Chapter 12

  A Brother watched the demon enter the Outreach. A Sister was felt far off, but they were getting closer. A Sister must have completed her tasks in the dust and the dirt. A Brother sneered at the disgusting pyramid in front of him. Identical to Home on the outside, old and poor on the inside.

  A Brother laughed a metal laugh. It rang in it. Some little man glanced at A Brother, and A Brother followed the little man with A Brother’s eyes. A Brother drew looks. A Brother was something to behold. A sculpture, a making, a miracle.

  A Brother felt a surge of energy, and the ears picked up an ancient sound. A Thunderhead had pushed inside the great hall. A Brother sneered again at the silly traditions of the monks. The Parents were alive. Alive and in their minds and their hearts. Why tradition? Why religion? Why when the Parents were alive?

  A Brother didn’t worship. A Brother served and remembered. Demons walked La Terra. Demon children of the Parents. Children that must be eradicated. A Brother caught the demon come back out of the hall. A Brother could feel it. A Brother wondered what blocked the feelings when the demon went inside the Outreach. A Brother stood tense and still in the street. The demons were weak and pathetic, but they were dangerous. A Brother blended into the crowds. The demon stumbled off towards the Outreach’s outer walls. A Brother looked back into the open maw of the Outreach. Something blocked A Brother’s vision from the inside. That something bothered A Brother. A Brother wiped the emotion from the mind. A Sister would notice.

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  A Brother took a step towards the demon. The demon was lying in the dirt. A woman stood over it. A Brother could feel the demon drift to unconsciousness. A Brother noticed another feeling. Pain in the right knuckle. A Brother saw the fabric wrapped around the woman’s hand. The pain should not be there. An itch in the mind. The woman dragged the demon behind the rocks and disappeared. The woman had shown A Brother a way inside. A Brother would get inside.

  ***

  A Sister’s vision bounced on the galloping horse. A Sister felt the right hand tighten and felt A Brother’s confusion. Something had gone quite wrong in A Brother’s chase of the demons. A Sister was not worried. Rumors of the demons would not follow their path to Home.

  The pueblo burned behind A Sister. The bodies were piled as twins there, burned there. The warmth of the fire was the first comfort A Sister had felt in years.