Chosen One (Forever Evermore #6)(80)
Finally, after a half hour of walking, we reached his study, but unfortunately, the show didn’t stop there. It didn’t just hold his father as I had assumed, but was crammed with spirits who wore white flowing pants and white ribbed vests over their bare chests or ribbed strips for the women tied around their chests, each with a small black tattoo of a tiger on their right arm, all moving with a grace that was almost frightening, and as one, they all bowed when we entered, murmuring, “Chosen. One.”
I swallowed, and let Leric tell them to “arise” that time, since they had mentioned him too.
Leric’s voice entered my mind. “They’re the elite Guardians of the realms.”
“Oh,” I responded a bit grumpily, “That’s good to know…now.”
Mr. Damon greeted me kindly, putting my fears to rest as I watched the spirits who were so obviously deadly move to take their seats at the table. I took my duffle off, dumping it on the couch in front of his darkened window, my Lajaks doing the same, the items cumbersome, their Vizoacs moving eerily to sit around the room, while they themselves took up stances almost the same. Elder Merrick and Elder Farrar stood directly behind me when I sat at the table next to Leric, our hands still clasped and resting on top of the table for all to see…which they did glance at covertly.
Leric wasted no time, demanding, “Bring us up to date.”
Mr. Damon took the lead. “It’s Cullo and Jeria.” He glanced about the table. “The two cities have been having riots, and Eski and Nosa are on the verge of the same.” His brows puckered. “Where the hell is the remote? I just had it.”
All seated glanced at the table, even peering under it.
My lips pinched, trying to keep them from trembling. “Check in the cushions of your chairs.” I had wondered what the hell that remote went to the last time I was here.
They blinked at me for a moment, my first words to them, but they did turn in their chairs, doing as I had asked. I didn’t bother, since there wasn’t a lump in my white leather chair this time.
The man seated four chairs down on my left, cleared his throat, and pulled the remote from his chair’s depths. “Got it.” His eyes scanned my face. “You’ve been here before?”
“Of course,” I stated evenly, apparently he not having heard about my entrance here not too long ago in the Royal Hall.
His brows quirked, glancing down to my hot pink top, swinging to Leric’s and my joined hands, then back to my eyes. “You should stay longer this time.”
My lips lifted. “I’ll be here any time my One, or my people, need me.”
He held my gaze for a long moment, gauging me, before he dipped his head in a respectful manner, then handed the remote to Mr. Damon.
Leric’s voice in my mind. “Nicely played. And worded.”
Back at him. “Thank you.”
Mr. Damon hit a button on the remote, and I tried not to gape as an enormous thin computer screen descended behind the table, Elder Samson and King Zeller moving fluidly as it lowered from above them, easily repositioning themselves. Another button pressed and the screen lit with a map of the Temple, which looked nothing like Earth now. I knew this would confuse my Lajaks, so I would have to explain later we were in…a spirit space…within the ether. It was Earth, but like a smaller version, and Pangaea, when the continents were one, a step above, or even turned, depending on how you viewed it, a Mystical safe location reserved for the fifth Element, the spirit.
Little red dots showed on the map, and Mr. Damon stated again, “As I said, Cullo and Jeria,” names lit by the dots on the east coastline, “are rioting while Eski and Nosa,” two more dots lit, heading south down the coast with their names listed, “are on the verge.” He clicked the remote, and pictures of towns that reminded me of Greece were shown, except for the destruction and chaos pictured with spirits rioting, signs and graffiti left behind with the word “Chosen” written with slashes or daggers or even what appeared to be blood splashed over it. “The elite Guardians in those realms are dead, the cities completely overtaken, and the ones on Eski and Nosa are barely keeping things civil.”
When the screen went blank, I continued staring, having seen spirits dead on the street, my heart beating a crazy rhythm. “What is their true issue with me?”
Setting the remote down, Mr. Damon stated bluntly, “They believe you are the tie that will break the balance, since you have forsaken the Temple.”
I stared wide-eyed. “They cannot truly believe that.”
He nodded once. “They do.”
I ran a hand over my face, utter disbelief making my hands shake, Leric’s grip tightening on mine supportively, but letting me speak. “It would kill all of us. Including myself. How in the hell do they believe this?” I barely even noticed the instant quietness in my Lajaks around the room, the way every single one went predatory still.
“They are frantic with worry,” a lean, beautiful spirit woman stated simply, leaning forward at the far end of the table. “You are an unknown to them. All they have heard is that you are the Prodigy Elemental when you never should have been. You deny the Temple, live outside where it is safe for you, so many think you clinically insane. How far a stretch do you think it is they would think you the one to doom us all?”
My lips pinched into a thin line. “I am not the only spirit Elemental living outside the Temple, surely they are intelligent enough to reason that out.”