Flames

Chapter 15 Moonlight

Reika leaned back, stunned, trying to collect her scattered brain.

"How? why?" Being choked up with pure astonishment, she had mumbled.

The man with silver hair played with his thick beard.
"She asked, how and why?"
Reika felt indebted to the young redhead guy two chairs over from her who relayed her question.

"Ahh that, yes." From where she was it seemed the elders' pools of brown eyes glittered.
"We've been precipitating this, a master strategy. You were meant to be taken but for a much bigger purpose than you remember. The very thing that Grain is using against us will be flipped on themselves."
She wished he could zap the knowledge into her head, it would be so much easier.

"You and your siblings are lamps in Grain, but you've been blind to your own light. Lost I must say, but in order to appreciate what you are being offered, you all will have to experience the dark. Not to harm you but to make you strong. "

Someone on the right of the table cleared their throat. The older male went on undisturbed.
"Have you ever asked yourself why you question everything? Why you want to be alive in a broader idealism?"
She nodded with a frown, abruptly self conscious.
"We have little time, so I'll answer those questions later on. In this meeting we'll get to the core of why you can help and be helped."
Reika loosened her clasped hands, letting blood correctly fluctuate.

"When Grain first snatched you from your home, you were put under neurosurgery. The surgeons were all very renowned, to begin our plan we had to send in such a person. Someone who had great and clean success in neurological operations, but with high emotional intelligence and well rounded in every aspect"

Her brain suddenly mellowed, drowsiness overcoming her.
He stopped and asked nobody in particular.
"Who has the handling?"
Fighting fatigue she watched a few people exit the door.

"It appears Grain has tapped into your Wiring, it won't last long."

She was exhausted from trying to discipline her mind, it seemed to do no good anyway.
"Stay with us."
A stubby lady with yellowish bobbed hair, repeated her words every minute or so.
Five people remained in the study room, encouraging her to stay awake.
Something tickled her brain and in less than a minute she was wide awake. Group A had fixed whatever it was.
Everyone flooded back to their thrones more lively than previously.

The lion-like man at the other end nodded at her, picking up where the elderly male had ended his segment.
"In the end we discovered someone who was willing to work with us in that field of expertise. And that's how your "malfunction" came to be."
Reika crossed her legs and arms, engrossed.

"Wait, wait, so my malfunction wasn't an accident?"
If so then was it possible that Group A had controlled her at times?
"Sir, you know better about what happened."
The gray bearded man adjusted his clothing, concentrating on giving an answer.

She had noted they had been the only ones to speak about this matter other than the redhead. Was there a hierarchy?

"It was to crack Grain's schemes, by using their mimicking blueprint. Your brothers have the exact loophole in their Wires, but yours is the only one that's detectable to scanning."

The people nodded their heads nearly in unison to the info. The middle aged gentleman with kinky black hair at the tip of the table added onto the elders words.

"The complex arrangement is to break off Grains' established hold on your minds. Now you are, our proof that we've snared Grain in their own Wires."
She felt as if anymore was downloaded into her brain, it would combust.

"You also have a choice. To work with Flames, which is Group A, or Grain. Before you choose allow me to use a metaphor to explain who Grain is to the outside world. Wolves in sheep's clothing, or tares that pretend to be grain."

She despised Grain but felt too rooted in a sick sense. It was like devil man had said, that she was basically stuck with them forever, they were her identity...It was a long shot to do this...
The anxious hush made her decide.
Flames weren't forcing her, she had a will and that made them win.
"Flames. You all. What am I going to do though?"
She absorbed the people's tingly, relieved sparks of energy.
The woman who had been like a peacemaker for Reika raised her hand to speak, and was acknowledged with a smile.
"May I show her?"
Arguments arose, some with a defiant no and a few with a strong yes.
"Yes." The silence buzzed at the older man's words. He had no need to raise his voice for the people to come back to order.

"Show me what?"
Her eyes darted to and fro to each person. None of them resembled each other, all were of a different race.

"Let's wrap this up and then I'll send a few Kin to show you."
The man with creamy white skin and reddish brown hair, took up her previous inquiry about what her job was.
"In the Graves we want you to discover the way to leave, after you've figured that out, the next step is to destroy Grains realities."
He said it grievously, but with grit resoluteness.

"Before you even entered Grain we were watching you, someone was always there." The freckled redhead's tone was like dripping honey.
She scoured her memory for an instance of what he had described as being watched, but had no inkling of when or who.

"Now that you've agreed to work with us, you can visit the Field." The redhead spoke with confidence.
Everyone got to their feet and pushed their chairs in as the elder drew closer to the left virtual wall.

"You are about to enter the Developers World."
The ginger sounded mildly excited as he closed the gap between Reika and him, letting her in on more details.

The complex regard of the oldest among the dozen persons became like a tent around her. "Daughter, I am with you."

The blue moonlight of the walls gleamed, embracing her.

Who said it she wasn't sure, but her heart and mind became tranquil.

There was no doubt in her bones that refusing the devil man's titles of father and her being his daughter was the best choice she had made in her life. Whoever had spoken just now in this fleeting but remaining voice, something about this voice made her want to be his.