Apprentice (17 page)

Bernard tried to imagine the anxiety these people must have been under. “And we will give you the knowledge you need to teach the New Sun what he, or she, will need to know to, er, do what needs to be done.” Jim finished this a bit lamely. It was clear to Bernard then that this book of theirs contained other untranslated, unclear, or missing passages.

“What about this new son guy? Who is he anyway?” Bernard asked, he’d heard references to that guy enough tonight. “Is he supposed to be God’s second son or something, like a successor to Jesus?” Jim’s brows furrowed as he seemed to be trying to figure out where Bernard had got confused, and then seemed to get it.

“New Sun, as in the big ball of flaming gas in the sky, not a new baby boy,” he clarified for Bernard. “The New Sun will bring the Second Dawn of Mankind, you see?” Bernard didn’t really see, but he nodded anyway so that Jim would continue. He figured he could ask more questions after Jim was done if his explanations were insufficient.

“The New Sun and Second Dawn are figurative; we don’t actually expect a second solar body to suddenly come about. We think the New Sun is a messiah who will bring mankind to a level of consciousness and enlightenment far beyond the current. All of life on Earth will be changed by the New Sun: that’s the Second Dawn. And the New Sun may be a girl just as much as a boy; although some interpretations put the pronouns as masculine, this is not universally agreed upon.”

“And I’m to ignite this New Sun?” Bernard asked dubiously.

“You will, after we’ve helped you of course. According to the prophecy, you will get the fire with which to ignite the New Sun from us. I think we must teach you what we know,” Jim said helpfully. Bernard could see that having found Bernard, the Demon of the Soul Forge, was possibly the most momentous and fulfilling event of Jim’s life. Bernard felt that was a lot of pressure for these Second Dawners to be putting on a sixteen year old. He feared he would let them down.

He had a thought, “So these prophecies, they’re destined to happen right? I can’t fail to do what needs to be done, can I? It is written, and all that . . . right?” He wanted to be reassured. Jim seemed to want to reassure him, but couldn’t.

Jim spoke seriously, “Daemon, the prophecies include a lot of ifs and some perhapses. A lot can change. There are crucial points and decisions that can and will be made, and the book outlines some of the perils and outcomes of the wrong decisions being made. But no, I’m afraid you
can
fail and I’m afraid this is all a lot for you to take in. This is just the first day of your apprenticeship. Eventually you will know everything I can possibly teach you, but for now go home and get some rest and let some of this sink in; it’s a lot for one day.”

Bernard wanted to object, he wanted to know more now, but Jim shook his head when he was about to speak and made a small but definite noise in his throat, a sort of micro throat-clearing, and Bernard found he couldn’t speak for a few moments. He also felt he needed to listen to Jim. The older man fished something out of one of his robe’s plentiful pockets: it was a USB flash drive. He placed it carefully in the palm of Bernard’s right hand and closed his fingers over it.

“This contains a text file that has the first few chapters of the book in digital form on it. Janet, she was here tonight, has been working to scan the sacred text into electronic format. Take this and start reading. When we meet next week I will answer your questions. We will make of you a proper neophyte of the first circle, and you will get your robes.”

“ There is time, Daemon, time enough, anyway. The New Sun is probably not even born yet.”

Jim was wrong as it turned out.

READ MORE IN: THE RELUCTANT MESSIAH
AVAILABLE NOW