Zara's nasty outburst only
assured Neter how deep the divide between Atlan and Lemuria had become. He
noticed the typical palette of battle scars, a bleeding head, glazed bulging eyes, a paranoid mentality; these refugees all seemed to arrive in this sorry state, emitting this toxic frequency when they first arrived.
"Hello,
Zara" he approached with a smile, holding out his hand. But Zara coiled like a reptile.
Tormented by her utter inability to look away, Zara was terrified of him, terrified of
losing her life in the worst possible way. Where was Medel now? Had he forsaken
her? Had she failed?
Neter stopped, realizing she was panicking, it was alarming. "Do
you really believe I'm some god of
Death?"
Zara
couldn't speak.
"Why
don't we have some tea" Mina interjected and began setting the kitchen
table, a long and well worn old table flanked with an eclectic assortment of benches and chairs, long
enough to host a small community.
Zara
sat as far away from Neter as she could politely get away with, he didn’t take
it personally, her frequency was so low it was almost flat-lining. He noticed
her fondling the emerald tile, still in her hands. "Death
Tablet?"
Heat pounding in life threatening ways,
Zara snapped the tablet down on the table. What was this? Real Serpent Sorcery? Why had they even let him in to the temple?
Were they witches after all? How could Mina and Nulu be trustworthy when they
associated with such evil as this? This wasn't some hallucination, she even saw the Unicorn outside...
Angry
now, she was beginning to realize how badly she had been fooled, these witches
were creating illusions, their generous hospitality, even this tea being
offered, was it a mind altering drug? She had already told herself it had felt
too good to be true all along. She was about to be sacrificed to an evil god. This was why it was called Hellias. This
was how she would be sent to the Barren Wasteland, she just wasn't there yet! Deep in her gut she knew the truth: this
was happening because she didn’t confess her sins!!!
Neter
could see the inner turmoil, it was written all over her face.
He reached across the table offering his hand, offering her some fresh insight.
"Orius
and I are both descendants of the original Moon Goddess, Sin." he began.
"We're brothers."
Zara found herself staring at him again, she couldn't believe her ears, he looked nothing like Orius, he had blonde hair….
Like Orien… Suddenly Zara felt sick again as she was forced to face the
truth. How come Orien had such blonde hair if Orius was his donor? Was Orien
related to Sin too? Were all the Origians related to Sin, the evil goddess of
the Sea? Was that why Orien had to be
sacrificed?
Thoughts
raced to make sense of the contradictions but nothing made sense... In spite of
the warm tea and hot baths, Hellias was most certainly living up to its reputation of
being the Land of Deception and Sin.
Neter
could see she was in a lot of pain, mentally. This
perhaps was the so-called Mental Illness Orius was speaking of. "You do
know who Orius is, don't you?"
"I don't believe you!" She snapped,
finally. "I don't believe any of
you! If that was true, if
Lemuria really is the paradise you make it to be, then why wouldn't he
tell everyone the truth about this place? He's
seen the maps on the walls!"
"There's
been a long feud that has divided us" Neter tried to explain in a
nutshell.
"Did
Orius know about the Dogons?"
"Once
upon a time, things were a lot different than they are now" he expanded.
"Our tribes and families lived together in harmony, it was a Golden Time.
There were no wars…" He tried to make her relax but was only making her
feel more lied to.
"Bullshit" she exclaimed,
unimpressed with his feeble attempt to convince her. "Our families lived
together? Well here’s some Breaking News. We don't even HAVE families!!! Orius was my Product Donor. If Orius grew up in
such a Happy Family Land, then why would he have rejected it to be a Product
Donor in Atlan?" Zara knew she had him cornered. "Hmmm?"
Neter
was also a little confused, confused by their language. "Why do you call
him a Product Donor?"
Zara
explained the procedures at the Moha Lab, followed by a rueful account of her
Lochia years. She tried to focus on the good that had come from it, still
clinging to the idea that some good had come from it. "Orien
was one of the best examples the Atlan Empire ever produced" she assured
with pride. "He was honored with a Sacrificial Placement in the Final
Graduation Ceremony!" Now she wished she still had the medal to prove it.
"I lost my medal" she lamented, "so I can't prove it to you but I was
honored as a Cow Goddess. I was told I would go to The Promised Land because of
it!"
"The
Promised Land?" Neter didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He dropped his
head into his hands, his heart aching from the ill account of the Breeding
Program. This wasn't simply a refugee, this was family! Orien was his distant
nephew! It wasn't a coincidence that she had arrived, she had been sent by the
Phoenix, that he knew now. What was her message?
Zara
studied Neter clutching his head, slumped into his hands, he seemed so
distraught for a god of Death. She didn't understand, wasn't he impressed with
her success? "Did
Orius know about the Dogons?" She demanded again, growing increasingly
suspicious of his true identity.
"It's
a long story" Neter replied. He was beginning to feel ill as Zara
disclosed the gruesome details of Orien's sacrifice and the Culloom Disaster,
as if it had all been just another day. Now he was wrestling internally with
his own fears and doubts about what he didn’t know. Her story touched a tender
nerve, the child she had sacrificed for ten gold beads was a part of his
family, Orien was a part of his flame too. Now he knew for sure, it wasn't a
coincidence Zara was sitting in front of him. But what did it mean? Was he to
do something about it?
"Who
are the Dogons?" Zara grilled, sensing some sort of a cover-up now. According
to legends, a mere encounter with the god of Death foretold of one's imminent
demise, yet he seemed to care about
Orien’s demise and she was still
alive.
"The
Dogons are an Origian race" Neter explained. "The New Nefilim, Star and
Lunar tribes are all Origians, we were the first Prefects created for the
slaves of the Atlan Empire."
Zara
objected. "You’re wrong! The Gen I’s were the first Prefects, the Origians
were just Savages!"
"The
Dogons migrated to Kergal during the Great Revolt, along with the rest of
us" Neter insisted calmly. Zara knew he was lying, if it was true they
would have been in the History text books, but why would he lie?
"The
Dogons run the mining industry in South Lemuria along with the Nefilim, or
rather should I say, the New Nefilim."
Feeling
defeated, Zara gave up the fight. "New
Nefilim?"
"They
aren’t the Original Nefilim."
Zara's
mind was spinning so fast it was making her feel dizzy, which part of the story
was a lie? New Nefilim? What happened to the old ones? She knew about Vikkar's
business but she never knew he lived in Kergal or that he was a Dogon. Neter's story had holes. "Why
does Vikkar look different than his tribe?"
"He’s
a hybrid" he replied. "An Experimental Origian."
"An Experimental Origian?" Zara was
horrified. "Why? How could you even say that? Experimental? For what?"
Suddenly,
images of the bloody white rabbit carcass returned to haunt her out of nowhere,
followed by sickening flashbacks of the Culloom Disaster. Perhaps Vikkar was an
Experimental Origian, but he wasn't capable of that. "There's
something else over there on those
islands and they're also called dogons! Some savage beasts slaughtered the whole island!"
"What
island?"
"Gora…"
Emotions rose like a surging tide. "All the Prefects and Products were
mauled to death, there were body parts everywhere!" She could feel the dam
cracking. "Almost ALL of them, mauled to death, can you imagine?
I SAW THE SCENE MYSELF!"
Neter
practiced deep breathing as she spewed out the horrors of the Moha Lab renovations, of the piling up of carcasses in the lab, the posh
luncheon with such a heavy price tag. "See?"
She pulled her sleeve down to show him her back, scarred forever.
Neter
let out a heavy sigh, it was everything they had fled from. Worse. It was so
bad it sounded too bad to be true, he was struggling to believe her experiences
hadn't been some wild hallucinations. Yet at the same time he knew it could be true, he could see her scars, they were horrendous. "Culloom
is on Gorias?"
"Yes."
He
glanced at Mina and Nulu, silently observing and documenting the disclosures,
no words were needed. They knew of the mysterious island she spoke of, there
were old Panther rumors about Gorias, they had tried to locate the access passage many times. "How
did you end up going to see the Underworld?" Mina wasn't convinced her
story was true either.
"I
was assigned a task there" Zara explained. "I had to measure the
salvage for the renovation. I know you don't believe me, but the dogons are real! They're always
attacking the farmers, everyone knows it!" She went on to explain the way
it was. "Everyone's too afraid to leave the city walls they're so
dangerous. That's WHY the walls are there!"
Neter
wasn’t sure what was more twisted, the truth or Zara’s perceptions? He thought
again about Orius's unusual departure, Zara was right. Surely if there had been
such pain and suffering behind the city walls he would have known. Her story
seemed a little unbelievable… He had to remain open minded given that she had
suffered a head injury... Because, what if it was true? What if this was what
had happened to his nieces and nephews? "How
did you get into the tunnel?"
Zara
told him about her miraculous escape and the dusty old sign on the wall. Neter
knew which tunnel it was, but he hadn’t heard of a TLS Program. Her story just
got worse and worse. Torn between believing her because she looked like she had
been through the hell she described, and not believing her because she had a
head injury and spoke of such unbelievable things, he stood up and paced the
room, trying to contain the rage blazing within. He knew Atalon well, but this
was unfathomable cruelty. Why had
Vikkar remained silent? And why had Orius failed to mention anything if it was
true? And he brought them here so they
could steal their book?
Rage
was blazing inside, deep breathing was no longer effective, Neter had his own
questions that needed answering now, but Zara wasn't the one to ask. Zara was
still spewing toxic waste, now she was explaining how she almost died in the
tunnel.
"AQUILLA ALMOST KILLED ME!"
"I
will not listen to any more of this and simply believe or not believe it!"
He finally exploded, hiding his rage as best he could. "I'm going to see
what's going on over there for myself!"
Alarmed
at the suggestion, Zara objected. "Can you get there without going through
the tunnel? If Aquilla decides to come after you there's NO escape!"
Neter
took a deep breath and released his clenched fists, realizing now what he ought
to have done a long time ago. Her big wide eyes trembling with concern for his
welfare now, her thin white face, engraved with these tales of misery and
deceit, told him all he needed to know. He finished his tea, picked up his cloak and headed for
the door. "Mina
will tell you about Aquilla. I'll be back in
a day or two."
