The Persistence of Memories - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe (39 page)

It was hell, knowing privileged information
like this, knowing its impact on those people out there, and being
unable to share it. It would become common knowledge sooner or
later, but it tore at her that she couldn’t share it right this
second. It was too dangerous.

She kept her Mendaihu blood from raging. She
wanted to respond in a way that made a difference. She wanted to
prove to Rieflin and all his mindless idiot followers that he was
going to kill everyone. She wanted to band together with everyone
she knew, even Vigil, to keep this stupid war from happening. She
could feel it in her spirit now: this was going to be a war. A
brutal, dangerous season of Embodiment that could go so wrong, that
could cause so much more devastation than the last —

Suddenly her breath caught.

Damn it, not now!

Her breath caught again, and she felt the
sting of tears in her eyes.

Not now! I don't have the damned time —

She frowned, this physical reaction
unexpected yet inevitable. She began to sob quietly, then openly,
closing her eyes to the world but still hearing every noise, every
word, every sound that she didn't want to hear. She hated this!
Goddess, how she hated this! She was strong, damn it all! She
didn’t have time for this bullshit! She needed to be strong. She
needed to be there for Denni. She needed to…

Goddess…!
Every emotional memory
within her spirit came rushing forth in a tidal wave of pain,
sorrow, and loss. The bitter spiritual memory of her parents dying,
of her losing Denni, magnified times a thousand. This was the
Shenaihu within, feeling every single spiritual death that would
come soon if she did not stop this war. All the spirits out there,
torn away from the body, never to return to the physical, and she
could feel each and every one. The loss of Light. It overwhelmed
her so much she could no longer fight back.

All she could do was let it all out.

Goddess help me...

Falling to her knees, she grabbed hold of the
railing and held it tight.

Goddess...please...

She felt as if she were dying. She began
reaching out into empty air, attempting to grasp at something,
anything, to pull close and hold tight, and finding nothing but the
cold and unmoving metal railing. She wanted to escape this pain.
She wanted to feel that anger she felt when emha Nayélha pulled her
out of reality and into her warped spiritual training session. She
wanted...

She wanted so much to be held by Anando right
now, to have him comfort her, to keep her spirit safe. Where was
he? Could he sense her now? Did he know where she was?

Anando...?

Nothing.

No words, nothing.

Anando!

Nothing but the cool autumn wind, pushing at
her face and slowly drying her tears. She exhaled and closed her
eyes, letting it blow its way through her body, washing the anger
and the helplessness away. She exhaled again, longer this time. All
was calm. She could do this.

Then she shivered. It had not been windy all
day. When she had stepped out onto the deck, it had been a warm and
stagnant. Now there was a brisk breeze pushing her gently, rocking
her in her place. The breeze enveloped her entire body, enshrouding
her, protecting her. Calming her. She looked down below at the
trees lining the avenue, at the limbs and the remaining leaves that
were not moving at all.

They stood as still as statues.

“Anando...” she whispered.

The breeze lifted again, pushed at her hair,
at her face, and then quieted again.

Yes, Anando had somehow reached her. She
shivered again, this time from an unexpected surge of delight, of
pure joy that someone who loved her, who had dedicated his spirit
to her so freely, who reached out over the distances to comfort her
in her sorrow and pain. She began to laugh at the utter joy she
felt in being loved by someone so faithfully and unconditionally
that they were able to change the weather! It shouldn't have been
possible at all! There was no way anyone, even a Mendaihu, even one
as strong as Nehalé, could possibly have a reach that far. But he
did, and had done so without pause.

She wiped her eyes dry and took a deep
breath, two of them.

Hra khera...hra mehra. Hra khera...hra
mehra.

Stood up, wavering in her step and catching
herself against the railing.

“Goddess...” she mumbled. She pushed herself
off, heading for the door. There she stopped, turning back as she
did. She looking out once more over the southern end of Branden
Hill Sector, over most of the rooftops of brownstones and office
spaces, and the suburban sprawl of Fraserville further south. In
spite of everything happening at that very moment, this southern
edge of Bridgetown looked rather peaceful. It calmed her.

The wind she'd felt earlier had
disappeared.

Anando,
she thought, a smile coming to
her face as she turned back and went inside.
I do love you, my
cho-shadhisi.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Preparation

Mancka Udéma walked away from the crowd in
disgust. She did not want to hear anymore news about Governor
Rieflin. The One’s followers were gathered at the area at the
bottom of the mezzanine stairs, listening to summarized accounts
off the ethernet stations, off the vidmats tacked up against the
wall, and off the gossamer wings of spirit outside the building.
Governor Rieflin had already made up his mind without Council
consent; he was turning the ESD off at Tigua Space Station, leaving
the ARU and the Sentinels without any possible way of telling
attacker from defender.

The crowd’s dissonant energies of anger and
confusion had become overwhelming. She’d expected disappointment
even from the Awakened here, but not to such a dangerous and
troubling degree. They’d been trained for weeks and didn't have to
rely on the ESD at all. But there were those who fully believed
they hadn’t yet harnessed their Mendaihu or Shenaihu abilities, and
never would once the Edwin-Akandia was turned off.

Piann nyhndah nehko aladh imhsha,
she
thought, shaking her head in disgust. Certainly they were afraid,
and certainly their hearts and minds and spirits were still
shuttered. But if something as trivial as
this
made them
distrust their abilities, these souls were lost before they even
entered the warehouse.

Frustrated and defeated, she made her way
back to her rack space up on the fifth level, and climbed up the
metal ladder double time. If anyone sensed her right now, they were
doing the correct thing in avoiding her. Even Anando, who was clear
on the other side of the building at the moment, sensed her briefly
and backed away. She leaned back on the pillows piled up in the
corner and crossed her arms, and let out a few short, angry breaths
to calm herself down.

She wanted to call Rieflin right now and give
him a piece of her mind. He must have had a reason. Had he been
bullied into it by CNF councillors? Couldn’t Nandahya Mirades
override his decision? He must have been threatened into this
position.

“Hey,” a male voice called from down below.
The last one she wanted to hear right now. “Mind if I come up?”

Rieflin. She growled and shook her head.
Always perfect timing, that man. What the hell was he doing here,
and furthermore, how had she not noticed his arrival? She peered
over the edge and saw the Governor himself. without any security
detail whatsoever, looking back up at her with guilt and exhaustion
all over his face. He looked as though he’d finally understood what
he’d just unleashed.

“Tread lightly, Anton.” she growled. “You’re
on a solitary blade of grass here.”

“We need to talk, Mancka,” he said.
“Please.”

She leaned back on the pillows.
Damn
him,
she thought.
Damn him!
“Don't fall on your way up,”
she said.

She heard his sigh of relief, sensed his
release of well-guarded tension, and waited. He took to the ladder
quickly and climbed into the bay, his head barely touching the
covering above it as he sat down. He was forlorn, tired, and
beaten. He looked as if he'd walked all the way from the Tower on
his own. His white dress shirt was sweat-stained and his tie was
missing, and his hair was completely disheveled. Despite her anger
at his action, she let her Mendaihu spirit take over and let him
relax and heal himself.

“Taftika, Mancka,” he said quietly. “You
don't know what this means —”

“Skip the condolences,” she said gruffly.
“What the hell were you thinking?”

“It's complicated,” he said. “The decision
was inevitable.”

“Inevitable?” Mancka shook her head at him.
“How? You're the governor, for Goddess' sake!”

“In title,” he grumbled.

Mancka caught the tone of his words and
calmed herself down. “You’d better explain what you mean by
that.”

“Nothing,” he started, shaking his head.
“Everything. I don't know.” He lifted his chin and forced himself
to look her in the eyes. “Nandahya Mirades took over the Provincial
Governor's Council at 0500 this morning,” he said soberly. “Just
under an hour after I gave the PGC an ultimatum.”

“Which was?”

“Stand down on the Ninth Embodiment, or
suffer the consequences.”

Mancka caught her breath. “You mean…?”

“General Phillips and I were at an impasse.
Both Nandahya and I did our best to convince him that we could not
get the Special Forces involved. He did his best to convince his
superiors, but Priestley…” He shook his head in frustration. “I’m
pretty sure whatever friendship I had with him has well past faded
now. He had some lackey in his place, but he was still making all
the moves. The CNF were going to use the Edwin-Akandia if I didn’t,
so I used Governor’s Privilege and had it taken offline. It was the
only way to keep them out of it.”

Mancka shuddered. Despite what all the
NewsComms were saying, he had the welfare of the city in his mind
from the start. He’d sacrificed his position in order to do the
right thing after all. “So why did they want to use the ESD so
badly? Not that it directly affects the Mendaihu or the Shenaihu,
but we’re leaving the Police and Alien Relations high and dry
here.”

“It's a golden calf, plain and simple,” he
said. “The police forces use it as a way to track down whoever
needs tracking down, but many can just as easily use their
psi-abilities, now that they've been Awakened. There are more
awakened people out there, not just officers, than anyone would
have expected. You, of all people, should know that. Sure, a lot of
them need training and basic education — that's why they’ve been
coming here to the warehouse. And many of the trainees are becoming
trainers in the process.”

“A lot of them still believe in your golden
calf,” Mancka said. “As much as I hate to admit it.”

“Is anyone telling them otherwise?”

She shrugged. “They’ll hear only if they’re
willing to listen. We're all waiting for Nehalé to return and set
things straight.”

Anton eyed her with concern. “And you think
that will work?”

“They believe in him,” she said. “They
believed him when he said the One would arrive here, and she did.
He has never let them down yet. I admit it'll be hard to convince
them of this...not without some coaxing, which I am loath to
do.”

“I agree,” Anton said. “Partly why I wanted
to turn it off.”

Mancka didn't like those words. “You have
another reason, Anton?”

Slowly he nodded and lifted his head again.
“Another awakening,” he said.

Another...?
She glared at him. “Make
some sense, Anton. The One never finished her Ascension, and she's
not about to —”

“Not her,” he interrupted. “Not her, Mancka.
The other spirits. The ones who've been awake for the last few
years, who predicted all of this! Think about it. Nehalé planned
her Awakening, and the Shenaihu played a hand in it. Don’t tell me
otherwise. They offered up the Rain of Light, because they were
part of it. So who could have possibly put the two players in
motion in the first place? At first I thought all of it was
circumstantial. The two spirits are playing upon each other, all
reactionary. But that didn't make sense after a while...too many
events fit together too easily. The hrrah-sehdhyn, the Rain of
Light, and the One of All Sacred in the middle of it all. Seems all
preordained, you know? I began to think maybe it's some higher
spirit. Something stronger and wiser than the Mendaihu and the
Shenaihu. Wouldn't you agree?”

Mancka frowned deeply. “I abstain for now,”
she said unevenly.

Anton's lips curled into a grin. “Noted,
Councillor Udéma. I won't push you because I respect you too much.
But now that Nandahya is in charge while I'm on leave, this means I
can do a little more without everyone else tying me down.”

“That would explain your lack of security,”
she said.

He let out a quick laugh. “It would explain
why I look like shit, wouldn't it?”

“Yes, it would,” she smiled. “But you didn't
tell me how you lost your seat on the PGC. It's your own personal
cabinet!”

“I didn't lose it. The News Comms have it all
wrong. I merely delegated my power to a few trusted people. I'm
calling it a vacation. Let’s be honest, I know the public views me
as they would any other provincial governor — a spineless
nehko
figurehead without any real power. But a bruise to my
ego is a small price to pay. This break gives me the chance to go
out and prove otherwise.

“You see, Vigil pointed that out to me when
they hacked into my commlink to the security forces during the
Ascension ritual. It took jackers to point out what the Rain of
Light was, Mancka! Can you believe that? I don't want to be like
that, honestly I don't. I
need
to be connected to the
public, and I don't mean in any conventional means. I have to go
out on my own and
live
it.”