White Orchids {BOOK 1 COMPLETED}

Chapter 20

He continues down the airplane, opposite of the opening, and once I turn back Eclipse is smiling at me.

"Sometimes," I begin and sit down at the seat behind her, "you'll feel things, both pain and regular feelings of touch. Pain often comes if your soul is wounded – at least that's how I've understood it."

I stare at Clover at the end of the plane. He's extending his hand and lets the stone fall; it stays in the middle of the air and unfolds itself.

"There's even a place in the Eleven," I keep my eyes on Clover, "the well. If you touch the liquid, you can feel your own skin and whatever you touch for a few minutes."

Clover doesn't react.

"Really?" Eclipse asks, I turn towards her again. "You'll have to show me that sometime, Orchid."

Before I can answer Clover starts talking, "we have to deliver the souls. I'll leave Eclipse in the eleven. You can create a door to the hall of souls. I'll be there once I'm done."

I've never visited the hall of souls, it wasn't allowed under the apprenticeship. Clover always left me in the Eleven and then delivered the souls to the hall. I had not even known where or how they delivered them. Nor did I know how I could get myself there.

"And I cannot accompany you?" Eclipse asks.

"No, you can't. You're still my apprentice."

She grimaces slightly out of disappointment.

"And how do I get to the hall of souls?" I ask.

"The same as always. Think of it when you open or knock the door."

"I've never seen it, Clover," I remind him.

"You don't have to have seen it. It will know where it will lead you as long as your intent and thoughts are clear."

I sigh and get up from my seat with the gate-stone in my hands. Once I've created it, I knock while thinking of the hall of souls. Once I open it, I realize it's the same whirling darkness as always.

Clover leans closer and whispers, "If you ever by the well again, don't touch the liquid."

I turn towards him to ask what he means, but before I have the time, he lays a steady hand against my back and gently pushes me into the darkness.

I stumble into the hall of souls. It's a gigantic hall with dark blue walls, in the middle stands a large glass tube with thousands of small holes. Shining, light blue orbs hang in the air while they slowly move through the room like dust.

The gate behind me is gone and the stone lays on the floor. Once I put it in my pocket, I slowly cross the hall. It tickles my skin when the orbs float by my cheek. It feels peaceful, and it leaves a faint smile on my lips.

Around the glass tube sits a white, shining fence. It feels warm against my skin, like it has been heated underneath sunlight. I focus on the shining orbs inside of the tube, they slowly move upwards until I cannot see them anymore. It reminds me of the well in the Eleven, how it reaches far outside of the glass globe. This tube is the same, it continues out through the ceiling where I cannot see where it ends – if it even has an end. I've learnt to not put any logical explanations and rules in this world.

I don't know how long I stay there and think about life, before and after death. What it means to be reborn or reach the paradise. Paradise would be different depending on who you'd ask. To me it would be a place where I could live with my family and friends – whether they're dead or not. For others it might be reliving their favorite memories, and for the woman on the mountain it would be what heaven is described in her religion.