by David Beers
David also realized she still didn’t understand what was happening to her—and that was to his advantage. Her power was far beyond his, and there wasn’t any sense in denying it. She had developed so much quicker and gone so much further, that it might not even be fair to consider the two of them similar. David’s abilities … well in comparison, hers were to his, what his were to regular humans.
Yet, she was clueless about anything happening around her. What David had seen—the entire sky filling with her power—was a reaction. She’d grown frightened or angered, and that was result.
Both of those things could be to his advantage.
Lying on the beach, David’s eyes turned gray again. He wanted to check on her. He stared up with those endlessly burning eyes, no pupils to focus on anything, thus appearing to see everything and nothing at once. He remained like that for a long time, perhaps as long as an hour, but he didn’t think about shutting down. He needed to know.
Finally, he felt her. Distant and in a place he had never ventured to, nor even knew existed. He could only partly see it, and only because she was there inside it. A place of glass, black glass. It wasn’t the Beyond. It was somewhere separate from this Earth and the Unformed. David didn’t know if he could get there, but he wasn’t going to try. He only needed to know that the woman still lived.
It was the only thing that mattered, because if she was still alive, then David’s mandate was in jeopardy. The Unformed had been right about wanting to kill her. It sensed her power long before David, knowing the danger she would pose.
For now though, she had gone somewhere that David couldn’t venture. And as long as she remained there, she wasn’t here. She wasn’t going to interfere.
Does she want to? David asked himself. Did the woman you saw above seem like she wanted anything to do with you? Anything to do with this at all?
His eyes returned to their normal state, and David blinked.
No … No, she wanted nothing to do with you, nor anyone around her. What did she say?
‘All of you, you all want fucking something. And now look, look around you! Is this what you had in mind? Time stopped and everything around me about to be completely destroyed!’
David’s mind was quiet for a bit as he considered those words, taking them in fully. She didn’t want to stop him; she wanted to get away from it all. That was why she’d disappeared, quarantining herself from contact from anyone.
Yet, the Unformed saw something else—not a frightened woman with powers she didn’t understand, but something that had to be eradicated.
There’s more happening here than you see, he thought, and then, but that was the case with Rebecca, too.
David put away thoughts of the woman; she was gone and might not return. David’s mission still existed and he had to focus on accomplishing it.
Rebecca was on her way here.
She knew he was alive.
A crack of thunder rang through the sky and David heard the first drops of rain begin falling. He stood up and walked out beyond the trees’ cover. The rain hit him immediately and he kept walking toward the ocean. However he had survived the past week, his clothes had also been protected. David took his shoes off about ten feet from the shoreline and then went to it. He waded in until the ocean water was to his waist.
The rain fell harder and he stood in it, letting it wet his long, dark hair.
Rebecca had tried to kill him. He’d thought she was the traitor before he’d fallen from the sky, but when he touched Rhett hours ago, he discovered the truth. Rhett’s hate burned bright for her—even the pain and fear he felt when David shoved him aside couldn’t hide it. Rebecca had done something, though David couldn’t understand that part—he’d been too focused on defending Rhett.
His sister.
She was the one.
What are you going to do? he asked himself. He felt no rage, not yet at least, though he knew it would come. Right now, standing in the ocean, he felt a betrayal deeper than the ocean. It soaked him more than any amount of water ever could, drenching him to his bones.
She was coming, though—Rhett would bring her. David would let himself feel rage then, and she could finally understand how badly she’d hurt him.
Sixty-Two
The First Priest stood in the doorway of the One Path’s Minister’s office; her name was Trinant One and the only Minister to be a woman. The entire One Path’s …
And that’s when the First understood he was out of his depth, because he didn’t know what to call the One Path’s Priesthood. They weren’t Priests, but surely had another name for themselves.
It didn’t matter, he supposed. He did understand that their entire Priesthood (or whatever they called themselves) was made of women, and realized that might create different dynamics. He just didn’t know how.
The plain and simple truth was that the First Priest had not been trained for the position he found himself in, but he was here nonetheless. He had been trained to take care of the True Faith, but not in inter-religious diplomacy; that had always been the High Priest’s job.
Back inside the High’s massive building, things had moved quickly once the Pope started speaking. The One Path’s ships had still been intact, though the True Faith’s had been crunched. Literally, there was no other word for it, and the First wished he had been able to see them fall from the sky—broken and shattered. He would have loved to watch while trying to figure out which transport the Priestess was in, her body descending to a watery, unmarked grave.
The One Path had swept in quickly, and thank Corinth they hadn’t fired upon the building. The Pope took care of that, ensuring first that there was no immediate threat.
The High was arrested by the One Path.
The First contacted the Council, briefing them on what was happening. He forced an emergency vote and had been granted Temporary High Priest status until a more formal selection could happen. The First wasn’t worried about that, he would take on the High’s mantle as soon as he could fly back to the True Faith.
He’d also been informed that Raylyn Brinson had … and, even now, he could barely think the words. That she had somehow escaped with her lover, as well as three other prisoners. From what he understood, they were still being tracked down, but the First simply couldn’t focus on that right now. He would grow too angry if he did, thinking about that bitch Raylyn Brinson. He would have to deal with her once he was finished here.
It’s odd, he thought, still standing just inside the Minister’s office. Thinking of myself as the High Priest. He still considered himself the First, though in time he thought that would change.
The First cleared his throat; a minute had passed without the woman even acknowledging his presence.
He didn’t understand why the High had ever wanted to come here, clouds be damned.
Trinant finally looked up at him. “Come in. Have a seat.”
The First walked across the room, glancing out the floor to ceiling windows that wrapped around the entire outside of the globe. He sat down.
The woman stared at him. “How can I help you?”
As if he was just some random visitor having dropped in.
“We need to discuss what is to become of the former High Priest,” the First said. He understood what was happening here, that the woman was treating him like a lower class because she thought he wasn’t a Minister. She needed to realize, and quickly, that the First’s fortunes had changed.
“What is there to discuss? He’s a trespasser and a traitor to mankind, and he’s our prisoner. He’s going to stay that way until he faces our One Tribunal.”
“You’re going to prosecute a former Minister?”
“Yes,” the woman said. “He’s a criminal.”
The First looked to his right, out the window that showed the sky. Gray clouds floated across the expanse, and a chill went down the First’s back as he thought about the gray static. He felt it again, briefly, brashly scraping across his skin, feeling like it was p
eeling him alive.
He pushed the thoughts from his mind, but didn’t look back toward the Minister.
“You look at me as less than you, don’t you?” he asked.
“You’re a lesser Priest. You’re like the people coming in and out of my office right now. I’m sure in your territory, you’re treated like Corinth himself, but here, you’re nothing. You hold no power here. None. We will do as we see fit.”
The First Priest nodded, still looking out the window. “There’s some truth to that, I suppose. I mean, 16 hours ago, I pissed myself while watching that woman almost kill everyone. I’m not trained in anything having to deal with other Ministries. Yes, inside the True Faith, I’m revered, but outside … Well, I guess my reputation isn’t known.”
“Nor is it wanted,” the woman said.
Another nod from the First Priest. “Perhaps you’re right.” He turned to look at her. “A day ago, I thought I was going to die. And a week before that, I thought the same. Ever since the Black returned, I’ve kept thinking I was going to die, and not just due to paranoia. I keep getting placed in real positions where death is probable. Yet, Trinant, I keep living. And now, I’m here, in front of you, still alive. You may not fear me, but what you’re not registering yet, is that I am the High Priest. The True Faith, and everything it controls, is at my beck and call.”
He quit talking and stared at the woman in front of him. She looked younger than him, though he didn’t know if that was her actual age or some kind of aging technology. Most of the women that came and went through this room looked younger than the First, so perhaps she was as ancient as the High Priest.
Older or younger, she would need to treat him as an equal from now on.
“Are you threatening me?” Trinant asked.
“No. I want you to see things clearly. Now, again, I’d like to discuss what’s to happen with the True Faith’s High Priest.”
She was quiet for a few moments and the First could tell she was weighing his words. Finally, she said, “What do you want to happen with him?”
The First Priest smiled.
Travel inside the Globe of One was ridiculously awkward. In the True Faith one went up or down by either machine or stairs.
The Globe of One—as with all of the One Path, the First was quickly discovering—wanted nothing so simple.
The orb was massive, and the ‘elevators’ (the One Path called them swings, though the First didn’t see the connection) existed on the outside. They didn’t go up and down, though, but rather spun around the globe, descending or ascending in a rapid circle. Depending on how far up or down the globe one needed to go, you might spin around the damned thing twice.
And then when you got to the correct floor, you still had to walk toward the center, if that’s where your destination was.
The First Priest hated it, and was quickly coming to despise everything in the One Path. They could have simply created elevators, but just as their arrogance refused to let them live on land, they also refused simpler methods for more difficult ones.
The First Priest stepped off of the ‘swing’, an aide exiting after him. Trinant, in another snub, had sent the First down with one of her assistants rather than coming herself—he knew that if it had been the actual High Priest making this trip, she would have been here.
No matter, he thought. I’m here, aren’t I? And she’s listening to me. She can have this snub. She’ll keep learning the truth.
The First Priest followed the aide for another minute or so and then they stopped in front of a black door. The hallway was long, crossed on either side by others, but the First stood in front of the only door he could see.
“He is in there,” the aide said, stepping to the side.
“Thank you. When I’m finished, how will I summon you?”
“I’ll be here,” she said.
The First nodded. “Your manners are much better than your Minister’s.” He stepped forward, but halted just before banging into the door. It hadn’t opened. He looked to his left. “What do I do?”
The aide smiled. “Just keep going.”
The First’s brow furrowed and he looked back at the door. He shook his head and stepped forward hesitantly, expecting to hit his forehead on it, but as he touched the surface, he moved through it.
The door didn’t disappear, but remained, and the First felt like he was stepping into black oil. He quickly jerked back, his hands reaching for his face to rub the slick substance off—
He touched only his skin.
“Just keep going,” the aide said again, still smiling. “You’ll come through clean on the other side.”
The arrogance of these damned people, the First thought. He looked at the door and with a quick step, moved through, the oil washing over his skin for a brief second, and then he was through it.
He stopped the moment he cleared the door.
The High Priest hung before him, and it was …
Glorious.
Praise be to Corinth, it was glorious.
Whatever the door had been made out of, it seemed to fill this entire room except for a narrow strip of about five feet in front of the wall. The door had been opaque, but here the First Priest could see through the black substance, and it appeared to give off an almost golden glow. Five feet separated him from the black liquid, and then another foot from where the High Priest hung.
He was suspended in it. Naked.
Unable to move.
The First looked to the High’s left and he saw someone else, further back, and higher up. The First expanded his vision, trying to take in the whole room. Prisoners, everywhere, all of them floating in that black liquid/solid creation. The rest of the prisoners were further back, the High being the only one so close to the barrier.
The First realized that if he’d come for someone else, that black substance would have pushed them closer, while making sure the High remained deeper inside the room.
The First Priest, unable to help himself, smiled.
Glorious, he thought again.
“We give thanks,” he said, not casting his eyes down this time.
The High stared at him, his skin taking on the golden hue of the black liquid, finally his pale color cast away.
“We give thanks,” he said, though his mouth didn’t move. The substance spoke it, the entire room taking on the High’s voice.
They’re reading his mind, the First thought.
“This is an interesting predicament,” he said.
The High chuckled, his voice coming from every molecule of liquid in the room. It was loud, though not overbearing. His face was slack, none of the emotion from his laugh affecting his features.
“It’s going to get more interesting,” the High said.
“Is that what you think, Most Holy?”
“Did you see her? Did you see what she did?”
The First nodded, his eyes widening. “Oh yes, Most Holy. I saw completely. She nearly killed everyone, and from the reports I heard, she nearly wiped out the entire One Path, although now I think that might not have been such a bad thing.”
“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” the High said. “Something else interrupted the plan.”
“Oh, is that what happened? The plan?” the First said. “I’m not sure how much you can actually understand anymore, Most Holy, but the plan was insane. You were trying to contact the Black, and somehow thought you’d be able to control everything. It turns out, you couldn’t.”
Another chuckle.
The First didn’t like it. The man was trapped inside a liquid, unable to move or even breathe normally, and yet he was laughing.
“Have you found her?” the High asked.
“Your want-to-be concubine? No, not yet.”
“I thought that would be true … Has Corinth come to you yet?”
The First finally laughed and looked down at his feet. “No, Most Holy, Corinth hasn’t visited me. He hasn’t told me to move away from the True Faith, nor to kidnap
some mutant from another Ministry. He hasn’t told me to contact the Black. To tell you the truth, Most Holy, Corinth has been rather quiet as of late.”
He looked back up into those unblinking eyes.
“I saw him again.” The High’s voice sounded distant now, the liquid somehow able to register that he was thinking and not talking directly to anyone in particular. The First couldn’t begin to understand the technology behind this, but the moment he returned to the True Faith, he’d start trying to replicate it. “He showed me Veritros’s head again. Do you remember her … Rachel Veritros?”
“I’ve listened to you talk about her for a long time, High Priest. Since all this started you’ve droned on and on about her, about being lucky, about us not being lucky again. Do you remember saying all of that?”
The liquid made no noise.
“Veritros is dead. Has been dead 1,000 years. You are insane, you old fool. Corinth showed you no head, and Veritros has nothing to do with any of this. I won’t hear any more about it.” The First stepped forward so that he was mere inches from the black liquid. The High was slightly higher than him, and the First looked up so that he could see the High’s eyes. “I’ve made a deal with the One Path, my High Priest. I’m giving you to them. Trinant One seems like a real bitch, but in return for their recognition of me as the High Priest, I’ve said they can do what they want with you. I don’t know if they’ll keep you suspended here forever. Maybe they’ll kill you. I don’t care in the slightest, just so long as I never have to sit in that black box and talk to you again. Goodbye, my High Priest. Forever.”
The First left the room without another word, not waiting to hear anything else from the man he had followed for most of his life. He moved through the liquid door and didn’t look back.
The High Priest slowly started sinking deeper into the liquid, a sucking sound echoing through the room as he did.