Little Goddess Lost

Chapter Two(Unfinished chapter)

"This planet is nothing but a foundation," Vash began, as he and Phoenix settled, awkwardly, in her small livingroom a few blocks from the inn. "Just a big ball of gas and chemicals, with no organic life of its own to speak of. Water and dirt, that’s all this planet can claim. No living organism, from the tallest tree to the most microscopic of germs, actually exists on Earth itself."

Phoenix tucked one leg beneath her and leaned forward, rapt with attention in spite of her lingering wariness. "How can that be?" she challenged.

&quoll, ll, it’s kind of hard to explain, but I’ll try. See, life in all its forms exists only within the many dimensions that cover any given planet. These dimensions are…" He thought for a moment, trying to explain it to her without causing more confusion. "Imagine a ball wrapped with layers of clear plastic. Earth and its dimensions are just like that. And the closer a dimension is to its foundation planet, the simpler its life-forms and the farther away they are from the abstract—the spiritual as opposed to the physical."

"How many dimensions are there?"

Vash shrugged. "Untold numbers—no one really knows. What we do know, is that this dimension, Upper Earth, lies somewhere around the middle. My home, Galbadria, is the outermost dimension—the world from which all of the planet’s governing is done. We are, I guess you could say, the ruling dimension."

"This all sounds so—"

"Crazy?" Vash smiled crookedly at her.

"A little. What’s Galbadria like?"

"I think you’d find my home very strange," Vash admitted. "There, time doesn’t change things the way it does here. In Upper Earth, the world’s technological advances always make obsolete what came before. In Galbadria, that’s not so. Horse-drawn carriages ride alongside hover-crafts, cobblestone castles still stand only selims away from towering structures made of titanium and glass. People rely on computers ell ell as magicks. We’ve cultivated a symbiotic relationship between the old and the new, the organic and the artificial."

"Excuse me… selims?"

"Oh, sorry. That’s our word for miles."

"I see. Well, all of this is fascinating—really. But what does it have to do with me?"
"I’m not quite sure yet—but I can tell you what we know so far."

"We?"

"My friends in P.A.G.E.—a resistance faction in Galbadria. It’s because of P.A.G.E. that I’m here."

"Remind me to send them a thank-you card," she muttered.

Vash laughed quietly. "Come on—I’m really rather charming if you’d let your guard down." He leaned forward and blinked his emerald eyes rapidly, batting the thick, dark lashes fringing each lid. "See? I’m cute!"

A hint of a smile danced on the corners of Phoenix’ mouth. "Can we get back to the reason you’re here? Even if everything you’re telling me is true, why should I care?"

"Well…" Vash sat back again and scrutinized Phoenix’ face for what seemed like a fortnight. "Maybe it’d be better if I showed you," he said at last. "Everything you to to know will make so much more sense if heard in the proper context."

"You’ve gotta be kidding me," Phoenix scoffed. "Look, I may trust you an iota more than I did forty minutes ago, but I’m still not going anywhere with you until I know all the details … if then."

"You seemed a whole lot more agreeable from inside your head," Vash grumbled.
Phoenix’ expression was so severe that the lanky blond swiftly changed course.

"Okay, fine—I’ll tell you what I know right now. Promise you’ll keep an open m&quo"
She shrugged, dubious. "No."

Vash sighed, feeling weary. "Twenty-seven years ago, the Galbadrian Army captured and imprisoned a rogue sorceress named Edarra—Empress Edarra, to be exact—who had been waging war against the royal families, using an ancient prophecy as her guide. Since then, Galbadria’s been relatively peaceful but, as of the last few years, some disconcerting rumors have surfaced a Eda Edarra and the Galbadrian Army’s Lieutenant General, Keraf Gorwen—"

"Gorwen. You mentioned him earlier, in the woods."

Vash nodded. "He’s a horrible, corrupt man and thanks to the rumors, we now suspect that he’s somehow connected to Edarra."

"There’s that ‘weain.ain."

"I’m getting to that," he winked. "Anyway, it was shortly after the rumors first appeared that some friends of mine approached me about forming P.A.G.E.—Peace Amongst Galbadrians Everywhere. It’s a covert organization, but a very large one. Our purpose, thus far, has been information gathering, but many of our people are highly trained in magicks and combat, as well."

"I can’t believe I’m sitting here talking about sorceresses and resistance factions," Phoenix said, shaking her head in wonder.

"I know it’s probably overwhelming, but—"

"I don’t think you have any idea," she sighed. "But keep going—if you pause too long, I might convince myself this was all a dream."

"Okay. Well, a year ago, one of our research units was at an excavation site in West Galbadria, and they dug up a book. It was written in a language long-dead to us, but Reigna, one of P.A.G.E.\'s co-leaders, is an expert in ancient linguistics and is slowly translating the text. From the words she’s been able to translate so far, we now understand that it’s the original copy of the Book of Elders."

"The what?"

"Book of Elders—the prophecy regularly consulted by the Council of Marthané, advisors to the Supreme King, and the same one that precipitated Edarra’s attack. We believe that the copy we’re in possession of has text that was removed from the Council’s version, perhaps so that the Council and, thus, the King, would be intentionally misguided by the prophecy."

Phoenix vaguely remembered her grandmother talking about a king—a human king whose beloved queen was a—what was it again? Oh, yes … a Faery. Aren’t faeries rather small to be married to human men? She inwardly rolled her eyes. Consider your source, Phoenix.

"Shortly after the book was found," Vash continued, breaking into her thoughts. "I began having the dreams I told you about. At the time, I didn’t know what they meant, just that I was regularly visiting a beautiful woman named Phoenix every night while I slept."

She blushed slightly and averted her eyes.

"I never told anyone—until Reigna apprised us of her latest findings. There was an inordinate amount of text, she said, about a young woman named Phoenix who was living in Upper Earth. And I knew … I knew it was you." He inhaled a long, deep breath and rose to his feet, moving to the window that looked out east, over a quaint, bustling street. "It took several months for Reigna to confirm, through the text, that the girl in my dreams was the same as the one foretold of in the Book of Elders—and that the girl in the Book was you. Once we were sure, I—"

"You came for me."

"Yes." He turned around and leaned back against the window sill, crossing his long legs at the ankles. "Having spent the better part of a month here in your world while preparing to meet you, I can understand how this story might seem farfetched. Implausible, to say the least. But I swear, Phoenix—everything I’ve told you is real. And not because I’ve succumbed to mass psychosis," he added, with a gleam in his eye.

(To be continued...)