The Acolytes of Crane (Theodore Crane, #1)(29)
My mysterious charm necklace was cool and comforting. To my surprise, the walls instantly changed color, from white to a sort of tan. But contrary to my initial impression, it wasn’t a change of hue. As I looked on in fascination, a sappy, syrup-like substance spurted through these millions of tiny holes! The floor was rapidly being coated with this liquid, and I momentarily flipped my lid as the substance spread to the floor and soaked the soles of my socks.
The liquid continued to rise. The prospect of a dam bursting broke in through to my skull, and triggered my survival instinct. I pounded against the walls until my knuckles bled, I shouted, ‘You are going to drown me, you jerks?’
The room filled extremely quickly. The thick substance continued to flow beyond the height of my shoulders. As the fluid lifted my body upwards, the space between the ceiling and the liquid dwindled to about an inch. My window of survival was closing fast.
I turned my chin toward the light that shined upon the enclosure, took one final breath, and closed my eyes.
A voice, clear as if it was actually in my mind to begin with, calmed me. I prayed to God in thought and the man said, ‘No need to pray, Theodore, you must take in the fluid, swallow it, breath it. It will be painful at first. However, your body will remember its benefit.’
When you are near death, and the person—who you think is out to take your life—offers you a way out, you take it, unless the way presented is morally repugnant. Otherwise, you are better off dying.
The voice echoed as it tailed off. I acquired a warm trusting opinion of the voice, and inhaled the liquid. Despite my clear self-command, I found myself choking on the liquid. My lungs caused me to convulse as they gasped frantically for air. Ignoring my base instincts, I forced the liquid down my throat.
That moment was as close to death as I had ever been.
My self-induced drowning was agonizing and traumatically devastating. I could no longer ingest any more liquid. My final breath snuffed out, I saw stars. There was a soft tingle in my oxygen-starved arms and shoulders. Was I dead? With the last bit of energy left within my body, I lifted my right arm.
‘He has awakened, my King,’ someone said near me, while my vision crept back into existence.
In a similar deepness of tone to the first voice in the enclosure, someone spoke with an authoritative tone, ‘Don’t try to move or speak, or you will suffer great pain. Your body is in a state of expelling the dephlocontis mucilage.’ I started coughing the remnants of the alien tan-colored mucus from my esophagus onto my cupped hands. ‘You have been at rest for a few hours in Earth time. It isn’t customary for us to cleanse a body with tonic during a teleport. However, within your temple, we found a sinister and vile curse.’ The speaker paused, and turned his head to ask his supervisor if I could speak yet. Yes.
‘Are you familiar with cancer, Theodore?’
My vision finally became more clear. In awe, I saw the speaker. Before me was a majestic royal subject, who was pacing behind the glass door. He was highly decorated from the ground up, with merits and commendations. His forearms were encased in decoratively organized shards of a golden substance. His head was fitted with a levitating crown. It looked like it was made of the same substance and brilliantly jeweled. The glare was so strong that I could not stare at it too long without my eyelids filling with tears.
He had a cape of hair draped from trapezius level of his shoulder blade to just past his waist. The cape was braided with beads of light, dyed with a wide range of colors, and was well groomed. He was extremely hairy, covered with dark brown hair all over his body, not like an Afghan mountain hound, but still intimidating. The texture of the hair away from his face was like that of a well-groomed man’s beard; long enough to appear like a pleasant, lush pattern, but not so short as to jut out like harsh bristles. He was encased in an incredible armor, consisting of a pliable and flexible rocklike substance.
Back to the question about cancer. ‘Y-y-yes sir, my great grandfather Willard died from it,’ I said, feebly trying to muster up a voice. Once again, my eyes took in the magnificence of the being before me.
A robotic individual who was observing a holographic tablet in the background interjected, ‘He speaks about the man who dishonored his marital contract on February 2, 1982 at 3:22 p.m.’
‘That is of no matter,’ the regal figure exclaimed toward the robotic thing beside me. He turned back toward me, ‘You must know. You were riddled with leukemia, as the earthlings call it. You may recall feeling the overwhelming sensation of fatigue and weakness or pain upon your knees, elbows, and spine. During your transport here, we analyzed your molecular makeup, and found the abomination. It was simply deleted from your composition. It is a precaution of ours to heal a body, once the curse has been removed, with the tonic of a dephlocontis tree. This should explain your submersion in the fluid. I apologize for that,’ the king said.
‘Who are you, what am I doing here, and where is here?’ I demanded.
‘Don’t speak, and listen please, as you would to your grandparents. My name is King Trazuline Halperin. I am Zane’s Chief Defense Advisor, and King of the planet Karshiz. You were brought here because of your overexposure to a multiversal terrorist.”
As I slowly mulled over the majesty’s name, it dawned upon me. ‘King Trazuline…. K.T.! You sent me the jeweled necklace!’ I exclaimed.
‘Yes, Theodore. That was the only way we could ensure your safety and locate you for the teleport. Right now, we are orbiting the planet of Sephera. You are an organic creature, created of living carbon. Therefore, you are not here in the manner most beings are. The populations that reside on Sephera are mainly digital and spiritual in nature. They are not extracted from life, but rather from death. Their fate, if you will, led them here. Your fate has not been decided yet, and your business here is of extreme danger. A risk we willingly took up. We brought you here in reaction to a growing dilemma. You should know, Theodore, there is an evil smothering Earth and threatening the serenity of Sephera.’ He turned to robot, ‘Prepare the chamber.’