The Quantum Prophecy - Ryan Matthew Harker (best management books of all time TXT) 📗

out, was a very headstrong individual and when she was of a mind to do something there was not much that was going to deter her or convince her to do otherwise.
“Well fine!” She exclaimed exasperated. “If that’s how you feel,” and she stood up. “Then I’ll just have to go by myself.” Then she turned and headed for the door.
Candlelite jumped to his feet to follow her. “All right all ready, have it your way.” And without another word they went out the door together.
The hallway was empty, no guard at their door.
They paused and Candlelite asked, “Well, which way should we go?” And without hesitating Absinthe took off to the left.
The hallway continued for quite a distance before jogging to the right at a forty-five degree angle. They continued on until they were out of sight of their room and had been for quite some time, when all of a sudden the hall opened up into a stairwell with two sets of stairs, one on the left leading up and the other on the right leading down. They went down the right stairwell to the next hallway. After about thirty feet they came to another stairwell and headed down. Once at the bottom, Candlelite was surprised to find that they were outside. The stairs down had led them to a massive courtyard approximately one thousand square feet in size as close as Candlelite’s keen senses could figure.
“Oh my!” Absinthe breathed as she stopped by Candlelite’s side.
The courtyard was laid wall to wall with cobblestones worn smooth from many ages travel by the denizens of the palace. The surrounding walls were made of a smooth concrete-like substance of a kind not found on Earth. In the center of the courtyard was a small fountain from which many small streams flowed up and out. In the center of these surrounding streams sat an ornate sundial carved with many beasts, mythical and otherwise, some of which were unfamiliar to the two strangers.
The sundial read four thirty and the sun was just starting to descend into the west.
“You know,” Absinthe began. “I just realized that we don’t even know the name of this place.”
“The Cobalt Kingdom was what that one guy shouted,” Candlelite pondered vaguely as he looked about.
“Well I know that,” Absinthe poked him. “But I mean the name of this city.”
“Oh, you're right,” Candlelite replied as he looked from the sundial to the sun. “But that’s the least of our worries. What happens after the sun sets?”
Absinthes eyes grew wide as she absorbed his statement.
“You’ve got a good point. I hadn’t stopped and thought about that. I’ve been so caught up with being human again and with everything else going on also, well I kinda forgot.”
Candlelite turned and smiled at her. “That’s all right. After the protection of the wormhole’s stasis dome, I forgot myself. But it’s something to think about.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Absinthe said before looking at the sun. “But we’ve got some time. Let’s do a little more exploring first.”
Candlelite shrugged. “Ok.”
Each of the four smooth walls around them had arched portals that lead through their centers. The stairs entered the courtyard from the north wall so the pair continued their journey and exited through the south portal. This led them into a spectacular garden with rows upon rows of roses directly in front of them. It was readily apparent from the garden’s size that it would not have mattered which portal from the courtyard they had chosen any would have led them to these wonderful gardens.
“Wow!” Candlelite exhaled nearly at a loss for words.
Absinthe said nothing, she just clutched Candlelite’s left arm with both hands.
Both were obviously very impressed.
The gardens seemed to stretch on forever. Beyond the roses were beds of flowers, hundreds and hundreds of varieties. Some were in rows while some were laid out in an infinite conglomeration of circles, stars, shapes and designs of geometric versatility the likes of which had never before been beheld by either Absinthe or Candlelite. Some of this organic artwork was made up of conformities of single species of geneses. Others contained spiraling multitudes of plants all contributing their unique look and color to the beauty of the whole. As the couple strode through the vast stretches of photosynthesizing plant life they came upon patches offering up a bountiful array of berries. These patches contained blackberries, blueberries, huckleberries, grapes of all types, raspberries, boysenberries, salmonberries, a whole slew of others and some they were unable to identify, all of this abstractly arranged in a seemingly meaningless order.
Soon the flowers, shrubs and bushes gave way and opened up to an orchard that advertised an abundance of fruit bearing trees. There were apple trees, pear trees, plum, pear, cherry, peach, and an assortment of other magnificent food bearers. Not limited to just fruits there was also a mixture of nut yielding arboreal that included but was not limited to walnut, chestnut and beechnut.
As they progressed through this never-ending delight of greenery Candlelite felt his hand being squeezed tighter and tighter by Absinthe as her eyes grew wider and wider. It seemed Absinthe just could not open her eyes wide enough to absorb all of the proffered beauty that the garden was laying before her.
Neither Candlelite nor Absinthe had spoken as much as a dozen words since entering the never-ending garden but both turned towards the sinking sun at the same moment and silently but regretfully decided that their time there was up.
They traced their way back to the cobblestone courtyard. Hurrying slightly as they had stayed longer than anticipated after almost being swallowed in man’s creative display of nature, they re-entered the courtyard from the west portal. No sooner had they crossed that threshold than two flashes appeared off in the distance, slightly less than one second apart. Candlelite fell. Absinthe screamed and fell with him.

*****

The assassin was garbed all in black and looked something like Earth’s ninja but on AnEerth the concept was named -ninyiu- or stealthy one. The assassin though was neither ninja nor ninyiu but a hired killer of no mean reputation. Considered by many in her trade as the best in the world, she had only to sneak along the hallways behind her prey as far as the twin staircases to formulate her plan of attack.
As Candlelite and Absinthe traveled lower passages to eventually come to the great garden, the assassin chose to follow the left stairway up and ever up until it finally broke upon a landing. A shallow door led from this landing and the assassin did not hesitate in moving to the hallway beyond. She made her way through the maze of corridors without faltering or stumbling when confronted with a choice for her path. Although she had never been in the capital’s palace before the maps supplied by her employers proved to be extremely accurate.
Her employers had been a most peculiar sort. Peculiar for Sefu had not a shred of magical ability to speak of, something almost unheard of in an individual of her world, and was therefore not generally sought out by wizards. In the assassin’s experience men and women of magic were more than capable of carrying out their own assassinations. Not that her skills were to be considered mundane in any way whatsoever.
Having killed her first person in a fit of rage at the tender age of nine she had fled to escape the persecution of her elders. That this person, her victim, had been her eleven year old brother did not concern her. She had been fully aware of her actions and of the consequences of those actions. So she ran but she had not run far enough and soon she was apprehended. After a thorough investigation by the local and higher authorities which included, but was not limited to a council of the most respected psychologists of the time, she was found to have a full and complete grasp of reality. In light of the discoveries made by both the law and the shrinks it was decided that she was to be tried as an adult and sentenced to Centura 7, AnEerth’s most hardened and secure maximum penitentiary.
This is where her instruction in death truly began.
Soon after her internment at the detention facility she found herself with bloodstained hands once more. This time the deceased was a lascivious pervert by the name of Moe. Apparently Moe had thought that he might have a little sport with the pretty newcomer based on two assumptions, 1) her age and 2) she had yet to acquire any protection. To put it bluntly he was dead wrong.
And so at not quite ten years old she found herself a two time murderer with a prolonged stretch in solitary confinement, for her ‘protection’. However it was after three years of solitary that she finally met the man who had shaped her into the nearly flawless killing machine that she now was.
Vin was his name and he was evil incarnate. As he observed the teenage girls reentry into the general population he could not help but admire the stately way she strode through the room. Head held high she met every stare fiercely and without flinching. And when she deftly broke the wrist of a female who had only approached to offer a bit of friendship Vin knew he had found the receptacle in which to deposit his particular brand of knowledge. Seven years later Vin was dead, killed by her hands. Soon after she was free.
And barely a score of years later she found herself working for wizards, what was the world coming to? Not that she minded because wizards generally paid more than fair, twice as much as she normally charged in fact. They were also very discrete, meeting in a very out of the way place.
A young boy of about six had placed the request for an audience with the assassin and then had met with her after she had agreed to do so. They had left the city together and headed toward the outlying forest where upon her arrival she was met by one of the wizards. After blindfolding her the wizard led her into the forest where they walked until the terrain suddenly changed under her feet. The ground became harder. She could tell they were headed steadily down and there were a few times that her guide had to help her grope her way over a short ledge. The air grew damper and then her blindfold was removed.
Sefu could not see but without warning a torch sprang to life in the wizard’s hand. They were in an immense cavern; there was no sign of the boy. The wizard led the assassin another half a mile into the cave before they rounded a sudden bend and encountered firelight. This time the fire was of a natural source.
“Welcome,” came the low greeting from the man at the fire. “Your presence here has been much anticipated.” He was obviously another wizard.
“What would you have of me?” retorted the assassin as she surveyed her surroundings, quickly concluding that there was not much to see.
“Right to the point now, aren’t we my dear?” the wizard chuckled.
“I see no reason to waste time in this gloom and damp,” sneered the assassin.
The other wizard, her guide, stood there and still would not speak a word.
“That is well,” stated the wizard. “For you see we haven’t much time in this matter. Two strangers have come to our land and are even now preparing to meet with our king and queen.”
The assassin’s eyebrows rose minutely at this information but otherwise her face betrayed no emotion. “And what would you have of me?” she repeated.
“We need these