Meridian Chronicles: Keepers & The Soul Key (#4)

Chapter 17 Part 3

            Suddenly, Meridian's inner monologue was not internal. She looked around in confusion. After hearing her voice, she jerked her arm away from the glistening and mighty sword. As she drew her arm back, her mind silenced. She looked around the wall-less room as though someone was there with her. After looking back, the door she came through, was no longer visible as though it was never there. Meridian turned back around to face the sword. Her eyes glistened in the singular light from above, her skin glowing, and her full lips quivered through rushed breathing.

Again, she lifted her arm back up to take the sword, and her inner monologue echoed throughout the room as though she were in her mind. Ignoring the loud and distracting words, she gritted her teeth, and her eyes winced shut as if taking the sword would bring pain. Just as she went to wrap her slender fingers around the handle of the sword, it disappeared.

Meridian quickly opened her eyes to see an empty fist hovering alone. The sword no longer visible; she could not even feel the sword in her empty grasp. She quickly cut her eyes back and forth, looking for a clue as to what this mysterious room was.

"Is this some joke?" she muttered to herself.

A couple of moments later, she heard the same statement repeated just as she listened to her inner monologue before. "Is this some joke?" the voice echoed.

Meridian began having a one-sided conversation with herself. "What is going on? Relic, are you pulling a joke on me?"

There appeared Relic, standing before her without so much as a blink from him. Devoid of any movement, there he stood in a statuesque form with a straight face.

Meridian leaned forward to get a better look at Relic, but the closer she leaned in for a better view, the more distorted he became. Feeling more frustrated than afraid, Meridian took steps to get closer to this image of Relic, and as she moved forward, he disappeared.

Meridian slapped the side of her legs and let out a massive sigh. "Stop playing tricks on me! This is not fair!"

Suddenly from the ground that did not seem to exist, a shadowy apparition emerged, taking the form of a giant snake slithering in between her feet. Meridian jumped backward to get away from the swarthy reptile, but her back hit an invisible wall. Startled, she jolted forward with a quick snap to look at what stopped her from moving as the snake rose upright, taking on another form.

From the thinning apparition, grew into a large darkened cloud, that took on the shape of Meridian herself, the black shadow mirrored her every movement. She brought her hand out to touch the image in front of her. The shadowy apparition brought its hand up and met her's with its hand.

"What is happening? Who is doing this?" Meridian dropped her hand and turned to look back to the space that once held the crystal quartz sword. There, in front of her eyes, it appeared again as though it never left. When Meridian swung her head back around to double-check the whereabout of the shadowy apparition, imitating her every move, it too had disappeared.

She whiffled her head. Once again, this time with conviction, she reached her arm to take the sword, she felt the solid gold handle within her grasp. With a collective sigh of relief, Meridian smiled. And she pulled the sword toward her, without any such luck. The sword stood frozen, immobile, and the harder she pulled didn't seem to make any difference in the sword's position.

Meridian continued to pull and tug at the immovable sword. After a few more tugs, Meridian paused, noticing a change in the feeling of her wrist. Her wrist began to burn and tingle. Once again, she pulled at the sword without any luck.

She released her grasp in frustration. "Wow, I don't know what to do. How do I move it?"

The sword's crystals began to blink and glow brighter. Meridian's bright green eyes sparkled, and with the sparkle from the sword, her eyes appeared to be an endless pool, going more in-depth with the crystal glow. She brought her wrist up to her face to examine it closer, and what she found gave her more pause with how puzzled she felt. Her wrist with the infinity mark was always a silver color and appeared to hover over her wrist. This time, the symbol was not silver but sparked a purple hue, much like the amethyst stone within the sword. She quickly dropped her hand and walked closer, standing inches in front of the sword where her eyes carefully studied each stone placed within the guard.

Inside each stone, hovered emblems, that to Meridian, she had no clue what they were or what they meant. She studied her wrist once more and muttered to herself. "My infinity mark matches the sigil inside the amethyst stone. What is all of this?"

Once again, she brought her hand back up to the blade to remove the sword, and it remained immobile. She shouted, looking upward to an invisible ceiling. "What do I have to do?" her voice echoed several times, and with each echo, her voice dwindled until no longer audible.

She turned to leave the room but realized that there wasn't a door for her to exit. She turned back and stared at the sword. It appeared she had been stuck in this place for hours.

"What am I going to do?"

Hearing her inner monologue, she became angry and began shouting and screaming, and suddenly a bright apparition with a deep baritone voice spoke to her. "Meridian, Meridian. You are at home. The secret lies within you to remove the sword. You can accomplish nothing through force or touch. You can only in heart and mind. What is it you lack Meridian? Who is it that will save you? What will bring you home?" The voice dropped down to a whisper before it was no longer present and the bright apparition disappeared.

Meridian stopped and stood with a look of confoundment, studying the mysterious sword. She took a deep breath with a furrowed brow, her lips tightened, and she walked with conviction toward the sword once more. She lifted her hand with the inside of her wrist, facing her, and she studied it for a few moments. Her breathing slowed down, and her face relaxed as she had an epiphany.

Meridian turned her wrist forward and lined it up with the amethyst stone that held the infinity symbol. She closed her eyes and whispered to herself. "I am who will save me, I am who will bring me home, I am the chosen one, and there isn't anyone who can do this for me. I will save Etheria."

The symbol on her wrist glowed brighter, heated, and the amethyst stone on the guard began to glow. Meridian opened her glistening eyes that filled with tears as she watched the stone and her wrist light up together. As the heat increased, a small ray, transparent with a purple haze, glowed as it emerged from the stone and grew in girth until it was the size of the jewel in the guard. The ray was streaming from the stone connected to Meridian's infinity sign on her wrist, and in just a blink of an eye, the sword began to float in the air. It drifted toward Meridian and lowered itself right in front of her. With her other hand, she reached forward and wrapped her hand around the handle with a firm grasp.

As Meridian connected to the sword, a bright white light surged into the space above her head. It showered her with millions of tiny stars that transformed her spiritually, emotionally, and physically.

As Meridian stood looking upward at the millions of stars, showering her with the Universe's power, her strength emerged. Now her beautiful green eyes were luminescent with a star shine within the iris of her eyes resembled a nebula. Her pale, luminous skin surged with a brightness never seen in an Etherian before. She stood amongst the stars in a dazzled moment, awakening with unparalleled energy the exuded from every fiber in her body.

Meridian broke her stare with the thousands of powerful stars and looked straight ahead to the door that now appeared for her to exit through. Her eyes glowing, were tight and determined. Her jaw locked tight, for the first time in Meridian's existence, she stood with unbridled confidence in herself. The epiphany of what she was meant to do and whom she was meant to be in the Universe. At this moment, the one she had been waiting for, the prolific changes she endured in the face of doubt and hurt. This was just one of the many moments that would define who she was, define all those who wronged her and those who loved her.