must be time for the next chapter in your book Pete, you have left us on the edge of our seats
Chapter 2
I stood watching the TV, I like watching it, we never got around to such inventions in Atlantis, we were too busy proclaiming our dominance over the world. After a few minutes of watching it, while Yvette slept, I looked down at Hera and hesitantly said, “I guess I should try to help.” The beautiful white cat with big green eyes looked up at me as though I was ignorant, stood, turned her back side to me, raised her tail, and then walked over to the day bed that the young lady slept on. She gently leapt up on the bed, walked in a complete circle, then tucked herself in close to the exhausted woman, she stared at me, blinked her eyes, flattened her ears and purred herself to sleep.
I walked through the front door and headed down the steps, yes through the door, no I did not open it and walk through it – I simply “walked through it". Man made objects cannot hold us, confine us or stop us. We can simply go right through them. We cannot physically interact with anything that has been made by or altered by humans -no matter the material . Natural objects however do stop us. I can walk through a man made door, but I cannot walk through a tree. I can pass through a man made concrete wall, but not through a large stone. I can also choose to allow man made objects to sustain my weight, such as riding in the car, or walking on the stairs. I can't however actively use these items. For example I can't drive a car, or ride a bike, I can't shoot a gun or even use a knife. And if I could, I would not be able to use them against or on a human -we simply cannot directly interact with them. I can however use natural or Atlantis made items, but only on natural objects, or on those who like me, are cursed. It doesn’t make any sense to me, but hey, I didn’t write the rules.
We can even walk through humans and they can walk through us. Everyday ships pass right through Atlantis and the people who live there. The problem here is that when we do we feel their emotions and they feel ours. This can make crowds and walking down the street difficult. Imagine being pelted by the emotions of others with no control over it. What they feel, with whatever intensity, you also feel. Likewise they get hammered by your emotions. People who have ran into me seem to get very angry, very mean, very determined in a dark kind of way. I am not sure what it says about me but it can't be good. Thankfully the feelings pass in a few moments leaving most people confused by what has just happened.
The choice to help Yvette was not an easy one. The king, my father, had ordained that humans and their lives were not to be interfered with. You might think this was something like Gene Roddenberry's Prime Directive where the star ships captain and his crew were forbidden by law from interfering with other civilization so as to let them develop naturally. My fathers decree was not anything so considerate. Atlantians, at the king's insistence, look at humans the same way humans might look at an ant colony, or a group of amoeba or paramecium. They are not worth our time, they are a waste of it, and are not worthy of our thoughts, concerns, or attentions. He has ordained that should one of us be caught meddling in the affairs of humans, that we would be executed. Our attentions and time should be placed on the betterment of Atlantis and its people, not wasted on a colony of insignificant cockroaches.
Over the years some had come to question this. Why would a law need to be created to abolish human interactions if they truly where so insignificant, what danger could there possibly be in it? Do humans pass laws forbidding interactions with the aforementioned ants or cockroaches? While it is obvious that humans are inferior physically, mentally, emotionally and in every other way, they are still just humans, why would such a decree be made. Humans cannot harm us, or directly affect us in any significant way, why would such a decree need to be made?
For years I had written it off as part of the same arrogance that had caused the curse to be placed upon us to begin with, and that dad was only trying to emphasis to his people the superiority of the Atlantians. More recently I have begun to question this.
I had been watching Yvette on and off for the past few weeks. I had ran into her when I first arrived in the upstate. When I say “ran in to her” I mean it quite literally. As I stated earlier the act of “running into someone” causes their emotional state to wash over us. Sometimes it's like a warm ray of sun shine, when the individual is content and happy in their life. At other times it can be reminiscent of a mothers loving touch to a child’s face, and at other times it can be like a harsh painful slap, that knocks you to the ground with its suddenness, and intensity.
When I accidentally passed through a portion of Yvette, I felt her despair, rage, frustration and unfailing love. It was a feeling I was all to familiar with. Dark memories passed before my eyes, rage, hatred, and the love of Raoljost beautiful face. The most intense of her emotions was desperation. She was utterly desperate and felt that she had no way to change her situation -no way to find her son. She was shackled by her inability to do anything, a feeling I was also to familiar with.
What Yvette received from me manifested in a look of stone like hardness and hatred that manifested over her face, she walked with her head up and a scowl over her lips. She looked mean. She looked determined. Because of our shared emotions I had been watching her. I understood her feelings, I understood her helplessness and the blinding anger that she felt. Maybe where she was unable to act I could, and it was not the first or last time that I would disobey the king.