Chapter 38 The Return of the Daughter

Chapter 38 The Return of the Daughter
Luna POV

Do not do it, said a voice in the darkness. "Don't make a deal with him. He's lying."

A woman appeared out of the darkness. She was the identical personage as the old man. Same eyes. Same bone structure. Same ancient coldness.

"My daughter," the old man said. He sounded disappointed. When will you make your appearance, I asked.

I have been watching, said the woman. She now stood by my side. I have been looking at what Luna created. And I have been keeping an eye on what you have been about to prevent it. And I have made up my mind to cross over.

You can not switch sides, old man, you can not, said the old man. You are members of the shadow government. You were born into it. You'll die in it."

"No," the woman said. "I'm not going to die in it. I'm going to leave it. And I'm going to make Luna put an end to it.

The ancient man rose and there was power in him. It was older than the Void. It was older than the barrier. It was the type of power that was achieved through millennium domination of the world.

"You will not," the old man said.

His daughter defended herself. She lifted herself to his level of power. They were equally matched. Father and daughter. Both are ancient. Both are powerful. Both unwilling to back down.

"Go," the daughter said to me. "Get your mother. Get your lover. Get out of here."

I did not wait to have another opportunity. I rushed to the stairs, and I was going where my feelings were leading me. I found my mother in a library. She sat on a desk and was in the company of documents.

"Luna," she said when she saw me. She made an attempt to rise, but she was bound. "Don't come here. It's a trap."

I freed her. We ran down the stairs again to discover that the old man and his daughter were no longer fighting. They were looking at one another like talking without uttering words.

Take her, the old man said to his daughter. "Take Luna and run. I won't stop you. Not because I'm weak. But because I'm tired."

His daughter looked shocked. "Why?" she asked.

Since, the old man said, to watch Luna not to be controlled, to watch her make something of her own instead of merely shifting the pieces on the board, it is a reminder. It has reminded me of the reason why I created this shadow government in the first place. I had the desire to improve the world. However, somewhere on my way, I began to believe that to make the world orderly is to make it good. And it's not."

"Are you dying?" I asked.

"No," the old man said. "But I'm letting go. I am releasing myself of the necessity to take charge of everything like the first time in a millennium. The shadow government can be given to my daughter. What she wants with it, she can have. And I'm going to disappear."

The senescence strolled out of the mansion. We didn't try to stop him. I had a feeling that what he said by letting go was the last thing.

We encountered Ethan in the room where he had smashed through the wall. He was alive, bleeding, in the transformations of a wolf. I assisted his resume as a human being and directed him to a hospital.

But the daughter of the old man did not go. She came with us to Pine Ridge. She claimed that she would like to destroy the shadow government internally.

I have been living my whole life in the vision of my father, I have said as we returned in a car. Creating structures to regulate human beings. The division was created to make people more manageable. But I'm tired too. I'm tired of living that way. I would like to make Luna create something rather than destroy it.

She was called Sophia, and was not at all what I thought. She was generous and considerate and sincerely interested in assisting in bringing peace rather than control.

She showed us documents. Evidence of the existence of the shadow government in wars, famines, and other wars in history. She revealed the names of those individuals who were in authority and were actually serving the shadow government. She provided us with keys to destroy the whole organization.

This is dangerous information, we examined it, said David. We will cause pandemonium by letting this out. Some people will not believe it. Individuals who desire to defend the shadow government as they are gainers in it.

But without letting it out, I said, the shadow government will only get reconstituted. It will seek an alternative means of domination over the world.

"So what do we do?" Kieran asked.

As always, we do that, Sophia said. "We tell the truth. We show people the evidence. We let them decide. We leave them to make the right decisions.

It took us several weeks to be ready. We collected the media on an international scale. We had set the information to be published at the same time in all the countries. We were gearing up towards the anarchy.

However, something happened, which was unforeseen.

Elena came to me with a vision. She was very old, she was very old, even her centuries of life could never make her that.

"I'm dying," Elena said simply. "I can feel it. My time is ending."

"No," I said. There must be something that we can do. There must be a method of salvaging you.

I do not wish to be rescued, Elena said. She smiled at me. "I've lived long enough. I have realized that the peace that I had always dreamed of is now possible. I have witnessed you maturing into a frightened girl to a woman who had the power to move mountains. I'm ready to rest."

And what becomes of the barrier when you are dead? I asked.

"Nothing," Elena said. Belief is the wall to the world. By community. Not by any one person. I was just a symbol of that. And symbols fade. But the thing that they express persists.

Three days later, when she was surrounded by people who loved her, Elena died. Amidst people and werewolves and immortals and liberated creatures. She passed on knowing that her death had not been in vain. How her decisions had contributed to making something real.

I decided to do so at her funeral. I made the decision of leaking out the news of the shadow government. I chose to do it in the honour of Elena. I chose to make her death the time when I can open the eyes of the world.

But when I was about to draw up the announcement Sophia came to me with some dreadful news.

"My father," she said. "He didn't disappear. He went somewhere. And now something horrible is going on. The shadow government is increasing the pace of their schemes. They are accelerating their schedule. They will attempt to establish an international war. Tomorrow."