The Secret Aftermath – Chapter 03

Nothing. To my confused surprise, I felt nothing at all, so I reopened my eyes. Santiago was glaring at his laptop, pressing a key over and over again.

“Why isn’t this working?” His eyes glowed red, and their shape changed, becoming more circular. Small black feathers began to protrude from his hairline. “She’s done something to it!”

He swiveled his head to look straight at me. My body froze in place—I couldn’t move, twitch, anything. “Heralds, cut her down where she stands!”

The rest of the councilors jumped to their feet. “Belay that order!” Badami walked the two steps separating her from Santiago and slapped him—hard. My body was free again. I almost slumped to the floor in relief. Even cuffed and powerless, being frozen like that had been a whole new level of helplessness.

Anghelescu turned to watch both the heralds and the council. Though she in no way appeared alarmed, she seemed primed to deal with anything that came our way—which was more than I say for myself. I was still wondering how the heck I wasn’t dead, blood spewing in an arc from my carotid being blown by the bomb implanted in my neck.

Santiago had fallen back into his seat after being struck. With one hand cupping his reddened cheek, he stared with wide eyes at Badami, his expression a mixture of hurt and shock. She glowered at him, both sets of canines elongating, her beautiful face somehow made more so by her wrath. The end of a green-scaled tail rose from beneath her sari and stood higher than the desktop, its end twitching in displeasure. “You forget yourself, André. We do not act or give orders until we have reached a consensus,” she said. “I am very disappointed in you.”

“Cariño, please don’t say that.” A pained grimace marred his face. He raised a trembling hand in her direction, but let it fall before it reached her. “I did it for us. For all of us.”

Those two were a thing?

Badami turned her face away, her canines returning to normal, though the twitching tail end remained. “You’re fortunate it glitched, or I’d wash my hands of you.” She sighed. “‘The eyes do not see what the mind does not want.'” She sighed again. “It would seem I am as guilty of this as you.”

Santiago slumped in his chair. “You don’t mean that!”

Badami didn’t even glance in his direction as she resumed her seat. An uneasy silence settled over the room as the rest of the councilors sat back down. I was just happy to still be breathing. But I’d been saved by a glitch? It seemed far-fetched even to me. So how was I alive?

“Surely we aren’t going to ignore what just happened?” the man in the red turban asked.

“To which part are you referring, Hakobyan?” the Egyptian replied.

“I would have thought it obvious, Ṣēru,” Hakobyan answered with a sneer. “The fact that she’s still alive after Santiago activated the fail-safe.”

I was astonished to see surprised expressions pop up on a couple of faces. Had they not realized what Santiago had tried to do?

“I can help with that.”

It became my turn to be shocked. The one who’d spoken was Anghelescu. She now held everyone’s undivided attention.

“It’s quite simple, sir,” she said, her conversational tone belying the gravity of the topic and the power of those who were seated before us. “The explosive component of the tracker was disabled before it was implanted.”

Dead silence settled over the room as the implications of her answer were mulled over. Hakobyan was the first to rally. “Are you saying that somehow tampered with the tracker?” He pointed at me to make sure everyone knew who “that” referred to.

“No, sir, I am not. This happened long before Miss Xero became my employee.” Anghelescu’s brow rose. “I disabled that feature on all the trackers in my possession.”

She did what? I stared at her, aghast. So the chilly conversation we’d had after I first learned about the Secret Humankind, the veiled threats to keep me in line, had all been a farce? Had that been for my benefit or her superiors’?

“Explain yourself, Guardian.” Ṣēru’s kohl-lined eyes looked grave. His stiff posture was mirrored by that of the others. Santiago had recovered somewhat and threw daggered glares in my direction.

“It would be my pleasure, sir.” Anghelescu’s casual air hadn’t buckled in the least. She had to be a lunatic to have gone against their orders and now stand there looking like it didn’t matter. Yet, if not for me, who knows how long she would have gotten away with it before being discovered?

“The policy was wrong, so I circumvented it,” she said. “I am a Guardian, after all.”

Oh, she was definitely insane. That I might not leave there alive went without saying, but she was one of them—so why purposely put her head on a platter?

Suwan chortled at the end of the massive desk, then broke out into actual laughter. It echoed around the room as if it were such a rare circumstance the walls didn’t know what to do with it.

“This is no laughing matter,” Kim said, slapping the desk with a folding fan. “We did not agree on this unanimously, but the policy did pass.” She turned keen dark eyes in Anghelescu’s direction. “It’s for the protection of our people. Who are you to ignore it?”

Anghelescu met her stare for stare. “I did not. I did as commanded. Bitter as it might be, I followed orders and implanted your devices. I made my people believe they were active. I only neutralized the actual threat to their lives.

“I am a Guardian—by nature and nurture. I may not be as old as some of you, but I am old enough. Our path has always been one of peace, wisdom, and tolerance. We need humans to survive. But they don’t need us. Yet we’re not all that different. We’ve worked in harmony with a chosen few of their kind each generation for millennia. Incidents of betrayal have been few. Many have willingly given their lives on our behalf. It is a partnership built on trust.

“Placing bombs inside their bodies destroys all that. Rather than cooperation, we’re now building resentment, suspicion, and debilitating fear. We’ve seen over and over what those kinds of emotions will elicit. The poison and corruption it will create. We may not be human, but neither are we better or less than them. The Paphal Saĝiga have always strived to impart wisdom, to build a better future for both our species. But these bombs and trackers say the exact opposite.”

I stared at her in awe, even though a part of me knew her sentiments were too naïve, her goals too high. Her own people had fallen away from those lofty ideals. Yet, here she stood, still pushing forward. There was much to admire there. I finally understood why Stan felt like he did about working for her.

Anghelescu looked at each of the councilors before going on. “This policy runs contrary to the function and purpose of a Guardian. Councilor Santiago even demonstrated how easy, how tempting it is to use these bombs we’ve placed inside our allies. Worse yet, now we also have proof that they’re being used on our own people. That one of our kind implanted one of these horrible devices into a Paphal Saĝiga, and killed them with it.”

“What utter nonsense!” Santiago sprang to his feet again, but his temper ran less hot than previously, and barely veiled fear glittered in his eyes. I noticed he didn’t specify which part of Anghelescu’s statement he found ridiculous.

“Is it?” Anghelescu asked. “Our kind are driven by emotion as much as humans are. Murder among our own is rare, but not unheard of. And look at what unsubstantiated paranoia has already led us to: a horrible weapon that has now been turned on and used against those it was meant to protect. How is looking into that matter not the highest priority here? As a Guardian, I have to ask why you set it to the side and ignored it. Why are you not as horrified as I am, and looking into it above all else?” She took a solid step forward.

“Miss Xero was created by one of our own. Her power was awakened by one of our own. If not for us, she might never have realized what she was. We did this to her. But rather than face our responsibility in this matter and shoulder it, you’d rather kill her and sweep it away. Then, once she no longer has a voice to dispute your claims, why not blame her for the murder that took place earlier today, rather than hunt for the ugly truth? As a Guardian, I cannot allow that. Hiding our heads in the sand will not protect our people from this.”

The sadness I’d caught glimpses of a time or two before was open to all to see—except now it looked more like dismayed outrage.

“We hear you, Guardian.” Though the Buddhist monk spoke in a whisper, we had no trouble hearing him. All their expressions were veiled, even Santiago’s. I wasn’t sure what to make of that.

“I’d like to request that Miss Xero be released immediately and placed under my care. I will take full responsibility for her and her actions going forward.” Anghelescu lowered her head in reverence. “Then the council can feel at ease and focus on more critical concerns.”

I held my breath, waiting to see how the council would take this. Anghelescu was walking a very thin and dangerous line—on my behalf, of all things. I lowered my head to match her pose, not having the faintest idea of how else I could help.

The seconds ticked silently by. Anghelescu did not move, so I remained frozen as well. As upset and outspoken as some members of the council had been previously, the silence seemed unnatural. I risked rolling my eyes up so I could glance in their direction—but there was nothing to see. A white shimmering wall stood in front of the curved desk, cutting off the view to the councilors and muting any sounds they might make.

The cuffs at my wrists grew heavier with each passing moment.

I counted the tiles making up what I could see of the ouroboros several times, trying to keep busy and hold my nerve-racked anxiety at bay. The minutes filed silently past. My neck muscles loudly complained at having to maintain the awkward position for so long, and threatened to revolt before the silence was finally broken.

“Guardian, we’ve reached a decision.”

Anghelescu straightened to view the councilors fully. I followed suit, though nowhere near as gracefully, and tried to stretch my neck to ease the kinks in it without being too obvious. The veiled expressions from before were still firmly in place. It made their heated emotions from earlier seem like something I had imagined, or a play they’d put on to see how we’d react, how much we’d give away. I suddenly grew cold all over.

“Your request for custody has been granted, as long as you agree to several stipulations.” The Egyptian’s weighted gaze rested on her for several seconds before he went on. “First, you must be aware of Xero’s whereabouts at all times. Second, regarding the matters that have been revealed or discussed here today, you may not mention anything about them outside of this chamber. Third, you will not allow anyone to run tests on her or attempt to discover how she can tap into the living energy. Fourth, under no circumstances is she to knowingly use the ambient power for any purpose whatsoever. Disobedience will be met with permanently fitted bracers to cut off all access to the ambient energy, and incarceration.”

As if I had any desire for my life to get any more complicated than it already was.

Anghelescu nodded. “Agreed.”

Ṣēru raised his palm to forestall anything else she might have said. “Understand that this matter is far from settled, and this solution is merely temporary. Innocent or not, Xero’s continued existence is a threat to us all. The danger may not be immediate, but neither is it gone.

“As to your defiance of a council-approved mandate, that too will come under discussion, and a suitable punishment will be agreed upon if required. You’ll also receive a summons in the near future to give your official statement regarding the events you witnessed surrounding the death in the parking structure of your building. That will be all for now.”

Anghelescu bowed at the clear dismissal. I did the same, in case it made any kind of difference. Ṣēru using my last name was a step up from “it” or “that,” but I didn’t dare believe for a second it meant anything favorable. The guillotine was primed and ready, and they’d be happy to use it if given sufficient cause. For a few of those seated before us, any semi-believable trumped-up excuse would do.

We came up out of our bow. I blanked my expression and kept my gaze lowered, knowing this wasn’t the time for defiance or showing I was anything other than a grateful little experimented-on orphan, overwhelmed by their magnanimousness. Anghelescu touched my arm, and we turned around and left the way we had come.

I could feel some of the councilors boring holes in my back with their gaze as we walked away.

We took the three steps to where the heralds waited. Their expressions seemed mixed, as if not sure what to make of what they’d heard. Or maybe they were just surprised we were still alive. They split up as before, the woman in front and the man bringing up the rear.

No one spoke, and I was fine with that. I doubted anything said here would be in any way private. We finally reached the arch, and the female herald put the ring back on to activate it.

I held up my arms in a silent demand to get the cuffs removed. The woman ignored me, paying attention solely to her current task. I’d only been able to tap into the energy for a few hours. I didn’t know how it worked or how to use it. So what were they so afraid of? I fumed in silence, despite knowing that if I’d been in the herald’s shoes, I’d probably have done the same.

As before, the area inside the arch grew opaque and then shimmered, the engraved symbols taking a life of their own and moving about. The woman spoke to the arch, and once again I couldn’t catch any of what she said. She stepped on through. The second herald indicated for us to follow her.

I stared at my exhausted reflection and held my breath before stepping through with Anghelescu at my side.