Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (69 page)

“As Afleen grew into adulthood the Hallowed Mother spoke to him for the first time.
During
his maturity he
slowly
gained special powers
that the rest of his kind couldn’t understand
. He could
easily
communicate by thought
alone
and
could
control his surroundings
with his energy
. He could read the flow of any
situation
and set it right
,
if there was a disharmony before his eyes.”
Sorono stopped at turned around to speak to all
who were present
.
“The reason Connor destroyed the meeting
today
is because he read the flow of energy and
of
us. He
always
knows
whenever someone is lying to him and he won
’
t rest until he hears the truth.
We are created differently so we can understand the impossible.
Even if the truth is terrible
we’ll still desire it
.
No matter what you do, try not to lie to him or you can expect trouble.
He realized the very second my son opened his mouth that he was lying.”

“Your mistaken, Sorono.” Everyone
turned to look at
Sarah’s
mate,
even an astonished Sorono.
Connor
was calm, but his eyes were
still as penetrating as ever.
“I noticed something was off the very moment all of you walked into the room. You shouldn’t have walked with your eyes closed or made yourself look smaller. That set my radar off, but it wasn’t until the second meeting did I figure out that you were the real Head Elder. Every Elder
Keeper
on your platform glanced at least one time to you. They were looking towards their real leader
,
not Damian. Even Damian second guessed himself
a few times
and looked at you
for guidance
. But the entire time yo
u did nothing, but listen to everything at
the proceedings.”

“I’m
impressed, Connor. I really am.”
Sorono returned his piercing hazel eyes to
the rest
.
“Even at a single glance one of us could tell there is something strange. What we do when we find a disharmony it stop the flow completely and set things right. It can be as s
imple as moving a rock in a river to make t
he
flow more easily
or as Connor demonstrated earlier, destroy the flow with force. When he fought all of the Guard’s he didn’t even scratch them
during the one sided fight
. What he was doing was flushing me out by demonstrating he wasn’t fooled like everyone else was. In revealing me as the Head
,
he proved how unique he is… Now let’s get back to the story.”
He turned around and pointed to the picture after the blue/brown swirl.

“Afleen was the first immortal Keeper and my brethren
here
are
almost
all
his
desc
endants. Afleen mated with one female
,
after finding he could bring her into his
immortal and lonely
life
. All of his children became immortals
as well
, but
they
didn’t have their father’s
immense
strength. Those children also mated with
other mortals and their children became immortals. Since his descendants had become immortals, the children took longer and longer to reproduce. Like my new mate Veronica here is a mother of two, she had to wait alm
ost eight
hundred thousand years before she was ab
le to produce an heir
to her legacy.”
Sarah
looked up at
her companion. If she was human Sarah
would guarantee
Veronica
would be flushing in embarrassment.
Sarah
rested a hand on her
large
leg and she looked do
w
n a
nd
smile
d
in gratitude
.
“Then Afleen had
to
create the first immortal bloodline chart. He knew if his children were too closely related
,
mutations would
begin to
occur
and that would become too dangerous
. That is why
,
to this day
,
I know every single branch that started on his
first
list.

“During his immortal reign he set the
people and
planet
’s
flow
back in order. His fellow companions made less and less destruction
to the planet
. Soon everyone began working with the Hallowed Mother
’
s creations and using
only
what they needed. What you need to kno
w is that this process took close
ten
thousand
years
to
fully
achieve
.”
Sorono began walking around the room again.

“
The Hallowed Mother
was
highly
pleased with her first son
’s efforts
and what he had accomplished.
She then decided to make another son to ease the heavy burden
of rule
on Afleen.
His brother
came to be
known as Ragke.
She allowed the
brothers
to choose their own path
,
without her interference
. The brothers had
chosen to
become best friends and
they
ruled together
, equally
. Peace and exploration lasted for
the next
million
year
s
. Until something terrible happened.

“Ragke somehow lost hi
mself
and had become
like
a
wild and
feral
animal
. He started using his unbound strength to destroy all the peace he helped hold with his brother. No one could stand in his way as he destroyed civilization after civilization
,
except for his older brother Afleen.”
So
rono wiped a
tear
from his eye
as
a sudden memory flashed in everyone’s
mind for a moment and then just as quickly disappeared
.
“The two brother
s
met in
an inevitable
battle
,
since their powers were equal. During the fight Ragke used his power to pull an asteroid from
space. Afleen knew how dangerous things had gotten once he realized what h
is brother ha
d
set in motion
. Afleen was given a single opportunity
to win
and he
was forced to
kill his brother. The fight exhausted Afleen and he knew the asteroid his brother altered was going to hit the planet
and destroy all of life
.

“Afleen used his remaining strength to
adjust
the asteroid
’s trajectory,
to land in the ocean. He knew the water would slow the impact to a degree
, but not stop the destruction completely
. The asteroid landed, but it was too close to where Afleen fought. He was killed as was most of the planet from the dust cloud that lasted for several years.”
Sorono
pointed past the
painting of an
explosion.
“Only a few of their children managed to survive the blast
radius
and the
extensive
winter
from the dust cloud
.
Unfortunately all of the mortal Keepers vanished from existence. During the fall
of what you call the dinosaurs did the Hallowed Mother make
her
third child. She told him about what had happened and charged him to be a guide for the next sentient race to arise.
She didn’t want the Keepers to rule the planet
again
incase something like this happened
.
Since then she hasn’t spoken aloud. The next species to become sentient w
ere
…”

“H
umans.” Connor finished his
statement and took it from there
by looking at the paintings
and filling in the blanks
.
He cocked his head as he looked at the paintings and spoke clearly.
“The third did his duty and helped shape human knowledge
and life
, but the humans
became
annoyed with the interference because they wanted to learn by themselves
and became even more greedy
. They saw Keepers a
s dragons and thought them evil. They couldn’t comprehend where their immortal guides got their powers or how they were able to use it. Most humans saw you as a threat to their survival and
started slaying the dragons
like demonic beasts in their ignorance
.
To save a great many lives
the Keepers disappeared from human history
,
thousands of years ago
.
Since then
the humans started making their own path and shaping their own lives
, b
ut the Keepers still do their duty and
keep an ever
watch
ful eye on
the humans
.
W
ith
that
close observation
they do their best to still
guide
them
wherever possible
from the shadows
.”

Connor stopped and looked at the clouded ceiling. “Sorono, I do not understand what the clouds and sky represents.”

“That meaning is the unknown future and what will
lay
even
beyond
that.
”

“I see
now.” Connor smiled up at the domed roof.

“Now for the last parts of the story
.”
Sorono turned around to look at the group.
“Will everyone please move to the walls so everyone may look at the final painting on the floor?”

Everyone moved from the center of the room to the wall. All that
remained
left was the giant black X on the white floor. Connor and Sorono moved to stand in the center of the room
,
wher
e the black lines intersected. Sarah
could see how everyone had spread out across the room to look at
her
mate from every angle. The two men stood proudly in the very center of the room.

Sorono took a very deep breath through his
snout
and
drove it
back out. His reptilian f
eatures
turned
impassive as
the
story came to an end.
“The special children
born
of the Hallowed Mother are called Harmonizers
.”
She
could see everyone’s eyes widen from the others on the side of the room.
“We are the truest guardians of this planet
,
given
the right
by the Hallowed Mother herself. We are the strongest of all
living
creatures
,
thanks to our special gifts
and instincts
. The first way you can tell us as Harmonizers is by our eyes. If you look into Connor’s or my eyes, you will think they are
a sharp
hazel. In fact they are a representation of the earth and the sky
coming together in one entity
. The greatest representation is from the mark she put on us
,
once our bodies could survive the pain.
It is a pain that only a Harmonizer can bear whereas all others would die.
Below my feet you see the painting, but in reality
the marking
looks like this.”

Sorono grabbed his sleeves and pulled his arms inside his
Elder
’
s
robe
. He then slid his arms through the front and spread them apart. His black robe laid back and down. The falling robe fell all the way down to his waistline. His belt was the only thing keeping his clothing on. The muscles of a Harmonizer must be the same because
Sorono
revealed himself  to be
just
as overly developed
in muscle tone
as Connor is. His chest and abdominal muscles were wide and rippling. His arms and legs were perfectly carved and looked threatening. His black scales were all perfect and moved just over the
knotted
muscles. The thing
i
s
,
Sarah
didn’t see any mark on his chest like on Connor
’
s.