Chapter Sixty-four
The entity in the earring
Saint Gingolph. Lemac Lake.
"Gura-gura-gura-gura-gura-gura-gura-gura-gura-gura…"
Michael Beleni sighed in boredom.
He was sitting on the side in a small, covered, outboard-powered boat. About five crab-like aquatic drones had just climbed into the boat and deposited small parts that he then put into a special container. Just as he had arrived the drones jumped back overboard and drifted away into the water all emitting the same sound.
"Gura-gura-gura-gura-gura-gura-gura-gura-gura-gura…"
Michal was one of the military forensic accident specialists on the Swiss side. His job since the day before had been, along with three other boats and a swarm of aquatic drones, to search the surface of the lake for parts of the plane. They had found almost nothing significant, apart from just small pieces of the plane, that the drones brought to the surface. Sometimes millimeter pieces and other times plastic pieces that were drifting.
At that moment he was near Saint Gingolph, in the area he was to track with the other three boats. He was 1.6 nautical miles from land and, because his work was rather passive in that sector, he had continued his work when all that communication disaster and that sphere of water had appeared in the sky. When it was gone, a few tons of water had fallen on the forest area and it seemed that several teams had had problems. However, that had happened about three kilometers from where he was so he had continued with his work. Although several ships also seemed to have had problems.
The truth is that because the boat was covered Michael had not seen any of it except when he heard the roar of water coming from the forest that then ended up in the lake, and even then it was still quite far from where he was.
"Gura-gura-gura-gura-gura-gura-gura-gura-gura-gura…"
"I wish they'd get that sound out of them," Michael Beleni mused.
The drones had that sound that they made in unison and it was getting on his nerves. No one knew why, but it had been stupid to make those sounds when they moved, instead of using the silent sensors when they found something. Instead the drones emitted that "gura-gura" kind of sonar between them and changed to "goron!" when they found something.
It was kind of hypnotic in a way, but also annoying.
He was so engrossed in his task that he almost fell out of the boat when he heard a kind of detonation. Or at least that's how he felt. That had not been like what he had heard from the forest.
Something had just crashed into the lake and not far from him.
A column of water at least four meters high had risen a hundred meters away. He became alert and even some of the drones had stopped their work and were hovering over the water, looking in the direction of where it had happened.
The water soon calmed down, but that was not all.
The hair on the back of Michael Beleni's neck stood on end when he saw a kind of black mist emerge from the water. That mist soon took on a more solid form on the surface and he could see something swimming closer.
At full speed, towards him.
His first instinct was to pull out his pistol and then head for the engine to start it. Despite his military training he was terrified. It was absurd.
Something told him he should run away from there in a hurry.
It didn't make sense, but every part of his body was screaming at him: Go! Get out of here!
He was about to start the engine and call for help on the Neurowire to the boats three hundred meters from where he was, when he heard a male voice.
"Hey!!! Over here!"
That, which swam in his direction, waved an arm when he must have been about sixty meters away. It swam devilishly fast. It was in human form, but what was it wearing? It was some kind of suit or armor attached to his body. He couldn't see his face at first, but then part of what covered his head retracted, as if it were one of those nanosuits Michael had so often worn for spacewalks. Except that he didn't remember that such a model existed.
The distance shortened in seconds and, before Michael could process everything that was happening, it had approached his boat and was trying to climb aboard. With that Michael got a better look at that sort of metallic looking suit, or was it some sort of armor?
It had small claws on the hands and it looked to him as if it had some inscriptions around it. It had normal, fluid movements, maybe some kind of customized nanosuit? The face was that of a young man.
Pointy ears, a fey, Michael thought.
But there was something off about him. Something didn't feel right, although he couldn't tell what it was.
The man climbed into the boat without Michael being able to do anything to stop him, he was frozen in his situation. Before he could articulate a word the man spoke.
"Special Agent Shin Aogami. SID."
One of Nevermore's agents? Michael thought. What was he doing there and how had he crashed into the lake? He thought he heard something about a search alert for an agent. Could it be him? "I-I need to see your ID…"
The man was moving his shoulders in circles as if in pain. The black suit soon retracted downward revealing the man's toned torso which had several scars. "I don't have my badge. I just lost it due to an inconvenience. Please check the record of agents on duty, my number is 0004444. My partner is Agent Izumi. There must be a photo."
"Send me your digital ID."
"I don't have Neurowire. Check the summary profile."
Michael did so quickly and then found it. That was a security measure to check the personnel on site. Entering the digits into the database brought up the search alert. It was the one in front of him. The order had just been issued about ten minutes earlier, to report when he was found. The alert did not specify the reason for the search, but it was not for any criminal reason. He was simply missing. Michael sighed in relief and the man must have detected that Michael's gesture had softened a little.
"Can you make a call for me? I don't have my device to communicate with my colleagues."
"There's a BOLO out for you… agent."
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"Just for me? No one else?"
Michael nodded.
The man sighed. "Please, make a call for me to the ID 0000054, Special Agent Lizbeth Londonderry. I need to know if she answers and if she's okay. We had an accident just a few minutes ago and I was on the ship."
Still not recovering from the surprise Michael Beleni decided to make the call. Despite the communication problems in the area the call looked like it would be answered.
The man looked expectant. Michael sighed. He felt calmer. But what had frightened him about the man in the first place?
***
Mai was currently asking Ryuuji and Natsuki about what they had just been told by the man in the capsule.
Lizbeth swallowed hard.
She knew what had just happened and the possible reason why Mai had called the man uncle.
Surely it had something to do with the memories before Mai became a fey.
But they couldn't say it. Lizbeth herself had already suffered the effects of trying to talk about it.
It was an unbreakable rule that feys could not remember anything from their time on the Other Side. But during the mission in Turkey, when Shin had reappeared after more than two hundred years, the three of them had been on a battlefield that had brought back fragments of past memories. It was on that day that the three of them realized what it was that held them together, even though they could not put it into words.
When she had tried to say something her body had begun to suffer effects as if she was about to die. Her throat exploded. It was then that they realized that they had broken the rule that feys could not remember. The reason they could remember was probably because the puzzle of their lives was fragmented even for the Other Side.
Be that as it may, that man had called Mai his niece.
At that moment Lizbeth had realized that Mai was in danger if that man could really remember who she was. Mai had told Lizbeth some things, but only through dreams, but from the look on Mai's face, Lizbeth realized that the man had something to do with it. Dreams seemed to be the only portal to communicate those ideas without them feeling threatened.
They had a plan to see if they could finally communicate everything, but they would have to wait until next month for Kotori's help to do so. They had tried countless times through their own dreams when they were together, but reconstructing memories was difficult in dreams.
Still, what did the man know about what had just happened with Oxy and what had happened on board the plane?
Lizbeth looked at him out of the corner of her eye. She was wondering about it when a call came in on her Neurowire. The caller was someone she didn't know, but was part of the personnel helping in the area further east, in Saint Gingolph.
While Mai, Ryuuji and Natsuki were talking to the medics about what was happening to the man in the pod, she took the call.
Mai, for her part, had calmed down trying to hide her emotions as she asked the doctor what was happening with the man whose body change seemed to continue slowly, even though he was unconscious.
Try to calm down, breathe calmly.
I know. Thank you.
That voice that had asked her to calm down in her mind had not actually spoken, it was just an idea expressed but that Mai could understand.
Azusa was not one to talk too often. She had never done it much, but she transmitted ideas in a clear way and Mai was the only one who could understand her.
The ideas manifested in Mai's mind sometimes with images, sometimes with smells or sounds. It was a kind of synesthesia that only she had and that was what allowed her to talk to Azusa. Azusa, in turn, could read Mai's thoughts.
An earring simulating a precious stone in her right ear. As light as a feather, but with an overwhelming weight of power. Inside that earring rested something that had put an end to the war. That entity above the fractus space had descended to a lower dimension only to save the world and when she could not return she had decided to stay with her.
In the last few months they had been separated due to a series of Council tests to try to replicate the capabilities of Mai's bow. No matter how much effort had been expended, it had been futile and had only replicated down to the material of which the fourth dimensional fractus that had attacked earth was composed.
It was a relief for Mai that she was there. Azusa knew what was going through Mai's mind. Her memories were not clear, but she knew that man had been a part of her life at some point when she was a little girl.
That man had mentioned her parents and had called her by the name she had once had, and that was now part of her secret name as a fey.
Rei. Bell. Her parents also called her Suzu or Suzune affectionately. The name, as far as she remembered, was so that at least she would have some traces to share with her mother's name, Hisui. Mai had opted for her common name because she remembered her old name when she came from the Other Side, and had always associated the bells with the ones the priestesses used during Shinto ceremonies. Still, almost no one knew the meaning and relationship behind the meaning.
Only a very small group knew the name.
But Mai would never have expected that one of the mysterious passengers who traveled under a false identity during that flight had any relation to her.
It had frightened her, and the fact that she could not say it openly inspired her sadness as well.
She remembered fleeting images of that man. He had been close to her parents.
If only she could tell him how she felt and what they could talk about... but she couldn't. The rule that feys couldn't remember was there and she knew it. It was lucky enough that she could remember any of it.
Many specialists said that perhaps that those who transformed into feys forgot their past life was, in a way, a form of mercy and self-protection of the individual's mind. To imagine appearing in another era with the memories of all that had been left behind, be it months, decades, centuries, was a heavy enough burden, that for many it could be too much to live with. Families, friends, lovers, children. All were left behind for those who became fey.
She guessed to some extent what had happened to Jack Pierson's mind and the headache. Did the man remember that she had disappeared to become a fey? If so, then the man's memories must have been in chaos. It was like remembering two timelines. On one side was her life when she had been half human and half fey since her mother Hisui was already a fey. And on the other side was the life when she had disappeared and for that her entire existence disappeared, it was as if she had never been there to begin with. If that man could remember her then it meant that Jack Pierson wasn't quite human either. But he wasn't a fey neither. What was he then? And had he been part of a kidnapping? What was it all about?
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It was at that moment that Lizbeth grabbed Mai's shoulder.
"Shin showed up. He's a few miles to the east," Lizbeth informed her with a relieved smile. Mai sighed as well.
She no longer needed to worry about Shin. But they had a bigger problem on their hands.
Oxy and Lee Reubens were missing and that man in the capsule had told her they were both in Geneva, in Meyrin.
What did it all mean?
Azusa could access all of Mai's thoughts and knew she was under enough stress. Mai had learned to calm herself on missions like that to make the decisions she had made in the past. But to encounter a part of her past in the midst of it all was too much. Azusa knew everything that Mai had gone through in the last one hundred and twenty-five years and yet...
At that moment the earring in Mai's ear tinkled and Azusa thought something that she did not convey to the one who had been her friend and companion for all those decades.
I'm sorry, little one. I think I'm going to give you a hard time today…
No one could see those crystalline-looking particles around Mai. Not even Mai herself. That was something typical of Asuza's condition and they always floated around even though no one could see them. Material of a higher dimension, but that the three-dimensional creatures could not grasp with their senses. Those particles at that moment floated more agitated than they normally did. Almost as if they wanted to express a state of mind.
Meanwhile, a few kilometers away, Shin was getting into a military vehicle and was on his way to meet up with the others, after Michael Beleni had brought him to the shore.
It was time to bring order to the chaos and figure out what was really going on.