Chapter 15 pt. 2

It wasn’t long, but the psychic spoke out. “I sense sarcasm. It is difficult for me to believe that some spirits that I have never encountered want me to go on some hunt for some stone that I have no clue where it is.”

Caius was, as usual, slow to respond.

“I will handle this,” Caius warned Relic as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Forgive us. I am Caius and Relic is my friend. We should have made introductions. We have never made contact with a human in this way before and forgot our manners. What is your name?”

The psychic woman was calm and quiet as she waited for the messages to come to her. Caius and Relic watched her as she took in what Caius spoke out to her. With a soft smile, she answered.

“It is okay; my name is Tallulah. Thank you for the introductions. This is different and startling to me. I have never had anything like this. My usual day has people coming to me to make contact with spirits. Most spirits do not come through this strong. I have not ever been asked to do something for spirits. You have to understand that at times I get spirits that play jokes or have ill will. I am not sure that I trust you, and you have to understand that this doesn’t make sense to me. I will need something from you to trust you. I need to know where I am going or who I contact.”

Caius and Relic conversed among themselves.

“I am not sure what to do. Selena said that she would know.”

Caius paced.

“Excuse me; you know the fairies don’t share everything. So now what?”

Relic wasn’t helping. Caius moved toward Tallulah.

“Tallulah, you are right. I will have to find out more information for you. How can I contact you again?”

She smiled as she spoke out.

“You managed to contact me this way, didn’t you? It seems that there isn’t a problem contacting me at any time. I am usually here. As curious as I am about this contact from you, I won’t go far until I hear from you again.”

Tallulah stood as she was finished talking and was walking her way to the stairs the led up to her living quarters.

“It was nice to meet you both.” Tallulah disappeared up the stairs with a new-found appreciation for the unseen.

Caius and Relic made their way outside. Talon didn’t give them any time to share the information.

“You don’t need to tell me; I heard it all,” Talon wised off.

“Dad! I did too! That was amazing! Is this what it is like to be a guide here? I can’t wait to explore all of this and the gifts I have.”

Meridian was full of zeal for a moment forgetting the purpose of the visit. Caius did not acknowledge his daughter.

Talon and Relic watched Meridian’s face light up as she took in all she was seeing and hearing. The three of them stopped and looked to one another for a clue of what the next move was.

“Selena said Tallulah would know where to find the stone and who to contact, and that isn’t the case. We also have to get Talon and Meridian to the demon realm to get the potion for Kieren, along with the spell book, but we can’t go back to the fairy realm without the stone. We also don’t have a clue what has happened with Chance or Ridge. We don’t even know if Slaten and Pramlee had any luck with Farrah or even how she took all this.” Caius looked at Talon in hopes of something to go on, and Talon sensed the desperation.

“Look, maybe I can take Meridian to the demon realm and find out about the stone there. The demon we will look for may have that information. But I can’t see how any demon would want to help me or any of you for that matter.” Talon said.

While they were hashing things out, Meridian wandered away into the psychic’s building. She wandered her way upstairs where Tallulah was getting ready for bed. Meridian watched her as she turned back her bed. She looked around her room and saw that she had quite a collection of crystals on a nightstand next to her bed. She had a bookshelf next to the door where many books with similar labels showed that she read a great deal on crystals of all shapes, sizes and colors. With all the chattering of her father, Talon and Relic, she felt like they were somehow missing something. Tallulah crawled into bed and opened a book. On the cover, it read: Fairy Stone.

Meridian drew closer to the woman who was so fascinating to observe. Meridian had never had the chance to be this close to a human without her parents or a human with these gifts. As she drew closer, she could hear something. It sounded like a voice. Meridian looked around to see who it was and saw no one else there. She looked back to Tallulah who was sitting quietly reading her book. Meridian peered over her shoulder to read the words in the book and realized she could hear Tallulah reading her book to herself. She gasped to herself in amazement of what she was hearing. Tallulah didn’t seem to sense Meridian’s presence or know that she was close.

Meridian’s face softened as she listened to the sounds of Tallulah’s voice swarming within her mind and she liked how Tallulah’s voice made her feel and had no idea just how important to her this one psychic would become.

After a while, Meridian knew she needed to get back. Meridian whispered out, “Goodnight, Tallulah.”

The quirky palm reader stopped reading, looked up from her book toward the door and smiled. She turned her lamp off, put her book down and went to sleep.

Meridian made her way down stairs and could see her father and the other pair talking outside. They didn’t seem to notice she was gone until Relic spouted off, “Did you enjoy yourself?”

“Oh, I didn’t think you noticed I was gone,” Meridian said.

Relic was still grinning as Talon and Caius watched.

“Really? C’mon, you aren’t that special,” Relic smarted off.

Meridian’s little temper was rising. “Oh, well, maybe I am. Were you and my father able to hear Tallulah’s thoughts?”

Meridian was coy with her rhetorical question. Without missing a beat, she belted out, “I didn’t think so. You know you both always brag about how you can hear thoughts of humans, right? Did you notice that she spoke aloud to you and that you don’t really know if you can hear her thoughts? Well, I could hear her reading her book to herself.”

Caius said, “You know she is right. Tallulah spoke aloud. I know every one of us heard no matter if we were in there or not. Is it possible that some humans have a block on us reading minds?”

“Some humans are born with special gifts, and maybe this human has a gift even the guides can’t overcome.” Talon said.

The guides and Talon made their way back into Tallulah’s place and waited for morning to come in hopes of getting some clue that she knew where the stone was.

Relic and Caius sat down at Tallulah’s table and began chatting about everything and sorting things out. Meridian remained in the sitting area where Tallulah’s clients waited to get their readings.

“Can I sit down?” Talon appeared suddenly.

Meridian startled a bit and she rubbed the upper part of her legs and awkwardly said, “Sure.”

Her nervousness was apparent to Talon, who tried to remain detached from the feeling he picked up from her. Meridian struggled to maintain eye contact with Talon.

Knowing Meridian was struggling and so new to everything he said, “I know we don’t know each other that well, but your father told me what Selena is asking. I am willing to take you to the demon realm, but I do not want you going in without understanding what you will be getting into.” Talon’s voice trailed off as he rubbed his hands fidgeted.

“Getting into the demon realm is not hard when you are with a being like me or even a demon. It’s once you get there and when you try to leave that will be the challenge. Someone like you doesn’t go to the demon realm, and I can’t say for sure what will happen. All I can tell you is I will do everything I can to protect you, but I am not as strong as I used to be...when I was like you or them.” Talon nodded to Caius and Relic who were sitting across the room chatting.

“Okay, I understand, I think. Have you been to the realm?”

“Yes, I have been there, when I was first cast out from the realm and fell to Earth. It was like a dream state at first. When I realized I was in the demon realm, it was a lot like the way the human’s Bible explains what hell is like, but in reality, there is no hell. The demon realm exists in its own plane or dimension. It isn’t a dimension that is easily traveled - even for a demon. It is hot and very dry; desolate and depressing. The difference is that hell isn’t full of human souls that weren’t accepted into what Christians call heaven. The demon realm is just like it sounds - full of demons. I was put there and tortured for weeks it seemed. I was beaten and abused by many demons at one time. I was burned, kicked, slapped, hit...just about any abuse you could imagine. See, when a fallen enters they are treated worse, because at one point I was good, and I was a guide. A being like me shows up, we aren’t even really accepted into the demon realm. We are outcasts, stripped of our goodness and damned for eternity. I have never been back since the time I was finally released. I still to this day do not know the meaning of my existence. Every day I roam this planet, I see the evil that humans are capable of, and then I see the greatness and compassion that they have too. It is very surreal to me to see things in this way. Some of us who Warrick has cast away still have our lingering feelings of the want to do good, but it’s very difficult. We can only cause harm and do evil. We fight it, but we are frowned upon for not acting on the very thing that was instilled in us when we fell into the demon realm. I fight the urges to help influence a human that is contemplating suicide or to rob a bank or abuse their child. I also fight the urge to feed off the wicked ways of some people. See, demons and my kind feed on the very essence of evil. We are drawn to it.”