CHAPTER 10

My mother always referred to that glowing figure as her 'Angel,' but to this day, even with all our abilities, the Angel's shroud remains impenetrable to all our scans. I only know what happened through a much later telepathic link with Michael, seeing his memory of events. Our best guess is that they were a future Guardian. Assuming we still have a future by the time I'm finished. Investigation through Interactive Time travel is entirely out of the question. It's a Temporal Black Spot where all are forbidden to venture, employing magical wards to prevent entry, and I know better than to try to breach them. To interfere too often with the same events is potentially catastrophic. Time Intervention is not something the Guardians take lightly. Apart from myself, they are the only ones with the necessary knowledge and skill. Anyone else would be destroyed and scattered in the void like a dandelion in a hurricane. Yes, I know I'm in the middle of an Illegal Time Intervention at this very moment (relatively speaking), but I assure you I would never endanger reality simply to satisfy my selfish curiosity about my mother's Angel! Besides, this was the worst day of my mother's life; Michael's memory of watching an innocent young girl have her whole world ripped apart was distressing enough. I have no desire to witness it first-hand. I don't know how she bore it. I'm certain I could not. It took time to find out exactly what happened to Velena. In all the terror and confusion, keeping track of one individual had been difficult. But there were enough eyewitness accounts to confirm that she, like many others, was simply vaporised. In later life, whenever Catriona spoke of these events, she always described her mother fighting with a ferocity that rivalled the void storms in the sky. She chose to remember Velena desperately giving her life to save the daughter she loved. While that may not match the account that I have written, gentle reader, I'm sure you can understand why my mother would prefer her own memory of events. But I promised you that every word of this story would be true, so I shall not sugar coat these events…or those yet to come.