Call of Destiny

Letum

I was watching ripples on a pound in the Quiet Garden, being in the company of arousal buzzing bees and bumblebees which were busying themselves by pollinating abundant trees of a heady-scented sort I had never known the name of but was mesmerized by the beauty of tiny, star-shaped, white flowers. I had spent a long time in the world of the fleshies in my ghost body, so I was glad to be finally kissed by the rays of the Afterworld’s sun. It was early morning and even birds were not awakened yet despite the sky burning in the flame of the deepest orange shade of the waking up enormous star which gave us warmth and light.

A sudden impulse brought me down to the grassy softness of the emerald lawn by the bank of the pound. The night had happened to be a tough one, but my eyelids refused to shut and sleep over the picturesque view worthy to be captured on the canvas by the masterful hand of a gifted artist at dawn. However, I overestimated the endurance I possessed and gave up all the attempts of resisting the tiredness which was devouring me completely. I closed my eyes and succumbed to the urge to drift somewhere far away to the lands of tranquility and comfort, being lulled by the pleasantly cool blow of the morning wind.

Of course, my nap did not last long. The remote shouts and whines brought me back to my senses, and swearing aloud not because of irritation to the one in the background who had not been in the training center for a while but simple family bonds. I had the misfortune to realize I missed her much.

I took off and headed to the hall where the shouts were coming from the open window, reaching it in a matter of seconds. I found myself standing at the doorway, my eyes fixed on her. Her red-wine bob was chaotically traveling in the air in rhythm with her lunges and strikes. The drops of sweat ran down her face. I entered the bright room in the morning beans where there were only two of us. My sibling set aside the wooden sword at the sight of me and curved her lips. Her elegant but no less strong hand wiped sweat away from her forehead and at the moment I failed my try to sneak up from behind her back by brushing the lying on the floor training equipment with a loud noise which outed me (I blamed the drowsiness after the rough night for the absent-mindedness), two black eyes revealed themselves, piercing the solid body of mine.

“Good morning, sunshine,” she greeted me wryly with a shortness of breath. The whimsical notes in her tone made me mirror her smile.

“Tory,” I said to my sister with a saucy jerk of my head as a way of greeting, “when did you come?”

Tory leaned on the wall on her right to catch her breath, “About three hours ago.”

“And instead of finding your sibling first you started with a workout, did you not?”

It looked like my question affected her not just a little because her attractive features got tensed, “Actually, brother, I spent some time at first to find you chambers because, my dearest sibling, you did not bother to tell me that something had changed in there, and then to be told that you were in the world of living.”

The nebula in my head caused by lack of sleep had not let me comprehend what Tory had said about the time of her arrival so I had rebuked her in vain. For sure, three hours ago I still had been cleaning the mess in the fleshy world, showing the newly minted deceased fleshies the path to the Great Line where, according to our beliefs and tales, they would have to find peace or would be suffering for their sins until the time had its end. Even regents were not aware of what would happen to a soul after death. We had been born to chaperone mortals to the Afterworld and the Great Line for after death people had not always understood what had been going on and millions of stray souls used to wander in between the realms to never find the way away.

“Hey,” Tory’s voice which sounded less carefreely now brought me back to the present, “Are you feeling well?”

My head nodded quicker than I could think, “Do not worry. I need a rest, yes, but I am fine, or will be after a long deep sleep. Is Talia with you?”

“Why, not today. She has a business to deal with and will join us here no earlier than the day after tomorrow. You missed her, did you not?”

“Of course, I did. She is a much more pleasant companion to share conversation with than you, my sister,” I taunted Amatory. “How was the camp?”

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She cracked her knuckles, and the slow tread brought her closer to the place where I was watching her, cutting the distance between us. Her graceful and smooth movement exposed Tory’s newly acquired skills. All I could think about was that the camp of calmness went to benefit her despite my bias and misgivings. Once a while the regents from the camp and our training center exchanged the mentees for the experience of origins, which presented the study of physical strength from our side and the power of the spirit from the other, with some elements of physical defense for sure, should not be the possession of only those who keep it. This time Baleruhb had chosen Tory and Talia for the journey to the camp of calmness.

My sibling opened her mouth to vocalize something, but a clarion call in the shape of her empty stomach and an incredibly loud groan interrupted her. I was ninety-nine present sure she had not put a tiny breadcrumb into her mouth for she never did exercise on a full stomach to avoid a repeat of the situation when she had been allowed to the training halls for the first time and had eaten a double portion of porridge and fruits, as she had thought, not to run out of steam after several rounds. Consequently, she had thrown out her breakfast on the floor of the ring in front of everyone who had presented there.

My sister lifted up her gaze to me, and I predicted her question, “Mind having breakfast?”

“With pleasure, Tory. But you have to take a shower before. I do not want the pungent scent of your sweat to spoil my appetite.”

She pinched the upper edge of her dark-gray-soaked T-shirt and sniffed, grimacing, “You are right. The smell is awful.”

“Let us go to my chambers,” I offered. “Have you seen Baleruhb yet?”

“Nay, Let, it was too early even for him when I crossed the threshold of the center.”

I sighed, “I asked you a thousand times not to call me Let.”

“I will stop when you start calling me by my full name, Let.”

I had forgotten why I had been so happy to learn about her departure to the camp of calmness. She was unbearable.

“Fine, Amatory. Is it better?”

“For sure, Letum.”

For a moment, the only sound that was following Tory and me was the echo of our boots’ soles pressing the stone-polished floor, though I knew my sibling quite well–she did not have a personality of a silent type but babbling and even gossipy from time to time, so it did not amaze me when she started a kind of casual conversation, “How is it going so far?”

I shrugged, understanding well what she meant, “I am getting used to it, I suppose.”

“You suppose?”

“Well, yes,” I tried to make the words sound natural but added a fraction of a hint that I did not want the continuation of this conversation, forgetting my sister’s tendency to ignore it.

“Letum,” she went on, “you have not been claiming anyone to be your lover for so long and now it turns out Octavia occupies the chambers I remembered as a refuge of my eligible brother.”

“I had no other choice, Amatory.”

All the regents were cursed by the curseress for the sin our ancestors had committed–all of us were barren and not able to continue the kind. Those regents who lived in the Afterworld were the last of us. Nonetheless, we had never lost hope.

The origins who survived in the Deathly Battle had set the procedure named ‘mating’–all of the regents had to be claimed as lovers for the revival of our kin. Despite the lack of the vivid feelings and emotions which were common for fleshies, the inhabitants of my realm were capable of finding their lovers by the indivisible bond of affection and attraction to each other. In the case of those unfortunate like me who had not claimed their partner before the fiftieth starlight corridor, they would be mated forcibly. That was what had happened to me and was the reason for Amatory's distress. If she only knew.

“Look,” I snapped with unconcealed growing irritation, “I am drowsy and rather hungry which can lead to another quarrel between us and you have spent no more than three hours in the walls of the training center. I have no will to discuss my personal life right now or whenever else because it is my life and I can handle it.”

Amatory snorted, nevertheless, the topic was no longer delved into by her and I was very glad. Right until the call of duty overtook me in the middle of our way to the refectory out of blue.

“Right now?” Tory asked and I heard a shred of aggravation in her voice because she was well aware, just like me, that the call could not be ignored or dismissed. That was what all of the regents had been bred for. No words required, so I moved my head down in a single motion, confirming what she had said.

Frankly speaking, I was vexed no less than my sister–the restless night in the world of living was expressed by the feebleness of each of the muscles beneath my pale skin and the severest urge to fall onto the soft cushion face-first and bury myself under the sheets. But the dreams of my rest were not bound to come true. At least until the sun was at its zenith in the Afterworld.

“I have to depart now, sister. Are you capable of finding the refectory yourself?”

Tory’s fist hit my upper arm within the shortest split of second I had not even time to react for defense. An ‘ouch’ which I dropped out of my mouth resembled a hiss better than a cry of pain.

“I have not been here only for just one starlight corridor, you moron.”

I snorted, rubbing the bruising spot the punch had left the burning feeling, “You are the regent with the most terrible perception of space. I would insist you are unlucky enough to get topographical creationism at birth.”

Realizing that it was my biggest mistake, I crossed the border before she struck me again and swerved and headed straight to the place I was summoned to. “See you, sister.”