by Namita Singh
have a life of your own.”
“That sucks.” Neal exclaims.
“No shit.” I add, frowning.
“Now you know why we are worried.” Father says to Neal.
Neal gives him a droll look.
“The tenth vaticinator and his protector, in the 1400s,” Jennifer continues, ignoring us, “were warned well in their childhoods. Mind you, the bond the vaticinator and the protector shared surpassed the magical compulsion that the witch had endowed on them. That means that they both were much more loyal to each other than they were to the witches. It didn’t take long for them to realize too that they are simply being used. That resulted in them successfully running away from the grasp of the first witch. Naturally, as is job of the protector, he protected the vaticinator through their lives, seeing as how vaticinator is a human at the end of the day and requires a shield against these supernatural cults.”
“They escaped just like that?” Aakir asks, squinting at Jennifer.
“Well, they intelligently played it out, I think. Again, we don’t know the exact facts. But I think it should have been easy to fool the First Occultist after earning her trust. Besides, the vaticinator and the protector could anyways talk and plan in their soul forms while astral travelling.”
“And since then,” father says, “the First Occultist has been looking for the vaticinator. She has been hunting for the ancestors of the protector family and the vaticinator family lineage, so to have the vaticinator back in her grasp.”
“She hasn’t exactly been hunting. I mean, yes, she has her senses open to any of the hints, but most believe that the vaticinator lineage has ended. But the vaticinator family and protector family has been succeeding in hiding since the last six centuries. You’re the third vaticinator since 1400, Neal.After 1400s, two vaticinators had taken birth, in 1600s and 1800s respectively. In both those centuries, both the vaticinator and the protector that took birth had spent their lives in peace, away from this unnatural life, away from the Occultists. In blissful ignorance. And I wanted the same for you, Neal.” Jennifer says.
“It’s different now.” Father says, “Never in the last six centurieshas a whole realm been aware of the existence of the vaticinator. As you said, most believed the vaticinator lineage to be dead. I don’t know how efficient your ‘hiding’ excursion would be in this scenario, Jennifer. The First Realm, despite hearing the rumors about how a vaticinator is treated, they still blindly follow the First Occultist. I am assuming they all believe that their occultist requires the vaticinator for the greater good.” Father discreetly rolls his eyes in the end. “So, naturally they’ll start hunting for Neal upon the orders of the First Occultist. It doesn’t help that the First Realm has the maximum therians and is the largest in the world. Moreover, it wouldn’t take long for the First Occultist to convince the other occultists, making other realms come in search of Neal too.”
“Don’t I feel all better.” Neal mutters, looking stupefied.
“Dad?” I say, making father look at me, “Why does the occultist need the therians to look for Neal? I mean…they are witches, for Christ’s sake. She can just sense Neal and get hold of him, can’t she?”
“Good God, Lichinsky.” Neal groans, glaring at me, “Why don’t you throw me in front of her yourself?” he snaps.
“Hey, I am just asking, alright?” I say, taking a defensive posture, “Aren’t you yourself curious how the occultist can’t just look for you, considering her superior ‘powers’?
Neal scoffs loudly, “No, I am not interested in knowing.”
I sigh.
“That was,” father says, once Neal and I are done, “a very good question, Josh. Yes, the occultist can sense all of us therians and our locations, like on a radar. But the vaticinator,” he looks at Neal, “has a special aura. It is not detectable by the Occultist. In fact, the energy radiating off him somewhat repels any supernatural being who tries to find him on the basis of the energy disposition we all have. So, no, the occultist can’t detect Neal’s location, neither anybody else can detect it. The occultist will have to do it in the conventional style; that is by sending men on foot to look for him. The vaticinator may only be encountered either accidently or by pure human effort.”
“And right now,” Jennifer says, “Since Neal is amongst us, the occultist can’t detect any of us either. The circumference of Neal’s aura is enough to cover our own auras from the occultist.”
“He is probably the only one in this world who can’t be detected by the Occultist.” Father says further.
“He is one of the two things, actually.” Jennifer says. “The other is the holy scimitar which was weaved by the clothes of a witch. A person possessing that also can’t be detected by an occultist.”
“Hmm.” Father nods, averting his eyes to the floor.
A silence commences after that.
“But,” I break the silence, making everyone look at me, “Ethan can simply go and tell the location of Neal to the First occultist….then the occultist can simply come here, no?”
I avert my eyes from Neal who has begun to glower at me. I instead look at my father who is shaking his head.
“The witches are pure non-humans. Pure supernatural beings. Even if they’ll come here, Neal’s aura will simply repel them because of their clear intent of finding him. It’ll make them change their course. No supernatural being on the basis of their supernatural poweralone can find Neal, not with a clear intent in their minds. If witches want Neal then Neal will have to be brought to them.” Father sighs, “But that doesn’t make it any easier.” He turns back to Jennifer. “Human technology has advanced infinitely. Ethan, the man who attacked Neal, has seen Neal’s face and he knows Neal’s name. He also happens to know the faces and names of all of my family members. Even if we decide to run away, I don’t think it will be so hard for him to look for us with pure human effort. Moreover, for how long will you run, Jennifer? Even if you change Neal’s name to something else and create a new whole identity for him, then also you can’t change Neal’s face, can you? How long will you keep him shut in? That’s equivalent to what the First Occultist was doing to the vaticinators. I mean, making Neal hide in a room is no different than making him unable to live his own life.”
Jennifer shakes her head, looking unseeingly in an undetermined direction.
“They’re right, Jen.” David says quietly, looking at Jennifer sideways.
Jennifer rubs her hands over her face, groaning softly in her hands. She looks up, frowning and looking pained. “I don’t know, Nikolai.” She says.
“Jennifer,” Terry uncle says, “hiding is definitely not an option. You were hiding when you left Aakir in those woods. Look at what that brought.”
Father nods, “I am assuming that the therian cult that was after you had somehow got to know of your ‘protector’ identity?”
Jennifer nods, looking tired and much older than she was looking when I first saw her, “I don’t even know to which realm those therians belonged to. All I know is that they started keeping tracks of the vaticinator family and my family. When Aakir’s birth occurred, we instantly knew that Neal’s mother who was pregnant at that time most probably carries the next vaticinator. Those therians…they were unnaturally interested in Aakir after his birth…you know, wanting to see him etcetera, asking a million questions. And though we know that nobody knows of the eyes of the protector’s…we still didn’t want to risk bringing Aakir to their notice. Our shady behavior,” Jennifer sighs, “tipped them off even more. When we were running away with those therians at our tail…that was in fact the day of Neal’s birth.” She looks at Neal, smiling fondly, “It was all the more reason for us to run away, in fear of any of them sensing Neal’s aura. The rest is history.”
Neal is stoically taking all of this in, staring at the floor. He has been awfully expressionless since Jennifer’s arrival. I clear my throat, again making everyone look at me.
“What happened to his parents?” I ask.
> Of course I speak of Neal’s parents. Before anybody else can say anything, it’s Neal who opens his mouth,
“Probably killed, from what I am assuming.” He says bluntly. Jennifer closes her eyes at his bluntness, but Neal goes on, unaffected, “I was told I am adopted as an orphan but I don’t think that’s the case.” He ends with sarcasm.
“Would you have rather if I’d told you how your parents faced your demise?” Jennifer asks softly.
“Yes.” Neal snaps, getting up. “Had I known about myself and been more cautious, I don’t think we would even be in this situation.”
He walks away from where his aunt is seated, turning towards them again when he is halfway towards the exit of the kitchen door, “I need to go home.” He declares.
“I don’t think that is such a good idea.” Father says.
“I think,” Neal stresses, “that I need my own clothes.”
Father suspires.
“I’ll accompany you.” Jennifer says, looking at Neal.
Terry uncle scoffs, “I don’t think that is such a good idea.”
Jennifer rolls her eyes, “David will be here. And now Aakir is here too. I’ll be stupid if I take Neal away on my own.”
I see Neal rolling his eyes as everybody else decides who’ll accompany him. Neal is not at all the type who likes to be treated as an incapable. And after learning about himself, he seems even more