The Persistence of Memories - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe (37 page)

“Her sehna lumia?”

Caren nodded. “Hers and all the former Ones,
who have given permission willingly. She's been telling me all
about it when she comes back. She's made amazing progress in just
two days.”

“Hard not to be proud of her,” he said,
warmed by the news. “Still, I think we should hold off with the
Councillor's info until we know she can handle it. I don’t want her
straying into any dark territory before she’s ready.”

“Fair enough,” she said, disappointment
barely hidden in her voice. “Let's go, then.”

“Okay. Uh...didn't you want to stop
somewhere?”

Caren shrugged. “I was planning on getting
some breakfast on the way in, if that's fine by you. I was running
late this morning, didn't get anything made.”

Breakfast sounded like a good idea. Between
getting in late last night and getting ready for work today, Poe
hadn't eaten anything other than that apple. He suggested stopping
at Ryan's Restaurant down the street, and they both donned their
ARU overcoats and left the apartment. Caren was about to lock her
door when she heard the clicking of the lock next door. Her
neighbor Madeleine Jakes stepped out into the hallway, walking cane
hooked on one arm and a purse hung over the same. She had turned to
lock her own door when she saw the two of them.

“Good morning, Alec, Caren,” she said,
nodding and smiling their direction. She activated the last lock
and walked up to them, touching the both of them on the arm.
“Always a pleasure to see the two of you together.”

“Good day to you, Madeleine,” Poe said,
bowing. “Always an honor to please.”

Madeleine laughed and slapped at his
shoulder. “Impudent man, you are. Heading off to work?”

Caren nodded. “We're stopping at Ryan's for a
quick breakfast. Would you like to join us?”

“Darling, I would love to.” She fell into
step with them as they made their way to the elevator, limping
slightly. “You'll have to excuse the cane, though. Leg's been
acting up.” She tapped her cane against the calf of her prosthetic
leg with a louder than necessary
clack
that echoed down the
hallway. Poe was always nervous when she did that, fearing one of
these days she'd break it. “Always seems to act up this time of
year, you know?”

“Change of seasons?” Poe asked.

Madeleine merely shrugged.

Caren filled the awkward silence quickly.
“It's not inhibiting you much, is it? I can always do your errands
if you —”

“Never you mind living my life,” she snapped
back. “I may be old, but I'm not invalid.”

Caren blushed and hung her head low. “I'm
sorry, Madeleine...I only thought —”

As if nothing had happened, the woman's mood
softened and she patted her lightly on the shoulder. “Hush, dear. I
only meant your focus at this time should be on yourself and your
sister. Now...tell me about the case you're working on.”

Poe shot a glance at Caren, who mirrored his
sudden discomfort. They had made it to the elevator already, so
Caren quickly pushed the button for it. Though she said nothing,
the look in her eyes said
we'd better tell her or we'll never
hear the end of it
.

“It’s regarding a possible
upcoming…skirmish,” she started.

“Another war,” Madeleine said quietly and
somberly, though Poe could tell that there was a tone of bitter
amusement to her voice. “That's one subject about which I know more
than I should,” she added. “Let's discuss this over breakfast,
shall we?”

“The reason I ask,” Madeleine said, washing
down the rest of her second corn muffin with her third coffee, “is
because I wish to help you. Now, before you go and say I’m too old
and frail, let me tell you this — I can still kick the bejeezus out
of either of you on a good day, with or without this damn
prosthetic. Now, dear man, tell me everything.”

Poe had barely finished his own coffee when
she put him on the spot. He stumbled for a moment, trying to think
of where to start. Eventually he told her nearly all that they
knew, holding back only when he thought it necessary or when Caren
motioned for him to stop. Their conversation continued well after
breakfast and Caren had to call in their attendance. Talking with
Madeleine was easier than he’d expected; she rarely interrupted,
and when she asked questions, they were often informed and
unexpected. She knew and remembered quite a lot about the previous
Season of Embodiment, and she was quite vocal about it. In a brief
lull in the conversation, Poe flagged down the waiter for another
round of coffee refills, and used the silence to catch Caren's
attention. He had formed a single word in his head when Caren
caught his eye and gave him the slightest shaking of her head.
Madeleine could soulhear.

“'Here lies fate,' eh?” Madeleine said, after
a long pause in thought. “Can't really say that's very original.
Twenty-five years ago. You two were just kids, but I was forty
years old when the Shenaihu nuhm'ndah stormed the Mirades Tower
near the end. It took nearly eight hundred Mendaihu Gharra that day
to keep them from acting on their threats. December first, if I
recall...early morning.
Very
early. Sun hadn’t risen
yet.”

“Vigil masses,” Caren said wistfully. “I
remember going to St. Adelaide's up in Berndette Corner during that
time. I never really knew what was going on, except that my parents
had this...this
shine
about them. They took their Mendaihu
duties very seriously.”

“I remember those well,” Madeleine nodded.
She reached out and covered Caren's hand with hers, squeezing it
slightly as she did. “The Vigil masses are what kept us all
together. A young priest — Reverend Edward Miriam, who runs St.
Patrick's now — he was the one who started the masses during that
time. Damn near saved our souls back then.”

“He's been missing for the last month,” Poe
said. “Since the attack on his church. No one seems to know where
he is.”

Madeleine let out something like a pitiful
moan and dropped her head slightly, and remained that way for a
good minute or so, lost in thought and sadness. Poe and Caren
understood and politely withdrew, letting her come to terms with
the news. She must have gotten to know the man personally after all
that had happened. Many of the veterans of that uprising kept in
close touch with each other, even if they rarely spoke of it. It
was much like Meraladian soulsensing; they never forgot the spirits
they fought alongside back then.

“He's here,” Madeleine said suddenly, lifting
her head, her eyes bright again. “I can't pinpoint where, but I
sense him clearly. He's still here — on Gharra, I mean. He’s only
in hiding.”

Caren goggled at her. “Madeleine, I had no
idea you could do that!”

Madeleine winked at her. “Now you do, hon. I
am Mendaihu Gharra, just like your parents, just like you and
Denni. Edward must have a reason for hiding, so I would not worry
about him, nor would I go out of my way to find him.” Smiling
again, she picked up her coffee and finished it. “But I'm
distracting myself from what I wanted to say. We were talking about
your graffiti. Now, let me tell you a story behind those words. Our
distinguished Councillor James was there at the time, I believe, at
that final push at the Tower.

“We'd heard the call from Junna Kariktasi, a
powerful Mendaihu and one of the leading resistance leaders of the
day. No one really knows where he'd gotten the intel from, though
the popular rumor is that he'd found a few cho-nyhndah willing to
assist.

“The version I'd heard, edha Kariktasi had
been told or had found out about a Shenaihu nuhm'ndah leader who
had plans to attack the Mirades Tower. He'd learned about the
artificial intelligence there, Shirai. She was in her fourth beta
version at the time, but coming very close to complete sentience in
alpha mode. This man wanted to take over Shirai and corrupt her,
turn her into a weapon that could conceivably corrupt every other
piece of machinery in existence on Earth, by way of a living,
sentient virus.

“Now, as far-fetched as that seems, it's more
believable once you realize that Shirai is, in fact, sentient by
way of a soul — a fact accepted by the leaders of at least five
major Gharné religions, I should add — and that her soul could, in
fact, be corrupted by way of an awakening as cho-nyhndah. Alec, I
see your logic circuits churning there, but let me explain:

“There are cho-nyhndah like yourselves, like
Denni, and many others, who are able to control their dual selves.
For instance, you, Alec, might be able to channel your Shenaihu
half to understand your enemy more clearly. This is largely in part
because you were awakened by a professional, Nehalé Usarai. Only
someone of his ability, or barring that, the One of All Sacred, can
awaken someone so cleanly.

“As for Shirai...well, she was well protected
by her creators and a mess of Mendaihu standing outside the doors,
but that wouldn't have stopped them influencing her in other ways.
That was when a group of young techs and maybe a councillor or two
set up shop on Sachers Island and began a group called Vigil. They
were given the duty of protecting her by electronic means. I hear
the group still exists, though I have never known anyone who had
been a part of any incarnation of it.

“Edha Kariktasi had called us all from
within, this ragtag group of Mendaihu from all over Bridgetown, to
come in and protect Shirai at all costs. Me? I didn't think twice
about it. It was an honor to be called. We all gathered our
respective parishes, a good number of us going to St. Patrick's in
Branden Hill. I remember Reverend Miriam saying mass that morning.
I saw your parents there, you were with them, Caren. I don’t know
where they’d gone off to after that. But I was relieved to see them
after the fact.

“So! Standing guard at the foot of the
Mirades Tower, we waited for the sun to rise, eight hundred of us
flanking the north side, still more elsewhere in Tower Park.
Reinforcements were at the ready, waiting in Branden Hill. Over
three thousand Mendaihu Gharra congregated in one place. Imagine
the energy levels that day!

“If fate lie anywhere, it was at the north
side of the Mirades Tower. It was still dark, but the Shenaihu
nuhm’ndah had arrived. Numbers had them at nearly a thousand, ready
to break through. They made their way down North Main Street,
rather than exit Light all at once — that would have been
potentially fatal for all involved.

“The chaos started when they set foot in the
park. Goddess...it still bothers me now, to realize the lengths
they went to, to corrupt Shirai. They knew that simply entering her
databank floors by means of Lightwalking was an exercise in
futility. Too many barriers. We'd already built a psychic wall
around her to complement the Special Forces units surrounding her.
They had to get through the front lines first.

“Well...the fight lasted four full hours
before they withdrew. Both sides probably could have gone on for
hours more, but there were casualties everywhere and we had to take
stock. I was still on both feet at that time, tending to the
injured. I had a middling education in soulhealing by then, so the
least I could do was calm their nerves as the field doctors did
their thing.

“Two hours later...”

She took a deep breath, and lifted her eyes
to the two of them. Caren in particular.

“Two hours later, at eleven in the morning,
the Shenaihu waved the flag of truce. It surprised all of us, since
we were so on edge, half expecting them to attack us while we were
still working triage. But they came with a warning, and this
warning has set the tone for the 'guarded indifference' that is so
prevalent today. I still remember its words exactly:

“'Keep in mind, brothers' —
brothers,
he said. I’m not sure why he used
eicho
and not
kinléshi
, which makes more sense — 'Keep in mind, brothers,
that we seek the same goals as you. We seek to find the One of All
Sacred. There, our paths will diverge. We will seek the One to
dissolve this universe and create anew, as it is the
only
way we shall ever live in Peace, Love and Light. We will return.
Here, on this green, lies fate.'

“I memorized those words because I felt I
should. I am passing it on to you now, though I'm sure you must
have figured out their motives by now. But that's where I first
heard that phrase, 'here lies fate.' I thought it was an odd turn
of phrase, but now it makes sense. I can only guess that they plan
on attacking the Mirades Tower to corrupt Shirai again.”

With a final, slow breath, she smiled warmly
at them. “I've wasted enough of your time, my dear sehnadha. I
should have let the both of you go a half hour ago. Go, now. And
remember what I've told you. And Caren...you have such a lovely
sister. Take good care of her.”

Poe drove down Krieger Avenue towards
Headquarters, still unsure of what to say. He'd known Madeleine
Jakes for at least as long as he'd known Caren. He'd always figured
she was a devoted family friend from way back, nothing more. Now
she'd revealed herself to be a Mendaihu Gharra who understood more
about Seasons of Embodiment than she let on. He had the vague sense
that she was looking out for them in some way, and not just as a
Mendaihu.

Caren had taken it all in stride, as if this
surprising news was nothing new to her. Perhaps she'd figured it
out a long time ago, and this only confirmed it. She was busy
scribbling something onto her portable vidmat, and by a quick
glance, he saw she was searching the ARU site on a side screen. She
was writing with a flourish, scrolling down with her left thumb
while she wrote, so he chose not to interrupt.

“Summary of what Madeleine said,” Caren said
without lifting her eyes.

Poe grinned. “Good idea.”