Persistence of Vision

by Liesel K. Hill

  “Very powerful, yes,” Lila murmured. “When this B attacked Maggie, the amount of energy he used…it was unreal. I’d never felt anything like it.”

  Marcus nodded. “He’d have to call on a lot of power to do the damage I felt.”

  Lila shook her head. “It was more than that. It was almost as if…I don’t know, as if he weren’t channeling it through another tool, but rather that he himself, I mean me, my body, was the conduit stone. The energy was flowing through me, and he was directing it. I thought all my organs were going to be cooked.”

  “It doesn’t work that way, Lila,” Karl said. “This energy can’t affect you physically.”

  Lila glared icicles at Karl. “I know that. I’m just saying that’s what it felt like.”

  “Is it possible, Doc? To use a human body as a conduit stone?” Maggie jumped in, hoping to forestall an argument.

  Doc’s gaze shifted, not settling on anyone. He didn’t look like he was going to answer.

  Marcus immediately jumped in. “Out with it, Doc. What do you know?”

  Doc flashed quick looks at Lila, Nat, and David. “We should give Nat and David a chance to freshen up. And Lila should rest. Perhaps we should move this into—”

  “No!” Lila jumped off the bed and shook her fist under Doc’s nose. “I’ve always tried not to pry into the team’s missions, Doc, but I was attacked today. I’m a part of this now, and I want to know what’s going on. I want to know what you know.”

  “As do I,” Nathaniel said. “My family is here, and I feel I have a right to know what’s going on around us.”

  After a moment Doc sighed. “All right, then. Let’s lay it all out on the table.”

  Chapter 19: A Lonely Way of Speaking

  Maggie watched Doc carefully. He sat at the head of the conference table, leaning forward on his elbows and regarding them all over steepled fingers.

  A cozy light came on as they entered the conference room. It had an oblong table with five chairs on each side. The group clustered to one end.

  “Maggie,” Doc said, “just so we’re all on the same page, why don’t you tell our newcomers what your role in the prophecy is.”

  “Executioner.”

  Doc nodded, as did the other team members. Nat, who was seated on Doc’s right, looked at her with raised eyebrows. Then he took on a weighing, speculative look. She shifted her gaze to David, who sat across from her. He looked downright shocked. Maggie sat back in her chair, suddenly self-conscious.

  Either Doc didn’t notice the reactions of the two men, or he was ignoring them. “When you got here, I told you about the prophecy as well as the Prophetess who gave it. Very little about her has survived. I know more than most, but before what Lila said today, I never deemed it relevant to our cause.”

  Joan shook her head with a soft laugh. “The secrets you keep, Doc.”

  “What do we know?” Karl asked.

  Doc took a deep breath and exchanged significant looks with Nat. “The woman who gave the prophecy was named Adaiah. Her abilities included being able to wrap the space-time continuum around herself.”

  “She was a Traveler,” Karl said.

  “No,” Doc said. “She could not travel through time. She could only see and understand through it.”

  “Hence the prophecy,” Maggie said.

  “Yes. But understand this: what she saw was never absolute. She would see several—sometimes dozens—of outcomes of a certain thing. Her prophecies tell what must be done to produce a certain outcome or to keep a certain outcome from coming to pass, but they are by no means certain. In our case, she told us that a group of people with particular neural signatures—that house particular abilities—had to come together in order to defeat the collectives. That doesn’t mean it will happen for sure. Only that if it doesn’t happen, the collectives will eventually take over.”

  Everyone shifted uncomfortably. Maggie didn’t blame them. A prophecy had a certain connotation attached to it. It had to come true, didn’t it? Doc was saying that, despite being named as a prophecy, that wasn’t necessarily true. There was a good chance the collectives would win.

  “But,” Maggie chimed in, “we still don’t have anyone to fill the Deceiver’s role, Colin’s role.”

  David frowned. Doc nodded. “I don’t believe we’ll fully accomplish our aims until we fill that role. Our Seekers are working on it as we speak.

  “Adaiah was someone who gave many prophecies of this kind throughout her life. She lived in the time when society was in its final stages of collapse and the collectives were just beginning to rise. As things got worse, the individuals began to lose hope of ever defeating the collectives. Adaiah realized she had the ability to look into the future and figure out how to defeat the collectives. She knew she could give a prophecy explaining what was needed to bring them down for good.

  “The problem was that Seeing, just as with all our other abilities, takes a great deal of energy. When Marcus has done a great deal of Healing, he gets tired. Clay can only hold a Concealment for so long before he loses strength. So it was with Adaiah’s prophecies. In order to do this, she would have to See every outcome of every decision for hundreds of years before her. She began by doing it in small chunks so she could recuperate between sessions, but even that was aging her too much.

  “Her hair turned white. She was aging too fast to stay at that pace. She decided she’d have to give the prophecy all at once. In order to do that, she did what Lila described earlier: she used her body as a conduit, pulling more energy through it than any person could wield through a regular stone. It took several hours, but she succeeded, producing the prophecy—the key we need to preserve our individuality.”

  Everyone was silent around the table. Maggie scarcely dared breathe, afraid to break the trance that had descended on them as Doc spoke.

  “And what happened to her?” Clay’s voice was soft.

  Doc looked older than Maggie had ever seen him look. “She spoke the final words of the prophecy…and died.”

  Karl leaned forward, resting his massive forearms on the table. “So if this man, this B was using his body as a conduit stone, and—you know—not dying, he must be a man of unbelievable power.”

  “Yes.” Doc’s face was unreadable.

  “The next question,” Strellend said, “is why does he want Maggie dead?”

  “Actually,” Doc answered, “we may have a part of the answer to that.”

  Maggie looked up in surprise. They did?

  “We’ve discovered that Maggie has the ability to call upon a great deal of Offensive energy, even without a conduit. As far as we know, she couldn’t do that when she was here before. She’s stronger that even you are, Nat, but the reason Karl sent a team looking for you is that you are the only one anywhere close to her in strength. We thought you could help teach her to harness and direct her power.”

  Strellend scratched his beard, studying Maggie again. She wished he wouldn’t do that. She felt like she was at a meat market, only it was her mind on display rather than her body. One would think that would be a compliment, but in a future where the mind was everything, such scrutiny was still uncomfortable.

  “Why would she have not had it before?” Strellend asked.

  “We don’t know.”

  “Doc,” Maggie said, causing all eyes to turn to her. “Isn’t it possible that I did have it, but we just never discovered it?”

  Karl shook his head. “I considered that, Maggie, but I don’t think so. We taught you to defend yourself before. If you’d had that ability, it would have manifested, just as it did this time. Why wouldn’t it?”

  “In a way,” Doc said, “it makes sense to me for you to have that ability, Maggie. You’re named as Executioner in the prophecy. We don’t know what that specifically entails. Most of us have thought that it must be you that kills the person or people controlling the collectives. Or you are simply the executer of the plan that will bring the collectives down. Either way, you
are the key to the entire thing working. It seems fitting that you would have unparalleled Offensive power.”

  “Yes, but Doc,” Maggie said, unsure how to communicate her point, “if I need this energy to fulfill the prophecy, why didn’t I have it before? You said the prophecy told what people—what specific abilities—were needed. If I didn’t have what I needed before, I wouldn’t have been named in the prophecy, would I?”

  Everyone considered that in silence.

  “Except,” Joan said, “that Doc also said Adaiah foresaw the outcomes of everything. Maybe she saw that you had to acquire that energy, so it was all supposed to happen the way it did.”

  Strellend’s thumb and forefinger had gone to the bridge of his nose. “This is turning into a brain bender. But what you mean to say, Doc, is that you think this B was trying to kill Maggie because of this power she holds?”

  “I think it’s a possibility. He said ‘it’s you,’ as though he’d been looking for her and finally found her.”

  “He’s not the only one who’s said that to her.” Karl threw an accusatory look at David, whose eyes were on his hands.

  “Actually,” Marcus said, “he’s not even the first. When I went to get Maggie, an Arachniman beat me there and attacked her. He said that exact thing…and then tried to kill her.”

  “Yes,” Doc said, “I remember you telling me that, Marcus. Do you think that man was being controlled by this B as well?”

  “I don’t know. Either that or the collectives in general are looking for her and keep sending people to find her.”

  Maggie shrugged uncomfortably, and Marcus covered her hand with his. She glanced up to where David was sitting at the far end of the conference table. He was frowning, and he kept opening his mouth as though to say something then snapping it shut and returning to the study of his hands.

  “Well, Nathaniel.” Doc broke the awkward silence. “Why don’t you tell us how you came upon David?”

  “Not much to tell.” Nat shrugged. “My family and I were travelling here. I always preferred to live on my own in the past, but having children changes a man’s perspective. One morning he just trudged up to my campfire. I probed his mind and found it to be very underdeveloped. I knew right away that he wasn’t a threat. In fact, as disorganized as his mind was, I suspected that perhaps he’d just endured some kind of trauma.”

  “Like what?” Clay asked.

  “A run in with the collectives or some of their goons, which can leave a person shell shocked—damaged, even. Or perhaps that he’d just come out of one of the collectives.”

  “Come out of the collectives?” Karl asked, wide-eyed. “You mean—”

  “Yes. Forcibly breaking away from them, severing his mind from their influence.”

  “Is that even possible?” Karl looked astounded. “The collectives forcibly absorb people. If those who don’t want that can simply pull away—”

  Nat shook his head. “No, most people can’t. Most have no hope of such a thing. It takes an extraordinary person to manage it, if indeed that is what he did.”

  All eyes turned to David, who was staring intensely at the table, chest heaving. Shocked silence filled the room, and Maggie thought perhaps she finally understood Marcus’s reluctance to speak of his brother.

  After a moment, David closed his eyes as if steeling himself for something. Then he took a deep breath and raised his head to look at Marcus. When he did, he winced but managed to hold the gaze.

  “How much…do they know…about us?”

  Marcus’s face was unreadable, but his hands in his lap were clasped so tightly that they were trembling. Maggie realized it was taking everything Marcus had to keep his face passive, his emotions just below the surface.

  “Most of them believed you were dead.”

  David nodded, dropping his gaze to the table. “Suppose it…was…easy… to…let them…believe that.”

  His speech struck Maggie as odd. He had to stop and think about what he wanted to say before he said it, yet he spoke perfect, eloquent English. For some reason she couldn’t put her finger on, the way he spoke made her sad. She didn’t have time to muse on it though, because David turned his body to face the group more fully but kept his gaze on the table.

  “Our father was a…a…freedom fighter, an individualist. Taught us to think…for ourselves and to fight the Union—uh, the…collectives. Back then we never came across anything…like this.” His eyes indicated the compound around them. “Our lives…lonely. We never knew…M-mother. When was…teenager, met some others who were individualists. Cared…for a young woman that was with them. She was…killed in…skirmish with some Trepids. Couldn’t live that life anymore. Decided— ” He glanced up at Marcus, but Marcus wasn’t looking at him. “Decided…it wasn’t…worth it anymore. Ch-chose to go into the collective. Thought it would be easier that way…less lonely.

  “Marcus and father begged…not to go. They tried to show us the…evils of the choice but…wouldn’t listen…went anyway. That was ten years ago. Have lived in the collective ever since.”

  Silence followed. Maggie’s eyes were on Marcus. Not just his hands, but his arms and shoulders were trembling now too. His emotions were boiling just below the surface, raw and explosive. These were deep wounds that were being reopened or perhaps had never healed at all.

  Doc spoke, his voice gentle. “And what made you decide to leave the collective now?”

  David glanced up at Doc, but his gaze quickly returned to the table. Suddenly his voice was thick, his eyes misty.

  “Couldn’t…condone what they were doing. We have…gone along with it for so long…turned our face away…but couldn’t anymore.” He put his fingertips to his hairline and then slid them through his dark hair, grasping it in handfuls at the apex of his skull. “The screaming…begging…brutality… Couldn’t ignore…father’s voice…echoing…in the deepest chambers of…our mind…where even Union couldn’t…penetrate.” Tears coursed down his cheeks. “What they were planning…”

  Karl sat up a little straighter, and Clay and Joan exchanged looks.

  “You know what they’re planning?” Karl asked.

  David sniffed and straightened. He nodded. “Known for a while…didn’t know the details. Didn’t want to leave until…had some solid information to bring”—he looked directly at Marcus—“to you.” His gaze fell again.

  “Don’t know how to stop it, or even what…all of you can…do with it. Just knew had to…find someone, someone stronger…than us… that might be able to…stop them.” He looked at Marcus again.

  Marcus looked away. Maggie could tell he harbored a lot of anger for David’s abandonment of the family, and understandably so, but he also had compassion for his brother. He visibly softened when David started crying. He was suddenly about to lose control in an entirely different way.

  “What about Dad? Why look for me and not him?” Marcus asked, eyes still turned away from his brother.

  David frowned. “He’s dead.”

  Marcus looked up at him, one eyebrow raised. “Yes. But how do you know that?”

  David shrugged. “Felt him die…knew when it happened, just as…could feel you…still living…somewhere…far to the west. Just had to find you.”

  Maggie noted that David had a hard time saying I or my, and she realized that was why his speech patterns made her sad. The speech of someone without a personal identity came across as terribly lonely.

  Marcus leaned forward, forearms on the table. “You know who Maggie is.”

  David glanced at Maggie and nodded.

  “Do you know that she’s from the past?”

  David’s head came up, his eyebrows hiked. They settled slowly as he thought about that. “Didn’t know, but…makes sense.”

  “When I went to get her an Arachniman was waiting for me. He nearly killed her before I got there. Can you explain that?”

  David nodded slowly. “Yes.” He looked at Doc. “Do…you know about the…ccounter prophecy?�
��

  The more David spoke, the fewer pauses he needed. His speech was becoming better by the minute.

  Doc’s ears perked up. “Counter prophecy?”

  “Yes. When a prophecy is given, a counter prophecy also comes…into existence. Two halves of a whole. Your prophecy tells what must happen to…make sure the Union doesn’t prevail. Union has a prophecy outlining what needs to happen to…ensure that they do.”

  There was silence as everyone absorbed that.

  “I didn’t know that,” Doc murmured.

  “Their prophecy says many things… Most don’t make sense or seem…relevant. It says that one person in particular will rise up. You were right…Doctor, when you said M-Maggie was the key. She’s the…lynchpin to the entire thing.”

  “What entire thing?” Karl sounded alarmed.

  “The…destruction of the Unity. If the Union wants to survive, Maggie has to…die. As long as she lives, they are in…jeopardy. Our…their prophecy says they must kill you.”

  “But,” Maggie sputtered, “but how do they know who I am? How did you know me?”

  David sat back in his chair. “The prophecy mentions certain…attributes to…identify you. Brain signature is laid out… A certain…level of abilities, which can be sensed when you are…close by. Even mentions a triple-taloned scar.” He nodded to her hand, which rested on the table in front of her.”

  She had the urge to hide her hand under the table but resisted it. “So each of the people who said ‘it is you,’ they knew me? They’d been sent to find me?”

  David shook his head. “Every person in the collectives or linked to them is taught to search. They all have the…authorization and…instruction to kill you on sight. It’s likely that each of those people was sent for a…different reason, but they recognized you when they came into contact with you. What you call…Arachnimen are too far down in the…hierarchy. They act as…muscle. They would never be given such an…important mission. This B person is…different matter. Don’t know who he is or what his intentions were.”