The 13th Mage (21 page)

Shit, Owen thought, too late.

Jennifer couldn’t see anything, couldn’t feel anything, she imagined she had eyes and opened them.
Nothing happened.

Her body began to hurt. E
very cell in her body was hurting now.

It was cold.

She moved her hand, stones, sand.

She felt sad, terribly unhappy.
She lay there for an eternity, and then sat up for no particular reason.
There was no reason to get up.
She was blind.

The air smelt fetid, it was thick.

Carbon monoxide, thought Jennifer, no matter how much she tried to breathe in there was not enough oxygen to clear her lungs.
She lay back down.

“Jennifer?”

“Owen?”

“Jennifer!” His voice came from the right, but there was no way she could locate him now that she was blind.

“Owen! I’m here! I can’t find you, I’m blind.”

“So am I.
Well, actually, we are not blind, it’s this place, there is no light here.”

A place with no light? Thought Jennifer, it must an enclosure of some kind.
A large sort of cell, which would explain the lack of oxygen.

“Keep talking,” said Owen, “so I can reach you.”

She told him about the carbon monoxide theory, about the pain, about the stones and the sand, spoke until she felt something cold feeling her foot.
She screamed.

“Sorry,” he said, “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“Where are we?”

“I don’t know.”

“I feel I’ve been here before, there is something about it.
It feels familiar,”
Jennifer said. S
omething was stirring inside her.

“Try to think, concentrate.”

“I can’t, there’s no point.
One thing’s for sure, there is no way out.
We’ll be here forever.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Owen replied, “if that was the case you
couldn’t have been here before. Y
ou would still be here from the first time.”

He took off his jacket and put it around her shoulders, then reached over and hugged her tightly

“It will keep us warmer,” he said.

There was no breeze, no movement of any kind, everything was still.
They waited.
Hours went by, still they waited.

A red tint be
gan to filter into their vision. T
hey were able to
make out each other's
outlines. S
lowly
the red tint
became brighter.

A large red sun appeared in a distant horizon.

“Oh my god, this is some sort of desert, it’s not an enclosure.
Where’s all the air gone?” Jennifer asked.

The sun became larger by the second.

“I think we should find shelter,” said Owen.

“That’s not our sun,” said Jennifer slowly following Owen off the ground, “we are not on earth!”

“That’s impossible, of course we are on earth, there has to be a logical explanation to all this. Come on, try to walk, we might be able to reach those hills before the sun gets hotter.”

“Don’t you feel much heavier?
The gravitational pull here is much bigger. No wonder I didn’t want to get up.”

“There is no way any magic could send us to another planet.”

“The only other explanation then is that we’ve died and gone to hell.”

“That’s also impossible.”

“Why is that?”

“There is no hell.”

“That depends on what religion you believe in, doesn’t it?”

“Not, really, hell no longer exists.”

“No longer exists?” she asked.

“That’s right.”

“Would you care to explain?”

“Well, you see, most worlds are made up of different dimensions, different worlds as you might say.
The
Old Ones
live in such a world.
Where earth is now there were ten worlds, beings lived in these worlds and were reborn in one or another depending on their evolution and their actions, only mages could move through them.
Then a bunch of mages of old got together and decided to
dimensionally squeeze all these worlds into one.
Earth was born, and the creatures within are all made up of these ten worlds.
It makes it unique among planets.
Hell was known as one of the Ten Worlds, but it no longer exists, not as another dimension anyway. It’s part of earth, part of each one of us, we move in and out of it depending on what happens in our lives.”

“That explains why I thought I’d been here before.
I felt this way when I discovered Sean had abandoned me.
Unable to move, this heavy feeling, this unhappiness.”

“Yes.”

“But if hell no longer exists, and it’s like this, then where are we?”

“I don’t know. A memory perhaps.”

Jennifer thought about it, if memories could be inhabited, then it was a possibility, but why hell?

The sun began to burn.

“So is this like Astral Traveling?”

“No, the Ten Worlds have nothing to do with the Astral, Ethereal or Light Dimensions.
Those have to do with vibration frequency.
The lower the vibration the more solid the matter.
Mortals normally only see a very narrow range of vibrations, there are higher and lower ones that only mage can see, and some mortals, but they are independent to the Worlds. Each world had its own range of vibrations,” he closed his eyes, “this one doesn’t which proves it’s not real.”

He stopped in his tracks.

“Those hills are too far away, we’ll never make it.”

“You are right, we won’t.”

They lay down on the hot sand, panting from the effort.

The sun rose slowly into the sky, baking everything, Jennifer could feel her skin burning, but she didn’t have the energy to move.
There was no point moving, they wouldn’t get anywhere even if they moved.

Owen knew if they stayed where they were they wouldn’t survive the day, he had to make some type of shelter, he could rearrange the rocks and make a sort of hut, or make a hole in the ground large enough to keep them off the sun.
He gathered his strength and gave the order, nothing happened.

“I have no powers here,” he said defeated, “I’m an ordinary mortal.”

A thought nudged his brain.
Becoming an ordinary mortal was his greatest fear.
He was living his greatest fear.

“What is your greatest fear Jennifer?”

“Not being able to protect my baby.
She’s out there on her own now, it’s only a matter of time before they get to her and I won’t be able to do anything about it.”

“The last time you were here, when Sean abandoned you, how did you get out?”

“I found out I was pregnant.
It gave me a reason to live.
I couldn’t allow myself to be depressed because the baby would feel it too.”

That was it, thought Owen, t
hey needed a reason to continue. T
hey needed to make an effort, any effort.
By standing still they would die.

“Okay, help me out here. W
e have to make a hole, a sort of tunnel kind of thing, big enough for us to shelter in.”

“I can’t move.”

“I guess you were right then, you are no fit mother, giving up when the Shadow could be getting their sticky hands on Heather.
I care more about her than you do, I’ll make sure she’s safe.”

“I know what you are trying to do,” said Jennifer as she watched Owen dig with his bare fingers, “I guess it’s working,” she added handing him a sharp stone and digging with him.

A breeze of fresh air engulfed them, oxygen.

They breathed deeply and carried on with their work. A cloud covered the sun.

The ground was hard, but became softer the deeper they dug.

Soon there was a hole large enough to hold them, they got in and covered the entrance with Owen’s jacket.

Owen thought about the days when people were born into a world like this one, not being able to escape.
If the Shadow got hold of the
Staff
and they used it to separate the worlds people would be born here again.
He wouldn’t let that happen.

When he woke up Jennifer was no longer there.
In fact “there” had changed completely, he was lying on a beach, the sun glistened off the water, and a cool breeze filled his lungs. He breathed out and closed his eyes. They were out of hell.
Well, he was out, Jennifer would be coming out any moment, he was sure of it.

He looked around, just beyond the shore there were trees filled with fruit and a small waterfall.

Must be heaven, he thought.

But why would they send him to heaven?
It didn’t make any sense, but it didn’t matter, he would eat some fruit, have a rest and wait for Jennifer.

The day turned to night and soon he began to forget why he lay there waiting and simply lay there.

He thought he had never known such peace in his life, such relaxation, such happiness.
It was complete tranquility of heart and mind.

Something nudged his mind, but he took no notice.
He was soon fast asleep.

He dreamed of a being led like a zombie into a car, Jennifer walked beside him, her mind empty.

He woke up to a beautiful sunrise, he watched in awe as the sun rose, filling the sky with red, purple and orange.

Breakfast was more fruit, spring water and sunbathing.
He remembered the last months he spent in Santorcaz before meeting Jennifer.
Life was much better then, much simpler.
Jennifer was too much trouble. T
he Shado
w could take her if they wanted. T
hey
obviously
didn’t know what they were letting themselves into.

He laughed and lay back to digest his breakfast.

The day turned to evening.
He remembered the Rain Forest, he remembered the old healer, “evil has many masks,” she had said to him, her memory pointed at the sun setting in the sea.

What did that mortal know anyway, just a simple old woman, she was no more than an ignorant peasant.
Trying to teach a Council Elder what evil was about, it was ridiculous.

Not even her special tea had worked.

He still loved that silly little mortal girl, wherever she was.

He took another bite of his mango.

Jennifer, he thought.

Where was Jennifer?

He stood up and looked around.
Where was he?

Heaven.

He wanted to sit down again and watch the last of the sun’s rays be swallowed by the sea, but something stopped him.
It was a memory, something he had to do.

I have to get the
Staff
, he thought to himself.
Yes that’s what it was, he had to become
Staff
Holder, but it could wait, he would finish watching the sunset first, then he would have a good night sleep and start fresh the next morning.
He promised himself he would start the next morning and sat down.

Something was wrong, he remembered thinking exactly the same thing the night before, but during the day he had done nothing but enjoy the day.

His h
eart was aching, but not physically. I
t was more like a strange energy pinching him.

He watched as the old healer materialized fully into focus, she walked toward him and struggled to sit beside him on the beach, “you should have seen me in my youth!” she said and laughed, “could dance for a whole week non stop.”

Her presence bothered Owen no end, somehow she didn’t seem to fit into the environment.

“What are you doing here?”

“I don’t know, you tell me, you called me here.”

“I haven’t called anyone.”

“You could have fooled me.”

“Well, go
away
then.”

“I wish I could, but I can’t.
I don’t think I want to now I’m here, lovely place this.”

“You can’t stay here.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to be alone.”

“Oh?”

“Can’t you see I’m busy?”

“Really? No, I can’t say I can.
It looks to me you are doing nothing at all.”

“I am watching the sunset.
And tomorrow I have to find Jennifer.”

“I thought it was today you had to find Jennifer.”

“No, definitely tomorrow.”