Chapter #4: The Heavens
After spending most of the day learning how to work the Holarium so she could watch the other humans that were important to her, Mara spent the remaining amount of time while Tiye wasn’t there watching the humans that were most important to her. The Ruika Kyra seemed to be fine and moving along with their life as if nothing happened. Kyra was one of the few that had their memories bifurcated so she could remember both Mara and Kara as separate people even though the memories would have matched exactly. Amber and her sister Talia seemed to be distracted by the fact that some of the old people in their lives that were supposed to be dead had shown up.
Luna was along for the ride with Amber as she had been before with Mara. The people Mara brought back from the dead when Mara was on the cusp of leaving seemed to be doing okay. The family that Mara had that were still alive seemed to be living their lives. She didn’t feel up to upsetting the apple cart with any of them for now. But she learned how to set up quick links to their lives so she could check in from time to time.
Today was a different story, there wouldn’t be a lot of time devoted to watching the lives of people she left on Earth. She was cautioned by Iliana that she shouldn’t spend so much time dwelling on them as she had her own life to live, and it would draw her back to the multiverse she left. But she did have something else on her bucket list that she wanted to do. She wanted to find out how much of her family that had passed had ascended. Since they would be in the Exa-Verse, she would be able to see them and check in on them just like anyone else except this would be without the risk of provoking something dark like what could have happened from her visit to Earth.
They walked through Archon square, from the set of portals that took them to the sub domains of the city towards a set of portals that took them to other parts of the Exa-Verse. Mara cocked her head in confusion as they approached a second set of Portals, “I don’t understand why I have to use a portal to get there, I could use my Crystalarium to get where I want to go.” She commented.
Tiye nodded as he led her closer to one of the portals, “You can but only Pathfinders can move between Avalon and the rest of the multiverse without causing any alarms. Each domain of the Exa Verse is protected, including ours. These portals allow movement from one domain to another without causing a ruckus.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Mara nodded, “Now, how do I get to where I want to go?”
Tiye pointed to the tops of each of the portals. They had inscriptions written into them in Ogham. That wasn’t a problem for Mara as she had already learned how to read Ogham. But it did surprise her. She would have figured that it would have been written in some other language. She gazed at the tops of each gateway reading the Ogham on each one. She found that among the numerous gateways, only one of them was for the Celestial Kingdoms. She glanced back at Tiye, “I see one for the Christian heavens, but shouldn’t there be more than one?”
Tiye nodded and walked forward with her, “These are master gates,” He said as they approached the Celestial Kingdoms gate, “If you place your hand on the diamond glass tile on the right side, it will pull up the menu of the Crystalarium that powers it, and you can pick the heaven you want to go to.”
Mara approached the gate and saw the diamond glass panel that Tiye had mentioned. Behind the diamond glass were seven different crystals, clear white quartz in the center with the other types of quartz that matched what she had constructed for her own link crystal and for her own Crystalarium. Behind them was an obsidian plate, it is a link crystal, Mara thought as she paused, only a few inches away from placing her hand on the panel, I bet the Archons made all these. She glanced back to Tiye, “Are you coming with me or are you staying here?” She asked.
“Promise me you won’t practice any magic while in the celestial kingdoms,” Tiye sighed, “I have to go to the academy otherwise I would come.”
“Why do I get the feeling that you have been watching me to make sure I don’t do anything stupid most of the time?” Mara smirked and glanced back.
“Well, it’s accurate. You were the child of Avalon lost in a multiverse for millions of earth years. You said it yourself; you spent far more time in my multiverse than you have here. It’s possible you don’t know the rules for everything yet.” Tiye replied.
“Okay, why can’t I use my magic in the heavens? Who will I piss off?” She questioned in response.
“There are Exarchs there and one of them is a guardian that has a Spectra,” Tiye replied, “So you can’t go all god mode in there. We haven’t had a war with anyone in the Exa-Verse, I would rather not find out what happens if you accidentally start a war.”
“Good to know,” Mara nodded, “I didn’t know that there were any Exarchs that lived outside of Avalon.”
Tiye nodded and approached, embracing her in a hug, “There is always at least one guardian Exarch and several other members of their family in the heavens. A lot of them have to take on the names of the gods and goddesses that the heaven is based on. You might run into those families at the academy.” He gave her a quick kiss, “I have to go, I will see you when you get back.”
Mara nodded and turned to face the portal again. She placed her hand on the panel and the panel lit up with the options that the portal had access to. She mentally controlled the scrolling to find the Celestial Kingdom she wanted to go to first, the one that belonged to the Lutheran religion. The menu closed and the portal came to life, showing her a glimpse of the other side of the gateway. She walked through it and the portal closed behind her. She glanced back and saw a matching portal with writing in Latin. Considering it was one of many portals, she would have to remember what it said. She mouthed the pronunciation, “Crystallo urbs. That must be what they call Avalon here. Hopefully the Crystalarium menu shows up in Ogham or English, I don’t want to end up some place I don’t want to go.”
She glanced around for portals that lead to other heavens and found one that read, ‘Regna Caelestia.’ It was fairly close to the Crystallo urbs gate that she had crossed through. She placed her hands on the glass panel on the side of that, figuring that it was a gate to the other Celestial Kingdoms, she hoped that it would translate into a language she knew how to read more than Latin. The menu popped up in English and Mara breathed a sigh of relief.
She pulled her hand away and the Menu disappeared. It was then she noticed that her body had a strange glow to it, “What the—”
“Can I help you?” Spoke a voice from behind Mara.
The sudden announcement startled Mara. She nearly jumped and spun around with wide eyes. Standing there was a male Exarch, the four eyes, thin tail, and four wings were unmistakable. The only thing missing was a shimmering ball of energy which denounced the presence of a Spectra. Mara cocked her head in confusion, “You’re an Exarch.” She uttered.
“You have to be from Avalon,” The Exarch nodded, “Either an Exarch-Exalted, or an Exarch. But I haven’t seen an Exarch that prefers to use a human form just for the fun of it.”
“I’m sorry,” Mara sighed. For a moment she released her human construct form, revealing her true form of four eyes, thin tail, and four wings, shimmering in a white-blue appearance with two eyes of blue and two eyes of green, “My name is Mara, I’m from the Arcadia Gardens.”
He stepped forward and offered his hand, “Nice to meet you, Mara. I am Bezalel, the Watcher. What is your Affinity, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“I am still rather young,” Mara mentioned, “So hopefully that is up in the air…” Why would I say that? Mara questioned to herself as her voice trailed off, “But currently it is Time Magic, Spirit Magic, and Healing Magic.”
“Interesting combination,” He nodded, “Any reason why you are here?”
“I spent many lifetimes in one of the Multiverses and since I just came back to Avalon not long ago, I figured I would say hi to some of my human relatives from that multiverse,” Mara mentioned in response.
“Okay, who are you looking for?” He offered as he motioned with his hand for Mara to follow.
“Patrick and Ramona Pearl,” Mara mentioned, “They were my grandparents on Earth.”
“Let me take you to Agiel,” Bezalel replied as they walked towards a silver building, “He will know which multiverse you came from and direct us towards your final destination.”
“Okay,” Mara nodded in response, “Is Agiel a pathfinder Exarch?”
“Within this Celestial Kingdom we all have Pathfinder powers,” Bezalel replied, “But, we have to figure out which Multiverse you are referencing and that is what Agiel can help us out with.” He blinked then added, “Unless you know which Multiverse you came from?”
Mara stopped in her tracks and thought about it. She knew that there was more than just the Multiverse they needed to know. She closed her eyes and concentrated, “Giga-Verse 83/I…” She started as she traced her path back through the path of time, “Mega-verse 7.77-Repeating…” She strained as she tried to recall the mathematical variant that marked the Multiverse she came from, “Multiverse 59,059…” She needed the last part, the universal line and variants from it, “Universe 0.00123, Mega-Tangent Alpha, Tangent 1, Turn A-Prime.”
“Good job,” Bezalel smirked and changed direction, “We can go right to the gate and get you to them.”
They walked a short distance until they stopped in front of a silver gate with a crystal ball in front of it. Bezalel placed a hand on the crystal ball and a display popped up asking for a destination. Appearing on the holographic display, the address was typed out; ‘83/I-7.77R-59059.00123-Alpha-1-A-prime.’ Followed by ‘Echo Patrick Pearl.’ A portal opened and appearing on the other side of the portal was a familiar looking farmhouse from the multiverse she was in before. The house was surrounded by fields of green wheat and the weather was fair and dry. It looked like how she remembered it from the early 1990s.
She started to walk toward the gate only to be stopped by a hand on her shoulder, “Hang on,” Bezalel mentioned, “They won’t recognize you as anything they are familiar with unless you use a construct body.”
“Right,” Mara nodded and summoned her human appearance, appearing as she did when she got there, “This okay?”
“That was the form you had on Earth?” Bezalel questioned in response.
“This matches the body I was born with,” Mara nodded, “Something they would recognize.”
“That’s good,” Bezalel nodded before transforming into a blonde male with white skin and two feathery wings on his back, “This is how we appear to humans. I think I will go and knock on the door with you, so they know I brought you.”
“Okay,” Mara nodded and stepped through the portal, followed by Bezalel. Mara glanced down and saw her body was still glowing with the ethereal light from earlier, “I can still see the glow coming from me, will they see it?” She asked as she glanced back to the Angel that accompanied her. She noticed that he had the same ethereal glow.
“Yeah,” Bezalel nodded and sighed, “They will.”
“How do I explain it to them?” She asked as she stood there in the road, “Do I just tell them I am an Exarch from Avalon?”
“They won’t understand that,” Bezalel shook their head in response, “More likely they will believe you are a Celestial. With the strength of your glow, you would be an Arch Celestial. Tell them that. Also, they may assume that Avalon is the Druid Heaven, not the main one. If you want, you can tell them you are from the crystal city. That is the gate they would have to use to get to you.”
“Drop them off right in the middle of Archon Square,” Mara smirked.
“Well, they have to ask an Angel to take them there,” Bezalel added and started walking towards the house in the distance. They stopped walking for a moment and pulled a crystal out of their pocket, “This is a calling crystal. When you are ready to go, just speak my name into the crystal and I will appear.”
“But I thought—” Mara started to say as she turned around to where they came from but noticed there was an absence of a portal, “Oh.”
“Yeah,” Bezalel nodded, “Only Celestials can get out of a particular heaven. That is why they would need an angel to accompany them. We are all too happy to do it for them, but the gates don’t exist here. They open up one-way paths to the Celestial kingdoms.”
“Would I use a pathway to get out when I am done?” Mara questioned in response, “I would hate to bug you.”
“You can,” Bezalel shrugged, “But the use of magic is something we try to avoid. We aren’t used to your resonance yet, so using magic can set off alarms. I am sure after a few visits to this place we will let you pop in and out at will.”
“I will keep that in mind,” Mara nodded in response and accepted the crystal from the angel.
They walked forward silently for the next few minutes until they were at the door. Bezalel started to ring the bell but stopped short, “Oof,” The angel commented, “There is some animosity toward you in there. Not from Your grandparents but from someone else inside.”
“I bet it’s my aunt Ranna,” She nodded in response, “We didn’t get along well when she was alive. I promise I will behave while around her. Just like I did on Earth.”
“Okay,” Bezalel nodded then rang the doorbell.
After a few moments the door opened. Mara almost didn’t recognize the auburn-haired woman who opened the door. The smile on her face when her moss green eyes settled on Mara, told her who was at the door and she was welcome indeed, “Mara!” The woman exclaimed happily, “We were just about to sit down to dinner. Come in.”
“I was wondering if I needed to run some introductions,” Bezalel mentioned, “But she wanted to come say hi.”
Mara stepped through the doorway, “I will call you when I am ready to go,” She nodded back to the angel, “Unless everyone is fine with you having dinner with us.”
Bezalel shook their head, “No, I am fine. I have other things to do. Enjoy your time, Mara.” They waved and walked away, disappearing into the distance as they left.
Mara walked into the middle of the living room and glanced over to see an old-style CRT Tv with the news playing. It was just like them to leave the TV onto the news. A moment later she felt a hand on her shoulder. She jumped and the woman jumped over startled as well, “I’m sorry, Mara, I just wanted to comment, you shine with a divine light?”
Mara glanced down and saw that she was glowing brightly inside compared to the sunny clear blue skies outside. She nodded, “Yeah, I am.” She glanced up at her grandmother, “I think you would call me an Arch-Celestial here.”
“An Arch Angel?” Her grandmother smiled in response.
Mara shook her head, “No. Bezalel said to you I would be considered an Arch Celestial. I don’t know how your rules work here, I am just visiting.”
“I hear a voice,” Called out the deep timber of a man from the dining room as he crossed the distance. Blue eyes framed by familiar brown hair focused on Mara and smile slowly graced his lips, “Grandchild! You’re the first one here! How are you doing?” Her grandfather greeted as he crossed the distance to embrace Mara in a tight hug.
“I’m doing okay,” Mara chuckled. Even his scent was just like she remembered despite it being more than three decades since she last saw her grandfather.
“Your aunts are here as well as someone who you have never met but I want you to meet,” Mara’s grandfather stated in response and led her into the kitchen and dining room with an arm around her shoulders, “You remember Ranna,” He pointed to a younger version of the aunt she remember, from about the time of her childhood if she had to guess, “You also remember Rachel, but you’ve never got a chance to meet Lawrence.” He stated as he pointed to the young man who was seated at the long dining table.
Mara didn’t get even a nod but rather a scrutinizing gaze from her Aunt Ranna. But Rachel gave her a warm smile and greeting, “How are things where you come from?”
“Bright and Sunny,” Mara mentioned as the guy got up and offered Mara a hand, “I’m your uncle Larry,” He mentioned as she accepted his hand, “Which one of my sisters is your mother?”
“The one that aint here,” Ranna spat bitterly.
“I am Rosie’s kid,” Mara answered, not letting the minor amount of annoyance reach her face.
Mara’s grandmother stepped behind them and pulled out a chair, “Have a seat, Mara. We are just about to have dinner.”
Mara nodded and took a seat. Mara’s grandmother sat a plate and silverware in front of her. She took a seat next to Mara’s grandfather then all of them closed their eyes, “Come lord Jesus be our guest and let thy guest to us be blessed, amen.” They all said in unison. Even Mara found herself saying the prayer with them, it was as if she were back on Earth, at the real farmhouse with the family and she was much younger.
* * *
Mara waved goodbye to her grandparents as she walked away from the house. She made it to the dirt road on the clear, warm, breezy day and reached into her pocket. She didn’t get a chance to tell them about her twin sister, but she was sure she would make more trips out especially when it no longer required her to stay overnight anymore. It was no longer a long and tough drive but a step through a few gateways to get to where she wanted to go.
She pulled out the crystal Bezalel gave her and spoke into it, “Okay, Bezalel, I am ready to return to Avalon.” She spoke.
The angel appeared before her looking human aside from the feathered wings attached to their back. He nodded, “Seems like everything went well.”
“Yeah,” Mara nodded as he placed a hand on her shoulder and they appeared in front of the one-way portal that took them to the heaven where her grandparents lived, “I guess my biggest question is can spirits traverse between the heavens? I would like to show them the Arcadia Gardens sometime, as well as the crystal city.”
Bezalel nodded as they headed back to the standing stones containing the gates that would allow her to return home through Archon square, “They have to request an angel to help them as the gates are only one way to the rest of them. I am sure not a lot of them understand, or care, about multi-dimensional physics, but if they have family that is in one of the other heavens or in Avalon, they are welcome to travel there.”
“Their TV,” Mara cocked her head to the side as the two walked towards her gate, “It was a Crystalarium, wasn’t it?”
“More like a link that remembers their preferences. Just like their phone. There are Djed pillars buried where they are at which is what provides them with the power they need and connections to information they want,” Bezalel replied, “They can pretty much do anything they need with what they have, just like you can with your Crystalariums and links back where you reside.”
Mara pulled out the link crystal out of her pocket, “This allows me to do what I need. I guess I might be able to use it next time to give them some information I wanted to give them but didn’t get the chance.”
“Oh?” Bezalel cocked their head in response as they arrived at the gate that would take her back to Archon square, “If it is a quick mention of something I might be able to deliver the information to them later.”
“I wanted to tell them about my twin sister. There are things that happened after they died so they don’t know about her. I was going to help them tune their crystalarium so they can watch them, but I didn’t know if something that looked like a piece of mundane human technology would hold that information for them.”
“I can pass that along,” Bezalel replied.
Mara handed him his crystal, “Thank you for the trip.” She glanced at the crystal disc in her other hand. She waved her hand over it causing the crystals embedded within to revert to their full height, “We can trade contact information if you are allowed to have it.”
Bezalel nodded as he grasped the crystal they loaned her and pulled out another crystal disc. They pressed it against the tip of the crystals on her link disc and copied the information on how to contact her, “Thank you. It isn’t very often we have visitors from Avalon. I think I might want to visit some time when I get a chance.”
“Cool, we can arrange it sometime and I will show you around,” Mara nodded in response.
