Fragment of Destiny
Chapter 26 - Wraith Hunters

Tess sat on the couch in Yami’s room cradling the sensorium in her lap. She was tired, mind weary from the constant strain of the sensorium, but she was hopeful. Today Yami was supposed to have good news about her implant. Eyes closed she tried to tune out the clatter of keystrokes from behind her.

Since the day she had sold her consciousness to Larry Renkofski, her life had become anything but dull. The first several weeks had been a living hell. With her constant connection to the sensorium, she could be caught up in a vision from a past life at any moment. More than once she had returned to reality to find herself adorned with cuts and bruises from where she had struck furniture or the floor.

After three weeks of torture, Yami disconnected the implant from the sensorium. With this change, the fainting spells stopped. In their place, mounting anxiety took hold. Every moment she felt more and more certain that she had forgotten something or someone important. The anxiety morphed to paranoia then hysteria which even a heavy dosage of anti-anxiety drugs could not subdue. Only when she was reconnected to the sensorium did the incessant itch in the back of her mind dissipate.

After six weeks of nauseating anxiety, Yami finished modifications to her implant that allowed for an automatic switch that would sever the link to the sensorium just before she blacked out. Once disconnected, she would have a few hours to find a suitable location to reestablish the link before the anxiety took hold anew.

Yami’s voice brought Tess back to the present, “…There is an override command that will disable the thought functionality, but otherwise, you will be able to toggle the connection at will.” Yami said as he looked over his shoulder at Tess who lay on her back with eyes closed.

She had been only half listening to his ramble as she tried not to be irritated at the stiffness of the new couch. She had to remind herself to be grateful. Larry had gotten it specifically for her. Apparently, Larry had heard, her bitching to Admeta about how uncomfortable the old one had been. She should have known better. Larry had even told her that he would have access to her every thought. Nothing was private anymore, too often she had to remind herself of that.

“Of course, I wouldn’t expect Larry to just let me turn the thing off at will,” Tess said.

“Yes, there is that, but remember it is also to protect you should the switch malfunction.”

“Please, when has anything you programmed ever malfunctioned?”

“This is no joke, Tess. This switch will be interfacing directly with the neurons in your brain,” Yami said his tone laced with genuine concern.

She knew it was dangerous and really all her bravado-filled banter should have tipped him off, and perhaps it did.

“Are you ready to give it a try?” Yami asked.

“Yes, just tell me what to do.”

“Once I turn it on, just think about being drawn away into the sensorium. Here we go… and it’s on.”

Tess waited for a long moment expecting to feel something, yet nothing seemed to change. Then she thought deliberately about the sensorium. At once, she felt the loss of her limbs as she became a passenger in the body of another.

Slowly feeling began to tingle down her arms and legs. The vision gradually came into focus and she could hear the sound of foreign words on her ears. Abruptly the tingling stopped and she could now feel every movement her host made. She had been a passenger in enough different body’s by now to know that this one was male and he was not young. Arthritis and the heaviness of a spent life told her all she needed to know of his age.

Tess found herself sitting in an oval room with a large conference table of polished stone. Those who sat opposite her were all Halsinion. By the commotion, she could tell they were locked in some heated discussion. While the Halsinion language was quite different from the Imperium tongue, the root language was the same. What bits Tess could not understand upfront she was able to infer from the way it registered in the mind of her host.

“…At last, we know where to find Corwin. We have but to stretch out our hand and destroy him. Ending this threat forever and yet you refuse to act!” Someone yelled from across the table. It was a younger man perhaps even younger than Tess was now; just a boy really. At once, the room erupted again as others rallied for or against the young man and his statement. Tess’s host raised a wrinkled hand and everyone fell silent. His voice was hard, and it carried the weight of authority as he began to speak.

“That is enough. Rexsus, I will not allow you to destroy everything we have built on a suicide mission. My decision is final. Unless we can convince the regionate council to declare war and move against the Imperium, of which they currently see no reason to do so, this quest is forbidden to any of you.”

The young man’s eyes gleamed with fury at this statement, and Tess could sense powerful hate boiling under the surface. The room was silent, and only the screeching of the boy’s chair followed by heavy footsteps could be heard. In true childlike fashion, the boy stomped from the room slamming the door behind him. After a brief silence, the room began to break up into individual conversations. Tess felt someone lay a hand on her arm. The view shifted and an elderly woman came into focus.

“Animus are you sure it is wise to let Rexsus go? Your grandson is still young and full of hate for Corwin after the death of his parents. I fear he may do something rash.” Tess could feel the anguish rising up inside the old man at memories she was not privy to.

“He just needs time to cool off and think things through. Believe it or not, I was once young as he is. I remember the zeal and foolishness of youth. Finding Corwin at long last is weighty news and has even me eager to fight again, old as I am.”

“All the more reason to have someone look after the boy. Let me send Matthus.”

The old man nodded his agreement, “Very well, but have him keep his distance. I do not want Rexsus thinking we do not trust him.”

That seemed to please the woman who quickly got up and began talking to another man, presumably Matthus. The door to the room was still swinging on its hinges from Matthus' departure when her vision went black. Tess could still sense the old man’s body she was still inside the sensorium. Sound and feeling were the first two things to return. Her upper body ached, and it felt as though her ribs had been smashed in by a hammer. The old man struggled for breath. Tess could taste smoke and her host coughed sending shoots of pain throughout her body. The sound of crackling fire and screams of pain filled the darkness.

At last the old man opened his eyes. Horror and resignation washed over her host. The room was covered in smoke, rubble, and gore. The roof was gone, and through the smoke, Tess could see patches of blue sky. As the old man lay dying his legs crushed under the collapsed roof, Tess could see a small black shape dangling in the sky as if held aloft by invisible strings.

Tess awoke with a start as the vision suddenly came to an end, ejecting her from the sensorium. It was always a jarring transition back to reality as if she were being doused with a bucket of ice water, even more so when the process was forced.

She breathed a sigh of relief grateful to be back in her own body. Memories of death were never pleasant, yet she found herself living out a person’s final moments all too often. Blinking as she sat up, Tess found Yami pacing in front of the couch. An excited smile creased his face as he bobbed his head while examining a datapad.

“Thank you for pulling me out,” Tess said pushing herself up from the couch to stretch her stiff muscles. The pain of her host's death still burned at the edges of her skin.

“How long was I out for?”

“Not long. Just under five minutes. I am sorry you had to go through that, but at least I was able to find a time stamp.”

Timestamp, it was a term Yami used for a clue that would illuminate the most important part of the puzzle, where a vision fit within the timeline of history. Without exception, each vision was from a host who at one time had possessed the same crystal ability as her own.

Together Tess and Yami had followed through both myth and legend as Rasgoul the wraith slayer came within a hair's breadth of destroying Corwin only to falter. From then on, every generation had been hunting Corwin. Within the Halsinion empire a faction which called themselves Skia kynigos, the wraith hunters had emerged as the bulk of her hosts.

Typing a few quick commands, Yami caused a projection of the timeline to appear on a blank wall beside the couch. A new green dot appeared putting the memory at only twenty or so years ago.

“So, what is our time stamp?” Tess asked.

Yami brought up a single frame in the recording. Tess shuttered as the pain of death rippled through her consciousness. Through the flames and smoke that clogged the image, Yami circled a black spec in the sky and pulled the image closer.

“A dusk blade?” Tess asked tentatively.

“No doubt about it. Which puts this vision within the past twenty years or so. Right at the start of the Halsinion Imperium war.”

“Do you realize what this means?” Tess asked.

Yami raised an eyebrow at her, “That the war with the Halsinions had nothing to do with the northern ergo mines?”

“Obviously, but that puts this vision as the most recent chronologically and unless somehow that Rexsus kid survived it means all of the wraith hunters are dead. There would be no one left alive who even knows Corwin exists.”

“Except us. If you were Corwin, and you had the ability to strike at the heart of your enemies wouldn’t you? Just send a fleet of dusk blades and kill them all in one preemptive strike. As far as we know, only these wraith hunters can harm him. What would he care if it started a war?”

“Do you think Corwin has that much power here in the Imperium?”

“I don’t know, but I intend to find out. I am going to cross reference this vision with the enforcer campaign records of the first few strikes against the Halsinions and I should be able to get an idea of what we are dealing with.” sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FindNʘᴠᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“I thought the campaign records were classified?”

Yami gave Tess an uncomprehending look, “They are.” Then he smiled, “The system of record is not as secure as they think it is. But that’s not what’s most important here. To your earlier point. If our time stamp for this vision is accurate, then we are the only ones who know about his existence. That makes you the only remaining Skia kynigos and the only living threat.”

“Wait, What!” Tess sputtered.

“Think about it. What does every vision have in common? Corwin and that damn crystal,” Yami said pointing to the black and purple crystal that had been grafted just above Tess’s breasts.

“You even said it yourself. That you have been feeling off ever since you had your crystal grafted. Like you had lost something, or there was ‘someone’ you had to find.”

Tess rested a hand on her crystal and felt its warmth as the purple mist inside swirled under the inky black surface. She both loved and loathed it. Its beauty was unmatched by any other she had seen during her brief stint at the academy, and her ability was likely the most powerful and important of any crystal type.

Yet for all its power, importance, and beauty it had brought nothing but pain into her life. She wanted to be rid of it, and yet she knew she would sooner die than actually part with it. As for being a wraith hunter, she couldn’t care less what happened to Corwin as long as he left her alone.

"You don't think he knows about me do you?" Tess asked.

"Possibly. If Corwin has the kind of leverage it would take to get a fleet of dusk blades to attack the Halsinions. It would make sense that he would know you exist. Or at least that someone with your ability is at large. Whether he knows it's you or not is anyone's guess."

"Please tell me your joking."

"I wish. The truth is, the enforcers have been looking for you ever since you skipped out on your assessment with the assignment committee. That's why Larry wanted you moved to Crescent."

"But will I really be safe here?"

Yami patted Tess on the shoulder as he walked past her to the terminal, "Safer here than anywhere else."

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