Chapter 17

Helen sat in silence opposite him; for now she wasn't resisting his plans, because at least a part of her understood why he was doing what he was doing. In his own way Ni was just protecting the Balance. After all, in order for there to be good, there must first be evil. And if she were to embrace evil to maintain the Balance then it was simply an extension of her duty as a Balancer, wasn't it? Because, no matter what the cost, the Balance had to be maintain, didn't it?

'What are you thinking,' Ni lifted his gaze from his untouched meal up towards her.

'I'm trying to determine whether or not I love you,' she kept her voice level and honest. 'I have to know that before I commit myself to you.'

'You stick so rigidly to my wife's advice.'

'If I am to become your second then I must consider the advice of the first; especially as that first has been like a mother to me.'

'Such a Vii Sen answer,' there was a bored kind of dullness to his voice, 'it makes me wonder…'

'Wonder what?'

'Wonder at the hand that placed you at the foot of this destiny.'

'The multiverse…'

'No,' he shook his head, 'there was more than just the multiverse at play when you came into being. You were too fortunate to have survived, for such a close call someone must have been looking out for you.'

'The multiverse's will alone is not enough?'

'It never is.'

'What's that supposed to mean,' she frowned, wondering why he was trying to make her doubt everything she'd ever been taught.

For a few long moments he was silent. Then he gave a strange sounding sigh and focused his gaze directly on her.

'The Council you follow like to make you Herin as powerful as possible, even at the cost of your own sanity or sometimes at the cost of your own existence. Do you think the multiverse wills for that?'

'The Council aren't that bad. They just want to make sure we're well trained and that we can cope with anything thrown at us.'

'And the rest.'

'What rest?'

'There are those who serve the Balance who have become unclassifiable in the process.'

'What,' she stared at him mesmerised, 'but… I mean no one is… what…?'

'The Council want the best at any cost, even if it means it puts their victims beyond their reach.'

'The Council wouldn't do that to us,' she found herself fighting back her feelings of disillusion, 'what would they gain?'

'The power to influence the whole multiverse. The power to control the Balance. The power to change the order of things to their will.'

'The Council aren't evil.'

'That's true,' Ni tilted his head, 'they were set up in the interest of the greater good. But that can be just as much of a problem.'

'Why? It's not as though Balancers aren't sent to uphold both sides of the Balance. It's why we have Hateling in our ranks to begin with.'

'Are you sure that's the reason why?' He smirked for a moment. 'Still, if you think about it in those terms, doing evil for the sake of the Balance isn't altogether against your nature, now is it?'

'Perhaps.'

Again there were a few moments of silence, as Helen contemplated what he was saying. She'd heard rumours of Balancers whose classifications had been altered since they'd started, everybody had, but she'd always thought they were exaggerations. After all, mortal Balancers were given a special injection when they first started to allow them to be compatible with anyone in case of injury; the fact that this allowed them to automatically gain any powers from their host introduced from their donor was just a coincidental side effect. It wasn't the whole point, it couldn't be. And even if by some slim chance it was, it would take decades for someone to lose their classification completely and most mortal Balancers only served thirty or forty years tops, that couldn't be enough time, could it?

'What did the Council create,' the deadpan question escaped her lips before it was fully formed.

'The Council didn't create anything, they just allowed for it to be create by turning a blind eye. It's how they work.'

'So then what was it? What was it they turned a blind eye to?'

'Something more powerful than anyone could possible imagine.'

'More powerful than you?'

'More powerful than the Mistresses,' he laughed strangely. 'More powerful than Win.'

'Never create from life,' Helen found herself reciting the first Law of Creation.

'Never create from death,' Ni continued for her. 'Never create that which is more powerful than you. Never create what you cannot control. Never create what you cannot destroy. Never create what could destroy you.'

'Never create what you cannot afford to lose,' Helen finished.

'I wonder which rules weren't violated when this ultimate being was created,' Ni's voice twinged with a kind of strangeness.

'How can you be sure it exists at all,' she met his gaze.

'It's the only way to explain what I encountered last night.'

'What you encountered…?'

'She all but admitted to me then what she was. Although there's no way to know for sure, not until I encounter her again.'

'Are you sure it was a her?'

'Yes, I can be sure. It's not the first time I've encountered her you see and her growth within that short frame of time just proves to me she is something special.'

Silence returned again, but only for a moment before Helen found the urge to speak.

'How could you be sure of her power?'

'There was something…'

'What?'

'It's hard to explain, but the moment you encounter her you can sense she's far from ordinary. What that actually makes her… your guess is as good as mine. But…'

'You think it's enough to…?'

'Yes.'

Helen studies Ni's features as he spoke. There was a strange drabness to them, as though he was contemplating a kind of emptiness.

'What is it?'

'This being seeks to oppose me. She wants things to take a different course. She wants to…'

'Unstablise the Balance,' Helen frowned, 'but she's a…'

'If the Balance, or someone connected to the Balance, had torture you into a being you were not designed to be, wouldn't you want to unstablise it?'

'Maybe…'

'Do you want to stop her?' Ni met her gaze.

'Of course,' she stared at him as though it were obvious, 'I have to protect the Balance.'

'Then you know what you must do. You must marry me.'