Numbed by a combination of exhaustion and tension, Alina did not say much to Brian during the car ride back to her designated cottage in Lancaster County.  Her tired eyes stared blankly at the bright red brake lights blurring in the streaks of rain on the windshield as the car crept through traffic in the exit lane for I-76 Westbound.  Despite her glazed-eyed, slack-jawed expression, Alina’s posture betrayed a deep anxiety.  Brian, who paid close attention to all of Alina’s mannerisms at every opportunity, noticed this immediately.

 

                “Is everything okay? You’ve been waiting for her transformation and your hand in it for quite some time – perhaps since your childhood. I bet you’d never see your dreams come true quite to this extent, huh? So why do ya seem so down, as if you’re playin’ out the catastrophe of catastrophes in that mind a’ yours? You always looked like the type that’d be more dreamy and serene, with that shy little smile and those far-off eyes. This whole worrywart shtick of yours is unbecoming.” The tone of the man’s voice walked a precarious line between solicitous and flirtatious, conveying something that could only be described as predatory pity.

 

                With her body still as tense as ever, Alina folded her hands on her lap and looked down with her eyes closed, trying to conceal the irritation she felt from Brian’s prying into her emotional state – something she was only prone to share on her own terms.  The act did not last long – she took a deep breath, bucked her head up, and looked Brian directly in the eye with an indignant look.  “Well, then, it is shame I am not here to be ‘becoming’ – becoming what? What you see about me when you go to sleep? Dreamy and serene, stupidity.”  She scoffed quietly through her teeth.  “I would hope you should know me better.”

 

                Brian looked over at her, his eyes filled with a blend of smugness and affection.  “Well, ya get what ya show, sweetie – that’s what people see when you look and dress th’way you do.  Lighten up a little,” he urged with a smirk as squeezed the young woman’s skirt-clad knee.

 

Alina abruptly turned her head towards Brian for a moment, then immediately turned her face back towards the window as she felt herself growing pale from irritation and unease.  Now that the topic had been breached, however, Alina felt begrudgingly obligated to disclose some of her thoughts. She crossed her arms in front of her.  “That man, David Abernathy.  Have you met him before?  I hear only very little about him, but he seems to know many things about me.”

 

                “I met ‘im a few years ago.  He was tryin’ to convert young people out West, like Richard said. Mostly college kids.  I don’t know exactly the means by which he did so, but from the few vague details I’ve heard, I can’t say I approve – well, I can’t say it’s a legitimate route to enlightenment, anyway, least not as a stand-alone.  ’M not sure how it all went over, considering he decided to move back to Pennsylvania on kinda short notice,” Brian explained, a bit apprehensively and with a look of regret crossing his face.

 

                Alina huffed and turned her face all the way towards the passenger window, idly drawing abstract patterns in the condensation with her finger.  “He seemed… what is the word. Surface-like, hard to see beyond the surface. Only thinks of how he appears.”

 

                “Superficial?” Brian guessed.

 

                “I think that is the right one, thank you.  I do not think he is fond of me.  He was too eager, too curious. Did not seem real.  I wanted to ask what he wants me to agree to.”

 

                “Is there anyone you haven’t been suspicious of at first, aside from Ms. Meredith? You even thought I hated you when we were first gettin’ to know one another.” He sighed and continued. “He’s eccentric. Zealous. Much like you, in all honesty. Anyway, you didn’t seem to like him much yourself.” He paused, and Alina said nothing, simply looking at him with one thick, reddish eyebrow raised while chewing her lip. “Does it matter?  It’s not likely you’ll see much of him. Not anywhere near as much as you’ll see of me,” Brian spoke up again, shrugging.

 

                “I will be seeing him tomorrow!” Alina exclaimed, her hand pressed to her collarbone.

 

            Brian tipped his head to one side.  “For what, an hour? Maybe less.”  He paused and turned his face to Alina briefly with his eyebrow raised and a grave frown on his lips. “Are you afraid of him?”

 

            “A little.  He is very loud.  Not only zealous, like you say, he seems angry,” Alina muttered with her eyes cast down towards her lap once again. “He seems like with no patience at all, and he acts like he wants attention.”

 

                “Too ambitious, maybe?”

 

                Alina nodded.  “Maybe, but it is not only a matter of ambitious.  He seems to have some idea of his own in mind, and I am not so sure it is good idea.”

 

                “Again, who don’t you think the absolute worst about?  Look, just because we’re not all dead-serious, perpetually self-effacing acolytes from the original sect of your middle-of-frozen-nowhere religion doesn’t mean we don’t have full faith in Ms. Meredith and her ability to lead us into a more peaceful, unified age.  Seeing is believing, and we have seen.”

 

                “The way you have chosen your words is only further to proving my point, Mr. Frederick,” Alina grumbled with exasperation.  She pushed the passenger seat back so that she could recline, turned her face and body toward the window, and forced herself to fall asleep through the rest of the ride.  Brian sighed with frustration and concentrated on the road.

 

                Alina stirred quietly when the car came to a stop in front of her cottage.  She ran her hands down her face as she sat up straight, stretched her arms out, and moved to open the passenger door.  “Ah, we are here. Okay, okay.”  She paused and made eye contact with Brian. “I am sorry if I seemed angry.”

 

                Brian shook his head as he opened his door and stepped out.  “No need to apologize.  I lose sight of my boundaries when I get concerned sometimes.”

 

                Alina nodded and stepped out, grabbing the bag of food she had purchased before leaving Haverford.  She turned her head up towards the night sky.  The rain had stopped and the clouds that dispersed it had since cleared away to reveal the stars.

 

                Brian took a few tentative steps towards Alina.  “…May I come in?”

 

                “No.  I have much work to do.  Meditations to prepare myself.  It takes ah… the most concentration.”

 

                “C’mon.  I’m sure you could use some help putting that food away,” Brian coerced.

 

                Alina shook her head firmly.  “It is one bag. Goodnight, Brian.”

 

                “Goodnight, Alina.  Best of luck to you.  Heaven knows you’ve got your work cut out for ya,” Brian said as he got back into his car and drove away.

 

                As soon as Alina entered her dimly-lit cottage, she placed the bag of food into the refrigerator without unpacking it and quickly made her way to the living room.  There, she sprawled out supine on a large aquamarine rug that was embroidered with various arcane symbols – the written language of the Zelishem race.  She closed her eyes and breathed in and out steadily for an hour, until her breath slowed down almost to a stop.  It was at this point that a sound like rushing water filled her ears, growing louder and louder until it blurred into what could only be described as a high-pitched chiming. Her eyes, though closed, filled with bursts of geometric phosphenes in shades of lavender, green, and blue.  She felt herself rise up from her body as if some unknown force instantaneously sucked her entire consciousness into her forehead and then shot every last drop of it out into the aether as if through a cannon. She took one look at her corporeal form lying on the floor as a dizzying rush of warmth overcame her.  She flew through a vast and brilliant expanse of colors, patterns, forms, and faces that shifted into one another endlessly. Visions of golden cities spontaneously building themselves blurred into visions of flowers blooming among the stars, linking the constellations together with stems and vines. 

 

She felt a jarring chill and a pang of fear when this beautifully intricate expanse became a solid monolith of opalescent white and indigo.  At once, she intuitively knew what was behind it, and her fear turned to ecstasy as she watched cracks form in the wall.  Particle by particle, she felt herself pulled through the cracks.

Once she reached the other side of the wall, she was greeted by three beings.  Their bodies and faces were shaped like those of humans, except they were taller and all very pale – almost bluish.  Their heads were slightly larger than human heads to accommodate an extra eye situated in the center of the forehead as well as four crystalline antennae. The being standing in the center was the tallest of the three, and a lavender halo glistened softly around his head – a sign of high rank. 

 

While Alina had been endowed with visions of the Zelishem and their world, this was the first time she had entered it by way of astral travel.  In fact, she had not intended to access their dimension – the beings standing before her drew her into it.  She lowered her gaze as the tallest Zelishem strode towards her. 

 

When communicating directly with other beings, the Zelishem preferred to use spoken language as little as possible, communicating primarily through images.  “Look up, miss,” the Zelishem instructed in a low, gravelly whisper.

Alina turned her eyes upward towards the being’s face, which was no less austere for its gentle illumination by his halo and its reflection in the crystals on his head.  She felt as if icy water were moving through her bloodstream and creating whirlpools in her heart, if an astral body could be said to have any sort of circulatory system at all.

 

“Look,” the Zelishem muttered as the red eye in the center of his brow faded to a pale green.

 

Alina saw her surroundings undulate rapidly around her until they dissolved into a series of images – clear, but somehow lacking in dimension, as if viewed on a TV screen.  The first image was one of a man swimming upwards towards the night sky, as if the atmosphere were water, and grabbing hold of a tiny star. He swam back with it cupped in his hands, even though it was clearly hurting him to do so.  Alina flinched as she saw the skin melt from his hands, revealing black bones streaked with a murky bluish-green. The skin and flesh that peeled away became prehensile like tentacles as the image faded into a series of blurry auroras spelling the Zelishem words for “dishonesty” and “insolence” across the night sky.  As the images regained their focus, Alina saw the inside of a laboratory.  A group of men and women surgically transplanted nervous tissue between entirely different life forms.  A small rocket sailed through a window in the laboratory, setting the entire room on fire.  An alarm went off, and a sprinkler system followed shortly, but the blaze raged on as the laboratory workers attempted to escape.  One of them managed to take shelter and peer out the nearest window. There, she saw a throng of individuals, human and Zelishem with some hybrids among them, ready to storm the entire complex.

 

The images dissolved and the Zelishem’s face came into clear view once more.  His third eye reverted to red and his expression softened into a slight smile.

 

“And what does this mean?”  Alina asked. She did not expect a clear answer, but she held out hope for even a shred of explanation.

 

“Be wary of the Silva family.  Trust only Ren-Marite.  The two of you will need to fight against many forces and many odds to make any good come of this… To make any good come of her presence in your world.  That is all.  Figure the rest out for yourself.”

 

The Zelishem’s words became quieter as he said this, as if dialed down on an audio device. Their surroundings quaked and vibrated until they shattered and Alina found herself lying on the hard floor of her cottage, panting and sweating profusely.  She rose unsteadily to her feet and grabbed a notebook and pen from a nearby desk.  She slumped onto the couch and began scrawling notes in a combination of Cyrillic and the Zelishem alphabet until she fell asleep with the notebook and pen in her hands.

 

She woke in the morning to a knock on the door and with the writing utensils wedged between the cushions of the couch.  She buried her face in her palms and quickly attempted to smooth her tousled hair and rumpled clothing with her hands as she rose to answer the door.  She barely opened it halfway when she heard David exclaim “Good morning, Sister Galenko!”

 

“Sister…?” She muttered, placing a hand over her brow to block the sunlight that quickly flooded the doorway.  “It is Alina, please simply call me Alina.”

 

“Right.  Come on out, Alina, Ms. Meredith is waiting for you. And, I have something for you as well.”

 

She stepped out into the yard and walked up to David’s black car.  David immediately set to unpacking the trunk. Alina peered into the back window, where she saw Meredith’s long, lean figure sprawled awkwardly across the backseat. She was wearing a pair of thick, black sunglasses and using a large, navy blue duffel bag as a pillow.  Alina frowned and opened the door.  “Good morning, Miss,” she spoke softly.  Meredith pushed her glasses down her nose, opened one dull green eye, and grumbled under her breath.  “It is good to see you again, dear Conduit,” Alina said with a smile as she extended her arm towards Meredith, who grasped the woman’s wrist and allowed her to pull her to her feet.  She swayed in front of the vehicle, leaned against the back door heavily, and moved quickly to readjust her sunglasses.

 

“Stick wi’ Meredith,” she mumbled with her arms crossed against her chest.  “Ms. Meredith if y’must. Formalities’re humiliating, regardless’f the intention,” she slurred with a devious smirk. 

 

Alina chuckled softly under her breath, then recollected her reverent manner and leaned in towards the teenager.  “Are you all right?” She whispered.  “You seem somewhat, ah…toxic?”

 

“Y’mean intoxicated? Yeah, it’ll take some time to fully wear off… I hear you’ll be okay when it does, though.”

 

Alina sucked in her lower lip and furrowed her brows.  “Yes, what you hear is true, but will you be okay?”

 

Meredith shrugged her angular shoulders and stared off towards the country roads.  “Remains t’be seen, heh.  From what I know ‘bout you, though, ‘m sure there’s something you could do, worst comes to worse, huh?”

 

Alina looked down at the ground and shuffled her feet in the gravel of her driveway.  “Yes, I suppose so.  I will try.”

 

 She turned her eyes back up to monitor David, making sure he did not go inside without her permission.  He was busy moving various bags from the car onto Alina’s doorstep, including the bag Meredith had been sleeping on only moments ago. 

 

With a faint coating of sweat on his tan brow, David marched up to Alina and Meredith.  “Looks like I’m just about done – the two of you can decide where you would like to put everything later.  But, like I said, there is one more thing.”  He opened the driver’s side door, removed a carrying case that he had kept at his feet through the entire ride, and handed it to Alina.

 

“And this is…?” the woman asked with a puzzled look.  She shrugged and unzipped the case, revealing a small laptop computer.  She looked back up at David and cocked her head to the side. “Computer? Why?”

 

“This should make it easier for you to keep in contact with us, should it not?  I have no idea why you didn’t have one before.  I even hear you still use a land line.  I guess you don’t care much for technology – guess you fit right in here with those horse and buggy types, don’t you? Hah! A simple mystic living a simple life!  Glad to see such things are not dead, not even in this part of the world! I wish to every God that man has ever bowed to that I could be the same!  Still, a computer is an important thing to have.”

 

“Right, thank you…” Alina breathed hesitantly.

 

“I’ll get someone to come out and get you hooked up to the Internet as soon as I possibly can.  You have used a computer before, right?”

 

“I have used one before, I have only never had one of my own.  Thank you, David.”

 

“So, do you think you can handle all that unpacking yourself? I think it would be in our Conduit’s best interests to lie down for a bit longer.  Perhaps you could use my assistance.”

 

“Thank you, but I can handle myself,” Alina replied, suppressing the tinge of gruffness she felt creeping into her voice as she slowly led Meredith inside the cottage, with the laptop tucked under her other arm.

 

“I have no doubt in my mind! Love and Light, Sis- ah… Alina.  And you, as well, of course, dear Conduit.” David’s tone was obsequious as he bid Alina and Meredith farewell and got back into his car.

 

 

 

Alina set the computer on the kitchen table and allowed Meredith to lie down on one of the two couches in her living room, taking care to move the pen and notebook she had left there the night before.  She dragged the baggage inside and set it on the second couch, heaving an exhausted sigh as she set the last bag down. She decided she would unpack after Meredith woke up.  For the moment, she felt it more important to figure out a way to deal with the teenager’s mental state.  While a sizable portion of her mystical training involved learning how to nullify a direct or indirect psychic attack, she had little discipline in any other forms of manipulative craft – not even something as basic as reversing the effects of a drug.  However, she refused to indulge feelings of uncertainty or incompetence.  She kept in mind the visions she had seen the night before and felt that, if she had been able to access the dimension of the Zelishem without fully intending to, she was capable of more than she realized – she simply had to tap into it by any means necessary.  She closed her eyes and meditated on a symbol she’d long memorized that stood for the word “answer”.  A clear visual gradually faded into her minds’ eye – shoots of evergreen growing through an icy wasteland. She opened her eyes, stared blankly, and shuffled into the kitchen in an automatic fashion. 

 

“Evergreen, evergreen…” She mumbled to herself as she peered over the counter at Meredith, who was still resting peacefully, albeit in a disarranged manner.  “There is one that kills the sleeping medicines, right? Artemisia…which one? No, no, I don’t even have,” she kept mumbling, trailing from English into her Ukrainian dialect as she continued to think aloud and rummage through her cabinets.  She roughly ran a hand through her hair in frustration as she grudgingly decided to deal with the issue later.  After all, there were worse states Meredith could be in than asleep on the couch.

 

                She opened the laptop and waited for the screen to illuminate.  The computer did not prompt Alina for any information or to go through any sort of setup process. The device was not new – it had been used at least once.  Alina stared at the various icons on the screen.  It appeared fully loaded with software, and upon clicking through some of the folders on the desktop, she found it even came with a modest library of audio and video files, nearly all of which she did not recognize.  Further clicking led her into Settings, where she found the name the previous owner had given the device – “ELUCIDATOR.”  Alina squinted, unfamiliar with the word.  She recognized the word “lucid” within it, and figured it had something to do with clarity. 

 

Her thoughts were broken by an abrupt thudding sound.  She quickly closed the laptop and rushed into the living room to see Meredith waking up in a state of unrest, kicking the arm of the couch.  She approached slowly and spoke in a hushed voice.  “Ms. Meredith…”

 

Meredith bolted upright and stared up at Alina with her chin tipped downward.  Her face was pale and her eyes appeared to vibrate in their sockets, but her expression was unmistakably menacing.  This did not last for long – the girl became stiff and then slumped forward into her own lap, with her shoulders giving a slight twitch every few seconds.  Alina stared, unsure of what to do and struggling to maintain a clear mind.

 

 She returned to the kitchen and crushed some ice cubes in a bowl, hoping to revive Meredith with something cold.  As she reached for something to wrap the crushed ice in, her vision clouded over.  “Not now,” she thought to herself as her surroundings faded to a blackness that was quickly lit with short-lived images of sunrise, of children at play, of a television being switched on to display an urgent broadcast.  The sprouts she saw in her earlier vision made another appearance, this time twining around a set of wings that appeared to belong to a hybrid of an eagle and a lunar moth.  She fought to break out of this state by attempting to scream, fully aware of the urgency of Meredith’s situation, but a warm calmness seized her as if she had been tranquilized.  As soon as she surrendered to this alien sense of relaxation, the images cleared away and she found herself standing in her kitchen once again.  She looked down at the bowl – the ice she had crushed had somehow frozen over as smoothly as the surface of a lake. 

 “And what am I expected to do with this?” She grumbled in frustration.  “A block of ice in a bowl, what good will this do?” She spat, tossing her arms into the air.  With a sigh, she brought the bowl of ice over to Meredith anyway.  She walked slowly, summoning all of her faith and hoping there was some significance to the way in which the ice had refrozen.
 

Meredith’s face was still in her lap, but she turned her head towards Alina and opened her eyes.  “What is that…?” She mumbled.

 

Alina swallowed tightly.  “I…  Please, just look and see what you can do.  I am so sorry…”

 

Meredith sat up slowly, looking slightly disoriented.  She snatched the bowl from Alina’s hands and squinted at the ice.  A look of intentness crossed the girl’s face and she ran her hand across the surface of the ice, back and forth until it began to melt slightly.

 

 “The cold does not bother it, your hand?” Alina asked.  It did not occur to her to ask Meredith what she was doing.

 

Meredith shook her head with a blank expression.  “You have Sight.  You were disciplined enough to develop it, somehow.  You can receive images from Zelishem which allow you, a human being, to do their work here on Earth when they… well, when we can’t.  Not a whole lot of you can handle it.  Sometimes, the visions alone will kill you.  Your brain doesn’t know what to do, the body follows suit.  That’s how one of my Dad’s followers ended up dead when I tried to give it to her.  At her behest, of course, as well as his…” She raised her chilly, moistened hand to her face and pressed her fingers into her forehead with a soft growl until she left indentations.  The glaze from her eyes lifted and she made a small sound of relief as her muscles visibly relaxed.  “You’re in contact with other Zelishem.  They worked with you through your unconscious mind,” Meredith explained dully through deep breaths. 

 

Alina nodded and moved her lips wordlessly.  She stared dumbfounded at Meredith.  “Ah… yes.  Last night.  I not only saw them, I went into their world.  The one, he told me to only trust you.  I saw things, I need to, ah… decipher? Decipher…” She rolled the last word around in her mouth a bit, unsure whether or not she had used or pronounced it correctly.

 

Meredith snorted, ignoring what Alina mentioned about deciphering visions.  “Yeah.  Why d’you think I called Nora one of my Dad’s followers instead of just one of mine?  I didn’t even believe all the things he said about me at first, not until David did all of that lab work, anyway.  Thought I was just a little weird, brain-wise.  To be honest, I wouldn’t even trust me that much if I were you.  I might be capable of things ordinary people aren’t, and I might have some extradimensional chemistry, but there’s nothing objectively stating that all that defines me as worthy of worship!  I’m not counting prophecies penned by humans nor am I counting the agenda of the Zelishem.”

 

Alina shook her head rapidly from side to side, trying to process everything Meredith had said.  It was extremely jarring, and more than a bit disheartening, to hear from the individual she had regarded since her childhood as the key to the barrier between the material and immaterial worlds.  “Well,” she sighed as she stared at the carpet.  “Whatever it is the case may be… I am here for you, to help you through this transformation.”

 

Meredith smirked.  “Thank you,” she said clearly, and set to unpacking her bags.

 

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