The Seeker Finna's Revenge Book 2: The Seeker, #2

By E L Russell

Finna's Revenge–Book #2 in the Seeker Series of High Concept Science Fiction, is the second novel in the Origin Story a seminal series that pre-date all of our published stories dealing with the emergence of  the already named, next human species: Self-Evolving, Self-Healing, Immortal, Homo Evolutis,

The Pitch presents the beginning of the story, a thousand-year quest 30+ years before she is born.

While Finna crusades for Eleanor of Aquitaine, a time traveler kidnaps her to fight in a feudal war across the galaxy.

The epic struggle will carry Finna through space and time that takes the reader through the action and adventure of the Crusades into our near future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Entanglement Publishing
• Release date: Apr 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201522391

E L Russell

Editorial Reviews About the Authors Enid and Enos Russell hail from Houston and sincw 2010 have published 15+ high-concept science fiction and techno-thriller novels, as well as 10+ Short Stories. Our first question is always, "What could go wrong?" Educated in mathematics and research, I have spent ten years writing White Papers advising corporations on emerging technologies. My latest research has resulted in a series of novels and short stories about the ability to re-program inheritable genetic code, curing disease through self-healing, waging war, and acquiring immortality. Our protagonists, powerful women scientists, medical researchers, are members of the next human species, Homo Evolutis. We publish through Entanglement Publishing. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Book preview

1

A New Day

In the top turret room of Leeth’s Castle on Torg

Scene 1 - A New Day

Finna, time you were up, Mon Petit Fleur. This morning we must check the fields.

She smiled but didn’t open her eyes. Father?

"Up now, stop playing dead, we have much to do. He tickled her neck and underarms and she squealed in delight and they soon left the cottage.

What’s so special about today, Papa? She leapt over a small ant hill that hardly required the effort. She liked to jump.

We must examine the fields to check their readiness for planting. Good timing is everything.

You always say that, Papa, but the days are all the same.

We know because the seasons change and there are many signs. Songbirds return, the night sky changes, the sun grows warmer, and my knees stop hurting. He rubbed her hair.

She pretended not to like but he knew she did. So the birds, stars, and your knees tell you this is a special day? How is it special? She skipped around a tuft of grass and leaped a shallow spot in the ground.

Today we celebrate your birthday. You were born in 1122 and it is the year 1132. How old does that make you?

Ten, Papa. I’m ten. Am I a woman yet? Don’t you think —

Finna closed her eyes again, searching for the dream. This time she wouldn’t let it slip away, even though she knew it was only a memory of her childhood. She sighed. Yes, her very own heavenly childhood.

Tonight, she lay on a soft layer of field grass, resting against the cool rocks of a stone wall very much like the one she and her father had built so many years ago, far away on Earth.

Perhaps tonight would be different. Keeping her eyes closed, Finna slowly lifted her chin until the back of her head encountered the rough resistance of the wall. She opened her mouth to taste the morning air and then exhaled a silent whistle as her hands uncoiled and rolled open at her side exposing her palms to the dark morning sky. Even with closed eyes, she felt the presence of a few remaining stars who have not succumbed to the rising sun.

She slowed her heart as Leeth had taught her and gave control of her body to her mind. She filled her lungs with air, stretched her fingers wide and lifted her hands slightly, allowing them to float on the morning breeze.

Leeth’s calm voice in her head guided, soothed, and provided confidence.

Knowing the power of silence, he paused between phrases.

She heard no other voices. Something pulled at her, speeding her descent. Through slits in her eyes, she saw nothing but blackness and felt only acceleration. Fear joined the fall and gnawed the back of her neck. She closed her eyes, and a memory flashed through her mind. Sudden terror followed as she ripped fistfuls of grass from the fertile earth to anchor herself. Eyes, still shut, she knew she wasn’t back home on Earth as a child, stargazing with her father, but she wanted to be, Oh, she wanted to be. Her father, this former Templar Knight, had returned to raise her. He had wiped her nose and dried her tears. He had taught her honor, truthfulness, and he had taught her to fight like a Templar. In her deepest fear, she had to admit she might never see her father again and scoffed. He had not taught her to be a woman. She sighed a heavy groan as a huge animal might. She missed her father. Damn. She wanted to see him again. Why couldn’t Leeth just do a redemption for Yasmin? He’d saved her at the edge of death many times. Leeth had redeemed Yasmin the same way. He could redeem her father. She was sure of it.

Then something unexpected. Bright light and a voice she’d almost forgotten spoke to her in a faraway soft voice that grew louder with each word. Finna, mon petit fleur. Time you were up. This morning we must check the fields before we can start plowing.

She smiled but didn’t move and opened her eyes slowly. The voice belonged to her father. He looked a decade younger. Aware her body had also changed, she laughed at the thought it now fit into a more youthful and smaller memory of herself. She had initiated gleaning on her own.

Unsure and uncomfortable, she pleaded to the man now separated from her by great interstellar distances.

Her father’s voice, separated in time, cheerfully persisted. Up now, stop playing dead, we have much to do.

Finna knew she wasn’t playing. She didn’t know if she could move and was afraid to try.

With a twinge of panic, she sought yon support and yelled,

Nothing.

Her father began to tickle her younger self.