Chapter 24

"You were gone too long this time, my love."

"I know Chris, I'm sorry. It will get worse over time though, as I've warned you."

"The Guardians are beginning to wonder about you, you know. The Yaru have had some interesting tales to tell recently. All of Aruh has been called to meet to speak of you. Several of us, including your Grandfather Andy, whom they love wholeheartedly, have tried to invite ourselves to the meeting and they have denied all requests, even his."

"The Yaru and I have business between us and it concerns no one else. It does no harm to the Guardians or to those they protect. That's all they need to know."

"I think some of them find that hard to believe given the Yaru's unwillingness to share their knowledge. It strikes them as a lack of faith."

"And it doesn't strike those same guardians as hypocritical to complain of a lack of faith when they are so boldly showing a lack of trust?"

"Well it strikes some of us that way, but the seeds of doubt have been sown. I doubt that any would seek to act against you though."

"They do not have the means to act against me, unless they were to threaten my family. Given that I am a McKesson that seems beyond unlikely doesn't it?"

"They could threaten me."

"Not if they are wise. Not if honest hearts still rule them. Besides, I have a trump card they might not wish me to play."

"What is that?"

"Earth. The truth is still unknown on Earth. It would set their plans back for decades at least to have the truth about their existence and of the Light come out."

"You would do that?"

"The only threat they can make is to harm you. The only threat I can make is to reveal that truth. Neither is willing to see the other's threat become reality, so we have a standoff. Assuming they are thinking straight."

"I will make sure they are aware of the possibility, as you knew I would."

"Good, now enough shop talk," I said, standing and undoing the top button of the sweater I wore. The sweater I wore because Chris loves to see me in them. "You and I have some catching up to do, don't we?"

A long week in Boston with Chris did a lot to remind me of my humanity. I hadn't been feeling it much lately, and it was good to be reminded that I was human, at least mostly. We ordered in the first two nights but dined out the rest of the time. There were a few shows and a trip to a day spa, but it was the wrong time of year for jogging on the beach or picnics. I checked in with a few people, friends of Chris' and mine, like An and some of her buddies. I checked with the McKesson financial people to see how things were going. I was surprised by some of the developments there.

The flight suit technology had taken off in a big way as recreation. I was getting rich on the sales of the Skye Suits, as they were called. What was interesting was the direction my investors had taken with the percentage of those profits they were allowed to dabble with. I was now the majority owner of more than two dozen Skye Parks, open park like areas with gravity dome shielding against bad weather whose air space were strict no-fly zones for all aircraft of any kind. From five thousand feet on down it was restricted to Skye Suits only.

The parks varied in size and in the amenities they offered, but the largest of them near the major cities included amusement parks, restaurants, shopping and fitness centers. All the Skye Parks offered fitness centers actually. Flying and fitness were being closely associated and those in charge were happy to promote that association.

Chris and I spent a few hours in the Boston Metro Skye Park near Brookline. We had fun, both of us with custom programmed suits, and I drew a crowd of compliments over my skill with the suit at the restaurant when we stopped for lunch later. If only they knew!

After lunch I was impressed myself by a group of young girls performing a sort of aerial ballet that seemed to be a fusion of skydiving, dance and synchronized swimming. Six of them in color coordinated suits dipped and swirled together overhead to cheers and plenty of oohs and ahs from the crowd.

"That's pretty cool," I commented to Chris as we watched.

"Its getting pretty big everywhere these days," he told me. "There are teams all over, competitions, rules and national and international organizations. Very big."

"Wow."

"There's beginning to be some talk of making it an Olympic event."

"Damn!"

"This is what happens when you go gallivanting off for fifteen or eighteen months at a time, Skye," Chris shook his finger at me. "The world moves on without you."

I laughed. "Gallivanting!" I shook my finger back at him. "You've been spending too much time around Uncle Con, I can tell."

"Touché, but its still true. You are gone far too often and far too long."

"And I always will be Chris, as I warned you long ago. The miracle is that I come back at all you know."

"I know," He said, taking the finger I shook at him and kissing the tip of it. "You're a damned enigma, Skye. I don't know what to make of you, and the Legion and the Guardians as a whole don't have a clue either."

"They don't need to know how to deal with me, Chris. I've said this before, but let me strip it down to the bare words. If it were not for you, I would have been gone by now and none of you would have ever seen or heard from me again. I had no intention of maintaining contact with anyone."

"You've said that, but I didn't think you meant it literally."

"I did. Absolutely. My original plan was to leave Earth, Arbor, Meadow, Taluat, the Legion, the Guardians, My Parents and McKessons in general behind and never look back. You changed that. I come back now for things I could find elsewhere. I come back to ask questions that others could as easily answer. I do those things because it lets me come back to you."

"And that's it? I'm the only reason?"

"Yes. I know you're wondering about my parents and how I could simply walk away from them forever. The reason you can wonder about them is because you don't know them, and don't appreciate what their life has been. They are actually a part of Arbor, and I mean that in the literal sense as well. They are physically, metaphysically and psychically inseparable from Arbor. Arbor is a special place. Not as unique as some might think, but very, very special. Soon some of the things that make me what I am will make it difficult for me to return there."

Chris could only shake his head, not believing I could be so cold, since that was how he interpreted it. He was still thinking of this in terms of personal relationships, which was the problem.

"Chris, are you familiar with the word 'zeitgeist'?"

"Sure, as much as most folks, I supposed. It has to do with a people's intellectual and cultural climate for a particular moment of history, right?"

"That's close enough. It's one of those words that means different things to different people. The German philosophers who inspired the beliefs behind it had another word though, weltgeist, literally meaning World Spirit, and that word is the one that applies. Arbor is a facet where weltgeist is not a theory; not a philosophy, and probably nothing like the old German's ideas. Arbor is a world that consciously writes its own history. There the idea of the genius seculi, the 'guardian of an age', is writ large with Magic and perhaps more than Magic. Weltgeist is a living, breathing thing on Arbor and if you cannot let it work its will on you, you cannot exist there. I left when I did because I had to, and it becomes harder and harder to return, and when I do, each stay is briefer and briefer. What I am conflicts with Arbor's weltgeist more and more, and soon, I won't be able to go there at all without causing problems."

"Jesus Christ!" Chris said. "I'm going to have to replay that little speech back a few times before I can even pretend to understand whatever the hell you just said."

"You're no intellectual lightweight Chris. You understand more than you're willing to admit to, you're just unwilling to believe I mean it without some confirmation. That's okay. If I gave that same speech to anyone who had been born and raised on Arbor, they would just nod. They already are familiar with the concept of weltgeist. They live it and think those of us who don't are unfortunate, or perhaps deluding ourselves. They can barely imagine a world that isn't listening and responding to the minds and souls it embraces."

"All right, so what's the point of bringing it up then? If I concede this weltgeist thing, if I presuppose that every facet has a sort of global consciousness, why bring it up? What's it got to do with you?"

"There! Thank you for refocusing on what's important. My point is that Arbor and I are mutually incompatible. I didn't leave Arbor so much as Arbor rejected me."

"What? Like some sort of failed organ transplant or something? That's pretty hard to swallow."

"Yeah, I know. Spirits! Why do you think I haven't told anyone else? Because it is difficult to believe in doesn't make it untrue though. I'm seeing this from a very different perspective than you are, so it makes much more sense to me. To even come close to understanding it, I'll have to tell you the other big secret about me."

"You mean there's more?"

"Yes, but you're not ready to hear it yet and I"m not ready to tell it. Another day."

"Come on, you can't tell me something like this and then leave it hanging."

"Yes, I can," I slid off his lap, where I'd been for most of the conversation, and stood up. "Now! Get up off the grass and take my hand. I'm either leaving now for a while, or you're taking me home for some very, very serious sex," I took his hand and pulled him towards me so that we were face to face, bits of me mashed very pleasantly up against bits of him. "Let me warn you though, if we're going for option two, I plan on finally putting your Light-boosted stamina to the ultimate test."

Yeah, it was a dirty trick, throwing him off the trail with a deal like that. It worked though, and I sure couldn't complain about the test results!

Cartesia was the name of it, and the English word was a fair translation of the local word's meaning. The people here were about as far from humanoid as I'd gone for, at least for facets where I spent any length of time.