Eternity Gate

  ‘So you, Avery and Noah should head immediately to Rhun’s aid,’ Zeven was saying to Jazmay. ‘Armaros’ emotional influence will hopefully sway Ereshkigal to our cause.’

  ‘The Sumerian Goddess of the Dead,’ Noah stated, showing that he knew of her from previous adventures with the Chosen Ones. ‘How can I influence the emotions of a creature with no emotions?’

  ‘The Nefilim have emotions, they’re just not in touch with them yet,’ Zeven pointed out.

  Still, Noah was uncomfortable. ‘I know Armaros discovered his power to influence the emotional states of living things back on Nibiru, but I have never really exhibited this talent, not to the same extent as Ringbalin or Fen.’

  ‘You’ve got it,’ Zeven served Noah an ironic look. ‘I can hardly believe it is me telling you to have a little faith in yourself.’

  Noah chuckled, amused by his point. ‘I’ll do my best.’

  ‘Hey, Captain,’ Leal noted he and Taren had entered and was excited to see Lucian. ‘Check this out!’ The co-pilot vanished.

  Lucian was startled by a tap on the shoulder; he spun about to find Leal. ‘Ta-dah!’ the co-pilot announced, ‘I’m officially a timekeeper now.’

  ‘I’m very happy for you … I think?’ Lucian concluded, frowning and smiling in turn — clearly Leal was hyped about the proceedings and not fearful at all.

  ‘Well, I must say I am impressed,’ Kassa considered, as her husband hadn’t had the ability to teleport when he woke this morning.

  ‘We’ve always had this talent, right from our very beginning.’ Leal passed on what he’d learned. ‘It’s just a matter of remembering that we did, made easier by the fact that all Grigori retain their eternal memory; and how in tune we are with our Watchers denotes how much we can remember. And seriously, you ought to get a load of where we are headed!’ Leal added, enthusiastically looking to the captain. ‘It’s a shame you were without a body at the time.’

  Lucian looked to Taren bemused. ‘Now I’m disembodied?’

  ‘We were disembodied, yes,’ Taren answered with a grin, to emphasise it was nothing to worry about. ‘We were off speaking with the mistress of primordial creation and chaos at the time,’ she advised just to add to his confusion.

  ‘That’s how the Grigori ended up in the human consciousness stream,’ Zeven added.

  ‘And why this mission is so important, because in return for having our wish to be directly involved with the evolution of human consciousness granted we undertook to raise humanity’s consciousness to a point where it could enter this universal scheme; also the Nefilim and the reptilians,’ Telmo added.

  ‘We took care of the Nefilim a hundred years ago,’ Rhun outlined. ‘We didn’t know about the injustice the Grigori and the Nefilim had done the reptilians until just recently.’

  ‘Well, you all seem to be on the same page,’ the captain granted, although he didn’t understand half of what they were talking about. ‘If you feel prepared, best get this done and over with.’

  ‘Are we all clear?’ Zeven queried and everyone nodded in accord.

  ‘No matter how tempted you may be to alter situations back there, just stay focused on our objective.’ Avery added. ‘Or god knows what effect it might have on both the future of the Earth and Kila.’

  ‘Affirmative,’ Zeven replied on behalf of the team, who were nodding and giving the thumbs up. ‘See you all back here in a couple of minutes.’

  ‘Your beds await!’ Kassa motioned them through to her main chambers, where she had several beds assembled, and monitoring equipment set up. ‘Come in and we’ll get you all hooked up.’

  12

  CONTAINMENT

  ‘Timekeeper awaken.’

  After a vague moment, Noah realised that he was standing in the body of his Grigorian counterpart in the garden beyond the door of the grand library on Nibiru, where he was keeping company with the Nefilim lord, Enki.

  ‘I have no idea what that means,’ he was explaining. ‘Only that Anu instructed that I should tell you this upon finding myself in the garden with you this day.’ As his company still appeared a little stunned, Enki asked. ‘Do you know what it means?’

  ‘I do indeed,’ said Noah, reaching out to a long stem lined with flowers yet to bloom. He loosely wrapped his hand around the stem and, running his touch along the stalk, its flowers burst into full bloom.

  ‘Good gracious!’ Enki was amazed, and Noah gave a chuckle.

  ‘Well, what do you know, I can do it,’ he consoled himself.

  ‘You have the power of the creatrix running through you!’ Enki concluded. ‘If only my children were so inclined and gifted.’ The lord appeared awfully disappointed that this was not the case.

  ‘The Grigori, with the aid of Tiamat, will bring your desires to life in time,’ Noah assured the lord.

  ‘You know of this?’ Enki was shocked to his core. ‘How?’

  ‘Why, Tiamat, of course,’ Noah advised. ‘She knows it was not your choice to imprison her son in ice.’

  The lord drew back in fear that his part in the affair was known. ‘I begged the Pantheon to let Kingu go, but they —’

  ‘It is no matter,’ Noah advised, ‘Tiamat sees all, and is watching right now.’

  Enki was suddenly wary and uncomfortable.

  ‘I know that you have been ordered by the Pantheon to sedate me in this instance and to see me escorted to a similar cryogenic containment in the labs of Ninharsag,’ Noah challenged, and what little colour that existed in the Nefilim’s lord’s face drained away. ‘But it is Tiamat’s wish that you refrain, for I have something I must do for her.’

  ‘Will you release Kingu?’ Enki assumed, worried about the backlash from his peers.

  ‘No,’ was all Noah would say on the matter, ‘that situation has nothing to do with the Grigori. But the situation that is about to unfold in the labs of Ninharsag is of concern to us, as it will have far-reaching ramifications.’

  ‘Has this something to do with your timekeeping?’ Enki realised that Anu must have known of this pending situation also.

  ‘You are wise, lord, yes, it does,’ Noah granted.

  Enki pulled the sedation device from his stately robe and tossed it away. ‘What would Tiamat like me to do?’

  ‘Go to the labs of your sister and prevent her from resisting the will of my brothers,’ he instructed.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Enki was concerned. ‘There is a sedation order out on all the Grigori, this city is not safe for you.’

  ‘Exactly the reason that we must move quickly.’ Noah closed his eyes and thought of Sammael.

  Armaros appeared in the path of Sammael and Sariel as they headed towards the entrance of the prison level beneath Nibiru. ‘Timekeepers?’ he said, halting them in their tracks.

  Given an instant to collect their wits and look about, Zeven gave Noah the nod of approval. ‘Good job?’ He looked to Sariel beside him. ‘You with us?’

  ‘Yeah?’ Leal frowned, feeling between his legs. ‘But my genitalia seems to have gone missing?’

  ‘No,’ Zeven advised, ‘you just haven’t been assigned any yet.’

  ‘Then how do I piss?’ Leal wondered.

  ‘You don’t piss, you don’t eat, you’re immortal!’ Zeven looked to the end of the corridor to note the door opening.

  ‘But —’ Leal was bemused.

  ‘Forget it, we gotta motor,’ Zeven pointed out the Nefilim guards emerging from the door ahead of them. ‘They’re about to knock us out. Go wake Sacha and Gadriel,’ he bid Noah, who vanished.

  ‘Follow me,’ he advised Leal, who was like an animal caught in the headlights as he watched the alien force raise weapons and move towards them.

  ‘Never mind,’ Zeven grabbed hold of his companion and envisioned them both outside the lab of Ninharsag.

  Penemue was obviously surprised to see Armaros, Gadriel and Sacha return to the Leviathan. ‘I thought you were sightseeing?’

  ‘We have a situation,’ Noah
informed, ‘timekeeper.’

  Penemue observed himself, and the situation he was in, with an expanding grin. ‘It actually works! Ha!’ This was the first time Rhun had time-jumped in this fashion.

  ‘Well, if you are done being chuffed with yourself,’ Avery proffered via Sacha’s body, ‘we have an appointment with the Queen of the Underworld.’

  ‘You’re Lord of the Otherworld. Won’t you have some influence on her?’ Rhun queried.

  ‘The Otherworld and the Underworld are entirely different places, on entirely different levels of consciousness.’ Avery filled him in. ‘I have no authority or influence over the dead, she does.’

  ‘Oh goody,’ Rhun mocked, as he looked to the security monitor before him and saw the lady in question appear in their cryogenics facility. ‘Speak of the devil.’

  They all moved around behind Rhun to view their target.

  ‘I have a question,’ Noah raised a finger to query. ‘Do I need to be touching a subject to exert my emotional influence over them?’

  ‘No,’ Jazmay advised from within Gadriel. ‘Or at least, Ringbalin and Fen discovered they only needed to be in the vicinity.’

  ‘Then you should go ahead and distract our guest.’ Noah observed the lady on screen coming to a stop before one of the modules and taking an interest in the floor of the interior. ‘I won’t be far behind.’

  Under the guiding hand of her incantation, Ereshkigal watched the seal before her reforming into a solid mass, and when it had, she reached out to take hold of the solid item.

  ‘Dismissed,’ Avery commanded.

  Her enchantment over the elements broke, the reformative energy scattered, and the golden insignia melted over the floor of the module once more. Angered and curious, Ereshkigal looked to the three Grigori entering the chamber to see who dared override her will — something that had obviously never happened before.

  ‘Which of you dares to defy the Queen of the Dead?’ She removed her hood to stare them down.

  ‘That would be me.’ Avery held a finger up to claim responsibility. ‘But what you should be asking yourself is how I did it? The answer … my vibrational frequency must be more influential than yours.’

  Ereshkigal was not amused. ‘Impossible. You have come through the Eternity Gate from the lesser universe, where all the rejects from this evolution are cast. I know as I watch the souls of the damned cast there every day.’

  ‘We are all capable of rising beyond our humble beginnings,’ Avery advised graciously.

  ‘There is a portal to the dark universe in the Underworld?’ Rhun queried finding Ereshkigal’s claim interesting.

  ‘Of course, for those who choose that path. It is a one-way passage,’ she cautioned, ‘and all souls are inevitably brought to bear before me prior to judgement.’

  Avery noted Armaros appear behind their target and kept talking to keep her distracted while the sage cast his glamour. ‘Well, I am sorry to disappoint you, but you shall never have the pleasure of seeing me before your throne. For I am Lord of the Otherworld, and the elementals you seek to exploit with your conjuring are my subjects.’

  ‘That is a lie.’ Ereshkigal’s eyes narrowed. ‘There is no such place.’

  ‘Indeed there is, only none of your ilk are developed enough emotionally to frequent it,’ Avery enlightened her. ‘For there is another one-way portal in your realm through which the souls of righteous humans are returned to Tiamat’s reincarnation loop, and they pass through my realm to reach her matrix.’

  Ereshkigal was wide-eyed. ‘No one, bar myself, knows anything about the workings of the Underworld! For no one dares go there but I.’ Clearly she sought to know how this newcomer had come by his information.

  ‘Are you so used to lies that you cannot tell when the truth is staring you in the face?’ Avery replied kindly.

  The dark Nefilim lady did not lash out, but rather her entire demeanour softened as she felt Noah’s influence. The anger in her frown turned to curiosity as she turned about to find Armaros at her back.

  He smiled amicably upon being discovered.

  ‘You?’ She was perplexed as she took a step closer to him and then reached out a hand to make contact with him. ‘You are so warm.’ It seemed a wonder to her; despite that she was touching the breastplate of his metal armour. ‘What is that energy?’ Ereshkigal was compelled closer and wound her hands about him to hug him close.

  ‘That is joy,’ Noah told her as she pressed herself against his Grigorian form.

  ‘It’s so … magnetic.’ She nestled her head into his neck, and Noah looked wide-eyed in panic at his companions as Avery served him the thumbs up.

  ‘You are mine,’ Ereshkigal uttered, and a shadow creature formed behind them, swallowing Ereshkigal and Armaros, before dissipating altogether.

  ‘What?’ Rhun gasped, as did they all.

  ‘Well, Armaros certainly distracted her from the seals,’ Avery proffered.

  ‘We should go after him,’ Rhun advised Jazmay, who quickly agreed with him.

  ‘I’m going to conceal our ship a little better,’ Avery said, ‘and prevent any other alien tourists from finding these seals.’

  Avery waited to see his Grigori brother gone, but in the end Rhun only gave a disgruntled moan. ‘What is wrong?’

  ‘We are still here.’ Rhun pointed out the obvious.

  ‘You can’t follow Armaros,’ Avery deduced.

  ‘Let me guess,’ Rhun hypothesised. ‘Ereshkigal has complete autonomy in her realm?’

  ‘I do in the Otherworld,’ Avery concurred. ‘So in all likelihood, you are correct.’

  ‘Don’t you know this stuff?’ Rhun was annoyed they had not foreseen this possible complication. ‘You are supposed to know everything!’

  ‘About the age I am from! Not even the soul who was the Lord of the Otherworld before me has come into being yet, so how the hell would I have knowledge of this point in evolution? Even the Otherworld is still forming!’

  ‘What about all that shit you just said to Ereshkigal?’ Rhun challenged. ‘How did you know that?’

  ‘I was just theorising really,’ Avery confessed.

  Rhun was gobsmacked. ‘You were lying.’

  ‘How are we going to get Armaros back from the goddamned Queen of the Dead?’ Jazmay cut into the argument. ‘If we can’t get in, he can’t get out.’

  Avery shrugged. ‘I guess we find something Ereshkigal wants more than Armaros and trade her for him.’

  ‘But the only thing she might want more are these seals.’ Jazmay outlined their conundrum.

  ‘We can’t be entirely sure about that,’ Avery posed. ‘From what I know of Ereshkigal from studying history under En Noah as a lad, she is not a very social creature.’

  ‘Yeah, so? She wanted to check our ship for souvenirs from the dark universe, what of it?’ Rhun attempted to speed things along.

  ‘I wonder if that was why she met with Anu just prior to the Grigori arriving on Nibiru?’ Avery postulated. ‘Or was there some other reason?’

  ‘Maybe it was to get permission to search our ship?’ Rhun theorised, ‘but Anu would not have granted her request.’

  ‘En Noah did mention that Anu seemed very dark at his kin following that meeting,’ Jazmay recalled.

  ‘That could have had something to do with the Pantheon voting to put the son of Tiamat and the Grigori on ice,’ Rhun posited.

  ‘Maybe there was more to it?’ Avery advised they investigate. ‘Telmo is obviously residing within Anu, or none of the timekeepers would have awakened.’

  ‘I’ll go see Telmo,’ Rhun volunteered. ‘You go tell Zeven what has happened,’ he delegated, and from within Gadriel, Jazmay nodded to affirm.

  ‘And I’ll get creative with this lot.’ Avery referred to the melted seals, scattered throughout the chamber.

  ‘Jaz,’ Rhun prevented her leaving. ‘Penemue never left the Leviathan, and so never met Anu.’ This meant he could not teleport to the target, having neither the imag
e of the person nor the place he wished to reach.

  ‘We did,’ Jaz referred to Avery and herself, who, along with the rest of the Grigori had been brought through the porthole system from their ship in Orion to the capital on Nibiru. ‘We were taken to Anu’s Worlds Chamber before being given leave to explore the city. So I’ll drop you off.’ Gadriel slapped a hand down on Rhun’s shoulder and vanished with him.

  Upon materialising in Anu’s Worlds Chamber, Rhun was thankful for Jazmay’s forethought in landing them behind the large throne therein. Their target was in the middle of an important meeting that Rhun would not have relished interrupting with a sudden appearance.

  ‘If we do not send you back to her in the Underworld, she has threatened to raise the dead to outnumber the living!’ Anu was saying, and Rhun peeked out from behind the throne to see whom Anu was addressing.

  Even though he was so much younger, less jaded and less Orme addicted, Rhun recognised the Nefilim lord as one he would have dealings with at several points in the long distant future. Nergal.

  ‘I am one of the great Pantheon of Twelve, not a subject to be traded for favour!’ The young Nefilim warrior strongly objected to the proposal, as the bodies of the unconscious Grigori were dragged into the chamber by Nefilim guards and dumped in rows for counting. ‘I would not return to that revolting place if it were the last in existence! The only reason I went to Irkalla in the first place, was because no one else dared go.’

  Interesting that this was the Nefilim lord that Ereshkigal would grow old and debauched with. In that long-distant future time Ereshkigal was no longer mistress of the dead, for she too would become Orme addicted and earthbound.

  ‘I have already refused,’ Anu advised. ‘I just thought it prudent to advise you that Ereshkigal is obviously most eager to meet with you, as it is clearly a matter of great urgency and importance to her.’

  Rhun had his answer. Avery was right, there was more to Anu’s discontent with his children than was evident the day that the Grigori had first arrived. Ereshkigal had obviously fallen in love with Nergal already, and was prepared to go to war to possess him; but did that sentiment still stand now that she had become infatuated with Armaros?