Chapter 4: The Guild
"… and here is our most recent loss." a quiet but powerful baritone voice spoke to the small assembled crowd as an image of a young girl flicked into the quivering projector screen on the wall. The room was silent save for the whirring of the machine, most other sounds muffled by the tired, musty-looking velvet curtains hanging between grand columns lining the walls.
This place had seen many meetings like this. This was an old place, a secret place, and these were old friends. Secret friends.
"Leila Aarne, 16. A latent, but also a potential." the voice continued.
"What kind of potential?" A gentler, woman's voice cooed from the darkness.
The man with the baritone took a moment before answering.
"Nine point four."
There was a chorus of gasps from the seated attendees.
"But … but that shouldn't be possible!" someone said quietly to his neighbour amidst other excited and muffled whispers.
"I assure you, it is. We know her profile intimately." the baritone voice replied, "she was about to find something too, a relic most likely, when she was de-placed by a favourite of ours…"
Another image replaced the picture of the girl. This one was a man with a confident smirk on his face. He was dressed in a rather fine business suit which you could see even though the picture was a poor quality, black and white image speckled with pixel artefacts. Clearly it had been taken by a security camera in a rather important-looking building.
"Psshh! Bram?" A grisled, rough English accent broke in from the rear of the room "Haven't you dealt with him yet Tembris?"
The man with the baritone voice, Edmund Tembris, ignored the question and went on.
"Clement Bram. You all know him well." he said quite matter of factly. "This time he actually went so far as to stand there during the deplacement. He actually pushed the girl into the horizon."
There was a momentary pause, then the woman's voice piped up.
"A latent," she began, "… are you saying she knows what she is to become?"
"Precisely." Tembris replied.
"Now, just a second." The grisled voice spoke up again. "How was she assessed? An nine-point-five is not a matter to be sneezed at, I've heard nothing of this."
"She has been assessed properly, in the traditional fashion, and that is what we determined her to be. It is not always pertinent to explain our discoveries to everyone, Mr. Volker. We've had trouble with that method before." He turned absently to the man on the screen, appearing for a moment to be lost in thought, before adding. "Of course, there is a reason her potential is so high. It seems she is one of the few that has a parallel."
More gasps.
The grisled voice began laughing now, "Good God Tembris," he said between breaths, "how on Earth did you let her go. This will be the biggest joke to the guild I've yet seen!"
"Thank you Bautista. I'm well aware of the seriousness of the situation." Tembris replied calmly, no trace of a smile on his face.
"Where is she now Edmund?" The woman asked, looking away from the screen to Tembris, and for a moment her face was illuminated in the intense light of the projector. She was an older woman, with a face that could be kind, but looked to be more often than not plagued by worry. On her nose sat a small pair of overly-magnified spectacles.
"We don't know." Tembris replied. "Without the activator we can't follow her. No clues in his stash either, when we found it there were nearly a hundred relics, all from different cultures, all spanning more than five thousand years."
"Oh my." The woman said with a worried tone, looking toward the screen again but her head sinking slightly.
"Yes, it means she could be anywhere, and anywhen." Tembris said wistfully, his powerful stance relaxing for a moment, something that was rare for him. He put his hands in his pocket and looked back to the screen.
"However." he said, the hint of a smile crossing his face. "We have a lead. I wouldn't have asked you all here on such short notice if I didn't have a good reason."
The woman looked up again, hope flickering across her face.
"This photo of Bram was taken by the security cameras at Dellwin's bank on 14th. I went in there after we heard that he'd been seen there."
"And? What of it?" Bautista asked impatiently, the grating of his voice more apparent now in this short burst than it had been before.
The image on the projector screen changed again. A magnificent room, marble floors and walls, and a large skylight spilling sunshine into the space. In the center of the floor, a great stone carving of an aztec sunstone.
"Is that … "
"Yes, it's authentic. Aquired by the bank's owner at the founding of the building."
"So he found a relic! In a bank! Oh he's a cunning devil." Bautista yelled, almost with glee. "Pity we lost him Tembris…" he added "he was a smart one, all else aside."
"Yes, he found a relic. A particularly strong one. With the activator he gave Leila she didn't stand a chance."
"I'm sorry…" A timid, younger voice now spoke up. "I'm a little confused."
"Of course." Tembris said, turning to her. "My apologies Ms. Austin. We tend to go a mile a minute in here sometimes. What did you want to know."
"What is … er … an activator?" the woman asked, sinking into her seat a little. Even though it was dark, it was hard not to notice her cheeks suddenly flushing red.
"Hah!" Bautista harked. "This gets better, amateur hour is it Edmund?"
The older woman with the spectacles turned sharply and glared at him, and immediately he fell silent.
"For someone to de-place another," Tembris began, wandering towards the sunstone on the screen, "well, it's devilishly hard without two parts. Firstly you need a relic, then one needs an activator. The relic determines to where and when the deplaced will go. This sunstone is an original, carved whenever and wherever the girl was sent. Are you following me?"
The woman nodded slowly.
Tembris continued, "You see, relics alone are basically useless. They're just pretty pieces of art. However, when you put a source of energy nearby one, like a human being, and then give that human being an activator, then something really interesting happens…"
"Deplacement." The woman said.
"Precisely." he said with a nod. "Now, what is an activator? The easiest way to describe it is to say that it's a unique piece of parchment. Not just any piece of parchment mind you. On these pieces you will find inscribed nothing short of pure thought itself. And when you bring the two pieces together, deplacement occurs."
The woman's face lightened a little. "I see." She said. "And … this 'parallel' you spoke of."
Bautista covered his face with his hands and shook his head. Now it was Tembris that glared at him. But before he could respond however, the older woman started instead.
"There have been times-" she said, "generations - where the potential is very low. My generation, for example. I was never able to reach first-class because of it."
There was an awkward silence in the room. Then the woman went on.
"We don't know why, exactly, but we do know that every once in a while, two people with potential are born at exactly the same time." She looked at the screen as if seeing the girl, Leila, once more. "Linked from birth by something we can't see."
Ms. Austin nodded, and followed the older woman's gaze to the screen, even though it still showed the room with the sun-stone.
"This link creates … a feedback effect, so to speak. And it's this which makes this girl so strong, and her parallel also. They are amplified, if you will. But only while they are both alive - and in the same time."
Tembris nodded in a scholarly way and walked back to the projector.
"Thank you," he said to the older woman, "and this is precisely why we need to find her. She is so very important."
"What of this other relic?" Bautista said. "She obviously didn't find it, did she?."
"No, Bram was able to lure her easily away." Tembris replied. "The relic is still in a safety deposit box. Left to Leila by a relative, if I'm not mistaken."
"We must find it." the old woman said with a sudden determination. "If Bram gets his hands on that …"
"I know," Tembris replied, and clicked the small remote control in his hand, "and it is now equally important that we protect the parallel as well."
A final slide clicked into place.
It was a of boy that looked Leila's age. He stood quite tall, awkward looking and in casual clothing and in a park. The picture had been taken in stealth, it appeared, as leaves and twigs bordered the image, and as it clicked into place, the older woman suddenly made a short gasp. Immediately she tried masking it as a cough, yet it was evident, especially to Tembris, that she recognized the person in the image.
"Brandon Amery." Tembris said, gesturing to the boy.
"He is now the most important part of this puzzle, and that being the case, I'm assigning two of you to find him, follow him, and … to do what has to be done." He gazed at the various people sitting on either side of him.
"So now I ask you all," he said, changing his tone. "Who will help?"
For a moment, there was absolute silence. Everyone was stunned by what they had heard, and what they had seen. Then, slowly, a hand went up.
"Ms. Austin?" Tembris said, impressed but slightly disbelieving. "Are you sure you wish to carry out this task?"
She stood, and her posture was confident, strong. "I … I am." she said.
Bautista chimed in, "Ridiculous!" he barked "This is not a job for new recruits! Not a job this important! She doesn't even know how to-"
"-oh do be quiet Bautista!" the older woman snapped. Then stood up herself, and in a gentler, but also determined tone she continued, "I'll go with Ms. Austin. She needs a guiding hand."
Tembris looked at the older woman, and for barely a second a look of suspicion flashed across his eyes, but then slowly he nodded.
"Alright." he said. "Alright then." He picked up two pieces of paper from a small pile by the projector.
"You two will begin immediately, I can't stress how important time is here. In the meantime, I will assemble a second team to find out where and when the girl went, and we'll see if we can get her back."
Tembris then proceeded to close the meeting and gather his effects, and what followed was the most excited buzzing the room had seen in many years as the members chatted together on their way out the doors.
A few moments later there was only a couple of straglers left making their way swiftly to the exit. One of them was the older woman, talking quietly to Ms. Austin.
They passed Tembris as he picked up a large suitcase containing the projector, and as they did, Tembris looked up. "A moment, if you will." He said gently.
The older woman stopped with an "Of course.", and Ms. Austin nodded too, then continued on alone.
Now it was just the older woman, and Tembris in the empty hall.
"Not that I don't have confidence. But please, look out for her." He said somberly "Bram is up to something. This is the second time we've seen him in the act, but that doesn't mean it's only been two times. We've lost others."
"Wiping them out one by one…" she replied wistfully. "Of course I will. I always do, don't I Edmund?"
He laughed and shook his head "I don't know why I doubt you." he said, "You haven't let me down yet." but then another look crossed his face. "You're still just as strong as ever, still just as bold. Still just as … trustworthy." he paused then, the emphasis on that last word sinking in for just a second as he scanned her face for something he didn't find.
"I'll look after her, Edmund, and him." She said stoically.
"Thank you." He replied, and the woman turned to leave.
"And Lizebeth," he continued.
"You be careful, too."
Lizebeth nodded her head, took a breath and polished her glasses quickly, then, setting them back on her nose she looked toward the younger Ms. Austin standing patiently outside the large doors to the auditorium, and went to meet her.
Jimzip
March 13, 2010 at 4:36 AM
It's long, I apologise for that! Hopefully this ties together some elements, and also give us some more to play with though. ;)
Jimzip :D