Chapter 12

Falconer Cave, The Expanse, The Gullington, Scotland, United Kingdom

After hiking for ten miles, Gen and Sophia arrived at a hidden cave, its entrance cloaked by moss and stone. Sophia had said the next part of Gen's training with the Dragon Elite involved a mental exercise. After hours of combat training with a massive dragon, Gen was more than happy to use her mind over her body, especially after the long hike up the hills.

Stepping inside, she was greeted by the cool kiss of air, a soothing balm to her weary spirit. The gentle drip of water echoed like a serene melody, inviting her to release the burdens of her past. The walls, adorned with crystalline formations, shimmered in the dim light. They cast dancing shadows that played with her imagination, reminding her that beauty often lies in the unseen.

The earthy scent of damp moss and the mineral tang of stone filled Gen's lungs, grounding her in the present. Beneath her feet, the smooth rock offered a stable foundation, encouraging her to plant herself firmly in this new world. As they ventured deeper, the cave seemed to embrace her, its narrow passages widening into a spacious chamber that hummed with a quiet energy.

Here, in this sanctum, surrounded by the whispers of the earth, Gen found a space for introspection, a place where the external noise of her life in the 1400s and the overwhelming stimuli of the twenty-first century could not reach her. The cave, with its ancient stillness, seemed to mirror her own quest for identity and belonging, offering solace and a reminder that, like its enduring walls, she too could withstand the ravages of time and change.

The cavernous space was dark and cold, like most caves. However, there was something unique about the stillness in the space, although Gen couldn't put her finger on why exactly.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Gen asked, looking around as her eyes adjusted to the dark.

"I'll tell you how I was told when I was brought here by Hiker Wallace, ‘Sit and be quiet,'" Sophia said with a sneaky grin.

Gen sighed. "Oh, good, I could use a nap."

"Sorry, but if you snooze, I'm obligated to kick you back awake," Sophia said, and then her grin dropped. "However, after seeing the way you wrestled Lunis, I'll probably just gently prod you back awake."

"What's the purpose of this exercise?" Gen asked, looking around at the strange place known as Falconer Cave.

"To meditate and find something deep within yourself," Sophia answered.

Gen gave her an expression that said, "Are you kidding me?"

Sophia offered her a look of understanding. "It is through meditation that we come to understand ourselves, receive insights on problems, and become one with the universe."

Gen frowned. "You sound like one of those hippies that Liv is always making fun of."

Sophia nodded. "You will make fun of them too. It's a Beaufont family tradition."

"So what do I do?" Gen asked. "I've never really meditated and don't know what to expect. What's my purpose?"

Sophia smiled thoughtfully. "Your experience meditating will be unique to you and what you need to know. But I will offer this bit of advice: to connect with yourself, you must first connect with the world around you. Falconer Cave is ideal for that because it's isolated from everything around it. An anomaly that is unique on the outside and bare on the inside."

"Okay," Gen said, drawing out the word. "When do I know that I've achieved the training goal?"

"You will know," Sophia said simply, with a sly grin now.

"Will you stop overwhelming me with information?" Gen joked.

Sophia looked around the cave. "Do you hear that?"

Gen paused. Listened. Shook her head. "What? I don't hear anything."

"Exactly," she stated. "When you hear the voice of the angels and all their messages, that's when you're done. When you no longer have questions and intuitively know answers to things yet to be asked, then you're done. When you can hear the spirit of the universe within you, then you can go."

This had to be the strangest training exercise. How did she connect with herself or the universe? And how did she know when she achieved it? Would the messages from the angels sound different from the random ramblings in her head?

"Okay, I'll go talk to angels then," Gen said, settling down. "Sounds a bit like song lyrics."

Sophia laughed, the noise echoing in the cave. "You're very intuitive and that's before even meditating. There is a song called She Talks to Angels by The Black Crowes. I'll play it for you sometime, along with the last hundred years of music."

"What about music before that, like in the 19th century?" Gen asked.

Sophia shook her head. "It's not worth the time."

"Are you staying?" Gen asked, settling herself down on the hard, cold rock.

"I will be outside waiting," Sophia replied, motioning to the way they'd come. "I'll wait as long as it takes. Just try and connect to the angels. They will tell you what you need to know. They always do, but you have to establish a communication with them first, through silence."

Gen nodded, feeling like she'd rather break a few dozen weapons again than do this task. However, she wanted to be a dragonrider more than anything else, so she settled her mind, or at least tried to.

Her mind began to wander. Taking a breath, she tried to stop the thoughts which were like a contagious disease, spreading fast. It seemed strange to stop thinking. That was about as easy as stopping breathing.

However, it was actually breathing that helped the most. When she focused on her breath, the thoughts slowed down, becoming less intense. After a bit, Gen noticed that her breath had elongated and her thoughts had followed suit, only passing through her brain slowly and then drifting away. Whereas before she had judged every thought as good or bad, soon she found that she was simply an observer, taking notice of the ideas without coloring them one way or another.

Soon her focus shifted to the area around her in the cave. She suddenly felt outside of herself in a very distinctive way. The temperature, she knew without knowing how, was exactly fifty degrees. There were sixteen different species that called Falconer Cave home. Of those, three were magical and unclassified. Of those, one was crawling on Gen's boot presently.

She didn't feel the little creature, but instinctively she knew it was there. Usually upon such knowledge she would have jumped up and brushed the bug off. However, Gen didn't even think of it as something else on her. She was the bug and the bug was her. They were the cave and the cave was them. They were the Gullington and the Gullington was them. They were Scotland and Scotland was them. They were the universe and the universe was them. Everything was one. Everything was connected in this world.

These observations were followed by a strange silence that seemed to stretch on for eternity. It was the silence that preceded Mother Nature. That spawned a creature so powerful she could construct a world that was strong and also vulnerable. It was the silence that filled the void before time was created. Before Papa Creola constructed how events moved on a continuum. The silence was the beginning and it was everywhere still.

Gen didn't know how long she sat in the cave, witnessing the birth of the universe in her mind. It could have been a minute or a hundred years. However, if it had been more than a day, she didn't feel hungry or tired or thirsty. She had hooked into the nourishment of the universe and she realized as long as she was connected to it that all her needs were instantly fulfilled.

From that place of knowingness, Gen realized that she could heal the world's problems. She could erase pain. She could become whatever she wanted. The idea of never leaving Falconer Cave was very tempting. She could fix everything just by maintaining her connection to the all-powerful source.

Inside that safe place of serenity, Gen could be at one with the universe. She could feel everything that she missed. She could hide away from the world that was so vastly different from the one she once knew. She could avoid the confusion of trying to understand the modern age. Gen could forget that she'd left her world behind, never to see or feel or experience it again.

"Your purpose is to change the new world in an old way," a voice said so clearly and loudly in her head.

Gen startled, her eyes opening suddenly. She looked around the cave, thinking that someone must be there standing in front of her. There was no one.

"Hello?" she said aloud in the cave.

A disembodied voice, who Gen knew instinctively belonged to the angels, sang, "Go forth, and bring your old-world elegance to the problems of the new age. Be that which you were destined—a rebel with a heart of gold."