30

Thank you very much to all those who commented and emailed me. I paid close attention to your opinions and some anonymous voices that were really wonderful giving advices.

I found out that editing the chapters I already wrote was a great job, especially since I started to modify each dialog and transform from the old style to the new. It is true, this new one gives room for more description and that is what I was lacking, so I did my best to fill the empty lines and manages to make things much better. I am very proud of my job on these ones! I am having a lot more fun than I was hoping I would.

I have chapters 31 to 40 ready, but it takes time to edit them from the old style to the new. So that being said, I hope you enjoy this part and please trust me I am getting better and better with each of your reviews and advices. I just hope you like the story as much as I do, and I push myself more and more with each chapter.

I beg you to keep giving me your thoughts on the characters and the story, I listen and try to please all!

Enjoy :)

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CHAPTER 21

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Amra leaned close to her and caressed her face softly as he whispered "We are landing now on Paralimni my love, it is the capital of Famagusta. Our first stop is here."

She smiled and blushed, he always had that effect on her "...and how long are we staying here?"

"Only a few hours probably, to do the proper paperwork according to Pronab; I have no idea why humans have laws for each part of the same earth, it would be so much simpler if all lands had the same."

She chuckled and nodded "I agree, I think that it would have been better, for us, but not for the human leaders and their pockets... the human world it is run by money, greed, power, among other things..."

"Greed for power is the main reason why we have problems in our world as well, my love, some people are never content with what they have, with what they were given..."

The airplane finally stopped and the stewardess in charge of giving indications started talking on the speaker. Amra squeezed Caliope's hand and smiled 'Let's wait for everyone else to get down first, ok?' he whispered in her mind, she nodded and rested her head on his shoulder, a place she learned to love and find comfort in. During the long trip she couldn't sleep much, her mind was busy with all of the things that had been happening.

Elaine was on the phone while they were getting down the plane. Pronab as always leaded their way, and found a committee of people ready to take them to their destination. One of them was a woman and she led the other man to take the bags with them.

"Hello Elaine, it is nice to see you again, thank you for coming yourself to greet us."

"Greetings Pronab, Lady Clark."

Elaine Clark nodded with a smile towards the woman with her same name "Hello, dear Elaine, I need to finish this call, so please excuse me a couple of minutes." The woman nodded kindly in response.

"Elaine, this is Caliope, and Amrafel." Pronab took initiative and proceeded to introduce them.

The woman smiled a kind and welcoming smile to both, she nodded at them, and Amra replied with another nod and a smile. Nothing else was said, and Caliope had the impression this was normal protocol when humans, who were not aware of angels, were around them.

Elaine finished her call and returned with the group. Then everyone left the airport and got in one of the three hummers waiting for them. As they were all in the car, the woman smiled again at Caliope, who seemed lost looking around through the window. "Paralimni is only around 26 kilometers from our final destination, but we need to make a stop first today, at one of the embassies. You will see the contrast between towns, there is a dramatic change yet beautiful at the same time." Caliope broke her lost gaze at the window and looked back at her, paying attention.

"I take the base is finished there, last time I was here it was not even nearly done." Pronab asked before she could continue.

She nodded at him "The base is finished, and we did several new sub bases around as well."

"Good, that is what I was looking forward." He replied with a satisfactory smile.

The car stopped at an old building, it looked normal as the rest of them, but a sign indicated it was something else. Both Elaine's stepped down the car as Pronab stayed with the rest of them there. While a song was playing on the radio, Pronab was talking on the different sights they would see with Amra, Caliope stared at the window, seemingly distracted by the everyday life on the people in the city. A vendor here and there, some people walking by, others driving. It was a busy day but overall normal in general. Normal was something she was starting to miss.

After half an hour, Caliope started to feel sleepy and her eyes were shutting down slowly. Her head leaned against the window as she caught two merchants arguing about something. Her eyes finally closed and she start dreaming.

A lake that was filled with dark waters, a desolated farm and endless fields of nothing. There was only one tall and dark scarecrow in the middle, and not even the crows around could be seen. A song that was being sang by a woman, who wasn't seen anywhere around. And the voice was sad, Caliope saw herself crying without knowing why. The song was in a strange language, but she understood each word of it as if it was her own.

"And he waits, for that one beloved soul to find him, in his endless solitude, he will only rise for the fallen ones... And he waits, for that one beloved soul to find him, and his endless solitude will then come to an end, as the fortuneteller once saw it coming, as the fate of him has been already set..."

She walked on a path that had no end, but right there, she felt she was not alone. The tall and dark scarecrow was near, she felt drawn to it for some strange reason. And as she got closer, a sadness grew inside her, and the voice continued singing.

"And he waits... oh he waits... for that one beloved soul to find him... and he waits... oh he will wait... he wants to end the madness... he waits and he will wait... as it is written in the stars... there will be one, that will come to find him..."

She walked closer and closer to the scarecrow and the tears kept falling. It was not the lyrics itself but the tone and the voice that were making her cry.

As she got closer to the tall and dark figure, she could feel there was something off in it. She moved slower, and as she got only some meters away, she could hear it breathe. It was alive!

"My love?" Amra broke her dream.

Caliope woke up sweating, and as she looked around, she found herself back in the car with Amra and Pronab, in front of that embassy building, on the same street. Everything was just a dream, except she felt it was real.

"Are you ok?"

"I think the weather here is affecting me a little, I felt asleep for a while but had a weird nightmare, are they going to take long?" She tried to sound normal.

"I do not know, but we can get out if you would like to take some fresh air."

Caliope shook her head and smiled at him "No, I will be ok..."

"I am sure they are about to return, it should not have taken them this long already." Pronab tried to assure Caliope, and as Pronab finished talking, both Elaine's walked out of the building and got into the car, both happy and chatting, ordering their return to the main road to head to their final destination.

The woman smiled at Amra and Caliope "The ambassador is an old friend of mine, he was happy to sign authorizations for all of you to stay in the country without limit of time, and you have all been granted with diplomatic immunity."

Pronab looked at her and replied "Thank you, but we won't get into too much troubles for sure... I hope..."

Elaine smiled kindly and added "I know you will not get into troubles, I will make sure of that." as she looked at Pronab.

They laughed and Pronab chuckled. Caliope smiled and took a deep breath, trying to forget the song that was now stuck in her head, the song of her dream.

As they moved towards Varosha, Caliope could notice the change on the city limits. A wide vast field before big and tall buildings arose; hallowed buildings with rust and dust at every side. A barrier was seen, that held several red signs. She could not understand any of what they said, but it gave her a sense of forbidden pass. The cars slowed down as they got closer to a big gate, guarded by officers.

The woman smiled "Turkish army forces, do not worry, we will get pass by them." winking at Caliope; then smirked as she looked back to the front "don't talk at all..." she asked as she began to lower her window.

Then everything was blurry, Caliope rubbed her eyes but could not see much around her. Amra whispered in her mind 'She is using her powers, do not speak a word my love...' and she felt him squeeze her hand. The cars stopped on the barrier, an officer approached to the window and spoke to Elaine in his language, she replied with a happy tone, and even though Caliope could not see what was happening, she felt some flirt tone in their strange and short conversation. The cars suddenly started moving again and after a few miles and some silence, Caliope recovered her sight. The woman smiled looking back to everyone.

"We are inside Varosha now, this city's access is very restricted, after a civil war in 1974, the Greeks and the Turkish army had a military confrontation here... people were ordered to leave immediately, expecting to return a few days if not weeks later, but until now that hasn't been possible... Turkish army fenced the surroundings, but it is really a no man's land." The woman explained as they drove thru.

Caliope nodded and continued to look around as their car moved towards the opposite side of the army base. She could see how nature took over most of the beach, old umbrellas now bringing shelter to sea turtles, and a few crabs were seen where rocks rested. Dilapidated hotels left abandoned, broken windows and ghostly curtains dancing.

The woman continued her introduction "There was an UN resolution in 1984 ruling that the city would only be resettled by the original inhabitants who lived there before the invasion, this prevented Turkey from re-opening the land for their own purposes but they never gave it back, holding it perhaps for maybe political uses in the future, as a bargaining tool. So now it is a ghost town, no people around unless the Turkish army and of course, our people."

Caliope felt curious and decided to ask "Any particular reason why you chose a ghost town to set your base?"

The woman looked straight at her eyes and smirked "Harder access and of course, less curious people around. If someone gets caught sneaking near our base, we know they are not there by coincidence."

They drove past the beach then entered deeper into the city, reaching to a huge facility she quickly realized it was the airport. At the distance, a rusted airplane was left in the middle of the field. The cars drove inside the airport's building, through a newly made entrance on a side, then stopped there. Everyone got down the cars and followed the woman through a corridor that lead them to a big elevator, right next to a huge hole seemingly endless. The woman turned around and smiled "There are two ways to get down, human way or "our" way, make your choice."

Caliope tilted her head and looked up at Amra, who shook his head and sighed. Pronab smirked and turned around to wink at Caliope "You should try this, if you think you can take a little bit of adrenaline."

After this, he walked closer to the hole in the ground and jumped. Caliope gasped as she was close to screaming. Elaine chuckled and walked towards the elevator "I will go down the slow way, Caliope you can come with me..."

The woman chuckled and nodded "Of course, I will come with you as well. Amrafel?"

"I am coming with her." He replied as he walked behind Caliope and held her hand firmly.

They all got inside the elevator and after punching a numeric code, it started to move downwards in a seemingly fast speed. After a couple of minutes, and what it felt as kilometers of emptiness, the elevator stopped and the doors opened to welcome them. An interior garden with trees and flowers, birds singing and a small stream of water that came from a cascade. Behind the garden, a big street and underground houses not taller than two floors each. The woman was the first to walk out and turn around smiling at them "Welcome to our base, my home..."

Pronab walked towards them smiling overjoyed, as if that jump made him reborn. His hair to the side and his eyes full of life. Caliope smiled and thought it was silly, but he winked at her again then smiled at Elaine as he struggled to put a serious face again. The woman led them through the garden and as they were walking, Caliope saw people resting in trees or in the grass; some reading, some meditating, some were talking to others and they were all smiling. The street was clean, simple and without signs. At the very end, a bigger building towards where they were heading. When she looked up, she saw the big dome in which they were in, metal and glass painted and illuminated to recreate the daily sun. Once they reached inside the big building, the woman ordered those guards who were following them to leave their guest's belongings at the reception and go back to the outside, and finally she led them to their meeting point. The building had modern design yet the quality of the materials was above the usual. Special marmol floors and walls with high quality and detailed paper illustrating angels and epic battles. Tall ceiling with nothing but tainted glass, and dark wood used for every furniture on each room.

As they walked inside what was supposed to be the meeting room, a small group of four woman and five men who were standing and talking, turned around and greeted them all politely. Elaine walked towards one of the oldest members and greeted him with three kisses on the cheeks, followed by a short exchange of words in another language. She smiled and finally turned around to introduce them all. It was obvious she already knew him.

"These are Pronab, Caliope and Amrafel... please meet Basil, he is the General of the Second Pillar and a dear friend of mine."

The older man bowed and with a soft and tender voice added "Enchanted to meet you all, and to finally meet you Amrafel, we have been waiting so long to receive your visit." Amra lowered his head slighting in reply, a small smile on his lips. He continued "Thank you Elaine, my friend, for coming as well."

She couldn't help but to smile at him "It was not in my plans at first, but I am here now and it is good to see all the amazing work you have done! The dome is amazing!"

"Thank you, it has been a hard work but we managed to finish it last month. My idea is to build more of them in the future, perhaps it would be a safer haven for our kind."

Basil's eye kept traveling from Amra to Caliope as occasionally he looked at Elaine. Amra's presence was something everyone was expecting, and he seemed almost unsure it was real. They all took a seat in a circle; Caliope sat next to Amra and he took her hand squeezing it slightly.

The woman cleared her voice and started the meeting "Well this is not the usual protocol, but we wanted to meet as soon as possible. Basil has to travel to the North tomorrow so here we are."

Elaine smiled "Thank you Basil, I am happy you made time to meet with us."

He kindly replied "I postponed my trip in order to be able to meet you all... I could not push it further away as it is the wedding of my dear daughter."

Elaine grinned and clapped "Congratulations! She surely has grown up so well!"

"Thank you... I am so emotional I could even cry tomorrow... but leave this old men with his silly emotions aside, you are not here to hear me babble about my daughter and her wedding. Amrafel, you coming out of your long state of meditation has brought so much courage and so much hope to our people." The old man's eyes were now focused on him.

Pronab knew Amra felt uncomfortable talking about his time before Caliope, so he interrupted "Words around the dark ones have been spread and that means something will happen soon."

The woman replied but Basil was distracted by his words as well "Unless they are truly scared and this will give us more time to act... I keep saying I have a theory about what could have happened."

"That is true, and her theory is very possible as well." Basil nodded with enthusiasm.

Elaine smiled at her and encouraged her to continue "Please do share with us what is your theory..."

The woman nodded and started explaining; conviction in her eyes "I believe that whatever they made to capture our Archangel, was nothing planned... I think that what they did was pure coincidence, or perhaps they did not realized what they were doing until it happened... this is why they are not doing anything so far, they do not know well what they did so they can't repeat the same... let's be honest, if they managed to discover a way to capture us they would have captured plenty more of us and we would all be at war now..."

Basil quickly added "...and we have not heard from them in any way, they had never reached to us for ransom or anything..."

Everyone went silent for some time, Pronab was the first to talk "That theory of yours Elaine, is very possible, I am inclined to believe in it more now that I came to think about it... this could give us plenty of advantages, it means we need to make known we do have a plan and we do have a way to take them down..."

Another member of Basil's company interrupted "pardon me, but do we?" and Basil proceeded to introduce him "Please meet Gard, he is my second in command and a trusted friend... and no Gard, I believe what Pronab is suggesting is to pretend we have one."

"That is what I suggest, we need to make the word spread, and this will keep them at distance and spread fear... they already know Amrafel is here, and they are scared."

Elaine Clark couldn't kept quiet anymore as she spoke "...if in fact, they have no plan at all, and what you say is true, this will cause them to back off those sporadic attacks we have been receiving lately, and the increase of nervousness on their higher ranks will make them fight amongst them..."

Gard spoke slowly "do we know if by any chance our Archangel is still alive? This has been troubling me... no words from them means there is nothing to bargain for..."

"He is alive, yes..." were Amra's simple but definitive words.

They turned their eyes towards him and a short silence took over the room for a moment. He kept his eyes on Caliope as he breathed slowly then continued speaking.

"Our Father has shared with me, he is alive."

Basil became excited for what he shared and exclaimed "you have contacted him?! This is a wonderful thing! Wonderful news!"

"I have gone to search for his guidance a couple of days ago, and he has revealed that to me."

Gard looked down at his hands as he spoke with some discomfort "Then let's do what we have to do in order to take back control of our Earth's balance. Let's just hope we do not end up killing our Archangel in the process, I am not sure how we could live with that weight in our backs..."

Amra finally turned away his eyes from Caliope to look at them and his face was empty, no emotions expressed. He made everyone uncomfortable and silent. Caliope felt strange, somehow she felt an intense pain but not in her, it was as if she could feel the pain of someone else. When she looked up at Amra and saw him stand up, a slow glow started to appear around him. Pronab stood up and walked towards Caliope. Everyone became aware that something started to happen, causing them to stand up and move slowly away from him. Just as Pronab pulled from Caliope's hands everything went black. She started to fall down in that never ending pool of darkness, the same void she already felt not long ago.