Orion entered his father’s bedroom with determination. The nurse took one look at him and made her exit.
The woman barely escaped out the door when Cypress Bennett’s raspy voice called across the room. “I want an update on Voss,” he said.
“Well, good evening to you too, father.”
Cypress coughed as he spoke, taking breaths in between words. “The incompetence... of your men... astounds me.”
“Relax, Orion said. “I have it under control. If anything, Voss’s interference with our plans has only worked to our advantage. It’s unfortunate that the agent he shot was one of our own, loyal to the CAED, rather than the agent the CAED voted to sacrifice, but our objectives will be reached just the same. The CAED wanted an agent to die, and that is exactly what has been accomplished. The most important thing right now is to convince the people that sending Keepers out into the field is putting both our agents and Ambrosia at risk.”
“Perhaps,” Cypress wheezed. “But the longer Voss is out there, the greater the risk that he will talk. We need to make him a top priority.”
“Like I said...” Orion replied. “It’s under control.”
“Fine,” Cypress said. “Now, come here. I want you to look at something.”
Orion walked to the foot of the bed. “What is it?”
His father’s shaky hand lifted, grasping at the remote, pointing toward the TV. The video on the screen rewound for a few seconds then paused.
“Watch this,” Cypress said, and then he pressed the button and the video started to play.
It was a clip of Sadie at her last training session. Orion had supplied his father access to all of their work at the PAS project. The clip played for only a moment and then his father paused it again.
“Did you see that?” Cypress asked.
“What?” Orion said. “What am I looking for?”
Cypress replayed the clip again. “Look at the girl’s movements,” he instructed. “Right there... did you see that? Look how her eyes keep shifting, the way her hands are fidgeting...”
Orion smiled condescendingly and took the remote from his father’s hand. “I think you’re reading into things again,” he said.
“The girl is hiding something,” Cypress insisted. Then he lost his breath and started to cough.
Orion walked to the nightstand and reached for a glass of water. “Here, drink something,” he said, holding it up to his father’s mouth, “before you cough up a lung.”
Cypress sipped at the water until he could clear his throat. “You were just supposed to figure out what we were up against,” he finally managed to say, “not help her develop more strength.”
“That’s what I’m doing,” Orion replied dryly. “Through all our testing across the border we’ve learned that she can heal anything from a small wound to life-threatening illnesses and injury. We’ve learned that the closer she is to a subject, the greater her strength becomes, and the quicker she recovers. We’ve learned that whether the subject has a Watermark or not makes no real difference in her ability to heal them. Just today, an agent came in with a fatal knife wound, and she healed him without complications. The things we’re learning are remarkable, father. Sadie’s strength to heal is beyond anything we could have imagined.”
“Of course her abilities are remarkable,” Cypress said in frustration. “She’s the Aurora. Her powers know no bounds.” His father struggled to push himself upright against the pillows. “She’s hiding something,” he insisted. “She’s holding something back. I believe she can do much more than she’s telling you.”
“That’s always a possibility, father, but have patience. Right now I’m working on gaining her trust. If I recall our last meeting correctly, that was part of the plan as well.”
“Did you at least speak to the Ambassadors Council about our concerns with her relationship to Hamlin Fairbanks?” Cypress asked.
“I’ve done all I can,” Orion explained, “but I can’t convince the Council to restrict her from leaving campus. For now, I’ve convinced her that hiding her identity will save her from ridicule. She appears to be in agreement.”
Cypress scowled. “It’s not enough.”
Orion grabbed the glass from his father’s hand and set it forcefully on the nightstand. “Before you give me another lecture on our need to destroy the Aurora you might like to know that the agent she healed today was one of our boys from the CAED.”
“One of ours?” Cypress said.
“Yes, I spoke to him just before I came, and he’s already agreed to an interview with Birch after the memorial service on Sunday. News that another agent has died is spreading across the city. Agent Pike will have no problem convincing the majority of Banya that shutting down the Keeper Program is the next logical step.”
His father drew in a breath. “I understand your desire to take the diplomatic approach, but we no longer have time to wait for the people to come around to our politics. We have to stop the Aurora now, no matter the cost.”
Orion walked across the room and poured himself a drink. “I still believe we can avoid drastic measures.”
“You should pray this election turns out in your favor,” Cypress continued hoarsely. “The CAED is growing impatient.”
Orion slammed his glass down on the table. “What would you have me do? Abduct the girl and keep her in the dungeon?”
Cypress didn’t hesitate. “If that’s what it takes to ensure our people’s survival, then yes... lock her in the dungeon.”
“Well, if Sadie is as powerful as you say,” Orion scoffed, “I highly doubt a few metal shackles will stop her.”
His father lost his breath and coughed as he pushed out the words. “Mock me... all you want, son. But remember... the CAED...” he paused and gasped for one more breath. “The CAED... won’t wait forever.”
Orion’s jaw clenched. “The CAED doesn’t even believe Sadie is the Aurora. They don’t believe the Aurora even exists. The objective of the CAED is to close the Thresholds and cut off interactions with Earth; that is all.”
Orion held back his frustration as he moved toward the door. “I should come back later. You need your rest, and I have things to do.”
“Yes, yes,” Cypress jeered. “You have things to do.” Before Orion could push his way out the door his father’s voice strained again across the room. “You know this obsession with the girl’s abilities is a waste of energy. Robert Bennett’s records say nothing about the power of the Aurora being transferred to another.”
Orion turned abruptly, his patience growing thin. “That doesn’t mean it isn’t possible, father. I don’t understand how you can put so much weight on a few dusty old ripped-out pages that may or may not even be Robert Bennett’s actual writings.”
“They are his writings,” Cypress said firmly, “make no mistake.”
“Even if they are,” Orion went on, “we can’t just assume that they’re complete. All we have is a small piece of the puzzle. And even then, it is only one man’s perspective, one man’s interpretation of what he thinks he saw.”
Cypress didn’t relent. “How many times do I have to tell you? The CAED has been gathering up writings on the subject for years. Not to mention, I saw Jane Fairbanks having visions right before my own eyes. Her utterings were touted across the land as prophecy.”
“That was over two hundred years ago,” Orion complained. “You were just a child. Who knows what you really saw.” He grumbled under his breath. “Why are we arguing about this again anyway? The CAED doesn’t care about Jane Fairbanks or any kind of prophecies. They only collected those old writings to keep them out of the hands of the Believers.”
“Need I remind you,” Cypress pushed, “it was your mother’s dying wish and her lifelong purpose to fulfill the goals of the CAED, and she believed whole-heartedly in Jane Fairbank’s prophecies. Your mother dedicated her life to grooming and preparing you to become the Ambassador so you could fulfill your role in the CAED’s mission to separate Ambrosia from Earth. For centuries this has been the purpose of both the Bennett family and your mother’s ancestors to bring these goals to fruition. Your mother believed the Aurora could single-handedly destroy everything we’ve been working for.”
As his father spoke, Orion walked to the bookcase behind the bed and stared down at the wooden box with the CAED symbol carved into the top—two circles representing Earth and Ambrosia with a thick solid line drawn between them, representing their need to be separated from Earth, to stop relying on them for all of their needs, to finally become their own independent world. Orion ran his fingers across the symbol. It had been his mother’s box, a strong reminder of all her efforts to teach him the ways of the CAED as well as the prophesies of the Aurora.
Orion’s lip curled as he strode around the bed to look his father in the eye. “Don’t think for one minute,” Orion snarled, “that I don’t want to fulfill mother’s dying wish just as much as you do.”
“If that’s true,” Cypress said coldly, “then prove it.” His father’s voice was hoarse, yet somehow he persisted with force. “Now, stop fixating on the girl’s abilities and start focusing on what’s important—stopping the Aurora from bringing utter destruction upon this world.”
Orion couldn’t take another word. He turned immediately and stomped out of the room.
Just because he wanted to learn more about Sadie’s abilities didn’t mean he wasn’t committed to his mother’s cause. He could pursue both. Everything he had been working toward with her was to further their cause.
Orion moved swiftly to the den and stopped in front of the safe in the wall, where he punched in the key code with determination. His father’s words wouldn’t deter him from his original plan. He was going to prove once and for all if Sadie’s powers could be duplicated in another. If it was possible, he had to be the first to know.
His father said they needed to know what they were dealing with when it came to the Aurora, and that was exactly what Orion was trying to figure out. And, if he could duplicate Sadie’s powers in his own body, it would only increase their advantage.
Orion’s mother had shared her beliefs about the Aurora with him from an early age. She had taught him many times about the uniting of the three spheres—the Threshold, the Sacred Pool, and the Aurora. The stories had been passed down through generations of their family. Before the Aurora could discover her powers she had to be united with the other two spheres while she was in direct contact with the Key.
Orion reached into the open safe and pulled out the Briolette he had stolen from Voss. The same Briolette Voss had stolen from Sadie. The crystal was so large it had to be the most powerful Briolette in existence. Orion was convinced that the Briolette was the Key.
They also believed that each person born with a Watermark on Ambrosia shared a special bond with the Sacred Pool. The water from the Pool ran through their veins constantly, without it they couldn’t survive. The bond to the Sacred Pool was the first Sphere, and the Threshold was the second. That meant that Orion not only had the Key in his possession, but two of the Spheres were already within his reach. That only left him with one Sphere left to duplicate. The third Sphere was the Aurora.
Secretly, Orion had already tried passing through the Threshold with both Sadie and the Briolette at the same time, but it didn’t result in anything.
Then only recently, the scientists working for Orion on the PAS project at the border had discovered an unidentifiable gene in Sadie’s blood, one that could not be matched to any other known sample in their thorough public database.
Orion was convinced that this gene in her blood was the missing link in his plan. If he could inject this gene from her blood into his own bloodstream at the exact moment he was in contact with the Briolette, the Threshold, and the Healing Water connected to his Watermark from the Sacred Pool, then he believed all the elements of the Unification of the Aurora could be duplicated at once.
And then... just maybe... the Aurora’s power could become his.