He was collected the next morning and teleported to our centre.
He refused to climb on the horse. “Fuck the horse, let him meet me like a man on foot.”
If you wish to read from an earlier book, from Book 01 to Book 10, use this link button to open the LC Book Index:
7251
“Sebura?”
“All weapons and the horse are an option Robert, not enforced?”
“Agreed.”
“Then I do not wish to use my weapons, just this stick, and he may choose to meet me on foot.”
Robbie bowed to both men and left the enclosure. Stakes had been forced into the ground and a rope cordoned off the fighting area. It is about twice as long and wide as a soccer pitch.
The man circled Sebura, who stood casually holding his stave. He must have been more than six inches taller and built like a bear, Sebura looked so puny before him that we expected him to rush in, depending on his superior strength and mass, but he was wary. Experimentally he jabbed his spear and with the barest movement Sebura flicked it aside. The locals were puzzled. None of the posturing and bravado their warriors love indulging in were being exhibited by Sebura and he hardly seemed aware of his enemy. I saw Haven nodding to herself, pleased with him, so I calmed down.
For the next half hour the man tried using sword, spear and both together, but with minimal movements Sebura turned his weapons aside. The crowd was disappointed in Sebura, they felt he was not fighting as a rider should and they were growing bored or restive, according to their temperament.
The man threw away his sword and gripping his spear like a stave he attacked and suddenly the fight was on. There were times we could barely see the swings or jabs, but the other would somehow block them. After maintaining attack and counterattack to the point of exhaustion, the man stepped back to take a breather. Suddenly Sebura became the aggressor. The first blow to get through hit Sebura on his hip but he ignored the pain and used the opening to hit the man with the point of his stave. As the man grunted his spear fell aside and Sebura struck another blow. His blows, by the side of the stave and either point seemed to come so quickly that they looked like a continuous rain of strikes, driving the man to his knees. He dropped his spear and Sebura stopped.
“Get to your feet, I will not have you on your knees like a woman when I kill you.”
“We gave you powers that could have made you a god damn it and this is how you repay us? How many times has that bitch lied to you and you still believe what she tells you?”
“I only believe Sebura and he tells me that I am not as stupid as you think I am.” In disgust he turned to Robbie. “How do I fight a coward?”
“He has lost his honour Sebura, are you satisfied?”
He stared at the man who made no move to regain the spear. “I am.”
Vincent jumped to the man and teleported him to the temporary house to wait for Robbie to regress him. It took a few minutes for the locals to realise that Sebura was the victor and though the fight was not to their satisfaction they celebrated his victory by eating, drinking too much and dancing until the early hours.
After the partying, Robbie regressed the man without locking away all his powers, leaving him those that are less of a threat. If he grows up as we hope, perhaps his powers will turn him towards becoming a Cherinian - well, we can only hope.
I hid my grin when Sebura arrived the next morning. He was bleary-eyed and emoting his misery. Robbie gave him his stern look. “Do you intend fighting like that? If you lose, what honour will there be?”
“I was stupid. Everyone was happy and they brought me too many drinks.”
7252
Robbie gave him a wink. “You fought a white demon according to his ways and won and that made it special for them?” He nodded. “I’ve done worse, give our healers a moment and you’ll be fine. Sebura, we’ll heal your injuries and start you off with the energy you need since you’ll be fighting every day, but we will not take care of your hangovers and sleepless nights again. What I’m seeing before me right now is not what Haven spent a year teaching you.”
Suddenly his eyes flashed with anger and Robbie nearly took a step back. He turned to Haven and bowed his head. “I have betrayed your trust!”
“You only had a few drinks too many, don’t make a big thing out of it. With your first win you were entitled to one party and I’m pleased that you enjoyed it, but do not make a habit of it.”
The second man was thin and wiry and from the way he moved, almost like he was dancing, we guessed that Sebura would find him a dangerous opponent. Within five minutes his sword slashed across Sebura’s chest. Sebura managed to draw blood and land a few blows, but it was not long before the biceps of his right arm were cut and he could not fight. He held his stave in his left hand and waited for the final cut, aware that he could not fight this man. He threw his sword at Sebura’s feet.
“Killing you will not change my fate and you were our victim.” He gave a half salute and walked directly to Robbie. “I suggest you heal him, there is little point in him suffering without reason. If I’d had the opportunity of facing you under the same conditions, it would have been my pleasure to provide you with my steel in both your hearts.”
“I shall not block my gifts, but I will not use them. Would that be acceptable to you? I should remind you that being a Cherinian does make me faster than Sebura.”
“I’ll risk it if you’re game.” Cherine had already turned from Robbie, eyeing us coldly, daring us to protest, so we kept quiet. Robbie took off his shirt and shoes and standing before a bewildered and shamed Sebura he bowed to him.
“Would you honour me by giving me the use of your stave?”
Robbie was right. All these years he has been too lazy to train, but he was more than twice as fast and easily blocked all his blows, lightly tapping him to make his point that he could have hurt him. He stepped away from the man, bowed to Sebura and offered the stave. He returned to the fight with just his bare hands.
“What is your first name?”
“Dirk Sheffield.”
“Well Dirk Sheffield, have I made my point? I would like to test myself against you without a weapon, will you oblige?”
He threw his sword and knife (he had not accepted the spear). “Let us see if speed alone is enough to save you. I will break your neck if I’m offered the opportunity.”
He shrugged. “I’ve had worse done to me.”
Dirk paused. “Those bear things…Gnolats! Were the tellings true to life or did you exaggerate their speed?”
Now this was an invitation I could not pass up. Within seconds I was charging into the field and the locals were scattering. I stopped, waiting for Robbie to get out of the way. He grinned and waved his arm at me. “It seems you’ll be given the opportunity to judge for yourself.” He backed away, and we sensed how just the sight of a Gnolat had him quivering inside.
Dirk leapt, landing on his hands he spun around and kicked at me. My claws grabbed an ankle and I threw him about ten metres away. He barely had time to shake his head when I was by him and my claws dug into him as I brought his face to my teeth. As my teeth touched his face, his arms beating at me without effect, I paused and stared into his eyes. *Do I rip off your face or do you concede?*
“I concede.”
7253
As I stepped away, almost softly my one talon sliced down his arm and he saw how easily his flesh was torn apart. I took a couple of steps away from him and changed back to myself. “Your wounds will close within minutes. You are a brave man Mr Sheffield, I do not understand how a man like you could prefer to fight us instead of joining us. Would you join us at the table for a drink so that we can talk?”
If Dirk has not drastically altered himself, I estimate he is about twenty four years old, or older. Without complaint he waited for his wounds to close and picking up his sword and knife handed them back to the Orati who’d given them to him with a nod of thanks and walked to our table. I had asked Gina to make space for him next to me, so he took the seat as I poured him a beer.
“Did you think I was fast as a Gnolat? A real one would have been at least twice as fast.”
“I’ll admit I admire any man who can return to fight one of those after the damage you showed being inflicted on him.”
“Robert was terrified, but that is how he responds to fear.”
Sebura stood up on the other side of the table. “You have honour Dirk. I have no claim against you now, if Robert or Samantha wish to grant you your life, I have no objection.”
Dirk got to his feet. “My apologies for what was done to you, but you should also understand that the tellings did show that you hated Samantha. They have not shown a more recent telling so we did not expect you to resent helping us kill her.”
“What good would killing her do, she’d just return.”
“I regret I cannot answer you.”
Until then we’d been exchanging gallantries, as if his courage had intoxicated us. I saw how our instinctive reaction to bravery was a fallacy created by our cultural need to admire courage. To think that evil people are not brave is dangerous. I’d been toying with the concept that we would talk and somehow I would unravel some simple knot and show him that he should be on the side of the angels, freeing him to achieve the nobility courage has endowed him with. I was swept off balance by my realisation and for a short time it felt to me as if he must be the most dangerous person of his team, for he is intelligent enough to manipulate our emotions and needs. My family felt the sudden hard coldness in me and all along the table the conversations faltered as they rushed to examine my thoughts. I sent to Robbie, *Please don’t offer not to regress him until I return* and I came to my feet with an excuse and jumped to Freddie.
Robbie arrived to find me still agitated. I turned to him, “Do you believe all cowards are evil?”
His eyes narrowed as he immediately understood the cause of my emotional upheaval. “Courage in an enemy does not prove him to be evil.”
“You are an agnostic; I believe in Islam. You believe in Abraham and Moses and I believe in Jesus. You believe in socialism and I in capitalism. In such conflicts there can be good and evil people on both sides. You believe in helping and empowering people and I believe in hurting and enslaving them. In such a conflict the lines are drawn between good and evil people, not just according to belief.”
“Samantha, are you listening to what you are saying? Do you contend that there can be no possibility of redemption among the enemy, that we must only believe the worst of them and suspect every overture? How do you think Michael and Dimi have gathered information that has been crucial in our stopping Campbell and other like-minded groups from successfully carrying out their plans? Even among the evil there will be those who are uncomfortable with what they’ve given in to and will experience doubts. Do not give in to seeing all as either white or black.”
“I could argue that those who supplied us with information do so out of fear that we can crush them and are buying a little bit of insurance.”
“No wonder your mind is so cold and bleak! You’ve left our girls feeling very disturbed.”
“I know that nothing I’ve said proves that Dirk is incurably evil, I just have a feeling that I must not ignore the possibility that he could be manipulating us.”
7254
“Then keep that possibility in mind without taking an extreme position before you have proof of your fears.”
I felt very frustrated. “Don’t you see, we are fighting them according to strict rules while they are free to attack us in any way they can. He is smart enough to know that he must fight us in ways that our own wish to believe in the good of all people softens us to his advantage. He’s proven he is an expert at martial arts; what is the first lesson almost all branches of such arts teach? Use the strength of your opponent against him.”
Robbie pulled me to him and chuckled as he answered, “If so, then he is very good at it. However, we have a Samantha who always remembers to worry for her people. We’ll survive.”
“Don’t do that!” I bit my lip and paused. “Okay, you earned a kiss, but I’m going to nail him if he’s playing games with us.”
As we took our seats, Dirk leant forward, speaking to Sebura. “Listen to what I have to tell you for, apparently, I will not be around to repeat myself.
You have known and dealt with Samantha for years and she has changed your world and yet, familiarity seduces you into thinking you know her. In fifty years time, you’ll know her well enough to understand that you don’t.
Let me give you a few tips that might help you. The Cherinians, even those of my Earth, they are aliens, a different species. You have to learn to see the differences and try to understand what makes them different, why they are as they are. For instance, all Cherinians are transparent to us Normals. Even when they think they are hiding their emotions, they are not. You see, they have all grown so close to each other from sharing through their emoting that hiding their emotions is alien to them. They can sense or feel each other, if not directly then in the background. Watch and you’ll see how Robert Teller can be talking with someone, totally engrossed in their conversation or worrying at a problem and he’ll suddenly turn around to look at one of his wives. He sensed that something upset her or worried her or gave her joy. Their constant sharing has made it almost impossible for them to hide their feelings from anyone. With one exception. Samantha.
I’ve studied all her appearances on television that I could find and she is still an enigma. If she is angry with you and she shows it, then you know that she deliberately chose to show you for a reason. Did she bite her lip? It could mean she is deep in thought or excited or upset about something. Though her exact state of mind cannot be pinpointed, knowing what I told you is a big step forward for the context in which she bit her lip should help you. Unless, that is, she did it deliberately as a bluff. That is another aspect I’m certain you are familiar with, for she has shown you more often than any other I can think of, how manipulative she can be. Do you know when she is at her best? When she is telling the truth, showing her emotions for real, knowing that you know she is manipulative and will search for reasons behind the reasons. That way she has you acting exactly as she planned.
I don’t know whether she became as she is because of having to deal with Normals, especially government leaders and because of her role as friend of aliens, or whether she is naturally more closed and secretive. She does have an Achilles heel - that means, a weakness. However successfully she hides herself from everyone else, she never hides herself from her family. Has she said something and you are suspicious of her? Take a look at…Robert for instance. If he is amused, you know you are safe, that Samantha is only about to tease you. Does he suddenly look like a wooden Indian, hiding his emotions, then it means she is about to manipulate you.
I’ll give you one final example and then I’ll shut up. Just before Samantha left us and was followed by Robert, she bit her lip. She was too agitated to hide it for long so she left. Now, what do you think could have upset her so much, we’d only been joking or trying to be nice to each other. Was it my comment about not being free to answer your question about the advantages of killing her? I doubt it, she is not a coward and if she truly wants to find out, she’ll use her brain to work it out.
It might have been something said, it might have been the tone in my voice or it just might have been that the cumulative effect of what was being said and done had struck her so that she saw a new truth. What do you think it could be?”
7255
When he’d began talking about me the entire family had stopped talking. Dirk looked at Sebura for an answer, saw that he did not have a clue, probably had not understood some of what he’d said, so he turned to look at everyone else. He shrugged.
“Nobody? Let me venture an educated guess. I’ll begin with a question that bothered me. Why did she attack me as a Gnolat? Once I understood that, everything else fell in place. She likes me!
She might have been feeling it is a pity I have to be destroyed, my personality lost forever for the baby I’ll become will be a different person. Then you, Sebura, stood up and announced that you no longer needed to be avenged by my death.” He looked around again. “Still no takers? I guess you’re enjoying listening to me make a fool of myself.”
He sipped his drink. “Samantha decided that my wonderful personality is the result of a power I have to make others think well of me and somehow they’d missed it when shutting my powers down. She knows that I am an evil person, that I am cunning, so, for her to like me, I must have used a power.”
He turned to me. “You are wrong Samantha. I am evil, as you define evil, but I do not torture women and children, I do not destroy lives for petty reasons. I too have those I love and before you destroy my personality I charge you as a Cherinian to make a note of who they are and to undertake to prevent them from suffering because of my death.
I did not stop myself from killing Sebura out of pity. I did it because it would have been a waste. He fought me bravely like a warrior and, even more important, without being driven by hate. He did not deserve to die and his death would not have served any purpose.
Have I analysed you for Sebura correctly?”
“In many ways, though I did not like some of what you said. You did miss out on some of the more interesting facts you should have deduced about me.”
“My apologies if I slighted you. The rest, I leave them to Sebura to discover on behalf of all of us.”
I laughed. “You are an impossible man. Only scoundrels are supposed to be likeable, not men like you.”
He said to Robbie, “You are a very patient man - I am surprised you can afford to be so with so many wives. But then, you only have one Samantha.”
“In what way am I patient Mr Sheffield?”
“First she likes Sebura when he is at his worst and now she likes me, Mr Teller.” My loves laughed and I’m glad no one else could hear the comments they exchanged. Mostly because of them, Robbie grinned.
Robbie turned serious. “If I do not regress you, will you remain our enemy and fight us?”
“The question presuppose I will have the ability to do so?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t say. You’d have to take the chance.”
“What if I placed a condition? If you do fight us, you undertake never to attack any other Cherinian, only myself.”
“To be honest, conditions are the best way of ensuring I will do exactly what you do not want me to do.”
Robbie shrugged. “Then how do I let you go?”
Haven spoke up. “Do not place any conditions Robert, allow him to offer. I recognise the touch of your Master in your style of fighting Mr Sheffield, whatever you offer, do it in his memory.”
“You’ve met him?”
7256
“He trained me before he grew too ill and then sent me on to his favourite pupil for further training.”
“I was a great disappointment to him. In this I will not disappoint him, you have my word - in his name and memory.”
“Sam?”
“Are you asking me as Samantha or as a Gnolat?”
Robbie shouted, “What!”
I laughed. “What more evil creature has there ever been Robert? And yet, do you know of any more honourable? As you demand of Cherinians, they fight to defend their species and yet they do not murder or hurt for any other kind of gain.”
“I give up! Let Mr Sheffield choose.” Everyone tried to hide their grins as they looked at him.
“I have a feeling the answer is important, but I haven’t worked out why it is.”
“Take your time, I have a feeling I’ll survive a few more days.”
“Touché.”
“What the hell was that about Sam? A Gnolat!”
“He knows that if I spare him as a Gnolat and he attacks any of my loves, I’ll go after him as a Gnolat. He is afraid of me as a Gnolat.”
He put his hands about my head. “Hey, you in there, give it a rest will you and let my Samantha be a normal girl for a while?”
Of course, Tina had to take exception to what I’d said. “The Gnolats are not evil, they were not sentient and only sentient beings can be evil, they only followed the laws of nature to an extreme.”
I think I was still recovering and not totally myself, it is the only excuse I can tender. I answered her, “Tell that to the Gnolats when they arrive.”
Robbie’s face was suddenly harsh and all my loves and our friends panicked, including Cherine. “What are you talking about!”
“Well, there are countless realities where they are still able to become Gnolats. Something will happen in one of them to make them leave their planet, with so many alternate realities, it has to happen. There are too many species who know about alternate realities and not all of them will be as careful as you were when they panic and they’ll learn how to reality hop.”
He relaxed. “Oh, you’re talking about probabilities. I do not think it is as likely as you say. We can’t spend our lives worrying about them Sam, if they do appear, we’ll have to find a way to fight them.”
That night he woke up sweating from a nightmare and went to sit on his ledge while I shrivelled inside and cursed myself for the fool I am.
7257
You will not delete! We want it a part of your story. Every one of us wrote a note of thanks and love. To his ‘non-existent’ reader(s), Arthur should not have deleted, but at least this must stand as a record that we did thank him.
Everyone gathered for the next fight in the morning and Robbie stopped Sebura from taking his weapons and with his hand on his arm led him to the center so that all could see and hear them.
“Last night Arthur wrote in our diary and his words altered the future of all species forever. This is too important a moment for us to spend it on hatred, anger and revenge. I have brought back all the prisoners with their powers blocked so that they may walk among you as Normal men and women. The two who attacked us within our home have had new bodies created for them and they are with us also. None are to harm any of them, for they are our guests.
Sebura, when Samantha became a Gnolat yesterday, it caused her to have a thought that frightened me, for she was right and there was no way I could save us. I spent the night mourning the loss of all life even as I planned for bringing together all the species of all the realities for us to prepare for one desperate battle to save our species - even though I knew that we would lose. I saw only one answer, all species would have to leave their home planets and enter the Worlds of their Sparklers. Only there the Gnolats cannot enter.” He told them of the words I’d spoken and of what they portended. He was very graphic in his description of what would happen to all life on all planets in all realities. By the time he ended women were keening and wailing. He raised his hand and there was silence.
“On this day, on this planet, we have all been delivered. I wish to prepare for a feast that will last three days. I ask the Orati for land for us to build a small city that we will remove afterwards. It will be home to leaders of all species during the feast. The Orati will be known, remembered and honoured by all species for all of time. Elders, do you give us permission to use your land for a couple of weeks?”
They briefly conferred and Ashema stood. “All the land you need and for as long as you need it Robert, is yours to use. We thank you for the honour you bring our people - not only the Orati but all the people of this world.”
7258
“May I ask one more favour? It is not seemly that Sebura meets the leaders of so many people as an elder who has been removed from the council. Will you vote him back onto the council?”
They gathered to briefly confer and then Ashema spoke for all to hear him. “Samantha foretold the day would come and I replied that if it does, it will prove that she truly is a demon. Sebura, it is not your place to stand by Robert as a rider! Stand tall, for you now stand there as an elder.”
The Orati and their neighbours did not wait for us, they had feasts and celebrated and we went to them whenever we could. The locals have offered and are helping in any way they can for this is the largest and grandest ever undertaking by us and we are all determined to do Robert proud. Jade, Meli and Wendy (with Candy), Lua and Coral, have come together as one to design the most beautiful city ever! The Muyzith in Freddie have been asked to join them and they are feverishly helping to create the most amazing city any world has ever seen. It will be situated by and on the foothills of mountains that form a third of a crescent around the nearly flat land below.
Aganthi, Claudia, all those who are helping build, including myself, again and again we are lost and stand transposed by ecstatic awe of the beauty we see ourselves creating. Luckily even these soaring palaces that seem to have no shape to hold them to the earth do have to have certain common features such as bathrooms and toilets, kitchens and so on, helping us remain grounded to reality. Where matter cannot hold the angle, Robbie uses concentrated energy to form the curve or web of spidery walkways. His energies cannot be decorated except by the glow he gives them, using energies predominant in the colours Jade requests but the rest, hundreds of Muyzith float in the air as they paint and turn walls into scenes of unearthly beauty.
One of the most amazing features of the city can only be created by Robbie. It starts from a wide base behind the city, at about five hundred metres above the flat land it soars, gently curving over the city until it hangs over the flat land. There the curve brings it down so that the tip is about one hundred metres above the center of a large stadium. If I had imagined it, it would have been ivory, since it reminds me of a tusk of a mammoth, but luckily it was Robbie who did. It looks like it was cut out of a single piece of highly polished jade with that translucent glow the best of polished jade has, so that it is as if you can see into it. During the day it shimmers as the energies alter hues within the bluish-green range and at night it glows. One more detail of it astounds everyone - as if they need that to be awed any further. The entire edifice houses a museum exhibiting the wonders of every species (as donated to us by them).
When the horn was completed and the museums outfitted with all the treasures of a dozen species, Robbie had us gather beneath the tip. “As you may have noticed, my love for a certain wife of mine inspired me. The museum will be known as the Jade Intergalactic Museum. My love, I wish it could have lasted forever like my love for you will.”
On the flat land itself there is building going on, but much of it is by Robbie himself. Thousands of toilets and washrooms created out of energy, graded by shape or colour to denote which species they are created for. There are stadiums built out of the purest marble the Akiards are cutting at quarries in what we think of as Italy and Greece. A beautiful and almost translucent pink stone was brought from southern Africa and lights are placed behind them so that at night they glow.
In the center of the largest stadium we’ve ever seen, that can hold an audience of over a million, Robbie placed an energy dome and he refuses to allow us to see what is inside. Throughout the stadium and out on the streets and by the coffee shops and open-aired pubs, stand screens in their thousands. Trees have been transplanted, Cherinians digging deep and wide to include all their roots so that they do not die. Expert landscape gardeners, horticulturists and experts at shaping bushes are working with us so that not one corner is not a place of beauty.
Watching the fervour with which Robbie has thrown himself into the project has made it obvious how heavily the fear of the Gnolats had weighed upon him - whether he knew it or not. No wonder he had so many nightmares.
The command center for the media remains within the Unation ship that floats just above our atmosphere. I don’t know how many thousands of cameras are fixed or float around, recording everything to be shown on thousands of worlds afterwards.
7259
Claudia and Aganthi decided the local leaders must arrive on horseback and they gathered the women to create saddles and bridles decorated by the colours of each land. Aganthi wanted to place dyed plumes on the heads of the horses, but luckily Claudia and Diana convinced her it would not look right for leaders of warriors of this world.
For all the work Robbie is doing, he has chosen the twins, Alexis and Nicole to help him and they roped in Vanessa (Keith’s daughter and wife) as soon as she arrived.
We were all given two weeks to build and prepare. Those of us who had free time joined the other Cherinians in visiting the various local cities to clean them and paint the buildings that needed painting. We also planted trees and created small parks with lawns, much to the amazement of the locals. We are hoping many of the visiting leaders will want to visit the local leaders in their cities after the festivities have ended.
We are ready and Robbie with Cherine have left in Freddie to bring the leaders from all our Cherinian realities while the Unation ship sent a small scoutboat to invite the leaders of their planets, from all three realities.
Our isi asked whether we will be bringing Inguel from their home world and from the teams repairing planets. Inguel from Freddie travelled with their ship to bring those guests. Robbie and Cherine will bring the Elabet and I am looking forward to meeting Urafel and Sfiletin again. I can just imagine how their people will celebrate when they learn of what Arthur did, for they, of all people, know best what a threat the Gnolats were.
Freddie timed his arrivals so that he arrived three times within the same day. When we sensed Michael is with we all jumped to Freddie to be hugged by him. We stood in shock when we saw various groups that we know are hostile to us. I turned away when I sensed I’d flushed with anger on seeing Arthur Campbell, but I decided Robbie was right, all humans have a reason to celebrate and it would have been small-minded of us to leave them out. Gladly I joined Orgg, Jeskine, their king, Nean leaders and others for a while. Dimi was hugged and kissed just as fervently as Michael was and we forced him to stay with us, part of our group that continually splinters as we rush about for last minute corrections or helping our guests find their way. Vincent and Kirsten reassured us they do not need our help in transporting the food and drinks they’ve brought so we returned to the planet. The feelings of Dimi, Michael, Ahní and the rest of the family and friends was reward enough as they gawked with awe at the new city. I am told that not one species was left unmoved by the beauty and splendour.
Everyone was told to make themselves at home and to visit the local shops for their evening meals and drinks or to dance in the squares where music of various species was playing. The official festivities begin at nine in the morning.
All the Cherinians and Ipohin were roped in to keep a watch to prevent any drunken abuse or fighting. With so many species walking or flying or whatever throughout the city and so many of them being government leaders or royalty, we cannot afford to have anybody being insulted or harmed in any way. Campbell dared to offer himself and his followers and Robbie thanked him and showed them which part of the city to patrol.
My Gina wanted to become Jina, but we convinced her not to. Since Pol backed us and then her king, she gave in. Little Samantha (not quite so ‘little’ anymore), has obviously had it drummed into her who she is named after and she was a little bit afraid of me, so I kept her by my side and joked and teased with her until she relaxed.
Leaders (Thinkers) of alternates of the Sparklers are our guests and each group is made up of fifteen of them. Solomon told us that even though we’d asked him to invite the leaders of every alternate Sparklers he knows of, he limited himself to one thousand. That makes fifteen thousand Sparklers here in all kinds of shapes and sizes.
The locals were obviously cowed by the variety of demons visiting and the imposing presence of some leaders who use their technology to make themselves appear important, but we insisted this is their world and their land and their city, so they must be part of the celebrations. We almost had to drag them to the hundreds of establishments where they can eat or drink, but they soon got the hang of it and soon relaxed enough to enjoy themselves.
7260
Robbie asked Cherine, Dommi and I to join him on his ledge and asked everyone else for privacy.
“Samantha, I have a request to make of you and please refuse me if you do not agree. You have seen the energy dome I placed in the center of the stadium?” He explained why it is there and what he wants me to do. He made it obvious that it is, in part, his way of ensuring all species and realities appreciate what Arthur did for us. I agreed and then I lay down and the three of them entered my mind. Verbal triggers were set that will overwhelm me however strongly I fight them and then we returned to our loves.
That night I thought I was being loved far beyond reason, but saw no reason why I should protest. Only the next morning did I discover why they’d concentrated on keeping my mind shut to the world outside. From our bedroom they circled me and with all of us touching each other, Cherine jumped us. My eyes went up and up and up and I could not believe what I was seeing.
“But how? They are alien to this ecology!” Do you recall the Unation planet where I sat on the treetops and came up with my weird (and objectionable) theories? They have brought sixteen fully grown trees, lining the road to the main entrance of the stadium with eight trees to either side. The stadium, from the outside, soars well over a hundred metres and yet the trees soar beyond by at least another hundred and fifty metres.
Cherine grinned. “Go take a closer look.”
I did and my jaw must have dropped. I saw thousands of the spiky worms crawling over the branches plus all the other insects and even birds of that planet. I put out a hand and felt the tingle.
Robbie’s voice was laughing at me, “Sorry you won’t be able to climb them or sit at the top to watch the sunrise since we had to enclose them. We had to shield them from our atmosphere and ecology, but we also have to shield the local ecology from them. Samantha,” He placed his hands on my shoulders, his face aglow, “they are a gift from the Unation and when this is over, they’ll be transferred into Freddie within their own ecology.”
I waved my arm, “We’ve really gone overboard with all this.”
“Just wait until our next one!” He couldn’t stop laughing at the look on my face.
Cherine grabbed his hand. “If anyone wants breakfast we’d better go now. Samantha, you don’t have to stay here on your own to watch him laughing, we’re taking him with us.”
The stadium had nearly filled, only a few of royalty (plus a couple of self important dictators) still to enter. Efineh held us back until she was told that all have arrived and the main gates are closed. She led us up the steps and as we passed through the arch we came out onto a platform open to the stadium. Robbie and Cherine walked in front and we followed, none of us shy to gaze around at the splendour of males, females and other sexes dressed in the finest designs of so many worlds.
Efineh led us to Ashema. Robbie stopped before him and the elders. “May we join you?”
“Welcome Robert Teller. Twice welcome are your family. Efineh will show you your seats.” Proudly Ashema climbed the few steps where he could be seen by all.
“We welcome you all to our world and to the land of the Orati. It would have pleased us had you come as neighbours and friends, but the coming together of so many worlds has been called for by Robert Teller. We hand over to him, with the hope that his news pleases you.”
“Good morning. Most of you know that I abhor ceremony so I’ll keep it simple.” He smiled. “Before I begin, is there anyone here who does not know Samantha and needs to be introduced?” He looked around. “It seems not, we’ll have to discover a few new worlds then.” He chuckled and I turned red.
“Recently, Samantha chose to project herself as a Gnolat. After we returned home she said something that upset me. Please observe the screens and you will see a copy of our diary with the comment that Samantha made.” The page was read out in various languages.
“Before I continue, it is important you understand how dangerous the Gnolats are. As you see, we have placed a dome at the center. The outer dome is compressed energy that a nuclear bomb could not dent. I will turn it transparent now.” Once they could see the structure inside, he showed on the screens the multiple layers it is made of. There was a murmur from the crowd as they heard of metals and ceramics and plastics that are used by the most advanced armies to defend their bunkers or spaceships.
I hope you enjoy reading this story of fantasy, adventure and love - and should some of it be true for our reality, I hope you will love our Cherine.
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)- posted: 16th Jun, 2020
If you wish to read from an earlier book, from Book 01 to Book 10, use this link button to open the LC Book Index: