by Jared Ravens
“I was right,” Theo said, looking at the treasure in front of him. “Those miners don’t know a damned thing.”
The Committee
On the night of committee meeting, Celia was feeling desperate. It was the feeling of encroaching doom slithering under her door like the smoke of a fire. It was the sound of her husband giving his meandering thoughts an official voice, followed by the with slam of a hammer. It was the continued diminishment of her powers with the movement of a pen and the drafting of new laws.
But after days of apprehension she had felt another emotion creep up behind her. There was a feeling of excitement pushing at her back, thrusting her forward. The moment of action had arrived. Genesee had removed himself from the battlefield. It was someone else's turn to take control. Once her decision had been made she felt a wave of relief. She snapped into action. Her handmaidens dug through piles of clothes, throwing mounds of fabric across the room to find what she was asking for.
"Its darker than that," She yelled at woman who held up a grey cloak. "Think bland. It’s the only ordinary looking thing I own. It’s buried here somewhere."
As she threw a luggage case onto an ottoman the door opened and Spaulding walked in. He was fully grown, stories above her, and he blushed at the shock of seeing her so short.
"What are you doing? Come down here," she remarked. And so he did, shrinking rapidly as she pulled at clothing and threw them back into a pile. She was fair skinned today, with curly hair that that spread wildly out. He asked what she was doing but she ignored the question.
"You still go to that shit hole, Yelis, correct?"
"Its hardly a shit hole," He replied, offended. "Do you know what is in there? Are kidding me?"
"Are you the only one that goes to Yelis?" She said, motioning with her hands for him to move it along.
"There's a thousand people or more..."
"People don't matter!" She yelled. She collected herself, looking at the stunned faces around. The women quickly continued their work. "People are not who I am speaking of. Us. Does anyone from here follow you down there."
"Just me, it’s my place after all."
"All right," She said, waving for him to follow her. She walked to a long walk-in closet and began to pull mounds of clothing off the shelves and dump it on the floor.
"I don't think I'm the best choice to find you a clean outfit," he joked, pulling at his beard. She looked up from the pile of clothes she was picking through and examined his rust colored work pants and untucked shirt.
"Clearly," she replied. "I want something normal sized and plain. So it doesn't reflect my moods like my clothing usually does. I wanted to give you aheads up. When you return to Yelis you might find it pleasantly vacant."
"Are all of those people moving?"
"One of them is. The rest may or may not depending if their paydays keep coming." She stood up, empty handed, and faced him. "Just keep it quiet if Theo isn't there. Enjoy your mine, all right?"
"Theo..." he repeated, but Celia put her finger to his lips.
"If he abandoned the mine, I'm guessing at some point it reverts to you?"
"I suppose."
She shrugged, as if to say 'your welcome'. He nodded but his face showed confusion.
"Just keep it quiet," she repeated, walking back into the main room.
"But where are you going? Where is Theo going?"
"I'm going for a walk. Take your win and depart, dear," She said, pointing at the door.
"There's a meeting shortly," he said.
"I'm aware," she said, and she motioned for a handmaiden to show him the door. Once gone, she sighed and continued her quest. It wasn't long before a girl held up the item in question: a dark brown cloak of dull appearance. Celia hugged it as if it was an old friend.
"So nice not to have to think about what you are going to wear," she exclaimed, trying it on.
"What else goes with you, ma’am?" asked the girl.
"As little as possible." The girl looked up at her with some confusion. "Do you know what it will l like if I show up with sixteen trunks of clothes? I'm not that high maintenance."
"Should one of us go with you?" asked another girl.
"No. You'll come along eventually." She pulled off the robe and stuck it in a large bag with the rest of the meager possessions that she intended to take. The bag was so small that it appeared sad.
"What will we say to them if they ask about you?
Celia turned to the girl and slung the bag over her shoulder.
"Tell them as little as possible and stall them for as long as you can. You know nothing." She pointed around the room to the dozen girls that stood among the piles of clothes. "All of you. You are my little ones, and you all have a role when the time comes. Be ready with my things. If a note comes from Marcus you are to read it and come to my aid." She walked towards the door with urgency. "I must be off before that damned meeting takes place.”
She walked through the hallways towards the hole in side of the palace. She saw something out of the corner of her eye and turned to see a huge skull being hauled down a hallway. Shock overtook her at the sight of the grim, grey thing.
"What is this?" she asked one fo the workers. The skull, a bundle of mangled teeth and holes, sat on its side, offering to chew anything that came near it. The worker walked out through its jaws.
"Its Bautomet, ma’am," he replied politely. "Its cleaned and ready for hanging in the hall, as ordered."
She gasped for air at the thought and screamed.
"Get this shit out of my house! Go!"
As the workers scrambled, leaving the skull behind, she charged off on her own towards the hole in the wall. Had Genesee paid attention to the noise he would have turned at the right moment to see his wife walking out of her home. Instead his face was buried in a pile of papers, setting the table for a meeting that the other managers slowly drug their feet towards. When darkness began to defend Genesee checked his watch, pleased that everyone was at the table save Celia and Waring. Waring was not informed of the meeting but Celia’s absence was a mystery.
"I see we have quorum," Genesee announced, handing a stack of papers to Sweetzer, his squat-looking lawyer. "Celia can catch up when she gets here, whenever that is."
Everyone sat at common height, or human height, at the request of Gensee, which made it more manageable for the servants to move papers to each of them. No food was served until work was done and work was going to take a long time.
Each line was dictated out loud from the stack of papers in order to officially present rule changes to the committee. Any opposition would have to be spoken then. The purpose was to adapt the law book to abide by the ideas that Genesee and Goetz now had determined should be laws. Committee agreements were required, but in reality all of the titans all knew the laws could change at the drop of a hat and so little opposition was offered. Mostly they all sighed and listened to the two little men with glasses discuss the minutia of how to box in Fairfax through the law.
He had to exist, legally, as an entity. He was given a type and a reason that his capture and killing would be lawful. He was given a crime that he had committed and it was postdated to the action itself; after all, how could someone who did not technically exist commit a crime? And if the punishment of the crime was not what they wanted it to be, it should be changed.
In essence, Fairfax was no longer human. He probably could not have ever been considered that in the real world, and now it was reflected in the legal world. He was boxed into a crime that should be punished by death but for now there was an exit gate because of his circumstances: imprisonment with the possibility of useful necessity. He was a tool that Genesee and Goetz and others desired to control, and if anyone attempted to harm him without due reason then they would be in violation of the law.
"The law is important," Sweetzer announced when the energy was lagging. "The law is the binding document that we all have to follow. And if we don't follow it, why should anyone
else?"
Genesee nodded his approval and looked out at the tired faces. It was nearly done. Then they could continue to their nightly feast. He noticed how smoothly the proceedings had gone and he asked:
"Does anyone know where Celia is?”
Bedtime at the Copper Tower
It was well past dark when Theo returned to the Copper Tower. He had timed his arrival with the hope that all would be asleep when he came in the penthouse. Yet when he passed by his wife’s door she was sitting at her desk, awake in the deepest hours of the night. She looked up at him as he passed and his immediate reaction was to hide, not the least because he had the appearance of a wounded animal that had been rolled in dirt. He limped a little as he tried to straighten his posture but this only exaggerated the difference in their appearances; she seemed dressed for a night of entertaining.
He smiled weakly, wishing he had told Maxwell to come up with him so he would have someone to think up excuses with. He had instructed Maxwell to retire to a lower floor so he could sneak into his guest room with a minimum of interference.
"I was just going to gather some more men,” Theo said to his wife. "I'll be out before dawn, I believe."
"I know, dear," she said coyly. He expected some comment on his appearance but none came.
"No need to get up, I"m an awful mess. I'll sleep in the guest room."
"As you wish," she replied, standing up anyways. Her figure had shrunk with a loss of weight but she managed to keep a neat appearance. She wore a slimming, light purple dress that didn't seem like anything something a person would want to be in at this time of night. Not sober, in any case. His wife was odd.
"So, some other time!" he said, trying to escape.
"You should take me with you," she said just as he disappeared down the hall. The words brought him back.
"To my room? I need a bath. I'll have the maid..."
"When you leave. You should take me with you."
“To Yelis? Hardly. You want to live in that dirtbag? You'd hardly be suited for a day."
"Mmmm," Delia said, looking around her as if she had lost a pen on the floor. He excused himself again and went directly to his office to pull supplies from his closet. He was a half hour into digging through his files when she appeared at the closet door, startling him so much he dropped a handful of papers on the ground.
"You startled me," he explained, nervously laughing.
"Mmmm," she replied, "I have that effect on some people."
Her tone was such that he wondered if she was flirting with him. She hardly had to do that after twenty four years together. And he was not in any mood or appearance to fuck. But, his wife was strange.
"Its awful quiet around here," he said, trying to get on a comfortable subject. "I just need a bath before I do any of this. It’s always work with me. First work then everything else."
"It's been quiet since McKenna left,"
"Oh, did she go to a party?” he asked, distractedly.
"No."
The tone of the 'No' was so firm that it caused him to look up from his papers. She was giving him an unreadable look that frightened him a little. Whatever game she was playing, he felt like he was losing.
"So, she just ran away I guess," he said, not really wanting to know. "I guess the quiet is nice."
He slipped by her, hoping to escape again, but as he walked past her she said it again:
"You should take me with you."
"I want to bathe alone, dear."
"Tomorrow, when you leave."
"Dear," he said exasperated. "Its terrible out there. What are you wanting to go to that place for? It’s absolutely ridiculous."
"You're going to have to take me, one way or another,” she said, leaning against the door frame. "Its going to be required."
"Oh," he said. "Shit." He slumped his arms and limped towards a chair where he could relax his suddenly cramping back. He sighed and covered his eye with his hand.
"When did this come about?" he asked.
"She needs to keep an eye on you," Delia replied.
Of course.
"Of course she does," he replied limply. "How much do you know?"
"We are going to travel a very long distance," she said.
“It's going to be longer with you with me," he muttered.
"I won’t be there to make things difficult," she replied. "I can handle my own in times of need."
Times of need. The last need she had unfulfilled was not getting tea at the correct time. How would she put up with the fire pit they were headed towards?
"Have you ever been to the far east?"
"No, not far."
"Its not pretty. You don't know how terrible it can be."
"Have you been?"
"No, you know why?"
"Why?"
"Because there's nothing there that I wanted until now. Just dangerous creatures and vicious weather. No water. Anything bad that comes into this world come form there. It all comes from the edge of the world. And you know what type of people live there? The type that can deal with that. Uncivilized. Angry. Brutish. People that don't believe in the same types of things that you and Celia believe in. The type that they abandoned."
"Celia abandons no one!"
"They beg to differ, and they're proud of it."
Delia shook her head slowly and put her hand to his shoulder.
"There isn't a choice."
"There never is." He rested his head in his hand. He was tired and energized at the same time. He had taken a few hundred miners with him, the fittest he could find. Tomorrow he had to find a few hundred more to be mercenaries for him. Metal would be no problem for him, but pounding it into armor would have to be done along the way. A caravan of future warriors. He smiled at the thought. Then he looked up from his hands.
"Where is McKenna?"
"She's with Martel," Delia replied.
"Why?" he asked, suddenly alarmed.
"Because when Martel says come with me, you go, and when Gensee backs it up, you don't question it. Isn't that how it works?"
He stood up, pain suddenly unimportant.
"Oh, no," he said.
"Its OK," she said. "Because Gensee decided to send them you now have a job."
"I'm working for Celia, aren't I?"
"Who did you think you were working for?”
“Waring.”
“I would say Celia is an upgrade.”
“Why me?”
“Because she knew you would do anything to get back in their good graces. Because you have the right moral compass, and because you are reasonably competent. And she knew that I would be of assistance.”
"If I don't find Fairfax and kill him she'll throw me off a cliff."
"I don't think she'll do that."
"She'll throw me to Genesee. It's the same thing."
"Hardly. If Martel find Fairfax she'll tell Celia and Celia will tell us. If we find him first it will be even easier. And we have four pairs of eyes and an army to look for him. Martel does not.”
"Ohhh," said Theo, scratching his head. He was still very unconvinced. He staggered towards his bed his head swimming. In one fell swoop they had involved his whole family in both sides of the fight against Fairfax. What little sleep he thought he was going to get tonight he now dismissed as impossible. Delia walked towards the door but, before she existed, she called to him. She looked at him from across the room with more compassion in her eyes than she had seen in years.
"Theo," she said,"don't try to please everyone at the same time. They're too smart for that. Just please the ones that really matter."
"I wish I knew which ones that was," he replied.
Ally
Bern watched the sky brighten and penetrated the dark corners of the street in front of him. He came to life as he tucked into a bowl of warm milled seeds and a cup of tea. What sat before him beyond was a mountain of work he did not even want to look at. A cacophony of headaches were invading his private time and loos
ening his brain. The biggest one was a single worn piece of paper on the edge of the table. It read:
b-
Have heard about you, spreading things to people about c. Why so curious is this account? She is not all there is, don't you know this? I require you come see me and tell what I say not hers. My friend might impose this on you. She is not right, I am right.
-F
F was Fairfax, C was Celia, and B was Bern. It was an alphabet soup of madness. Fairfax already had an outlet to use for his side of the story of his escapades but the latest version of events he had submitted to Bern through Gim had been nearly illegible. In senseless paragraphs with horrid grammar it refuted everything Celia had said in her published journal about how he came about. Her scribbling laid the entire blame with Genesee.
Bern had sent in every one of those entries for publishing with a shaking hand, expecting for a soldier to meet him at his door as soon as he got home. Yet the blame game had become routine by now; every week there was another journal entry by her, predictably laying all bad things at the feet of another, usually her husband. People had luckily grown tired of Celia but Bern was always on edge, waiting for something to pop up that would bring the wrong kind of attention to me.
Bern had expected Fairfax to be the counterbalance to Celia’s account since Genesee's rebuttals were so dry they brought anyone to tears. Instead he could barely hack his way through them. Genesee had fretted about publishing Farifax’s account until he had seen one. He gladly let it go through.
Lies, I hear lies. But I remember things differently? Free to roam out here, but encaged, leave me be or pay.
This had been the opening lines of Farifax’s first statement, from the best that we could decipher. It went downhill from there, descending into jokes and scribbles. While there were certainly acolytes to him popping up in dark rooms across the city they struggled to gain traction with words such as these. If they were to storm The Hill, as some of the rumors went, then they had to have a more coherent leader. Fairfax, wherever he was buried inside that scrambled mind, seemed to sense his own weaknesses and continued to ask Bern to come to him. The barely literate clowns around him could not be counted on to assist in the creation of any sort of inspiring manifesto.