Allie's War Episodes 1-4(26)

I feel my companion’s light change subtly and...
We are in another part of the city.
The building feels familiar as we pass its dim walls.
Then I am staring at the glowing hands of a Betty Boop clock on the wall near the ceiling and it hits me that I am in the diner where I work...worked...did work. I watch human, blob-like forms move through a catacomb of vinyl booths. Still, I know these blobs somehow. After I concentrate a little harder, I recognize Sasquatch the cook, Cory behind the bar.
I try to determine if any of the light blobs are Cass––
To learn a place or thing from another’s light...this is called imprinting, Esteemed Bridge, he tells me. I took this one from you.
I look down. My light-feet are standing in a man’s plate of ham and eggs. He eats through my ankles, but I feel his light fingers and tongue and jerk away, repulsed. My companion grabs my light arm before I can float across the room.
I am what is called an infiltrator, he says. A seer trained to find things behind the Barrier. It is a trade, one that is learned, often at a young age.
A spy? I venture.
He doesn’t like this, I can tell.
Still, he shrugs it off.
A human equivalent might be espionage, he sends after a pause. It is how my human employer sees it, certainly. For a Rook, the designation of espionage is more accurate. They do not follow Code and operate under a quasi-military structure, as you see reflected in the spatial representation of their network of seers.
At my bewilderment, he adds,
...the Pyramid.
I am back to looking around the diner.
I don’t understand, I say. How are we here?
Resonance, he sends. It is what we seers do. We resonate with things. Everything has a vibration. Every person, every place, every event. You can see a past event if you can recall its imprint, or if you resonate strongly enough with someone who was present. The future is more difficult. His light body emits a shrug. ...For obvious reasons. Even in the present, imprints change. People change, seers more than humans, although usually not enough to fool an experienced tracker.#p#分页标题#e#
His light sparks, hardening and softening in waves.
There are exceptions, he adds. These things are very complicated in terms of functionality, Alyson, but the principle is simple. Resonance means things that have the same vibration are drawn to one another. Everything in the Barrier operates thus.
But what is this? I ask, waving a light hand over the diner. Are we on Earth? Or not?
Yes, he sends at once. ...And no. Reacting to my exasperation, he adds, It is a level of the Barrier. The Barrier is not material. ‘Where’ has a different meaning here. It is closer to ‘what.’ But we are close to the ‘what’ of Earth. Here, its ‘where’ is less important.
When I want to argue, he cuts me off.
Simply grasp the basics for now. Your consciousness must learn to split in order to grasp it fully, Esteemed Bridge. All seers must learn to be in two places at once...to hold two views of reality at once. It is normal for us.
Without waiting for my reaction, he changes the tenor of his thoughts, making them a near warning.
One other thing, he continues, hovering over a family dining on hamburgers. And this is important. While it is true that the Barrier is where we seers have the most power, it is also the place we are most vulnerable. When you operate outside of the Barrier, you are invisible here, Allie. Powerless, like a human...but untraceable. Inside, you can be attacked.
I don’t know what this means, but fear ripples my light. I look around, half expecting to get smacked out of nowhere.
I hear Revik sigh. I can tell I’m taxing whatever levels of patience he possesses. He turns his attention to the blurred human lights, and for an instant, I see through his eyes, an eagle’s view of all humans, everywhere.
It strikes me that really there aren’t so many seers, after all.
We have been around for much longer than humans generally believe, he says. In our mythology, humans are the third race. The first is Elaerian...the second Sarhacienne, or Sark, which is us. The third is human. Each race is said to destroy itself at a certain point in its evolutionary cycle, as a means of moving to the next level. Elaerian, the first race, no longer exist outside of the Barrier.
His light turns wistful before he focuses it back on me.
Sarhacienne means “Second” in the seer tongue, he continues. What humans believe to be their earliest civilizations were mainly the remnants of ours. Egypt. Mesopotamia. Even parts of the Americas and Europe. It is said we did not have sight before the Second Displacement.
He gazes over the sea of humans, sighs.
We did not notice at first when humans began to appear among the animals. According to our mythology, they arose from the air. Which could mean space...or sky.