Ch.16 New World Past Life

Chapter 16

"How did you get here?" Wren asked as he sat across from Birdie on the chair.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Birdie said stubbornly.

Wren's navy blue gaze slowly lowered as he nodded. His eyes took notice of the way Birdie clutched her hands together and dug her thumbnail into her palm.

"You thought the rain would be warm," he said.

"So?"

"The rain is warm on Earth."

Birdie wanted to argue his point. January rain was most definitely not warm on Earth. But she knew he was baiting her. He was to observant for his own good. Wren knew Birdie was impulsive and a smart ass. He would do anything to rattle her up and get her to start talking.

"I wouldn't know," Birdie smiled.

"Your hands are too soft, your skin is pale, you're not afraid to talk back to a high blood fey."

"Do people not work on Earth, is there no sun on Earth, are the people of Earth dumb and mute?"

"You used the word, Birdie," Wren was amused by how far she was willing to go to keep up her lies. "You said Earth."

"I heard it somewhere," Birdie shrugged.

"Impossible."

"The word possible is in the word impossible."

"Stop lying to me!" Wren's hand came thundering down on the table beside him. The loud sound caused Birdie to flinch and gasp in shock as she shut her eyes close and gripped the fabric of her dress.

"I'm not lying to you," Birdie said through her teeth with her eyes still closed.

"Birdie," Wren sighed and leaned forward.

Slowly, as the fey took her hands, Birdie opened her eyes to see what he was up to. She wanted to pull away from him, but the way he gripped her wrists made it impossible.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Wren said.

"I don't believe you," Birdie replied.

"You don't trust me."

"You have not given me any reason to," Birdie tugged at her arms once more. "You bought me. You keep me in brass cuffs, you threaten to harm the only two people that have shown me any kind of kindness here, and you order me around like your servant. Not to mention Julian keeps laying his hands on me like I'm his punching bag."

Wren watched the girl struggle as her bitter words hung in the space between them. He could see the hurt and the pain behind Birdie's eyes as she tried to overpower it with her stubbornness and pull away.

Wren didn't even know why he was still holding on to her. She clearly did not want to be touched. But for the first time he had found some kind of link to the only thing he had left of his father. And he sure as hell wasn't going to lose it.

Birdie dug her heels into the floor in an attempt to use it as leverage to push away from Wren. She couldn't read the look in his eyes as he stared at her, watching her struggle without really seeing her.

And then, with a click and a small hiss, the brass cuffs around Birdie's wrists unlocked.

Birdie grew still as Wren slowly removed one cuff after the other. She felt her heart start to pound in her chest as her blood ran past her ears.

The fey placed the brass cuffs on the table while holding Birdie's wrists together in one hand. He could feel her watching him as he turned back to face her and began to trace the angry red marks around her skin.

A small whimper escaped Birdie's lips accidentally before she bit down to push away the pain. The skin around her wrists stung as if she had hot wax poured over them. The brass rubbing against them was not too kind to her. She felt her eyes water from the pain as she forced herself not to let the fey see how much it was hurting her.

But as Wren slowly raced the skin, the pain began to dissolve.

Birdie held her breath, not trusting him even for a second as he healed her. Together they watched the red marks and blisters slowly fade. The pain vanished and the need to cry blew away with it as a calm and warmth spread over Birdie's chest.

The heat was intense. It was as if Birdie had swallowed a burning charcoal. She could feel it in the center of her chest and with each beat of her heart, her blood carried it over to all parts of her body.

"Why does that happen?" She asked, looking at Wren. "When you heal me..."

"Maybe because you're a jinn," Wren said slowly. "And I'm a fey."

Birdie could not utter another word as the tips of her toes started to tingle from the heat. She felt breathless and whole, like she was drawing yet somehow floating in the air.

"How do you know about Earth if you are not from there?" Wren asked, his voice so calm and serene, as if he was enchanting the girl in front of him.

"I...." Birdie found to push the warmth down in her chest. Her neck heated up as if someone touched her, causing her to tilt her head to one side and hers fluttered.

Wren watched her, slightly stunned by the effect his healing had on her. He had never healed a jinn before. He had heard fey healing had the effect of a euphoric high on jinns. But he had never seen it up close. Even the other day when he had headed her head, Wren couldn't look away from the way Birdie's body reacted.

"Birdie..." Wren shifted forward in his seat. He placed his hand against the side of her face and helped her eyes focus on him. "How do you know about Earth?"

"I..." Birdie took in a deep breath and tried to shark the feeling out of her head. "I read about it."

"Where?" Wren asked.

"In your books," Birdie lied, her eyes darting to the table beside them. "I read it somewhere in there."

Wren did not respond. He sat quietly and as still as a statue. For a few seconds Birdie wondered if he had heard her. She moved her eyes back to him and found the corner of his mouth turned up slightly.

That stupid crooked smile, Birdie thought.

"What?" She narrowed her eyes. She hated when he looked like that...like he was laughing at her or as if she was just caught red handed.

"You read about Earth from my book?" Wren asked to confirm.

"Yes," Birdie nodded. She began to realize the fey still had his hand against the side of her face.

"Birdie..." Wren's smile grew. "The books and maps on my desk are all in Roopcian."

"So?" Birdie's heart began to hammer once more.

"Roopcian is a dead language," Wren said. "It's been dead for over a million years."

"Then how are you reading it?"

"My father taught himself from the cave drawings and then he taught me," Wren said. "After his death, I am the only one in Pangea that can read Roopcian."

"Maybe you're not," Birdie argued. "Maybe you're not so special."

"Hm," Wren nodded.

His eyes shifted to Birdie's hair that brushed against his hand. He slowly lifted his finger and caught the silver strand. With tenderness, Wren spread Birdie's hair out between his fingers. Separating each strand and letting it fall open like a net.

"Do you want to know what I learned from all the books I've been reading?" Wren asked, not looking up from Birdie's hair.

"No," Birdie said, trying to lean away from him.

"On Earth....there is a species of beings called witches," Wren continued.

Birdie held her breath. She did not dare move. Wren's slow movements, low voice and calm demeanor frightened her...especially when he was talking about witches.

"Legends have it that witches' brains can naturally read Roopcian," Wren's eyes fluttered up. "Is that true, little bird?"

"I don't know," Birdie said stubbornly. "I don't know what you are talking about."

With a soft sigh, Wren let go of Birdie's hair and leaned back. He rubbed his forehead and thought in silence for a while before straightening up once more and focusing on Birdie.

"I know you are lying to me," he said. "I know you are from Earth....why won't you just tell me?"

Why? Birdie wanted to laugh.

"Let's say hypothetically you were correct," Birdie began. "Let's say I am from Earth...."

Wren waited.

"Why should I tell you about my land?" Birdie asked.

"So I can take you back," Wren smiled.

"So you can take me back," Birdie nodded. "And follow me and come after my family and my people."

"What makes you think I would do that?"

"Why else are you studying maps and stories about Earth?" Birdie asked. "You think of yourself as an explorer of new worlds. And in my experience and knowledge, explorers never bring good news to the new world."

"So you won't tell me about Earth because you think I will take over your land?"

"I won't tell you about Earth because I don't know anything about Earth!"

"Lies."

Birdie did not reply. She pressed her lips into a thin line and glared at the fey sitting in front of her. Wren stared back with just as much irritation and frustration. After a few seconds, he looked away and reached for the brass cuffs.

"What are you doing?" Birdie asked, sitting up.

"The rest of the palace won't take too kindly to a jinn walking around without brass," Wren said, snapping the cuffs back on Birdie's wrists.

_______________________________

Ali, lost in thought, looked up as Adan entered the room and cleared his throat.

"So," he asked, putting down the map he was holding. "How did it go?"

"We moved all the people out of the area," Adan said.

"Did they give you any issues?"

"No," Adan shook his head. "They were all pretty shaken up."

"Of course they were," Ali said. "The veil has never shifted like that before. We lost an entire village."

"What do you think is causing it?"

With a sigh, Ali shrugged and rubbed his jaw, "I don't know."

Adan nodded slowly. He stared at the piles of paper on his father's desk, feeling his chest tighten and his throat dry up.

"Any news?" He asked.

Ali looked up, his brown eyes soft and kind and full of sympathy for his son.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I haven't had a chance to talk to Maya yet. We were too busy talking Heyder out of attacking Maksim."

"What?" Adan frowned with concern. "What's going on?"

"The palace changed the search and rescue mission to search and recover," Ali's voice dwindled down as he said the word, knowing Adan would feel the pain.

"Search and recover..." Adan said the words, his mind going numb and his chest aching.

"It's been too long," Ali said, not able to meet his son's eyes. "Statistically speaking....the chances of finding Birdie alive..."

The air in the room grew thick and somber. Adan felt dizzy as he stared at his father.

"Search and recovery," he said once more. "Recovering her body."

"It's all just formalities," Ali said. "Just paperwork and stuff. Maksim is still hoping to bring Birdie back."

Adan nodded slowly, "How's Maya?"

"Not speaking to Heyder."

"I mean....can you blame her?"

"No," Ali said. "I'm starting to lose my patience with Heyder too."

Just then, the doors to the office opened once more. Adan and Ali looked up to find Ali's assistance hovering by the door, waiting to be called inside.

"Yes, Lubna?" Ali asked.

"Sir, there's someone here from the Viking Society to see you," the girl announced.

"From the Viking Society?" Ali arched his brow. "What are they doing in the veil?"

"We couldn't contact you outside of the veil," came a voice from outside the doors.

Ali slowly nodded and told his assistance to let the man in. He cleared his desk and walked around as a tall man with pale skin and red hair walked in wearing a gray suit.

"Hello," Ali said.

"Hello," the man extended his hand. "I am Bjorn Axel. I am one of the time keepers at the stone fort."

"Nice to meet you," Ali said, shaking the man's hand. "This is my son Adan."

"Hello," Bjorn offered a quick greeting before turning back to Ali. "I need to speak to the sultan."

"No," Ali shook his head and rubbed his forehead. "No, you really don't."

"It's urgent," Bjorn looked at Adan and then back to Ali.

"Whatever it is, you can tell me," Ali said. "I'll pass the message to him."

"No, you don't understand," Bjorn insisted. "This is urgent. It's about his daughter."

Ali's eyes snapped up just as Adan turned to the Viking. They looked at each other and then back to the red head.

"Please," Bjorn said.

Ali slowly nodded, "Lubna, where is the Sultan right now?"

"He's on the seventh floor, sir," Lubna said.

"Just a heads up," Ali stopped the viking. "If this is not really important or about Birdie, Heyder is not going to be kind."

"Trust me, he will want to know this," Bjorn said.

The three men rushed out of the office and turned towards the stairs. Adan could feel his heart racing and his hands ready to grab the man's collars and demand he spill the information.

"I've already called Maya," Ali announced.

"Is she allowed in court," Bjorn asked. "She's fey."

"Look around," Ali said. "Do you see anyone here?"

Bjorn looked down the deserted halls, "Where is everyone?"

"The sultan was suspicious of everyone when Birdie disappeared," Adan said.

"They all left the court to get away from the mad king," Ali said under his breath.

Bjorn suddenly wondered if the news he had to share would add more fuel to the fire. He clutched his ipad tightly and followed the two jinn up. His job was to deliver the news. Whatever happened afterwards wasn't his problem.

Within seconds of leaving the office, the men arrived at the seventh floor. They paused as they spotted Maya walking out of the portal and reaching for the door.

"What is it?" She asked, looking at Ali.

"Let's get inside," Ali said, holding the door open and ushering everyone inside.

Heyder, who was seated behind the grand mahogany desk, looked up, his eyes dark and hooded. For a brief second, they fell on Maya and relief flashed across them. But Maya refused to look his way as she turned to face the Viking.

"What's this?" Heyder asked, looking at Ali.

"This is Bjorn from the viking society," Ali announced. "He says he has important information about Birdie."

Heyder looked over to the man and arched his brow, "Well, go on."

"Hello, nice to meet you, I'm Bjorn," the man stepped forward and extended his hand towards Heyder.

"Where is my daughter?" Heyder asked impatiently.

"Right," Bjorn said under his breath as he pulled his hand back and straightened up. "Well, as you all know, it is our job to look after our timeline and to make sure all the veils between dimensions are monitored and kept sealed at all times to protect us from inter-dimensional collis-"

"Yes, yes," Heyder hurried the man. "We know. Go one."

"Yes," Bjorn cleared his throat. "Well, you see...three months ago, right around the time your daughter disappeared, our monitoring system picked up a strange power surge in the veil."

"Okay," Heyder said, spinning his right with alert eyes.

"No one had ever seen such a.....blip?" Bjorn explained. "We've been spending all these weeks trying to find some kind of explanation as to what it was and where it was coming from."

"Do you have an answer?" Maya asked.

"Yes," Bjorn held out his ipad. "The surge came from here...within the veil. The very same day your daughter disappeared."

"What does that mean?" Adan asked, looking at the screen at the thermal energy charts.

"It means your daughter, Birdie, may have somehow pierced a time veil that has not been opened since before the creation of the vikings," Bjorn explained.

"What?" Maya paled. "How...how is that possible?"

"The energy surge is unlike anything we have ever seen before. We have no records of anything like it," Bjorn said.

"Can you trace it?" Heyder asked. "How do we bring her back?"

"I'm afraid we don't have the answers," Bjorn apologized.

"Then why are you here?" Heyder took a step forward.

"To tell you that your daughter is not on Earth," Bjorn said. "She's in a different dimension."

"How do we open the veil she went through?" Heyder asked. "You said it's inside the veil?"

"Yes, it's inside, but there is no trace of it anywhere."

"What do you mean?" Ali asked.

"It appeared in our raider for a few seconds and then vanished as if nothing ever happened," Bjorn said.

"That's not possible," Heyder said. "That's not how traveling works."

"Maybe not for other travelers," Bjorn said, looking at Maya. "But again...this is something completely brand new to us."

"You said the vikings have been studying this?" Ali cut in.

"Yes," Bjorn nodded.

"Send us all the information," Ali said before looking at Maya. "Maybe you and Exton can look at this."

Maya nodded. She began to pray silently that her father would know what it all meant. Her insides were hollow and her legs felt numb. She wanted to hold her baby and have her home. Maya's eyes stung with tears as she began to wonder where Birdie could possibly be.

"This is all your fault," Heyder's voice broke in through the thick clouds of agony in Maya's chest.

She looked up, not sure who he was talking to and found the jinn's eyes on her.

"Heyder," Ali paled.

"It's all your fault," Heyder said once more, ignoring his life-long friend.

"Excuse me?" Maya spoke to her husband directly for the first time in over a week.

"Birdie would still be here if you and Exton did not pass the traveling genes to her," Heyder said, his eyes full of anger.

"Are you listening to yourself right now?" Maya's eyes narrowed, her mind filling with raging fire and venom.

"Heyder, stop. Stop," Ali stepped in between the couple.

"She traveled into another dimension, Maya!" Heyder raised his voice. He leaned forward despite Ali and Adan trying to keep him and Maya separated. "This would have never happened if you didn't have the fucking traveling genes!"

"Enough," Maya held up her hand in disbelief, her voice a ghost. Her ears rang as she stared at the man she had loved so unconditionally. "You're not the only one who lost a child, Heyder."

"I want my daughter back!" Heyder yelled.

"I want her back too!" Maya yelled back. "But how can you fuckin say that it's my fault!"

"Not cool, man," Ali said to his friend. "I get it. You're stressed. But this is no one's fau-"

"I have been nothing but supportive of you and your madness for the past three months," Maya said as tears ran down her face. "You burned all our bridges and now you want to put the blame on me? Are you fuckin' insane, Heyder?"

"Maya," Ali looked over his shoulder. "Go home. We can all talk about this when we get hom-"

"Call you dad," Heyder commanded, pushing away the guilt he felt at seeing Maya cry. "Tell him to go with the vikings and figure out how to open up this veil."

Maya stood staring at the jinn in utter disbelief.

She was shocked to her core. Her eyes could not explain to her brain or heart that the jinn before her was the same one she had promised to spend her whole life with. He did not notice at all how his words had pierced through her heart and killed her soul.

"You're never going to change," Maya said, defeated.

"Maya," Ali let go of Heyder and turned to the witch. "Listen, everyone is all kinds of fucked up right now. Heyder doesn't mean i-"

"Do you get a high off of hurting people?" Maya couldn't look away from Heyder. "You've always been like this..."

"Yes," Heyder said, feeling his mind spin out of control. He could feel everything around him crumbling but his rage was blocking out all the sound of the warning bells. "I've always been this, Maya."

Ali shut his eyes, wanting to throw his fists across Heyder's face.

"You don't get to do this," Maya said, her face twisting with disgust, pain, hurt, and anger. "You don't get to put this on me. This is all on you!"

Heyder narrowed his eyes as Ali prayed Maya didn't say what he thought she was about to say.

"You are one fucked up son of a bitch," Maya started. "You're rotten to the core and you will never change. This is all your fault! My daughter is praying for years and years of sin you committed! You did this to her!"

Ali looked at Adan. There was no saving anything anymore.

"This is karma!" Maya screamed in Heyder's face. "This is your karma and we all have to pay for this now!"

Heyder stood glaring at Maya. Her words stung him like brass. She knew exactly what to say to bring to life his worst nightmares.

Maya was right, Heyder thought. His past life of ruthlessness, destruction, and chaos was finally catching up to him.

"Mirza was right," Maya said through her tears. She hated herself for bringing all this up but she was beyond Heyder hurting her. "You, Heyder, only bring destruction."

Heyder flinched.

"First your brothers, then Zubair and then Maaz," Maya said. "And now my daughter....and me."

Heyder's eyes snapped up to meet his wife's just as Ali and Adan looked up.

"I'm done," Maya said, taking a step back. "I can't do this anymore."

This is madness.