No Turning Back

by Sharon T. Rose

  Chapter 8

  The days flowed quickly. Gradually, Sylenn grew more accustomed to her new form. She practiced every morning with the available Descendants and spent each afternoon with Dr. Demney, working to unravel the Hunter's secrets. Learning to control Fulenthen's powers was not particularly difficult; learning to control the Hunter was beyond frustrating. Satherlin had banned Mosin from those afternoon sessions after the second day, sending him out with the others to bring back more Sukkers for the Hunter.

  After a few weeks, the Hunter seemed to have realized that It was not in danger. Sylenn still had the best success in drawing information from It after a large feeding, but there were signs of cooperation from the creature. It became easier to communicate with and even began volunteering fragments of information or to do things, such as demonstrate how certain devices operated and additional functions previously lost in history. Eventually, the story of Its origin came out, though they were required to piece the bits together. The Descendants were not as pleased by this revelation as Demney was, for Demney had little concern beyond his research.

  The Hunter, matters turned out, was the reason the Gontozenels had turned to human hosts. The Tesselëans had fashioned It to end the stalemate, and It had begun doing so with great effectiveness. To save themselves, the Gontozenels turned to the humans of Alluvia; the Hunter in Its original form could not draw them out of a host body. Before the Hunter, there had been no need to involve the inhabitants of Alluvia in the extra-terrestrial war.

  The Tesselëans had then created the extraction devices, such as the metal balls the Descendants now carried on bandoleers, and the storage containers. Demney's lab held those containers now, and after learning the original purpose for them, it was glaringly obvious that the entire setup was a massive feeding mechanism for the Hunter. This information did not please the doctor.

  The Gontozenels had fought back, channeling their life energies through their hosts, creating blasts that devastated the Tesselëan ranks. The Tesselëans had just begun to develop body armor when a combined blast from multiple Drones caught the Hunter. Wounded, disoriented, and actually thrown from the planet by the explosion, the creature had floated in deep space until latching onto an asteroid headed in the general direction It wanted to go. After thousands of years, It had returned to finish Its Masters' work. Deprived of Its body but not of Its orders, It used the Gontozenels' own methods to carry out those mandates.

  Nearly two months after she Awakened, Sylenn was able to pass along the last shard of the story, the part least appealing to her "Siblings". The Hunter was a victim.

  What It had been originally, Sylenn could not understand. The creature the Hunter had been born as had lived with Its own kind far away from Alluvia, far away from wherever the Tesselëans and Gontozenels came from. The Tesselëans had captured It and adjusted Its body, mind, and even Its living nature so that It could not stop feeding on the Gontozenels. Its life energy had been somehow reconstructed so that It could not die, whether It had a body or not. The whole of Its existence was now to consume and destroy the Ancients' enemies. It lived-- rather, It existed in perpetual hunger, perpetual hate, and perpetual anguish.

  "I don't feel sorry for It," Sylenn confided to Konyetta one evening as they sat in the darkening garden.

  "Why not, honey?" Konyetta twirled a leaf in her fingers as she glanced at Sylenn.

  "I'm a prisoner, too. I mean, actually, aren't we all?" She picked at the grass, refusing to look at Konyetta, who furrowed her brow.

  "What do you mean?"

  "The beast might be a slave to the Ancients, but It made me its slave. I have to do whatever It wants. If I fight It or disobey, It punishes me any way It can. I don't get to live my own life." Sylenn picked a leaf off a plant and stripped it absently.

  "Sure you do, Sylenn!" Konyetta encouraged her. "Now that you're a Descendant, the Hunter has to obey you. It's not forcing you to do anything anymore."

  "Yes It is," Sylenn replied bitterly. "I still have to feed It. It still wants to hunt. Just eating the stored Sukkers here isn't enough; It has to hunt them, too. It's quiet now, but I can feel It burning in my head, in my chest. I get so anxious, and that's because It wants to leave here and go find them."

  "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry it's so hard for you. But it is easier now, right? Being a Descendant helps, doesn't it?" Konyetta wished that she could lay a comforting hand on the younger woman's shoulders, but Sylenn did not encourage physical contact, however safe it now was.

  "Not really," Sylenn said quietly, resting her head on her knees. "I just went from one prison to another. Descendants are as much slaves to the Ancients as the beast is."

  Konyetta giggled sympathetically. "Oh, I know what you mean! It just takes some getting used to, but it's not anything as bad as slavery. Yes, we have the desire built into us to save our people, and it does tend to ... well, interrupt the life we'd thought we'd have, but that life wasn't right for us anyway. We all are born with the desire to save Alluvia and Humanity. Anything else that we were doing before we Awakened was a poor attempt compared to what we can do now! But I know what you mean when you say it feels like you're being forced to make the change.

  "Now me, I didn't care about being Awakened one way or the other, really. I enjoyed my life before, but I'd always felt like I was supposed to do more than I could. I just didn't know how! I knew I had to try, so as soon as I turned sixteen (that's the age limit here on the Island), I marched right up to the Temple and found Kyysha and grabbed hold of her! It was so wonderful to finally know that I could help save Alluvia as a Descendant!

  "But you should have seen Tad! He was a devout Pontifist and an active Contemptor (he's still a Pontifist). We Awakened about the same time, even though he's a lot older than me. We both were in the right place at the right time, and our blood showed through. But Tad, he was so miserable that we thought he was going to do himself some harm before he adjusted to it all. He's fine now, but you'll see him brood about it. Poor thing.

  "And poor Kylle! He moped for months because his fiancée refused to marry him just because he'd Awakened. He never knew she felt like that; it simply hadn't come up before. But when it came down to it, she was a Contemptor at heart. And she didn't love him enough to overcome it. It was so sad. They'd been sweethearts for years and years, and she just left him standing there. He might not look it, but Kylle is very sweet and gentle. It's taken him just years to get over her. But I think he's finally ready to love again!" Konyetta giggled softly. "And don't you ever tell, but I just know that he's been looking at your Twanne! They'd be perfect, don't you think?"

  Sylenn grunted softly, wondering how much longer the other woman, barely a year older, was going to natter on like a convent school-girl. Apparently it was going to be a while.

  "Some of us really liked being Awakened, though; it was a vast improvement for them. Hae, you know, was living on the streets of Atheves in Vanautue. This was the best thing that had ever happened to her. She got safety, food, and a purpose. And real friends who wouldn't try to kill her, like those awful street-folk she had to live with before.

  "Dainon Mutemuthen was the only person who'd ever been nice to her, so when things got really bad, she naturally just ran to the safe-house he'd told her about. She had to wait three days, you know, but he finally showed up and that was that! Well, they didn't marry, if that's what you're wondering; Hong was really too old for her. But Hae found herself a real prince who gave up everything to be with her! It was so romantic!

  "And Kyysha, she was just the shyest thing before she bumped into Hae (and that's a story! I'll tell you later). She and her family were refugees from Maottey; they don't know if any of their relatives there are still alive. They lived in Firez, in Vanautue, and there weren't any other Maotteyans around, so it was really very lonely for them! And poor Kyysha, she wanted to get an education, but she just couldn't face the stern teachers, so she took classes by correspondence. She must have done well, because her teacher p
roposed to her! And they hadn't even met in person!" Konyetta sighed, eyes turned to the lingering sunset outside the Temple. After a moment, she continued.

  "Misselon Faverothen, who lived about two hundred seventy-five years back, was an invalid (and my many-times grandfather!). He'd been injured as a young boy and couldn't get out of bed. Awakening meant he got to walk for the first time in years, and suiting was the only time he ever got out of bed. He had to be very careful when unsuiting, as you can imagine. You should go to the archives and read up on our history; it's really very interesting! All the Doctors loved him because he would stay suited for ever so long, and they could take just all kinds of measurements from him.

  "But I do feel so sorry for Quiana; she's from Qina, you know, and they don't let their women do anything but have babies and serve their husbands. Really, and in this modern day and age! Quiana's family didn't quite disown her for Awakening (like poor Tad's did), but they have been just hateful to her! And her husband was forced to come with her, and he hates it here. He's so jealous of Satherlin because Quiana obeys him, but anyone can see that she hasn't forgotten that Risheri is her husband! She does everything for him, even though she's as busy as the rest of us, tracking down Sukkers and all.

  "Oh, and her poor daughters; they want to marry men from Qina, but no-one will marry them because of their mother! Quiana would just love to have grand-babies, but that just doesn't seem like it's ever going to happen. But even with all that, she's accepted being a Descendant and I just know that she enjoys being able to help!

  "And even Tad found that he liked it, once he got used to it. He's the kind of man who needs a driving purpose in life. In Berziny, his purpose was serving the Pontifist church and hating the Descendants as unnatural beings spawned by evil daemons. Once he realized that we aren't evil, he found a purpose in saving Alluvia and taking care of all those small details that crop up whenever you have a bunch of people to take care of. He's so good with organizing and making sure that everyone is where they're supposed to be and has everything they need. Why, even Momma Merle listens to him! He'd make a good leader when Satherlin steps down." Konyetta sighed and twiddled the grass between her feet.

  "Is Satherlin--" Sylenn began, then stopped, glancing down.

  "Hmm? Oh, no, he's fine! He won't be stepping down anytime soon, God willing! And really, Lyshunda is his pick to be our leader next, and she's just wonderful. I was just telling you about Tad, that's all. But we do all worry about Satherlin's health. Most dwarves don't live that long, you now, and they always have pain from their joints. Satherlin's only a little old, but he is getting up there. We hope he'll be with us for many years yet, but, well ... you never know. His dwarfishness could weaken him, or he could be killed in battle. It does happen." she glanced quickly at Sylenn, who studied the fresh leaf she'd picked. A few birds chattered sleepily in the evening gloom.

  "Do Descendants die often in battle?" Sylenn asked after a while.

  "Well, no, not often." Konyetta rubbed her hands together. "But it's not uncommon for someone to be killed once every ... oh, ten years or so. Not usually more often than that, though there was one time when three Descendants died within a month of each other. But that was a long time ago, maybe a thousand years? Once, we went nearly two hundred years without a battle-death. Which is good, since we don't get many new Descendants. Mosin was the last one before you, and that was two years ago. If only the Ancients had left us some way to find the others! It's just so frustrating knowing that there simply must be other unAwakened Descendants out there, who are born and live and die without ever knowing it!"

  "It could find them," Sylenn murmured.

  "What?" Konyetta sat up straight. "You're saying the Hunter could find other Descendants?"

  "Yes," Sylenn sighed. "It knew that all of you were Descendants, and It knows what the Sukkers smell like. I remember now, sometimes It would shy away from someone on the street for no reason. Kind of felt like it did when I walked into the common room and you were all there. Like ... a little bit of fear, if It were discovered, or something. Makes sense, if It knew that you're Its masters."

  "But-- that's wonderful!" Konyetta rocked up onto her knees and grabbed Sylenn in a hug. "If we can detect unAwakened Descendants, then we'll have more people to fight the Sukkers! We can drive them back, dig up their hiding places! Oh, Sylenn, this just is wonderful!"

  "What's wonderful?" Satherlin's shadow limped toward them across the neat grass. Mosin followed close behind him, looking anxiously at his sister.

  "Sylenn says that the Hunter can identify unAwakened Descendants!" Konyetta cried happily.

  "That is wonderful!" Satherlin said, face lighting up.

  "Really, Silly?" Mosin exclaimed, dropping down next to her. "That's great! You're such a big help!" Sylenn tolerated the one-armed hug.