Dark Omega

CHAPTER 17 - THE OTHERS

Marcus pulled his hand away from the Maiden's elegant fingers. He sat back, feeling the cold, uncomfortable metal of the chair press against his body once more.

The deeper his connection to Haides, the harder it was to resist the flood of memories. Foreign thoughts and emotions threatened to drown out Marcus's past and replace it with something else. If Marcus hadn't been trained to resist such things, he could have been overwhelmed. Indeed, had he not compartmentalized his mind and separated his ego—his inner self—from the interactive mind, there was no telling what the gatekeeper could have done to his head.

But there was more: the longer he walked in the boy's shoes, the harder it became it tell the present apart from what had happened on Akakios long ago. Like a quagmire, it tried to suck Marcus in. Memories and emotions, perhaps more real than those that remained of the legate's own life, before he was recruited by the Order. This other life kept him occupied, while his mind sunk further and further until, at one point, there would be no going back. If Marcus gave in, he'd effectively become Haides, living out his life—for as long as the connection was maintained.

With Shiloh and Jarra, it was different. He could step into their heads, see what they had seen, feel what they had felt, but they had no egos, nothing that could influence Marcus. The gatekeeper certainly did have an ego—a powerful one, almost a match for Marcus's own. It's almost as if part of his soul is trapped in here. That he is more than a recording, more than a shadow of a dead man. How can this be? If he was indeed Dragonsworn, he must go to the Eyrie after death. If not, he should be in Hades—or the Abyss.

Marcus decided to keep his in-depth sessions with Haides's past brief. As an added precaution, he scheduled more frequent monitoring of the cognitive buffer that regulated the interface between the legate's mental compartments. Together, those measures should prevent the interactive mind from being overwhelmed

Samael. The Maiden. Haides. Shilo. Jarra. Kaminsky. The Word of Light. It's all connected somehow. Why are you showing me these things, Gatekeeper? Are you stalling while you try to get into my head? Or is there more to it? What about Vern's talk of Dante? Meaningful or meaningless? Marcus had very many questions—and few real answers. In fact, Marcus knew less now than he had thought he knew when he arrived. He'd expected security, psychic security, wards to be broken, defenses to be penetrated, but nothing like this gatekeeper. It was unexpected and quite frustrating. I must keep an open mind and be wary both. There is literally more than meets the inner eye going on here.

Marcus looked at the chimera, studying her face. There was no sign of the crack in her shell. In place of the blackened gash, she had a perfectly shaped mouth, lips painted red in that ageless style that transcended time and space. Self-repair systems. Adaptive outer layer. What else did Samael hide beneath your perfect façade, my Maiden fair?

"Let's go back to your first life," Marcus said out loud. "You were telling me about the Last War."

"The Last War. That's what they called it, those that survived."

Marcus shook his head. "There will never be an end to war."

The Maiden shrugged. "Nevertheless, that's what they called it: the Last War. It was so much more gruesome than all the wars that came before it. I suppose they really meant for it to be the last."

"Yet here we are, and there have been many wars since, no?"

The Maiden nodded. "Of course. Only a few generations before the Last War, we had the Second World War—after which the victors became enemies and launched the decades-long Cold War. And this Second World War, it followed right on the heels of the Great War—another War to End All Wars."