See Part One for Disclaimers
A soft thud told her that they were down and she ventured to open her eyes. Outside the viewer showed a dark cavern lit only by a handful of lights that led into the distance but gave no clue as to the size of the structure they were within. Behind her, the door opened and Alwyn strode purposefully in. A sweep of his crystal device seemed to reassure him that Galen had suffered no ill effects from his flight. Delving deep into the ship he returned with what looked like a large board, this he slid under Galen's body and without any apparent effort he proceeded to pull the board and Galen from the bed leaving them levitated about three feet from the floor.
"This way," he ordered, ignoring her open-mouthed stare. Tugging lightly the unconscious mage was towed along like a deflating balloon behind the old man as he strode off down the nearest corridor.
A little ball of light guided them along, a piece of technomancy she had seen Galen use before and consequently seemed no mystery to her. But what was to be revealed at the tunnel's end surprised even her cynical constitution.
Iridescent rainbows scattered around the cave that Alwyn entered. Everywhere crystals shone, reflecting back his guiding light. With a word, he recalled it, leaving the huge tomb like room to be lit by its own natural glow.
"Showy, but practical I suppose." Alwyn said, taking a good look around the room, which on closer inspection was filled with devices and equipment for which she could not even guess the function. Focussing on one corner of the room, he grabbed the board and manoeuvred Galen toward a slab of crystalline material that seemed the focal point of the lab. "Not squeamish are you? No, of course you"re not. Well give me a hand here." And he began to divest the mage of his lower garments. Quelling her natural unease she pulled and tugged as Alwyn directed and soon Galen lay naked upon the slab. The receptors on his shoulder she had viewed at the beginning of their journey, now a second set were revealed in the lower curve of his back. Alwyn inspected them closely, checking for possible damage. Seemingly satisfied he slid the limp body over until the two sets slotted into receivers within the slab. As soon as they made contact the crystal began to glow with a faint amber tinge.
"Well, there is nothing more we can do, young lady, so why don't we get acquainted. I want you to tell me how Galen came by his injuries, what he has been up to and where you fit in to all of this." He started out of the room, then turned when he realised that she was not following. "Don't worry, my dear," he said quietly, " he will be all right. If the crystal had been red, well, there would be a slim chance of saving him. Amber will take time, but he will survive to get himself into more mischief." He paused for a moment seeing her eyes riveted to the inert figure. "He's a hardy chap, you know. Just like his father. You should ask him about his family some time. Hungry? I am. Let's raid his larder. Come along." With that, he headed off down yet another corridor.
Dureena, with one last glance behind her at the glowing crystal and its occupant, followed. She was so tired that the thought of food made her nauseous, yet she knew that to keep going she had to eat.
Surprisingly, Alwyn turned out to be a good cook, and an interesting conversationalist. Though try as she might, he avoided every question she threw at him with regard to the debris field which Terea once had occupied. Slippery was too kind a word to describe his manoeuvres. They talked for what seemed like hours and it wasn't until later that she realised he had said very little yet had gained much knowledge of herself, her life and her feelings for the man laying comatose in the lab below. Even knowing he had used his talent to obtain what he wanted, she had felt no malice in his interrogation, just a thirst for knowledge. Something she had found within herself of late.
* * *
Consciousness returned slowly, akin to little pieces of a puzzle whose solution still eluded him. A light warm breeze caressed his bare flesh, the faint hum of circuits whispered in the air and a sense of home echoed through him. Limbs still heavy with fatigue refused to move at his command, and yet he knew that all would be well. Dreamlike remembrances drifted through his mind, like vague wisps just out of reach. The touch of a feminine hand, the gentle sighing of a sleeping companion all seemed ghostlike in his clouded memory. With an effort he opened his eyes, taking in the familiar surroundings the glorious colours that rainbowed around the cavern. He was home. How, he had no idea he was just grateful that he lived still. Alwyn's face popped into his mind, yes, his last communication had been with his father's friend. With a sigh, he relaxed back into slumber having solved one problem at least.
* * *
Dureena had soon become restless after enjoying her meal with Alwyn, and had made excuses to return to her post at Galen's side. Earlier that evening she had watched his unresponsive form with little hope, however much the older mage had assured her all would be well. Now, as she entered the lab she was immediately aware of a change. The crystal slab now glowed faintly yellow and even as she neared it the colour grew less and less until it shimmered with a white phosphorescence that almost blinded. Galen's chest now rose and fell in rhythmic harmony and some colour had returned to his face and body. Laying a gentle hand against his chest she could feel his heart beating solid and reassuring under her touch. The pent up emotions from the last few days suddenly broke and she found herself sobbing over him in a way she had not indulged in since she was a child. This was the second time he had come back from the brink, she wasn't sure how much more of this her nerves could take. A mage was not supposed to be vulnerable, damn him!
"What's wrong?" Alwyn had followed her into the room some moments later and he hurried to her side. His curious gaze watched as Dureena calmed herself a look of sympathy briefly passed across his weathered features. "Does he know?"
Startled, Dureena turned to face the older man, not previously aware of his quiet approach. It seemed all mages had this fetish for stealthy arrivals.
"Know what?" On the defensive once again, her previous trust of this mage went unacknowledged in the face of this intrusion.
"My dear young . . . Dureena," his address changed quickly at the savage look, "I may look senile but I do have eyes in my head, and more years experience than I would care to admit. So, does he know?"
Although she had filled Alwyn in on how Galen's injuries had occurred, it had gone no further than a report of his rescue. No word had passed her lips on the subsequent conversations between them. Catching his eye still upon her, she decided to trust him. Associating with the Technomages seemed to be grinding down her resistance, and right now, she wasn't sure if that were a good or bad thing.
"Yes, he knows. We, that is, I . . . well, I hope he feels as I do. It caught us both by surprise, I think. One minute we are just companions, even though I always thought he understood me too well, the next I am pouring my heart out to the one person I would never have looked to for sympathy. I don't know if it will work, we may be too dissimilar; my curiosity into technomancy has always been a wall between us. I don't know. Alwyn," she turned her full attention to the listening man, "you know him well, could it ever work with someone who doesn't understand his world?"
"I think only Galen can answer that." A movement from the slab saved him from further replies. "Wait upstairs for me. Go on." Dureena's intention to stay was thwarted by Alwyn forcing her back toward the door. "There are things that you should not see, not yet, not until he wishes to share them with you. Now go."
She gave a few feet then planted herself, like an immovable block, refusing to leave the lab.
"Very well, you leave me no option." He sighed, then erected an opaque force field around himself and Galen, effectively thwarting her attempts to hear the conversation about to take place. With her curses echoing in his ears, he turned his attention to the man returning to consciousness.
"Dureena?" Galen's query though barely above a whisper had his friend quickly at his side. Alwyn's voice seemed over loud to his sensitive ears. Regeneration always left him feeling raw and tender to outside stimuli, physical and emotional. Usually, he would have the luxury of recovering alone; that was impossible now.
"Yes, she has a wonderful vocabulary don't you think. An interesting person you have taken up with. Do you have any idea what you are doing, Galen?"
"Lights, minimum," Ignoring Alwyn's testy comments. As the lights reached a subdued level, he opened his eyes. Yes, he was home again. Mixed emotions skittered through him. The last time he had been here was just after sending Elric beyond. Angry and still hurting from Isabelle's loss, he had stayed only long enough to recharge and then he had begun his wanderings eventually joining up with the Excalibur and her crew.
He sat up slowly, feeling the energy levels once again pump around his system. Well being flooded him; leaving him almost light-headed. Then reality crashed in. Terea, the Sharian!
"Alwyn, what happened? The Boxes, were they found? The Excalibur and her crew, are they safe?"
"You always were full of questions," the old man grinned. "It's good to see you well, Galen. Come and get dressed and I'll fill you in on events."
Pressing against the nearby wall, an opening appeared allowing the two men access to stairs that rose in a serpent coil leading upwards. "One moment, Galen." Alwyn released his force field expecting to find a wrathful Dureena waiting in the lab. The area was empty. "Hum, now I wonder what she is up to?"
Galen smiled as thoughts of her tickled his senses. "She will be out exploring somewhere, getting up a fine head of steam, I should think." He sobered as other thoughts less pleasant occurred to him. "How much did she see, Alwyn?"
"More than she should have. What are you going to do about her?" Alwyn, although a bit of a renegade as was Galen, still believed that the Technomages knowledge should be kept safe. In the wrong hands their power could be, was, lethal. They both had cause to keep their secrets safe. "She's an intelligent woman, a bit superstitious, a bit cautious maybe but very bright. She could be an asset to you, or your downfall."
Galen's eyes became distant. "I know," he said softly.
Dressing quickly, he extracted as much knowledge of Terea as possible from the old man. His message had been intercepted and forwarded to all mages, to seek out Terea, to find and destroy the boxes, or the planet if that were the only solution. It seemed that Galen was not the only Mage to be keeping tabs on the Excalibur and its mission.
"Twenty of our order were outside the hiding place; myself included. I was on my way there when I spotted the Excalibur. When you passed out in front of me, well I knew that my first port of call was your ship. I found the Excalibur adrift."
A sharp glance from Galen's piercing eyes stopped him for a moment. "No, it was not I! The Circle put her out of action, the ship was returning to Terea . . ."
"The fools! Even after my warnings, they still had to go." Angry with the crew, angry with himself, Alwyn's "They are human, what do you expect!" did little to ease his guilt. "I could have stopped them -- I should have stopped them."
"And how were you to do that? When I arrived, you were comatose! This close from being beyond any help! Why, by all that's sacred didn't you return home before it got to this? If the Excalibur's crew had found you in some corridor, unconscious, can you imagine the tests they would have run on you? The secrets we keep, Galen, all would have been revealed."
He could not answer, for he knew Alwyn was correct. His need to deal with personal issues had led to this almost disaster. But, if he had not stayed, would Matthew, Eilerson and Dureena still be alive? His gut tightened at the thought of losing her, and he wondered how his own fall had affected her. Oh yes, she would be so angry by now. The half grin that so annoyed Gideon hovered on his lips.
"Galen, what is the matter with you! You nearly jeopardise our whole order and you sit there grinning!" Alwyn's exasperation only made him worse.
"It's nothing. So, what did the Circle decide? What did they find on Terea?"
The conversation turned serious once again as he listened to the mage's report.
"Since you and I left the group, they have been working on a way to track the Sharian. They hold a unique biological signature that this new programme can trace once it is within a few hundred clicks. Low level scans of the surface found two such signatures, with a possible third buried within the surface crust. The whole planet was starting to come apart, volcanic eruptions; earthquakes and hurricanes were literally tearing the place to bits. No life forms were left, everything wiped from the surface." The old man sighed; he hated to see anything die, but the loss of a planet . . . "The Circle decided to finish off the process. Terea is no more, the Sharian are no more, It's over."
"No. No, it isn't." Galen's voice was husky with emotion. "There were four, Alwyn. Four of the Sharian left to cause havoc in our Universe. Somewhere there exists the last of them. And I will find it." Flint hard eyes glared at the older man.
The silence that followed his statement seemed almost deafening.
"I must find Dureena before she gets into mischief. Excuse me, Alwyn."
* * *
His home was not large, and it took only moments to realise that she was not within doors. Each room, filled with books and objects from his travels, reminded him of why he had not returned before. Memories lay in every book cover, in the pictures on the walls even the scent of flowers that still lingered in the main hall. It was time to make new memories, to make this a place he would be happy to return to.
He headed out in to the bright sunshine, soaking up its warm rays as he raised his face to its heat. Here, where he felt most safe, there was no need for staff or coat. The whole valley was shielded from outside interference. A deadly labyrinth met any unwary traveller who tried to enter the area, scans from above would show an inhospitable vista of ice and snow, in keeping with the area outside his little paradise. At one end of the valley rose a sheer rock face, down which tumbled a magnificent waterfall, the focal point of his domain. Up each side lay a blanket of thick trees thinning out to lush grass and a small river that ran through from the waterfall to the end of the valley. Within this large acreage teemed a wildlife population that continued its circle of life and death, of hunter and hunted.
Dureena was nowhere in sight and yet he knew she would not be far away. Heading toward the waterfall, he turned over his thoughts again and again. She had seen so much, she wanted to learn and yet there was so much anger in her. If she wanted to learn not for revenge, but for the love of the process, he would not have hesitated to train her. She was intelligent, could be focussed when she wasn't getting annoyed at the smallest thing. He sighed, he could still make no decision, and yet she had seen too much, as Alwyn had stated.
She was up on a rock hanging out over the pool that spread beneath the waterfall's pouring torrent. Knees tucked up under her chin, her arms clasped around them tight against her chest. Although he knew she must have heard his approach, she made no acknowledgement of his arrival. He could almost feel her anger and hurt, it radiated from her like a wounded animal's pain. It cut at him deeply and his own hurt resounded, echoed within him.
"I'm not exactly dressed for climbing, but can I join you?"
Finally she turned and looked at him, taking in the soft white cotton trousers and blue open necked cotton shirt. She shifted her eyes away quickly, but not before he had seen the glow that briefly negated the hurt in her look.
Taking her silence as acceptance, he made the climb up the slippery rocks swiftly. It felt good to feel the pull of muscle again, to feel the surge of energy as he sprang from one stone to another, working his way up to her perch. She did not relax her position. She was a statue to her pain. Dappled green and yellow light accentuated the bruising on her face and arms where it was beginning to fade. He reached out and feathered his fingers across her cheek, tracing the bruise along the fine bone and along her jaw. She didn't move.
"Talk to me, Dureena," he commanded softly.
"Why didn't you tell me?" she burst out. "Why didn't you trust me enough to let me know that by saving me you were dying yourself? Why didn't you leave when you should have? I nearly killed you, Galen! Me, my stupidity. Everything I ever loved, everything that meant something to me gets taken away. And it's always my fault!"
"No, no not your fault. I stayed because I had to, I didn't leave because I had something more important to deal with." He hesitated for a moment. "Alwyn tells me you saw the destruction of Terea." She nodded. "That was my doing, in part." He went on to describe the scroll Eilerson had deciphered, the meaning behind the words. It was safe now; those boxes were forever gone. He chose his next words with care. "You, Matthew the others, all were dying from the virus booby-trap held in the containers. I had the skill to adapt the nanites that we had already discovered. I could not leave you to die when I had the knowledge to save you. It goes against everything I hold dear."
He lay a gentle touch on her bare arm. "Forgive me, Dureena?"
"Damn you," she whispered. Finally uncurling herself she started to move toward his open arms when her feet shot out from under her, the slippery moss covering the rock acting like glass against her soft-soled boots. Seeing her fall Galen reached out and held on tightly as they both plunged down into the deep pool below. He rose first, quickly searching for her, suddenly she popped to the surface, spluttering and coughing and choking back her laughter. Swimming for the bank, they lay side by side in the warm air, tears running down cheeks as the absurdity of the situation took hold. One moment they were deep in an emotional whirlpool, the next they got the dunking they deserved for taking it so seriously. Life was too short to waste in morbid deliberations.
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