Free A Division of Souls - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe by Jon Chaisson Page B

asleep.
     
    *
     
    All is Light, my dearest.
    The voice of a young man, someone she did
not know, crept into her dreams and invaded the solace of her
lumisha dea. No—not invading. Merely stopping by, saying hello. A
friend. She hadn’t had visitors here in years, so she hadn’t
expected to hear anyone here, ever. Who was it? It was a voice so
desperately familiar, someone she’d known for a very long time. She
knew this person well, but had forgotten him somehow. She risked a
single thread of sensing, probing for the source.
    She spoke quietly in her inner voice. Who
are you?
    I am a friend, dear , he answered. You called me Anando.
    Something deep within caught at her heart at
the sound of that name, and without expecting it, her sensing
thread whipped around and stretched out in front of her. It knew
where he was, who he was. Her spirit knew him, had known him
for years. Decades. Lifetimes? Despite her natural wariness she
followed the sensing thread, trusting it would bring her closer to
him. Why are you here?
    Anando let out a small, joyful laugh. If
only you knew where you really were , he said. You've met me
before, Caren. Here on Trisanda.
    What?? A shiver ran through her body.
Trisanda…the Meraladian homeworld? She couldn’t have been there,
light years away! Impossible! She had no ability to enter Light at
will, nor had anyone else in her family. She was safe and sound in
her apartment, snoring away on the couch.
    …or was she?
    Open your eyes.
    She felt warmth. Natural warmth, a sensation
of sunlight on her skin. Curious, she opened her eyes.
    And indeed, all was Light. Pure energy, warm
and inviting, enveloping her entire body in a cocoon, protecting
her, and illuminating everything around her in a crystal clarity
she’d never witnessed before. And it was absolutely, heart-achingly
beautiful. It was…
    Home? She recognized this place, she was
sure of it. She’d been here before, years, ages ago…lifetimes
ago.
    Anando, she whispered. Where am
I?
    She stood in a wide field of grass bordered
by tall, narrow trees. The sun hung lazily in the afternoon sky,
bringing out the vibrant colors of an autumn day. An extremely long
wood table sat in the middle of this field, weighted down by plates
and baskets of all kinds of meats, breads and vegetables, as well
as bouquets of flowers and large, unlit candles. A hundred or so
people surrounded the table, chatting and laughing excitedly.
Something fantastic had happened, and they could not contain their
glee. Though she couldn’t quite make out the words, she understood
that they were all speaking of someone’s long-awaited return. Caren
smiled despite herself; surely they weren’t excited by her
presence?
    Moving closer, she was startled by the fact
that she recognized certain faces, those of people she was sure she
didn’t know in reality. Two men were having a heated discussion,
each one trying to convince the other that they knew this prodigal
someone personally; in her mind, they were friends and coworkers of
her father’s from when he was her age who loved to bicker at each
other. Another man spoke in hushed tones to his beloved, promising
her that he would introduce her to this someone, and she blushed
and smiled at him; in her mind they were friends she’d known in
school, a loving couple that had always been together. There were
five siblings of varying ages, three boys and two girls, who were
laughing and joking while they stuffed their face with the
delicious food before them; in her mind, they were her younger
sisters and brothers.
    And yet on Earth, in real life, they did not
exist.
    She could not deny this sense of closeness,
of relation to them. Their aura…their essence felt so familiar, so familial to her! Despite everything her mind told her, they
were here, in front of her. She could hear them, see them…if she
reached out, she could even feel them. She caught her breath —
suddenly all made sense! This was not her lumisha dea at all,