Antipodal Anchors

Case Study - Chuck (Wellington, New Zealand) and Martina (Alaejos, Spain)

Chuck and Martina were both born on the Equinox, Chuck in the light of day and Martina in the dark of night. They are thirty-six years old and happy with their lives.

Chuck lives in the suburbs with his wife and two young children. He rises early every morning to run or bike outside. He has a job that he enjoys and he coaches a youth rugby union team. His wife can’t understand why he will never stay out late at parties, but she’s always grateful that he will get up early with the kids.

Martina is happiest during the night. She struggled in school, as it was always difficult for her to focus during the daytime. She is a qualified mortician, but there is little call for her skills in a small town. Martina also conducts restoration and maintenance work on the art and facades inside the town’s two historically significant churches. This work is best conducted at night, when the churches have no visitors. She is a very solitary and quiet person, and appreciates work that allows her to live on her own schedule.

Chuck and Martina have never traveled beyond the borders of their respective home countries. They are unable to articulate a reason for this, they are simply happiest when at home and have no desire to visit elsewhere.

Chuck’s wife, however, has spent her life dreaming of vacations abroad. Chuck encourages her to travel with her friends or sister, always laughing that he is a home-body and is happy to watch the kids. She loves him and is convinced that a trip away together is what they both need to celebrate their ten-year wedding anniversary. Try as he might, Chuck cannot materialize any excuses not to travel, and he agrees to the holiday. Admittedly, he does not understand his own reluctance, and puts it off to first-time travel anxiety.

The date of the vacation draws nearer, Chuck is becoming more and more uncomfortable. He is losing sleep and is distracted at work. Martina can’t sleep, either. She feels a growing sense of dread.

Chuck’s wife decides on a holiday in the beautiful Azores in Portugal. She asks him repeatedly to pack, but all he can do is stare at the empty suitcase. In frustration, she packs it for him. The date draws closer, Chuck cannot shake his nerves and Martina is sleeping less and less.

The day of the flight arrives. Chuck’s wife decides to help him out by sneaking some ambien into his drink at the airport. He manages to stumble onto the plane and then falls asleep. Martina has become visibly agitated and is rambling incoherently.

The plane lands, Chuck appears to be awake, but is fully catatonic. His wife yells for help. Martina is now overcome with energy and strength, she escapes the people who were trying to restrain her and rushes to her favourite church. She scales the building, reaches the highest point and raises her arms. She screams, the night sky lights up. Spent, she falls to the ground. Chuck’s heart stops.

It doesn’t take long to observe that something has altered the world’s atmosphere. There is a slight haze, barely perceptible to the naked eye. By limiting sunlight, plant-life begins to whither and die, reducing oxygen levels world-wide. The darkness slowly chokes out life.

In Class

“Okay class,” I start, looking at the rows of students, “I assume that everyone has had time to read the case study? Let’s begin. What are your first impressions? What is significant about these people?”

“They’re anchors, right?” says a raven-haired girl in the back row. I nod and she continues. “We’re supposed to look after the antipodal anchors, they help preserve the balance.”

“Exactly. That’s a great start,” I reply. Antipodal anchors are the focus of today’s class. There are typically a dozen or so antipodal anchors for each world; people that are born on the Equinox on exact opposite sides of the planet. Their presence maintains the balance of psychic energy that flows through all living things. They are opposites, typically associated with light and dark, but not to be confused with good and evil. Think of it this way, summer can seem to be good until a drought destroys all crops.

“What went wrong with Chuck and Martina?” I quickly consult my class-list, I’ll get the names down eventually. “Neptunis?” I ask one of the water sensitives, “Any ideas?”

Neptunis looks down at his notes, then up at me before answering. “They can’t be in the same place at the same time. Antipodes are supposed to stay where they’re anchored.” I encourage him to continue, he turns a darker shade of blue. “I’m not sure what happened to them when they got closer together, I thought that they would be more like a negative and positive and be attracted together, but it seems like Martina got more overloaded and Chuck was sucked dry.”

“You’re absolutely on the right track,” I reply. “It’s a common misconception that the anchors are kept so far apart because they are actually attracted to each other, like opposite ends of a magnet. They’re kept apart because one of them is typically stronger, and if they come together, one anchor will convert the other’s energy from dark to light, or vice versa in this instance. Martina absorbed Chuck’s light energy and converted it into darkness. Then she released it on the world, causing catastrophe.”

“And the anchors died,” a warm voice adds quietly. “Yes, and the anchors died. They don’t typically handle a large excess of power very well, you’re right, Danua.” This is proving to be an interesting class, the students don’t always think about the lives of their anchors, I hope that this is a good sign. “What can be done to fix the imbalance?” I ask the group.

“You could always move a dark anchor into light territory. Then, when the dark energy is destroyed, the excess light energy will balance everything out,” a student answers smugly, his eyes sparking. My previous optimism is tested, as this is exactly the attitude that we are trying to disavow. “You could try something like that, Rastef,” I start slowly, “but you can’t predict the form an energy release will take. It might burn off the darkness, or it could manifest in the form of forest fires or nuclear radiation. You also would be down two more anchors, causing more strain on the remainder.” I don’t think that I’ve convinced Rastef of anything today, he will be one that we need to watch carefully. He is unarguably brilliant, but an affinity for light sometimes makes it difficult to see the benefits of balance. “Any other ideas?” I ask.

“What about using the other anchors in a different way?” asks the raven-haired girl, I check the chart and see her name is Hectatia. She shakes her feathers and adds, “Would it be possible to, I don’t know, maybe redistribute the balance somehow? Like, amping up all the light anchors a little until the darkness is evened out, and then bringing it back down again.”

Some of the students do have a natural talent for taking care of worlds. The whole intent behind this experimental School for Celestial Deities is to help ensure that we aren’t just releasing ones like Rastef onto unsuspecting dimensions. Students like Hectatia give me hope that they can possibly learn from each other and in class, instead of the haphazard “learning on-the-job” of my generation. That did not work out so well for far too many worlds.

“Yes, Hectatia,” I answer, “that should work, and is one of the reasons why you need to maintain multiple sets of anchors. Things like this will happen. Now let’s focus on prevention. There were several cues in the case study, what could have been done to stop this from happening?”

“We should stop them from travelling. Make it so the plane can’t take off, like a storm or something,” offers a student from the front row.

“That would be a short-term solution, if you were focused on that anchor at specifically the right time. Remember, there are multiple components of a world that need your attention. Did you notice anything that would have helped you tune in to these anchors?” I am trying to redirect them, the answer is there, just some of them aren’t going to like it.

Another girl with violet hair puts her hand up. “The anchors were having bad dreams and weren’t sleeping. If I checked on them, I’d notice that they were deteriorating. Good anchors are happy, bad anchors look broken,” she answers confidently.

“That’s it, Aria, good anchors are happy,” I emphasize to the class, “If your anchors are unhappy, it can cause smaller ripples in psychic energy and should alert you to a potential problem. These anchors were anxious and sleepless, not exactly the contented individuals they started out to be. When you notice that, you can watch them to learn what the issue is. The big question - was the issue the fact that Chuck was traveling?” I watch to see if they understand where this is going. I see a few looks of comprehension, Danua in particular seems to understand but is shifting uncomfortably in her seat, avoiding my eyes. “Danua, what are your thoughts?”

Danua hesitates before answering. “Well, no. Chuck traveling isn’t the real issue. He didn’t want to travel. The only reason he was going along with this whole thing was because his wife really, really wanted him to, and he felt like he couldn’t say no to her. It wasn’t because she was controlling or demanding, they both just love each other and are trying to make each other happy. But….the real issue is Chuck’s wife,” Danua finishes, dejectedly.

The bell rings, signalling the end of class. “There you have it, everyone. Danua’s got it right, Chuck’s wife was the heart of the issue, even if she wasn’t intentionally causing harm,” amidst the shuffling of chairs and paper, I raise my voice to continue, “There are three additional case studies at the end of Chapter Two in the text, Managing Psychic Energy 101. Review them and complete the questions for tomorrow. Oh, and as for Chuck and Martina?”

“When in doubt, smite the spouse.”

Hi! This was a wholly random short story inspired by the concept of antipodes, if you enjoyed it, please consider giving it a ❤️ and checking out another of my fiction pieces (linked below).

If you are interested in finding the antipode to where you live, check out the antipodes map!

Thank you!

-Christina