Chapter 12
Rise of the Enemy
“Hang on just a sec’, Jared.” Ferran did something on the chair-side computer. “Paul and Danielle are already awake. The memory sharing is initiating.”
As scenes began to flash before Jared’s eyes, like watching a movie in extreme fast forward, he realized that he was seeing Paul’s and Danielle’s memories.
When it was over, he had a vivid recollection of everything they had seen: Paul seeing Dreggan’s banishment in the Council room; Paul’s parents losing him while trying to get away from Dreggan in the circuit; and Danielle’s parents conspiring with Dreggan to steal the MSIs and the decoder, which led to her being taken from her parents by Jared’s parents.
Jared sat up. “Ferran, was that the memory transfer?”
Ferran raised his eyebrows and smiled. “Yeah. Pretty neat, huh?”
“So, they saw my memories, too?” Jared pointed to his two friends. He wasn’t sure if the embarrassment he felt was because they saw his memories or because he saw his friends’ memories.
“That’s right.” Ferran nodded.
Jared looked over at Danielle and Paul. They were both sitting up, but Danielle was looking down and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
Is she crying? Jared wondered.
Ferran walked over to Danielle and put a hand on her shoulder. “Are you alright, Danielle?”
Danielle jerked away from Ferran. “My parents were traitors!” She buried her face in her hands. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
Ferran stood up straighter. “We thought it would be better for you to find out for yourself.”
Danielle looked up and, furrowing her brow, asked with obvious agitation, “Was it also better for me to find out for myself that my parents weren’t really dead?” Danielle raised her voice more. “And even if you did want me to find out on my own, that doesn’t give you, Prienna, or Manasto, the head of the Council, the right to lie about it!”
“What do you mean? When did Manasto lie to you?” Ferran folded his arms.
“What do I mean?” She took a deep breath before continuing. “Manasto said Dreggan killed our parents. Or, was he not talking to me at the time?”
Jared could tell Danielle was trying very hard to contain her anger. Her jaw was clenched, she was breathing hard through her nose, and tears were welling up in her eyes.
Ferran thought for a moment. “As I recall—”
“You were in the Council room?” Jared was sure he hadn’t seen Ferran in the Council room.
“No,” Ferran shook his head, “but I was listening in.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, Manasto said that regardless of what you heard about your parents’ deaths, Dreggan was responsible, not that he killed them.
“No. What he was referring to was that, because of Dreggan, it was necessary to lead you all to believe your parents were killed in car accidents.
“Now, I can understand that misleading you makes you feel like we were being cruel to you, but keeping you ignorant seemed like the only way to keep you safe. So, the Council decided that the best time to tell you the truth would be when you were old enough to be trained—old enough to understand the truth and do something about it.
“Of course, Danielle, although you found out that your parents joined Dreggan, we believe they are dead.”
“What makes you think that?” Danielle scowled.
“A reliable source told us that Dreggan killed them for their failure to get the MSIs. And, even if that weren’t true, when your parents joined Dreggan, they became dominated by his evil influences—a death worse than death itself.”
Danielle closed her eyes and took a deep breath. As she exhaled, she lowered her head in defeat.
After a few moments, she shook her bowed head and sniffled. “What if I end up like my parents?”
“The fact that you don’t want to follow in your parents’ footsteps should show you that you already have an advantage.” Ferran was apparently trying to make her feel better. “You don’t have to be like your parents. The training you receive will help you do great and wonderful things.”
Ferran looked around at the youths. “If the three of you succeed in finishing your parents’ work, you’ll be able to put an end to Dreggan’s more-than-ten-year dominance, which has threatened to destroy all that Teruvisa stands for.”
Ferran walked over to Paul. Jared then noticed how intently Paul had been staring at Ferran. Paul’s brow was furrowed as he surveyed the Master.
“Do you have a question, Paul?” Ferran asked. “Go ahead. Ask it.”
Paul snapped out of his trance. “I... uh... saw my father... during that memory thing.”
“The HST,” Ferran said.
“Yeah. The HST. Anyway, he looked a lot like...” Paul swallowed, “well, you.”
When Paul mentioned that, Jared remembered that he had noticed the same thing during the memory exchange, but it had happened so fast that he didn’t have time to dwell on it.
Ferran pulled Paul off the chair and embraced him. “That’s because I’m your father.”
Jared blinked hard at the unexpected announcement.
Paul pulled away. “You’re my father? Why did you change your name to Ferran? You’ve been alive this whole time, and you and Mom didn’t try to find me? And, where is she—my mom?” He looked around like he was expecting her to suddenly appear in the room.
“She’s not here right now. But, I know she’s anxious to see you.” Ferran stepped back. “Now, to answer your first question, my name was changed when I became a Master. That’s one of our traditions.”
Ferran had confirmed Jared’s hypothesis about why his parents had referred to each other as Meya and Amron later on during his HST. They had become Masters sometime after the Divide was made and prior to the abandonment of Teruvisa. He felt pride, knowing that his parents had achieved such a high ranking.
“As for how come we’re still alive... think back to when we jumped out of the shuttle to get away from Dreggan and were running along the bottom of the circuit. I had just opened the service door, and one of Dreggan’s men shot at us.
“I was able to make a shield bubble, but it wasn’t strong enough to withstand the impact. The bubble burst, we were thrown back several feet, and the jolt knocked you out of your mother’s arms.
“The door closed before we could get back to you, but we knew you’d be safer in the service corridor than in the circuit. That’s why we left you there.
“Also, since Dorn would find you, we knew he could return you to us once we had safely escaped. Obviously, that’s not what happened, though.
“But more about that later. First, let me tell you how we escaped from Dreggan and his guards. We used grappling hook darts to catch a ride on a shuttle passing by overhead. Then, a split second before that shuttle was blown up, we swung into an open shuttle bay.
“Dreggan must have thought we died in the explosion because he didn’t keep chasing us. That would prove to be an advantage later on, too. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.
“So, after our escape, even though we were glad that we had gotten away and that you were safe, I was ashamed of myself for allowing Dreggan to get a hold of sensitive information about the system enhancements. Of course, we found out later that I wasn’t really to blame—the leaks had come from somewhere else.”
Danielle interrupted. “You mean my parents, don’t you?” She folded her arms and frowned, then looked down and said quietly, “It’s okay. You can say it.”
Ferran cleared his throat. “Yes, Danielle’s parents were the ones leaking information to Dreggan, but, at that time, we didn’t know it.
“Anyway, I was afraid to tell Manasto and Verissa that I was to blame for leaking information about the Council meeting to banish Dreggan and about the implantation being moved up, but I had to tell them, even before we got you, Paul, from Dorn.
“The Council needed to know what Dreggan had found out, despite my part in i
t. I was willing to accept any punishment they felt would be necessary, so I contacted Verissa.
“After I told her what had happened, she told us about Darren’s and Jenna’s involvement with Dreggan. Then, she told us to go to our quarters and stay there until Manasto contacted us.
“We did ask about you, Paul—if you were alright. She said that you were fine and that she would probably have Dorn bring you to us after Manasto met with us. So, we waited.
“When Manasto finally did visit us, he told us that, since Dreggan thought we—your mom and I—were dead, we should go into hiding on Earth. He told us to wait down here,” Ferran pointed at the ground, “in this underground library, which is a storage place for backups of the system files of Teruvisa, for further instructions. We asked if we could take you with us, Paul, but Manasto said they needed to leave you in Teruvisa to do the implantation.”
Paul looked down. “And, you left without me. Why didn’t you put up a fight?”
“No, it wasn’t like that at all. Leaving you was the hardest decision we’d ever had to make. We argued with Manasto for a long time to try to get him to reconsider. We told him that, even if we had you on Earth, we could take you to Teruvisa for the implantation and then bring you back to Earth afterward, but he wouldn’t agree to that.
“He finally told us that he also had a dangerous mission for us, and that was another reason why we needed to go to Earth without you. He wanted us to figure out a way to infiltrate Obalin from Earth and gather information to help recover—or to recover by ourselves—the decoder.”
Paul looked up with wide eyes. “Like spies?”
“No, not like spies.” Ferran placed a hand on Paul’s shoulder briefly. “We were spies.”
Paul smiled, obviously pleased that his parents were spies, and Jared had to admit to himself that he was a little jealous that his parents weren’t spies—being spies sounded glamorous and exciting.
Paul nodded slowly. “Well, I guess I can understand why you couldn’t take me, then.” His facial expression changed to one of curiosity and uneasiness. “But, why didn’t you come get me later? Have you been in Obalin for the past 12 years?”
“No. We were only there for about a month. We hid in the sublevel of Obalin and tried to locate the decoder by hacking into the mainframe and searching for connections to it.” Ferran frowned. “However, we were unsuccessful. But,” he held up a finger, “Manasto had us return to Earth because of some different information we found out.”
“So... how about after that?” Paul was being persistent. He was obviously not going to let Ferran off easy.
Paul was going to make Ferran account for every moment of his life since he and his wife left Paul in Teruvisa. Also, Paul was probably trying to do the same thing Jared was—find any holes in Ferran’s story.
“We still couldn’t keep you with us on Earth. The fighting was very bad during the rebellion, and communications with Teruvisa were brief and few in number due to the risk of being traced. Second of all, they still hadn’t had a chance to do the implantation. It wasn’t a simple surgery, after all. And, trying to spare the two remaining heads of security to oversee the operation, with the awful state the Teruvisan systems were in, was not possible at the time.”
Jared felt some pride knowing that his parents had been so important.
Ferran scratched his chin and then added, “In fact, it had been about a year and a half before Manasto was able to come up with a way to distract Dreggan and his army long enough to have the implantation done.”
Jared wanted to know what the distraction was. “What was it? What did he do?”
“I don’t know all the details, but he flooded part of Obalin with raguam.” Ferran smiled. “I don’t know how he did it, but like I said, communications were very limited after the rebellion started. Anyway, the raguam kept Dreggan and his followers busy for a while.”
“I still don’t understand why I couldn’t be with you. Once your mission in Obalin was done, and the implantation was done, after everyone abandoned Teruvisa, and all the years since then, you still didn’t come for me.” Paul was almost in tears. “Did you forget about me?”
“No, no, no. We never forgot about you. We thought about you all the time. I’m so sorry you couldn’t be with us. It was hard for us, too.” Ferran grabbed Paul by both shoulders.
Jared could tell Ferran was holding back tears.
After looking hard at Paul for a couple of seconds, Ferran took a deep breath and stood up straighter, letting his arms fall down to his sides before reaching out to Paul but not quite touching him. “Let me try to explain, though I know that no excuse will make it better. Just know that we were doing what we thought was best, and as it turned out, we were right because you’re here now, ready to finish what we started. What’s happening now is the important thing, right?”
Paul nodded slowly.
Ferran continued. “Remember how I said that we weren’t able to find the decoder but got some other information? Well, as it turned out, while your mother and I were in Obalin, we found out that Dreggan had plans to try to find the location of the backup archives on Earth so that he could use the connection between the backup archives and Teruvisa to overload Teruvisa’s system and cause a total crash. Then, he was going to destroy the backups. Teruvisa wouldn’t have stood a chance of regaining its power if that happened.
“So, the connection between Teruvisa and this backup archive was severed, and your mother and I were charged with guarding the backups of the system files. Despite the sadness we felt, knowing that we wouldn’t be able to go to Teruvisa, get you, and come back here to Earth, we knew that this was a very important mission.
“We had to make the sacrifice to save Teruvisa. We wanted to be with you throughout your childhood to see you grow up, but Teruvisa could have been destroyed if we had been selfish.” As Ferran spoke, grimacing and clenching a fist, he seemed to be reliving the agony of the decision he had to make those many years ago. “No, we couldn’t be selfish—though we wanted to be.”
“It’s alright. I understand.” Paul hugged his dad, and Ferran, relaxing noticeably, hugged Paul back. They held the embrace for a while. “You did the right thing.”
Ferran wiped away some tears with the back of his hand as the two separated. “Thank you, Paul. You’ve shown more forgiveness than I ever imagined.”
At that moment, Jared realized that he had been able to see Ferran almost everyday in junior high this past semester. So, why couldn’t Paul? “Ferran.”
Ferran turned to face Jared. “Yes?”
Jared had to be careful how he worded his question so that he didn’t offend Paul or accuse Ferran of something. “You explained why you weren’t allowed to ever contact Paul, and it all makes sense. However, I was wondering why you were allowed to be my teacher. If you could see me, why not Paul?”
Ferran didn’t look upset by the question. Jared also noticed that Paul seemed anxious to hear Ferran’s response.
Ferran cleared his throat. “That’s a good question. Well... this is what I was told. Amron and Meya were going to keep you three in the same house, but, after their deaths, it was determined that it would be a good idea to split you up.
“So, Paul went to live with my brother, Dan, in Mexico. Of course, Dorn watched over you, Paul. Prienna, who already had a house in Ohio, took Danielle to live with her. And, Hilcar raised Jared in their house.
“Also, Jared, even though our houses are in the same city, they aren’t terribly close. So, there was probably no way we would run into each other, especially since I never left the library or the house until a few months ago. That’s when I started teaching at your junior high.”
Jared remembered Ferran—or rather Mr. Hobson—on his first day, say that he had transferred from another school. “So, why did the Council let you start teaching at my school, where we were sure to see each other?”
Ferran said, “They didn’t let me. They told me to.”
“Huh.
” Jared was surprised. “So, being my science teacher wasn’t a coincidence.”
Ferran nodded. “That’s right. We knew the time was drawing close for your training to begin, and, since I was close by, I was told to go teach at your school and be your science teacher. I was to watch for the sign.”
Jared realized what Ferran was referring to. “Right. The hand symbol.”
“Exactly.” Ferran pointed at Jared.
“Okay...” Jared still had one question about Ferran needing to be his teacher, “but if Grandpa saw me every day, why did you have to be around, waiting to see the sign, too?”
“In case you saw the sign at school first, I could notify Hilcar immediately. And, remember that Beast in your room?” Ferran raised an eyebrow at Jared.
Jared nodded.
“Well, I was around in case you needed protection from something like that at school.”
Jared realized, But, Danielle and Paul didn’t see any visions. “So, everyone knew I’d see the hand symbol and not Danielle or Paul?” He wondered what was different about him.
Ferran nodded. “Yeah, that’s right. But, I never found out exactly why it was you who would see the sign. Honestly, communications were short so that they couldn’t be traced, and I didn’t think it was important enough to ask about.” He shrugged. “Maybe it had to do with the order the MSIs were implanted or something.” He looked at Jared. “Maybe your microchip was implanted first.”
Thinking back to when he was in the Council room, Jared realized that Manasto could have answered that question if he would have thought to ask it. Oh well. Jared figured he would just have to ask Manasto or someone else later about why he was the one who saw the hand vision.
Ferran added. “In fact, the only communications we’ve had in the past 10 years were right after Teruvisa was abandoned, a few months ago, and yesterday. In the first, we were told that Amron and Meya were killed after the shutdown, and you three would have guardians watching out for you on Earth. In the second one, I was told to start teaching at Jared’s school. And, in the one yesterday, we were told to re-establish a connection to Teruvisa and to upload the system files. Also, in that last communication, Tiersda and I were told that we would help train you in Diestro.”
“Tiersda?” Paul asked. “I thought Mom was helping you.”
“Yes, that’s right. Tiersda is your mother, Paul.” Ferran looked at Paul and smiled. “Surprise.” He held his arms out wide.
Paul’s jaw dropped.
Jared was also shocked to hear that. Paul’s mother was the other Master who would train them.
Ferran nodded. “Yeah. You heard me right.”
“Well, where is she?” Paul was obviously excited.
Ferran smiled. “I was getting to that. Patience. I know you’re anxious to meet her. You’re mom’s very anxious to see you, too. But, you won’t get to see her until after you train with me and Rohlwig. She’s away, preparing a secure location to use for her part of your training.
“Even I haven’t contacted her. We thought it would be wise for us to only have contact if it was an emergency.”
Seeing Paul get reunited with his dad (and not to mention that he would soon be reunited with his mom) made Jared heavy-hearted. He wished he could be reunited with his parents.
Ferran waited, looking around at Jared, Danielle, and Paul, and then asked with a smile, “Anything else I can answer for you?”
Not wanting to dwell on thoughts of his parents, Jared asked, half-joking, “So, what else, besides teaching, have you been doing?”
“Well...” Ferran thought for a second, “not only did we guard the backups, but we made modifications to them.”
“Like the HST,” Paul said.
“Yes,” Ferran confirmed. “That was an important one, alright. We knew it would be a beneficial way to start your training. But, we also made other modifications to the backup files because we were told, after the implantation, that Teruvisa was going to be shut down and abandoned.
“So, we needed to try to get the Teruvisan systems running better and be ready to upload and restore them when the time came to return to Teruvisa—a difficult task without being able to connect to Teruvisa to do testing.”
Ferran waved his hand, signaling the youths to follow him. “Come on. Time to show you where you’ll be staying.”
Jared and the others followed Ferran through the library to the elevator—the one through which they had entered the secret underground archive. Once inside, Ferran touched the wall near the door. A piece of the wall slid open, revealing a panel of buttons. When he pushed one of those buttons, the doors shut, and then the elevator went up.
After the elevator stopped and the doors opened, Jared stepped out into a hallway of Ferran’s house. To the right, at the end of the hall, which had tan carpet and white walls, there were four doors. To the left, there were stairs leading down to an entryway and a living room.
Ferran pointed to each of the doors to the right, in turn, as he said, “That’s my room. That one’s for the boys. That one’s for you, Danielle. And, that’s the bathroom. By the way, you’ll find some clothes and other miscellaneous items for each of you in your rooms and the bathroom.” He pointed to the left. “Also, downstairs and through the living room is the kitchen. What do you say we get something to eat?”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Follow me, then.” Ferran led them downstairs and through the living room, which had two couches and a recliner. The only other furniture was a small bookshelf full of books.
As they entered the kitchen, Ferran pointed to a rectangular wooden table with six chairs around it. “Have a seat. Dinner’s ready.”
The table was already set for four people. Jared, Danielle, and Paul sat down, then Ferran. Jared looked at his plate and then at the other plates. On each was a small, red cube of a gelatin-like substance.
Ferran scooted his chair up closer to the table. “I hope you like it.”
Jared was, to say the least, disappointed with the small snack. After all, he was very hungry and had been expecting something more substantial to eat.
He didn’t want to be rude but had to ask, “Is this all we get?”
Ferran raised an eyebrow and then smiled. He smacked his forehead with the base of his palm. “How stupid of me. Sorry. I totally forgot. You’ve never eaten insta-food before. Just poke it with your fork like this.”
He stabbed his gelatinous substance with his fork. Instantly, a steaming plateful of steak, mashed potatoes, and green beans appeared. The gelatin was gone.
Jared and the others stabbed their red cubes with their forks. Jared’s eyes bulged, and his mouth watered when he saw the scrumptious steak dinner on his plate. The smell of a hot, delicious meal filled the air. Ferran chuckled as his guests began feasting.
During the course of the meal, Paul asked Ferran, “So, how did you—how did anyone for that matter—learn about Teruvisa?”
“Me? Well, I was born there, and I can trace my lineage back to the Founding Masters. However, I knew many who had been recruited or who had ancestors that were recruited.”
Paul interrupted with, “Who were the Founding Masters?”
Jared was just about to ask the same thing. We often seem to be wondering about the same things—like we have some kind of mental connection. He conceded that he and Paul might be more alike than he originally thought. And, as he thought about it, he did feel a certain attachment to Paul—like they had been friends for a long time.
Ferran scratched his chin. “Perhaps a history lesson is in order. How about if I fill you in on some of Teruvisa’s past?”
Paul, Danielle, and Jared nodded as they chewed. Jared was interested to hear about Teruvisa. Through the HST, he had only seen small fragments of Teruvisa’s past, and only the things during the short time Jared was there.
“Okay.” Ferran put down his utensils and leaned back in his chair. He tapped a finger on his cheek a few times. “Hmm... where should I
start...? Well, I suppose... in the beginning. Alright.
“So, in the beginning, the Founding Masters, Archemel and Terimova—the most powerful users of technology ever—established Teruvisa. After a while, they started looking for other people, who they thought would be good candidates, and trained them how to use Diestro.”
“What about Dreggan?” Paul asked.
“Dreggan...?” Ferran thought for a moment. “I’ll get to him. Don’t worry. Anyway, almost two centuries later, during the height of Teruvisa’s growth, there was a lot of recruiting being done. By the time I was made one of the heads of security, our numbers had been growing rapidly.
“However, not everyone embraced our growth. Some members of high standing in the Council, for some reason—probably for fear of losing their positions to promising newcomers—began to oppose the expansion. But, for the most part, those individuals remained passive, and we kept recruiting heavily.
“Okay. Now, this is where Dreggan comes into the picture—of course his name was Isaac back then. Anyway, Dreggan became quite outspoken about the dangers of our growth. He would gladly voice his opinions about it to anyone who would listen.”
“He was against the growth?” Jared asked. “But, he wasn’t on the Council. Why was he against it?”
Ferran picked up his fork and tapped it on the table a few times and appeared to be thinking. “I’m not sure. He did have lots of friends on the Council that didn’t like the expansion, though. He probably wanted to remain friends with them.
“But, shortly after we started developing the new technology and systems for Teruvisa, he found out about it—probably from one of his contacts on the Council—and began promoting our research and development heavily to anyone who would listen, saying how beneficial the new technology would be.”
Paul asked, “Do you know why he changed his mind?”
Ferran leaned back into his chair and looked up before answering. “Well, at the time, it seemed strange that he was so excited about the ideas we had, especially since he had previously expressed his opposition to any kind of change or growth. But now, we know why. He wanted to become the supreme ruler of Teruvisa and control everyone.
“And, his enthusiasm for the project got him an influential position to help him accomplish his goals of domination—as one of the heads of security, he had access to whatever information he needed.” As an afterthought, he added, “Apparently, he hadn’t lost too many friends on the Council if he was able to get that job.”
“Oh.” Paul sat up straighter. “I remember Mom mentioning, during the HST, that he had been one of the heads of security—at least until he got fired.”
Ferran pointed at Paul. “That’s right. But, it took a while for us to realize what Dreggan was up to—why he was so interested in supporting the new system enhancements.
“When he first presented some of his ideas about how to make the new technology work better, Dreggan painted a world where chaos ruled and how everything we had worked for would be lost. He successfully convinced many prominent Council members that, if we were going to increase our numbers, Teruvisa needed a way to control the masses better. And, implementing his modifications to the original designs for the new systems was the way to accomplish that.”
“And, people went along with that?” Paul sounded almost rhetorical.
Ferran raised his eyebrows and one corner of his mouth and shrugged slightly, indicating that that’s just the way it was—like it or not. “He was very persuasive and made many promises.” He raised a finger. “But... later on, many Council members heard rumors about him saying that he would never make good on those promises.”
From what Jared had observed, Dreggan did seem like a liar. “What kind of promises?”
Ferran leaned forward. “Well, there were whisperings of how Dreggan promised to give positions of control to certain Council members in his new government. He claimed that the leaders wouldn’t be the ones being controlled—they would be the ones doing the controlling. That kind of power could be very tempting.
“But fortunately, Manasto, Verissa, and several other Council members were able to convince a majority of the Council to have Dreggan removed from the security team because of his controversial labors. He was ordered to destroy any records, equipment, and programming dealing with his version of the new systems.
“Of course, Dreggan didn’t give up easily. He tried to overturn the decision. He argued that putting him on the project team and then removing him from it was a conspiracy to steal his ideas, take credit for the work he did, and leave him with nothing. Ultimately, he was removed as a head of security, and guards watched him destroy all his work and the backups—at least they thought he had destroyed everything.”
“So, he didn’t just start over.” Jared realized that Dreggan must have been either very resourceful or well-connected to hide is work from the Council. “He must’ve had hidden copies of his programming somewhere.”
“That’s correct,” Ferran confirmed. “He was able to retrieve those records and continue his project. Also, even though the majority of the Council had him removed from his position, unfortunately, many still believed that his work was important. Consequently, some Council members (we suppose that’s who helped him) secretly provided him with supplies to build new equipment and keep developing his own systems with the modifications he wanted.
“Somehow, his work was able to go undetected for a long time. He would still talk about his ideas openly, but it could never be proven that he was doing the things he was talking about—that is until Manasto discovered that Dreggan had continued his work in secret. And, as you saw during the HST, he was banished.”
Paul added, “And, that’s when he escaped, and the rebellion began.”
“Yep.” Ferran leaned back and folded his arms across his chest. “And, the irony of this whole thing—the great flaw in his plan—is that Dreggan insisted that, without his version of the new technology, Teruvisa would be lost—destroyed.
“In reality, what Dreggan either failed to understand or had chosen to ignore was that, if he were to take away the freedom for us to think and act for ourselves, there would have been no more power in Diestro—our technology would’ve fallen into chaos and become worthless.
“Sure, he would’ve ruled over everyone, but Teruvisa would’ve never achieved ultimate glory. Dreggan said he was concerned with security, but I have a feeling that all he wanted was power.”
Ferran looked at his watch. “Well, it’s getting late. You can stay up a while longer if you’d like, but I’m going upstairs to my room. However, if you do stay up, please, don’t leave the house.” He looked each one of the youths in the eye. “Okay?”
Jared could tell Ferran was serious, so he nodded.
Paul yawned. “I’m beat. I think I’ll just go to bed.”
“Yeah, me too,” Jared agreed with a yawn. “And by the way, thanks for filling us in on some of Teruvisa’s history, Ferran. A lot of what I saw from the HST makes more sense to me now—not to mention, why our mission is so important.”
Paul nodded. “Yeah.”
“No problem. That’s why I’m here.” Ferran smiled, stood up, and then said, “Oh, and just leave the dishes; they’ll clean themselves up.”
Danielle, who had picked up her plate, said, “Oh,” as if her mind was somewhere else and then placed the dish back down on the table.
Suddenly, all the dishes on the table disappeared. Jared blinked hard several times to make sure he wasn’t imagining things. Danielle, on the other hand, didn’t seem interested or impressed.
Ever since they came up from the underground library, Danielle hadn’t said more than two words to anyone. Jared didn’t want to say anything to her about it though because she was probably depressed about her parents. Jared knew he would be if he had found out that his parents were traitors.
Paul closed the door after he and Jared entered their bedroom. “I can’t believe my parents are alive.” He looked a
t Jared, bright-eyed and obviously overjoyed.
Jared sat down on one of the twin beds. “Yeah. Pretty amazing.” He wasn’t trying to sound convincing, though.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.” Paul sat down on the other bed.
“Yeah, I know. Don’t worry about it. I’m just tired.” Jared lay down on his pillow with his fingers clasped behind his head. He knew Paul wasn’t trying to rub the fact that his parents were still alive in Jared’s face. He knew that Paul was just excited to have his parents back.
Jared stared up at the ceiling, trying to remember as much about his parents as he could from the HST. They sure were great.
Paul interrupted Jared’s daydream. “Danielle seemed really upset about finding out about her parents. I don’t know how I would feel if I found out that my parents were working for Dreggan.”
Jared relaxed more as he took a deep breath and exhaled. “Me neither.” He rolled over onto his side, and then closed his eyes, wondering if his dream would be different again.