The Echolone Mine: Standing Stones

 

Lethe

 

HOW LONG THE blackness lasted would never be known and never discussed. For a time, they were oblivious to time, space and each other. They were together somewhere and so apart the state of togetherness would eternally remain unmentioned. Only those able to see beyond the boundaries knew how proximity did not imply connection and they, naturally, never told. Still, let it be said the three men were beyond usual intelligence and thus not without suspicion of the state of separation.

When the alien dark receded like water pulling back from a beach, they were in a rough circle of standing stones. The stones and the configuration thereof were a protection mechanism, and they knew it, but as awareness returned, they looked at each other as if questioning the nature of life itself.

Elianas’ eyes hooded. He lay beside Torrullin. Those silvery eyes stared down at him from a seated position. Feeling vulnerable, he cleared his throat, pushed up to sit and look around. Tristan sat cross-legged nearby staring at the two of them as if attempting to determine a great secret. Beyond Tristan were the standing stones and beyond that was nothing. Nothing.

“Where are we?” Elianas asked. He deliberately did not move. Those silvery eyes had not left him and now filled with knowing amusement. Elianas frowned and surrendered. “You are frightening me, Torrullin. For pity’s sake, tell us what this is. What have you done and where are we?”

Tristan rose and stretched.

Torrullin’s glance flicked up at him, and returned to Elianas, who cursed. Torrullin leaned closer. “This is still Lethe, but now it is a different realm and I suspect it may be a different time also. But I did not bring us here. Something fools with us. I may enjoy a challenge and I am particularly enjoying how you squirm at the moment, but this is going too far.”

Tristan strode nearer. He stood arms akimbo over them. “This is precisely why we go nowhere - you two and your lack of conviction. Reaume is unprotected and you carry on as if we have all the time in the universe. I am well aware you were warned not to delve the issues in Lethe, yet I’m saying, unless you do, even if it is scratching at the surface, we are headed to nowhere for eternity. Look …” and he swung one arm in a wide arc, “… a stone henge, a place of safety. Either you brought us here, Torrullin, or we brought ourselves here by consensus, or we were bloody chucked in. Whatever and however, get to sorting enough out so we may actually aid Reaume and, yes, aid the Dryads also. Understood? This is why you wanted me to come, wasn’t it? To get your arses moving?”

Torrullin exhaled, a weary sound. “We are exactly one year back in time. Whatever is to happen to Reaume has not yet begun.”

Elianas glared at him. “What happened to ‘I suspect’?”

A shrug answered him, before he added, “To see you squirm.”

Tristan interrupted, “Good god, will you stop? Would you please do something more than taunt each other?” Both men looked up at him. Tristan cleared his throat. “What did I say to make you do that?”

Elianas clambered to his feet. “So,” he murmured, “a whole year back in time. How does not concern me, nor does why - the why I can figure out, I trust. What concerns me is the where of this place. A year ago - biological count - we were not returned. You had not remembered your past and I was in the Throne.” He swung around to stand with his hands on his knees, leaning so that Torrullin could not escape him. “Why choose a whole year?”

Torrullin did not attempt to escape that gaze. “I do not desire to change anything, if that is what you imply. We have been through trauma recently, but it revealed more about us than it hid, and I am not running away from it, and neither should you.”

“Agreed. Now answer the question.”

“A year? It was a round number.”

“Really?”

Torrullin gave a quick grin. “Yes, really.” He pointed a finger. “More than a year passed in reality than for us in realm travel. Whether I deliberately tweaked or not, does not influence either memory or return.”

“I’ll get out of your hair now,” Tristan said. “Before I do, I would like to hear the where of this place also. A year ago, I wondered who would become Vallorin, even if everyone else counts a few more years than we do. I don’t want to find myself revisiting that time.”

“This is Lethe. I do not know.”

“You are a Walker,” Elianas frowned.

“Not when another pulls the strings,” Torrullin said. “It does not matter what we do, what we say or how we feel or even where and when we are; we are not in control.”

Tristan licked dry lips. As Elianas stared at Torrullin, Tristan said, “The only way out is to start talking to each other, don’t you see?”

Torrullin frowned. “Maybe, but it does not return us control.”

“Which control do you seek?” Tristan demanded. “Which is more important, Torrullin? Elianas? The control over Lethe or the control over self? Is it that hard to imagine one may lead to the other?” Silence. “Well?”

Elianas shrugged. Torrullin threaded hands through his hair.

Tristan smirked. “I guess my point is made. I’ll be over there if you have need of me.” He walked away, leaving them alone. He did not go far, but was outside of hearing range. He knew words were telling between the two men.

Step over the threshold at your peril!

 The real truth about the Valleur through the ages is uncovered when exploiters delve the green hills of Echolone for gold. After an ancient door is discovered in the bowels of the earth, it serves to unmask the hidden power Elianas carries within, a power that places him on the same pedestal Torrullin, as Elixir, already inhabits.

The two men swerve through different realms unravelling what now lies between them and every step reverberates in reality. As loved ones pay the ultimate price, old enemies again step forward to challenge their right to rule, particularly Nemisin, First Father of the Valleur.

 Nemisin desires above all else to be the One and will do everything in his power to wrest the title from Torrullin, even using his daughter against Elianas, thereby unsettling a powerful partnership. In this he is not alone, for Tymall, Warlock, seeks to sunder that connection as well.

 In a time when all seers’ visions and dreams cease, revelations are given to those who have never before experienced them at the site of a mysterious door in a mine. Here is a mystery and it requires solving, but the answers will change the future, in reality and realms.

 Greed is able to create massive chaos. It will unbalance everything. Delving deep is able to construct fissures in time. It will release hidden truth.

It will also shatter sacred space.

THE ECHOLONE MINE