The Truth

My heart dropped to my stomach. I liked Archie, but Barrick was my Master. He had to be my Master. I looked at him for help, but he couldn’t look me in the eye. “What do you plan to do with your new conquest?”

                Archie glanced at me. “I plan to tell him; Everything…everything that you have deemed not important enough for him to know.”

                Barrick’s hands formed into fists, his Aura darkening with every passing moment. “You wouldn’t dare. He doesn’t need to know.”

                “Yes, he does!” Archie exploded. “Do you not understand what’s going on? He’s a Pearce!”

                I backed away from the both of them. “How do you know that? No one’s supposed to know that! Barrick-”

                Barrick shook his head. “Archie, he’s not the one.”

                “How do you know my name?!” I repeated, my voice rising to a shriek.

                Braydie came up to me, “Flynn, calm down…”

                “He doesn’t even know who his parents really were, does he?” Archie asked through gritted teeth, “You conceited-“

                “Don’t talk to me about conceit, Archer!” Barrick shouted.

                Archie snarled. “You’ve always been selfish, Marcus! D****t, the boy deserves to know what’s going on! He, more than any of us! And here you stand, selfishly thinking of you and your feelings!”

                I had held myself rather well up until then, I thought. But right at that moment, I couldn’t help it anymore. A rage welled up inside me from nowhere, stronger than anything I had ever felt before. Even Braydie felt it through our link, and she wisely backed away.

                “I’m thinking of Flynn!” Barrick was yelling, “He needs to be kept safe!”

                Archie screamed back, “You know nothing about being safe! You think that if everyone is kept in the dark, nothing will happen!”

                “STOP!!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. My Aura was still ochre, but it was leaping in a chaotic mass, like flames on my skin. The two men did as I said and stared at me incredulously. I took a deep breath, “Barrick, Archie is going to tell me what’s going on. He’s my Master right now. You have no say in this. And to tell the truth, I’m glad. I can’t believe you never said anything about any of this. “

                “Flynn…” Barrick began,

                “No!” I snapped, “I don’t want an excuse from you! Right now, I hate you.”

                Barrick looked as though he had been struck, and his Aura faded to a grey-denim. The color of sadness and guilt. I felt tears pricking at my eyes, but I took a deep breath and nodded at Archie, who gestured to the parlor. Braydie and I followed him, but not before Braydie brushed her fingers across my Aura comfortingly.

                When we were seated, Barrick came in and leaned against one of his bookshelves. Archie glanced at him and then clasped his hands together. “A long time ago, Flynn, a Semien named John Pearce was born, in the early 1700’s. His parents were found dead when he was just a toddler, and the Council of Adepts in London was dispatched to acquire the child before someone else found him.

                “However, when the Masters then were battling for his apprenticeship, John would not be controlled by any of them. He was an enigma. Because of this stubborness, the adepts locked him away until he was fifty-one years old; they were afraid of him, you see...anyone with the power to refuse a Master was too much of a liability. He escaped from them; boarded a ship and came to America. He was a Reader. An amazing one. He was so skilled, he could read a man’s Aura two hours into the future. This made him an asset during the Revolutionary War, wherein he not only fought his native heritage, but also several adepts who came looking for him.

                “Eventually, after serious losses, the adepts gave up. John settled in Delaware for another thirty years, before he had to leave.” Archie said.

                “Why?” I asked.

                Braydie snorted, “Because he looked twenty, and was supposed to be fifty as far as they knew.”

                Archie continued, “After that, he wandered the colonies, eventually even going West with the wagon trains. In the mid 1800’s, he came back to the east, to New York. There was a following of adepts living in the city by then, from all over the world. They had heard of John, and asked him to become a part of their council. He accepted, but swore he would never take an apprentice.”

                “Which he did, of course.” Barrick muttered.

                 Archie nodded. “It was during that time that Leorahn came into power. He was fine then. He and John were friends. And then the two of them concocted a way to get to another plain of enlightenment. Leorahn came back twisted, while John came back with only a nightmare. Leorahn began to hate John after their return. While John shared the experience with the other adepts, Leorahn tried to go back. He had to go back….because what John shared with everyone was something of such immense beauty that only a fool would desire not to go.”

                “So what happened?” I asked.

                Archie scratched his left eyebrow. “The adepts, after seeing what Leorahn had become, forbade that anyone ever go to the next plane. It was too easy to for most of us to be manipulated in this world, without traveling to the next one.”

                “So whatever was there, was so great that it drove Leorahn crazy?” I asked.

                It was Braydie who answered my question. “John dragged him back here. They say it’s the most amazing place that a human being can conceive, and more. If you were torn away from something you loved, you would be bitter too.”

                I suddenly and surprisingly thought of her. I mean, if the two of us were apart, it felt horrible. II shuddered, and felt something of what Leorahn might have felt.

                “Leorahn rebelled, as you can imagine.” Archie continued. “He and several others who felt that the new law was unjust created a Brotherhood that left the collective safety of the Semiens. They called themselves The Enlightened; unlike us, who are mere Semi-Enlightened.

                “John and Leorahn became bitter enemies. The Enlightened and the Semiens bickered constantly, and sometimes battle would break out. However, Leorahn insisted to his followers that John must never be harmed.” Archie said softly.

                “But if they were enemies…” I began,

                “Leorahn tried to go back to the next plane,” Barrick interrupted, “Many times. But he never was able to accomplish it.”

                “It was John, you see.” Archie said, “John’s strangely strong powers had been just enough to transport the two of them the first time. And Leorahn knew that John was his only hope of going back. John refused. He wasn’t the sort of man to do something he believed was wrong. And because of that temperament, it was shortly after the schism that John decided to take an apprentice.”

                “He was a filthy little brat.” Barrick snorted. “Why someone like John chose him confounded everyone. No one wanted the boy. No one wanted to fight over him.”

                “Why not?” I asked.

                “He wouldn’t speak; wouldn’t react.” Barrick said, his eyes glazed over, as though he were looking into a far-off time. “A vegetable. Good for nothing. The only way they knew what he was Semien was because he copied other people’s Auras.”

                “He wouldn’t react…to anyone but John.” Archie informed me. “John knew that the boy would die if someone didn’t take care of him. So John took him. And then, they say that the boy opened up. He spoke, he thought, and he learned; far faster and well than anyone had originally thought him capable of. Some thought it was John, using his powers. I say it was just the right circumstance; the right pairing.”

                “Say what you will.” Barrick huffed. “John treated me like he did anyone else.”

                I did a double take. “Barrick? You were John’s apprentice??”

                “His first.” Archie explained, though Barrick’s expression was sour, “It was twenty years later that he took me on as an additional apprentice. Everyone assumed he was crazy. A rebellion on his hands and taking care of not one, but two apprentices? A lesser man would have gone insane. But not John.”

                “So what’s it all got to do with me?” I asked.

                “Your last name,” Archie revealed. “Something not many people know, is that Leorahn studied genetics. He was trying to find out how to make all people Enlightened. Something in our genes made us different than everyone else, and he was determined to find it. In 1972, John was killed by a new recruit of The Enlightened. Leorahn was furious. No matter how much he hated John, he had needed him. And now, all of his dreams were shattered. He brutally murdered the one responsible for John’s death, and then, he came after Marcus and I.”

                “He thought John had taught us how to travel between planes.” Barrick said, “He was wrong. John was a good Master. But he taught us what every other Master teaches his apprentice.”

                “Leorahn plagued us both for years.” Archie explained. “He even tried to kill Marcus in order to get me to reveal my ‘true abilities’. In the end, though, he knew it was pointless to continue. So instead, he returned to his studies of genetics. And I believe that Barrick…should tell the rest of the story. I only heard it two days ago.”

                Barrick looked miserably at the carpet. He didn’t want to look at me. “Unbeknownst to me at the time, Leorahn obtained a sample of John’s DNA before the body was destroyed. I found out about it later, when a turncoat from The Enlightened told me of it with his dying breath. Something was happening, and it once again involved Leorahn and John. I was afraid of what Leorahn would do, but none of the adepts would track him down…so I did. He was in Scotland. I found him working with several other geneticists, on a project to clone a sheep.

                “I confronted him. He was almost giddy when I asked him what he was planning. He even showed me part of the sample he had obtained from John. ‘More than enough,’ he said. I was outraged. I wanted to know what he was doing. He never answered me. Instead, he gave me the sample he had shown me, and said not to worry, we would all be ‘home’ soon.    

                “I kept the sample. I came back to the United States, still unsure of what was going on. I moved to this house, opened the bookstore, and informed the adepts that I would not be taking an apprentice, and not to inform me if a new Semien cropped up. I lived here for five years. And then one night, I went to the opera. It was terrible, and I swore never to attend again. When I got home, there was a little boy sleeping on my stoop, wrapped in rags for warmth.”

                I straightened up. It was interesting to hear what Barrick thought.

                “At first, I didn’t give him a thought. Then, when I looked down at him in the light of my porch, I saw a familiar face. It was John’s. Yes, younger and slightly different, but his face all the same. I took him inside. It was then that I notice the Aura of the boy tuned and matched my own. A Semien. Unknown to the adepts, or he would have been taken already. And then he told me his name. Flynn Pearce. And I knew that this was Leorahn’s plan.”

                “What?” I asked, “You think…you think I was cloned?”

                “No,” Archie said quickly, “There are far too many differences between you and John. No, I believe that you were engineered: That the DNA from John’s sample was combined with the DNA from a woman, the woman who gave birth to you.”

                “I don’t understand.”

                “It’s a complex process; I don’t expect you to understand. But for all intents and purposes, Leorahn has managed to redefine the notion that Semiens cannot reproduce. You are the son of John Pearce, and as such, Leorahn believes you wer eborn with his power.”

                I sat in complete and utter silence. I didn’t know what to think, it was a lot to take in: Me, the son of a man who had visited another plane of existence? I was confused, embarrassed, even; my Aura had lost a bit of its luster, though the color was the same. Braydie reached over and took my hand. The white light of our interlocked fingers was as strong as ever, but I noticed it less.

                “Are you okay?” She asked.

                I looked at her; emerald eyes full of concern. I had inkling that she was somehow feeling what I felt. And she understood. I nodded slightly, though I really had no idea if I was all right or not. I still felt too numb. And if that weren’t enough, a wave of exhaustion overtook me and I found my eyelids were difficult to keep open.

                Archie sighed heavily and nodded to Barrick. “I, Archer Sinatra, student of John Pearce, freely give my apprentice, Flynn Pearce, to you, Marcus Barrick.”

                Barrick unfolded his arms and responded in kind; “I, Marcus Barrick, student of John Pearce, claim Flynn Pearce as my apprentice.”

                Suddenly and inexplicably, I felt the exchange of power over me flow from Archie to Barrick, who suddenly seemed to stand a little taller. The change felt refreshing almost, like I had been away from home for a long time, and had just returned. In only a few seconds, Barrick seemed to reassert himself as my Master.

                “Go to bed,” He ordered me, “It is almost two in the morning. I will speak with you in the morning.”

                I was so relieved that I was once again in the place I was supposed to be, I got up without hesitation. “Yes, Master.”

                “You too, Bray.” Archie said, giving her a half-hearted smile. “Not that I can stop you. You did a good job today, sweetheart.”

                Braydie made a face at the pet-name, but did as she was told anyway. We left the parlor and climbed the stairs to landing that led to our respective rooms. It was when Braydie tried to go to her room that a new problem revealed itself. The space allowed between us had decreased.

                “This isn’t good.” I grunted as my guts twitched uncomfortably.

                Braydie sighed tiredly. “I thought it wasn’t going to get any worse.”

                I shrugged, and chose the direct approach. “Come with me, then.”

                She followed me to my room, with an amused look upon her face. I snorted at her; if she thought I was taking her to bed, she was insane. I grabbed a pillow and blanket, then ushered her back out in the hall. Outside her door, between her room and the bathroom, I spread out the blanket on the floor.

                “A true gentleman,” She insisted.

                I yawned. “I just wanna sleep.”

                As I was laying down on the carpet, Braydie surprised me by bending down and pecking me on the cheek. She said a quick thank you, then disappeared into her room, closing the door behind her. I lay there on the floor, listening to her bustle around in her room, before silence fell over the house. I closed my eyes, and escaped into sleep.