Twenty-six
Ghaedor awakened him sometime during the night. The
image of the creature squatted in usual fashion on the nearby desk,
looking as grotesque as ever, but not entirely unwelcomed. With Ghaedor
would come answers to his many questions.
"The female is, in a manner of speaking, who she
thinks she is, who you think she is," Ghaedor said in his grating
voice. "She is, unfortunately, more."
Answers to questions, except that each answer
generated a thousand new questions. Wallace glanced at Sasha huddled
beneath her blankets at his side, oblivious to the world. He rolled out
of bed and sat on the nearby couch.
"I have told you that two thousand years have
passed in the world beyond the portal between the time Maligoth stole your
people and their return to breed in your world. You believe that Maligoth
has returned Sasha to you, but Maligoth cannot resurrect the dead. He has
replicated the personality of the human female. He had that
information on record. But the physical being is
that of a Saur female. The Saur female has been physically modified by
Maligoth to serve as Sasha's physical replacement."
"But she's Sasha," Wallace said, puzzled that Ghaedor
would try to deny the obvious. Sasha was sleeping at his side.
"Perhaps, if memory defines identity. The memory
and personality of the female Saur native to the altered body has been
suppressed."
Wallace's eyes filled with tears. He didn't know
what Ghaedor was trying to tell him, but he had feared all along that
Sasha's return was too good to be true.
Ghaedor shifted restlessly from side to side.
"All is not lost. Despite the worlds and the centuries that separate your
peoples, the Saur, co-species of the Carn who invade your world, would be
allies of humans, given the opportunity. Therefore, the Guardians of the
Spectrum will reverse the deception Maligoth has inflicted upon you and
allow Maligoth to participate in his own defeat. The two personalities
contained within the one body will be forced to compromise and become
one. The body, too, will come to bear traits of the two species."
Wallace brushed his tears aside. "Please, just leave
her alone."
"The Saur share many physical and mental traits
with the human species upon which they were engineered, including sexual
functioning, at least in the initial stages of the reproductive cycle.
The nature of your relationship with the unfortunate female need not alter
drastically."
Wallace reached for a new digital clock with reach
and hurtled it through the space seemingly occupied by Ghaedor's head.
The clock shattered against the side of the portable television. "Leave Sasha alone! She's been through enough!"
Ghaedor looked around at the debris, then back at
Wallace. Wallace needed time to assimilate the bombshell Ghaedor had
dropped in his lap. He needed time to think. He needed to talk to
Melanie.
"I don't want Sasha to die," Wallace said, sobbing
uncontrollably. It was the one thing that truly mattered. "She's hardly
more than a kid."
Ghaedor rested on his haunches. "A sigh in the
winds of eternity. I, too, am saddened by the ephemerality of life."
And with that, Ghaedor vanished.
