Together the three women left the police station and headed toward the Parliament building.
CHAPTER 28
Deliverance
“How can anyone possibly get any law making done here?” Deliverance shouted above the din at Addie. They had seats perched in the uncomfortable gallery surrounding the Senate floor below. Over a hundred men and women stood on the Senate floor shouting at each other at the tops of their lungs, shaking their fists.
“It’s always like this at first. You’ll see!” Addie replied back, unconcerned.
“Look, there’s Jack!” Eleanor said, pointing out her brother. As usual, he was right in the thick of the fight.
“Have I missed anything yet?” Another voice came from behind them. Lord Asher appeared and took a seat on the end of their bench, next to them. He had cleaned himself up with a shave and was wearing tails.
“Not yet, they’re just getting warmed up,” Addie replied.
Deliverance leaned over and said despairingly to her father, “Ned Turner said he had all our research destroyed!”
“Did he now?” Lord Asher answered, not looking the least bit worried.
“Does that not concern you?” Deliverance cried. Confound this blasted man! Maybe Jack was right. Maybe he was addlepated from removing too many of his own memories.
He shrugged. “I suppose it would if I did not have a digital backup on a remote server.”
Deliverance paused. “What does that even mean?”
“It means we have a copy of everything,” he said simply.
“You…you did that?” Deliverance asked incredulously, not believing it at first.
“Yes, of course. I’m not batty after all!” Lord Asher said, looking at her sideways and smiling a knowing smile. “Well not entirely so at any rate.”
Eleanor, Addie, and Deliverance all broke out into huge grins. They would, after all have some ammo for the upcoming fight. Below, a churlish Ned Turner sat nursing his wounds, not joining the fray, and looking decidedly sour in his fresh trousers.
“For God’s sake come to order already!” the speaker bellowed, slamming his gavel on the lectern. The end popped off and rolled down the aisle, and the man looked defeated until someone handed a fresh gavel. Eventually, the Senate floor quieted enough for the speaker to call out the business of the day.
“We originally had another land tax on the docket, but apparently the honorable Senator from Cornwall has yet again upset the order of things. We find ourselves in the midst of an emergency vote. The subject: The Narisi Restricted Zone.”
This caused another uproar on the floor and it took the Speaker a good ten minutes to call everyone to order.
“Let the man speak!” a shout came from the floor. “Speak! Speak!”
Finally, Jack took the lectern, and everyone fell silent.
“Senators, ladies and gentlemen of the Parliament of the great Republic of Arcanton. We find ourselves today in a unique position. A position to secure ourselves a page in world history books as a nation of enlightenment.”
“Are we not already?” a naysayer called out.
“Ah. Yes, the nation of modern medicine, of electricity, of steam ships and dirigibles. But are we not also a nation who was one of the last to abolish slavery, who still demands subservience and high taxes from our colonies…who still imprisons the people of Nar?”
This garnered more shouting, and Jack waited for them to quiet before he continued. “The island of Nar. 408 people, the last time we did a drone count. What do 408 people matter in the grand scheme of things? I would pose to you those 408 souls matter the world. What we do with the information I am about to present to you and the bill I am about to put forward to you for a vote could very well enhance the reputation of the Republic of Arcanton, or put it down in the books as a scourge on humanity. Think wisely, ladies and gentlemen.”
“What could you possibly tell us that we don’t already know, or are you just filibustering with your warm fuzzy cockamamy like usual, Senator Quentin?” An older, distinguished looking senator called out.
“Ah, that is an excellent question. Get comfortable. Over the next couple hours, I shall call forward witnesses to testify to what we now know—new information and research on the state of Nar and its plague. Then I will propose to you a solution to the problem at hand. I suppose I should begin by telling you that the population of Nar is now 407, and the cause is not a death.” With that, Jack began to present his case.
“Isn’t he a charismatic speaker?” Eleanor sighed, watching Jack as he went through the facts, point by point. Deliverance could not help but agree. He seemed in his element down there, standing up for a cause he believed in wholeheartedly. She wondered why she ever doubted him.
The knowledge that a Narisi was among them, alive and well, caused much consternation in the crowd. Murmurs of discomfort rolled through the room like waves breaking on a coastline.
“For the research evidence, I am going to call Lord John Asher, PhD in Biochemistry, Forensic and Cultural Anthropology, and three-time award winner of the Cranston Prize for Science, to assist in the presentation,” Jack announced.
“That’s me,” Lord Asher whispered to the ladies and turned to find his way down onto the Senate floor.
“Good luck…Fath…John.” Deliverance hiccupped. Lord Asher’s seat was taken by Mrs. Potter and Stevens, who came in with a flurry of cold still upon their backs.
“Did we miss much yet?” Stevens asked Eleanor, as they took their seats on the teak benches.
“Jack’s opening remarks, but Lord Asher is about to take the stand,” Eleanor replied, talking sideways.
“Thanks for the coat,” Deliverance added mischievously to Stevens.
“Aye. I heard it was confiscated,” Stevens replied.
“Why would they confiscate your coat?” Mrs. Potter asked.
“No, my taser.”
“Oh, good God.”
“I heard you got a good shot off though,” Stevens added. “Bully for you.”
Lord Asher took command of the stage then. He called for the lights to be dimmed and a large computer screen descended for all to view. After a pause, he began to speak. He did not appear like the offish, flaky man Deliverance was now accustomed to associating with her father. When he took command of the stage, he did so with ease and magnetism. The hall hushed to hang on his words. This was a man who had ages of wisdom, years of research, and was accustomed to presenting the facts. This was a man who charmed lecture halls full of coeds and symposiums full of world leaders. This was a man who, through the careful, precise presentation of fact, always won his way. As he laid out his indisputable findings, he drove the nails of logic with a tremulous force into the railway that would take them to Nar.
“As you can see here, the subject is still exhibiting the symptoms of the plague. Now this is before we treated her. Do note how in control she is of the mimicked gift. Also note the subject her magic imitates does not lose any power of his own. It is a mirroring effect, not a parasitic one,” Lord Asher said and continued on with the video documentation.
“Now see in this later clip—note the time date st
amp—the subject is entirely without symptoms. No detectable magical maladies remain. This of course triggered the inevitable onslaught of the subject’s birth gift in its full adult form,” Lord Asher lectured.
Murmurs rippled through the crowd as they watched the violent video of Deliverance coping with her new gift.
“Now this may seem like a chaotic transformation, especially if you consider going through over 400 of such situations,” Lord Asher lectured, “but we have plans to mitigate the risk to both the Outside world and the citizens of Nar. In fact, we expected the coping mechanisms to take quite a bit longer to develop, but this research shows the powerful capability of the human body to adapt.” He droned through the statistical readouts given by the sensors in the room and expounded upon other research in similar cases…of which there were not many, but he was setting the stage for Eleanor to confirm their findings.
“Let’s get ready, Deliverance. They are going to call us next,” Eleanor murmured, and tapped Stevens on the shoulder. He had been wrapped up in the proceedings and startled a bit at the prodding. But he quickly recovered and realized what Eleanor was after.
“Here you go, Miss,” he said and handed her a soft mass of something wrapped in velvet. “Straight from the wig maker.”
In the rippling folds of crimson velvet lay a wig, just below shoulder length, of what Deliverance assumed used to be her hair as it was the same color and texture.
“If the senators do not already know I was treated for cancer, they do not need to know now,” Eleanor explained to Deliverance and donned the wig. After she straightened it for the girl, Deliverance was struck speechless. So, this was what young, healthy Eleanor must have looked like before the ravages of disease stole the color from her cheeks and the hair from her head.
“Does it look all right? Not fake?” Eleanor asked, biting her lip in concern at Deliverance’s stare.
“No, it looks real enough…it looks perfect. Good thinking, Eleanor,” Deliverance answered, and they turned their attention back to the ending of Lord Asher’s presentation.
“The ability of magical illness detectors has never been refuted. They are rare, but the few cases we have had the privilege of studying throughout history have indicated no less than a 100% detection rate. In our lifetimes there have been thirteen confirmed magical malady detector gifts and only 4 of those were also able to cure said maladies. We have one, which you witnessed in the video, to be powerful enough not only to cure our test subject, but many more.” Lord Asher finished by stating, “And now I shall hand the floor back to Senator Quentin, representative from Cornwall.”
For a moment, while Lord Asher was in the throes of speaking, Deliverance could almost see what her mother saw in the man… almost.
“As you can see from the evidence carefully documented by some of the world’s finest research teams from Oxdale University,” Jack began, but his mention of the controversial academic institution garnered some mutterings, “the girl from Nar has been completely cured of her magical malady and is no longer contagious. To put to rest any doubts you may have, ladies and gentlemen, I will be calling various witnesses to testify, starting with the most compelling. Miss Deliverance Magne and the magical illness healer, Lady Eleanor Quentin, will you please take the stand?”
Deliverance sucked in a breath. It was now or never. Eleanor took her hand firmly in her own, and adeptly led the way out of the gallery and down to the Senate floor. Deliverance could feel each burning stare prickly at the collar of her dress. The eyes she managed to meet either looked at her with curiosity or outright animosity. There seemed to be no middle ground. She swallowed a gulp and grasped Eleanor’s hand like a life raft.
It struck her as odd, how loud the clacking of her shoes sounded as they walked down the planked center aisle and took a position on the front dais where all could see.
The Speaker, a harried-looking, portly man with a generous waist and not a generous hairline, looked to Deliverance. “Can you introduce yourself for the assembly, ma’am?”
“My name is Deliverance…” she began.
“LOUDER!” one of the senators jeered at her.
She cleared her throat, squared her jaw, and cast a reproving gaze around the room.
“My name is Deliverance. I did not know until recently my surname might as well be Magne. I was born and spent my entire life until a little over two weeks ago on the island of Nar. What you would deem to be called the ‘Restricted Zone of Nar.’” Deliverance spoke with clarity. She would not be made to cower by these senators any more than she would cower before the bullish men on her home island. “I am told you have questions for me. Ask.”
She stared down each of them, mostly graying old men in various states of decay, but a few were professionally dressed women spanning several decades in age, and there were a few younger, energetic looking men like Jack.
“If you are Deliverance Magne, then why are you not at your post keeping us all safe from the narrative faltering?” one old, crotchety-looking man called out.
“I am indeed Deliverance Magne. My father, Lord Asher, took blood samples to prove it,” Deliverance answered directly. This first part of her answer caused a stir. “I am not ‘at my post’ as you deem it for several reasons. The first is that there was a problem on Nar in which my mother and I both would have been cast into prison for no fault of our own. My mother sent me off the island to send word and find help. She, herself, is imprisoned, and the narrative along with it. The second reason is that she refused to inform me of my duty to uphold your precious narrative. Until a couple weeks ago, I was ignorant of the whole affair.” This caused more consternation in the crowd. “The third and final reason is that I, Deliverance nee Catalyst Magne, am no man’s subject whether he be Narisi nor Arcanton.” She stared back at the old man defiantly. She could almost hear Stevens groan of dismay in the gallery and did not need to look at him to know he was wildly waving her off, to temper her combative responses. But she could not. Looking around the room at these…dictators, she could no longer hold her tongue silent.
She noticed a thoughtful looking Senator somewhere in her late fifties regarding her with interest, rather than revulsion.
“Does this mean Catalyst Magne never meant to teach you how to hold the narrative?” another senator piped up.
“I do not know,” Deliverance answered truthfully. “She may have when I got older, but I am twenty-three years of age, and she has not yet chosen to enlist me in your decree that by birth my family is somehow beholden to your false weavings.”
The thoughtful looking senator stood up and quietly walked to the other side of the room where Jack was standing and took a seat.
“What is she doing?” Deliverance whispered to Eleanor.
“She’s taking her stand. She’s decided for us. That is how they show their allegiance or if they want to switch sides. Once everyone has stopped moving, the Speaker will ask for a final standing and then it will be decided. Whomever has the most senators on their side of the hall wins,” Eleanor explained.
Deliverance cast a grateful look at the female senator who was now firmly planted on Jack’s side of the aisle. Ned Turner’s side, directly opposite him to the left, Deliverance assumed, was the opposition.
“Those false weavings
keep us safe and they keep the Arcanton military from using force to keep your people on that island! Who are you to endanger us all?” accused a droopy-eyed senator from Sussex. He did not wait for a reply, but took a seat behind Ned Turner, who smirked at her.
“Is it for you to speak of danger, Senator Trenounen, when your grandchildren sleep safe in their beds, vaccinated against polio and a myriad of other diseases, assured against blight, and famine?” Jack shouted, jumping to his feet. “While these poor people, through no fault of their own, must suffer in ignorance as we block the world from them?”
This caused an uproar that took the Speaker a while to quell. “Let’s continue with the pertinent questions, please!” he instructed, wiping his brow with a kerchief.
“How do we know this little girl is capable of actually curing anyone?” one of the opposition called out.
It was Eleanor’s turn to puff out her chest. “That is Lady Eleanor Quentin to you, sir. Not little girl.” She began dressing the man down systemically. “I am one of four people in the entire world who possess such a gift. I apprenticed under the fifth, The Honorable Tifia Ben Abnezir, until I was twelve years of age, at which point I fully cured three documented cases of magical illness. I am fully capable of handling the Nar project, as evidenced in the video documentation Lord Asher presented earlier.”
“And why is The Honorable Tifia Ben Abnezir not stepping forward now to help us with this problem?” one of the other senators called out.
“Because she’s dead. She stepped on a leftover landmine from the Arcanton-Plaedes conflict leftover in her hometown of Acrasis. The other three live in remote parts of the world not sympathetic to Arcanton causes…nor do they have my power aptitude,” Eleanor replied coldly, enunciating precisely.
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