Chapter Five

The plane lurched and hit the runway, taxing for several meters before coming to a stop. Kushim opened his eyes and sighed. It was that dream again. Its effect over him was complete, so that he walked with a thick grey cloud in his head blinding him from the radiant sun, or from anything else that could be said to evoke any aesthetic beauty. In better moods, he would stop right there and make sketches and notes inside his small jotter. Right now, however, he simply wanted to... cease to exist. He had been fighting wars for three thousand years, and had come out victorious in nearly all of them, yet all those victories combined could never console him when that single failure that plagued his dreams resurfaced and hijacked his consciousness.

Kushim stopped walking. His shoulders twitched with suppressed emotion as he held back tears he knew wouldn't come out anyway. He was boiling alive with guilt, and a few tears would have soothed his soul somewhat. He strained against the pressure trying to make him scream and flee from his own skin, in the midst of men and women who would all give up everything for a chance to be in his condition. It was easy for a mortal with a generous lifespan of less than a hundred years to recover from failures and mistakes because their lives were short, and they would be gone soon anyway. But a man who had seen empires rise and fall, who had gone to hell and back literally and failed to find an end to his existence, could never forget the very thing that caused him no end to his struggle and no peace.

He sighed and blinked as his eyes went hot. His nostrils clogged like he was going to cry but he knew it wouldn't come out. He took a deep breath, and then another--

"Hey mister," a woman said from beside him, "are you okay?"

Kushim flashed him a charming smile and chuckled. He said, "Just a little dizzy, that's all."

"Okay," the woman said, "well you take care."

Kushim watched her leave and forced himself to put one foot in front of the other in an exotic imitation of walking. He would allow himself to break down when he got to the hotel, but not right now, not in front of these people. There was no point in attracting any attention over a problem that had no end. He managed to make it out of the airport and get a taxi without any further incidents, and direct it to the hotel the Doctor recommended, due to its perfect proximity to the Buda Palace, which was his first target: not too far, not too close; only about five hundred meters away.

The cab stopped across the street in front of the hotel, hailed by Lucas to be a four-star affair, overlooking one of Europe's longest rivers. He paid with his credit card and went straight into the lobby. While he was checking in, he felt a slight tension in his chest. He turned around sharply and caught sight of a woman in a black dress heading for the elevators. He stared at her for a moment. That vibe he just got was exactly what he was supposed to be looking for in that party at the Palace later tonight.

He took note of the particular chord her vibe struck in his heart so that if he wanted he could track her down no matter how far apart he was. He learned that form of divination after helping a woman who was not an ordinary woman retrieve something that was taken from her by greedy, ignorant humans. Which was why he didn't panic; if he needed to find her, it wouldn't be a problem. But he knew that one in thirty people you met on the street had some form of affiliation with the supernatural. That meant he couldn't simply run after everyone that wasn't completely human, assuming that they were kidnapping and eating little kids and old hunters. He would take his time and formulate a plan after the ball.

He got a room on the fourth floor and quickly went up to take a shower. Then he tried to sleep. Hopefully without the nightmares. The job was more of recon, regular information gathering... or at least tonight's ball would be. He wasn't expecting too many physical confrontations, not until he entered the forest in another day or two. He would try to enjoy the night, as he didn't expect the rest of his stay here to be so uneventful.

How wrong he turned out to be.

*

Deep inside the walled garden on the west side of the Institute's public area, the four most important people in the complex stood deliberating important matters. They didn't sit because it was not the occasion for sitting, such was the tension that they all felt. Of the four, Zorya and Wyatt's lives were about to take a turn neither of them had ever expected. Their early lives mirrored each other almost identically, even though they never came across each other before. They were both fifteen years old, born within a few months of each other. Their first six years were plagued with chronic illness and endless hospital admissions, but then it stopped suddenly shortly before their seventh birthday, where they saw an incredible increase in cognitive ability as well as a nearly flawless disease immunity. And that was when their paths started to diverge.

Wyatt took an interest in pathology and the biological wonders of the natural environment, while Zorya lost herself in the world of computer algorithms and had almost exclusively designed the Institute's current artificial intelligence systems. Kyle would have been a leader in the Institute's top-secret paramilitary unit, Ghost. He had singlehandedly crippled dozens of them in order to escape, and his restraint appeared to have been deliberate as not a single one of them lost their lives.

"So, there's still one more?" Zorya said, breaking the silence. Like Wyatt, she reacted relatively calmly to the revelation. "Just how many of us are there anyway?"

"Yes," Raymond said, "there's one more, but he's the last one. And you both are going to help us bring him back when the time comes. He's not safe out there."

Wyatt frowned. "Then why did he leave?"

Raymond looked the boy in the eye for several moments before saying, "An enemy infiltrated our lines and corrupted him, drove him crazy."

The kids appeared to be satisfied with this reply, but Raymond wasn't. He wanted to say more, because there was more they needed to understand.

"You might not know it because you haven't had the need to leave these walls," he began, "but in time you'll both find out that our family has no end of enemies. I need you to be prepared whenever they come henceforth, regardless of whatever form they take... ."

Raymond took a breath. That would be enough for now. To conclude, he added, "Sheila will get you started on the basics. I won't be with you until tomorrow."

The teenagers said nothing. But he knew they didn't need to. Too many words never solved any problems.

*

Sonia got out of the taxi feeling weary. She dragged her feet into the hotel lobby and was heading for her room when the receptionist called her attention excitedly. Sonia turned and shot the girl a glare which froze her solid and dissolved her joy, until Sonia relaxed her gaze a moment later, once more giving the girl control of her senses. She took a deep breath and calmly went over to the counter.

The girl shuddered slightly and shook herself, unable to wrap her head around what just happened. Sonia said, "Is there a problem?"

"No, madam," the girl said. "But your friend. He says you have a date together tonight. He had some gifts for you but you weren't in your suite so I had them taken up there for you."

Sonia stared at the girl for nearly a full minute before saying a word, and when she spoke it wasn't to rectify the mistake. Because she didn't have the patience for that. Whatever the case, it wasn't so urgent that she couldn't risk a couple of hours of rest to ease her frayed nerves.

Sonia simply nodded and said, "Would that be all?"

The girl nodded and Sonia went on her way. She found a lavish basket of wrapped gifts on the table in the living room with a card and teddy bear propped against it in an attempt to invoke romantic sentiment. It made her want to laugh.

Sonia took off the dress and lay on the floor, hoping a brief nap would ease anxieties nesting within her. She closed her eyes, but sleep wouldn't come. She sat upright and sighed. She knew why she couldn't sleep. He was so close now, and even though he may yet again escape her, let it be after she had carried out her best efforts.

Sonia pulled herself off the floor to perform only one task: the divination ritual that she used to pinpoint Raymond's exact location. The incident with the boy back in the woods had scrambled the signal and she needed to find it again.

It was a simple process, like every other magic trick she'd mastered during her lifetime. She folded her legs beneath her and took a deep breath. She cleared her mind, chasing off any distractions to her task. She used a tooth to cut her thumb, drawing blood, and as it flowed, she shut her eyes and tried to focus.

Her conscious mind ascended over the present world of matter and mind and immersed her into the all-encompassing soulfire. But only for a moment. Any longer and her soul would have become so overwhelmed that it would remain there transfixed until it dissolved into the universal soulfire, lost forever to the Infinite, leaving her body an empty husk. Usually, she returned satisfied because the method was infallible. Using her blood connection with Raymond, that momentary dip into the soulfire would have been enough to pinpoint his exact location wherever he was on the planet, at least. Had she been able to handle the strain, she should have been able to locate him anywhere in the universe.

This time, however, she came up empty.

Sonia opened her eyes and stared into space for a long time, in utter denial of the fact that something was seriously wrong. It was like Raymond didn't exist.

She blinked, two, three times. Then she drew some more blood and tried again. She returned from the Infinite with a splitting headache and less luck. She felt nauseated and lay back on the floor to stop the feeling that she was about to fall from a deadly height. Sonia suffered so for over an hour, twisting and turning on the Persian rug. She didn't scream because she wasn't weak, but she groaned softly and her breathing grew labored. She was falling, falling. Soon she fell asleep.

Not for long. She opened her eyes and found herself in an artistically decorated bedroom. Antique paintings adorned the walls, a few crystal chandeliers hung delicately from the ceilings and a unique statue stood on each corner of the walls. Sonia was so engrossed in the sentiment of this sight that she didn't at first notice the mirror on the vintage silver-plated dresser beside the bed. A mirror that should have been showing her reflection. When she finally looked in the mirror, she was puzzled.

She looked at her hands and the rest of her body, and saw nothing.

Footsteps!

Sonia spun sharply to see a man and woman approaching her, but they came and went past as if she wasn't there. They stopped in front of the mirror and the woman started to help him get ready for a formal outing.

As she fitted on the cufflinks, she said, "We should probably not be expecting you back for another week, right?"

He chuckled and said, "Nonsense. I wasn't joking about those kids... ." He appeared to restrain himself from saying more. Then he sighed softly and said, "Just give them the basics. Universal origins, that sort of thing. I'll be back by morning to take over."

She looked at him like she still couldn't believe it. "So you're planning to be here for how long?" she said. "Because you know you can't take them away with you anytime soon."

He tilted his head to the side, considering. Then he shrugged in reply and said nothing. A purple tuxedo came on to complete the look. He appraised his reflection for several moments and smiled. "Thank you," he said.

She pouted and embraced him softly from behind. She said nothing, but he got a message.

"I'll be fine," he said. He caressed her arm on his shoulder and repeated, "I'll be fine."

Then he laughed and wriggled out of her arms, and said, "What are you so worried about anyway? There is only one thing in all the world that can hurt me, and she won't be a problem because I won't make the kind of mistakes that would attract her attention. Besides... ." He glanced sideways and smiled.

She smiled too. "You think they can stop her?"

He shrugged. "We won't get a chance to find that out anytime soon."

She started to say something but he stiffened. She pulled away from him and said, "What's the problem?"

He turned around. "I feel... ." He seemed like he was searching for something in the room, as well as for the right words. Finally, he looked in Sonia's direction and said, "We are not alone."

His partner said, "What do you mean?"

"There's something else here."

He started to approach briskly! Sonia snapped her eyes shut... and woke up in her hotel room. The headache was gone, along with the earlier fatigue. She found her energy because she had found Raymond, and she knew where he was going to be tonight.

Sonia glanced sharply at the gifts on the table and smiled. It appeared that she would be heading in that direction anyway.

She went to the table and opened the card. A smaller invitation card fell out of it and she snatched it out of the air before it went far. She opened it and a keycard slipped out, which she caught as crisply as the first. It was the card to the penthouse suite. Sonia smiled and rolled her eyes; as if she cared. The invitation card bid people welcome to the engagement dinner at the Palace of the children of two families whose names Sonia couldn't care to remember. All that mattered was that Raymond was going to be there, and so would she.