The Persistence of Memories - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe (36 page)

Where am I...?

She braved the brutal, icy winds and lifted
hear head. Her vision blurred from tears and snow and blood, she
could barely make out anything even remotely familiar. She may not
even be in Bridgetown anymore. She may have been on some remote,
hellish corner of Trisanda. She was on a path cutting through a
vast expanse of forest, but she could not make out anything further
than a few yards. The snow bore down on her, pushing her back,
pushing her —

I'm...

— pushing her backwards, stepping on her own
trail of blood, forcing her back. The dagger within her shifted and
she felt a death blow to the heart. She screamed, tried to scream,
and found no voice at all, only a raspy breath of air. She was
dying...she was mortally wounded when she shouldn't have been...she
was...

Your spirit is immortal,
Ampryss'
voice said.
You are strength, not only of the One and the
Goddess, but those who bore you. You are more alive than you can
possibly understand, dear child. You are...

“I am...” she exhaled, and fell to the
ground, face first into the snow. The rush of cold against her
slowly paling skin felt oddly comforting. She knew she had to die.
She had to let go of this old life of hers, of little Amna
Ehramanis destined to follow her best friend Denni Johnson around,
always taking care of her when things got rough. She could keep
that responsibility, but there had been so much more. She had
wanted to do so much more! She couldn't die like this! This
was...

...
this is the reality I have acquired as
my past lives. I was betrayed. I was the cause of everyone else’s
misery. I was...I was stabbed perilously close to the heart, for I
was to follow the One of All Sacred, despite the wishes of my
father. Someone attempted to kill me...and now, hours later, they
have nearly succeeded. I shall be dead in moments.

“This is...”

This is destiny. This is my fate, and I must
choose to accept it. And I shall, Dearest One. You are my friend,
my dear Denysia. You are part of my spirit. You are my love, my
light, my spirit. I shall return, Dearest One. I shall rise up
again to heal everyone’s pain. I shall rise up again...

“I...sh-shall...”

Amna gasped in the air and opened her eyes.
She was lying on her futon, bare to the cold predawn air,
shivering. She was in her room, safe from harm. She was wide awake
and spiritually calm. She felt physically drained, but that didn’t
matter. She was alive!
Alive!
She grabbed the sheets at the
end of her bed and pulled them quick over her body. She was out of
breath and trembling and deliriously happy to be here and
alive!

She was alive! Ampryss had shown her a small
taste of what lay in store at her true sehna lumia. She had been
given just a brief glimpse of a past life. A violent, unnatural
life, but one that had stayed in the far reaches of her
consciousness, waiting for the right moment to come forth. She
remembered it now. She'd defended the One, even then. All the way
to the End.

And she wondered, only briefly, if this was
her destiny. If this death she'd witnessed would be her own,
sometime in the future. If she would survive the victory of the One
over the nuhm'ndah. If a victory was to be had at all.

“Ampryss...” she called out through
chattering teeth, hoping the woman would still be there. She felt
no presence, but instead felt remnants of emotions, tiny fading
ripples of love and empathy, directed at her. Ampryss had left her,
had left some time ago. Amna was not angry but she was curious. Why
had she been shown this disturbing image of her own death in a past
life?

She closed her eyes again, completely
exhausted. She certainly was not going to be going anywhere today.
She felt a constant buzzing in her head, the aftereffect of her
mind running at full throttle for most of the night. She winced,
aware only now of its intensity and its audible hum just at the
edge of hearing.

Then she felt something, a frenzied ripple
within.
Amna...?

Denni.

Amna, you there?

“Yeah...” she whispered. “You hear me okay?”
She did not have to speak from within to Denni, no matter where she
was in Bridgetown, so she chose not to.

Clearly. You feeling all right over there?
I'm sensing some intense energies. Did something happen?

Amna rolled over and faced the window. The
predawn light was growing brighter, burning off the fog. A quick
glance to her night table at the alarm clock revealed that it was
close to six in the morning. “Crap,” she said, groaning as she
turned back over to face the wall. “Didn't sleep a wink last night,
Den. Something's up.”

What's wrong?

“I really don't know. Something about a
second awakening, for me alone. I was just talking to Ampryss,
about a half hour ago. Something bad is going to happen, Den.”
Suddenly aware she was crying, she balled herself up into a fetal
position under the covers and wiped at her face. “I need to go to
my sehna lumia.”

Amna felt the tingle of Denni's concern
rippling over her.
Did Ampryss tell you this?

“No...” she sighed. “My own choice. Something
I have to do.”

Tell me when you're ready. I'll guide
you.

“No,” she moaned. “I have to do this by
myself. I can get there by myself, Den. You can come with me for
comfort. But not now. I feel like shit, Den. I don't know what it
is, but I'm freezing and burning at the same time, but I’m not ill.
This is a spiritual thing.”

Denni paused before answering, and Amna felt
another wave of concern, this time stronger and directed solely at
her.
You haven't been fully awakened,
she said.
You have
a sleeping spirit within you. One I have not sensed yet.

“I don't think you can.”

I might,
Denni offered.
Just give
me time. I can feel
you
from the other side of Bridgetown,
for Goddess' sake. And your spirit is the only one aside from
Caren's that I can feel so intensely. I'm not sure why, but I know
I can sense you, Amzi. I can sense you like you were my own child,
as crazy as that sounds.

“Maybe not so crazy,” Amna mumbled, directing
that comment solely at herself.

I'm there for you,
Denni said.
I'll
stop by after school, okay?

Amna laughed weakly. “Wasn't a week ago that
I'd said the same to you.” She felt Denni's presence waver for a
few moments then disappear, leaving her alone in her bedroom. She
took in a lungful of cool city air and wiped the rest of her tears
away, determined not to let this experience keep her from living
her life. She may not have enough energy to go and do much of
anything today, but she certainly was not going to let her mind get
the best of her.

Eventually she pushed herself out of bed and
threw her sweats and tee shirt back on, and walked out into the
living room. Her mother, usually up before the sun, chose this day
to sleep in, so she scuffled into the kitchen and made herself some
coffee. She definitely wasn't going to school today, but she'd be
damned if she was going to sleep the day away.

Sipping from the mug, she made her way to the
picture window looking out over the small park across the street
from her building. She had the same view as Denni, of the street
and the other buildings surrounding her, and also of the ubiquitous
Mirades Tower, reaching up over everything else.

“You know, don't you,” she said to the Tower.
“You know what's going to happen.”

She took another sip of her coffee, watching
the sun finally peek over the edge of the ocean, illuminating
everything with Light.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Reconnect

Poe stepped out onto the back fire escape,
rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and lit up his first smoke of the
day. Something had kept him awake all night, though he had no clue
as to what it was. His muscles were aching with exhaustion, in
direct conflict with his singing, buzzing nerves. They ached the
same way they would when he pulled an all-nighter, weak and shaky
and in bad need of rest. Or barring that, sustenance. Coffee
sounded good right about now.

He glanced southward down the back alleyway
towards the side street at the end of his block. Few cars traversed
this cobblestone back street, it being too narrow for a regular
thruway. There was another alley past it, and another one after
that, and so on, for blocks. His fire escape was at such a specific
angle and height to the alley, he could see nearly a ten whole
blocks without any interruption.

Sometimes late at night he would walk down
this stretch when he needed solace but could not break away to
visit the Crest. Foot traffic was down to a minimum then, maybe one
or two people, if that. He could walk down this stretch and make
himself believe he was walking somewhere else, perhaps another
city, maybe even an outpost town. All he had to do was forget that
the Mirades Tower was looming just over the other side of these
buildings. It definitely wasn't the same as actually being
elsewhere, even at the Crest, but it was comfort in a more communal
way.

An odd thought crossed his mind — what if,
somewhere along this extended alleyway, he found the words
here
lies fate
, pasted somewhere on the ground, or on someone's back
wall? He shuddered, wondering where that idea had come from, but
now that he'd planted the seed, it stuck there like an annoyance.
It was possible, but it made no sense. Why would anyone want to tag
this back alley? He finished off his cigarette and ducked back into
his apartment, forcing himself to forget that dumb idea.

He was nearly set to head off to work when
his ARU comm went off. He glanced at the readout: it was Caren,
perfect timing as always. He lit another cigarette and answered.
“Poe here,” he mumbled

“Hey you!’ she answered in a chipper
sing-song, very unlike her. “Welcome back.”

“Pashyo,” he said flatly, waving a hand in
the air.

“Oh, lighten up,” she laughed. “We know you
love it at the Ay Are Zoo. Any chance you can pick me up
today?”

“Trains are up and running,” he said. “Saves
me on the auto charging bill too, I hear.”

“Goddess, you’re grumpier than usual today,”
she huffed. “Seriously, I've got some interesting news to share
with you.”

At least she was in a festive mood, which was
always a plus. “Eight-fifteen sound good?”

“Make it eight,” she said quickly. “We may
have to stop for refreshments.”

Poe cocked an eyebrow. “The hard stuff?”

“Geez, no! Just coffee.”

“Eight it is,” he said. He stretched his
neck, feeling and hearing joints popping. He yawned again and took
another drag. “Anything Kai and Ashan should know about?”

Caren paused before answering. “Not at the
moment.”

Why was she being so secretive? “All right.
We'll meet them at HQ anyway, if we need to spread the news. See
you then.” He disconnected the call and dropped his comm back on
his bed. He stood there for a moment, scratching his stubbly chin,
feeling uneasy. He wasn't too keen on what Caren might have in
store for him. Perhaps he was just irritable from the shuttle back,
or the emotional drain from his last day there. Or maybe it was
that he hadn't seen Kai in the last few days and missed her
something terrible. Not how he wanted to start the day at all.

Caren greeted him with a tight and unexpected
embrace as soon as he entered her apartment. She practically threw
herself at him, and he shifted balance at the last second to
accommodate her sudden, uncharacteristic show of emotion. He took
her awkwardly into his arms. Just a welcome-back hug for
friendship's sake? Quite unlike her. “Uh...hello to you too,” he
said, and tastefully pried himself away. “You've either solved a
case or stumbled onto another one.”

“I have a crazy idea…” she started. “Let me
preface it by saying we don't need this person for political or
business reasons.”

Poe attempted another smile. “I'm
listening.”

“We’ve figured out the graffiti,” she said.
“It has nothing to do with gang activity at all. It’s a bit more
creative than that.” She began to pace as she explained everything
she’d learned and deduced over the past few days, walking from
kitchen to living room to foyer to kitchen again. Poe chose to
stand near the living room couch, well out of her way. She stopped
in front of him again, staring up at him. “All we need now is an
interview with Councillor James. It still doesn’t explain
Saisshalé’s attacks — and they’re only connected in a tertiary way
— but it does clear things up. The only people who know all this
are first and second team, Kai and Ashan, Christine, and Anando.
And Vigil.”

“Huh.”

“Speaking of whom…remind me to tell you about
Matthew later on. Interesting story
he
has for you.”

“That doesn't mean it's already solved,” he
said as nicely as possible, in an attempt to bring her back down to
earth. Despite the fact that this lead would most likely go
nowhere, it still made sense in a weird way. The Councillor had
always been forthcoming in all his interviews, and many of his past
writings had been surprisingly prophetic. On the other hand, the
councillor might not know a damn thing about the current
Embodiment. The man was probably in his early teens when the last
one arrived.

“Bit of a stretch, but I'm game if you are,”
he offered. “What are you expecting to get out of it?”

“I expect to give any useful information to
Denni.”

“Are you sure that's wise?” he said quietly.
“I mean, sure, she might be able to get something out of it, but
let’s be honest. It's a bit much for a teenage girl to
swallow.”

“She's moving forward,” she said, a little
more forceful than necessary. “She's been visiting Trisanda more
often.”