A Division of Souls - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe (52 page)

“Now, now,” he said in a calm, somewhat
hoarse voice. “Is that any way to talk to the people you govern?”
He raised an eyebrow and waited for an answer.

Anton growled. He had little time for these
games, and switched the man’s feedscreen off, only to find that it
had remained frozen open. Even after prodding and punching the
screen repeatedly, it was clear he no longer had control of his own
vidmat. He grunted with annoyance and contemplated calling Shirai
but couldn’t, not with this civilian hacked into the system. He
glanced at Nandahya again, but she was fixated on the man’s image
on the screen. Did she know him?

“Listen…sir, I believe we need to talk,” the
man said.

“Who are you?” he seethed.

Again with the self-satisfied smile. “Let’s
just say I’ve been watching you for quite some time, sir. Just
watching.”

“Watching…?” He paled. “Vigil.” The man had
brazenly hacked into a Provincial Governor’s deck, and he’d done so
bypassing all security and evading the countless firewalls,
including Shirai’s. And he hadn’t even bothered to mask his face!
Anton stared at the man, wondering how the hell this punk had
managed to do it, and why he looked vaguely familiar. There was
little he could do now, despite his best efforts, except wait out
the hijacking. If rumors about Vigil were true, he would not be
able to do anything at all until this man disconnected first.

“Again, a distinct pleasure, sir,” the man
said and bowed his head. “And a pleasure to meet you as well, edha
Mirades. Now…before you move ahead with your little conference,
sir, I’d like to speak with you about a few things. Things you may
find important.”

“More important than…” Anton caught himself,
and prodded at the close-screen function again. “What do you
want?”

“Just to talk,” he repeated. “It seems you
and I have the same goals, and I believe we can work together. We
all want peace between the Mendaihu and the Shenaihu, of course…but
that’s where you’re making the mistake, sir. The battle is not
linear, but one of balance. The culprit here is not edha Usarai and
his Mendaihu, nor is it the Shenaihu and their nuhm’ndah henchmen.
The problem, sir…lies within what you see out the window there. The
Rain of Light.”

Nandahya choked on her words.

Anton glared at her. “You knew?” he spat.
“You knew all this damn time, and you didn’t fucking
say
anything?”

Nandahya said nothing, but lowered her
head.

“I’m surprised you didn’t,” the Vigil
said.

“Shut up!”

“Honestly, sir,” he said, holding up his
hands. “I really thought you knew. Well — no matter. I just want to
tell you that if you continue with this uplink with your poor man’s
army, I’m afraid that there may be irrevocable circumstances.”

“They’re there for security, damn you!” he
yelled. “There will be no movement unless I tell them!”

The Vigil shot him a pained expression. “You
trust them that much, sir?”

“Yes,” he said, though he knew there wasn’t
enough conviction to it. Not enough to placate this man. “I
do.”

“Well, your loss,” he quipped. “Seriously,
I’m sure they all do great jobs…but they’re
way
out of their
league here. Get ready to be taken completely by surprise, sir. The
playing field is about to be taken over.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

The Vigil smiled. “You’ll see soon enough.
Just sit tight for now.”

*

“What do you see?” Natianos Lehanna
asked.

Janoss Miradesi stood at the windows of
Natianos’ office, looking out over the sea of rippling clouds, and
at the fleet of Special Forces helicopters hovering tentatively
above them. The sun had begun its slow afternoon descent and the
resulting brilliance of color as sunlight refracted off the
condensation was truly breathtaking. Janoss, however, had not been
seeing with completely human eyes, not since they had returned from
Trisanda. He had decided upon arrival that this new way of seeing
offered much more truth than in a normal field of vision. He
thought of himself as a Watcher of the Shenaihu now, the first of
hopefully many. This new spectrum carried thousands more shades of
Light, thousands more frames of focus. It was a clearer, more
intense vision than anything he’d ever seen, and it told no lies.
If he had chosen to switch back from Watcher to human eyesight, he
would have seen Natianos as the tall, slightly stocky and
intimidating man he had always known ever since he began working
under him. Now, with Watcher eyes, he saw him as he truly was: a
slender, intelligent and youthful man, the same he had seen on
Trisanda.

“It’s a disorganized mess,” he answered.
“Many hues, but it’s almost impossible to distinguish one from the
other, even with these eyes. There are too many to comprehend.
There’s no order to it.”

“With Lightseeing,” Natianos said, joining
him at the window. “You would have been blinded. You would have
seen only the brilliance of the souls’ energy, and not the
consciousness. A collective consciousness, though in thousands of
places at once. Each soul following its own separate destiny within
the confines of a spiritual community as the Rain of Light.”

Janoss winced. “And Nehalé believes he can
control them from the warehouse?”

“He does,” Natianos smiled. “He wishes to
use the dual spirits. Those he has gathered in the warehouse, and
those inside the Rain of Light. He wants to create a duality by
Gathering. This ritual would create a body equally Shenaihuza and
Mendaihuza…a cho-nyhndah by ritual rather than by inheritance. Most
of the spirits within the Rain are Shenaihu, did you know
that?”

He stared at him, the aside unexpected.
“No,” he said after a long pause. “No, I didn’t.” Then, after
another long pause, “How did you know?”

“Because I was once one of them.”

Janoss stared at him warily.

“And I tell you this: so was Nehalé Usarai.
He and I were both in this Rain of Light that you see now,
countless ages ago. Of course, he is Mendaihu, so naturally our two
souls existed side by side. He is my duality, as it were. My
spiritual twin. He cannot create a duality for himself, since I
exist.”

Janoss frowned at him, unable to say a word.
Had he not just looked at him with Watcher eyes, he would not have
believed him.
Spiritual twins,
he thought with a shudder.
True enough these two were so completely polar opposites, but that
one observation was not enough to prove the Natianos / Nehalé
relation. His eyes saw truth, but they did not speak it to him. He
would have to find out for himself.

“You are trying to undermine him,” he
said.

Natianos’ eyebrows went up, as if he were
genuinely offended by the accusation. “Not in the least,” he said.
“I am merely showing him how duality
works
. If he is to
awaken the Mendaihu soul within these people, then I equally
must
awaken their Shenaihu side. He’s gotten it all wrong,
you see. He’s thinking in terms of polarity. Quite a few people
are, really. It seems we’re lucky, though…the One of All Sacred
seems to understand the truth this time out.” He paused, laughing
to himself. “Simple misconception, really. Polarity is the belief
that there are two sides to a human soul…good and evil, let’s
say…and that they exist separately. One is inherently this
or
that, chooses one or the other or has it chosen for them.
Duality, on the other hand, is the belief that these two sides
coexist symbiotically. One can be this
and
that.”

He turned back to the window. “Nehalé thinks
he’s going for a duality, but for what reason?” he continued. “Does
he think that a cho-nyhndah will nullify the animosity between the
two? That is trying to rewrite history, and it makes no sense. He
must join with us in peace, if he’s going to get anywhere, and that
is the only way it can happen.
That
is what I was trying to
tell you on Trisanda, Janoss. The Shenaihu and the Mendaihu are
together a duality. One that cannot be abandoned and forgotten
again.”

The bitter truth hit Janoss hard. He had
coordinated the hrrah-sehdhyn yesterday at Natianos’ insistence. He
had even fought Nehalé himself! Now, with his own words, he was
faced with an altogether different reason why the attacks had taken
place. Duality? He shivered, and didn’t care that Natianos was
watching him closely, watching his every action and reaction. Did
everything come down to some cosmic game played by some unknown
god, perhaps even the One of All Sacred?

“What about —” he started.

“Free will?” Natianos said, cutting him off.
“Oh, that we still have. Trust me, if we didn’t, would you and I be
here right now, doing nothing but watching the Rain of Light try to
devour the city?” He let out a small laugh and shook his head.
“Okay, that was uncalled for. But truthfully, Janoss…this is bigger
than the freedom of the soul. This is
absolute
freedom. The
reason we’re not doing anything right now, is because Nehalé and
the One of All Sacred are about to save us from a potential
disaster. It’s his turn to play now; all we can do is watch.”

Janoss hid a sickening shiver. He was more
confused than ever now; did this mean that there was Mendaihu blood
inside his own skin as well? That there was Shenaihu blood inside
Nehalé? That he could channel a side of him so bent on the
destruction of its twin! And he had tried to do just that at the
church yesterday…he had tried to kill Nehalé with his own hands!
“What happens next?” he said quietly.

His voice barely reached Natianos, who had
moved back to the couches against the far wall. He turned away from
the window to see him sitting comfortably in one of the couches,
one muscular leg crossed over the other. “I really do not know,”
Natianos said, throwing his hands up. “Once we are all
awakened…
truly awakened
, mind you, to the duality…it is up
to the One of All Sacred to tell us what we must do next.”

Janoss remembered that one man…that one
Shenaihu who had died early in the fight, when Nehalé had slammed
him down into the ground, breaking his neck in the process. That
man, whose name he no longer remembered, had spoken within, his
voice screaming in vengeance. He had heard him…how could he not?
His anger had consumed him, and his voice had carried throughout
the place. Anybody who knew to listen within could have heard him.
That was why he had returned to meet Nehalé face to face, rather
than keep his distance.

Knowing what he knew
now
, he began to
think that attacking the man as he did might not have been the
greatest of ideas after all.

Knowledge is Light
, he reminded
himself, and took a seat on the second couch.
Learn from your
mistakes.
He contemplated saying something to Natianos…but
could not find any useful words at that moment. Whatever was done
was done. He would have to make peace with his actions. Despite all
that he was and everything he believed in, fate was completely in
Mendaihu hands now.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Faith

Anton glared at the man on the vidmat screen
who’d stopped talking to him ten minutes ago. “You still haven’t
told me why you’re here,” he said.

“In time, Governor,” the Vigil said
distractedly, shooting a side glance his way as he tapped away at
an unseen keyboard. “In time.”

Anton dug his fingernails into his palms.
This punk kid from Vigil had not only frozen his link with his
Special Forces troops, but had also frozen any other link to the
outside. He couldn’t even raise a link to his secretary just
outside. Again he thought of reaching out to Shirai, and again
decided against it. There was just too much of a chance she could
be corrupted, and Goddess knew what would happen then.

“Keep in mind, there are ways we can work
around our situation,” the Vigil said. “I’ve already told you what
could happen. The choice is yours. What I do suggest, however, is
that you tell those people of yours not to advance. I know that was
your intent — I only need to ensure you make good on it.”

He glanced at Nandahya. She only shrugged in
response. “And once I do that?” he grumbled.

The Vigil smiled at him. “Once you do that,
you can give yourself a congratulatory pat on the back for not
putting millions of civilians in harm’s way once the Rain clears
away, and you end up being one of Bridgetown’s best-loved Governors
in the process.”

“Comforting,” he said flatly.

“It had better be comforting,” the kid said
gravely. “If I were to let you wreak havoc under an unstable Rain
of Light, there’s a good chance you would be looking at a death
toll of at least half the city, Governor. Here, let me show you
what I’m talking about.” He and Nandahya were both startled by the
sudden appearance of a hologram covering the entire desk surface.
It was a low-res image of the Bridgetown Sprawl, from the Crest all
the way down to Sachers Island and a little beyond. “This is what
is happening right now. Here’s the Rain of Light…” Another few
keystrokes and a transparent orange haze of clouds covered most of
the city. It covered the entirety of the Sprawl, with only the
Crest and the upper half of the Mirades Tower reaching above it.
“And here’s what’s going to happen, if everything goes as planned.
This is sped up, but the Cleansing ritual itself lasts about a half
hour.”

Somewhere close to Moulding Warehouse, a
tiny pinprick of light flashed on and off. Nandahya pointed out the
second flashing point of light closer to the ocean’s edge. After a
few moments the cloud-matrix began dissipating, drawn towards the
inland light until the sky was once again clear. The two pulses of
light slowed until they two finally disappeared.