Infernal

Richard.

A voice called to him; comforting yet insistent. Small hands pulled at his bloody shirt, tugged on his arm. The sensation pulled him back from the darkness; back from the edge of oblivion.

It’s over, Richard. The complex is gone and the Focal Point is closed. BanaTech is in ruins and will never threaten the Multi-verse again.

I’ve closed the Rip and am safe. You’ve kept your promise and did not fail me. Did not fail us. But I still need you. I can’t do what needs to be done now on my own.

So WAKE UP!

His eyes fluttered open to blue skies and he immediately rolled onto his side, retching blood out onto green, sweet-smelling grass. Once rid of the fluid that had accumulated in his lungs he was able to breathe deeply, inhaling the heady aroma of honeysuckle and lavender.

He sat up to look around and was nearly bowled over again as Eliana threw her arms about his neck and thrust herself into his arms with a sob.

“Hey,” he said for lack of anything better, absently smoothing her sweat dampened hair back from her brow as she wept against his chest. He took in their surroundings; the perfect sky overhead, the dragonflies flitting about amongst the purple and reddish white blossoms throughout the vast field, a distant line of trees with majestic mountains rising behind them. They’d returned—or been returned—to the sanctuary Earth where he’d first met the Seraph. Home to a playful band of fairies. Birthplace of a fierce and mighty dragon. He soothed Eliana until her tears had run their course and she lifted her face to meet his eyes. “It’s okay. I’m here now,” he said and offered her a grin.

“I thought I’d lost you,” she said solemnly. “That you were already dead before we got you through.”

“We?” he asked.

Eliana pushed herself backwards and sat in the grass beside him. She relinquished her hold on his neck but still clutched his hand. He noticed that she was wore nothing but a thin surgical gown, now covered in blood—his and her own—and decided that suitable clothing for the child was the first order of business.

“You’re pretty heavy,” she said matter-of-factly, wiping away tears that had traced a clean path through the blood on her cheeks and only smudging them further. Richard re-ordered his priorities. First a bath. Then clean clothes. He looked down at his own ruined clothing and could imagine his own appearance. For both of us.

“I called on a friend,” Eliana continued. “He helped me get you through.”

A rustling in the tall grass off their left alerted Richard to another presence. Above the lavender blossoms he spotted a jaunty tail, heard the snuffling sounds of a big dog delighting in the discovery of new smells. The grass parted and Charlie bounded towards them, barking—mostly dog now, Richard sensed, detecting little of the awe and wonder he’d felt in the Seraph’s presence. Perhaps a reward for the canine host, having done his job well, or maybe it’s just the way it is. As Charlie had put it: Always Charlie but Seraph there. Seraph too big for always.

Before the big dog could reach them a small form buzzed his head. A ringing sound accompanied the tiny creature. Charlie stopped, his eyes going comically wide before sneezing explosively three times. Two more fairies ringed the dog’s head, this time at a greater distance so as not to shower him in the golden powder a second time. The dog’s head whipped back and forth, seeking. Then he bounded off in the direction of the fairy dust trail the creatures had left in their wake.

Richard laughed, realizing the fairies were playing with the big animal.

Thank you, old friend, he thought, watching his dog at play. I owe you a million Milk Bones, but I’m not sure how I’ll pay.

“How is it you got me out of there at all?” Richard asked Eliana. “The last time I saw you, you were pretty out of it.”

A frown crease Eliana’s brow at the memory.

“I was out of it,” she said, “but not in the way you might think. BanaTech’s computers showed me how to open the Rip. I can’t explain their language, it’s all symbols, binary codes and quantum equations, but in my autistic state I could understand it clearly. I heard it as a loud voice, like a compelling song, that shut out almost everything else. It was pure pleasure, like being embraced by my mother and feeling her warmth against my skin. I only wanted to do as the QC’s asked so it would never stop.

“Underneath all of that, though, I—or Uriel, rather—was conscious of everything going on around me. I could see and hear what they were doing to me and knew that I had opened their Focal Point. I understood what it meant for the Multi-verse and tried to warn them, but they wouldn’t listen. By the time Gabriel destroyed the QC’s and silenced their voice it was already too late. I didn’t need the computers anymore. I was the one singing that song now, and I was lost in its embrace.”

At the mention of Gabriel Richard sighed. Eliana cast her gaze downwards. No words could convey their feelings at the loss of their friend—their brother—and so they said nothing. In time, Eliana continued.

“I felt you in the Rip and saw you enter the chamber. Saw what you brought with you and watched what it did. I knew why you were there—to keep your promise to me and stop the convergence. And still I couldn’t stop. Didn’t want to stop. Even when the dragon severed my connection to the device, even with the pain that caused me, I found a way to maintain the Rip and could not, would not shut it down.”

“If you hadn’t tapped into the Source,” Eliana said, gripping Richard’s hand tighter, “bathing me in your light and love just as you cast the Infernal aside with that same brilliance, I wouldn’t have stopped.”

Eliana gazed into Richard’s eyes. He saw fear there; a young child’s fear at discovering that the monster under the bed or the shadow in the closet is not only real, but also hungry. And that it bears the face of the very child it is about to eat. “I would have allowed the convergence, Richard. Would have let the Infernal have the Multi-verse and devour every human soul, born and unborn, just to remain in that bliss forever.”

“But you didn’t,” Richard said, hugging her to him. “You stopped singing and closed the Rip. You stopped the convergence and denied the Infernal their prize. And,” he said, smiling, “you somehow got us home along the way.”

“Home?” Eliana said.

“A friend of ours once told me I didn’t belong here,” Richard said, rising and pulling Eliana to her feet. “Not yet. I thought nothing of it at the time, but it seems to me I do belong here now. And so do you.”

Besides,” he smiled down at the girl, “it sort of feels like home, doesn’t it?”

“Home,” Eliana said, liking the feel of the word in her mouth. She smiled shyly up at Richard and said, “I think that’s right.” To Richard’s astonishment Eliana then dashed off to join Charlie and the fairies in play.

She may be an angel and Keeper of the ALL, Richard thought, wondering at the resiliency of children as he watched Eliana pump her arms and skinny little legs, her hair flying out behind her as she ran through tall grass and honeysuckle to catch up with the dog, just as I am when needed, but right now she’s just a little girl. And little girls need parents.

Since no one else is around to do the job, I guess it falls to me.

He smiled with delight as Eliana juked left to avoid the sneeze inducing dust from several fairies who buzzed her head and Charlie barked at others who similarly zipped harmlessly past his.

In time they would visit a monastery on an Earth where he was certain they would both be safe from their wounds. There, he knew, they would be offered food, clothing, and shelter. The first two they would accept gratefully; and, for a time, the third. In the end, though, they would return to this Earth. This sanctuary. To build a life for themselves. To build a home.

I can’t do what needs to be done now on my own, Elianna had said as he’d awakened.

They hadn’t spoken of it. Not yet. But he knew in his heart what had to be done.

The convergence had been avoided; balance restored to the Multi-verse. But this had been but a single battle in a much larger war.

The Infernal were not destroyed. They would continue on. Manipulating humans as they had for millennia, bringing misery and terror to their lives in their efforts to seize control of the lost souls and gain supremacy over the realm.

There were other Keepers out there; alone and ignorant of their true nature. They must be educated; drawn together and united. On this and every other as yet undiscovered Keeper’s Earth. A line must be drawn in the sand. The battlements held. Never again could the Infernal be allowed to get this close—too close—to their ultimate goal.

The manuscript, too, was out there somewhere: The Word of the ALL. The Elder would not have spoken of it, could not have known of its existence, unless it were true. It was up to Richard and Eliana to learn of its location and somehow retrieve it.

Upon those pages is written mankind’s true purpose; its true destiny. It is the right of all living creatures to be led out of the darkness and into the light.

And, if Richard’s suspicions about the manuscript were correct, into the loving arms of the ALL.