A Time For Change

Chapter 5

Mari raised a shaking finger towards Destiny.
"A map of time, you said."
Destiny appraised the scars on her arms, pulling away the limited covering the dress afforded to show more of her mutilation.
"Ongoing." She replied.
This was met by a shocked silence of what Destiny was implying until broken by the confirmation of that implication. "Every new path is mapped onto the only thing I am able to take with me."
"The dress?" Said Mari. 'Or lack of it.' She thought.
"Will rot. Will tear - Will need to be washed." She added. Destiny's hairline raised a little, suggesting that she had frowned at her last comment, but the sheer and uniform blackness of her skin did not give the outside viewer a clue to any subtle facial movement. Mari leaned forward and poured herself a glass of water. The decanter rattled loudly against the glass as the adrenaline turned sour in her veins, pumped by a heart, the beat of which pulsed rapidly within her inner ear. After she had taken a deep pull she wiped the spillage from her chin.
"A decision we will make?" She asked in an attempt to take the subject of this strange woman's self mutilation away from Mari's already addled mind.
"This moment is known in history as 'A dark pathway.' There are no records of what was said, or done here today. We know only two things."
"Which are?" Said Mari after Destiny had paused for too long. It was as though she was reluctant to continue - Or unable.
"That, your findings, concerning your sons 'Condition'." Destiny almost spat the word out as though its very meaning and suggestive tones were abhorrent to her. "Are correct." She continued.
"And the other thing?" Promoted Mari.
"Is that I was here on that day - This day."
There was another pause.
"On this day, the professor here will put his name to your suggestion that the human genome is reprogramming itself for the next stage in your - Our evolution. It will be found that, due to the filth and poisons you and your kind have pumped into your world, this change is also a rebellion against what can be tolerated no more."
"So we become - You?" Asked Mari.
"Possibly" Replied Destiny. "You may have become something else had Herrod not risen. Or maybe." She mused. "What you see now is a result of his rise."
"Herrod?"
"There was a book" said Destiny, "A religious text that spoke of a King that slaughtered all of the first born in his kingdom. He thought them to be a threat to him as one of them was prophesied to be the son of a popular deity. A story, of course, but still one that carries the same message of some who would be threatened by those who would replace them."
"The Bible." Said Mari. "You're speaking as though it doesn't exist anymore."
Destiny shrugged. "I'm sure it does - Somewhere."
Mari shook her head, trying to bring the conversation back on track and away from what Destiny's comments were implying.
"You said that my findings are right?" She said.
"They are the doorway to a greater understanding." Replied Destiny.
Mari smiled. The second tear of the day rolled down her cheek.
"And there it is." Said Destiny. Her tone was filled with annoyance and loathing.
"What?" Asked Mari as she wiped the moisture from her face.
"The arrogance that the understanding was yours to achieve."