Season 3: Episode 9 – The Soul That Would Not Die

This series contains mature themes and is intended for adult listeners.

POV: Bryn Tal

> Begin Porta Cor imprint.<

I walked through Facility One two days later with Dahlfia at my side.

The men from the IX Hispana Legion, as they called themselves, were adjusting well.

Dahlfia and I moved through the medics’ wing, where a few were being treated.

The head medic came up to me. “Most of them are adjusting psychologically quite well. There is some shock and grief over learning that Rome fell.” She paused.

“However, they still have a strong sense of belonging and purpose to each other. There is a little anxiety over being taken away from death, but for many, they view it as a second chance.”

She walked us through the hallway. “These being treated here now are simply injuries during training.”

“To be expected,” I said. “Are they eating well?”

“Yes, they seem to have the same appetite. We have ramped up their meat and protein intake, though, to help with muscle support.”

We stopped at the other end. “Well, please be sure to let us know if there are any issues or if you notice any new issues arise. We’ll want to get ahead of issues as quickly as possible.”

“Well, now that you mentioned it,” she paused, “our readings show that their bodies are not deteriorating like other humans. They are immortal like us. Was this intended in the pull-over?”

Dahlfia shifted next to me, and the medic was waiting for my response.

“Yes, it was,” I answered…just a fraction too quickly.

We moved out of the medic wing and into the mess hall. A few men were scattered about eating.

Dahlfia leaned close to me and asked calmly, “We intended them to be immortal?”

“No, but the medics who created the genetic nomen chip mentioned that could happen.”

She lifted her eyebrows to me. “And you didn’t share it?”

I smiled at her. “No.”

“Not even with the Council?”

“Think about what Awyr told us,” I answered.

We stepped out of the mess hall and walked down the trail to one of the largest training areas we set up. 

Seating was placed on one end for spectators.

But right now, the arena was filled with movement.

The men were spread out in different groups. Some trained with their weapons, and some with Anturian weapons. Some practiced hand-to-hand combat. They kept trying to get back into Roman formation up against chaotic Tylwyth Teg fighters.

One lone figure sat in the back now, off to the side. The Legate stared straight ahead at nothing.

I kept my eyes on him when we walked past him, and he never recognized me there.

Dahlfia and I kept walking.

Once we passed, she whispered, “You spoke with him this morning.”

“I did,” was my only response.

We moved down the path to the Porta Segreta. I wanted to meet with Jeston before our next group arrived.

The Councilors were already gathered beyond the staging area, with Kylah and Oswalt nearby.

Dahlfia and I stepped into the underground facility and down the hallways, which were now full of Jeston’s team members, to the central room where he worked.

A handful of others were in the room with him. All of them were running their fingers across boards and looking up at different screens.

“Everything looking ready for our next group?” I asked him as we approached.

He looked from his screen to us. “Yes.” His voice didn’t sound like a yes.

“Something wrong?” I asked.

“Not really wrong, but unusual. We had a random line of code come through the system. We cleared it out and will be watching to see if anything else shows up. We could not detect anyone else in the system. Just a line of code we did not enter.”

He turned back to his screen.

“Noted.” I acknowledged. “Thank you and well done.”

He didn’t acknowledge my praise, lost in his screens, letters, and numbers.

“Well, we will head outside, and once you see we are in position and your team is ready, you may begin.”

He nodded without looking at me again.

Dahlfia and I left all the tapping sounds behind and stepped back outside into the fresh air of the island just as a beautiful breeze blew in from the south.

My gold hair blew in front of Dahlfia for a moment, blocking her view, and then settled back down. “Trying to knock me off the path.” She made a joke since I am a Croen Llwyd.

“Never,” I told her playfully as we moved to join the others outside.

Along the staging area, the medics were lined up and waiting as before.

The other councilors nodded to me as we approached, and I returned the gesture.

“Kylah, Oswalt,” I said to them in greeting.

“Here we are again,” said Kylah with annoyance.

“Here we are.” I agreed and turned to face the Porta Segreta. Dahlfia remained by my side.

As before, the green light came on, followed by beeps and a flash of green. I exhaled, and before I finished, the first 1000 people from the second batch appeared on the platform.

Some humans hesitated to return to a normal position, and some appeared visibly shocked.

The administrative helper went up onto the platform to begin guiding them down, offering encouraging words as she led them down the stairs a few steps at a time to wait for the medics.

The medics sorted them into the staging area if they passed initial screens and pulled them off to the end of the staging area for evaluation if they did not, only a dozen or so in this group.

I turned to look back at the councilors.

“A little slower this time,” Myr commented.

“Yes.” I agreed and then turned back as the second group landed.

Almost half of them remained frozen in position for more than a minute or two. Several of them wandered around the platform, confused, until a staff member came up to direct them individually.

The medics took longer to screen them, and more were being pulled off for one-on-one attention with a medic.

I stood thinking about ways to change our responses.

I looked back, and Oswalt ducked behind Kylah as some of the humans wandered right past us, lost until an assistant came to guide them back to the medics.

Dahlfia shifted her position, sliding her weight onto her back foot.

We stood there much longer, waiting for the platform to clear.

One person walked around in circles until a medic stopped her and brought her off to the side.

The platform was almost cleared when a man took off running from a medic, screaming and waving his arms around frantically.

Kylah tensed behind me, shifting to a crouch.

For a moment, his direction was vague.

Until he headed straight for me.

Before I could even register to respond, Dahlfia stepped forward, blocked him from reaching me, and pinned him to the ground in a blur of motion that reminded me of Awyr.

Medics rushed up with a sedation injection and then moved him away once he was sedated.

The staging area was already starting to crowd, with medics caring for those in need. “Move the ones needing care to Facility Two medic wing,” I ordered the staff. “Let’s get them isolated to help ease their transition.”

Staff and medics started walking humans back to Facility Two; others were carrying them if they had been sedated.

“Things are getting overwhelming,” I told Dahlfia.

Once they cleared, the staging area thinned out, and the next group came over.

This time, even more care was needed. Our available medics were few, and the ones working looked tired.

“Can you run down to Facility One and get some of their staff to come out here?” I asked a runner. She turned and ran to Facility One.

This group took even longer to get off the platform.

I paced a little restlessly near Dahlfia.

Finally, I stopped and watched them trying to calm people down. “If they cannot cooperate right away, sedate them,” I instructed.

Dahlfia stayed unmoving, but her eyes met mine as I paced again.

The next batch was up, and we were adapting. The humans were not any better adjusted than the last batch, but we did start sedating more of them and taking them off to work with them individually once our staff could wake them and address their needs.

Kylah snorted. “And these people are supposed to help us?”

Feeling my temper getting shorter now, I stared at her. She quieted down.

Some humans had to be left sedated on the ground until staff were available to come and move them.

This group wasn’t doing so much panicking as they were looking around in total shock. More staff had to walk individuals off the platform, which made this one the longest one to clear so far.

Some of the councilors started walking to the platform to assist people walking down, with Myr taking the lead.

The staging area was not uniformed or organized. People were sitting, standing, kneeling, and sedated. It felt more packed than when the legion came over, even with many of this batch being moved off to the facility.

But the green light came on again, followed by the beeps. And then something different happened: instead of one green flash, there were two.

I looked at Dahlfia to see if I was the only one who noticed it, and she gave me a small nod.

I looked back at the platform, and there were people there. Again, some adjusted well, and some were not to the sudden transition.

I watched as the humans slowly moved off the platform.

The Porta Segreta shut off, so now we could clearly hear people talking and some crying, but no yelling or hysterics.

As the platform began to thin a little, I saw something there that was not moving.

I craned my neck to try to make out what it was over all the people, but the distance was too far with the obstacles in place.

Whatever it was, the other humans were walking around it.

“Dahlfia, can you tell what that is?” I asked her.

She lifted onto her toes. “No, I can see it, but I cannot tell what it is.”

I called a runner over to me. “Can you go get a medic to see what that is on the platform?” The runner nodded and ran off to try to find a free medic.

But before she even left me, I caught sight of a young woman with strawberry-blond hair weaving effortlessly with bare feet through the staging area in between all the masses of people.

Her skin was so pale, it looked the same color as the sand.

Dahlfia and I pushed our way closer through the people who were also moving toward the platform.

She got to the platform but found the flow of people coming down the stairs too much for her. She turned, put her hands on the platform, and effortlessly pulled herself up the five feet to it.

Her feet made almost no sound as she ran over to the fallen form, which I was now close enough to see. It was a man.

Dahlfia and I were very close now, and I watched this young woman kneel beside him and whisper something to him. He seemed to answer her, but I couldn’t hear what was being said.

She looked up to the limbs of a tree nearby, and I followed her gaze. I couldn’t see yet what she was looking at. She turned back to the man as a cardinal flew down from the tree and landed next to her on the platform.

Once again, she started speaking softly, and I still couldn’t hear with others talking throughout the staging area.

Then Dahlfia and I both went still at the same time and looked at each other.

Every Tylwyth Teg in the area stopped talking and walking and looked at the platform.

The humans stopped talking when they noticed we had stopped, and silence settled uneasily over the area.

I felt a strain in my heart, like something tugging on it. It caught my breath. The ground beneath my feet seemed to shift, but we did not move. Then my chest seemed to compress like air was being siphoned out of it.

Instantly, the pressure in my heart and lungs released.

I ran up the platform steps with Dahlfia right behind me, and I saw Kylah trailing her now.

We stepped up to the young woman, but she didn’t even look at us. The man next to her was dead, and the cardinal was now in her hands. Her gaze locked onto it.

> End Porta Cor imprint.<