Chapter 18 Syssi
SYSSI
Syssi entered Allegra's room as stealthily as possible and lowered herself onto the carpet while glancing at the crib.
Her daughter didn't stir. She lay on her back, arms flung wide, lips slightly parted, her eyelashes fluttering gently with the quiet motion of her dreams.
Thankfully, Allegra was a sound sleeper, and she wouldn't wake up for at least another hour.
Syssi needed the amplification her daughter lent to her visions.
She didn't understand the mechanism, but the results were consistent.
Visions summoned near Allegra came through clearer, stronger, and more detailed.
Syssi crossed her legs and settled her hands on her knees. The baby monitor sat on the dresser, its small red light blinking steadily. Kian was in their bedroom, watching the feed, ready to intervene if something went wrong.
She closed her eyes and began the process of emptying her mind.
Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out.
The familiar meditation technique had taken years to master. Quieting the endless chatter of thoughts, the to-do lists, the various worries, and all the things that demanded her attention.
All of it had to go silent before she could open a portal for the universe or the Fates to speak to her.
Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. Please show me how to find Khiann.
The room faded. The soft sounds of the house grew distant, then disappeared entirely.
Darkness. Stillness. Waiting for the request to float into the void, a message in a bottle cast into an infinite sea. Her call was almost always answered, but her questions were often ignored, and she was given a vision of something else that the powers that be wanted her to see.
For a long moment, nothing happened.
Then it began.
It came slowly, gently, like dawn light creeping across a landscape. Colors bled into the darkness, but they were sterile white and clinical gray, the cold gleam of metal and glass.
A laboratory materialized around her.
Syssi hovered above the center of it, invisible, incorporeal, a ghost observing a world that couldn't see her. Equipment lined the walls—centrifuges, spectrometers, and other devices that served chemists.
A young man was working at one of the stations. He had his back to her, but from his posture and the full head of hair, she guessed he was in his late twenties, maybe early thirties. It fell across his forehead as he bent over a microscope.
The door opened, and Syssi's perspective pivoted to face it.
Eight men in uniforms walked in.
They moved in perfect unison, each step synchronized, each head turn identical. Eight bodies operated by a single mind.
Dave. The name surfaced from the ether. Those were the eight enhanced soldiers that Eluheed had told Kian about, the ones who had merged their consciousness into one, creating a powerful hive mind.
She was being shown a window into Navuh's island, and the man at the microscope was probably one of the Russian scientists that Navuh had brought to continue the late Dr. Zhao's work.
Given the age of the man, he was probably Dimitri Volkov, Dr. Konstantin Petrov's assistant.
As he turned to face the eight, his expression was neutral, attempting to appear cooperative and professional, and Syssi wondered whether the eight would notice the tension in his jaw and the tightness around his eyes.
Dimitri was either hiding something or just uncomfortable working with the enhanced soldiers who collectively called themselves Dave.
The eight spoke, their mouths moving in perfect synchronization. The effect was deeply unsettling, even in a vision. The words were muffled, indistinct, but the tone was businesslike.
Dimitri nodded along, but his eyes were void of emotion. Whatever passion had once driven him into research had been extinguished, replaced by the dull compliance of a prisoner.
The scene dissolved.
New images formed, warmer this time. Softer lighting. A kitchen, institutional and simple, the kind of space that existed in the margins of grander buildings. Late at night, based on the darkness pressing against the windows.
Dimitri was there again but transformed. The professional mask was gone, and his eyes were alive, focused on someone across a table.
Syssi knew it was a woman even before her vision shifted in her direction. The look in Dimitri's eyes was the kind that men reserved for the one they loved.
The woman was beautiful without trying.
She wore no makeup, her blond hair was gathered in a simple ponytail, and her intelligent blue eyes gazed at Dimitri with the same adoration he held for her.
They were in love or falling in love.
So sweet.
They leaned toward each other across the table, speaking in low voices that the vision saw no need for Syssi to capture. Dimitri reached out and took the woman's hand.
The look that passed between them would have brought tears to Syssi's eyes if they were corporeal. These two had found each other in the darkness of the Brotherhood's island, two prisoners creating a moment of light in a place that was devoid of it.
Syssi's heart ached for them.
Whatever happened next, she hoped it included a way out for these two.
The scene shifted again, away from the young couple to an older one.
The man was in his late forties, overweight, and with a weathered look that came from too much alcohol or too much pain or both. He sat on the edge of a bed in a room that tried too hard to be luxurious. Gilt frames, velvet drapes, and silk sheets in colors that betrayed what kind of place it was.
A woman sat beside him. Dark hair, dark eyes, beautiful but slightly faded in a way that suggested she had lost hope. Her clothing was designed for display rather than comfort. A costume for a role she hadn't chosen.
Her eyes were alight when she looked at the man, and it wasn't fake. She cared about him, perhaps because he cared about her.
Another couple. Another pair of prisoners finding connection in captivity.
Four people. Two pairs. All trapped on Navuh's island.
Why was she being shown this? She'd asked about Khiann, not about human prisoners and their romantic entanglements. What did these people have to do with finding Annani's lost mate?
The answer popped into her mind with vivid clarity. These people were not disposable. The clan couldn't just bomb the island, killing people indiscriminately to pave the way for an extraction team to get Khiann and his companions out.
These people mattered.
The vision lurched again.
The warmth vanished, replaced by cold so intense it seemed to freeze her incorporeal body. Her perspective hurtled through space and then stabilized on a mountain.
It was massive, ancient, its peak lost in the clouds. Snow clung to its upper slopes, and greenery carpeted the lower elevations. It dominated the landscape with the quiet authority of something that had watched civilizations rise and fall and would watch many more do the same.
Mount Ararat.
The name came with certainty. This was where Eluheed's sacred charges were buried beneath tons of volcanic rock and debris.
But that wasn't what drew her attention.
Halfway up the mountain, where her incorporeal body was hovering, the air shimmered and twisted, folding in on itself in ways that hurt to look at even in a vision. Reality itself seemed to be coming apart at the seams, creating a tear.
A doorway.
A portal.
Through it, Syssi glimpsed another world.
The sky shifted between purple and green, reminding her of the Northern Lights, and in the distance, an enormous cliff rose higher than even Mount Ararat.
The auroras pulsed, weaving patterns that seemed almost like language, watchful and aware.
A figure stood on the other side of the portal, silhouetted against the shifting skies. Syssi strained to see details, but other than a vague impression that it was a female, she couldn't tell much about it.
The portal collapsed, but the vision of Mount Ararat remained, the mountain standing alone, ancient, majestic, and full of secrets.
The vision ended abruptly, and Syssi opened her eyes.
The familiar shapes of Allegra's room swam back into focus—the crib, the dresser, the soft carpet she was sitting on. Her head throbbed with the particular ache that always followed intense visions, and her mouth was dry as sandpaper.
In the crib, Allegra stirred, made a cute little sound, and settled back into sleep.
The door opened quietly, and Kian slipped into the room. He crossed to her in three quick strides and crouched beside her.
"It was a long one. Are you okay?"
She nodded. "I just need something to drink before I can tell you what I saw."
Kian helped her to her feet, steadying her when she swayed. He kept his arm around her as they left Allegra's room and made their way to the living room.
Okidu rushed out of the kitchen, his expression full of concern. "May I serve you some tea, mistress?"
"Please. And also, a glass of water."
Usually, she preferred coffee in the morning, but this time she needed something gentler.
"Right away, mistress."
As Kian led her to the couch, Syssi sat down and tucked her legs beneath her. He joined her on the couch, offering his silent encouragement. He knew that visions left her disoriented, and she needed space to sort through what she'd seen before she could articulate it.
Okidu returned with a tray—a pot of chamomile tea, two cups, and a tall glass of water that Syssi drained in three long swallows. He poured the tea and then quietly withdrew.
She wrapped her hands around the warm cup, letting the heat seep into her fingers. "I asked to be shown Khiann, but as usual, the Fates showed me something else. Several other things, actually."
Kian arched a brow. "I'm listening."
"I saw a man working in a laboratory. I'm pretty sure it was Dimitri, the assistant to Dr. Petrov, whom Eluheed told you about."
"What makes you think that?"
She took a sip of the tea. "I know because the eight enhanced soldiers who turned into one consciousness came into the lab, acting like they were one entity with eight bodies. They call themselves Dave now."
"Dave?"
She nodded. "Weird choice, I know. It was disturbing to see them move in perfect unison, but that's how I knew where the lab was and that the young scientist was Dimitri.
He works for them now, or rather, pretends to.
I could tell that he wasn't happy about his situation and was just playing along to survive. "
"Makes sense. He was hired by Navuh, but now his boss is gone, and he has to obey other masters. Eluheed was afraid that the eight would break free and cause chaos."
"I didn't get the impression of chaos." Syssi set down her cup.
"Which fits with what we can tell from observing the island.
Then the vision shifted, and I saw Dimitri again, but in a different setting.
He was with a beautiful woman who was wearing a waitress uniform.
They seem to be in love, which made me emotional.
Two prisoners found each other in that darkness.
They were holding hands across the table and looking into each other's eyes.
" She sighed. "Young love. Although I don't think they realize that they are in love yet.
It seems like the very early stages of a relationship. "
Kian was quiet for a moment. "Why do you think you were shown Dimitri and his love interest?"
She had a good idea why, but she needed to tell him the rest first so he would understand.
"There's more." Syssi reached for her tea again. "The vision shifted to another couple. I think it was Dr. Petrov and a woman who works in the brothel. They seemed to have connected as well."
"Another love story in Navuh's hellhole?"
Syssi nodded. "I think I was shown these four people to realize that there is still good on that island, and that we can't just bomb it indiscriminately as a distraction to extract Khiann and his companions."
Kian frowned. "I never said that was the plan."
"I know, but you thought that, and the Fates paid attention. They showed me the two couples so I could stop you from doing it." She tilted her head. "Have you been thinking it?"
"Among other things. I don't have a plan yet."
"There could also be another explanation. They might be connected somehow to Khiann's extraction. Maybe they know something, or they'll be in a position to help, and the Fates wanted me to know that we can trust them."
Kian rubbed a hand over his face. "I wish the Fates weren't so vague."
She chuckled. "Wait until I tell you the third part. If you think that the first two were unclear, you will be scratching your head about the last one."
He winced. "I can't wait to hear it."
"I saw Mount Ararat." Syssi took another sip from the tea, trying to put into words what she'd seen. "I was hovering midway between the base of the mountain and its peak when a portal opened to another world."
"What do you mean by a portal to another world?" Kian's brow furrowed. "Like in a science fiction movie?"
"Precisely." She was relieved that they had a point of reference. "It was like a tear in reality, shimmering at the edges, and through it I could see auroras, but they were much more vivid than those we've seen in Alaska."
"Could it have been somewhere in Scandinavia or maybe Russia?" he sounded hopeful.
"I don't think so. I could see mountains in the distance, and they were taller than anything I've seen on Earth.
The whole thing had an alien vibe. There was a figure standing near the portal's threshold, and I had a sense that it was a female, but not much more.
Then the portal collapsed, and the vision ended. "
Kian was quiet for a long moment. "A portal to another world. At Mount Ararat."
"I know how it sounds."
"It sounds like the Fates are being deliberately obscure." He leaned back against the couch cushions. "We asked about Khiann, and they showed you prisoners on the island, then a mountain in Turkey with a magical doorway to another world. I don't see how any of that connects."
Mount Ararat was probably connected to Eluheed's charges, but it had nothing to do with Khiann.
"Neither do I." Syssi rubbed her temples, the headache pulsing behind her eyes. "A scientist and a waitress. An older researcher and someone from the brothel. A portal with auroras. How does any of this lead us to Khiann?"
"Maybe it doesn't. Maybe the Fates are answering multiple questions at once, and we're supposed to sort out which answers go with which questions."
"That's not helpful."
"No, it's not."
Syssi leaned into her mate, suddenly exhausted. The visions always took a lot out of her, and this one had been more intense than most. "I feel like I'm holding puzzle pieces that belong to three different puzzles, and I can't make them fit together."