Touching her hand to steady her and bringing her close to his own, his mind still coming to terms with whatever new kind of vision he's had, Daniel locks his eyes on those of Mordechai and it occurs to him that he should not be shocked by the sight, not after all that happened those years ago.
“Daniel,” Her voice a whisper, “It's. . .”
“I know. It is Mordechai, love,” Standing and gently holding Ester back on the couch Daniel speaks as much to the bear as to his wife. “I won’t let him hurt you.”
“Hurt me? Honey, that’s sweet of you but you ain’t no spring chicken. That thing’ll snap you in two!” As she speaks she stands to protect him and stares defiantly at the bear. “Don’t think I don’t know who you are, Mordechai! And I have only one thing to say to you. You can just get the hell out! Daniel is his own man and I won’t let you manipulate him any longer. You are not his master.”
Mordechai’s mouth twists into a toothy smile as he cocks his head up at the ceiling in what might be a laugh. As his mouth opens Ester can see that his teeth are not sharp or worn like a bear's might be but broad and flat like molars, like an herbivore. It only takes that cue for her to see how little he actually resembles a bear, aside from the short, coarse, black fur and the muzzled face. Long and lanky but the height of man he is more like a paunchy bear man than anything. His shoulders slumped a little, she realizes he must be old, at least by whatever standards his race might have. She can see the muscles slightly withered under his skin like an elderly body builder who struggles to stay in shape against the grinding stone of time. For a moment she feels some sympathy for the beast but it is cast aside by the laughter he throws in their faces.
Daniel too sees the age on the creatures face as scratchy words come forth from the box the bear holds in its claws, so like the one he remembers from long ago but smaller, simpler and more solid.
“It is not I who manipulates him. Those are beings vastly more powerful than you or I, unfortunately.” The bear leers at Ester’s unbroken brow but somehow there is a sadness in his eyes that transcends species or race. ”How can such a little person as you hope to free him from the burdens of gods?”
Ester’s expression only strengthens in determination as the bear speaks but her eyes are glossy with moisture. “I can’t free him from his own mind, only he’s got the power to do that.” Daniel feels Ester’s hand grip his tightly despite its shaking. “But he’ll never have to go a day without me bein’ at his side, not anymore. Not as long as I have air in my lungs.”
Daniel’s grip matches Ester’s as Mordechai looks at him, his face inscrutable. The box speaks. “I can see why you love her.”
“Do you?” Daniel spits the words and moves towards the bear, his eyes glazed over in a rage. “For years you had tormented me! The visions of you and those damned angels! Blackouts, fevers, the edge of death for the visions you give and those angels, always unknowable in your power! Go back to whatever place you come from. You are not wanted here!”
Ester nods and wraps an arm around Daniel's shoulders, forcing her to step closer to the bear as she notices the strangeness of its presence. Not the strangeness of it being there but the lack of a presence, that feeling in the air that one senses when another being is nearby. Looking closer she sees that the edges of his fur are a little blurry and she wonders, why does the bear not have a smell? Surely a creature like this must have an odor and in this close space. . .
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend, Ezekial. This is a human phrase. I have had time to practice and study your language and your people. I think I understand you better now but,” The scratching noises from the box almost sound sympathetic in their coldness, but only when backed by the gentle gestures of Mordechai as he holds out his hand to the couple. “Those whom tormented you are not my allies. You are my only ally now, Ezekial, and I fear that it is all but too late for you, for your Ester, and perhaps for your entire race.”
“What does this mean?”
“Are you saying that you’ve been tryin’ to help Daniel all this time? All of your visions?”
The bear looks blankly at them and then nods as if it had forgotten the gesture for a moment. “For a time I could only reach the Architect via the same channels that the Engineers use and even those not consistently. Those channels, unfortunately took a great toll on you, friend.”
“Friend?” Daniel laughs gently but ruefully and he feels a pain in his back as his shoulders drop The years have been long for him, visions or no. “Am I the architect? I am now yah, but surely you and your angels do not need my skills for drawing floor plans and foundations.”
“Daniel, I think the Angels needed you for something else. Listen to the . . . man.”
“Thank you, Ester. You are correct about the 'Angels,' though surely you know by now that is not what they--”
“But what is this about channels?” Daniel his head at the bear and waves his arm towards him, “The visions?”
“Where I am from, the the planet I come from, only the most wealthy can afford communication over such distance and it-”
“Planet?” exclaims Ester. “Aliens? Aliens all along? Poor papa, looking for the word of god in the phone calls of aliens.”
“That’s enough!” Daniel says, not loudly but with enough force to have the room's attention. “Tell me exactly why you have disturbed our home, Mordechai. You speak of planets and communication across the stars and the death of a race. Why are you here? I tire of your strange face.”
Mordechai nods again, more fluidly this time as the box chatters at them. “You do not have to worry about seeing my kind ever again, Ezekial. Enoch saw to it that we were wiped out long ago. I am the last of my kind but I am not the last to suffer by force of those 'Angels,' nor the first.”
“And who is Enoch? You speak in riddles.”
“Enoch is what your people called the guide for a time. His kind arranges for travel across distant planets, helping the wealthy, the powerful ones of the universe to come to the weak and take what they will. Enochs kind, the Host we'll call them, are the only ones who know the technology, the methods. Those I cannot explain but Enoch, the Metatron to the Host, they have done this at least nine times that we know of. My planet was the ninth.”
The box falls silent and Ester looks to it as Daniel keeps his eyes locked with those of Mordechai. “And you will tell me ours is intended to be the tenth.”
“Yes.”
“Why?!” asks Ester, suddenly pulled back into the dialogue and afraid.
The bear shrugs in a very human was as its box speaks for it, “Perhaps it was the closest one within arm’s reach, who can say what they would like from your world. I could not not tell you. All we know is that the Revelation is never good for those chosen.”
“And what to do with me is this story or yours?”
Daniel sits back on the couch and pulls Ester by his side, both of them landing with a sigh and a longing for this story of his to end.
“Enoch reaches through the Metatron out to an Architect from the planet they choose and interacts with them through the . . . visions from far away across space, guiding the Architect, or on this planet, the many, in helping build what is needed.”
“And I helped them? I did so much?”
“It is hard to explain--”
“We have to tell the government, Daniel.” Ester pleads with her eyes to Daniel to let this be passed to another but he can see she knows that futility as Mordechai goes on.
“And what could your people hope to do to defeat them? They who would travel across the stars and take what they want from your material space?”
Daniel looks to Ester and she sees in his eyes a depth like the moonless sky at night as he speaks to the bear, standing as he does. “But you are here, so there implies a way to stop them. What do I need to do?”
Mordechai reaches out his arm toward Daniel and as the box speaks he moves his thin lips in a way that might be saying the words as well. “I need you to come with me.”
“Well, hold on!” Ester says, standing beside him “Daniel ain’t going nowhere without me!”
Mordechai ignores Ester now and instead focuses on the old man before him, his eyes narrowed into slits. “Ezekial, what I need you to do is to stop yourself before you help the 'Angels.' It is the best way we have determined, the most likely acceptable outcome. It is the only way we have developed to save this world which has a chance.” Daniel nods.
The bear glances at Ester and sighs, “But there is always a cost.”
Daniel immediately takes a step back and closer to Ester, moving slowly. It is hard for him to read the face of Mordechai and it is said that when a human looks on the face of an animal or alien it sees what it wishes to see there, for good or ill. In Mordechai's face, in his eyes so much like a humans, Daniel sees a look of compassion but unrelenting steadfastness. A determination that could bridge planets and time, and an anger there too. A longing for revenge that Daniel knows he is not projecting there, but which lies in whatever the creature uses for a heart.
Daniel shakes his head. “No, I will not help you.”
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