by Orren Merton
“There’s got to be other forms of life with souls in my universe, right? Why can’t you eat their souls? Why humans?”
“For the same reason you don’t photosynthesize,” my father said. “It’s simply how we’ve adapted. And if we want to survive, we have to take nourishment, or the other Sedu will destroy us.”
“So it’s every Sedu House for itself, huh?”
“Yes it is, Alex,” Garz said. “It’s competitive and cruel, because rumam are limited. And that, I believe, is where the Seduman who attacked you comes in.”
I was attacked by a Seduman? “Wait…you know who attacked me?”
“I wish I did. I would slaughter him and tear every brick of his House down for what he did to you,” Garz said.
Even though I was a bit startled by the response, I couldn’t help but feel a little moved that he felt so protective.
“But what we do know is that the human who cornered you had Mazzikim with him.”
“Like Zaebos?” I said.
“Far less noble than Zaebos,” Garz corrected. “But of the same type of being—spirits that wanted to become physical, like Sedu, but with less vastness of soul than a Sedu. Mazzikim cannot change form, and they can only remain in your world for an Earth hour at most. That means that the driver had to have a Sedu blade in order for them to travel to your world—and he could only have been given one by a Sedu or Seduman.”
“You don’t think the driver was the Seduman?” I asked.
“He smelled like a human,” Garz said. “He smelled like fear.”
I thought I was the one who smelled like fear in that alley.
“But I don’t get it,” I said. “I thought maybe that was some guy who was trying to kill the rabbi and me for investigating the missing persons cases, not some—”
“Missing persons,” my dad sat back and nodded gravely. “Please, Alex, tell us everything you know about these cases. Start at the beginning.”
I went over everything I knew, and everything the rabbi and I uncovered. I even mentioned investigating with Jake and meeting Detective Godinez. I ended with the death of Rabbi Norm and the attack on Rachel and myself. A few times during the telling I choked up, but I managed to get through it.
When I was finished, there was a moment of silence while Garz took on an extremely thoughtful, intense expression. “I am more convinced than ever that this is a Seduman,” he finally said. “I think the rabbi was killed by Mazzikim. And the attack on you was definitely Mazzikim.”
My father nodded, then turned to me. “I told you that most rumam voluntarily come to Sediin out of guilt. Well, there is another way for Sedim to get rumam. No living human body can survive in this realm of pure spirit. If a living human body is dragged into a portal to Sediin, it will die instantly; however, when the rumam is unrooted it will not be in Gehenna as usual. Instead, it will appear at the portal in Sediin where the body would have. So the Seduman may be working with his Sedu father to murder living humans for him in order to deliver fresh rumam for his House.”
“The rabbi was clearly getting too close,” Garz added, “so the Seduman had him killed—and you and Rachel, who were staying with him, were to be killed as well.”
My chin quivered again, but this time with anger. “So is this how you guys behave? You just told me that you don’t dream up ways to kill people!”
“I said corrupt humanity,” my father corrected. “Sedu hardly ever do this. First of all, it’s too dangerous—if a Sedu is killed on Earth, it cannot reform; its spirit is lost to oblivion. But also, we can’t stay in your world very long. We can only stay in your world for about two of your hours as a Sedu, or a day in human form. But even then, most Sedim wouldn’t try to drag a human through a portal when in human form because that’s when a Sedu is most vulnerable. Only a Seduman could really accomplish this effectively.”
The way my dad said that…it got me worked up. “Accomplish this? Effectively? You make it sound like it’s a great achievement! This bastard is murdering innocent people and separating them from their families, from light and paradise and all that, forever. That’s horrible!”
Garz looked at me with an extremely serious expression. “It is horrible. I agree with you. And this is horrible too: he’s coming after you, Alex. He can’t let you survive.”
Even though it was warm in the House, the back of my neck broke out in a cold sweat.
“But I can prepare you,” he added.
“What do you mean?”
“I train our warriors,” Garz said, a spark in his eye. “I can help you defend yourself against this Seduman and his Mazzikim. I can teach you to use your Sedu blade effectively, to fight with weapons. And Father can teach you to reach into your Sedu self, and to become the Seduman that has always been inside you.”
I have to admit, the idea of being a powerful warrior, being able to access my Sedu self at will, protecting all my friends and my community, sounded pretty damn exciting to me.
Dad nodded approvingly. “Garz is correct. Now that the Seduman knows that you, too, are Seduman, he will hunt you down—you and everyone you care about. He knows that you are his only real threat—the only one who could stand in his way or who could show him up.”
“Show him up?” I shouted. “There it is again! Is this what you want me to do for you? Do you want me to bring home souls too? Is your only problem with this guy that he attacked your daughter?”
I could feel my hair and eyes getting hot, the flames beginning to poke out. I closed my eyes and exhaled, trying to calm myself down. I breathed slowly, regularly, until I felt it pass. I opened my eyes. My father was watching me approvingly. I didn’t know if he was happy that my flames came out, or that I was able to knock them back.
“If you train me,” I asked both of them, “would you be training me to be a superhero…or a serial killer?”
“When I train you,” Garz said, “I’ll be training you to survive a Seduman murderer. That’s my motivation. How you use your abilities is up to you. But we certainly don’t need you to murder humans for us to have rumam. I think you’d make a much better superhero.”
Garz turned to our father.
“I want you to be the person that is inside you,” my father said. “Your mother was kind, gentle, and compassionate. All of that is in you. The way you defended your friend. The way you treated Zaebos with kindness. No matter what skills you master, for you to be the person you need to be, those traits must remain the important part of you they are now. When you make your mother proud, when you make yourself proud…that will make me proud, too. That is what I want you to be.”
I nodded. I felt better.
“So when do we start?”
“How about tomorrow?” Garz asked. “Your wound will still be healing, but I know you want to return to your world as soon as you can, so the sooner we start, the sooner you’ll be finished.”
“That sounds good to me,” I said. “How long do you think training will take?”
“That depends on you,” Garz replied. “But probably two or three months or so.”
“Months? I don’t want—”
“Remember,” Garz chuckled. “Time here is—”
“Oh yeah, sorry. So three months is…”
“Three days or so,” Garz answered.
I curled my lips and shook my head. “Which is exactly what you told Rachel, wasn’t it?”
“It was.” Garz confirmed.
“This was your plan all along.”
“Yes,” Garz admitted. “I didn’t want you to return to be hunted by a Seduman murderer without the skills necessary to face him.”
I nodded. “Can I go back and forth?”
“Not in your condition,” my father said. “It takes a very heavy toll to cross the portal. That’s why we can do it so rarely, only once every seven Sediin months. As a Seduman, you can cross the portal more often, but to try to cross before your wound is completely healed might reopen it on the other side.”
“If you need anything from your mother’s condo, let Vetis know,” Garz said. “Also, make a list of healthy foods that you like to eat—foods that don’t need to be preserved, preferably. Vetis is Sedu and hasn’t traveled to Earth in seven Sediin months, so he’ll go and get you fresh water, food, anything you need.”
“From Mom’s place, I think all I need is her workout clothes. And I’ll come up with a list of foods. But getting back to Mom…”
I turned to my father. “Now that I know about rumam and eating human souls and stuff, it’s even more gross that you were with her. If you use human souls as food, how can you be attracted to them?” I held up a piece of fried chicken. “I mean, chickens can have cute feathers and all, but I’ve never wanted to date one!”
“Chickens don’t write poetry,” my dad said, his glowing red eyes almost getting emotional.
Somehow, that made me kinda emotional too. I loved Mom’s poetry. But also, it was nice to think that my father was attracted to her mind before her body.
“And you spoke to her one last time?” I asked.
“Yes. I sought her rumam in Gehenna,” he said, his low, booming voice becoming softer. “I knew that she would be beset by Sedim.”
“How did you find her?” I asked. “Is Gehenna a huge place?”
“In these spiritual realms, distance does not exist the way you think of it,” my father said. “Sedu search for rumam by concentrating on finding them. You can find a specific rumam if you know its name. There is much power in knowing a name. And I always held your mother’s name dear.”
“I think I understand,” I said. “So…was she? Beset by other Sedim, I mean?”
“Yes. Her guilt was strong. After fighting them off, I guided her to the rumam of her parents and ancestors who had also sought her out.”
“You had to fight them off?”
“Yes. But I was prepared. I would have fought a thousand Sedim to guide your mother to her ancestors.”
I nodded as my chin started quivering. I buried my face in my food to hide my misty eyes.
17
My body was absolutely not used to this bizarre time difference. I went to sleep right after dinner. Vetis knocked on my door to give me my mom’s workout clothes at what he said was dawn—and I felt like I had just laid my head down.
Vetis was the oddest looking of all the Sedu. Not that they weren’t all odd looking, but at least my dad and brother, even though they resembled classic demons from art and literature, looked more or less like human-style monsters, not like a wingless walking bug with some human features. Being up close to Vetis, I did notice that three of his four insect-like arms ended in three fingered claws, but one had a silver crab claw attachment on it instead. I wondered what had happened to his hand; I thought Sedu could heal themselves completely. But when I could get past how his appearance unsettled me, he seemed really gentle, more soft-spoken than either my brother or father. He also brought Zaebos with him, who said that he’d wait outside and accompany me to my training. I thought that was sweet.
I rinsed off in the basin again—I was going to have to get more water for a proper bath later—and picked some black tights and a white sweatshirt from Mom’s stuff. Getting dressed, I realized that my scar was really thin now, and only hurt superficially. That made me happy.
I walked out of my room to find not only Zaebos but also Zogo standing there with a towel and a pitcher of water and a glass on a tray.
“Shall we go?” he asked.
“Sure,” I said. “Lead the way.”
I noticed there were a lot more creatures in the halls now—beings generally two to three feet tall, and of all shapes and sizes. They seemed to be doing various house keeping tasks, although I wasn’t quite clear what. They seemed to be placing their hands against the stones and then concentrating or pushing or something. Some flying creatures were doing the same to the ceiling.
“Is today cleaning day?” I asked Zogo.
“Hmmm…” Zogo thought. “There’s nothing to clean, really. There’s no dirt or particles or whatever you have in your world. So let’s call it maintenance day. Every day is maintenance day,” he said. “This House is held together by the spirit of Keroz—and there’s a lot of House to hold together. So every day, we Ruhin, with our limited force of spirit, use some of our strength to help reinforce the House.”
“And you’re all okay with doing that? You’re not, like, slaves or anything?”
“We aren’t,” Zogo smiled as we walked. “There are scores of Ruhin who choose live under the protection of Keroz. Here we are safe from the other Sedu and Mazzikim, and we have a place to stay, and closeness to the spirit of the House to renew ourselves. Keroz is a fair lord; that is rare in Sediin. Using our spirits to maintain the House benefits us as much as the Sedu and Mazzikim.”
I turned to Zaebos. He nodded his muzzle in agreement.
“But be careful,” Zogo continued, looking around nervously. “Ruhin are always trying to get a leg up and increase in status over other Ruhin, in the hopes that one day, they might increase their spirit vastness enough to form into a Mazzik. Not all are loyal. Any weakness can be…exploited.”
I turned again to Zaebos. Again, he agreed.
“Is that what you meant by—”
“Here we are,” Zogo said as we entered a large room with a white floor mat and a punching bag on each side. Garz was standing by one of them, with an extremely determined look on his face. There were a couple Ruhin reinforcing the walls.
Zogo took a place by the wall. Zaebos curled himself into a ball and lay down by the entryway.
Okay…no fear. I would show my brother that I could handle myself.
“Welcome to our workout space. There are others in this House, but this one was created just for you. Here we will train hard, long hours. Feel free to come here without me, to practice. I assume you know nothing about defending yourself. So let’s start at the very beginning,” Garz said as he stepped to one side of the mat and held out his hand. He wasn’t in any kind of workout clothes at all, just his normal tunic and leggings.
I should have just nodded and walked over to him. I really didn’t know much about self-defense, other than childhood karate. But something in his dismissive tone of voice…it just really got to me.
“Hey,” I said, kind of challengingly. “Don’t be so sure!”
He raised his eyebrow ridges and stared at me.
“Mom put me in karate when I was small. I’m not helpless!” I walked over to the other end of the mat and settled into a front stance.
Garz huffed, clearly frustrated. “That’s lovely, Alex. I’m glad you had dance lessons when you were a child. Please come here.”
“Why don’t you come here?” I taunted.
The way Garz looked at me, I knew I’d just made a huge mistake. He started walking over to me—a huge hulking muscular fanged Sedu with fiery eyes—and my first instinct was to panic. My hair and eyes flamed out, but I held it together and didn’t run away.
Garz seemed to be slightly impressed with my fiery hair and eyes, but still pretty frustrated. “Not bad, but not enough,” he growled.
As he approached I leaned in for a one-step kick, but before I even got my right leg off the ground he kicked my right thigh so hard I’d thought he snapped it. I crumpled to the floor.
I screamed in agony as I crawled backwards. “What are you doing?” I yelled. “Go easy!”
“Go easy?” Garz snarled as he closed the distance between us. I tried to stand.
“Don’t you understand? This isn’t a game! We’re not playing for points! There is a Seduman out there who is stronger than you—”
Garz leaped faster than I would have thought possible and punched me in the gut, right above where I was wounded, so hard I doubled over.
He picked up my head by the chin. I winced in pain. “He is a trained killer, and he will use every trick he knows to destroy you utterly!”
Garz threw me, one-handed, across the ro
om. I almost felt like I was flying for a moment, until I landed hard on the floor about ten feet away. There may have been a mat over the stones but it sure didn’t feel like it when I landed on them.
“He won’t just kill you,” Garz continued as he advanced again. “He will kill everyone you care about, in brutal ways you can’t even imagine, and if he’s truly hateful, he’ll make you watch!”
“Shut up!” I screamed as I tried to stand. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because this is what you’re going to face!” Garz roared, and then he ran at me.
This time I did panic, and I raced backwards and bounced to the side.
“Good!” Garz called out, nodding his approval. “That was a good move,” he said as he swung around. “You’ll never be stronger than me, but you can be faster. Use your speed to your advantage. Race around me, keep me busy.”
I didn’t know how to respond. I was recovering but still feeling pretty beaten up and dazed. “Keep away from me!”
“Do you think he’ll listen to you?” Garz asked. He lunged and with the back of his hand slapped my face hard enough that I fell down again. The left side of my face felt like it had just exploded. I was sure that my entire cheek was a welt.
I kicked out at him and tried to scramble backwards.
“What are you prepared to do?” Garz shouted. “Because he’s prepared to do anything! To use absolutely everything at his disposal to bring you down!”
I saw Garz inhale. My eyes went wide. He wouldn’t…he couldn’t…he wasn’t going to…
I rolled away as fast as I could as he leaned forward and breathed fire onto the mat where I was.
“Hey!” I kicked his thigh as hard as I possibly could—so hard I felt my leg buckle. But he didn’t budge. Or flinch. Not even an inch.
He reached down and grabbed my calf. He hoisted me off the ground hanging upside down. “Going for the thigh was stupid,” he spit at me. “It’s too close to my center of gravity, and I’m too big to be knocked over. Kick at my feet; try to knock me off balance that way. And why are you just listening to me lecture you?” he shouted at the top of his lungs as he kneed my stomach. “You should be biting and kicking and punching me!”