The Valhalla Covenant

Reimas felt no awareness of distance on his next sortie. It had required almost no effort after he lay down on the couch, and he experienced a virtually instant transition between one world and another.

Emerging in a field of green and wildflowers next to a wide blue lake, he saw a young woman sitting on the grass looking out over the water. Above a wide bowl of a valley there stood an encircling range of mountains with jagged snowy peaks. He couldn’t help but notice the sky was such a deep blue that it verged on indigo.

Anxious to avoid scaring the woman, he skirted around nearer the water’s edge then came back up the hill towards her. As he walked he felt the clear sensation of his legs moving, as well as the even flow of his breath. Although without a material body, he felt more grounded in this place than he had been anywhere else on his astral excursions.

On approaching the woman, who had a delicate face, clear blue eyes and a high brow, he could tell immediately that she could see him. Rather than fear, her expression held curiosity and friendliness. She made a gesture inviting Reimas to sit down opposite her.

When he attempted to speak, the woman shook her head and pointed up towards her brow. She closed her eyes slowly to convey her meaning clearly. Reimas followed suit and before long, he heard a voice.

“Hello. I sense your wonder, but that’s no surprise since you must have come from afar.”

“How right your are,” he replied.

“You’ve come to the world of Javora. What do you seek?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe — answers, answers to some very difficult questions. How can we understand each other, for one? And how can you see me? My physical body can’t be here.”

The young woman smiled.

“Not all our people can see astral travellers, but we have a long history of interaction with those exploring the realm. Some of us can see that world in waking visions and ever have our minds bent towards helping those travellers who need it. We can understand each other because we speak within.”

“Telepathically?”

“Yes, that sounds right.”

“On our world, we can communicate that way in very basic terms, but nothing like this.”

The woman frowned.

“That’s strange. You’re from the planet Ellaras, are you not?

“Ellaras? No, we simply call our world Earth. I know not of any language in which it’s called Ellaras.”

“How odd. I can perceive your physical form from your astral pattern, and you look so like an Ellaran that I could not tell the difference. We know them well given that they’ve been in our fold for more than thirty thousand years.”

The information left Reimas stunned for a moment.

“There’s another planet with people exactly like us?”

“Apparently, except that many of them can speak telepathically. I’ve not heard of this ‘Earth’ world, and if I haven’t, then it’s new to us all.”

“There must be many inhabited worlds in the universe,” said Reimas.

“We know and keep information for three hundred and seventy nine, which are of course inhabited by relatively advanced sentient beings. Clearly, there are more, maybe many more, but we don’t travel, so we can’t really say how many there are.”

“Why don’t you … travel?”

“We can’t. We can see others doing it when they appear before us, but we’ve never managed to break free ourselves.”

“A pity.”

“We’re content. We act as a repository of knowledge for other worlds, which sometimes helps see them through dark phases in their history. Our records also provide them with perspective on their situation over larger time scales. Since it takes such a long time to travel anywhere in physical space, and so few can do it, we are the sole means for most to gain the sort of perspective that sentients require.”

“I could do with some now,” said Reimas. “Nothing seems to make any sense and I’d like to know why my world suffers so much degradation. In my travels around the cosmos I’ve seen no other like it. It’s a mystery and not a nice one.”

Reimas opened his eyes briefly and found that his companion’s eyes were open also, yet their telepathic communication continued as before.

“I can’t tell you exactly what ails your home world,” she replied, “but I see it now in your inner being and there do seem to be serious problems. We do know of various beings that invade worlds and enslave them. The most pernicious offenders, the Aereons, have the power to conceal their minds amongst other minds, like mental shape changers. Even so, the Vezarin have hunted them throughout the universe and it would be strange if there were any left.”

“Who are the Vezarin?”

“They’re powerful beings — friends to some, hardly so to others,” the young woman replied, her wide blue eyes intent on Reimas’s face.

“Why do they hunt the Aereons?” he asked.

“Because they’re the most dangerous, the most insidious of all beings. Their minds are alien to all who would live in peace.”

“And the Vezarin live in peace?”

“When they aren’t hunting destructive species.”

“Where is their world?”

“They have none as far as we know. They’ve been beyond the need for physical form for a great length of time and are said to inhabit deep space far from material worlds.”

To hear of such beings left Reimas in a state of mind that he could barely comprehend. It both astonished and unsettled him, but after he got over the initial shock and surprise, he could see that it made perfect sense of everything, and gave him hope like he’d never felt it before.

“Given that they hunt these Aereons, what do they do with them?” he asked.

“They send them somewhere else; none know where but the Vezarin.”

“Is it likely that they’ve found them all?

“It’s thought that they’ve removed all Aereons from this universe, but they remain ever vigilant as some have shown great ingenuity in eluding them.”

“Surely, then, the Vezarin would have immediately seen that something was wrong with my world?”

The young woman met his eyes with gentle compassion.

“My friend, the universe is vast beyond all comprehension and this according to the Vezarin is only one of many. They keep order where they can, but if the world is as yet unknown, what can they do?”

“I hadn’t considered that,” Reimas replied. “I believe isolation has been our curse.”

“You’ve had no contact with other worlds?”

“None that I know of.”

“That would suit Aereons. They alone would wish to maintain isolation. They manifest the most appalling depravities, feeding on the minds of others along the way, and destroying the very lands that host them.”

“They feed on minds? How?”

“One of the Vezarin lords, named Tor, revealed to me that the Aereons occupy the minds of others and act through their bodies. Their thoughts are very powerful but they can render their minds dormant at will so that none may perceive them. They can hide their minds almost as well when within other bodies, but over time the grievous effects on those occupied tend to give the situation away.”

“What happens?”

“To those occupied? Insanity, premature age, even instant death in some cases,” the woman replied, “but fear not. With your ability to reach the astral, you’ll learn to see into the souls of others and how to perceive alien attributes.”

“Maybe, but I am new to this,” he replied. “Also, I’m the only one I know of who can do it — in our world.”

“There are, perhaps, material means that might also help. Do you understand the energies within matter?”

“I suppose you mean electricity. Yes.”

“You can measure mind vibrations?”

“Brain waves? Yes.”

“Good. The Aereons have a different signature, especially when they’re in the body of another. They cannot completely conceal the interference between their own minds and the repressed consciousness of their victims. It manifests almost as if there is no emotional signal, whatever.”

“So they’re without emotion?”

“Of course not. No living, sentient being can exist without emotion.”

“Still, it’s fitting, is it not?” Reimas asked.

“You mean, that they appear not to have emotions?”

“Yes.”

“No, that’s merely how it seems with the use of a detection device. It is in fact very misleading. You would be surprised at their depth. They are powerful beings and it’s emotions that make them so. Bear in mind that emotions aren’t necessarily all kind and beautiful.”

Reimas was fascinated, but he was more excited by news of the Vezarin. Such beings would have to be a source of great knowledge. For the moment, the matter of the Aereons concerned him less. It seemed unlikely, despite everything, that such a terrible foe could be hidden on Earth.

There was much to get on with. He looked a question back at his generous guide.

The answer was:

“You’ll know what to do. If you can travel across the void as you are now, you will find them.”

Reimas wished her farewell and turned back into the darkness of deep space. He had an impulse to search for the Vezarin straight away, but then it occurred to him he had not yet thought about what he’d say. Sometime soon there would be a right time.

The next thing he knew, the gentle folds of a rather vague but pleasant dream faded as the sounds of morning activity woke him.