Derrick sat and watched the campfire burn and crackle. He had poured over the book Jason had given him all through the car ride, studying diligently about the history of the Akashayana. "Hey Dad?" He looked up at Kai who still grinned at the new title.
"What's up?"
"Have you ever tried to date a sleeper?" He looked back to the flame.
"I tried once. It didn't really fall apart because of what we do, but I was young. I didn't know what it took to have a healthy relationship." He sighed. "She was great, but I had to lie nonstop."
"Did you ever try to explain what you are?" He looked curiously at Kai.
"Well we're not allowed, and I can imagine it's hard for you to understand after awakening so young. Sleepers...it's not that they aren't good people. They have dreams and hopes, and they deserve love." Kai sat back in his chair. "When we talk about our gifts, we have this intimate knowledge that reality can be changed. Sleepers just don't."
"What about sorcerers?" Derrick asked to the surprise of Kai. "How would I know if Rema was waking up?"
"They're complicated. People like Jason go through specialized rituals to slowly lift the lid, but they have to show signs of being able to manipulate reality." Kai didn't love the technical side of it, but he wasn't sure his faith was meant for the boy. "Sorcerer's can change things, but maybe they haven't accepted it or have no idea how they do it." Kai looked down at the ground and then over at Derrick. "I say, you're only this age once, and if you wanna date Rema you should go for it kid. She seems really nice either way. Nobody knows exactly what causes people to wake up. The Order of Hermes does that slow process they have just because they prefer it that way, but most of them have to show their talent first. "
"How do you tell a Sorcerer from just a common witch or a religious person?"
"Sorcerer's...they work within the boundaries. You and I know how to direct our will in a flashy and extreme way that can violate those laws and generate backlash. This doesn't mean they can't pull off amazing things or even be powerful friends, but it's not the same. We have true knowledge, we know that with a little work, we can change the world."
Derrick sat for a minute thinking. "Hey...can I ask you something I don't really understand?"
"Is..." Kai looked around. "Is it about the stuff we talked about with...men and women?"
"No. It's about something I heard Jason say." He saw Kai rub his hands together and lean forward intently.
"Okay." He nodded. "What's up?"
"What are technocrats?" Kai flinched at the word and looked around with paranoia before he pulled his chair closer to Derrick.
"I need you to listen closely." He almost whispered. "Ariana doesn't want me talking to you about all of this, so you have to keep it between us." Derrick nodded with curiosity. "You know how Garrett is one of the few technology inclined mages we know?" He waited for Derrick to nod again. "It's not an accident or a speciality. There was a council a long long time ago who decided that magic didn't mean mystical."
"What's the difference?" Derrick shrugged. "Isn't it all the same art?"
"Exactly." Kai smiled with pride. "Everyone has their own path though. Some of the people decided that science should be the way we advance ourselves. Do you understand what I mean?"
"No." He said shortly. "Everything we have by science can be explained."
"Because the information and designs have been worked to the bone and refined until they could be introduced slowly. What would a person in the middle ages say about a gun? How about a chainsaw?"
"Witchcraft." Derrick nodded.
"Right. We have slow advancement compounding on the previous ones to get where we are. At the top of that food chain is the Technocracy. They advance science through the same things you and I can do, but they measure it, test it, and work it until it can be released to the public."
"All science is magic then." He reasoned.
"Close but not quite. Magic helps them break new ground. Back when the internet was mostly a few chat rooms, they were already prototyping glasses that could feed them mission information. Now that we have VR and phones, its more acceptable. Their goal isn't always to use flashy forms of magic, but they still can. Ever sci-fi piece you ever read or watched is possible with them at the helm." Kai leaned back as he looked up at the stars.
"Are they good people?" Derrick asked.
Kai just sighed and put his hands behind his head. "They're just people. People have plans, ambitions, problems, and vices. Some of them are working to make their home better, some want power, some don't give a crap as long as they can do their work."
"That kinda sounds like us." Derrick muttered.
"Despite how long this war has been going on, if we ever truly worked together, we could bring about a whole new universe." Kai tipped his chair back a little as he continued to star gaze.
"We're at war?" Derrick looked confused again. "Why?"
"The sleepers. Whoever controls the world, controls what passes as magic in reality. If The Nine Traditions had their way, no one would look twice at a witch on a dragon shooting across the sky. If the Technocracy has theirs, we all end up wired and augmented to achieve human perfection, and complete integration as a species. It's just...beliefs. No matter how much good we do, it always goes right back to what we believe in." As Kai finished, Derrick started to look up at the sky with him.
"You think we could ever make peace?" He asked hopefully.
"I dunno Derrick. It's a weird world out there." Kai sighed. "I wasn't awake at your age, so I can't really say, but I have hope that everyone can come together."
"Kai..." Derrick looked over and trembled a little.
"What's going on?" Kai looked curiously.
"I..." Derrick froze, his fear overtaking his body, and pretended it was the cold as he shivered. "I think I need to wake up Ariana and go to bed." Kai nodded and motioned to her tent. "Thanks..."
***
"Last sighting was a mile north." Jason pointed. The six of them had been hiking for an hour before they got close to the gps coordinates Vicente had left them in the case file. Miles carried a heavy shotgun, and all but Derrick had a large pistol. At Derrick's side was the knife he got for his birthday, held tightly by a leather sheath on his belt.
Jason and Miles led the team as they walked through the heavy underbrush, with Garrett keeping at the back of the group. Ariana, Kai, and Derrick had the middle of the cabal to watch over, but killed most of the time talking. As the group trekked another mile they got quieter and quieter, Jason and Miles beginning to take note of tracks. "What is it?" Kai whispered.
"It...it looks like six sets of handprints." Miles said with his head cocked and a puzzled look on his face. "They look fresh though."
"Victims?" Jason looked at the various sizes of the hand prints.
"Could be, but it doesn't make sense." Miles looked around at the trees around them. "The trees are slashed to hell too."
"Everyone stay low, stay quiet." Miles ordered, creeping along now with every stick and leaf in mind as he worked to get closer to another tree with a large red stain on it. Jason held up a hand to the others to pause them, watching as Miles put his fingers in the blood soaked wood. "Fresh." Miles whispered to Jason.
Derrick, Ariana, and Kai squatted down as they walked, moving from tree to tree with cover and a clear path behind the others in mind at all times. Miles walked just thirty feet ahead, his eyes rapidly searching the territory for anything, until he heard a loud crunch. The group paused, each of them waiting with wide eyes as another bone breaking snap was heard through the woods. Miles and Jason waved for the others to spread out, and one by one they each took different directions.
The snapping grew louder, and as Derrick advanced he saw the target. A beast wrought with stitches, blood, and smelling like rot munched slowly on a disfigured body on the ground. The creature had the head of a young woman with her rotting eyes still sitting in her skull, and the torso of two other bodies back to back, stitched into a base for the head to rest on. Where the torsos ended, the true nightmare began. Twelve arms, six on each side, curled from the body of the beast and propped it up like a spider. The main body appeared to be a mangle of flesh, limbs, organs, and tissue, all protruding out in a disgusting manner. On its end was a head affixed to an arm to give the appearance of a tail. Each of the fingers of the twelve hands it stood on appeared to have been filed down so the flesh was pulled back to reveal a claw of bone.
Kai made the sign of the cross and drew his gun, with Ariana right next to him. He motioned for Garrett, Jason, and Miles to double back and circle around to get in a position to flank it. Derrick was hidden just barely behind a tree, but as he looked around it, he saw the beast was preoccupied with a corpse it seemed to have shredded earlier and was slowly chewing on.
A woman sat on a tree stump not far from the beast, her hands folded and her eyes fixed on it with sorrow. Derrick walked forward unafraid, looking at the woman and putting his hands up. "Derrick!" Kai whispered. "What the fuck are you doing?"
"I'm...I'm Derrick. Can we talk?" He smiled at her and as she looked up, her eyes filled with tears.
"It's you...how is that even possible?" She lifted her hand as the mangled mess of bodies and flesh turned to Derrick, and it turned away. Sweat ran down Kai's forehead. "I guess I wouldn't mind some company. Are you armed like your friends?"
"Just a knife." He patted his side. "Is that okay?"
