In this regard, dealing with the magical hegemons was an inevitability. The Cabal was the one to which he had the least inherent connection, but they were the group he had the more pleasant encounters with, through Vermillion. One man, however, was not the same as the organisation behind him. This was especially true when, by his own admission, they kept many secrets to which Vermillion himself was not privy.
The Engineers of Ascension represented the closest to Jason’s own motivations. They were preparing for the coming changes, which was what Jason wanted for his family, but he was deeply hesitant regarding the group. The strange drone men he met, and the circumstances under which he met them, left him deeply wary of the EOA’s methodology and values.
That left the Network. They were the best fit for Jason, being essence users, but he had many well-founded reservations. For one thing, there was the mystery of how they made their members stronger. From his few brief encounters, it seemed that advancing through monster cores was the norm. Anna had not infused her aura with cores, but she had the anaemic aura of a fresh iron-ranker. He suspected that a set of essences was mandatory for executives of the Network.
He could forgive some of their heavy-handed approach in regard to Jason himself. He had certainly caused some very public trouble and was even responsible for a number of innocent deaths. While he had never invited the biker attack, he had gotten caught up in his own power trip instead of putting an end to it as quickly and efficiently as possible. People without the power to protect themselves had been the ones to pay the price of that.
From the Network’s perspective, he was a powerful and reckless force that had appeared out of nowhere. He had trouble arguing against that assessment. It was not a surprise that they wanted to rein him in. His problem was that there did not appear to be a unified set of values. One branch might be acceptable to work with, while another would try and throw him in a hole.
Annabeth Tilden seemed to be a more or less decent person trying to do a job he had only made more difficult. That was a long way from the assassin who attacked him from ambush. Although ostensibly united, his interrogation of the man who was trying to transport him back to France revealed that the branches were caught up in often deep rivalries, especially across geographical lines.
Each continental zone apparently had rivalries within it, ranging from the friendly to the stark. Across continental boundaries, branches might be even more antagonistic with each other than with the local arms of the other hegemonic powers. The arrival of the assassin and his attempt to take Jason had apparently been as much an attack on the Sydney branch as on Jason himself. This was according to the man he questioned; Jason felt differently on that particular point.
The complicated interplay of the Network’s internal factions made Jason wary of becoming involved, but he was choosing to do so for several reasons. One was that the Sydney branch, from what he could tell, seemed decent. He was reserving final judgement until he saw more of how they operated. Another was that an affiliation might stave off some of the other groups who saw Jason as an opportunity rather than a danger. Their inclination to follow the Lyon branch in taking a shot at him might be curtailed by a Network connection.
Most importantly, the Network apparently had access to monsters. Monster cores were coming from somewhere, and Jason had developed a rough hypothesis. Vermillion had already told him that the Network was somehow intercepting monsters. Jason suspected that these monsters, unable to manifest normally, were somehow appearing in astral spaces, which the Network was entering in order to exterminate them. The terrorism readiness exercises would be cover for mobilising against those threats in populated areas as they seized control of apertures that were forming.
Jason had studied enough astral magic to know that regular astral spaces were unlikely to be the culprits. There was such a thing as a proto-astral space, more unstable and short-lived than a regular astral space. He postulated that for some reason, these proto-astral spaces were forming on the border of his world’s physical reality with accelerated frequency.
One of the key reasons Jason felt confident about this was one of the many effects of the racial gift evolution he had still neither accepted nor refused.
You will be able to directly enter proto-astral spaces coterminous with your location or directly leave a proto-astral space to a coterminous location.
The power to access those spaces for himself certainly seemed like solid bait for taking the power. Until he better understood the World-Phoenix’s motives, however, he still declined to even consider taking the power.
For the moment, his intention was to do exactly what the Network wanted and quietly go away for a while. Once they had some kind of framework for cooperation, things could move forward from there. He had caused the Network a lot of trouble and was not opposed to extending them some of his resources by way of apology. He would not forget, however, that the Network had their own amends to make.
The possibility of cooperation came down to two factors, both related to the Lyon branch. If the locals were willing to stand up for their international counterpart’s actions, he was done with them. If they were willing to stand against them on his behalf, though, he would reciprocate that goodwill. The second factor was the related issue of the other outworlder. He needed to know if the locals would help him, remain neutral and stay out of his way, or actively obstruct him. This was the crucial element that would determine his relationship with the local branch of the Network.
For the moment, it was time to put that aside. He was on his way home and his sister’s birthday was tomorrow. He needed to figure out exactly how to make a grand reappearance.
24
GUILTY CONSCIENCE
“How long since you’ve been back?” Jason asked Hiro as the motorhome drew closer to their hometown of Casselton Beach.
“Your memorial service. There wasn’t a body, obviously, so no burial or cremation.”
“The body is just a vessel,” Jason said. “It probably sounds weird, me talking about a soul, but I know more intimately than most.”
“It still…”
Hiro shook his head.
“It still doesn’t seem possible. I mean, you’ve shown me the impossible and I still have trouble believing it.”
“Good,” Jason said. “Don’t go losing your sceptical outlook just because your nephew turned out to be a wizard.”
“See, this doesn’t help,” Hiro said. “You go out of your way to make it seem absurd.”
“It is absurd,” Jason said. “We’re in a magic motorhome made of clouds being driven by the son of Death.”
“The what?”
“Actually, that might be a bridge too far,” Jason said. “There’s still a lot to ease you into. How’s Taika doing?”