‘You have come to evacuate my sisters?’ Electra stepped forward to greet them, marvelling at the men’s strange attire.
‘Ah, no.’ Rhun scratched his head. He’d forgotten that this was also the day that the daughters of the ruler, Agamemnon, had chosen to make their escape. ‘But, not to fear, I believe their rescuers will be along presently. We are actually here to see to your rescue, Electra.’
‘That was not part of the plan.’ She backed up, wary of the strangers and the fact that they knew her by name. ‘Who sent you?’
She had to admit the pair didn’t seem very frightening; one of the men was not even listening to her. He’d wandered off to admire the view of the city below, which was about to be laid to siege. And the fellow that was paying attention seemed awfully familiar to her. ‘It was you I saw in my vision.’
‘Again, no.’ Rhun appeared apologetic as he was about to confuse her again. ‘The man you saw was Prometheus, your brother’s ally, who will be my father in a future incarnation and it was he who sent us to save you.’
Electra gasped and took another step backwards, not out of fear but awe. ‘What?’
‘And you shall be our mother,’ Avery turned from the magnificent view to add, stunning the oracle speechless.
‘I don’t know if we really needed to share that information,’ Rhun commented, perturbed.
‘Mother always insisted that the truth is best,’ Avery defended in his happy-go-lucky fashion. ‘Basically, Electra,’ he strolled back over to join the conversation, ‘your life is about to go horribly wrong. And the wellbeing of our future existence depends on us preventing such a sad turn of events from unfolding.’
Rhun would have been a little subtler with the delivery, but he raised his brow, shrugged and nodded to confirm his brother’s claim. ‘That’s it, in a nutshell.’
Clearly, Electra didn’t know what to think and her sisters were certainly keeping their distance. ‘As an oracle of some merit, I confess I see much light within your being,’ she began. ‘However, my spirit guides are very reliable and I have not perceived so much as a hint of your coming.’
Rhun opened his mouth to debate the issue diplomatically, but Avery grew impatient.
‘Look … there are only two ways this thing can go,’ he informed bluntly. ‘Either you allow us to help you, and you will live happily ever after. Or, you can be taken prisoner by the Dark Lodge and tortured to the point of death, and you will voluntarily choose to be joined to a group of heinous elementals and damned for eons to support the dark cause on the surface of the earth. That is, when your soul-mind is not confined to torments of Density.’
All seven women were sickened speechless.
‘How do you know all this?’ Electra felt nauseous. Something inside her knew he was telling the truth.
‘In our future, your damned soul confessed all to us,’ Avery advised, a little more gently. ‘This creature you become will be a curse on the development of your soul-mind and on everything you struggle to achieve in the name of the Logos. In the dimension from which we stem, you have served your time in darkness … now, you must allow us to help you find the path of light or the whole of humanity in our future will suffer.’
As Electra stared into the violet eyes of the young man before her, she considered how like one of her beautiful spirits he was. ‘It would seem I have nothing to lose by co-operating with you,’ she resolved and forced a smile. ‘What would you have me do?’
‘I don’t suppose we could persuade you to join your sisters in their departure?’ Rhun really didn’t expect her to take this option, although it was by far and away the easiest one open to them.
Electra immediately shook her head. ‘I must see my brother,’ she appealed, regretful to be so stubborn in light of what they’d told her. ‘There is history there that I must confront. I cannot leave until I clear the air between us. If he sees fit to kill me rather than forgive, then at least I shall die before I become the monster you describe.’
Rhun smiled to reassure her. ‘Fair enough. I suspect that there is someone that you really should meet anyway.’
‘Prometheus?’ Electra understood his implication and thought it rather presumptuous. ‘You think that because I am coupled with this man in your lifetime that the same should follow here. My heart shall never belong to any one man, for it is solely devoted to the Logos,’ she defended, despite Raziel, one of her most trusted spirit guides, having implied that Prometheus and herself were two halves of the same whole.
‘We believe you.’ Avery tried to sound convinced, although his brother and he knew the attraction was inevitable.
‘Let us now take you to the High Temple, Nin,’ Rhun advised, his eyes drifting upwards to view the ominous ball of fire in the sky. He had to wonder if their meddling in this affair would save the long-lost continent from destruction, but from here the outcome was impossible to predict. If the Brotherhood of Light had marked the great landmass for destruction, Rhun doubted that any force or act could prevent Atlantis’s demise.
Much to Rhun’s astonishment, Avery raised the vibratory rate of the atoms in his body until he became invisible and he guided Rhun through the procedure to accomplish the same. Avery had shrugged this off as a simple childhood trick, but Rhun was fast realising that he really knew next to nothing about his little brother — he’d always found it easier to ignore and underestimate Avery than grant him his due. Perhaps this stemmed from jealousy; the Logos had set Avery apart to receive the great honour of being the Night Hunter’s apprentice and the next in line to rule the Otherworld. Rhun could not deny that he envied the secret life Avery led and his command of Otherworldly energies and beings.
Disguised by thin air, Avery and Rhun watched over Electra as, on her knees, she confronted Orestes, Prometheus and a large armed force. Neither of the lads from Kila were surprised to discover that Orestes was an incarnation of their good Governor, Brian Alexander.
‘Don’t change the subject.’ Orestes came up behind Electra, placing his foot on her shoulder to push her forward into a position suitable for execution. ‘You have been found guilty of acting as an accomplice in the unholy murder of our father, the Shu Sar Agamemnon. Have you anything to say for yourself, before your head and body are parted?’
Electra held her tongue and bowed her head.
Oh my God, Avery bethought his brother.
What?
The stream of light that has fallen upon Electra, Avery advised, don’t you see it?
No, Rhun droned, thinking Avery might be pulling his leg.
Avery observed a beautiful being descend to protect the oracle. It’s a deva, he informed, of the highest order. Avery could tell by the fire-like composition of its being — devas of lower order were more vaporous in appearance. The deva looks just like father.
So why can’t I see it?
I don’t know. Avery attempted to sound bemused, but in truth he knew that he had etheric world training and know-how that his brother didn’t, but to state as much would only offend Rhun.
‘I’ll assume your silence is an admission of guilt,’ Orestes warned his sister as he raised his weapon to end her life. ‘May the Logos have mercy on your soul, Electra.’
Prometheus drew his sword and blocked Orestes’s deathblow.
‘Stay out of this, my friend,’ Orestes cautioned, most perturbed. ‘This is none of your affair.’
‘Look at her,’ Prometheus urged his friend. ‘Can you not see the light radiating from her being? This is not the face of a traitor.’
‘Curses!’ Orestes snarled as he was encouraged to hear Electra’s side of the story, but she refused to explain herself.
‘Kill me, Orestes,’ she resolved. ‘My life is owed.’
As Orestes raised his sword once more, Avery couldn’t help but protest, feeling that Electra was trying to get killed for their benefit. ‘No! You don’t have to die this time around,’ he shouted out loud and was stunned to find that the world around him was frozen
in time and he was no longer invisible.
Look at me, Electra, the spirit that shielded the oracle had moved away from her to request. Behold my face.
The oracle raised her eyes as requested and gasped. ‘You are Prometheus?’ She frowned. ‘You are me?’ she ventured further, recalling what Raziel and her guardians from the future had said about the man in question.
The essential spiritual essence behind your soul-mind was carried down into evolution by my fallen counterpart, Mikhail confirmed. Thus, within you lies the potential for my evolution and the evolution of all our forms on every level of awareness between my home plane of demonstration and yours. Your friend here is right, the spirit finally acknowledged Avery’s presence. In his time and place you have served the Logos selflessly and now, in order to progress, you must escape the clutches of the Dark Lodge. When your time on this earth is finally done, you shall rejoin your soul-mind who is readying to ascend to causal service. You can save yourself, your brother and your future husband, but if you choose to die now, they shall surely perish.
Tears began to stream from Electra’s eyes, for causal service was her greatest wish, and she had not saved her brother’s life all that time ago to have him perish now. ‘My future husband!’ She was a little alarmed by this claim.
Know that Prometheus is the incarnation of your male aspect, Electra. He can teach you much about yourself, the spirit told her. You must live on, learn and teach others how to achieve the understanding of unconditional love that you shall perfect via your association with this man.
Electra gaped at the spirit and Avery had to smile. We told her so, didn’t we? he bethought his brother and looked around for him. Rhun?
Still there came no response and when Rhun did not show himself, Avery utilised his etheric vision to discover that his brother was frozen in time like everyone else present. Oh, terrific, something else I’ll get accused of lying about.
The Logos has carefully chosen your guardians in this affair, the spirit told Electra. One is the Lord of the Otherworld, who will bring down the Dark Lodge and save you the torture of doing so.
‘That would be me,’ Avery confessed.
Live in light and love, Electra. The spirit remained focused on his subject.
‘This is goodbye then, Mikhail?’ Electra’s voice wavered as the thought saddened her.
The beautiful being nodded. For now.
Clearly Electra wanted to protest but found the strength to accept and trust in the divine plan. ‘I am the humble servant of the Logos.’ She stood and walked away from her brother’s glowing blade and then turned to bow to Mikhail. ‘I will the divine will.’
Mikhail smiled, proud of her. Thy will be done.
The spirit vanished and the world came to life once more.
Avery, who’d made himself visible during the visitation, quickly vanished and Prometheus frowned, having caught a brief glimpse of Avery’s form. Still, the warrior was more astounded to find Electra had miraculously moved.
‘How did you do that?’ Orestes demanded to know.
Electra ignored her brother’s question; her eyes were fixed on his companion. ‘I believe I shall be of some service to you yet.’
As soon as Electra was left alone in her cell, Avery dismissed their Otherworldly cover.
‘Most well done,’ Avery complimented the oracle on getting this far without having her throat cut and Electra smiled, pleased with the outcome too.
‘Now all we have to do is get you and Prometheus safely away before Orestes summons you to his room of court.’ Rhun recapped the plan.
‘But,’ Electra looked to Avery confused, ‘I thought we were going to bring down the Dark Lodge first?’
‘What!’ Rhun protested most strongly. ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!’ he insisted, as Avery had a look on his face that implied he was considering the enterprise. ‘Save Electra, that was the entire directive.’
‘We shall see you gone.’ Avery looked to Electra to confirm that part of the plan. ‘And then I shall take care of Aegisthus once you are safely away.’
‘No you won’t and that’s an order.’ Rhun attempted to pull rank.
Electra was troubled by Rhun’s refusal. ‘But Mikhail said you would do this and save me the trouble. So if you do not destroy the sorcerer than surely I must —’
‘Mikhail? Who is Mikhail?’ Rhun quickly intervened, not wanting to distress their charge.
‘The deva I was telling you about.’ Avery tried not to wince as he broached the topic.
‘The one I didn’t see or hear?’ Rhun stated sceptically.
‘I know this spirit well,’ Electra said surely.
‘You heard the crone speak of Mikhail in her tale and of how he came to protect her from Orestes’s wrath.’ Avery jogged his brother’s memory. ‘Only this time the deva advised Electra to save herself. He also advised that I had the know-how to bring the Dark Lodge down.’
‘I see.’ Rhun hid his feeling of insult at having been left out of the Deva’s confidence.
‘He speaks the truth,’ Electra assured and Rhun silently nodded to confirm that he believed her.
‘So,’ Avery broke the uncomfortable silence that ensued, ‘if you can just persuade Prometheus to abandon his quest to avenge his wife and head back to Usiqua with you, we’ll take care of the rest.’
Rhun served Avery the darkest look, wondering why he even bothered including Rhun in the equation. In fact, he was beginning to wonder why he was here at all, as it was apparent that Avery could have handled the quest alone.
‘But how shall I persuade Prometheus to do as we wish?’ Electra didn’t have very much experience with such situations.
Avery smiled, as he knew from what the crone had told his father that Prometheus and Electra were about to fall in love. However, he couldn’t find a way of expressing what he knew, and Avery looked to Rhun for help.
Rhun took a deep breath to disperse his bad mood, then placed a hand on Electra’s shoulder, and stated: ‘Just act defenceless. Make it clear to Prometheus that you are afraid to stay in the city.’
‘But what if he insists on killing Aegisthus first?’ Electra implored.
‘He won’t, Electra.’ Rhun knew his father well enough to be sure of this. ‘You are, in essence, the same woman Prometheus is trying to avenge the death of. He won’t risk you being harmed again, believe me.’
It was so odd for Electra to be spoken about as this Prometheus’s woman when she’d barely said two words to him and had never had cause to imagine her life in that sort of context. ‘I shall do my best.’
‘That’s the spirit.’ Rhun gave her a smile in encouragement.
‘And, no matter what happens, remember it’s for the Logos,’ Avery found the cheek to suggest.
‘Avery,’ Rhun scorned, although he did crack a smile.
‘Just helping out dear old dad,’ Avery uttered in his defence.
‘Well, don’t.’ Rhun directed him to move away and butt out, before looking back to Electra. ‘We’re going to leave you to deal with Prometheus however you see fit. But we’ll be right outside that door. To get to you, Orestes’s guards will have to get past us … and they will not get past us.’
‘I believe you … and I thank you, but are you sure Prometheus will seek me out?’ She was wary of being left alone with this man that everyone had built up to be the great love of her life. She couldn’t deny she found Prometheus attractive, but these feelings were an anomaly for her and her fear of the unknown was making her edgy.
‘He is here,’ Rhun announced and vanished along with Avery.
The sound of her cell door unlocking set Electra scampering for a seat on the stone block supplied for sleeping, and she attempted to look fearful, just as Rhun had suggested.
‘You are under no threat of death any longer,’ Prometheus assured Electra, after he eyed over her quarters.
‘The spirit world disagrees with you, my Shar,’ Electra lied. ‘I’m afraid a truly horrid death awa
its me here.’ She gazed at the floor, a hopeless look upon her face.
‘Then I shall take you away from here,’ Prometheus offered gallantly.
Electra was inwardly excited by the suggestion, but she spoke in a flat disbelieving tone to hide her true feelings as she posed the pertinent question. ‘After you destroy Aegisthus, or before?’
Rhun and Avery disposed of the guards that Orestes had posted outside his sister’s cell with the stun function on their pulse lasers and locking the guards in a nearby cell, the lads from Kila assumed the appearance of the Atlantean soldiers.
As Rhun seemed to be giving him the silent treatment, Avery thought he’d try and clear the air. ‘My abilities are not my fault, you realise? I have not trained to be Lord of the Otherworld all my life just so I could bug you.’
‘But it helps,’ Rhun commented lightheartedly, as if he didn’t really mean it, and maintained the soldier’s stance — his eyes fixed ahead — so that he didn’t have to see his brother’s reaction.
Avery was not fooled. ‘You think I don’t know that you have infinitely more life experience than I do? I’ve studied your history … you ruled Gwynedd and then Briton as High King. You did extensive time travel, built an entire underground city from nothing and fought in the greatest battle of our history, the Gathering of Kings. Not to mention the integral part you played in the rebellion of Lahmu!’ Now Avery had Rhun’s attention. ‘I don’t have your experience, believe me, I am well aware of that. But now is my time to prove my worth and I am not going to relinquish my destiny just because you feel threatened by it!’ Avery spat out, feeling better for having gotten that off his chest.
Rhun began to silently fume, when normally he had a good command of his emotions. He was about to launch into a spiel about adhering to the word of authority when he felt his father’s presence close by, urging him to be calm and reasonable.
Before you cut him down in flames, know that Avery idolises you above all others and always has. He just got through telling you so, though not in so many words.