The Awakening Ch. 31-40

"You are here..."

She opened her eyes and found herself in the edge of the path and the beginning of a field. She gasped, the field in front of her was so familiar. At the distance a dark figure was standing near some ruins. He was far, but she knew the voice came from him.

"Hello... name..."

Caliope walked a few more steps and saw with surprise as each inch became a mile in its own. With three steps she was almost in front of the voice's source. It was a man, no doubt, and he was tall, a large cape covering his body, long beard and rough long hair as grey as the sky. He had his back at her and she remained still for some seconds. He got quiet, waiting for her answer.

"I have a name... I am not --a- name... my name is Caliope..."

"Ca..... Caliiiiope.... I met a Calliope once... is that you? He said, dragging her name as if learning to spell it.

He tilted his head lightly to the side, his skin was burned by too much sun. She shook her head and finally sat on the dry field. He went quiet for a few seconds then continued.

"One... two... a million and four thousand... maybe more..."

"You know my name now, what is yours?"

"I am... a forgotten one... or maybe I am just lost... do you see this field?"

"Yes, I see it, and it looks very familiar... I think I had been here..."

"Yes... one... two... three... a face... a name... names? My name... Qe... something... I am a forgotten one..."

"What are you doing here? Do you remember how you got here?"

"I was deceived... rejected... and forgotten... yes... oh no...!"

He started to cry and Caliope felt sorry for him, she tried to reach closer but he moved away fast. Standing up she tried to see his face, but he had covered it with his own hands. He sobbed and then went quiet.

"My name... yes I remember... I was once Qemuel... one of our Father's best soldiers... but... I am not anymore... bound to this earth... with the humans..."

"Qemuel, have you been here long? Where are we?"

"This land will witness many battles... I am just taking my seat for the first one... Caliope... a sweet name... don't fall for what Angels might promise you... they can be deceiving too... mischievous creatures... they can be... no!"

Suddenly a spear went thru him, the head sank on the ground and he was left kneeled in pain and agony. Caliope looked up and a tall winged angel flew down and landed right next to both of them. He looked at her confused, but at Qemuel with anger. Behind him, another one arrived, and then another more, until she could see there were hundreds of them all flying down.

'A legion...' she repeated his words in her head.

She thought to herself as all of them surrounded the field. With a hand she covered her mouth as the leader was staring at her. He had long thin dark hair, tall and strong, eyes that reflected loneliness and a powerful sadness. He had a strange armor covering half of his body, an armor embedded with many symbols of different metals.

"I am Lucifer, Leader of our Father's army... who are you?"

He spoke in a language different from any other she ever heard, yet she could understand perfectly each word.

"I think I am lost... I don't know how I got here... where am I?"

"You do not belong here, human... but now you've witnessed something you shouldn't have, what are we supposed to do with you?"

Caliope was trapped, there was no where she could run, surrounded by them. She tried to think how she got there. She closed her eyes and held her head with both hands. A strong pain pierced inside her as she tried to think back. The path, she remembered a path before the field. And before the path, she couldn't remember. The pain became stronger, and she dropped to her knees and cried. The Angels were surprised and confused. She tried to look back up, but everything went white and she was blinded by it. Then there was silence, for several minutes.

When she finally could open back her eyes, everything was still white around her. She was laying on the floor of a room with no edge, plain and simple, white and limitless.

"My child... welcome..." a deep and powerful voice resounded around her.

She rubbed her eyes again "Where... am I?"

"You are safe... nothing can harm you here..."

She slowly got up and felt confused, frustrated. She looked around and found only more whiteness around her. There was no shadow of herself bellow, no point of origin on the light either. Only silence besides her own breathing and their voices.

"I am... so tired... my head hurts..."

"Your powers are... unpredictably impressive... my sweet child, you just went through me and saw one of my own memories..."

She began to think more; who could be heard everywhere and call her child? Just as easy as that she thought of the answer. But the idea that perhaps she was in contact with God made her hold her breath. She couldn't see him, but she could feel him all around her.

"Are you..." she had to ask it.

"God? Yes..."

"Am I dead?"

"You are more alive than any other human..."

A tear started rolling down her cheeks, she felt overwhelmed by the reality of the situation as well as the intensity of her own emotions and feelings. She kept looking all around trying to find the source of his voice but, just as the memory, it was simply all around her.

"You are confused, and you have many questions..."

"Where are you? Can I see you?"

"I am here... but, what shape you wish me to take? Perhaps that of an animal..."

At her right, just a couple meters away, a small deer looked at her with innocent eyes. She smiled down at the creature, just as his voice drew her attention to her other side.

"Or maybe that of a child..."

And there was now a young 12 years old toddler looking at her. She blushed and tried to touch him, but he banished in thin air.

"Maybe is best we keep it classic..."

And this time he was a tall, white bearded man, dressed in the same clothes he was depicted in old books. She chuckled and held still, trying not to vanish any more looks of him. As he started to walk slowly closer, his hand took shape of a fist, and a long branch materialized in it.

"You, my child, are quite rare... I was expecting you here... and while you landed, you went straight to my memories... right to the one I was thinking... you could not be more powerful even if I made you myself that way..."

He smiled at her, and she felt how her heart beat faster at his words and his penetrating eyes.

"But they saw me... in your memories..."

He nodded and held silence for a while.

"I am not like any other of my creatures... my memories are real, they saw you... but I brought you back before anything else happened that might affect your world's history..."

"The field... it was so familiar..."

"The same place where many battles were fought, and love stories where created... I was thinking of that particular moment because there is where your Father met your mother..."

"Oh...!"

She nodded and started to remember the sight of past memories. The memories of Pronab when he witnessed their encounter. Then she remembered Pronab itself, and with him came Elaine and finally Amra. She opened her eyes wide and gasped. Suddenly she was remembering why she was there. And he was watching her with interest.

"Amra... where is he? Is he ok?"

"My sweet child... of course he is... he is waiting for you..."

"How long was I gone? What happened to me? I remember so little..."

"Your union..."

"Yes! We just got married! And we were in a house full of Angels... and I am half Angel too... no, not an Angel... a dark Angel... why? What exactly am I? Should I even exist?"

"Of course you should...! Why would you doubt of your own existence...? My children always doubt my will..."

"You planned my existence?"

"It is more complicated than that... yet, so simple... my child... every living creature throughout all the universe, in every realm, is what it should be... I have never set a plan... you are what I willed you to be, much before you were even created..."

"I still don't understand... and I think I will never be able to..."

"In every chess game, you can never really predict the real result of each of your actions until you have made your moves... to each move there are so many possibilities, you go through them in your mind, and you move forward in consequence to what you chose to do... life, as you know it, is quite more complicated than that... but holds the same principle... when I laid the pieces on the board... I knew of all the infinite possible combinations and possibilities that could result from each tiny move..."

"Like Amra... he can see that as well... he tried to explain it to me..."

He nodded and walked a few steps to the side again, thinking before continuing to speak. She looked down at her hands and felt them cold and sweaty. When she looked back up, he was gone already, and in his place, a young woman smiling at her. Her voice sweet and full of candor "I saw many versions of you, long before your parents met..."

"What will I become now?"

"That is only up to you... your powers are strong... and what you do with them will perhaps define the most important outcome of this... war..."

"They are your creation... why can't you just... order them to stop fighting?"

"Maybe I should... but then, how unfair would that be for so many others?"

"What do you mean?"

"Where there is light, darkness will always be a blink away... and the same goes for where dark awaits... if I chose a side either light or dark, I am breaking the balance I created at the beginning of all your times... the only thing I can do is try to help... I see how one side tries to make things unbalanced... and I do my best to stabilize that balance again..."

"Amra..."

"Yes... I sent him..."

"...and you knew there was a possibility for him to meet me..."

She smiled and nodded.

"Will I be dangerous? What powers I may have... if more than one... will I be dangerous for others?"

"You have the right people to guide you... whatever path you chose to go..."

"What other path?"

"Your powers will be strong, and you will need to learn how to control them, or they will control you... what side you end up fighting for, it will be determined by who controls who... and that can only depend on you..."

"Even if I ask you to please let me stay on this side?"

She smiled tenderly at her and walked closer "I can't break the balance, but I see you will... most probably... chose the right path..."

"Then I will have to go through the hard way, don't I..."

"That is the only way to go if you want to really appreciate the gifts you were given... and now my child... it is time for you to go back where you belong... this realm... this instance... needs me to be at peace, alone and attuned to be in contact with everything else in the universe... that is my natural state... that is how I can see everything, and everywhere..."

"So I will be either a sided Halfling Angel or a dark one in the end?"

"Well... why can't there be a tad bit of darkness inside the light? Or some light inside the darkness? How was your father able to love? How was your mother able to fall in love for him... we are defined by our actions, at the very end..."

Caliope nodded and saw Her walk straight to her. She began to feel nervous as She was getting closer, lifted a hand and rested it on her face, caressing her cheek. Her hand so soft and ethereal, like Amra's wings.

"Now it is time my child... time for you to be back where you belong... it is time for your Awakening..."

And as She said those last words, Caliope felt her sight lost, everything around her went dark, and all she could feel was herself falling on a void as if in one of her experiences. And endless darkness around her that no longer scared her.