CHAPTER 4
Anita entered the Observatory, still reeling from her latest encounter with Marcus, and still with absolutely no idea what to do. On the upside, her mood had improved considerably, and she managed a beaming smile to Bas and Patrick as she reached the top of the stairs. ‘Morning,’ she said, happily.
‘Morning,’ Patrick and Bas responded, in downbeat tones.
‘What’s up?’ asked Anita, immediately concerned. It was unlike these two to be so down in the dumps.
‘They’re about to make an announcement. Totally out of the blue and without any preparation,’ Bas replied, bitterly.
‘No,’ stammered Anita, ‘she hasn’t. Surely not this soon?’
‘Yep, dead,’ said Patrick, gloomily, but with the edge of something else in his voice; excitement maybe. ‘Found in her chamber a couple of days ago. Apparently passed away in her sleep.’ Anita knew why Patrick wasn’t entirely unhappy; the world was in the throes of the most significant energy event it had ever seen, and the three of them would have front row seats. Despite this, Anita couldn’t help but feel annoyed with Patrick. Surely excitement wasn’t the right emotion; trepidation or something similarly uneasy would have been more appropriate.
‘Well, that would explain why the Descendants disappeared over the last couple of days,’ said Anita, although she obviously kept to herself that she had seen Marcus. He hadn’t exactly seemed like he was in mourning.
‘They’re going to stand on the steps of the Body Temple and make an announcement, and broadcast it over the airwaves, so everyone knows. Just like that,’ said Patrick. Bas looked quite pale.
‘Are you alright, Bas?’ asked Anita. ‘You look a bit sick.’ Bas was usually so strong in a crisis.
‘Well, aside from the fact that we’re about to see an unprecedented fall in energy, and we have absolutely no idea what effect that will have on our entire world, I’m peachy, thanks.’
‘Right, I see. Fair point.’ Anita shot a questioning look to Patrick, who shrugged back in a way that said Bas had been like this all morning.
‘They’re about to start,’ said Patrick, looking at his watch and walking over to the radio receiver to make sure it was correctly tuned. ‘Here we go,’ he said, almost as though he was announcing the start of some kind of fairground ride, as a brusque yet buttery male voice cut across the room.
‘Citizens of the world. We have come here today, to the Temple of the Body, to announce a terrible tragedy.’ The voice paused pointedly for dramatic effect. Whoever it was speaking, Anita didn’t like him. ‘It is with deep regret that I have to inform you, that Christiana, Descendant of Georgiana, and ruler on earth for Tatiana, Goddess of the Body, has moved on from this world. She passed away peacefully in her sleep several nights ago. We have been making preparations for her funeral, which will take place here in Empire, in the Temple of the Body. Her funeral will take place one week from now. Peter, Descendant of Christiana, will succeed to the throne to rule on earth for Tatiana, Goddess of the Body. There will be a joint Chase, Crowning and ball for the succession of Alexander, Descendant of Anthony, and Peter, Descendant of Christiana. Christiana was a vibrant, skilful leader of the Temple of the Body, so in her honour, we should expect a competitive Chase and a lively ball. I, Austin, Descendant of Tobias, understand that this will be a difficult time, where we must mourn the loss of one great leader but celebrate the rise of two new ones. I would urge everyone, regardless of the Temple to which you belong, to embrace the ethos that Christiana would have wanted. This is a time to celebrate a new beginning. Christiana has gone to join the Gods, and may the Gods look down favourably upon us all.’
That was it. To the point, perfunctory, nothing superfluous to the very base of what was required from him. Nothing that might help reassure the people that there was still hope in the world, that the prophecy was still intact, that, of course, the Descendants were still battling on behalf of the people to free them from subjugation. Nothing.
In perfect unison with the close of Austin’s speech, every light on every dashboard started to flash. Bas yanked off his headset and threw it violently down on his chair as he stormed out of the room towards the roof.
‘Well I think this is an ‘I told you so’ moment, don’t you?’ said Patrick. It always amazed Anita how Patrick could be crass, even in the most dire of circumstances. Anita rolled her eyes, perhaps a little more leniently than she would normally, and followed Bas up to the roof. He was sitting on a pipe, staring out over Empire, and she walked slowly towards him. She paused for a moment, inches away, looking down to meet his cloudy eyes, before reaching out and pulling him towards her, his head pressing against her torso as he wrapped his arms tightly around her. He relaxed into her and she stroked the back of his head, the other hand on his back, trying to sooth the ridges she found there. The tension was beginning to leave Bas’ energy when he suddenly stood up, putting his hands on her hips to move her backwards, before, upright, his hard, strong body inches from hers, reversing the pressure and pulling her back towards him. His hands left her waist, moving to envelop her shoulders, pulling her into him. Anita responded without thinking and wrapped her long, lithe arms around his muscular form, lowering her head lightly into the crook of his neck. They stood there for several minutes, Bas softly caressing her back, Anita not quite sure how this had happened, but noticing that his energy wasn’t soaring in the way she would have expected. They pulled apart, Bas avoiding her eyes, wordlessly moving to the edge of the roof and sitting down, legs dangling over the side, staring out towards the Temples.
‘Well at least the view’s still good,’ said Anita, immediately wishing she hadn’t. She really needed to stop spending time with Patrick. Bas didn’t say a word, and Anita dropped down beside him, sitting close so that their shoulders were touching. They sat there in silence for an age before he said anything.
‘My family has run this Observatory for five generations,’ he started, quietly, guardedly. ‘You would think they might have learned to listen to us by now.’ Anita was going to respond but thought better of it, and instead waited for Bas to continue. ‘My father told them what would happen if they just came out with it, but Austin wouldn’t listen, and obviously he’s the only Descendant with any legitimate power at the moment.’ Bas paused again, struggling. Anita felt useless, desperately wanting to help, but with no idea how to. ‘We told him that we would see this. A sudden, dangerous drop, and then, who knows what, but it’s unlikely to bounce back like it did with Philip. People think it’s over. They think we’ll never be free from the Gods now, that we’ll be slaves forever. We’ve never seen anything like this, and we still don’t really understand the way the energy works. We could start to see any number of things happen.’ He paused, Anita sensing that they were about to get to the crux of Bas’ rambling. ‘We failed to stop it.’
The words hit Anita like a train, and her reaction was immediate. ‘What?’ she said, with such force it surprised even her, but Bas smirked and looked away. Anita shuffled around so she could see more of his face and put her hand on his arm. ‘You can’t be serious?’ she said gently. ‘You did everything you could. You stood up to Austin, and he doesn’t exactly sound like a bundle of joy, and we can still find a way to bring the energy back up.’
‘How are we going to do that?’ said Bas, as though Anita were a naïve child. ‘All gather round and politely ask the Gods if they would mind very much leaving us alone, so we can all live happily ever after?’
Anita was more than a little shocked. She had never seen Bas like this, and he had certainly never spoken to her like that. She dropped her hand back to her lap and turned back to face Empire, until finally, a logical argument popped into her head. ‘So, the energy didn’t start to fall until the announcement?’ Anita questioned.
‘Yep, it exactly coincided with the speech. You saw the dashboards,’ he said, pithily, taking a deep, loud breath like he was humouring her, b
ut she had better get to the point soon.
‘But Christiana died several days ago, Austin said so himself, in which case, it wasn’t Christiana’s actual death that sent the energy plummeting, but peoples’ reaction to the news.’ She was getting excited now. ‘Which means that there is at least a chance we could find a way to bring the energy levels back up. If we could find a way to make people believe that we can still get rid of the Gods, then we might not be headed for destruction.’ Bas wasn’t biting. ‘Come on Bas, you know I’m right. As you’ve suspected for some time, it’s not the actual events that cause energy fluctuations, but peoples’ emotional responses. It’s people that control the energy, which means there’s still a chance we can turn this around.’
‘Even if you’re right, you think Austin’s going to let us interfere? He’s dead against any intervention. He thinks we just need to accept the inevitable and get on with our lives.’
‘I didn’t say it would be easy,’ Anita replied, her tone reflecting the irritation she was starting to feel at Bas’ uncharacteristic negativity, ‘but I’m yet to find a challenge that I want to turn down, and I’m afraid this one is not going to be first on that list. So you can either help me, which would make my life a lot easier, seeing as you’re the energy expert, or wallow in your depression and help to pull the energy down further.’
Bas knew she was right. The more people that gave up, the worse it would be. He inhaled again, this time resigned. ‘Alright. Count me in,’ he said, rolling his eyes, but his energy betrayed him, and Anita threw him a victor’s smile. ‘You can be really annoying sometimes you know,’ he said, petulantly, hiding and fighting the involuntary upward turn of his lips.
‘Thanks. I’ll take that as a compliment,’ she grinned.