Realms of Eden: Book 5: Hyak Anali

"Here, here," came the voices of Simon, Keith and Anne-Marie.

"I will even fly the Lucy myself," piped up Wilbur Donnelly.

Sydney laughed out loud. Wilbur Donnelly never flew unless he was drugged.

"OK, OK!" cried Sydney helplessly raising his hands up in surrender. "Just let me get some tea and some food first."

A plate and a large mug was plonked down on the table by Ronnie Kelleher. She gave him a meaningful nod of her head to indicate that he should sit and not waste any time.

Around forkfuls of food and sips of tea Sydney continued his story to the ring of attentive faces around him.

The meeting place was a large open space in the cave network that appeared as they emerged from the forest and began to ascend a large hill. Cave was an inaccurate description of the huge structure that had been carved out of the hillside. Its smooth walls, cleverly arranged lighting and the doorways that led off into the hillside at regular intervals certainly showed that it was not a natural construction.

Seeurs engineers had begun the construction almost 200,000 years before when they had piloted their large craft down on to what then was a large ice sheet. The atmosphere was clean and their advanced sensors had told them that the ice that covered the planet would further repair the damage that had been done.

Damage that had been done in creating the craft and weapons that had been turned on their world when Elam had left the planet believing it to be doomed. The Seeurs scientists had already detected scattered populations of people across the world. A people that had thrown off the shackles of slavery and, if they survived the ice age, would become stronger for the trials they had been subject too. With happy hearts they had set about building the storage construct that would allow them to safely store the thousands of beings that had made the journey with them. All of them safely enclosed in the artificial wombs that lined most of the ship's storage areas.

For years the first group of engineers and scientists worked hard. Firstly they drilled down deep beneath the ice until they found the bedrock below. Setting up tunnels and rooms within the solid rock they found they set about making a haven for the last of their people. One that would allow them to come forth and begin again when the ice retreated as they knew it would.

It took them almost 500 revolutions of the planet around the distant, weakly glowing sun to complete their work. Their long lives almost half spent as they toiled. Finally they were satisfied. Their leader, one called Lyn addressed the group standing in the large meeting room that they had built first. "My people," he cried, "our labour is over. It is time to join in the great sleep until the ice retreats and this world brings forth its harvest. When we return we shall seek out the life forms we hope shall still be there and we will make this world a home for all of us!"

Ragged cheers met their leader's words and with joyfulness they stepped into the pods that were designed to support their suspended bodies for the long years ahead. Lyn watched the last of the people seal themselves into the chambers and with a soft sigh pressed the buttons on the console in front of the room. Lights dimmed and the soft sound of motors briefly rose in sound before they too became silent. Looking around once more a sigh came from his mouth and a small prayer. "I hope that these prove to be your wombs my people and not your graves." The leader took its place in the last chamber and the automated systems enclosed the body.

"The Seeurs slept for nearly 190,000 years before the machines woke up the designated groups that would venture out into the world," said Sydney softly. "During that time the landscape of the Earth changed dramatically. Including, unfortunately, the movement of a great glacial river that took the tops off several of the mountains that they had housed their cryogenic constructs within. Of the million souls that came in the great ship only several thousand survived their agonising rebirth."

"No!" cried Kelsey in despair. She saw the sorrow in Sydney's eyes as he spoke. Something like utter despair crossed his face and instinctively she reached towards him to grasp his hand.

"You saw it didn't you, Sydney?" asked Serenity aghast.

"Held by the shields of Zeus and Jove from going to their rescue!" spat Sydney as abruptly he rose from the table and walked to the railing. Standing there he stared silently out towards the calm blue sea.

"They did not want me to interfere with what would happen," he said as he turned back to the group. "They told me that it was the cosmic will. Told me that no matter how much I believed I could change it that another force, stronger than I, had already made the decision. I was not to fight that force!"

"But you defied them anyway didn't you my lord," said a softly accented voice. Heads turned to the sound as Esmeralda appeared before them. The Zygotian appeared, not in her usual form, but as that of a small female. Her shape was almost humanoid standing around 120 centimetres tall. Dressed in a small wrap of cloth her four breasts were clearly visible and her large round eyes observed them all.

Her cherub face was surrounded by soft, almost silken strands of aqua coloured hair that ruffled lightly in the slight breeze. Her ears showed pink and bright under the hair as it moved. Short legs were encased in sandals that wrapped from her feet to midway up her thighs in strips of soft black leather-like material. A triangular shield of black covered the junction between her thighs.

"I could not sit and watch the only hope of a whole world disappear because of the change in the weight of the ice!" Sydney cried. "My only regret Es was that I could not save them all!"

"You saved enough my lord," said a second voice.

"You saved me," squeaked a third.

Magenta and indigo haired females stood beside the first. The women all appeared similar except for the facial features and hair colour.

"What!" boomed a voice above them. Lightning appeared in the sky above them even though not a cloud appeared in the deep blue atmosphere.

"Yes, Zeus!" cried Esmeralda as she reverted to her fighting Zygotian form. "He took the people and saved them despite your cosmic orders!"

"He has destroyed all hope then!" boomed the voice again. "It was only the will of the cosmic light that kept this planet from being destroyed. The Seeurs were a price we were willing to pay to achieve that!"

"You were wrong, Zeus," said Sydney mildly. "The force that you were so willing to sacrifice almost an entire people to lied. It never had any intention of keeping up its end of the bargain. Why do you think Elam is back here again? If it had been truthful he would have perished in the void when the Zygotians drove him from their region.

"You believe you kept me from being returned to the Earth and helping them. You forgot that the entity who shares my soul was not from the realms. And that I am not subject to the mercies of the fates and the whims of the realm masters."

"How?" asked the fiery visage that loomed out of the sky above them as some of the crew cowered on the deck of the boat. The flame covered face dimmed slightly as he faced three of the Zygotians in full fury.

Nonchalantly Sydney gazed back up at the apparition. "I became the ship. Es, Marmess and Orial the pilots. We took them back to a planet hidden in the void and there they have lived undetected for thousands of years.

"It is no good you trying to hunt them down Zeus, for we gave them back their technology and lives. They have spread throughout the universe and Elam trembles before their might. Your cosmic friends have no place in determining who lives or dies, that is up to the entities themselves.

"Stop playing god Zeus, you were never any good at it. We are our own gods." Sydney stood defiantly before the man that once held him in thrall. Now he glared at the being and with a wave of his hand sent him back to the realms.

"That is why you told me that I should know everything and nothing about Villes des Coeurs," said Xavier into the shocked silence that greeted Sydney's casual banishment of the realm leader's father.

"You have become something else since you have caused the warriors and others to remember. Something that even the realm masters can no longer control," she added in an awed voice.

"A force able to stop Elam. A force able to control time and memories. Who are you really Sydney?" asked Thelma softly.

Esmeralda shrank to the size of a large dog and walked to stand in front of her lord. She eyed the group in front of her. "He was always this," she said softly. "The blending of two cosmic forces that now represents a being that stands outside of them all. It has taken almost a million years for us to bring this change about. We will let no-one control him except himself."

"Well almost no-one," grinned Sydney as he ducked his head shyly.

Kelsey giggled as she realised that there were nine of them on board the might boat that could bend the warrior to their will. "We might try sometimes, Sydney, but in truth you are still in control of your own will. We simply add some spice along the way," she gurgled throatily.

"As it should be my love," he answered. "I am not so conceited that I believe that everything I think or do is right. It was something that the Seeurs made me very much realise when I firstly delivered them to safety on La Range and when I returned to them as they were reborn."

The ship touched down on the floor of the valley that when they had left had been a frozen river of ice. Sydney's sensors scanned for the mountains that should have been there, the ancient catacombs that had held the birthing pods of almost a million souls. They were gone!

"As we knew they would be Sydney," said Orial softly. The indigo robed woman sat in the pilot's seat of the mighty vessel and quietly observed the landscape around them. "It was why we took this mission in the first place because the ice would crush and slice off the mountain tops."

Beside her Esmeralda nodded. The small pixie-like form of the normally large aqua coloured Zygotian still made the entity that was the ship's body and mind smile. The emotions expressed in sometimes frightening shudders throughout the ship as he laughed at her unabashed display of her small form. The ship gave a small tremble as Es glared up at his monitors and adjusted the light wrap that barely covered her quadrupled breasts. It was the only concession that she had allowed to her Zygotian heritage, well the only visible one she amended in her mind.

"Still not letting them play with you Es?" came a cheekily humorous question in her mind.

"No Sydney," she answered contritely. It was bad enough that the males that had come with them back to Earth fawned over the tall robed figure that was Orial as the Seeress, but to have to continually deny the hot flushes that warmed her own body as she playfully flirted with them was beginning to become wearing. Desperately she wanted the warm confines of her warrior to hold her, to banish the feelings of lust that were encroaching upon her everyday thoughts as they carried out this mission that had lasted far longer than it should have.

"Soon Es," the mental voice soothed her. "Soon we can return to the realms and you can rest with me after we face the punishment that no doubt awaits us."

"They will never know, my lord," she answered. "The Seeurs are gone, only a small number are here. They will believe that they have done what was asked."

Marmess' magenta glow appeared outside the portholes of the craft. Es and Orial grinned in delight as the huge alien floated and careened around the valley in pure delight at being in the open again. "I think I should like to join her!" said Orial excitedly and soon a dark indigo shape acrobatically flew in the cool air outside.

"Do not leave me yet, Sydney!" cried Es as she felt the beginnings of Sydney's transformation back to his normal form.

"Then hurry, Es! Their mental joy is having a huge impact on my maintaining this form!" came the excited cries of the ship.

Es scurried for the cabins deeper inside the belly of the ship and soon the hundred or so Seeurs that had returned with her were packing up their gear in preparation of meeting those that they had left behind so many years ago.

"It was a very sad coming together of the ones that had returned and those that had been left behind," said Sydney quietly to the faces watching him and Es as they sat quietly together. Each of them had been relating the tale. It was never more evident to the crew aboard Majestic that the two souls were so closely entwined. The two spoke almost as one, their words identical as they described their joy at returning from their long journey.

"For those that had been left behind had awoken early and many had mourned the thousands that they believed had perished on the planet. Many had despaired of creating the haven that they had planned so many eons before," continued Sydney.

The arrival of Nugua and Belenus at the meeting of the Seeurs was totally unexpected and Es could not contain her surprise as the tall cold appearing man warmed the little people with his words and hugs of comfort. "You see Belenus is not known for his joy or happiness in anything. In fact he is a very morose looking figure with his alabaster skin and unsmiling face. His eyes can freeze you with his indifferent stare. I never believed that the ancient one would have any compassion for anyone or anything, let alone an alien people that were grieving for lost ones," Sydney told the faces around him.

"But you did not count on his love for Nugua," said Belinda softly. "He has loved her since time began. She was the spark of joy that he always had but never openly acknowledged."

"How do you know that?" asked Jennifer curiously.

"When one is the child of the coupling of a God and a mortal one finds that they are allowed to traipse around the realms with little concern by the realm masters," replied Belinda with a mischievous smile. "I often spied Belenus with Nugua in her gardens. He would write long happy poems that he would read aloud to me. Nugua always listened in but hardly ever showed herself to the man. She was very happy to have him love her but did not know how to express it without him becoming too involved with her.

"As you should know Enyalius, Nugua burns brightly in love. It seemed that she could not imagine how such an odd pairing would be able to sustain that flame," answered Belinda. Her voice carried a dreamy quality that many around her reminded them of how they felt about their own respective partners.

"You made them see sense, Bel?" queried Penny as she found herself leaning towards the golden eyed woman closely.

"I was but a little girl," she giggled. "How was I to know that asking Uncle Belenus to kiss my scraped elbow would make Nugua almost sob with joy to watch this so-called dispassionate and uncaring man tenderly fix my bumps and scrapes. Belenus is a very caring man as you would know Sydney when he and Nugua took away the women who would have been killed at Townsville."

Sydney nodded his head recalling the concern that Belenus showed when he allowed him to see the women in joyful contentment at his dinner table. All of the twenty-five women had chosen to stay with the gloomy appearing man. Sydney grinned as he told them all that he had never seen the old God so happy as he celebrated a birthday of one of the women.

"Perhaps we have all read him wrong," spoke Paul amazed, "I have never seen him smile or give a damn about anything!"

"You forget, Himerus," said Thelma with a small hint of reprimand in her tone, "Belenus is the realm master of Imagination. I do not believe that he could be cold and distant from something that is a very personal thing."

"No," Es said loudly. "Imagination, fantasy and dreaming are very personal. Belenus and Nugua deal with things on a universal scale. I think the facade of Belenus is a shield. One that he has held in front of us all for so long that it has become all that we see of him. His efforts in consoling and rebuilding the Seeurs was certainly not that of a man who did not care."

"Nor were the efforts he and Nugua went to in allowing me to be reborn and return to the Seeurs so quickly a reflection of his gloominess either. In fact it showed a remarkable disregard for the realm master's council and flagrant disregard of the rules!" exclaimed Sydney. He was beginning to be overcome with the memories that his tale of the Villes des Coeurs was revealing.

"Why Sydney!" cried a humorous voice from behind the bar on the deck. "One would almost think that I broke the laws of the land. When all I did was return the saviour of the Seeurs to his rightful place among them in a time frame that I believed was more appropriate than the normal lifetime of pain you would have had to endure to get back to them otherwise."

"How much did it cost you Belenus?" asked Serenity softly as she watched the gloomy faced man smile as he poured himself a large whiskey.

"Not much, young Serenity," was the nonchalant reply. "Zeus and Jove thought that they could bind me to my realms for a time. Not because of the Seeurs whom they still did not know were alive, but because I bypassed their stupid rules concerning the cycle of the warrior. Their words and their efforts were for nought. They may be able to bind Jeb, Bacchus and the others, but Nugua and I are of a different reality. We tolerate the council and some of their silly antics but when it impinges on the wider scale they have no place to interfere.

"As you are remembering Enyalius, the world of the realms does not impact the world of reality. Nor does it affect the dreams of the billions of creatures within the real worlds. The realms are created by -," the man found himself interrupted by the screech of Bonnie.

"Imagination!" she cried.

"Exactly Bonnadrice," Belenus smiled as he lifted his glass in toast to her.

"Then only our imaginations are what keeps us going and gives us the will to strive," said Kelsey thoughtfully.

"Yes, Kelsey. As the universal mother you should know. How many of your children have come to you with their plans and hopes? How many times have you told them that they can do anything, become anyone if only they have the courage to follow their dreams?" Belenus smiled again as Kelsey blushed at the man's words.

"In helping the Seeurs to become what they had dreamed on their new planet I was simply fulfilling my function in the greater scheme of things," said Belenus seriously. "It was not the right nor the place of Zeus or anyone to destroy their dreams without giving them a chance. If you had not taken them from the doomed mountains, Sydney, I would have.

"The Seeurs, as you have found, had much to give and many things to teach. It would have been a tragedy if they had gone from this world before they had a chance to infiltrate the legends and dreams of the people here. To not appear in the books of fairytales and films of fantasy. Small children would not know the legend of the tooth fairy, the fairy godmother or Tinkerbell. They have given much to this world and to others.

"Even though only a few of them still live in this world, they have left behind a legacy that will stretch way beyond the times of man. It was something that Elam realised and why he hunted them so ferociously. It was also why he failed in destroying them and even now his fleets run like the cowards they are as imagination and fairy dust strike back." Belenus faded from view, his glass empty on the bar top as the group pondered his words.

"Fairy dust," said Sydney quietly to himself. He chuckled as he considered the first time he had heard the term.