"Caleb didn't ask me to come in here. I came on my own, for my own reasons."
"We will continue the trial," Donald said as if I hadn't spoke, "and get everything settled. Visionary, please wait outside while we deliberate. It wouldn't be proper for you to be present during sentencing because you're so emotionally involved, otherwise you would be more than welcome."
"Isn't the verdict already in?" I said sarcastically and looked to Gran. She stood stoic and still. "Hasn't Caleb's fate already been decided?"
"Pretty girl, some things can't be changed by will alone," she said ominously. I squinted at her. "Some things just are," she said pointedly.
Unless you change them. You have to play by their rules until you're in a position to do something different.
I sighed and tried to play off like Gran wasn't speaking privately to me. "Fine," I ground out and looked at Donald and only Donald. "This isn't over, for me or the Visionary."
He gulped angrily, but nodded once in concession. I stomped out of the room and made my way back to the gold room. I was fuming, but also trying to process what had happened. Gran was clearly trying to send me a message that I needed to take the reins, but I didn't know how or where to start.
I was worried about Caleb. I was worried about how I was supposed to teach or lead these people. I was just worried. And when the gas sconces started to shake from my worry, I was done.I put my forehead against the cool wall and begged. I begged whoever or whatever it was that was in control of all of this to give me a little sign, a little hand out, a little clue, something. I was lost. I was floating in a sea of self doubt and uncertainty. I had the desire to do what was needed, but didn't feel like I had the tools. That was when I felt it.
The feeling of cold water rushed over me, touching all of my senses, inside and out. I shivered in the realization that this was the answer to my prayer. I got a feeling like I'd felt the day I found out I was the Visionary. A knowing calm, but intense wave of emotion came over me. I knew what I was here to do now.
The council had to hit the dusty trail. That was number one.
Number two, was that I had to stop the Watsons. Too many years, they played with the loopholes in the Virtuoso laws so that they could practically do anything they wanted, because human laws were of no consequence to them. They had hurt humans for years, and although it seemed that a lot of people knew something strange was going on, nobody was jumping up and down to do much about it.
And that had to change.
A soon as I recognized the task and let it grab hold of me, I felt myself start to warm back up. My mind cleared, so thin and light, and everything just seemed more open to me. I could hear everyone, almost at once, as they laughed and joked over their supper. I could decipher and know who was who and what was what. It was very different from the way it was before, where I had to strain so much and focus to catch glimpses. This…
It was like a new world had opened up to me.
Was this what had been wrong with me all along? I had fought the Visionary and not embraced it. I whined and complained when I should have understood the magnitude of such a gift. I could see things. I could see the future! I had been fully content to squander that to go back to being a normal teenager. But no, I couldn't. And you know what? I didn't want to. Not anymore. I had a hunger now after seeing Caleb's kind; the good, happy people who just wanted peace and imprints so they could have their lives back and a future to look forward to.
Before, did I even fully understand that this generation would have been their last if the imprints weren't coming back? I assumed they were, deep down I assumed, or hoped. And as much as I was angry at the Watsons, they were desperate just like everyone else and instead of sitting by they were trying to be proactive. Yes, they were cruel and sadistic, but at least they were doing. And the rest of the Aces better get to doing too so we could catch up. We needed to counteract the Watsons, learn from their cleverness and expel their hate and bitterness from the people as a whole.
We didn't need some convoluted system with a bunch of people who didn't have our best interests at heart to rule us. And I didn't want to rule us either. Our people were strong and able to carry themselves. It wasn't that hard.
Why couldn't everyone just follow the Golden Rule? Why couldn't everyone just live their own lives and then meet back up once a year for a reunion ? Was it so hard? It may be naïve thinking, but for now, I was going to focus on just that. Getting these people to realize that they had power and though they may have forgotten it because the imprints seemed to leave them helpless, they were far from it.
So I watched them. I stood in the doorway of the grand gold room and watched them all without any rose colored glasses on, without any blinders, without any notions. I just watched, and smiled. They really were a good people. They just let things get out of hand. I laughed into my fist as Maria threw a grape into the air and caught it in her mouth. Jen was opened mouth in awe about it and laughed as she demanded her to do it again.
Peter and Rachel were the same as always, a picture perfect example of poise and worry. They were discussing in their minds to one another about tonight when they take Caleb; about how I'll react and in the morning I'll be in withdrawal. Caleb and I both will be.
They were just as worried about me as they were about Caleb. I was upset about it. And Rodney, sitting with Caleb, Kyle and Lynne, was dreaming out the vision I'd had of his wedding. My eyes slid passed Caleb, who had been watching me the whole time with his signature smirk, and I tried not to giggle, to Kyle and Lynne. He was rubbing her thigh and Lynne was scolding him for being so brazen, though her giggling probably didn't solidify her argument.
Philippe and his wife and their young daughter were mowing down some chips. The whole place smelled of delicious cod and chips, but I just wouldn't make myself eat. I was too wired, too full of anticipation.
Then I took in the rest of the room. Everyone looked so normal and human; an extremely proficient façade. I fought it as long as I could before forcing my eyes to the Watsons. They had quarantined themselves off to the side with purpose and dedication to being the villains and outcasts. I glared at their backs as I crossed my arms and silently told them all they were going down in a fiery crash of justice and humiliation. And I would enjoy it immensely.
"A fiery crash of justice and humiliation?" I heard off to the side and looked over at Caleb. I shrugged and went back to my glaring. "That's a witty revenge."
"I'm in a witty mood," I said dryly. "And I'm not hungry, so no, but thank you," I answered his questions before he asked.
"You need to eat, babe," he ordered softly and sighed. "It's gonna be a long night."
I knew what he was talking about, but still didn’t want to eat. "Come with me?" I asked and held my hand out with a coy smile.
"Avoider," he accused and smiled crookedly as he took my hand. The lights went off and on once to indicate it was almost bedtime. "Whatever, I'd rather take you to your room than watch you eat fish anyway."
I bit my lip at his words and gave him a sideways glance. He chuckled silently and pulled me under his arm as he kissed my temple. We walked silently to my room. The gloom that had plagued me all day settled back in as I realized that our night was almost over, and the outcome of tomorrow was uncertain. I listened to him try to calm me.
I don't want you to be under some assumption that everything will just work out tonight in our favor. Please don't freak out."How can they do this though, Caleb? I just don't know what it's going to accomplish other than puffing up their chests."
He grunted his annoyance which matched my own.
"I don't know," he said and watched our hands locked together between us. "I don't know what game they're playing."
"The last time we were separated was…" I shuddered thinking of being in the Watson compound. Now I was surrounded by Watsons every time I turned the corner. It just wasn't right. It didn't feel right, and the fact that the assembly was a tit-for-tat ruling machine made me feel even more unease. What a bunch of hypocritical coots.
"Don't think about that," Caleb commanded softly and ran a hand through my hair, scalp to neck. I shivered, but not because I was cold.
Caleb had been very greedy of my touch every since we got here, as if he knew that the assembly was going to try to pull something like this. He and his father both were magnificent. They defended me, our family, our actions and reasons for killing the Watsons, all of it. But in the end it didn't matter and though I'd been granted clemency because I was the precious Visionary, Caleb's fate was up in the air and undecided.
He said he wasn't worried, he told me it would all be alright and by the end of our night here in London in this beautiful underground castle that was as sinister as it was pleasing to the eye, I almost believed him. But now, as we stood in the long corridor of rooms that were presented in elegance by 'rank' among the Virtuoso, I looked around me. The place was just dead. If I peeled a scrap of that pretty golden wallpaper off with my fingernail I wondered what I'd find. Concrete? Prison bars? Or something much more alive and malicious, like a ghostly presence that seemed to blanket everything within view.
The lights flickered in the hall, which was what they told us would indicate 'lights out'. Yep. I was engaged, I was almost eighteen, I was in London with my fiancé's family, I was the Visionary - an esteemed and revered artifact of an ancient race - and I still had a curfew.