Cynthia got up that morning the same as any other. She showered as John drank his coffee right before he actually left for work. In the mirror, she stood admiring the subtle effect of the tight, faded jeans against her fully rounded bottom with the pale yellow cotton turtleneck she had chosen. Her curves were accentuated to the maximum even for the cold drizzly weather. After scheduling the rest of her week as vacation time, Cynthia had picked up the phone again and dialed Ed Bishop’s home phone number.

"Hello?" Ed’s mellow voice sent a shiver of caution through Cynthia’s spine. She had to be careful, she thought, or the cat would end up being the mouse.

"Yes, Ed?" Cynthia tried to remain cool letting her natural professional demeanor take over.

"Speaking," the reply came instantaneously.

"It’s Cynthia." Cynthia felt her blood rush forcefully through her veins as she tried not to shudder at her audacity.

"Oh, Cynthia!" Ed’s personal glow expanded until Cynthia thought she could feel it embracing her. "I’ve been dreaming of you."

"Really? Something naughty, I hope."

"Hmmm... That would certainly have possibilities." Ed said as he tried not to think of Cynthia that way lest his thoughts carry too loudly. "However, I’m afraid you were rather serious."

"Oh! Too bad!" Cynthia laughed pretending she didn’t have the faintest recall of the previous night’s dream. "Listen, I have the day off, would you care to have lunch with me? I have so many questions on some spiritual matters I have been pondering since last we talked. This reincarnation thing just has me stumped!"

"Sure, how about the same cafe we went to yesterday?" Ed said willing to oblige a seeker of truth.

"Too crowded." Cynthia made her move decisively. "How about my place?"

"Wouldn’t your boyfriend mind if he came home and saw you having lunch with a stranger?" Ed asked.

"He might. But, I’m not inviting him. I’m inviting you." Cynthia answered wondering how he knew she lived with her boyfriend. Then she realized he proabably knew far more about her from her dreams than she did about him. This thought caused her to almost regret her strategy but she took in a deep breath and pressed on. "Besides, I don’t feel like discussing past lives and karma in the middle of a bunch of prying strangers."

"Uh. OK, I guess." Ed swiped the gray hair away from his forehead as he tried to figure Cynthia out. He could swear she was coming on to him but that didn’t seem right. She hated him by all indications in their dream time together. But, she didn’t remember last night’s dream, it seemed. Knowing that unpleasant dreams were often blocked out of the waking conscious, Ed wondered how long his luck would hold out. In the dream, there were light fibers in the cord of union besides black, he reminded himself. That meant they had shared positive love experiences as well as negative ones. Maybe accentuating the positive one’s during Cynthia’s waking time would help her release them on a subconscious level. At any rate, it would help him to pay off his karma he decided. He could well afford to be cuckolded for a while, if that was Cynthia’s intention he decided. And besides, maybe he could convince her it was in her own interest to bed him, the thought came unbidden as he felt a warmth creep into his body. It had been a long time, he sighed to himself. Being a healer was lonely work. "Just tell me where you live and what time and I’ll be over," he promised.

Cynthia met him at the door beaming an appreciative attitude towards him. "Thanks for coming, Ed," she said, as she motioned him in like an ant trap freshly baited for its next victim's arrival.

"No problem," Ed said shrugging away the minor discomfort he was feeling at the turn of events. He looked around at the living room he had just entered. It was filled with advante garde art posters of geometric shapes and Warhol fluorescent colors. In contrast to the loud shouts clamoring for attention of the posters coming from the walls, the plain, white sofa and carpet were taking pains to insist they had nothing to do with the walls’ lack of modesty. The tables were fashionably sculpted glass pieces whose sharp edges almost defied gravity. The effect of the whole room was an enthusiastic embrace of modern civilization in all its techno appetites. The one nod towards the past lay in a golden, scrolled bird cage next to the sofa wherein a yellow cockatiel was now studying his mistresses’ new friend with an intelligence that whispered of secret confidences between Cynthia and it.

"I’m kind of a vegetarian," Cynthia lied implying a connection that truly didn’t exist, "so, I hope you don’t mind if the meal lacks meat."

"Really?" Ed’s eyebrow shot up as he took off his jacket and settled onto the couch next to the bird. "No. I don’t mind. I’m also a vegetarian. How about that? See, we have one thing in common!"

"Oh! Wonderful!" Cynthia clasped her hands to her mouth in mock surprise. As she made her way to the tiny kitchen, she shouted back, "but, I’m sure we have many things in common if we just get to know each other a little better."

Ed’s head swerved from the bird he had been looking at to Cynthia’s departing figure. He hadn’t failed to notice the pleasing round perkiness of her bottom in the tight jeans she was wearing. Her last comment had caught him by surprise as he began to realize Cynthia was truly setting him up. She wanted him, Ed thought as a grin slowly spread across his face. Even a "old" man like himself got lucky once in a while. All the more so when a past life lover was involved. However, this sudden change of attitude nagged at his conscience. It might not be a wise move on his part to play along, he debated with himself. After all, even if she didn’t remember last night’s dream and was basing her emotions on their waking relationship, she would remember what happened that day during their return to Agra Fort. It was a tricky situation he was in. On the one hand he wanted her to try and seduce him and on the other he was afraid that might affect her links with him during the next night’s dream. The problem was in deciding whether the effect would be positive or negative. He needed his guides, he decided. They would be able to lay the way clear for him.

As Cynthia chattered mostly to herself in the kitchen, Ed took the time to phase out of the room and into the internal landscape of a different reality. His body and consciousness floated in a similar living room with only the sparkling ripples of air imitating water to indicate he was in two places at once. He was in Cynthia’s living room in his body, and in Cynthia’s living room outside his body, slightly on a different vibration invisible to the normal person. He looked at the birdcage again surprised the bird had come along for the ride too. Shrugging at the minor accident, he honed his thought patterns to call his guides forward.

"Ed," Ara chirped in amusement from the beak of the yellow and gray bird in the cage, "I’m over here!"

Ed’s attention riveted back to the bird now fully understanding its presence during his little sojourn. "Ara! Are you trying to confuse me with your little shape-shifting games?"

"Me? Confuse you?!" The cockatiel’s bright black eyes opened wide as it’s tail feathers snapped up like a fan being opened indignantly in good-natured humor. "I would say you’re doing a find job of that all by yourself!" Then as if the whole comment had been a joke the cockatiel turned smoothly in a full circle on its perch. As she craned her neck and chirped another stifled laugh it’s brightly tinted orange cheeks gave Ara the appearance of a clown doing a performance for Ed’s benefit. "Let me see, you and Cynthia are getting together again, right?"

"Yes," Ed said throwing his hands up in the air as he leaned closer to talk with Ara on her terms.

"So? It never bothered you before? You and her have done this many times!" Ara said insisting that relationships were just another lesson to be learned.

"Yes, but it doesn’t feel right this time. There’s a difference now. She is more aware for one, but still not totally aware."

"All creatures progress spiritually eventually." Ara remained objective as she tried to help him sort out his intuitions.

"Yes! I know that," Ed knew it was up to him to decide what was best but he felt he wasn’t ready. "I feel she distrusts me in our dreams together but for now she seems to have no recall of last night’s dream. Can’t you just tell me what to do, for once? I want your guidance!"

"Guidance," Ara said a tone of compassion and warmth echoing melodically through the air, penetrating Ed’s astral body, "is to help you grow so that you can make your own decisions wisely. This is your karma, Ed. We can not discuss in depth all the repercussions of your decisions until after the test has been taken. You wouldn’t learn if I gave you the answers. That would be cheating!"

Ed had heard this argument many times but oddly this time he felt like his guide was being less than effective. "She’s coming on to me." Ed insisted to Ara trying to defend the sexual energy that was emanating from him in red swirls of anticipation. "She’s willing!"

"So then?" Ara said again playing the part of the therapist.

"It’s the links I’m worried about." Ed finally admitted. "I’m not sure she’s aware enough to be making an 'informed' decision. But, that could be part of her karma too. Is it?"

Ara’s cockatiel eye’s glittered thoughtfully as she worded her words carefully so as not to disclose the fundamental error in his thinking. "The links are important, " Ara stressed. "Remember, the golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Set an example. If you want to help Cynthia master the second level fully you must help her learn to control the links. Her freedom and your life goal is at stake, not just figuratively," Ara warned.

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Ara’s voice echoed through Ed’s brain as it subsided and he found himself back in Cynthia’s reality with his nose pressed up to the birdcage as the cockatiel peeked shyly at him from the far corner of the cage.

"Her name is Sunshine," Cynthia said as she placed the sphagetti dish on the middle of the small dinette table outside the kitchen and in open view of the living room. She walked over to where Ed was seated. "She’s quite a charmer, " Cynthia continued fondly. "She can even talk some."

"Hmm... I noticed," Ed said wondering if Ara was still around. Turning his attention away from the bird, he deliberately changed the subject. "Is that pasta? I love pasta!" He got up and made his way towards the table.

As they began the meal, Cynthia steered the conversation towards a subject she knew would appeal to Ed. "So, I know you said we’ve met in a past life, Ed. What was it like?"

"It? There were many." Ed admitted between bitefuls. "Apparently one has us linked karmically though."

"That sounds interesting!" Cynthia said her elbows resting on the table with her hands clasp in front of her pretending to be totally fascinated by Ed. "Tell me that one!"

"Why should I tell you?" Ed said playing the role of the teacher. "You lived it. You should know."

"I’m not psychic!" Cynthia protested at this obvious deception.

"Really?!" Ed’s fork descended back to his plate the morsel of food uneaten. "I think we all are psychic to a certain extent. Have you tried to remember?"

Cynthia tried to keep the look of dismay from entering her face. The man was being obtuse, she thought. He wasn’t playing along. And worse, he really was going to try to teach her his philosophies. She had to do something to straighten the situation quickly or she would end up suffering through some quite insane conversation.

"Oh, I can imagine," Cynthia’s quick wit came to her aid as she sidled her chair closer to his. "I bet you were a captivating prince and I was one of the many women in your harem."

A flush of excitement crept up Ed’s throat as he felt Cynthia’s red auric signature envelope him. ‘Do unto others, ‘ he repeated to himself, and wondered what he would want Cynthia to do for him if he were in her position and she was in his. "Possible." Ed replied thoughtfully as he picked up the cloth napkin to wipe the small traces of food off his mouth.

"Or maybe," Cynthia continued encouraged by Ed’s apparent discomfort in her words, "I was a man and you were the mistress I couldn’t do without. You know what I mean?"

Ed’s mind began to swim, his focus shifting to Cynthia’s full breast as they moved up and down more quickly, belying the fact that Cynthia was enjoying teasing him. He looked fondly into her chestnut eyes and saw her as she had been for him in the now possible life he might live in the year 2025. His guides, Ara and Mishra, had already given him the motivation he needed to work out his karma. But for anyone else, the idea of a future life visited as a past life would have been beyond their understanding. It would have been too difficult to explain to Cynthia that the reason she would not remember their life together was that, in reality, for her it had not happened yet. In a sense, there were no such things as 'past lives.' Time was non-linear once one had ventured to the Source. A future life, for lack of a better term could equally be viewed from the present as if it was in the past and the reverse was also the case with the past intruding into the future. Thus for Ed, all time could be past or future or even present depending on one's perspective.

Ed remembered because in his time line, he had experienced the future life before the present one as his soul’s consciousness had bounced around in time choosing the most appropriate era for his soul’s progression on the spiritual planes. Thus, he had 'lived' the past life that was to be Cynthia’s future life. He had ventured to the Source and discovered the secret of time and death. He was spiritually immortal, he now understood, bound to the planet earth in a series of reincarnations until he would mature enough to pay off all his old karmic debts. And they were many, Ed regretted, many he had forgotten. For that reason, he pledged himself to his work as a healer sowing good deeds to gain in spiritual maturity as he awaited the time he would be called upon to pay back the more heinous of his crimes. Karma was never erased. Only balanced through spiritual perseverance and fortitude. Ed's work in the Tower of Dreams had helped many Seekers reach a greater spiritual maturity thereby crediting him with future karma in the same direction. That was the essence of Ed, Ara and Mishra's work. A flow of positive forces designed to propel them and others to new levels of existance. On earth one had to break the chain of reincarnation or one was never free. Knowledge gave one spiritual immortality in understanding that death was not the end to all things, but only truth and balance freed one from the confines of planet earth. Death was not feared anymore as the memory of other lives cushioned the blow of death and one understood the multiple opportunities God had afforded his creations to get it right. However, somewhere in between knowledge and freedom was an intense loneliness, Ed had discovered. It was like being on probation for a crime one had once committed. One was stigmatized and feared by others not just for the crime but also for the affrontary of admitting to it. Ed was tired in this life, and though only a few lives remained, he wanted someone to share them with. He had become discouraged realizing the path of a Seeker was a lonely one. He had begun to doubt himself. That's when Ara and Mishra had helped him recover the memory and hope of Cynthia's life with him in 2025.

In that life, Cynthia had been a psychic healer as he was now. They had met, two soul mates, in the year 2025 to complete the bridge between the spiritual dimensions to the third dimension and heal the forces of fear and hostility that had gripped the populace on both sides as the door had been flung open. Now he was back here, before the love had taken place for Cynthia. She must feel it somehow, Ed said to himself. She feels the connection but she doesn’t know what it is. He was there focused on this 'present time' he had to assume to be the catalyst for Cynthia’s spiritual growth. He was her teacher.

His psychic growth had already occurred years back in ancient Egypt. But, why was she here with him? To snap the last ‘link’ he had that held him bound to the wheel of reincarnation, he hoped. His guides, Ara and Mishra, were in this endeavor with him. But the path to freedom was unmarked and an individual challenge that not even the best of teachers could force a student to take. They were his counsel when he became discouraged or turned around. However, they would not choose the way for him because there was no formula for personal freedom it being an individual choice. The guides were helpful, Ed had to admit, even if their presence was unappreciated at times. He sometimes found it annoying that they resorted to questions instead of answers to help him decide for himself. It would have been easier, Ed now thought, if they would just tell him why she was there. Was he supposed to remember every life he had ever had in the 20,000 years he had been reincarnating? The task was monumental. Well, he ascertained, there must be another life between Cynthia and himself that he had forgotten. One that was not as positive an experience as in the year 2025. That was what held him from obtaining his freedom from the physical plane, he decided. It had to be because of the way Ara had worded it - his life goal. And that had to do with his converting the negative link into a positive one and then dissolving it.

"What are you thinking?" Cynthia said coyly. "You know you don’t have to be shy with me."

"Just remembering, " Ed said. "You were quite beautiful in our past life together. Some things don’t change."

Cynthia’s hand reached up to touch the hair across his temple. "I find you very attractive as well. I have a ‘thing’ for older men."

Ed’s mind whirled the facts around in a cloud of emotions. If he did to her as he would want done to himself, he knew what he would want - what he always wanted from beautiful, willing women who exuded untamed desire in his direction. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in this situation, there’s only growth, he reminded himself. If he didn’t do well, his guides would explain and he would find another life to do the lesson all over again. And it was such a pleasant lesson, he mused.

He leaned over putting his arm around her back for support and let his desire express itself in an arduous kiss. Her breasts pressed up against him and he took in the sensation with gusto. She would not mind, he told himself. She was just as much into this as he was.

Behind them, the cockatiel watched the proceedings and rolled its eyes in a most human fashion. This would be a tough lesson, Ara thought sympathetically as she swirled her consciousness out of the bird to allow Ed and Cynthia their privacy. Mishra met her on the astral plane in a gray world of nothingness.

"Do you think he will make it this time?" Mishra talked it over with Ara.

"It’s his choice," Ara hoped but understood they could not interfere. "He must make the decision of his own free will."

"It seems like such an unfair test." Mishra mused understanding the strength of the links between Ed and Cynthia.

"He decided how it was to be played, remember?" Ara said nodding referring to the pre-birth agreement they had all made together when Ed had been between lives. "He knew it would be difficult. But, he was willing for Cynthia’s sake. Her karma will be balanced after this and she will be free to explore her life in 2025 as Ed has already experienced it. She will not crave psychic power over any person because personal power will be balanced in this life. She will repay him his debt and wipe the scoreboard clean."

"Yes, her guides are anxious that she complete her karma so that she can lay the matter to rest. They are looking forward to the global effect their union will have in 2025. They are confident she will not take undue glee over her actions. If she regrets them, the lesson will be learned. If she doesn’t the score will still be settled for her to be able to cohabit with him successfully in 2025. Then she will continue her "lessons" to clear the damage done here if she decides to gloat over her revenge."

The two points of light lay pulsating in the gray mist as they communed together, two guides hoping that their efforts would propel their protégés out of the misery of physical existence. If they succeeded, their karma would be settled and they too would find freedom from the dimension they were now in. It was a cycle of continuous growth and fulfillment. It was the joy of creation and rebirth into a more advanced soul until one day they would leave even infinity behind them.

After Ed had left, Cynthia reached over and took Sunshine out of her cage to play with her. The bird jumped willingly onto Cynthia’s right hand finger as it had done many times before. Opening her left hand, Cynthia revealed the black jewels she had been mischievously withholding from Sunshine: raisins. The bird saw the raisins and hopped eagerly into Cynthia’s other hand delicately balancing herself on the palm of her hand as it picked up the first arisen and tried to peck it open. A look of pure delight passed between the cockatiel’s glowing, intelligent onyx eye stones and Cynthia’s equally enchanted pupils. Cynthia watched in amusement, finally setting Sunshine down on a newspaper on her dinette table. The raisins tumbled down in an avalanche before Sunshine’s pink fleshed feet, a goodwill offering that did not fail to captivate Sunshine.

"You’re soo cute!" Cynthia purred at the cockatiel as she petted the crown of lemon fresh feathers crested on Sunshine’s head. Cynthia mused over how easy it was to love her pet Sunshine. How easy the trust flowed between the two of them. There were no words for misunderstandings. No thoughts conveyed. It was a purely emotional relationship that Cynthia was sure must echo love, but even still she wasn’t sure. For Cynthia had never experienced love before. Her thoughts ran back to the purely sexual manipulation of one Ed Bishop. She had enjoyed the artistry in his love making and even felt somewhat saddened when he got up to leave. But Cynthia knew sex wasn’t love and yet this was all she had ever experienced with another human being. Maybe the ideal of love was just something unobtainable, she pondered. It was too late to feel guilty at her deception of John, her boyfriend, and now Ed, her lover, she decided. What she had to consider was the obvious dead end she found herself in. Even if it hadn’t been for the Tower of Dreams which to her was as real as her humdrum life was, she would have found some way to spice up her life. The energy was there and there had been no outlet. Until Ed had hinted at their past life. She had merely fulfilled his fantasy as neatly as she hoped he would fulfill her dream. The dream to release herself from the nightmare of the Tower of Dreams or to have Ed suffer equally with the rest of them.

Her seduction of Ed was just the beginning. She had to assume that if he had been the one to initiate the game of the Tower then he had to know its secrets. She had to assume from their dreams together that he was a clever "magician" of a sort she had previously thought didn’t exist. And all magicians kept secrets. She would find out his secrets and use them as her own.

Trapping someone else in a dream would make anyone in effect a powerful magical creature to the victim, Cynthia reasoned. But here in reality, Cynthia laughed to herself, she had the upper hand. Here she understood the game of personal power and humiliation better than anyone. She had been taught by the worst of mankind as each man in her life struggled to bed her and finally to control her to their own satisfaction never caring for her own well-being. And many times she had succumbed. She had allowed herself to play the part of the slave, the impotent, the naive until at last she had settled on John; the lesser evil of many. She had managed to maintain her dignity and her will solely by refusing to marry. He had a claim to her sexually but only for as long as it suited her. And in no other matter did he have a say. In this one unconventional decision Cynthia felt she had gained her freedom. It had empowered her to be a woman without the fear of being a captive to the hunter bred from eons of genetics. Cynthia felt confident that the prey could outwit the predator if the trap was never triggered shut. To dance freely in wild abandon as the hunter watched jealously unable to capture his quarry and as fond of it as Cynthia was to her cockatiel, that was revenge enough for her. She would feel the trickles of sweat going down Ed’s brow when he realized his mistake. She was easily bedded but far from easily controlled. Yes, she would make a good Nimua to Ed’s Merlin, Cynthia resolved as she picked up Sunshine and placed her on her shoulder.

"Too bad all relationships can’t be as simple as ours," Cynthia cooed to the bird now perched on her shoulder. The orange blushed cheeks of the cockatiel leaned over at this comment and rubbed themselves against Cynthia’s face as if the words had triggered some understanding. Cynthia sat down to review her situation and realized she needed time. Seven days just wasn’t enough time to control him properly. Hopefully the Tower would provide her with the time, just as it had on the second level. A lifetime of trusting in a dream, shattered by a moment of reality. That’s all it ever took to break a heart so thoroughly that the splinters would peek out of the victim’s chest. So, she had to consider her turnabout in dream land. She had to have him trust her.

That night she edged herself into John’s bed with a purpose. She wasn’t going to waste her time anymore. She had a plan and would follow it to the bitter end.

CHAPTER 8