Reunification (27 page)

In any case, I asked Kiriah, “Where are
all of the Reunification members? Why is this place so deserted and
empty? I thought your organization would have many more people in
it.”

“
The facility we're in
is largely maintained by robots,” said Kiriah. She gestured at a
camera hanging from the ceiling, which I had not even noticed had
been watching us silently the entire time. “They're a lot more
dependable and trustworthy than organic beings, for one. There are
probably only a dozen or so organic, living beings here at any one
time; we can't have more than that.”

“
Why not?” I asked. “I
thought Reunification was much larger than a dozen or so
members.”

“
The more people you let
in on the Secret, the more likely it becomes that someone will
spill that Secret out to the public,” Kiriah explained. “And we
don't want the public—whether on Dela or Xeeo—to know about us, at
least not until the Reunification process is complete and the two
worlds are one again.”

“
What is the exact
number of members in your group, then?” said I, folding my arms
over my chest.

“
I can't tell you that,
mostly because you're still not technically a member yet,” said
Kiriah, shaking her head. “Also, because the less we know about
each other, the less useful any of our captured members become to
enemies who may kidnap them.”

“
I see,” I said. “That
is how ye control the flow of information in this group, then? By
determining what your inferiors deserve to know?”

“
What they
need
to know,” Kiriah corrected. She wagged a finger at me. “And don't
make it sound like that. It's not like I know everything going on
around here, either. I know more than most, but it's the Elders who
know everything, and above the Elders is the Founder.”

“
I thought ye said ye
were the leader of Reunification,” I said, frowning. “Sounds to me
as if ye are in fact just another subordinate in the chain of
command.”

“
But I
am
the
Leader,” said Kiriah. “I just handle the day-to-day stuff that the
Elders and the Founder don't have time for. That's all.”

She sounded more than a bit offended by
what I had said, but I did not apologize, though I probably should
have. Knowing the exact chain of command in this organization did
not make me respect my sister anymore than I already did; indeed, I
had less respect for her now than before, if only because it was
now clear to me that, despite her protests, she was indeed just
another subordinate, albeit one higher up in chain of command than
most.

That would make taking down Reunification
from within that much more problematic, as I could not simply
defeat Kiriah. Nay, I would have to deal with these 'Elders,' too,
whoever they were, and the enigmatic Founder, whoever he was.

That knowledge made this task of mine seem
far more insurmountable than I thought, but I did not show my
worry. I knew Kiriah well enough to know how to hide my true
thoughts and feelings from her, and as I could not allow her to
suspect my true intentions, it was imperative I keep them to
myself.

“
Well, whatever,” said
Kiriah. “Come on. I have to take you down to the Ceremony
Room.”

“
Ye have a room devoted
for the purposes of the Ceremony here in this place?” I asked. I
looked around at the sleek Xeeonite interior architecture. “I did
not think that Xeeonites cared much for ceremonies.”

“
Reunification is
neither Xeeonite nor Delanian,” said Kiriah, shaking her head
again. “We're both, and neither, and more. We have Ceremony Rooms
in all of our buildings and facilities for exactly this kind of
situation. We need to be able to induct new members into the fold
quickly, after all, no matter where they join.”

“
What is the Ceremony
like?” I asked. “Is it painful?”

“
You'll see once we get
there,” said Kiriah. “Follow me. The Ceremony Room is underneath
the facility, so we will have to take you down there right
away.”

Kiriah began walking down the hallway. I
followed, listening to the sounds of construction equipment and
workers outside, wondering still what they were working on. These
noises were quite foreign to mine ears, but I paid them little
attention, partly because Kiriah did not seem likely to answer any
questions about them, partly because I was more distracted by the
new shoes on my feet than anything.

How comfortable these shoes were! Granted,
they were not the fanciest of shoes, nor even the best pair I had
ever worn; however, after having gone so many long days without
shoes, even this simple pair 'twas better than nothing. I felt as
though I could wear these shoes for the rest of my life; indeed, I
wondered if I could keep them or if Kiriah had only given them to
me until I could buy a pair of mine own. I would have to ask at
some point.

I expected us to walk down a long series
of stairs to the Ceremony Room, or perhaps take one of those
infernal 'elevators' that the Xeeonites seemed to have installed in
every building they had ever made.

But instead, Kiriah stopped in front of a
door and pushed it open. Whilst I was no expert on Xeeonite
technology, I thought that this door did not look anything like the
door to an elevator or stairs. Wherefore, then, were we going?

I followed her in anyway, for I trusted
that she knew where she was going. And what I saw was an odd sight
that I had not expected to see in any Xeeonite building.

The room was almost completely empty of
all furniture, save for a large stone platform in the center that
had the symbol of the Old Gods carved into it. There was no
mistaking that full moon symbol for anything else, though what
'twas doing here, of all places, I dared not say. A hint of ancient
stone entered my nostrils, while my ears caught no sound aside from
Kiriah's step against the tiled floor. Even the sounds of the
construction equipment and workers outside seemed distant now, as
if this room was inside another universe entirely.

“
This is the main
teleporter in this facility,” said Kiriah, gesturing at it as she
walked up to it. “It will teleport us to the Ceremony
Room.”

“
Why does it have the
symbol of the Old Gods engraved on it?” I asked, after my speaking
abilities had returned to me, for I had been temporarily rendered
mute by the sight of the symbol. “Does Reunification serve the Old
Gods?”

Kiriah stopped, as if I had asked a
question that she had not considered before. Then again, perhaps
she was thinking of the best way to answer that question, although
it seemed a simple one to I. After all, ye either served the Old
Gods or ye did not; there was none of this 'gray area' that some
liked to speak of when it came to whether they worshiped King Una
or not.

Then Kiriah said, without looking at me,
“Oh, well, that isn't just a symbol of the Old Gods. It's a symbol
of reunification, too. That it resembles the symbol of the Old Gods
is just a coincidence.”

“
I dare say that it
appears to be appropriation and even mockery of the Old Gods,” I
said. I folded mine arms over my chest. “I thought this would
offend ye, sister. After all, ye and I both grew up in the Old
Religion together, did we not?”

Kiriah still did not turn to look at me,
though that did not make me doubt myself, for I had said the whole
truth. Our parents had indeed raised all three of us—Kiriah, Sura,
and I—in the Old Religion, because they believed it was their
duties as parents to do so. I could not be certain whether Sura
still followed the Old Religion, as Kiriah's disappearance had
shaken his faith and we had not spoken in years, but I thought that
at least Kiriah would still show faith in the Old Gods.

Then Kiriah shrugged. “We can talk about
this later. Right now, we need to get you through the Ceremony.
After that, we can talk more about religion.”

Though her tone was light and casual, as
if this was an incredibly trivial and inconsequential thing, I
sensed more than a hint of danger in her voice. It was the danger I
had sensed earlier, when we had spoken prior to my surgery, a
danger that I had never heard in my sister's voice before. I
suspected she must have picked it up from her fellow Reunification
members, which gave me yet another reason to hate this group.

Kiriah stepped onto the teleporter and
gestured for me to join her. I did not want to, as I wanted nothing
to do with what I considered to be a mockery of the Old Gods.
Nonetheless, I knew I had little choice in the matter, so I climbed
up next to Kiriah.

“
All right,” said
Kiriah, looking up at me as she spoke, “I don't know if you have
ever teleported before, but it will be a little disorienting at
first.”

“
Will it be painful?” I
asked. “I have heard stories of teleporters turning people who used
them inside out.”

“
That's what the
earliest teleporters did,” said Kiriah, waving off my concern as if
it was childish, “because teleporters were so new and no one really
understood them. Nowadays, they can teleport a whole group of a
dozen or more people without any trouble.”

“
Indeed?” I said,
scratching my chin as I looked down on the teleporter under my
feet, which felt sturdy and solid. “I have to admit, Xeeonite
technology can be rather magnificent at times, though it is still
no substitute for good old Delanian magic.”

“
I know,” said Kiriah.
“It's why I'm happy to be here. Xeeonite technology is simply
amazing, sometimes even more so than our magic.”

I frowned. “Now, sister, that is a bit
strong, wouldn't ye say? As good as Xeeonite technology can
sometimes be, Delanian magic is still the preferred practice of the
Old Gods. Don't ye remember what our parents used to teach us
before we went to bed every night?”

Kiriah scratched the back of her head. “I
don't really remember. It's been so long. Was it something about
magic over tech or something?”

My frown turned into a smile as I quoted
what our parents used to tell us at bed time so many years ago,
“'Always appreciate the magic of old, for it is a gift from the Old
Gods that keeps ye safe and secure at all times.'”

“
I'm surprised that you
remember that,” said Kiriah, looking at me in surprise. “Then
again, you are older than me, so that's not surprising.”

“
Indeed,” I said. “Now,
how does this teleporter work?”

Kiriah tapped her thin wrist. A
holographic image of a keyboard rose from the spot she had tapped,
a keyboard with Xeeonish letters I could not read. My sister's
fingers danced across the keyboard as quickly and easily as if she
did this every day, typing up what might have been a password of
sorts as she did so.

I shuddered when I saw the hologram appear
above my sister's wrist. I did so because it meant that Kiriah had
indeed received implants just like every other Xeeonite. It
disturbed me that my own sister had done that, which made me wonder
again just how much she had changed since her disappearance so many
years ago.

But I said nothing about it, because I
doubted that Kiriah would listen to me. Xeeonites in general, I
noticed, did not like anyone criticizing their implants, as if
their implants were an integral part of their identity. I did not
understand it, as these implants always seemed disgusting to me,
but then, there was much I did not understand about this world and
its people. Kiriah was not a native Xeeonite, but she certainly
acted like one nowadays.

As soon as Kiriah finished typing on the
holographic keyboard, everything around us began to shift like the
water in the ocean. I looked around in panic, but then Kiriah
grabbed my hand and held it tightly, like a reassuring grip, and
said, “Stay still.”

Though she spoke, her words became slurred
and hard to understand, as if whatever witchcraft that was making
the world around us shift and churn was affecting her, too. Still,
I listened to her anyway and tried to calm down even as the walls
melted and the platform under us turned into mush.

Just as I began to think that our
surroundings were going to envelop us like a slime ball, everything
returned to normal immediately. The abrupt transition—if you could
even call it that, for it had not been much of a transition to
me—made my stomach churn and my head hurt as if I had been clubbed
by an angry dwarf wielding a hammer. My vision, too, was blurry,
which made me hesitate, for I was unsure just how much longer my
vision would remain this way.

“
Here we are,” said
Kiriah, who I heard standing next to me. “The Ceremony Room. Can
you see?”

Eager to see where we were, I rubbed my
eyes in the hope that that would help clear them up more quickly.
Rubbing my hands against my eyes did make them burn somewhat, but
it must have worked, for when I lowered my hands, I could see them
as clearly as anything else.

Then I looked up at the chamber we had
teleported into and looked around to see where we were.

'Twas not a very large room, though it was
bigger than any other room I had seen in this facility so far.
Aside from its size, what struck me most about it was how it looked
completely unlike any other Xeeonite room I had seen so far. There
were no tiles on the floor, ceiling, or walls. Instead, there was
stone, very old stone by the look of it, as if this room had been
built ages ago by the Old Gods themselves.

And on the walls, floor, and ceiling were
images I did not understand, especially due to the poor lighting
from the florescent bulbs above. Two spheres were a common image I
saw on much of the room, as well as a third, much larger sphere
that was in between the worlds (for I soon realized that that was
what they had to be). Ancient weapons—swords with serrated edges
and axes with large, flat heads—were strung along the walls, but I
did not know where any of those weapons might have been from, for I
did not recognize their design at all.