Worked on patching, and thickening previous parts of the story. Particularly 7, 8, and 9.

Late chapter pepega author.

...

Wind left me in the room shortly after our conversation. Saying nothing but

“Go to sleep, Jack”

I wanted to yell after her and tell her to call me Clay. I didn’t. I looked at the unpainted drywall and ceiling. I was at the edge of the house, would Wind sleep here? Where is she going? Do we even need sleep? I still have questions I was too afraid to ask.

I’m going to go to sleep, she probably expects me to try to escape. So not escaping is probably less likely to get me in trouble. I look over at the bed, just a normal bed with sheets... I dive onto the bed. It sinks beneath me as I pull the sheets up over my... I’M STILL WEARING MORGUE PAPER! Eh, who cares.

...

”I wish to train him in order to use him as bait to draw Steve into the being.”

”Wind, the council has already decided he is to be sheltered. You have no say in this, Old One.”

”I Demand that I may train him. He shows ruthlessness. He’s also caught by today’s law.”

”Today’s Law will be gone in a century. This empire is identical to all the rest. Steve is hunting the entity himself. His agents have been seen following leads. We’ve had to fake deaths to put our full time onto this.”

”Faking deaths isn’t nearly as easy as it used to be. You cannot claim that you will shelter him when our world is at a tipping point! Steve has almost won!”

”The being prevents us from taking control of the world, and does the same for Steve.”

Wind took a deep breath. Composing herself in front of the many immortals.

”Steve has an ability that can force humans to die to protect him. By that logic, the being is only a minor inconvenience.”

This sparked conversations, the being would take time to get through 100 or so humans, Steve’s highest known controlled people is 308 and that was in 1463. Wind was the one who told the council this number, risking her capture to recount, yet they refused to send her and the other old ones to capture him. Wind was willing to bring him straight to the being herself at this point.

”Old One, you have lived longer than most of us. Please reconsider your foolish idea of trying to bring Steve straight to the being? The boy has so long to live and you wish to leave him with a mortal lifetime?”

”We are not gods. Just people who get far more time than they deserve. We should have all died a long time ago. The boy will understand. He’s better person than half of you and he killed somebody already.”

The gasps at the accusation of death filled the room. Wind smiled.

”I know that I can kill Steve. You will never be able to without my help. I’m the second strongest immortal by nearly 3 Millenia. I have connections with the government that might even let me send Steve to space.”

A male voice rang out “and eventually, he’ll stop thinking.”

They chuckled at their joke before stopping because nobody else was laughing. The voice continued

”I’m all for Wind’s plan of sending him to space.”

Wind stared for a minute. Losing her composure she said “Thank you eldest! Your support means a lot to me!” Everybody quickly clamored to agree with the oldest immortal.

He rose out of his chair, his face showing actual age from the tens of millennia's. His skin dark, eyes green, and hair turning white. It was Ekorial in the flesh. Nobody had seen him come in.

”I will fund the spaceship, going back to the moon? Mars this time?”

”Mars would be preferable, hopefully unmanned”

He nods. Before walking into the shadows and not coming back out.

...

I was woken up the next day by knocking on my door. Wind sounds like a name somebody would make up to sound cooler, also why does her ‘true name’ matter so much? She’s gonna get weird looks if I’m calling her wind in public. The door is opened after I don’t answer. Wind walks in holding clothes that look my size.

I get out of bed and she hands me the clothes. Turning around and saying 

“get dressed, we have a lot to do if you’re to be ready in a year.”

I jump over to the other side of the bed and ask 

“Why do you want me to call you wind?” She responds with

”Normal lives fly by after a certain point. I want you to call me that in hopes that you’re my apprentice lifetimes from now.”

I pull on the T-shirt, finished dressing I say

”Done, what if I call you that in public? People are gonna give you and me weird looks.” She turns to face me and says

“Weird looks are not even close to the worst way you’ll be treated. They’ll just think I’m some creepy mom who doesn’t accept the medical genius of vaccines and thinks you calling me something weird gives us a better bond.” My face scrunches in confusion

”That’s oddly specific.”

”It’s supposed to be.”

She motions for me to follow her out the door. I follow her and find myself in a hallway with a bathroom to the right and a massive living room/kitchen connected straight to the doorway. I ask

”where do you sleep?”

She says ”Infinite life and I don’t even have enough time to sleep.” She sighs before continuing, “I’m old enough that sleeping is something that feels less necessary. It is still helpful and nice but I can go without it for a while.” We walk out the front door and out to a blue car on the driveway. We seem to be in a large neighborhood.

”How old is that?” I ask.

”Never ask an immortal their age. Unless you are claiming to be their senior.” She steps into the car and I ask

“Where are we going anyway?”

”To begin your training, you need to be in shape. We’re going to a gym.”

”Oh no.”