Chapter 15

“Is there anyone you know who you don’t know their sexual orientation or background?” Meridian asked rhetorically.

Relic ignored her as they followed Talon to the back where it was quiet.

They made it to a room where other fallen were hanging around. Caius and Relic recognized them all. Although they all knew each other from another time, no one exchanged words. The fallen got up and left the room to them.

“I am surprised you found me here. I am usually not here. I have another place I stay,” Talon said.

“Yes, I know. I thought if you weren’t here I would look there. I am surprised you aren’t closer to your son. Why are you not?” Caius questioned.

Meridian perked up at that comment, and all of a sudden, she had a flood of memories that she never had before. She could see an infant, the baby in the hospital about which she couldn’t stop thinking. She saw him with an elderly couple at a house that looked like it was in the country.

Those memories spread through her mind in a flash, and then other memories came flooding in faster than she could process them. She saw the baby as a toddler and then she saw him as a young pre-teen boy about the age of twelve. Then, the memories stopped.

As the three were having their exchange, everything in the room went silent. She could see the boy’s life as if it were her own and could hear the sounds of the voices of the couple looking after him. She saw Relic talking to Talon but couldn’t hear them.

Caius looked to Meridian.

“Meridian, hey, are you okay?”

Meridian snapped out of it and realized they were all looking at her.

She blinked her eyes several times.

“Yes, uh, I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened.”

Relic looked at Meridian and suspected she wasn’t all right.

“Hey, let’s go sit down over at the table and give your dad and Talon some time. He has to explain to Talon the terms Selena set out for us and then see if he will take you to the realm,” Relic explained.

They walked over to the table and sat down. Meridian was trying to get her mind around what just happened.

“So, what just happened? You look like you saw something.” Relic was serious.

“No, it wasn’t like that. It was like memories or thoughts or something. When I came with my parents down here one time, we went to the hospital. While we were there, I wandered into the nursery, and there was a baby boy there. I saw him in my thoughts, and then I could see him as a toddler and then a teenage boy with an older couple in a house that looks like it’s out in the country. I don’t understand what that was. Was I seeing the future? Why all of a sudden could I see all that?”

Relic smiled and said, “The boy you saw was Talon’s son. You must have noticed his memories and thoughts. You are more gifted than I thought you would be. See, guides can read each other’s minds if we want them to be read, or if we are weak or upset, sometimes thoughts can be heard or read. We can also read humans that we care for. I have never heard of a guide being able to read a fallen or a demon’s thoughts. Were you able to read the thoughts of the creeps we ran into earlier?”

Relic leaned into the table with intrigue.

“No, Dad had stood in front of me. I couldn’t notice anything like that.”

Meridian was more confused, and now Relic was as confused as she was.

“Hmm, strange. I don’t know. I am sure you are going to find out a lot about yourself soon.”

Caius and Talon had wrapped up talking and walked over to the table where they sat.

“It’s time, Meridian. It didn’t take as much convincing as I thought to get Talon’s help, but it is taking some convincing for him to take you to the demon realm. He wants to talk to you alone.”

Talon had quietly watched. “I want to add, you do not need the fairies’ help to locate the psychic. I know where she is, and it isn’t far from here. She lives in an apartment above her building. The problem is making contact. I can’t talk to her because she doesn’t communicate with our kind at all. She will only connect with the spirit guides or anything pure and for the good of things. The only way we can get to that point is to wait when she opens the circle and this isn’t something she does all the time, usually at a customer’s request.” Talon peered off into the distance as though he had something to say but he was holding back.

“We will have to wait, and I know that poses an issue. Fairy time, guide time is all different from Earth time. The good news is that in our realms our time moves a lot slower.”

***

The four left the bar in a hurry and followed Talon through the streets. Even Caius, as wise as he was, didn’t understand the enormity of what the fairies were requesting.

Meridian wasn’t far behind, and as Talon drifted from one thought to another, her reactions were obvious that she could hear his thoughts - no matter how hard he tried to turn them off, she could hear them. He looked at her over his shoulder and Meridian looked away. Relic and Caius kept up the pace alongside Meridian, seemingly unaware of what was happening.

Talon came to a halt.

“Okay, here we are. She is in there right now, and it looks like she just finished a reading. She seems to have another customer waiting. I can see in, but I can’t go in. Caius, you and Relic go in, and I will wait out here with Meridian and talk to her more about going into the demon realm. Once inside, if she opens up the spirit circle, you have to make your thoughts loud and channel all your energy to her. You need to identify yourself and tell her you need her help. She may think it is a joke or possibly an evil spirit. However, you have to do your best to convince her otherwise. Okay?” Talon was insistent and serious.

Caius and Relic had never made contact directly with a psychic. They always watched over the normal humans and offered peace with their presence.

“How will we know she understands?” Caius asked.

Talon looked in the window of the psychic’s building. “You will know.”

Caius and Relic walked through the wall, invisible to humans. The psychic human was sitting at her work table with her stone placed in all corners of the table. She was meditating. Across the table sat another woman. She was young and seemed sad; she was tearful.

Caius and Relic moved close to the woman and stood over her shoulder watching her. She lifted her head and opened her eyes. Seeming confused, she paused and looked around the room.

She spoke to the girl at the table.

“Carrie, I know we had a scheduled reading today, but I don’t feel well all of a sudden. I need to reschedule for another time.”

Carrie looked confused but stood up.

“Are you all right?”

The psychic seemed nervous. “Yes, I am okay, I just have a headache.”

The girl politely excused herself, and as she was leaving the building, her tears were falling down her face. Meridian and Talon were outside conversing but paused and took notice of the girl. Relic and Caius stood and looked at each other unsure of what to do when the psychic spoke out.

“I know you are here. I can feel you. You are not my usual visitors. How many of you are there?”

The psychic waited for an answer.

Caius remembered what Talon told him to do. Caius nodded to Relic, and then he placed his hand on her shoulder and sent his thoughts as strongly as he could to the woman.

“There are two of us. We were sent here to you for your ability in hopes of getting your help. We need a fairy stone; this stone is kept here on Earth. It is a very long story, but we need this stone for our kind and, in the end, the fate of humankind. We do not have a lot of time. Do you know about the stone and where it is kept? Will you help us?”

Caius wasn’t sure his message made it to the psychic.

She slowly responded and said, “Yes, yes, I can help you. I do not know exactly what you seek or how I can help you locate the stone. I just don’t understand. Why me? What about the end of humankind? You don’t have to scare me to get me to help you.”

Caius and Relic were puzzled.

“She doesn’t believe us; she probably thinks we are some weird ghosts wanting some family heirloom,” Relic belted out.