Post 21: Gone

“…I love you, Bye.” Adrian sniffed as she listened to the last part of her mother’s voicemail. She wasn’t sure what about it had touched her heart but she knew it was time they reconnected with the outside world. She’d turned in her resignation letter to Candice, online of course, and the woman had not been happy. However, as much of a surprise to Adrian it had been, she’d responded a few days later with a shining reference letter. The woman had never ceased to surprise her. The warriors had also taken care of her apartment. They paid her up for the rest of the year and sent a cleanup crew to gather a few of her personal items. She wasn’t sure why they wouldn’t let her leave. They were no longer holding her prisoner, she was here willingly. There must be something else going on that they weren’t telling her. It was about time she talked with her mother, she was the only person that Adrian knew had info that hadn’t yet shared her Intel.


“Is all well with your mother?” Chase stood just to the side of her, he’d appeared out of nowhere, sneaking up on her as she’d been preoccupied. She jumped just slightly, startled. Chase sighed and turned away from her. “Adrian, you aren’t going to learn to use your abilities if you don’t even try.” He pressed his aura on her and she felt a buzzing in her blood, sensing him beside her. “You feel that? Turn it on.”


“Yes, I do. I’m sorry, my mother just sent me the weirdest voicemail and I’m not at all sure what to make of it. I’m trying, I swear, but I’m worried. I need to talk to her.” Her brows knitted together and her arms reached up to circle his neck when his hands came to rest on her waist.


“I know, I know you’re worried but the Malus aren’t going to be concerned as to why you’re worried or what’s going on in your life. You can’t talk with your mother just yet. We have no idea why the Malus are here and what they are looking for and don’t you want to keep her safe? They aren’t from this planet, Adrian. They couldn’t care any less about your trivial human emotions or problems.” He shook his head as she sucked a breath in sharply. “I’m not saying that I don’t, I do. I am just wanting to introduce you to this very different and very real world. Promise me you will be more careful, use your feelers?”


“Yes, yes, I promise.” She closed her eyes and tightened her arms around him. He felt weird, she could sense a yellowing in his aura. For some reason he was hiding something from her. It only appeared when she mentioned talking with her mother.


“I have to leave.” Adrian didn’t speak at first, wondering if he was going to continue. If he was leaving it might be dangerous for both of them. The last time they’d been out of each other’s presence they’d been almost deathly ill. “Arinth said that now that we have actually completed the Mauma we should be fine, physically, to be separated from each other. Of course, I don’t want to leave you but I really have no choice.” She continued to stay silent as she sensed there was more to his reasons for leaving. “I was put on earth with a mission, to find someone, I just picked up on her trail and I have to follow it.”


“Do what you have to do. I will be waiting here when you return.” She leaned back until she could see his eyes. He looked guarded, secreted somehow. “What is really going on?”


“The person I am hunting is my wife.” He looked down into her eyes and tightened his arms as she tried to pull away.


“You’re…you’re married?” She stumbled over the words. She tried to clear her throat but couldn’t. A burning sensation touched the back of her eyes.


“Technically, not anymore. But she used to be my wife. We were together for a little over two hundred years. The Council annulled our marriage when she went rouge and became a Woman of Ganesha. Listen…” He released her and cleared his throat, running a frustrated hand through his already tousled hair. “I married her because I thought that she was, at the time, my mate. I grew up with her. I knew her. I trusted her and I thought that she loved me. The both of us had much to gain from our union and the Council pressed it really hard. Well, on her end they did.”


“And on yours?” Adrian clasped her hands together, trying to fight the tears hovering just behind her eyes.


“I didn’t fight it. I thought we were made for each other. Humans, those on earth, spend their entire lives trying to find someone to spend it with. Not everyone believes in a soul mate or any one person, it’s almost the way you are raised as a race. On Arinth, and also on other planets, it’s all that we know. It’s proven, through the Mauma, that we have mates and are meant to find them. It’s not something rare, it’s something we almost expect to happen. However, we spend a lot more time trying to find that person. I just happened to believe that I grew up with mine.” He thought of what Ana said in the café before she’d tied him to the chair. Mendax had played a part in their charade. A bigger part that he’d thought, he still hadn’t had a chance to follow up with any theories that Ana had put into his mind but he’d had bigger things to worry about. He watched Adrian before him now. He knew she felt betrayed but he’d also been betrayed. He’d been tricked by the Council he’d sworn to protect, the woman he’d loved most and now the warrior he’d called brother. He wouldn’t tell her any of this though, not of yet at least.


“And now?” Adrian turned away from him and leaned a hip against the dresser just left of the bed. Glancing out the window and onto the yard at the back of the house, she pretended not to feel the tear that escaped and ran down her cheek. “Now what do you think?”


“I think…that I have a job to do.”


“What is a Woman of Ganesha?” She dashed the tear away and turned back, holding her hands out to him. He took in a deep breath and raised his hands. Instead of lacing their fingers, he pressed his palms to her, raising them to the sides of their faces. Pressing slightly, Hunter leaned forward to kiss the tip of her nose.


“A Woman of Ganesha is what you would call a spy. A traitorous spy. They often start as Eidyia Warriors, women that work alongside us, the Dark Warriors. They hold Intelligence for the Council. Ahhh…” He shook his head as he tried to explain the concept. “Intelligence would be in reference to a…uhh, floppy disk, like a small object that holds all of your information that you can put into a computer.”


“You mean like a USB drive or an ICloud.” Adrian laughed at his older reference. “You’ve been here how many years and you don’t know what those are?” He smiled down at her as she laughed at him.


“I’ve only been here for ten years, our way of keeping and gathering information is very different on Arinth. We don’t need light boxes to hold things for us.” He reached forward and tweaked her cheek before continuing. “Anyway! Intelligence is like all the secrets that you hold on a USB drive, except they are directly downloaded into an Eidyia Warrior’s mind. Of course these secrets can be locked away behind passwords and other things that the woman can’t even get passed but often times they are not. A Woman of Ganesha would start off as an Eidyia Warrior, turn rouge and most likely sell these secrets to the highest bidder. It’s why they must be stopped. That is dangerous on Arinth but imagine what those secrets could do here on earth. I’m to catch her and bring her in but, due to our little distance break down we had, I wasn’t able to capture her the last time I found her.” He had stepped around to the other side of the bed, gathering his belongings for his trip. Adrian grasped a shirt he’d balled up in her hands before folding it and adding it to a small pile they’d started. “I actually don’t know how long I will be gone.” It could take years.


“You could be gone years?” Adrian stopped, mid fold, she’d heard his thought.


“Ahhh…no, it could take years to find her. But even then, Adrian…” He leaned a knee into the bed and touched her softly just under the chin. “After I find her I’m done here. They will most likely take me back to Arinth and give me new orders. I doubt they will keep me here on Earth.”


“And you and I would be separated…just like my parents.” She pulled away and walked across the room, glancing at herself through the mirror on the dresser. She wrapped her arms around her waist. “You know, I would think that you would fight harder for us to stay together. I mean…I love you but I can’t make you fight for us. Do you seriously want to end up like my parents? You know what they say, in years we will eventually go crazy without each other. Knowing my mother, it seems to be true. I don’t know about you but I’d like to keep my wits about me.” He knew she was right, he did want to stay with her, he loved her, but from where he stood he had no choice. Maybe Anders thought the same thing. Maybe he could find a way for the both of them to be with the women they loved. Looking back up he realized Adrian had disappeared in those few seconds; slipped from the room, silently. At least she’s using her abilities.


"The only way to be a writer is to write, write and write. The only way...is to write." -Jade Elyzabeth