Allie's War Episodes 1-4(101)

“You have your own police,” I repeated, a little dumbfounded.
In the human media, the Sweeps were always portrayed as a kind of global Homeland Security. They worked under SCARB, sure, or maybe adjacent to SCARB, tracking renegade seers, but it had never occurred to me they weren’t run by humans, or human themselves.
He flicked his fingers to the right and up, the gesture I recognized as “yes.”
“The Rooks have a heavy presence on the Sweeps, of course,” Eliah said. “They’re sort of a competing nation with the Seven, you could say...but it’s more a philosophical difference, really. The other nations tolerate them because whatever else they may be, the Rooks are good at concealment. Ironic really, as they were the first to advocate dominance over isolationism.”
He leaned back on his elbows.
“Containment’s a real controversial issue with seers these days, love,” he added. “Before, humans were seen more like animals...” He gave me another apologetic glance. “Most of us didn’t even want to interact with them, truth be told. The world was bigger back then, and it was easy to talk about non-interference, live and let live, will of the gods an’ all that. Now humans fly everywhere, go everywhere, want to see everything. Even our most isolated clans are stuck having to deal with them in one form or another...and there’s interbreeding and mixed marriage and all kinds of nonsense on our side, too.”
He winked at me. “We’ve got nasty libidos, we seers.”
I rolled my eyes, but grinned slightly.
“Damn, that’s cute,” he said, leaning back over the arm of the chair. “Fuck. How can he keep his hands off you?”
Feeling myself stiffen, I receded back into the cushion, propping my arms on the rounded back of the chair. “Okay,” I said. “I’m just going to ask. Do you really believe all of this Bridge stuff? About me killing everyone, ending the world?”
He broke into a laugh, spilling his beer.
“Trust Dags to put a positive spin on it. What a morose bastard.”
“Eliah,” I said. “What do you think? Honestly. If it’s true, I think it must have something to do with the Rooks. I’ve been studying their network, but until today, I never really—”
“You’ve been what?”
Eliah raised his head, staring at me. The sharpness of his voice took me aback a little.
“Studying their network,” I repeated.. “I’m interested in how it works. The way the whole top part seems to shift—”
“The succession order?”
It was my turn to stare. When I glimpsed images in his mind however, watching the different pieces of the Pyramid move up and down, trading places with one another under the top spot at the apex of the Pyramid, I found myself nodding. It was oddly reassuring that the thing I’d been looking at had a name.
“That’s right,” I said. “The succession order.”
“Why on earth would you be interested in that?” he said.
His voice remained sharp under the disbelief, and I saw what might have been wariness under that. For the first time in our conversation, I remembered he was an infiltrator, like Revik.
“We’ve never been able to see into that, love,” he said, shaking his head. “Why would you even look there? What do you expect to find, exactly?”
I smiled, but had to fight to keep the anger out of my voice.
“I know,” I said, smiling again. “It’s practically Revik’s mantra. It’s way over my head. I’m just a beginner...I get it. You don’t need to go there, Eli.”
“That’s not exactly what I meant, love.”
“So you don’t understand why I might be interested in the people who killed my mother?” I said, my own voice sharper. At his silence, I bit my lip. When he still didn’t say anything, I asked again, “So what do you think, Eli? Really. About the Bridge stuff, I mean.”
The hard look faded from his eyes, leaving the lighter one a clear blue.
“Love, I know you’re worried about reincarnation and all that,” he said, sighing. “But I don’t think that’s the point, really.”
“Then what is the point?”
“It’s about roles, see. Some are too important...some affect too many people to leave to chance. The Bridge is like that. There needs to be someone overseeing things, when something as heavy as a Displacement goes down.”
For a moment, I could only look at him, replaying what he’d said.
“You really believe all that stuff?” I said.
He grinned, resting his head on the chair’s back. “You sound surprised.”
“For a seer, you’re almost...normal. I had my hopes.”