Consensus Breaking (The Auran Chronicles Book 2) (18 page)

‘Shall we go for a walk?’

‘Sounds good. Seems there’s a lot to discuss.’

‘Agreed.’

Cade waved the two guards away, who obeyed without question. Cade and Seb strolled out of the plaza down a narrow lane that emerged into another square, although this one was much smaller than the last. Some kind of cafe stood at the bottom, nestled in the shadows of a massive stone wall that extended upwards into the darkness. A cosy light shone through the frosted window, illuminating a small number of round tables and chairs before it. Cade took a seat at one and beckoned Seb to join him. A small man, barely five foot in height, scurried out with a pad in his hand.

‘Mr Cade, a pleasure as always,’ the man said with a faint hint of an accent. ‘What can I get for you?’

‘The usual please, Neil. Coffee, Seb?’

Seb stammered over his words. The man was Aware, but a different kind of awareness that Seb had never seen before. ‘Sorry, yes, coffee is fine.’

Neil dipped a head and vanished into the cafe.

‘What the hell is this, Cade?’ Seb said for what he felt was the hundredth time in the last hour.

‘A cafe. You get drinks and other beverages from it.’

‘Funny.’

Cade smiled. ‘Oh,
this
?’ he said, waving his hand in the air.

‘Yeah.
This.
’ Seb repeated the gesture.

‘I don’t know its original name. Perhaps you could find out? But to those who live here, it’s called Sanctuary.’

‘Live here? But we’re in a Way, aren’t we?’

‘Sort of, I think. But don’t think of it as a Way, as in a path from A to B. This is just another location, constructed in the same way as a Way, but as a destination, not a path. At least, that’s how Gough describes it.’

‘Gough?’

‘Let’s go back a step, shall we.’

‘I’ll be guided by you on this one.’

‘You remember when I left the Family, when I declined to join their “forces”?’

‘I do indeed.’

‘I came back to the Croft to see what I could salvage from there.’

‘What? To restart the Brotherhood?’

‘I didn’t know what I was thinking, to be honest. And when I got there the place was deserted. Asides, that is, from Morgan and Olivia.’

‘The old man and the little girl?’

Cade nodded. ‘Morgan was my teacher for many years.’

‘Funny that, I just imagined you were born with a sword in one hand and a gun in the other.’

Cade smiled. ‘Sometimes it feels like that.’

‘So what happened? What was Morgan doing?’

‘He was on the run from the magi. Olivia had become Aware and hence a target. He did not fancy what that meant for her.’

Seb remained silent. He knew all too well what would’ve happened.

‘So he’s on the run?’

Cade nodded, took a sip from the coffee that Neil had subtly dropped in front of them. ‘He was, until he found this place.’

‘And what about Sylph? How’d she end up here?’

Cade smiled. ‘She’s resourceful. She encountered one of my warriors. Without his knowledge, she followed him back here.’

‘And she signed up, just like that?’

‘She didn’t need much persuasion. She’s an outsider, like all of us. She proved invaluable, acting as our eyes within the Night Sisters.’

‘Explains something,’ Seb muttered, thinking about the questions Anna had raised with him about his friend.

‘What does?’

‘It doesn’t matter. Not now.’ He drank down some of his coffee, before shifting to look back towards the plaza. ‘So what is this place, exactly?’

‘A sanctuary for the newly Aware. Gough gathered a handful here at first, those he could save from the purging. He learned of the Ways, and with some help, created this place. In time, word spread amongst the Aware. Gough’s people actively sought out those who were at risk to both themselves and the magi. Some of them could be saved, some, obviously, could not.’

‘Gough’s people?’ Seb said.

‘Yes. Some ex-Brotherhood, some with special skills from when they were Unaware. Others from different shards entirely.’

Seb nearly spat out his coffee. ‘Other Shards?’

‘Not many. But the number is growing. The breaking of the Consensus somehow made this shard more visible. Refugees have made the journey at great risk to get here. Not many make it, but those who do often possess skills that we find are of use.’

‘So that’s what this place is - somewhere to hide from the magi?’

‘And where they can be educated in the Weave and its ways.’

‘The Weave? But these are only Aware - they’re not magi - they aren’t Latent?’

‘No, they’re not, but there are other manifestations of the Weave. A person can be Aware in many ways. Perhaps by being able to detect if someone is lying or able to influence the throw of a die. They were not powerful, but connected all the same. They had a greater influence on the Weave, and hence reality, than they realised. If they weren’t controlled, then who knows what could’ve happened.’

‘You seem to know a lot about the Weave all of a sudden?’ Seb said, eyeing Cade suspiciously.

‘Not much more than previously. Gough has been educating me.’

‘So what’s your role in all this? You seem quite well ingrained here.’

Cade took another drink and sat back. He smiled again, and Seb couldn’t help but notice how relaxed the warrior seemed. He didn’t seem on edge or as ready for combat as he’d been previously.

It was a good change.

‘I lead a newly formed Brotherhood, but one that is no longer bound by the Oath. Instead we follow a new calling, one that helps those who need it.’

‘You still hunt the sheol?’

‘When they are around. You must’ve noticed their numbers have dropped significantly.’

‘We have. What else, then? You save the newly Aware?’

‘Yes. If we get there in time.’

‘And if you encounter the magi, what then?’

Cade sighed and shifted in his seat. Here it was. Here was the crux of the matter. It was clear now what the conversation on the bell tower meant.

‘We’re your enemies too, aren’t we? The magi?’

‘Before, we thought perhaps an agreement could be struck. But then it got a lot worse. The tactics used by the magi changed. They no longer attempt to cleanse. They simply
erase
.’

Seb thought back to Grim and the family in the house. Grim would’ve killed them if he hadn’t intervened. How many other coteries were out there doing this, day in, day out, without conscience?

‘What’s the end goal to all this? You can’t keep taking people in. The magi will find you.’

‘We are well protected.’

‘I saw your traps back in the Way. And the brothers hidden around the perimeter. But is that enough? The magi can call upon vast resources. And how can you keep taking people in? The Consensus will remain broken. Eventually too many will become Aware. And then what?’

Cade rose, his cup empty. On instinct Seb followed suit.

‘On that question, it’s a good time.’

‘A good time to what?’

‘To meet Gough.’

Seb spent the next ten minutes with his jaw firmly dropped. As they walked back across the plaza his senses were subjected to a barrage of sights and sounds that he’d never imagined he’d ever see in this world.

Many of those there were Aware, their auras showing the slight shimmer of one in contact with the Weave. Others though, their differences were much more obvious. On one side of the square, hefting up a large stone boulder that was easily the size of a car, stood two humanoid creatures. They were brown skinned, easily seven-foot-tall, with arms like tree trunks and wide heads with flat noses and pure red eyes. They were terrifying in appearance, but people simply moved around them like water round a stone as they went about their business.

Further in, a group of children, no more than ten in age and number, sat in a half circle facing a wooden chair. They seemed rapt by something he couldn’t see. Focusing his
sense
, he saw the apparition that hovered before them, a woman, in her twenties, but just her astral form, nothing more.

More and more sights assailed him as he followed Cade. Brothers here and there, armed and watching the crowd with their wolf-like eyes. There were people from all walks of life, most of them from Earth, but several more from locations he could only guess at.

As they approached a large building with its own outer wall a man appeared from a road that seemed less maintained than the others. He was tall, nearly seven feet, with a wide chest and powerful arms. He was bald, his skin bare aside from a sprawl of scars that poured down one side of his body like molten lava. Seb could only watch, transfixed, as the man stopped in front of Cade.

His aura was white. He’d never seen white before.

‘Cade, we must talk,’ the man said, his voice like gravel.

‘Soon, let me take Seb to see Gough first.’

The man turned and seemingly noticed Seb for the first time. His milk-white eyes widened, and Seb felt the familiar tingle as someone tried to
sense
through his shield.

‘A mage.’ The term was not said with warmth.

‘Shimmer, this is Seb, he’s the one I told you about.’

Shimmer stepped closer. He was even more intimidating at this distance. He towered above Seb, emitting an aura that screamed power.

‘I know you, at least I know of you,’ Seb said, a memory suddenly popping to mind.

‘We have never met,’ Shimmer growled.

‘No, but someone I met asked about you,’ Seb looked to the ground. What was it? Where had he heard the name? He ploughed through his memories, alighting at last on the required one. A moment he’d long since tried to forget.

‘Woden. Woden asked for you,’ he said quietly.

Shimmer’s nostrils flared and he sucked in a deep intake of breath. Seb winced, expecting some kind of outburst, not that he knew why. When nothing came, he looked up with one eye.

‘You met Woden?’ Shimmer said, the barely-suppressed aggression subsiding a little.

‘Sort of. In the Nexus. We found his astral form. He mistook Cian for you.’

‘Woden was a good man.’ Shimmer blinked. Was that a tear? He shook his head and turned to Cade. ‘Later. Come and see me.’

Cade nodded, ‘as you wish.’

They continued on their journey towards the large compound. Two more Brothers nodded at Cade as he approached. The younger one banged on the wooden barrier.

‘Open up, Cade is here.’

From somewhere within, wheels began to turn. Wood and machinery groaned as the doors opened inward, leading them into a wide courtyard. Inside several people, men and women, practiced combat routines that Seb recalled affectionately from Cade’s own training sessions with him.

Then something hit him.

‘These - they’re not Aware.’

‘Not yet.’

‘Then why are they here?’

‘Like any Brother, they begin life as a human. It is only through the Bloodrite do they become a true member of the Brotherhood.’

‘I never thought about how you recruited them. How do you get them without exposing yourselves?’

‘Our scouts are -
were -
well trained in spotting those who could take the transformation. We have only one left who is still loyal to the cause. To me. He identifies those he thinks would fit. They train in the real world first, under the guise of a security company. Only a select few are brought into the fold.’

‘Sounds like there’s a whole network of our kind at work in the human world.’

‘Very much so. It is only the magi that seek to isolate themselves from what they see as a corruption of their pure forms. It will be their undoing one day.’

Seb let those final words hang in the air. As they approached the building the partition doors slid apart. A man stepped out and leant against the rail. A warm smile broke out on his weathered face.

‘Cade, good to see you again!’ he said, before turning to Seb. The smile didn’t vanish, as Seb had expected, but instead another expression merged with it. One of curiosity…and something else.

‘Gough,’ Cade replied, tipping his head. ‘I have brought -’

‘Seb. The famous destroyer of Marek,’ Gough said, his grey eyes not leaving Seb for an instant.

‘The very same.’

‘Then come in, come in. We have much to discuss’

***

As they followed Gough inside the building, Seb tried discreetly to observe his aura. The leader of Sanctuary was Aware, there was no doubt about that, but his abilities were difficult to discern. He wasn’t a mage. Seb had been around enough of those to tell one a hundred miles away. His aura showed definite power, but it was subtle, not giving itself away.

Gough stopped by a large rosewood table surrounded by six chairs. A lantern burned brightly on the table top. Next to it were a couple of newspapers and a laptop, creating a strange mix of the mystic and the modern.

Gough took a seat and motioned for the others to follow. He poured a drink from a steel jug into a tankard and passed it round. Cade did likewise and passed it to Seb, who sniffed at the black liquid that sloshed inside.

‘What is it?’

‘A lovely beverage from Aldrunica. A beautiful place.’

‘Another shard?’

Gough smiled. ‘Mr Shimmer was kind enough to bring some across during his last visit.’ Gough took a long drink. ‘Now, I suspect you’re after some kind of answers?’

‘I’m still taking it in if I’m honest. Cade told me a lot about what is going on here.’

‘And, what do you think?’

Seb thought for a minute, trying to think of the most appropriate response. In the end he opted for the safest.

The truth.

‘I think it’s good. What you’re doing. More and more are becoming Aware. The magi cannot contain them all.’

‘
Contain
? Is that what you call it?’

Seb’s cheeks burned. ‘They do what they think is right.’

It wasn’t lost on him that he used
they
and not
we
. Nor, did it seem, was it on Gough, who smiled back at him.

‘They are fighting a losing battle. More are awakening every day. More than they can
contain
.’

‘I would say the same for you though. You cannot take everyone here. Eventually this place will become overcrowded. And what then?’

‘When the time is right, we will return back into the real world.’

‘When the time is
right
? When will that be?’

‘When the Weave is fully established. When the Consensus is no longer fractured and reality is stable.’

Seb looked between Cade and Gough. Was he hearing this correctly? ‘I don’t understand. How will that happen? It’s getting worse. Not better.’

‘You are right. Not without help. Not without someone to guide the newly awoken.’

‘You can do that?’

Gough laughed. ‘I have many powers Seb but sadly not of that kind. No, I need someone who understands the Weave and its powers, but yet someone not tainted by the arrogance of a dying race.’

‘Who?’ Something was starting to eat at his gut. He knew what was coming even if he didn’t have time to process it.

‘Why, you of course.’

If Seb had any liquid in his mouth, he would have spat it over the table. Were they serious? Cade was always serious so it was difficult to tell. Gough, for all intents, seemed totally sincere. Which made his idea even more ridiculous.

‘Me? I’m nothing. I have only been training for a couple of years.’

‘Yes, but in that time you have advanced considerably.’

‘So, I’m still weak compared to pretty much all the other magi out there. Why don’t you speak with them?’

‘I assume that was some kind of joke. Do you know what the Families would do if they found us?’

Seb didn’t answer. He knew what they would do. They all did. He sighed and sat back. ‘But what can I do, really?’

‘Work with us. We have resources. Ancient texts and guides that you could decipher. You would start a new Magistry here, amongst your own kind. You would learn first, and then guide them.’

‘And what’s in it for you?’ the question slipped out before he even thought of it. Cade glared. Gough didn’t react at all.

‘Good, a suspicious mind is a healthy mind.’ Gough leant forwards. ‘Would it surprise you to know Seb that I am not significant. I am not a great warrior, like Cade, or a mage, like you. I have some powers yes, but nothing of material compared to such powerhouses. What I
am
though, is a people person. I can
sense
the Aware, especially the newly aware. I can feel their pain, their suffering. Before I accepted my calling, I used to be a counsellor, specialising in what’s called abnormal psychology. In recent years I became aware of an increase in a certain type of hallucination that was scarily common in its attributes. People claiming to hear voices, to feel others’ emotions. At first these could be attributed to many other ailments, but I noticed that they were all common in many areas. Eventually it became clear that it wasn’t just that they that were different,
I
was different too. I could feel them. I could detect their pain. Over time, I realised I could reach out to them, too, and could soothe their pain.’

‘You mean you can help them? Those going mad with the Weave?’

Gough smiled. ‘Have you seen anyone who looks like they’re struggling here?’

Seb wrung his hands. ‘They said they couldn’t do anything to help.’

‘Who, the magi?
Couldn’t,
or
wouldn’t
?’

‘The end result is the same.’

‘Indeed it is.’

‘So what happened then? How did you end up here? This place didn’t spring up overnight.’

‘It most certainly didn’t. And it’s a strange story, even by our kind’s standards.’

‘Go on.’

‘A dream, Seb. I had a dream.’

Seb smiled. ‘I feel a speech coming on.’

‘You may jest; I would understand why.’ Gough leant closer, his eyes suddenly serious. ‘All I know is that one night, I had a dream, a vision. I didn’t see this place, not really, but I had a path. I just
knew
how to find it, I knew that, for a time, I could take my newly awoken here, until such time as we had to move on.’

‘And you found this? This chamber? With no training, no knowledge of the Weave. You just turned up here?’

‘Strange I know, but this is how it happened. And then others came. Shimmer, firstly,’ he nodded towards the door. He was drawn, like I was. But from a much greater distance.

‘It was only a shell then. Large, spacious. We saw how it could be harnessed to help those in need. My skills allowed me to empathise with them. I could feel their pain, and, for some reason, they responded to that. They calmed when they came here. I could reach out, with my mind, distance didn’t seem to matter. I could find them, and if their will was strong, they came here. We began to turn the tide of these infections. Before, people were scared. Terrified even. Now though, we can do something to help.’

‘So that’s it? You just help for the sake of it?’ Seb was aware of how insulting the question was, but he just couldn’t help it. No one did something for nothing. Not ever. Even the most altruistic motives had some personal gain somewhere.

If Gough was offended, he didn’t show it. He simply smiled that weary smile again as if he’d been asked this a thousand times.

‘It really is, Seb. I felt lost before, like I didn’t know what I was meant for. Did you ever feel that? When I became Aware myself it was like a light had been switched on. Then I met Shimmer
,
and then Cade, and others. A whole new world was opened up to me. A whole new set of worlds, if I’m to be exact. I felt for the first time like I belonged. You know what I mean?’