Why did the three of you trick me into thinking you were one drakkon?
We were not aware that you thought us three one. You made an assumption.
You look exactly alike!
Yes, and you made an assumption that we were the same being. We would have told you we were three separate beings if you had asked us if we were three separate beings.
How was I supposed to know to ask that?
We are not assigning blame, Dorie. We are stating your faulty assumption, and correcting it.
He had a point, but I continued to bristle.
My assumption might have been faulty, but your logic is circular. I assumed wrongly, but I couldn’t have known to ask if you guys were three separate aliens under a trench coat. I mean, the we/ours stuff didn’t help. And all the times when I talked about something “you” did and you didn’t correct me.
We have trouble with the word “you” especially. We think in the collective, therefore, when you used “you” to refer to something Aengus had done, we did not register that it was due to a false premise. The difficulty is, we still have trouble translating “you” as you mean it because we do not think as individuals, per se, only as we have been programmed.
Programmed?That first-day theory about them being intelligent machines came roaring back.Are you three robots with the ability to control our minds?
No, we are not industrial automatons. And we do not seek to control your mind.
Yet here you are.
Looking back on my unprecedented run of daily, intense exercise, I had to ask,Have you been in my brain this entire time? Reading it? Controlling me?
Long silence.We have used a light form of godspeak to encourage you in your training. It is important that you become strong and learn to defend yourself, so it is only when you are tired and we sense you can go further. We have not pried, as you would call it. We have encouraged, but we have not read your mind. We cannot do that. Our interspecies communication does not work the same as wolves. You have to intentionally project your thoughts for us to hear them.
That explained why he didn’t know about the big key in my pocket. But a new fear took hold.How about Aengus and the knifey one. Can they mind control me, too?
Aengus refuses to godspeak you under any condition,Diarmuid answered.
Something loosened in my chest at that. Just slightly.
But then Diarmuid added,And if Orpheus could control your mind, we would not be having this conversation. You would already be dead.
A chill ran up my back. I did not love the way he used “already” in that sentence. As if my death was inevitable.
Suddenly, I just really had to know:If you’re not triplets, and you’re not brothers, what are you?
Aengus and the drakkon you call Diarmuid are variants of the Royal Geneticist.
Who is the Royal Geneticist?
The drakkon who bioengineered your hybrid race.
My brain was filling up like a glass placed underneath a waterfall. I needed it to slow down. It would not slow down.
I blinked hard with the only part of my body I could move.Wait… what?! One of you created us?
Reverence, the Royal Huntmaster has asked us to accompany him to our wolf facility. We must take to the air and will soon be out of mental communication range.
Wolf facility?My brain felt like it was about to fold in on itself.Wait, there are other wolves here?
No answer.
And in the next moment, I was abruptly released from the force keeping me pinned to the seat.
I jumped to my feet and immediately stumbled, legs tingling with pins and needles from being held frozen. I grabbed the edge of the stone table to steady myself, trying to formulate a plan in my head.
