International Legends

Chapter 27 - Ozara

The room is watery, glowing in the light of the evening, warm and inviting - as if it was inviting me to take a long nap. The echoes of the waves crashed to the shore, and a strange feeling of sadness overtook me. I could feel it in my heart.

"It's not enough to have the stone," said Basques over the intercom. "You have to wield the power that it gives you, to trust in the journey that it's giving."

"I don't trust a word you say," I murmured, causing him to laugh.
 
I felt small in comparison, as if this man knew more about me than I could ever reveal about myself. I blushed, and I hid my face by contemplating the floor. I noticed a mighty wave coming from the hands of one individual, a raven-haired girl wielding the ocean in her palms.

"Only few have been able to understand the power of the stones," says Basques. "As I told the others, I spent my years studying them."

"You obviously didn't figure out that much then," I say, clenching my fists.

He traces a finger along my back and whispers, "Your friends are going through their own challenges right now. Will you be able to rise to the same occasion, or will you convince Mama Earth that none of it is worth it?"

Involuntarily, my body shivers with anticipation, and he laughs. Damn him.

As my body is hooked up to the machine, I feel my mind slipping, and pretty soon I'm floating above all things, and am able to see clearly the levels of reality.

It's a fishbowl, and everything is warm. As if the water has always been flowing, and I wasn't paying attention to the sounds. It's more relaxing than I dare admit, making my body feel like it's finally relaxing into comfort. So, I let my shoulders drop and I feel every cell in my body take a beautiful sigh. It's as if I was sleep-walking throughout.

The stars are glittering in this universe, shining with brilliant promise of various worlds. Off to the distant, so close and so far away, is our sun. Then there are the other planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and the icy dwarf planet of Pluto.

Forget what anyone had said before on the matter, Pluto was brilliant from so far away, looking in intensity and power as if to re-emerge from its blackness and death while Mercury looked as if it's going to be swallowed by the totality of the sun. Uranus, the brilliant watery ball of ice, Jupiter, shining in gold; Mars in its brilliant red and a Venus that looked so bright it was glowing as brilliantly as the sun.

"Amazing isn't it?" asks Basques. "You're seeing what many have seen before you - the miracle of the design of this universe. Some would attribute it to God, not me. I don't think God would be responsible for this."

"Then what would you call it?"

"Some benevolent alien race perhaps," muses Basques.

"What would call my enslavement then? A miracle of science?"

"A fluke," says Basques. "You're not one of them. You did not belong with those people, you are different."

I say nothing. He's learned nothing in all his time of observation. A coolness takes over my heart again, reminding me of where I exactly am. For while this may seem spiritual in nature, I still am in a machine imitating a greater reality.

Earth floated before me. This was not my planet. It was that other Earth, the one in Arkethia's timeline. I felt myself being pulled down to it, through the waters, hearing voices whispering "Welcome Ozara. Welcome back. Beautiful liberator. Warrior."

When I had seen Jaina before, I knew there was something special about her. Like all those that I had run into before. Her eyes were glowing blue, reflecting the ancient powers us Yoruba had been told - of the ancient ones that would come back to rescue their people.