CHAPTER 02

CHAPTER 02

DARK CURTAIN

––––––––

T

HE SOFT WHIR OF ENGAGING

hydraulics sounded as Crystalyn removed her finger from the print scanner. With a soft

whoosh

, the stainless-steel door retracted into the mausoleum’s shell. Using the laser cutter she’d carried from the dock as a pointer, Crystalyn motioned her younger sister, Jade, to maneuver the hovercart inside. She eyed the wooden crate on it with fresh amazement as it passed. Though rough-cut, the crate looked as if it had been assembled from real wood, a cost so extravagant her curiosity about its contents had grown substantially.

Settling the cart at the floor’s center, Jade turned in a slow circle, gaping at the mausoleum’s glittering contents. “Wow! You actually get to indenture here?” Not waiting for a response, Jade dashed to a nearby glass shelf where a gold sundial inlaid with diamonds and rubies glinted on a silver stand. With barely a pause, she raced to several gem-studded statues grouped beside glass displays of jewelry, her lengthy auburn hair trailing behind. “Oh,” Jade breathed, awe thick in her voice.

Crystalyn smiled. The first time she’d worked in the vault, her reaction to the gold scales, jeweled bowls, gilded armor, and formal headdresses—all artifacts Ruena had acquired somewhere—had been similar to her sister’s. Even now, she found the mausoleum captivating. Much to her delight, on occasion she would happen across artifacts she’d never seen before, but certainly fit Ruena’s eye for the exquisite.

Today, though, Crystalyn found it hard to enjoy the room’s objects after the swirling symbols of yesterday. She’d fretted over them the night through. Returning to her service work made the occurrence more real.

Now, she had to mention it and find out if the one person she was closest to—one of the two people she cared most about—thought she’d slipped beyond fixing this time. “I’m glad you like the mausoleum, Jade.” Crystalyn spoke softly at first, before gathering momentum and keeping her voice steady. “Nevertheless, I brought you along for one other reason besides your physical help. I’ve struggled with telling you something that happened yesterday. Before I do, you have to promise me you won’t tell Dad, not right away. I’m not sure his heart could stand another issue about me, not this one.” Crystalyn paused to draw a long breath. “I don’t know where to begin, so I’ll blurt it out. Believe it or not, I found a book, a

real

book, of symbols that swirled when—”

“Oh, I’ll believe anything now,” Jade interrupted. Folding her arms across her stomach, she leaned against the door, her green eyes round. “Something happened to me too,

is

happening right now. Please, hear me out, Crys, please! I’ll try to explain.”

“All right, hurry though. You’re the only one I can talk about anything with.”

“Well, I know where to start, no problem there. I was chatting with Dad, about the time you would’ve finished your indenture yesterday, when...when I noticed something rotating around him.”

Crystalyn felt a twinge of anxiety. “What rotated?”

Jade hesitated, sucking her lip in her mouth.

Crystalyn opened her mouth to tell her to stop abusing her lip, but a look of resolve dulled Jade’s eyes and slackened her face. Whatever she had recalled frightened her enough that she had to push herself to go on.

Releasing her lip, Jade continued as her features paled. “A gray fog, a mist, something like that, circled around dad. Vague shapes spun slowly inside; they were so odd... I concentrated on seeing through the vapor. The harder I looked, the slower the rotation revolved until I could see they were...images. Dad had three, I could see that, but slowing the images for viewing tugged at my mind like one of those storm winds ravishing Low Realm. I couldn’t hold it long. After I let it go, I had to lie down. I was so weak I could barely breathe.”

Crystalyn’s stomach lurched, her anxiety rising faster than she could quash it—a certain sign of a panic attack. Though she disliked the dependence, she may have to inject another med. Lately, she’d come to rely on them too much. “What kind of images? Can you describe them?” she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

Jade’s face paled more, giving her a ghostly white complexion. Her deep-green eyes widened as she stared at something beyond Crystalyn’s shoulder. Crystalyn glanced where her sister looked, but nothing new stood out against the artifacts shelved there.

Sounding frail, Jade spoke again. “What’s worse, when I look at you, yours is chaotic... How should I put it? There’s a shadowy mist rotating around you in constant flux. Images flash by as it rotates. Right now, there are three repeating. I can halt the rotation on whichever one it lands on, if I concentrate. It’s so hard willing it to slow, but I’ll try. There. You’re running toward something unclear. It reset. Now you’re running, again. There’s a gray shape looming out of the mist. It reset. You’re running, the shape has broken free from the mist, it’s... Oh, no! I can’t hold it! It reset. But I’ve ... I’ve seen it.”

“What? What did you see?”

Jade hesitated. Her lower lip quivered as if she wanted to pull it inside her mouth but thought better of it. “I don’t know what it is, only that it is a creature. Somewhat like the dog at the farm—

“Wait! Are you talking about the science acreage here on High Realm where Dad was head of security and Mom a scientist?” Crystalyn asked, interrupting.

“Yes,” Jade replied, nodding her head full of flowing auburn hair, emphatically. “I recall the canine from one of the times they took us there, but this one was much different and far larger. You seemed worried, or frightened. Crystalyn, your ... your viewing frightens me. The rotation is dark, not gray, like Dad’s...” Jade said, trailing off, her voice growing soft at the end.

“Why is mine dark?” Crystalyn couldn’t help but ask.

Jade shrugged. “Dad has a shining sword, an empty glass vial stoppered with a black cowl, and a beating heart rotating around him.”

Crystalyn’s mind whirled as she struggled to grasp Jade’s words. What did it all mean? Jade was now seeing things rotating in the auras around people, and symbols swirled whenever Crystalyn herself focused her will on them.

Jade’s soft voice filled the space around them. “Your viewing leaves me with a deep foreboding. A strange creature stalks one side, a pool of blood spreads toward a darkness pacing you on the other, and an unknown blue planet spins around both. Something is happening to you, to us, to our family, and I’m not at all certain it’s a good thing.”

Crystalyn gasped for breath as anxiety droned within. Perhaps she wasn’t the only one spiraling toward madness. It could run in the family. Crystalyn grabbed her pack with the med cylinder in it, but hesitated. To dot map the shipment today, she’d need the ability to think. Reaching out, she put her hand over her sister’s and squeezed gently. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but let’s finish this project. We’ll discuss it at home, okay?”

Relief flitted across her younger sister’s face in an instant, accentuated by her quick nod of agreement. Jade had over-emphasized her wide eyes again with too much makeup, something else they’d have to discuss later.

Jade’s fine brown eyebrows rose. “What did you want to tell me?”

“Never mind, we’ll go over that later.”

Kneeling and using a focused beam to avoid starting a fire with the laser cutter, Crystalyn melted the heads from the old iron nails securing the rectangular wooden lid of the crate. Even so, the untreated wood still charred slightly around each one. She found the smell of the burnt wood pungent but pleasant.

Removing the crate’s wooden lid released the sharp scent of tree bark, which filled the crate to the top edge as packing protection. Again, she was in awe of the cost involved in the shipping. Someone had spared no expense. Scooping a pile of the bark onto the lid, Crystalyn exposed an unadorned, black-stained wooden chest. Lifting the chest from its fragrant bed, she flipped it open.

A small cry escaped her. Two artifacts beckoned for examination from a layer of blue velvet. She grabbed the first relic her eyes fell upon, bringing it close. Throughout her seasons handling Ruena’s beautiful, immaculate collections, nothing had ever compared to what she held now.

An exquisite, black crystal in the shape of a candle—wider at the base and tapering smaller toward the top—gleamed like polished ebony. Lovely white symbols etched around the base and shaft added stark color, drawing the eye from the candle’s head, where a black crystal ball resided, murky and opaque. Thorn-covered vines made from the same black crystal snaked around the top of the orb; a spiky garland that seemed to almost shift back and forth around it as if still growing. A current of energy thrummed through her hand, like the candle drew power from somewhere inside.

“Ho! What have you got there?” Jade asked, reaching inside the chest. “Oh! I love it!”

Prying her gaze from the black crystal candle, Crystalyn gawked at the second piece. Gripped in Jade’s slender hand, a white crystal—shaped also as a candle—blazed with a multicolored light. Like the black candle, the white candle had many symbols covering the base, and fewer towards the tip of the taper. Unlike the black, every symbol set in the white candle was fashioned from multifaceted jewels, possibly diamonds. Two crystal wings protruded from a clear crystal ball mounted where a wick would be.

Something flickered inside the ball. Crystalyn leaned close and froze. A white mist raged throughout the wings and sphere, endlessly moving back and forth as if searching for an escape.

Jade lifted the candle close to her face. Her green eyes grew hugely magnified. “What’s in there? Why is it moving?” she asked, her voice hushed.

“Who knows what Ruena purchases or why?” Crystalyn replied, standing and taking a final glance around. The allure of the room was strong. She’d spent many bells inside the mausoleum without a thought to the passage of time. Today was shaping up to be no different. Over half the day had fled. “Let’s get going, I’ll have to map these artifacts separately before we can leave. Let’s use Ruena’s office, something I rarely do, but I want to finish quickly.”

Planning to use the chest to store the candles upon her return, Crystalyn turned her back on it and elbowed an unobtrusive panel in the vault wall. The door whisked open.

Setting a brisk pace, Crystalyn led the way into what she thought of as the path of gloom. Created a long time ago, perhaps soon after the building was first constructed, the path led to a dreary storage area. Ruena had told her once it had its beginning as temporary storage until the mausoleum’s completion.

Thankfully, the woman hadn’t ever asked her to clean it up, for thrown against the walls and stacked ten high in places, dozens of discarded cryocrates loomed. Thermal containers turning green took up space beside both filled and empty sarcophagi, and even big transport bins stood in the way, creating a narrow walkway. As usual, Crystalyn’s nose wrinkled, assaulted by the mildew clinging to artifacts left in original packing.

She hurried to Ruena’s office door and punched the code into the keypad. The smoky glass door sighed with release and fell inward.

Opulence sprang into view.

Poured into the plasicrete floor and providing an impractical traction, hundreds of steel masks from dozens of different cultures showed a part of Ruena’s ostentatious way that Crystalyn disliked. She waved an arm at the expansive room cluttered with shelved artifacts and expensive furniture. “Welcome to the Big Ugly, sister.” Striding atop the masks, Crystalyn went to a massive desk supporting two side extensions. Made from the same dark glassy material as the windows and door, the desk was big and bulky.

Dropping into Ruena’s chair, Crystalyn touched the smoky glass surface on the desktop. Holo views flicked into life and displayed each of the three administration buildings’ many rooms and common areas. At the same time, three-dimensional holograms sprang into view around the room on the walls of dark windows facing away from the mausoleum. Some displayed other key warehouse areas, while one entire wall was devoted to the circumference of the mausoleum, and another to archeological sites, all within the poisonous dusky air of Low Realm.

Current news events flickered to life on a separate hologram without sound, showing the riots surrounding the palace grounds. Crystalyn felt sorry for the palace administration’s security but supposed they had it coming after they’d booted her dad. A third, fourth, and fifth panel showed panoramic views of the vast mountain. Several other panels showed the ever-present pollution cloud permeating the lower level, even though she could only make out dark shapes in it.

Jade shook her head with disbelief. “Oh, it hurts to look at it all. Hasn’t she ever heard of media overload?”

“You think so too? I always feel like I’m caged in some weird high-tech cave while the whole world outside riots. I should be out there helping them, like Dad used to do.”

Jade smiled. “I don’t think you’d make it as an admin security guard. You’d get too mad with all those people shouting in your face.”

Crystalyn smiled too. Jade was so practical in a kind way. What would she have done without her these past few seasons of difficulty?

Jade’s smile faded, her young face turning solemn. “What can I do to help? I’m ready to go home. I’m sorry Crystalyn, but this place gives me the creeps.”

“Don’t apologize. This place has a way of doing that. We should be going anyway before Ruena discovers I brought you with me. Let’s start with the white candle. Hold it steady at the base. I need to get a laser scan of each symbol one at a time before I can map the candle’s dimensions... hey!”

“What, Crys?”

“I’ve seen this symbol before. In the book of symbols, just before Ruena took it from me... Wait, she didn’t stop at her desk. She went past it.”

“You’ve lost me,” Jade said.

Crystalyn eyed some old-style shelves filled with small figurines. She pointed. “Hand me that dragon on the top shelf, please,” she said, reaching out.

Jade placed it on her palm. Manufactured from a softer metal, the red dragon seemed solid enough. Flipping it over, her thumb brushed against a fine crack on the stomach. Grasping the dragon’s head, she pulled downward. The dragon’s upper torso folded back on its tail with an audible clink. A silver key gleamed inside.

Jade patted the desk. “Nice. I suppose that will unlock this monstrosity.”

Crystalyn grinned. “It’s low tech but definitely

her

style.” Fitting the key in the center drawer’s jagged slot, a twist retracted a bar mechanism, and a gentle pull revealed two books lying next to each other. Both had the same title,

The Tiered Tome of Symbols,

but there were notable differences. One had white lettering on a black background, while the other had black letters with a white background. The white-lettered one had tier one gold-embossed in small letters in the upper right, while the black letters had Tier Three imprinted the same way.

Jade inhaled sharply. “For love of the One, are they real?”

Crystalyn removed the white-lettered tome from the drawer. “I’ve already read this one.” Placing it on the desk, she gazed at a symbol on the cover. As before, the symbol began to churn. “Tell me you see it, do you?” she asked, pointing with her free hand.

Jade’s strangled gasp provided an answer. “Aren’t you the least bit afraid of it moving like that?”

“As long as you can see it

is

moving, I’m not. For a while, I thought I was slipping again.” Crystalyn opened the book and thumbed through the headings.

“But what if they’re dangerous? How can you know they’re not going to hurt you?”

Crystalyn looked up. Did Jade still see images in her aura? She wasn’t certain she wanted to know; her sister’s newfound ability was unnerving, worse than the spiraling symbols. “The symbols haven’t hurt me so far, though according to the notations inside, some of them are used for aggression, which is odd. I don’t know how a symbol could be aggressive. It’s something I have to figure out.”

“Then don’t touch them, put the book back,” Jade said, the tone of her voice pleading. Flipping a stray clump of reddish-brown hair from her round eyes, she pulled her lower lip into her mouth, looking at the tome as if expecting it to hurl a magic bolt from between its gold-edged pages.

Crystalyn felt an irrational spurt of irritation, which she quelled. The book couldn’t possibly do that, could it? “Stop chewing your lip, Jade. Why don’t you look around? There’s a lot to see in the Big Ugly. I’m going to search for the candle’s symbol inside here. If I know what it represents, I may add it into the white candle’s inventory holo, the same with the black candle when I get to it. Knowing what the symbols on the artifacts represent changes everything. Ruena has to appreciate it, I hope.”

“Okay but be careful. There’s something about those...” Jade said, moving away.

Crystalyn turned the book’s pages with extreme care. Ruena would notice the slightest crinkle and then rage throughout the warehouse like a radioactive squall storming through Low Realm as she sought the person responsible. A turn of the page revealed the symbol Crystalyn recalled in chapter four under the heading “Enhanced Healing.” Why healing?

“Speaking of symbols, what are these?” Jade asked, setting two blue objects in front of the desk.

Crafted from sapphire crystal, they were a pair of trim obelisks, rising to door height and tapering smaller from base to top. Engraved a third of the way down were two intricate symbols with many curved lines, like links of a chain without end.

Crystalyn was delighted. “Whoever carved the symbols on them was very good, wouldn’t you say, sister? They’re intricate and identical. I don’t remember them in the white-lettered book. Let me check inside the other one.”

Setting the black-lettered volume next to the white one, she opened it slowly. Penned with dark ink, the matching lines of the links without end symbol stretched across half the first page under the heading “Travel.” Underneath, black spidery handwriting went on for two paragraphs written in an unfamiliar language, unlike the white-lettered book.

Why travel? Crystalyn wondered. Perhaps the symbol represented a past agency. Perhaps. No one traveled far on Terra anymore. There was nowhere safe left to go, except on top of the Mountain, where they were now. But she had doubts the symbol meant a place to go to book a trip. It was complex, she could see no end to the spirals and there was something going on with it...

A power resided within the symbol’s pattern. Subtle, yet strong, and chained to something vast. Reaching out to the symbol, she tugged the chain, not too hard, yet with the firmness of knowing it was right for her to do so. The chain gave way, creating an opening, inviting her to step through a ...gateway

.

Her head reeled as the power she sensed within it thrummed through her. Or was it already within her?

Churning faster and faster, the symbol lifted from the page and slowed, growing in size. A beautiful sapphire color raced along the symbol’s pattern, swallowing the black lines and glowing brighter.

“Crystalyn!”

The symbol floated across the desktop toward the obelisks. Both symbols on each one spun in place. Black, radiant spidery extensions of their patterns raced up and down the obelisks as the symbol from the black-lettered book soared between them. Locking in place, the symbol’s radiance brightened more. Jagged, azure bolts pulsed within its radiance in alternating directions, above and below. A dark blue mist rolled out of the top of the symbol and scrolled to the floor, drawing a misty, clockwise swirl as it went. Deep within it, darkness stormed with a constant flux, growing dim and then bright, pulsing back and forth with light and dark.

The white candle gripped in her hand, Jade stepped close and stared at the dark curtain, the symbol spiraling with a deep blue radiance in the foreground. “What is it?”

Crystalyn gaped. “I’m not sure. It’s almost like there’s a storm brewing inside, behind the symbol.”

Jade inched closer. “You’re right, it is a storm, and it’s getting worse. There’s blue lightning flashing above a dark, swelling sea behind the mist, behind the symbol. Where is it? What is it?” Raising her hand, she reached for the alien landscape beyond the swirling symbol.

A sudden feeling of disquiet hammered Crystalyn. “Get away from there, now!”

Reality slowed.

Jade uncurled a fingertip to the dark curtain and vanished.

The symbol faded, and the mist dissipated.

From a great distance, Crystalyn heard a voice scream. “NO! Don’t touch it! Don’t touch the symbol!”

After a time, she clamped her mouth closed, putting an end to the screams. Motionless, the obelisks mocked her with their solemnity. Why had she brought Jade with her?

Anger darkened Crystalyn’s mind. Her vision blurred as anxiety rose in the pit of her stomach. All were emotions involving her afflicted mind, she knew, but she cared not. Jade, her sister, her lifelong friend, the very person who’d helped her through the black times by putting up with her confrontational tongue and manipulative mind, the one who tolerated her illness for what it was, was gone.

Her eyes sought the symbol, lying chained and inert, in the book. A power still waited there. She focused on it and got it floating between the obelisks.

Spinning once again, radiant between the obelisks, the mist darkened behind it and azure lightning flashed.

Crystalyn’s anxiety rose, stronger this time.

The dark curtain began to recede.

Gathering her will, she concentrated on the symbol’s pattern, visualizing the intricate, interlocking lines and complex curves, the gateway hidden inside.

Once again, the curtain of spiraling darkness dropped to the floor.

Stowing the books in her pack for future use, Crystalyn picked up the black candle and climbed onto the desk.

Taking a deep breath, Crystalyn jumped into the swirl.