Harmonizer's Evolution (Balancer's Soul cycle) (85 page)

Then there
came
the food.

Somehow
Connor grandparents
cooked enough to feed
each and every single one of them
.
David
slaughtered thirty
four
of his cows just to feed
the whole family
. He
secretly
spent the past few day’s smoking
larg
e chunks of meat, on the bone. Connor
counted that ten of the cows were strictly for Sorono and his family. The three Keepers ate their smoked meals and enjoyed the hickory flavor cooked into the meat. Then there was the rest of the food.
It
was an assortment of food that everyone would enjoy. It
felt
like an enormous
T
hanksgiving dinner
,
capable of feeding over one hundred people, but
the
eighteen sure did enjoy every last bite.

During and after the meal the conversations bounced
around
everywhere. Everyone enjoyed themselves and their
evening
companion
s
. There were casual, joking and even some gossiping conversations. The main talkers and instigators of the group usually came from
Rhoda,
Kara, Jillian and surprisingly
Connor’s
son. Darrel would easily grow up to be a tr
oublemaker, but of the good variety
.

Before everyone
retired for the night and left for home
,
David
gained all attention upon himself. He spoke loud enough for everyone to clearly hear them. “I know you all are going to fight for our sakes.” His tone
implied
true honoring. “Even I
, a simple old human, can feel how serious things are getting. If you win, and I’m
betting
everything that you will, things will probably get worse before they get better. It will be a shock to the world of ignorant humans that immortals do live. Some will be openly hostile and my hope is that no one will get hurt for their anger. But if you ever doubt that there are sincere people in the world, please come by here and let me knock some sense back into you.” He raised his fist
and pointed it a across the table
, while smiling. Then his voice softened
, but
Connor
could hear how he was forcing his thick throat to say
“
Just please come home to where I can do it anyway. I don’t want to say goodbye
for the last time
.”

“Then how about we all just say, we will see you later
,
rather than
saying
goodbye.”
Sorono said with his own smile. Even his piercing cat
like hazel eyes softened upon Connor’s humble
grandfather.
“David, you are a kindhearted soul. I think of you as one of my rare human friends. You are honest
and trustworthy. I know the ways of man because I’ve literally watched your species evolve over the millennia
’s
. This will be a difficult road we take, but it is one worth risking. Wouldn’t you say?”

David an
d the rest of
them
went silent. After
a
short break, the reality
i
s
that
nothing in life
i
s certain, but it is
always
worth fighting for.

E
ach
person
gave thanks to
the May’s
for their hospitality and caring.
Connor
gave a solid
hug and a kiss on the cheek to his
grandma and
David
accepted
a hug and a punch to his shoulder.
He returned the gesture.

Th
en there
was the
,
‘
I’ll see you later
,’
farewells. They knew it even if it wasn’t said aloud. They didn’t cry, but their wrinkled expressions couldn’t hide their
worry. They loved and trusted them
. That was enough.

Sarah, Kara and even Mark gave their unspoken farewell.

After a few hours after falling to bed fr
om exhaustion, something
roused
Connor
from sleep.
He
realized that is was already early morning
, sitting
up. What woke
him
was Sarah as she sat on the edge of the bed.

Then
came the flood of
her emotions.

“Prince
ss, what’s the matter?” After his question he
yawned deeply. It was then that
he
realized she was already fully clothed and armed
to the teeth
. She quickly pulled from her thoughts as she twisted her head in a flash. Her eyes were puffy and red. She was weeping silently.

He
flipped the sheet off
his
body and move
d to her side and took her in his
arms to clutch her to
his
chest. “Sarah, what’s wrong?”

She shook her head on
his
chest and clutched herself
even
tighter to him
.

It took several minutes for her to calm herself down. Her arms loos
ened and she drew away slightly,
j
ust enough to look up at him
. Sarah’s voice was strained and very weak, but she finally managed to talk. “Connor, it’s just a mother’s worry. After I said goodbye to your grandparents last night
,
it made me come to a conclusion that I’ve been dreading
over
for months.” She brushed a stream of fresh tears
off her cheeks
with the back of her left hand. She sniffed
and took her eyes away from his
. “I’ve decided to give the kids to Jenny before we leave to reunite with our people. I’m sorry for being so distraught, but I can’t help it. They are our babies and I haven’t even had the guts to tell them wh
at is going to happen to them. W
hat if they resent me for ditching them on Jenny?
What kind of a mother am I, going off to fight without a second thought while I can’t even tell them that we might never come back? I’m a horrible mother…”

He
brought her into
his
chest again and just let her cry. When she quit sobbing, but continued pouring salty streams
from her eyes, he
began speaking as securely as his
tight voice could allow. “Sarah, you are anything, but a bad mother.
T
hey know that or else they would complain much more than usual. If you
really
were bad
,
neither Pearl nor Darrel would rather be held by you than me. Yes, they love me too, but they are so much more comfortable in your soft embrace than mine. We bring them practically every day to the field and allow them to see what most children couldn’t comprehend. Despite being only a few months old, their
mental capacity has already
e
xce
eded that of many full grown adults. They are our children and that means they are smart and can handle much more than we’ve given them credit for. They can handle it, I know they can.” Sarah finally leaned back again and her green eyes were still tearing.
“I also agree that today is the day. Now let’s go sit them down properly and tell them what is going on.”

Connor looked down at his
chest and said “Allow me to take a shower while you go wake them up. We’ll do this like always…together.”

She sniffled a
bit more before finally giving
a positive nod.

While he
headed for the bathroom, Sarah went up to
the
bedroom mirror to try and make herself more presentable.

After the shower ended and Connor
suited up
in
armor and slid on a black
sleeved shirt and black pants, he
saw
him
self in the mirror.
The silver armlet shone on his
left arm, after rolling up
the sleeve for a moment. Then he
looked at the steel wedding band on the same arm.
He
had the symbol for S
arah on
that
arm and
the
worldly proof as
her husband on
his
ring finger.

Neither
Darrel nor Pearl had anything symbolic from
them
.

He
rolled
the sleeve down and marched his
way into
the workshop. He
grabbed some small scraps of steel from a mason jar and brought
his
power forth. Using Metal
,
he
made two special rings. Each ring would be able to fit on their fingers in time, but they wouldn’t become adults for several more decades. On a flat display of each ring held half of an X and the other half of the symbol was half of a pentagram that linked
to its counterpart.

Now they will always have something to remember us by.

Before leaving the workshop Connor
grabbed two durable leather strings and threaded the rings.

By the time
he
made it into the living room, both Darrel and Pearl were wide awake and staring at Sarah while they were in their car-seats.

Pearl saw Connor
first and her hazel and green eyes were pleading.
“Daddy, Mommy looks like she’s been crying. Is she in pain or something?”

“A little of both, I assume.” Sarah said in defense of herself. She looked at
him
and h
ad finally begun to relax. She continued
struggling and
his
bond sympathized.
He made his
way over to sit beside Sarah while hiding the gifts in
his
left hand.

Sarah was barely holding herself together as it was
,
so it was up to
him
to do most of the talking
. “Darrel, Pearl.” Their tiny and knowledgeable eyes found
his
. “Mommy and I need to tell you something very important.” Sarah slowly snaked her left arm through
his
right. She needed the most support. “You are going to spend some time with your G’ama for awhile. The deadline is fast approaching and we need to know that you are safe.”

“Daddy,”
Darrel spoke calmly, but even his adorable facial features looked slightly pained.
“If we are going to G’ama’s house, does that mean if something should happen to you and Mommy that she would take care of us?”

He
said “Yes.” and Sarah’s arm clutched even tighter. “If something terrible happens
, take care of G’ama and your sister. You will be the man of the house so be sure to grow big and strong like me.” Inside Darrel’s mind he
thought
it would be impossible to grow
that
big and it made
Connor
smile. “Now, you must listen to your G’ama because she will gui
de you properly. And if she get
s to be too needy
and overprotective
,
just remember that she is doing it
all
out of love.”

“Daddy! I don’t want either you or Mommy to go. It’s too soon
for you to leave me
!”
Pearl chimed.

“I know you don’t, sweetie.” He
said
softly and her eyes began spilling over
like her mother. “We have the power to save lives and we will use it. There is only one path we can take
,
and we will. We are also going to fight for you gu
ys too.” He
then spoke strongly and it stopped
his
daughter’s tears. “I’ve made something for the two of you. In
case we don’t come back, I know you never want to forget those who loved you before all others.”

Connor
reached forward and placed the stringed rings in each of their tiny hands. They held them with reverence while their eyes studied what they held.
Once Sarah saw the engravings
she held back another stream of tears.
“Those marking on your rings are the symbols of your mother and me. Wherever we are
,
just look into that ring and we’ll be with you always. If you are afraid
,
it will help to protect you. We will always be your loving parents and you will always be our most priceless treasures.
”