Stone Of Matter Read online

  Copyright © 2019 by B. L. Barkey

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing, 2019

  ISBN # 9781093422160

  Wolf Den Publishing

  Logan, UT 84341

  www.blbarkey.com

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  Contents

  MAP

  The Legend Of Litiguh

  Prologue

  PART I – THE WIND CAVES

  Chapter I – Prelude - Light Creation

  Chapter II – Prelude - Seven Stones

  Chapter III – Brothers

  Chapter IV – Cloud Mountain

  Chapter V – Cephas Island

  Chapter VI – Interlude - The Master Levitian

  Chapter VII – High Forest

  Chapter VIII – Wind Caves

  Chapter IX – Song of Stardust

  Chapter X – Lake of Light

  Chapter XI – Dark Energy

  Chapter XII – Sleepwalker

  PART II – LEVITICUM

  Chapter XIII – Interlude - Light Watching

  Chapter XIV – The Leviticum

  Chapter XV – Worlds

  Chapter XVI – Gardens

  Chapter XVII – Circles of Life

  Chapter XVIII – Starfish

  Chapter XIX – Emerald Whirlpool

  Chapter XX – Keychain

  Chapter XXI - Dark Desires

  PART III – DARK WINDOWS

  Chapter XXII – Interlude - Light Suspicion

  Chapter XXIII – Cold Blood

  Chapter XXIV – Equilibria

  Chapter XXV – Glowfish

  Chapter XXVI – Family Night

  Chapter XXVII –The Glass Storm

  Chapter XXVIII – The Gathering

  PART IV – TRIALS OF GUARDIANS

  Chapter XXIX – Interlude - Light Foreseen

  Chapter XXX – Dark Portals

  Chapter XXXI – The Trials Begin

  Chapter XXXII – The First Key

  Chapter XXXIII – The Second Key

  Chapter XXXIV – Temple Center

  Chapter XXXV – Kokua Alone

  Chapter XXXVI – Choices

  Chapter XXXVII – A New Path

  Epilogue

  REVIEW

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  “There are far better things ahead

  than any we leave behind.”

  - C. S. Lewis

  To growth,

  And those who help us grow,

  For without which,

  What’s the point?

  Prologue

  The planet of Proelum was created kindred to Earth, to be passed through similar crucibles. It was shaped from matter, flooded with water, consumed for its minerals, and protected by its atmosphere. It also birthed the blessed and cursed species of humankind, sustaining their lives and aspirations.

  Yet as humans grew stronger, they lost their empathy. At the pinnacle of their technology, something happened. The world burned entirely, swept up in flames of what survivors would call the Great Fire.

  What followed was a millennium of peace; one-thousand years of happiness once thought impossible to exist on Proelum. Yet this would not be the last tragedy to strike the planet. The darkest and final act would soon begin, upon the release of the Morningstar.

  PART I

  THE WIND CAVES

  Chapter I

  Prelude - Light Creation

  1,000 years after the Great Fire…

  Two beings stood upon the perpetually burning star called Sun, untouched by its liquid flame. Both held bodies garbed in robes of light, yet only the one called Torin was complete.

  They stood within a building of solidified light-beams, surrounded by a luxurious courtyard patterned with worlds as garden flowers. They were close to the mortal realm. Torin shivered. Gwendolyn stood encased in crystal, without which the Sun would incinerate her. It was this crystal that elevated her physical body to that of a higher being. A crystal formed by a Creation Stone, to protect its bearer. She held this Creation Stone in her heart. The Second Stone. The Creation Stone of Voids. Of wind and of realms, including those of dreams and mortals.

  In this place, Gwendolyn could see sinuous vibrations coming together as solids, much like those in the physical realm. She was from there herself. Yet Torin still saw things differently, comprehending the phases of things throughout all time, all at once. He saw the fruit-bearing tree in its current state, as well as the seed it once was, and the bench it would become. In this way, time was just another piece of matter to him, a ribbon rolled out to be viewed.

  Torin stood beside his daughter as they watched from the Sun. Man and woman. Torin and Gwendolyn. Creator and creation. They were meeting upon her request for guidance with the coming era, for she was troubled, having always been one to question.

  Few had ever possessed a Creation Stone like the one she now harbored in her chest. Only one being had ever held all seven Stones at one time. Torin. The celestialized man who had created Proelum. He had used each Stone in their destined order, a thousand years at a time, to shape pure energy into organized matter. He had then placed the seven Creation Stones within the infant planet, hiding them from dark forces that would wield them for destruction.

  Afterward, he had set the planet on its own path towards celestialization. A path that, once initiated, would limit the degree in which he could interact with it. For once the path was started, it was up to the inhabitants to choose its course.

  To interfere greatly would mean disintegrating the planet, its spirits, and the promises that made it, into oblivion. It would mean not just death, but erasure. The erasing of ever having existed at all.

  Interfering would also defeat the whole purpose of mortal life. It was those in that realm who needed to grow. Who needed to learn. Who needed to choose, without knowing the result. To believe, and then take action.

  So there they stood, watching Proelum drift into the final act of its trajectory. Into the segment where most worlds failed, for it was by far the most treacherous. Here. Soon. The war to possess the Creation Stones would inflame one final time. The war that raged eternally between light and dark. The war of which so many stories spoke of. The war for hearts, minds, planets, and realms. The Greater War.

  “I don’t understand,” Gwen said softly. “Why should we release him again if we know he could annihilate everything?”

  Her voice was prominent amidst the choir of stars.

  “He will almost surely annihilate everything,” said Torin, his voice calm. “But it is the way. The way it must be. Balance. There must be risk if there is to be growth.”

  His voice planted peace in the heart like a seed in rich soil. He was humble and caring, careful with every word, with every pause.

  Such utterances could be written down, studied for centuries, and then still unveil new meaning. He was an endless spring. He knew the way of things.

  “Yes, but… We have come so far.” She trailed off.

  “Wielder of the Wind Stone. Speaker of worlds. Leader, or Lehrer, of spirits."

  He paused, beaming at her.

  “Angel of light. Litiguh. Gwendolyn.”

  He spoke each name with complete understanding.

  He smi
led at her. “Please. Trust me.”

  She half-smiled back, though it hurt her hearts. Her human heart, as well as the heart of worlds inside her.

  “He was so close last time,” Gwen said, her voice somber. “What’s to stop him from going further? He's had another thousand years to plan his final attempt. He's cunning. He's dangerous.”

  “He is all of these things,” Torin said.

  “He could erase everything,” said Gwen.

  “Even the planets before this one. Even Earth,” said Torin. His voice became a nostalgic mist as he spoke of his home world.

  “He's your brother,” she said.

  “I know.”

  “Then why?” she asked.

  He held her cheeks gently in his hands.

  "Leave the ‘whys’ to me, child. That is trust. If you trust me first, the answers will come after. You know this to be true. Just look in your heart, and the fusion within."

  She nodded.

  “But Torin. I’m terrified. I cannot see the end.” Her voice shook.

  “So it must be. Do you understand?” Soothing waves of emotion rolled from him like a restful rainstorm, bringing tears to her eyes. She nodded with a trembling smile hidden behind her lips. She could feel imbalance within herself.

  “Are you sure you’re not God?” she asked, laughing.

  Torin chuckled. “Who me? No child, I am no being called God. Though, I see why you perceive me as a god. After all, isn’t it a matter of perspective? It seems that, to a firefly, the eagle is a god. Or to the wolf pup, the full-grown mother. Or to the minnows, the massive whale.

  “It seems then the term ‘god’ refers to a being with overwhelming power in comparison to where you currently exist. In this reference, yes. To you, I am a god.

  “Yet you can grow to reach this higher level, this higher glory, like I once did. You understand so much, yet so little. You can seek more. You are the seed who can become the tree. The pebble, the mountain.

  “I am even a god, in that I create. So too can you be a form of god. But this holy reference to a singular being called God? I am not him."

  He paused, rubbing his hands together as if dusting them off.

  “He is real, though he does not exist. I would say no more.” He spoke this last word with a comforting wink.

  Her skin grew just a bit warmer then. She breathed in deep to cool her soul. She then felt a pulse in her chest. Her Stone was fused with her heart, though she could separate from it at any time, retaining only some of its gifted powers. Occasionally, she needed a break from it.

  To wield a Creation Stone meant gaining tremendous power and accountability. Many dreamt of holding the Stones, while even more sought after them. But truly? It was a burden.

  It was both incredible and terrifying. Much suffering was required to reach the level capable of even looking upon one of the Seven Stones. Possessing one was another matter entirely. In harboring it, she had outlived her husband and children.

  She'd lost many friends in the battles that ensued. She had then ascended through the stages of light just like every human could, overcoming her trials and sorrow. And now she sustained it, falling and growing further in love with her Stone for the essence contained within it. After all, someone had to use it, to keep it from the dark ones.

  She also knew the secret to wielding the Stone for the purposes of light. The secret was love. Wasn’t it always? The secret to every novel she had ever read as a mortal? Family first. Self-sacrifice. Selfless giving. Love. She remembered wishing as a child that novels would come out and share the secret from the start. She promised to do just this if she ever wrote one.

  The secret is love. But what is love? What does this abstract, blanket concept mean? She had learned to find her own meaning. For her, it meant ‘understanding’. Love meant taking the time and energy to truly understand something or someone else. When this happened, a plethora of new bonds was forged, creating the feeling humans called love.

  So this is my secret, should anyone ask. Yet revealing this spoils nothing. For there are many things and people and places, to learn from and understand and love. So much so that the ending is all but revealed even still. Knowing this secret, that love conquers all, reveals little.

  The thrill, then, is learning something new, and learning to understand it, and therefore love it. Forming new bonds. Adding more color to an already prismatic life. Collecting these treasured spheres of memory for eternity. Knowing this, there are still no guarantees. There are still tragedies. The worst kinds. Love lost. Yet there is hope for a happy ending.

  And that was why she was here. For she loved her new island and its people. She did not want to lose them, though the spirit of things told her she would.

  “So it begins, and so it ends,” she said, almost in whisper.

  “Gwen of the Wind. You know that nothing truly ends.” She felt his warmth, for it was even brighter than the Sun.

  “Yes… but I also know there are two meanings buried there,” she said, rolling her eyes.

  He laughed, deep and rumbling. “This is true.”

  There was a moment of silence then. She watched the massive orb that was her planet. The third rock from the Sun. The inhabited planet of Proelum. They needed her, and she needed them. She would miss them.

  Torin finally spoke.

  “Gather the others. All seven. The time is approaching.”

  “When will you release him?” she asked. Yet she knew the answer.

  He looked down upon the world of Proelum.

  “Tomorrow.”

  A single tear rolled down his cheek, fell to the floor, and froze.

  Chapter II

  Prelude - Seven Stones

  108 years later…

  Wind whipped through Gwendolyn’s hair as she rushed over the surface of the ocean. She had no thought to fear the leviathans below her, for something far more terrible approached from behind.

  Before this moment, she had lived peacefully on her new island, almost remembering what it was like to be normal. To be human. As the wielder of a Creation Stone, she had become the guardian of the island it belonged to. One of the seven hidden islands created after the world was burned. She had lived there for more than a thousand years, watching and defending it. She had even found love again, though it never would’ve replaced her family from before.

  But now, a century after releasing the Grand Wielder of Darkness himself, it was finally time. The Morningstar was free from his bounds. It was time for peace to fail and brutality to reign. Time for the seven protected Horizon Islands to be found. Time for the final veil to fall.

  She had been preparing for this, watching the world outside her island dwindle in temptation. Puppeteered and advanced by darkness, the outsiders had finally found them. Though she had wished for more time, no amount of preparation would have been enough. Her soul trembled with righteous sorrow and rage.

  The outsiders never would've found them if dark hearts had remained absent from her island. But alas, darkness had found its way in. Soon after, their location had been revealed. Her island had fought valiantly throughout the century of growing darkness. They had resisted the urges placed in their hearts.

  Yet over the last year, things had plummeted for the worst. She was the only one left. The only one from her Horizon Island. And now, she was being chased by creatures with murderous intent.

  There's a good chance I will fall this day, she thought. Even so, I won't go easy. She had learned to fight as a mortal, then further progressed her strength over the last few centuries. Now, amplified by the Creation Stone in her heart, she wielded the power to shape worlds.

  But their numbers were too great. She had seen ten of them already, and could feel hordes of them approaching. The best she could do was delay them. Lead them away from the other islands, she thought.

  She had spoken with Torin three nights before. The other islands were still safe. Hers would be the first to fall. It was bittersweet revelation. Inevitabl
e as it was, it had to happen eventually. Going this way, she would see her family again soon, whilst leading the darkness away from the Stone of Matter. She could easily escape now, if she wished it. Yet that would leave her alone and guilty, while Cephas Island would fall to the Morningstar. She could not allow this.

  She would carry out her duty. She would sacrifice her power, taking up the gauntlet of her next role in the Greater War. It will all come in time, she thought. First and forever, I must be present in this moment. She breathed in deep, then relaxed amidst the eye of the gathering storm.

  A wall of water arose and solidified before her. She slowed and veered to the left. But the wall extended, cutting her off. She prepared herself for impact, slamming into the ice. The impact would have crushed the spine of a normal human in an instant. Yet her crystalized body was unscathed. After all, she wielded the full power of voids.

  She created a void around herself, causing the ever-present forces of atmosphere to launch her skyward. Her feet were a blur as she bounded up the vertical water-wall. She looked back and caught the eyes of two dark wielders.

  She opened a void behind one assailant, destroying his momentum and breaking his neck as he was ripped backward. She opened another void where the second one was, but he moved quickly and far away, while also filling in her void. So, he also has understanding of voids, she thought. As flattering as that may be to my Stone, it makes little difference. He may understand, but he does not have the Stone itself. He lacks the core, the crux of it, the emanating essence. The fullness of it is mine alone.

  She jumped, creating two more voids around herself. She held her hardened body firm as she was rocketed towards her second pursuer. She found the desired shock in his eyes. Then she created a small, discreet void at his front. He was pulled forward and into her path. Her fist collided with his jaw as she shielded her bones with voids like armor, providing just enough protection to prevent injury. His head separated from his shoulders, then exploded.