Deathstalker 06 - Deathstalker Legacy

oversoul mad at him.
    Emma folded her arms across her breastplate and tapped her foot impatiently as she looked about her.
    There was no one else on the landing pads. No ships, no travelers, not even any signs of Customs and Excise. Emma considered the implications of that for a moment, and then decided not to. It was only upsetting her. She turned around to help Joy down from the sled, and when she turned back an esper
    was standing right in front of her. Emma refused to jump, on principle, but it still took a moment for her heart to settle. The esper was a tall woman, almost supernaturally thin, with a long bony face and long blond fly-away hair, framing her head like a halo. She inclined her head slightly to the Ecstatic, in something that was almost a bow but not quite, and then looked coldly at Emma with dark, dark eyes.
    Emma glared right back at her, and then felt as much as heard a buzzing in her head, like an itch she couldn't scratch, somewhere behind her eyes. It grew suddenly worse, a pain stabbing outwards from the center of her brain. She swayed unsteadily on her feet, and put a hand to her head, and then her mind opened up, blossoming like a flower in the rain, spreading wide in all directions, some of which she had never even supposed existed before. Sight and sound and colors and echoes and so much more ... And for a moment Emma Steel caught just a glimpse of the oversoul at work; an intricate lattice of interconnecting thoughts, communicating with more speed and clarity and depth than mere speech could ever allow. A million minds all talking at once, without anything being lost or drowned out, forming patterns of logic and structures of emotion, unbearably beautiful, inhumanly complex, infinitely productive.
    The oversoul; a whole far greater than the sum of its parts. And then the pain crashed back into Emma's head as her mind slammed shut, her glimpse of heaven over, the gates slammed shut in her face. Emma groaned aloud despite herself, and looked at the esper before her with new eyes.
    "Why did you show me that? And why did you shut me out again?"
    "You have the esper gene, Paragon." The woman's voice was little more than a whisper, as though she wasn't used to talking aloud, and Emma had to strain to understand her. "It's buried deep in your ancestry. Not strong enough to maintain telepathy without extensive support. Continuing the contact would have burned you out. Permanently. You don't belong here. Though your descendants might, some day. We are Humanity's future, after all. One day, we shall all shine like suns. The Owen said so."
    "You're starting to sound like him," Emma growled, jerking her head at Joy. "He's an Ecstatic."
    "Yes," said the esper. "I recognized the smile." She looked at Joy, frowned briefly, and something passed between them. The esper nodded reluctantly. "Very well. He shall have sanctuary. You must leave, Paragon."
    "Just like that?" Emma let her hands rest ostentatiously on her weapons belt and gave the esper her best scowl. "Blow that out your ears. This is Paragon business. I'm not budging from here till I get some answers. Why is the Church suddenly killing Ecstatics? What does this one know that's so damned important? And why are you willing to protect him?"
    "Things are changing," said the esper, her voice and gaze unwavering. "The Church needs enemies, to keep its members focused. Give the people someone to hate, and they'll stop thinking for themselves.
    Make them hate enough, and they'll turn on anyone. You should know that, Paragon. Soon the Church will turn on espers. We are the next logical target. We re too sane to fall for the Church's lies and temptations, and too powerful and too dangerous to be allowed to exist outside the Church. They'll come for us next. We are calling all our people home. Back to the security of New Hope. We will not fall again. You must go now."
    Emma started to argue, and the next thing she knew she was standing beside her gravity sled on the landing pads of Logres's main starport. Right back where she'd first arrived on the planet. She'd been teleported. There was no sign of the Ecstatic. Emma sighed and shrugged, and stepped back up onto her sled. She rose slowly back into the sky and floated back across the city, going nowhere in particular. The Parade of the Endless seemed very different now from when she'd first arrived, such a short time ago. So full of happiness and good intentions then, even innocent, though that was not a