Chapter 8

"Before you tell me who he is, I want to know who you are. I don't know enough about you to trust you when you tell me to vacate a family dinner, but I did. Every time you said jump I said how high. I'm done reacting to this whole mess I've stepped in. So we'll start with names. My name is Clayton Skwitt, what's yours?"

~My full name is Shiskabobi Rahjnish ibn La'Ahad. Just call me Bob. Look, I can't really tell you who I am. It's not that I'm being insubordinate, it that I can't remember. I did something to my memory a very long time ago to forget where I came from. It's shameful, that much I know, but it can't possibly bring you to any harm.~

"Good to know. So who is this guy? Why did we have to leave?"

~His name, or at least his current one, is Carlo Senza. Carlo was born Enmat Tajik in 1172 AD and was a cavalry officer in Saladin's army during the third crusade during his first life. In his time he was a good man with a family and land which he cared for and administrated into prosperity. During a skirmish, Enmat was speared in the leg by a lance. He continued the fight and led his horsemen to defeat, capturing an English knight. Saladin used this prisoner to exchange for his nephew. Enmat's action became a legend through the ranks and even Saladin was impressed. As a reward for his actions Enmat was given Saladin's leave to return home as well as an ornate glass vase that had been in his family for over a century.~

"Was that you?"

~Yes, but neither Saladin nor Enmat knew it. I presented myself to Enmat on his journey back home. His binding wish was to make it back home safely. The karma cost was that his prized horse would break his leg running from wild wolves. That's what happened. When he returned home he found his family and house burned and murdered by nomadic bandits. In his mourning, he blamed me and never truly forgave me. He wandered the land trying to do good where he could, and after the first time he engaged the karma imbalance he agreed to continue wishing when it was necessary. His wishes were always for power to help others, but in helping others Enmat dealt with the worst in humans. He soon became cynical and quit his quest. Through all his wishes, Enmat had indirectly wished himself into immortality. Not unlike you.~

"Excuse me?"

~Not exactly. With your improved body and mind you could live indefinitely. You are killable, however."

"I didn't ask for that."

~No, but you didn't ask for telekinesis, or your any of the other latent powers that will manifest themselves the more you train. But, you have them none the less. The same happened with Enmat. First he wished for the strength to lift a beam away from a door, barring a burning temple with the entire village inside. Eventually he wished for acute empathy so that he could avoid confrontation wherever he could. Wishes for things of that nature amounted to a nearly invincible, immortal Enmat.~

"I see. Forgive my anger, Bob. What was the turning point for Enmat? When did he become so evil?"

~Enmat changed his name after the first century of his journey when he heard a village elder tell the story of how Enmat faced down a hundred renegade horsemen. When the elder revealed to his audience that he viewed the spectacle as a small boy, Enmat concluded that if he was going to live forever, the world should be ignorant to it. The same night he made his decision to forgo his identity for secrecy, he saw the same elder brutally murder an orphaned boy for his bread. Tired of saving the worst of humanity only to see them turn into the monsters he saved them from, Enmat quit his journey.~

~He changed identities every two decades or so, leaving his acquired wealth to his next alias. Enamt's travels took eventually took him to Europe where he found himself on the side of nearly every political revolution until the first great war. When he saw the capability of a warrior be equated to the strength of his equipment more than his skills in combat, Enmat decided to wage his fights from the monetary and political arenas. As Richard Powers, Enmat was solely responsible for the economic and social depressions in several countries the seventies and eighties. He faked a death in the early nineties and began to fund opposing sides in African conflicts. After 2001, he hired an assassin as Carlo Senza, to kill Richard Powers. The assassin killed a body double and Carlo Senza took over Powers' principle business, which is the most largest, most wealthy, most powerful private military and security company in the world.~

"Wait. You said Enmat was 400 years old?"

~Clay, that is most shameful and abominable piece of magic I have ever worked. In the early 1600's Enamt noticed he couldn't be influence events directly enough because of his apparent ethnicity. He wished for his consciousness to be transferred into the fetus of a French child that was certain to be stillborn. All of his mental abilities transferred and the karma gained from granting a hard working peasant couple a child was enough for him to wish back his physical abilities. He actually was of a mind to live a normal life and die in what was France's most prosperous century under a good king. Fate, however had other designs. His parents lived and worked on a farm, remote even by that day's standards. Enmat's unique abilities allowed the farm to prosper. His uneducated parents thought their boy to be simply remarkable, but the jealous community of farmers that shared a market with the couple weren't so dismissive. They brought in specialized clergymen who deemed the child and their parents agents of Satan. They burned the parents alive at the stake and Enmat escaped.~

"So it's not that he's inherently evil, he's just seen the wrong sides of life."

~Is anyone inherently anything Clayton? It's something to think about. Humans have the capability to be anything they can imagine. Even you. The important thing is to remember that there is always good in the world, and as long as you serve it a good life can be lived. I can tell that you have many more questions troubling you. You should retire for the night. I have much to consider and pass through my mind. In the morning I will have a plan for you to listen to. Rest easy, nothing will happy tonight. Enamt is used to planning over years, and with your powers, there is an off chance that you could survive and carryout revenge. You are safe for the time.~