to helping others for an undetermined period of time. I have been a time-walker, moving through the centuries, helping humans and Others, since then.”
“How long do you have to do this?”
Elsa sighed. “For as long as it takes. It’s been hundreds of years and I have yet to see the angel again. When he reappears I will know my payment has been made.”
“Well that doesn’t seem fair,” I said. “You’ve been at this for a long time.”
“Yes, but to ask God to save your soul from the devil when you almost willingly gave it away…well, who knows what had to be promised to free me.”
I watched Elsa closely. She was beautiful to look at. Sleek and powerful like the cat that appeared in my dreams. Her punishment not only had made her immortal, but it also had frozen her in time. She was not aging. Perhaps when she finished her penance, she would be allowed to grow old.
“Is that how you came to work for the Council?”
Elsa nodded. “I discovered them during my travels. I had no idea how to repair the damage I’d done. It made sense to work for them. They gave me a way to have a purpose and fulfill my obligation.”
“Are there others like you inside?”
“If you mean people who travel through time, yes there are. But are there others doing penance? Not that I know of. Yet I can’t imagine I am the only person on earth who almost gave their soul away to the devil in the pursuit of power and knowledge.”
Elsa’s tale reminded me of Stoner Halbert. We all, it seems, have to make our own beds. How did a rising star in politics come to call for the devil? I tried to imagine that much burning hatred or shame; a feeling of despair powerful enough to bypass God and ask for help from the dark side. I couldn’t imagine ever wanting that kind of revenge or power.
“Is that what Stoner Halbert has done? Given his soul to the devil? What will happen to him?”
Elsa shrugged. “It’s hard to know when these things catch up with you. It can take years for evil to be rebuffed, or it can be immediate. The circumstances are never the same.”
“What happens if I decide that I don’t want to do this?” I asked, the proposition of my “new life” suddenly weighing more heavily on me
Elsa rose from the couch and began to pace. “I don’t know what would happen. No human has ever been allowed to work for the organization. Once you join the Council, it’s hard to turn your back. I can’t make the choice for you, but I strongly encourage you to take Gabriel’s offer. This is your destiny.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Elsa hesitated and I experienced a brief sensation of nervousness again.
“Come on, Elsa, tell me what you know.”
Then it was gone; she was good at hiding her feelings from empaths like me.
“I’m sure because I have been doing this for a long time, Olivia. Your gifts deserve to be used for greater purposes than building condominiums.”
Elsa’s words stung a bit. I’d never set out to change the world, but she made my career seem insignificant. We get up, we go to work, we do a good job and we come home. Why does life have to be more complicated than that? And yet, it is. I now had the ability to read people and sense their emotions. I was either going to Las Vegas to make my fortune, or I needed a place to use my skills where I wouldn’t frighten people.
“Text Gabriel,” I said finally. “I will join the Council.”
****
CHAPTER 14
The next evening as we left my house for the park, we stepped into a dense wall of wet fog. The humid mist on my face jogged my memory.
“I forgot to ask you last night about the fog,” I said, as we pulled our collars up around our necks.
San Francisco’s fog is legendary. Summer in San Francisco means never seeing the sun, at least in my neighborhood. Sometimes the fog rolls in gently, bringing a quiet, sultry climate to the city. Other nights, the fog rides the heels of a wicked wind that bends trees and howls through the narrow alleys between the row houses.
“The fog is a tool of the Council’s,” Elsa said as we walked. “San Francisco is enchanted; a coven of witches created a spell to summon the fog in order to protect our kind from prying