by Jon Chaisson
*
Caren ducked her head down and held the collar of her jacket close as they made their way towards the warehouse. An unseasonably cold wind pushed towards them, coming from the storm front that had overtaken the city. She wondered where her sister was, if she had made it to the warehouse, if she was safe. She was old enough and smart enough to protect herself…but from this?
Have faith in yourself, Denysia, she thought. Stay safe. I’ll be there soon.
They had managed to ditch the car at a nearly vacant police precinct house just a few blocks away from Chapel Street. An officer just coming off duty offered them a ride as close as they could get by car. The officers and the soldiers were not forbidding people from crossing their lines, but they were not advising it. Their safety measures were understandable. They had also heard the low rumbling of thunder, and were now feeling the occasional stray raindrop hitting their faces. Caren was relieved that at least they were at least on McCleever Street so they could get there as quickly as possible.
“Goddess,” Poe said, his pace slowing. His head was up, looking at the storm front now nearly upon them.
“What?” she said.
“Rain,” he said, stopping in his tracks.
“Don’t stop now, Alec,” she said, frowning at him. “It’s just a damn storm cloud. What’s the problem?”
“It’s not a storm cloud,” he said, and turned to look behind her. He pointed at the darkness pulling over the center of the city. “Kai…when was the last time you and Ashan took at the weather in this sector?”
Goddess, Caren thought to herself. Now is not the time, Poe…
Kai squinted then frowned. “Maybe once after our meeting. Ashan?” She looked at her brother, but he had already closed his eyes.
“I’m checking right now...it looks like — gahhh!” Ashan clutched at his eyes and hunched over in pain. “Ahhh….ah…Goddess, that stung.” He moaned deeply and bowed his head. “Pashyo, we’re too damn close now.”
Kai immediately held an arm out over him, pulling him close. He sputtered a few words of Anjshé, shook his head, and opened his eyes. He looked up at her, blinking furiously and attempting to focus on her face. He resisted temptation to continue rubbing at his eyes and pushed himself erect. He’d reacted as if someone had unleashed a cloud of pepper spray in his face.
“We’re too close,” he repeated, his head bowing down again in acute pain.
“Too close…?” Caren shook her head. “What the hell are we talking about?”
“It’s a Rain of Light,” he muttered. “I can’t look at it this close. It’s…” He groaned again, rubbing his eyes with one hand and clutching his other hand in a tight fist in front of him. “It’s almost too late,” he said. “She’s there already, Caren. Denni’s already there. She can’t handle this Rain alone.”
Caren did not want to hear those words, not after the way she left things. She looked at Poe, who stared transfixed at the cloud in front of them. He frowned at it, as if trying to understand it somehow, and having no idea how to confront it let alone combat it if it came to that. Eventually he turned to the east, then back to the storm, measuring its distance.
Denysia…if only I could reach you, she thought.
“Kai,” Poe said. “How do I know this?”
Kai looked at him from her hunched stance as she tried to comfort her brother. She didn’t answer.
“We’re inside the hrrah-sehdhyn, aren’t we?” he asked, and started pointing in several directions. “Sculler’s Crossing is right down the street. Lexington Square is south-southwest…I think we’re just on the inside. If we went to the beach, I think we’d be outside of it.”
“Bring it home, Poe,” Caren said. She glanced down the street towards the warehouse, then at him. She decided that she desperately needed to hear what he had to say.
“If we split up…” he started. He glanced at Caren, as if expecting her to object, but she remained calm enough to hear him through. They both knew this was not just a matter of getting Denni back. “You and I head toward the warehouse, Kai and Ashan to the beach, I think we can ground ourselves.”
Ground…? Caren threw up her hands. “A little explanation please,” she said flatly.
Poe struggled with his words, and finally turned to Kai. “I think you could explain it better.”
Kai frowned at them, or rather in their direction, at the storm clouds, and huffed in frustration. She nodded silently at an unheard comment from Ashan, and stepped away from him. “Come,” she said, directing them back around the corner and out of sight of the cloud. Caren thought that odd, wondering what difference their moving could possibly make. Once safely on the steps of a brownstone on a narrow side street, Kai continued. She laid a hand on her brother’s shoulder as she talked.
“The Rain of Light,” she said, “is somewhat of a spiritual limbo, I suppose you’d call it. The reason I chose to move us out of its line of sight is that it is, in fact, sentient. Its main nerve center is in its core, which looks to be situated directly above the warehouse. It must be choosing to anchor itself there. I don’t know how far their sensory reach is, but being just out of its direct line of sight might help. Especially now that it knows Ashan is here.
“Each province and settlement has one or more Rains, spirits who have passed from this plane but have not yet ascended for one reason or another. Some are lost souls that have forgotten their way, but eventually they remember their True Fate and move on. Most Rain spirits, however…they are here permanently, by choice. Normally they are there to assist those still on this plane.”
“How do they assist?” Caren asked. “And how long have they been here?”
Kai reached out and touched her on the arm. “They’ve been there for as long as humans have been on Gharra. It’s only been recently, with the arrival of the Meraladians that we’ve been able to recognize them. I believe our heightened consciousness in spiritual matters — the Mendaihu and the Shenaihu, for instance — has something to do with that. However…I think we’ve underestimated the Rain of Light this time out.”
“We?” Caren said. “You mean Nehalé.”
“I mean all of us,” she answered, waving her hands wide. “I mean the Gharné, the Meraladhza, everyone. I personally thought these sentient spirits were always benevolent. These kinds of spirits usually are.” She paused, looking upwards at the lighter cloud cover. She sensed that these outer clouds were simply condensation gathered up by the Rain, harmless in their being and action.
“Something may have disrupted them,” she said. “I believe the Rain has been…injured somehow.”
“The nuhm’ndah?” Poe offered.
“Perhaps…” Kai shrugged. “Although I don’t know how the Shenaihu could possibly have had a part in it. Unless…” She stopped in thought.
“Unless that was his reason for the Awakening,” Caren said. “He must have tried to get Denni — I mean the One of All Sacred, to Awaken as protection from something the nuhm’ndah had done. Or was going to do. It’s not the first time, right? This must be…” She shook her head, angry and exhausted at the same time. It sounded so easy, they should have figured this out that first day! This had been the missing motive all along, and they’d just been too blind to see it.
“This is the same thing,” Kai finished. “The Rain of Light must not be meddled with. Deliberate disruption of spirits in Rain manifestation is dangerous…some spirits could be easily swayed towards chaos, especially the lost ones. Very much like stirring up a hive. If one spirit is pushed in the wrong direction — say, as a slave to the Shenaihu or to the Mendaihu, to pit against one another — there’s a very high probability more will sway to its side. That may explain yesterday’s attacks, to some extent.”
Goddess, Caren shuddered. Did that man even know what the hell he was doing when he set off that ritual?
“Sure…but ordinary people?” Poe sai
d. “These were B-Towners attacking the church. Not ethereal spirits!”
“They must have been directed somehow,” she said, frowning. “Spirits have been known to cohabit with the original in its body. Citizen or not, innocents were used and slaughtered by twinning souls. It’s been done countless times before.”
“Who would do that?” Caren winced in revulsion. “Who in their right mind would even contemplate doing that?”
“The Dahné, Natianos Lehanna,” Ashan said. “The leader of the nuhm’ndah here in Bridgetown. No one knows quite what he has in mind, but there’s no doubt he could pull this off.”
“And?”
“…and I personally believe he’s twisted enough to do it. He knew who was behind the…um…” he faltered, averting his eyes from Caren. “I’m certain that he knew who killed your parents, Karinna. He must have been the one to request the case be shut down unsolved.”
Goddess…even you? Caren seared her anger into Ashan, regardless of the psychic pain he’d received earlier. Who else knows more than I do about my own parents? Why have I deliberately been kept in the dark for so fucking long?
Chief Inspector Farraway. That bastard had to have known all this time.
Ashan winced and shied away, but spiritually he was of stone. Many know, though I cannot say I know who they are, just that they kept quiet to protect Denysia and yourself, Karinna. Believe me when I tell you this: you would not have survived had you known when it happened. You were not yet ready…though you are more than qualified now.
Damn you! Caren squeezed her eyes shut tight and fought the urge to release the windstorm of anger that welled inside her. It billowed and ate at her, consuming her own will, and it had begun to scare her. She felt the tears rolling down her face, realizing they were not tears of rage but of fear. She recoiled from her own fear, sought the solace of the here and now…
…Denysia…
…and brushed off the hand that Kai had extended. She would not accept, nor ask for a soulhealer, not now. She had had enough of running from that past. She would finally face this pain once and for all.
Denysia…gods, please! Please, be safe, Den…
“No,” she said to Kai, as quietly and evenly as she could. “Thank you, but no.” Then, to Ashan: “I do apologize, my eicho. That will not happen again.”
Ashan accepted her apology with a silent nod.
“Well…” Kai said eventually. “I think I know what Poe had in mind. Although I can’t say whether or not it will work. The hrrah-sehdhyn could act like a barrier for the Rain, if there were someone or something grounding it. What Nehalé had in mind was the awakening of the Rain. The nuhm’ndah had planned to keep it within those five points, thus keeping it all within a confined space. We’d need a spiritual link — the four of us, two on either side of the pentagon border. Two to go in and act as the conductor, two to act as the ground. The best we can hope for is to contain the cloud in the area. Our goal would be to drain it of energy.”
“It’ll work very much like a lightning rod,” Poe said. “I’ve heard about it…never seen it done, though.”
Kai nodded with a smile directed at him, and proceeded to explain the steps they would have to take within the next hour or so, if they were going to stop or at least calm the storm. Caren listened with the rapt attention she gave her ARU position. The Alien Relations Unit certainly had its share of spiritual cases outside of its normal interspecies workload…but this, in Caren’s eyes, had to be some sort of crowning achievement.
Denysia… Caren pursed her lips and tried hard not to let the tears well up in her eyes as she focused on her sister. She so desperately wanted to be with her right now, to be there when she needed her help the most. If it meant going in to uncertain territory…if it meant facing something she did not fully understand let alone trust…she would do it for her. She would do anything for her.
“I’m going in,” she said. “It would only make sense.”
Poe nodded. “I’m going with her.”
Caren smiled, still choking back tears, and caressed her partner’s back. Thank you, Alec, she said to him.
