by Quil Carter
“You’re welcome to, Headmaster,” I said. “Rest assured they will be well taken care of.”
“They will, Your Grace,” Harris said. He smiled and stepped back as Nero and Garrett walked up the stairs. I decided to follow suit and walked to Finn who was standing in the middle of the group, a timid and nervous look on his face.
“You look quite terrified,” I said as I approached.
Finn smiled shyly, his willowy arms clasped behind his back. He looked to see what the other three sengils were doing, and when he saw that they were starting down the stairs, he did as well. “A little, I’ll admit,” Finn said, a thin film a shyness visible on each word. He lowered his head, making his blond spiral curls fall over his face, and began walking behind me as we descended to the limo waiting at the bottom of the stairs. “I’ve been looking forward to this day for years… but now that it’s here, my heart is like a hummingbird’s.”
I looked to the other sengils to see how they were handling this monumental change. Nero was already rough-housing with Keela, smacking him lightly and poking him as the boy grinned and slapped him away. They were already comfortable around each other. Garrett as well, he and Tyler were talking quickly with smiling faces and bright looks. Even the dark-haired Kirrel, whose master wasn’t here, seemed excited about what was happening.
Mine seemed like a mouse when you turned on the light in the middle of the night, shocked and frozen until he remembered himself and shot off towards whatever darkness he could find.
I’ll get him home and make him comfortable. If I was him, I’d be terrified as well, all the more so if he realized just what family he belonged to now.
There were several more minutes of tearful goodbyes to Headmaster Harris, most of them on the Headmaster’s side. Then the seven of us got back into the black limo and drove to Alegria.
Once we were safe inside of the apartment we showed the sengils around before disbanding to our designated rooms. Nero and Garrett were already planning their third level apartment, and dragging the sengils into their bachelor pad planning. I didn’t want any of this, so I took Finn to my room and helped him unpack his things.
“I’ll get Nero to bring in your bed,” I said to him. “I apologize for not having suitable quarters. Because of recent events, we were in need of you four’s services sooner than expected.” I glanced to the ceiling. I guess since he was living here he’d find out eventually. He was my responsibility now; I might as well prepare him for it. “Silas gets depressed sometimes, and when he does, he stays in his bedroom and doesn’t come out for weeks. Unfortunately, this happened just as the twins were coming home and Ceph is only four-months-old. This, on top of us having to run Skyfall and deal with a massive immigration… you can see that things are getting quite hectic.”
Finn gave me a bewildered look. “That sounds overwhelming, Master. I’ll help in anyway I can. As you know, we also took classes in childcare. I’ll mind the children with the others.” His face then lit up as he looked towards the wall of windows. I looked as well and realized he’d spotted my cat.
“That’s Hugh. He doesn’t venture outside my room so make sure the door is closed. He’s not too fond of the dog.”
“Squish, right?” Finn said in an excited tone. That god damn pug was twenty years old now and looked like a pig crossed with a withered, hairy potato. I had no idea how that dog was still alive, but there he was.
“Yes, that’s correct,” I said. “There’s four cats as well. You and the other three can decide how those chores are divided.”
“I’ll make a chore chart!” Finn exclaimed.
I gave him look. I don’t know how to describe that look, but you can probably picture it in your head.
And in response, Finn’s excited smile dripped away like my gaze had heat to it, and he distracted himself with his unpacking.
“This room is so much bigger than the room I shared with the other four,” Finn said. I cleared off a shelf for his clothes until better arrangements could be met. “And the view is amazing!” He walked to the window and cupped his hands to his chest. “I’m so lucky. I was found abandoned in a park when I was only a few days old… and now I’m gazing out at Skyfall from Alegria, the sengil to the heir of Skyfall.”
He’s so cheery and happy to be here. It made me sad in a way, since I knew what he was in for. But another part of me wanted to protect that side of him. I’d had no one to protect my innocence, perhaps that was what made me compelled to shelter him from what I knew he’d see.
Or at least… bring him in slowly, as not to overwhelm him.
Two hours after their arrival had Finn unpacked and the two of us getting to know each other. Not in the ways of talking like the others were doing, but quietly enjoying each other’s company with only the occasional exchange spoken. This boy was just like me in that way; he knew silence didn’t always have to be awkward. I appreciated that more than he knew; a sengil unable to shut up, like Tyler which I’d been hearing since we’d arrived, would drive be absolutely insane.
I was at my desk looking over greywaster applications. I’d insisted on personally approving or rejecting applicants with only the most minimum of requirements, and Finn was brushing the cat. It seemed like he was quite fond of animals. I’d just rejected my twentieth application when there was an assaultingly loud knock on my door, and since the door was only loosely shut, the knocking opened the door and thus let in the moronic beast who’d decided to disturb me.
“What is it, Nero?” I asked.
Nero poked his head in. “King’s heard all the commotion and he’s out of his room. He wants us all upstairs.”
I stiffened, my muscles hardening before fully turning into ice. Nero saw my scared look but all he had to give me for comfort was a mouth twitch. Then he retreated through the ajar door, leaving me alone again with the sengil.
And that sengil took one look at the expression on my face and the anxiety flooded him with such vigor I thought he was going to just run out of the apartment.
This… triggered something inside of me. If I was scared… he’d be scared.
I banished the fear and encouraged myself to embrace a false feeling of calm. Finn didn’t know the relationship between Silas and I, so I could pretend everything was okay for him.
Why was I doing this? Even though I knew he’d eventually see these masks torn off of our faces. I honestly didn’t know the semantics – I just knew that I didn’t want the sengil to see me scared, and strangely enough, the inner manipulation of my own emotions was giving me some weird sense of calm.
“Kirrel will be excited,” I said to Finn, and I managed myself a faint smile. It would be strange enough for me to force a real smile, every time I smiled people said it was creepy, so I refrained. “Maybe he’ll have more sweets for you.”
Finn stared at me for a second, that scared mouse again waiting for his body to remember itself so he could dart off to safety, but when he saw the calmness I was exuding, I could physically see his lithe frame unwind.
“M-maybe,” Finn said. He returned my smile but the nervousness had made it rather lopsided and deformed. “Kirrel has been so excited about seeing Silas again. They spent a lot of time together when the king would visit.”
There. We could both play our own individual games for now.
Finn and I walked up the stairs, the other sengils and my siblings several feet from us. We got to the top and I saw King Silas standing in the living room.
It was difficult to read him… he was dressed properly, or at least in his usual attire: a button-down dress shirt of midnight blue, black trousers and leather loafers. His hair was unbrushed though and he smelled like he’d been living in dirty sheets, which he had been. It was obvious that all he’d done was throw on new clothes. The fact that he didn’t care enough to bathe and groom himself was an unwelcome sign that his mental state wasn’t up to par. Silas had been having good days and bad days in that bedroom – unfortunately this was a bad day.
I remained ice behind my sengil, feeling like I was nudging an eight-week-old kitten towards a lanky blond doberman. I found that, even though I was still, below my skin my body was preparing itself for action, ready to snatch Finn away as soon as the dog began to growl.
The four sengils formed a neat line, their places in this line the same as when I’d seen them standing on top of Autumnhome’s stone stairs. Kirrel, then Finn, Tyler, then Keela. They lined up according to their master’s status, and Kirrel especially was standing tall.
Silas beamed at him. Kirrel was a tall boy, his height only outmatched by Keela; he had dark hair that fell to his ears and a square face that framed movie star-quality eyes and a matching high cheekbone. He looked torn from a magazine that one, and he had the swagger to go along with it.
“You now belong to me, love,” Silas said. He brought his hands up to Kirrel’s face and brushed his pink lips with his fingers. “Does that make you happy?”
I walked to the front of the sengil pack where my brothers had also decided to stand, and saw that Kirrel was smiling at him. He certainly did look proud. “This is the best day of my life, Master.”
“Yes, yes, it is,” Silas whispered. He stroked Kirrel’s cheekbone, then moved to my sengil.
Or at least I thought he was going to.
Silas skipped Finn, my sengil standing with his hands behind his back and a look of timid apprehension on his face, and instead beamed at Tyler.
This one was handsome like the rest of them, but with short black hair combed back, chocolate brown eyes, and a jittery, excited nature that had him constantly shifting his weight. He smiled at Silas as soon as their gazes met, and bowed to him. This sengil was dressed in a suit and tie, one I recognized as Garrett’s before he became The Crow.
Silas said some words to him, but whatever they were was lost on me. I was infuriated that he’d skipped Finn’s introduction. He did it on purpose, I know he did, just to fuck with me. He couldn’t even let me have today to enjoy my new sengil?
After he was done with Tyler’s introduction, he moved onto Keela. This entire time I could see the confusion and rejection on Finn’s face, and an underlining terror that I suspected had been planted, grown, and harvested from my own inner trepidations.
Silas did his usual creepy preening of the three sengils, continuing to ignore Finn, and I continued to stew in my stance. My blood was simmering now, and edging a full-on boil as I watched my sengil’s face get more and more dejected.
“And you… you don’t think I forgot about you?”
My eyes, glaring holes in the back of Silas’s head, focused and fixed on the exchange, and I watched as Silas raised his hand and rested it on the side of Finn’s face. “My little Finneus, with his corkscrew curls and such a soft, innocent boyish face.” He leaned in and kissed Finn’s nose, and I was relieved when Finn smiled and visibly relaxed. Maybe he could get through this without an incident.
“I pity you, servus, going to such a distant, cold master.” My jaw locked as Silas said this, his tone slippery fabric that twisted around his words. “You’ll not have an easy life. He says I kill everyone he loves.” Finn’s face dropped and visibly paled as Silas stroked his cheek. “It’ll be difficult for him to not fall for such an angelic being, so you should be hopeful that he speaks only lies.”
Finn’s fearful eyes shot to me for a second before immediately downcasting. I ground me teeth, my body flinching towards the two of them. Why couldn’t he at least let me have today to be happy? And if he was feeling good enough to harass my sengil, then why couldn’t he get off of his pathetic, useless ass and help us run Skyfall?
But he wasn’t done. Of course he wasn’t done.
“Don’t worry, you nervous little bird,” Silas whispered. He stroked back Finn’s hair and beamed at him. “When he starts to take his anger and frustration out on you… you can come to me and I’ll make it all better.” Then he stepped back, flashed us all that creepy smile, and clasped his hands together.
“The responsibility of a sengil is monumental,” he began. “They look after their masters and their master’s homes. They not only cook and clean, but they learn their masters inside and out to a point where they can give their master what he needs before he even asks. It takes up to nine years to train a sengil, and many sengils are dropped from the program as the years go on… until only one sengil remains for his appointed master.
“In the end, I was left with my four: Kirrel, Finneus, Tyler, and Keela. You four have beat out the rest and here you stand on the first days of your job.” His smile turned proud, and as I looked I saw that Kirrel, Keela, and Tyler were returning faint smiles. Finn still looked terrified. “But my boys have heard for almost a decade how much responsibility they’ll have… what of their masters?” Silas’s attention turned to me and my two brothers.
“The weight of the sengil chimera relationship isn’t entirely on the sengil’s shoulders, their master’s have a great deal of responsibility as well. I’ve given you well-trained, obedient young men who have survived a rigorous training period and have met my specific standards I set out for each of you. They’re beautiful boys, unsullied, and pure inside and out, and have been given to you because I’ve decided you’re mature enough for the responsibility.”
Nero and Garrett nodded, I did as well, though it was just as stiff as my posture.
Silas continued, “A sengil belongs to his master, therefor, it is his master’s duty to tend to his sengil’s needs. They’ll make sure their sengil is fed, clothed, given all appropriate medical care, and their sexual needs will be met as well. The sengil’s master make sure their sengils are happy with their lives, and if not, will do all that is required to make them happy.” He then looked to Nero, then Garrett, then me. “These young men will be your sengils until you personally decide to retire them, but you’ll have fifteen years at least. Your success with them will dictate whether I choose a new group of boys for you three in five years. This is a huge responsibility, and if one of them dies I will be extremely livid.” He looked right at Finn when he said that. My sengil appeared terrorized to the point where I feared for his heart; I just wanted all of this to be over.
And, thankfully, I got my wish. Silas stepped back and his hands went behind his back. “Any questions will be presented to me discreetly, until then, you’re dismissed, loves. Kirrel, follow me.”
Kirrel lowered his head and followed the king, and after they disappeared down the hallway towards Silas’s room, there was the sound of the door latching.
I looked to Finn but I only saw him for a brief moment. Just like the mouse I’d been alluding to, Finn bolted towards the hallway stairs and disappeared out of sight.
Nero snorted at this. “He’s fast,” he said with a dry chuckle. He smiled when Keela wrapped his arms around Nero’s bicep and hugged it. “Well, that went better than I thought it would. He seems to like mine at least.”
“I agree, it did go rather smoothly,” Garrett said quietly. He put a hand on Tyler’s shoulder and rubbed it. The sengil looked a bit spooked, but no worse for wear. “Let’s go see how the construction is going. Nero? Are you coming too?” They didn’t even bother asking if I was going to go; it looked like my first task as a new master was going to be to coax my sengil out from wherever the timid boy had hidden himself.
And was I ever right. As I entered my bedroom I stood still and listened, and heard a rapidly beating heart… underneath my bed.
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If I had a dollar for every time a sengil or a cicaro, or even a feral mentally ill chimera, dove under a bed and hid there… I’d have enough money to buy a stun gun to stop this issue altogether.
“Finn… he’s… you don’t need to hide under the bed,” I said to him.
The boy let out a sad little whimper but said nothing. I could practically see all of his delusions about living in Alegria dissolve in his hands.
Admittedly, I did feel sorry for the boy. Years and years had been spent imagining the life he would have on high in this skyscraper, and Silas had done a wonderful job brainwashing him into believing he was a kind king. Silas had been full of encouraging words and sweets, it wasn’t Finn’s fault that he’d been manipulated, and perhaps there was even a bit on me for not visiting him more often and preparing him for the life he was going to lead.
“The sooner you realize who Silas is… the better,” I said. I walked to the window and leaned down to pet Hugh; he’d found a sunbeam and was sunning himself. “I’ve been having to live with this for over fifteen years now. But you’re not his sengil, you’re mine, and it’s my job to protect you.”
Finn sniffed underneath the bed. “Is he going to kill me?” he whimpered.
I’d… thought for a long time that Silas had killed every last one of my emotions, but it seemed that my time with Julian really had nursed a few green shoots from this derelict garden that was my own inner mind. I was finding myself urged to comfort this boy, instead of cruelly demanding him to emerge and stop his snivelling… my stapled-together heart wanted him to not be scared.
“I won’t let him,” I said honestly. I sat down and looked out the window, Skyfall’s skyline crystal clear in this beautiful April day. I wonder how many people were looking back up at the king’s tower? “Yes, Finn, Silas is a manic… he’s nothing like you thought he was. I believe you were sheltered in Autumnhome, and unfortunately surrounded by people who wished to foster the delusion that Silas was a kind person. Mostly out of fear.” Finn let out a nervous whine, like air being let out of a balloon. “But you’re not Silas’s sengil, you’re mine. As long as you’re beside me… no harm will come to you.”
