Becoming (25 page)

Images flashed like shocking pops of bright
light, creating a surreal strobe effect. Centuries of Estilorian
consciousness combated aggressively for dominance against less than
two decades of human awareness.

There was no contest.

In a vague, floating, almost disinterested
way, Gabriel realized that Ini-herit had lied. The Estilorian had
known that the chances were nonexistent that he would be able to
return to the Estilorian plane while retaining his human
sensibilities. None who had sent Gabriel over to be born a human
had believed that he would succeed with his quest.

But then, they hadn’t believed he would learn
to love.

Amber...

She became an anchor. His sword and shield.
As he felt his human self falling beneath the Estilorian assault,
he used what abilities he had to conjure her image. Her delightful
face. Her familiar, comforting scent. The feel of her lips against
his. Her laugh. Her sweet vulnerability. Her unmatched courage.

Wave after wave of battling images washed
over and through him, threatening to drown him. It felt like all of
the Estilorians stood behind the waves. But this was about what
he
wanted, not what they believed. He had Amber to keep him
afloat. He refused to yield.

Eventually, the sense of attack eased. The
brutal haze surrounding his mind began to clear. He struggled to
the point of mental exhaustion against the wealth of images and
information that inundated him as he neared the end of his
transition. Too much at once, he sensed, would pull him too far
from where he wanted to be.

With Amber.

So, as he began to feel more stable, he
focused on categorizing the information flooding in. Human here,
Estilorian there. And as he felt himself merge completely with his
Estilorian self, he realized he had been victorious.

His eyes opened. Unmoving, he stared up at
the cream-colored ceiling above him for a moment as he forced the
noise in his head to quiet down. He imagined it would take time to
merge his two consciousnesses to the point where he didn’t feel
like his head was stuffed with more information than could ever be
processed.

He realized as his thoughts settled that he
was in a bed. More than that…it was
his
bed. It was an odd
feeling, remembering something like that, yet not quite remembering
it. Almost like experiencing déjà vu.

Propping himself up on his elbows, he glanced
around. The large, comfortable bed had been built in the center of
the spacious room. It was made of beautiful, polished dark wood,
the frame an intricate design that resembled a Roman tub with a
carved headboard. Several steps led down each side to an inlaid
stone floor. A couple of woven mats in neutral colors decorated the
floors. A single wardrobe in the same dark wood stood in a corner
of the room. He didn’t note a single decoration on the
cream-colored walls, nor any knickknacks. Not even a TV or
radio.

Man, his life must have been boring.

More intriguing, though, were the floating
balls of energy lighting the room. No need for lamps when you could
generate your own light, he figured. He then noted the nondescript,
beige-colored sheet covering him from the waist down. It didn’t
appear that he was wearing anything underneath it. Although he
tried to remember, he wasn’t sure if he had left the plane in this
manner or if he had been placed here. It was mildly
disconcerting.

He quickly determined from his scan that the
girls were elsewhere. He frowned. He wanted to see Amber.

Finally, he sat up the rest of the way and
fully faced the group of Estilorians standing a few feet from the
foot of his bed watching him. He counted over twenty males, their
appearances ranging in age, size and coloring. Most of them had
burnt orange eyes. Three of them were markedly different from the
rest.

The largest of these three males had silver
eyes. Not gray, but an almost liquid, iridescent silver. He had
tanned skin and long, midnight black hair tied back in a single
braid. Had he been human, Gabriel might have guessed he heralded
from the Middle East. He appeared to be between twenty and
twenty-five human years old and was thickly muscled, the black tank
top and khaki camo pants he wore displaying a highly tuned physique
and an array of silver tattoos. His expressionless eyes stayed
focused on Gabriel’s every movement.

Another male about the same age in appearance
had short, curly, red hair and unusually dark green eyes, and stood
to the far right of the group. He kept his arms crossed over his
chest, but he looked more curious than forbidding. Gabriel’s human
self found his outfit of a knee-length white toga and leather
sandals absolutely hilarious.

The third of the unique males, this one with
short, wavy, white-blond hair, wore a gray tank top and navy blue
pants with some kind of leather loafers or moccasins. He looked
several years younger than his counterparts and stood in the center
of the group, slightly in front of the others. He watched Gabriel
with vivid and thoughtful dark purple eyes.

Gathering the sheet around his waist and
holding it in place with his right hand, Gabriel suddenly pushed
himself to the side of the bed and descended the stairs. He had
expected to feel weak or sore or unable to move comfortably, like a
patient awakening from a long coma. On the contrary, he felt
stronger and healthier than he had when he left the human
plane.

Holy crap. I’m on another plane of
existence.

The errant, distinctly human thought struck
him as he touched the stone floor with his bare feet and he
realized that he stood taller than most of the other males, almost
all of whom wore boots. Either he was taller in this form, or they
were all shorter than six-two. But such an observation was hardly
the main issue right now.

He paused in front of the dark-haired,
silver-eyed male. They were nearly on eye level. “You lied,”
Gabriel said, quite pleased to hear his human southern accent in
the words. “Ini-herit.”

The group started. Most of them exchanged
glances with each other. Ini-herit, however, held Gabriel’s gaze
without flinching.

“I said what I needed to in order to get you
here,” he responded.

“Where’s Amber?”

“You remember her?” the purple-eyed
Estilorian asked. He sounded intrigued.

Gabriel gave him a considering look and
tentatively probed his overtaxed memories. He came back with the
name Knorbis. He remembered he was the Wymzesti elder who predicted
the girls’ births so many centuries ago. He answered, “Of course I
remember Amber.” He glanced around at all of the males in the room.
“I remember everything from the other plane.”

Another round of murmurs swept through the
room. Knorbis and Ini-herit exchanged a long look.

Growing frustrated, Gabriel said, “Look, you
obviously got into my room pretty damn quick after materializing
over here, Ini-herit, since you’re fully dressed and everything. So
bring me to Amber. Are the sisters in another bedroom?”

“They are not together,” Ini-herit
replied.

“What do you mean? They’re in separate
bedrooms?” Gabriel tried to remember more details about this
dwelling that his Estilorian self called home. It was like trying
to swim through molasses.

“No. It was deemed unwise to keep them
together. If one was found, all would be found. So they are each at
three secret locations with their own contingent of Waresti, and of
course, their assigned Gloresti and Orculesti. They are perfectly
safe.”

Blinking, Gabriel glanced around the room. A
thought tingled at his awareness. “Aren’t those classes of
Estilorian mostly male?”

Knorbis answered, seemingly unsurprised by
Gabriel’s confusion and obviously compromised memories. “The
Orculesti actually contain many females. We sent a female Orculesti
with each contingent.”

“Okay. And how many Waresti are with each of
the girls?”

Ini-herit waved his hands to either side,
indicating the group in the room.

“So…let me get this straight,” Gabriel said
levelly, focusing on maintaining his patience. “You presently have
a contingent of approximately twenty males—oh, and one
female—standing guard over these three teenage, half-human females
who have little to no understanding of Estilorian culture. And,” he
looked down at himself, “the girls are awakening naked, in a
strange place, without anyone they know nearby.”

There was a very long pause.

“What in the hell are you people thinking?”
he asked in a near shout when he realized he had been correct. He
thought of Amber and her distrust of strangers, then magnified her
anxiety by introducing the element of having no clothing and being
in a new, unfamiliar place, not to mention an unfamiliar body.

He could have choked someone.

“I told you so,” the red-haired, green-eyed
Orculesti said.

Gabriel again scanned his memories for this
particular Estilorian’s identity and came back with the name
Ailfrid. He remembered Ini-herit mentioning that the Orculesti as a
class had the ability to send and receive thoughts to and from
Estilorians on the human plane. They served as advisors. He
suspected that they had a better understanding about human thought
processes than most other Estilorian classes. Rather ironically,
though, it appeared most of the other classes didn’t give the
Orculesti much credence. He saw now that everyone in the room was
giving Ailfrid irritated glances.

Exhaling loudly, Gabriel reached up to rub
his left hand down his face as he tried to think of what to do.
When his hand reached his mouth, he felt the warm metal on his ring
finger. He realized with a great deal of astonishment that he was
still wearing the promise ring he had exchanged with Amber.
Clamping down on the triumph and elation that surged through him,
he forced his expression to remain carefully blank and lowered his
hand back to his side.

Then, bringing the situation back into focus,
he glared at Knorbis and Ini-herit. “I’m going to find some
clothing. You need to get me to Amber immediately.”

They didn’t argue as he marched over to the
wardrobe and yanked the door open. He pulled out the first full set
of clothing he could find and headed into the adjoining bathroom,
closing the door behind him. With barely a glance at the walk-in
shower and enormous bathtub, he set the clothes on the marble
vanity counter, dropped his sheet to the ground and walked to the
toilet to relieve himself. Apparently, Estilorians still performed
the same general bodily functions as humans.

As he washed his hands, he gazed at his
reflection in the mirror running behind the long vanity. He had
kept his human eye color, he realized, and wondered at the
significance of that. His eyes had been dark blue on this plane, he
remembered now. His dark brown hair was a bit longer here, but
seemed to be the same texture and general waviness. The rest of his
facial features weren’t that dramatically different. Zayna the
Scultresti had evidently known what she was doing. There was a bit
more sharpness to the planes of his face now, seeming to add a year
or two to his physical age. And, he observed as he dried his hands
on a white towel, he was definitely taller and more muscular than
he had been as a human.

“Freaking weird,” he breathed, and reached
for the first item of clothing on the pile so he could get dressed.
He wanted to see Amber.

Knorbis looked over at Ini-herit the moment
the bathroom door closed. His expression was inscrutable. “I admit
to being surprised that this actually worked. His eye color has
changed, of course, as has his accent. And he no longer bears his
Gloresti markings. That is all unexpected. Did you see the
ring?”

Ini-herit was still staring at the closed
bathroom door. “I did. It crossed the planes. I noticed that he and
Ambryl each wore one as humans.”

“She also wears a ring?” Knorbis gave this a
moment’s consideration. “And she repelled you when you attempted to
enter Gabriel’s human mind?”

Ini-herit gave a brief nod.

“I wonder…does this signify what I suspect it
does?”

“We will not know until they reunite. But it
is, as you said, unexpected.”

Shaking his head, Knorbis said, “If this is
what it appears, this has tremendous significance to our people.
There will be much to consider.”

“Indeed.” Ini-herit finally looked away from
the bathroom door and caught Knorbis’ gaze. “I will be interested
to gain your impressions after you see the two of them together. I
believe you will find yourself reconsidering everything you ever
thought you knew about human emotions.”

Along the far reaches of the Estilorian
plane, Grolkinei sat at the head of his long, wooden dining table.
As it was now night, the windows reflected the many flickering
candles throughout the vast, richly-decorated room. He occasionally
enjoyed the more archaic method of illumination to the balls of red
light his class could create. The dining table was covered in
nearly every conceivable kind of food and drink, but none of it
interested him.

No, what interested him was the news now
being conveyed to him by Layla, the only other presence in the
room.

“The transitions were all successful, my
lord,” she said.

He smiled darkly. “So, you successfully
intercepted the thoughts of their Orculesti?” When she nodded and
bit into a cracker covered in cheese, he ran his fingers along her
shoulder in approval. “I knew you could do it. Predicting that they
would ultimately inform the elders of the news made it easy enough
to focus your energies on the interception. Even their best masking
talents cannot prevent overhead thoughts if the target of them is
known. And they are clearly outside the protections of their main
base. Foolish idiots.”