Empyrean Book 2 - Amalgaman
By Steven R. Messick
Another Empyrean intergalactic adventure spanning time and space.
The eight members of Empyrean have returned to their individual lives. All seems well and all feels right with the universe, but things are not right at all. Danger lies in wait and evil lurks on the horizon.
The Empyrean saga is far from over. Each member of Empyrean will be tested to the limits of his or her endurance. Their powers and abilities to survive will be pushed beyond anything they could imagine. A dark force is about to move them separately to the farthest reaches of time and galactic distances. The dangers they encounter could be the death of them all.
And who is this dark force behind all these threats to their lives? Amalgaman has survived the temporal blast that imprisoned the Calaren galaxy in a time bubble. He has returned to strike at the Calaren and their prodigy: Empyrean.
Empyrean Book 2 - Amalgaman 282 pages ISBN - 1442157372 $15.99
My book can be purchased from the E-Store provided by my publisher at these URL -
Empyrean Book 2 - https://www.createspace.com/3381800
Chronology of Historical Events
1689
Reverend Samuel Parris began preaching in
1691
Five citizens elected to
1692
January
The year in which Ivy first finds herself, a number of young girls in
February
Dr. William Griggs decides that the girls are bewitched.
March
Trials began and 7 judges were appointed to try the cases.
June 2nd
Ivy finds herself in Bridget Bishop who is the first to be convicted and condemned to be hanged.
June 10th
Ivy experiences death inside of Bridget Bishop.
June 19th
Ivy then finds herself in Sarah Good who is tried and convicted with four other women – another Sarah, Rebecca, Susannah and Elizabeth. Ivy experiences all five hanging deaths at once.
August 6th
Ivy is now in Martha Carrier along with two George’s, two John’s and another Elizabeth who are on trial and condemned to be hung.
August 19th
Ivy and the other five are hung and Ivy experiences all six deaths.
September 9th
Ivy is inside of Ann Pudeator condemned along with five more.
September 17th
Nine others were hung.
September 19th
One was pressed to death for refusing a trial.
September 22nd
Ann Pudeator plus the five she was convicted with and two others (Ann, Martha, Margaret, two Mary’s, Alice, Wilmott and Samuel) were about to be hanged when Ivy is rescued and spared the final deaths.
Those eight were the last to be put to death in less than a year.
October
Governor Phips stopped the relying on intangible and controversial evidence.
Governer Phips got rid of the witch court.
November
A new court was chosen to try the remaining cases.
1693
May
The trial takes place and one else was convicted.
PART ONE
LOST
CHAPTER 1
Ivy Hemerson was trying not to panic. All her mental disciplines were being put to the test. The fear she was sensing was mostly from the person she found herself merged with. But it had not been of her choosing or even of her awareness. Now she was feeling the fear of someone else, who was in fear for their life. Feeling someone else’s fear was, in some ways, worse than feeling your own.
After her adventure as a part of Empyrean, just over a year ago, Ivy had returned to playing chess among other things. In 2488 she had found herself on Earth as a part of a chess team. A dozen players had been touring planets for the last few months and doing quite well. Ivy rarely lost. Even without using her telepathic abilities she seldom found worthy competition, but not being perfect, she could, on a rare occasion, lose. If she were to use her telepathic ability, it would be an even rarer mind that could best her, but that would be boring and unsatisfying. Still, she enjoyed the game. The strategy and the way every game was different was one of her pastimes that stimulated her intelligence. Boredom was something she had to work at to avoid. Boredom might be a state of mind, but that did not change its reality or its affects. The more intelligent you are, the more that boredom could be a problem.
Ivy wasn’t bored now. She had gone to sleep one night after a long day of matches. She remembered dreaming of making moves and tactics. The next thing she knew was being aware of the fear that was exuding from the mind of this person she was merged with. She knew she wasn’t dreaming but there were few clues for her to work with to determine what had happened to her. Someone or something with great power had brought this situation about. She knew that, either her abilities were suppressed, or being merged with a non-Empyrean member was slowing her awareness, for she was not fully aware of what was going on. That problem did not help Ivy’s part of the fear.
Ivy could not see or hear what this person was going through. She knew she had been amalgamated with a female. She knew the terror this woman was feeling. The alarm the woman was feeling was dread for her life. The horrific panic permeated both of their minds. Ivy had only one other clue and it was this woman’s name. What disturbed Ivy was that this name sounded familiar. Bridget Bishop was the name Ivy had perceived. Ivy had a great memory but she knew that this name was something she had heard or learned of a long time ago and so that, or the unknown perpetrator of this bad joke, was keeping the details from her. They were details that, if remembered, might help her in this life and death situation. She sensed telepathically, rather than heard, that this woman was saying something.
“I am innocent. I know nothing of it,” Bridget Bishop tried to defend herself.
Ivy sensed that this was not the first time Bridget had said this. She also realized that the way this woman talked, or more accurately thought, was from Earth’s distant past and far from Ivy’s 25th century. This woman did not have a modern, everyday colloquial accent but more of an old English sound to her voice. Ivy knew this was also a significant clue but still could not place the name, which she knew she had heard before. She picked up one clue as to what was going on. Ivy was allowed to sense one piece of information that was heard by Bridget. Someone was making some kind of a pronouncement. A declaration related to why this was happening to Bridget, but since Ivy only heard the one part, it was not revealed to Ivy why this was happening to Bishop. She perceived Bridget hearing a date. Ivy didn’t know what year it was but she now knew it was June 10th.
Miss Bishop’s heart rate and blood pressure were climbing. Whatever was going on, this woman knew she was about to die. It began to dawn on Ivy that she was about to die with her. She was not sure how this could be, but that did not lessen her certainty about dying. Ivy had tried to separate herself from Bridget but found it was impossible. She supposed that when merged as Empyrean that she would die if Empyrean died. She did not want to put her theory to the test but still she was convinced that her hypothesis was correct. Now, it seemed that this conjecture was about to be proven to be a fact. Ivy now sensed that the mode of execution for Bridget was hanging.
Hanging!
Ivy was now experiencing even more panic of her own. This was a way of dying that had never occurred to her. The worst of it was is that she had no control over the events she was being subjected to. She was about to be hung by the neck until dead. That phrase seemed vaguely familiar also. The clues told her she must be somewhere in the 17th to 19th centuries. The accents of the voices she perceived seemed to narrow it down to the 17th or 18th.
Probably the agony of waiting was a part of the torture someone was putting her through. What was taking so long? She thought morbidly. If she was going to die, why put it off? Ivy could now sense a rope around Bridget’s neck and a crowd watching the spectacle. She heard a male voice proclaim her sentencing. Ivy now knew that her waiting was over. The world fell out from under her. She felt her body drop suddenly with Bridget’s and a few feet later a rope tightened around her neck. She felt the bones in her neck snap and her windpipe being crushed. It was a horrifying experience. She died slowly as she was strangled to death and since she couldn’t see, things grew darker in her mind. She had no regrets in her life, but individually, and as part of Empyrean, she had expected more of a future for herself. She still could not believe it was happening as her life passed from her.
There was no doubt that Ivy had experienced death as part of Bridget Bishop. It was as real as it could possibly be. And yet, Ivy was alive once more. Apparently Ivy was brought back to life, to inflict more torture on her, by the same unknown person who was attacking her so cruelly and viciously. Again, Ivy was merged with someone else. This was another female by the name of Sarah Good. That name also sounded familiar but still Ivy could not determine how she knew the names of these two women. She was sitting in a nasty cell that reeked of human excrement and fear. She was seated on a floor of hay and the jail was void of furniture. Sarah got up and tried the door. No surprise that it was locked. It was a heavy door with a peephole that could only be opened from the other side. Sarah moved over to the one window at the center of the back wall. It was dark and she could see nothing. She resigned herself to the fact that she could not escape. Sarah sat back down with the odors bombarding her sense of smell. Sarah began to sob, her head down and tears streaking her face and Ivy felt her hopelessness.
Again, Ivy was limited as to what knowledge was available to her from the female that she shared her consciousness with, but she picked up more information than she had when she died with Bridget Bishop. Ivy could sense there were other women here, in other cells. She was still unable to determine why Sarah and the others were here or what they were accused of, or maybe guilty of, for that matter. Sarah made no attempt to communicate with the rest of the inmates and Ivy still had no control in this nightmare. The other ladies were frightened as well. Ivy was allowed to pick up the names of the others. Telepathically, Ivy was able to determine that there were four other women who were in the same situation as Sarah. She knew there were another Sarah, a Rebecca, a Susannah and an Elizabeth. Why were these women being hanged? What could these women possibly have done? Ivy still did not know what year it was but she was able to grasp that it was the same year as when she occupied Bridget Bishop. It was now over five weeks later and the date was July 18th.
All these clues sounded recognizable to her. She was wondering if it were old information that she would eventually remember or if the mysterious person behind all this was keeping her from remembering. Whoever was behind this was letting Ivy know only what, and only when, they wanted her to know things. It seemed to be both, but mostly the latter. If it was the unknown factor then she had hope that all would be exposed in due course. What concerned her was what would happen to her in the meantime. She knew that as Sarah Good she was about to be hanged again. This was even more of a horrid prospect now that she had died once in this ghastly and hideous manner. Sarah must have fallen asleep because the next thing Ivy was aware of was that she and the other four women were being dragged from their cells. Ivy soon found herself on the gallows again with the other four females alongside her.
“If it was the last moment I was to live, God knows I am innocent,” Ivy heard Elizabeth proclaim. Ivy began to realize that she had seen these words written before. She knew that every time she heard one of the women speak that it was an exact quote she had read somewhere. If she could only remember where, then maybe she could make sense of these deaths and maybe even do something about her plight.
Ivy dreaded anew what was about to happen to the five of them. She had no warning as to how bad it would actually be. She felt all five of the vertebrae crack and the strangulation of all five throats. She felt the moment of death for all five of the women at once. Could any mind, no matter how disciplined, handle the appalling bleakness of dying over and over again?
In early August of the same unknown year, Ivy found herself merged with a woman named Martha Carrier. She was being tried along with five other people. This time they were not all women. There were two George’s, two John’s and another woman with the name of Elizabeth, who was the wife of one of the John’s.
She heard Martha speaking. “I am wronged. It is a shameful thing that you should mind these folks that are out of their wits.”
Martha was speaking of the accusers of her and her fellow defendants. What they were accused of was apparently not limited to just females. And now Ivy knew the charge against them.
Witchcraft!!
This time Ivy could see through Martha’s eyes. She saw the 17th century clothing of the prosecutor, the judges, the defense lawyer, the observers and the defendants and witnesses. The injustice that hung in the air was as abundantly obvious as a man’s cologne splashed on too heavily. Fear caused tempers to flair as witness after witness brought charges of hexes and spells against the accused. Either her memory had kicked in or the unknown manipulator had finally allowed her to be fully aware of what was transpiring. Ivy knew now when and where she was and who all these people were. It was now clear why all the names sounded familiar. As the trial proceeded around Martha and the others, Ivy recalled all the details and historical facts that she could remember of the situation she was in.
A few years before, a Reverend Samuel Parris began preaching in Salem Village, Massachusetts. In less than eight months he was hired as the official Village minister. Two years later, five citizens became the elected majority to the Salem committee. The next year, in January of 1692, the year in which Ivy now knew she was in, a number of young girls in the Village began to fall ill. Displays of strange behavior, convulsions, screaming, spells, blasphemy and trances were common.
In February, the physician, Dr. William Griggs, decides that the girls were bewitched and influenced by Satan. The affected were pressured to name the cause of their misfortune. Three in the town were accused of being witches and warrants were issued. Over the next five months, Magistrates Hathorne and Corwin examined a number of alleged witches. Townspeople were testifying to strange apparitions and harms being done to them. The hunt for witches was on and many were suspected.
The suspects ranged from those of low economic and social standing to churchgoers and those of high standing in the community. Some accusations came even from family members and it seemed that everyone was caught up in a frenzy to accuse and see people hung, without much concern for true and actual guilt. Seven judges, comprising a special court, were appointed to try the cases. A few of the defendants confessed, but most denied the allegations. The one’s who confessed got a temporary reprieve from death, while the one’s who plead not guilty were sentenced to death right away. Being cleared of the charges was extremely unlikely. The seven magistrates judged these people not only by a few confessions but also mostly by controversial evidence. There were ideas such as supernatural attributes, spectral evidence and ‘witch marks’ heard from the accusers.
June 2nd saw Bridget Bishop as the first to be convicted and condemned to death. She was hung a week later as Ivy had experienced. Soon after Bridget’s trial, one of the magistrates resigned, disgusted with how the whole thing was handled. Some of the people in Salem believed some were innocent and brought petitions to their defense but after Bishop’s death the situation escalated. At the end of June, Sarah Good was tried and condemned. On July 19th she was executed with four others and Ivy had experienced all five deaths at the same time. Now in early August, Ivy found herself inside of Martha Carrier and on trial for her life. She and five others were convicted on the 6th of August and were hanged on Gallows Hill on the 19th. This time Ivy went through six deaths at once. Ivy was not sure each time if she would die for the last time and if she lived she was not sure how much more she could endure.
Ivy Hemerson had now died three times. Two of them were multiple deaths. She now shared the mind of Ann Pudeator. Ann was one of the last to be tried on September 9th of 1692 and condemned to death along with five others. On September 17th nine others met the same fate. On the 19th, there was one pressed to death for refusing a trial. Two days later a former plea of innocent was changed to guilty and that execution was delayed. On September 22nd, the five convicted with Ann Pudeator on the 9th of September, and two others were about to be hanged. These eight were the last of twenty people to have been put to death in almost a year. Would September 22nd be Ivy’s last day of life? She was about to be hanged once more. She did not know if she could handle feeling multiple people’s death at one time again. There were now eight people sentenced to death for witchcraft. On the 22nd of September Ivy was awaiting her fate.
In a few weeks, Governor Phips would order that relying on intangible and controversial evidence would no longer be allowed in the witch trials. Three weeks later he would dissolve the witch court. The new Superior Court was created about a month later to try the remaining cases. This took place in May of 1693 and no one was convicted this time.
But that was in the future. Ivy was concerned with September 22nd and her impending death inside Ann Pudeator. She was about to be hanged once more with five women and two men. She knew this was the last group to die. What would be cruelest? To be subjected to other scenarios of continuing deaths? Maybe her fate was to go back and start these same deaths again. Or would this end her existence? She would soon find out.
