# Path book 1 Jane. chapter 6-1

Аноним Yagger

The decision to bring Hame and Novery together. Jane's meeting with the old shaman Vork.

Chapter 6. It's not like that at all.

Eugene (Mendoir, June 2360)

The Hectic Year (part two)

June 10, 2360, 6:45 a.m.


The workout is over, I'm going down to the kitchen. There is peace and quiet at home, the whole family, except for Deniska and me, is still asleep. My father is not here, he is on duty at the plant. I go into the kitchen, take a one-and-a-half-liter plastic canister of juice in the refrigerator, pour half of it into a glass carafe and dilute it with water. Pure juice is too sweet, and after a workout it's not exactly what you need. But it's worth diluting - that's it! I take plastic cups from the locker and go to the brothers. They're just lying on the grass, a quick glance in my direction, joy and malice in their feelings.

"I told you she'd come and bring you some juice!" This is Ham speaking.

"That surprised me... Yes, the Fox Cub has a chuika - you and I, the poor ones, never dreamed of it! I wish I had that... uhhh!"

"Don't be jealous, it's not good!"

"That's who's talking! By yourself!"

"I can!"

"That's why?!"

"I have white envy!"

"And I have a black one, then?!"

"And you're just jealous."

"I do not understand... What does simple mean?"

"Where are you going! It's not for average minds...."

"Does that mean I have an average mind?! That's it, then! Sir Haymon! I am offended in the best of feelings and demand immediate satisfaction!"

"Ha ha! Sir Denis! I accept your challenge! Where are the trainees?!"

"Over there, in the shoe box."

The guys pulled out training knives, they are made of soft and flexible plastic, but they leave bright luminescent marks after blows. It is extremely difficult to injure them, but the result is clearly visible. They kicked off their shoes and socks, and pulled off their T-shirts, leaving only light sweatpants. They stood opposite each other and bowed slightly. The beauties! Deniska is slightly shorter, but much stronger and slightly heavier than Ham, with already well-defined muscles. Ham, on the other hand, is faster and more flexible, with an amazing predatory grace, the collar has already formed, has not yet hardened, and is soft, as are the protective plates on his head and body. Tight rolls of muscles curl around the body and arms. In a couple of years, he will become a thunderstorm of women's hearts. Beware, young Turians!

They moved slowly in a circle, not taking their eyes off each other. Slightly crouched, deceptively relaxed, the right hand with the knife slightly in front, the left slightly closer to the body and lower, the palm turned down. I feel excitement and anticipation of a fight.

I'm missing the moment when the movement starts. A moment, a flicker of hands, a bunch of deceptive movements, the brothers tangled into a ball and fell apart, panting heavily. Deniska has a bright blue stripe running diagonally across her peritoneum, Ham has a bright green stripe running from her right shoulder through her collarbone and down her throat, disappearing at the ear opening.

"Ha! I got you! In real life, I wouldn't blow your head off," Denis said, panting.

"Look at yourself!" Ham is panting.

"Oh!" says Denis, staring at his stomach. "My giblets went for a walk! My poor guts! I'm blown away", the brother falls on the grass, spreading his arms. "It's a draw again! I don't like sparring with you, Ham! It doesn't do any good!"

"I agree! I know you like crazy! All your feints and tricks."

"Tell me, when was the last time our sparring ended with a victory?"

"Uh... well, it was like last week.... You kind of won."

"Sort of?.. You were in the clouds then! Master Tanris scolded you back then. And by the way, who is she?"

"What are you talking about?!" Ham flashed with embarrassment.

"Yeas well, come on!" Denis broke into a smile.

"Who were you thinking about? Come on, come on!"

"It seemed to you," Ham replied, even more embarrassed.

"Oh, brother! You seem to have fallen in love!"

"Don't be ridiculous! I'm telling you, you imagined it!"

"Ha ha ha! Oh, I can't! Hey, uh! You don't know how to lie at all!" Deniska reaches into the box and takes out bags of wet wipes, throws one to Ham. "Catch it, lover! Otherwise you'll be shining a green stripe on your neck!"

Ham opens the bag, takes out a napkin and begins to wipe off the paint, his gaze blurs and he, looking into the distance, just smears it on his skin in vain. Deniska lies down on her stomach, supports her head with her hands and, smiling, begins to follow the manipulations of her brother-in-law. I set the decanter on the grass, drop the glasses, take the napkin from Ham, and carefully begin to clean up the stains. Ham looks at me, at the smiling Deniska, blinking in surprise.

"Well, why did you interfere, Little Fox? This lover would have smeared a marker all over his neck right now and wouldn't have noticed. And then it would be green!"

Ham looks at me with his clear blue eyes. He's embarrassed, and he takes my hand with the napkin in his:

"Let me finish it myself... little fox!"

"There's not much left," I reply, wiping away the last traces. I lean into Ham's ear and whisper, "What's her name?"

"Noverry Rinaris," my brother says softly.

"That bully?" Deniska's voice is heard in my ear. "Oh-h!"

He gets an elbow in the side from me.

"Liska, don't push!"

"And she's not a pushover at all!" I say. "She's just very shy and hides behind it. And, Hame, she likes you too, and I think she more than likes you."

"Really?" my brother is surprised and delighted.

"Wow! Yes, it's mutual!" there is surprise and a little envy in Deniska's emotions.

We sit on the grass in silence for a while.

"So!" Deniska smelled businesslike. "I have a plan!"

"What's the plan?" Ham asks suspiciously.

"How to arrange your date. Otherwise, you'll be beating around the bush, and you won't decide on anything! And she's even more so! Little fox, I'm going to need your help. Are you in business?!"

"Of course! Don't even doubt it," I reply.

"And my opinion, as it were, is not taken into account?" Ham is surprised.

"As if not! You're too indecisive", Deniska answers. "And your salvation is now in our hands!"

"That's what scares me," Ham mutters. However, he is actually very pleased.

"Anyway, listen up!" Deniska begins. "As far as I know, she goes to the city's preference club every morning to play the piano."

I must say that a real piano is a very scarce thing. It is clear that in the 24th century, for the most part, electronic analogues are used, but to learn how to play correctly, you need to play a real instrument. There was only one of them in our town, and it was in a local club. The club was organized on a shared basis by three reasonable people: a human, an azari and a krogan. On the ground floor, it was quite an ordinary entertainment venue: with a restaurant, a disco, a bar and a cabaret. And on the second floor there was the only preference club in the entire colony, and there was a grand piano. In the evenings, various respectable people gathered at the club, including the colony's management, my fathers and their friends, to paint a bullet or two. During the day, everyone was taught to play the piano there, for a fee, of course, albeit a small one.

"We wait for her on the way home, then you," Deniska points her finger at me, "and you invite her to the Mirror, under some normal pretext, with us. We're taking her to the lake, and then it's a matter of technique." I may not be able to do it very well, but if we take Vaska, then together we will definitely convince her.

My brother scratched his head. He ruffled his hair and answered.

So, we take the blue one, she definitely won't refuse to participate in such a case.

"Is there a place for me in your plans?" Ham asks indignantly.

"And so as not to scare you off, you will prepare a place with Tam! A table, juice, a cauldron and a heater for cooking mud crabs from you. As soon as we leave, I'll beep on your communicator, and you'll run off to the foothills and pick some flowers. Mud crabs, so be it, we'll all catch them together."

"What kind of flowers?"

"Yes, any kind, there are many different ones growing in the glades, you can pick a bouquet to suit your taste. We'll settle down for now, you'll be fine. Come back and give her this bouquet. She's not stupid, and she'll understand."

"Got it! Everything seems to be simple..."

Deniska takes the decanter, we sort the glasses, my brother pours the juice, raises his own.

"I have a toast! To the success of our event!"

"For success!" Ham and I talk in unison, clinking glasses together and drinking juice.

***

Two hours later, having mobilized all the young people in our village, including Naina, Gina and Ivan, having clarified and supplemented our plan, the whole company begins to implement it.

I fly behind Deniska's back to the town, and a memory of a year ago wakes up in my memory by itself. On the same day, exactly one year ago, I also flew to Leonov, but only behind Ham's back. Clinging tightly to my sworn brother's hot back, I cursed my gift of empathy. Being in large crowds of people became more and more painful for me. It was especially difficult at school, our kindergarten was actually called a junior school. So, being among classmates was akin to sophisticated torture, because children do not know how to restrain their emotions at all! And when there are eighteen of them! I told Ray and Mom about the problem. Mom burst into tears again, Ray said that going to school would have to wait. And I spent the whole of last May at home, alone. Kaadi looked after me, of course, but with only half an eye, because of her newly born baby.

Although, for obvious reasons, I didn't cause any problems. They only took me to the mnemograph, so that I would not lag behind the other children.

Then I decided that I wanted to know both Turian and Asari. We flew to our Galamarkt supermarket to buy summer clothes, underwear and other necessary junk. My thoughts were full of the darkest forebodings. If I had known then what kind of meeting awaits me at the store, I would have run there on foot with all my might!..


The Old Shaman

June 10, 2359

Listening to the Stars, Keeper of the memory of the Grey Stone Clan

He woke up at dawn with a clear feeling that something very important was going to happen today, something that would have a huge impact on the future. He sat down on the couch and stretched his aching legs with his hands. Old age had come, and his life was rapidly and inexorably heading towards its end. The realization of this fact did not spoil his mood, the life of his people is not different and has never been different. He is the shaman of the clan. And his purpose is to preserve the memory of the clan, the memory of millions of generations of Keepers like him. The time will come, and he will pass it on to the next shaman, and for a while the clan will have two Guardians. Then he, like his teacher and predecessor, will go into darkness, and his pupil will keep the wisdom of thousands of years. So it was, so it is, and so it will be! Until the TIME comes.

The big house was waking up: Through the curtain came the clink of dishes, women's and children's voices, and the smells of cooking. Sixteen years ago, it was he who convinced the women of the clan council to accept the humans' offer and settle on Mendoire. They did not lose money: during this time, the clan strengthened, became rich, grew in numbers, and, most importantly, for all sixteen years, not a single man was expelled from it. The Guardian had a lot to do with it. He got up from the couch and went into a small nook in the corner of the room, where there was a large bucket of clean water. Standing next to her, he picked up a long-handled ladle and began his much-loved morning ablution procedure. The icy water invigorated him, made the aged blood run faster through his veins, his body warmed up, his mind cleared of the remnants of sleep. After washing his face, he dried himself with a large fluffy towel he bought from people. He put on a shaman's robe, put on a mask that hid his face, leaving only his eyes open. He put on and fastened the hood, pulled on his boots and tightened the embroidered belt last. He took his staff and, throwing back the curtain, went out into the corridor.

He walked along the corridor, and people he met made way for him with a bow: women, children, teenagers - everyone who lives here greeted their Guardian.

Their feelings shone with sincere love and respect, even some kind of reverence. He's been used to it for a long time. The young girl bowed and asked if he wanted to eat, but he didn't have an appetite-the old man didn't need much. Bowing, he replied that he was not hungry, and went to the exit of the house. On the porch, he was greeted by the bright sun, the hot rays of which warmed him so pleasantly. He walked over to his chair, sat down, and looked around the courtyard filled with the morning bustle. Sitting in an armchair, he waited for the young men to gather in the city of people. They were supposed to be on a food truck trip for the entire clan today, and he was going to keep them company. A shadow obscured the sun, the old man looked up and saw a young man in loose clothes, looking lovingly at the shaman.

"Greetings, Wise One, we are going to the city, do you need to buy something from people?" he asked with a bow.

"No, my boy. I'll fly with you today."

"The wisest one?" The old man was overwhelmed by the youth's amazement. "Whatever you say, Wisest One! We have everything ready and we... We're about to fly over here!" and he ran deeper into the yard.

A woman wrapped in ceremonial turquoise-blue robes came out of a large house, approached the old man, and sat down in an identical chair next to him. Her face is hidden by a mask, only her yellow eyes are visible.

"Greetings, Guardian! What do you need from people in the city that our children can't bring? What makes the old Guardian fly by himself?"

"Health and longevity to you, Supreme! And what awaits me is not what, but WHO! My feelings told me that I needed to be there today!"

The woman's feelings flared with alarm.

"Do you feel something, old man? Are these times... are they coming AGAIN? Yes, you're right! That TIME is near, the ENEMY will awaken soon! And, as has happened before, the reasonable ones are not ready to meet him."

"But is there any hope?"

"It's ALWAYS there! Maybe in this cycle we will find the ENEMY's weak spot and in the future we will be able to stop him."

"Women are tired of waiting! Maybe this time, the people should join the fight?"

"I don't know, Supreme... WE don't have a definite answer yet."

"But he might show up!"

"Yes, it can! Or maybe not! Are women willing to risk all of us?"

It seemed to have gone out. She cringed, hugged herself. She stared into space with unblinking eyes. Fear cut through her feelings.

"Maybe we should tell the others."

"It's USELESS! IT'S DANGEROUS! They won't listen to us! They think we're savages! They won't hear us! And if the ENEMY finds out about us, he won't stop until he's exterminated every last one! And you know it, Supreme!"

"Are we going to stand aside and look at this again?!"

"If necessary, we will watch!"

"You probably won't see it, old man! You probably won't see it! And we'll see! And, most importantly, we will feel everything! We are afraid, Wisest One! The pain of one is excruciating! The pain and death of trillions is UNBEARABLE! You can't hide from it!"

"The ENEMY is still as strong as ever. We don't know where his heart is. And if we don't know where it is, we can't win."

"But maybe it's a STATION?"

"No! She's just a part, a tool! It has already been used! They thought they had won! But after years, the ENEMY returned and finished what he had started."

"Are they INUSANNON?"

"Yeas!"


A truck flew up, the door of the small passenger compartment attached to it opened, the young man jumped out of it and bowed to the old man. He got up heavily, and the conversation with the supreme awakened the shaman's soul. The whole nation has been asking itself the question for more than a hundred thousand cycles: "Are we right?" Under the quiet hum of the truck, sitting on a hard bench, the old man peered into the depths of his colossal memory and whispered: "Maybe we were mistaken? Maybe we didn't see something?" There was no response....

Here's a human city. The truck flew into the square in front of a large store, landed, the young men got out of it, with them was a man - a "master of goods". He bowed to the old man and asked if he would go with them. The shaman refused. He went out and looked around - the square was deserted, only there were bikes on the edge, and someone was sitting on one of them. The old man felt that this was exactly who he needed. As he got closer, he saw a person sitting, or rather, sitting - it was a human girl. With surprise, the old man realized that she was sentient... and not only sentient, but also gifted with power! Her eyes caught the old man's attention. Looking into them, he realized with a shudder: in front of him was another legend of his people, a legend that the people had encountered only once and carefully preserved the memory of it. The girl was one of THEM! In his people, people like her were called: THOSE WHO HAVE PASSED THROUGH DEATH!


Eugene

I was sitting on Ham's bike like a crow. The square in front of the store was deserted, with dry leaves and a single piece of paper blowing across it. The town seemed to have died out, although it was not surprising: adults were at work, and children were either at home or outside the city - in such heat, everyone preferred to be closer to the water. On the other side of the square, under the awning of the city club, a Krogan was sitting on a massive rocking chair, swaying slightly, reading something from a datapad, the chair creaking faintly under him. A purple-skinned Azari came out of the club, holding two tall glasses with some bright green liquid in her hands. She handed one to the Krogan and sat down in a nearby wicker chair. She said something, and the Krogan answered, and they both laughed. There was a sense of relaxation and contentment from the sensible ones - it looks like things are going well at the club!

There was a low hum. Is the freighter flying? And sure enough, a brightly and gaudily painted ore truck landed on the square, instead of a dump truck, there was an ordinary body on it, but with high sides. These were usually used by mining thieves. They bought a decommissioned truck, changed the body, put it in order, and drove it anywhere. Cheap and practical, and most importantly, the body is large.

The ore truck sat down. Three young men came out from behind him, thieves in gray hoodie clothes, but with brightly embroidered belts, followed by an older man, dressed a little better. They turned to someone standing behind the car, asked something, bowed, and scurried off to the store with a bird-like gait.

I was exhausted, I lifted the backrest on the seat and leaned on it, closed my eyes and seemed to doze off. I was awakened by the feeling of someone's attentive gaze. When I opened my eyes and looked around, I saw an amazing intelligent man. He was wearing a bright scarlet jumpsuit, somewhat similar to a ninja costume from Hollywood action movies, only covered with silver embroidery. There is a hood on his head, his face is hidden by a mask, only turquoise-blue eyes with vertical pupils are visible, without whites. His birdlike legs are encased in black shiny boots that fit like gloves. I looked into his eyes, and he flinched, but I didn't feel any emotion. I didn't feel him at all, as if no one was there!

Vorka tilted his head to the side like a bird and said in a low, raspy voice:

"Greetings to you, Who Have Passed Through Death."

"what? WHAT DID HE SAY?! How did he know?!", My thoughts were like frightened cockroaches.

Vorka came close to me.

"I can help you. To teach. To tell. To explain. Do you want to see and find out the truth?"

"But how did you know?! Who are you?" I whispered.

"I am the Keeper of the memory of my people. You humans and others call us shamans. But we do not conjure spirits, we do not knock on tambourines - we preserve the memory of our people for all the time of its existence."

"And for how long? How old is your story?" I asked quietly.

"More than one hundred and ten thousand of your years."

"How much?"

"Are you surprised?" Vorka rasped softly.

"But you're considered savages. Aggressive, uncontrollable, violent. Your gangs are scaring children. Your homeworld is a radioactive dump. Some people even consider you to be animals, not intelligent!"

"Let them count. We did it on purpose to hide. Look away from us."

"Whose look is it?"

Vorka looked at me carefully, tilting his head first to one side and then to the other.

"You KNOW THAT!"

"THE REAPERS!" I whispered, and a cold and heavy lump formed in my stomach.

"That's what the Protheans called them. We just call them the ENEMY."

"How will you show me and how will you explain?"

Old man Vorka, for some reason I clearly realized that he was old, sat down next to me, on the bike seat, and asked:

"What do you know about Asari's "embrace of eternity"?"

"They unite the consciousness. The thoughts, feelings, and memories of the intelligent become temporarily shared."

"That's not quite true," he squeaked. "In the case of unification with other races, contact is one-sided, the Asari see you, but you don't see them. Unless they want to show something of their own."

"And you?"

"We call it "togetherness" and we are open. All Guardians of all Vork clans can use the common memory of the people and the memory of each other, combined into one whole. By connecting others, we don't hide anything, so we try not to associate with strangers."

"Like computer networks."

"The comparison is correct. We can connect you to our memory for a while and give you the necessary knowledge."

"Will my memory be available to you?"

"Yes, it will. Do you have something special you want to hide?"

"No! There is nothing like that - you already know my most important secret. It's just not clear how you recognized her!.."

"There used to be people like you. The knowledge of at least three people like you is stored in the common memory, and one of them was among our people. He was the one who taught us how to create a shared memory-he was the first Keeper. He was the one who taught us how to create a shared memory-he was the first Keeper. He taught us how to identify people like you. He led us to the stars and found out about the ENEMY! That was a hundred and ten thousand years ago. He lived a very long life, and the memory of him still lives in the people. Do you agree?"

"Yes, I agree! Such gifts are not refused. What do I need to do?"

"Just look into my eyes."

I looked and fell into a living, intelligent abyss shining with myriads of stars. He showed me and told me a lot.: how to cope with the sensitivity of an empath, regulate it, how to work with his memory, showed the history of his people. And at the very end, I asked him,

"Can you show THEM to me?"

"Do you want to see the ENEMY?"

"Yes, I do! I want to know what awaits us!"

"Look."

I found myself among the ruins, the sun was not visible, dense gray clouds flew and swirled across the dark sky. Strange creatures in equally strange armor stood and sat around, hiding behind the rubble. In their six-fingered hands, they clutched something that looked like a weapon - most likely, it was. Anxiety and fear were mixed in their feelings. Everyone was looking at the sky. And from there, some kind of huge shadow was descending on us. The clouds swirled, reddish lightning bolts appeared, and a huge black bulk fell out of the low clouds.

Six thick paws extended from the outstretched body in front. The carcass sank lower and lower - I realized with horror the monstrous size of this car. The REAPER, and it could only be him, spread his paws and landed at incredible speed. The ground jumped under my feet, and I saw many people collapse around me. The REAPER straightened up, and a low, vibrating roar filled the area. He seemed to penetrate into every corner of my body, every cell seemed to vibrate in sync with him. I was flooded with wild animal HORROR! The reaper moved forward, slowly shifting its paws, it approached us with cold relentlessness. The sentient beings around them jumped up and began shooting, thin ruby rays hissing out of the outlandish weapon and disappearing on the surface of the mechanical creature. The reaper stopped, turned its body slightly, and a thick crimson beam shot out from the base. He moved along the rubble, and the hefty blocks of stone simply spread out in bubbling puddles at his touch. The sensible ones just disappeared with pops. The beam came up to the wreckage I was hiding behind, and everything was flooded with red light.

I woke up, there was a square of our town around, next to it stood Listening to the Stars and looking at me sadly.

"Now you know what awaits us!"

"This is the third time your people will see this! How do you live with it? After all, you are empaths, you feel everything that happens!"

All the air seemed to have been drained from the old man, he hunched over, lowered his gaze and whispered:

"We don't see a way out yet! We don't see how we can defeat the ENEMY!"

He turned and shuffled off towards the ore truck.

"The Guardian!" I shouted. "If events turn out the way you saw in my memory, if I need help, can I ask your people for it?"

Vorka shuddered and stood for a while. Then he straightened up, squared his shoulders, and looked around.

"If that's the case, and you call us..." His eyes seemed to glow. "We will come to you and stand by your side!"

Looking at his back, I thought. Would people have been able to deliberately drop their entire race from the heights of civilization into complete and utter barbarism with their own hands? Turn the race into astronauts and explorers, - diggers and bandits? And all in order to win someday?

What remains in my memory is how the Reaper platforms, when they came to the Hashtog, saw only the destroyed and abandoned orbital infrastructure and rabid hordes of savages hacking at the surface for everything. The monsters left without touching Vork. But smart machines have not been able to sense how closely they are being watched from the surface by a similar, but only organic mind. I have seen how for thousands of years Vork has been searching for the mysterious Center - the heart of the machine mind. They're looking for him and they can't find him, and there aren't even any clues as to where he is. But the Keepers showed me exactly what it is. And it wasn't a Citadel. Through the eyes of the Guardians, I saw the full power of the station's mind, but at the same time, its absolute subordination to someone else. And the Reapers themselves are just platforms controlled from the outside, completely devoid of independence, scary, powerful... and yet pitiful slaves. The old man was leaving, and it became crystal clear to me: the Harvest was waiting for me, and there was no way to escape or hide. My new childhood is over, now I have to evaluate my every action from the outside. To calculate how he will help me in the future, whether he will strengthen me or weaken me. I wanted to hide somewhere and just howl with longing and fear! She climbed onto the seat with her legs, wrapped her arms around her knees, put her head on them and just sat there, not noticing the tears flowing down her cheeks.

Our people came out of the store in a noisy crowd, came up, looked at me. There was anxiety in their feelings.

"What's wrong, Little Fox?" Deniska asked, sitting down next to him.

"Did someone hurt you?" that's Ham.

"I offended myself," I replied, smiling through my tears.

"Everything is a damn empathy, a damn gift!" My father muttered.

"It's not about her, Daddy! I just wanted to cry. And there won't be any more problems with empathy. They helped me solve the problem."

"Who?!" The whole company stared at me in surprise.

"I was asked not to tell, and I promised to keep quiet!"

"That's right... you can't leave alone for half an hour, you've already met someone, you've made promises to someone," Leshka rattled.

"You must keep your word!" raising his finger sententiously, he said.

"You're just like a Tanris master. Put your hand behind your back, too," and everyone laughed.