The Brotherhood

Chapter XIX

By X

It was a strange feeling being whisked away by Q in such a manner. I couldn’t even pretend to explain the experience. All I know is it felt like I was wrapped in warmth, and I was as light as a feather. The sensation didn’t last long. Before I knew it, the light surrounding us faded, and Q was standing in front of me, smiling. His arm was around my waist.

“We’re here,” he announced.

I looked around, confused. I wasn’t exactly sure of where “here” was.

Q laughed. “We’re in Aquaiia, Jacob.”

“Okay…” From where I stood, we were in a freaking cave, “Not exactly how I pictured your city, but I guess this could work.”

“I guess I should be more accurate,” he laughed again and shook me slightly. “This is the entrance to the caverns beneath Aquaiia. The city is above us, obviously.”

“So, you decided to give me a tour of a cave, huh?” There wasn’t much to say about the cave. If you’ve seen one cave, I guess you’ve seen them all. The only thing that stuck out was the crystals coming out of the walls. They were in clusters of various shapes, sizes, and colors. More impressively, they gave off a faint glow that illuminated the cave. “I will say this, though; you sure know how to treat a boy.”

“Very funny.” Q playfully slapped me in the back of the head before pulling away. “It’s not about the cave, and you know it. It’s about what I want to show you.”

“So, what is it?” I said, turning around and taking a step forward. “Holy shit!” I yelled, realizing I was standing on a ledge with nothing but open air beneath me. My stomach felt like it was about to fall out of my ass!

“Oh, I’d watch my step if I was you.”

“You could’ve warned me!”

“Yeah, I guess I could have,” he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist again, “but where’s the fun in that?”

I loved when he did that. My heart fluttered anytime he was near me, never mind touching me. I enjoyed just leaning back into him and letting him hold me. We could stand there for hours just like that, and I’d be content. It was wishful thinking, I know, but a nice thought, nonetheless.

I must admit it. The sight before me was impressive. No matter how often Q mentioned his floating city, I never fully appreciated it until I saw the clouds floating so close, I swear I could reach out and touch them.

“Q, how is this possible?” I finally asked, astonished. “Is this real? I swear if you tell me we just traveled back millions of years, I will lose it.”

I felt his smile against my neck when he kissed me. “No, not quite,” he said. “This is merely a recreation of memories pulled from my thoughts. It’s as real as I need it to be. Does that make sense?”

I simply nodded as if I knew what in the hell he was talking about. I knew asking him for more of an explanation would probably just give me a headache.

“Here they come,” he said and pointed out two figures in the distance.

Two Nave flew towards us, their long, white wings outstretched and powerful. I leaned forward a bit and squinted. I could’ve sworn they were naked.

I even started to ask Q. “Are they….”

Before I could finish my question, the two Nave flew over our heads and landed behind us. They weren’t naked like I believed. Instead, they wore a simple white cloth around their waist. The material was somewhat sheer and didn’t leave much to the imagination. I suppose modesty goes out the window when you live in a society with nothing but men.

The Nave themselves were perfect, just like I expected them to be. Nicely toned with tight bodies and asses so firm you could bounce a quarter off them. They both had shoulder-length blonde hair, although one was slightly lighter than the other.

“Come on,” he said, taking me by the hand as we followed behind the Nave. I don’t think they were aware of us. At least, I didn’t believe that this reality from Q’s mind worked that way.

We went through some tunnels and winding corridors before entering a room that was probably the size of a football field. At its center was a vast floating sphere of light with two rings spinning around it.

The couple walked closer to the sphere.

“What in the hell is that?” I asked, pointing at the swirling energy.

“It’s the Core,” Q answered as he continued to follow his brethren. “It’s pure Naverian Anavi. It allows Aquaiia to float over Eiyr.”

“I’m sorry, Anavi?” I asked, shaking my head, bewildered. “What is that?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he smiled. “I was trying to keep things simple for you by not using too many Naverian terms.”

“I’m a big boy,” I laughed. “I think I can handle a couple of big words.”

“Fair enough,” he said, extending his hands as he walked up to me. The light poured out from his hands, coalescing into a brilliant spere before me. “The light you see, the energy, our very essence, it’s our Anavi. It’s what gives us our power, our immorality. Formally, it’s Hek’anavi, meaning Blessed Gift From Naveyk to my people. But we’ve dropped the ‘Hek’ over the long millennia and simplified it to Anavi.”

“That’s very pretty,” I said and paused, wondering if I should ask my follow-up question. “Is it the same for the Skai?”

“No,” he smiled. “The Skai, or Skylarians, refer to their Gift as Hek’askyli, or simply, Askyli. To them, it means….”

“Let me guess!” I interrupted and folded my arms as if thinking really hard. “Blessed Gift From Skailer?”

“Correct,” he replied, snickering. “Look at that. You’re not as hopeless as you look.”

“I try,” I said, taking a bow. “See? That wasn’t so hard. I get it.”

Q rolled his eyes at me.

I looked past Q at the spinning Core and pointed, “So, how does it work?”

“I can’t pretend to know how it works exactly, for it was Naveyk’s creation. And to be honest, we never felt the need to question its function. For us, it was simply the Core. But that’s not what I brought you here.” He pointed at the two Naverians. “Watch closely and be amazed.”

“Why?” I asked. “What are they going to do?”

He grabbed my chin and turned my head towards the couple. “Just watch,” he said with a smile.

They were kissing, and it was very tender and loving. Their bodies were pressed together while their hands explored each other. I suddenly felt very awkward, like a peeping tom spying on them from behind bushes. But I wasn’t hidden. I was right there, front and center. Almost close enough to touch them. If nothing else, I was sure they couldn’t see us.

“Q, this feels wrong on so many levels.”

At that moment, they stretched out their wings. One Nave pointed his wings up above his lover’s head. The other pointed his wings down towards the ground, so his partner was between them. I noticed right away that their wings were growing and getting longer. I watched as they wrapped their wings around themselves, forming a cocoon until I couldn’t see them anymore.

My curiosity was more than peaked. I left the safety of Q’s side and circled the feathery shell. Before I realized it, my hand reached out and touched the cocoon. It was soft like I expected but surprisingly cool to the touch, and my fingers tingled as if a slight electrical current was present.

“What are they doing?” I asked, pointing at the cocoon as I walked up next to Q.

He didn’t say anything. Q just looked at me and then looked back at the cocoon, and with a flash of his eyes came a shimmer that made the cocoon transparent. We could see inside! The two Nave were snuggled up inside; they kissed one last time before resting their heads on each other’s shoulders. I watched in amazement as they slowly transformed into pure Anavi and melted into each other. It was as if they dissolved into crystalline ribbons that meshed, danced, and swirled in perfect rhythm to a song I couldn’t hear. Each ribbon twinkled as though bathed in liquid diamonds. Yet they weren’t solid or liquid or gaseous in form…they were ribbons of light energy but…something else…as well. Something multifaceted that glinted, pulsed, and sang and loved. Each ribbon seemed composed of a thousand threads, each thread composed of a thousand silken strands, each strand…

I watched hypnotized.

It was magic. These flowing ribbons, threads, and strands moved in unison and somehow separately simultaneously. I watch them entwine one into the other, snaking, tangling, knotting themselves together. They circled each other repeatedly until the two ribbons were no longer distinguishable from one another. They had become a single sphere of pulsating light…a single sphere of passion. The two Naverians were now truly one.

Watching that kind of union or fusion between living beings was beyond anything I’ve ever experienced. It was a wonder beyond words.

“That’s incredible,” I said, unable to pull my eyes away.

“Yes, it is,” Q agreed. I don’t think he could have hidden the smile from his face even if he wanted to. “In our purest form, we can merge our Anavi in a fusion of thought, sensation, experiences, and if we so choose…intimacy.”

“Intimacy? You mean sex?”

“No, something far more important is happening here, beyond the simple concept of human intimacy and sex.” Q circled the now transparent cocoon; the energy within continued to pulsate and swirl. “They will be joined like this for the next seven weeks until….” Allowing his words to trail off, Q backed away from the cocoon and stood beside me.

I watched in amazement as the orb of light settled and split in two. Slowly the two halves started to expand and take shape. Before long, the Nave took their physical form and appeared snuggled up together, but there was something more. A third, smaller sphere of Anavi was floating between them, and it too started to take form.

“Oh my god….” I whispered and approached the cocoon.

“We evolved, Jacob.”

They created a child, a baby boy that appeared to be around three or four years of age - if he were human. I was awestruck. I had just witnessed the birth of an El’odian child. He was curled up between his fathers, with his tiny wings obscuring him from my sight. I could only see his little butt peeking out from the bottom. I was on my toes, trying to find an angle that would allow me a glimpse of his face. All I could see was a tuft of blond hair. It was so frustrating! And then, suddenly, the cocoon was solid again, and I could no longer see inside.

“Hey!” I protested. “Why did you do that?”

Q simply smiled.

“You guys can have kids?”

“Believe me, Jacob, no one was more surprised than we were. We had no idea how or why it happened, but we were grateful. Our biggest fear was that our culture would become stagnate without the infusion of fresh blood, so to speak. We knew that without the Ai’lea to breathe new life into our society, the decay of our civilization was inevitable. Our immortality was irrelevant. The miraculous birth of this new generation of children changed that; there was a sense of hope lacking since the days of the Ai’lea.”

“Were they all boys?” I wondered out loud.

“Yes,” Q replied and pointed at the cocoon. “This child was a product of his parents as any child would be. The difference here is this boy now carries all the memories, experiences, and Knowledge of his fathers. This information will slowly unravel in the boy’s mind for years until he eventually knows everything his parents did at the moment of his birth. But now, he’s born with the basic ability to speak, walk and even fly, but that is it. Oddly enough, he won’t come into his true Naverian powers until his tenth year.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nave children are born completely mortal, as mortal as we were before, Naveyk gifted his sons with immortality. It remains that way to this day; we don’t know why. We know that the powers, the Anavi, dormant in a Nave child will emerge exactly ten years after his birth, and he will become immortal. We can time it down to the very second.”

“That’s…” I stopped when I noticed a single feather peel away from the cocoon and slowly fell to the ground. I was going to continue, but I saw a second and then a third feather fall. Suddenly it was like someone pulled the single string holding the cocoon together because hundreds of feathers began to drop.

The three emerged naked. The newest, smallest Nave rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. He was adorable, flapping his little wings behind him like a newborn might stretch his limps. As Q said, the little tyke could stand on his own two feet when his father set him down.

I smiled at the sight of the new family. There was a glow about them. Not a magical, other worldly light. It was more like a glow of happiness…of completeness. It was the glow of three separate beings who knew that together they were now one.

I envied them.

We followed them to the same area where Q and I first appeared. The little boy was speaking to his parents in their native tongue. It was just a few words, but I was completely amazed. Even though I couldn’t understand what he was saying, I could easily tell that his fathers were doing what most parents do. They were humoring him.

I turned to ask Q a question, but I was instantly shrouded in his brilliant aura and taken from that place. As the light faded, my surroundings became all too familiar once again. I stood in the middle of Q’s bedroom. He looked at me, the light not completely gone from his eyes.

“Thank you,” I was honored he’d allowed me to witness, no…to experience…the birth of that new family. “Did you ever…” I felt the heat rise to my cheeks and looked away from him.

Q laughed at my inability to finish my question. “No, I never had a child of my own.” He walked behind his desk and looked out the window. “I choose never to bond.”

“And you regret that?”

“Why do you ask that?” he inquired, looking back at me puzzled.

“I don’t know… something in your voice, I guess.”

“Hmmm…” Q returned his gaze to the window and never really answered me. “Aquaiia was filled with the innocent laughter of children again, and so it was for many centuries to come. While in Cyprinia, we learned the Skylarians evolved much as we did. No one could say which race was the first to bring an El’odian son into being. Like many things between our people, it was a heated topic of debate. I suspect the Great Mother knew. But, like much of her knowledge, it was never shared.”

“Why would it matter?” Feeling bold, I sat in Q’s chair and spun around to face him. I had the best view in the house. His hot ass was right there - eye level - and I wasn’t about to complain.

“You are talking about two races who...at their very core…were created to prove they are better, stronger, and more powerful than the other.”

“Gotcha.”

“Eventually, even our King had his first son. I was beyond relieved when Sol was born. Finally, the kingdom had a legitimate heir. At first, there were rumblings of discontent. Some continued to believe I should take over, but I quickly reminded our people that I agreed to rule only if the House of Zet was no more. With the birth of the prince, the line of kings would continue.

“To my surprise, I was as much a son in the King’s eyes as I was before Sol’s birth. He loved us both equally. On more than one occasion, I had to remind him that I wasn’t his son. That he should show favor to Sol now and again, he wouldn’t hear of it.

“Sol and I grew very close, and as he got older, I was charged with his training. Every king before him was skilled with a blade, and he would be no different. He did see me as his big brother, and as such, he sought my approval for all he did. He needed to know I was proud of him.

“Over a century would pass before Soullen was born, and by then, Sol grew to be quite the Nave. He grew fiercely independent - a little too independent for the King’s liking. He had a habit of venturing alone without his guards to look after him. I tried to call him out on it countless times, but he would give grand speeches about how he would be king one day. And when that day came, he’d need to know how to fend for himself without someone looking over his shoulder all the time. Sol had a point, and I forced myself to turn off the “big brother switch” and let him be his own person. I even helped convince his father to do the same.

“I started spending more time with young Soullen, and, aside from our training sessions, I let Sol have his space. But as time went by, his behavior grew more suspect. He was spending more and more time away from the city. There were days he would leave at first light and not return until late at night.

“I remember one night I found his father and brother standing at the edge of the city looking into the darkness, searching for any sign of Sol. Soullen was still a mere boy, not even an immortal, and he loved his brother. I tried to reassure him that Sol would return soon, but I could do nothing to quell his fears. He refused to go to bed until he knew Sol was safe.

“I didn’t wait for the order. I summoned a handful of the Royal Guard to go out and help find him. The minute I took that first step off the city’s edge, Sol came flying in like a kid late for curfew. I’m not sure I’d ever seen the King so angry. He, along with several high-ranking court members, blasted Sol. Hell, even I was on his case. But, true to form, Sol gave the same pushback he always did. He wasn’t a child anymore. We had to trust his judgment if we expected him to be king one day.”

“Oh yeah,” I said matter-of-factly, “I know that song and dance all too well. Of course, the whole ‘being king’ thing never came up with my parents.”

“It didn’t?” Q sounded genuinely shocked, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “You come across so kingly I found it hard to believe.”

“I know, right?”

“Suspicions about Sol’s actions grew to an all-time high when he stopped linking with the Eye of Eiyr.”

“The Eye of Eiyr? What?”

“Oh yeah.” Q snapped his fingers and pointed at me, ‘Did I forget to tell you about that?”

I just nodded.

He leaned back against the window and spread his hand about two feet apart in front of him. “The Eye of Eiyr was about this big, probably twice the size of a basketball. It was an orb Naveyk left behind when he made us immortal and disappeared. As was customary, a statue was erected in his honor in the center of Aquaiia, which held the orb for all to see. There was nowhere in the city you could go where you couldn’t see its radiance.

“It allowed all Nave to connect thru it.” Q paused for a moment. “Think of it as a wireless network where a Nave could link his mind to it and share his thoughts and experience with the rest of the population. For example, let’s say I discovered a new hot spring I thought others would enjoy. All I had to do was link to the Eye, and anyone connected would know exactly where it was. They’d see it thru my eyes; feel the water against their skin as if they were there. We could reach out and touch the mind of any Nave even if they were on the other side of Eiyr, for it amplified our natural telepathic abilities. That’s why it’s known as the Eye of Eiyr.”

“That seems a bit intrusive, don’t you think?”

“Not at all,” Q assured me. “No one was required to link with the Eye. And you could control what you wanted to share. You could easily share an adventure and keep the more intimate parts of your life private. We lived in a pretty open society with very few secrets. We were a race that craved knowledge and therefore shared it willingly.

“That’s why it was so unusual when Sol stopped linking to the Eye completely. He didn’t want anyone to know what he was doing while he was alone and away from the city. He could have kept those thoughts private, but he didn’t want to risk making a mistake. He didn’t want to reveal too much.

“It was no surprise to me when the King wanted him followed. And, of course, the unpleasant task of spying on Sol fell on me. I was close to him, and the King knew I’d be discreet. The King tried to be fair. If Sol’s activities were harmless, he told me to keep my findings to myself. If that were not the case, if Sol was in danger or endangering others, I was ordered to report back to him.

“And so, I did my duty. Early one morning, I followed Sol as he flew out of the city, and it wasn’t a trip around the block, let me tell you. He took me to one of the most remote islands in all of Eiyr. I didn’t even know this place existed. No one ever went out that far. There was simply nothing to see. My curiosity was already peaked just following him over the vast ocean, but it was more so when I landed on the island. I remember asking myself what would bring him out here.

“I took cover on the mountainside while Sol roamed up and down the beach. It seemed like I was watching him forever.”

“How did Sol not know you were watching him, trailing him? How did he not notice you on the island? It’s like not noticing the other person in the room.”

“I was far more powerful than Sol and could easily mask myself from him. Trust me; he had no idea I was there. I was about to leave, believing the whole venture out there was a waste of time. But a shadow caught my eye as I was about to take flight. I stopped, but everything was still for a moment or two. I was ready to dismiss it as my imagination when I suddenly saw Sol get knocked off his feet by this fast-moving shadow.

“It took me but a second to realize it was a Skai. In an instant, my swords were summoned, and I flew down that mountain as I infused my blades with my Anavi, ready to tear thru the Skai. As I got closer, I realized they were laughing together…giggling actually.”

“Nave giggle?” I smirked and bit my bottom lip. I could never picture Q just giggling. Well, I could, and that was the problem. It took everything I had to keep myself composed.

“It’s a state secret,” Q remarked with a roll of his eyes. “Anyway, I was quick to duck behind tall trees and bushes so they wouldn’t see me. I was completely shocked by what I was witnessing. They rolled around in the sand a bit longer and then kissed. A Naverian and Skylarian kissed!

“I just couldn’t believe it! I distinctly remember closing my eyes and shaking my head, thinking maybe I was seeing things. That perhaps that Skai was another Nave. But there was no mistaking the Skai’s white hair, obsidian eyes. and gray skin. To make matters worse, it wasn’t just any Skai. Sol was making out with Juyx, the Prince of Asevaya.”

“You mean the Skai Prince? Damn.”

“Yes!” Q exclaimed and pushed himself off the glass. Placing both hands on his head, he walked a few feet away from me and snapped back around, slapping the back of his right hand into his palm. I jumped a little. “You have no idea of the ramifications of what I was witnessing. No idea!” Then Q leaned back against the window and calmly folded his arms over his chest. “My god Jacob…they were in love. I mean actual, no holding back, to hell with what anyone thinks, love. Any idiot could see it within minutes of seeing those two together. I had an entire day.

“I couldn’t leave or look away even if I wanted to. They held me spellbound. They laughed, joked, and even talked about their lives back home. They spoke of how they were tired of sneaking around. And as with any lovers, there were times when they just lay in each other’s arms in silence, completely content. I could have easily been watching two of my Naverian brothers. This wasn’t possible.

“Speaking of the impossible, what they did next was….” Q broke off as if he suddenly lost the ability to form words, or what he was about to say was so profound there weren’t any words to describe it. Slowly Q interlocked his fingers. “Like two raindrops coming together…they merged.”

My eyes instantly grew wide. “You mean like the two we just saw?”

He nodded. “The essence of a Nave and Skai, Anavi and Askyli,...together as one…in a cohesive sphere of pure thought and energy...it’s unthinkable, Jacob.” Q laughed despite himself. “If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it. Not in a million years, and I can honestly say that because I’m much older than that.”

Now he had me laughing.

“Merging Anavi and Askyli shouldn’t be possible. It makes for a deadly combination. They should’ve died right before my eyes.

“That’s how they spent the rest of the day. They only separated when Juyx had to return to Asevaya. I waited until he was long gone before approaching Sol. He was laid out on the sand as happy as can be…that is, until he saw me standing over him.

“He was so angry at my presence that he summoned his swords and attacked me! I understood his frustration, and so I indulged him – temporarily. I was, after all, his brother and confidant and the one Nave he admired. At that moment, he felt I betrayed all of that. Eventually, I disarmed Sol and dropped him on his ass, and reminded him that I still had a duty to our King, his father, and he was the one sneaking around behind everyone’s back. I gave him a choice. We could either continue to fight, or we could talk. And, since my shimmering blade was at his throat, Sol chose the latter.

“I won’t bore you with all the details of our long conversation, but it turned out he’d been seeing Juyx in secret for decades. They met on that same island. They would often go there individually to escape the pressures of home and being a prince. Years passed before either of them realized the other was also visiting the secret hideaway. One day, they simply ran into each other. And somehow, instead of seeing ‘the enemy,’ they looked at one another and saw ‘commonality.’ Miraculously, they understood each other more than they hated each other. Weapons were never drawn that day; they stood side by side and discussed the pressure of being a prince back home while enjoying the fantastic scenery. The rest, as they say, was history.

“In the end, Sol pleaded with me not to tell his father. All I had to do was look at him; he knew exactly what I was thinking. Someone had to tell his father the truth. And that someone had to be him. Sol knew eventually that the truth would have to come out. There was no way to keep it a secret forever. I give them credit for keeping it a secret as long as they did.

“Sol asked me to give him three days. He felt Juyx had a right to know and needed time to contact him. I agreed and laid low for a bit. I avoided Aquaiia for fear of being summoned by the King. I wasn’t prepared to lie to him. I spent the days in Cyprinia visiting with the Great Mother. I was shocked to learn she had been aware of the relationship between the two princes. She’d been counseling them from the very beginning.

“I turned to the Great Mother for answers. I needed to understand how such a union was possible. Her response was simple. ‘It was inevitable.’ The way she saw it, their union was a natural evolutionary process, in much the same way as was the ability for the Nave and Skai to procreate. It by no means meant that the two races would be merging left and right; the Great Mother believed Sol and Juyx were one in a million, but they offered hope in her eyes.

“We spent the better part of two days debating the implications. She came to me on the eve of the second day and told me it was time to go. Before I could even ask why the Great Mother teleported us to Aquaiia. We appeared at the very edge of the city, looking out at Eiyr. On the horizon, I saw Sol flying towards the city. Juyx accompanied him.

“He was bringing a Skai to Aquaiia!”

“I’m guessing that never happened before?” I said.

“Never! If a meeting happened between our people, it always happened on neutral ground. The only place on Eiyr that we considered neutral was Cyprinia. But they were flying over us, heading towards the city’s center. And as he did, Sol linked with the Eye of Eiyr. In that instant, he shared with all of Aquaiia his relationship with Juyx. We got to feel their intense connection; the emotions and love binding them together.

“Stunned by Sol’s revelation, the city fell silent. The people of Aquaiia simply stood by and watched in utter amazement as Sol and his beloved made their way thru the city to the royal palace.

“The King walked out of the palace as his son approached, and to everyone’s surprise, he welcomed Sol with open arms and a fatherly embrace. What Sol shared through the Eye profoundly impacted the people of Aquaiia and his father in particular. The King acknowledged the young Skylarian as he would a friend and invited him into his home for ‘they had a lot to discuss.’

“It took some time, but eventually, the King was able to accept the union between the two and, with the help of the Great Mother, Juyx’s father did as well. The Great Mother had high hopes that this union between the princes would lead to lasting peace between all El’odians.”

“And the people?” I interrupted. “Are you telling me everyone accepted them just like that?” I snapped my fingers.

“God, no. That would be too easy, but still, there with plenty who embraced them, especially among the younger generations. Some were cautious of such a union but hopeful. And then, of course, you had El’odians on both sides that didn’t like it and didn’t trust it. But there wasn’t much anyone could do, so life went on.

“A couple of years passed, and things started to look good for both of our people. Many of the old disputes were put to rest, and it was beginning to feel like we were entering an era of peace.” Q sort of laughed to himself. “Amazing, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“That it took only these two to quell the violence and hatred that plagued us for so long, much as the Ai’lea did in their time? I suppose what Sol shared with us when he linked to the Eye of Eiyr opened our minds and hearts to new possibilities. Understand me. The Nave and Skai weren’t exactly buddies. We kept each other at arm’s length. There was, after all, eons of mistrust there. But Sol and Juyx coupling offered hope to those who believed in and desired a better tomorrow between our people.”

“I see,” I said pensively. “So, where exactly did you fall?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you said there were three sides to all this: those who were okay with it, those who were cautious but had high hopes, and those who didn’t trust it. Where did you fall?”

“I remained distrustful of the Skai. I was in the Royal Guard, after all. My job was to protect and defend my brothers and our Kingdom. I could not afford to let my guard down. Not even for an instant. But honestly, I had no problem with Juyx. Their relationship intrigued me, and I respected their courage and conventions.”

I could see the “but” coming a mile away. Q’s demeanor changed, and he looked like a dark cloud was hanging over his head. He got up, walked away for a moment, and then came back. And with a heavy sigh, he continued.

“There was a big celebration for Soullen’s Day of Ascension; the day he came into his powers and became an immortal. It’s the only birthday we celebrate, and since he was a prince, there was a big to-do about it. The whole city was alive.

“That evening, one of Sol’s guards said the Prince got word that Juyx needed to see him. I immediately sensed all kinds of red flags. It wasn’t that it was late in the evening that caused me concern. They met at all hours of the day. But my question to the guard was how exactly Sol got ‘word’ from Juyx? It’s not like a Skai could just fly into the city with a message for the Prince without all of Aquaiia being alerted to his presence, you know?”

“Right,” I nodded.

“Of course, when I pose this question to the guard, he had no idea how the Prince got the message because Sol never said he never thought to ask. I immediately tried to reach out to Sol with my thoughts, to no avail. Not even with the power of the Eye of Eiyr could I touch his mind. Something was very wrong. I alerted the King, and a patrol was sent out immediately to look for Sol.” Q slowly shook his head. “We never saw or heard from Sol again.”

I was anxious to hear what happened next, but when Q fell silent, I didn’t dare press for more. I gave him a moment to collect his thoughts, for it was clear that this memory wasn’t easy for him to relive.

“Our search parties turned Eiyr inside out with nothing to show for it. It was then that we learned Juyx was missing as well. For the briefest moment, the Nave and Skai joined to search for the missing princess, but it all fell apart when both sides met in Cyprinia after weeks of searching. The whole point of the meeting was to share any new information and develop a joint plan to find them, but it wasn’t long before the finger-pointing started. The Skylarians accused us of killing Juyx and hiding Sol to make it appear like they were both lost. We accused them of being such savages they likely killed our prince and their own to hide their involvement.

“The meeting quickly broke down after that. Try as she might, the Great Mother couldn’t keep the peace, and for the first time, we turned Cyprinia into a battleground. It was war. There was no getting around it. The Great Mothers expelled us from Cyprinia, using her power to send us back to our respective cities.

“This time, there would be no grand speech to rally the troops. Aquaiia lost a prince; the King lost a son, and I lost a brother. The lust for retribution was overwhelming, and we flew out to meet the Skai in battle. It was brutal. After thousands of years, we finally gave into our original design. We fought for annihilation. Each side was confident they would stand victorious in the end. Thousands of El’odians were killed that first night. And yet it was just a prelude of things to come.

“It set the pace for a war that raged on for months. There was one rule: Kill or be killed. Both sides followed it to the letter, and we were very good at it. We were efficient, of course, that posed a problem. The war could have gone on for years with no clear victor.

“One night, I was returning to the city with my men after a long and drown out battle on the frontlines. I was surprised the city was not where it was supposed to be.”

“The hell?”

“Exactly!” Q exclaimed. “Since its creation, Aquaiia had never moved from its spot in the sky. Never. Just as panic was sitting in, we were met by a group of Nave who were left behind to inform those of us who showed up after the fact. The King decided it was the time it put an end to the war. And so, with the combined power of the Nave in the city, the King moved Aquaiia towards Asevaya. He planned to use the city’s Core to direct a massive beam of Naverian Anavi into Asevaya, thereby reducing it to rubble and killing all the Skai once and for all. I’d been away for weeks, so I was not involved in planning this attack. I had no idea who came up with it or that it was possible to use the core in such a way.

“The very first WMD,” I remarked.

“So, it seems,” Q agreed, “We flew towards Asevaya to join the battle, but what we saw was horrific once we got there. Aquaiia was under siege, burning, and overrun with Skai. My men and I hit the streets with blades swinging as we tried to make our way to the palace to stand with our King. Even in the confusion of battle, it didn’t take long to discover the King was nowhere in the court but the caverns beneath the city, trying to keep the Skylarians from getting to the core.

“We were cut off from the King, but that didn’t stop him from reaching out with his mind. He wanted me to locate Soullen and get him out of the city. I resisted at first, for my place was by his side. But he was my King, and he gave me an order. I searched the palace for Soullen.

“I found him hiding in the armory when the unthinkable happened. I didn’t witness it myself, but from what I was told by those who escaped, a Skai got passed the King and his men and merged his Askyli with Aquaiia’s core. It resulted in a catastrophic chain reaction that threatened to destroy the city. The order to retreat and evacuate the Aquaiia was given.

“I lead my people, including Soullen, a safe distance away from the city. The King was not with us. He stayed behind with a group of his elite guard to give the rest of us time to escape. I gathered my men to go back for him, but there was an explosion in the city. It could be seen for hundreds of miles. Aquaiia was turned into a massive fireball and fell from its perch thousands of miles in the sky. I could only guess the King and those with him held out until the last minute.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Aquaiia slammed into the Skylarian city; the chances of that are like a billion to one. We could only surmise that those left in the city used their power to aim Aquaiia into Asevaya. The King gave his life to take out as many Skai as possible, retribution for the loss of his son.

“The impact and the subsequent explosion created a blast wave that encompassed most of Eiyr and destroyed everything in its path. Millions of tons of debris hurled into the atmosphere which blocked out the sun and….”

I threw up my hand in utter shock. “Are you telling me you were the cause of the extinction of all life on earth sixty-some million years ago?”

Q laughed. “Well, not me personally, Jacob.”

I rolled my eyes. “You know what I mean!”

“Human scientists believe a meteor struck the planet sixty-five million years ago and caused an extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs and almost all other life on earth. Now you know what really happened. It wasn’t a meteor, Jacob. It was Aquaiia slamming into Eiyr.”

“Holy shit! That’s fucking unbelievable!”

“Believe me; it’s not our proudest moment. The one thing we have in common with the Skai is our love for Eiyr. To cause such massive destruction, well….”

“I think I understand. Couldn’t your people use their power to undo the damage?”

“No,” Q shook his head. “When we were made immortal by the Gods, they ensured we could not affect Eiyr on a global scale. I suppose it was a safeguard so no one El’odian could blow us all to hell and back.

“But things were far worse than causing the extinction of life on Eiyr. We could have lived thru it, for it did not affect us. The destruction of Aquaiia caused the Core to release its Anavi into the atmosphere as if it was a geyser of light. Had it not been for the Skai fusing his dark Askyli with that of the Core’s, all Nave would have been unaffected. It would have been pure Anavi energy being released into the sky.”

“But that wasn’t the case,” I added.

“No, it wasn’t,” Q agreed. “The energy was corrupted; a volatile mix of Anavi and Askyli energy made it a poison to the Nave and Skai. Any El’odian caught in its path would have been killed. It was the equivalent of a human walking into the radioactive fallout of a nuclear explosion. And it was slowly spreading and consuming Eiyr.

“Only the Great Mother was immune to the corrupted energy. She came up with the idea for us to sleep while Eiyr healed herself. Thousands of us dove down towards Eiyr from high in the sky. As we reach the surface, we enclosed our wings around us to form a cocoon-as you saw earlier. We slammed into the ground and buried ourselves hundreds of miles deep within Eiyr.

“And so it was that all El’odians slept for tens of millions of years.”

“That’s one long-ass nap,” I joked.

Q laughed. “Yes, it was. We existed as pure Anavi within our cocoons and fell into such a deep sleep we lost all track of time. A million years could have easily been a day, and we would not have known the difference.”

“That’s crazy! When did you finally wake up?”

“We’ve been waking up randomly throughout the years. I awoke a little over thirty-five hundred years ago. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern, rhyme, or reason when an El’odian wakes up. We simply do.

“I broke thru my protective shell, and like a snake, I slithered upwards toward the surface as a ribbon of Anavi. I didn’t take my Nave form until I could break through the ground. As my Anavi seeped thru the surface, I slowly turned solid and used my hands to pull myself out of the ground. I was weak and disorientated, with no idea where I was or how much time had passed.

“I do remember thinking how different the air smelled. I don’t know why but that’s always my first thought when I think back to that day. I laid there for hours gathering my strength and thoughts before I was approached by a man dressed in strange clothes. I’m sure I looked just as odd to him because I was lying there naked and winged.

“I’m surprised he didn’t run off screaming.

“I had no idea he was human, for he looked like a Nave, so I spoke to him in our native tongue, and he responded in his. His thoughts were erratic and made no sense to me. I needed to go deeper into his thoughts to understand better, so I asked him to link his mind with me, but obviously, we weren’t getting anywhere. He didn’t understand me.

“Finally, I just grabbed him by the head to merge our Anavi like I would with any Nave. In a matter of seconds, I knew everything he knew; his language, memories, the world history as he knew it…everything.”

“Then I don’t understand,” I protested. “Why can’t….”

“Why can’t I do the same to you and learn about your hidden past? Because when I finally released him, he was dead. I ended up draining his life force. I sucked the life out of him, leaving nothing but a dried-up corpse that looked like it’d been dead for decades. That’s what would happen to you, Jacob. Unfortunately, humans cannot survive the process we use to probe deep into your minds.”

“Oh…”

“As I told you before, we can only read what’s on the surface without causing any harm. At any rate, from the man, I learned he was a soldier heading home; more importantly, I learned about humanity. A new race had evolved during our slumber, and he did not know of El’odians. I found that very disturbing.

“Even though I was awake, my powers were still very much asleep. It took me days to gather enough strength to reach deep inside myself and summon the full force of my Anavi, sending out a shockwave other Naverians can detect. It’s like a fly hitting a spider’s web. The web vibrates. The Nave web shook, and that’s how my brothers found me.

“Seth was one of the Naverians who came to find me. He awoke just months before I did. I linked with him immediately, merging our Anavi, and I was up to speed on everything within minutes. The first Nave awoke about six centuries earlier, so I had six hundred years of history passed down to me. It was refreshing to have my thoughts ordered and focused. There were 133 Nave at the time. Our priority was to locate newly awoken Nave.

“With my appearance, the question of who should lead was brought to the table. And like always, I had no intentions of rocking the boat since we already had a leader in place. We did reorganize a council of five with Kyrios as the head. It seemed fitting to adopt the title given to me by our King for the new leader of the Nave.

“It wasn’t until a couple of centuries later that we discovered we could pass on our Anavi to human males to make them one of us, a full-fledged Nave with all our power and the long history of our people. It was then that The Brotherhood was born. So, it’s a little older than what we lead you to believe when we gave the brief history on The Brotherhood.”

“You call three thousand years ‘a little?’” I laughed and playfully punched him on his leg.

Q merely shrugged. “And here we are. I think you’ve had enough of a history lesson for now.”

“What? No! What happened during that time?”

Now Q laughed at me. “Relax, Jacob. You’ll find out in due time. I just wanted to give you the basics of who we are, where we came from, and how we came to be. I’m not saying the last three millennia weren’t interesting because they were, but that’s a story for another time. The short of it is we had to learn to deal with humans. We hid from them while growing our power and influence over the years to make us what we are today. “

I sat back in the chair and took a moment to take it all in. Q just gave me a history lesson to top all history lessons. If my 10th grade U.S. History class had been even half as exciting, I might have stayed awake thru more of it. The origin of the El’odian was a fantastic story. My head spun at the mere thought of how long they’ve been around. It kind of changes your perspective on things you thought you knew.

“I have a question for you.”

“Okay…”

“How is that we look so much like you? Without your wings and crazy powers, the Nave and human beings look alike. How’s that possible? It can’t just be a coincidence.”

“Ah yes,” he smiled. “You know every single pledge asks that same question. Well, we believe when Naveyk’s radiance rained down across the land to make us immortal, his power somehow became the catalyst for human evolution. His Anavi wasn’t contained to Aquaiia alone, for it rained down over miles around the city. We’ve been investigating this for centuries because, as you said, it’s not mere coincidence.”

“Uh-huh,” I nodded. “So basically, you’re saying humankind was the byproduct of your immortality?”

“Basically.”

“Well, that’s lovely.”

I got up from the chair and walked around the room until I stopped in the center and looked at Q. Everything he told me was still racing thru my mind. My heart pounded in my chest but not because I was afraid of what I had just learned—quite the opposite. I was excited beyond belief. The excitement made me want to jump online and create a video titled “You’ll never fucking believe this.”

“Will all your human brothers eventually be turned into a Nave?”

“That’s the plan,” he answered with a slight nod.

“Why wait? Why not just make them all Nave right off the bat?”

Q laughed. “My, you’re certainly fired up all of a sudden.”

“I’m sorry. I’m just trying to understand.”

“No need to be sorry, Jacob,” he assured me. “Questions are good. I’m glad you feel comfortable enough to ask what’s on your mind.”

I smiled.

“There are two reasons why some of our brothers are still human. First, we want to make sure they keep their human perspective on things when we send them out into the world. The Nave really can’t see or feel things thru human eyes. Our human brothers are our connection to you, our connection to humanity. Secondly, when a Nave passes on his Anavi to a human, he won’t be able to do it again for another hundred years or so, depending on the Nave. We give a big part of ourselves when we transform a man into a Nave, and it takes a while for us to rebuild what was given. It’s like recharging a battery.”

“What happens to a human Brother if he gets sick, old, or dies from any number of things that can kill us?”

Pushing himself off the window, Q stood behind his chair and gestured for me to come over and have a seat. “Let me show you something,” he said as I sat beside him. Q reached over and tapped the computer monitor in front of me. The screen rippled as if he had placed his finger on the surface of a still pond. After a few moments, it settled, and an image of the downstairs living room appeared on the screen.

“I’m going to go ahead and guess there isn’t a camera downstairs.”

“No, there isn’t.” Q pointed at the older man on the screen. “Remember him?”

“Yeah, that’s the old guy that was in the papers. He’s a senator, right? The paper said he passed away from natural causes, but he obviously didn’t since he’s still snoring downstairs.”

“Do you remember his name?”

“Um, John, something.” I paused for a moment. “No, wait! It was James.”

“James K. Polk.”

I snapped my fingers. “Yeah, that’s it. Why? What’s the big deal?”

“The name doesn’t sound familiar to you? Think back to your American history class back in high school.”

I thought about it for a moment and came up blank. “I got nothing.”

“My god!” Q slapped me in the back of the head. “And you got an A in that class. I’m so writing someone a letter after we’re done. James Knox Polk was the 11th president of the United States.”

“Okay,” I shrugged. “So what? Is he like a descendant of his?”

“No, that’s actually former president James K. Polk.”

“What?” I nearly shouted and spun my chair around. “How’s that even possible?”

Turning me back around, Q leaned into my ear. “Watch,” he said and kissed me. “I’ll be right back.” Q was already walking onto the screen before I could ask him where he was going.

He shook James to wake him up, and when he did, he was overly excited to see Q. They spoke for a good five minutes, but I could only see them not hear what they were saying. Eventually, Q stood directly in front of James and placed his hands on the older man’s face. I watched in awe as Q’s Anavi poured out from his hands and washed over James. I couldn’t see the senior senator, for he was completely bathed in light. After about thirty seconds, the light dissipated; all that remained was a young man who appeared to be in his early twenties.

“Holy shit,” I whispered.

The young James stretched his limbs and cracked his neck. It looked like he thanked Q before taking off. Q looked up at me and waved thru the monitor.

“Now, do you understand?” Q asked from behind me.

I fucking jumped out of my skin. “Don’t do that!” I spun around to face him. “You damn near gave me a heart attack.”

He just smirked.

“Are you telling me you guys are a walking, talking fountain of youth?”

“As you can see, our human Brothers are well cared for and enjoy a measure of immortality thru their Naverian Brothers. There’s no human illness we can’t cure, no wound we can’t heal. We go to them immediately if we get word that one of our Brothers is sick.”

“Let’s say you’re too late, and they die. What happens then?”

“So long as we get to them within thirty-three minutes, we can bring them back.”

“That seems pretty specific.”

“Doesn’t it, though? We don’t know why the window is thirty-three minutes long. It’s one of the things about ourselves we’re still trying to discover. Even after all this time, we don’t have it all figured out…not quite yet.”

Leaning back against the chair, I ran my hands through my hair, completely blown away. Q dropped another bombshell on me when I thought it couldn’t get crazier.

“So why hasn’t he been made a Nave by now? If you’re telling me he was the 11th president, that means he’s been around for a long ass time.”

“It’s simple. James enjoys what he does. He’s earned the right to be gifted with immortality, but he turns it down every time. He enjoys the human experience too much, I think. We’re okay with that. The Brotherhood has big plans for James.”

“Okay, that’s what I don’t get,” I said, throwing my hands up in frustration. “What is the point of all this?”

“I don’t understand the question.”

“Well, you guys are incredibly powerful beings, yet you decided to infiltrate colleges worldwide to do what? I get recruiting guys to turn to Nave so you can grow your numbers and keep the species going. But then you send your human brothers into the workforce to become lawyers, doctors, senators, and even presidents. That I don’t get. What’s the motivation behind it? What’s the Brotherhood trying to get out of it?”

“You’re sharp, Jacob,” Q said just before a big smile appeared on his face. “I knew I picked the right guy. You’re the only pledge ever to ask me that.” Turning my chair around to face the computer, Q reached over, so my head was between his arms and started typing on the keyboard. He pulled up an encrypted file.

“Take a look,” he offered before walking around the desk to sit opposite me.

I looked thru the file and was amazed. It was a list of our human Brothers and their respective careers over the years. A lot of these guys were powerful men. CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, senators, and members of Congress previously had four brothers who held the office of the vice president and three that were actually in the oval office, including James Polk. There were several governors and plenty of mayors who were currently in office. They had Brothers in all military branches, and many were in high-ranking positions; two were currently serving as members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Prime Ministers, Kings and Queens, and other Heads of State were on the list. The Brotherhood was everywhere.

I probably looked thru this massive list for about ten minutes without saying a word to Q. I was finally able to pull myself away from the screen and sat back for a moment. I started laughing out of nowhere at the craziness going thru my head.

“What’s funny?” Q asked and sat back himself while he interlocked his hands before him.

“I’m looking at this, and I can’t help but think chess.”

“Explain.”

“Well, it looks like The Brotherhood is strategically placing its members in the right places like you would on a chessboard.” Again, I couldn’t help but chuckle at myself and point at the screen. “If I didn’t know any better, I would say The Brotherhood was trying to take over the world or something.”

I laughed and laughed and laughed. The only problem was that Q wasn’t laughing along with me. He was dead ass serious and staring at me with that knowing look. I felt the heat coming up from my body and warming my face.

“Oh my god,” I whispered.

“Checkmate…”