Free Seal of Solomon (Journeyman Book 2) by Golden Czermak Page A

actually gone by. The air was muggy and oppressive, hanging thick with humidity. The landscape was barren, not a living thing in front of them for miles, also stretching far off to the left, the right, and now behind. Without so much as a change in color to draw away her boredom, Adrienne punctuated the silent trek with questions from her typically inquisitive mind.
    “Excuse me,” she broke in, mouth cottony from thirst. “How much farther do we have on this march?”
    “Ah yes. Not long now. The nexus should be visible any time now.”
    “Nexus?”
    “Yes. It's a portal of sorts, a link between two points, even if separated by great distances. It's the quickest means of travel here in the Astral Plane and one we will definitely need to get out of these wastelands.”
    Those words rung in her ears. “The Astral Plane! So that's where I am! I thought as much, though for a while I'd honestly thought I'd gone insane.”
    “A clever one,” he said, impressed with her cognitive functions. “Not often do those who arrive here keep so much of their former selves.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Those things we encountered earlier, the ones trying to snatch you. All this is quite fascinating, perhaps I should note this for future investigation…” His voice trailed off into a bunch of indecipherable mumbling as they continued to walk.
    “Those… monsters?” she asked. “They arrived here too? I'd have thought they were actually from here.”
    “No, they were once from the earthly realm. People just like you who ended up here for any number of reasons. Once human, their forms are a physical manifestation of their particular soul’s torment. As you can tell by the look of what we've been walking through, things are seldom happy here.”
    “My God, that would be horrible.” She raised a hand to her mouth, thinking if that had been her fate.
    “It is definitely a horrid experience,” he replied, looking across his shoulder. “It’s partly why they came to you.”
    “Me?”
    He stopped and fully turned toward her, removing his hood with a flick of his hand. He was an aged man, outwardly in his late sixties, possibly seventies, but there was no way to be sure. Something felt familiar about his wrinkled face, oddly attractive, but she couldn’t place it; she had never met him before.
    He leaned on his staff with both hands as he studied her, head to toe, with piercing blue eyes. “Yes, you. When something new enters the Astral Plane, there is a large disturbance like a stone skipping across a pond; the ripples can be felt all the way out to the furthest reaches. This last time felt different and it was how I knew where to find you so quickly.”
    Adrienne hung on every one of his words.
    “It has to do with energy brought in from Earth,” he continued. “It manifests here as a portion of memory; the house you were in, for example, was that your last location?”
    She nodded, noting a faint spark in his eyes.
    “It acts like a homing signal to the hopeless creatures here, who want for nothing other than to return to the land of the living, pass on to Heaven or even Hell, or exit into the boundless nothing. They feel as if they can use that energy to achieve one of these goals, stopping at nothing to get at it before it dissipates. Now all of this said, I have one big question on my mind: why you were not affected in the same way as others who come here?”
    She had no idea. The last thing she could remember was fighting with Gage against those abominations the Noctis had sent in the living room of his house, or was it in the kitchen? She wasn’t sure now; it was all quite a blur.
    …Non Omnis Moriar… .
    “Gage…” she said as the words faded from her thoughts.
    “Gage?” the man asked with interest. “Someone you know?”
    “Yes,” she replied, looking to the ground. “Well, someone I knew. From back when I was alive. He helped greatly in the fight against the Noctis.”
    “Ah the Noctis, those