“This is where it gets confusing…,” Katherine responded, stumbling with her words. “She said the Corrupted just decided to stop following her, but it threatened to return once it had finished with the rest.”
As Monica listened to Katherine’s retelling of the nights’ events, she came to realise that Katherine was attempting to conceal from them some of what Naomi had said. And it wasn’t the least bit surprising that Margaret, given her vast experience and celestial bond, also knew of this.
“There’s something you’ve purposefully neglected to tell us,” said Margaret, her bright green eyes fixed on Katherine. “I know that you wish to protect Ms Miller so that she doesn’t become involved, but we must know everything in order to ensure of her safety.”
Katherine glanced back awkwardly at the Senator, and then diverted her eyes to Monica. Monica nodded back at her. “She spoke of hearing voices; and that one strange voice in particular kept calling out her name. This voice had told her to run, to keep running, and to not look back.”
“So not only has the girl started to ascend, but there has been a potential guardian following her,” said Walter, reaching for a handkerchief and rubbing at his spectacles. “We’ve suspected this might be the case for some time now. Still, what we hadn’t anticipated was that this guardian had actually tried to make contact.”
“What do you intend to do with her?” Katherine questioned, panicked.
“Kishar shall wipe her memories of what she’d witnessed,” the Senator affirmed, removing another cigar from her jacket pocket. “You see, Kishar is a spirit of the moon. And her innate ability is to infiltrate and manipulate the minds of others. There’s little reason to be concerned. It is a relatively safe procedure, which will only alter her most recent memories so that she remembers something more manageable.”
Although what the Senator had said was largely true, Monica knew there was always a chance that the little guardian might stray too far into a subject’s thoughts and cause irreparable damage.
As Katherine grew more apprehensive, Monica speculated about the thoughts that were cycling through the young woman’s mind. Since the conflict with the earthen Corrupted, Katherine had questioned how the organisation intended to preserve its secrecy, and now on learning this revelation, it must now make more sense to her. For Monica knew that it was within the scope of Kishar’s power to alter the memories and perceptions of the masses, and so Katherine would be right to anticipate such an act might indeed be possible. Nevertheless, Monica also knew this was no easy task, and that there would always be cause for concern. For she’d become aware that the little sprite would often find herself pushed to the brink of physical and mental exhaustion. And when this guardian found herself severely fatigued, she was prone to make mistakes.
“To alter the minds of so many…, Katherine responded, mumbling with her words. “How do you know that by doing this, you won’t cause any further damage?”
“It would be a lie to say that such a deed is not risk-free, but we’ve little choice,” the Senator replied, lighting her second cigar. “But I wouldn’t worry about your friend; a single mind at one time is far more manageable.”
Monica could tell that the Senator’s words brought Katherine little comfort. And she could relate to that, for she’d often found herself in debate with the others over issues of morality or ethics. But it would always lead to the same conclusion; society was not ready to cope with their world, and with the knowledge that Corrupted beings existed.
“And what about surveillance cameras, cell phones, or any other devices held by the public? How are we supposed to address them? Wiping Naomi’s memories of what happened isn’t going to change what others in the public may have captured in photos and video clips,” Katherine responded.
These were questions similar to those Monica remembered having risen at one time or another in the past.
“My word Ms Munroe, you certainly ask a lot of questions,” the Senator said. “But you needn’t worry about the media. There is firstly the speed with which these spirits, even the Corrupted, can deceive of our senses. Deceiving through their movement alone is quite astounding. This also extends to technologies. It is only through the spirit’s own volition, or the heightened level of another’s consciousness, that they become visible to the normal naked eye. This is also why we must rely so heavily upon the detection of foreign energies. Even on the off chance that such an activity was captured, my superiors are usually quick to quash and rebuke its validity.”
“Your superiors…, do you mean the President?”
“Yes, at least in one sense,” the Senator replied, much to Monica’s worry, for she didn’t want Margaret to deviate any further from what should be their focus in the present.
It’s complicated enough trying to explain all this to someone who knows so little about our way of life, she thought to herself, knowing that any questions Katherine raised with respect to their ‘superiors’ would surely prove difficult to answer.
What bothered her most was Margaret delving into the politics of something which even she herself struggled to comprehend. For she was aware there existed another society; one which resided upon a plane of enlightenment above all others, a group of beings often referred to as the Illuminati. But aside from this, and when it came to this peculiar group of individuals, all she knew was that Margaret and the organisation were receiving their orders from those which extended beyond the scope of the country’s government, and thus to the decision-making powers of a worldly ‘board’ of exclusive members. Although she had a limited understanding of their role, she rarely saw any point in questioning their objectives as they’d yet never led them astray. Monica was a soldier above all else; her one desire, and in accordance with her orders, was to bring an end to those Corrupted who sought to feed upon the innocent.
“You said that a guardian has tried to reach Naomi,” Katherine reminded her. “Then why don’t we let her join us? If she were to form a celestial bond with this guardian –
“- This has yet to happen,” Walter had been quick to interrupt. “It is for her own safety that she must remain unaware of the Corrupted’s existence.”
“But there’s little doubt the Corrupted will return for the girl,” Monica responded, seeing reason in what Katherine had attempted to propose.
The Senator blew a puff from her cigar. “As they would for all of us. If she were to know, what good would it do? The only difference would be that she’d live in fear, constantly looking over her shoulder for something that she’d be powerless to stop.”
The Senator rose from her seat, and foraged about within a handbag laid down at her side.
“So it begins…,” she sighed upon retrieving her cell phone. “I have so many missed calls.”
“The organisation would benefit from having you here indefinitely,” said Walter. “After all, you and I are all that remain of the Projects’ first generation.”
“And discard my role and duty to the voting public?” The Senator questioned, shaking her head. “If I remember correctly, Kishar and I were never the most adept at battling the Corrupted in the first place. Our skills have always been better suited to the political arena. Besides, who else can sustain the support of the board?”
“If it is true that Namtar has indeed returned…,” Monica responded, gravely. “Soon we may not even have a Project left that warrants its support.”
Chapter 20
“What’s on your mind?” Monica asked, applying a dressing to the wound on Katherine’s head.
“I’m just thinking back to when I was younger,” she replied, as she sat on the infirmary table.
As a ten year old, she remembered feeling as if she knew everything and could not put a foot wrong. She was a stubborn child, as her father and most of her teachers had often attested. Her father would often ramble on about how he’d tell her to do one thing, and she’d go off and do the exact opposite.
“When I was a ten year old, do you remember
that Veteran’s day assignment you set us? Katherine asked.”
Monica smiled. “Now that you mention it, I remember it all as if it were yesterday. November had begun, and with Veteran’s day drawing nearer, I had seen it as appropriate to set the class an assignment. But what I remember most was your presentation; it truly was one of your very best efforts.”
“I really was a stubborn child though, wasn’t I?” She questioned, absorbed deep in thought.
Monica laughed. “I do remember, even with just that assignment, thinking that you’d try to avoid doing any work on it from the outset. So when my suspicions proved they might be correct, I thought about how to suggest an idea to you, that you’d adopt in the belief that it was your own.”
“Yeah, I actually remember you recommending that I go and ask my father about his experiences as a veteran,” she said. “And when I got home that afternoon, I sat on the couch with his old photo album in front of me.”
She could see herself back then, sitting there and barely looking at the photos, or being bothered to read the many descriptions that lay beneath each of them. But she also remembered that it wasn’t the assignment itself which had her interested. There was something else she wanted to know, and she thought this could serve as the best excuse to bring it up with her father. She could see him now; lumbering into the lounge, and finding her seated before the album. The look on his face had been something she’d never forgotten.
“That assignment was tough,” Katherine said. “He never liked to talk about his time in the military, or as I now know it to be the Project, and he’d often change the subject.”
“So how did you get him to respond?” Monica asked. “If my memory serves me right, you were quite thorough with your presentation, too well informed to just make it all up.”
“It wasn’t easy,” she admitted. “But I figured the best way was to ask questions about individual photo’s in the album, and then collate all he’d told me about each into one report.”
She knew Monica had expected her to find out about her father and his time in the military, and that is what she ended up presenting. She remembered her father’s surprise when he first found her seated there, his excitement as he’d talked about his experiences with his old regiment, and his telling her the story behind each and every photograph.
We should never forget our past. The reason I first enlisted is as important to me today as it was back then: to protect those dearest to me. This thing he’d said had resonated with her now more than ever before.
But she had another purpose in mind for this assignment; she intended to learn more about her late mother. She asked him why her mother wasn’t in any of the pictures. Much to her surprise, he had shuffled to the back of the album, parting a photograph from its last page and showing her what was beneath. When he held up the photo, she saw a picture of her late mother; Captain Elizabeth Munroe, dressed in full service attire, and with her name embossed below the photograph.
The look on my father’s face and what he’d said when he showed me the picture, she mused. Never before had she seen her father so solemn and so close to tears.
This is the only photograph I have of her in military attire, he’d said, and then the words that followed were those she’d never forget.
I barely look at it anymore, he had said to her. I want to remember her as she was; not in the service, but as my wife.
“Katherine, you okay?” Monica asked, concerned. “You seemed to have dozed off for a second. I’ve finished dressing your wound; I suggest you go get some sleep.”
“I will, thanks for looking after me,” she replied, as she hopped down from the infirmary bench and headed for bed.
Having trundled along the corridor, she opened her bedroom door and grasped about the wall in search of a light switch. Once she’d triggered the lights and stepped inside, she wondered where her guardian was, for she hadn’t seen him since they’d returned from their mission.
“I hope he is alright,” she murmured to herself, thinking back to how despondent he’d appeared since Blake and Kulullu had defeated the earthen Corrupted.
Deciding to go search for him, she returned to the corridor and walked back toward the training facility’s secure doorway.
“What are you still doing up?” She heard Lance question, as the young man trailed up from behind.
“I could ask the same of you,” she said, glancing back and at the dark circles which had formed around his eyes. “Don’t you ever sleep?”
Lance yawned. “It’s my shift. “Walter believes it necessary that we have an officer patrolling the corridors at all times.”
“That’s understandable,” she replied. “But you always seem to be the one on duty…”
“I don’t tend to sleep well, so I’m often the first to volunteer…,” he said, rubbing at his neck. “Anyway, you’ve yet to answer my question; why are you roaming the corridors this late at night?”
“I’m looking for my guardian,” she responded, feeling slightly embarrassed at how silly it must sound to have lost a four hundred pound gryphon. “He seems to have wandered off on his own…”
Lance swiped his card against the doorway’s control panel. “He’s inside the training facility.”
Once the doors slid open, she found Anzu toward the facility’s centre and hard at work. She watched as he charged about the space, slashing at the empty air with his talons as though he were fighting invisible enemies. He soon after ascended upward, beating with tired wings until fatigue rendered him incapable of continuing. Having lost control in flight, she watched her winged guardian plummet and land heavily against the cold facility floor. She rushed to his side.
The gryphon floundered to regain his footing and peered back at her. “You should be asleep young master,” he said, his breathing heavy. “You need your rest.”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“More nightmares?” Anzu questioned, before he returned to training with his talon’s raised. “I myself have had many of late.”
“No nightmares,” she replied. “Just more dreams of the past.”
“That is inclined to happen at this point, and will only become more frequent,” he said, clawing at thin air. “A young Indigo’s mind is highly active; he or she uses parts of the brain never before relied upon, and this continues even when asleep.”
She could see that his legs were trembling, and he had to toil to even keep upright “You should think about getting some sleep yourself. You’re barely able to stand.”
“That’s only because I am still too weak,” he responded, raising his wings and beating them through the air with such immense power that it generated a strong burst of wind.
“You’re not making any sense,” she replied, listening to the roaring winds he’d produced from his energy.
“I need to press past my own physical limitations, if I’m ever to prove a match for that fiend,” he proclaimed, the winds picking up and tearing at the surface steel of the facility’s walls. “I must persevere, even if it kills me!”
Looking back at her guardian, she sensed feelings of deep anguish within him. His mind was in a state of flux; so many different voices were calling to him, expressing resentment over his lack of strength. He saw himself as one incapable of rectifying this weakness. He saw himself as a small, pitiful creature. One who’d sooner cower in the corner and be carried off by a stray wind.
“Anzu…I know how you feel.”
“You couldn’t possibly,” he shot back angrily. “I just stood there; I was helpless as she lay dying. I –
“-We have formed a celestial bond; you can also see what I think and feel,” she reminded him, her arms wrapped around his mane of feathers. “How is it any different for me? I could do nothing when those monsters killed my father.”
“I can only hope you will not have to endure your own sense of weakness; for as long as I have, since her death. I have trained and fought for so long, till my talons are worn and blunt – all i
n the effort to become stronger.”
“You saved my life,” she responded, intent on having him believe her. “If it weren’t for your strength, I would not have this chance to save those my father had given his life to protect.”
“To defeat Namtar; to rid the world of the Corrupted…you will need a more powerful guardian by your side –
“-And I will have one in good time,” she quickly to interrupt. “We shall become stronger together.”
“So where do we go from here?” Anzu asked, with a sense of self-belief. “Will we return to our room and get some rest?”
“What is it you think we should do?” She asked him. “We are a team. As I said before, I want to hear no more of this master and guardian nonsense. Both of us must make a decision as one mind.”
“If I’m honest master - Katherine,” he said, stumbling with his words. “I would like to keep training.”
She smiled. “Then let’s get started.”
And thus, they trained. Anzu would thrash with his wings and conjure up a strong gust of wind, and she would focus her mind upon igniting the air with her celestial element. Over and over, they persevered late into the night with this same exercise, seeking to perfect their synchronised energies.
Once they both felt more comfortable, they shook things up and developed their own personal training regimen. One exercise Katherine came up with, focusing upon both Katherine’s energy control and Anzu’s dexterity, was for her to fling pencils telekinetically about the space while Anzu dodged them. Another unorthodox exercise, given their disparity in size and physical strength, was to pit their strength against one another in hand to talon combat. And although she sensed Anzu often holding back so as to not maim her, she believed he did so at his own peril. When she thought back to the countless hours of training both she and her father had undergone, she wasn’t exactly easily intimidated by such exercise. Despite the mismatch, with Anzu often knocking her helplessly to the floor, she was convinced her persistence was winning her guardian’s respect and admiration.
Ascension Page 19