Clockwork Immortal

by Sam Ryan

  “You guys are acting like getting wet in a bath is a bad thing,” Tara said, sitting down in the middle of the bath, the water hitting the bottom of her chin. “That the entire purpose of a bath.”

  “Question,” Jezebel said, ignoring Tara’s comment and turning to face Allora. “Why is this bath so big? I mean, this is your private bath isn’t it? Besides you and maybe Elena, who is using it?”

  “I’ve always liked taking hot baths,” Allora said, moving over slightly so Elena could sit down beside her. Clem then took a seat beside Elena. Max had noticed the two had become somewhat close over the past couple of weeks. Being paired up all the time probably helped a little with that. “And seven hundred years ago, we did not have the efficient ways of heating water that we have now.”

  “Right,” Jezebel said, leaning her head back. “Sorry, forget I asked. Even I sometimes forget that we’re old.”

  Max had to agree. It was hard to look at them and think that these women were actually over a thousand years in age. For some reason she had imagined that if people did ever obtain immortality they would become more distant and broody all the time. But these girls acted just like normal people.

  It was also strange to see how such different people could act so casual with each other. Between them they had the highest form of royalty down to an outlaw, and everything in between. Sophia was a wealthy commoner, Elena an officer, and Tara a vagabond. It had been hard for Max to understand how Sophia could say that she thought of these women as her sisters, given how different they all were. But seeing them now, she thought she understood. While they were obviously not related, anyone could tell that just by looking at them, they really did act just like sisters.

  That must have made all of this with Stella even harder. Max could not even imagine the pain and betrayal they must be feeling.

  “I’m curious about something,” Max said, her words cutting through the light chatter that had been going on.

  “What’s that?” Tara asked, dipping low into the bath until her mouth was under the water so she could start blowing bubbles.

  “What do you intend to do with Stella once we stop her?” Max asked. “It’s not like you can execute her and how long do you imprison someone who lives forever?”

  The question hung in the air for a long time as the mood of the bath lowered.

  “Perhaps this is not the best time or place to be talking about such things,” Allora said, glancing around the room at the others.

  “I think this is as good of a time as any,” Sophia said. She and Madilyn had not said much up until now. Seemingly content with watching the others as they sat next to each other next to the edge of the bath. Sophia’s arm casually reaching across Madilyn’s shoulders. “We should probably talk about this while we are all together anyway, so we are not having to decide what to do afterwards.”

  “I agree,” Tara said, giving Sophia a nod. “This is as good of a time as any. So then, what do we plan on doing with our wayward Immortal?”

  “Make her the new Glowdose test subject?” Sophia suggested, glancing over at Allora.

  “Of course not,” Allora stated, sounding offended by the implication. “It does not matter what her crimes may be. I will not subject her to torture. Even if she is immortal.”

  “I would think that Trevelia would want a say in what happens to her,” Tara said. “She is technically a traitor to them.”

  “Screw what the Trevelians want,” Jezebel scoffed. “Stella is one of us. That makes her our responsibility, not theirs.”

  “Does that mean you are ready to take responsibility for her crimes as well?” Allora asked.

  Jezebel closed her mouth, slinking back slightly.

  “I find myself in agreement with Jezebel,” Elena stated.

  “Now there’s a surprise.” Sophia smiled, taking her hand off of Madilyn’s shoulder so it was resting in her lap, allowing her to lean forward slightly.

  “I would like to think that if any one of us were to find ourselves in trouble, we could rely on the rest of us to help out,” Elena said, glaring at Sophia. “Regardless of whether we were right or wrong in the matter. Or regardless of how we may feel towards the others at that time.”

  There was a slight murmur of agreement from the others.

  “I am not saying she should not be punished,” Elena said. “But we should be the ones to do it. We also are far less likely to lock her up and then forget about her for a hundred years.”

  Max saw Sophia shiver a bit as she clinched a fist. It would seem that something like that had happened to her at some point. An experience Max really did not want to try to imagine.

  “I think it a little presumptuous to decide her sentence before we even know her crime,” Allora pointed out. “We still do not know what she is trying to accomplish. Everything we have seen up until this point has merely been effects of her goal, not her goal itself.”

  “Yeah, but you didn’t see her on the Iron Rose,” Sophia mumbled. Her eyes grew dark from the memory. “Her coldness towards people’s deaths. It was chilling.”

  “Has she finally lost it?” Jezebel asked. “It was bound to happen to one of us sooner or later. Live long enough and eventually you’ll lose your mind.”

  Now there was a pleasant thought for Max to mull over.

  “No,” Tara shook her head. “The look in her eyes was not the look of madness. While she may very well have abandoned her senses, she is still of her own mind.”

  “Well,” Jezebel said, arching her back. “I think it’s time for me to get out. I think the heat is getting to my head. I’ve started hallucinating that Elena is agreeing with me.”

  “Must be getting lightheaded.” Elena nodded. “Soaking in hot water too long can do that, I hear.”

  Allora let out a snort as she tried to hold back her laughter.

  The water splashed as Jezebel stood up and waded her way towards the ledge of the bath. “Also need to brush my hair before it dries too much and starts getting all frizzly,” she mumbled as she walked.

  “Eh,” Sophia said, touching her own wet hair, apparently having similar concerns.

  “Now then,” Clem smiled. “The question we all really want to know.” She turned and looked at Sophia and Madilyn, a giddy smile on her face. “Who made the first move?”

  Max straightened up at the question. With all that had happened, she had nearly forgotten about the pool they had going.

  Sophia and Madilyn let out a sigh as they looked at each other.

  “She kissed me,” Sophia said, gesturing her head towards Madilyn.

  “Yes!” Max cheered, splashing the water around her. “All of you can suck it.” She gestured at the other women until she reached Allora. Her calm collected presence made Max realized how uncouth she was acting. She quietly lowered her head and arms and she slowly sat back down in the water. She could not believe that she had just done such a crude thing in front of the Queen. She wanted to just sink under the water and drown.

  “Wait,” Madilyn frowned. “You people were betting on us?”

  “Hell yeah,” Tara said. “Even I got in on the action since no one was sure yet who had done what. Though, I was with Allora and Jezebel and bet that Sophia had made the first move.”

  “You too?” Sophia gasped, looking over at Allora in shock.

  Allora only shrugged, refusing to make eye contact with either of them.

  “And what about you?” Sophia asked, looking at Clem.

  “I bet that neither of you would make a move,” Clem said. She rested her elbows on the edge of the bath behind her and sank deeper into the water, letting out a relaxed breath as she did so. “After all, the Opera wasn’t our first attempt to hook the two of you up.”

  “It wasn’t?” Sophia frowned. She began blinking repeatedly as she thought back trying to think of other instances.

  “There was the time we locked you in the observation deck,” Clem listed off, counting on her fingers.

  “Wait,�
� Madilyn blinked. “That was you guys. We thought the hatch just got stuck.”

  “We know,” Clem said, rolling her eyes. “But you two didn’t even notice it for nearly an hour and then Sophia just used her magic to open the hatch like it was nothing.”

  “In hindsight, we should have seen that coming,” Allora stated.

  “And who did you bet on?” Sophia asked Elena.

  “I bet on Sir Madilyn,” Elena said in her flat throaty voice, turning and reaching behind so she could grab a small wash cloth. “I could tell she was one who in the moment would stop overthinking things and let her instincts take over.” Elena dampened the wash cloth into the water and turned towards Clem. “You have some dirt on your face,” she said, using the cloth to wipe Clem’s face off.

  “Thanks mom,” Clementine laughed as Elena scrubbed her cheek. While Clem had a very confused look on her face, she did not pull away. Probably not sure what was even going on.

  Elena paused mid stoke. Her eyes growing wide as she pulled the cloth away. “Sorry,” Elena said, turning and looking away from Clem.

  Max could not help but laugh herself. This nurturing side of Elena sort of went against the fierce, stoic persona that Elena tried to give off. Max looked over at Sophia, wondering if that was normal of Elena but Sophia was already standing up.

  “I think I should get out as well,” Sophia said, looking down at her feet as she walked.

  “Everything alright?” Madilyn asked, looking up at Sophia with a worried look.

  “No,” Sophia said as she walked by. She gave Elena a final cold glare before stepping out of the bath and walking towards the changing room.

  Max exchanged a worried look with Madilyn who was obviously conflicted on what she should do.

  “Should someone go with her?” Clem asked, having the same worried look as Madilyn and Max.

  “No,” Allora said flatly, looking straight ahead. “She will be fine. I promise. She just needs to process something.”

  Max was not convinced but they all seemed to accept what Allora said and did their best to relax a little.

  “And then there was six,” Tara said, darting her eyes at the others still remaining in the bath.

  ***

  Sophia could not put into words what she was feeling in that moment. Part of it was anger, but it was not a kind of anger she was used to. Part of it was betrayal, but she was also not really the one who had been betrayed.

  What she did know was that she needed answers. And at the moment there was only one person who she wanted them from.

  “Jezebel,” Sophia called out to the woman as she threw open the door to Jezebel’s room.

  “What is it, Sophie?” Jezebel asked. She was standing on the balcony of her room, overlooking the Palace. It was still day out, though the sun was starting to make its way towards the horizon.

  “You lied to me,” Sophia said as she stormed across the room.

  “Probably,” Jezebel said, sounding a little distant in her words. She did not even turn to face Sophia. “We have known each other for a very long time after all. It’s bound to have happened a few times at least.”

  “You told me that Clementine was the daughter of a whore,” Sophia said, coming to a stop next to her.

  “And where is the lie in that?” Jezebel asked.

  “She’s Elena’s daughter,” Sophia said.

  “Again I ask you,” Jezebel mumbled, her eyes growing distant.

  “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before,” Sophia said, suddenly growing frustrated at herself. “She has your eyes but once you get past that, she looks exactly like Elena. They could be confused for sisters.”

  “Probably,” Jezebel said, resting her arms against the railing.

  “Why did you lie to me?” Sophia asked.

  “What was I going to say?” Jezebel shot up, looking over at Sophia. “At the time we both thought we had just lost Stella. Was I then going to go, ‘by the way, Elena got knocked up by my son, then broke his heart and left him with the daughter she didn’t want,’?”

  That cooled Sophia a bit. She slouched her shoulder and turned so she too was leaning against the railing. “So what happened?” Sophia asked. Her voice now calm.

  “I don’t know all the details,” Jezebel sighed. “Back then we would come to Itona every couple of years to resupply. Yates was a younger man back then. Every time we came here Elena and Yates would be at each other’s throats. All they ever seemed to do while they were together was fight. But for some reason they were still always together.”

  Sophia took in a deep breath as she started to get a picture for what might have happened.

  “Again, I don’t know the specifics, but I imagine that the two of them were alone, likely training, when one of them slapped the other. Then instead of slapping them back they had a battle with their lips instead.” Jezebel let out a sigh as she hung her head. Just telling the story seemed to be draining for her. “I have no idea if it was a onetime thing or a multiple time thing, but when we came back a few years later, Elena had a child and she swore that it was Yates’ and Yates did nothing to deny it. Like he even could. One look at Clem’s eyes was enough proof to know that she was my granddaughter.”

  “Allora knows all of this I take it,” Sophia said.

  “Of course she does,” Jezebel said. “But it wasn’t her place to say anything.”

  “And Elena just let you raise Clementine without her?” Sophia asked, unable to believe that Elena would willingly do such a thing without a fight.

  “She practically begged me to,” Jezebel snarled, a look of hatred burning in her eyes. “She told me that raising a child would be nothing but a burden for her. That she basically couldn’t be bothered.” She looked up at Sophia, the anger in her eyes burning even brighter. “Do you know how much I hated her in that moment? Telling me that my granddaughter was nothing more than a burden. An unwanted mistake.” Jezebel clinched her fist as she gnashed her teeth together. “I will never forgive her for saying that.”

  “So is that why it’s been so long since you last came to Itona?” Sophia asked.

  “If Elena wanted nothing to do with Clem, then I was going to make damn sure she had nothing to do with Clem,” Jezebel stated coldly. “We had to come back once after she was born but other than that, I have done my best to stay as far away from this city as possible. Clem was to never know that Elena was her mother. Elena did not deserve to have that girl give her a lingering thought, or a moment of consideration. She did not deserve to have Clem try to earn her affection or wonder what she had ever done to be so unwanted. Elena’s punishment for what she did was to see Clem happy and know that she could have been a part of that.”

  “But you have been actively pairing them up since we got back,” Sophia pointed out.

  Jezebel grew quiet. She let out a long breath and peered out across the Palace grounds once more. “I saw the look in her eyes that first day we arrived and she asked about Clem and Yates. There was a longing in them. A longing I had always hoped to see.”

  “You want them to get along?” Sophia asked, thinking that went against what she had just said.

  “Of course I do,” Jezebel snapped. “But only if Elena wants it for herself. I have no intention of convincing her that she should be a good mother. If I have to do that then what’s the point?”

  Sophia let out a sigh as she hung her head. “You know there is one flaw in your master plan.”

  “What’s that?” Jezebel asked.

  “Elena is not the kind to apologize or admit that she was wrong,” Sophia pointed out. “To say that she wants to be a mother to Clementine, she would have to first do both of those things.”

  “That’s her loss,” Jezebel said simply, and Sophia tended to agree.

  CHAPTER 16

  Madilyn cracked her shoulder as she and Clementine circled around Elena. The woman was toying with them. It was obvious by the way she lazily blocked their strikes. Madilyn had hoped that between
the two of them they would at least be able to overwhelm her. But Elena had done a fantastic job of controlling their movements, never letting them move into her blind spots.

  “You keep flutter stepping,” Tara said, picking away at some bread she was eating as she sat off to the side and watched. She had come not long after sunrise and had been watching their little training bouts as if it was the grand arena. “That’s how Elena always knows when you are about to attack.”

  “I do not,” Madilyn declared, rather offended of being accused of making such a basic mistake as that.

  “You do,” Elena agreed. Her sword lowered to her side as if daring either of them to strike at her. “It’s subtle, but it is there.”

  Clementine used what she thought was Elena’s distraction to lung forward, stabbing at Elena’s side. Elena easily pivoted out of the way. Twirling around her, she locked her ankle with Clementine’s and kicking her foot up from under her, knocking her to the ground.

  Madilyn tried to dart forward but before she could even take her first step Elena’s wooden sword flew from her hand and struck Madilyn’s toes.

  “Flutter step,” Elena said, using her foot to launch Clementine’s practice sword into the air, catching it with her other hand.

  Madilyn held in a curse as she grabbed at her toes, hopping up and down on one foot and trying to shake off the mind numbing pain.

  “Why don’t you give it a try?” Clementine said looking to Tara, pushing herself up to her feet. “I would love to see two Immortals duke it out.”

  “I don’t do swords,” Tara stated, chewing on her piece of bread.

  “But this is an interesting opportunity,” Clementine said. “You two could go all out on each other using real weapons, and you don’t have to worry about killing yourselves.”

  Madilyn straightened up a bit at the idea. She would love to be able to do that herself. Even in tournament fighting one was still required to hold themselves back, at least a little. She would love to have a partner she could go all out against as if they were truly fighting.