The First

by A. Claire Everward

  “You were here for a short time before you left again, and this was enough. Remi gave surveillance footage that he got from Rolly to our tailors, who spent the past day preparing as good a fit as they could without actually having you present.”

  Kyle put a jacket on. “That's some fit,” he said with appreciation.

  “We have good tailors. You should find in there whatever you might need, and it will all be supplemented in the next days. We have our own stores here, managed by our tailors, and they are regularly stocked with the best brands available. And if there's anything else you want, we could get it, or fly you anywhere you want to buy it.”

  “I can't leave, not now.”

  “No, of course not. When you can. For now, you'll be surprised what you'll find right here at Aeterna.”

  Kyle continued to look through the closet, which did seem to have just about anything he could think of. “That's incredible. You keep all these things here?”

  Ahir smiled, pleased. “These and so much more. Aeterna is much bigger than you think, there is a whole lot more to it than just this house. There are dozens of people here at any one time, and many have families living on Aeterna's grounds. Firsts come here throughout the year, and the Council convenes in the house itself at least once a year. So we have to be prepared.”

  Kyle continued to walk through the bedroom, then back to the main space, the lights automatically dimming in the room behind him. He wasn't surprised, he had already noticed the telltale signs of voice- and touch-activated controls, which was as much a part of the great house as its antiquity.

  He walked to the marble fireplace, to photos sitting on the mantel that had caught his eyes earlier. He reached out to touch them. His parents, his grandparents, himself as a baby, photos in which he aged until he was a toddler, the age he was taken. Photos he never had, his father had always said photos of him at an early age were lost. The man who had posed as his father, that is.

  The words came out before he meant them to. “You really were looking for me.”

  “Yes.” Ahir watched him. He had often wondered what the boy, the man would be like when he was found. Even if the circumstances he grew up in were harsh, he would have the best starting point one could hope for, in his physique, his genetics, the personality he would inherit. And here, the man before him had strength written into his every move, a constant alertness and intelligence in his eyes. But he also had something else about him, a thoughtfulness that pained Ahir. This was a born Protector brought up to be a trained killer. Raised to go against his instincts, the separation from his people, his family, the Light, used against him all too cleverly.

  Ahir would have to deal with this, help his grandson come to terms with what had been done to him, what he would have to live with. But not now, not yet. There was time.

  He approached Kyle. “There is much you need to know, but it can wait. You should rest, you've had a long day.”

  Kyle shook his head, instantly becoming what he was. “There will be no rest. Not until I stop whoever is after Aelia.”

  “Yes, Rolly has been updating me.” Ahir wasn't surprised at his grandson’s reaction. “You believe Jennison did not call Semner off after you confronted him?”

  Kyle raised a brow.

  “Before everything, I am what you are. A Protector. And since the beginning I have in fact acted as the Protector for Aelia's stand-in, the Keeper, and for all the Firsts—the heads of defense and security of Aeterna and of all regions answer to me.”

  For Kyle this only meant more questions.

  For the first time, Ahir laughed. “I will have Remi get us dinner, and we will talk. Come down to the main dining room when you are ready.”

  Kyle watched him as he left. His grandfather. He couldn't wrap his mind around it.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kyle took a hot shower that helped relieve some of the tension in his shoulders and chose some clothes out of his new closet, musing at their fit. Someone definitely did their job. He then checked in with Rolly and returned to the main part of the Kennard wing, to Ahir's apartment, eager to get the answers his only living family member had for him.

  Coming back to the main room he walked over to where two enlarged framed photos hanging on a wall caught his attention. One showed a younger Ahir, one arm around a woman and the other around a black-haired, blue-eyed teenage boy who looked very much like Kyle. His father, he mused. The other showed the same boy, older. A man. He was standing beside his wife, both smiling widely at the small boy they were holding. The boy, him, was at the age he had first seen himself in the earliest photos he had, photos the man he had thought was his father must have taken immediately after receiving him, or perhaps photos the organization had taken, carefully creating the background they had designated for him from the very beginning. He took the photo off the wall and held it closer, hesitantly touching his parents' faces.

  “This is one of the photos I have in . . .” he indicated the direction of his rooms, never taking his eyes off the photo.

  “It's the last one I have of all of you together. It was found in the car, wrapped as a present for your grandmother and me.” Ahir approached and stood beside him, looking at the photo with him.

  “You were looking for me,” Kyle repeated his earlier words, his eyes still on the photo.

  “Never stopped,” Ahir said. “Luckily both your identity and my role alongside the Keeper have afforded me the power to go anywhere and use all the resources we have. Throughout the years I've used our centers worldwide to search for you. But clearly you were not among our people, and finding you among the humans would be near impossible, especially if someone was intentionally hiding you. Assuming they kept you alive, that is.” The thought, bringing back old fears, clearly pained him. “I soon realized that the only way I could find you was if now, of all centuries, after being gone for so long, the Light would reappear. Because then you would find each other. This always was and always will be. And when we would find Her, I would find you. So you see, Her being here, Her very return, is an old man's wish come true in more ways than one. And if for no other reason, for that She will forever have my thanks.”

  Kyle hung the photo back in place and turned to Ahir, his brow furrowed. “There it is again. Aelia, the way people here—the way you—talk about her. And what was it, Protector? Keeper? Light? Everyone here keeps saying these words as if it’s natural and expects me to understand and I have no idea what they're all talking about. And come to think of it, what on earth are Firsts?”

  Ahir considered this. There was so much he wanted to tell his grandson about himself, about his parents. Memories Ahir had waited to pass on to him for so long. But there were other things he needed to know first. Everything he knew, every context he had, had to do with the humans he had thought he was one of. It was time to change that. And perhaps more than anything, he needed to know why him. Why he was the one who was taken, why his parents were killed.

  Why meeting Aelia changed him, changed his life forever.

  Ahir led his grandson to the dining room, where, as they sat down at the large table, a cheerful Remi began serving them dinner. Ahir glanced at him. “Remi has been with me for many years now. He has seen me come home tired and discouraged more than once.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Remi said. “It is good to see you smiling, Sir.” He walked away with a tray, and Kyle could swear he heard him hum.

  “Always loyal and endlessly patient,” Ahir noted.

  While they ate, Ahir finally began giving Kyle the answers he needed. He explained to him about the Firsts, their beginning, their life, and Kyle listened with growing astonishment. Ahir then told him about the appearance of the Light, how She became the very center of their people, the foundation that kept them strong throughout their existence, gave them hope and purpose. He told him about the Protector and his special connection to Her, how they walked side by side throughout Her existence, how since the last woman with the Light within her passed, the Pr
otectors have never stopped waiting for Her return.

  He explained that Protectors were born over the years regardless of the presence of the Light, but never the other way around, for the Light always needed a Protector. Nor was a Protector born every generation—Kyle's father wasn't one. He told him how, after a time that the Light was gone, the Firsts decided to symbolize Her and all that She stood for through the role of the Keeper, and how the Protector had since remained by the Keeper's side. And how they all waited, Protectors, Keepers, Firsts, for the day the Light would return to Her people.

  “See, that's what I don't get in all this,” Kyle said. “You're talking about a Light within a mortal woman. The fact that she can die—why not let them, the women born with the Light, or actually that first woman, the first Light, live forever? Why have them be born, die, risk the time there is no one like them around, risk them not being born again?”

  “It is not our choice, any more than it was our choice for the Light to come to us in the first place. We have no control over who She is who is born with the Light, or when, or how long She is among us.” Ahir paused. “I do however have to say that I believe this is how it should be. She who has the Light within Her lives the life span of a mortal. She has the feelings of a mortal, and quite acutely at that, heightened sensitivity you could say. She can love, be sad. Dream. Feel pain. Hence, She is able to empathize with those around Her, their needs, their hardships, their losses. Their pain. She is compassionate and feels the need to help them, save them, because She is like them in so many ways.”

  “I don't know. I would have made her immortal, invulnerable.”

  “Would you? Think about it. Not the first one hundred years. Two. Five hundred. One thousand years later. Everyone keeps dying around you and you live. Everyone you are close to dies. You make friends, you love, they die and you live on. How long before you stop letting anyone get close to you? How long before you are no longer able to understand the mortal lives, mortal emotions of those around you? How long before you begin to wonder if you are superior to them, before you think you know better than they do because you have lived longer? Before you begin to make decisions for them and try to control their fate simply because you think you have the right to do so—all the more so with the power you have within you? No, it would have to be quite a personality to survive that, I don't mean physical survival but mental, emotional survival. I am not sure any living being would or should be capable of achieving that.”

  “So she is mortal, and vulnerable. Anyone can hurt her.”

  “That's why She was given the Protector to stand for Her. We did that.”

  “I thought you said the Protectors are also simply born and have certain capabilities. How could you do that, make them?”

  “And yet unlike Her, the Protector did in fact begin as our creation. You see, when we realized what we had been given, there was awe, as you can imagine. Already with the first Light we felt what She would bring us, what She could make of this world. And we were determined to keep Her safe. So we resolved to create shields, if you will. Men and women who would protect Her.”

  “So every time She appeared you chose protectors?”

  “Yes, based on genetics and capabilities. The best of a selection of would-be warriors. Defensive weapons, if you wish to use a modern day term.”

  “So how . . . ?”

  “There was someone different,” Ahir said. “This is what we know. An extraordinary protector. Strong, capable. Loyal. The Light was in trouble, our history tells us. She fell into the hands of humans, and he saved Her where no one could, but he himself was killed. This was after generations of protectors, chosen ones. All brave, all quite remarkable—we got better at their selection. But this one, he was also different in another way. They were close, the Light and he, good friends, inseparable since childhood. And when he died, the Light was inconsolable at his loss.

  “That night a child was born, his first-born son. His wife gave birth early because of her grief, and the child had no chance of surviving. And as the mother and child lay there, the Light came to them, and She vowed that as this protector had been loyal, and had selflessly given his life for Her, his sacrifice would not go unrewarded. She decreed that his son would live, and would be the first in a new ancestral line, the line of the Protectors. And that as they would protect the Light, She would protect them.”

  He fell silent. “That Light died soon after, inexplicably, younger than ever, and just a few years later another girl was born, a new Light. As for the boy, he grew into a formidable man, a Protector, Her Protector, the likes of which had never been seen before. And since then there has only been one Protector, always one, with a unique connection to Her. And no Protector has been killed—in action, you could say—since then, as long as his Light was alive.” He paused. “That is what we know about the creation of our line and how the connection between the Protector and the Light came to be, and we understand that that is where our enhanced capabilities came from, that the Light had given us these to protect us.”

  “So the Protector and the Light are destined to find each other,” Kyle said after contemplating what he heard.

  “Yes.”

  “And the Protector has a connection to the Light, they can literally feel each other's presence.”

  Ahir confirmed again.

  “But you are a Protector, aren't you? How come you didn't find her? How come you didn't find Aelia?”

  “For one thing, the Light did not manifest in Her until recently, until She actually made contact with the Firsts, with me, in Rome. We are not sure why, all we can surmise is that it is because of the circumstances She grew up in.”

  “Jennison said they made sure.” Kyle thought back. “‘We placed her as an unwanted baby in a fully human environment, and not a very nice one at that’, that's what he said.”

  “Yes. Now that we know Her identity we were able to find out more about Her. I'm afraid Jennison's words were an understatement.” Ahir closed his eyes. “What kind of people do that to a child?”

  “She's got to be one hell of a woman to become what she has.”

  “Yes, She is. She certainly is. It seems that while they have done all they could to quench everything that She could be, they have failed. She is here, and so are you.” Ahir sipped some water and focused back on what was good and right, on the future that would once again be. “And you are Her Protector. Although I am of the line, I am not Her Protector. The Protector of the Light is always born just a few years before Her, so that they can grow up into the life they are destined for together. You are linked with Aelia, not I. I still feel Her presence more strongly than the others, which is how I recognized Her in Rome, but not as strongly as you do. It was not my destiny to find Her.”

  Ahir hesitated and then decided to say it. “Had you been raised among us, had you grown up from the start as a Protector and not had your very essence so carefully manipulated, you could have found Her a long time ago. You would have known where to go.” He raised his head to meet Kyle's eyes, watched his words sink in, saw a flash of anger, sadness, and finally realization.

  “So that’s what it was. When I first saw her it felt as if—”

  “As if you knew Her, although you two have never met before.”

  “Yes. And whenever I made an attempt to . . . complete my mission, I just couldn't. Something made it impossible, something I couldn’t explain. And even before that, I always felt something was missing. Incomplete.” A lot made sense now, and the pieces of the puzzle finally arranged themselves in his mind in the exact places they belonged in from the start, before someone had deliberately taken his life all those years ago and derailed it to serve their own interests.

  Kyle—he still thought of himself as Kyle, the only name he'd ever known—was quiet, mindlessly pushing food around on his plate, thinking. “Jennison told me I was taken by them, by the organization,” he finally said. “He's my godfather. Or I thought he was. I pushed him to talk, but I
don't know how much of what he told me I can trust. He said I was taken by them when I was a small child, to be raised as a human. To be raised as Aelia's enemy, her killer.” Kyle found the words difficult.

  “That explains a lot. They must have seen something that made them think that She was back, and that identified you as belonging to the Protector line.”

  “He said someone saw me, I was standing near a baby, a girl, and I refused to leave her side.”

  Ahir chuckled mirthlessly. “So, they really did infiltrate us back then. We thought as much. We have learned our lesson.” He looked at Kyle thoughtfully. “Interesting though. If what he said was true, then that means you and Aelia have met before.”

  Kyle shook his head in frustration. “I don't remember. All I ever had were fleeting memories, no more than images really. I never told anyone, I don't know why. But there was never enough to make me think . . . I never had any reason to think I wasn't where I belonged, or that they didn't want what was best for me. I was one of them, and I believed them, I believed what they told me. What they taught me.” He looked at Ahir and said evenly, “All my life I knew that there was someone out there, that one day I would be called on to kill her, no questions asked.”

  “You were never told who She was. Or about us.”

  “Nothing about the Firsts, or about the fact that there was another species living here beside us . . . beside humans,” he corrected himself. “They had a whole other set of reasons they used. Ultimately what it all came down to was that there was a woman out there who was uniquely positioned to bring about a combination of circumstances that would lead to the destruction of humanity. And that I had been chosen to deal with her.” He shook his head. “Over the years I’ve seen so much that has taught me there are some cruel, ruthless people out there who would stop at nothing to get their way. For me, she was one of them. I never asked, never doubted.”