‘How are they doing?’ Lirathea hugged Avery, Sparrowhawk and Zabeel briefly, then made for the screen.
‘Fine,’ Avery assured her. ‘Now,’ he added to imply they had been worried for a second there.
‘Shhh!’ Rhun urged them all. ‘I need to hear this.’
‘I’d like Mahaud to move aside a moment and allow me to speak with Electra directly.’ Maelgwn continued his discourse with the lost soul inhabiting his wife’s body. ‘Can you speak with me, Electra?’
‘I have nothing to say to you,’ replied the subject in Tory’s own voice, although she spoke in the language of the ancient Atlanteans.
This utterance caused butterflies to begin fluttering in the pit of Maelgwn’s stomach; it was as if her voice, coupled with this dialect, triggered some deeper recognition in him. For, although he was no longer immortal, Maelgwn still recalled the ancient dialect very well. ‘So you recognise me?’
‘Yes, I recognise you.’
As she glared deep into his eyes, Maelgwn noted that the deep red eyes of the crone had faded and been replaced by Tory’s own violet ones.
‘Your face has been scorched upon my memory,’ she said with deep malice. ‘I shall never forget you, Prometheus.’
‘Prometheus?’ Maelgwn uttered the name and was blinded by a vision of a red skinned people laying siege to the city of the golden gates.
He, Prometheus, of the fair skinned race of tall Atlanteans that ruled Atlantis, was leading the attack. If you find the sorcerer kill him! Prometheus yelled as he charged over the innermost bridge that led to the palace and the high temple of Chailidocean.
‘I recall a battle … against a sorcerer.’ Maelgwn relayed.
‘That would be Aegisthus, who, with a little help from me and a lot of help from my mother, was my father’s murderer.’ Electra hung her head as she recalled the shameful circumstance.
‘Why did you aid the murder of your father,’ Maelgwn probed gently, ‘when it so obviously grieves you?’
‘I did not know that my father was to be cursed with the summons of my design,’ she shot back at Maelgwn in her own defence. ‘I was plagued by nightmares for years, because I was foolish enough to trust my own mother.’
‘What were your nightmares about?’ He skirted around the subject.
‘The destruction of my civilisation,’ she replied, raising her eyes to look Maelgwn in the eye once more. ‘I foresaw fire, flood, war, death … and you.’
‘Tell me what happened,’ he entreated her.
The subject looked Maelgwn over as if trying to assess whether he was serious. ‘This world has never known such a time of upheaval, wretchedness and strife. Why do you want to go back there?’
‘I need to remember,’ he advised gently. ‘We both do.’
‘Even when the rest of humanity has politely chosen to forget?’ Electra scoffed. ‘Why should we?’
‘Because we can then help the rest of humanity to remember, before history repeats itself,’ Maelgwn encouraged.
Electra considered his request, and even though she was obliged to do his will, she was still hesitant to recall the period in question. ‘History will not repeat itself, not to the same extent of horror. The human soul-mind, on the whole, has evolved somewhat in the last ten thousand years. Atlantis marked the halfway point in the evolution of the human soul-mind on this planet; at that time, matter held full sway in the physical realm. Human consciousness had fully descended into the physical … in other words it had gone as low as it could go in the cosmic scheme of things and this was reflected in the self-indulgent, egotistical and materialistic nature of many of the people who lived just prior to the last great deluge.’
Maelgwn nodded his understanding, urging her to continue.
‘Although my father’s murder triggered the native rebellion, the siege on Chailidocean that you recall was the beginning of the end for Atlantis.’ Electra bit her lip as she pondered where to begin her tale. ‘The prophetic dream I’d glimpsed in bits and pieces since the day my father was murdered, was finally channelled in its entirety a handful of days before the siege.’
‘A ball of fire grows daily in the sky, reflecting the anger of the native tribes. When the fire in the sky grows larger than the sun and lights your city with its brilliance half the night, the dark races will merge into a united force that will storm this city, and your desire to hold it will bury it in myth.’
Following visions of the events the spirit predicted, Electra found herself standing in a light beam that faded into darkness in every direction. Her six sisters clung to her for fear, asking her what to do. ‘They must leave,’ the spirit whispered to Electra, using her voice, and as her sisters rushed away from her, Electra turned to confront the sorcerer who had murdered her father. He stood in the shadows beyond her light, and was illuminated by the magic energies that danced between his fingers. ‘You and I shall wait,’ Electra advised. ‘We can go to hell together.’
‘No.’ A beautiful, dark-haired man who stood to her right, reached out to her. ‘You have done nothing wrong.’
‘Who wants to be saved?’
She turned left to see her brother, Orestes, circling a beautiful maiden, with whom he was obviously enchanted. Electra glanced back to the sorcerer, who smiled, seemingly gratified by her brother’s preoccupation with the unknown maiden. Then her gaze fell upon the handsome stranger holding out his helping hand to her.
‘Come,’ he urged her with his outstretched hand.
‘When the fireball passes over Chailidocean, Gaia will shake furiously and be cast into darkness.’
The voice of the spirit blinded Electra with images of destruction once more.
‘Filled to overflowing with divine inspiration, mankind has chosen to follow the influence of the Dark Lodge by using sacred knowledge for selfish purposes. Thus no scholar of sorcery will survive to record the tales of the great civilisations that shall be no more. Lands will rupture and fire shall consume those kingdoms not engulfed by the ocean’s backlash. Every cradle of civilisation will Gaia cast off into the waters fed by her tears. The great Mother will enter a time of mourning, for herself and for the terrible scars that will be buried deep within the subconscious of her peoples forevermore. Humanity will be returned to the wilds of nature, to be humbled by Gaia. The Black League will prevail. Only a handful shall remember the divine secrets through the wretched eras to come. These guardians will remain in hiding until such time as the Logos sees fit to entrust mankind with cosmic knowledge and grant the species a second chance at planetary evolution. This is the promise of Uriel, the Prince of Retribution and the humble servant of the Logos.’
The harsh male characteristics departed Electra’s voice and her head dropped forward until her spirit gained control of her form and she raised herself upright.
‘Take her away,’ Electra heard the sorcerer command. Aegisthus always had her head covered with a hood before he had her brought forth from her imprisonment in the High Temple to foretell events for him. He may have been a mighty sorcerer, but he feared the spirits Electra had access to.
Aegisthus did not have the pure qualities required to channel the angels of the Logos, nor did he know the sacred seals, chants, perfumes and ritual offerings that would allow him to persuade or command the higher angels to his service. The sorcerer had to rely on low-grade elementals to do his dirty work for him. He’d attracted these to his service by sacrificing animals and humans via torturous ritual. Every macabre murder enriched the vitality of these semiconscious vampire-like creations of sorcery. The low-grade elementals would then render the sorcerer service in exchange for this strengthening of their presence in the physical world.
Electra smiled to herself as she was led away by two of the sorcerer’s guards. ‘Your days are numbered, Aegisthus.’
‘As are yours, little princess,’ he replied. ‘A virgin sacrifice should please my Otherworldly pets no end.’
He made this same threat every time he saw her, but the
truth was that Aegisthus would not dare to harm her, lest he anger the spirits of the Logos who used Electra as a channel and confidante. ‘Embrace the one true God, Aegisthus, or —’
‘I am a god!’ he roared. ‘As powerful as any of the Nefilim.’
‘The Nefilim are not gods,’ Electra commented back to him. ‘They, like you, just like to think they are.’ Again she smiled to herself as she left the sorcerer fuming. It was her small way of avenging her father and she endeavoured to rile Aegisthus at every given opportunity.
‘Clytemnestra!’ Aegisthus called forth Electra’s mother, now that the virgin oracle had departed. ‘Prometheus and Orestes are rallying a force.’
‘You don’t know that it was Prometheus that Electra saw in her vision. She didn’t mention him by name,’ Clytemnestra advised him wisely, as she was bound to do, thanks to a beautiful jewelled necklace that she’d accepted from the sorcerer as a gift. This is how she had been enchanted into betraying her whole family to please a man that she now despised. The charm prevented her from openly expressing her feelings; she was cursed to be forever amiable to her captor.
‘But Prometheus is harbouring your son in the snowy, mountainous region of his kingdom, and is no doubt in sympathy with Orestes’s cause to overthrow me,’ the sorcerer argued.
‘Well, perhaps you shouldn’t have sent your Otherworldly pets to dismember Prometheus’s wife,’ Clytemnestra commented, and then added quickly to appease her master: ‘Electra also mentioned a maiden with whom Orestes would become enchanted.’
Aegisthus frowned. ‘It is Prometheus we need to enchant. If he ruins Electra she’ll be useless as a channel.’
‘But by betraying her vows of chastity to the Logos, Electra would lose the favour of the spirits who protect her and you could make good your threat to feed her to your bloodthirsty pets,’ Clytemnestra pointed out, hating herself for her quick, reasoning mind and her greed in accepting Aegisthus’s gift all that time ago. Already her husband was dead, her son banished and her daughters imprisoned. She had thought things couldn’t get any worse, but she was wrong. ‘And as far as this enchanting maiden goes, why take any risks with the power of her beauty? You are friendly with some of the Nefilim lords who have the know-how to create for you the perfect female for the job. The only thing my son loves more than battle is seeking his pleasure in the female form.’
‘Yes.’ Aegisthus rubbed his hands together, his mind ticking over with possibilities. ‘I see what you are driving at.’
‘And what of the spirit’s prediction of ruin for Atlantis?’ Clytemnestra wondered how the evil magician planned to combat that threat.
‘Ha!’ he scoffed. ‘The spirit also said that the Dark Lodge would prevail, and I am the leading exponent,’ the sorcerer boasted.
‘Electra said the Black League,’ Clytemnestra pointed out.
‘The Black League, the Dark Lodge, same difference,’ the sorcerer snapped.
The Dark Lodge was the name that had been given to the order of lords who studied the dark arts of sorcery under Aegisthus. His grandfather, Shu Sar Alaric, who was the first son of the renowned Shu Sar Absalom, had founded this secret order. When Alaric came to rule Atlantis he despised the High Orders of Helio (the male aspect of the Logos) and Heliona (the female aspect of the Logos) for the secrecy of their doctrine, ritual and purpose. The resident High Priestess at the time Alaric came to rule refused to bend to the new Shu Sar’s demands to be taught the sacred ways of her order. Alaric banished her and all of her order, including the Nefilim prophet and teacher, Shu Micah. The temples of learning once dedicated to the different gods in the service of the Logos — deities representing the divine qualities and knowledge of the Master Rays — were reduced to government institutions committed solely to the cause of increasing the size of the Atlantean kingdom. Some of Alaric’s own brothers opposed the changes and they died defending the ideals of their father and lost the kingdoms that had been their birthright in the process. There was no stopping Alaric once he’d discovered sorcery and only those who were in the Dark Lodge knew who had instructed the Shu Sar Alaric in the dark arts.
Dark sorcery thrived in Atlantis under Alaric’s rule and throughout the reign of the son who succeeded him. The Dark Lodge of the Materialistic came into being and then anyone who did not agree with the Shu Sar became a live sacrifice to feed the elementals that were in the service of the Dark Lodge. Many people fled Atlantis to the native kingdoms beyond Alaric’s rule. For young men, women, children and babies, Atlantis became a dangerous place. The innocent were prized as sacrifices for their life force was most invigorating to the evil elementals, who in turn could grant the sorcerers’ ever greater power. This incredible loss of young blood accounted for the huge reduction in numbers of the tall, fair Atlantean people that the native tribes referred to as the Titans. But something became apparent over the two thousand years of blood, lust and greed that followed: the more wretched, bloodthirsty and desire-driven that mankind became, the quicker their physical forms began to age. Absalom had ruled for thousands of years, Alaric ruled for little more than one thousand, and his first son died having only ruled for eight hundred years. The age expectancy of all the Titans reduced in accord with their ruler and their common acceptance of his low values, practices and ambitions. Aegisthus’s cousin, Agamemnon, was the next to succeed to the throne, but he was more of a warrior than a conjurer. Whilst Agamemnon was off conquering the native kingdoms with his bare hands, Aegisthus, head of the Dark Lodge and Agamemnon’s own cousin, began his takeover bid for rulership.
For thousands of years the virgins of the High Temple were bred purely to be sacrificed for the cause of the Dark Lodge and to be used by the strictly male members of the order for pleasure. All the women had proven useless as seers since the High Priestess and her students had been banished. Until the advent of Electra and her sisters. All seven daughters of the Shu Sar Agamemnon had been proven to have psychic ability, but none so much as Electra, his second born.
Electra had proved from a young age that she’d been granted the ability to speak with the greatest spirits in the service of the Logos. The spirit Mikhail instructed her of each spirit’s function and how they might be summoned. Electra was also educated in the functions of all the lesser spirits and given the know-how to have power over them so as to direct them towards the positive service of mankind. She was warned against the ways of the Dark Lodge by her spiritual advisors and made to vow never to disclose her knowledge of spiritual doctrine to any soul bar her sisters.
Agamemnon never entered the Dark Lodge and was quietly wary of the order. He allowed his daughters to form a separate female order apart from the daughters who served the Dark Lodge and thus his daughters became Agamemnon’s own personal seers. However, Agamemnon did not heed his daughter’s prophecy to lay down his arms, and make peace with his fellow nations before he lost his own.
The Dark Lodge was now greatly feared throughout the known world — especially after Aegisthus had single-handedly seized the most prized city of them all. And, as any graduate of the order could conquer entire kingdoms with their conjuring and enchantments just as easily as any other, Aegisthus’s territory was expanding rapidly.
‘Now, don’t try and distract me,’ Aegisthus warned Clytemnestra, knowing that this was the only form of defence that his curse had left the woman. He admired her cunning and enjoyed doing battle with it. ‘I must communicate with some of my Nefilim associates at once.’ He turned and left his conjuring tower.
Hurry Orestes. Clytemnestra willed with all her heart for her son to attack and reclaim his birthright from Aegisthus, even though she knew that Orestes would surely kill her for the part she’d played in his father’s murder. It was as the spirit had said: her people had become infatuated with material wealth, and the jewelled necklace around her neck was proof of her own selfish desires. But her daughters were not guilty of this crime. They had spent their lives in the service of the Logos and did not deserve to be co
ndemned with the rest of their nation. Save them, my son, and I shall die a happy woman.
Once returned to the High Temple that now only sheltered herself and her six sisters, Electra made haste to the circular platform located in the middle of the once spectacular abode of worship.
Aegisthus had ordered his elemental forces to strip the jewels from the High Temple to decorate the conjuring tower of the Dark Lodge, which stood high upon a mountain peak overlooking Chailidocean from the west.
The oracle’s sisters had been anxiously awaiting Electra’s return. ‘Did you discover anything?’ Maia, their eldest sister, queried as all the women trailed Electra to the middle of the temple.
‘The escape we’ve been planning is very close now, but a safe destination still eludes me,’ Electra uttered in an aside to her sisters, while she marked out the sacred seal of the spirit whose services she wished to employ. She used a large chalk rock that left a very definite mark on the timber floor, but it would be easy to wash away.
‘Have your senses taken flight?’ Maia gripped hold of Electra’s hand to stop her completing the symbol. ‘What if Aegisthus comes —’
‘He has other matters to attend to at present,’ Electra informed her sister and carried on regardless. ‘I must act quickly while he is distracted.’
‘Orestes is going to attack Chailidocean then?’ Taygeta assumed.
‘I have seen it,’ Electra confirmed, to her sisters’ great relief. She then gave her youngest sister, Celaeno, the list of herbs that she required to call forth the spirit of the Supreme Mysteries.
Maia was even more horrified, as this was the last entity they needed the sorcerer gaining access to. ‘I hope you know what you are doing.’
‘I shall explain all once I am done.’ Electra stepped up onto the circular platform and faced the centre, giving the mental command that retracted the dome overhead. Two shafts of light fell at opposing angles across the platform: one beam was cast by the afternoon sun, the other due to the flaming orb in the sky that had been drawing ever closer for as long as they’d been alive. The young oracle focused her attention inward and began the chant that summoned Raziel.