Nemesis: Book Five (5 page)

S
omeone was near
, yet it seemed like forever since Morena's aura told her anything. She felt a presence now though, even with her eyes closed.

She opened them, and at first saw the strange room she lay in.

Where was she?

"Var," a voice said from the other end of the couch she laid on.

She moved her head slightly as her aura reached out to touch whoever was there.

Briten
, she thought.
He's speaking
.

"Where am I?" she asked, that question more important than anything else. Where was she and how were her children.

"You're near the core, a few miles away," he said. His blue aura clung close to his body, showing respect.

"How are they, the rest of us?"

"They're fine. They're evolving."

"No attacks?" Morena asked, memories coming back to her, as to why she lay on this couch, as to why she had slept.

"Nothing yet. It's only been a few hours, but the human says the world is probably in turmoil, trying to regroup and plan."

Morena sat up, her own aura staying close as well, steadying her. She was still weak, though nothing like when she arrived at this house.

"The human, where is she?"

"On the porch."

Morena stood and turned to Briten, her son now. Her first born. Her aura reached out to his, the green touching the blue. She wanted him to understand what she felt. The human outside would show these emotions differently, most likely crying, something that Morena couldn't do.

"Why?" he said, understanding what she transferred.

"Because you're here. Because I've waited millions of years to hear your voice, even if I didn't know I was waiting."

She let her aura drop, breaking their connection. He looked taken aback; he hadn't expected the Var to touch him like that, to engage him so meaningfully. Yet, she was alone for years, and had she truly ever thought she would see this day? That she would see another of her kind in front of her?

"The human is … peculiar," he said, after a moment, trying to regain his composure.

"How?"

"There's something not right about her, Var. Something dangerous."

"She's the reason we're still alive," Morena said.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean she's safe."

Morena nodded. He was right, and if his assessment was right, then she would die the minute she stopped being useful.

"It's not a physical threat that worries me," Briten said. "It's her contacting the rest of her species, telling them something, anything."

Morena looked to the front door; the human sat out there alone on the porch. "Has she been by herself often?"

"No. Not much at all. I only came in when I felt you waking."

"Good. Keep her close."

"Yes, Var," Briten said.

Another moment passed, but Briten didn't move, so Morena waited. He knew their customs, the DNA running through him having shared everything by now. Already he broached too many subjects with a Var, especially one in her state. Yet he stood, his eyes lowered, his aura showing deference, but not moving.

"Go ahead. It's okay. Normal protocols don't apply."

"Are you worried?" he said.

"Worried?"

"There's so many of them, Var. So many children and all of them need protection."

"No," Morena said. "I'll protect them all."

"And the humans?"

"What about them?"

"They're coming," Briten said.

Morena nodded and looked out the living room window. Rigley said they would come, and Morena supposed it was just about time to meet them—all of them. "Good. Let's get ready to welcome them."

* * *

"
M
ore flow in every hour
," Briten said. "They know you're here."

Morena stood next to her son, standing on the porch and looking to the white world. She remembered seeing it when she arrived, but her exhaustion had consumed her. Now she saw it fresh, or much fresher than earlier, and the beauty was true. Hundreds of children.
Her
children.

"There's so many of them," the human said from Morena's left.

Morena looked over to her, seeing her for the first time since waking. Sweat beaded on the woman's forehead and upper lip, yet the air felt cool, and light breezes blew gently across the porch.

Remember what mattered to her, when you talk about children. That's what brought her over to begin with.

Morena didn't care a whole lot about the woman's psyche, not at all outside of what it could do to her species now born. She would kill Rigley if she needed to, but it would still be wise to keep her around if possible. The woman knew things that could help.

"How long before your kind mounts an attack against us?" Morena said and looked back out to the yard.

"I'm sure they're planning now. The whole world is planning, probably, because you're a known entity. Earlier you lived in the shadows, and even when all of that stuff out there started spreading, most people on Earth had no idea you existed." Rigley reached up to her forehead and wiped away sweat with the back of her hand. "Not anymore. They know. Everyone knows."

The woman rambled without answering Morena's question. Morena didn't need to turn around and look at Briten to understand his thoughts; her aura picked them up easily. He saw it too, the sweat and the words that tumbled out like a million tiny pebbles. What was happening to the woman? Morena knew she wasn't completely intact when she first arrived, but she hadn't been this bad.

"How long, Rigley?" Morena said. "How long will it take them to complete their plan?"

"I don't know. It's hard to say. So many people are going to be talking, so many people wanting to be involved. People from overseas. I bet they're flying them in from across the globe."

Morena couldn't handle it anymore; her aura snapped out and grabbed Rigley's wrist, tightening just before she brought pain. The woman stopped talking, her eyes doubling in size in under a second. Morena would make her hurt if necessary, but she thought that might break whatever fragile bridge connected this woman to reality.

"I need you to focus. You're nervous right now and I need you to calm down. There's nothing to fret about, but if you don't focus, the children out there will be in danger. Do you see them? Right now you're rambling, and I need you to help me protect them."

She didn't release her grip on Rigley.

"Now," Morena said. "Tell me how long, in units of time, before they come for us."

Rigley was silent for the first time since Morena walked out.

Let her think. She'll give you a number.

"I think ten hours at the most. The absolute most. They've seen what you can do, multiple times. They're going to be scared, but if humans do anything, we kill what we fear. So within ten hours, you'll see some kind of attack."

"Ten hours …,” Morena said to herself. She let go of her hold on Rigley. "Briten, how far along will they all be in ten hours?"

"Half way, I think."

That wouldn't work. Half way meant that a lot of Bynums died when humans returned.

"You can speed it up," she said, not knowing if it was true, but feeling it might be. "You can go to them; let them feed off your aura, let it nourish what their own auras are trying to do. Then let them do the same with others." She turned around so that she looked at Briten. "When they arrive, the humans, we have to be ready, because they're going to try to annihilate us."

"Yes, they will …,” Rigley whispered. Morena looked over to her and saw the woman combing her fingers through her hair. Up and down the shaky fingers moved, the woman having no idea what she was doing. Briten was right, something inside the woman was truly wrong, perhaps malignant.

She looked back to Briten. "When they come, we're going to kill them all. Make your family ready."

* * *

T
he ocean caused
difficulties for the strands.

For one, the water reached intense levels of cold as they moved down, though not quite enough to stop their movement. Still, none of them traveled as fast as their brethren on land. The other difficult part, especially when combined with the slow growth, was the amount of ocean floor they needed to traverse. All the strands knew those above had less area to cross; the gradual slope of the ocean created long, long miles.

Still, the strands continued on, understanding perhaps intuitively that they had to make this crossing if they were to cover this entire planet.

No path lit their way, only a beacon, one of the auras that coalesced in front of their mother and then spread to the far reaches of the world. They wanted to reach that beacon, to grow across the aura and then continue to the next beacon, and the next.

Because the auras had spread far, and the strands could feel them. They understood that eventually they would make their way out of this cold water, and find dry land again, because auras arrived on other land masses, too. Their job was to find them, every aura that their mother sent out into the world, and to grow over them just as they had much of the ocean's floor.

Grueling work, no doubt, but despair wasn't an option. Hope rested on the other side of this ocean, hope and peace—because the strands were going to grow across the whole globe.

Just keep following the auras
, was, more or less, the collective thought.

F
orm came to Helos
. She didn't recognize the form; it looked nothing like the body that she once used, or the aura she was born with.

She didn't believe it, even as it happened.

The white wisps making up the sphere around her broke off, looking like small chips of paint fluttering down from the dark sky. They didn't fall randomly, though, but moved as if a wind carried them, heading straight to Helos.

The pieces fell slowly, and Helos watched as they came. At first she didn't understand, had no concept of what was happening or what she saw. What could she do though? Run from them?

And so she watched as they floated down, and when the first one touched her, it stopped fluttering and
stuck
to her. Others followed, all of them landing on her and sticking just as the first had. It didn't take long for her to understand, as more pieces of falling paper created her body.

Arms. Legs. She even saw them creating her face, her cheeks, her nose.

The last piece floated down, finding the only spot of black still on her, a tiny mark on her foot, where it fit perfectly.

Helos stretched her arms out and looked at them both, her glance moving from side to side.

Her aura was once a bright yellow.

And now, the body before her began releasing its own aura; a white, almost ephemeral force sprouted from all parts of her body, stretching out into the blackness surrounding her. The white and black hues above continued their movement, looking no worse off since giving away pieces of themselves. Helos watched as her aura spread further and further, feeling somewhat scared but unable to stop the aura from moving. She didn't want to anger the gods, The Makers, and this act of flaunting her aura was unthinkable. Yet she had no control over it, and as it searched upward, it sent back what it found—just as her aura had on Bynimian.

These were The Makers.

This their home.

She couldn't see any of this with her own eyes, but now she understood. If Helos had any doubt before, the white smoke rising from her body dashed it to bits.

She felt their raw strength, their infiniteness.

Forever, that's what these creatures were. Timeless in a way no Bynum could ever know. Whatever her daughter was doing, and whatever she would do, all of it was less than insignificant in front of these beings.

This aura wasn't hers, not fully, but theirs, and that's why she couldn't control it. They commanded it to rise and so it did. They wanted her to see, fully, what they were, so that she understood she couldn't deny what they asked of her.

The aura filled the black circle, looking as endless as everything else she had seen in this place. It hung in the air for a few seconds, and then retreated, moving back to Helos' body.

Helos, still looking up, watched as the white glow faded away, slowly turning black. She didn't want them to leave, didn't want to be separated from them—even as she understood the danger that lurked in being so close to beings so great.

Leave they did though, and she watched, her heart breaking as a deep longing took over.

And then she was alone except for her new form and aura. Helos stared out into blackness, wondering what, if anything would happen next. She knew what they wanted her to do, yet she only floated in space, unable to move. They wanted her to go to Morena, but how could she? Even with this new body, she simply floated in a universe that should have already killed her.

It didn't take long for the answer to come.

Helos moved, slowly at first, heading in a straight line, her body pushed by some force she couldn't see. Her speed grew, rushing faster and faster so that the dots of stars turned into long white lines, endless and blending in with the rest. Helos tried to keep her eyes open, to not miss anything of the space around her.

The Makers revived her, and now they sent her to her daughter.