Walter gave a quiet chuckle. 'Don't think they haven't tried.' He placed two bottles on the bedside table for further treatment. 'But I don't go for any of that rot. There is only one God, the creator, and only he can correctly guide the individual along the right path back to him.'

'What about your otherworldly ancestors?' She wondered if he still followed the ancient faith of the Britons.

Walter cocked an eye in her direction. 'Well, the ethers and their occupants are part of God, and can aid humanity via the proper channels ... as with your good self and Keridwen. But one has only to recall what became of Ossa to see how cunning and misleading some entities can be. You must be able to discern the difference between good advice and manipulation. The differing planes of the etheric world are frequented by all manner of spirits, denizens, and extra-terrestrials ...

some of which can be very mischievous indeed if the seeker is inexperienced, or calling on their wisdom for reasons of ego and personal gain. Such a person may find themselves led a merry dance, just to be taught a lesson. Such is life.' Cadfan shrugged. 'I never take as fact anything I'm told. I rely on what I feel, for only the God inside can ultimately be trusted.'

Tory thought this was a good philosophy, and reminiscent of her own beliefs. She thanked Cadfan for his views and for coming to the aid of her kinsman. 'If I can ever return the favour ...'

'Nonsense,' Cadfan insisted. 'You are my great-grandmother. Thus I am entirely at your disposal during this, your time in exile.'

At this point, Rhun advised his grandson it was high time they got him back to the natural therapy centre where Walter was supposed to be lecturing at present.

Left alone with nothing but her thoughts and their sleeping patient, Tory mused over Cadfan's parting vow.

Tory had not considered this predicament in which she found herself so dire as to classify it as 'in exile'. Yet Cadfan made it sound like the whole nightmare was a foregone conclusion, and had been for some time.

Since her arrival at Watarrka, Tory had done quite a lot of research into the mysterious origins of her family.

The various mythologies and histories of the creation of the world that Rhun had given her to resource all cited the same story. Of how the great immortal ancestors (the Gods, the Shining Ones, the Lofty Ones, the Old Ones) had created the world and fashioned mankind - even the Old Testament hinted at this. For Genesis clearly stated, that after Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of knowledge, the Lord God said: Obviously in knowing good and evil man has become like one of Us. It also spoke of how, the sons of God took notice of the daughters of men, admired their looks and married all those of them they chose. Was this the explanation behind her grandmother's mysterious pregnancy, the event which had introduced the immortal gene into her family via her father, Myrddin. If so, which one of these infamous Gods had her grandfather been?

Tory stemmed from the lineage of the one the Celts called Bedi, that much Taliesin had told her. This was no great help, however, as Bedi was the King of Heaven.

Sumerian texts called him Anu, the Egyptians - Ammon, the Greeks - Zeus, and from him all other immortals had sprung. Her grandfather could be any one of Bedi's wild array of descendants, few of whom she would feel proud to claim as kin, having familiarised herself with some of their appalling escapades. These so-called Gods were exceedingly greedy, underhanded, incestuous, not to mention cruel and unforgiving. If, as the ancient texts claimed, mankind was the result of a genetic fusion between these Gods and the earliest men, it was easy to see which characteristics humans had inherited from their immortal creators.

Still, these conclusions were based on the hearsay of others and their interpretations of the ancient texts, which was exactly what Cadfan had warned Tory against. What she really needed was to get the story straight from the horse's mouth - her grandfather. It all came back to him. Her father had claimed to still be in contact with their closest Otherworldly relative, so surely she could aspire to the same.

One thing is for certain. Tory looked at Nicholas, whom she knew was damn lucky to be alive. As of tomorrow, I'm back in training ... mind, body and spirit.

Her life with Miles had been a peaceful and idyllic break from Otherworldly affairs and earthly leadership, but, clearly, the holiday was over. Tory refused to let one more soul be tortured or killed on her account. Emotional vampirism, was what it was.

Doc had been nowhere near her and still he'd nearly succeeded in draining her of every ounce of energy with his classic intimidatory tactics, and what was worse, she'd let him do it.

Well, no more, no matter what surprises he had in store for her. Today's episode had made her realise that she was nowhere near prepared to confront her foe - not if she expected to outsmart him, anyway.

Now that all her kindred were safe inside these cavern walls, it was imperative that Tory's first priority become herself.

Tory spent most of that night and into the next morning with Floyd, going through what information he'd collected on Doc. This case study went into Doc's schooling and political background, but she failed to find anything that the famous financier wouldn't want them to know.

Floyd explained that gaining access to Doc's personal computer was virtually impossible because he rarely hooked up to the Net. Therefore, the only way they were going to retrieve information from his PC was to somehow download all its files onto hard disk. Doc would almost certainly have his system encrypted, so they needed his password to save time. Floyd had done an asset trace on their subject to investigate his land holdings, bank accounts and so forth in the hope of finding a discrepancy of some kind, but regrettably, all his financial dealings appeared to be as clean as a whistle.

When Nicholas awoke he was physically repaired, and was scoffing down a huge breakfast when Tory arrived to question him about his ordeal. Recounting the events of the past week was not easy for the lad. He'd been knocked out so many times that his moments of consciousness all sort of blurred into each other.

After they'd parted ways with the Goddess in Horta, he told her, his family returned to London to find the ICA awaiting their arrival. They were escorted to a black limousine where they were bound and blindfolded at gunpoint. Nicholas thought it rather peculiar that at no stage of their abduction were his parents asked a single question.

This came as no surprise to Tory. In all likelihood, Doc needed to do no more than touch an individual to withdraw whatever information he required. Then again, with so many blank spots in Nicholas' memory, perhaps hypnosis had been used. Both methods would have failed to produce the information Doc sought, as neither John nor his family knew where the Goddess and her crew had gone into hiding.

'Mum and Dad were killed, without any of us having the slightest clue as to why.' Nick's eyes filled with tears as he persevered with his explanation. 'When they started to beat me, I fully expected it would be to the death. But no, I was strapped into that chair, and whilst one of the masked attackers gripped both my hands, his buddies all started firing questions at me at once ... questions about you.'

'Pertaining to what? My whereabouts?'

'No. They wanted to know about the weird stuff ...

you know, like extraordinary feats, strange occurrences, shit like that. But I told them nothing. In fact, I didn't even think about it. I dwelt instead on all the good times we'd had together, which seemed to piss off the guy holding my hands no end. He kept whacking me around the head and telling me to concentrate, but the more insistent he became, the more obscure the memory I brought to mind.' This made Nick smile, as he was kind of impressed with himself.

'You did good, my friend.' Tory gave him a huge squeeze, wishing she could somehow relieve him of his loss. She'd not seen such bravery in one so young since the Dark Age, where, coincidentally, Sir Gawain had also lost both his parents at roughly the same age.

'I knew you'd find me,' Nick confessed, as though nothing was ever surer. 'Half of me prayed you wouldn't, knowing I was the bait in a trap set for you. But the other half of me knew that, somehow, you'd outsmart the bastards. Which obviously, you did.'

Tory smiled at his reasoning, though she knew different unfortunately - played right into their hands more like. Doc Alexander's threat to wipe the smile from her face within twenty-four hours lingered in her brain.

His vow toyed with her imagination to conjure all manner of horrifying scenarios, which she did her best to dismiss or ignore. A good workout was what she needed: kata, yoga, meditation. For the day was still young, and she utterly refused to spend it pondering their doom.

It was coming on to evening when Floyd summoned all interested parties to the communications room to view a news report on the disappearance of Dr John Pearce and his family.

The news team, from a reputable British television station, were speaking with people who alleged they were close friends and associates of John Pearce, none of whom Nicholas could say he recognised. They spoke of the differences in opinion that arose between John Pearce and Tory Thurlow after the unexpected death of her husband Professor Miles Thurlow. At this time, it was reported, Tory was knowingly abetting a man wanted for blackmail by more government agencies then they had airtime to list. They claimed John had managed to escape with his family when the Goddess docked in Horta for supplies a few weeks back.

'But John still feared for the safety of his family because of what they knew.' A sweet-looking, elderly lady informed the very concerned woman conducting the interview.

'The police have yet to find any trace of the marine archaeologist and his family,' the female reporter turned to camera to advise her viewers. 'Nor have the authorities had any success in locating the luxurious underwater observation vehicle that was once the base for the now famous Project Plato. These people are wanted for questioning in regard to the disappearance.'

They showed a shot of Ray, which came from his ICA file, that made him look like Charles Manson before the haircut. The photo they used of the Goddess crew was one Noah had taken at the time he'd done the story on the sea-monster. This particular photo had not been used with the article, but it had been sent to National Geographic at the time.

'They're trying to frame us, not only for Pearce's death, but your husband's as well!' Ray was ready to have a complete meltdown.

Tory was contemplating the same, when she noted Teo and Brian didn't appear as perturbed about the news as everyone else.

'Well, good luck making a case,' commented Teo, picking his dinner out of his teeth with the aid of a toothpick. 'Without the bodies they've got no hard evidence to work with ... or should I say mess with.'

'They know where the bodies are, they'll only have to dig a little deeper and -' As Teo was slowly shaking his head and sporting that cocky grin of his, Tory queried, 'Why no?'

'Ask Brian, he's the one who heard the voice.'

All eyes turned to Brian who went bright red.

'What? So my dead friend spoke to me, big deal! It happens to my Aunt Rose all the time.' He clearly did not want to discuss it.

This was the first sign Brian had ever shown of clairvoyance, apart from a minor past-life flashback he'd had when he'd first met Naomi.

'But, Brian, this is marvellous.' Tory was excited for him.

'I just knew you'd think so.' In Brian's opinion it just meant he was going nuts, like the rest of his family.

'You spoke to my father?'

Nicholas stepped in to be sure he'd heard correctly, and Brian couldn't put him off in the same lighthearted fashion he had the others. 'Yeah Nick, I did.' He took the lad underarm, and escorted him out of the room to have a chat.

'So where are the bodies?' Tory reverted back to Teo for an answer.

'Bloody miles away from where you found them.' He dismissed any chance of anyone ever unearthing them.

'But what if someone saw you?!' Rhiannon stressed out. This would just fuel the Agency's story.

'It was a lousy day,' Teo defended. 'Nobody saw us, believe me! I couldn't even see what we were doing half the time.'

'What about tracks?' Tory was still not convinced.

'We covered our tracks all the way back to the original grave site.' He folded his arms, defiantly. 'So the ICA can kiss my arse, if they think they're going to frame us for this ... cause it ain't going to happen.'

As predicted, nothing came of the allegations made against Tory, Ray and co. If the Agency hadn't found the bodies after two weeks of searching, they weren't going to. So, for the crew of the Goddess, life took on a less stressful tone. They all found plenty to occupy their time at Watarrka. Some utilised their already developed talents, whilst others discovered a whole new calling.

With conspiracies surfacing left, right and centre, Noah barely left his computer. Day and night he recorded what had unfolded to date, tracing the saga all the way back to its origins in the Dark Age, though he and Tory now strongly suspected it could be traced to the dawn of mankind. Tory had asked Noah why he bothered wasting his time on something no one could ever read. He'd smiled and raised an eyebrow. After the Gathering, which Noah was now fully convinced would come to pass, those left to nurture the new world would want to know the truth. And it was his belief that he was responsible for making sure they got it.

Rhiannon had safely delivered Aunt Rose into the arms of the alliance, unharmed. Rose thought the trauma of being forced to leave her long-time home on the farm in Oxfordshire would prove too much for her old heart to take. Not loneliness, senility, nor the elements had been able to drive her out of her cottage.

But when her friends in the spirit-world had advised Rose it was time to go, she was packed and ready to leave when her brother's grand-daughter arrived to collect her. At nearly eighty years of age, Rose expected her adjustment to a whole new environment and way of life to be a long one. Yet when she arrived at Watarrka's little community, Rose found paradise in the cavern of produce. She'd always had a green thumb, and was thankful to still be able to put it to good use.

Naomi, whose background was in archaeology and restoration, had been at a loss as to what use she could be with the Goddess out of action. At Rhun's suggestion, she volunteered her services in the produce laboratories.

A Japanese geneticist and cloning expert, Dr Leigh Sukemi, and his family headed up the research department. Like Ray and Floyd, Sukemi was on the run from the authorities because of his work and the foreseen government misuse of it. Although the horticultural side of science didn't interest Naomi greatly, the animal and sea-life breeding programs captured her interest at once.

Birthing animals was a far cry from digging relics from the ground, but when one considered Naomi had been head of veterinary science back in Atlantis her natural aptitude in this area was not really so surprising.

Underground, in the desert, one would have thought those who remained of the Plato Project dive team would be like fish out of water - this was not the case, however.

Daniel found a more practical use for his longtime passion for astronomy when Rhun appointed him their official stargazer. Daniel slept most of the day, and spent his nights searching the skies for abnormal activity.

Young Nicholas' near unnatural obsession with the Internet increased tenfold after a couple of days in Floyd's company. The hacker's computer had virtual-reality capabilities, and was hooked up to the virtual-net of the worldwide web instead of the older keyboard-accessed network. In this fabulous cyberspace, a point of your finger would take you anywhere you wanted to go: to a live concert, with the best seats in the house, to a lecture or a forum on just about any subject imaginable. Once you created a cyber-image for yourself (so you could be distinguished from other cyberspace dwellers), you could go to a virtual bar to meet and chat with other cyber junkies from all over the world - BYO of course. Exploring cyberspace and helping Floyd plot industrial espionage served to keep Nick's mind off the recent death of his parents, while also providing him with a non-violent means by which he might avenge their sad fate.

As Teo and Brian were both technically-minded, they volunteered to assist Ray with the nightmarish chore of re-routing their vessel's circuitry - outside of training hours, that is. For as soon as Tory had re-established a regular Tae-kwon-do program in the morning, the rest of the crew had joined her. Teo, who was a Shihan (a nine times black belt) of the art, handled the instruction, which came to a close at around midday. Most then went about working on their other projects, except for the immortals - they had a further three hours of training with Rhun. His subjects included telepathy, psychokinesis, shamanism, clairvoyance, psychic self-defence and all forms of Otherworldly communication and appreciation.

Brian was a little wary of these practices at first, but the female competition served to fuel his ambition.

Already he'd nearly mastered the art of altering his appearance, and had learnt to project his physical form over short distances.

As Rhiannon's forte was definitely telepathy, not just with humans but animal and plant life as well, Rhun concentrated on enhancing her ability to read thoughts without contact with her target. At first she was only able to communicate with Rhun and her mother, for they were well practiced in projecting their thoughts. But soon Rhiannon found she could hear the unsaid in everyone, though she did not advise her unsuspecting subjects of this at the time.

As Tory refused to concentrate on any skill that didn't relate to contacting Maelgwn, her son had spent several days assisting her to cleanse her chakras and auric field.

When this empowerment was completed, learning to cast a decent psychic shield around herself became the next ability she must master before astral projection could be attempted. She'd been taught this simple skill before, so this was really just a refresher course. With all the training she'd been doing of late, her will was strong and her focus was excellent. Which is why Tory found it rather odd that Rhun made her practise this over and over. Even when she was certain she'd perfected the routine, her son refused to commence tutoring her in astral travel, and it occurred to her that perhaps he was stalling.

Days later, when the two of them were taking a wander along the canyon ridge at sunset, Tory seized the opportunity to confront Rhun about his rather obvious reluctance to allow her contact with his father.

The query brought Rhun to an abrupt halt, and slowly he turned to confess: 'Actually, that's why I coaxed you out here.'

'Well, I really didn't think it was for the romance of it all.' Tory folded her arms. She just knew she was being had.

'Now don't get angry at me, I'm just the messenger,'

he appealed, before humbling himself a tad. 'Although I misconstrued the meaning of one of Father's requests.'

'Which one?' She called his attention back to her, as his eyes had drifted to admire the view.

He was reluctant to answer, knowing his mother's reaction was not going to be favourable. 'The one that stated you were to remain hidden. For I have since been informed father wasn't just referring to the physical world, but the etheric world as well.'

'Come again.' She frowned, annoyed. 'Who told you so?'

Rhun winced, as he was just about to make matters worse for himself. 'Cadfan.'

'The day he came to see Nick?'

Rhun nodded.

'But that would imply you've been leading me up the garden path for weeks!'

'I was waiting for you to be at one and at peace before ... before I told you I'd been denied permission to make good my promise.'

'Maelgwn refused me an audience?' It hurt Tory to think this was the case. Did he no longer pine for her as she for him? Perhaps he'd spiritually matured since last they'd met, and was beyond craving the physical love of another.

'Only because he fears for your safety,' Rhun stated, to prevent her from jumping to conclusions.

'Rhun, I'm immortal for God's sake. How can I possibly be in any danger?' She wasn't buying it.

'In this universe there are hazards still completely inconceivable to us. So, unless you are the one all-knowing God, how can you be so sure?' He succeeded in taking away his mother's feeling of rejection, only to replace it with fear. 'I have a message for you,' he resolved, on a more cheery note.

Tory shook her head, confused enough already. 'No more secondhand reports, thanks all the same.'

'No, this one you'll like, I swear!'

Her son's big brown eyes pleaded for her to hear him out. 'Alright.' She caved in, as any mother would. 'Let's have it?'

'Um?' Rhun looked around for a comfortable place to seat her, and motioned Tory to a rock that would suit.

'This can't be as crash hot as you say, if I need to sit down.' Still, she complied; anything to get to the bottom of all this. Rhun came to stand behind her, placing his hands over her eyes, and before Tory had even realised it, her breathing had fallen in time with his. The deep yogic breaths cleared her mind of clutter, so she forgot even the purpose of the exercise.

Tory.

An image of Maelgwn's face and the sweet sound of his voice so clearly resounding in her head startled Tory from her peaceful trance-like state, and they were forced to start over.

'Relax, it's just like a video recording.' Rhun settled her back into position.

'You could have warned me.' She drew a deep breath to open herself to the transference.

Once again Maelgwn's image emerged from the blackness behind her eyes. Faint at first, the clarity of the impression improved until the features of the visitant were unmistakable. Maelgwn. Tory's heart leapt and she nearly lost her focus again. But her beloved's expression was so gravely serious, that it captured her attention.

Tory, I beg thee, under no circumstances art thou to attempt contact with me. Conditions are most unstable.

To project thy spirit into the Otherworld, be to leave the body open to invasion. An unfortunate situation hast arisen that demands my full attention. All will be made clear upon my return, which I trust will be soon. I long for our reunion, Tory, as thee must, but please believe me when I tell thee to keep thy distance from me at this time.