So this was the council.
The members were not all physically here. There were holograms. I had no way of knowing where in the world they really were. Not that it mattered. I had deduced that the Watchers organisation was a global one anyway. The inhabitants of the village came from all corners of the globe. The main language here was English, but I had heard many different tongues in the three days that I had been here.
Some kind of peace had returned, probably because I hadn’t killed anyone. Or gone on a rampage or whatever they feared I would do. But they were still uneasy around me. Guarded. Ready to run.
Anyway, all this had culminated in me being here in this virtual reality council meeting now.
It turned out that the strange whirring sound had indeed been an elevator. It led deep into the mountain.
Panat guided me through long corridors with doors on both sides. We entered one of the doors at the far end of one of the corridors. It opened to a cavernous room lined with high-tech equipment. Four people manned the computers, two of whom I recognised from the village, the others I had never seen before. There were screens everywhere. I looked around, trying to make sense of what I saw. I couldn’t. I saw scenes from the major cities of the world, but also views of much smaller villages. People —no one I knew. Just people for me. We moved on through a glass door to another room.
It could not have been more different. This one was smaller. With a roof and walls, blocking off any signs that we were underground. The room was much more ornate than the rest I had seen. It had an extremely traditional and maybe even ritualistic feel to it. All drapes and deep velvet in warm colours with symbols decorating them. There was a lot of history here, this entourage had been around for a long time, possibly centuries, though not exactly as it was now. There were four official-looking and very elaborate chairs facing a line of white circles on the floor. The holograms were projected onto the white circles. A technical feat blended into age old tradition. The result was eerie.
There were seven holograms and four physical people here besides me. The physical ones I knew: Kahdi, Panat and two of the elders—Francesca and Ilya. The holograms were all strangers to me. I looked at them one by one. Two women and five men. They were all seated on ornate chairs in their respective locations. All in all, it was a strange combination of ancient entourages and high-tech.
Panat indicated the empty chair and I sat down facing the holograms. He stood behind me, to the side.
The silence continued for a few minutes more. There probably wasn’t a procedure for a visit from one of the subjects. So, I just waited. I’m good at that.
Kahdi finally broke the silence. ‘We are now in an unprecedented situation.’ The others welcomed the fact that he was speaking. That way they could move their attention from me to someone else. I could even feel the tension in the holograms. Everyone was that nervous.
‘We must decide how to proceed’ he continued. ‘There are global implications to consider.’ That was new to me. How did I have a global impact? Or weren’t they talking about me?
He turned to me. ‘You should never have been here.’ He started. Yeah, tell me something I don’t know. They had made that very clear. ‘But now that you are here, we needed to decide what information we can give you, and what the price would be.’ Hmm. Price for them or for me? This could be interesting after all.
He looked at the holograms, possibly for support. One of the women nodded to urge him onwards. The council had been meeting on a daily basis since I had arrived here. Now they seemed to have arrived at a consensus.
‘We have a proposition for you.’ He finally said.
‘I’m listening.’
‘First we need to give you more insight into the situation.’ He took a deep breath and continued.
‘As you have already been told,’ dirty glance at Panat.’ The forces originated with the dawn of man. They have been around since man upset the balance of Nature. You are one of the forces that keep the balance on this world. There are five in total. The four that the bible and other religions refer to: Conquest, Famine, Death and War. And then there is you. Together you make sure that man does not overwhelm everything—that there is balance. In reality, that means that the forces are the origin of many human catastrophes. War and death are part and parcel of being human. But they are controlled by Nature through the forces. The four other universally known forces work on a large scale. Their impact is usually extensive. Many humans die in one instance, restoring the balance. You—Primal, are different. You were created for the more precise terminations. Balance sometimes requires the excision of a certain individual instead of a large number. That is your task. The others are Nature’s cannon, you are her sword. Because of you, larger numbers of humans do not need to be eradicated.’
Was that supposed to make me feel better? That I wasn’t a mass murderer? This was a lot to take in. I just sat and listened. New questions popping in to my mind with every sentence Kahdi expressed.
‘Each force has its own clan of Watchers. They have been linked for thousands of years. The Watchers do not intervene directly, they steer the force in subtle ways.’
‘Manipulate you mean.’ I couldn’t stop myself from commenting.
‘If you want to call it that.’ He continued unperturbed. ‘We try to aid the force if needed. That is in small ways, but sometimes a larger influence is needed. In all this, we stay inconspicuous. Even if direct contact is unavoidable, the force must never know of our existence.’
‘Do the others know of their part in the balance?’ I asked.
‘No. At least not all of them, not in detail. There is one who is aware, but we will get to him soon.’ He paused to take a sip of the tea he was offered.
‘Why not?’ I wasn’t letting him off that easily.
‘If the forces were aware of their role, then they could go overboard. Killing all humans, and that is too much. There is no balance in that.’
I let that go for the moment, filing the information and questions for later. I was curious what the proposition was.
‘The forces can never all meet. That is another reason we intervene. If you meet, or are near each other, the impact you can have on humans is intensified exponentially. The results can be catastrophic. If the forces knew of each other, they may want to meet. And that is too much of a risk.’ He explained. ‘Most of the time.’ His last comment was not lost on me. A strange addition. So sometimes they should meet?
‘You are here. That was a shock to us. Not only because of the rules that we abide by, the main one being—no direct contact.’ He took a deep breath. ‘There is another reason why we were so terrified of your arrival. Why it impacted us so much, and why it caused many to leave.’ Once again, he looked to the holograms and the elders for strength.
‘It happened once before.’ He turned to look at the hologram of a dark man who was obviously very emotionally impacted by the story to come. ‘Azazel.’ Kahdi spoke the name softly. ‘He is the force that the bible calls Conquest in the Book of Revelations. In later interpretations, he is named as the Anti-Christ. A fallen angel, who was banished from heaven. This viewpoint is substantiated by many other religions: Islam, Judaism, Ahmadiyya. They are closer to the truth than they know. Azezel is not an angel. He is one of the forces of Nature. So much older than Christianity or any of the other so-called contemporary religions. The ancient ones, of the Aboriginal or Native Americans recognise him for what he is. A tool of Nature.’
Kahdi sat down, sipping his tea again. The dark man in the hologram picked up the tale. ‘The current Azazel has been around for more than twenty-six-hundred years. My clan have watched him and his predecessor since the dawn of time. This Azazel was always one to question everything, to push the boundaries. In that he resembles you. He managed to figure out more than we wanted. That was in part due to his powers.’
Ok, so what were his powers? Another question for later.
‘He ambushed one of my clan and picked his mind. The information he gathered intrigued him and he decided he would search for—and meet—all the forces. The danger for the humans was not an issue for him. He has no love for mankind. Other than as playthings. He managed to find the location of War and Famine, exponentially increasing the hardship for man. He was hell-bent on getting all the forces together to see what the ultimate effect would be, just for fun. This, the council could not allow to happen. It would mean mass extinction.’ He paused. ‘The council decided that intervention was needed. One of the remaining forces was steered in the direction of Azazel to defeat him. To kill him.’
‘Kill him?’ My surprise was great. ‘I thought we couldn’t be killed. That we were immortal, or is that only me?’
’No, not just you, all the forces are basically immortal. There are only two ways they can die. One is if they will themselves into destruction, and the other is by the hand of another force.’ I glanced at Panat, he shrugged. He had left hat one out in our earlier conversation.
‘You can wound or kill each other.’ Kahdi added. ‘Any wounds that are inflicted on you by another force cause you to react as a mortal.’
‘And can be fatal, if extensive enough.’ The dark man continued. ‘There was a massive fight and Azazel was badly wounded. But not fatally. He disappeared. Later we found out that one of his Watchers had taken pity on him and nursed him back to health in secret. The rest of the clan was clueless. They knew he was alive, we can sense that, but not where he was. They were soon to find out.’
Kahdi picked up the tale again, it was too much for the dark man.
‘Azazel recovered and took his revenge on his clan of Watchers, blaming them for his failed plan and his wounds. He almost wiped out the entire clan. His vengeance was brutal. He tortured men, women and children. Hunting them down to the ends of the earth. Only a few remain. These, he still hunts. Since then he has gone rogue. He is a loose cannon. He is hell-bent on disrupting the balance, on achieving revenge on the very force he was part of. In that he has manifested himself as the Anti-Christ. He is after Nature herself.’
‘Do you know where he is?’ I asked.
‘Yes, we do. He is not exactly inconspicuous. He lives the life of a Jet-Set playboy, corrupting all around him.’
‘Aze’ I said. Remembering the meeting between Bharata and Neerav. The dots were beginning to connect here. ‘And you can’t get to him.’ I was beginning to dread what the proposal could be. The hairs on the back of my neck were upright and shivers ran down my spine. The Primal force inside of me screamed at me to leave, to run from this place. Light fur covered my back and arms.
‘No, we can’t.’ He left the rest up in the air.
‘That is where you come in’ one of the female holograms finally said.
I stayed silent.
‘You are the only chance we have of terminating him and stopping him from devastating humanity. We cannot harm him, as you said, he is immortal to our weapons, and he knows this. You are the Sword of Nature. You are the only one who could do it.’
Once again, I was being coerced into murder.
‘If he dies, will that be the end of the force?’ I asked.
‘No, if he dies, another will rise to fill his place in the order. That will take many years and he will be easier to handle.’
‘I thought you didn’t control them—us.’ I interrupted.
‘We don’t, but a new force could be steered in a new direction. He will not have the memories of this Azazel. Not the same thoughts and thirst for vengeance. He will start anew.’
‘And we will with him.’ The dark man added.
All was silent. The impact of what they asked me to do was overwhelming.
I was to kill again.
This time one of my own kind.
I had just found out that I was not alone and now they wanted me to kill one of the few beings that experienced the same things I did. One of the only creatures that I could possibly relate to.
It was all too much. I needed fresh air.
Standing up, I looked at all the people there—physically and virtually. They remained mute. No one knew what to say. Turning, I left the room and stormed up the corridor to the elevator. I needed to get out of here. Conflicting emotions were rampant in my head and body. The bloodlust, anger, sorrow, frustration.
Panat followed me, he joined me in the elevator and pressed the correct button. Seconds later we arrived in the back room of the community building. Throwing open the doors I ran outside and kept on going.