It’s rather dismal in here,” Zach complained.
“It is, isn’t it?” Mr White smiled. “Aelfric, do you mind?” Mr Duir nodded and Mr White said, “Flamers, please.”
Seb watched as tiny lights appeared everywhere. As if a swarm of glow-worms had taken residence in the library, they lit up all over the place – bookshelves, picture rails, chair backs, the table top – everywhere. The whole library was suddenly brightly lit with their orangey-yellow glow.
Alice appeared next to Seb. “That’s a bit better, isn’t it?” The Dryad smiled and Seb nodded, amazed.
“How did he do that?”
“Do what?” Zach said. He turned to Mr Duir. “Are we getting light in here or not?” His tone was challenging and in a flash Miss West leapt across the table, jumped over him and yanked his chair from underneath him. Zach’s reactions were swift and he stood before he fell, turning to the irate woman. “Hey!”
“You are rude.” She glared at him. “Check your tone when you speak to him!”
“It’s alright, Trudy.” Mr Duir raised a hand. “Zach, the light is there, you just need to see it.”
Miss West stood behind Zach, her jaw set, shoulders stiff.
“I didn’t mean to be rude.” Zach turned to her, “but I have to say, you are a bit touchy!”
Seb dropped his head and Scarlet gasped.
“Well she is. Maybe it’s not just the room that needs to lighten up.”
Seb was astounded at the cheek of his friend and Trudy West looked fit to burst. She clenched her fists.
“Am I to work with this?” She looked to Aelfric Duir. There was a small smile on his face.
“Trudy,” Mr West said. “They are young.”
“That’s not an excuse for rudeness, Greg,” she answered and the room fell silent.
As more points of light appeared around the library Seb felt his spirits lift.
“What are they?” he asked.
“They, Seb,” said Mr Duir, “are flamers. But you need to help your friends see them. Although you now have insight into the worlds around you, your group …” he looked at the others, “… will only see what you help them to or what their gifts allow.” With that, he waved his hands and Zach’s jaw dropped as the thousands of lights became apparent to him.
“Oh!” he said.
Alice placed a hand on the edge of the table and scooped up a handful of the lights. He held them under Zach’s nose. “Flamers. Their role is to illuminate the darkness. You only have to ask.”
Zach stared at the little cluster of glowing spheres. “Are they alive?”
Aiden lifted one between his thumb and forefinger and squinted at it. The freckles on his cheeks sparkled and the flamer responded. Its light became more intense and then further flamers appeared all over his hand, as if he was wearing a gauntlet made of light.
Zach picked up a flamer. Like a popping bubble the thing disappeared. He picked up another and the same thing happened. He looked at Aiden who now had lights all across his shoulders and along the top of his head. “They obviously like you, Aiden.”
Scarlet and Nat giggled.
Aiden grinned. “They’re quite lovely.”
Mr White’s hands too were covered in the lights and several had moved to decorate his shoulders and hair.
“Alice, Dierne, we need to continue.” Mr Duir stood.
Dierne flitted to the centre of the table and hovered above them all. Alice winked at Seb and joined him. Then they darted off in opposite directions, beginning a crazy circling above the centre of the table. The blur of their paths remained in the air, leaving a trail marking their flight – one green, one green tinged with yellow. Within minutes the trails merged and moved upward, forming a column. As the column of colour neared the high ceiling the Dryads stopped but the trail remained.
Mr Duir lifted his left hand. Reflecting light from the window on the lines on his palm and shining it on the column he said, “Torhtian nú!”
The column of green flattened, the top slamming to the base with a loud crack, to become a solid disc of shining metal, hovering above the wooden table. Then the disc flipped upright, displaying a perfect circle, like a huge, green mirror bordered in glistening yellow, hanging in the air.
Seb could see his own astonished face reflected back at him. The mirror began to spin. Completing a full revolution, it spun again, faster. The spinning continued until mirrored surface and edge were a blur, like a spinning coin, until it spun so fast as to create the illusion that it had stopped … and Seb was once more staring at his own face.
Miss West was still behind Zach. She now held a staff, very like Zach’s rowan stick but shorter. Seb wondered whether Zach’s stick was still digging into the earth above the hole that led to the cavern of the Five Springs.
Miss West spoke, “You have now formed the group you were born to be part of. Each of you has a role.” She pointed the tip of the staff towards Nat, “Sensor.” Then Scarlet, “Seer.” She indicated Aiden, “Guide.” Then the stick moved to Zach, “Guardian.” She pointed to Alice, “Weaver.” And finally she thrust it towards Seb, “Custodian.” She strode to the end of the table. “You are the next generation, the ones to take on the responsibility of overseeing the passage of all souls.”
Seb looked into the mirror as his eyes were drawn to a shadow forming in it.
“Let us look at some of the things your group will have to contend with,” Miss West said.
Within the mirrored surface, the dark area took on a recognisable form. Galloping towards them was a massive, black stallion, its eyes glowing a demonic red. It tossed its head in a crazed fashion and froth and spittle sprayed from its mouth. Its muscles rippled, its mane flew, its hooves, the size of dinner plates, pounded, eating up vast tracts of invisible land as it tore towards Seb. He leant back in his seat and Nat did the same as Aiden whimpered. Zach stood, stepping away from the table.
Miss West spoke in a calm voice, “Sit, Zach. This is merely an image. This is a gytrash or shagfoal, cousin to his watery friend the kelpie, or bækhest.”
The image changed. Still horse-shaped, its skin now looked like rubber and its mane, dripping with water, was entwined with water weeds. The glowing red eyes did not alter.
“Whatever name it has been given through the centuries, in whatever country, it is the same thing. It is a trespassing spirit, or soul.” She spoke forcefully, “Every one of us has a soul, an essence beyond the shell of our flesh. That is not religious theory; it is fact.
“Greg has spoken to you of ley lines, explaining that they are not just an imprint of what has gone before, but are a path for the travel of souls.”
Seb was spooked. The cheerful glowing of the flamers could not brighten the eerie creepiness in the room.
“Human souls travel eternally backwards and forwards, visiting this existence again and again, experiencing, learning, growing …” she glared at Zach who watched her, a cynical grin on his face, “… but some souls are not satisfied with waiting for their time; they seek to return when they choose not when Nature dictates.” Her body stiffened with outrage. “All souls must obey the laws of their existence. They travel at the time appointed by Nature and they return at the demise of their host body. They must not break that law!” She fell silent.
Zach decided that was his cue. “Who decides when they can come and go? Assuming of course we believe in this theory of reincarnation of yours.” He sounded rude again. Miss West looked ready to launch herself at him.
Mr Duir rose from his seat. “Trudy, if I may?” She gave a stiff-shouldered nod. “Zach, you will soon learn this is not a theory and as we move on you will view and witness in all its magnitude the reality you doubt and denigrate now. At the moment we need you to simply listen and keep an open mind,” Mr Duir said. “We are six who have carried the responsibility for maintaining the balance of life for a span of time you would not comprehend and we will not hand over the mantle until you are all ready. But you are now a group who will share our re
sponsibility and you need to listen and learn.”
Souls and Trespassers
“Let us start at the beginning. Trudy …” Mr Duir nodded to Miss West who lifted her staff and tapped the mirror. The vision of the galloping kelpie disappeared.
Mr Duir placed a hand on Seb’s shoulder. “Seb, as Alice advised you before, you must concentrate on just one reality; if you do not, you will see everything at once.”
He addressed the others. “The world you perceive is only one small part of a wider existence. There are so many other realities you habitually disregard.”
Seb thought back to the throng in the cavern, the mass of people and creatures and suddenly he was surrounded. Between his friends and the teachers, above, below and even occupying the spaces inside them were hundreds of strange creatures: creeping horse-shaped ones; flapping, flying ones; some grotesque, others cute; fairies flitting; darker shapes slithering – a crowd of indescribable strangeness.
Just us, no other humans! Seb realised as he closed his eyes.
“What’s wrong, Seb?” Scarlet noticed him, eyes squeezed shut, breathing heavily.
“He sees it all, Scarlet. He will reveal some of it to you in time, but for now he sees it all and has to learn to accept.”
Mr Duir addressed Seb. “Seb, once you accept, these things will only appear when you choose. But you have to accept everything that is around you.”
And suddenly Seb understood. They are always here! That’s what he’s saying. I just