Iron Rain Pt. 12

"What do you mean last meal? What the fuck did I get myself into?"

"You'll see," I said and the nurses injected Eric with the medication that would keep him not only conscious but also enhance his sensitivity to pain. "Well let's get started shall we?"

I moved to the edge of the river Arno to wash the blood from my hands and dried them even as the guard approached.

"Lady Medici, your uncle is looking for you. Is everything alright?"

"Can you send word to dear Giovanni that I am on my way," I asked him.

"Of course Lady, do you require an escort?" he asked and I shook my head.

"No, it is a lovely evening and I have a small delay before I meet with my uncle."

"Very well I will go myself and tell your good uncle that you are on your way," and the young soldier was on his way and so was I.

I knocked upon the heavy oaken door and heard movement beyond.

"Who is it," asked the stern male voice beyond.

"It is I, Lady Olivia of the house of Medici," I replied formally.

"One moment," said the voice before the sound of the heavy bar was being slid from its place and the door opened. "Lady Medici, you are not supposed to be here... again. If your uncle were to find out," the captain of the guard asked even as I slipped in passed him.

"Pray he does not discover now please close the door and tell your guest that I am here," I said brooking no argument.

"Very well, he has been in one of his moods and has not slept much as of late," the captain said as he mounted the stairs to where the heretic was being confined. "You have a visitor Sir... yes it is her... yes again... no I do not know why the Lady deems you worthy to visit... very well I will tell her." The captain turned and even as he walked down I knew the answer was no but I stalked up the stairs all the same. "Lady he does not wish... fine let yourself in." He said as we passed each other on the stairs.

I opened the door to the large chamber beyond and the elderly man spun as I intruded on his presence again.

"Lady Medici why are you here," Galileo asked as I smiled and crossed the distance between us.

"I have brought you a gift from our family library and I want your impression of the contents of this scroll," I said reaching into the folds of my sleeves and retrieving my gift.

He reached out reluctantly and took the scroll and slowly opened it and I saw his eyes widen in surprise.

"Surely this is a copy," he stuttered.

"Of course it is, my nephew is a scribe and copied it from the original. I am not a fool dear Galileo and I assume your mastery of Greek will make for at least a small distraction in your solitude here."

"Solitude, yes your weekly visits maintain that isolation your uncle decreed," he said bitterly.

"Better a bit of quiet than the executioner's blade," I told him.

"Why are you doing this," he asked placing the scroll on a nearby table.

"Do you not wonder at the sudden rise of my family from such obscure beginnings? Do the cries of the unfortunates not reach your ears when I come to you with blood stained hands? Do you not wonder why the Church preaches that the devil is so close these days? But you are a man of reason in an unreasonable time. You are a visionary when fear and dogma cloud the minds of those in power. Why do I visit you dear Galileo? I enjoy seeing the world through your untainted eyes and hate the thing that my birthright had wrought upon my very soul. We will not meet again and that is why I brought you that very scroll. Study it well for upon its surface is your sanity, your reward and alas your proof that things are not as we believe but as the world should be perceived. Farewell."

"Farewell Lady Olivia and my thanks," those were his last words to me on my final night among the living before something more terrible than I stalked the ancient streets of Florence.

I gave the captain a gold coin for his trouble and departed heading for the house of my uncle Giovanni but I would not reach it alive. That very hour I met the woman with the blood red hair and fell to her unnatural hunger. For like me she was Nephilim but unlike those of our kind she hunted her own and not the feeble sparks of life known as humanity. They never found my body and my name fell out of memory even among my own kind. I was less than a shadow and knew why the ancients carved their names upon the temple walls; so that they would not be forgotten as I had been.

I held the bloody scalpel in my hand with a familiar ease that should not be. I blinked hard and looked around and saw the pale drawn face of Eric Ahriman and upon the floor at my feet his left arm. The limb had been removed with a precision and care that only someone with a great deal of medical knowledge and experience could have performed. And yet there I stood and knew at a single glance at the wound that there was no sign of a single hesitation upon the incisions. Somehow I had done this thing and I knew that within me was the knowledge to do so much worse. I set the scalpel down next to the other instruments and shaking with fear and no little rage at Eric and myself I quit that room and raced for open air and a place to vomit.

"Kouryou," her voice was like liquid silver. "What has happened to you?"

"I have within me every dark deed and the blistering hell fire of each soul that she stole over her terribly long existence," I said.

"So that is how you know how to maim so elegantly," she asked.

"Elegantly, is that what I did," I asked her. "I butchered a man and yet have no recollection of that event. What other terrible deeds sleep inside of me ready to waken?"

"Kouryou let me help you," Akira begged.

In a rage I snatched the Shintai from beneath my shirt and drew it out.

"This was supposed to keep my Ki cleansed... little good it did!"

"Master... Nick look at the stone," she gasped in astonishment.

I held it up and in the dying rays of the setting sun it gleamed with an eerie red light. The facets were no longer the gorgeous blue and navy I remembered but they were now the ruby red hue of blood. Was this a trick of the light? I lifted the chain from around my neck and held it away from me as if its proximity would burn me. The sheer mental weight of all those voices was gone and in that moment of clarity I realized what Augustus Eisermann had done for me.

"It's a matrix stone Akira, just like Surfer, just like Lilith but instead of a single personality there are many," I whispered.

"Throw it away Kouryou, toss it into the sea," she begged me but all the answers were secreted with that blasphemous stone.

"All my questions can be answered with this Akira, can't you see that?"

"Ask me," she said with her head bowed. "Kouryou, if you ask me I will tell you everything I know."

"I know," I said feeling that bond that was more than family, "but there is so much that you do not know that I can discovery with this."

"You can't wear that... thing. How are you going to discover your answers?"

"Isn't it obvious," I said and I saw the raw unbridled fear in her.

"NO, Kouryou... Nick... you can't do that," she was begging now. "That is madness to give that thing a shape."

"There is no other way; I am going to make it into an avatar."

The discussion between Akira and I went on and on. I had never seen her so adamant on anything like she was with this one decision of mine and perhaps it was her persistence or her track record of supporting my decisions that kept me from screaming and just doing what I wanted to do. She attacked my logic from multiple arguments and each and every time I failed to reach a better solution or validate my side of the discussion. Akira was not only a formidable warrior and lover but she had a keen mind to back up her other skills. It was well passed noon when I finally threw up my hands in surrender.

"Okay, okay you win," I said smiling despite the seriousness of the situation. "What do you suggest I do?"

"Kill them both, they are clearly responsible for Petra's death, but do it cleanly. This torture only diminishes you and talk to Jesse about this avatar thing. He knows more about it than anyone outside the Old Ones themselves."

"You are right on both points kill them quickly and feed them to the sharks and I will speak with Jesse," I promised.

"Thank you Master," Akira said bowing low and leaving to execute my will.

I retrieved the pyramid from the vault and when I picked it up felt the deep subtle vibration from the thing. I set it in the middle of my bed and sat at the head of the bed and sighed heavily before addressing the device.

"Jesse, I need your advice old friend," I said the mental fatigue having taken its toll.

"Nick," Jesse's image appeared almost instantly. "What's wrong you look like hell?"

He on the other hand looked great. There were subtle differences to his image and I suspected it was due to his exposure to the contents of the library crystal.

"I have a situation," I said and launched into the entire story including the 'dreams' of the two women.

"Interesting but I am glad you talked to me," he said when I had finished my story. "I must agree with Akira on this matter giving this nameless Nephilim a physical form would be very dangerous indeed. I would also like to do a complete medical work up on you and make sure you are suffering no long lasting effects as results of your exposure to her and the others."

"Fine by me, the Shintai is sitting on the table there and which hospital do you want me to..." but the drone appearing out of nowhere stopped me cold.

"Lilith's remote will work fine for a medical scanner and I can have your results in no time at all," he said grinning.

"You've been a busy little genius haven't you," I said standing so the hovering sphere could do its work.

"Yes indeed, I have learned so much in so little time," he said smiling broader now. "Well time is relative after all."

The drone scanned my vitals and sent its results to Jesse who 'hmmed' and 'ahhed' over the data.

"What exactly do you mean time is relative," I asked.

"Well there is a distinct difference between chemical time and digital time," he began to explain. "Biological interpretation of data and experience compared to crystalline is so vastly different."

"So more time passes for you in the crystal than it does in the physical?" I asked and he touched his nose and smiled.

"Exactly, you always did have a knack for interpretation," Jesse said pleased with my understanding.

"So how much time has passed for you compared to for me," I asked and he whistled when he got that answer.

"A few weeks for you, centuries for me Nick," he said a little stunned.

"Centuries, wow so what have you learned?"

"After reading this readout of your physical make up I have some surprising news for you Nick," Jesse said more serious now. "You are in perfect health and I do mean perfect. Remember when you broke your nose in class showing off and it didn't quite heal right?"

"Yeah, that was the first and last time I sparred without a helmet."

"I find no sign of the break and your nose is back in its original state as if it never happened. I have also noted minute but distinct alterations in your muscular and skeletal structure since I scanned you for the Grim avatar."

"What the hell does that mean," I asked Jesse.

"The small imperfections you were born with are slowly but inexorably disappearing. You have been exposed to some as yet unknown compound that is accelerating your maturation process into full adulthood."

"The water from the obelisk's pool," I offered.

"Makes sense," Jesse offered. "It is an unknown element in things."

"Speaking of the Obelisk," I said changing the subject. "Did you get the scans I sent you?"

"I have them now, sorry I have been very distracted," he said and his eyes went glassy for a moment before he continued. "Interesting, it appears the scan you provided matches the two files I have on identical obelisks in the possession of the Old Ones."

"So the markings are identical?"

"The same characters are represented on each obelisk, but their placement is not exact there are variations," he said musing.

"Could those variations be a clue to deciphering their meaning," I asked.

"MMMM I see where you are going. I can send a drone to scan the obelisk at the Black Lotus School that will give us four out of the six but that still leaves us two shy of the set."

"Are there any record of where the other two might be found," I said even as he was responding.

"One is reputedly in the possession of the Dark One, the name given by the Old Ones to the Eternal Master," Jesse said. "The last one was last reported in the lost city of Iram."

"Iram, I never heard of it."

"It is also known as the City of a Thousand Pillars," Jesse explained. "It is the Atlantis of the Dunes and has as many stories around it as there are UFO myths."

"Any clues will be helpful, I have a feeling being able to decipher the pillars will put me an edge up on the Nephilim." I told him.

"The only documentation of Iram that has ever surfaced is recorded on the Black Scrolls of Khora Dhaine," he said grinning.

"Black Scrolls... what's a Khora Dhaine?"

"According to the Library she is legend itself. The Old Ones say she was the last of the children of the Dark One and the Great Mother," Jesse said.

"So she is one of the Twelve," I asked but he shook his head.

"No, that why she is legend, she is the thirteenth seed of the Nephilim bloodlines. She was marked at birth as different. She was the most powerful of the first generation. She was the first Bakaret, the very oldest of the Soul Thieves."

"So whatever happened to her," feeling the cold quill around my heart.

"Nothing, there is no record of her ever having children and besides an archaic mention of her name tied to the scrolls and her being the last that's it."

"You said she was marked, marked how Jesse?"

"Oh that, well you got to understand the timeline and climate and all that. Civilization arose in Africa and the Middle East so her mark that set her apart was her fair skin and red hair. So about this Shintai of yours I have a suggestion. There is a way you can access the information without any danger of giving the personalities within the Shintai physical form."

"Great, Akira will be thrilled how do we do it?" I asked finally getting some good news.

"You still have samples on board of the tablet computers?" Jesse asked grinning.

"Yeah, I think we still have an entire case that is unopened why?"

"I can transfer the information from one crystal to the other and delegate them to a kind of read only status. It will be like a memory for them and you will have only limited interaction with them but better that than the alternative."

"Some access is better than no access at all. Will they all fit in there," I asked.

"With the higher functions reduced that frees up room for memories. It'll be more like a holographic movie than anything else but it's the best and safest I can do," he replied. "Besides it'll free up your Shintai and remove the contamination."

"I never really saw it as a contamination," I said softly but grudgingly had to admit I was a little afraid of someone that if true had been around for that long. "How long will it take to do the transference?"

"Oh not long at all, I will have to reprogram the tablet shutting off all access outside of it via wifi or other means then we can safely move the lot of them. Then I scan the Shintai and make sure there are no stranglers." He said with complete confidence.

"Well look at you my digital wizard," I said with a nod of appreciation.

"At your service," he said bowing.

Akira went herself and selected an unopened case of Numenor Technology Tablet Computers and picked the plainest looking one out of the batch. She brought it to me and I gave her a questioning look.

"Plain means unimportant," she said and I saw her wisdom and in the event something like a member of the sisterhood was working for the Nephilim they would go for the most impressive looking device and not look twice at the plain one.

"You are brilliant," I told her.

"I know," she agreed.

So as Jesse reprogrammed the 'digital prison' as I saw it, I waited anxiously to be rid of the threat and eager when I could safely learn what I needed to know about the Nephilim. True they weren't all bad but the ruling body had ugly plans for the world as a whole and the sooner I understood their strengths and weaknesses the sooner I could implement Project Aries.

"It's all ready for our guests," Jesse said. "Set the tablet down and next to it the Shintai and don't touch either until I tell you it's safe."

We set the necklace and the tablet next to each other and stepped back. I guess I was expecting a brilliant light show and a wailing and gnashing of teeth of there was only silence for a long time. Nothing noticeable happened until the probe hovered over and sent its scanning beam to bear upon the gleaming jewel and with a nod and a wiping of his forehead Jesse pronounced the procedure a success.

"Your Shintai is free of any contamination and all the personalities are safely locked away within the Phantom Zone, pardon the Superman reference but it seemed appropriate." Jesse said grinning.

"Phantom Zone Kouryou, what is a Phantom Zone and who is Superman?"

"Wait! You've never heard of Superman," I asked stunned.

"REALLY, do you think I grew up on a fucking rice patty somewhere? Jeez give me some credit... though I really have never heard of this Phantom Zone thingy."

So we decided to sit down and watch the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie so she could see what we were talking about. So there we were popcorn, licorice, and soda watching a classic superhero movie. Okay so she watched the part about Zod and cohorts being banished and the destruction of Krypton but then she got bored and I discovered some wickedly evil things about Akira when she gets bored. Twizzlers isn't the only she thing she likes to put in her mouth and I will leave it at that.

After not watching a movie together and some fierce make up sex, apparently keeping her in the dark was not a proper way of maintaining trust and a dozen or so orgasms later (hers) she forgave me and slipped into a deep sated sleep. I on the other hand decided on a nice quiet shower to plan the next step in my Nephilim situation and found myself daydreaming about killing every last one of them and didn't miss the down turn of my mood. I cut my shower short, dried off and decided to shave in the mirror on a whim. I wiped the fogged up mirror clear and stared at my ruggedly handsome features and couldn't help but notice the dark green eyes looking back at me. Jesse had gotten rid of all of the souls from the Shintai, hadn't he?