Chapter 2: A Charge to Keep

The Order had been given. The Mother of the Redeemer would die by my hand or not at all. Sharon Summers was to be the Redeemer's mother. But that made no sense. If she was the Redeemer's mother, who was the father? I checked her Driver's License from her purse. She was only twentytwo years old. I reviewed the information about her that I had been given. She had just graduated college, and was working her way through law school with the help of government grants and student loans. She came from a poor family, but had rose up from poverty to make something of her life.

Who was to be the Redeemer's father? That question nagged at me. Why had the Prophecy said nothing of the Redeemer's father? It was unlike any other Prophecy the Elders had received before. When I had first seen her the previous day as she arrived for work after class, I had scanned her soul and saw only the purest light. It had been then that I had returned to our sanctum beneath the streets of New York City. I had to question the Elders of the Council. It had been their wisdom and Prophecies that had guided us throughout the countless human generations of war and violence. We tried with all our might to stop Mankind from gaining a foothold on the Earth. Twelve thousand years of clouding their minds and erasing their memories. Twelve thousand years of guiding them down the path of selfdestruction.

For what? They continued to thrive even now, but the Prophecy was Absolute in the minds of the Elders. 'Mankind will find Destruction or Redemption by their own hands. With their Destruction, Setian Life will return to the Earth, and we shall thrive again.'

We had to protect the rest of the universe from their destructive ways. That had been the Elder's explanation for stranding them here instead of simply letting them leave after their massacre had been fulfilled. They had been here for our Magic. Once they had it, they would leave our world and we would have been able to thrive again. But we wouldn't let them leave. We disabled their ships and clouded their minds with a great spell that cost many Setian lives. We few who remained were immortal. We could not die until the Prophecy had been fulfilled.

I closed my eyes and bowed my head as I thought of Jarielle and Brenael. My wife and son. I took myself back to that day when Mankind had landed. We had been curious about the large stone ships they flew in. Then they had attacked in force. Their weapons had laid waste to our cities and towns. My wife and son had been amongst the first casualties in this long long war. We were driven underground. I was chosen for my skill in combat as one of the Ten Thousand. I was chosen because I wanted the same as the others. To kill every last one of Mankind who walked our Earth now. The Prophecy had been clear, though. We would not kill Mankind. Mankind must kill itself. We would kill key figures in Mankind's development. Christ had died due to my poisoning of his own people's minds against him. Julius Caesar had died due to my manipulation of the Roman Senate. John F. Kennedy had required a more active role. I had been able to subvert Lee Harvey Oswald, but he was a terrible marksman. I had waited in the storm drain for Kennedy's limo to come into view, and had waited until Oswald started shooting before I fired the one round through the President's forehead for the killshot.

All of them would have been Father of the Redeemer. I also had to sabotage the plane of John Kennedy Jr. to make certain that he was not the Redeemer himself.

I had killed good men. I saw into their souls. Some were evil, but some were good.

Now I gazed at Sharon as she slept the sleep of pure exhaustion on her couch. I picked her up and carried her to her bed where I laid her back down. I removed her waitress's dress and pulled the covers over her. Then I sat by her bed and watched her sleep.

She looked like an angel. Her face was beautiful as she lay there with the street light shining in softly through her window. 'Mankind will find Destruction or Redemption by their own hands. With their Destruction, Setian Life will return to the Earth, and we shall thrive again.'