Chapter Twenty-Four

Enlightenment

...and suddenly I was somewhere else, eyes wide open, staring in surprise at a woman. 

She was beautiful---in her own way, as beautiful as Wish, but tanned, fair-haired and brown-eyed where Wish was fair, dark-haired and green-eyed. And she wore a simple white linen gown - it had a classical Greek, or maybe it was Roman, look to its lines - gathered at the waist with a golden cord. A gold tiara helped to tame her hair, which had a wild look to it, but the look in her eyes belied the wild aspect of her hair. Here was a person old and wise, despite her seeming youth; someone who knew the score in more ways than I could probably ever guess.

The place we were standing in looked almost exactly like the place I'd been standing in with Burnett and Running Fox, but there was one notable exception; there was no sign of human life anywhere. Burnett and Running Fox were gone, even though I could still feel Running Fox's hand on my forehead---and the construction equipment, the overpass, the roadway---all those were gone. This was what the area must have looked like before Man had moved in and changed the face of the land. The only sign of the overpass was a dark blot on the ground exactly where the overpass would have been. It looked like a deep shadow, as if a small but very thick, black thundercloud were hovering directly overhead, blocking out the sunlight in just that one place, even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. That had to be the Vortex; it couldn't be anything else. 

I found myself thinking, Is this the astral plane? 

To my surprise, the woman nodded, and responded, "Yes---or at least, a manifestation of it that you can comprehend. Its true nature and appearance might be more than you could absorb safely, just now---and we need your mind on an even keel for what's to come." 

Her mouth hadn't moved, and she hadn't made a sound, but I'd heard every word she'd said to me, anyway---and every aspect of her facial and body language was consistent with her speaking, despite the lack of vocal involvement. Somehow, I wasn't surprised. 

Before I could think of anything to say in response, she waved a hand to one side and a mirror set in an ornate silver frame materialized beside her. In it, instead of a reflection of the world around us, I saw myself, and Burnett, and Running Fox, back in the physical world. Ashtoreth raised a slender finger to the mirror and touched Running Fox's image. "This is Gregory Running Fox's power." 

A white glow broke out around Running Fox---about as bright as the light from a forty-watt appliance bulb.

She touched Burnett's image and told me, "This is Samuel Burnett's power." 

In the mirror, a bright red glow broke out around Burnett; no brighter than Running Fox's, but much larger. So far, this was easy enough to handle. 

But then she touched my image and told me, "And this is your power." 

The glare blinded me; I felt a shock - a physical jolt rather than an emotional one - and I was suddenly back in the physical world again, down on the ground on my backside. What I'd just seen had been such a shock that I'd jumped back involuntarily, lost my balance and fallen over. The jolt of hitting the ground had probably been as much responsible for bringing me back to my normal state as being pulled free of Running Fox's hand had. 

Running Fox and Burnett helped me up, expressions all sympathy. Burnett asked, "What did you see?" 

I felt a little like Dorothy, at the end of The Wizard of Oz, telling everyone gathered around her that they'd been in her dream of the Land of Oz. I pointed to Running Fox and told him, "She showed me a white glow around you---about as strong as the light from a refrigerator bulb. And she showed me a red glow around you---" 

I pointed to Burnett. "---that was about as bright, but a lot bigger. And then---" 

I trailed off. I still wasn't sure I believed what had just happened.

Burnett prompted, "And then she showed you??"

I took a deep breath, tried to get my stomach to stop fluttering, and said, "She showed me a glare of light around me that blinded me. It was huge, and it was the purest gold I've ever seen. It was almost like looking into a nuclear-weapons test without wearing protective goggles."

I half expected them to laugh and joke about it, the way people do when they don't believe something outrageous you've just told them. Instead, they traded knowing looks and nodded, as if they'd known about it all along.

I dusted the seat of my pants off uncertainly and ventured, "You mean, you guys can see it?"

They both nodded; Running Fox almost smiled. "We have to perform the psychic equivalent of putting on sunglasses when we look at you to keep it form blinding us."

I still wasn't sure I wanted to believe it. "Then how come I can't see it?"

Burnett chuckled, "You've lived with it all your life. You've seen it for so long you've lost awareness of it. But others can see it, and I'll bet you've seen them noticing."

That left me lost. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

Running Fox chuckled, "Have you never come across a total stranger who stopped dead upon seeing you, and then tuned and left quickly, as if he had seen a ghost?"

I thought back for a moment. Come to think of it, I did remember things like that happening, every once in a while, when I was younger. It explained something that had happened to me shortly after I'd joined Ill Noise. After a show, some of the fans and groupies had been allowed backstage to meet the band members, and one wide-eyed little girl - probably not even fifteen, yet - had stopped dead the moment she came into sight of me, gulped, exclaimed, "Oh, wow!! It's not part of the light show!!", and turned around and ran off as if a dog were snapping at her heels. If she'd been able to see auras, and hadn't really known what she was seeing, and she'd seen that blinding glare around me that I'd seen in Ashtoreth's mirror, it was understandable that she'd think it was all part of the stage light show; as long as I was up on stage, where everyone would expect a light show to be. But seeing the same thing around me backstage, where there was no light show equipment set up - that must've scared the daylights out of her.

Burnett and Running Fox saw the realization on my face and nodded understanding. Running Fox explained, "Perhaps now you can see why Nicodemus Castevet wanted to corrupt you; to bring your power over to the side of Darkness. Of all of us, yours is the brightest light of all. With that subverted to his ends he could have begun a reign of terror such as has not been seen on this world since the days of the Holocaust."

I laughed, embarrassed. "Aww---c'mon, guys - I can't be that powerful! I can't even see Shaun decently, for crying out loud!"

Running Fox shook his head soberly. "The extent of a person's power has little to do with such things. Shaun is Wish's Guardian, not yours. He chooses to manifest himself only to her. If he chose to manifest himself to you, I have no doubt that you would see and hear him clearly, but who sees and hears and feels a Guardian is almost invariably up to the choosing of the Guardian himself. Such things cannot be forced. Things simply do not work that way. The only reason I was able to channel Shaun through Wish was because he agreed to do so. He felt it was to Wish's best advantage for him to do so. The fact that you have managed to detect his presence - even if only faintly - indicates that your power is considerably greater than even the Professor thought."

That set off whole new trains of thought in me. "Um--- do I have a Guardian?"

Burnett chuckled, "Of course; everyone has a Guardian. I've even encountered people with as many as three Guardians assigned to them, although I never could find out how they rated such an entourage. In your case, you've never had any real need of yours, so he's never shown himself to you."

That made sense---at least, to some extent. But I was still curious: "Have I ever dreamed about him, or met him in any way?"

Running Fox nodded. "Yes. You dream of him fairly often, but he always manifests himself in a different form in each dream so that you won't recognize him. It is not time for you to know who he is, yet."

That started to get under my skin. All these rules that no one was bothering to explain to me! "Okay, let's try it this way: will my Guardian help me to defeat Castevet?"

Burnett's expression went dead grim. "Absolutely. We'll all help you, each in our own way; even our own Guardians are involved in this."

Running Fox grunted, "That includes Shaun. He is not limited to Wish's physical location, after all. In fact, he is already at work."