Kharmic Rebound

by Yeager, Aaron

  No, of course not. Don’t be absurd... many of them have multiple parts. There are seventy-one reasons total.

  “Oh please!”

  Hey! This was a private meeting. You demanded to be included in it, remember? If you don’t want to be here you are free to leave, but you will still be bound by the contract you signed.

  “Like fun I will,” Zurra hissed. “When the going gets tough, fortune favors the bold.”

  “That one almost made sense,” Ilrica teased. “Or are the rest of us just becoming crazier?”

  Gerald realized what was going on and searched through the tablet before him. “I’ve seen this before. This is a marriage contract. Is this business meeting... a marriage proposal?”

  Yes, of course. What else would it be?

  Gerald’s jaw nearly hit the table.

  “I guess Issaguardians have some weird ideas about romance,” Zurra quipped.

  “Yeah, where’s the bonfire? Where’s the feast? Where’s the ritual sacrifice?” Ilrica complained.

  One of the secretaries set down a tray of fruit before Ilrica.

  “That’s not what I meant!” Ilrica yelled, knocking the tray away.

  “I do not approve of this,” Trahzi said, steam rising up off of her. “Gerald belongs to me.”

  “How can he belong to you and be my bride?” Zurra shouted.

  “He can’t, genius.”

  Kalia tugged on a dreadlock thoughtfully. “Gerald can’t get married right now, Duchess. He’s about to become a priest.”

  Cha’Rolette’s eyes twinkled. Can’t he?

  This quieted down the bickering. “Um... I guess I just always assumed he couldn’t,” Zurra said.

  As did I. I assumed I would have to convince him to abandon his faith by using my feminine charms...

  “We all know how well that turned out,” Ilrica snickered.

  ...but that was because I had completely misread him. As a telepath, it is a little shameful to admit, but it is true. Up until now, I’d always assumed he was just a religious fanatic.

  “He isn’t?” Zurra asked.

  No... I mean, yes he is, but that is not the reason for his opposition to marriage and relationships.

  “It’s not?” Trahzi asked, confused.

  Cha’Rolette shook her head. No. Priests of Soeck can get married. They can have families. Nothing in their order forbids it.

  They all looked at Gerald. He was sitting there silently, his head lowered, his face an inscrutable mask.

  “So, then why did Gerald run away from my affections?” Trahzi asked. “I was nude in his bed and he just walked away.”

  “Probably because you are a big scary Kool-Aid monster,” Zurra accused.

  “This coming from the toilet monster?”

  “I AM NOT A TOLIET MONSTER!”

  No, but you are someone who tried to defraud him into signing a marriage contract.

  Ilrica laughed. “You’re one to talk, Duchess. You tried to have private tutors change him into your own personal arm candy!”

  “Ilrica, you used him as an alibi while you planted bombs throughout Chanterelle,” Trahzi recalled. “He nearly spent the rest of his life in jail because of you. Not to mention all the dead animals you threw at his feet.”

  “Hey, that was a sign of respect!”

  “He found it disturbing.”

  “Disturbing? You burned off his skin. Let’s ask him which he’d prefer.”

  “Well, you tried to kill him,” Trahzi shot back

  “So did you!”

  “We all tried to kill him,” Kalia corrected.

  I didn’t. I only tried to destroy his life and close down his orphanages.

  “Oh, yeah, that’s much better, Duchess,” Zurra boiled. “Try not to fall off that high horse you’re perched on. Birds of a feather should not throw stones at glass houses, you know!”

  “The point is there are plenty of good reasons why he would be wary of us,” Kalia said, the only one managing to keep a cool head. She looked at her hands sadly. “The truth is we are a little scary. All of us.”

  Cha’Rolette shook her head. No, you’re wrong.

  “No, I’m not,” Kalia said, clenching her fists. “We have all done terrible things.”

  No, not about that. You’re right about that, of course. I was talking about his reasons. Don’t you see? He’s not a religious zealot, he’s a wounded bird. He’s been using his religion as an excuse to hide from his feelings. He’s scared because of what he saw happen to his father, of what his mother did to him, and to Gerald. In his heart, he doesn’t feel like he can ever really trust a woman again.

  The other girls leaned back, finally understanding.

  “If his issue is trust, I don’t think we’ve really done much to dispel that fear in him,” Trahzi said frankly.

  Ilrica leaned back. “Yeah, a fear of all women sounds like something much harder to fix than the religion thing.”

  For you maybe, but not for me. That is why I brought him down here. To give him this.

  Cha’Rolette floated over and placed a piece of paper in Gerald’s hand.

  Gerald carefully opened it up. It has a series of numbers and symbols from various languages written on it. “What is this?” he asked.

  Cha’Rolette looked on him lovingly. This is my barrier key, Gerald. You’ll have to memorize it by the end of the day, then incinerate the paper. There can’t be any physical copies, I’m afraid.

  Gerald looked up at her. “Why would you give me this?”

  Cha’Rolette leaned in and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips. Because I trust you, and I know you would never use it to hurt me. And I want you to trust me like I trust you. If I ever tried to betray you, you could use this code to access my crystronics directly. You could make me do or think whatever you wanted.

  Cha’Rolette stood back up. By giving you this, I commit myself to you. This is how I help you to overcome your trust issues.

  The other girls fumed.

  Gerald didn’t know what to say.

  Ilrica grabbed a paper and scribbled on it. She placed the paper in his hand. “Consider this my proposal, Aatuu,” she said, giving him a peck on the cheek.

  “And this mine,” Trahzi said, giving him her paper and kissing him on the lips.

  Gerald was too stunned to respond.

  “And here is mine,” Zurra said, placing a little torn corner in his hand.

  Gerald looked down at it.

  “Zurra, this one is only three digits long,” he realized.

  “Shhh, don’t tell them!”

  Ilrica leaned over and whispered to Kalia. “Oh, I am totally slicing into her memory later on tonight.”

  Cha’Rolette rolled her eyes. Leave it to Immestria to pick the most unsafe password in history.

  “It’s probably like one-two-three,” Ilrica chuckled.

  Zurra’s jaw stretched down and hit the floor. “How did you?... Hang on, I’m changing it!” She snatched the paper back and began changing her settings.

  “How can she even have a code?” Trahzi wondered. “She’s just a blob of goo, she doesn’t have crystronics.”

  “I don’t know,” Ilrica said, rubbing her head. “It hurts my brain just to think about it.”

  A huge stack of papers like a phone book was plopped down in front of Gerald.

  He looked up as Kalia folded her limbs back together and set down the eight pens she had been using.

  “What is this?”

  “This is my password,” she said, smiling sweetly.

  Gerald stared. “Um... there is no way I can memorize that.”

  Kalia noticed the other girls staring at her. “What? The longer a password is, the more secure it is.”

  Zurra handed Gerald her updated key. “Okay, here’s mine. Marry me, Gerald. Become my bride.”

  Trahzi leaned over to Ilrica. “Should I tell her that she’s saying it wrong?”

  “No, don’t tell her, it’s kind of cute,” Ilrica snickered
.

  “Someone needs to tell her.”

  All eyes turned to Gerald as he sat there with the papers in his hands.

  Cha’Rolette folded her arms, a stance they had seen her use in negotiations before when she was assured she’d already won. So, the offer is before you, Gerald Dyson. I have made my case for who is the superior match for you, but the choice is still yours. Which of us will you choose?

  All five of the girls looked at him anxiously.

  Gerald shook his head, bewildered. “Can I uh... have a couple hours to think it over?”

  * * *

  High Priest K’Bheziss rolled his eyes when Gerald knelt down before the confessional. “Soeck’s teeth, Dyson. How many times do I have to tell you? You don’t have to confess to me every time you kiss a girl or hold her hand. Come back to me when you’ve gotten someone pregnant and then we’ll talk.”

  K’Bheziss wiped the crumbs off his chest and stood up in his throne. Gerald wasn’t moving. His eyes were troubled.

  “Oh no, don’t tell me you actually got some poor girl pregnant!”

  Gerald looked up. “What? No.”

  “Oh, good,” he said, sitting back down. “For a second I was worried about whoever she might me.”

  Gerald reached up and touched the papers inside his robe. “It’s just that... for as long as I can remember, I’ve always known exactly what I wanted. My path was laid out for me, you know? I could see it, stretching out before me. I never looked to the right or the left, I only looked ahead. Anything that was a distraction to that path I ignored, discredited, and invalidated.”

  Gerald pressed the papers against his skin. “Only now, I’m not so sure that is what I want anymore. For the first time since I can remember, I’m confused about what I should do.”

  “No, you’re not,” K’Bheziss observed.

  Gerald looked up. “I’m not?”

  The high priest shook his head. “Have you forgotten the forty-ninth scroll? Decisions are easy. We make thousands of them every day. In a moment you make ten of them without a second thought.”

  Gerald shook his head. “No, not this one. Not this time.”

  “How so?”

  The high priest bade him rise, and Gerald rose up into a kneeling position. “Today, five girls proposed to me.”

  K’Bheziss frowned. “What? Are they stupid?”

  Gerald narrowed his eyes. “Is that really a proper response to a confessional?”

  “You’re right. Please proceed.”

  Gerald pressed the papers against him. “I don’t know what to do, because if I choose one of them... no matter which one of them I choose, the other four will be devastated. I don’t think I could handle that. The very thought of it makes me terrified.”

  “They’ll get over it. There are plenty of men out there far better than you.”

  “No, you don’t understand. Trahzi, she lost her connection to her people because of her feelings for me. If I don’t choose her, she will be completely alone. She would have lost everything for nothing. She’ll fall into a pit of despair and never come out. And Ilrica, she saved my life so many times I’ve lost count. How could I say no to her after all she has done for me? How disrespectful would that be? And the Duchess, she took a bullet for me. She had to learn to walk again because she saved me. She lost her family position, her freedom, she lost everything. How could I possibly reject her after all of that? That would make me the biggest villain in the universe. And Zurra. We’ve known each other since we were kids. I was the only real friend she’d ever had, and until recently she was my only real friend. If I don’t choose her, everything we shared together will be lost forever. And poor little Kalia. She’s been through so much, her feelings are so tender. How can I dash her heart to pieces after everything that has happened to her? It just wouldn’t be right.”

  K’Bheziss scratched his jowls. “If you choose none of them, then all five will be hurt. If you choose one, then only four will be hurt. Sounds like simple math to me.”

  Gerald pounded his fist on his knee. “No! I don’t want to hurt any of them. What kind of choice is that?”

  “Be reasonable.”

  “I don’t want to be reasonable. I want my friends to be happy!”

  “People get hurt, Dyson. That is part of life.”

  “No. I refuse to believe that. There has to be another way. I’m tired of hurting people. Especially the ones I care about.”

  Gerald lowered his head, struggling to keep his emotions in check. “I can’t stand the thought that I would cause any of them pain. It scares me so much I even ran away so I wouldn’t hurt them anymore.”

  “What happened?”

  Gerald chuckled. “One of them tracked me down.”

  “And if you ran away again, wouldn’t they do the same?”

  “Probably.”

  K’Bheziss rubbed his eyes.

  Gerald’s lip trembled. “I just... don’t want to hurt their feelings.”

  “You keep talking about hurting their feelings. What about your own?”

  “My own feelings are not important.”

  “Nonsense.” The high priest leaned forward and pointed a chubby finger at him. “Are you opposed to getting married to one of them?”

  The directness of the question surprised him. Gerald searched within himself. “I used to be. After what my mother did to my father, I lost faith in the entire idea, so to speak. I thought it was a trap, a flawed contract, a bad deal, an obstacle to my goals. I certainly pontificated about it often enough. It feels so stupid, looking back on it.”

  “And do you still feel that way?”

  Gerald thought hard. “I...”

  “Do you?”

  “No. I mean, in a lot of ways, I guess I still don’t believe in marriage... I thought I had nothing left to believe in.”

  Gerald looked up, tears in his eyes. “But I believe in them. Those girls. I trust them, I know that they would never hurt me. If I got married, I wouldn’t be afraid. That is what makes this even more painful. If it were just one of them, this would be easy. I’d say yes and be done with it. Shoot, I would have said yes already and I wouldn’t even be here. The truth is, I’d be perfectly happy with any of them.”

  K’Bheziss threw up his hands. “Then just pick one.”

  Tears fell down Gerald’s cheek. “You’re asking me to tear out the heart of four people I love, and who love me. How can I possibly do that?”

  K’Bheziss leaned back in his throne. “Because if you don’t, then you will tear out the hearts from all five.”

  The stone door swung open, and Daan Nathers walked in. He looked older than the last time Gerald had seen him. His skin had a lot more grey in it. Gerald had never seen the man so upset. “Dyson,” he snapped as he walked up. “I need your help.”

  Gerald tilted his head. “My help?”

  * * *

  The girls couldn’t help but be anxious as they waited for Gerald to return to the conference room. They paced, milled about, and chatted with the legal staff.

  Zurra tried to occupy herself with music videos from her favorite boy bands, but all she could see was Gerald’s face on their bodies. She chastised herself for everything she could or would have done differently over the years with Gerald to increase her odds of him picking her, building up a mountain of scolding and self-doubt as she did so.

  The only one who managed to stay calm was Ilrica, who snored loudly in the corner, as if she hadn’t a care in the world.

  Cha’Rolette sat at the table, doing her physical therapy. She carefully moved pebbles from one plate to another. She tried to hide her frustration as some of them shot off in random directions. She rubbed the cramping muscles in her left hand.

  Trahzi walked up to her, holding a box at her side. “Duchess, I was thinking that since we have nothing else to do, you and I could get to know each other a little better.”

  Cha’Rolette rolled her eyes. Look, Trahzi, I don’t mean to be rude. I know Gerald put y
ou up to this whole ‘magic of friendship’ thing you’re on, and I can certainly appreciate you wanting to form a new link after losing your own. But the fact is you and I can never be friends.

  “Why not?”

  We have nothing in common. We come from backgrounds that are too different. In my world, what matters is money, status, esteem, position and breeding. Your people don’t even have a concept of what those things are.

  “You’re wrong. You and I don’t come from dissimilar backgrounds. We are both orphans, in a sense. We both know what it means to be completely alone.”

  Cha’Rolette became concerned and made her sit down next to her. How did you know about that? she asked, limiting her voice to Trahzi only.

  “I sliced into your external memory,” Trahzi whispered. “Your barrier traps were exceedingly skillful.”

  And you think this will make me want to be friends with you? By violating my privacy?

  Cha’Rolette looked around to make sure no one was listening in. What is your angle here, Trahzi? Do you suppose you can blackmail me?

  “No.”

  Good, because Ssykes have only one response to that!

  “Your threats are unnecessary. I have no intention of using the information against you. I only wanted to learn more about you. And I was surprised at what I found.”

  Trahzi set down the box and scooted it towards her.

  What is this?

  “Open it. It is a gift for you.”

  Cha’Rolette raised an eyebrow. With a snap of her fingers Ssykes men appeared and were all over it, scanning and probing the package, surrounding it with barriers.

  “It is not a bomb,” Trahzi assured.

  The Ssykes men assured its safety and slid it back to the Duchess.

  Then, what is it?

  “Open it.”

  Cha’Rolette sighed and opened the box. What was inside took her breath away. It was an old filthy doll, nearly falling apart from age and rot. The eyes were misaligned, the material patchwork, the hair matted.

  Cha’Rolette picked it up and held it before her, as if she had seen a ghost. Is this... Cami?

  Trahzi nodded.

  Cha’Rolette brought the doll close and hugged it. The touch, the smell, the feel, she knew right away it was real. It is Cami. It really is. I... I can’t believe it.