Chapter 48: The Fallen and the Follower

The room stood in stunned silence as Robert observed them with his arms crossed, Alasdair just behind him. Baylen’s sapphire eyes never wavered from Robert’s dark ones as he waited for an acknowledgement.

After an eternity, Robert dropped his head to his chest with an exasperated sigh. “Baylen, you can’t just ethervesce into the AIDO whenever you damn well feel like it!”

Declan swore in disbelief.

Baylen’s expression didn’t change. “I know.”

“Well?” Robert threw out his hands with impatient irritation. “What are you doing here then?”

Baylen nodded to Kitara without a word.

“Stars,” the High Engineer muttered.

“You know him?” Storm asked, wide-eyed.

“Unfortunately.”

“Councilor, I don’t understand,” Alasdair said from behind him.

“That makes all of us!” Declan exclaimed.

“The library office is not the best place for this discussion,” Robert muttered. “If anyone walks in—”

“I would have disappeared already,” Baylen reassured him. “But since it was you…”

“We are in the middle of a critical level emergency, Baylen.”

“And yet…here we are.”

“Somebody fucking explain, right the fuck now, or I will start arresting people,” Declan growled.

“Stand down, Captain,” Robert said. “Baylen is…not a threat. But we need to move somewhere else.”

“My quarters,” Storm volunteered. “There’s enough room for us all.”

“Find Zayne,” Declan snapped. “I’m not doing this without a fucking diplomat.”

Robert massaged the bridge of his nose. “It’s always the four of you. Stars…” He frowned at Baylen. “Go with them. I’ll get Zayne. I don’t have time to figure out how you circumvented my shields. Again.”

Kitara and Storm exchanged a wide-eyed look.

Again? Storm mouthed, and Kitara shrugged.

Thus they found themselves in Storm’s quarters, following a brief but heated debate about Baylen striding across the lobby in plain view.

Baylen, for his part, seemed unfazed by the others discussing him like he wasn’t present. Kitara, still reeling from his revelations, struggled to piece together their conversations over the last several months. Declan still looked ready to shoot somebody, and Devika had pulled Alasdair aside to explain. Storm sent his broadsword back into the ether, but his narrowed gaze never left the Netherling’s face, nor did he leave Kitara’s side.

When Robert returned with Zayne, the air hung thick with palpable tension. “I’m starting to regret wanting to know what you’ve been doing,” the Ambassador sighed.

“Join the club,” Alasdair muttered.

None of them sat, instead standing around Storm’s vast living room wearing expressions of varying suspicion and confusion.

“Explain.” Declan motioned between Robert and Baylen. “No offense Councilor, but this is not a good look for you.”

The Fallen’s eyes narrowed. “Considering I don’t fully understand the reason he’s here, Baylen should probably start.”

They all turned expectantly to the white-haired immortal standing with deceptively casual posture in the middle of the room.

“You’re my…cousin,” Kitara said before he could take a breath. “I’m struggling to wrap my mind around that. How—” she choked on the word, composed herself, then tried again. “How could you have betrayed us? Your own family?”

“I didn’t know, Kitara,” Baylen replied. “You must believe me. I said it before—I didn’t believe I had family beyond Shyamal; I was too young to know any different when he took me. For the longest time, I didn’t even know I was his flesh and blood. I thought I was one of the immortals he’d captured to use as lab rats.

“He experimented with my genetics—his genetics. He thought if he could extract his DNA…he could restore himself. When that didn’t work, he molded me into something…monstrous. His plan for me was all I’d ever known. For the better part of several centuries, I sought nothing beyond his approval.”

Storm grimaced in reluctant understanding.

Baylen continued. “When he told me to track an enemy—something he’d ordered many times before—I didn’t think anything of it. Once I found out, Kitara, I swear to you—it nearly destroyed me. I did everything in my power to stop it, but it wasn’t enough.”

“And…after?”

A dark expression crossed the Netherling’s face. “I developed a network free of Shyamal’s influence and had him assassinated within ten years. I spent the next several decades trying to find out what happened to you. Whenever I learned of a freshly Felled Valëtyrian, I sought them out.”

“And that’s how you two know each other?” Declan asked, peering suspiciously between him and Robert.

Baylen gestured for the Councilor to continue.

Robert sighed. “I was newly exiled. Disoriented, adrift. I didn’t know how to be…inhuman in a human world, or immortal without immortality. As Baylen said, he found me, but unlike many others, he didn’t try to convince me to become Valorn. I learned to trust him—” The Fallen scowled in the Netherling’s direction. “—and I shouldn’t have. But…he probably saved my life.”

“So which is it; you trust him, or you don’t?” Declan asked, still frowning.

“I trust he has no quarrel with the AIDO. That’s…about as much as I can.”

Baylen’s expression betrayed no regret for using the Fallen Councilor nor dismay at the distrust Robert displayed. “I’d venture I’ve done enough to prove that much.”

“Landon,” Kitara muttered. “But he wasn’t really your source.”

“Correct.”

“Did he find you, or did you find him?”

“He found me, much the same way you tried to, but by offering classified AIDO intel, including the location of the silverblood in Cairo, the identity of your High Sleeper, and the best ways to circumvent AIDO security at any facility except headquarters.”

Kitara inhaled sharply. “He told you about Saoirse?” she rasped.

Baylen nodded once. “He also admitted to dealing in the blood trade. It’s how he worked his way into Itzal’s confidence. I didn’t let him explain much beyond that.” His gaze darkened.

Images flashed behind Kitara’s eyes of the gruesome state of Landon’s corpse. “Was his torture really necessary?”

Baylen’s stoic expression didn’t falter. “It was.”

“Stars, Baylen,” Robert murmured.

“What did you do?” Devika asked, addressing the Councilor. “To be Felled, I mean, and to come back?”

The others stared at her with a mixture of shock and horror at the question.

Robert, however, seemed unfazed. “I sent word to the High Council about a flaw in one of their security systems. When they brushed it off, I exploited that flaw so they’d recognize what kind of breach they might face if someone less…altruistic used it.” He shrugged. “They didn’t see it the same way.”

“You hacked their servers?” Alasdair asked.

Robert shook his head. “No. I hijacked their servers. Completely locked them down to prove a point.”

“Stars, have you met my dad?” Storm muttered.

Robert turned to him. “Not at the time, no,” he replied. “They thought I was attempting some kind of takeover or extortion or something. The Guardians who arrested me didn’t give me an opportunity to explain.”

“But why Fell you?” Devika asked, aghast. “Couldn’t you just…explain later?”

“I was formerly a technopath,” the Fallen said. “Which allowed me to exploit their system. It took them a few years to realize only a technopath could help solve the flaw, but by then, it was too late for me.”

“Is that how you knew about me?” Kitara asked. “Enough to…tell Baylen? You couldn’t have known before then, not before becoming a Councilor, otherwise.”

Robert studied her for a moment, then glanced around at the others. His eyes widened in understanding. “Blessed stars, they all know, don’t they?”