Imperial (Insight #8)(62)
“You can’t hear His lesson, but you sense His intent?”
“That, I do.”
“So you are cured from your wrath and stubbornness?”
“Not at all.”
“Ah, but you have at least overcome your past, realized that the words your Ma spoke over you were false, that she made you stronger while assuming she was making your weaker.”
My eyes glassed over as I tried to swallow my emotions.
“You know what I think?” he pushed.
I looked away so I could wipe away the tears that had escaped.
“I think you have felt love from day one in this sacred life you were chosen for, but you did not know that because you never received it as a child. You put a shield around you, a thick armor of wrath. There is a girl behind that armor that wants out, that can show you that it is safe to feel what your fear.” He paused. “You ignore her and instead you look for the fall, the evil, and you find it. Every single time.”
“Maybe, just maybe, Cowboy, I was chosen for this life because my Creator knew that, because He would never have to fear that I would say or feel something so deadly.”
“Or maybe He wanted you to be the example you asked Him to be.”
“How? Mass suicide? Killing the last two lines that support Him?” I bit out.
“What did you tell me in the cathedral about children?” he asked in a very blunt tone.
“They go with their guides. Into the light.”
He pointed to the field. “In a sense, is he not a child of yours?”
“In a sense.”
“And he went into the light. All children go into the light instantly—no pause.”
I questioned him with an absent stare. I wasn’t sure I had revealed that to him, but he was a smart man. If he had witnessed that light cradling Silas just moments ago, he could have easily made that assumption.
“That, he did.”
“Now that boy feels what you fear; Now he needs such a thing for survival, now he has a charge that you hold in high regard.”
“Right.” Metallic energy was more than merely held in high regard. It would be what saved us all.
He leaned back against the bench and adjusted his hat. “Well, then the rest of ‘em in your charge should do the same, go to the light. At least that way Mazing will be with the soul she has ached for—oh, and that charge of his will be intensely protected.”
Now there was an original idea. If I could manage to turn my line into Witnesses, Mazing into one, then Silas would have no reason to make advances toward that girl named Charlie because he would have Mazing, she would be able to give him what he needed to survive. The threat against Vade’s line would perish.
“Good theory, I like it. Happen to have a few million Witnesses in your back pocket that would raise an entire line of Escorts?”
His glance was near humorous. The title of an escort meant something completely different in his time.
He pointed to the sky. “That light looked like it would do just fine, and if that is the only solider it has,” he said, nodding to Silas. “I don’t reckon that it would hesitate to take you up on your offer.”
I let out a deep breath. The Cowboy was right: this light would take in my Escorts at their death and create more of the energy that Silas was. No doubt.
I should feel great agony, for I knew that Silas’ creation had in effect brought about my extinction, but I could not find that emotion. I couldn’t find it because I realized that even though my life would end, my essence would live on.
I also realized that I asked for this creation the moment I asked to be allowed to be the solution to what my fellow kings were doing. That was when this course of existence was put into motion.
I set my energy free, something I would not have done unless my hand was forced, and when I did a Witness was able to claim it…the Creator used me to create His weapon. Quite literally.
My decision was made. I would not now or ever smite Silas. Killing him would kill the next evolution of my kind. That could not happen.
“Wheels are turning, aren’t they, Glory?”
“You were right, talking to you did help me to understand what was in front of me.”
He didn’t seem to agree as his blue eyes looked over me. “I see no peace in your eyes.”
“It’s there. I just have to grieve for the past first.”
“Why grief?” he questioned.
“For it is over.”
“Glory, you may have found a solution for your children, but I’m still mighty concerned about you. Your father’s intentions began with you.”
“And He is wise, my line will continue the fight that I could not.”
He seemed flustered with me, but he wasn’t angry; he was sad that I thought so lowly of myself.
I rapidly moved my hands across my legs, building my adrenaline up. “Cowboy, I thank you for your ear, but I want to advise you that whomever you promised to meet in the Veil has long moved on, and so should you. Your voice is needed in the world.”
“I’ve met her already.”
“Her. Did she move on?”
“Not quite.”
“Why did the two of you choose to meet in the Veil?”
“We didn’t really choose the place, but the point,” he said as he took one last strike against the stick he had been aimlessly working on, then set it between us.