Origins of Hope

by Anastasia Drapievsky

  Xenith stared at Nentok’s hand on his shoulder. >>Special occasion?<<

  >>Definitely,<< Nentok confirmed, withdrawing his hand. >>Blech, you’re too soft and squishy.<<

  "Dick," Xenith grinned.

  "That’s Krian Dick to you now!" Nentok gleefully shouted, levitating back in the air.

  As the crowd continued to celebrate, Xenith looked around the atrium. He may not have wanted to leave home ten years ago, but he had made a new family here, people whom he wanted to be with for a very, very long time. Regardless or not of the expectations people had of him, he would make his own path. His purpose was here, with these people, and he wouldn’t let any of them down.

  Eight

  Humans darted for the lifts and escalators, dashing for mag-trains to get to work while others ran for terminals that would take them to Waldburg, the port for the orbital station. Programmed mechs followed behind wealthier patrons, hauling luggage and belongings, their joints clicking.

  Doth’s AR form wavered against the steel column of the Valen Transport terminal, his shoulders stiff and his frill slightly flared. Ayzize kept his gaze on him, glad that only he could see his boss through his holo display.

  “I need to get some things clarified, because this sounds like a joke.” Doth’s eye ridges furrowed in anger. “I send you out to retrieve the Benitz child, secure Benitz’s ‘donation’, and return to Tezěkír. Instead, you send word you are bringing a completely different child without Benitz’s financial assistance.”

  “That is correct,” Ayzize replied, his hands behind his back and trying not to smile. While Doth couldn’t see Ayzize’s surroundings, Celes sat on a bench behind him, two duffle bags beside her as she played with a game of lining blocks together with her datapad.

  He expected Doth to explode, but Doth only remained silent, his frill fluttering. Ah, so he might be angrier than I expected, Ayzize thought. “Were you aware of the figures that Benitz would have provided?” Doth asked, his tone deceptively smooth.

  You waved it in my face multiple times. “I do.”

  “So, what in your right mind—and I use that term loosely—made you think this girl would be an acceptable replacement?!”

  Ayzize wondered if he should antagonize Doth a little, but he had already pushed the Levan to the brink of throwing Ayzize out. He needed some help on this one. Tapping his temple nonchalantly and mentally sending out a prepared message unbeknownst to Doth, Ayzize stated, “Would you prefer the long or short version?”

  Doth blinked both sets of eyelids at him. “I ordinarily would think this would be to spite me, but as you offered a short version, it sounds like you actually have another reason. So please, inform me how this is a better alternative.”

  Ayzize glanced to Celes to make sure she remained distracted, then looked back to Doth. “Her abilities would be far better suited for Raxdrýn than the Benitz child; beyond growing up without having everything handed to her, her mental constitution is better than the Benitz child and she can handle mental stress.”

  “That can reverse during adolescence, you know that,” Doth hissed dismissively.

  “You received her scores, yes?”

  “I glanced them over.”

  “She has that despite the stress of her current living situation and being a survivor of a XIK attack that killed her mother.”

  Doth grimaced, the Levan equivalence of a sneer. “You identify with her and pitied her enough to take her in. Is that it?”

  Ayzize ground his teeth, but it wasn’t the first time Doth threw his past in his face. “She won’t break easily, I can assure you that. However, it wasn’t the only reason I chose her.” If this didn’t intrigue Doth, then Ayzize could be in trouble. “Her mother was an advanced Medpsy user who trained with the Iaiedal, and her brother was recently taken to Aorírdal.”

  Doth’s frill stilled for a moment, and Ayzize really had to remember Doth’s insult to not smile. “Hm. Related to two very powerful psychics. Is that so?” Doth asked, crossing his arm.

  “I wouldn’t make such a bold claim if I couldn’t back it up.”

  Doth flicked his hand, and a pair of octagonal plates flickered in Ayzize’s AR conference; he couldn’t read them, but Doth could. “Her psychic tests are incomplete.”

  “What do you expect? This is the furthest human colony from Earth; they don’t have education or knowledge needed to test her. Aorírdal only found her brother because it had been prearranged.”

  “Chairman,” Tralis’ voice floated over, and her willowy form appeared alongside Doth's in the AR conference.

  “Vice-Chairman,” Doth said curtly, glancing at her as he waved the plates aside. “Do you have any supporting evidence for this… situation?”

  “This one does indeed,” Tralis said, nodding to Ayzize. “We have verified Nelowie’s information. Zander Dušánek was taken to Aorírdal eight months GST ago, and Dr. Akira Nakagawa-Dušánek has multiple records under her birth name, Nakagawa Akira, as a Medpsy Doctor and registered low level clairvoyant.”

  Ayzize lifted his eyebrows in surprise. While it answered a few questions, the ‘low level clairvoyant’ made little sense. Akira had been hiding something.

  Doth frowned, and he flicked a hand to make the octagon plates reappear again, squinting at them. Ayzize shifted but said nothing else lest he provoke Doth. Ayzize gave a short nod of gratitude to Tralis, who returned the gesture.

  After a few moments, Doth waved the plates away with a deep scowl. “I will accept the replacement, for now, under certain conditions.”

  Ayzize exhaled through his nose slowly so Doth couldn’t see the relief on his face. “Of course.”

  “The first is that we evaluate her for her psionic prowess,” Doth said, pacing. “If she performs well enough, I will allow her on the potential hybrid track.”

  “ ‘Hybrid track’?” Ayzize repeated, frowning in worry. It was as he suspected earlier. “Not security? I don’t recall being briefed on that.”

  “We wouldn’t have told Benitz, and the Directors have not finalized the decision about the new track, but that is one reason why I needed you back here within forty hours.” Doth stopped pacing, meeting his eyes. Tralis did as well, and looked equally grim with her eyes narrowed into slits. “Arkien dealei bulax kryxd.”

  Ayzize’s blood turned into ice, and immediately he put up a barrier in his mind while he glanced around the busy station. The phrase was gibberish and meant nothing in any language; it was a code that could be pronounced by all the vocal species and easily repeated with the non-vocal. Anyone who glimpsed his mind wouldn’t be able to understand the phrase, but they would read his fear spiking. “I was not aware.”

  “It isn’t enough of a warning to warrant calling back all Varôk, but an update,” Tralis said in a reassuring tone.

  “Otherwise, I would have called you back immediately and had you drop everything, and I mean everything,” Doth nodded in agreement. “If I am wasting time listening about your replacement and lecturing you on conditions, then it isn’t urgent, but I expect you to be here in the next forty hours. I require all personnel to return before heading out to their next contracts.”

  Ayzize breathed a sigh of relief and didn’t mind if others saw it. He glanced to Celes, who upon meeting his gaze whipped her head back to her datapad, whistling as if he hadn’t caught her staring at him. “And I suppose it has something to do with the new track,” Ayzize said. He did not like it at all, since he only brought Celes in thinking she would be in security rather than a true Varôk, but if—no, don’t think, he reminded himself, keeping his barrier up while glancing at the rushing commuters and Celes peeking over at him. While not the strongest barrier, he would at least know if someone tried to breach it, and no one in this terminal seemed interested in doing so.

  “Indeed, but I will not discuss it over a conference,” Doth said. Tralis’ eyes grew wider, which assured Ayzize to relax. “The second condition for this replacement, is that she score highly o
n her tests. Each and every one of them, throughout training. If she doesn’t, then not only will I throw her out, I’ll throw you along with her.”

  Ayzize nodded without hesitation. With what he pulled, he expected as much.

  “And third: neither of you are to step out of line. If either of you do, you’ll both be thrown out.” Doth’s frill shivered, and Tralis made no move to calm him. “Understood?”

  Ayzize inclined his head again. “Understood.”

  “Good.” Doth looked at Tralis, who bowed her head to him and then Ayzize, and walked out of the conference. “I have some figures to go through, but do not screw up and make sure the other human doesn’t either.” Doth looked away briefly. “We can’t afford that to happen right now.”

  That made Ayzize even more worried about the situation back in Raxdrýn, but he wouldn’t voice his concerns aloud, and especially not to Doth. “We won’t disappoint.”

  Doth barred his teeth in a mock smile, though he let out a genuine chuckle. “This was the first time that you have, so don’t do it again. Dismissed.”

  Was that a compliment? Ayzize thought as Doth flickered out of the AR conference, and Ayzize tapped his temple to retract the blue holo band around his eyes. The sound of the terminal rushed back to his ears. With slight unease, he turned to Celes, who looked up at him.

  “Everything OK?” she asked, her violet eyes narrowing at his features in suspicion. “I know I wasn’t supposed to be picked and I don’t want to get you into trouble...”

  Ayzize felt his chest squeeze in guilt. “Raxdrýn may have had chosen Elliot, yes, but you’re my choice, and it was for a reason. Don’t forget that,” he said, hoping it didn’t sound harsh.

  Fortunately, it didn’t, since she looked down with a huge smile on her face, swaying a little in happiness. “Well, if you put it that way...”

  Doth’s words of not screwing up entered his mind again, and Ayzize pushed it aside. “You have better abilities than Elliot. Raxdrýn will like that.” That wasn’t too cold of a reason, right?

  Celes puffed up proudly. “I’ll crush XIKs with my mind, like you!”

  Another concern: she wanted to fight XIKs. Doth perhaps wasn’t too off the mark with his insult of Ayzize identifying with Celes, but Ayzize had been in his early twenties when he joined Raxdrýn, not ten years old. “We won’t be getting into that sort of thing for a while,” Ayzize cleared his throat. “We don’t throw kids your age to XIKs. Too young.”

  Celes nodded. “Well, yeah. I may be able to lift a bouncy ball and use it against bullies, but I know XIKs are harder to stop than humans. Have to learn how to fight first!”

  “Exactly. You sure you have everything? Once we leave the station, we’re going straight for the shuttles.”

  Celes rolled her eyes. “Yes, I double checked. Oh, wait, did I bring...” she pulled a duffle bag closer to her, unzipping it and diving into the contents, pulling out shirts and random trinkets that she had brought. Ayzize watched her carefully, listening to any thoughts that jumped out to him.

  After his ‘show’ at the town hall, Ayzize had paid for cab fare back to the apartment, since he didn’t want to deal with Franklin Benitz shrieking hysterically while Elliot threw a tantrum. That, and way too many people had been packed into that little building, which triggered memories of one of his apprentice days. He and his mentor had dealt with a XIK attack where the townsfolk had run into a shelter with only one exit, and the XIKs got in. Ayzize still had flashbacks anytime he entered a small building with very few exits.

  The cab ride had been Celes practically bouncing around the walls, unbelieving at her luck. Zivan, her father, had just stared out the window. No hint of alcohol on him, and his mind had been strangely clear and at peace. Ayzize had tried to get Celes to be a little tactful around her father, though he himself felt proud.

  Back at the apartment, while Celes threw everything she owned into two duffle bags, Zivan had allowed the transfer of Celes’ guardianship over to Ayzize without protest. Some parents had a lot of questions, such as how the process was instant (Raxdrýn had its own clause in most adoption processes that was millennia old, and the official transfer wouldn’t be until Raxdrýn authorized it), when the child would leave (immediately), if they could see them again (unlikely, unless the child specifically asks to or uses their vacation time when they are older), and so on. Zivan had no questions or concerns, and it disgusted Ayzize.

  It must have shown on Ayzize’s face, since while electronically signing several long documents without reading them, Zivan had said, “She foresaw this, you know.”

  Ayzize had frowned, using Celes’ borrowed datapad to flick through the documents without looking at Zivan. “Akira?”

  “Yes.” Zivan’s boots on the carpet had shifted, and Ayzize didn’t have to look up to confirm Zivan had turned to look at Celes. “I don’t know if Celes said anything, but Akira could… see things. She hoped to be wrong, about me, but... her warning wasn’t enough. She didn’t even know how she would die, and...”

  Ayzize had wanted to interject with, ‘Cut with your bullshit excuses, you still failed your kids,’ but he had held his tongue. The worry of, ‘what if he revokes his agreement?’ had popped into his head, since the transfer was not final until they reached Tezěkír. Instead, he managed with a deadpanned, “Oh really?”

  Zivan had nodded when Ayzize looked up from Celes’ datapad to him. “Akira said if I got like this, then Zander and Celes would be with good people. Even if it will be hard for them, they would be with guides who would prepare them for what is coming. ‘Origins of hope’, she said.”

  Ayzize had narrowed his eyes in suspicion while an oblivious Celes pranced around her room, tossing things in her duffle bag. Was Zivan pulling his leg and spouting random nonsense? Unless Dr. Nakagawa-Dušánek had been a runal—and she wasn’t, since Aorírdal snatched all the best psychics in the galaxy—Zivan had to have misremembered something.

  “Life is hard, and she knew it,” Ayzize had merely said. Zander with Aorírdal wasn’t too surprising, since Ayzize could tell the kid was different when he had first met him, but Celes being taken care of? While necessary, Ayzize wouldn’t equate Raxdrýn as ‘good people’. Neutral, at best.

  Zivan had shaken his head, and then gripped Ayzize’s forearm while looking directly into his eyes. Ayzize had almost plucked Zivan’s hand off him before Zivan said, “Celes could tell the Prior on Zander’s behalf to take care of him, and the Prior already knew. He knows. He and Akira both do and did.”

  “Zivan,” Ayzize had reproached, glancing to Celes to make sure she still packed, “take your hand off me or—”

  “I know what I sound like and I know that I am ranting.” Zivan’s voice had stayed low. “I’m not drunk; I had to be level headed enough for this. She said that you would come and take Celes, and it would be all right, and it would be better. Because if you didn’t take Celes, something worse would happen. Something much worse.”

  Ayzize had gently taken Zivan’s wrist and pulled his grip off him, though Zivan only looked more frantic at the gesture. “There are resources available to you,” he had responded. Perhaps now Zivan understood what would happen, that both children were taken away from him. Ayzize might have felt some pity for the man, but not much. “You would have to travel to Valen if you want to see counselors in person, but via net—”

  “Akira mentioned names,” Zivan had rambled on, and he moved to grip Ayzize again before Ayzize had moved back. “Said ‘agents everywhere, in science, in engineering, in military, in politics’—”

  Ayzize had inhaled sharply, but he made sure Zivan had not caught it. There was no way Zivan could know. “Zivan, take a deep—”

  “Her name, what was her name?” Zivan had muttered. “No, theirs. It was male and female, on opposite sides. Like a puppet master with many strings and the spy with omnipresence...”

  Ayzize had not liked where the conversation headed, and he had glanced to Celes, who had pushed h
er clothes deeper into her duffle bag so she could zip it up. “Akira said this?”

  “Telos and Nea’arch,” Zivan had snapped his fingers in an ‘ah-ha!’ moment. “That was their names.”

  Ayzize had felt the blood drain from his face, his breath caught in his chest and his limbs unresponsive in shock, before he seized both of Zivan’s upper arms in a death grip. “Listen to me, Dušánek,” he had hissed in a low growl, and since he didn’t feel any surprise from Celes, knew she remained oblivious. Zivan had initially struggled in Ayzize’s grip, but he still stared up at him. While erecting a barrier around the two of them, Ayzize had delved into Zivan’s mind, just enough for Ayzize to know if Zivan told the truth. “You only found this out from Akira?”

  Zivan had nodded.

  “Did you tell anyone else about those names, even your children?”

  Zivan had shaken his head.

  “Do you know the significance of those names?”

  Zivan had hesitated, and the stray thought of, I knew they were important, but are they even more important than…? had floated through his mind. “... Sort of?”

  Ayzize had wanted to probe deeper into Zivan’s mind, but with how off balance Ayzize felt, he was liable to accidentally shatter it. “What else did Akira say? And only think it.”

  Zivan’s confusion on his face at Ayzize’s request had turned into a realization, and he nodded. Other than what I just told you, that was all she said, he had ‘told’ Ayzize mentally. She said that if she died, then both kids would be taken care of by others, since something bad would happen, but worse otherwise if they weren’t taken. She had mentioned Nea’arch and Telos several years earlier. She said that those two events were unrelated, but I knew she had lied.

  Ayzize had to calm himself at the revelation, before he said mentally, >>Never say those names again. Don’t even think them, and if you do, keep up a barrier. Otherwise, you will be targeted, along with your children. Do you understand me?<<

  Zivan had nodded without hesitation, though his thoughts became more jumbled and scared with how seriously Ayzize took the information. “I do,” he had said aloud, and Ayzize let go of him.