Symbiota Sapiens

Chapter 20

"These predictions are troubling." There was no image, only the voice. Damion. 

"What do you think they mean? Do they even matter?" That was the woman, his girlfriend talking.

"I don't know. The digital prophecies are...vague and strange but they always matter. If they really apply. The trick is actually understanding what they mean before they come true."

"That seems the norm for all prophecies."

"Yes. But especially these. They're already built on vague glimpses of the future, but they're deliberately muddled so that people won't be able to prevent them from happening. Or, even, sometimes to make things happen."

"And you think they might be talking about this boy?"

 "Maybe. His friend certainly seems to think so. My god, that program he built to catalogue them is a piece of work. I will have to look into something like it on a grander scale to match them to more than just one person. Though, I think this program has a lot of false matches. I mean, okay, the runner and the warrior fits. But...this...invader of the melding of the minds? And worse, the bits about union and slavery, it doesn't make any sense."

"Perhaps some of it is important and other parts aren't. But does any of it have to do with you?"

"Maybe. He's my prisoner. Perhaps that's what the bondage is about. Except, he's supposed to fulfill some of these predictions before he ever gets free. The joining of the old and the new. Which could mean anything, really. But the prophecies seem to think it's very important."

"Well, maybe the bondage isn't just this imprisonment. You said it mentioned slavery. You implanted him didn't you? Only...it is only the first part, the watching."

"Well..."

“Damion, you didn't!"

"The virus and the attack on the mansion had me worried. This Jeremey is very clever. Scarily so for one so young...and now he has an Elder with him. I need leverage."

"But you wanted him to become your ally, later on! And you alienate him this way?"

"I need to have some hold over him. I didn't plan to actually use the boy that way. Only...to have Jeremey know that I can if I choose to. If he crosses me."

"If he has outmaneuvered you even slightly only a week after his change, he will destroy you when he is older. When he comes into his Powers." 

"But, you will be attached to him my dear. I've already completed the program that will allow him to turn you, and it contains a virus that will make him besotted with you. And you are besotted with me. So, you won't let him destroy me."

"But I thought you didn't believe I truly-"

"I have my doubts. But I want it to be true. If it's not...well...I'll take the risk just in case you do."

A pause.

 "You know just what to say to me, don't you?"

"I'm a very evil man. Devilishly so."

"Handsome too."

"If you say so, my lovely."

There was the sound of smacking lips.

"Oh, you. Stop that! What are you going to do about the boy? And the prophecy?"

"Well, obviously he's going to figure out a way around his implants at some point. Perhaps the Elders will make him a Guardian, since he is so important in the digital prophecies."