Aeon

“You have been summoned. Awaken, Aeon.” A voice called out, layered with male and female tones.

Inky blackness shifted into a dimly lit venue of nothingness — smaller points of white, purple and blue lights materialized around the infinite void. Among them, a bigger white ball of light floated on a fixed path. It circled around an amazonian feminine frame. Her body was bare and pale — voluptuous with a fair amount of muscle mass to be called a warrior. Her eyes slowly fluttered open as she sat up and then trained them on the white mass of light. As she focused on the orb, her body spun in sync with it, as if the orb allowed her to keep her sleepy gaze fixed on it.

“I’ve awakened…” She started. “What do you want?”

“Is that any way to speak to your mentor, Talida?”

“My apologies, Chromius. I’ve been asleep for so long. It’s dark in there, you know.”

“That will no longer be a concern. You have been given a task.”

Talida pursed her lips. Her eyes took on a serious glare that gave her angelic visage a hint of murderous intent. None of the Odoman Khaai were ever called upon unless the situation was dire. Seeing as how she, the Prime Sentinel of the Khaai, was called upon, the situation had to have been nothing short of catastrophic. The white orb slowed to a halt.

“Your task...is a boy. He is prey to the Insatyr, and his Spirit is on the line. You both have a connection that goes far beyond his current lifetime.”

“What do you mean, Chromius?”

“You will find out in due time, Daughter. Your task will reveal all you need to know about this boy’s past.”

Talida’s glare became twice as serious. Vague scenes of previous dreams floated to the forefront of her mind. She still couldn’t make sense of what they meant, or even the hooded figure that had appeared from time to time. She did, however, understand that this figure may have been her subconscious’ way of telling her that something major was coming. This figure was also a boy. No taller than chest height to her.

“I take it you have received my transmissions on the appearance of the boy?”

Talida’s eyes glinted.

“No, just a hooded figure. I couldn’t see his face.”

“Ah, well then. Let me refresh your memory.”

Not a second passed when a naked figure materialized before her in holographic form, starting from soles to crown. The details of the body were intricately represented as if the pale boy were physically there. He was thin with decent muscle mass. His eye color matched that of the purest snow, which encompassed serpentine pupils. His hair was also snow white, shaggy and long; it stretched down to his lower back with protruding spikes here and there. Talida scanned the boy’s form from head to toe as quickly as he’d appeared.

“He’s around eighteen, five foot eleven and weighs roughly 170 pounds. Correct?”

“That is correct. You will find him in the Khanim Realm. Earth sector — North America.”

“Before I go, what is it about this boy that makes him so special, and what is his name?”

Chromius exuded an air of understanding regarding Talida’s ignorance.

“His name is Orion and he holds a power far beyond what the typical human is capable of. He is one of many, but one of the strongest nonetheless. The Insatyr plans to use this power to augment Its own for total control of the Odoma. There is no doubt you will find others who are looking for Orion — both friend and foe. Be on your guard.”

“Of course, Chromius.”

Talida had never been in the Earth Sector, but the Khannim realm was more or less familiar to her. Seeing as how the Khaanim realm was home to humanity — a species on the verge of either spiritual Ascension or Descension — many beings had been there to experience the rise in consciousness. That includes Talida herself. She had been more of a watcher than experiencer though. Outside of Earth Sector, she’d travelled around the planet for centuries at a time per incarnation to keep watch over the progress. As far as physically incarnating on the planet, however, she’d never done that.

That would work to her advantage considering the Insatyr had invaded the planet during its creation. In fact, the planet was made by the Insatyr. Made from the desecrated remnants of the first home of the original model of humans. If Orion were as powerful as Chromius had made him out to be, then Orion must have been part of the Original Humankind — the Elaverim. Talida recounted as much information as she could about the Elaverim. Centuries of lifetimes she’d missed during her slumber poured through her mind with the help of Chromius. The shared data locked itself away in the forefront of her mind for later use.

“You should hurry, my daughter. Time is of the essence.”

“Where is my exact destination?”

“To avoid being detected so close to Orion upon arrival by the Insatyr, you will be placed several hundred miles from his modern dwelling place. It is a state called Alabama.”

Traveling. That was the one thing Talida felt would be enjoyable throughout this journey. She was still stuck on the idea of Orion having a past with her. She couldn’t fathom just what kind of relation she’d had with a possible descendant of the Elaverim. Regardless, she was given a search and retrieval task. Or was it a search and guard mission?

“It is a search and guard mission, Talida. You will be with him throughout the remainder of his life and even after. You will also need to find five other bodyguards to complete your new family. Assume that they will also be looking for Orion.”

These other “bodyguards” must have been what Chromius was referring to as the “friends”. With that, Talida expressed that she was ready for departure. She held her hand out in front of her, placing it on Chromius’ otherwise corporeal form. A flash of bright lights overwhelmed her vision before going completely black.

The cool air around Talida made her shudder. When she’d finally decided to open her eyes, she realized she’d been dropped in an alleyway. Judging by the silence, however, she wasn’t too close to the inner city. She stumbled to her feet and dragged her groggy body to the exit. All she could find from peeking her head out of the alley was a small building that said “now leaving Alabama”. She chuckled to herself as she rubbed her eyes.

“Leave it to Chromius to drop me off in an alley and then make up for it like this.” She grumbled playfully.

There was no one around, for the most part. Just a few people coming and going from the building. She’d even caught one man leaving while he zipped up his pants. In that moment, Talida had felt a sudden burning in her bladder that pulsed the more she thought about it. Without hesitation, she made a speedy pace to the front doors, ignoring the people that had been eyeing her down. They all had confused glares. Some of the men continued to stare, however, and she felt their gaze even after they were behind her.

I didn’t know humans were such perverts...Wait…

She slammed the heel of her palm into the doors. With her head on a swivel, she quickly located any sign that pointed to the women’s restroom and then entered. The restroom was pristine, but she didn’t have much time to admire it before her reflection caught her completely off guard. She slapped her hand over her mouth to avoid alerting anyone to her apparent shock. It’s been a while since she’d seen herself in a mirror. To add to the joke, Chromius had dressed her in her usual attire from her home planet.

“It all makes sense now! Chromius, you bastard!” She chuckled, shaking her head in disbelief.

She now understood why people had been staring her down. It was supposed to be Chromius’ version of a joke. He drops her off in an alleyway, but she’s on the border of Alabama instead of in the middle of the state. To reverse his apology, though, he dressed her in form fitting clothes as a “sorry not sorry” kind of gag. For a wise old ball of nothing, he sure had a sense of humor, even when presenting a pressing task. The task. Talida immediately forgot about the prank and bathroom break. It took a random citizen walking into the restroom for her to realize she’d been staring at her reflection for goddess knows how long. She made haste, acting like she was fixing her hair before swiftly shuffling out of the building.

Travel would be difficult on foot. She couldn’t fathom how long it would take her to get to her destination with no mode of transportation. Without being able to nano-travel, like usual, having to go from point A to B might be more of a hassle than she thought. Coincidentally enough, the thought of needing transportation seemed to manifest a rather loud honking in the distance behind her. One of the civilians had left the restroom facilities and was honking at her to get her attention.

“Hey! Hey, you!” A man called out — his head was poked out of the driver’s window and he sported a rather obnoxious grin. “How the hell’d you get out here?” He asked as he slowed to match Talida’s walking pace.

“I got out here by um…” Talida couldn’t just outright tell the human where she was really from nor how she got there. Coming up with some sort of lie had proven a little difficult considering she’d never been on Earth. “I don’t have a home. I walk from place to place and sleep where there’s shelter.”

“Well that doesn’t make sense. The cops circle this area every night to make sure there’s no squatters. We have that bad out here.” He said with a hint of disbelief. Talida felt cornered.

“I just arrived here this morning. I saw there was a bathroom so I took the opportunity to clean myself up.” Well, that was true for the most part.

“Ah, that explains it. And before I offer you a ride, I have just one question, if you don’t mind?”

“What is it?”

“What’s with that getup?” The man’s face turned beet red as he attempted to stifle uproarious laughter. That question got his head rebounded off of the steering wheel, which gave off a loud honk on impact. To Talida’s surprise, the man’s body slumped over — unconscious. She was monstrously stronger than she’d looked.

“Huh, well that was convenient...now then.”

Talida wasted no time dragging the body out of the vehicle. Despite his disrespect to her cultural attire, she still displayed respect for the man by sitting him against a nearby apple tree and then placed an apple in his lap. A parting gift and apology. She hadn’t known how to use Earth vehicles. Thankfully she’d simply popped onto the planet instead of being incarnated like normal. This gave her an advantage, as she still retained the knowledge of how to use certain abilities. Simply willing herself to know how to drive a car allowed her to drive with ease.

Talida, can you hear me?

Talida carefully looked around inside the car to see if anyone else had been inside with her, but to no avail.

I’m not in the car, Talida. I’m talking to you via telepathy. We have a lot to discuss.