The Book of Elements Page 20

  Unfortunately, Rannul also had an overly indulgent drinking habit which often left him sleeping off a hangover in the local jail. When he drank too much in the company of a lovely lady, the next morning usually found him scrambling out the back door as the man of the house, having worked a late shift, was arriving through the front.

  Over the years, Rannul’s talent for reading people grew to extraordinary levels, and he explored more adventuresome methods of getting into trouble. He robbed banks, stole from local merchants, and donned carefully crafted false personas in order to capitalize on less than honorable financial ventures. His talent made him incredibly successful at his nefarious profession and generally unwelcome in the region. Rannul eventually worked his way to America, where he continued to hone his professional skills. He would have continued living in this manner had he not chanced upon a beautiful woman as she left a restaurant one evening.

  She was enchanting by every standard of the word. He immediately wanted her and made overt efforts to engage her in conversation. She played along, teasing him mercilessly, but never indicating that she might give him what he desired. Rannul spent a week following her around and trying to make some progress, but nothing he tried was working. The challenge held his interest, but it had never taken him this long to win a lady's favor before. Rannul felt certain the reward would be worth the wait.

  Then one day, he followed the lady to the train station where she was meeting her sister. Rannul’s eyes were stunned again. This second woman, though not as curvaceous and luscious as her older sister, was also a genuinely lovely creature. Her skin was like a porcelain doll and hair like liquid fire. Naturally, Rannul decided that if he could not succeed with the older sister, he would win the younger one instead.

  The younger lady was much more welcoming of his pursuit, but she insisted that he must have a good job and a place to live before she would seriously consider him. Much to his own surprise, Rannul readily obtained both and, for a brief period of time, became an upstanding citizen. He eventually married his lovely prize.

  Not long after the nuptials, his wife became pregnant with their first child, and Rannul quickly became bored with the mundane routine of his married existence. He began to go out after work and expend his flirtatious energy at the local bars. When it neared time for the baby to be born, his sister-in-law came to stay with them for several weeks to help her sister and to maintain the house.

  In Rannul’s eyes, she was just as desirable as before. She enticed him home each night, away from the bars. While his wife rested in their bed, Rannul chased after her alluring sister with lustful desires growing stronger by the day. Her unmarried sister, who was never quite as wholesome or virtuous, found she was often jealous of the kinder attentions bestowed upon her younger sibling. At last, when she aroused Rannul to his boiling point, she permitted him to indulge his pent up passions and allowed herself to succumb to his desire for her.

  When Rannul’s daughter was a few weeks old, the older sister left. The affair ended. Rannul returned his attention to his wife, and his sister-in-law carried away the son he did not yet know he sired.

  Antonius skipped ahead to the birth of Rannul’s son. He was born at the lady’s home, where she was situated in a large bathtub in the lavatory. The only people present were the midwife she hired to help with the delivery and another female waiting at the bedroom door. The baby arrived healthy and unmarred, a strikingly beautiful child. Just after he was born, along with a gust of wind that caused the shutters to rattle, the baby let out his first strong cry. The boy was whisked away before his mother even had a chance to see him. He was handed over to the nun who stood near the bedroom door. Because of the family embarrassment it would have caused, Rannul's son would never know either of his biological parents. This much, Antonius already knew.

  The next scene was at Rannul’s home, where his little girl was shakily pulling herself up toward her first steps into her father’s waiting arms. He belatedly regretted his affair and told his wife of his infidelity. Miraculously, she had found it within herself to forgive him, and Rannul had been the perfect husband and doting dad ever since. Now, as he watched his glorious girl, Rannul was ashamed of what she might think of him when she grew up.

  A stabbing pain arced through Rannul’s mind, and he fell over clutching his head. He was hearing a thousand voices and seeing flashes of unfamiliar images. The pain was unrelenting and, after only a few minutes, his senses were overwhelmed. He passed out. His daughter was left crying where she stumbled and fell beside him. From that day forward, Rannul was afflicted with visions of future events and voices of those long since dead and buried. It was a powerful burden to bear, and he left his wife and child to roam the streets and carry it alone.

  Rannul’s visions drove him near to madness and occasionally to murder. In his shattered mind, he attempted to rid himself of the visions by eliminating the people he saw in them. He attempted to silence the voices by cutting off his ears, but only succeeded in ripping and mangling one of his ear lobes before passing out from the pain. Rannul continued in this manner for almost a year before police locked him up in a criminal sanitarium.

  This was the state in which Antonius found him many years ago. Knowing the importance of the man’s heritage better than Rannul himself did, Antonius made arrangements for the man’s release and for the Sisters at St. Anthony’s to care for him. The nuns, in exchange for a generous, annual donation to their order, agreed. All they had to do, besides feed and shelter him, was to write down all of the ramblings he uttered, which were few after his confinement, and document in detail each of the visions as Rannul described them. Antonius received weekly bundles of these reports. Unfortunately, they became less and less clear over the years as the man’s mind deteriorated. The deacon paid the Sisters well enough that they never questioned his reasons for doing any of this. Antonius never once visited the man in person, until today.

  Antonius knew that the change in Rannul meant that the man’s purpose and his punishment had at last been revealed to his tortured mind. That was why Antonius was here. This was too important to have anyone else interpret it for him.

  He traveled further through Rannul's mind, skimming over memories of what transpired during his long, lonely confinement with the Sisters. The deacon already had knowledge of that largely uneventful period. He needed to know what Rannul saw and heard the past few days. As Antonius pulled the information to the forefront of the man’s mind so that he could review it, the haggard man began to cry out in pain once more. As Antonius reached the event which triggered his current condition, the man screamed in agony. This is what Antonius wanted to see.

  Rannul had been sitting on his bed staring at nothing. The sun was just touching the horizon of the waning day when he received the vision. This one was different. It was not a premonition of events that would come to pass. Instead, it was a window across the distance through which he was watching a scene as it unfolded.

  A happy-looking couple was struggling against the overpowering forces of a ferocious storm. Rannul saw Antonius’s face briefly visible within the assaulting gales. He watched as the deacon fought against the wind and channeled natural energy to do his bidding. He was trying to claim one of the pair, though Rannul could not tell which one he sought. He saw other radiant beings emerge, countering the deacon's best efforts.

  At last, Rannul watched Antonius come face to face with the strongest of the others, obviously their leader. Rannul did not recognize him, but Antonius knew exactly who it was that he fought. The forces they unleashed against each other were tremendous, and the effects they had on the couple in the clearing were devastating.

  In the end, the power at work caused the leader and Antonius to be thrown forcefully apart, yanking all the other combatants away as well. A great rending was felt within the clearing. It was as if the clearing might have been split it two, though there was no indication of such a thing. As the wind died down, only one half of the couple remained, unc
onscious and alone. Rannul’s son, now grown to manhood, was gone.

  Antonius paused for a moment, realizing that he was holding his breath as he watched the reenactment of his own fight days earlier. He remembered each detail vividly, and his anger was rekindled when he recalled the damage done by his opponent. That interference had cost him dearly. Though Antonius was able to salvage his overall plan, he swore revenge on his opponent. When that chance presented itself, as the deacon knew it soon would, he would show no mercy to him or any of the winged worms who were a continuous thorn in his side.

  As Antonius lingered in the aftermath of Rannul's thoughts, he began to feel a strong, steady pulsing through his fingers. The sensation brought him out of his rumination. Finally, it was happening. The book was calling to its keepers. Antonius focused all of his attention on the beat, trying to locate its source. He traveled Rannul’s mind in every direction while the man shivered and screamed as loudly as his hoarse voice would permit. At last, the deacon discovered what he sought. He was not too late. The conditions were finally right, after a little nudge of assistance from Antonius, of course. After ten years of preparation and waiting, he finally ascertained the location of the Book of Elements, which was once again calling to descendants of the two brothers' bloodlines.

  Unfortunately, Antonius was careless of his presence within the poor man’s mind, and the impact of his overly eager browsing caused the last thread of Rannul’s sanity to break. His screaming stopped, and Rannul sat staring at a shimmering light which partially materialized behind the chair that Antonius vacated. The deacon was occupied with contemplation of his unprecedented success. He stared out the window as cars passed through the intersection below. His distraction allowed Rannul’s last vestige of clarity to be witnessed by another. Rannul found the strength to utter two final words to his newly arrived visitor.

  "Forgive me."

  "Alas, that I cannot do for you," a voice answered within Rannul's mind.

  "However, had your words not been penitent, I would have been the bearer of His vengeance. Your weakness, inherent in many generations of your blood, has caused much harm. Nevertheless, you have also brought forth one with great potential. The sincerity of your words has been heard, and thus do you avoid your fate. All I can offer you now is an end to your suffering. It is time, at last, for you to cross the barrier." Michael reached forth from the shimmering light and placed his hand on the exact spot where Antonius exerted his will against Rannul’s forehead, and the man’s journey through life abruptly reached its final destination. The now lifeless body fell unnoticed upon the bed.

  Before departing unnoticed, Michael spared a glance and a low growling sound for the man at the window. It was not time for him, not yet. But that vengeance would not be forestalled when the time was appropriate.

  The Sisters listened at the door for over an hour after the screaming stopped. No one had come out of the room since the door was shut initially. The ladies were afraid to go in. When they finally gathered the courage to venture a look inside the room, no living soul remained.

  Antonius walked out of the woods and entered the monastery through the same side door he exited earlier. He walked the familiar halls to his quarters with a renewed sense of purpose; but the unaccustomed exertions left him drained of much of his strength. To travel in such a manner, across distance and within the mind of another, required a lot of energy and concentration. Antonius had not been as well prepared as he believed. Yet, he could not have planned a more satisfying outcome.

  The deacon was anxious to return to the sanctuary of his room, yet he stopped halfway down the hall. He paused briefly to look through the small window of the middle door on the opposite wall. A single occupant lay unmoving upon the bed within. The miniscule rise and fall of the person's chest as the lungs drew air was barely visible as the person slept.

  "You will be my final victory. A nice surprise you were, but not needed for the time being. I will see to your health and strength while you sleep. You will be ready when the time comes to shed this facade."

  Of course, the sleeping person neither stirred nor responded to the deacon's whispered comments. Antonius continued on to his room at the end of the hall, made sure the bolt was drawn securely across the door, and fell into a deep sleep even as he felt the coolness of the pillow beneath his head.

  CHAPTER 20

  "Impressive combination, yet I believe you have not yet pushed yourself as far as you might. Your creativity serves you well, and your skills are technically precise, but you are still holding back."

  Vin had been practicing ever since they left Caeli at the hospital. Tabbris was preparing him for the upcoming battle. From what he was able to piece together, that event was rapidly approaching. Vin knew his participation was going to be critical, but he still did not fully understand why. He was giving Tabbris his undivided attention, trying to learn as much as he could, as quickly as possible. Vin had always been a quick study, and he was making exceptionally good progress with the complicated maneuvers.

  He became exceedingly proficient at crossing the barrier, a thing which even the angels seemed to have difficulty doing. Vin drew on his strong link to Caeli, which made the transition relatively easy once he knew how to do it properly. The angels had no such links and had to rely on brute force to open a channel through the barrier. Creating such a channel from scratch required much more effort than using one that already existed.

  "I think I’ve reached a plateau, Tabbris. I do not see another level to strive toward," Vin replied with resignation. He still found comfort in speaking out loud, although he knew it was not necessary here.

  "Hmm…possibly the time has come for you to add emotion to your efforts."

  "But you asked me not to do that, insisted on it, in fact. It was my lack of control over my feelings that got me into trouble in the first place. I reacted without consciously shaping the energy I was using. I thought the point of all this was to teach me to keep my emotions out of my ability," the exasperation in Vin's response caused Tabbris to nod as if in agreement.

  "Yes. That is exactly right and absolutely wrong." Tabbris grinned slightly as he watched Vin’s reaction, knowing how such statements aggravated him. That, of course, was precisely why Tabbris chose to phrase his response in that manner. He expected Vin to react to his cryptic pronouncement on impulse, as he was prone to do, even after all their work together. He waited a moment to allow Vin time to respond.

  Vin, on the other hand, knew that Tabbris was purposefully baiting him, trying to draw an emotional reaction. If he had not learned his lessons so well, he might well have provided the anticipated response in the form of some offhand snipe or by throwing his hands up in frustration. But, not this time. Vin was prepared for such a test of his abilities and even attempted to turn it around on Tabbris.

  "Well, my friend, you must be mistaken. It is not possible to contain an exact right and an absolute wrong in the same bucket. They are opposite extremes with definitive natures. Therefore, they cannot exist together." Vin thought it was a cleverly worded way to phrase what might impulsively be translated as ‘you can’t be right and wrong at the same time.’

  After a few seconds, Tabbris began to laugh, a genuinely good natured sound.

  "Well said, Eyvindr. You have indeed been paying attention. And a nice try with your counter, but you didn’t really expect it to work, did you?"

  "Yes," Vin replied flatly, maintaining a serious expression on his face.

  "What? You are serious?" Tabbris was shocked.

  "Absolutely," Vin barely withheld his laughter as he kept his face turned away.

  "Do you really believe that you have surpassed me then?" Tabbris’ amusement turned to surprise at the unexpected declaration of superiority. Did this man really think he could best an angel in such a short time?

  Now it was Vin's turn to laugh, but he could not do so openly until Tabbris recognized and admitted the defeat.

  "I believe you just gave me
the win," Vin stated in a level tone, concealing his own amusement while Tabbris processed the exchange. He didn’t have to wait very long. Tabbris quickly realized that Vin had succeeded in getting an emotional reaction out of him as he avoided stepping into the intended trap. Tabbris let his guard down, and Vin seized the opportunity.

  "Oh, well done! Very well done. I concede the victory to you."

  Now they both laughed, pleased at Vin’s success. There was nothing more that Tabbris could teach him about controlling his impulses. Vin fully grasped the concept. From now on, all he could do was hope that Vin would choose to properly employ the hard earned knowledge.

  "So, now what?" Vin asked.

  "Now, I would like to explain why you truly were both right and wrong. You have come to understand that your actions should not be based solely on your emotional reactions. For that, you had to set your emotions aside. In this, you were right."

  "I get that. Keep my emotion out of the way so that I can control my reaction. So, how was I wrong?"

  "It is those very passions, those powerful emotions, which fuel your strength. Just as a mother protecting her child finds the strength to lift the fallen tree off his leg, so too must your actions be defined by the amount of feeling you put into them. If your desire to win is not strong enough, the forces you send to achieve that victory will not be sufficient," Tabbris explained.

  "So, you have not really been teaching me to keep my emotions out of it. You have been showing me how to control my reactions, thereby controlling my emotions, thus controlling the strength of my reaction."

  "Yes. But you must take great care with strong emotions. If you lose control in a highly emotional situation, the consequences could be severe; particularly with a gift as strong as yours."