The Persistence of Memories - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe (25 page)

The words burrowed themselves in to Poe's
mind before they even entered the Questioning rooms, digging deeper
than anyone had ever managed before, sending a quick shiver of pain
into his temples. He winced and cursed himself for doing so. He
would not show pain to this man again. Saisshalé was cuffed and
restrained to his chair, but the man remained calmly seated. He
offered them both a wide, friendly smile.

“Speak up, Saisshalé,” Murph said. “You know
the rules.”

He laughed and nodded. “Fair enough.” He
turned to Poe, studying him for a moment. “You're that agent from
Bridgetown,” he said. “You were with Agent Johnson that day,
weren't you?”

Poe bowed, ever so slightly. “That would be
me,” he said. “How's the ribs? And the head, for that matter?
Didn’t get a concussion, did you?”

Saisshalé laughed again, clearly enjoying the
taunt. “Doing better, thank you. She's got one hell of a kick on
her.”

“I'll send my regards,” he said. “What the
hell are you doing up here, anyway? I thought you were staying in
Bridgetown.”

“Oh, I'm not done there,” he said jovially.
“I simply started the chain reaction. The Dahné doesn’t find me
useful at the moment. You know he’s had me walking all over the
place lately? No attacks, I assure you. Just me, walking around,
kicking the fear up a notch or two, just by my presence. But I've
been elsewhere, my friend, not just your home. Newyork and all the
way over to SoCal Metro, and many other provinces in between. A
little sightseeing, a little disruption here and there. I’ve got to
balance out the Dearest One’s work, you know. Right now I'm working
on Detective Murphy's wonderful province. To tell you the truth,
this area bores me to tears. All this condensed intelligence, and
no spirit at all!” He shrugged back to Poe, looking him right in
the eyes. “Bridgetown was a piece of cake, thanks to Denysia.”

Poe bristled, but said nothing.

“That’s the most you’ve said all week,” Murph
said.

“She woke everyone up, but she didn’t see me
at all.” he continued. “I’m a bit annoyed. No, I’m actually let
down by that, really. She should have recognized me right away. So
I took advantage of that. All I had to do was infect a few people,
and they did the rest. Come on, Alec. You knew this was going to
happen.”

“You
do
know who the One of All Sacred
is,” Murph said, staring at Poe.

“Watch that projection,” Poe muttered back.
“It's what he wants.”

It's what
you
want as well,
Saisshalé said within.

“Get out of my fucking head!” Poe yelled.
“Never do that again!”

“Come on, Alec. What can you do to me? Sic
Caren on me again?”

“Don't tempt me,” he growled. “Just answer
the damned questions, Saisshalé. You do not want to tempt me.”

“Why you?” he goaded. “Oh — that's right.
You're cho-nyhndah. As if that makes any difference at all.”

You do not know me,
he said from
within.

“I don't have to,” he said, and began to rock
back and forth in his chair ever so slightly. “All Mendaihu and
jinko
cho-nyhndah are the same, you know. They want to be
saviors of the world and end up being martyrs to a cause no one
cares about anymore. Entropy, Poe. It's about high fucking time
that this Good Earth came to an end and started over as
Gharra.”

Murph attempted to jump back into the
conversation. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“He's talking about a Season of Embodiment,”
Poe said. “He's been waiting for me.” He turned back to Saisshalé
and stared him down. “You knew I'd be up here, Saisshalé. You knew
I'd be in New Boston. What is it about me, then? What do you want
me
for? I'm just like all the other Mendaihu around here,
you know that. You said so yourself. What is it?”

Saisshalé closed his eyes, lifted his head,
and took a deep breath.

“
Answer me, you sack of shit!
” Poe
yelled.

Fesh piann,
he responded.

Poe suddenly noticed the low crackling sound
and a rise in tense energy.

“Pashyo —”

Murph had just enough time to dive to the
floor, leaving Poe in the line of fire as Light filled the room. A
bright, painful, searing Light, devoid of emotion. It burned. It
killed.

“Don't —”

No one can keep me bound,
Saisshalé
said.

Blinded, Poe grabbed wildly at nothing. “Get
back here, damn you!” he yelled. His hand hit something and he
grabbed for it again and missed. His sense of balance vanished and
he felt himself pitching forward. Saisshalé let out a loud and
guttural laugh. An unnatural laugh.

“
Saisshalé!
”

We'll meet again, Alix Eiyashné. That I
promise.

Poe shuddered, felt something against his
shoulder, and reached for it. It was a hand. Murph's hand. Murph
pulled him backwards, tripping over his feet and landing hard on
the floor.

Goodbye, Simon Murphy. Goodbye, Alix
Eiyashné.

“Damn it!” Murph spat. “Damn it!”

The room faded into semi-darkness. The
overhead lights flickered twice, blacked out, then came back on.
Poe picked himself up off the floor, dizzy and frustrated. On the
other side was one chair, with a pair of handcuffs sitting dead
center.

Murph groaned as he stood, already knowing
Saisshalé was already long gone. He scanned the room, first at
Saisshalé’s chair, then at Poe. His mouth was a thin line, his
brows furrowed. Eventually he turned and started to leave the room,
only to stop at the door. “Keep me posted when you get back to
B-Town, Poe,” he said quietly. “I want to see how this ends.”

“Sure,” Poe said. “Of course.”

Murph stared at him for a moment longer. Then
he turned and left without another word.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Alignment

Governor Anton Rieflin and Nandahya Mirades
sat together at the head of the council table, eager to get the
meeting started. Nandahya had called for it, being the only other
member who could do so, and by the disheveled look of her notes and
the deep scowl on her face, she’d done so out of necessity and
definitely not for the pleasure of it.

He glanced around the table at the other
members of the PGC. The last time they'd met, it had been just
after the Awakening Ritual, before anyone even knew what was going
on. Luckily they'd managed their way through that event with little
incident, even after Vigil had hijacked all communications until
the Ascension event had completed. Some on the council had quickly
put their faith in One of All Sacred in her Ninth Embodiment. They
also recognized that the One was a teenage girl from Berndette
Corner, and in all fairness, had little to no grasp of her full
potential or even what she was meant to do. Still others refused to
be swayed and demanded he take immediate action. For the first time
in years, there was no majority opinion at all. The decisions
rested completely on Nandahya and himself.

To put it bluntly, it appeared nobody had any
idea what the hell they were doing.

He freely admitted he'd put his faith in the
One as well, but he certainly wasn't a practitioner or even an
adept. He'd always acknowledged some sort of deity out there in the
cosmos, be it the One, a God or a Goddess, whose primary role was
to guide their followers and believers to a higher plane of
spirituality, and had peacefully left it at that. He'd felt
perfectly safe with that reasoning, and if it happened that his
Creator had cursed him for not paying respects often enough in this
life, well...that was his own damn fault. But here and now, in this
reality called Earth or Gharra, he had to believe in the human and
Meraladian races that surrounded him. Fallible and misdirected as
they often were, he believed in them more than anything else.

“Are you all right?” Nandahya whispered,
leaning towards him.

He brought his attention swiftly back to the
meeting room. “I'm fine. Just worried.”

She regarded him for a moment. “Anything in
particular?”

He turned to her, and saw guilt in her eyes.
She was worried he was about to call her on whatever she was about
to announce! “Just the timing of it all,” he said. “The tension’s
getting worse, and we’re still unprepared. I know you can sense it,
Nanzi. We’re in for something big and we’re not ready for it.”

Nandahya tapped him on the arm. “We'll be as
ready as we can,” she said.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

She shook her head and waved him off,
choosing instead to start the meeting by taking roll. Frustrated
but unwilling to press her further, he looked around until he found
the short pallid frame of Jack Priestley, representing the security
branch of the Crimson-Null Foundation, sitting at a couch across
the room, and a young and clearly uncomfortable replacement at his
assigned chair three seats to Anton’s left. Jack was
uncharacteristically slouching and frowning deeply at him. Anton
slowly nodded an acknowledgement and was met with an even deeper
scowl. He resisted temptation to antagonize him any further,
instead politely turning his attention back to Nandahya as she
finished the introductions and began reading off the first state of
business.

“I would like to thank Governor Rieflin for
letting me call this meeting at such short notice,” she said. “I'm
sure that the reoccurrence of an emergency meeting so soon after a
Blessed Event does not bode well with many of you, but rest assured
we are here as a preemptive measure, and at this time we still do
not plan an offensive.”

Light and half-hearted applause barely
crossed the room. He turned away from his council, more embarrassed
by this preamble than the attention she was trying to give him.
He'd skipped it the last time, and for good reason. He quickly
gestured for her to bring it to a close and move forward.

She nodded and continued. “To begin with:
there has been an upsurge of assaults in this city in the weeks
following the wondrous Blessed Event. The fact that the Ascension
of the One of All Sacred had failed only compounds matters at
hand.”

A few collective gasps caught Anton's
attention. He'd known — guessed, really — that it had failed the
day it happened, and word of its failure had been kept not only
from the public but most governmental offices, including the
CNF.

“I am happy to report that the Dearest One
came to no harm,” Nandahya said. “She has chosen to continue
following her path here in Bridgetown. The Mendaihu continue to
serve her as willing Protectors and Warriors.

“Regarding the assaults: according to
reports, there is a distinct possibility that rebelling Shenaihu
nuhm'ndah will continue their assaults against the city. Though
they affect only one or two people each time, this is still
domestic terrorism, pure and simple. While the ARU has been leading
the investigations, they cannot continue to cover all of them
without exhausting resources. ARU Commissioner Tatreault, I commend
you for the services your Units have offered, and I certainly
commend the agents themselves. BMPD Commissioner Tatreaux, I also
commend you for the services the Police Department have provided by
adding more patrols to the streets to assist the ARU.

“We have stopped short of utilizing the
Sentinels or Special Forces Units, as we do not want to resort to
such firepower at this time. We did not need it during the Blessed
Event, which had been stabilized by the Mendaihu. We will call on
them if needed, but only then. It has been twenty-five years since
the previous Season of Embodiment. The two units were not called at
that time either, as the Mendaihu Elders of the time had advised us
not to. Normally the Mendaihu have no governmental powers over the
Provincial Government, but in this case it was warranted that we
follow their lead. Their cause was a spiritual one, and current
events, however tragic, are of spiritual nature as well, and one
the Mendaihu promised they would see through. Time proves that they
have been good on their word.

“So, it is with the concession of Governor
Rieflin and myself that, if the Mendaihu call on us again for the
exact same reason and the exact same cause, we will not hesitate to
follow through with their wishes. If there are any dissenters in
this room, I would very much like to hear what you have to say
right now.”

As expected,
General
Stephen Phillips of the Special Forces Guard was the first person
to speak up. Dressed in full regalia, he stood up quickly and
addressed both Nandahya and Anton with the airs of a man trying
desperately not to lose his cool. “I must object, emha Mirades,” he
said gruffly. “We are talking about the safety of millions of
people in the immediate province, and countless more if we include
the outpost cities! I am certainly aware that Bridgetown is not
alone in this suffering. I have heard similar reports from
provinces all across this continent.”

Nandahya stood up herself
and matched his body language right down to the slight lean
forward, never breaking eye contact. “I understand completely,” she
said. “I know the history, General. Some provinces
did
employ the service
of those military units, and with great effect. But this is
Bridgetown, sir. If the Mendaihu Elders say do not deploy,
we
do not deploy
.
Is that understood?”

General Phillips took a slow breath and was
on the verge of responding, when Anton caught the look in his eye.
Fear. The man may have conviction, but his rank was well below
hers. He knew better than to argue with a Mendaihu Elder when it
came to a spiritual war. The man nodded slowly and straightened
himself, forcing a smile. It was the first time Anton had ever seen
the man back down from an argument.