10-12-2016, 07:55 AM
Aria watched the man in her room from the corner of her eye. He was tired yet he was still trying to be fully functioning. "I'm not going anywhere until the Ascendancy says I can. You heard him, I'm remanded to the Kremlin."
The man sat a little straighter and straightened his jacket before leveling a gaze at her that said he would do his job until released. Aria smirked. "Sleep could do you a great deal. I could easily over power your tired mind. For future reference when you put someone to guard me."
The man nodded and Aria could tell he was making note of her words. " When you took care of your job - reports from the scene said he died of a heart attack. How does that work exactly?"
"You know what I am."
"An empath."
Aria grinned. "I'm so much more than just that. But yes that's the basics of it. My father could permanently change your emotions - link it to that moment, make you feel whatever he wanted. That was how he tricked my mother and conceived me in his misfortune. I can't do that - or I've never figured out how. But I can share emotions with you. I can share my feelings."
She'd shared with Dane that first fateful day when he'd grabbed her. Her desire to be touched had forged a link in her brain to him. She knew he was dangerous but that meant little. With Lucas it had been so much more but he was gone now that link lost forever because of her father.... Aria pushed down the darkness that threatened to rise up. Lucas was dead be cause of her father. "But I can open the flood gates. Share everything I feel with you. The weight of the world almost literally crushes your heart."
Aria sighed. "I remember the first time my power came to me. It was after the devastation of the natural disasters and everyone flocked to the Vatican to reaffirm their faith in God. There were everywhere outside the Vatican. Father Dimitri had taken me up for Sunday Mass. I felt their despair, their hope, their fear - mostly I felt their fear. It was crushing. I was five. The world was heavy. With time I figured out how to lift the weight, single out an emotion and smell it."
Aria laughed to herself about the inconsistency of her training. She had never smelled anything - not really. Though she still sometimes processed negative emotions like they were supposed to smell. Rape was always the worst. It lingered in your nose. The stench of it all.... But it wasn't a real smell to her, it was taught.
The agent looked confused. "You smell emotions?"
Aria shook her head. "No. Furia smell dark emotions - much like the furies of legends. They are what the legends are based on. Not the whole truth. You'll come to realize one day that nearly every monster myth is based on something real. On something the Atharim protect the world from. Our fear for humanity is not feigned. It might be misplaced in the current day and age, but once upon a time men like Ascendancy were worshiped like gods. They manipulated humanity and we saved them. But that has all but been forgotten as we've protected mankind for millennia. I could tell you stories - true stories - that would make any grown man quake in fear if he knew it were real."
"You believe in these Atharim then? And yet you betrayed them for what? Is your loyalty that fickle?"
"No, agent. My loyalty is not fickle it has not changed or wavered. I am loyal to those I call my friends. I vowed to protected people like Ascendancy because every single one save maybe two have been good men. Men who've not wanted to change the world into their own image. Men who wanted nothing more than to be normal. And the Atharim won't let them. They will be hunted, and good people will die. The Atharim aren't bad. We serve a purpose. When this is all said and done, the Atharim will live. Maybe not in the form we know it today, but the monsters in the world they aren't going to go away. The Atharim are the only ones who can handle them. The police lack the training. Most hunters spend their lives learning and training. Those of us born to it never know anything else. Those that come to us are taught in intensive training sessions. Things I learned over the course of my childhood, they get a crash course in and sent into the world to hunt the things they know little about. Do not doubt it, but I am Atharim. I may have betrayed those men, but I am Atharim."
The man sat a little straighter and straightened his jacket before leveling a gaze at her that said he would do his job until released. Aria smirked. "Sleep could do you a great deal. I could easily over power your tired mind. For future reference when you put someone to guard me."
The man nodded and Aria could tell he was making note of her words. " When you took care of your job - reports from the scene said he died of a heart attack. How does that work exactly?"
"You know what I am."
"An empath."
Aria grinned. "I'm so much more than just that. But yes that's the basics of it. My father could permanently change your emotions - link it to that moment, make you feel whatever he wanted. That was how he tricked my mother and conceived me in his misfortune. I can't do that - or I've never figured out how. But I can share emotions with you. I can share my feelings."
She'd shared with Dane that first fateful day when he'd grabbed her. Her desire to be touched had forged a link in her brain to him. She knew he was dangerous but that meant little. With Lucas it had been so much more but he was gone now that link lost forever because of her father.... Aria pushed down the darkness that threatened to rise up. Lucas was dead be cause of her father. "But I can open the flood gates. Share everything I feel with you. The weight of the world almost literally crushes your heart."
Aria sighed. "I remember the first time my power came to me. It was after the devastation of the natural disasters and everyone flocked to the Vatican to reaffirm their faith in God. There were everywhere outside the Vatican. Father Dimitri had taken me up for Sunday Mass. I felt their despair, their hope, their fear - mostly I felt their fear. It was crushing. I was five. The world was heavy. With time I figured out how to lift the weight, single out an emotion and smell it."
Aria laughed to herself about the inconsistency of her training. She had never smelled anything - not really. Though she still sometimes processed negative emotions like they were supposed to smell. Rape was always the worst. It lingered in your nose. The stench of it all.... But it wasn't a real smell to her, it was taught.
The agent looked confused. "You smell emotions?"
Aria shook her head. "No. Furia smell dark emotions - much like the furies of legends. They are what the legends are based on. Not the whole truth. You'll come to realize one day that nearly every monster myth is based on something real. On something the Atharim protect the world from. Our fear for humanity is not feigned. It might be misplaced in the current day and age, but once upon a time men like Ascendancy were worshiped like gods. They manipulated humanity and we saved them. But that has all but been forgotten as we've protected mankind for millennia. I could tell you stories - true stories - that would make any grown man quake in fear if he knew it were real."
"You believe in these Atharim then? And yet you betrayed them for what? Is your loyalty that fickle?"
"No, agent. My loyalty is not fickle it has not changed or wavered. I am loyal to those I call my friends. I vowed to protected people like Ascendancy because every single one save maybe two have been good men. Men who've not wanted to change the world into their own image. Men who wanted nothing more than to be normal. And the Atharim won't let them. They will be hunted, and good people will die. The Atharim aren't bad. We serve a purpose. When this is all said and done, the Atharim will live. Maybe not in the form we know it today, but the monsters in the world they aren't going to go away. The Atharim are the only ones who can handle them. The police lack the training. Most hunters spend their lives learning and training. Those of us born to it never know anything else. Those that come to us are taught in intensive training sessions. Things I learned over the course of my childhood, they get a crash course in and sent into the world to hunt the things they know little about. Do not doubt it, but I am Atharim. I may have betrayed those men, but I am Atharim."