by Jared Ravens
“No, sir,” Felix said. “This is the only one I’m aware of.”
“Oh, well! I guess that’s true. You know, I had to build the power generator just for this. And also the lights in my apartment. I don’t want to tell you what regulations I had to wade through to get that done.”
“I can imagine.”
“In the end, though, a little cheating helps get things done.”
Felix looked up at him.
“What kind of cheating?”
“Well, sometimes you just have to go ahead and do something. Just make it happen. You know?”
“You’re known for that.”
“Cheating or getting things done?”
“Both.”
Theo laughed at this, and Felix wondered if he had been lead into the laugh line. He didn’t think it was that funny, but he was also too nervous to laugh. The room stopped moving and the door slide open to reveal and dark red oval room. A large man in a blue formal suit greated him and Theo introduced him to Maxwell. He led them down the hallway.
“I hear you cheat a little too,” Theo said as Maxwell opened the door to a study covered in intricately carve wood.
“How?”
“You slipped away from the infirmary,” Theo replied, slipping behind his desk. “Very daring. How did that go?”
“They came the next day. I told them I wasn’t going back. So they called on Martel and she dropped off some drugs and told me I’d better get better in a hurry if I didn’t want protection.”
“How ballsy!”
“They still stuck a guard at my door, but I think you know that.”
“How would I know that?”
“He was hired by you.”
Theo chewed on the end of his pipe for a minute and smiled. He sized him the boy in front of him with some disappointment. He didn’t let it show on his face; as he saw the short boy with burns and a thick shoulder limp towards a chair he only made himself appear happier.
“Maxwell,” Theo said. “Go away.”
He leaned back in his chair and waited until the doors had closed. He studied Felix before saying anything.
"How do you feel?" he suddenly said. Felix mouthed off words of apprehension and excitement, and they were all true, but what he didn't say was that all of these feelings felt numb. They were hidden beneath some thick layer of dullness. He couldn't exactly describe what he felt. It was a slow moving and powerful emotional train that felt very distant. Even looking at Theo, the man he remembered idolizing for so long, it was difficult to untangle what feelings were his and what feelings were coming from somewhere else. Theo stared upwards at the ceiling, carrying on about his job and the responsibilities it entailed but he might as well have only been speaking to himself. Felix looked at him, trying to place him in his own emotional memory. He couldn’t quite believe he was sitting here. The simple things he wanted just a short time ago were now within his grasp, but they all came with a hitch. He was infamous now, and he would carry that with him everywhere.
Felix snapped back into reality. Theo’s mouth was open and he had a curious look in his eyes.
"Let's take a smoke," he said.
They walked through the labyrinthine hallways, twisting this way and that, as Theo crushed a ball of sugar root in his hands and pontificated on the difficulty of survival. Felix admired the red wall paper and richly colored paintings that seemed to move behind their thick frames and smile at him. He smiled back at them.
They stoped at dead end, an octagonal room with portraits from seven scenes from the official history, one on each wall.
"Let's see," said Theo, looking at each one and scratching his chin. "This always messes me up."
"Is it easier to do when you're sober?” Felix asked Theo.
Theo looked down at him, a sharp glare across his face. "No, in fact it's harder," he replied. He sat down on the circular couch at the center of the room and lit up the sugar root. He passed it to Felix who inhaled, feeling the tension in his body disappear momentarily. The paintings came alive, giants fighting immortals. He looked at Theo, his face suddenly animated.
"It changes every day," Theo moaned. He walked to a painting of Atrios thrusting a mace into a giants face and stuck his finger out. He pressed his finger into the mace and stood back, then he reached out again and pinched Atrios' yellow eye. Suddenly the panel moved and Theo clapped with glee.
"That's the ticket!" He pulled Felix down a treacherous, circular set of stone stairs. A moist smell blew up from below as they descended through the lamp lit corridor. Theo continued talking, stoping only when he lost his train of thought.
They came to an alcove with a dirty bench on it and Theo stopped. He lit up another pipe as he sat on the bench. He puffed, then handed it again to Felix. He watched as Felix took a drag and blew out a grey and red cloud. When Theo spoke, his voice had changed. It was lower, and a slower pace.
“We are very similar,” Theo said. “I what you said earlier rang very true to me.”
“What was that?”
“When you said you felt like you are trapped.”
“I didn’t say that.”
Theo looked at Felix suspiciously.
“Why else would you leave the hospital? They took all your freedom away and you wanted it back.”
“I guess so.”
“It is so. I feel the same. I have all this, but do you know what I have to do to keep it?”
He shook his head.
“I have to scramble just to keep up with it. Everything changes, daily. Minute to minute. This one is fighting with that one, or that one, or the other one.”
He looked down at Felix, who seemed agitated.
“But it’s worth it,” he continued. “You know, I can help you with that. I know what’s going on and how to deal with them. Would you like that? Maybe a primer in how things work up there?”
“I would like that very much,” Felix said.
Theo's face was so close to Felix's that he could taste the smoke in his mouth.
"I know what they want. They want someone to do their dirty work And if that's what they want, the physical stuff will be the easy part. Cause you can't keep these people happy. Just try and keep them as satisfied as possible."
“They want me to fight things. I can do that.”
Theo nodded. “For now. These things change all the time. The challenge is to make them change for your benefit.”
Felix sighed and leaned back on the bench. He looked up at Theo who was examining him.
“Do you think I can handle it?” Felix asked.
Theo didn't nod.
“You know, my daughter tried to get you hired into my company. And I didn’t listen to her. I was too busy, too much going on. I saw things in a tunnel. Nothing from the sides. Do you know what I mean? Anyways, that was a mistake. I didn’t see it. But she did. She’s the one that said that you can do this. She’s the one that had no hesitation when we heard they wanted to bring you up The Hill. She said ‘He’ll do it. And he’ll do it well’.”
“She did?”
“I want to learn from you, if that’s all right. Would you do that for me?”
“Learn what?”
“This and that, what you do to get along with them, what they are doings, Genesee and all, Celia. Learn how they treat you, and then I can interpret for you what you should do, and together we will learn. From each other.”
Felix nodded but said nothing for a minute.
“I’m not event there yet.”
Theo looked up at the ceiling, as if looking for spies.
“They’re going to fight over you,” he said quietly. “Anything that upsets the power balance causes trouble. Down here, up there, it doesn’t matter. You’ll cause problems. I just want you to know that I’m on you side.”
“Thank you, sir,” Felix replied.
He clapped his hands together suddenly, then stood up and began chattering again, walking swiftly down the remaining stairs. They arrived in a dingy ba
sement. Theo pulled a torch from a shelf and lit it from a lamp on the wall.
He guided Felix across the slick floor and through the stone pillars that supported the building above them. At the end of room, past piles of boxes, was a brown wood door. Theo unlocked it and entered a small room with a purple candle and long but thin dark red pillow on the floor. On the wall torchlight flashed across a painting fo Celia looking regal and calm.
"I don't think we'll be talking to her," Theo said. He removed the painting and hauled it into a closet, pulling an equally large painting of Genesee from the darkness. Genesee appeared less skillfully painted and his face had a constipated look to it.
"He doesn't understand art," Theo explained, reading Felix's mind. He sat next to Felix on the pillow and lit the candle. Sighing, he spoke several words and in time a whirlpool appeared in the painting. Felix watched the candle flame go wild before him while Theo looked down at Felix.
"You hear the voices less down here?" he said. Felix looked at him. Theo smiled. “Don’t be surprised. I live with a crazy person. I know the signs. That’s why we're down here. You can concentrate down here. Nobody ever comes down here, nobody's thoughts are ever in the way.”
“They started when I woke up in the hospital,” Felix said.
“Makes sense,” Theo replied.
“Not too loud. But they get louder and louder.”
“They’re already fighting over you. Lucky you.”
The blackness of the painting was coming alive with blues and reds that formed a face, the bald head of Genesee. He looked considerably better than his portrait, commanding and serene even in the blurriness of the transmission. His eyes looked out from rounded glasses to examine the boy before him.
"Oh, Genesee, what an honor," Said Theo, bowing as he kneeled.
"This is him?" Genesee asked.
"In the flesh."
Theo expected him to say something, to tell him that Martel had said the boy was larger. Instead he merely looked at Felix with an unreadable expression. His eyes turned to Theo after a time.
“He’s coming up, I expect?”
"Why don't you ask him, sir," Theo replied. And Genesee did.
"I am ready to meet you, it would be an honor."
Genesee smiled at this and nodded at Theo. “I’ll send Marcus," he said.
“I don’t think that is necessary,” Theo said suddenly. “We prefer to walk.”
“Why? He’s had quite a time.”
“He’s on orders form Martel herself to walk more, as it heals his injuries,” he turned, nodding at Felix and prompting him to nod back. “He’s different from most humans, as he’s shown.”
Genesee looked at the two of them, considering this.
“Very well,” he finally said. “But be quick about it.
The light snuffed out and the picture disappeared. Theo sat in silence, the first quiet in some time.
"What do you think?"
Felix shook his head. For the first time in a long time he felt intimidated, but with a burst of nervous excitement.
"Its going to happen, I guess."
Theo pulled out another ball of sugar root and crushed it in his hand.
“Its already happened,” Theo replied. “Let’s just find ways to revel in it."
Wilcox
Adapted from the forward of the book:
An Extended and Annotated Official History, Explaining the Current Situation in the East
by Genesee
Felix was a ready and willing volunteer for the experiment we were to undertake. He understood his heritage and his desire for a challenge came from biological necessity. He was a true warrior in the body of a man.
The changes he was to undergo were to be minor. We were attempting to reinforce his body in order to make him strong enough for the task at hand. It was a way to test our theory that we could bring creation into a scientific and surgical realm rather than the mystical areas we had used before.
Our system and process were correct based on what we knew. But reaction was different than we anticipated. Perhaps we do not know the mind of humans better than we thought. This lends itself to the idea that we must do more experiments, not less, in order to better understand each other and help each species expand in ability and knowledge.
Adapted From Celia’s Testament of an Alternate History of Creation
As Received by Anonymous
The devastation we have heard so much about in the east is a bright shining sign of the failure of the Genesee’s ideas and leadership. His big experiment has lead to a destructive monster that rivals The Beast in its ability wreck havoc. And he wants to do it again! His desire to make creation something other than an art goes against all that the true history has taught us.
He speaks of that boy Felix as if he cares for him, but he was only just an experiment. What did he care about him? He cared about what he could get out of him. He wants to take everything out of the hands of those who know what they are doing and place them into the incompetent laps of his lackeys.
He wishes still to make more minions for himself, in an effort to gain control of anything he feels is rightfully his. Well, good luck to all that, and farewell to the poor people that will be trampled under the heavy steps of his big plans.
On the day that Felix and Theo trudged up the trail, Celai looked out her window, feeling a bit of the world slipping out of her hands. One grain at a time, that’s how it happens. Now that Goetz had given the others the green light, their minds were going wild with the possibilities of what they could create.
“You don’t know what you’re doing.” She ended every conversation on the topic just like this. She knew that because she didn’t know what she was doing when she created life. It was simply a feeling she followed. You couldn’t do it though cold logic as Genesee was attempting. Whatever you made wasn’t going to behave exactly as you hoped. Genesee would say that he understood this, but she knew the could not take a chance on an accidental creation. They could not afford to make another Bautomet.
She looked out her window to her right, into the tower where Genesee’s lamp glowed in the window. She stuck her head out into the cool night air. Around her were portals of light, this one from Spaulding’s room on the ground floor, that blue glow in the distance from Staley’s tower, the barn on the other side of the lawn with only a dim sparkle where Ogden was tending to his night chores.
She ducked her head back inside and sat perfectly still for a while. She had grown her hair into a long, ungainly mess of brown, as it reflected her current mood. Her skin was pale as porcelain. She called softly for a handmaiden to brush her hair and for Martel to come keep her company.
She didn’t feel any less alone with her sister there, sitting on a stool, and a young woman running a brush through her mane, and she became very quiet. Martel had seen this side of her before and knew to simply kept talking. She knew her sister just needed noise to fill the space as she thought.
“You spent time with the boy,” Celia asked. “What’s he like?”
“Quite pleasant considering what he went through,” Martel said. “Very agreeable, when he was awake.”
“Maybe he won’t come up here,” Celia said. “I told Genesee I forbade him to send Marcus to get him and Genesee didn’t even put up a fight.”
“I wouldn’t put a lot of faith in that,” Martel replied. “I think it would be best if you just let us do what what we can to help this boy. It might turn out very well.”
Celia was quiet for a long time. Finally, she sighed.
“I’m a little jealous of him.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Sometimes I would like to start over, from the beginning. Do things again and do them differently.”
“What are you saying?” Martel asked, stunned. “You want to be a child?”
“That wasn’t what I was thinking about. Not exactly. But it sounds nice. I never was a child. I never got that chance. I never had anyone advising me, standi
ng by me, telling me how to do things. I might have made better choices.”
Martel stood up and walked to the desk to pour grava from a pitcher. Celia asked for one too.
“Are you feeling regret?”
“Oh, no, I don’t feel that at all,” Celia said, laughing. “I just went about things very blindly. Now I see so much better.”
“That’s experience. We all have to run into walls in order to know where the door is.”
“But if I had someone with me, like this boy does. He has you with him.”
Martel took a long swallow.
“I don’t know how much help I am. I patched him up and told him to get ready. To be honest, I don’t know what I can do to prepare him for this.”
Celia looked over to her sister as Martel took another long drink. She dismissed her handmaid and waited until she had left the room. She leaned forward to her sister.
“You have doubts about this whole thing? You’re one of its biggest proponents.”
“I am, but, well, the more I spoke with him, the less I thought of it. I know you don’t like this thing we are doing but I do agree with it. But…”
“Its a little too much, is it?”
“It feels like I’m tearing someone from the street and putting him in very precarious situation.”
Celia nodded.
“And Genesee has taken over the surgery.”
“He has,” Martel sighed.
“So predictable. You’re the surgeon.”
“Well, in as much as there is a surgeon.”
“I mean, if there was a surgeon it should be Wilcox.”
Martel glanced at her sister, who was leaning on the window and looking out.
“You really think that?”
Wilcox was her child. Celia had advised her not to become pregnant, telling her about how uncomfortable it was and how it would disrupt her medical duties. Martel had taken this as jealousy on Celia’s part, who desired to be the only one that birthed children. In time it sowed enough discouragement in her head that she decided she did want children but not to be pregnant.
She had conceived of a child in a golden wheat field with her husband, Harper. She forced the child out before soon after, before it could be formed, and planted it as a seed in Ogden’s fertile garden without his knowledge. Harper tended to it in secret, supplying it with the purest water he could create. It grew quickly into thin a tree that baffled Ogden until one day it bore its first fruit: a child, naked, his bald head handing from a leafy limb.
