Sacred Vow – Chapter 14

Djalma smiled.  “That was a pretty big chance to take.”

“Not really,” Ian replied. “I didn’t have any other option.”

“Do you think repeating the verse was what got you free from the void?” Djalma asked.

“I think it made the Katerina of my tea visions hear me. Before I found myself back here and passed out, I was in her house. She fanned some smoky concoction over me. Then she told me to go home and come back when I was rested.

“The next thing I knew, I was on the couch, in great pain, and losing consciousness. After that, you were here.”

Sitting back and drawing a big breath like a kid at the end of a grand adventure story, Djalma said, “It sounds as if Katerina is the one you should thank.  Not me.”

“Oh, I thank you as well,” Ian assured him.  “But I am grateful to her.  I thank her for so much more than just getting me back home.  I wish I could get back to her, to tell her so.  But I have no control over my destinations.”

Djalma made a funny little sideways motion with his head as if he were about to do something that he was trying to resist.  “I may regret this,” he said.  “But I know it means too much to you not to mention it, if I think this is a possibility.”

He had Ian’s attention.  “What have you got, old man?”  Realizing what he’d said, Ian wondered what was it about Djalma that made him seem like an aged familiar despite his youth?

“You may not have navigational control—”

Djalma paused as a tease, and it worked.  Ian became fully alert, certain that Djalma was about to offer the treasure that he had been fruitlessly searching for.

“But it seems Katerina is able to help you.”  Djalma grinned and sat back in his chair.

“Come on now,” Ian pleaded.  “How is she going to help?  If there is a choice, I will gladly return to the Katerina of the tea visits each time!”

“The verse,” Djalma said.  “That verse must be something that you and she can use to contact each other.  You repeated the verse over and over when in the void, and she brought you out of it, directly to her.  Maybe, just maybe, if you enter a meditation while repeating the verse, like a mantra, she can hone in on you and guide you to her location.”