The Keepers of Azera ( Book 1 of the Keepers Trilogy)

Chapter 21

After about an hour, James crashes on the couch, so Poppa and I go to James's room. We sit cross-legged across from each other on his bed. I play with my Keeper necklace a bit, and Poppa looks at it. Then he asks, "Do you know who the first Keepers were?"

I shake my head. He sighs. "What everybody believes is that Keepers were created five thousand years ago. But most don't know-because it was uncovered so recently- that the powers have been around since the time of the Gods. In fact, the Elder Gods- Bixan, Lacros, Pera, Daos, and Tarum- they were the first Keepers."

"How?" I ask. "How did they have powers? I thought powers were kept in necklaces like this."

"Ah, that's where you're wrong. Give me your necklace."

Wordlessly, I pull it over my head and hand it to him. He holds it by the chain. "The necklaces are like artificial organs-they do their job, but they're not the original. A long time ago, there was a special group of people that were called the Keepers, but unlike us in this Training Base, they came by their powers naturally."

"Meaning they were born with it, not given it," I say. He nods. "But happened to them?"

"They began to die off," he says simply. "They were a rare kind, only about a million or so at their peak-which didn't last very long, because of many attacks on them from nearby tribes. In fact, when Tarak and Mesa broke out into war, they got the brunt of it. At the end, only about a thousand or so were left. They hid in the South."

"But then the asteroid fell," I guess. In the jungle that makes up the south of Tarak there's an odd spot that's completely devoid of life and made of soft, porous rock, where one of the asteroids got too close to Azera and was sucked into Azera's gravity.

Poppa shakes his head. "No. Then a tribe-the Lekkers-attacked them, leaving only about a hundred Keepers left. Then the asteroid fell. The military that Tarum created had to do something, and after twenty years, they finally figured out how to create Keepers. By necklaces like this." He holds up mine. "They called them 'bio chips'-based off of computer chips, but works with the brain and the body. The first ones were beyond primitive- after all, the first computer was created around the same time as when they first trying to recreate Keepers. But they improved, recreating the powers."

"How come people don't know that?" I ask.

He shrugs. "It was unearthed very recently. But unlike Keepers today, more than one person back then had the same power. Today, Keepers can't have the same power, because only one person can use that file."

"Meaning...?"

"Meaning that only one person in the whole world can time travel, because only one person can access the files on the power. Since you have that power, no one else can...it's like trying to work on a file in two different places, at the same time. It'll affect the other person using it. You'll be linked by your powers. You'd time travel when the other person time traveled, you'd see the same flashbacks and premonitions-make sense?"

"Well, that was as clear as mud," I complain.

"It's even more confusing when you throw in the fact that a person cannot have more than one power, and that person must have a certain level of intelligence in order for the power to work, and that a necklace only recognizes one owner."

"So, I can't just pull on someone else's necklace and use their powers?" I ask. "Poppa, I already know that."

"I know you do. The power has to warm up to a person before they start using it, and the lower the intelligence, the longer it takes. That's why we pick our Keepers so young, and based on intelligence. Simon was one of the brightest people we've ever known of, and that's why he could start Training so quickly."

"I'm the youngest in my group," I say. "What's that say about me?"

"Not including Simon, you were the second to be able to use your power, right after Alyssa. That's extremely rare, Callie. Usually the youngest person matures last. That's what it says about you."

I ponder this in silence. Then Poppa says, "It's surprising, isn't it?"

"It wasn't... I didn't...." I pause, trying to put the words together in my head. "That's...totally different from what I knew."

"Isn't it? But it's pretty interesting, don't you think?"

I think back to a conversation James and I had, before the fight during sermon, so long ago:

But did you notice something about the younger group?"

"There's more little ones."

"Five more, to be exact. They've amped up the amount of Keepers added every ten years."

"But that's against tradition."

"It'd only be a problem if Keepers had existed since the time of the Gods. They were created five hundred years ago, but the legends of the Gods have been around for hundreds of thousands of years. They didn't expect something like this to happen."

James was wrong. Keepers have existed since the time of the Gods. Hell, the Gods were Keepers themselves. Poppa is right-they should teach about it.

So why are we just finding out about this?