The Mortal Fringe (13 page)

"What is it?"

"We need to go see Constance. It's
important"

"That's alright" I say, knowing that
the only reason for me saying that is the soft and sweet drink that
Jay made me have. Such a nice way to break bad news.

I grab her hand, and we are gone in
space and time.

CHAPTER 18

Candles light a big room. A big black
table at its center welcomes me to the dark place. Elizabeth leads
the way into the room as Constance looks at us from the other end
of the table. She is surrounded by two women close to her age and
dressing almost identically.

"Those are Carol and Katherine,
both leaders. None of them are particularly fond of human
interaction, so be ready for anything."

"Elizabeth, thank you for bringing him
in" Constance draws a thin smile on her face, looking at me as if
she wanted to say something about the last time we met. "I am quite
sure Elizabeth has already told you about my sisters. This is
Carol, leader of the Council, and this is Katherine, from the
underworld."

"
Why am I here
?" I ask Elizabeth holding my eyes on
the three ladies; I don't want to lose sight of them. It could be a
sign of weakness. Which I don't need right now.

"It's part of the tradition. After
the bonding has been completed, the Immortal reunites with the
Leader and the catalyst to toast for eternal life."

"But that is so mind
twisted."

"That's why we do it after the
bonding, the Mortal Fringe has accepted it at this
stage."

"Well, I guess I am the exception
that confirms the rule."

"You are."

"Are you not going to introduce us?"
Katherine, the woman to Constance's right says. "What is your
position on the mortal's status?"

"He is perfectly understanding of the
situation, madam. There should be no problem" Elizabeth answers the
question with a hint of hesitation in her words.

"Is that true?" the woman named Carol
asks, but she is asking me, not Elizabeth.

"Lie."

"It is" I say with a shy nod and a
slow and creaky voice.

Constance stands up almost clapping at
us, she comes and joins us and reaches for me. She hugs me and
places her twisted mouth near my ear.

"Don't play any tricks with us" she
whispers, so that only I can hear it.

I remember everything she told me
about my mother, all the feelings I wish had vanished from me that
she brought back. I hate the mere presence of her in this room. My
only desire is to disappear, but I have a terrible feeling that if
we were to do so, we both would be in terrible danger.

"Let's welcome the rest, shall we?"
Constance opens her hands and countless doors around the room,
invisible until now, open and make way for dozens of men and
women.

"
My family
" Elizabeth says.

I can see Jay sitting close to the
three women. Everyone is wearing a strange cloak that make them
look lighter than air.

"Sit down" Constance orders both of
us.

There are two free chairs at the end
of the table, if we seat there, we will be facing
everyone.

"Well done, Elizabeth" the voice comes
from one of the boys in front of me. Elizabeth looks at him and
draws a smile on her face.

"Thank you Clay."

The awkwardness and the feeling of
misfit grows every second. The three women leading the table stand
up and start the talking.

"We are here today to welcome our
beloved Elizabeth and the imminent moment of her pure turning. The
youngest Mears will rise to join with her family. We drink to you.
"

Everyone, but I and Elizabeth, rise
the glass in front of them. We remain still, not moving. She
probably knows what she is doing but I definitely have no idea of
how the event is going to turn out. I have a terrible feeling, as
if I was never going to leave this place.

Constance brings a cup to us, one
bigger and more ceremonial to the one that everyone else has used
for the previous toast. She fills it up with what I think is
ambrosia and makes us both put our hands, together, into the
recipient. It feels weird to be doing this, but everyone is so
silent and engaged in the process that it seems like the most
important ritual in the world.

"Drink" she says.

And we do so.

"Now your bonding is completed before
the eyes of your leaders.”

Then the three of them
disappear.

Elizabeth looks at me with a sad look
on her face.

"I need to tell you again how much
sorry I am for all this".

I don't answer. I don't think I could
find any words that could match the feelings I have about this. I
don't feel different, I only feel as desperate as never before. I
feel like an object.

Jay comes to meet us with another
Immortal when the room is almost empty. He hugs Elizabeth with
tenderness and shakes my hand with gratitude. This is like goodbye,
all over again, just like the day I left home.

"Hello Emma" Elizabeth shakes her
hand, as if it was their first meeting. "Alex, this is Emma Warren,
youngest of us all."

I salute her, and she does the
same.

"I am just twenty-four" she adds to
Elizabeth's introduction "consider me a close friend, if you
will."

"Abigail says hello" Jay says ignoring
me and Emma.

"Where is she?"

"She went with the others. You know
how she is around… well."

"Mere mortals" I whisper, hoping for
no one to hear me.

"Sorry."

I fake a smile, I am getting used to
it. They begin to walk around the place, Elizabeth looks terribly
devastated, so does Jay. After all, this means to them as much as
it means to me. We all lose something here.

The walking goes on for far too much,
in my opinion. Long corridors that lead to nowhere and immense
rooms that contain nothing are the only things I see. But the
walking suddenly stops for me when I get a glimpse of a computer in
a room not far away from where we are. I push the door not knowing
why, and I go in. Jay and Elizabeth try to stop me, but it is too
late. I'm in.

Constance's own Oval Office. She is
sitting behind a hypnotizing desk and she looks at me as if I just
crossed an unbreakable war wall. She stands up and comes straight
to us, not losing the smile on her face.

"So you decided to show our friend
around?"

"Sorry, we did not mean to" Jay's
shameful voice makes my heart shrink.

"I perfectly know what you mean and
don’t mean to do. Keep your thoughts to yourself, you have no voice
or right in this place" she caresses my face. "But come, since you
are here…"

She grabs my shoulder and leads me
through the room. One of the walls is full of names. Right in front
of me, I can see the list of the Immortals she turned into
Gods.

Alec

Frederick

Lionel

Colin

Clay

Edmund

Edward

Patrick

Maledein

Stuart

James

Tristan

That's just for the ones I have in
front of me. All men, I can see traces of other names that were
erased long ago and rewritten on top of it. But there's one that
does neither belong to a man, nor is it erased. A crossed out name
stands out.

"Who is that?" I ask shyly.

Constance looks at me, and then fixes
her eyes where I am looking at. She brings her sight back to me and
I feel the weakness in her.

"A past mistake."

Elizabeth shakes her head, whatever I
do, I must not ask her again about that matter. But whatever it is,
it clearly has Constance on the verge. Her face expression has
changed in an unpredictable way. Whoever that person is, or ever
was, left a scar in that old woman's body, one she has not been
able to remove.

"Where is Abigail?" Elizabeth asks
looking at the same piece of wall.

"She does not belong in that
wall."

"But she just became a
God."

"I said, she does not belong in that
wall. It was never me who had to lead her, and I won't consider her
my own achievement."

Constance looks at the crossed out
name once more and then grabs me harder than she did
before.

"Let's go. You will want to see where
you came from."

She takes me to an adjacent room full
of flat screens. I get closer to them and I see young boys and
girls, some of them younger than me, some of them older. They are
living freely in their houses, not knowing they are being
observed.

"They are future catalysts. I select
them for my boys, and whenever they are ready, I bring them to
me."

She has been watching me over the
years.

Constance comes close to me again,
ready to whisper something that no one else will hear.

"I always had trouble between you and
David, but of course, you stood out.”

I say nothing, this is not the place
to face her. Here, she is more powerful than ever, and the place is
full of people that would only root for her, and would help her get
rid of me without any sort of hesitation.

Elizabeth notices something is wrong
and she takes me away from the flat screens.

"What's wrong?" she asks.

"Nothing" I whisper.

I stay away from her and start walking
to no particular direction. I need to breathe, I need some air.
There's a crystal door in the distance, and the black curtains are
waving, there's where I need to go.

This is not possible, this can't be
happening.

I see lights in front of me, as the
large window stands between me and what it seems to be a stone
balcony. I open the door and cross it. What I see, petrifies
me.

I am standing meters away from the
Tower Bridge. Somehow, I ended up in the Tower of
London.

CHAPTER 19

The Thames floods my mind every time I
look at it. The thousands of tourists walking into the tower don't
seem to notice the young boy standing on the edge of the building.
Is it that they can't see me? I don't care, I do see them, and I
can't stop thinking about the freedom they must be feeling right
now.

Elizabeth crosses the crystal door
after me and realizes that she should have told me about this. I
look at her, doing my best to try to understand why we are here,
and not in Barcelona, as we should be. As we were not long
ago.

"Sorry, I should have told
you."

"Why am I here?" I ask again, hiding
my face from her, hiding my eyes from the world.

"The leaders of the Gods chose this
place long ago as their living place. All around the world, most
historical buildings hide more than countless archives, paintings,
or jewels."

"You mean they hide Gods."

"Most of them, yes. Gods have been
trying to control the mortal world since the beginning of our new
way of live. From the moment they decided to go down, someone has
always kept an eye on what was happening up here. You would not
believe how many of the people you are used to watch on television
have more to do with me, and my kind, to any human
being."

I breathe smoothly, trying to process
every piece of information.

"I should have told you about it,
sorry. But we can go now. I still have to make up for screwing
up."

I don't think I have time for that,
there's far too many things going on in my mind right now. Is it
possible that all those politicians or the known figures of our
time, whose many deeds have defined humanity, are actually not
human?

Jay joins us, he looks worried and
doesn't dare to speak right away, which means trouble, Jay is not
one for pauses or hesitation. He takes his time, but he eventually
opens his mouth and utters what to Elizabeth is a very dangerous
scenario.

"Constance is really upset about him
bringing Malenie up", Elizabeth nods. "You should probably
go."

She looks at me and fakes a friendly
smile, but it doesn't work. If I ever felt close to her these days
it all went away right now. I see fear in her eyes, and that's the
one thing I thought I would never see.

She reaches for my hand. I don't take
it.

Hesitation, that's all there is in me
right now, I stopped feeling safe the moment Jay walk in, so
concerned. If they are scared of what Constance said, I can only
imagine that I should be dying of fear, and I am, they both know
it. But after Jay's advice I don't doubt about leaving, it can't
happen soon enough.

"Don't let go."