They started early the next morning. Once again in the same meeting room with Joseph, Jan and Hetty. Hans was busy gathering the information about the acolytes and Sarah was absent, though no explanation was given as to why.
‘We need to know all there is about Azazel.’ Panat addressed everyone in the room. ‘Everything you know. Everything anyone knows. To the smallest detail.’ He turned to Joseph. ‘It will be painful, I know, and I’m sorry that you have to go through this, but we need to know.’
He was tactful, but resolute. They did need to be able to crawl inside Azazel’s head. Almost read his mind, and anticipate what he was planning, and most importantly—when. It was a tall order, but it needed to be done. Joseph would have to live through all the details again. That was inevitable. They could see the strain it caused in his visage. But he was strong and gestured that he was ok.
‘Where to start?’ He started. ‘There is so much to tell. Let me start at the beginning. When I met him for the first time.’
They settled in for a long meeting.
‘As you will have already guessed, I have been a Watcher for as long as I can remember. All my life really. In the old days, we did more of the physical following. Our clan was not so well versed in technical surveillance. We didn’t really have sufficient funds for the high tech, so we just did our job the old way—we watched. Up close and personal.’ He turned to Anadi. ‘This was before the clans started working together on a large scale. That changed everything, the funds were distributed over all the clans. Those not situated directly in the western countries benefitted from that. We were one of those clans.’
Anadi noticed that Joseph refrained from naming the actual year that he was talking about.
He took a sip of water, getting ready to continue his narrative. ‘Azazel caught me. I was about thirty at the time. He read my mind, and learned all that I knew about the Watchers and about the history of the forces. I couldn’t stop him. He can get into anyone’s thoughts. They are clear as day for him. He was furious, enraged, at the fact that he was being manipulated as he called it. He almost killed me, shattering my leg in the process. He tortured me for any additional information and then dragged me, bleeding and broken, to our clan’s stronghold.’
It was obviously very difficult for him to re-live the terrible encounters.
‘He confronted my father. Ranting about being manipulated and used.’ He sighed before he continued. ‘I was unconscious, I had passed out because of the pain and blood-loss. Later when I regained consciousness there were dead bodies all around me. Azazel had killed almost everyone. My father lay dead at my feet. His head almost wrenched from his body. My mother and uncles lay a few metres further.’
They were all silent, in reverence to the dead. Everyone could feel the tension and sorrow. Anadi thought she could sense something else, but what it was, eluded her. There was a feeling, something intangible. Maybe it was shame, for a fellow force, maybe something else. But it was unsettling. Dismissing it to her own emotions due to the terrible story, she continued to listen.
‘I wasn’t the only one left alive, a few more had survived. We gathered what was left of the clan, the few possessions that we had and left our stronghold. We went under-ground. They nursed me back to physical health. Mental healing took a lot longer. I lost almost my whole family in that massacre. Only my sister Esther, her daughter, and I were left. Esther took over the leadership of the clan from my father. She rallied the survivors and set out to find other Watchers. We needed to find help. Azazel had started actively hunting the clan. He picked us off one by one. Whenever he found a Watcher, he made sure they died in horrific and mind-blowingly painful ways. He left them in public places, where he knew that we would find them. He wanted us to know that he was hunting us.’ His story was so clear that Anadi was able to visualise what had happened.
‘Finally, we found your kin.’ He said to Panat. ‘Kahdi’s father Aakash welcomed us into his clan. We were safe once again. His clan was much more sophisticated than ours had been. They were better hidden too. We discussed the situation and Aakash contacted the other clans. It took a while to convince the leaders that we needed to work together. But Aakash managed to persuade them. Esther helped, I told my story and together we convinced them that we needed to consolidate our strength. There was no guarantee that Azazel would stop once he had killed off everyone in his own clan. He was aware of the other clans, he knew that there were other forces. There was no saying what he was capable of. He was a loose cannon. Even more than he had always been.’
He paused again. Anadi and Panat could see the strain it caused him to tell the story. Hetty urged him on by putting her hand on his shoulder. He covered her hand with his and continued. ‘We weren’t safe, that was evident when he ambushed a group of Watchers from the combined clans. Esther was one of them.’ He pushed back a tear. ‘He killed her. Took her daughter with him. A young woman then, we have no idea what happened to her, or whether she is still alive.’
‘There have been stories of a woman who accompanies Azazel. One who is forever in the shadows. A statuesque woman of indeterminable age’ Jan added to the story. ‘Maybe she is Esther’s daughter, we do not know.’
‘He made it clear that he would search out every Watcher and kill them all. He also threatened to find the other forces. As you know that would be disastrous. All of the forces together would really mean the end of mankind. We had to prevent that. No matter what. The council had formed by then. Together we discussed the options. It was decided that Azazel had to be stopped and your predecessor was the only one who could do that.’
‘You must understand that this was a major decision for the clans. Never had they actively sought contact with any of the forces. But it needed to be done.’ Hetty had joined the narrative. ‘It was a turning point, but we were desperate.’
So Hetty had been one of the council members then too, Anadi deduced. How old were they? She had heard that the other Primal had died just before she herself was brought into the fold. No, there was something not right in the timeline here. She shrugged it off for the moment.
‘Aakash met with his charge—the Primal force.’ Joseph picked up the tale. ‘Together with the rest of the council he convinced her that it was necessary to neutralise Azazel. The rest you know. She wounded Azazel, but lost her mind in the process. Not being able to live with what she had done—she killed herself.’
‘That was when your life changed.’ Hetty spoke directly to Anadi.’When you became Anadi.’
Anadi looked at Panat. He was also mentally counting the years and trying to age those present, like she was. It was confusing. Anadi knew that the Watchers lived longer than regular humans, but here they were talking of more than one-hundred years old, and they didn’t all age the same. Some, like Hetty, were aged, others like Joseph looked as though they were middle aged. How old was Joseph anyway? He had been there from the start, from before when Azazel and her predecessor had fought. That would make him, what? More than one-hundred and fifty? Could that be true?
Hetty and Joseph noticed the confusion. ‘Are you ok?’ Hetty asked Panat. ‘Do you have any questions?’
‘The time frame confuses us.’ Panat answered. ‘How long ago was all this?’
Hetty and Joseph looked at each other.
‘Long ago’ Joseph answered. ‘More than a century.’
He let that sink in.
‘We are older than we look.’ Hetty added.
‘We gathered that.’ Panat said.
‘It’s the proximity of the forces.’ Joseph took up the explanation. ‘Since Azazel killed off my clan, we have all been subjected to much closer proximity with the forces. Initially with your predecessor, later after the fight, with Azazel.’
That surprised Anadi. What did he mean? ‘What happened with Azazel after the fight?’ she asked.
‘He was badly wounded. We took care of him. Discussed the options. Convinced him that he should change his ways and do what he was made for, work for the balance of nature. He agreed, not that he had much choice. He was badly wounded. Because his wounds were inflicted by Primal, they had the potential to end his life. That scared him. He had lived so long and wasn’t ready to give up his existence. Aakash convinced him to change his ways. To work with us instead of against us.’
‘And how long did that last?’
‘For the better part of a hundred years.’
‘And then?’
Joseph looked at Hetty. ‘Then he rebelled again.’ He said. ‘Without us noticing, he had started reverting back to his old ways.’
Without you noticing?’ Anadi was astounded. ‘You’re Watchers.’ She said sarcastically.
‘Yes, we are. But we were lulled into a false sense of security. A hundred years of compliance had convinced us that he was part of the fold.’
‘We also underestimated his powers.’ Jan added.
This really surprised both Panat and Anadi.
‘What?’ She asked.
‘He can read minds, we knew that.’ Joseph explained. ‘But he can do more. He can manipulate minds too.’
That landed like a bomb. So it was true.
‘He can manipulate minds?’ Panat asked incredulously. He was flabbergasted. And it showed.
‘Yes, he plants ideas in your mind, makes you believe what he wants. He is much more the manipulator than we thought.’
The surprises continued.
‘During the last decade of the supposed cooperation, he had been building up his own group of acolytes and strengthening his financial position with the sale of drugs and arms. He camouflaged what he did, made us think it was all legit. We fell for it—hook, line and sinker. The finale was when Azazel killed Aakash. He murdered not only Aakash, but most of the council as well. Leaving us without leadership. Once again he was free to do whatever he wanted.’
‘How come he didn’t kill you?’ Anadi asked Joseph. Blunt as ever.
‘So that I could suffer more.’ Joseph answered.