by TylerRose.
“You are all pushing her too hard. You will stop,” she commanded, eyes sharp as ever despite her great age.
“I know they have, Aunt Adelaide. I’ve done my best not to, just to be present for her and not judge or be adversarial. She’s very hostile. It would be easier if you would reveal yourself to her. She would trust you. You know that.”
“No. I don’t want to be known until she figures things out for herself. So I say and so it shall be. She has to figure most of this out for herself and not have the different factions pushing and pulling trying to make her see only what they want her to know. She needs to learn the whole truth and only through her own introspection and investigation will she do so.”
“I agree but what else can I do?” Julian asked, sitting beside her. “My father is already issuing orders and threatening me if I don’t do what he wants.”
“Is that why you let her come back to Earth without so much as teaching her how to deal with the psionic noise?” she accused.
“He wouldn’t let me help her with anything. That’s why she came to you. For the quiet of the open spaces.”
She gave a slow hiss of a sigh that he knew meant she was not pleased. With as much control as she had in masking her presence, he could still feel the heat of her displeasure.
“It would be best not to allow this to again turn into open warfare between the two largest factions,” she said. “I’ll tell you the same thing I’ve told Hades and Mik’Hail. Practice your two most important faces. The one others see and the one that is real. Make sure Earnol sees what you want him to see and that he never sees the work you actually do. I’ve made it so none of them can bother her inside any church of the Immaculate. The incantation is holding but you keep bothering her there yourself. You will stop that.”
“Yes, Ma’am. It was the most neutral ground where I could see her not in conflict. It was the only place she wasn’t automatically on the defensive.”
“I understand, but it is her sanctuary for a reason. Allow it to be. Her energy seems not quite right to me after this first Widening,” Adelaide changed the subject slightly. “It’s out of synch with her surroundings. Might she not truly belong to this parallel? Might her real pentagon be waiting for her in another parallel and this one is but her nursery? Much the same men but in another timeline and she has to find them and get to them? When she’s matured enough that she can feel the correct pulse of energy?”
“It’s possible. I had not considered it.”
“No, you wouldn’t. That’s why I bring it up. You are locked into your place in space and time. The Immaculate has no such restrictions. She has merely to find the key that opens that particular doorway for her. At some point, she may hop from one line to the next to the next without knowing that’s what she’s doing.”
“There have been no Immaculates since The Mother, so there are no records to research. I can visit Sanctuary now and then when I am requested, but it is not open to me for learning.”
“Each Immaculate creates one Immaculate offspring. Jiogaard was exceedingly lucky to retrieve the energy from Gethis in time to save it or we would not be discussing any of this. If it is true that her future lies in another parallel, are you willing to follow her there? To continue to work for her better good, against the machinations of those who would prefer her dead? Are you prepared to be your father’s secret enemy and an instrument of his downfall and demise?”
“I am, yes. I’ll follow her to the ends of the universe if I have to in order to see her to fruition,” Julian vowed. “I swear it.”
Adelaide placed a cupped hand on the side of his head and spoke words he heard in his soul rather than with his ears, in the ancient tongue of Sistair. A powerful enchantment that bonded him to Tyler as though they were holding hands in perpetuity. A living energy binding them on a mission he knew about but she did not. Stronger than that of Doyen and Adjutant. Their energies were fused, for lack of better term. Wherever she went, whenever she went, he would be able to find her.
“You are her silent partner now, the Watcher. One thing,” she said when she’d finished. “She must never go to see The Mother. Jiogaard knows this. The others must know also, whatever parallel she ends up in.”
Julian only nodded, understanding the dangers of bringing an emerging Eminent Doyen with the potential to be an Immaculate into direct contact with her own creator. One could absorb the other. In either direction, it could be catastrophic for the entire galaxy called Milky Way.
“Please change your mind about letting her know who you are, Aunt Adelaide.”
“No. That is final. I won’t be calling for you again.”
She got up to get herself an ice cream cone, leaving him there. Ancient woman seeking one of Earth’s simplest pleasures. More ancient than any of them, she was sister of Kronos, who was father to Zeus and Hades and grandfather of Earnol. That made Adelaide Julian’s great aunt by blood.
He saw in her halting steps that she was in decline. She’d always carried a walking stick, but began using it to lean on only in the last fifty years. The universe would suffer a great loss when the wisest woman in it finally passed.
With a sigh of resignation, he teleported back to the station and was at once ordered by his father to convince Tyler to move to the station as soon as he could. Before the American holiday Thanksgiving if at all possible.
Julian waited, let her have her visit with Adelaide and return to Los Angeles. Her distress was palpable to him. Much more than before, and he chalked that up to Adelaide’s new enchantment. He could feel her but she could not feel him in the same way. She flew around the world a couple times, spending a day in some European or Asian country and he couldn’t get near her.
“Why is it taking so long?” Earnol demanded to know over supper in his apartment three weeks after issuing the order.
“Because she’s a very busy young woman,” Julian replied.
“Busy doing what? She’s an eighteen year old child.”
“Hardly, father. She’s an eighteen year old young emerging Doyen who knows her own mind. Being pushy and intrusive gets the opposite result of what you want. I must be patient with her. Meet her on her terms.”
“I’m done being patient. Tomorrow you will take her to the Tower of London,” Earnol told him.
“Why there?”
“Neutral ground. Very public. We can talk and no one will pay us any attention.”
He glanced to the panel of clocks on the wall.
“Bring her at three in the afternoon London time. That’s six hours from now.”
“Three in the afternoon…that’s seven in the morning her time. She won’t come.”
“Make her. Dismissed.”
Clenching his jaw, Julian left the room and scowled his way up to the arboretum. He walked the paths, trying to expel his anger. She would sense it immediately and he’d get nowhere.
“Julian, something troubles you today?”
He looked up to see the Senior Congressman from Voran III. A feline-humanoid race of warriors in a cohesive society that stretched back more than three thousand years, Shestna was also First Prince of the royal family.
“My father has ordered me to a task I find distasteful.”
A chuckle that could have been a roar at a louder volume. “I am familiar with that particular situation, my father being Emperor. Should I not ask the task?”
“I have to get a new telepath off Earth and she won’t want to come. If she did, she’d be here already. I think he’s going to try to trick her into it somehow.”
“Why? Is she important?”
“She is extremely important in the way that Fate of Gethis thought she was important,” Julian said very quietly. “But this is the real deal.”
That got the Prince-Congressman’s attention.
“She is a true goddess? Sistarian born?”
“She will be a goddess eventually. She’s only eighteen and just had her first Widening. She is so smart,” he shook his head.
“Extremely perceptive, with eyes that will drill through you.”
“You are her Adjutant?”
“You know I’m not supposed to discuss that.”
“Which means you are. Your father is making some sort of backhanded threats if you don’t do what he wants?”
“Yes.”
“Very well. Bring her aboard and introduce me to her as quickly as you can casually manage. I will do my best to help her acclimate. I can be the silent protection you know she will need.”
“You’d do that? You don’t even know her.”
“I don’t need to know her, my friend. If she is to become a world-creating goddess like Isis was and Fate thought herself to be, she will already have many enemies on many sides, each with their own agenda. Each is awaiting their openings to strike her down or take her captive. I can already guess who one or two might be. It would please me immensely to thwart them every opportunity I get; and would please me even more if she can manage to take your father out of his position. But. One thing at a time, yes?”
Julian only smiled.
“What should I know most about her?” Shestna asked.
“Don’t try to be a lover. Lovers always want something from her. I think she’s had quite enough of that, so don’t pursue her. Be her friend. Be there when she needs help and ask nothing of her in return.”
“I will,” Shestna nodded and headed for the nearest exit.
Julian breathed easier knowing he had an ally. Shestna’s ire for Earnol’s continued monopoly of the Administrator’s post was well-known. He openly opposed Earnol in Congress on many issues and had put in his bid for the empty seat on the Council. Thanks to Voranian laws and customs, he was also a vicious fighter when he wanted to be. He was a perfect choice for a silent protector.
Alone in his room, Julian focused on her location and found her getting off a plane at LAX. Teleporting to an empty stall of a men’s room, he gave himself a minute to clear his head again. She would sense internal conflict and be suspicious.
He waited outside customs for her and found her quite wide awake.
"I did not expect to see you here,” she said.
"I thought I would see how you are doing. I’ve not heard from you in a couple weeks. How have you been?"
"Busy."
"Where are you coming back from?"
"Japan. I have a very good client there."
"Let's go have breakfast. Did you sleep on the plane?"
"That hardly matters.”
"Good. There's someone who wants to meet you. We'll eat and go see him in England."
"Who?"
"My father. He runs the space station."
"Why would he be interested in me?" she asked.
"He is interested in all the Earth telepaths. Eventually Earth may join the Celestial Congress. Not for a long time, but you and they are paving the way for it to happen."
"Four or five of us? That's going to make for a very long eventuality."
"Probably. Meet you in the restaurant."
They were both in the entry in three seconds, to walk in together. Seated barely half a minute, Hazel brought coffee.
"You want your usual waffle?"
"Yes please," Julian said.
"I'll have a cheeseburger and fries," Tyler said. "It's still night for me. I haven’t had my supper."
"Okay hon."
"You really want to continue what you've been doing?" Julian asked. "Because you could be doing a lot more with your life, Tyler."
"I made a hundred grand this weekend,” she deadpanned at him.
He just blinked, contemplating all the things she might have been doing to make that sum of money.
"Okay. We cannot match that. But you wouldn't have to...um."
"I don't have to. This may surprise you, but I very much like what I do. I enjoy it a great deal because I have the raging sex drive of a recently matured lioness perpetually in heat. I also like making a fuckton of money for doing the things I like best. I’m also extremely good at it, especially since the emergence of all these telepathic abilities,” she smiled. “My clients are extraordinarily satisfied. At this point, I have about five who are happy to pay my hourly rate for an entire weekend.”
He cleared his throat. “I’m sure. But you can’t do that on the station or while you are acting as an agent of the Congress or Administration.”
“So. I get kicked out of a lot of places. I’m sure there are plenty of planets I can work on if I so desired.”
“Not really. Travel to planets is monitored just like here on Earth. You need permission to go to a planet,” he informed her.
“Even with teleportation?”
“Especially with teleportation, Tyler. You are one of about ten people in the known galaxy with the ability to teleport without the help of technology. It makes planets very nervous to know someone can port in, assassinate someone and port out. Even the technology to teleport is strictly controlled.”
“Are you one of the ten?” she asked.
“You know I’m not. I’m one of the few with clearance to use the technology, in my capacity as liaison between the Congress and several planets.”
“Ah.”
Conversation stalled while the waitress brought their food.
“Don’t they have waffles on that space station?” she asked, watching as he put a little dollop of butter into each and every little space of his waffle to start melting.
“No. This is a delicacy for me. Other places have something similar, but Earth flavors are Earth flavors. I think that’s something you’ll enjoy when you come and start to travel. Trying foods from different planets.”
She sighed. “Then you don’t know me at all, Julian. I’m not an adventurous eater. I have to be careful what I eat. I have a very tender tummy.”
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. Then you may have a very hard time. I’ll make sure my office puts together a menu list for you when you go traveling, of foods that are most like North American items.”
“You’re mighty certain I’ll be going,” she eyed him.
“I know what it’s like to be one telepath among ten million people, Tyler. Even with all the training I and the Administration can provide, you can never shut them all out because none of them have any control over what they send out into the world. It gets very tiresome very quickly. The station is much more psionically quiet because nearly everyone either has control or is psionically impervious.”
“What’s that mean?”
“You couldn’t read their minds if you tried for a hundred years. Telepathy is common on Sistair, so it’s polite to keep one’s thoughts to oneself. You wouldn’t have a problem there. Drakkar is the opposite. They rarely speak aloud among themselves, communicating entirely through telepathic means. Very disciplined. Very controlled.”
“Interesting,” she said unconvincingly.
“This is boring you,” he smiled. “I’m sorry. What would you like to talk about?”
“Nothing in particular. I’m in a place where I feel stalled out. I have this one thing on this side and this other thing on the other side,” she gestured left and right with a finger over her coffee cup in her hands. “And I’m being told to choose one and only one because, for some reason no one will tell me, I cannot have both. That makes me choose nothing and stay exactly where I am, doing exactly what I want.”
He was silent a moment, eating, seeing she was right; then he remembered a different conversation.
“Do you remember the night before you left Toledo and came here?”
“Vividly.”
“I’m going to have to reveal something that will make you uncomfortable. But it is what it is and I do not apologize for it. That night in particular, you were broadcasting your energy and your thoughts. I heard much of what you were talking about because when you looked out the window and up to the night sky, you were practically looking directly at me. I remember stopping and looking at a view screen of Earth while I listened. You told Jero
me that your future was out there.” His own eyes darted out the window and up to the sky and back to her. “And you couldn’t wait around for it to come to you. You had to go get it. Well here it is, Tyler. Your future has come for you. Here you are saying you don’t want it.”
Bite taken, she put her burger down and glowered at him while chewing. Her gaze had a heat all its own and he knew if they’d not been across the table from each other, he’d probably have been in for a good slug to some part of his body. Whether she was more angry at the perceived invasion of her discussion or having her words thrust back at her, he didn’t want to know.
“I cannot help it that you feel you’re being pushed. What I do know is that not one of the Earth telepaths is able to live on this planet’s surface for more than a couple days at a time. Not one of them is nearly as strong as you are. Nor do they have the range of abilities you do. I do not see how you can possibly manage it.”
“I’m not like them,” she scowled at him.
“I know that. That’s why I’m here, remember? I didn’t come to argue with you. I’m only ever here to help you. Honest Injun. Let’s eat so we can go meet my father.”
Meal finished, Julian did the teleporting, bringing them to a busy museum room of the tower. At once she was tense, feeling the energy of so many hundreds of people present and seeing many dozens more who were not alive. Sad souls, tortured and miserable and weighing down the entire place with the despair trapped within them. How many innocents had been tortured to death in this very building? How many innocents had languished, starved to death, died of general neglect?
She couldn't find the exit fast enough, couldn't get outside fast enough, and teleported her escape. He followed, keeping up with her as she stalked over the paths. Tourists moved out of her way with remarkable speed and accuracy, the bubble of her psychokinesis pushing them subtly to clear a path. No one noticed her, likely another extension of her abilities the same way no one noticed a person leaving or arriving by teleportation.
Blindly stomping, knowing she had to walk and get away. Flight. Julian realized this was an Immaculate Walk, for lack of a better term. Not her first, he was sure, but they would become more frequent. Tyler was doing it to channel the chaos around her. He could see the turmoil of energies like thin cyclones around her, slowly smoothing out and flowing with her. When they had all aligned with her, she stopped walking and sat on the nearest bench to catch her breath. She’d walked about fifteen minutes.