It was clear that while Antonio may have been surprised by our attack, La Safer not only expected our offensive he wanted it to happen. His intent was for this to be a battle of attrition. He wanted natural selection to take place. Only the strong could lead his cause.
What I had learned, beyond the fact that the woman before me was neither a woman nor my wife, was that we had somehow managed to eradicate all others of our kind in our attack. Moreover, what was left were beings that were alike us but also very different. They existed on the fringe of all that was possible and I was certain that I had not yet experienced the full measure of their abilities.
The woman, who was not Sophie, seemed fully possessed by the essence of my wife and incapable of returning to anything closer to her ‘normal’ state. The other, who was not my daughter however, had little problems finding her true state and exercising an intangible hold over Louis and Elizabeth. Our abilities to beguile mortals and bend them to our will had no effect on any of our mystical captors.
There was no violence or any real physical threat of it, yet they could not bring themselves to resist her hold or leave. I was not as restricted, but I refused to leave without my comrades, and then there was Sophie…or rather her spirit.
It was all part of La Safer’s plan. He intended to show me that I was a pawn in a game, greater than my persistent humanity would allow me to accept. He wanted me to see how grand his plans were for me and how much would be mine if I would only accept my destined place and what I was.
We were being kept here until he saw fit to grace us with his presence, at which time he would expect me to acquiesce. His plan was having its intended effect. The inertia of our circumstance coupled with the hopelessness I felt from my faux Sohpie and my comrades planted a seed. It was all I could do not to reconsider everything, including my philosophical stand on my existence.
Sophie began all our conversations with either a verbal or explicit visual apology. More than anything she wished she could end her own torture and be free of the emotions that seemed to belong to her a bit more with each moment we shared. The grey cloud of expectancy hung over us all for days. I had had enough. This needed to end one way or another and when I looked into her eyes, I could tell she knew what I was going to ask.
“I can’t sit and wait for my fate to be sealed, by La Safer. Not again, not anymore.”
“Please Nicholas. I couldn’t do it myself…I don’t know if any of this is real, but I couldn’t bare your death for however long this conscious lasts.”
I smiled and touched her face, repeating to myself that she was not Sophie…not quite, and I certainly was no longer a Nicholas that my Sophie would recognize.
“You can take me to him, can’t you?”
The tears streamed down her face and her lips shook as she tried to smile.
“He said you would know when it was time. Yes I would rather not, but I can take you to him.”
“Good.” I said simply, accepting all that was to come. My destiny. “Take me to him.”
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