NewU Pt. 07

It would be decades, almost a century, until the nature of Inquisitor powers was known enough for their nature to be guessed at. Even now, after all this time, an Inquisitor's abilities were measured in comparative terms to the Evo who encountered them. Some Inquisitors could be detected, others couldn't, some Inquisitor minds were able to be read, others weren't, some were as easy to manipulate, others couldn't be at all, and even stories concerning the same inquisitor changed depending on the Evo who encountered them. A powerful Evo had a chance, a weaker one didn't. All inquisitors seemed to be proficient at hand to hand combat and -- in later years -- the use of firearms, they almost always worked in teams and only in the encounters with the largest comparative difference in powers could the inquisitor be detected by anything more than the aura that seemed to surround all of them.

It was a complicated subject, complicated further by the massive variations in details given by Evos who had encountered them. Even Charlotte had trouble explaining it, but there were a few details that seemed to be almost universal. The Inquisitors detected and identified the Evos long before the Evo knew they were being watched, the more an Evo used their powers, the faster they would draw the attention of an Inquisitor, and if they were not affiliated with the church, they almost always worked themselves into positions of, maybe not authority, but certainly positions where they could monitor the local population.

Law enforcement departments, newspapers and reporters, government officials, any position that would be able to detect a change in an Evo's circumstances or environment was sought out and filled by Inquisitors. There were only a few exceptions and one of those were the 'High Inquisitors' that Charlotte had mentioned before.

Whereas the propagation of the Evo population was something of a game of chance, Evos at least knew how it worked, the continuation of the Inquisitor species was very different. Evos were usually born spontaneously, meaning that they were not often born due to the mutation being passed down by their parents, hereditary considerations were rarely a factor. Nobody in the Evo community knew how the Inquisitor ability was caused at all, but one fact was indisputable: Inquisitors were rarely female, and the coupling of a male and female inquisitor invariably produced a child known as a 'High Inquisitor'. These children grew to positions of power within the Inquisitor hierarchy itself, rather than positions within human society and were -- as far as anyone could tell -- completely immune to any Evo powers, were utterly unbeatable in combat and would relentlessly pursue and invariably kill any Evo unfortunate enough to cross their path. More than this, the hunting of Evo's seemed to be their sole occupation. The abject terror Charlotte had displayed at our first meeting suddenly became easier to explain; if a High Inquisitor was close enough to you for their void to be detected, they already knew you were an Evo and immediately fleeing was the only chance you had to survive, and it was a slim chance at that.

Everyone, even Charlotte, understood why the Church had declared war on the Conclave, but although the Inquisitors had started their existence as a branch of the Vatican, the centuries since had seen them form their own distinctive organization with only the most circumstantial ties to the Church. Some Inquisitors happened to be a part of the clergy, but the overwhelming majority of them in modern times had nothing to do with the church at all. Yet, their obsessive and zealous attacks on any Evo they found, not to mention their relentless pursuit of the Conclave was as paramount in their actions today as it had been during the inquisitions. The Inquisitors hated our kind with a passion that was totally unexplained, and the fervor with which they still hunted down and murdered -- publicly, if possible -- any Evo they came across hadn't diminished in the slightest and nobody knew why. It was a terrifying opponent to face and the fear in Charlotte's eyes was impossible to miss.

The longer my lesson went on, the darker Charlotte's face became. Her tutelage about the Conclave was something akin to a lesson on mutual distrust, her lesson about the Inquisitors was one of total and abject dread. There was nothing on Earth that scared her the way that the Inquisitors.

"They could be watching us right now," she said, her voice still trembling as she spoke. "Their eyes could be on us as we sit in your apartment, planning their attack and we would probably have no idea until they came for us. Yeah..." she paused for a second, her eyes wandering anywhere except to face me, "... they scare me."

Part of me felt guilty as I hooked my arm around her and pulled her into me. As with many things about my life as an Evo, it would be a while before I understood the story behind the lesson, but whatever it was, it had affected Charlotte deeply. For the time being, I learned all that I needed to know, and Charlotte seemed emotionally incapable of teaching me anything more. Both of us seemed content to just sit and look on an icon of my own history that suddenly seemed utterly irrelevant.

I couldn't even begin to guess how long we sat there, each of our minds silently mulling over the lesson that I had just been taught. But eventually Charlotte spoke up. "In other news," she smiled weakly. "It looks like our party might get the go ahead for next weekend."

My eyebrows shot up in delighted surprise. "Really? That's awesome!"

"Yeah, Becky has been chomping at the bit to see you again. She has been running herself ragged trying to get the new shift rotation to work."

I already knew this; she had said as much during our frequent text conversations. Becky was a busy person at the best of times, but the demands being made of her recently meant that our chats had become shorter and less frequent as the month had gone on. It was more than a little flattering to think that she was making this sacrifice on my behalf. I retook Charlotte's hand and gave it a soft squeeze, smiling to her as he turned her head to mine. "Are you going to be able to make it?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world."

We wandered my city for a little while longer, finally finding ourselves on the northern walls. The talk of the party had lightened the mood slightly since the lesson on the Inquisitors, but nothing could return the buoyancy it had before that. The Inquisitors were clearly a sore subject and I didn't want to sour the mood any further by pushing it. Since our kiss, I had complete and total trust in Charlotte, if she hadn't told me what it was about the subject that was bothering her so much, then there was a good reason for it. I had no doubt whatsoever that she would have if it had been relevant to my training, and I was sure she would tell me eventually.

"I don't think I'm ever going to get used to this." She said through a soft smile, her hand back in mine and her body leaning against me, her head was resting on my shoulder as we looked out over the sprawling, remarkable metropolis as it spread out beneath us. "Maybe your next lesson should happen in my city," she chuckled. "Less distractions."

"Sounds like a plan." I smiled back. It was another strange occurrence of social situations that I still hadn't grown accustomed to, but we both seemed to instinctively know that our time together in my city had come to an end for this session. Nothing was said, there were no dropped hints or awkward silences, we both just... knew. I suppose it is akin to knowing when a date is over or when a conversation has run its course, not that I would have known back then, but with a few blinks, my vision cleared and I was sat, cross-legged in my apartment, holding Charlotte's hands as her eyes focused on mine.

Without a word, we both stood up and walked to the door. She turned to face me, a soft smile playing on her lips, her mind, crystal clear in its clarity, was telling me that although we were done for the day, she had genuinely enjoyed my company. I was sure that my mind was returning the sentiment. She stepped in, wrapping her arms around my waist and pulling me in for a warm embrace. My own arms snaked around the small of her back, pulling her gently back into me, her whole body melding into mine. She leaned up, pressed a wet kiss against my stubbled cheek, smiled again, turned and left. Not a word had been uttered since we returned from the mindscape. Nothing needed to be said, and in a stark contrast from my socially inept life before my awakening, I was totally fine with that.

I mean, look. I know what some of you are thinking. This is way too much detail to be going into for such a mundane act, but you have all probably lived your lives with close friendships where a parting hug was nothing to write home about. You may have been friends with someone that you wanted a whole lot more with but it hadn't progressed that far, and that parting kiss -- be it given, or received -- would have been nothing more as a token of affection for you. But for me, with a complete and total lack of any of those things in my life, it meant the world.

My social isolation may have been the result of my parents' abuse, but it would be lazy and dishonest of me to place the blame for my life entirely at their feet. I could see that now. I had tried, for years, to be the happy-go-lucky, laid-back, life of the party that Jimmy pulled off so effortlessly, but I always felt like the fifth wheel on a four wheeled carriage; just useless and in the way. The more my ability enhanced memory looked back, the more I came to realize that the problem had been as much me as it was everyone else. I didn't make as much of an effort as I could have, and with no reason to pick up the slack for me, neither did anyone else. I would immediately pick up on their disinterest, take it personally and walk away. Jimmy was the first to really put in the leg work for a friendship to work, and, although my help with his understanding of the course materials may have been the initial incentive to make the effort, he had gone above and beyond what was necessary to be my friend. It's funny how the little things can make you appreciate people and events so much.

As if on cue, my phone dinged. I walked over to the desk to pick it up, my eyebrows scrunching at the screen; it was a Facebook messenger notification, and more importantly, it was from Olivia. Again, this seemingly inconspicuous event has to be taken in the context of my experiences up to this point. As with any other child of my generation, I had grown up in a society where escaping the lures of social media was almost impossible. I had tried twitter, but the people on there just annoyed me. Call me a misanthrope, but unless you have a PhD in Astronomy, your ridiculous theories of why you think the Earth is flat should be kept to yourself. Twitter just seemed like a platform for any idiot to express any mundane thought that popped into his or her head. I avoided it like the plague.

Facebook was harder to get away from. Some teachers in high school assigned homework via the platform and the entire social calendar of the school's population was organized on it. Most events were open invite, so I can't even claim to be the one guy that was never invited, but for the most part, Facebook just served to reinforce my own self-inflicted isolation. There were the random posts that could be fairly entertaining, but after leaving high school, the majority of my feed was filled with pictures of what people were eating, pictures of people's dogs, nights out involving people I didn't really know and the odd quiz to find out what kind of flower you were. It was Jimmy who changed all that.

It would seem obvious for a person in my situation to have attended a university as far from home as possible. The problem was that my university was one of the best in the country when it came to computer science programs, including game software engineering. I guess it is the equivalent of being born in Oxford, only to attend Oxford University, or being born in Cambridge and attending Harvard. That school was always the one you were going to attend. Regardless of where it was geographically, it just happened to be in your hometown. I would have loved to be on the other side of the country from my parents, but it just wasn't meant to be.

My point here is that like many other students, I had arrived at university determined to reinvent myself. I knew nobody and nobody knew me, I could be whoever I wanted to be. For the first few weeks that seemed to work out fine, but my awkwardness in social situations eventually shone through and the few 'friends' I had added to Facebook during that time had invariably drifted away. Jimmy was the first person of importance in my life I had added since arriving, and with him making a point to put his entire social calendar on there, I was forced to keep the app on my phone. The second person I added had been Olivia, but in the entire time I had used the app, I had never, not once, received a message through it.

Hey. Heard you got out of the hospital. Just wanted to check in. How are you doing? The message read.

My fingers were already working on the keypad before my mind had fully processed the situation. For a long time, Olivia was my dream girl. It was only the presence in my life of Becky and the other nurses, not to mention Charlotte and Evie, that had distracted me from the eternal puzzle that was Olivia.

I'm doing good, thanks. Got out a few weeks ago. Healing up nicely and ready to get back in the saddle. How are things with you? I sent back.

Good here, I'm glad you are doing okay. Back in the saddle, eh? What are you planning on riding, or should I ask who? 😉

There was the teasing flirt that I remembered so well, but my newfound confidence was more than up for the task that the old me would have run from in terror. Haven't decided yet, but I've had my eye on this girl for a while. She keeps teasing me, so I wanna see if she can back it up.

Ohhh. Anyone I know?

Be at the Queens Head on Saturday night and you might find out.😉

I still cringe at sending emojis on messages, don't ask me why. But if you can't beat 'em...

I'm intrigued. I'll be there.

Great. See you then. I smiled, tucking away the thought of how easy this was and the silent scolding of myself for not doing it sooner.

It's a date. She sent back. I was tempted to add something more to the conversation, but playing the better part of valor, I dropped the phone back onto the desk and got back to work.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

University, for those of you unfortunate enough to have not attended, is much like you would imagine and I would strongly recommend it to anyone, at least, that is, until the final year. With the last stretch of the course dedicated to completion of your final project, there weren't many classes that required mandatory attendance. Whereas in the previous two years, there were usually two or three classes a day, plus all the workshops and seminars to help get a student through the materials, the third year only had two compulsory classes all week. The workshops still ran, but they were now entirely geared up to support students needing help with their project, this not only made them optional, but with my project being so revolutionary, there was little, if anything, that they could offer me. I spent the vast majority of that week hunched over my computer, the lines of code appearing on screen as if by magic while Jimmy either typed away on his laptop on the other side of the room -- he had finally taken the hint from the professors and myself that he needed to get started -- or, more often, played the Xbox.

The two classes went as you would expect as well. Although the classrooms didn't have assigned seating, we had been in the same room for the previous two years and had all stuck to sitting with the groups that Professor Jacobs had lumped us with at the beginning of the first year. With only Jimmy and I left from ours, we sat on the extreme right of the class about halfway back. Evie, the only other person in class I had any interest in seeing, was at the very front, on the far left, about as far away from us as she could get without leaving the room. It wasn't intentional, it was just the way things had worked out. This meant that the only conversation we had outside of text messages was either waiting to enter, or immediately after leaving for class. Lori wasn't on our course so I didn't see her at all.

"Happy hump day." She beamed at me on the Wednesday morning as I arrived a few minutes before class started. She was leaning against the wall next to the classroom door, her figure-hugging jeans reminding me of the exquisite body underneath while the more conservative knitted sweater told me that she was as uncomfortable with the British October weather as I was.

"Hey there, beautiful." I smiled back, walking up to her and kissing her cheek before leaning against the wall next to her. Her mind was still a little hazy to me, not as unclear as it had been a few nights earlier, but nothing close to as clear as the other minds around me. What little I could glean from her told me that she was very happy to see me, and the kiss had gone a long way to dissuade her fears that the previous Saturday night had been a one off. I know she couldn't read me, but my smile and my mind were both in agreement that I was just as glad to see her as well.

"So, how is the third year treating you, so far?" I asked as she unconsciously leaned her body against mine.

"Not bad," She smiled. "I think I have a solid grip on what I want to do for my project."

"Yeah? What are you doing for it?" I was genuinely interested in what she had in mind. Not only was she one of the few girls in the class, a number which had dropped disproportionately since the first day, but with our new personal involvement, I wanted to see how her mind worked. Jimmy had surprised me with his choice, I had always assumed he would want to design a new game like most of our other classmates were. His idea wasn't only novel, it was incredibly well thought out by his normal standards.

"Well, so far, I've managed to hook up with you so I can steal your ideas, they are better than mine." She said, trying her hardest to keep a straight face. "We'll see how that goes." I chuckled, turning to her with a grin. Her composure collapsed in a matter of seconds and I was treated to another of her addictively musical giggles. "Alright, fine." She smiled again. "So, have you ever played a game and there are only a certain number set characters you can be?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I have always been really annoyed by the fact that there is only ever one token female character." She said, her smile fading from her lips a little. "So much so that I have refused to play a game because I can either be an armoured tank of a man, or a scantily clad delicate wallflower. I mean, it's ridiculous. Having to wander around online RPGs wearing a bikini is stupid in this day andage. Then you have the games where you can design your character at the beginning and it doesn't make a difference if you are male or female, those are better, but still... lacking."

"I'm with you." I nodded, impressed by the enthusiasm she was showing as she became more and more animated the longer she spoke.

"Lots of games don't do that because character design systems can be quite complicated, it takes a lot of time to build and takes up space they want for something else." Her hands were waving around in the air as she spoke. "So, I want to make a stand-alone character creation kit where you can design your character down to the tiniest detail, then make it compatible with the games out there that need it. Either a designer can bolt it onto the game they are making, or have the player directed to this site and their character could be ported in from there, and no matter what you chose your player to be, there would be no lasting effects on the game unless the designer wanted there to be. Kind of like a way to remove sexism from games." She smiled, letting her hands come to rest at her sides. "It would be nice to have the ability to make strong female leads in games without changing them too much." She finished with a shrug.