Paine chuckled softly. The kind of glee you see in the eyes of children that tear the wings off butterflies. “Very good. Exactly as I hoped. But . . . there is more to the World-Breaker, isn’t there?”
“What was done to Eva?” I rebutted.
Air again hissed as it was pushed through his nostrils in anger. “You give too little.”
“I give few words,” I corrected. “The words mean a whole lot and we both know it. Your experiments might be wider and your knowledge might be deeper, but what I’ve lived has more answers than both of them combined.”
He considered this for a time. “Answer my question and I will give my lesson.”
“Yes, the World-Breaker can do much more.”
“I felt . . . something beyond the both of us in that moment. I felt . . . it’s terror and rage. At me. For you. Why would something so powerful and primal fear for you? You are . . . a child. Even surviving me, even breaking the chains that hold you to her, you are still barely more than a child. While I am . . . a man who has survived death itself, who has unlocked more of this world than any other to come since the lies were crafted.”
Obadiah Paine was jealous.
Jealous that Meteyos saved me.
Jealous at what he can only guess but suspects . . . that I’m not even sure of . . .
King Henry Price is a Maximus.
Obadiah Paine ain’t one.
IF IT SHOULD BECOME CERTAINTY IN HIS MIND THEN HE WILL NEVER CEASE UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD, KING OF DIRT.
“Enlighten the child then,” I prodded him.
“I do try. If only Isabel had left you alone I could enlighten you more. These stolen secrets we share could be more complete. But . . . you destroyed the experiment.”
“You wanted to kill Moira Welf. See if her son gained her crown or if some child was born out there . . . and find it,” I guessed.
“Perceptive of you, little dog. Yes. Maximus it is called. Vires Maximus. It is not spoken of. It is not written down. But I am sure it exists, that they exist and that Moira von Welf is among their number. That she supports the corrupt Learning Council was only an added benefit to eliminating her.”
“Didn’t you go to school with her? Same class, right?”
“Special, always treated special, always believing she was special. Always believing she is more than she is. A second-generation mancer with elderly doting parents who were promptly forgotten and discarded when she cast away the name of Moira Jenkins and became Moira von Welf. Instead of dedicating herself to her gifts she dedicated herself, debased herself for a lineage and a name. Her choice shows the rotten heart of our society, the rotten heart she has accepted fully.
“Yet . . . you saved her.”
“Didn’t know it at the time.”
“Isabel . . . you are right about her. So powerful. But . . . blinded by childlike sympathies. Coming in contact with you was not part of my plan, not yet . . . far too early for us to come to blows. You kept my secret from her, it made me watch you with extra consideration. This conversation buys you more time as well.”
“Why have me fight Conan Sapa then?”
“To cover up evidence. To see if you fall. To see if you bleed. Many more reasons you are not fit to understand. What is the secondary uses of the World-Breaker?”
“You still haven’t given me my lesson,” I reminded him.
“Stop asking questions in other fields then and stick to the point you wish to explore,” Paine downright scolded me.
Picky bastard. Prideful as a petty dictator.
“No. Confirming my own guess about what you were doing with Moira Welf doesn’t count. My lesson, Obadiah. Or I hang up the phone.”
“Nothing you have given to me is anything more than confirmation of what I already know!” he snapped back.
“I can make guesses of all mine too,” I pointed out, “or do you think I couldn’t read your artifact enough to know you’re transferring Were essence into mancers?”
“Congratulations, little dog. You are not a dimwit fool.”
“Fuck off.”
He chuckled again like he had won at some game, a game only he could see. “Your lesson . . . there are three types of anima in the world. One is natural anima. The second is the anima inside of the human race—”
“You’ve got to be shitting me with this Single exam bullshit!”
“Do not interrupt me! NEVER!” he shrieked at me.
Just shut your big mouth and he’ll tell you everything you want, you fucktard. “I apologize,” I forced out.
“Good. The third is inside of the animal kingdom. Along with this comes the Ratio of Anima Dispersion. Yes, a lesson for a Single. But what they never tell you at that school, what dots they never connect for you, is that anima pools in these three places and wishes to remain in one or the other. Yet . . . they are different of course, but not so different as to be unreachable from one node to the next.
“Think of it as a triangle where power flows both ways along the sides, but never reverses itself. Animal to Human, Human to Natural, and so on. No doubt even your small mind has put together that anima vials, Were Totems, and golem casings are oddly familiar with each other. If you could get inside of your World-Breaker you would find yet another variety of the same prison. And many more. Surely you see it now, I need not speak further.”
I did. I didn’t like it. “The World-Breaker takes Nature to a halfway point between Nature and Human, stores it, then goes out the rest of the way when I call for it.”
“Yes.”
“Weres sit at the same halfway point for Animal and Human.”
“Yes.”
“You used Weres themselves like the World-Breaker, as the halfway point, and then took the anima from them and put it into a mancer with some type of artifact and a ceremonial operation or the like.”
“Yes.” This third time the word came out like an eerie moan. “You can be taught, little dog. Did you enjoy the lesson?”
“But why go through all that work? Why not just have a mancer sacrifice to a Totem in the first place?”
“Doing so destroys the mancer’s ability to use anima and instead creates a Poly-Shifter.”
“What?”
Paine was enjoying himself a little bit too much for my comfort. “Please don’t tell Horatio Vega this. I do enjoy his ignorance over why he is so alone. Almost as much as I enjoy his ignorance that if he had been found by a Recruiter he would likely be sitting on the Learning Council instead of cursing its name nightly.”
But that meant . . .
JoJo.
Was a mancer.
A mancer missed by the Recruiters.
Only sane at the moment because she became a Coyote before it was too late.
And my nephew or niece won’t be a Poly-Shifter . . . not until they’re forced to destroy their future as a mancer by their father.
“Isabel tells me you’ve learned to accept pain and hold anima outside of your body,” Paine kept up his good mood, speaking almost conversationally.
I shook away all my other thoughts. Couldn’t get distracted. Can’t go on for much longer. Have what I wanted most. Now he’s dangling something bigger in front of my jaws. “Didn’t take long once I knew it could be done,” I said warily.
“There’s more.”
“Bullshit.”
“One more trick not told to you until you’re nice and adult, little dog. Only the strongest Ultras can accomplish it. I can, so can she. I imagine you will if you put your mind to it and if you are given a clue to start you on the journey of self discovery.”
“Not a free clue.”
“What was it like?” Paine whispered covetously. “What was it like to walk in another world? What was it like to stand in the presence of anima-made-flesh? Do the Black Elves yet survive? You must tell me! I MUST KNOW!”
I clicked the phone off.
But stupid me . . . I didn’t destroy it.
[CLICK]
Knowing exactly what Co
nan Sapa was: a corpusmancer with werebull anima grafted onto him . . . it relaxed me quite a bit.
Knowing exactly what Eva was: a Shadeshifter with werewolf anima grafted onto her . . . made me want to puke.
There was a very quiet breakfast for us guys, Vicky and Welf spending the morning in their own suite. Yelling at each other. T-Bone had appeared bedraggled not long after my early morning call with Paine was finished. “Welf just put together all the facts with me and Vicky and he kind of kicked me out.”
Welcome to the 21st century, Welf.
Women have premarital sex in it.
It’s pretty awesome.
A quiet breakfast.
No update on Eva to be had. Cage match was a go. I shared my call with Paine to T-Bone, Pocket, and Jesus. Guess I’ll take that as an improvement in my personality that I actually trusted someone with information so quickly turned around. Pocket thought I was playing a dangerous game and should man up and tell—if not Ceinwyn—someone at the Asylum what they were dealing with. “Just the Curator, not all the dragon and elf stuff, dude, or they’ll throw you in the Pit.”
T-Bone took the phone away from me to secure it and found an anima tracker inside. “This is why you never trust freeware.”
“But it’s free!”
He glared at me, holding up a disc that looked a lot like the ones the Asylum used. And I had a whole bag of before I set it on fire. “What do you want me to do with it?” T-Bone asked.
“Stick it up your ass,” Jesus chimed in, doing a pretty good impression of me.
“I was gonna say let Pocket stick it up your ass, not Tyson’s ass,” I corrected him. “Tyson’s ass is virginal and not ready for that kind of thing . . . unless Vicky is into some really kinky shit.”
We all looked askance of T-Bone.
“Just sex,” he said with a blush. “Lots of sex. She’s insatiable.”
“So is her vagina stretched out enough to give birth to a watermelon yet?” I asked him.
“Watermelon because I’m black?”
I nodded enthusiastically. “Figured a bucket of KFC was too obvious.”
Pocket stood up from the breakfast table and nabbed the anima tracker out of T-Bone’s hand. “We’ll go put it on some dog’s collar later.”
“A pissed off poodle,” Jesus added. “Which is every poodle . . .”
T-Bone handed the mystery phone back to me. “Other than that, it’s secure. Also, since you broke your last phone and since I don’t want to have to buy you a new one you’ll also break, I updated all your info to that one and sent out a report to all your old contacts that you changed your number.”
I checked the phone.
A fuck-ton of texts on it from just about every person I knew.
“That all you sent out? I don’t think most of these people had my fucking phone number.”
T-Bone poured himself some Frosted Flakes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
[CLICK]
Raj Malik: I can’t believe what you’re doing! I know Jason dying is horrible, but this is so violent, even for you! Please be careful! Also what’s with all the jokes Jesus is sending about me being replaced by a much cooler black guy? I can’t leave my job, you know I can’t leave my job, or I would be there!
Russell Quilt: I’m not supposed to know what’s going on, but I just wanted to wish you luck, King Henry. And as a mentimancer I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you to take a moment to think about what the other fighter will be doing to hurt you instead of what you need to do to hurt him.
Naomi Gullick: I’ve been crying about Jason since I found out. The kids keep asking if I’m okay and I don’t know what to tell them. I know we didn’t end well, but please be safe. I don’t want to have to cry for you too.
Asa Kayode: I visited Eva in the hospital last night and I wanted to thank you for saving her. Even if you’re still very annoying . . . and a pervert. I know she always cherished her time with you. The Rejuvenation Society will do everything we can for her and so will I.
Evelyn Strange: I don’t believe in luck, but I do know if there’s a way to win, you’ll find it. But just in case you do die, be considerate and record what you know about Eva’s case beforehand. The Rejuvenation Society is full of a bunch of idiots and Eva will need transferred back to the school for me to fix her, just wait.
Miranda Daniels: Since you haven’t called and asked me what I’m wearing the last few days, I’ll assume you’re sober enough to do whatever it is you have to do. Also, I’m wearing pink panties, but I’m really kind of lazy about shaving down there so sometimes the red hair pokes out and makes them look like a hairy strawberry. Did I get you to throw up? Please reply.
Keith Gullick: If you can find a way to win without killing a man, you should always take it, King Henry. I know there’s a rage in you, but your entire time at the school we saw it shrink year by year. Don’t give into it after so much progress.
Debra Ramirez: Somehow news of what you’re doing has gotten around to the students. Just thought you should know that they’re all rooting for you. So am I. So is Estefan.
Estefan Ramirez: Debra is watching me right now to make sure I write you something. Boobs. Tits. Pee pee. Poop. She is still watching . . . maybe thirty more seconds and bye bye.
Jethro Smith: Kick his ass, Sea Bass!
Ronaldo Silva: Every Recruiter stands with you today. Fight for Jason!
Hope Hunting: I hope you die. Well . . . not really. Maybe a little. Jason was . . . nice. Quinn loved him . . . until her father found out, then she didn’t have any choice but to dump him for good. Is Heinrich okay? Nevermind. I don’t care. Urgh, now you have my number.
Ceinwyn Dale: Will be at the funeral tomorrow. Just wanted to warn you. Hopefully you’re still alive to be mad at me for showing up.
Josephine Vega: Try not to be too surprised, but Horatio has turned around about the fight. Grant Little dying is hard on everyone and Horatio is giving a speech just before to rally the Weres to your side. Also . . . I’m sorry about throwing the first candy bar.
Valentine Ward: If I had my own ruby ‘stick’ I’d fight whatever I had to so I could be ringside to cheer you on. But planes aren’t so fast and I’m swamped with paperwork. Ceinwyn never mentioned the paperwork. I keep thinking about burning it all up and playing coy about where it disappeared to. I miss being in the field. I miss you too. Again . . . not fair of me. Heinrich told me about Isabel. Only King Henry Price could solve the case with his penis. And Pocket sent me a text about the conversation you had with him and Jesus. Not sure if forcing someone out of the closet is PC, but then . . . we’re talking about you, so I imagine that’s the most PC part of it all. Tell me some of the jokes you made? I could use a laugh.
[CLICK]
Usually my fights don’t have this kind of buildup.
Not to say I never had any lead up to one.
Had to deal with all the Winter War waiting and watching and practice sessions. Those got some good memories in them, even if I had to listen to Welf explain his genius tactics to everyone since he was team captain. Tried hard to pull the switcheroo for Val to take the lead during Quad, but didn’t quite have enough leverage to manipulate the numbers yet.
But the failure did give me the idea to bump the guy down to third for our graduation though.
I glanced at Welf, all grown up now. Still in black, if a black suit instead of commie Asylum colors. Used to come off as the party leader’s kid, all prim and proper and polished to shine. Now he came off like a recently graduated MBA, trying to copy how his big Wall Street banker daddy dressed. Which ain’t so far off the mark. Only not quite so together in his appearance at the moment. Blond hair was a little wild, black splotches under his eyes, pale skin paler still.
“Sleep at all last night, Welf?” I asked him.
It was weird being alone with the guy.
In my own dressing room. Wasn’t too big, but it was quiet. Most of the other Day of Elementalism compet
itors were sharing a communal locker room, same one Jason and Conan Sapa had shared with their Day of Brawn competitors. Not me. Safety first. Not Sapa either . . . who still hadn’t shown up.
That’s where Pocket and Jesus were.
Waiting for him to show.
Come back and tell me it’s on and not just Paine fucking with me.
Keeping me in Vegas while he raids my shop for the World-Breaker?
Should probably tell T-Bone to warn the Employee.
But T-Bone and Vicky were . . . elsewhere.
Again
Young love, ain’t it adorable?
“An hour here or there,” Welf whispered. “Victoria tried to drug me, but I was wise to the trick this time.”
“Drugging people is tricky,” was my only comment.
Welf paced past me, kicked on a television to see the Day of Elementalism still playing out, clicked it off, then paced back the other way. Stupid ass cane clicking on the tile floor. Autumn was in the room too, at least she stayed in a corner. Bit freaky the way she watched you without a hint of emotion, but at least she wasn’t pacing.
Day of Elementalism.
The show stopping finale.
Hydro-wrestling.
Spectromancer hide and seek.
Pyro-archery.
They even had a group of Constructs to use like fucking battle bots.
Then . . .
King Henry Price vs Conan Sapa.
I saw the words on the sign outside the entrance to the arena.
Revenge Blood Match they billed it as. Nothing about us killing each other. Keep the crowd from finding out about that one until it happened. But if some rumors leaked and if accidents happened . . . so be it. Saw Javier Castillo strutting around backstage with his Jaguars in tow, shouting at all the other competitors not to leave until the end. That they would see how real warriors fought, ‘even if it’s only the mancers getting the spotlight this time around!’
The Foul Mouth and the Mancy Martial Artist (The King Henry Tapes Book 5) Page 57