Fairfax

by Jared Ravens

  And so every titan filed down incognito at different times during the following days. They gathered in a pasture with a long table made from a tree that Ogden had hastily cut down and Curson had fashioned into proper dining furniture.

  Here, they waited for the queen. Genesee stood with his hands behind his back, looking out at the city, awaiting an updated arrival time from Marcus. She was halfway down, he told Genesee. Then she was most of the way. Then just a short walk away.

  The entire family instinctively stood when she finally appeared, walking across the meadow with two of her handmaidens and her sister. Genesee noted these extra helps but let it pass.

  Most of her family lined up in a row in front of her, save Spaulding who leaned against a tree, looking bored, and Ogden who lay on the ground picking at the grass. Genesee looked down the row of titans and then back to her. She wore a gold shaw and a silver crown that contrasted the dark skin she showcased today. Despite the flashy attire she had managed to make the ensemble seem demure, even casual, on her. She nodded politely at Genesee, then at her family, not stopping until she reached the table.

  They took their places along each end of the table. Genesee watched Vivan’s sit towards the center of the table. He instructed her to come down closer to him. Her body tensed and she did as she was instructed, wordlessly replacing Kilkea at the a seat beside her stepfather. Genesee thanked Celia for joining and she nodded, looking distracted as usual.

  "We are returning to nature I see," she said, looking for someplace to put hang gold shaw in the forest.

  "We are here here because nature is grounding for us. It’s someplace we can come to meditate on the gravity of the situation," Genesee replied.

  “I’m glad you could be here, daughter,” Celia said to Vivian at the other end of the table. Vivian smiled weakly. “The conversation is going to be as lovely as the weather, wouldn’t you say, Staley?”

  Staley agreed and Genesee began to speak. He was only a few sentences into his introduction when Celia sighed loudly, interrupting him.

  "I chose to sit at this seat so I didn't have to face the city," she said, noting that her back was to the calamity. "I know we are here so we will be on level ground with our human friends but I don't need to look at a disaster to know that one happened. I also don't need a meeting to know who is at fault."

  Genesee sat with his hands folded. She had stolen his opening, as he knew she would try. He waited and she waited. Her eyes were not on him. Genesee looked over at Marcus, who almost never paid attention. His eyes flicked back and forth between the two of them.

  "Bautomet escaped…" Genesee began.

  “How did he come into this world?" she interrupted. "I forget."

  Genesee stumbled on his words again before pausing.

  "We are here to decide on how to move forward."

  "So we've established blame?" She asked. "I guess I missed that, because that's the first part of understanding a problem."

  "He is here because of your sister," Atrios sneered, tossing his helmet off and throwing it across the table. It bounced and fell to the side of Celia.

  Eyes turned to Martel, who pulled in air and puffed her chest up. Before she could answer, Celia rebutted Atrios.

  "Exactly," said Celia. "And now she - and I - want it gone.”

  “It was a mistake,” Martel said before Atrios could interject. “A serious one, and I regret it every day. He was a product of revenge and he reminds me of that pain every time I see his likeness. He needs to be gone.”

  "Do you want it gone from our shields as well?" Atrios demanded. He lifted his dark blue breast plate where the image of a snarling beast was shown in profile. “Does this disturb you?”

  "You can keep your paintings," Celia replied. "Just as long as it’s gone from physical existence.”

  “And what does Waring say about this,” Curson asked, noting that Waring was hiding underground and not at the table.

  “Waring is ashamed that it escaped and he promises that nothing like this will happen again,” Genesee said.

  “This is the second time this thing has escaped. He and you have proven that you are not capable of keeping this pet in its cage. You can't keep people safe. So why are we even considering what to do?"

  "Because it is so powerful," Genesee replied calmly. He urged Atrios to sit down before he continued. “There are enemies around us that we do not know about.”

  “Other people?” Celia asks. “Of course there are.”

  “Not just Choholi. Ones that might not be so friendly. Ones that might be like us. Maybe more powerful. Harper knows this. He's been at sea and seen the masts of their ships. And Goetz has confirmed to me that there are others here, living beyond the lands that we know of. If they ever find us..."

  "Atrios is here to protect us. Doesn't he manage our war efforts?" Celia asked.

  "The question is," Genesee asked. "What if they have a Bautomet of their own? And what if it Curson and Atrios and our soldiers aren't able to take it down?"

  Celia leaned back in her seat, her face showing an unconvinced scowl.

  “We don’t want to just create something new. The process of creation is difficult," Genesee continued. "We never really know what we are going to get."

  "I'll say," Spaulding laughed. Celia’s withering gaze quieted him. She turned to her daughter at the other end of the table.

  “Some are better at it than others,” Celia said. “I’m glad that my daughter has chosen to be here. She skips most meetings.”

  “I am absent for a reason,” Vivian replied. “I have duties in the wilderness.”

  “Then maybe you missed our guide book on basic rules.”

  “There is no such thing,” Vivian retorted. Celia glared at Genesee, who adjusted his glasses.

  “We do have rules,” Genesee said.

  “That fill a library,” Vivian replied mockingly. “There’s no condensed volume, mother. You would have thrown it in the trash anyways.”

  “You’re smart enough to know that we don’t mess with creation willy nilly,” Celia yelled.

  “Like you?” Vivan called back. “Like everyone else here? Tell me, who here doesn’t create them like mad alchemists?”

  There was silence. Marcus raised his hand slowly.

  “What, Marcus?” Genesee asked.

  “I don’t ‘create’ people or anything else, if that’s what you’re asking, Vivian.”

  “Have you had sex with humans?” Vivian asked. Marcus shrunk back in his chair. “See, well, somewhere there’s the possibility of dozens of little boys with wings driving a single mother crazy.”

  “You know what we are saying, Vivian,” Celia said, a finger moving gently under her chin. “Fucking people is one thing. Making them for your own amusement is another. Now, tell me about this cow.”

  Vivian looked down at the table, her jaw tensing. When she didn’t answer Genesee spoke for her.

  “So, we have someone special that we now know about due to these unusual events.”

  “Who?” Staley demanded.

  “A boy. I had to learn about him from one of my other girls,” Celia said, looking at Ogden. “Delia warned me and then you lied to me.”

  “It wasn’t a lie,” Ogden said, his eyes diverting from Celia, his body slouched like a scolded schoolboy.

  “You told me you had sex with cows,” Celia scolded. “And that is your business. But I saw this boy through the eyes of my loyal Delia and I saw what he is and he is not what you said he is. I knew you were lying when you told me, but I didn’t know what you were hiding.”

  Odgen was quiet. Celia swayed in her chair, then looked to Vivian.

  “He doesn’t look like a cow, he looks like a bull.”

  Vivian looked up at her, her green eyes settling into her mother’s brown irises.

  “He’s from a bull, and he’s part human, and he’s mostly the weak part.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Curson protested. “When everyone else ran, th
e boy was there.”

  “Stupidity and courage are sometimes the same thing,” Celia quipped.

  “Where is he now?” Spaulding asked.

  “In the hospital,” Genesee replied, eager to get back on track. “Badly burned and damaged. That’s where Delia saw him and reported back to my wife. And that brings me to the next part of this meeting.”

  “We didn’t settle the first part,” Celia protested.

  “It all goes together, dear,” he said. Celia leaned forward in her chair and swallowed to clear her throat.

  “No,” she said.

  “I spoke to Goetz,” he said. “We have a new family member, whether we know it or not.”

  “He’s almost dead!” Atrios protested. There were other rumblings that overpowered Genesee’s voice until he held his hands up to quiet them.

  “He’s in stable condition and he requires attention, which Martel has been providing. He getting better. And considering the beating he took, that is a minor miracle. His frame, it seems, is nearly as strong as Curson’s steel. Which is why I spoke with Goetz and he approved of a plan to help this young man become the keeper of our problem creature…”

  An uproar erupted with arguments flying to Genesee.

  “He doesn’t have the strength!”

  “He’s indestructible! You saw that yourself.”

  “Is that why he’s in a coma? It doesn’t matter if he can take a beating if he has no physical power.”

  “He has power.”

  “What power?”

  “Latent power. Like you said, he’s a bull.”

  “I see what the plan is. What do you think you’re going to do? Put a weakling up on The Hill and coddle him like he’s your son?”

  “He’s a solution to a problem, he’s not anything more.”

  “A problem you brought on us because you won’t get rid o of The Beast.”

  “He’s going to fix it.”

  “How?”

  “Science.”

  Celia spit out air and crossed her arms in exasperation.

  “Everything,” Genesee continued, “has a balancing element to it.”

  “Oh, with the balance shit…”

  “We have to be better and creating new beings to help with the growing problems of our world. And this boy presents us with a the perfect opportunity to do that with the new ideas of science.”

  “Science?” Spaulding asked, scratching his head.

  “Surgery,” Genesee said. “Creating in a more… Physically minded way. Something that Robertson and I have been discussing, along with Martel…”

  “Martel…” Celia repeated, glancing at her sister. Martel nodded bashfully.

  “Its a… thing I have been pursuing.”

  “You sew people up who have cuts,” Celia said.

  “We would sew them up and make them better in all sorts of ways,” Robertson said confidently. “If it goes right.”

  “If it goes right…” Celia repeated. “Everyone here was created in a natural way. This is dangerous. You’re saying that this boy will have to be scaled up in power in order to make him strong enough to control Bautomet?”

  "To scale up to its power. Yes,” Robertson said. “And to control Bautomet. And to be a prototype of something new that can replace Bautomet.”

  “Prototype?” Celia exclaimed.

  “To get rid of Bautomet and replace him. Isn’t that what you want?”

  “You want to make more of these? More cow men, sewed up and ready to fight?”

  “We want to develop a more scientific way of creating beings,” Genesee said. “A more reliable way than mixing fluids and hoping for the best.”

  Celia looked down the line at her family. All of them seemed to be contemplating this idea seriously.

  “First of all, when you say ‘we’ I think you mean just you and Robertson. Secondly, we don’t need this. I think we are good with what we have."

  "Forgive me, Celia," Genesee said, adjusting his glasses. “I know this is new for you. You’re used to being the only one that creates. You created half of those at this table. And we are trying to expand on what you have taught us.”

  Celia smiled devilishly.

  “You don’t know what I did. I never created anything more powerful than I am. And I never tried to."

  She looked down the table at her family and each of them took turns looking at her and then away. She took a fiendish delight in the realization they were all coming to. She continued.

  "Not one of you knows what you are doing. Not one of you nows how to control this. This 'science' you want to use so bad? Pfff! Creation is an art!”

  "You don't believe in science?" Robertson said, his voice offended.

  "Oh, I believe in it. I don't believe in all this,” she said, motioning to those t the table. “I believe in what I originally laid out, when it was just me and Goetz. If you have a threat that comes to our shores, let mama take care of it."

  "Where were you when Bautomet was tearing apart the city?" Atrios said, slamming his hands against the table.

  "I was at home, watching you do what you signed up for," Celia yelled. "Grow up and do your job or I will do it for you. That goes for all of you. That was the original deal. But that wasn’t good enough for everyone, you had to have your own ‘plans’. You think you know how to make something? You don't. You think Goetz knows what it's doing? It doesn't. It has its own plans and its own ideas of what we should be doing."

  "And what do we have if we just trust you?" Ogden grumbled.

  "Comfort," she said plainly. "Have I ever let any of you down?"

  There was a low rumble at the table. There was no doubt at her power, but there was certainly disagreement about what she considered her business and what she considered other people's problems. Genesee read the table's feelings and could sense an unproductive argument coming on. He interrupted.

  "Its important that we all speak with one voice," he said quickly. He glanced at Celia. "Or with something close to that. I want to know who wants to proceed with this."

  "Who would have control of this boy?" Staley asked. “And of creating new species?"

  "Well the committee would make decisions on how to make the new being,” Genesee said. “And control of it would fall on all of us."

  "All of us?" she asked.

  "Well, under some hierarchy to be discussed later obviously but we would all have access to this new being to fight off whatever needed to be defeated to protect us and the city."

  Celia sighed and reclined into her chair. Genesee looked to Vivian, who sat stone faced, gently fingering her hair.

  “Not all decisions need to be made today,” Genesee clarified. “But I do want to know if we should proceed down this path. Since the boy will be sharing our space, there is only one sensible way to proceed.”

  Genesee called for a vote. As a majority of hands slowly rose Celia slipped out of her chair without bothering to look down the table at her family. They watched her walk over to the side of the hill towards the edge of the pasture. She stopped at a tree and folded her arms. Robertson announced the motion passed and Genesee stood up and walked over to her side.

  "I know this is hard to take..." he said.

  "Its not hard to take. You don't know what I'm feeling."

  "You can tell me."

  She paused for a while to gather her thoughts.

  "Every day I look down on this city and I wonder why I love these little creatures so much. All of them. I know you don't think I think much of men, but I do. If women are content with them then I am OK with them. So I think, why am I so happy to have them around? Why do I feel so protective? Can't we just let them all die and we can live without the burden of humans bothering us? But I want you to know that I love them because I created them. I made them. I feel for every woman and some of the men, too. I don't have some transactional, casual relationship to them. I really care for them.”

  She motioned to the table in back of her.

 
; "Those back there? I don't know what they feel for them. I don't know why they would feel anything for them. They see me caring for the humans, and so they think they should. If I wasn't here, what would happen to them? Would their care be any more than a hobby? I don't know."

  "I care for them," Genesee said. "I'm the father of many of them."

  "When have you cared for anything?" she asked honestly, without malice in her voice. "When have you ever felt love?"

  "I have..." Genesee responded, feeling offended for once in his life.

  “Maybe you have felt love. I haven't felt it from you. That's OK, I haven't expected it from you and I don't need it. But those people do. They need to know they are protected. And if I'm not in charge, what happens then? A committee decides what they need? You can make new toy to mess around with and they'll put up with it - to a degree."

  "We are trying to protect them," Genesee protested. "You can't take everything I do as an affront to your power. We are trying to make things stable and safer."

  "I hope so. For their sake. But think about why you really want to do this rather than get rid of the problem right now. I think about that all the time.”

  He let her sulk away. He watched her descend slowly into the trees before turning around. Vivian was standing alone, her posture that of a scolded child.

  “What do you intend to do to him,” she asked quietly.

  “Improve him,” Genesee said confidently. “Your friend is going to be safe.”

  Vivian looked at Genesee form head to toe as if trying to assess his trustworthiness.

  “You’re using him as an experiment.”

  “In some ways, but it will be his choice.”

  Her visage brightened.

  “He will decide?”

  “Yes, and you will stay away from him. He is not yours to influence anymore.”

  She looked away from him.

  “He is under watch at all times,” he added. “If you interfere, I will extract whatever punishment is needed. Your point about unlawful activities is noted, and, if needed, I will make an example out of you to curtail others creation acts.”