Across the border – Book I - 13 Chapter

As the song they heard was familiar, Sussan and Brenda looked at one another. David came out from the hiding and saw Sommer was playing the music and walking in the front while other people were dancing and singing according to the music.

David signaled Sussan and Brenda to come out from the hiding. When they came out, Brenda saw her mother and ran towards her.

“Mom, I am sorry! I had to save Robert and I had no choice. I had to leave you behind! I am sorry! I did not fulfill my responsibilities and left you by yourself”, Brenda sobbed and hugged her mother Cathy.

Cathy pushed her away and hit her head with the musical instrument, she was holding.

“When did I even ask you to take responsibility? You ran away from your home and don’t even put the blame on me. Do you think your husband will not blame me for how you behave now?”

She just pushed Brenda aside and came towards Sussan. Cathy held Sussan’s hand and said,

“You have been through so much trouble. Do not worry, we will find a way to send you to Asher and talk to my old man over there, he will have some solutions. But I feel like it is chaotic even over there or else there would be no way we would have received that decree.”

The whole of their solar system consists of 68 planets, and whenever the time for a person is over, they would be sent to Asher, never to return. Every planet has a different lifespan and on their planet Ester, people live for 500 years of Ester life and 100 years of Asher life.

Once the 500 years of Ester’s life, they will be sent to Asher to spend the 100 years. When their whole lifespan is done, they will turn to Asher dust, which is magical and priceless. It contains the soul and blessings of the people of Ester.

Only one from every planet was chosen to carry on this task and for Ester, it was Sussan right now. No one other than Sussan can enter Asher and if they try, they would be burned and their soul will be sent to the planet ‘Ashes’ which is far away from every other planet and it’s the last planet on their solar system.

And the witch which entered into their planet was from one of the neighboring ‘Ashes’ planets. Their keeper died or rumored that he was brutally murdered because a gang formed under the rebels wanted to enter Asher and become the controller of Asher, which in turn will give them the power to control all the sixty-eight planets.

They started spreading silently among the people of all the planets, as they have the skills to disguise themselves as whoever they want to be and even imitate them better than the original hosts. No one can identify them easily until they decide to reveal themselves.

The king for Asher was chosen every 1000 years from one of the 68 planets. Even the lord of Ashes planet was chosen once. There was no discrimination among the selection as the Asher chooses its own ruler. And this current king whom the Asher chose was just 400 years before and he still has so many years left.

When Sussan met the king last time, she felt that he was very warm and even treated everyone from all the planets equally and respectfully. So she was confused when everyone said that such a decree came and she still refused to believe that.

Not one planet escaped from this mess. Everywhere it was chaotic and so many people disappeared one after another with no end to it.

When they were discussing all these, they saw Asher disappear which confused them, as there was still an hour left before it went down. When everyone was wondering what’s happening, a blue light lit on the sky which resembled the newly formed planet, very near to Ester.

Whenever a new planet is formed, it means that some other planet is dying. But it happened only once in several thousands of billions of years. And they hardly heard or known about it as only the Asher kings have access to all those details. And most of the planets are relatively only a few million years old, even the furthest plant on the solar system.

So why did a new planet arise now?? Just when they were thinking about how it was possible for a new planet to arise in so less time, they felt the whole planet shaking.

“Take cover everyone. The new planet is crashing on our planet”, Someone shouted.

But he forgot, what use will it be even if he takes cover?? Everything will be destroyed along with the new planet. And Asher would not want that. It takes Asher so many millions of years to create one new planet, so it’s definitely not from there.

Unless ‘Poisidion’ was involved. He was the guardian of the neighboring star, which contains only one planet with people and the remaining planets consist of either animals or organisms or just plain lands without any gravity.

He was always jealous of Asher and wanted to settle here but his body constitution is not suitable for any planets on this system. So how much ever he tried, he had to admit defeat and return to his star.

“Is it Poisidion?”, Robert’s grandma Cathy asked.

“No, it is illusionary. The whole thing is a setup, looks like we all are poisoned with that witch’s medicine before we even left the border.” Sussan said.

“It is going to become even worse the more we try to walk away from where we lived. I have read about this poison in a book in my husband’s library. There is no exact cure for this but its symptoms can be reduced with a little bit of ‘Ashes’ dust mixed with the only plant grown in Ashes planet ‘Ginnewl’. It looks exactly like our ‘Hygelnewl’ but the only difference is it can shrink and adjust to any temperatures for its living, even the guardians of this plant can do the same,” Brenda said.

David and Sussan looked at one another and thought why did they let that plant run away. Looking at their expression, Brenda asked,

“Don’t tell me you saw a Ginnewl here and let it go? Please don’t tell me this rubbish, I definitely won’t believe you.”

Cathy ignored Brenda’s foolish talks and asked Sussan, “when and where did you see that plant?”

“We saw that when we tried to find Peter near the border”, David answered as Sussan just stood there blinking.

” I saw that plant with Ashes Lord. How could I miss that? I just remembered, last time when I went to collect Asher’s dust, I saw him and the plant followed him everywhere he went. So that means even the Ashes lord is also here. If he is here, then all he needs to do is summon the plant and it would be with him in no time.” Sussan declared.

“If you say that it never left him, then why was it alone when we saw and even the guardian of the plant was missing”, David asked.

“When we contacted Robert, we saw a small man hanging on that plant. Maybe he is the guardian, and as it is said even they can shrink just like the plant” Brenda said with excitement as she found something useful.

“So, even you saw and missed it? hmph”, Cathy mocked her daughter Brenda.

Brenda just blinked and tried to change the topic, “If the Ginnewl is across that border and it is away from the Ashes Lord, then does it mean that he is injured very badly and instructed the plant to get you for treatment? But still, it crossed you and went to Peter! Does that mean Peter holds something which you do not?”

“I cannot say for sure but I know one thing, we need to find the Ashes Lord before others do. And if he is seriously injured, then it means even his planet might be in a warlike ours. But if it is then, it means our days are not going to be just running away. People will hunt us down in no seconds if they actually start their search more sincerely.” David said with worry clearly visible in his voice.

“Then let us fight them, we are one of the strongest powers if we all are united”, Sussan declared.

“It is not about the fight but who are you going to fight against. It is going to be our own kin and friends, will you have the heart to hurt any one of them?”, as David asked, Sussan regretted saying such a thing without any thought.

“I am sorry, all these things happening around us made my mind go blank and uttered without thinking. First, let us try to find Ashes Lord, it would be our most important priority as once we find him we can get more information about our unknown enemy,” Sussan said.

“Sussan you are the best. You know when to apologize and take a step back and at the same time think of a solution even in difficult situations. Unlike someone who is only good at eating and nothing else”, Cathy pointed at her daughter with disappointment.

“Sussan, let us go search for Ashes Lord that side” Brenda pulled Sussan’s hand and just ignored her mother Cathy.

“Let us search the Ashes Lord, every one. But please do not go far and make sure to stay at least a group of five. If you find anything unusual, do not forget to hide immediately and escape from there. We will meet in an hour over here and then will think about what to do next as per the result of our search”, David gave instruction to the group.