CHÍ

CHÍ
by Emmanuel ‘Eluminary1’ Elu |King of the short story| Gloria et Divitiae in domo eius

This short story is a prequel to ‘Chí – The Dominati story’ by Emmanuel Elu available for download globally (E-book) on all Amazon sites.

All rights reserved. The story ‘Chí may be shared for free (with proper attribution to source) via social media or other electronic means except for purposes deemed of a commercial nature. For any such as these, permission will have to be obtained from the copyright holders.
All enquires should be forwarded to eluminary1@gmail.com

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  'When they march quietly, the feet of death leave behind them loud mourning.'

The airport was in view, the plane’s descent was proceeding smoothly; everything from this point was supposed to be routine for a pilot of her experience. Those days in flying school, they were always reminded that when it comes to flying a plane, nothing is ‘routine’. Inexplicably to her, her plane suddenly lost power and with that, altitude. The majestic Boeing 787 Dreamliner was forced without warning into a deathly plunge that was certain with the manner the plane was falling, to end in fatal disaster. For Helen Bosch, a commercial pilot with over ten years experience, this was a frightening new scenario for which neither she nor her co-pilot had any solution. She was extremely proud to fly her new 787 Dreamliner and could never have envisioned a portion of the script where the elegant aircraft crashed in such horrific circumstances. Disaster had arrived completely unannounced but certainly not unprepared, as the forces at play for the aircraft's rapid descent into doom were beyond the scope of anything Helen could have been taught in flying school.

Chí, the creative life force of the earth, that has the power to alter reality was at work here and as it is said: ‘only those born of fire respond when fire calls for its children’. There was no way a totally oblivious mind like Helen Bosch’s could fathom the reason behind the terrifying loss of power her plane had suffered, leading to the now imminent death of hundreds of passengers including herself. What she could not claim ignorance of though, was the expertly concealed package of narcotics that had been brought by her onto the plane and was due to be offloaded by a member of the airline's ground staff upon reaching their destination. The package belonged to a powerful Asian drug cartel and for a country where drug trafficking carried an irrevocable death sentence, it was worth a small fortune if it safely arrived its destination.

Helen Bosch’s share of the drug money was intended to pay off huge gambling debts incurred by her husband who had fallen apart when his technology start-up that bore his life savings and hopes, crashed lifelessly after struggling for too long to turn a profit. David Bosch had slipped into alcoholism and gambling addiction, refusing to get any professional help despite his wife's heartfelt pleas to him because he was secretly sure it would all end with him taking his own life. Somehow though, he underestimated his own resolve to live but by the time he finally started his journey to rehabilitation, he had created a monster in debts that needed paying or...

Helen his wife, had always been a fighter. She saw in an illicit offer, what she felt was an opportunity to save her husband's life. Those who he owed money were people who would readily succeed where depression had not, in ending his life. The female pilot loved her husband dearly and in her world, love required sacrifice. A single high-risk trip ferrying narcotics across continents was not too great a sacrifice in her mind for the one she loved. His business may have died but her affection for him had not although the effect of Chí upon that massive bird she took so much pride in flying meant that she probably would not live to see her husband pay off his debts.

In seat A4 of the plane’s Business class section, there was a terror-stricken man who for fear of impending death had defecated all over himself as his bowels freed themselves of their burden, in anticipation of the release that death was sure to bring. His name was Kezena Shapiro but everyone especially those who wished to remain in his good books, called him K-global. K-global was the kind of man whose claim of owning a global conglomerate could only be measured by the number of countries across the world where he had run foul of the law by engaging in dubious business. His entrepreneurial experience was a sum of many crimes successfully committed without incarceration in any clime.

In one country he was an arms dealer, in another he was a launderer of dirty money, in yet another he was a fraudster. In this vein, he was a truly global businessman whose success in evading the law could only be matched by few in the world. Yet here he was, trapped aboard a flight that had been ill-fated to attract the negative attention of a Mega-Natural, the rare selection of human beings who can channel the earth’s creative life force Chí to alter reality, creating a different outcome from what should ordinarily be, into that which their mastery of Chí allows them to create alternatively.

K-global was on this flight en route to his home country, a small nation where lavish wealth and shocking poverty stared each other in the face, existing side by side with the same comfort death and life share when holding hands. In K-global’s home country, everything hung on a balance. None was more delicately balanced though than the peace between the country’s two largest ethnic populations. Between them, they accounted for more than eighty-five percent of the country's citizenry and there was a history of conflict-filled rivalry between them. A history, purveyors of war could always count on.

K-global was essentially making this trip home to apply his first-hand knowledge and experience of war to the current state of his country's affairs, not in hope rather to ensure, the result of his efforts would be the outbreak of civil war in his country. Why would he do this? Because his home country was still regarded as an administrative province of a much more powerful nation who in time past had been their colonialists. An excellently timed outbreak of war in his home nation would thus reflect badly on the present government of the former colonialists, tipping the balance in what were already tightly contested general elections. K-global’s paymasters had sent him to create chaos in his own country for the reason that it would help their cause in the general elections of their own nation.

The lives that would be destroyed, innocents that would suffer, none of all these measured up to the necessity of this war in the eyes of its proponents. There was too much at stake for peace to be allowed to reign, so the promotion of war for K-global and his paymasters was the most constructive option available. They had not planned though, on the plane K-global was travelling in being attacked by a powerful expression of Chí that was pulling it out of the skies into a fatal crash, unlikely to leave any survivors. The stench of K-global’s faeces which he had splattered all over his undergarments in his fright was thus his closest companion as he journeyed to certain death.

The power of Chí to alter reality is such that the Mega-Natural who was literally pulling the great bird, a 787 Dreamliner, out of the sky, could only have been countered by an even greater application of Chí. No amount of flying skill on the part of the pilots could save the plane. This was similar to the way the passenger in seat E1 of the plane’s Business class was told that no lawyer in the world could save her husband from spending the rest of his life in prison. Her name was registered in the passenger manifest as Mel Rivers because she never used her full first name anywhere and in recent times, she did not desire to be identified by her marital name preferring her much less controversial maiden name.

Her parents named her Melancholy, a name she hated so much she counted it among their more stupid acts of parenting besides their constant drinking, fighting and emotional abuse of their daughter. Mel was eventually taken into foster care as a child because her biological parents simply didn't make the cut for acceptable behaviour as parents. Rivers was actually the surname of her foster parents which she adopted because she wanted to cut off any ties to her biological parents who were nothing but an embarrassment to her.

Mel considered herself an extremely unlucky person. To her, if it were not for extreme bad luck, she would never have married the man she did. Her husband Harry Gold, was an investigative journalist who had riled some of the world’s most powerful people by publishing what was one of the modern world’s most fascinating cocktails of truth, lies and outstanding fiction in an exposé everyone called the ‘Golden files’. As author of the infamous Golden files, Harry fulfilled his life’s dream of ‘disrupting world powers’ by any means even notoriety. The stir his Golden files caused worldwide made him very proud as this was all he had ever dreamed of achieving since he was a little boy crying by his journalist father's side, after his father was shot in the streets by unknown assailants.

Those Golden files wreaked havoc in high places as many influential people were affected by its damaging revelations. It made Harry Gold one of the world's most wanted people and brought great distress to his wife, literally turning her world upside down. Mel did not sign up for the harassment she got from the authorities, death threats from unknown persons, relentless hounding by the media... these things broke her, grinding her into her lowest point ever in life. The only thing that gave her back her sanity was having an affair.

While her husband languished in prison for his crimes, Mel enjoyed the most tantalizing extra-marital affair she could have wished for. Her secret lover did not care for any of the baggage she felt she carried, he was a man secure of his place in the world whose rock-like confidence rubbed off on her when she needed it most. The sex they had was not good, it was phenomenal! He made her body feel like a magnificent musical instrument whilst he was her maestro, coaxing sounds out from her that she never even knew she was capable of making. Being on that plane that day was because she was on her way to join him for yet another romantic getaway that promised sheer bliss as always. Death had come to her at the time life was finally at its sweetest, so the tears she shed as the plane fell to its doom were for the good times she would miss with her lover.

She was not the only one having an extra-marital affair in that section of the plane, just behind her in seat E2 was a preacher whose ministry owned one of the largest church auditoriums in the world. He was an extremely wealthy man and rarely flew commercial as he owned two state-of-the-art private jets. This trip though had to be made in more discreet fashion as it was for a rendezvous with his concubine who had been complaining of emotional neglect from him. The preacher considered himself a faithful man, faithful in a context only higher minds could  appreciate. Despite his numerous trips around the world, despite being besieged daily with loving attention from beautiful women, he had only one wife and only one concubine. There was no other wife he had nor did he keep another concubine. Sadly death, through an impending crash, was about to rid the earth of a rare kind of man; the type of man who can make double standards a masterclass of philosophy.

A masterclass was however already in progress in the pulling of that plane out of the sky. Chí permeates the entire earth and is available everywhere. However different Mega-Naturals are able to access Chí through different mediums. Some can only access Chí when connected to land, these breed are known as the Magnarchs. Those can access Chí only through air and water are called the Fluidars. Now the wonder of the Dreamliner’s fall out of the sky was that the Mega-Natural who did this did not access Chí from the air to alter events in the sky, in fact he could not because he was a Magnarch. The expression of Chí that was pulling Captain Helen Bosch’s Boeing 787 from the sky was from land, thousands  of feet below.

One passenger on that plane had come across the Mega-Naturals before, she had even robbed them.  Holding on to seat B3 in Premium Economy with an iron-cast grip, her face contorted with intensity as she summoned all her bravery to meet death without fear, a remarkable woman was in the final minutes of a truly remarkable life. Amirah Chargoury was born in a small nomad settlement without basic amenities like pipe-borne water and electricity but she was never going to be limited by the circumstances of her birth or anything else the world could muster for that matter. It was her destiny to break limits as far as she was concerned and it was a mindset as powerful as this that led her to become the kind of person who could rob a Mega-Natural of a prized possession.

Amirah was known in circles of power across the world, amongst those with eyes who could see, by her operational name, a name that had superseded that of any of her forebears (she came from a bloodline of warriors) for the weight of its glory. She was the unstoppable thief known as Eclipse. When Eclipse stole from a Mega-Natural, a Magnarch, she stole an item she had been told was an ancient relic. An antique which had value for its age alone. This story was greatly untrue as the item, a supernatural tablet though ancient in appearance had powers that made its value inestimable.

She was contracted as Eclipse by a representative of a dark society whose membership is open only to Mega-Naturals: the super-secret society known by the name ‘Dominati’. To steal this item called the tablet of Jabez, Eclipse had to perform a human miracle. The tablet of Jabez was located in a secure penthouse of a high rise building whose owner, a wealthy Magnarch, spent a fortune for its twenty-four hour security. Faced with the problem of motion sensors that would be triggered by anything larger than a big bird, Eclipse folded herself into a cube with one side of the cube open before she  harnessed the cube to a stealth glider. When the glider was released from a light aircraft, it took Eclipse in her cube in stealth mode to a point about a hundred feet above the penthouse where she released the harness and let the cube drop in freefall.

As the cube dropped, Eclipse had a ten second window to fire an arrow through a single open window of the penthouse. The arrow would carry ultra-thin steel wire that Eclipse would use to hoist herself through the open window. She had only one shot and if she missed her shot within this ten second window, she would fall to her death. Eclipse fired the arrow with frightening accuracy hitting her target effortlessly while in freefall and folded in a cube! She completed the mission by successfully stealing the tablet of Jabez and was paid a king’s ransom by her client for her death-defying efforts. She would not be defying death on this flight though, as the end to her legendary career drew near.

Eclipse was on that flight to scout her next target, a frugal billionaire seated an aisle apart from her  whose only son had contracted her to rob his father’s impenetrable vault where he stored a truckload of money in cash and gold bullion against the day of trouble. That day of trouble had come early for all aboard Captain Helen Bosch’s plane, as Chí forced the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to come hurtling down from the sky. There was only one passenger whose presence or absence on that flight could have made a difference. His presence on-board the plane was the reason why the Mega-Natural, a Magnarch, responsible for the plane’s loss of power, was about to kill hundreds of innocent people.

Crown Prince Oritsemagbagbemi Enomashishioritse was the passenger in seat F16 of the Economy section of the plane. He was flying alone that day en route to his home country where he was expected to confront his destiny in the parlance of his people. In all of his sojourn abroad, the day he dreaded the most came when he received the phone call that his father the king of an oil rich kingdom was dying. This again was wordplay from his native tradition as it was impossible by tradition for the king to die, he merely transformed into a different body as a new king ascended the throne. What the message the Crown Prince received really meant was that his father the King had passed on and it was time for him to take his place as the new king of the kingdom.

He had been heir to a kingdom of atrocities and now a deluge of evil deeds was his to inherit. The monarchy of the oil rich kingdom had for decades been at the forefront of oppressing its exploited people as the royals and their cohorts lived in stinking opulence while the commoners of the kingdom endured crushing neglect. It had been like this a long time but the Crown Prince was one of the few privileged people who did not think this was right. He was in support of sweeping reforms that would even include an end to the monarchy, something that many influential people were not happy to hear. Most powerful of the unhappy ones were certain Dominati, Mega-Naturals who had benefited immensely from the corruption that reigned for years in the Crown Prince’s kingdom.

Prince Oritsemagbagbemi was the reason why that majestic bird was being pulled out of the sky by Chí released from ground up. There is a third class of Mega-Naturals, these are the rarest who by numbers are the least of the awesome beings. However these ones have no limitation to how they access their Chí, in air, water, land, wherever they find themselves upon the earth, they can use Chí to drastically alter reality. They are called Luminaries, the light-givers, who for the most part of their history, have been benevolent towards the rest of humankind.

As the Boeing 787 Dreamliner fell to about five hundred feet above ground with a massive crash and earth-shaking impact about to occur, the plane struck a  gigantic force field of Chí, so strong... it rebounded the plane another five hundred feet in vertical height before the plane was stabilised and brought into a smooth glide. The passengers and flight crew all knocked out by the trauma of their experience could barely comprehend what had just happened but if they could only see under the belly of their aircraft, they would have for the first time in their lives seen a Luminary, with his wings fully spread... a truly magnificent sight to behold. The Luminary flew under the plane using his Chí to hold up the plane in the air as he took it in a gentle glide down to the earth in an open field not very far from a portion of the airport's runway. For the passengers of this Dreamliner, death would have to try another day.

Miles away from where he dropped the plane, the Luminary that saved the day whose name was ‘A thousand deeds’ (Luminary naming convention  differ greatly from most human communities) retracted his wings so that they became invisible as he walked towards a White lion the size of a huge truck. By his countenance, the White Lion was deeply displeased to see the Luminary. Mega-Naturals of different breeds have the power to manifest an Animalism inherent in them. All Mega-Naturals except the Luminaries do this. The Magnarchs generally transform into huge lions while Fluidars depending on their sub-class can become monstrous Leviathans, giant snakes and great dragons. In this Animal form, the powers of most Mega-Naturals are magnified as they can channel Chí in greater measure. Luminaries however have no need for this, as their mastery of Chí already places them a league ahead of all other Mega-Naturals.

The White lion sitting before the Luminary named ‘A thousand deeds’ had performed an incredible feat earlier by roaring from the ground at Captain Helen Bosch’s plane, striking it with Chí and causing it to lose power even with the plane still more than fifteen thousand feet above ground. He was indeed a very powerful Magnarch and an immense confrontation with the Luminary hung in the air between them.
“Why have you done this terrible thing? Why did you attempt to kill so many innocent people” A thousand deeds asked the White Lion with a look of incredulity on his face?
“Sometimes it is necessary to organise calamity” was the calm response the White Lion proffered almost as if he were condescending to answer the Luminary’s questions.
“I know you are Dominati, A thousand deeds accusingly declared. Your society is poison to this world.”
“So what if I am... countered the White Lion? With great power comes great temptation. Not all of us carry the burden of false righteousness. The Lion spoke obviously in mocking  reference to the Luminaries creed as Guardians of the Earth.
“ I’m going to kill you for this. You do understand me don’t you? I’m going to kill you for being a part of Dominati, for trading your gift for an abomination” A Thousand deeds broke the news of the Magnarch’s death to him ahead of time.
“I understand nothing! Death is my drinking pool, all who oppose Dominati, will drink of my pool’s waters!” The White lion retorted as he sprang into a crouching position to attack the Luminary.
A thousand deeds using Chí, created seemingly from thin air a nunchaku, the weapon consisting  a chain with two sticks used by martial artists. Only that this one was supercharged with Chí, so that a single blow from it,  could easily turn a large building to  rubble as such was the power of Chí that this nunchaku carried.
The aim for the Luminary was to give the huge lion a sound beating before permanently putting him to sleep. As A thousand deeds leapt in the air, the White Lion roared at him with formidable Chí, strong enough to grind the hardest rock to powder but he underestimated the skill of the Luminary in battle as A thousand deeds was teleporting in split seconds appearing at various points in close proximity to the White Lion  and striking the great beast each time with a thunderous blow from his nunchaku charged with Chí at every instance.

It meant the White Lion was soon swooning in a daze from the terrible beating the Luminary was dishing out. Still the White Lion would not yield nor was he even going to be given the chance to do so by a now enraged Luminary. The White Lion roared at the earth below him as it gave way to swallow him, instantly covering itself up so that he could escape from A thousand deeds. This ploy too failed as A thousand deeds punched the Earth repeatedly with flashes of Chí at high intensity until the earth opened its jaws and threw up the White Lion into the air. The Luminary did not allow the White Lion land as he caught him in the air with a ferocious blast of Chí that kept the White Lion suspended in the air, separated from its natural medium and thus unable to access Chí anymore.

“Dominati are coming, when its time, all of your kind will be consumed. There is no room for imbeciles like you in the new world. The White Lion sneered, remorseless and full of glaring contempt for his conqueror.”
“Greater fools than you have lived I’m sure... but I am lucky never to have met them” A thousand deeds replied, as he was by this time brandishing a large battle axe, gleaming in the night with Chí. As he made to decapitate the arrogant White Lion, a hail of Chí infused flames rained down on him from an elevated position, forcing him with their intensity to the ground, away from the White Lion.
The flames were from a Dragon, the Animalism of the Mega-Naturals called Dragoneers. Those flames could not burn A thousand deeds even if they did disrupt his rhythm for a short time because they carried Chí. Suddenly out of the earth sprung two more lions, one red and one blue, with the blue one almost twice the size of the red lion. These two lions roared at the White Lion and released it from the Luminary’s trap, bringing the White Lion down to the earth. A thousand deeds, recognising danger, threw his battle axe at the Dragon breathing fire with such vicious power it knocked the mighty beast out of the air as it came crashing to the ground with huge bang.

The three lions, red, blue and white all combined and roared with one mighty roar at the Luminary knocking him off his feet and throwing him by the power of their Chí into a river miles away from where the battle raged. When A thousand deeds came out of that river, he knew it was pointless returning to the scene of the fight. The rogue Mega-Naturals were long gone. All that remained was the mocking voice of the White Lion in his head repeatedly saying:
“Dominati are coming.”

Read the full story in Chí – The Dominati story by Emmanuel Elu. Available for download as an e-book from all Amazon stores online.

(C) Emmanuel Elu 2019

Twitter: @eluminary1