Anbessa followed into the Negus' office, Sessie at his side. The room was spare and simple. A couple of chairs on one side of a desk, a terminal and keyboard and holo display. He wondered what she used it for. Likely her job taking care of the monastery, ordering supplies they did not grow or make themselves.
Then again, she could be like his sister, able to ferret out facts and truth from the tangled web that was the digital world. It could be.
She went to her desk and opened a drawer, fishing out the Urim. He was amused that something so holy and precious would be stored along with pens and pencils and paperclips. After millennia of being hidden inside the Ark, it somehow seemed...sacrilegious. But she was the Negus, not him.
She bid them to sit even as she eased into her own chair. She had aged since he'd seen her. The sun and wind were not kind.
The men had not followed, for which he was glad. He was not comfortable with an audience. His family was one thing. Strangers, another.
She held up the yellow gem and gave it to him. He hesitated before leaning over to take it. The last time...the last time it had not been pleasant. Then again, he hadn't known what to expect. He turned it over in his hand. It felt heavy, like a piece of lead, though it looked like glass. Like glass but not glass. It did not seem to bend light despite its curved shape. There were no bubbles despite its age. Smooth as steel and cool to the touch.
Her thin voice cut the quiet. "The world changes. The g'brim walk the earth. You know this. But what we have known here is but a shadow to what is seen in other lands." She touched a key and the holo came up. Video feeds.
He stared in shock at what he saw. Battles. Attacks in a marketplace. The man who called himself the Ascendancy, standing over a sea of people, a massive statue melting and reshaping into an arch. He had seen that last before. Sessie had shown it.
But in context, it took on ominous overtones. Especially given the attack and his recovery later. A part of him had ignored it all. They had their work with Al Janyar and those warlords who thought to capitalize on the chaos.
But now...
"There is more, my son. The Romans have fractured. Their leader, the Regus, has died. They have splintered, though I am told a new Regus has been chosen." Before could speak, she went on. "And then there is this." Words came up on the display, descriptions of the Ball the Ascendancy held. The otherworldly attack. Surreptitiously recorded videos and pictures of phantom creatures- ijiraq, he suspected- attacking. G'brim fighting, walls melting.
"Moscow stands at the center of it all. Ijiraq and channelers. And a host more creatures. All of the Atharim should be united against the enemies of mankind." He looked at her sharply. She did not mean channelers as a whole, did she? He suspected not, though events such as these could cause a change of heart.
He pulled the power into himself, listening for anything to indicate danger outside. Foolish, perhaps. But Sessie was here. He would never let her come to harm.
Mena smiled knowingly and raised an eyebrow as she shook her head. "Be at ease Idris. Moscow stands at the center and so there the Heart must go." She nodded at the Urim. It occurred to him to ask about the Thummim? Urim and Thummim, almost always spoken of in pairs, with maybe a single handful of exceptions.
"But I am not God. I am not the Heart of the Atharim. You must see for yourself."
His heart raced as the turned over the disk with the bulging center. He hesitated and looked at his sister, considering, eyebrows raised in question.
Then again, she could be like his sister, able to ferret out facts and truth from the tangled web that was the digital world. It could be.
She went to her desk and opened a drawer, fishing out the Urim. He was amused that something so holy and precious would be stored along with pens and pencils and paperclips. After millennia of being hidden inside the Ark, it somehow seemed...sacrilegious. But she was the Negus, not him.
She bid them to sit even as she eased into her own chair. She had aged since he'd seen her. The sun and wind were not kind.
The men had not followed, for which he was glad. He was not comfortable with an audience. His family was one thing. Strangers, another.
She held up the yellow gem and gave it to him. He hesitated before leaning over to take it. The last time...the last time it had not been pleasant. Then again, he hadn't known what to expect. He turned it over in his hand. It felt heavy, like a piece of lead, though it looked like glass. Like glass but not glass. It did not seem to bend light despite its curved shape. There were no bubbles despite its age. Smooth as steel and cool to the touch.
Her thin voice cut the quiet. "The world changes. The g'brim walk the earth. You know this. But what we have known here is but a shadow to what is seen in other lands." She touched a key and the holo came up. Video feeds.
He stared in shock at what he saw. Battles. Attacks in a marketplace. The man who called himself the Ascendancy, standing over a sea of people, a massive statue melting and reshaping into an arch. He had seen that last before. Sessie had shown it.
But in context, it took on ominous overtones. Especially given the attack and his recovery later. A part of him had ignored it all. They had their work with Al Janyar and those warlords who thought to capitalize on the chaos.
But now...
"There is more, my son. The Romans have fractured. Their leader, the Regus, has died. They have splintered, though I am told a new Regus has been chosen." Before could speak, she went on. "And then there is this." Words came up on the display, descriptions of the Ball the Ascendancy held. The otherworldly attack. Surreptitiously recorded videos and pictures of phantom creatures- ijiraq, he suspected- attacking. G'brim fighting, walls melting.
"Moscow stands at the center of it all. Ijiraq and channelers. And a host more creatures. All of the Atharim should be united against the enemies of mankind." He looked at her sharply. She did not mean channelers as a whole, did she? He suspected not, though events such as these could cause a change of heart.
He pulled the power into himself, listening for anything to indicate danger outside. Foolish, perhaps. But Sessie was here. He would never let her come to harm.
Mena smiled knowingly and raised an eyebrow as she shook her head. "Be at ease Idris. Moscow stands at the center and so there the Heart must go." She nodded at the Urim. It occurred to him to ask about the Thummim? Urim and Thummim, almost always spoken of in pairs, with maybe a single handful of exceptions.
"But I am not God. I am not the Heart of the Atharim. You must see for yourself."
His heart raced as the turned over the disk with the bulging center. He hesitated and looked at his sister, considering, eyebrows raised in question.