“You are not telling me anything I don’t already know,” Ocean said. “Why are you here?”
“Mica is the one to dissolve the sins of this country. Accept her help. To do that, you must acknowledge the other Great Mother—the one deeper than the elements, the one that comes from deep within the earth.”
“Right.” Ocean knocked back her whiskey.
“It is time, Ocean,” Magda said.
“It’s always time, Magda,” Ocean said flippantly.
“To bring forth the lost knowledge,” Magda said, ignoring Ocean’s tone.
“Skylar has done well with Sophia’s book,” Ocean said.
“I am not talking about Sophia,” Magda said. “Her energy has saturated the ethers and is now permeating the physical plane. We must shift our focus to the Sacred Masculine.”
Ocean shook her head. “That is not my department.”
“It is that very attitude of separation that got the world in this mess. You have your own healing to do.” Magda’s etheric body floated gracefully around the porch. “The masculine starts with science, and we have friends that can help there.”
Ocean knew Magda was talking about Joel. “I’ve already given him a job to do,” she said. “He’s very reluctant.”
“And you’re very persuasive,” Magda said. “There are genealogical origins that now need to be uncovered.” Her stare bore through Ocean’s skull. “You know of Skylar’s blood, where it comes from.”
“Right,” Ocean said. “But even if I can convince Joel, few will believe him.”
“That is the desired result in the short term. You know most truths are rejected by the masses at first. Do this.” Magda faded into mist.
“I like giving orders, not taking them,” Ocean said loudly into the air. She shot back her second whiskey of the morning and went inside to dress.
Later that morning, Rachel and Joel sat on Ocean’s back porch in the same spot Magda had occupied earlier. Rachel was alive with energy she couldn’t name, unable to sit still.
“Magda was here this morning, maybe you feel her,” Ocean said.
“Maybe,” Rachel said, unconvinced. She studied the backyard, specifically the tree. “I can see the energy of the tree, it’s Skylar’s. She’s not dead, but her soul is hanging precariously in two worlds.” She dashed down the back steps and ran to the charred maple. She paused only briefly, asking permission, then placed her hand on its trunk. She waited with her eyes closed.
A few moments later, Ocean met her at the tree.
Rachel opened her eyes. “I can go to her,” she said. “I can help her. She’s in a hospital bed, hooked up to machines. She’s being used as an experiment.” She looked at Ocean. “Can’t you go there? You can go anywhere.”
“Unfortunately no,” Ocean said. “I’m not the one to do this. Argan is. If I intervene, timelines could change, and not for the better.”
Rachel’s shoulders sank and she nodded. She breathed in the hot air of the last day of May, and her head rose to look at Ocean. “This tree is Skylar.”
Ocean chuckled. “Yeah—she didn’t recognize it as her own, but yes. She has more fire in her than she cares to admit.”
Rachel looked at Rhia’s and Joshua’s headstones. “This really is bizarre, having them buried next to each other,” she said. “He killed her.”
Ocean shrugged. “In this life, yes. But if it’s any consolation, they aren’t enemies. They’re actually working together to help us from where they are now.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Rachel said, still staring at the ground.
“Come on,” Ocean said, motioning toward the porch. “I asked Joel here for a reason.”
The women walked back up the stairs to where Joel was sitting. He had his nose in his cell phone.
Ocean went inside and was back quicker than her usual pace. The light she carried preceded her by tenfold. Rachel made no move but Joel had to shield his eyes.
“Put these on,” Ocean said, handing him a pair of protective eyeglasses.
He obliged willingly and gasped in a rare moment of surprise. “What the hell is that?” The glasses diffused the light shining off of the object so he could see it clearly. A holographic cylinder crystal tube, about the size of a microscope, stood upright, numerous reflections of rainbow light shining brightly from it. It was energy itself, condensed into one square foot of space.
Ocean cleared a few glasses off her bar cart and placed the device on its woven bamboo surface.
Rachel chuckled. “Good thing it’s daytime. That thing would light up the night.”
Ocean laughed. “Yeah, I take it outside when I can’t find the cat. It lights up the whole backyard.”
“You have a cat?” Rachel asked.
“You’ve seen one of these?” Joel asked Rachel.
“No, but I’ve heard of them,” she said. “The women in my family talk.”
“Joel,” Ocean said, “it’s time to solidify the bridge between magic and science. I need you to put your scientist pants on and report a finding.”
His brow creased with immediate doubt. “Which one is that?”
“The scientific proof of the soul,” Ocean said.
“All right,” he said. “And how do I do that?”
“With this.” She gestured to the magnificent crystal scope. “This is a piece of technology not yet invented in this world. It’s unlikely to be for at least another hundred years. Those on the planet using crystal technology aren’t even close. And that’s a good thing. Because it’s dangerous. Misuse of crystal technology caused the fall of Atlantis.”
Joel shook his head. “Where’d you get it?” he asked skeptically.
She gave him a tight-lipped look.
“You expect me to believe this is from Atlantis?”
“I don’t expect you to believe anything, but I do expect you to do me a favor. And this will help get Skylar back, and I know that’s your priority.”
“Go ahead,” he said.
“Many new agers dabble in crystals. Some forward-thinking entrepreneurs are even using them in products to promote wellbeing. All good things, but no one in this age has truly harnessed the capabilities of crystals as communication devices. They have the ability to absorb and amplify the emotions of their subject in addition to the intentions of the observer. Think of this as a virtual reality, interactive microscope. Instead of using learned knowledge from a textbook to interpret what is happening with a specimen, with this technology, it’s as if the observer becomes one with the observed. In doing so, she or he gains insight—the sight from within, where wisdom and answers are readily available to aid the observer in his diagnosis.”
Joel dangled the glasses on the tip of his nose for a brief second and then pushed them back over his eyes. “How does this get Skylar back?”
“Is there one of these where Skylar is now?” Rachel piped in.
“Yes,” Ocean said. “Her memory will return on how to use it. When it does, she’ll try to contact you.”
“All right,” Joel said, clearly still skeptical. “And until then, what am I looking for—to find the soul?”