BLACKNESS

The blackness was back, rolling toward her awareness, her sense of self, like a dark fog of malice in her mind that exuded supreme arrogance to all that dared stand before it. Jade stood mentally before it, small and insignificant beside its great power. But she’d kept the darkness at bay before, even pushing it away by the force of her will, and she’d do it again. This would be the last of it. This time it was for good, she’d wrest it from her brain and destroy it for good.

Gathering her will, Jade faced the hurricane storm of malevolence, confident in the knowledge she’d deterred the thing once and she would do it again, even without Crystalyn’s help with the flicker, when it came as a dominion wraith.

There was something horribly wrong this time. The darkness rushed in without slowing, pushing Jade back to her safe pocket, her tiny bubble of protection, almost before she could install the barrier in the farthest corner of her mind.

How had the thing gotten so strong? The answer came to her with such clarity Jade knew it for truth even though it frightened her badly. Her body was dying, drowning in brackish water, and her willpower with it. As her body died, her brain lacked the strength to resist.

Arrogance, black and unyielding, pressed upon her, compressing her bubble inward and bearing down on her. Inhumanly strong, a dominant overbearing will clamped upon hers. With no strength left to fight it, Jade knew despair, she was doomed.

The darkness hesitated. Relenting a little, it flowed around her barrier setting up full control around her protection. Then it restored her eyesight to the bubble. Images flooded into her awareness and then opened up, becoming all-encompassing until she managed to sort it coherently. Images with sounds trickled in and then pieced together.

Black water melted into sandy shoreline from a distance above. The shoreline seemed to advance closer as the perspective changed.

Her dad descended, a dark tentacle wrapped around his limp form. Releasing its burden on yellowed grass, the tentacles arose to eye height, squirming in place in front of her.

“Search for structures intruding upon your domain made by man. Destroy them.” The command, alien and arrogant with supreme confidence projected outward from the blackness, flowing to the tentacles. The inherent menace Jade sensed within the command thoughts left her cold from the sheer brutality of it. Whatever thing had wrested control of her had a total disregard for all species.

The frightened young woman part of Jade wanted to babble incoherently, but her vocals, even her tear ducts, no longer belonged to her. She couldn’t cry to relieve pressure, which brought pressure bubbling around inside her thoughts. Jade wanted—no needed—to scream.

Now Jade’s eyesight looked out upon Bracken Lake, the tree of tentacles withdrawing. Pulling itself deeper into the lake, it took its myriad of lidded eyes at every tentacle base with it. That many eyeballs staring about was hard to look at, even though it was as if she viewed it through someone else’s eyes.

As the creature submerged, Jade caught a glimpse of General Karnas’ body gripped in a tentacle as another tore at his armor, his boots gone. Somewhere on the thing, it had a maw. Jade was glad she hadn’t seen it.

The scene swung back to the shore. Her dad stirred, expelling water. Two hands reached out and pulled him on his side—her hands. Doing so allowed him to expel another round of water. To her great joy, her father lived. Yet the knowledge of it came with trepidation. Why had it kept him alive?

Her dad rolled onto his hands and knees, clearing his lungs and throat. Finally, he climbed to his feet, flashing a weak smile. “Praise the Great Father, somehow we survived that tentacle thing, and we’re free of your captors.”

A voice—her voice, changed and sounding different—spoke then. “Your neural functions were left intact for the purpose of ensuring the host, your offspring, is protected. If you wish for reunification, remain diligent with the task.”

About to come close, her dad froze. His shocked look stabbed at Jade’s emotions, adding to the pressure of her helplessness.

Her feet closed the distance between them as her otherworldly voice continued relentlessly on. “The One Mind will demonstrate the cost of failure.” Her hand grabbed her father’s forearm, and her vision changed, switching inward.

A translucent barrier hung before her, but it dissolved as they went through it. Images spun before her, slowing to a leisurely rotation, playing through as if a live holofeed. Side by side, her dad and her mom strolled through a lush garden. Flowering plants of all colors bloomed, exotic bushes spread intricate patterned leaves, and an earthen pathway led them onward.

The clothes they wore confused her. Her dad was dressed much as he was now, but his black leather shirt and pants were brown instead of black. Her mom’s customary Terran outfit of gray silk suit shirt and skirt had vanished; in its place, she wore the supple brown kell shirt and pants of a warrior. In her hand, she carried a staff topped with a clear orb of crystal.

Had Jade a voice, she would’ve gasped with surprise when her mom spoke. “Are you certain you wish to do this, beloved? It is not too late for us to change our mind. I will tell them we have reconsidered.”

“You heard the Lore Mother, Durandas, and the rest of the Elder Voice,” her dad replied. “They have read the omens and believe our sacrifice will have the best odds of sending the land toward the greater good, only Camoe is against it. Is this not why we joined the Green Writhe?”

“You are right, though I wonder—”

Her dad interrupted. “I do not fully believe in the rightness of my words, for I share your trepidation. How can we know for certain we do the right thing, the best course for us and our future family?” Her dad put his hand lovingly on her mom’s stomach briefly, a look of awe crossing his young face. “Perhaps we should tell them we cannot go through with this. I shall stand beside your decision, beloved.”

Taking him by the hand, her mom pulled her dad to a stop, hope shining in her green eyes, so like Jade’s own. For a while, they stood gazing at each other. Then a look of resolve clouded her face. “We cannot, there is too much involved with this, so many have put so much into it.”

Her dad’s shoulders slumped with sadness. “As long as you know how much I love you, I shall bear it.”

Sureen’s smile was brief. “The precise act of what we have agreed upon with the elders permeates all things with the cries of our love.”

Her dad’s quick answering smile matched her mom’s.

They walked off, moving slower, as if going to their doom. There were more images, but Jade found her vision shifted to the external, and she faced her dad. The horrified expression on his face disclosed he’d seen what she had.

“What are you? What have you done to my daughter?” her dad gasped.

“Your inferior human mind would not comprehend the properties of the Over Mind though an attempt at a small explanation shall be completed. Your offspring’s ability and unique unlimited neural capacity permits the One Mind to read humanity without the necessity of assimilating all neural functions. The Over Mind now has the capacity to view memories. With this significant capability improvement, the One Mind has only to consume those whose influence controls many of you by having authority over others. The One Mind’s capacity is now great enough to consume this world; no single mind will be hidden,” Jade heard herself say, though her tone was clinical and alien to her.

Her dad gaped, his jaw dropping as he grappled with the enormity of it all. Jade had no doubt hers would’ve dropped too if she had control of it.

Reaching over his shoulder, her dad slipped his sword from the sheath on his back. “I am not certain my daughter is even alive in there. How do I know she hasn’t fully succumbed to your evil?”

Her arm extended toward him.

Moving backward, her dad pointed his great sword at her like an accusatory finger. “Stay away or you’ll force me to slay her to kill you.”

The voice spoke then, the same alien voice that echoed oddly along the beach. Gone was the mild, medium-pitched tone of a young woman moving into adulthood. In place of it, a woman’s husky voice resonated through the air, sounding as if it originated from some cold and desolate place. “I am here, Dad, it’s still me.”

Though he tried not to show it, her dad was horrified. His mouth worked, but for a long while, no sound came out. Finally, he lowered his sword slightly. “So you say, but how can I truly know you still exist?”

The power controlling her hesitated, roiling with confusion. A flicker of many minds, people she had never known, shuffled through her thoughts. “You cannot,” it finally said. “There is not a way to provide proof the One Mind has not consumed your offspring’s memories and now speaks to you with them. You shall have to rely on what you humans refer to as faith.”

Her dad raised the great sword again. “But how can I be certain, blast you!”

“The One Mind will now release the host’s vocals for a brief period,” the alien voice said, abruptly.

“Dad! Listen!” Jade shouted, louder than she intended. Having her voice returned to her was so unexpected. “I’ve managed to protect a small part of me in a tiny corner, but it’s so strong!”

“Jade! Is it really you?”

“Yes. Listen, Dad, you have to make me a promise.”

“Anything, Jade, tell me. You have my word.”

Jade had to be strong, as strong as the strongest person she knew, her sister, Crystalyn. As strong as the two people in the image, her mom and dad, had seemed. “I don’t know how long I can hold on, and this thing is so deadly. You have to kill me.”

“No, Jade!”

“Do it now, Dad! I love—” Jade’s words reverberated as silent thoughts through her little bubble of awareness. The alien, imperious woman voice rang throughout her mind. “Destroying your offspring will serve only to slow the inevitable. The Over Mind, the One Mind, shall prevail.”

Her dad’s chest rose and fell rapidly. Jade’s wanted to cry over the agony in his blue eyes and the distress of his quickened breaths. He raised his sword high. “So you claim. My daughter, however, has resisted you. My beautiful, wonderful daughter, the noblest, most selfless living being anyone could ask for believes otherwise. You shall die with her.”

The malice inside her recoiled, flickering through memories. A moment passed. Jade’s arms spread wide. “Then strike your descendent. The One Mind shall live on in the father.”

Her dad lowered his sword and his head. “I’m sorry, Jade, I cannot,” he whispered.

The black wind of the Over Mind’s triumphant satisfaction rippled Jade’s protective bubble.