Walker Saga: Nephilius Part 14

"Despite my pixie powers of premonition, I'm getting nothing from Jedi." Lucy snorted. "He's a closed book. How unusual for a Walker."

I wondered where Josian was. Usually he'd be out here too, with his sneaky need to know everything.

"Aribella of Doreen." Jedi moved forward from where he had been leaning against the railing. "You're looking well."

His eyes appraised me, but not in a creepy way. He was just one of those men who oozed sensuality. It was hard not to respond, but my heart was so firmly Brace's that Jedi didn't even register. Unfortunately, he didn't know I was taken anymore, and half-Walkers were a rare and prized catch in the Walker world.

"Thank you. It's nice to see you again." I was polite, but made a point to avoid the Walker handshake, which was too close to a hug for my liking. "Do you have some news for me on the convergence?" I got right to the point.

I don't think I'd ever noticed before, but Jedi's eyes were very dark. They were unusual, though, seeming to have a ring of silver around the pupil, distinguis.h.i.+ng it from the iris.

"Should we venture inside for privacy?" he asked, not taking those distinctive eyes off me.

I shook my head. "No, between Samuel and Francesca, who come and go at random, I don't trust words spoken inside those walls right now."

We knew someone was betraying us, and as hard as it was to think my own home might be compromised, my instincts were urging me to be cautious.

"I'd prefer if we moved further toward the ocean. I want to see if anyone is sneaking up on us."

"You're starting to think like a warrior," he said as we moved away from the house. "A large responsibility has fallen on your shoulders, and unfortunately, no matter what way this plays out, it will change you. True challenges always do."

Since I barely remembered the naive girl I'd been when I left New York all of those months ago, he made a good point. It amazed me how unaware I'd been, never knowing who I was or where I truly came from. Maybe ignorance is bliss to some, but I preferred knowledge. We stopped when we reached the open s.p.a.ce between the house and ocean. I was glad that the cras.h.i.+ng waves m.u.f.fled our words to any curious enough to listen in.

Jedi detailed his information straight up. "I've been continuing my research since we last spoke, combing through every archive and scroll I could find." His onyx eyes stared out into the flas.h.i.+ng colors of the ocean. "I had no faith that I would discover the information we needed, searching for facts on the dawn of our race ... I was fumbling in the dark." He turned back to face us. "But then I found it. I don't know where the scroll came from, or how I had missed it the million times I searched before, but this appeared in my stores."

He reached into the large side pockets of his s.h.i.+rt and pulled free a rolled piece of what looked like old parchment, or skin maybe. It was a dark tan, ragged around the edges, but did not have a frail look to it. Solid and thick instead. He unrolled it slowly, and unfamiliar writing and figures emerged as each layer was revealed.

Lucy and I leaned closer. "What does it say?" I asked, examining the dark print closely.

I felt like I should understand what was here, but I didn't. My mind was searching for the answers, but they seemed to be just out of reach. Like slippery soap, I couldn't grasp the thoughts. And then suddenly I was reminded of the book from pixie lands; the same sort of familiarity struck me.

"This is the first scroll," Jedi said, reverence layering his tone.

When we didn't react, his eyes flicked quickly between us. He must have been expecting a woohoo or something.

"Awesome, the first scroll." I nodded a few times. Get on with it.

"Yep, the very first," Lucy added.

We both glanced at each other and back at him. "We have no idea what that is?" we said together.

Our response seemed to both amuse and frustrate him, but still a smile curved up his cheeks.

"Our stories indicate that the original seven Walkers didn't record anything of their time and history in writing ... well, not for the first few centuries. But when the Seventine threat emerged and had to be contained, they decided there needed to be a record of what happened, in case the prison needed to be strengthened. There are lots of scrolls from this time. I have many of them, but no one had ever seen the first scroll. This parchment is the backstory of Walkers, recording all of the moments from the birth of our race."

I had to clench the side of my jacket to stop myself reaching for the scroll. This was the most important piece of information we had to date.

"Keep in mind the reality of this scroll was legend. We had all heard of its existence, but I had never met a Walker with actual memories of viewing it."

Adrenalin flooded through me. "Are you saying this is literally the scroll that no one has ever seen? The scroll that gives the complete origins of Walkers."

He held his free hand palm up to us. "Don't get too excited. This is the scroll, but there are two problems."

"Alright, hit me with them," I said, trying not to let my fear and excitement show.

Most Walkers didn't treat me like a child despite the hundreds or thousands of years between our ages, and I often found myself trying to act serious and mature around them. Brace and Josian were an exception to this rule.

Jedi held my gaze for a few moments any longer and it would have been pretty awkward before he started speaking. "Some of the scroll I cannot decipher. It's either written in code or in a language I'm not familiar with." He ran that free hand over the top of his head. "And I thought I knew every language dead and alive."

"And number two." Lucy hurried him along.

"The bottom part is missing." He smoothed the parchment all the way to the end, lying it completely flat between his two hands, and I saw immediately what he meant.

The bottom was cut away, tattered edges leaving no doubt that there used to be something more attached.

Our faces must have looked pretty crestfallen, because he clicked his tongue a few times. "But I've salvaged some useful information. I plan on sharing it with the princeps at the next meeting, but since you're out in the star system, risking yourself daily in tangles with the Seventine, you deserved to know straight away."

I stood taller, my upper body leaning toward him.

"This contains calculations which allowed me to get a definite timeframe for the convergence, or to confirm what I already knew. From the release of the first Seventine, they have fourteen First World months to finish the freeing. They have used almost eight of those months over half and it looks as if the convergence will be at the twelve-month mark."

That would be around my nineteenth birthday. I couldn't believe that so much had happened since my Walker enlightenment, and to think it might all be over in a year. I wanted longer; it was not enough time.

"So the First World calendar that exists, the one which marks December 31st and January 1st, comes from the actual date the original seven were formed?" I stared at him, before rubbing at my temples.

It was hard to wrap my mind around the fact that so much of Earth and all of these worlds originated with the Walkers. My people had their hand in basically every important aspect.

Jedi chuckled at my expression. "Yes, as far as I know the beginning of time-recording started with the Walkers, and even with time differences, the calendars are essentially the same on each world. And this scroll confirms these calculations."

"What else does the scroll say?" Lucy was fluttering higher; she was eye level with me.

"It has instruction on how they planned on locking away the Seventine. I don't know which theory worked, because after the originals disappeared there were no more notes." He was rubbing his thumb over the ragged end of the parchment. It was the type of nervous twitch Walkers didn't usually display. "According to the broken words I managed to translate, the original and Seventine weren't always enemies."

"What?" I gasped, his words reverberating around my head. "They're evil ... the enemy. They want to destroy all the worlds."

Jedi shrugged. "That's what we were always told, but according to this they were definitely power crazy and had some grandiose ideas that they were G.o.ds sent to control all sentient beings, but in no way do the originals depict them as pure evil." He paused for quite a long moment. "They refer to them as their brothers."

Oh, h.e.l.l no. I'd been in their presence too many times. They were definitely crazy and evil.

"What was their main theory on locking them away?" I finally asked.

"They planned to use their blood and power. Each one of the originals would bleed themselves and their essences into the walls of the prison, believing they were the only ones strong enough to ever contain the Seventine."

"Did they know it was going to end their existence?" I felt a slow ebb of panic flood my body.

I was starting to wonder if we seven half-Walkers were going to make it out of this battle alive. Would it cost us our lives to lock the Seventine away again?

Lucy interrupted him before he could answer. "What happens if the half-Walker girls do hold the energy of the seven originals? Are you saying they might have to perform the same ritual to lock them away?" Her words were coming out in short bursts. "And it could suck out enough energy that they would cease to exist."

I could hear the horror in her voice. She turned to me. "That can't happen. I won't let that happen."

I didn't say anything. I wasn't huge on self-sacrificing, but the seven of us were not worth more than every world and its inhabitants. The math was clear on that one. As much as it p.i.s.sed me off, the fact was that the sacrifice of a few to save many made perfect sense.

"I don't know." Jedi shook his head. "But at least now we have more information. This parchment details the phrases to be spoken and a few different symbols that we must paint on the prison for the permanent imprisonment. It's complex and cannot be performed without all the original seven powers. Because each one held an element that created a complete prison."

Another piece of the puzzle. Each of us half-Walkers held a specialty power, and they definitely worked together and balanced each other.

"Walkers' powers are built on six elements. Fire, water, wind, earth, spirit, and shadow. The seventh was the ..."

"Conduit," I finished for him.

He didn't look surprised. "Yes, the seventh was the one who tied everyone together and combined the power."

Lucy and I exchanged glances. We had fire, water, earth, and the conduit. It was starting to look a lot like we did hold the energy of the originals.

"What else does the scroll say?" I had noticed Josian step onto the front verandah, and I attempted to hurry Jedi along.

"The part that's cut off seemed to detail the lives the originals were living at the beginning of the existence of this star-system. The reason we were created had to do with forming and influencing these seven worlds. There were tasks the originals were working to fulfill. I'm not sure if this happened or not, because this is the part that's missing."

"So this is like a billion years ago?" I was recalling our last conversation about the convergence. "How is it that Walkers have existed that long?"

Jedi smiled. "Walkers are reborn over and over. When they tire they rest for many years and eventually their energy is regenerated and they emerge as new ent.i.ties. They have none of their old memories, except the knowledge that they have lived before."

Brace had mentioned that to me.

"Essentially they're the same Walker, the same energy. They will always be the same s.e.x, so males are always males, but their minds are renewed. I think the oldest intact-memory Walker now would be around ten thousand years."

"I did notice the older Walkers were a tad on the ... um, how should I say this ... crazy train," Lucy said, trying not to laugh.

"Time does strange things to a mind," Jedi agreed.

"So if a Walker says they're five hundred years old," I said, thinking of Brace. "Would that be all of their lives or just the current one?"

"Every Walker looks at it differently, but generally we refer only to the age of our current life."

Whoa, so Brace was even older than I'd thought, in a manner.

"So there are some Walkers who are literally millions of years old, just recycled, with their minds cleared," I said. "How does that work if you're killed, and how are new babies born?"

"If we release our own energy to be recycled, as you say, then we come back as the same being. If we are killed, the energy scatters and reforms as new Walkers. It's hard to understand, but essentially every new, old and other Walker is formed from energy that already exists."

I shook my head. It was so weird to think about.

Josian was almost upon us now, and he must have heard the last part of our conversation. "So when I said that Walkers can create their own energy and make new life, I was kind of simplifying things." He said this as he moved in to stand beside Jedi.

He was much taller than the Gai Walker. We waited for him to continue.

"We can create new life, but we also recycle old energy that has been freed. Our babies are a combination of both."

"Do you know which it will be when you decide to have a child?" I couldn't believe how many things I still didn't know about Walkers.

Josian and Jedi shook their heads. "No, the energy comes to us and it's beyond our control. The great mother of all decides who's blessed with what."

"So I could most definitely contain the energy of the original seven?"

"Yes, but only parts of it, because the rest of their energy holds the walls of the prison," Josian said.

I had a sudden thought. "Could we free their energy from the prison? Would they be reborn or reformed?"

The Walker princeps exchanged a glance before Jedi answered. "Every time the Seventine frees the next of its brothers, in effect it is freeing the energy of the originals. By the time they're all free, the originals' energy will be free. But even if they're reborn, it would be years before they're any help."

I rubbed at my temples. "So that means right now four of the originals have energy floating around the star-system. What's it doing?"

Josian reached out and slowed my movement. He held my hands to keep them from rubbing the skin off my face. "Energy is everywhere, and free energy has one aim in life: to find a purpose. Their energy will be free until it's called for rebirth."

I wondered if we could somehow find this energy and use it to reform the prison. That way, the half-Walkers would not have to die.

"Why are you here, Jedi?" Josian faced his friend.

The Gai princeps quickly explained about the parchment he'd found and the information contained within it. I couldn't quite tell Josian's thoughts on this. He looked a mix of relieved and confused. They decided to call a princeps' meeting the following night and throw around some ideas.

"I just have to run inside for a moment." I had a thought. "Can you wait a moment, Jedi?"

He nodded and, ignoring Lucy and Josian's confused looks, I dashed in to the house. I didn't see anyone as I ran through to my room. Retrieving the pixie book from behind my pillow, I followed the same path back to the beachfront.

Three sets of eyes watched me as I ran up. I held the book to Jedi. I wasn't even breathless as I started talking.

"So Lucy and I freed pixie land, and Queen Malisna gave me this book. I feel as if it's important, but I can't read it. You said you know almost all languages. Can you see if there's anything in here?"

He gently clutched the tome in his large hands. His eyes dropped to the cover and they widened. "Were there more books in pixie land?" His voice was low, rumbly.

Lucy and I both nodded. "Thousands," I said.

"Thank you for this. You may have found something very important indeed. I need to speak with the pixies. I'll come back to you if I find anything." He met my gaze and I saw a s.h.i.+mmer of hope there.

"Speak with you soon." Jedi saluted before leaving via a doorway.

"We can trust him, right?" I had a panicked thought: maybe I should have asked Josian before handing over that book? But Jedi had brought us information about the scroll, although none of us could confirm he was telling me everything.

"Jedi is one of the good Walkers," Josian said. "His sense of honor is without reproach. Your book is in safe hands."

I was surprised that Josian didn't want to know more about the book. Instead he just smiled and gave Lucy and me a hug, his long arms pulling us close. "I'm glad to see you survived your first day on Nephilius. Have you found the half-Walker?"

I shook my head as he let us go. "No, we don't know who she is yet. I'll have to keep wandering around with my necklace. The only problem is trying to open it when Brace isn't close."

His bronze eyes landed on me. "It's important that you don't reform the bond. It would undo everything you sacrificed to achieve, and we don't know the damage that could wrought."

His words sent a flood of anger through me. I knew all of this already, and I was sick of the unknown and the worry. I just wanted everything to be fine.