The End is Near

Chapter 26

18 July 2045 – Council of War – Banff

We gathered in the sitting room again, sitting on sofas in front the fireplace. This time the Seventh had joined us. Apparently, I was the only one he was planning to allow to see his face because the hood was firmly in place again.

The Bride claimed the honor of ordering the wedding feast, which she did with gusto. I could not even name some of the things that were on the table. We hadn't eaten a lot, breakfast was too recent – but what was a wedding without a feast right? The Seventh assured us it would stay as fresh as when it appeared.

And isn't it interesting that even in my own mind he has two different personas – with the hood in place I can only think of him as the Seventh. Only when I saw his face do I feel at ease enough to think of him as Gwydd.

"Where or how do you think we should start?" Shio was asking seriously, even though he still glowed with the happiness of his recent nuptials. I smiled. It had to be the scientist to bring us to order.

"Maybe a recap of what we've seen and what we've done?" Mickael looked at me searchingly.

I shrugged. Until the scrying tonight I didn't have much of a plan. The instinct that guided me earlier, prompting the bonding that followed, was silent. I felt strangely listless and lacking in direction. "I can start, I guess. My vision was very clear. It showed me holding a sceptre with a crystal on top of it and the sceptre was used to repel our invaders. I glimpsed, or rather felt, their single-mindedness and what felt like one mind directed at a purpose."

Mickael looked at me, "And?"

"And what?" I asked. "That was pretty much it. I didn't see much else. I saw that I was meant to find the sceptre in a Cave, which I did."

He frowned. "That hasn't been what it was like for me at all!"

"What do you mean?" I asked. There had been hints that his visions contained more than mine when he had first told me about THEM. He had provided a very detailed description of their origins and of how they evolved into what they now were.

"Before I left you, I told you what I remembered seeing and then I left to seek the only other thing I remembered. I had seen a man, sitting in a room and looking at some screens, and knew I had to get to him. The knowledge of how to find him was there and waiting to be tapped into."

"Was that Mitchell Peters?" Shio asked.

"Yes, it was. But then when I got to him, I knew with certainty that he was not the one I sought, but that I should look at the screens. When I saw you two, I could see that part of the vision with absolute clarity. But until that moment, it was like I had forgotten it."

"What happened when you met them?" Athena asked, her voice sounding tense as though she both dreaded and anticipated his answer.

"Something clicked into place. But even when Shio agreed to come with me, I knew we were not done. I felt like we had something else to do. That is why I allowed myself to be taken with them, knowing I could get us all out if it became necessary. That sense of waiting kept growing, until - ." He stopped. His eyes were locked onto Athena's.

"Until?" I prompted.

"Until Athena came. As soon as she met my eyes through the glass, I knew that she was a piece of the puzzle. I saw her standing with you when the moment came. As did Laila."

I blinked at that, trying to remember whether there was anyone else in the vision next to me. I couldn't see anything except the sceptre. But was there a sense that I was with others? Trying to grasp the memory was trying to hold on to smoke.