Other Places 3: Detours

by P. S. Power

  Then, leaving the two women alone, he took off, leaving from his node room. The idea that he had one was... Kind of neat. New still though. Sighing, he stepped lightly, and waved at Detective McKenzie.

  "Next stop, Ettarian lands. Don't talk to anyone, unless spoken to. They're nice people, but there's a Summit on to stop a war. Try not to mess that up." Then he left him there, not mentioning ever coming back. The place looked very different, since it was far more futuristic, and like a spaceport, rather than a strange forest. That was the point, as far as Zack was concerned. The man tried to mutter something, but if it was about food or water, well, the Ettarians would help him out there. They were really great that way, helping anyone that came along, really.

  Then he used cash to get a lot of Thai food, from the place his grandfather suggested, and just walked in the cold Wisconsin air, the snow on the ground making his feet slip a little. He knew where he was going, and it really wasn't far, only being about six blocks. So, a mile, give or take, if he wasn't going to use any shortcuts. It was tempting, since the very first time he ever even tried that was only about half a mile from where he was at the moment. Of course, if he did that, he'd be at his grandparent's home in a few moments and he still wasn't due in for ten minutes. If he walked quickly, avoiding being seen, that was just about the right amount of time.

  Okay, so a walking ten minute mile normally would have attracted attention, but it was night time and very cold out. Bitterly so, he noticed. Most people wouldn't be out looking at anyone else, given that. So he puffed away, leaving a trial of white water vapor in the air behind him, headed through areas that were nearly the same as the last time he'd been there, years before. It was mainly residential, and a decently nice area, really. About half of the houses had gates on them, and a few full walls, which was why he'd never thought it was all that big of a deal that his family's place did too.

  Now it seemed odd, since only six of the large houses had that, and most of the area looked a bit smaller than it used to. Still, wall or not, the one he wanted was open at the front, letting him walk right in, without having to buzz the house. Unlocked at least. That meant he was able to ring the bell, just about perfectly on time. Not that he had a watch, but he was nervous enough about everything to have kept track.

  When the door opened, it was his grandmother, who seemed just like she always had to him. Like a Mage, as far as energy went, with the normal and perfectly healthy circulation of a Human, not the constant drawing inward of a Demon. That could be faked though, he knew. Even he'd managed it, so an older Demon certainly could have.

  There was no way to tell, really. Not that it was all that important. It hit him, pretty solidly, that it was just the truth. If Lyn was like him, then he'd deal, but she was still the person he'd always known and loved. If Tarsus was lying to him, in order to cast doubt, or even just keep him on his toes, well, that was what the guy liked to do, wasn't it? That and collect data. It might even be linked, in a way that Zack hadn't put together yet.

  The small dark haired Japanese woman gave him a hug, then moved, so that he could take his shoes off. She'd always insisted on that bit of her own cultural heritage. There were little slippers for him to borrow too, since that was the polite way of doing things. He used his old spot, the nice dress shoes sliding into place, out of long term habit.

  "Zack... I've heard some troubling things. Are you..." She stopped, and simply looked at him closely.

  He nodded.

  "Yeah, a Greater Demon. You?" It was said in a way that could have been him asking if she was well, or that might have gotten a small laugh, as if he were making a joke. She just made a hard face, flashing her disapproval at him. It was a very Japanese thing to do, he knew.

  "Finias?"

  He shook his head, and started into the house then, with her walking along beside him.

  "Tarsus mentioned it. He sends his love." He locked down everything then, and stopped even bothering to hold any memories at all, since it took a lot of work to bury the shock he felt. Still, he'd been right, the few moments before, hadn't he? She was still herself, even if he knew more about her now.

  She sighed, "I see. Well, all good things must come to an end. Your grandfather, well, I never mentioned that part of things to him. At first... well, he's an open minded man, but there are limits. After we adopted your father, Darren, it seemed a little late. In truth, I never planned to tell him at all. He has more than enough reason to hate our kind now. After what Xenses did to you... I nearly killed him. Xen." She gave him a hard look, which looked like the same one she used when he'd once said he didn't really want to study math, while she was teaching him. "He got away. So I guarded you, as best I could, without letting the secret out." She didn't bother lowering her voice at all, so Brad, who'd been setting the table for them heard.

  "Secrets? Do you mean the one for your Christmas cake, because that's pretty much just sponge cake with whipped cream and fresh strawberries in layers. I don't know if that really counts as a grand mystery. Though, if you don't want me to share that..."

  She started to speak, "I'm-"

  Zack cut her off, laughing.

  "Right, right, not going to share. Anyway, I don't want to dump things on you both, but here, food. We should sit, since, well, I do have news and not all of it is exactly good. For instance, that new Thai place doesn't have peanut chicken. Can you imagine that? I was sort of sad." He smiled and passed the white paper bags over, so that the food could be shifted into serving dishes. They might eat restaurant food at home, on rare occasion, but it had never, not even once in his life, been served directly from a carton to a plate. Not in the house he was in at the moment.

  His grandmother did that, carefully not looking at him, since it was pretty clear he wasn't going to out her. That she'd figured he would was a bit disturbing, actually. It wasn't like he'd suddenly turned into a jerk, after all. Okay, a bit of a perv, that one was true, but even Mirror Him had always been kind to Lyn. Or Magda, as it turned out. Though it was pretty certain to him that she'd been locked into solid hiding the entire time, so no part of him had even suspected her secret at all.

  They didn't say grace or anything, which was nice, since going directly from that to the subject at hand would be far too much to ask.

  They all just ate, with his grandfather's young looking face looking at him expectantly, but not demanding answers. Yet.

  He finally sighed.

  "So, it turns out that a Greater Demon named Xenses managed to get mom pregnant. It's how they breed new little Demons, so, you know, me. They're still alive, my parents. Um... It's hard to explain, but the basic idea is that they were enslaved to Xenses, after they gave me over to him though. Not that they could have stopped him, but that was the order of things. I was made a slave too, back then, and forced to... That time I couldn't remember? That created Mirror Him? Well, I did things... Which aren't appropriate to talk about at the table, and things were done to me. It was bad enough that... Yeah, bad." They were eating and he couldn't name anything without making that hard to continue doing. As it was, they'd both slowed way down.

  That could have been the shocking Greater Demon admission, at least for his grandfather.

  "So, anyway, I have an agreement in place with him, Xenses, so that my people, friends and family, won't be hurt. That goes away if you attack him, but otherwise it should hold." He pointed at a nice china serving dish. "Could you pass that one too, please?"

  His grandmother did, so that was normal. She was sitting across from him, with Brad to the right. He just sat quietly, his face having fallen a good bit, as things were worked out.

  "So, when you were taken, they turned you into a slave? Your parents, Darren and Tina, I mean?"

  It was like he couldn't bear to face the reality of things, but he wasn't a regular Human, so it was simple denial, not inability to understand reality.

  "No, that was Xenses. The Defiler, in case it ever comes up. I get the much niftier name of The Line
Walker. That one kind of stuck. It should play better in the bible belt, don't you think?"

  No one commented, the joke, as it was, falling flat. Lyn sighed and shook her head a bit, looking at her husband.

  "I have something to tell you, Bradley." There was depth to the whole thing, and a bit of sadness, because it was pretty clear that her love just wasn't going to handle that kind of thing well at all. He hadn't screamed, or thrown Zack out for being evil, but there was no need to push him that hard either. Zack focused a bit and sent that single thought at her, which simply had her shaking her head.

  Then she spoke out loud.

  "No, Zachary, I must. It is past time by far. Bradley, I'm a Greater Demon, too. I always was. I'm not lying or playing a game with you right now either. I love you and will always do so, but it's time for you to know this. It might become important, over the next years."

  Brad looked at her and smiled, weakly, as if hoping it was a joke, and that possibly, it all was. Some ultimate and unfunny prank, meant to cause him grief, just to be goofy. Like those awful television programs. Zack could see him thinking things through, or feel it, more to the point, and knew the moment that it sank in. It felt like betrayal.

  "How? Why bother? I've put so much of my life into you. Both of you... I..." What he was about to do, Zack knew, was have a meltdown.

  Lyn swallowed and looked away, shyly, as if trying to avoid the confrontation that hadn't been needed. She could have kept her mouth shut, he knew and probably lasted a few hundred more years, without the topic even coming up. At least unless the others found her, or told on her, just to make her life hard. Like Tarsus had, which was probably what he'd planned all along.

  Lyn knew that too.

  Steeling himself, Zack sat up and then sighed, holding his face with both hands.

  "If we're telling the truth, there's one more thing you should know, grandpa. I..." He looked past his fingers as the other man stared, it being pretty clear that even one more straw might just break his back. "I'm... black. In my soul. African I mean, not a black Mage or anything. Inside though, I'm all about the hood." It came out sad, deadpanned and like he fully expected to be cast out because of his admission. Really, it was about the best acting he'd ever done.

  Brad gave him a dry look, but rallied a lot. Which was the point.

  "I think I always knew that about you, Zack." He didn't smile, exactly, but did manage to sit up a good bit and not seem ready to fold in on himself. "Here I thought you were going to say that you were gay. Not that I care about that, even if I am from a different time. Most Mages aren't worried about that."

  Zack snorted, "tell that to Eric Weise. He treats his daughter like garbage over her being a lesbian. If I wasn't so busy, I'd be calling that man every day and chewing him out over that. Not that it would help."

  That got both of the other people to nod, interestingly enough. Lyn explained.

  "Eric... He's been around for a while. It can be hard for the older people to adapt all the time. It was why he had to fake his death, even at the height of his fame. Back when he was Harry Houdini? That really isn't a great excuse. I'm old and I don't care about things like that." She grinned, looking at him closely.

  He waved the glance away.

  "Right. Well, no boyfriends to bring home for Thanksgiving, yet. I'll let you know if that changes. Right now, well, really, I just came to touch base. Make sure you know that I'm eating enough and have a new job." He was going to leave it there, but his grandfather, most likely looking to change the subject from the topic of Demons, glommed on to that one.

  "You left the Guild Embassy?" He said it as if feeling slightly hurt, as if his not working for the Mage Guild was him turning his back on the family business. Which, made sense. Brad had been a representative for a long time with them, before he retired.

  Which had been because of Zack. That and all the problems he'd had after he got back to the real world.

  "Oh, well, they sort of fired me. Lisa freaked out and was acting like I was going to make her my personal slave, so Eric Weise pressured the board to force me out. Then they dropped the job of letting me go on poor Bob Millhouse. I hadn't even thought of that before, but they literally set him up to insult a Greater Demon, not knowing what would happen at all. That's pretty cold, isn't it? He should lodge a complaint. I'll run that past him the next time we get together. I'm supposed to go in soon and work the store for him, since he apparently can't manage dusting or doing the ordering. Lisa is back to a retreat. I got her booked in this morning. Wistra?" He didn't know if they'd have heard of it, since it wasn't a common street drug, but Brad winced.

  "Right, you mentioned that before. It can be hard to break free from. Well, it's good she's getting help. So, if you aren't there, what are you doing? Working with the Vampires?" That last line was strained, if only a bit. It wasn't that his grandfather was a bigot, as much as that he feared for his tasty grandson. It was an old habit, after all, and not one that would be easily broken.

  "I started a bookstore. It has a little cafe and a node transfer business next door. That's the real business, but I'm taking them all seriously. I'm also planning a modeling agency. That's just for business experience. I have some Alede that owe me some favors, and was going to get with Bente soon and see if she had any tips or contacts I could trade for. Something low key?"

  Lyn looked at her husband then and then Zack.

  "I haven't seen her for nearly a century. We used to go around together, Bente and I. The Fashion Demon. The Pristine, if she's ever over to visit. Well, if I'm not going to be allowed my privacy, I suppose I should see to that soon then. The Technician as well. We used to get up to some antics. For instance, one time Darlene, Bennie and myself replaced the Statue of Liberty with a robot that terrorized New York for five days. Then we got the papers to write the whole thing off as ergot mold poisoning. Needless to say, I've calmed down a bit, since then."

  Zack wanted to be surprised, but there really weren't that many of them, Greater Demons. Probably fewer that were worth hanging around with, good side or bad.

  "I was just with her, Darla. The Technician. Different name now, but same person. She got roped into being my mentor?"

  That got a pleased smile from his grandmother, who let her eyebrows raise a bit.

  "That's something then. Most of the time the insane Greater Demons don't get that kind of thing. Is this a new policy? I had Tarsus, myself, as would be expected, but it wasn't really the same thing, back then. A sort of prototype program. I'm not like you are however."

  Zack shrugged as his grandfather made a face. No one at the table would doubt he was nutty, even if he was doing better now. Still, it wasn't polite to just say it out loud, was it?

  "I think she just wants me for my body? Honestly, Keeley got her to do it. I don't know why that is. It's probably a mistake, but it really is helping, I think. If nothing else I can cook better now." He was about to ask why they hadn't taught him that, as a child, when he realized that it probably had something to do with the idea that he hadn't been all that together really. Innocent and trusting, but not able to focus all the time. Cooking and baking took that, though.

  Focus.

  Lyn tapped two of her fingers together, the index ones from each hand, the rest on the table. After a bit she let her mouth tighten and looked a bit mean.

  "Yes. The Mistress of Souls. She does seem to have a bit of interest in you, doesn't she? Is it romantic, do you think? Or something more sinister?"

  "That second one. She plans to use me as bait to kill Xenses. Since I have an agreement with him, that pretty much says I'll give him a chance to make things up with me, I can't really help her that way. It's part of why Darla took me on too, I bet. Actually, I know that one, since everyone told me all about it pretty clearly. The only difference really is that everyone thought I'd be dead by now, when it turns out that no one seems to really care much about me, one way or the other. So for now I'm pretty much just working with anyone tha
t shows up and trying not to step on too many toes on purpose."

  Brad nodded.

  "Well, she seems nice, that Mistress of Souls. For a..." He stopped, and looked at both the people with him, then went on. "For a teenage girl. I hear she really isn't very old?"

  "Right. Sixteen, I think. Still, I have a date with her at midnight, her time, so should get ready for that."

  Neither called him on the age thing at least. Lyn giggled though, hiding the move behind her right hand, like a young girl. It looked phony. It was, but she always did it that way, as if making it seem like an affectation on purpose.

  "Well, you two should have fun. Are you taking her somewhere nice?"

  He actually had someplace lined up, in his head, hidden behind the shielding there.

  "The dumpster behind Denny's. I was thinking we'd go freegan? You know, get what we can from what others waste? Girls love that kind of thing, don't they? Being down with mother nature and all that?"

  The real point, which they both managed to catch on to, was that he simply wasn't planning to tell anyone about the destination at all. Or even think about it again. He really needed to get back to setting things to right in his mind, then setting things up so that it would be really hard for anyone to just take information from him, at least that evening. It meant several different types of mental shielding, layered to make it harder to pull things from his thoughts. After that, well, he had even more to set up. Like a nice basket, and a blanket to sit on? Some wine and candles?

  It might not be a real date, but he could at least make it pleasant, right? It was good practice, doing things like that, all the time.

  They finished eating and wouldn't hear of him helping to clean up at all. Then his grandmother went to her bag, which was in the hallway and got out a ten dollar bill.

  "For the food you brought."

  Zack understood.

  Before, she'd just been his Grandma Lyn. A person that had been there for as long as he could remember, and who'd taken care of him. Family. She still was all of that, but also a Greater Demon to him now, which meant that he had to treat her that way, or it would require them to fight. Or at least have him not being invited to holiday meals. It would be a mistake, to think that she wouldn't react to him differently now. She almost had to, since there was always a chance that he'd do the same to her, and that could be, catastrophic, if they weren't careful.