Prince of Attania, 2

“You what?” Jet stared incredulously at the older Elemental.

Stenson smiled wryly. “I told them that non-family descended from elementals too. After you Family revealed that’s where your powers came from, I had to level the field somehow.”

“But it isn’t even true!”

Stenson shrugged, unconcerned. “So? As long as they believe it, they do my work.” Stenson had calmly described how, when he took back his physical body not long after he’d led Jet and the rest of the new breed of Elementals to believe he’d ‘released,’ he had recruited both Family and non-family with the revelation that non-family came from elementals, too. Non-family were only too ready to believe it, as evidenced by Tom Jadock and his followers.

It explained why they’d found more and more non-family at Family ‘releases.’ Jet hadn’t been able to figure out the connection until now. He exchanged glances with Attan, who looked as confused as he felt. A hush had fallen over the crowd from Midver as they slowly digested Stenson’s revelation. Jet wondered if perhaps he should have kept this conversation private after all.

“It isn’t possible,” he told the crowd. “Family and non-family may look the same but we’re not.” When Jet was younger, he had thought perhaps he was a different sort of creature, not Family at all. But he had been proved wrong. He was Family. Jet had worked tirelessly to break down the social and economic barriers which separated Family and non-family. And as both groups began to work together for the good of Attania, Jet felt those barriers thin. It was his vision, which Aylard—Stenson now—had appropriated and corrupted.

“You took my Sons of Men, and made them yours,” Stenson said, putting a lie to everything he’d previously said about Aylard First being a part of the past. They were one and the same. “I realized later that if I wanted my vision for the future to succeed, I would need to take your tactic and learn from it. You were right in saying Attania belongs to both Family and non-family. I’m only continuing your dream.”

“But your dream is a lie,” Jet said. “You’d have non-family befriend Family in hopes that they can develop their own elemental abilities, and encourage their Family friends to ‘release’ and leave Attania to them. Except it will never happen.”

“Right. And eventually, Attania will be left in the hands of non-family, as I intended all along,” Stenson replied. I realized that we need to start over, with pure Elementals who can assume human form and not be assimilated as the rest of you have been.” Stenson gazed uneasily at Jet and Attan, who didn’t fit the neat mold Stenson had made of Family.

“Then you leave me little choice,” Jet said. “I can’t let you continue to destroy both Family and non-family because you believe you’re saving the world. No, I’ll put a stop to your little group, and Attan will make sure you don’t do any more damage.”

“What do you think Attania is?” Stenson asked. His gaze raked across the crowd. “We are Attania. Nothing is destroyed, except consciousness, and then only for the weaker among us.”

Jet smiled humorlessly. “I’ll take my chances,” he said.

The people of Midver, including Elea and the women from her village who had been staying among them, remained silent, making it difficult to tell what they really thought of the matter. Even Emma had nothing to say, though she smiled softly to herself.

Attan looked at his father. What now?

“Stay here,” Jet decided. “Stenson can stay with you, for now.” He glanced at the somber faces of Midver’s citizens. “He’s not invincible. None of us are.”

The next talk Jet had with Stenson was in private. Midver’s citizens had slowly filed back to their lives. Attan sat in on their meeting.

“What am I supposed to do with you?” Jet asked irritably. “I can’t trust you.”

Stenson smiled. “Let me go,” he suggested.

Jet shook his head stubbornly. They’d tried that once before. “Tell me what those machines you developed are for.”

“I didn’t develop them; non-family did. Did you think just because Family suddenly became more approachable and you loosened your hold somewhat on new innovations, that the rest of the world would just trust you to honor your word to them? I don’t see communicators in common use.”

Jet had to admit Stenson was right about that. Although his reign purported to support new developments, in actuality, they were carefully screened. Merrell had always maintained that too much change too quickly was just as disastrous as no change at all, and Jet had deferred to his experience. Now . . . now it was just a matter of convenience. The government hadn’t gone public with the communicators. Still . . . . “What are they for?” he growled.

“They’re for moving large quantities of materials—or people—over rough terrain.”

“But why?” What was out in the wilderness that Stenson and his followers needed to access? The desolate eastern portion of Attania was well on its way to becoming fertile and useful. There weren’t too many other areas which could still be considered wilderness. A few . . . such as the far north, or the area where Elea’s people had settled unbeknownst to Attania’s government.

Stenson sighed. “Where else can we go to escape your persecution?” he asked.

What? “That—what? That doesn’t even make sense.” Jet wished he could merge with the man, but he would not force a merge upon him. Stenson was hiding things. Maybe Attan would be able to get to the heart of the matter. He would keep a close eye on Stenson, and the minute the old Elemental transformed for any reason, Attan would be there, and Attan would see what Stenson was hiding. Persecution! Really.

Jet had to walk away before he lost his temper. Capturing Stenson hadn’t solved anything; it hadn’t the last time, either, but Jet had thought he’d been getting through to Aylard, that on some level they understood each other. But he had been wrong. “Attan, I have to get back to Darcy. Can you handle Stenson?”

Attan nodded. The truth of the matter was, he had been taken aback to hear Stenson accuse his father of persecution. “I’ll stay with him.”

Later, Attan walked with Elea and Meetoo back to the little chapel. Elea hadn’t said much about Stenson’s claims. “You don’t believe him, do you?” Attan asked.

She stopped walking. “You don’t?” she asked in return.

“No, I—“ Attan stuttered. Of course Stenson was wrong! He’d felt it when that non-family man had died back in Breen, only realizing now that he’d been one of Stenson’s new converts. He’d believed he was eternal. But Attan had felt the nothingness when the final breath left the man’s body. No spirit. “I know it’s not true,” he murmured. That meant that Elea, too, would die and be snuffed out of existence forever. That thought disturbed Attan greatly. He didn’t want Elea to die.

Elea patted Attan gently on the cheek. “It doesn’t matter. Anyway, I’m going back to my village at the end of the week. I’d like Meetoo to stay with me, if you don’t mind.”

Meetoo liked being with Elea. It was the perfect solution for keeping him away from Stenson, too, since Attan would be responsible for making sure the older Elemental stayed out of trouble. “He’s not very steady,” Attan cautioned. “You’ll have to keep an eye on him.”

Elea grinned, understanding Attan’s concern. “I will. I promise I won’t sing him to the sea. You take care of yourself, too. Don’t let Stenson convince you to give up your physical form. Remember, you promised me.”

Attan attempted a smile. “I remember.” He was going to miss Elea. He’d miss them both.

“Come on, Meetoo!” Elea called, starting to run. Meetoo glanced at Attan, then ran laughing after Elea.

It was a short week as Elea’s women prepared for their journey back to their home village, which had finally been rebuilt. Stenson, Attan and Meetoo shared Attan’s small house. Stenson was very vocal about Meeto’s going. “He needs to stay with us,” he insisted, which was why Attan wanted Meetoo to go with Elea instead. Stenson avoided Elea’s women ever since they had done their singing on him. “They have too much control over him.”

Attan laughed. He wasn’t sure anyone had control over Meetoo, including him. But Elea had promised him she would take care of the newest Elemental. He trusted Elea much more than he trusted Stenson.

Once the women had left for their village, Stenson seemed to relax and accept his circumstances. Life in Midver flowed around them. Attan wasn’t sure what else he was supposed to do except be a babysitter for the ancient being, so he was relieved when Stenson suggested they go to visit some of his hidden bases across Attania.

“You wanted to see what it’s all about,” Stenson said. “Come with me and I’ll show you.”

It is what Attan and his father had hoped for. “We’ll have to merge,” he cautioned Stenson, who disagreed. There was little trust on either side, apparently.

“I have my truck,” he said. “It’s better if you see it at the ground level, if you know what I mean.”

Attan did. Stenson was worried Attan would see too much if they merged again. He agreed to the trip, after communicating with his father and Daniel about it. They both agreed it was their best chance to understand what this group wanted, and to possibly come up with a solution that Stenson and they could both live with.

Attan exchanged his enforcer uniform for regular clothes. He couldn’t disguise the fact that he was Family, but he didn’t need to advertise that he was a Prince. Stenson, on the other hand, let his hair and skin gray to an indeterminable shade, a trick, he told Attan, he’d learned from the boy’s father many years ago.

They traveled from Midver to the south and east, bypassing Elea’s hidden village by a wide margin since they had to stick to navigable roads. Attan began to see where Stenson’s big conveyances might come in handy. At first, they stopped at several small villages and towns, where Stenson negotiated with area farmers for goods which he then traded with other villages. In the larger towns, they stayed overnight or longer, and Attan caught up on the news if there was a television available.

King Jet was off on another round of travels too, it seemed. The news followed him as he brought his son, Prince Zephyr, with him on his rounds. The little boy was the talk of Attania, with news personalities speculating on his becoming his father’s heir. No mention was made of the absent Prince Attan.

Stenson turned on his small bed and gazed at Attan in the other bed. “That doesn’t bother you?” he asked. “That your father has replaced you with your younger brother?”

Attan shook his head. “No.” He had no desire to be caught up in the machinations of Attanian politics. “Anyway, he’s still a little kid. It’s just talk.”

“If you say so.” Stenson turned around and closed his eyes.

Attan continued to watch the television. He kept in contact with his father through their communicators, so he knew his father still loved him. But he hadn’t seen his mother in months, and his younger brothers and sister were growing up without him. Closing his eyes too, Attan let himself go, stretching his essence so that it encompassed the sleeping Stenson in the room below him, and further, to touch his father far across Attania, and his mother back in Low City. He let his essence thin as it settled over Attania like a soft blanket, aware of every single beat of life. He felt Meetoo’s startled awareness, and Elea’s steady heartbeat as she slept. Still he stretched himself further, going beyond Attania’s seas to---there was a point where everything just stopped. He couldn’t go beyond it, at least not in elemental form.

Attan let his essence slowly contract until he was back in his physical body, lying in his hotel bed with the television still droning on. Stenson still slept, unaware. Next summer they would go by ship to see what lay beyond the sea. If anything. In the meantime, he would learn from Stenson, not only what the man wanted to show him, but also what he was hiding. Stenson wasn’t evil or particularly callous, though his actions made him appear so. The same could be said of most of the royal Family. Stenson truly believed he knew what was best for Attania, and this life wasn’t it.