Known Afterlife (The Provider Trilogy, Volume One) (25 page)

"Going forward, your faith in the Provider will be challenged in ways beyond your comprehension. There will not be time to meditate for answers, nor will your devout faith be enough. You must learn to trust your heart now if we expect to succeed in our mission. I can no longer accept your allegiance based only on your belief in the Provider. Your decision to do so must come from within."

"I will follow you Steffor and choose to do so free of any command beyond my own," Grimlock stated.

"I too choose to follow you based on what my heart tells me to be true," Kilton followed with fresh resolve.

M
artna stood silently with her eyes shut in attempt to calm her mind.

Steffor turned to Vejax who met his eye with an anticipated glare. "I cannot embrace what you ask me to do. It is not possible for me to abandon my faith in something that has flawlessly
served me in life. I choose to follow and protect you because I believe without question in what the Provider has told me: the two of you are one in the same."

Steffor studied his friend's stubborn face and grew satisfied with his reply.
He chooses with his heart, he simply does not see it that way....yet.

"I share master Vejax's view but cannot deny the presence of my soul and its own desires," Martna said with uncharacteristic femi
nine softness. "It tells me my role in the future is intertwined with all of you. That I must be bold and find the strength to do what must be done, no matter how much it may conflict with my deeply instilled beliefs. I will follow you Steffor, I choose do so on my own free will."

It is good to be loved .The love I feel for these four souls spans an eternity. Our bond has been nurtured by the essence of life, each of us emoting the supportive role of friend, sibling, spouse or parent over countless lifetime
s, the different characteristics of each personality creating the balance and collective development required for all us to grow.

"Cheer up my friends!" Steffor said. "We do not risk taking this new road in our eternal journey alone, we share this challeng
e with the world. Let us embark on our new age confident it will lead us to the center of our very existence, to the knowledge that will enable all souls to ascend. Join me as I embrace the Provider's gift." He turned back around and waited a moment for them to gather behind him. Once assembled, Steffor denied the future no longer and grasped his staff.

Its weight was deceptive. Steffor awkwardly turned the rod left to right, noting the odd resistance it produced, like pushing his hand against a strong curr
ent of water.

"The movement of its color has no relation to the direction you turn it or position you hold it," Grimlock astutely observed.

"What do you feel Steffor?" Kilton inquired in a captivated whisper.

"The endless power of the Provider
…" Steffor's reply trailed off as the Source within him synced with the staff. He resisted the impulse to fight and allowed the vessel to aggressively probe his essence and connect with the raw power welled deep within his being. Similar to the day he first dawned his garments, he experienced the sensation of material and body merge as one. A second later Steffor managed to utter a startled "Oh!" before he lost complete control of every muscle in his body.

"Steffor?" Kilton said in response to his sudden outcry and rigi
d posture. He placed a tentative hand on his shoulder. The seasoned Teuton gasped in horror at the touch of Steffor's flesh. "His flesh is like stone," he said to the others.

Steffor felt each place a hand on his back to confirm and heard their similar as
tonished response to his condition, but remained frozen in place.

"He no longer breathes," Vejax noted with concern.

I can't breathe!
Steffor panicked, becoming aware of his lungs dormant state for the first time.

Do not place boundaries on your creation.
The Provider's familiar voice enabled him to relax, letting the consciousness of his staff seep into every fiber of his being. Seconds later, their connection was complete.

Steffor regained control of his body and turned around to face his companions. He g
ripped the staff loosely in both hands and held it before them. Without warning, a blinding burst of light flashed, causing all to reflexively shut their eyes and turn away. Upon looking back, the staff had transformed into a geometrically perfect pole standing shoulder high.

Before anyone could comment on the staff's magical change, a transparent beam of blue light shot from both ends, connected in the middle and, with the staff acting as its base, formed an equilateral triangle. Created from the same blue
light, positioned to the side of the point formed by the two beams of light, a three dimensional rendering of the Provider materialized.

"Do the rest of you see this?" Steffor asked, catching his breath.

Heads nodded but none said a word, each fascinated by the architectural hologram of their world projected before them. Intuitively, seeing the schematic with both physical and inner eye, Steffor recognized the image as the Provider viewed from outer space, just outside the atmosphere. Steffor reached out with his mind and rotated the image than zoomed in and out to view locations along the planet with blazing speed.
I can see anywhere, any time by simply thinking it!

You can see and do more,
the Provider added.

On cue, revealed with minute detail, Steffor v
iewed the Source flowing through the world. The allegoric tributaries, streams, rivers and shoreline witnessed in his previous meditative vision, replaced by a visible blue current of energy moving through every leaf and creature, all revealed to the naked eye.

"Do you see the Source?" Steffor asked his friends.

"Yes." Kilton said in awe.

"I am going to attempt to rectify the recent dysfunction of the Mysticnet." Instincts confirmed what Leonor had guessed, that the creation of his staff had disrupted the M
ystics' ability to connect to both one another and Citizens alike. The condition is temporary, he speculated, it is just a matter of re-syncing them back into the proper modality.

If I assume the role of both Mystic and network, for just a few moments, th
e action should put things back the way they were.

He turned to the staff, the tool enabling him to both visualize and complete the intricate procedure, imploring for both affirmation and direction. A prolific voice responded.

Yes, the actions you intend to take will reconnect Mystic-to-Mystic and consequently Mystic to Citizen. Yes, in order for our society to evolve, both Mysticnet and the database of history it procures must be reinstated. No, things will never be the same once you are done.

Steffor too
k a deep breath, closed his eyes, opened a conduit and entered the flow of Source. Complete immersion into the energy that formed all life was instant. No longer limited by flesh and bone, the only remnants of either now anchored to his staff, the unique signature of the life known as Steffor, uninhibited by the ego, explored the world. Elated by the feeling of being everywhere, in everything, being all races while none at all, he honed his macro existence and concentrated on how each race of Citizen wielded the Source.

The Guardian, the existence closest to his soul in this lifetime, was the first race experienced from this perspective. Gifted athletes with immense strength, dexterity, intelligence and charisma, the command of intense power at their fingert
ips—shifted directly from the churning sea of life housed deep within Belly Briar—the challenge facing the Guardian did not come from his physical world, but the mental. Life as a Guardian was an incarnation wrought with the highest morale challenges a soul would ever face, harnessed by the yoke of responsibility of always choosing the good of others over oneself.

The Shifter, the most common class of Citizen, was the next race to register. Embodied within the accessible fibers that formed wood, bark and le
af, his essence was shifted—from sensual caress to forceful punch—by the Provider's artists, architects, builders, farmers and skilled laborers. In one congruent wave, Steffor relived past lifetimes that fulfilled roles deemed necessary for his growth, a stark reminder that all life was meaningful no matter how mundane it appeared.

Drawn to the rare and delicate life of a Healer, he transitioned his concentration from the Provider's body to its spirit: the aura surrounding both planet and its living organis
ms in a protective shroud. Tuned to this natural connection between Citizen and Source felt, he allowed the beloved race to shift his spirit to mend broken bone and flesh, to nurture the health and growth of man, tree and all living creatures alike.

Last, moving from spirit to mind, he entered the Provider's hollowed core, the pipeline that fed the Source to all life. Here is where the Mystic shifts my endless energy to cultivate the telepathic network, uniting the mind and spirit of all Citizens to
each other and in turn, the Provider. Steffor viewed this symbiotic relationship between Citizen and the Provider in a new light, recognizing the byproduct of the beautiful union as none other than the Deeds, the ever-evolving memory of all life experiences that foster the continual growth of the Provider.

The Deeds, to Steffor's relief, remained intact; from the first day man shifted the Source and became Citizen up to his own recent experience in the Forging Ceremony. The flow of Source, in every measurabl
e facet, was stronger than ever. With these potential factors removed, he concluded the issue must lay with one or more of the Mystics.

His objective close at hand, Steffor jumped from one Mystic to the other, probing each communication hub for any flaws t
hat would explain the network's recent failure. Region by region, from the cluster of Mystics residing in Razum, to the distant field Mystic living amongst the harvest Shifters, individually, they all functioned flawlessly.

Tillamund! His removal must be a
ccounted for. Tillamund now resides within my staff; therefore, I must restore the balance.

Steffor dove deep into the Forging Tree, systematically navigating the remnant signatures of past Teutons and locating Tillamund
’s, the same he sensed now residing within his staff. He gathered the compounds that created Tillamund, the Forging Tree, his Teuton Staff and himself and meshed them into a heterogeneous mixture. Once done, he ignited the concoction and in doing so, forever transformed the Forging Tree into what Citizens would come to call the Mystic Tower.

He returned to body and staff. The four Guardians stood staring up with mouths agape. He followed their gaze. Gone was the goliath tree with its layers of fractal limbs and dense canopy. In its place loom
ed a wooden monolith. Perfectly round, displaying the same width at the base as the top and possessed by the same fluid color and refraction traits of his staff. A proud smile creased his face as he admired his first creation.

"What have you done?" Vejax a
sked in a castigating whisper, his eyes still transfixed on the Mystic Tower.

"I have reestablished the Mysticnet."

Before anyone could comment further, a sudden influx of images and sounds blared from the no longer surceased Mysticnet. "Grab hold of my staff," Steffor ordered. Doing as he said without question, Steffor extended his power to each, then quickly leveraged the trinity of Mystic Tower, staff and Citizen to filter the rushing stream of data into one, comprehendible message.

The map reappeared, n
ow displaying the location of every Mystic, denoted as pulsing blue dots. Steffor navigated from one to the other, surveying the images of groggy faces and sightless eyes, each asking the same dumfounded questions. "Is that you...what happened....the Deeds, they are still intact...what is happening!"

"What is that?" Grimlock asked, pointing at a chaotic commotion of Source located at Provider's center.

Steffor zoomed in for a closer inspection. The area in question was at a major fork in the main pipeline of Source, located near Razum City. There, inside the Trunk’s hollow core, just above Razum, like an invasive island constricting a river's flow, a brackish red blight with a virulent black core had formed. The contaminated knot of energy throbbed menacingly, expanding with every pulse, instilling the Guardians with a foreign fear.

"It is an abomination," Kilton replied. "We cannot allow it to spread."

Driven by paternal impulse, Steffor locked onto every Mystic within range of the area and, with a quick tweak of the mind, morphed the perspectives of each to create one, omnipotent view. The customized venue centered them a mile out and several hundred feet above Razum City, providing the Guardians a rare look at the immense limb.

"Kilton, sync with Traiken and the other Guardians within the city and update them on this development. Once done, do the same for the rest." With a quick nod, his old friend closed his eyes and relayed the message.

"What do we search for?" Vejax asked, understanding Steffor's recent impulse but uncertain as to what to do next.

"Any outward anomaly or sign that could be connected to this phenomenon," Steffor said, disturbed by the frantic pitch of his voice.