The old men looked at each other.
"It's not in his heart and we are running out of time."
"He has to think of something he wants to get to badly enough to-"
"I got it, I got it," Carlos said. "I'll focus."
The threesome fell silent, but the scowls on their faces made them seem unconvinced. Carlos closed his eyes and turned his face toward the sun. He could see her eyes. That was all he needed, all that had ever penetrated his facade down to the core.
"Light, please work with me! May I have your permission?"
"Feel the energy tickle your palms and build like lightning tickles the clouds before striking," an excited elderly voice said.
It made Carlos open his eyes. Carlos stared at the eldest man before him, remembering what a lightning strike felt like and concentrated harder. Soon his palms tingled and became hot.
"Now close the cloak!"
Carlos did as he was ordered and felt so light that it was hard to keep his footing. He stumbled forward and opened his arms to hold his balance. "Did I do it? Did I disappear?" He looked around expectantly to the smiling faces that soon broke out into full laughter.
"So clumsy, but yes," one of his teachers admitted.
Another shook his head, laughing. "And this is our warrior? We have troubles."
"Indeed," the eldest said, "but he is what we have." He sighed and pointed to the ground. "The earth has energy. Neteru, a small piece of the Creator, is in all natural things. Ask for permission to be of it. The chameleon can be green, like the leaf, or brown like the tree trunk. You, too, can melt away and conceal yourself until danger passes. When you are stronger, you can conceal an army. Until then, sleep within the circles."
He would have felt better if he'd been given an offensive weapon but accepted the gift of their knowledge with an appreciative bow. "Thank you," Carlos said, truly meaning it. "I will try to learn quickly to protect the Neteru."
Puzzled glances passed between the old men.
"You are the Neteru," the eldest said, scratching his beard. "Explain."
A weird sensation coursed through Carlos, causing mild alarm within him as he tried to carefully choose his words. "She... Damali... is the Neteru."
They tilted their heads and stared at him and then huddled and began talking in hushed, animated tones in a language he couldn't fathom.
"I must understand!" the eldest one finally said, pounding his walking stick in the dirt. "We are to prepare a male Neteru for his apex, and in males it happens in his twenty-fourth year, two plus four is six, his death to life as a man and his beginning as something greater-then follows the concentric rings of trinity sevens!" Thoroughly agitated, he waved his arms about. "You have the silver vision. Your blood casts silver prisms within red, so no demon can turn you if bitten. Your hands will hold Light fire soon... you can walk undetected. The shield of Heru and his sword have your name on it-Alemayehu. No woman was sent to us. Your father-seer was on the shore."
"The Guardian female... the other seer," one of the teachers said, pacing. "But she was past the age of-"
"No. She is a Guardian," the third said.
"Damali is definitely the Neteru," Carlos argued, becoming more worried as they argued. "In my old life," he said carefully, "the entire sixth realm of darkness was looking for girlfriend, and I-"
"The vampires hunted her down?" the eldest man asked, cutting off Carlos's explanation. "We live a cloistered existence here. The things of the other seers are not our concern. Our mission is singular, to wait for the male Neteru!"
"Yeah," Carlos said, now stepping beyond the circle. "Fact. But the Light sent two this time, I guess?" He glanced around, confused. "You all don't talk amongst yourselves?"
The three old men stared at each other, seeming as though they were silently conferring.
"And she..."
"Spiked?" Carlos said, answering the eldest teacher's lingering question. "Yeah. Produced the scent that started a damned civil war underground and topside."
"We thought that was the beginning of the Armageddon." The eldest looked at the others. "We were told that a sign was to come. But, then..."
Carlos tilted his head and looked out toward the distance. "She fell off your radar, didn't she?"
They nodded. "We thought..."