Salt of The Earth: The Fall of Barcelona

by Vlada Asta

  “You live among us! Don’t you get how important this visit is?”

  “Once again, it’s important for humans,” she waved him off. “I don’t see anything special about it.”

  After the hunt was over, they discovered that the pregnant wife of Robert Laas was in the crowd they saved. After hearing about this, the head of the Hydrocompany in Barcelona claimed he wanted to thank Aeterni personally. Sebastian didn’t like this idea, but the Cardinal insisted, and they had to go.

  The car was to arrive for them any minute now, and Aeterni was still dressed like an asylum runaway!

  “Why should I try to make this person like me?” she inquired. “You don’t like him!”

  “It doesn’t matter. Robert Laas is very important for this city.”

  “So am I.”

  “It’s not the same! The Church has given you so many dresses, why can’t you wear one of them?”

  “Because they’re ugly,” Aeterni chuckled. “Stop pretending, I know you like how I look. But you’re influenced by the forced traditions which make you grumble at me.”

  “I don’t like anything!”

  “Your body has a different opinion about it.”

  “Stop it!”

  Sebastian hated that feature of hers the most. He couldn’t deny she was guessing his thoughts, sometimes even before he realized he had them. He didn’t want to know how she was doing it, he simply wanted her to stop. Those thoughts were horrible, and he didn’t want anyone to know about them.

  But most importantly, sometimes her words resonated in strange harmony with his soul. He felt as if following her advice would make his life easier… It was getting harder to fight this seduction, but he just couldn’t give in.

  The car signaled outside, inviting them to come out. There was no time left to force Aeterni to change clothes. And once again part of him was glad things remained her way.

  Because she truly looked beautiful. The white fabric of that dress highlighted her perfect skin, her slender legs were a sight worth showing to the world, her exquisite face with huge black eyes looked too angelic for a creature that possessed such strength.

  She never wore any jewelry though. He didn’t ask why.

  Laas sent one of his personal cars to get them. A silent driver opened the door for them, letting them into the luxurious interior decorated with cream-colored leather. The man tried to remain neutral, but Sebastian noticed him keeping his distance from Aeterni.

  “That’s nice,” the Hente commented, looking around. “You can ride such cars, but can’t build a proper protection at the border.”

  Sebastian didn’t answer that, because there was no answer. He knew she was right about this injustice, but he normally tried to ignore such thoughts, because they reminded him of jealousy.

  The car slid through empty streets and brought them to the port. They could see the lights of the Laas residence shining from the platform. But there was still a wide line of salt water they had to cross on a boat. The risk was impressive: if the tiny vehicle sank, the Hente wouldn’t survive!

  Although why should it sink? The weather was mild and the sea was calm, no threat or whatsoever.

  Aeterni wasn’t afraid of the sea, just like on the night she was caught by the police. She was observing the mansion on the platform, frowning to herself in confusion.

  “Is something wrong?” Sebastian asked quietly.

  “Have you ever seen that Laas guy?”

  “No. He rarely talks to anyone, mostly to other city leaders. He doesn’t appear in public, in most cases his interests are represented by his wife, the woman whom we saved. I’ve heard that he’s seriously ill. Why are you asking?”

  “Because we’re about to enter his house. And that house smells like Hente.”

  Sebastian looked at her in surprise, expecting her to laugh and claim it was all a joke. But Aeterni didn’t even smile in return.

  “That can’t be true!” he stated.

  “Yeah, I’m not sure what it means either. But I can feel Hente inside.”

  “But it’s a house on salt water! How could they get inside?”

  “That’s what I want to find out.”

  “Are you sure we should go there?”

  “Definitely yes!”

  She jumped into the boat without a shadow of indecision in her movements, but she still hurried to hide in the only room it had. Sebastian knew the reason for that: the splashes reaching inside when the boat moved were as bad as acid for the Hente.

  The boat was driven by the same man who brought them to the port, so Sebastian could relax and enjoy the view. While they were approaching, he tried to figure out if everything was okay inside the house. What if Hente truly managed to get there? But why was it so quiet then?

  When the boat reached the platform, a special gangway was waiting for them. Aeterni was the first to climb up. She appeared curious, which meant she didn’t consider this place a trap.

  From the first steps through the doors Sebastian could see that this house had never been under attack. In that spacious hall the owners of the residence were meeting their guests personally. A single look at Robert Laas left no doubt about him being sick. Another thing confused Sebastian: how was this man even alive?

  There was literally half of his body left. It was torn a bit above the waistline, and the life in the remaining flesh was maintained only by special machines attached to a massive wheelchair. The man was young, he couldn’t be older than forty, and his face remained as aristocratic and attractive as it had been before the accident that left him like this. He didn’t have any other scars, and that made those remains of a human look even more grotesque.

  Sebastian read about such life support systems, only a few could afford them. Simple people were allowed to die – so they would not overpopulate the safe territory. But for a Laas, this help was logical. It was unclear how he got into this miserable state to begin with!

  The presence of his wife by his side made him look even worse. Alberta Laas was blessed with rare beauty, a woman with such looks was bound to become happy. But that no longer depended on her husband, judging by the fact she was pregnant: Robert didn’t have the organs even for the artificial insemination. That meant Lady Laas’s private life was relatively free.

  Apart from the hosts they were greeted by the servants and the young man who accompanied Lady Laas at the square. He wore expensive clothes, held his head proudly high and demonstrated the sign of a medical worker on his sleeve.

  Robert wasn’t even looking at Sebastian. His eyes were glued to Aeterni, burning with something that looked dangerously like obsession. The Hente stared back at him without embarrassment.

  “You won’t believe me, but I didn’t know,” Robert said. “You’ve been here all these days, and I didn’t know… Only when it came to Alberta’s life I felt like I woke up. Are you truly as intelligent as they say you are?”

  “Judging by all the complains on my behavior, not too much,” Aeterni smirked.

  “Such fluent speech… amazing!”

  “Nothing amazing, actually. Hente from different Clans can talk if their Mothers want it.”

  “Such a treasury of knowledge… I can’t believe it! But where are my manners? Please, follow me to the dining room. I’ve invited you for dinner, not for a mere talk.”

  He didn’t have the snobbism his family was famous for in him. Robert Laas was full of some naïve sincerity. People said he was a scientist, not a politician or manager. It was easy to believe that.

  They went to a large dining room with him, where a table had already been served for them. Everything here screamed of wealth: from the thin porcelain to the gold decorating the walls. Robert took his place at the head of the table. Sebastian and Aeterni sat to his right, while Alberta and her doctor took the other side. Sebastian noticed that Lady Laas was keeping closer to the medic than to her husband. Robert didn’t pay any attention to it, he was fully focused on the Hente.

  A well trained
waiter walked around the table, serving appetizers to them. Aeterni predictably didn’t touch them.

  “You don’t like that?” Robert seemed upset.

  “I don’t eat human food.”

  “I should’ve known, I’m sorry! What can I offer you instead?”

  “We’ll get back to it later,” Aeterni smiled mysteriously. “I’m not hungry yet.”

  “I wanted to thank you for protecting Alberta… And other citizens! You’re unique… I talked to Cardinal Jeremiah today… Is there truly a whole Clan just like you?”

  “Yes. But I’ve already warned humans that my Clan isn’t numerous.”

  “And each of its members is as strong as you?”

  “There are even stronger ones there,” Aeterni specified. “Each Clan has a couple of especially strong warriors, it takes Mother more time to create them, but their design is almost perfect. Such warriors normally either protect the main body of the Mother or go on important missions.”

  “Isn’t the mission in Barcelona special?”

  “Of course not!” the Hente laughed. “I could’ve been killed easily here! I didn’t know if humans would agree to talk, and nobody did. So Mother would never send the Clan’s strongest warrior to such a mission. With that said, my body isn’t weak. There are only two warriors stronger than me in my Clan.”

  She was talking about it freely, without trying to hide anything. Sebastian didn’t interrupt her, he was trying to notice some hidden motive in her acts.

  He knew there’d be a catch – and he was right.

  “Since I’m telling you about myself, it would only be fair if you did the same,” Aeterni noted innocently. “Tell me about how you were torn into pieces. It wasn’t done by a Hente, I can see that.”

  “How dare you!” Alberta jumped to her feet immediately. “You monster!”

  “Stop it,” Robert looked at her in reproach. “It’s a logical question.”

  “It’s tactless!”

  “Yeah, I’ve been told that before,” Aeterni nodded. “But what did you expect from a monster?”

  Sebastian kicked her under the table lightly, but she didn’t react. It appeared as if she was on to something, and she was going to follow her own plan till the very end.

  “It’s okay,” Robert smiled faintly. “I guess everyone gets this question… But not everyone has the spirit to break the etiquette and express their curiosity. They have a reason for it: I’m not too fond of such prying. But I’m going to answer you. Aeterni, isn’t it?”

  “You already know more than my name. The Church must’ve told you everything about me… everything they knew.”

  “They did. As for my condition… The Laas family has been managing the Hydrocompany for many years. We keep and maintain the technologies, and we’re trying to improve the system. We make new forms of weapons, of wider range, capable of protecting our borders and our people better. That seemed like a nobler goal than just making money to me. Money… a person only needs so much to get by. There’s the kind of wealth that will no longer make a difference or matter. I needed more than that, something that would bring sense into my life.”

  Alberta Laas chuckled secretly, rolling her eyes demonstratively. Sebastian noticed that. The relations in that family didn’t seem too close or warm.

  “I was working on another system improvement when an accident happened,” Robert continued. “An explosion. I only remember a flash, and then there was nothing – not even pain. The rest happened with me unconscious, I was told about it later. I was at the heart of that explosion, so the shock wave simply tore me apart. My legs were completely destroyed, but the upper part of my body was more or less intact. Naturally, I would’ve died on the spot under some other circumstance. But I was working in a perfectly equipped lab with my assistants. One of them was a doctor who wasn’t hit by the blast. He hurried to help me, blocked the blood flow and attached me to a basic life support system. He reanimated me there, I didn’t wake up, but my heart kept working and my brain wasn’t damaged. That life support could only give me another hour or so, but it was enough to get me to hospital. Many people think: sure, they saved a Laas, but left the others to die there! But the truth is, they could’ve abandoned me even though I am a Laas. There are many heirs in our family, my position isn’t too important in that regard. But few of them dedicate as much time to research as I have always done. So I was to be saved – to keep the knowledge I possessed. Nobody cared what I would feel after discovering what was left of me.”

  In spite of his story being so detailed, Robert managed to remain calm through it. Sebastian could only imagine the emotional price it cost him.

  “When I woke up, I was completely shocked. I couldn’t believe it was actually happening! I was locked in a cycle of unnatural existence. I was sure dying would’ve been better. Of course, my mind changed over time, but my psychologists had a lot of work at the beginning. After recovering, I came to Barcelona and started to conduct my research here, in this house. It was easier for my family – they didn’t have to look at the living corpse I became. I’m grateful to destiny for blessing me with such wife, her love gives me strength to hope and survive.”

  Sebastian highly doubted love had anything to do with this. The longer he watched Alberta, the clearer her disgust became – the disgust her husband couldn’t notice.

  Meanwhile, Aeterni didn’t care about their family issues, she was interested in Robert Laas only.

  “Is that why you changed the nature of your research?” she asked.

  “What are you talking about?” Robert appeared alert.

  “Oh come on! Sebastian here has already learned it’s impossible to deceive me, and you’d better remember that. After getting back to the laboratory, you forgot about hydrosystems, something totally new interested you from that moment.”

  Robert blushed, and Sebastian couldn’t help noting how perfect his life support system was if it permitted him such emotional reactions. Aeterni wasn’t finished yet:

  “Remember you offered to treat me to something?”

  “Yes…” Robert answered in confusion.

  “Well, now is the right time for it.”

  Aeterni got up and headed for the door confidently. It all happened so fast nobody had a chance to stop her. And who would dare to try it? Everyone but Sebastian were too scared of her to get in her way.

  They simply followed her, although not everyone did it – Alberta chose to stay in the dining room, talking angrily to her doctor.

  The Hente returned to the main hall and walked to the staircase. It was equipped for a wheelchair, it led to the basement – and was blocked by a large metal door.

  “You’d better open it,” Aeterni advised. “Or I’ll break it.”

  “Will you quit it?” Sebastian couldn’t take it anymore. “Don’t you understand we’ll get in trouble because of you?”

  “You won’t,” Robert assured him. “It seems that Aeterni here is the only one who managed to understand me in these seven years. Ironic, isn’t it?”

  He unblocked the lock, and the door opened, letting them inside.

  A well-equipped laboratory was waiting for them in the mansion’s basement, and Sebastian suspected that it was situated below the sea level. It had the best computers in it, expensive experiment machines, centrifuges, mixers, flasks, devices the warrior had never seen before.

  But what stunned him the most were two large cages with living Hente in them. One of them was a Slayer, and the other looked like the creature they chased through the city streets: a pulsating piece of flesh with every part of it capable of attacking. The cages were made of armored glass and metal, with salt water pouring over them from outside. The Hente probably couldn’t escape the platform… but they could break free and destroy anyone in the house.

  The arrival of humans made both Hente jump up and start growling dangerously.

  “And your clergymen wanted to kill me because there was no place for Hente in Barcelona!” Aeterni
laughed. “I wonder how they would react to these things if they learned they’ve been around for a while?”

  “It’s different,” Robert objected. “These Hente were brought to me by the sea, they’ve never been to Barcelona.”

  Aeterni walked closer to the cages. Her approach made both Hente recoil in fear and pull back, even though they looked more dangerous than the girl in front of them.

  “Let me guess… This one originally looked like a human, it even had normal eyes,” she pointed at the deformed Hente. “But when it woke up, it turned into this. Everyone in their Clan does it.”

  “Why do you need them?” Sebastian turned to Robert.

  But Aeterni already knew the answer, and she talked before Laas could.

  “That’s the point of his experiments now. He used to be a romantic, dreaming of creating a perfect protection for humans. But after the accident his priorities changed. He decided to get his life back no matter what… Because it’s not a real life now, isn’t it? You can’t eat normal food and thus enjoy the taste of it. Your sleep is induced by pills, so you don’t get any dreams. You don’t have sex and you don’t want to. No transplants can help you. You need to get half of your body back in order for everything to work right. You’ve realized the true price of your health only after you lost it. Unlike this guy,” she pointed at Sebastian. “He has a healthy, functioning body and still refuses to have sex. From the natural point of view, he’s a freak.”

  “Aeterni!”

  “Apart from insulting you, she’s right,” Robert said. “It is truly not a life… It’s easy to make science your main goal when your day starts with a delicious breakfast and a beautiful wife is waiting for you at night. It’s easy to take the joys of flesh for granted. But when you lose it, other values, noble and high ones, no longer have any importance. So when I came here I started studying Hente. We all know how easily their bodies regenerate. I wanted to learn their secret… My work wasn’t purely egoistic, while I was busy with that I invented a couple of new weapons, and the Hydrocompany is already working on their production. However, I haven’t come close to my goal, and I wanted to ask… Is it even possible? Is it possible to adapt the recovering Hente cells to work in a human body?”