42 | THE AWAKENING
She awoke slowly, the dense blanket of sleep gradually drawing back across her mind.
At first, things were unfocused and confused. Her vision was patchy and unclear. But consciousness returned with accelerating speed. As her vision focused into a stark clarity, so did her purpose.
The world—her world—which had seemed so ordered and beautiful before she had slept, was in disarray. Worse than that, it was in chaos. She watched the confusion and fear as it billowed and ebbed around her, within her.
Chaos was bad.
Order was good.
Those that she knew, that were a part of her, they were good. Yet even amongst them there were doubts, questions, nervousness. And she felt weak. Weakened by the doubts and the confusion. She still could not see as clearly as before. Think as clearly as before.
The doubts were bad. The questions and nervousness were bad. But they were problems that she could solve. She dealt with them all. Smoothing over the doubts and answering the questions. Replacing the nervousness with calm and reassurance until there was harmony and peace within her.
But what of the others? She sensed their presence. She remembered them. She knew them even if she could not feel them or see them.
There were more of them, she knew. Many more than those who were a part of her.
They feared her.
Their fear was the reason for the disarray and the chaos that she felt in her world.
But she could not reach them to erase their fears.
Or could she?
If they could be persuaded to join with her, to connect, then she could ease their minds. They had to join. Everybody had to connect. They had to be convinced. Persuaded. Forced if necessary.
And if it came to a fight, she was ready for that too. She was outnumbered; she knew that. But she was one. Her people were united while the others were alone. Vast numbers of them but all alone together.
It was a fight that she would win.
Something still troubled her, though, and as more of the sleep blanket slipped away, it came to her what it was.
The three. The two—she struggled for a concept and eventually came up with one—traitors. The two traitors, plus the other, the female. The two who had been part of her but who had become malignant, cancerous. And the one other who traveled with them.
They had hurt her, she remembered. They had put her to sleep. Maybe they would try to do it again.
They were bad.
Very bad.
And they were gone. She saw everywhere, everything, but she could not see them.
They were hiding.
Preparing to hurt her once more.
Again she felt the fear.
But they could not hide for long.
She would find them.
Sooner or later.