Tablet of Destinies (28 page)

As they neared the end of the tunnel, the vision that Rebecca had seen so long ago, was revealed.

‘The crystal city,' she cried, astounded to find it actually existed.

Tall towers rose from the four cardinal points of the structure and from the rear these gradually arched downwards to meet and form a cross-section that supported a huge orb that was the central feature.

‘So we'll find one of the Lord Master Enki's Creation stations here, do you think?' They approached the open entrance doors to the alien dwelling.

‘If this much is true,' Rebecca commented, still marvelling at the sight of her dream made manifest, ‘I'll warrant it's here alright.'

Inside, stairs led to a massive central platform that was the arena of a stadium-like setting, entirely composed of the beautiful iridescent mineral substance. The only exception were some triangular features in the arena floor that appeared to be made of charichalum. These triangles shot out from a central crystal circle, forming sun-like rays around it. There were twelve of these triangles around the crystal circle, and each pointed to an octagonal mound. These mounds were set into a perfect circle around the perimeter.

‘Oh my god,' Noah mumbled, venturing to wander over the amazing construction. He thought it resembled the sacred stone circles of ancient Britain.

High above them, in the centre of the massive orb that encompassed the entire site, was another small circular feature of glossy black charichalum.

‘Well, Becky, I dare say we might have found one of the Lord Master Enki's learning devices … now I'm just wondering if he left a manual lying about anywhere?'

Although she was amused by his droll tone, Rebecca was quick to pull her sonic pulse blaster when a third person was heard to comment:
It is the only such construction that Enki ever built
.

Both of them eyed the crystal stairs that rose up around the arena in all directions. Above the doorway
through which they had entered stood Gwyn ap Nudd — the Lord of the Otherworld. Neither Rebecca nor Noah had had any personal dealings with this entity since their lifetime in the Dark Ages of ancient Briton, and both were rather honoured to make his acquaintance once again.

Enki built several doorways in your world but they all lead to the same place in mine
, Gwyn concluded, amused by their astonished expressions.
By the way, Druid …
the Lord jumped down to land in their midst, and placing his hand on the weapon Rebecca had aimed at him, he lowered it to the ground.
I am your manual
, Gwyn advised, with an encouraging nudge to the scholar's shoulder that nearly sent him flying.

‘Why you?' queried Noah, as he rubbed his battered shoulder. ‘I didn't think you were very well disposed towards the human races?'

‘I'm not,' Gwyn admitted, ‘so I am for anything that might improve your behaviour and understanding. And besides, I was persuaded to take a special interest in your case.'

Amabel
, Noah concluded on the quiet. Perhaps the fairy queen still held a little flame for him after all. ‘I think you might be confusing me with a past-life incarnation.'

No confusion, little scholar,
Gwyn grinned, planning to spark Noah's curiosity.
You're the one Enki chose to take this joyride. You and he had an agreement.

‘What agreement?' Noah's interest snowballed. ‘Are you saying I knew him?'

Of course you knew him,
Gwyn scoffed.
Do you think he'd trust his precious knowledge to a complete stranger?

‘He trusted the Delphinus, Durak, with it,' Rebecca cut in, to settle an argument that Noah and herself were having earlier.

The Lord shook his head.
He never made it past the disk. He couldn't turn the lock.

‘What did I tell you?' she chafed her husband.

‘Then how did Durak know about the legend of the Chosen Ones?' Noah argued.

He deciphered the legend inscribed upon the disc he found.
Gwyn was happy to flatten Noah's self--doubt.
He was not the one for whom this place was meant.

A wave of realisation passed over the scholar. ‘That's why Maelgwn was so disinterested in this quest and why he passed the rock on to me without so much as glancing it over —'

Because he knew the treasure was useless to him,
Gwyn finished off Noah's train of thought.
Destiny has other pursuits in store for the Dragon.

‘I see,' conceded Noah, looking a little green around the gills as he figured there was no backing out for him now. His own destiny was staring him blatantly in the face. ‘I need to know the full legend of Lahmu and I wish to recall that defining time in human consciousness that none of the Chosen can remember.' Noah outlined his primary concerns, so that he and Gwyn ap Nudd were both clear about what Noah was doing here.

I know you do,
Gwyn replied.
And as I see you are eager to get started, we shall.
The Lord motioned Rebecca to take a seat in the huge spectators' area.

‘This isn't going to adversely affect him in any way,
is it?' She hesitated to leave her husband's side and instead drew close to hold him.

Adversely … no,
replied Gwyn, in a horrible attempt at reassurance.

‘You heard the Lord,' Noah spoke up bravely. ‘Enki and myself had an agreement, which I also wish to know more about,' he stressed, glancing to Gwyn then back at his wife. ‘I have to do this. Every lifetime that I have ever lived has been preparing me for this moment … it is the whole reason I was brought into existence at all.'

You'd better believe it,
Gwyn mumbled.

‘I'll be right here watching out for you,' Rebecca vowed.

Oh please,
Gwyn grumbled as the lovers kissed.
It seems every time I see you, Druid, you're sucking face with someone.

The couple were reduced to laughter, and the tension and romance dispersed abruptly. Gwyn ushered Rebecca off to the sidelines and led Noah into the centre of the playing field.

Now, we're going to start slowly, until you adjust to the inwardness of the Sensor-sphere.

‘The Sensor-sphere?' Noah tried to make his apprehension sound as if he were merely intrigued.

Aye,
Gwyn nodded.
Here's how it works. Each one of the octagonal mounds you see around the perimeter contains data relating to different eras of creation. To load data into the Sensor-sphere, just take the keystone and insert the base of it into the socket that is atop each one of these mounds. You do have the keystone?

Noah pulled the tool from a pocket inside his jacket, as he approached and knelt before one of the twelve
mounds. He noted that these crystal formations were also filled with massive amounts of tiny circuitry. ‘How shall I know where to start?'

Well, it's pretty much a preset course,
Gwyn advised.
You start at the beginning and work your way through. But, for your first experience, we'll just try you out on the introduction to the Sensor-sphere, and see how you fare. Sound good?

Noah nodded surely. His curiosity was making him game.

Gwyn motioned Noah to the mound that was at the one o'clock position around the ‘dial'.
Place the keystone there,
he instructed and Noah complied, eager to see the Sensor-sphere activated.

This time it was the base of the keystone that locked easily into place, whereupon the electrical current inside it extended down to spark into action the inner circuitry of the mound. The one-twelfth segment of the dial belonging to this mound increased three-fold in brightness compared with the rest of the Creation Station, and it lit the way into the central circle, which was also radiating brightly within the black metal feature. This centre spot seemed to beckon Noah hither.

Your instinct is good,
Gwyn urged, as he backed up out of the arena.
You should follow it.

Noah summoned his courage and strode towards the heart of the station. As he stepped into the centre, the small black dome in the roof commenced lowering itself towards him. The points of the triangle features embedded in the floor began to curl and rise towards the ceiling until they formed a sphere. The dome overhead
stopped just above the circle formed by the metal arms of this Sensor-sphere.

A cylindrical tube of pale green light beamed down from the charichalum dome overhead to seal Noah in its fold. Rebecca looked on in horror and wonderment as a second light beam shot out from the black dome above her husband. This additional light field had a much broader beam than the first. Confined within the bowl that the upturned triangles on the floor created, the hazy light matter began whirling with hurricane intensity, until it formed a perfect globe of light around Noah. Her husband appeared overwhelmed by the phenomenon and let loose a cry of surprise when, within the safety of the light-tube, his body levitated into the air and was spun around to face the activated mound. From this source, images began shooting around the inside of the Sensor-sphere and Rebecca imagined it might have been forming a 360-degree picture, although from the outside the visual was very distorted and impossible to make out.

‘How long is he going to be in there?' she asked Gwyn, who stood closer to the action.

Not long for this first experience,
he advised her.

Her sights drifted back to her man floating about inside the glowing inner cylinder, and as she watched him taking in the experience of the Sensor-sphere, Rebecca became worried that he might wind up with sensory overload. ‘The term, Sensor-sphere, seems to indicate full sensory perception, which an everyday thought-recorder is capable of. How does this thought transference process differ?'

A thinking woman,
Gwyn thought to himself, impressed by her question. He climbed the crystal stairs to take a seat beside her.
Your thought-recording process caters only for the physical senses. The seeing can provoke emotions in you, but what you feel is your reaction. You never truly feel what the subject matter of your recording is experiencing … you cannot record emotion anymore than you can record another being's understanding
—

‘I can only understand another's life according to the limits of my own,' Rebecca concluded.

Until now.
The Lord looked back to the Sensorsphere.

Rebecca's eyes opened wide as she fathomed the transformation her lover was currently undergoing. ‘What's Noah savouring in there?'

The birth of the universe,
Gwyn advised casually.

‘What!' Rebecca freaked, but before she had a chance to protest, the Creation Station shut down. The data ceased to flow from the mound and as the outer light-sphere dissipated, Noah's free wheeling form was lowered back to the ground. The cylinder of light retracted, as did the small charichalum dome. As the spike formation around Noah lowered its points flat to the floor once more, Rebecca held her breath.

Noah was a little shaky on his feet when he found himself bound by gravity once more, but he managed to raise his heavy, wobbling head. ‘I am a God!' he cried out, sounding liberated and exhilarated by what he had just been through. ‘I am a galaxy filled with stars,' he yelled, with just as much conviction. Then, as a violent rush of awareness swept over him, he ran for
the perimeter of the sacred learning device and promptly threw up.

‘Goodness gracious,' Rebecca gasped, rushing off to his assistance.

It's just nerves and shock … he'll be fine.

Rebecca didn't waver from her course. ‘Noah, are you alright?'

‘I am better than alright.' He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and turned back to assure his oncoming wife: ‘I am bloody well fantastic!' He stood tall. ‘I feel like I could take on the whole of the Pantheon and win! For this
tiny little instance
in time is
nothing
…
nothing
compared to the great expanse of existence, that goes so far beyond the universe as we understand it, that …' he broke into laughter as he was so overwhelmed, ‘… that I cannot even begin to express the infinite hugeness and complexity of just our soul-mind's role therein. Now that I realise how grand and diverse the realms of creation are, I shall never again fear for this earthly life we lead. This physical consciousness
is
the hell that Christians once feared, for there is no state of awareness more painful or courageous than this one … we are, all of us, fallen angels … fallen from the stars.'

As Noah wandered away to attempt to assimilate his experience in the Sensor-sphere into his thoughts, Rebecca left him to speak with Gwyn ap Nudd.

The Lord of the Otherworld knew her concerns from her expression.
Have no fear, he's not insane … for thus unfolds the path to enlightenment. And you shall be the next to brave it.

Rebecca gasped, taken aback by the notion. ‘But I thought Noah was the only one —'

Who could unlock the secrets.
Gwyn corrected her misconception.
In other words, only
he
can lead the adept to this learning tool, but he shall not be the only one to be made privy to its secret knowledge. Why did you think you were here?

His question delighted, honoured and humbled Rebecca all at once. ‘I hadn't thought,' she confessed in all honesty. ‘I came because Noah needed me.'

Yes, he does.
Gwyn smiled, as he knew the fact was pleasing to her.
This man's destiny and development have always paralleled your own, and will continue to do so far into the future.

‘But I am no scholar and certainly no spiritualist.' She shied away from the Lord, feeling very inadequate suddenly. ‘I've been so caught up with my responsibilities with KEPA that I have neglected my responsibility to myself. I should have dedicated more time to exploring the higher mysteries. I had a vision of this place; surely that should have been incentive enough to prepare, but —'