by C J Timms
Gale began making up an order for five all-beef burgers and one mushroom lettuce wrap. The chips were fried in delicious avocado oil and used salt. Salt being less restricted down here in Reefside but taboo in the upper districts.
The group who had ordered these burgers had kept to themselves all night. New faces, they all wore long dusters concealing much of their features. They all listened intently to a huge, grizzled man in his early forties who had only one arm. Occasionally someone would come up to the group of six and exchange money for a small package before skittering away.
Gale kept the bar in his periphery at all times. He always kept an eye out for Blush, the mysterious Deep user who had saved him months ago. He’d not been able to find her despite thoroughly exploring the city.
‘Stop mooning over your lost love Gale and get the food out.’ Ironchurch slammed two trays into him.
Gale took the food out to the new group. The men spoke in hushed tones, but the focus of the conversation was a one-armed man in his mid-forties. The one-armed man had a weathered face with three claw marks running down his right cheek and hair struck through with grey. Gale elbowed his way in to drop off the chips, and caught the last words of their conversation.
‘The device will be ready soon, Admetus. The Swan’s will deliver, a Swan’s word is good as gold.’ Said a younger man. Gale placed the chips down on the table and caught sight of a tattoo on one of the men’s wrists. The symbol was a wall that encompassed planet Earth. The man drew his arm back into the sleeve and narrowed his eyes at Gale.
Gale withdrew and began clearing plates at a nearby table, keeping one ear turned their way. Admetus, the one-armed man, snorted and drew back from the conversation. Admetus held a copper locket in his hand. He flicked it open with his thumb then clicked a button on the top of it. The image inside spun from a silhouette to a young girl. Admetus stared at it.
Click.
The image spun back to the silhouette. Admetus stared with his brows furrowed.
Click
The image spun to the girl once more.
Two of the other men yelled at each other. Admetus looked up and snapped the copper locket closed and growled. The argument stopped. Gale dropped back behind the bar.
At the bar, two men dressed in the red, yellow and blue of Ionhome University whispered to each other. Well, they did what a drunk thinks passes for a whisper.
‘Another poor fucker found lookin ratshit yesterday,’ said the one with a hefty gut. ‘Charlemagne is ropeable. He hasn’t asked for the College’s help yet though. Trying to keep it out of the press.’
‘Aye, blood magic, nasty stuff. Still don’t want to see Charlemagne pick up the tools again. He’d level the city.’ Said the other man a scraggly haired man in his fifties.
‘Too right. Still, he does hold the record for sculling a yard glass of beer at Westminster University though.’
‘I’ll drink to that.’
University staff would often come off their island for a drink, and the Iron Church Bar was, if nothing else, accessible. The Ironchurch sat just on the border Reefside and Tideline, the slum district. It was close enough to feel dangerous without actually being too risky. Students would sometimes sneak out for a pint, and they strutted around like peacocks. After buying them a round, with a bit of flattery, Gale had been able to get quite a bit of information about the upcoming entrance exam. He’d taken every scrap he could. He’d need it for tomorrow.
He touched the self-help book in his pocket. Today he had Simon Sinek’s ‘Start with why’.
‘Do some good.’ He muttered under his breath.
‘Oy, boy…another two drinks, this hero’s thirsty,’ said the balding university staffer. Gale mentally rolled his eyes while keeping a smile on his face. Customer service jobs were the same everywhere.
‘There you go, sirs.’ Gale handed over two extra-large tankards. ‘Gee whiz sirs, are you from that there university.’
‘Damn straight boy. Finest University in the realms.’ Said the one on the left, flicking his scraggly hair back.
‘Are you supervising the test tomorrow?’ Gale asked.
‘Us, bugger off,’ said the potbellied fellow. ‘Two esteemed gentlemen like us have more important duties to take care of. Ain't that right Daz?’
‘Yeah Baz, the toilets ain’t gonna scrub themselves.’ Then Daz punched Baz in the shoulder. ‘Aint want to be there anyway, the students gonna be livid when they find out the entrance fee is doubled.’
Gale dropped a glass. It shattered across the ground.
‘Did you say doubled?’ He asked, sweeping up the glass fragments.
‘Yeah…they doubled the entrance fee this year. Too many candidates. Want to sort the talent from the wankers.’
‘Can’t have just everyone gettin in, they’ve gotta be refined gentlemen like us.’ Baz slammed his beer then wiped his mouth with the University cloak.
Gale stepped away from the two and carried the glass fragments back to the kitchen. With slow movements, he placed the glass in a bin. Then he punched the wall, making a crater in the wood.
‘Mother-frakker.’ He cursed.
He’d worked the last two months saving everything to scrape together an entrance fee. Not the money to pay rent, tuition, food or equipment. Just the bloody entrance fee took him two months to come up with. In one swift move, the University had pissed away his plans like so much cheap beer.
‘If Ironchurch sees that, it’s coming out of your wage.’ Liam said. Liam leaned back against the doorway beside him. He'd perfected that lean with all the free time he had a bouncer. People had learned not to cause a ruckus when he was on.
‘Sorry.’ Gale muttered. ‘I just…I heard the entrance fee doubled for tomorrow.’
Liam placed one gloved hand onto Gale’s shoulder.
‘Diddums, do you need a hug,’ Liam said. Then he burst out into laughter, his eyes twinkled, and he wiped a tear away. ‘Sorry Gale, couldn’t help myself. Still, you can sit around punching things, or you can find a solution. That’s what Ironchurch would do.’
‘True but for Ironchruch punching things usually is the solution.’
‘Very true.’ Liam said. ‘Be careful. There are worse fates than not getting into the University.’
‘I need it, Liam, I need answers about this’ He put his hand in the air and cerulean blue corona danced over it. He looked from side to side. ‘I need answers about my family. I’m only going to get the answers there. And while I’m there, I can do some good.’
Liam considered him. The hand slipped off his shoulder and back into the cloak. ‘There might be a way to…’
Two meaty hands clapped on both their backs.
‘You two bludgers, just standing around, while I slave over hot stove.’ Ironchurch said.
Catching sight of the six newbies in the bar again, Gale pulled a piece of paper off the wall and started sketching.
‘Hey, boss, what does this symbol mean.’ Gale said. He sketched out the tattoo he’d seen, planet Earth inside an unbroken circle.
A frown creased Ironchurch’s brow, his smile disappeared, and his eyes narrowed. He tore the drawing up and fed the pieces to the fire. ‘This means trouble. Where you see this?’
‘The six blokes doing business in the corner.’ Gale said.
Ironchurch picked up a massive iron great club off the wall.
‘Liam, its time to do some character building.’
Ironchurch strode towards the six men and hefted the great club in his hands. Without speaking, he slammed the great club down onto the table with a resounding clang. It missed Admetus’s hand by an inch. Admetus did not move. The other five however reached for their weapons.
‘Plenty of arrows to go around boys.’ Liam said and pulled back his sleeve. A modified crossbow strapped to the end of his arm. Gears spun, and it expanded from wrapped around his arm to loaded in seconds.
‘Out, Unbroken scum.’ Ironchurch said.
‘Only having
a beer, friend.’ Admetus replied as he remained sitting. ‘Nothing wrong with a cold beer at the pub with your mates.’
‘Finish drink, now, and leave. I’ll not have you waste good ale.’
Admetus looked from Ironchurch, to Liam’s crossbow to Gale. He studied Gale, sniffed the air and then spat at his feet.
‘Deepborn. I should string you up here and now,’ Admetus said. His one arm clenched the copper locket tight. His men stood, hands on their weapons. The sound of tankards slamming down echoed through the bar. The rest of the crowd stared at Admetus.
Admetus drained his drink and stared down Ironchurch.
‘We have business elsewhere.’ He flicked a coin to Gale, ‘I won’t be in your debt.’
The six backed towards the exit, eyeing the crowd. The youngest of the six moved with a limp and carried something new, something he hadn’t had on arrival. Liam tracked them with his crossbow. Ironchurch rested the great club across his shoulders.
Admetus paused at the exit to the bar, and his head turned back towards Ironchurch,
‘You have made a mistake this day friend. We remain unbroken…and we do not forget.’
The night was busy, and the work kept Gale’s mind off the exam tomorrow. Despite what he had earned working here, including a surprising amount of overtime pay, he had no way of paying the now doubled entrance exam fee. Heck he had only saved half of what he needed. No money-lender would even consider a loan to him. He didn’t have time to sit around pouring beers for another six months. Not with the Rust Knight hunting him.
He needed to get stronger fast. Barroom brawls and throwing out drunks could only toughen you up so much. Ironchurch’s regular clobbering matches would get him through a fistfight but not a swarm of fathomless.
Then there were the questions he needed answered, about his mothers disappearance and his father's sacrifice. He no longer believed his father was killed in a random mugging. Something had been hidden. The Rust Knight must have something to do with his family. That fracturesmith had something to do with it. He didn’t have time to piss about.
He had two hundred gold for the entrance exam tomorrow. He needed four hundred. Otherwise, it was six more months of waiting. That fracturesmith who’d sent him here, he’d said time was short.
Gale began closing up the Iron Church, shutting the doors on the last night before his exams. The regulars trickled out and revealed the two University employees from earlier passed out on the floor. Gale pulled the pager out on the table and spun it. It would occasionally light up with a series of numbers and a location. The faltering blue screen glowed with possibility, if only he could understand it.
‘Go to the university, become a fracturesmith, stop the Worldflood….maybe work on your resume.’ He said under his breath.
Liam sat down opposite him in the booth, hood covering his face. ‘They won’t take you, not even if you get the gold, not even if you bribe them.’ Liam said.
‘Don’t worry Liam. I have my secret weapon, something I’ve been working on the last few months.’ Gale reached into his pocket and slowly pulled out a clenched fist and cranked the middle finger up. ‘Look at that, damn bulletproof strategy that is.’
‘I’m not trying to be a dick, Gale. Any Deep user has no chance. The University hasn’t let one in since Addison.’ Liam said. He looked side to side. ‘Even if they let you into the entrance exam, well…accidents happen, things go wrong.’
‘Are you saying they’ll sabotage me?’
Liam leaned forward, ‘Listen, Ironchuch taught you how to battle, you have a mind for strategy, but you need more than that. To get through the University, you need to know how to handle people. You can manipulate water all you want but its far more important to make people react the way you need, to be likeable, to manage your bosses.’
Liam drummed his fingers on the table, looked side to side and leaned in further. ‘In my…previous line of work, there was sometimes a need to hide my Script, to mask or change it.’
‘You can’t change your Script, it's your resume, it is your life’s story. Everyone knows that.’ Gale said, ‘Where’d you used to work?’
‘Let's just say I was in…navigation.’
Gale summoned his resume on the table and sensed the Vibe. The white slip of paper was tinged with cerulean blue all along the borders. The blue had grown more potent, the Deep had entrenched itself. There was a gap at the top, waiting for a personal signature or a seal.
‘I’m not lying about who I am Liam. It's my family name. My dad died to defend mum and me, it's all I’ve got.’
Liam leaned back and drummed the table with his fingers once more. ‘And how will you do some good if you can’t become a fracturesmith? Stay here and continue to mop up vomit, by pouring drinks? Let me mask your Script Gale, for the greater good.’
Gale shrugged. ‘I mean, I’ve buffed a resume before, put in a white lie here and there. I mean everyone optimises their resume, but I’m not gonna fake one outright.’
Liam’s hand reached up slowly, his hands holding at the edges of his hood for a moment. Liam lowered the hood to reveal a face covered with scale with twin horns jutting from the scalp. Hollow eyes with a filmy white covering stared at Gale.
‘People judge on appearances. Sometimes you have to put on a show to get what you want.’ Liam placed the hood back. ‘Don’t become an old fool like me.’
Liam stood and walked towards his quarters. Gale held up the white Script paper with its shifting blue currents. Should he fake his resume? This was him, wasn’t it? This was his heritage, his legacy. This was what his father had fought and died for.
What would Ash do? He pulled out the toy Aquaman and pulled the string. ‘Protecting our sea critters protects us as well.’
‘Helpful.’ Gale muttered.
A heavy snort came from the floor where Baz and Daz had passed out. Passed out in their university outfits.
Gale paused. There was no way it would work and yet, if he was convincing enough and if he put those two in a room upstairs where they would sleep in till late. If he put on a good show...
After all, people judged on appearance.
Gale - A bubble burst
Gale rose with the dawn. A curious thing, morning here, the two suns rose at the same time, leap-frogged each other through the day then set at the same time. Everything was a race to be first.
Gale put on an Akubra, his RM Williams boots, a set of work jeans and a good button-up shirt. He buttoned the shirt with slow, practised movements and stared in the mirror. He conjured his resume in the air beside him and stared at the blue glow that marked it. Gale swung a hand through the air and scattered the image.
Ironchurch greeted him in the kitchen with a big grin and a bowl stacked high with Weetbix. ‘Eat, no employee of mine will face those bastards on an empty stomach.’
Gale tucked in, the nausea in his stomach eased with a full stomach.
Liam looked him over. ‘You’re sure about this?’
Gale nodded, he had made a plan, and now it was time to carry it out. Succeed or fail.
‘Here take this.’ Ironchurch said and handed Gale a bottle in metallic silver and blue.
‘Ironchurch conditioner?’ Gale said. He read the fine print. ‘Its a protein shake?’
‘Yeah, it conditions the muscles see.’ Ironchurch winked.
‘You don’t think people will mix it up with a hair care product?’ Gale asked.
‘Bah, you sound just like Liam. Show it to all your friends you make at the University. You’ll want a few friends to guard your back.’
Gale nodded. ‘Right and we wouldn’t want them deconditioned.’
‘Now you’re getting it. I’ll pack a box of forty to start you off.’
Gale finished his Weetbix, ten of them sat like a brick in his stomach. Ironchurch clasped his forearm and slapped his back.
‘Also,’ Ironchruch rubbed the back of his neck and held out a book.
It was a copy of ‘Lifting
Great Weight,’ Ironchurch’s self-help book. The silver and blue book featured Ironchurch flexing on the cover.
‘Its a limited edition. Some extra content. Make sure you read it to the end.’
Gale pocketed the book and put it next to his good luck charm for today, ‘How to win friends and influence people.’ An oldie but a goodie. He didn’t think he’d win many friends today.
‘Are you sure you want this water-boy?’ Ironchurch asked. ‘The bar job is always open.’
Gale nodded. He needed answers. He needed to be able to defend himself. He wanted to do some good.
Ironchurch nodded to him. ‘Then, don’t lose. History loves a winner.’
Even this early, the late summer air heated the streets of Ionhome. The raucous cry of seagulls were not a traditional promising dawn chorus, but Gale would take it. Gale took the fastest path to the Membranous Cathedral. The Cathedral had been the site of entrance exams since it was built.
He stopped two blocks before the Cathedral and traded a coin to a clothes vendor to quickly change in their stall. When he came out in his new gear, he paused and double-checked it.
‘Right, put on a show, people judge on appearances.’ He rolled his shoulders back and straightened his neck. He puffed out his chest and plastered a hearty grin on his face. With precision casualness, he walked up to the cordon to the Cathedral.
A bleary-eyed gate guard roused himself from a chair. It can’t really be this simple, Gale thought, his chest tight with anxiety. They would catch him. He was a fraud, a pretender. Still, better than working at Bondi Big Burger.
‘Mornin friend.’ Gale said, adopting a slow drawl, ‘Bad business being up at sparrows fart. You clockin off?’
The guard took in Gale’s beer-stained university cloak. It draped loosely where Baz’s paunch had stretched it.
‘Go through, less talk, too early.’ The guard said and leaned back against the wall. Nightshift workers always went for the outcome with less difficulty. Especially right before morning change over, when the brain wasn’t working well. Let the day shift handle the problem.