted in her head. She began to see it, a slight tear in the fabric of the Never and as she concentrated, it expanded outwards. Before her a window in the void opened into a green and bright world.
There was a forest stretching below them for as far as they could see and Katheryne marvelled at the sheer vitality coming from it. The power and intensity of the life coming from this world dwarfed anything she could ever have imagined.
At Olumé’s mental suggestion she shifted them and they dropped down into a wide meadow.
Here at ground level the force was almost intoxicating and she was almost caught up in it. But she knew she had a job to do and so drew her awareness back into herself.
Katheryne felt Olumé inside her mind, guiding her actions as she shifted the view in the rift.
As she looked upwards the sun began to speed across the sky, blue turning to black as night sped on before day. Faster and faster it became before it was a blur of greyness.
“How far does she have to go back?” Katheryne asked. Her casual tone surprised her as she realised what she was asking. How far should she…Katheryne, send her mother’s soul back in time?
“Oh, about sixteen years should suffice, time works slower in the Glade,” Olumé replied.
As the blur slowed again to become a beautiful sunny day, Katheryne felt her mind grasp onto the soul of her mother and move it over the threshold. She looked on in wonder as the globe of light crossed over into this amazing place, drawing energy from its surrounding, using the increased vitality available in this world to transform into a baby girl as she gently lowered her to the ground.
“She’s so beautiful,” Katheryne whispered, crying freely.
“Your mother said those exact same words when she first laid eyes on you.”
Katheryne looked across in disbelief at Olumé.
“I have been ‘keeping an eye on you’ since before you were born Katheryne,” he revealed, smiling gently, but there was a hint of something else there and Katheryne sensed a shadow pass over his heart as the rift began to close.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, all of a sudden concerned for her mother again. She looked back as the rift shut. “Won’t she be safe there?”
“Yes my dear,” Olumé said, but his head was bowed, “Your mother will be safe in the Glade until it is time.”
“Then what’s wrong? Haven’t we done what we set out to do?” asked Katheryne.
Olumé seemed to deflate, all the happiness and mischief he had previously projected seeming to evaporate.
“I’m sorry to say that yes, we have done everything exactly as I...planned it.” There was no glee or satisfaction this time, and panic and confusion set in within Katheryne as the remnant of Olumé turned to her with tears in his eyes.“I’m sorry Katheryne,” he said solemnly. “Your mother’s soul would never have been found by Tenybris, for he would not have been drawn to the innocence he so savoured.”
Katheryne didn’t...couldn’t know what was happening. She had saved her mother, moved her across time and space to ensure Tenybris had no way to find her.
So why was Olumé so melancholy when they had won?
“Separating them was the only way. If there had been any other possibility, please believe me I would not have done this. I have watched across the ages for any opportunity that would have prevented the need for this...travesty, but my plan, my greatest ever plan relies on it, if you are to triumph eventually.”
What did he mean eventually? What other way? Why was he sorry? Who had he separated whom from? Her mum had been the only soul here.
The old man became transparent, as if with his task complete he had to return to the energy he truly was. As she watched him return to the Never and dissipate throughout the whole universe she sensed a feeling of great sadness and regret, before at last Olumé was gone.
Katheryne was alone again. Her mother was safe but what had Olumé meant? What had he done to feel so tragically sorry for?
She felt lost and confused for what seemed like hours as she wandered the Never, but just as she decided she should return to her own time and face the aftermath of what she had done, she was overcome with a feeling of utter terror.
All around her there was a presence, a malevolence that dwarfed the power of the beast by several levels of magnitude.
Katheryne searched for the monster bound within herself, intending to release its fury and power now, only to realise this thing around her was capable of swatting anything she threw at it like a tiny insect.
Her horror mounted. How could she fight this thing? Derren and the rest had been wrong, their prophecy utterly flawed. She felt the consciousness that was Tenybris approaching, could sense the ravenous hunger and thirst.
For a second the voice of Olumé whispered in her head, “You are hope, Katheryne…use it.”
She didn’t fully understand, but her strength renewed as final defiance manifested itself within her. She felt Olumé guiding her again as the presence faltered and shifted its attention.
What could it be shifting to? Katheryne was alone here now that Olumé and the soul of her mother had gone.
Then she realised the dreadful truth. She wasn’t alone. There was another presence here and she turned to behold a tiny globe of light. So tiny it could only be one thing.
It was a light as pure and bright as a sun, and familiar to her as she recognised the voice which had saved her from her own monstrous rage. It was a soul so innocent that as she had deflected Tenybris’s attention he had been drawn to her.
Katheryne looked on in horror as Tenybris moved toward the infant soul. All she had time to do was reach out and touch it for a fleeting instant, desperately joining a shard of herself and her hope to her sibling, before she watched helplessly as Tenybris dragged her baby sister’s soul away across the Never, screaming in terror.