by Pete Kahle
Yet for all the good the Great One did, it was not without a price. Nanette knew that. She just wished she didn’t have to pay it.
Nanette fought back the tears as she passed the threshold into her house. It would do no good for her to start crying. There was time for that later.
“Isabelle.” She heard her father’s voice from the second floor. “Isabelle! Open this door now.” Whatever her mother said afterwards was muffled by distance and shaky sobs.
Nanette should have known the news would reach their household faster than she could run. Her father, Belius Velancourt, was the “Great Inventor,” “The Savior of Goldenvale,” “The Bringer of Light.” He had restored the town’s electricity after a long time of darkness. No one could deny Belius was a brilliant man, but many didn’t put faith in the logic of his decisions. Recently, he turned his studies towards aeronautics and how they could finally take to the skies much like the Great One did. Many thought of him as a blasphemer, and many more thought Isabelle had poisoned his mind.
Nanette knew her mother was fragile, but she couldn’t know the magnitude of it until she arrived home.
“Father,” Nanette said as she came up behind him. Belius was outside the master bedroom, slouched against the doorframe. When he heard Nanette, he turned and gave her a wide-eyed stare before it softened. He pulled her into his arms.
“I’m so sorry, Nanette,” he said into the top of her head. She felt warm tears patter against her black locks. “The year was almost over. You were almost safe.”
“What about mother?” Nanette asked. She didn’t want to talk about it just yet.
Belius turned and rapped on the door to the bedroom, but Isabelle did nothing but cry more feverishly than before. “Let’s give her some time.”
# # #
Nanette knew there was not enough time to bring her mother around. She hoped the woman would pull herself from the bedroom one last time before Nanette was sent off to the Offering Spire, before she became the “Grand Sacrifice.”
The past week had been nothing more than a flurry of invitations, parties, niceties, and the general malaise that came with a monumental event. Tomorrow was the big day. As much as Nanette wanted to remain cheerful about the entire situation, she couldn’t. Tomorrow she was going to die.
“I like the red one,” Nanette said as she looked over the dresses presented to her. The seamstress had made them in various colors and fashions. Many had large hoops and gaudy accouterments. The red one, though, was only loud in color alone. It was sleek and well fitted. It would be the prettiest dress she ever wore, and her last one.
“Your aunt wore green on her day.” Nanette’s father interrupted her macabre thoughts. “Your mother said she had picked it because it matched her eyes. Your eyes, really, you look just like her.” It was a compliment. Nanette’s aunt, Isabella’s sister, had been the most beautiful woman in all of Goldenvale. She had been the last Grand Sacrifice. Yet, Nanette was going to wear red. It was bold, dashing, and a bit brash. These were all things she had never had a chance to be in her life. Not to mention if she donned green her mother would never leave the bedroom.
“I am going to go try on the red one,” she said. The seamstress nodded and handed it over to her. Nanette headed to her dressing room to make sure it fit.
Nanette stood in front of the mirror for quite some time. She tried to come to grips with the realization that this was more or less her funeral shroud. A noise disrupted her reverie, and she turned around to see her mother. Isabelle looked awful. Her dark hair was uncombed, her makeup was smeared, and she had black pits underneath her eyes from sleeplessness. Still, she managed to smile when she saw Nanette.
“That’s a brave color,” Isabelle said, her voice tremulous.
“It’s what I wanted.” Nanette didn’t really know how to further elaborate on her dress decision to her mother. Isabelle was too fragile to hear about how her daughter wanted to meet death as brazen as she could.
“Nanette,” Isabelle began, “don’t do this.” Her green eyes pleaded more than her lips.
“But I have to. It is my time. If I don’t then the—“
“What?” Isabelle interrupted. “What happens? Explain to me why this is a necessary sacrifice.” It was sudden, but it was almost like she was a different woman. Her shoulders squared, her chin lifted up a bit, and her fists clenched.
“Then the Great One won’t protect us anymore,” Nanette said. The history books taught them that the Great One had built many cities, and one by one they began to reject its presence. It stopped protecting them and they fell into ruin. The Great One had told them that Goldenvale was the last.
“Do you know that for sure? That it would let us become extinct in a moment? That it doesn’t need us as much as we think we need it?”
Nanette shook her head. “Mother, I think it is time for you lay down.”
“I f-found books,” Isabelle stammered. “I found them with-with my sister when we were kids and exploring the ruins of the old church. I don’t think anyone knew about them, or they would have been burned. Nanette, they explained the world before this. A world that had come from countless marvels that preceded the ones we have now. The Great One has subjugated us to a life that existed two hundred years before history ended. It’s keeping things from us. It is-“
“Mother,” Nanette said.
Isabelle’s lips pressed into a thin line that was firm in their resolution. “I would hope that you of all people would believe me.”
Nanette sighed. “Let’s get you back to bed.” It wasn’t that she didn’t believe her mother. It was just that Nanette had no idea how to prove anything she said. And even if she could, how could she convince everyone else? Nanette didn’t want to die, but she couldn’t change the mind of the entire town in one night.
# # #
It was the day of the sacrifice, and Nanette wasn’t surprised she hadn’t seen her mother after that argument. She hadn’t been around when Nannette left the house for the last time.
Honestly, Nanette didn’t have much time to think about it. She had to board the cart, nearly encumbered with tulle and silk ribbons, and be transported to the Offering Spire. Everyone yelled out and threw colored bits of paper as she passed by. There was music, fanfare, and the constant praise of those Nanette passed. Painted fabric banners hung from windows and bannisters. They all thanked her for her sacrifice, and she forced a smile in return.
When the parade ended, her father and mother were waiting by the Offering Spire with a guard. Belius gave her mighty hug. His face was pinched and red. It was apparent he was trying not to cry. Isabelle looked calmer than she had been since they had learned of Nanette’s fate. In her hands was a small bundle. She unfolded it to reveal a wide crème colored sash that had pale green stones sewn into it. Isabelle didn’t let Nanette even touch it before she tied it around her daughter’s waist. It complimented the dark red of her dress, and Nanette’s green eyes.
Isabelle kissed both of Nanette’s cheeks and leaned in. “I trust you will do the right thing.” She then pulled away. “I love you.”
Belius hugged his daughter again. “I love you.” Tears finally erupted from his strained face.
“I love you, too,” Nanette said, fighting against the sadness.
“Be brave,” Isabelle said.
The guard then placed his hand on both of Nanette’s parent’s backs and led them away. They passed one last fleeting glance towards their daughter before Nanette was left alone before the Offering Spire. It was a massive building that shot straight upwards and had been built before the world the ended.
Nanette entered it. There was nothing inside, just a massive hollow room with metal doors on one end. She walked towards them and pressed one of the buttons. The doors slid open and dinged. Nanette jumped, but swallowed her fear and walked in.
The doors closed behind her, and Nanette leaned against the wall of the lift. She wondered how long it had taken the other Sacrifices to scale a
ll those steps. The buttons were worn, and Nanette didn’t have any idea how far up the lift went. She just pressed the top one.
The lift dragged her to top of the spire, and when the doors dinged open, she saw a path drawn out in paint that sent her down the emptied halls. It went around a corner and up a set of stairs to a large door. The old metal door took a few pushes but Nanette managed to open it.
Immediately, a gust of wind pawed at her and almost made her lose hold of the handle. She closed the door behind her and pressed forward. The paint led her to the middle of the roof where a giant circle had been drawn. Nanette approached it with trepidation. Until now she had accepted her fate because her fate was in the future. Now it was the present. She wondered what death would be like.
Her hands came to the sash her mother had sewn her, and she ran her fingers across the stones. There was something odd about the sash, though. She grabbed at it more fervently to discover that a knife had been sewn in-between the fabric pieces. Nanette’s eyes widened and her heart raced. What am I supposed to do with this? She asked herself. Her mother’s last words came back to her. “Be brave,” she had said. Was this what she meant?
The sound preceded the creature. It was like the electric hum of the generators firing up. The sound seemed to come from everywhere. That combined with the overcast clouds, made it impossible for Nanette guess where the creature was.
So, she was surprised when it came from above. It was a shapeless mass whose underbelly was nothing but a collection of writhing gray tentacles. Nanette gasped as it lowered itself down further, seemingly propelled by some unseen motor. As it reached the roof, each massive tentacle latched onto the various outcroppings that jutted from the side of the building. It dragged itself downwards with an increasing pace. Nanette shut her eyes as one of the tentacles drew near her. It was at least three times her size. She knew there was nothing she could do. She knew it would coil around her and draw her into its gaping maw. Of course, she hadn’t seen that facet of its body, but she could only imagine it was filled with sharp teeth. That vision haunted her eyelids for what felt like hours, but she remained unmolested by the Great One. The noise that permeated from its form quieted, and Nanette only heard her own deep and panicked breaths.
“Open your eyes, child,” a soft female voice said.
Confused and startled, Nanette did and found her voice left her throat immediately. The Great One was not like she imagined. She had always been told by her teachers that it was a massive creature covered in eyes and had a large mouth that swallowed its sacrifices. They would dwell in its belly, and it would siphon off their vitality until they were nothing more than husks. Then the Great One would purge itself of the spent Sacrifice, and it would tumble to the world below—hence the name the “Fallen.”
What was before her now wasn’t that at all. On top of the grayish body of the Great One was a theater of women. They were all imbedded within its form, some submerged into the gray mass more than others. Their attire ranged from similar styles all the way to ones that Nanette had never seen before. They had high collars, or plunging collars, or others that were just folded fabric. Their features were also quite varied, but their ages all seemed similar.
“What is this?” Nanette asked.
“This is the true identity of the Great One,” one of the women in the front spoke. She had blonde hair, teardrop eyes, and wore a white dress fit for a wedding. Only her torso was present above the creature’s flesh. “We’re the Great One.”
“I don’t understand,” Nanette said. “You aren’t going to eat me?”
The girl laughed, but it rung out like a bell without its clapper. “Do you see a mouth?”
Nanette looked along that organic platform and saw no such thing. There weren’t even eyes. It was a collection of flanges that tapered upwards to an uneven surface peppered with, what Nanette assumed, were other sacrifices. “No,” said Nannette.
“Though to be completely correct, I suppose, I should say that we are the mouth of the Great One.” The blonde offered a chipper smile.
“You speak for it?”
“Almost,” the girl said, waving behind her. “As I mentioned, we are the Great One, a collective consciousness from every facet of human existence. We have transcended our mortal shackles to protect this world, to protect you.”
Immediately, Nanette regretted not listening to her mother more thoroughly. There had been some wisdom in her ramblings after all, and Nanette had ignored each and every one.
The day of her fitting hadn’t be the first time Isabelle tried to warn her of the dangers of the Great One. Nanette tried to recall what else Isabelle had mentioned. Unfortunately, her mind wouldn’t cooperate with all her emotions clouding her thoughts. “So the other settlements weren’t destroyed? We were lied to?”
“Please, that’s not the point of this. You’re focusing on small realities when you should be more aware of the larger one.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ve been given the honor of joining us. You can see what really lies beyond the Wall, and you can understand the true purpose of our existence. All these questions will seem trivial once you join us.”
Nanette wanted more answers. She didn’t want cryptic explanations cloaked in the foreshadowing that her consciousness would fuse with that. It was hard to visualize the being she was told to idolize all these years was not a deity, but instead a collection of young women. Her eyes swept across the women that formed the Great One, as she looked for one in particular: a woman in a green dress. “I’m not sure I want to lose myself in all of this.”
“You won’t,” the blonde said. “You’ll still retain your personality. You’ll still be an individual amongst a sea consciousness. It’s just that when one of us thinks a thought we all think the same thought. And we build on that thought until it becomes a reality.”
“I want to see this individuality.”
“You’ll understand once you join us.”
“Then make me join you,” Nanette challenged. “Pick me up and put me in that.”
The blonde sighed. “It’s not that easy. You have to understand. You have to accept this fate. But your attitude is relatable; many of us did fight.”
“If you want me to accept, then let me talk to Katherine.”
The blonde paused, her smirk fell, and there was a look of surprise on it. “I see,” she said. That surprise melted back into her smile.
“How do you know my name?” another voice said, and Nanette eyes were carried to it. There she was, Katherine. She was still a young woman with black hair, green eyes, and adorned in a green dress that was similar to Nanette’s red one. She was beautiful. That had not been an exaggeration formed by the woman’s passing.
“I’m Isabelle’s daughter,” Nanette said.
Katherine’s features softened. Several of the women scowled at her, but their scowls were all the same. Their disappointment didn’t seem personal. “I’m glad that Isabelle found someone to love her. Tell me, how is she?”
“How do you think she is?” Nanette said.
Katherine frowned, and the scowls around her deepened. “I figured she wouldn’t take it well. Isabelle was always easily consumed by her emotions. But you seem like a strong woman. Tell me, who is your father?”
“Belius Velancourt.”
“Big Bellied Bel?” Katherine laughed. “I take it he grew out of his chubbiness? Your mother and I used to tease him a lot. But he was always a kind soul no matter how vicious we got.”
Nanette found herself immediately softening to her aunt. It was odd considering that Katherine looked to be the same age as her, but the woman was at least twenty-five years her senior. “Katherine, please tell me what this is all about. Isabelle says you found some books that explained a world before this.”
Katherine went to open her mouth but immediately her eyes glazed over and all the personality bled out of her. The blonde took up the reigns again. She smiled, but it had grown more vipero
us since she last spoke. “If you want answers, then you’ll have to accept us.”
“No, bring back Katherine,” Nanette pleaded.
“Unfortunately, she has other tasks to attend too. You are speaking to me now.”
But Nanette wanted nothing to do with her. She realized that she needed to run, to leave this rooftop, to head back into Goldenvale and explain what the Great One truly was. She turned quickly and broke into a sprint, the hard surface of the roof jarring against her heels. As soon as her hand latched onto the door handle, a tentacle wrapped around her waist and drew her back towards the gray monstrosity. She was jerked up with such a force that her shoes fell off. The tentacle suspended her before the choir of women, each had a look of determination in their eyes, even Katherine.
“I don’t believe the control over the lot of you is equal,” Nanette squeaked out as the tentacle nearly compressed the air out of her.
Those words seemed to jar something awake in the Great One as all the expressions went blank except for one. Nanette had missed her the first time she had scanned over the collection of women, but now that this woman’s face was the only one bearing emotion. The woman was barely submerged into the organic being, only enough to keep her tethered to it. Her clothing was unlike anything Nanette had ever seen. She was adorned in pants and had a stylized white coat drawn over her shoulders. Her auburn hair was pulled back tightly into a bun, and her fierce gray eyes glared at Nanette.
“You’re quite the smart one,” she said. Her voice bore an accent that Nanette didn’t recognize. “If you truly must designate a shepherd amongst sheep, it is me, I am the Great One.” She grinned. It had been the same grin that the blonde had given her before. “You’ll be quite the prize to obtain. So ask your questions, so I can answer them. And we can end this foolish quibble.”
“What, what are you?” Nanette asked. “Really.”
“I figured that one was coming. I was, well am, an experiment that had gone wrong and right at the same time. I was to be an organic compound, one that was capable of forming other organic compounds from any material given me. I was made to end this war. Created by this avatar you see here, Dr. Moira Lamsbok.”
