2626-4-28, New Babylon, Partion IV

The café was quiet in the after-hours. A few patrons still sat in some of the booths, many of whom were worked on their holotabs, various drinks left forgotten on the table where they say. The sound of cars passing in the rain set a gentle backdrop to the cozy music that played over the sound system. The smell of pastries, coffee, and smoke intermingled with the occasional gust of wet air from the door as people realized the time and left. When the Father stopped talking, Maru looked up and found an attractive woman approaching the counter.

“Hey, I think I’m going to head out,” she said to the Father.

“I hope you aren’t pushing yourself too hard, Maria.” He took the mostly empty mug from her and smiled. Maru took a closer look at the woman. She had light bags under her eyes along with a few other signs of fatigue that would be easy to miss if one weren’t paying attention.

The Father stepped behind the desert holder reaching inside for the section of wrapped cakes. “The usual?”

“Mhm,” Maria said. “Lily would throw a fit if she found out I came here and didn’t pick up her favorite.”

“I imagine she’s quite the handful,” The Father said, laughing. He handed the cakes to Maru. “Ring her up, son. She gets the family discount.”

Maru nodded, placing his notebook in his back pocket. He went to do as he was told and caught Maria staring at him.

“That’ll be four eighty-two, ma’am,” he said bagging up the three cakes.

Maria thanked him, her eyes lingering on his for a moment, then she left. Maru stared after her in confusion, unsure what the strange moment had been about. Over the next hour, the rest of the customers slowly made their way out, each saying their goodbyes to the Father and glancing at Maru like he was some kind of anomaly.

He pondered their odd behavior as he watched the last individual, an older gentleman, leave the café. Despite the slow pace, the Father never resumed his tale as he had during the day when they hit a lull in service. Several seconds passed before the Father broke him out of his stupor with a pat on the back.

“You handled your first day well,” the Aspect said. He squeezed Maru’s shoulder good-naturedly. “Now, let’s clean and close up.”

***

Maru walked side by side with the Father down the sidewalk with sturdy umbrellas to shield them from the weather. Partion IV’s two moons shone brightly in the sky, somehow unimpeded by the heavy clouds releasing the steady downpour. While some might’ve found the night dreary, he couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the moonlight reflection on the rain-slicked streets.

They were headed toward the Father’s house which he claimed was a fifteen-minute walk from the café. Neither of them said anything for the first couple of blocks. Maru’s head still reeled from the day’s events and more importantly, what he had been told while the Father seemed deep in thought. Eventually, Maru couldn’t help himself from speaking up.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” he said over the rhythmic pitter-patter of the rain.

“Hm?” the Father responded with a raised eyebrow.

“What happened with Libbu…,” he trailed off, the awkwardness of the situation getting to him. He frowned internally scolding himself for opening his mouth at all.

“Ha! You’re too honest, you know that? Completely not cut out for espionage,” the Father said.

Maru’s eyes widened and his heart rate quickened. “Espionage? I’m—"

“Relax, kid,” the Father chuckled. “I’m just messing with you.”

The two crossed the street at a T-intersection and turned right. A minute of silence passed leaving Maru to appreciate the beauty of the Quiet Sector. In the distance, he spotted a few cruisers flying through the sky and it highlighted how uncluttered the sector was. Unlike most of New Babylon, very few tall structures blocked the skyline and the light pollution was so low that he caught sight of a few stars.

“I appreciate the thought,” the Father said following Maru’s gaze to look at the sky. “But that was a long time ago. Besides, you haven’t even heard the rest of the story yet.”

He perked up glancing at the Aspect. “Did you ever manage to bring her back?”

It was a complicated matter. Maru had no idea how one would go about reversing or circumventing what had happened to Libbu. He wasn’t sure if she actually counted as being dead in that state because astral beings couldn’t die as far as he knew. Some of the greatest minds from across the galaxy had researched the matter and come up with inconclusive results at best. If she was dead, that would complicate matters. Some Aspects had been rumored to have the power to resurrect the dead but there was much more misinformation about Aspects than actual truths. Still, the Father had dominion over souls and an innate tie to death so if anyone could do it, it would be him.

“Hm, who’s to say you haven’t already gotten the answer and don’t know it yet?”

His eyes widened, this time in revelation. He went over everything the Father had said to him today. His nearly-eidetic memory cycled through the day at a rapid pace from his arrival at the café to the current, from the Father’s retelling to their small interactions while serving customers. He combed his recollection like a machine but his mind ground to a halt when he glanced at the Father.

He looked far too amused watching him.

“Are… Are you messing with me again?” he asked, somewhat deflated.

The Aspect laughed for almost half a block.

***

The Father’s home was a squat building featuring the same Old-World architecture as the rest of the Quiet Sector. It had a modest front yard with a seemingly well-tended garden. Maru didn’t recognize most of the plants which meant they must’ve been non-native to the planet.

The interior had the same cozy feeling as the café. A modest foyer with an accent table and a potted plant that smelled of sunshine gave way to the living room filled with cushy furniture and physical books, a rare sight in the age of holotabs and integrated cerebral implants. The only thing out of place was the vidscreen set into the wall which looked to be a more advanced model than the ones on the market at the moment.

All in all, it wasn’t even close to what one would expect from the abode of a god-like being.

They dropped their umbrellas in a holder by the entrance and the Father stepped deeper into the house. He called out, “I’m home! We also have a guest.”

No response came but the sound of rain against the glass window panes.

“She must’ve gone to bed early.” The Father shook his head, his lips pulling into a slight smirk. “Ah well, you’ll meet her in the morning.”

“Who is she?” Maru asked. wondering what kind of individual lived with the Aspect.

“My daughter,” the entity responded pulling a hanger out of the closet to hang his suit jacket up. He tossed one to Maru who nearly dropped it.

“D-daughter? As in biological?”

“No, adopted,” the Father said. His expression became somber. “Her parents worked for me but met their end when she was barely old enough to walk. I took her in and raised her as my own.”

A moment of silence passed between the two.

“Does she… know about you?” Maru asked.

During the day, he had tried to ascertain the extent to which people knew about the Father from the café patrons, however, the majority seemed none the wiser treating the Aspect like a normal person. He had to resist asking for fear of being rude or worse, potentially ruining any cover the Father had. As far as Maru knew, everyone on Partion IV knew that the Aspect lived somewhere on the planet but that didn’t mean most people knew his identity or exact location, although the Quiet Sector was one of the majorly suspected areas by the masses. The Brotherhood had employed substantial resources and pulled on several connections just to locate the Father and obtain the means for Maru to make contact.

It didn’t help that the Father employed some sort of noise suppression technique while he had told his story. The sorcery had been so subtle that Maru didn’t notice it until halfway through the day during rush hour. By then, it was pretty blatant that the numerous people seated in the café showed no reaction to the treasure trove of information being disclosed by the Father.

“Hm… Somewhat,” the Father said. “Like everyone in the Quiet Sector, she has some idea of my power but thinks I’m some kind of emissary rather than the real deal. Even then, it’s an unspoken rule here to keep things discreet. Peace and quiet are rare commodities in today’s society after all.”

He winked and walked away.

Maru followed him into a beautiful kitchen with granite countertops and an old-fashioned brick oven. He sat at the table while the Aspect rummaged through the cabinets. On the stovetop, a large pot exuded the savory smell of some sort of stew.

“You’re in luck, son. Her chili is to die for. I bet you’re hungry after your first day on the job,” the Father said as he retrieved a couple of bowls and some silverware from a drawer near the stove.

Nodding, the Brotherhood hopeful found himself zoning out. The day had thrown his world for a loop more than once from the loss of his ironclad control over his emotions to the Father’s incredible recounting of his early years. He turned the new information over in his head several times in an attempt to wrap his head around it all.

Libbu— according to the Father, she was the mother of sorcery. It’d been one of the great mysteries of the Old World. Why did mankind have such a high aptitude for mana? How did the Old World become a Divergent Source, a physical object capable of producing mana independent of the Astral? He had been given the answers to these long-unsolved mysteries. If he desired, he could obtain an unbelievable amount of wealth and prestige with just some of what he had learned. Not that the thought of following through with such an incredible idiotic course of action ever crossed his mind.

He couldn’t guess why the Father had decided to share his story with him of all people but he wouldn’t squander the opportunity. Already, the Father had mentioned his early stages of cultivation and his advancement in the mastery of mana. If Maru could glean even a fraction of that knowledge, shallow concerns like wealth and prestige wouldn’t be an issue.

They ate in silence for a time with Maru reading through the notes he’d taken in his notebook and the Father swiping through the news feed on a holotab. However, as Maru compiled a list of topics in need of clarification, he stopped.

“So… did your disappearance from the Physical start after the events with Libbu?” He asked. “I know it was sort of implied but I wanted to be sure for my notes and the Brotherhood has records contain a few points of contact with you in the Physical after that. For instance, one of our most well-known brothers, King Solomon rose to power several hundred years later and he detailed two in-person meetings with you.”

“Ah, my apologies for not being clear about that,” the Father said tapping the holotab screen which immediately went dark. “Libbu’s ‘death’ was, ultimately, the reason for my eventual disappearance but I didn’t truly abandon my interests on the Physical until much later.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, Father,” he said, turning to a new page in his notebook. “What did you do in the period between Libbu’s ritual and the true start of your disappearance? Did incorporating Libbu’s core structures into your astral body change you?”

“Hoo boy did it!” The Father laughed slapping the hard tabletop. “But not exactly in a good way. I turned into a bit of a menace in the millennium that followed.”

“What do you mean?” Maru asked, brow furrowed.

“Well,” the Aspect sighed. “Love is a tricky thing and after not only recognizing its presence within myself but also taking in Libbu’s core structures, I didn’t handle it very well. Rather than becoming a loving guardian of man, I became obsessed with death and reversing it. I created monsters by pushing my fleshcraft to its limits, delved into ritual formations in search of answers, brought innocent mortals to the brink of death over and over again to study the reactions of their bodies and souls, and so much else. I can’t say I’m proud of it but I wouldn’t be who I am today without those dark times.”

As he had throughout the day, Maru schooled his expression to be impassive. Many of the things he’d heard from the Father had been hard to swallow or had evoked a sense of unease and disgust. He got through it well enough by reminding himself that no matter how human the entity in front of him seemed, he was a being far beyond mortal ken. He took a deep breath to put his mind back on task.

“So, what happened during those dark times?” he asked.

The Father waved his hand dismissively. “I wouldn’t worry yourself over my activities up until my disappearance from the Physical. While important to my growth, it’s about as interesting as an experimental physicist recounting his hours parsing through data points.”

Maru scowled. He highly doubted that that was an appropriate analogy but even if it was… he had enjoyed his lessons in physics at the Brotherhood. Thankfully, his disappointment didn’t last long.

“No, the interesting part comes from what I did after my disappearance and how I ended up rejoining the world of man.”

Maru had to fight to keep his heart rate from racing. “Do you mean…?”

“Mhm,” the Father answered with a wide smile. “It’s not too late so how about I tell you how I came to awaken during the period that would come to be known as the Great Trial.”