Deathstalker 06 - Deathstalker Legacy

he'd run for so long, belief was for suckers. But just lately he'd been thinking .
    . . bigger thoughts. Nothing like working for a genuinely evil man to make you consider questions of morality. Brett had never really thought of himself as a bad man. Until now.
    You couldn't ally yourself with something like the Spider Harps and not fear for the state of your soul.
    Brett had been thinking about the mind and the soul . . . and the oversoul. He was an esper now, for better or worse, and that changed everything. He'd been feeling the presence of the oversoul more and more, like a great and glorious light shining in the depths of a dark, dark night. When he looked in that direction, which he could sense but not name, he felt awe and wonder, and something that was very like a religious experience. He also felt shit scared. It was just . . . too big, too intense, too overwhelming. He couldn't cope with it. And when faced with something that scared and threatened him, Brett did what he always did; he ran away.
    "That doesn't always work, Brett," said a calm female voice, right beside him.
    Brett looked around sharply, almost jumping out of his skin, and found a statuesque brunette sitting right next to him. There was no way she could have sneaked up on him and sat down so close she was practically on his lap, without him realizing. Not with a practiced paranoid like him. But there she was, large as life and twice as overpowering, decked out in black silks and darker makeup, smiling at him like she could see right to the bottom of his lousy rotten soul . . . and didn't give a damn. Brett felt very like whimpering, or fainting. He didn't run, but only because he just knew that wherever he ran, she'd already be there waiting for him.
    "The oversoul, I presume?" he said finally, just to be saying something. He had to force the words past numb and quivering lips. His stomach ache was back big time.
    "Of course," said the brunette. "We've been calling you for some time, but you wouldn't pick up the phone, so to speak. So we decided a personal visit was in order. I had business in the city today, so it fell to me. Relax, I'm not going to force any literature on you. I'm Crow Jane. I'm here to make you an offer you won't want to refuse."
    "That's usually my line," said Brett. "Never con a con man. I know all the lines. First rule of the game;
    any offer that seems too good to be true, probably is too good to be true. You don't want me. I'm not really an esper; Finn force fed me the esper drug, and now I'm just a really minor-league telepath. Accent on the minor. Throw me back, Crow Jane. I'm too small a fish for you to bother with."
    "All are welcome in the oversoul," said Crow Jane. "There's a place and a role for everyone. That's the point. It's not a union, or an organization. It's family. It's home."
    "I've managed quite successfully without either all my life. I look out for myself. Always have done."
    "It sounds very lonely." Crow Jane put a hand over his. "You don't have to be alone anymore, Brett.
    Join with us, and you'll never be alone again."
    "It sounds awful," Brett said stubbornly. "I'd hate it. I'm not the joining type. I don't play well with others; never have. And I won't give up being me."
    "Why settle for anything so small, and limited? You could be you, and us as well."
    "Sounds crowded," said Brett. "If I joined the oversoul, I'd have to give up all my secrets, wouldn't I?"
    "We don't hide anything from each other," said Crow Jane. "We don't need to."
    "Told you we had nothing in common. Look; I really wouldn't fit in. Trust me on this. I'm a rogue, not made to run with the pack, and I like it that way. I like knowing things that no one else knows, and always being one step ahead. You can't make me join you, against my will; can you?
    "No," said Crow Jane, with a sigh. "And we wouldn't, if we could. That's the point. You'll find it very lonely, Brett, trying to live among humans when you're not human any longer. There's a closeness espers know that no one else could hope to understand. Don't you ever feel a need for love, or companionship, for tenderness and acceptance?"
    "Wouldn't know what to do with them if I had them," Brett said briskly. "Don't let me keep you. I'm sure you have much more useful business you could be about."
    Crow Jane patted his hand once, sadly, and then rose to her feet. "Watch out for the ELFs, Brett.
    They'd eat you alive. You've seen the Spider Harps; trust me, that's only the tip