A Division of Souls - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe (11 page)

Then, just as quickly, all was Light. Pure,
blinding white Light. Light that
burned
.

Poe let out a terrified gasp, unable to
speak.

I'm showing you this because I have to,
Alec.

Was that Kai's voice...? Not just in his
head, but all around him...comforting, soothing.

This is how we are. How we all are.

An overwhelming rush of sensations hit him
square on and sent him reeling. Every image appeared in superfine
detail, every single sound heard with crystalline clarity. The wind
sounded like an ocean, the birdsong back near the entrance sounded
like angelic singing. The visions before him so sharp he thought
they would cut into him like blades. It took nearly all of his
strength to push it all back to a level he could comprehend. And it
was only then that he finally heard it…pure, wordless emotion
called out to him grasping at his very soul. Voices, surrounding
him, everywhere. So many voices...all without direction. And he
could read each one separately, detecting each nuance, each tone as
if he had the knowledge of every single living person in the
Sprawl. It was dizzying, frightening, and addictive, all at the
same time. Yet underneath, he could hear it...underneath it
all...the sound of cleansing...

Poe felt the city.

The city was slowly healing.

He forced his hand free of her grasp. He
opened his eyes and stared wide-eyed at Kai, speechless and
completely terrified…but he understood. He felt the heightened
awareness of both Ashan and Kai as they scanned the Sprawl,
attempting to grasp a better understanding of the Awakening.
Experiencing all of this through the guidance of the Mendaihu was
truly like a spiritual veil being lifted from his very soul, and
there was nothing else in the human world that could even come
close. It was transcendence.

Please, Alec. We must do this. I will
lead you.
She smiled at him, a smile of trust and protection,
and took his hand again —

— and the three stood on the Crest, as they
did in reality, watching the city. Everything was in sharpest
focus, in far finer detail than he could ever comprehend. The
Sprawl had become a matrix of sharpened edges, minute vibrations,
and unyielding light. He could parse only a fraction of what Kai
and Ashan could sense…yet with all three of them connected, he felt
a completeness. His soul resonated with Kai’s, and hers with her
brother’s. Poe understood all of this, understood what it meant,
even though he couldn’t sufficiently put it into words. All he
could do was feel it. They watched over the city as protectors. And
for the moment, even he was part of this; at that moment, even as
an anchor to mere human reality, he was also Mendaihu.

Together they sensed the bruised tension and
the traumatized scars upon the souls of Bridgetown, the rippling
waves of living souls and wavering tendrils of the astral traveler,
and he could not help but shed a few tears for them. The late
morning breeze pushed at them, an air full of pain and confusion.
Yet there was something else...something they recognized as
malevolence. It fed off the pain, fed off the fear of the city. Not
out of blind hunger, but out of necessity, in order to survive.
Because it
had
to. It ran deep, an instinct passed down
countless Meraladian generations, and it had been awakened. It
harkened back to the ancient days on Trisanda...the true Meraladhza
home. Ashan and Kai had never been to the planet, either by ship or
by soul projection, but deep inside, they held the seed of their
Trisandi origins. They all did, Meraladian and human alike. This
disturbing familiarity with the black essence originated there, in
that seed, in their hearts. They felt it now, the same iciness that
had once plagued Trisanda, nearly killing it. Kai and Ashan knew
this, and Poe could sense it just as deeply.

Yet still...they knew the healing process
had started. Underneath it all, they felt the balancing spark
working to repair what the shockwave had torn the night before.
They were healing.

Ashan stood beside Kai, eyes closed and a
deep frown contorting his face. He breathed slowly and deeply,
listening. He could hear the tone of those essences, more keenly
than she could feel them. His gift of soulhearing could pick up the
intricacies where mere soulsensing like Kai's could not. With the
three of them linked together, Poe felt for the first time just how
intense
the energies of the Sprawl were. He heard the city’s
energies through Ashan, felt its flow through Kai…and saw it for
the first time in a new way, all on his own.

Poe felt Kai's hand drop out of his. His
eyes still closed, the images of the Sprawl slowly faded from view,
leaving traces of colors and shapes against his eyelids. The warmth
of energy and light receded deep into the background, still there
but now out of reach. Soon he was cold and trembling, breathing
slowly.

“Ashan?” she whispered.

“Cold,” her brother answered.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“Feels like rain,” he said quietly.

Poe opened his eyes, squinting from the late
morning sun over the ocean, his vision back to normal. He was at
the halfway point between dream and reality, in control but not
fully aware. What did Ashan just say? Rain? He frowned, trying to
focus at the sky above the city. Hardly a cloud. He closed his eyes
again, about to yawn —

And for a brief moment, all was Light again.
He’d returned to that Light, all on his own. Shimmering,
encompassing energy, reaching out for him, trying to awaken him,
devour him —

Goddess!

Opened his eyes wide and gasped for air. And
a second later, it was gone.

What did I just...see??

Light. He saw Light, all on his own! He
shuddered. It was bleedover from his guided entry into that
otherwhere, a memory puddle temporarily tripping him back into that
sensation of ascended reality. He felt nervously calm, maybe a bit
giddy, like he’d just gotten away with something. His hands were
still shaking, but only slightly. Almost in control again. He took
deep breaths, and focused on Ashan.

Ashan huffed in frustration and glanced at
Kai, then back at the city. He continued the conversation as if
Poe's sudden hallucination hadn't happened. “I'm not sure yet.
Definitely some Shenaihu involvement, but...” he frowned. Kai
nodded and followed his gaze. Their focus was purely on the Mirades
Tower. They seemed to be studying it,
translating
it into
some wordless language Poe could only grasp at, spinning head or
not. Perhaps that was what he had felt in that other, sharper
world. The hawk's eye of vigilance and the heightened frequencies
that were a part of everything in the universe. A near-complete
oneness
with everything.

“But what?” she prompted.

“I can't tell.” He turned to her again. “And
you?”

“Definitely cold,” she said. “Almost a
feeling of tension spilling over.”

He flashed a grin at her. “Interesting
choice of words,
eichi
. I wouldn't quite put it that way,
but still, I have to agree. We're on the edge right now, we’d have
to go further in to know for sure.”

Kai paused before continuing. “You didn't
recognize it?” He did not answer, his smile fading. He glanced to
the west of the city, towards the highway that snaked its way
through and out. Kai turned to Poe with the intention to ask the
same question, but stopped short, finally seeing his ashen face.
Immediately she stepped to his side, ready to reach out to him.
“Alec? Alec, are you okay?”

He looked at her, his eyes slightly
swimming. His head spun, but his inner mental workings felt calm
and serene. He felt pleasantly drunk. He pursed his lips in an
attempt to hide his amusement; they hadn’t noticed his physical
reaction, only that he’d come out of that side trip mentally
unscathed. “...Akaina.” He managed a smile. “That...was probably
the most
unnerving
experience I've ever had. I think I’ll
let that one soak in before we do it again.”

Kai bowed her head, blushing. “I do
apologize, Alec. I should have warned you.”

Poe shook his head and waved away the
apology. “No way you’d have been able to. I don't think many humans
have the correct words for what I just saw. But thanks.”

She touched him lightly on the shoulder, a
comforting affirmation. Two seconds later he felt an uncontrolled
shiver run down his back, followed by an unexpected but welcoming
calm. He no longer felt dizzy. The anxiety he’d felt since
yesterday had gone away, leaving him centered and relaxed.

That had been Kai’s doing just then. With
just a quick second’s touch, she had changed his metabolism and
psyche.
Soulhealer
, he thought, silently thanking her. He
nodded graciously towards her.

“So what do we do?” he asked.

“First we gain access to the Mirades Tower,”
he began.

Poe winced at him. “Good luck. Caren and I
have been trying to get it since this whole thing started.
Security’s pretty damn tight down there right now, and I don't
blame them. Might be a few days before anything happens.”

“Physically can come later,” Ashan mused.
“I’m thinking more along the lines of the network.”

Poe shivered. “…network?”

Ashan frowned. “Something wrong?”

“Oh — you mean
spiritual
network,” he
said, laughing nervously. “For a moment there I thought we were
going to resort to using jackers.”

“There are countless legal resources we can
tap into. Have any of the local industries made any inquiries?”

“Where should I start?” he said. Close to
eighty percent of Bridgetown's commerce had queried the Governor
about an economic reaction within the first hour of the shockwave,
more than twice the usual number of responses during a similar
disaster. Poe had to remind himself to think like a businessman
when it came to these companies. “Well, probably DuaLife and
Khema-Jamison-Shimura. They're always chasing us up for something,
since they're joint Terran-Meraladian companies. They've already
contributed to city repairs.”

“Good, good…” he said flatly. Clearly he
wasn’t that impressed, merely content enough that someone was
footing the bill. Poe understood and felt the same way.

Kai stepped up. “Any religious factions?”
she asked.

“Nobody out of the ordinary,” he said.
“Every church in Bridgetown offered support for the injured and
displaced. Saint Paddy’s on Ormand Street is taking in the
emotionally distraught, although I hear there aren’t too many.”

Kai warmed to that. She looked out at the
city again, this time with a hint of pride. “It's good that the One
of All Sacred is still held dear in this age.”

Poe let out a grunt that wasn't supposed to
be heard, but made no attempt to hide it. “Sorry,” he said. “I grew
up cynical.”

Ashan glared at him. “Agent Poe…humans, on
the surface, show reactive emotions quicker than true emotions.
What you felt today went
much
deeper than either of those.
What you have witnessed is the
soul's
emotion. Yes, the city
is healing itself. Yes, there are those in the city who are
awakening. The tide of fear has already given way to renewal. As
much as your kind hates to admit it, you are just like us.”

Poe smirked, shaking his head. “Don’t get me
wrong, Ashan, I completely agree. But don't get me started with the
psychology. I'm on the ARU…I've had
that
conversation too
many times.”

Ashan studied him for a moment, mirroring
Poe’s expression. “I imagine you have.”

“Caren and I will check out the religious
contacts today,” he continued. “Contacting the industries might
take longer though. Commerce has a habit of tripping all over
itself at the most inopportune moments. Federal procedures,
screening, covering their asses, that sort of thing.”

“Reminders of the Eighth Embodiment?” Ashan
asked.

“More than likely,” he nodded, noting how
easily the man had breached that subject. If Ashan and Kai weren’t
afraid to bring up that event, then he wasn’t going to hold back
either. “It'll take at least another day or so to get things back
to normal. If they're not dropping everything to help, they're
picking up what's left to earn a profit.”

Kai nodded. “You will find that anywhere you
go, Alec.”

Poe shrugged. “Still, I'm sure DuaLife and
KJS will be the first to respond. I've already got eyes and ears on
it. Anything we should ask them straight up?”

Ashan narrowed his eyes at him. A strange
reaction that made Poe uncomfortable. “No, not really,” he said.
“At least not right away. But you're a profiler, Alec. I imagine
you would want to better understand them. Listen to them, Alec. You
obviously have the ear for it.”

Poe frowned. “What the hell is that supposed
to mean?”

He merely laughed. “You tell me, Agent
Poe.”

Poe glared at him, quite sure that his words
were a comment on his bloodline. He’d been given up for adoption,
but he knew enough to know that he had a bit of Meraladian blood in
him, that he could take that next step, just like Caren, and join
the Mendaihu adepts. Ashan’s words were an underhanded comment on
his true surname, Eiyashné…the clan of listeners. He’d said that
not as a provocation however, but to let him know he was aware of
what kind of person Poe was. He shook his head and let it drop.

“Are we all set here, then?” he asked.
“Anything else you’d like to cover?”

“I believe we are fine for now,” Ashan said.
“We shall of course update you on anything that may come up in our
own research.”

“Let me know how we can best reach you,” Kai
added.

He pulled out a business card and scribbled
his and Caren’s home numbers on them, and handed it to her.
“Listen,” he said, crossing his arms. “I want to head back to HQ
and bring Caren up to speed. Again, welcome to Bridgetown, and
thank you again for your assistance. We deeply appreciate it.”