by Orren Merton
Garz tipped his head toward me again.
“Okay, so I’m the House of Keroz, in Sediin,” I repeated. “But where is Sediin?”
“Sediin is an entirely separate universe, or dimension, from your own,” he said. “You live in a universe of matter and physical properties. Sediin is a universe of spirit, one in which some spirits have chosen to manifest physical forms so as to experience the sensations of having a physical existence.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. “Everything feels solid enough. So—”
“Lord Garz,” I heard coming from the hallway behind Garz, “the scouts have returned.”
“Ah, Vetis,” Garz said, and turned around. I tried to look behind him to get a look at this Vetis person. What I saw appeared to be some sort of weird, five-foot-tall greenish-gray insect-looking thing. Its dragonfly-like head mostly consisted of huge solid red eyes, with a small, thin, but oddly human-like lipless mouth. It had numerous praying mantis-style arms that ended in three-fingered claws, but two thin human-like legs. And then right next to it was…an Akita? A Great Dane?
“Is that a dog?” I asked.
My dad turned toward the pair. He looked down at the creature I presumed was a dog and extended an arm toward me. The dog-like creature walked a couple of steps into the room.
I was wrong; it wasn’t a dog. In fact, it looked a lot like the monsters that attacked us in the alley. Like them, it was larger than the biggest breed of dog, although not quite bear-sized, but it had bear-like paws and a slightly flatter muzzle than an Akita. But unlike those monsters in the alley, this one had fur—a very pretty rust-colored coat that covered its entire body. And its eyes didn’t glow a demonic red. They were still red, but they looked like human eyes, with red irises around black pupils. Walking into the room proudly, it held its head high. It looked large and fierce, but absolutely adorable.
“My lady,” it said. “I am Zaebos, a Mazzik, commander of the Mazzikim scouts, at your service.”
When it spoke, my jaw dropped. I wasn’t expecting a talking dog! But then when it opened its mouth I saw that it had those two rows of razor-sharp shark teeth just like the monsters who attacked us in the alley.
“I’m sorry, I thought you were a dog, like on my world. You’re actually like those things that attacked me, aren’t you?”
It took one more step forward. “Your attackers may have been Mazzikim, but I assure you they were nothing like me,” Zaebos said. I could definitely hear the indignation in his voice, but there was no anger or defensiveness, just pride. “I would never attack a female or a youngling. And I would never serve a lord who would.”
I grinned, I think for the first time since I awoke. The absolute sincerity in Zaebos’s voice made me believe him. And that was also the first slightly positive thing I’d heard about my dad. I still wasn’t sure about my dad or brother or what they wanted with me. But I believed Zaebos, that my family didn’t attack women and children. And that’s something.
“I’m sorry Zaebos, I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m still trying to figure out…everything.”
“I understand, my lady,” it said, lowering its head in a bow. “No offense has been taken.”
“Please, let me make it up to you, the way I would a being like yourself at home. Come here?” I said. I shifted the sheets so that I was holding them against my body by tucking them between my sides and forearms, then held out one hand toward Zaebos. He craned his neck toward Garz and my father, both of whom urged him on. He slowly walked across the room until he was only a few steps from the bed.
“Another couple of steps,” I said.
He hesitantly walked up to me.
“May I touch you?”
Still hesitant, he nodded his muzzle.
I reached down and scratched behind his left ear.
His eyes practically rolled up in his head.
“Ahhh,” he breathed, as if he’d just had a huge, refreshing gulp of water. “That feels wonderful….”
“Doesn’t anyone scratch your ears or run their fingers through your fur around here?” I asked.
“Never,” Zaebos said.
“Well then you’re in for a treat,” I smiled, taking his head into both of my hands and scratching both ears.
“I’m not sure what I’ve done to deserve such favor, but thank you,” Zaebos said.
“My pleasure, Zaebos.” I kept scratching his ears and looked up toward my family.
“You said something about food?” I asked.
“Yes,” Garz said. “I asked Rachel what you would like to eat, and she suggested ice cream, which unfortunately is impossible as we cannot keep anything chilled. Her next recommendation was fried chicken and biscuits. So I brought some back for you. Are you getting hungry?”
“I am,” I nodded. “When do you all have dinner?”
“Sedu don’t need to feed our physical bodies,” my dad said. “So we don’t keep food or water here. We will, of course, for the length of your stay. And whenever you wish to eat, we shall accompany you.”
“Okay, then maybe soon,” I said, switching from scratching Zaebos’s ears to running my fingers through the fur on his neck. “I’d like to put on some clothes first.”
“Shall we dine in half an hour?” my father asked.
“Sure. Can I have some…um…” I turned to Zogo.
“Of course,” Garz jumped in. “Zogo will fetch you some of the water I brought from your world if you wish to wash your hands and face, then he will wait outside your door in case you need anything. When you are ready, he’ll walk you down to our main hall.”
“That sounds good,” I agreed. I removed my hands from Zaebos’s neck. “I’m going to get dressed now. I really enjoyed meeting you.”
“The pleasure was entirely mine, my lady,” Zaebos said, his eyes still almost glazed over.
“Thanks,” I said, and ran my hands through the fur on his back. “I’ll see you later.”
Zaebos, Garz, the bug-man thing, and my dad all turned to leave. Zogo ran to the door, then turned around. “I’ll be back with some water,” he said.
I nodded.
“I’ll knock first,” he added.
“Good,” I said.
Zogo grabbed the door as he left the room, dragging the heavy door shut behind him. Right before he closed the door, he poked his head in. “You seem like such a kind-hearted Seduman,” Zogo said.
“Thanks,” I said, offering a slight smile.
“Please don’t let yourself be killed.”
16
Standing up hurt as much as I feared it would. Sharp pains shot through my middle when bending or, really, doing any movement like walking. But in spite of how much I ached, I walked over to the full-length mirror next to the dresser. I looked my scar; it may have been my imagination, but it looked like it had shrunk a bit since I woke up. Still, it looked ugly and deep and kinda gross.
I put my suitcase filled with shirts and tops on a small table next to the dresser and popped it open. I pulled out the shirt and pair of jeans that were at the top of the suitcase and put them on. Zogo came back with two buckets of water and took them to the bathroom for me. I walked into the bathroom after Zogo.
My dad wasn’t kidding—the bathroom was nothing to write home about. There was a tall stone basin with a mirror hanging over it that served as my sink. Zogo poured one of the buckets of water into the basin. Next to it was an iron toilet—really just an iron seat over a hole in the floor. Zogo put the other bucket of water down next to the cast-iron bathtub and told me that if I needed anything, he’d be right outside my room.
I thought about asking him who he thought was going to kill me. He didn’t mean my dad or Garz, did he? Why would they save me if they just wanted to kill me? Thinking about it freaked me out, so I decided to try not to. I thanked him and waited until I heard the door close to rinse off my face and hands.
When I was cleaned up and ready to eat, I pushed open the extremely thick and heavy door to
find Zogo standing outside talking to a small flying creature. It had the wings of dragonfly with maybe a two-foot wingspan but a small body resembling some kind of monkey with red fur.
“Shall we, my lady?” Zogo asked.
I nodded, still staring at the flying thing. I pulled the knobless door closed.
Zogo turned to the flying creature and nodded. It raced off in the direction we were headed. “Lexis will fly ahead and tell your family that you’re coming,” Zogo explained. “This way.”
“Lexis?” I repeated.
“He is a Ruhin, like me. Well, not like me, but you know what I mean. Don’t you?” Zogo asked with a look of concern.
I nodded to be polite, even though I really didn’t, and followed him down the hallway. “I guess there are no intercoms or phones in Sediin?”
Zogo turned around and looked at me for a moment as he was leading me. “I’m not sure what those are,” he said, turning back to face forward. “But I assume they are machines from your world?”
“Yes,” I confirmed.
“The Sedu created this realm, Sediin, using their spirits and their will,” Zogo said as we passed a series of doors and kept walking down the hallway. “They fashioned all of this”—he waved his arms around—”but while they could mold their spirits into the outer shapes of physical objects, they could not reproduce the internal function of anything mechanical.”
“So my dad could make something that looked like a phone, but it couldn’t actually call anyone,” I said.
“I guess so. Yes. If a phone is a machine. Please watch your step,” Zogo said as he pointed toward the wide staircase in front of us. We descended the stairs in silence. When we reached the bottom Zogo directed us to the left. “Just this way, we’re almost there,” Zogo directed.
I nodded and walked through a huge, ornate room filed with sculptures and art depicting all kinds of weird-looking hybrid creatures like the ones I’d already met, and paintings of two large red beings I assumed were female Sedu, since they looked sort of like Dad and Garz but with boobs and long hair. The outer walls of the huge room were filled with doors and open hallways leading to other parts of the House.
From the large room we went into a long hall in which my dad and Garz were seated at a long rectangular brown table with six chairs. Across from them was a plate, napkin and silverware, a glass of water with a pitcher next to it, three buckets of take-out fried chicken, a container of green beans, and a box of biscuits.
As I walked up to the table they stood up. I gave them a slight smile and nod and took my seat in front of the food. They took their seats across from me. I opened the bucket, box, and the containers and started serving myself.
“It’s still nice and hot, thank you,” I said.
“We all have the power of fire,” Garz replied. “Warming anything is easy. It’s chilling that we can’t do. I would have brought you ice cream if I could.”
“I appreciate it,” I nodded. “And I understand, Zogo told me how you can’t have machines here. But this chicken is really good. It’s kind of funny to be eating take-out that I can get a few blocks from where I live in a completely different universe.”
“Would it make your meal more like a family dinner if we took human forms while you ate?” my dad asked.
I finished the chicken leg I was gnawing on, took a sip of water, and looked up. “Actually…yeah. I’d like that.” Of course, nothing could make this place feel like home, but I really wanted to see what my father looked like when he met my mother.
Both Garz’s and my father’s forms quickly dissolved and morphed into that of human males. My father was a dark-haired, olive-skinned, round-headed man with a broad chest and arms, wearing a button-down white plaid shirt and blue jeans. And Garz…
“You!” I practically spit green beans at Garz. “It was you in the bank! I recognize you! Were you the anonymous benefactor?”
“Yes,” Garz acknowledged. “I paid your mother’s bills, wiped out all of her debts, and put money in your bank account for you. I hoped you might come up to me, but you were of course in mourning.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“Because when I promised your mother that I would never initiate communication with you, that extended to the entire House of Keroz,” my father explained.
Garz nodded. “Even though your mother’s rumam gave Father permission to contact you, I didn’t know it yet. So I hoped you’d see me and choose to make contact. I made myself as available as I could without disrespecting your mother’s wishes.”
“Rumam?” I asked.
“Her soul,” dad said. “We call it rumam. I told you, this is a dimension of spirit, of soul. Every human being has a physical body in your universe, and a soul here, in ours. When a rumam is connected to its human body, it is hidden to us, like the roots of a tree in your world. When a human body dies, its rumam becomes unrooted and wanders Gehenna. When your mother died, I travelled to Gehenna to find her rumam.”
“Is she here?” I asked. I honestly wasn’t sure what answer I wanted. I wished more than anything that my mother was in Heaven. And if she was here, what did that mean? That my father had taken her soul to Hell?
“No,” Dad shook his head. “I sought her out to ensure that she never found her way here from Gehenna.”
“So Mom’s soul—her rumam—is in Heaven?” I asked, hopefully.
“It is in Merkaba with her family, and her ancestors, in pure spirit,” he said, an almost serene look across his face.
“That’s good, right?” I said, kind of defensively. “Why can’t you just say ‘Yes, Alex, she’s in Heaven?’”
“Because the human concepts of Heaven and Hell are not the reality of this realm,” my father said. “When a rumam wanders Gehenna, it is beset by other spirits—by those of its family and ancestors, who wish to direct the soul to Merkaba, and by Sedu, who wish to direct it to Sediin. Merkaba is the realm of pure spirit, guarded by the Kaayot. And Sediin—”
“Is Hell,” I interrupted.
“Is a place of spirits that have adopted physical manifestations,” Dad finished, his tone a bit firmer. I guess I was wearing on his patience.
“Okay, look at this from my perspective, Dad,” I said, taking a few more sips of water. “You just told me that the relatives of dead souls try to bring them to ‘Merkaba’ or whatever, not to here—the place where everyone looks like a monster or demon. I’m not trying to be mean, but can you see why I’d think this place represents Hell?”
“But the irony is, it was the rumam who made it this way,” my dad said.
“So this was a happy place of rainbows and unicorns until human souls turned you all into demons?” I snarked.
Garz chuckled. I didn’t know if that should have made me feel better or worse.
“I told you, the Sedu wanted to experience a physical existence: touch, smell, sight, sound, taste,” my father reminded me. “Those of us whose spirits were powerful enough combined our forces to create Sediin, to give ourselves form. Maintaining Sediin, and all of our Houses and forms, takes an immense amount of effort and depletes those of us who do. So we found a way to…harvest…the rumam of unrooted humans to maintain Sediin.”
“So you use human souls for slaves?” I said. “That sounds a lot like a kind of Hell to me.”
“Not slaves,” my father said. “Rumam cannot do the maintaining of Sediin, of our Houses. We must do it. But we replenish ourselves from their rumam.”
I put down the biscuit in my hand and stared at my dad. I could feel the tears forming. He said it. The one thing I dreaded he’d say most of all. He just said it.
“So…” I swallowed a sob, “you eat human souls. That’s so much different than being a demon.”
“You asked why we chose the shapes we did,” my father continued.
I nodded, wiping my eyes.
“As you’ve surmised, rumam do not benefit from being depleted by Sediin. Rumam may not experience physical pain, but ultim
ately they will be obliterated as we use them up. While it is possible for us to aggressively trap rumam, we could not possibly trap enough rumam for our needs. But if we could convince them to come with us willingly, we could harvest far more than if we had to fight for every rumam. So we had to offer the rumam something in order to entice them to surrender to us, something that would be even more powerful than the pull of their ancestors. We found that enticement was guilt.”
“Guilt?” I repeated.
“Yes, guilt. Humans make mistakes. Miss opportunities. Commit crimes. Hurt themselves and each other. And if a human feels guilty enough, that is the overwhelming emotion left for the rumam.”
“But how do you convince guilty souls to come with you?” I asked.
“By offering the rumam what it feels it deserves: punishment. So we chose forms to resemble those creatures the rumam expect to see if they are to be punished, so when they are guilty, they choose to come with us.”
I nodded. “I think I get it. But even if you’re only being demons because people expect you to be, doesn’t that mean you’re still demons?”
“I’m not sure you understand what I am telling you, Alex.” My father leaned forward. “We do not spend our time dreaming up ways to corrupt humanity. We are not fallen angels. We are simply beings that wanted to experience life, and in doing so, we had to…nourish ourselves with other life, the way that you are eating that chicken in front of you to sustain your body. You are not evil, just hungry.”
I sighed. I wanted to believe that my family were decent beings with all my heart. But eating souls just didn’t sound very kind and cuddly. “You make me want to be a vegetarian,” I said, putting down a chicken wing and grabbing a biscuit.
My dad smiled at me. “But even eating vegetable life is still taking nourishment from life. When you pull a carrot out of the ground, those living cells will be ingested by you in order to sustain yourself.”
“What would happen if you didn’t deplete souls?”
“Our House would weaken, and one of the other Houses would come in, destroy us all, and take our rumam to add to their own.”