by P. S. Power
She shrugged, and then shook her head.
"I..." Her mind twisted a bit, as something that she'd never thought of before hit her. It probably wouldn't be all that popular with the people she was surrounded by. Erica still had her at lance point, for instance, her dead, flat, armored face watching her.
The thing was, she had an idea. It was one that she doubted anyone here had ever thought about, or if they had, they'd kept it to themselves.
It would be hard, and inexact, but she could stop people from rifting. Or at least the Westmorlands could do it, if she figured out how to teach them. There were probably six different ways to get it done. Large scale null radiatives were possible, for instance. She'd seen it before. It had taken a lot of death, but that was because the people doing it had done it wrong, and in a way that they'd planned to make permanent.
It may be possible, however, to make a temporary field that one person projected, like a shield. They'd need to learn how to see where the damage would be, but the Westmorlands could learn to do that. They were all horrible in seeing death, but that was an artifact of their training. They could use the new kind of conditioning, and get past that. Possibly, at any rate.
The pleasurable reinforcement that Peter had been using. For years now, it seemed.
She started nodding, and finally held out her right hand.
"I... Can undo part of this. Maybe. It will take a new training regime, and it might fail, but..." She went into it all, and got the stares that she kind of expected, but not the response that she would have figured.
King Ferdinand actually started to nod along.
"Adam, what do you think? Can this new program work? I know that nothing can be assured, but are there gaps that I'm not seeing?"
The older man went blank for a while, and finally stared at her.
"I think we have a basic solution for our problems here. Miss Farris, would you allow us to attempt the first level of testing on you? You have the needed power levels, and a known level of fluidity that can allow for rapid learning. It will require you being addicted to the device you had created, but since you're already a prisoner, that in itself might be a way to correct the situation. Miss Vernor, if you allow this to happen, you too, may eventually be allowed some measure of freedom."
Gwen blinked, having not thought of that one at all. It was a good idea, in a scorched Earth kind of way. Adam was talking about placing her under total control, by using a magical device that was nearly instantly addictive, and so pleasurable that once hooked on it, a person would do anything to get more of it.
In short, Adam was suggesting that she turn herself into a slave. One who would then be used to undo some of what Katherine Vernor had done to the world.
"All right. Let's do it. I'll need one of the trainers. Is whoever has been working with Peter available? I'd rather it not be Mona, if it's all the same."
It turned out that he was, and being a male that meant it wasn't Mona, who Gwen associated with pure fear. Though it was possible that feeling would go away if she were in control of the doling out of pleasure.
She was eager to slam right into it, and for once in this slow and backwards world, people actually hurried. That wasn't exactly fair, since the Westmorlands often did things with a bit of dispatch. Some military groups did, too. The rest of them didn't even seem to realize how slow they moved most of the time. It would take them hours to do things like eat a meal, or move a few feet to get a simple task done.
It felt like it, at any rate.
This time people did their best to be quick, and to her surprise, Ferdinand stayed with her, instead of bailing the second they had a plan in place that didn't require her death. Hopefully it would work.
If not, she had a fallback plan ready to go.
It was frightening, but in a way, better than death. She really didn't want to die, as willing as she was to do it. There was a stirring from inside herself, as Kat shifted, clearly uneasy.
"Is this a good thing? I... How can you do this? It will hurt you, and steal your mind away."
The words were said out loud, so she answered that way, even as the others around her stared. Even here, being seen talking to yourself wasn't exactly normal.
"There aren't a lot of other choices left. We need to fix what you did, and I think we can work up a kind of shield to stop rifting, but it will have to be done in a way that neither of us will be willing to run off to the Europans and teach them how it's done. This will fix that, if done right."
By making her a slave for the rest of her life. On the good side, Kate would be one, too. It was a bit of a pyrrhic victory, sure, but fuck it, Gwen was done with this as a problem and had been gearing up to it for a long time.
In short, she was finally starting to get more than a little pissed off at Katherine Vernor. The woman had not only killed her body, which hadn't been that great, but still hers, but she'd also managed to screw up anything good or nice in her entire world. Maybe the first parts had all been about Erin Debussey, but this latest snafu was all her.
It felt petty, in a way, but there had been some good things in her life. Not just the new one here that had been taken from her, but her old one. True, she'd lived alone, and had no hope of things becoming better that way, but she'd been entertained. Gwen Farris had lived in a sea of movies, programs, books, and songs. Games had been more than a casual hobby of hers as well. Her entire life had been lived to a soundtrack, practically.
This world had some nice music, but it wasn't hers. Big band sounds just didn't resonate with her the way they might some of the people here.
Granted, Kate's body was much better than what she'd had back home, but as the last years had proved rather forcefully, it wasn't hers either. She'd gotten the use of it for a while, but that was all. It felt great, being able to move like nature intended, but she always felt a bit too much like she was going to fall down anyway.
Her entire existence had listed to the left. Gwen's mind still moved in arcs, her strong side pushing, and her weak one not quite keeping up.
Katherine Vernor was designed to move in straight lines, like everyone else.
The food had been better too. She got enough here, and it was easier to stay slim, but it wasn't even a fraction as good, as far as taste went. Oh, horrible for her in other ways, but worrying about her figure, or the long term health of her heart had never been much of a thing for her. It had been years now, since she'd had a decent piece of candy, for instance. They had to have it in this new world, since they had kids, but if so, she'd not seen a lot of it.
Gritting her teeth, she just felt tired. Exhausted on a level that tore into her soul. That was part reality, she knew. The body she was in was weak now, having not been used for too long. The rest of it was her. She was just kind of done. She couldn't have her old life back, and didn't really want it, never having been happy in her old world, but for the first time she kind of blamed Kate for taking it away from her. Debussey, at least.
That was strange, since everyone else in this place had acted like it was a big deal the whole time, and she'd been kind of putting them off, not mentioning too often what a miracle it had been that she had something better than she'd ever expected for herself.
Now... Now she felt like she'd just been ripped off, by almost everyone, for the entire time she'd been alive. Worse, as she moved into the big house, a place that was nearly a palace, Gwen knew that she had to sacrifice even the little bit of goodness that had been left to her, in order to undo someone else's mess.
It wasn't fair.
The situation was so far from being that. She wanted to cry then, for the first time ever, over all that she'd lost. There was something that someone had said to her once. Beth, she thought, when she'd tried to explain that Katherine hadn't taken that much from her.
The other woman, the best friend that she'd ever had in her entire life, had mentioned something about how Kate hadn't just taken her life, but stolen an entire world from her. She hadn't gotten
it really. Not even living it from the inside. At the time it had seemed worth it, to have this new chance to live her life. To make something of herself. To find love, and possibly do something to make the world a better place.
Now...
Gwen nodded. It wasn't fair. She was about to become a slave, an addict that would do anything she was told, in order to repair the broken life of another person.
It was like dying, all over again. Losing what she had, no matter how poor or small that had become, in order to protect others. There was probably some kind of hidden strength in that, but no one seemed to notice it, most of the time. No one congratulated her on being so strong. They simply acted like it was what anyone would have done in the same place.
Maybe it was.
"I guess we need to get this set up, then? I should write some letters, since I doubt that I'll be myself after this." She winced, because she wasn't going to be doing anything she hadn't foisted upon poor Peter. It had been to try and save him from being tortured, and had worked, but that didn't make it any better.
She was still a slave master. In that way, it was fitting that she had to undergo the same thing. It wasn't like it would hurt.
'There's that, isn't there? I remember the one time you used the pleasure device. It was rather divine, actually.'
"I didn't know that you'd felt that. I'd kind of thought that you hiding away like you were would protect you from it. Sorry." She meant it, for what it was worth. The other girl would know that now.
Woman. Katherine Vernor hadn't been a girl in a long time.
'I feel everything you do, unless I hide completely. That's like dying, so I only do it when the pain comes. Even then, it doesn't always work. Just often enough that I managed not to learn anything. I should be the one to fix this. I would, if I were more like you. A better person than I am. Dedicate my life to repairing the damage I've done. Let you have a real life, as you deserve.'
Gwen grinned, and if it was a sad thing, no one else was going to see it, since they were all behind her as she worked her way into one of the front sitting rooms. There wouldn't be any screaming this time, so she was going to use a comfy sofa for it.
"Yep. That would be fair. You can do all the work, and I'll just sit back and reap the rewards. Get on that one, will you?"
There was no answer, and while not a great joke, Gwen had to think she deserved at least a sardonic comment over it. After all, she was about to die, after a fashion. Except that she wasn't. To the world she'd be nearly the same. Her will would be compromised, but that was all. She'd do whatever she was told, in order to get her next fix, but as long as that wasn't abused, it wasn't that big of a deal.
The real issue there was that she had some trust issues with people.
Go figure.
"So, who's coming in for this?"
She kind of expected it to either be the man that worked with Pete, or someone she didn't really know. They needed to develop a plan after all. Technically she could do that after she was hooked on the device, too. It wouldn't make it impossible to think. It would, in fact cause her to think very hard, if she were told that would get her a reward. In that way things were fine then, since she'd no doubt be more than willing to come up with things to get at the incredible sensations again.
Still, she was a little surprised when Bethany showed up carrying the small case, about an hour later. No one explained anything to her before then, but Beth smiled when she made eye contact.
"Adam and the King decided that I should work with you on this. That way we can stay together. I won't leave you, or let anything bad happen to you, and everyone knows that. Tims showed me how to use this." The box was made of wood, but had a little strap handle on the top, which gave it the feeling of being a lunch box from a television show.
"Cool. We should get this done, I guess. We can go over the plans I have later. I... We need to do this before I lose my nerve. I don't really want to be a slave." She didn't want anyone to be.
Everyone else looked away, as if it hadn't occurred to them that was what she was about to do really. There hadn't been a lot of time to think about it, so that could simply have been the case. Then again, the people in the room with her were an odd group now, made up mainly of people that she barely knew.
King Ferdinand was there, dressed in a fine cream colored jacket with a lot of gold trim on it. The light colored trousers had grass stains at the knees, she noticed. Count Goebbels was dressed in dark blue, but looked slightly military for all that. Billy looked like he was in the Air Force back home, given his short sleeve Westmorland uniform. Bethany matched him.
Those four were the people that stayed, the armored people having not been invited inside with them. Probably so that it wouldn't feel like she was being threatened into it, rather than anything else. For that matter, Adam hadn't come in either.
She grinned.
"So, Adam decided that seeing me be strung out on the ultimate drug would be too goofy for him to get off on?" That was probably not it. After she was hooked, he just needed to get a device and he could have her do whatever he wanted. Clean toilets with her tongue or whatever might do it for him.
It wouldn't be anything sexual, she knew. If the man had wanted something like that, he could have just asked. Oh, she'd botch it, no doubt, but it wasn't like she wouldn't have been willing to try to make him happy. Her self esteem issues meant that she'd probably do anything anyone wanted with her, if they asked nicely enough.
Ferdinand shook his head, and seemed a bit upset.
"Nothing like that. He... Seemed to be having trouble with it, so I sent him away. The man may not be your best friend Gwen Farris, but he feels this as a personal failure. In a way you're being sent to your death, at least in spirit, in order to correct this situation. I understand keenly how he feels about it all. I just can't see a better way. If you can see one, let me know now. Even if you can't, if you wish to retire to the countryside instead say, we can make arrangements. I have a home I can lend you for it?"
She shook her head. That wasn't going to get things fixed, and eventually Kate was going to be able to walk off, once the ankle was healed fully. Just being away in the country might not be enough to stop that. Now, a small island might do it, but even that wasn't certain. The woman could swim, after all.
There was laughter from inside. It was a dark sound, but real enough.
"I don't swim that well. Still, I see this as needed. I... Know what to do. I'm sorry Gwen. I... I got you into this. Really, I'm every bit as selfish and bad as everyone always told me I was, aren't I? I always thought that it didn't matter. What if a few peasants were used and tossed aside while I took what I wanted from the world? That's what they're there for, isn't it? Then I was exposed to you, always doing the right thing, and seeing everyone as your better. That isn't true either, you know. A few people might be your equal in this life, but very few are actually worth more than you, Gwen. I apologize for all of it. It was all my fault." The words were emotional, thick, and clearly not Gwen speaking.
It was enough for Ferdinand to look at her hopefully.
"You have an idea, perhaps, Miss Vernor?"
"I do, your majesty. First, Gwen was just thinking that an island might be enough to keep me. Which it might, if I fail in my plan. I..." She stopped and looked over at Beth, and sneered a bit. Gwen recognized the feeling. "Not that I love being the slave of a cold fish, but what if I hide Gwen away as hard and tightly as I can, then allowed you to use that device on me? I can't promise it will save her from the effects, but if it does, then only I would be left a slave. Then I can be put to finishing the plan that Gwen has, and she can go and live a real life?"
Ferdinand looked over at Beth, who flipped both palms up, which meant resting the now open wooden box in her lap.
"That... Might work? The worst that happens is what we have planned anyway, I think. It would take Katherine's cooperation however. Her will would be required to act as a shield, and we cannot compel her t
o do it. It would have to be her choice."
The king nodded.
"Which she just offered, without reservation, I believe? It isn't enough to make good the betrayal of our Kingdom, Miss Vernor, but it will allow you to live, and perhaps give you a way to begin on that effort. I have no thoughts against it, if it can be done. Anyone? Now is the time to voice your concerns, if you have them."
No one did, it seemed. Even Gwen couldn't find any. It really might not work, but then she'd lost three years of her life in what had felt like no more than a night's sleep. That had to indicate she wasn't getting anything directly during that time. Kate's brain would change though, once addicted. That might be enough to hook her, too.
Then again, if they didn't try, no one would ever know.
"Do it. If it works, we can make new plans, and if it doesn't, well, then we still make new plans. Either way. It almost doesn't matter, right?"
Her own mouth moved again, this time to smile.
"Except that it does, of course, Miss Farris. It was always a matter of time before others worked out how to rift. Erin was able to figure it out, and that meant that the rest of the world would have eventually. Perhaps I sped that along, but they were close to it anyway, when I got there. The things I've done to you, taking your world, the good things you once had, the riches that you haven't told anyone here about that were yours... I can't return that to you, but perhaps I can truly remove myself from your way, and allow you the life you should have had? If not... I don't know. It's all I can do."
Then, almost as if she were falling asleep, Gwen moved away from the world, into the darkness. There was nothing left then, other than black. That and the sense the world was about to rip open, allowing pure terror to spill out and consume her. Again, she screamed into the eternal dark.
For a moment, or possibly longer, she had to wonder if she were ever going to come back to the real world. It could be a trick, if Katherine had worked out how to do it. Maybe reverse the sense of pleasure in some magical way, so that Gwen was hit with it all, leaving her free to run away. Except that she wasn't doing that on a broken ankle.