The Persistence of Memories - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe (9 page)

Ampryss said nothing. In fact, she had
stopped talking aloud, and sat rock still, staring out into the
space in front of her, pursing her lips in frustration. Nehalé
could sense anger rising out of her, directed first at him, but
quickly deflected back at herself.

“...and just how do you propose we push
things forward, edha Usarai?” she said icily. “We are Watchers and
Protectors. We cannot interfere unless it is to defend the lives
and the spirits of others.”

Nehalé stared at her, nonplussed. Bless it,
how could she be this stubborn at a time like this? Was it out of
tradition that these Elders always reacted to events, rather than
prevent them? He certainly wasn't one to follow tradition. He'd
awakened Bridgetown out of necessity, because he knew a war was
coming soon and no one, not even the Elders had done anything to
prevent it from happening.

He'd interfered, why couldn't they?

“Why not, emha? The dawn of another war
between the Mendaihu and the Shenaihu is coming, and coming
soon
, and all we’re doing is talking! Think of the past,
Ampryss...two of the embodiments of the One died because of we did
nothing. I'm not about to make Denni the third, Ampryss. I won’t
let that happen.”

Her eyes narrowed at him. “You can't —”

“Denni is a young girl, damn it all!” he
barked. “Give her
life
, Ampryss. Give her the life she
deserves, not the stigma of death! She wants peace, just like any
of us. But we'd be equally to blame for her death if she isn't
ready to fight for it. Or don't you understand that?”

The rest of the table had quieted down to
whispers and gasps as the other Elders focused in on their
argument. Had no one ever bothered to question the Great emha
Eprysia before? Ampryss' face reddened, almost to the same hue as
the hair framing her face, and she had to keep herself from lashing
out at him. The air around her was electric, ready to spark at any
moment, but she held it back. Slowly, grudgingly, she accepted his
message and unclenched her jaw. She blinked slowly and looked away.
He had made his point.

“What do you propose, Nehalé?” she asked as
evenly as she could.

“I propose we open her eyes. Give her the
opening she needs to learn from the past. Give her access. Give her
memories.”

Ampryss glared at him. “You're asking about
giving her access to the sehna lumia, aren't you?” she said.
“You're certainly skirting a thin line, Nehalé. Those who visit
there can only access their own memories. They cannot access anyone
else's without permission.”

“She'd be reaching the memories of the former
Ones of All Sacred,” he said. “In essence, she'd be accessing the
memories of her past selves. I see no rules broken here.”

She winced at his weak attempt at twisting
her words, but said nothing in response. The other Elders leaned
forward, listening intently. Ampryss motioned for them to wait. “I
wish it were otherwise, but you've raised a valid point,” she said.
She turned to the other Elders with a hint of annoyance.

Roshan Eiyashné leaned forward first. “I
support the idea, but how can we be sure that the Ones of the past
would willingly agree to go along with this? Sa’im nyhnd’aladh,
emha, I mean no disrespect to the girl, but can we trust her in
such a sacred place?”

“I agree,” said another Elder, an older woman
by the name of Andra Selissia. “If she were chaperoned? We could
offer to bring Karinna to sehna lumia as well. I’m sure she would
—”

“Out of the question,” another woman
interrupted. Her short frame squeezed in between two burly men,
elbowing them aside. Nehalé thought he recognized her but couldn't
place where, and he hadn’t caught her name. “Karinna cannot leave
Gharra just yet. It is too soon.”

“Why can't —” Nehalé started.

“Let me finish. There is one person who may
be up to the task. I know of one young girl who may be able to
help. There's only one problem: although she's been awakened as a
cho-nyhndah and a Protector, her
real
soul has not.”

Ampryss frowned. “Please elaborate.”

“She's a
Né madhyané
, milady,” she
said. “An offspring of the One.”

Nehalé shuddered at the sudden silence that
hung over the table. An offspring of the One? Goddess, then that
meant…!

Ampryss broke the silence. “Was her spirit
conscious before or after the Awakening, Madhza?”

“After, milady. And if the rumors are true,
the girl is an embodiment as well, a reincarnation of the child of
the first Dearest. This child has always remained close to the
future Ones throughout all of their lives, instinctively knowing
who will be the next One of All Sacred, remaining close to them
throughout their lives. The child has not always made their
presence known, not for a long time, but she has returned now. I
have met this young woman, and she is a close friend of Dennise
Johnson. She was with her during the failed Ascension, and from
what I sense, she is willing to follow Denni anywhere.”

“Does she have a name?” Ampryss asked.

“Her True name is Annedin.”

Ampryss crossed her arms and tapped her
fingers against her forearms, thinking it over. Fully awakening a
Né madhyané would take more than a simple ritual...and once it had
taken place, no one would be able to tame her. The girl may be a
holy offspring of the One of All Sacred, but again, she was also a
young woman without a clue as to what her strengths may be.

“You must take that chance,” Nehalé prodded.
“It could mean her survival.”

“I understand,” she said, and turned back to
the woman. “Madhzi, can you initiate this?”

“I've already set things in motion,” she
said. “Denni returned from her self-imposed isolation a few days
ago. She's come to visit me a few times, asking for advice. She
does not know that I am an Elder, nor does Karinna. She does trust
me, though. I have suggested a few times that she get in touch with
her memories of being the One of All Sacred. She’s hesitant, but I
believe she’ll come around.”

“...and this Annedin?”

“Right by her side. She'll go anywhere Denni
goes. It's
got
to be Annedin, the way she’s latched onto
her.”

Ampryss slowly nodded, glancing again at
Nehalé as she did so. He felt a flash of guilt, unwarranted though
it might be. Should he feel guilty that he was helping Denni
remember her past, in order to keep her safe in the future?
“Nehalé, I must confess I don't fully agree with this method of
action. There are too many unknowns, too many risks upon Denysia,
and also upon this Annedin. I can only hope that you can do all you
can to keep her well protected.”

“I shall do my best, emha,” he said, bowing
deeply.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Expectation

Christine Gorecki leaned up against the wall
near the roof access door, her attention three blocks up the street
at what had once been a deserted warehouse. She lit the cigarette
she'd pulled from behind her right ear, her second one in the last
fifteen minutes, and frowned as she exhaled. This neighborhood used
to be quiet, enough that she could get her work done in relative
peace. Now she had the Mendaihu, the Shenaihu, the cho-nyhndah, and
whoever else wanted to jump on the bandwagon. She understood these
people had just awakened and needed direction…she
got
that.
But it was still a chaotic mess. She'd left the Alien Relations
Unit six months ago for this very reason, to escape the constant
ebb and flow of spirit energy that surrounded her. She'd had enough
of constantly throwing out that sensing wing of hers whether she’d
meant to or not, reading the same pain, the same confusion, the
same day-to-day bullshit that the blissfully sleeping spirits dealt
with. She'd had enough. She couldn't handle the onslaught
anymore.

Then Nehalé went ahead and performed that
damned ritual.

The Awakening, the Cleansing, and the Rain of
Light, and the Ninth Coming of the One of All Sacred, all in her
neighborhood, all in the span of less than a week. Pashyo! Sure,
helping Alec Poe guide the Rain of Light back to its source was
probably one of the more exhilarating rituals she’d ever performed
in her life, but this was exactly what she was trying to
escape!

So why did she not feel as aggravated as
she'd expected to be? Despite her emotional irritation, deep down
her soul no longer felt drained by the constant energy flow. Had
the Cleansing finally aligned everything? Had she just gotten used
to it? Had she been affected? She laughed at that last thought; it
was completely ridiculous, and it was also completely possible.
She’d planned on having herself tested for Mendaihu ability some
time ago, before she'd left the Unit, but had never gotten around
to it. And once she'd left, it was the last thing on her mind. She
was first and foremost a freelance investigator dealing with alien
spiritual cases, with a side project of spiritual healing for a
small and very select number of clients. Becoming a certified
Mendaihu agent was not very high on her list.

She already knew the answer to that question,
anyway.

The strangest thing was the absence of that
young girl, the One of All Sacred. Caren's little sister, of all
people! She hadn't sensed anything over the last few weeks, not
since getting hit broadside by her spiritual presence almost
immediately after she'd returned from her solitude. There was that
spurt of activity a few days after she'd returned, then nothing.
Not even a ripple. She’d chosen to blend in with the locals
instead, keep a low profile. The last thing a newly awakened deity
needed was a bunch of blind followers.

She took another drag from her cigarette and
pushed off the brick wall, walking slowly towards the edge of the
roof. She owned this bit of prime real estate, one of the nicer
buildings in the neighborhood, with a wide storefront, three floors
of three-bedroom apartments — the top one hers — and a large shack
on the roof that she used for ritual work. The building had cost
most of her savings from ten years in the Unit plus freelance work
on the side, but it was worth it. She had two tenants faithfully
paying the rent and asking no questions about her work. And work
was going just fine. Up until now.

Her choice to quit the ARU had been a
double-edged sword, in retrospect. She’d disassociated herself from
the ARU, but in the process she’d also cut herself off from nearly
everything that happened in the Sprawl. Her heightened soulsensing
may have been running nonstop and at highest level for those
months, but she still felt out of the loop. She walked the streets
at odd hours, just to soak up the general feel of whatever was
happening at the moment. When all those people started arriving at
the warehouse, she could feel something was up, even from three
blocks away. By the time a street fair had been set up that
afternoon, she headed over to check it all out.

When the first Awakening ritual had been
performed days earlier, she'd been surrounded by a strange mix of
fear, anticipation, and utter confusion. It wasn't until Denni's
Cleansing ritual — with a little grounding help from Poe and her
Benjamin’s Key — that things finally calmed. In the span of a half
day, all the chaotic energies in the air had realigned. It felt
like...

Peace? Balance? Connection? Something she
couldn’t quite define. Meraladians referred to it as
experiencing
Né
, but personally it felt like a keener
Meraladian soulsensing had been offered to her.

It felt eerily familiar, perhaps too much so.
And she needed to do something about that.

There was a desperate need for sehndayen-ne
of the Mendaihu and Shenaihu ways right now. Perhaps she would call
Chief Inspector Farraway and put in her name as a volunteer. The
best teacher, though...she was only fifteen and hardly knew
anything about spiritual theory. She was precisely the kind of
leader one
didn't
expect. She was a young, spunky kid who
followed her heart and her instinct and didn't think twice about
it. Denni was perfect for the job.

Christine took a last drag from the cigarette
stubbed it out as she moved closer to the edge of her roof.
Moulding Warehouse was once again quiet, though new followers were
still arriving daily. She didn't necessarily need to
see
these people; she could sense them well enough from this distance.
Their excited spiritual state was hard to ignore.

She'd been thinking a lot about uprisings
these last few days, and she knew she wasn’t the only one. She was
only a child during the last Embodiment, but she remembered the
stories of the final battle between the two spirits at Mirades
Tower Park all too well. The imbalances between the Mendaihu and
the Shenaihu spiraling out of control, until that day in late
November when both sides had finally called a truce. A slow but
steady peace soon followed and remained. As always, it never
lasted.

She remembered the overwhelming sense of
dread that hung over the city, all those years ago. She'd always
been sensitive to the emotions of others. She remembered her small
family, her parents, her older sister Helena and herself, escaping
the city just as it was getting bad, but not before she was witness
to the most horrific spiritual torture she'd ever known. Even at
eight years old, she understood the difference between a spirit at
peace and one writhing in agony because it was being starved of
Light.

She didn't want that to happen again.

She took one last look at the warehouse,
reaching out with a tendril of her own spirit in an attempt to read
whatever might be going on over there. The warehouse had become a
cross between a safe house and a command post for the Mendaihu and
Shenaihu who refused to let another uprising happen. She didn't
readily agree with what was happening over there; at times it felt
too militant for her liking. But she had to admit she was impressed
by how quickly and smoothly they’d prepared. They were just about
ready for anything.