“You can fly, using that trick. It’s kind of fun. Just change the angle you’re taking things in at. You need to increase the flow to go very fast. On the nice side won’t make you tired or anything. If you bring it in from all directions you won’t lift off, however. That’s what my people do. We used to, anyway. A long time ago. For us it’s a lot more natural, I would think. Impressive, by the way. I’ve never known one of your kind to master such things. Officer.” There was an odd emphasis on the last word but no heat.
From the pattern around the man, he really was a greater demon. The thing there was that Troy didn’t know which one he was. You were supposed to know all the time, as if that made any sense at all.
“Hello! I know it’s probably rude of me…” Using what the being had suggested, he stabilized the power, bringing it in on all sides. That caused him to drop lightly to the ground. There was a sound from it but the wooden floor didn’t creak or moan as it happened. It was a bit like a man stepping off of a foot stool.
Then he went on, drinking power from all around him. It helped a lot, as far as not floating away went.
“I didn’t get your name, I fear. Sorry about that. I don’t think I know you yet?”
Some of the greater demons could become upset if you slighted them by not knowing who they were all the time. Most of them only used that as a threat, from what he’d seen. Mainly for their own kind as well. The demon in front of him nodded his face holding a more or less polite expression.
“I understand why that might happen. I’m one of the beings released the other day? Enki, if you need a name for me. I worked up a new look, to fit in here and now. I was… Basically, I was wondering if I needed to kill my little brother or not? I’d rather not move to a different reality but he did rather trap me in a timeless space made up of the minds of all humanity for several thousand years. It was a good trap, I have to admit. I couldn’t work out how to get out of it, at any rate. It kept changing too fast, as new ideas were born and old ones faded. I almost had it, about fifty or sixty years ago. When the first bomb was dropped in Japan? That got the world to focus on one thing long enough that it nearly let me slip the bonds.”
There was a lot of new data in the words, which was useful of the man.
“Well, how about this… We don’t really have gods now… Are you willing to let that go and become something new? It doesn’t have to be a demon. Most of them are assholes, to be honest. Not all of them to be fair, if you want to go that way? You could be something new if you wanted? Even just pretend to be a human or something boring like that? Rock stars get a lot of traction now? Or you could see about throwing in with Zack on the node service here? I bet you can learn to do that, if you try hard enough. What was your thing, back in the day?”
The words got a strange look for a bit, then a soft expression.
“My thing? I was a god… I get what you mean, I think. The area I focused on most intently? I pretty much saw to animal husbandry and farming. It isn’t what the tales say I did now but some of those were very badly interpreted, I have to say. As for the rest… Becoming something else…” He looked at Troy, his face hard for a moment.
Then he sighed.
“What do you recommend? I suppose I could work here, if your master feels me worthy? You’d put in a word for me? I am a decently hard worker, or used to be, before. I have the skills of my kind, though the customs were very different, when I was younger. More brutal but also less so, at the same time. I was the first being trapped by my little brother. The jerk.” He grinned then, charmingly. “I got that one right, didn’t I? He’s a jerk? I mean, we were arguing but it wasn’t like I was trying to kill him or anything. He simply wanted to go in a more technical direction. I was thinking that a slower, more natural way would be better. He won. We have this world. It’s interesting enough. Messy and loud but that is one way to do things.”
Troy snorted a bit.
“First, Zack isn’t my master. He’s my friend. We work together now. Okay, this is his place but I can come and go on my own. It’s a bit of a thing now, so… Really embrace that one. We don’t keep slaves now. Not legally, in this part of the world. Second, if you want a job here, you have to agree not to kill Tarsus. I mean, sure, if he comes for you, or tries to trap you again but only then. That might be hard, and I get that you might be holding a grudge. Make that go away? As for him being a jerk… Kind of. Part of that is probably just him being so old. At least that’s what I tell myself, so he won’t take offense and kill me.”
Troy wasn’t really being serious on all of it. Enki just looked at him, blankly, for a while. Then he glanced around the place.
“This is a marvel of a shop. I know of book stores of course. I lived inside the collective mind of everyone in this world for a long time, so I get a lot that way. Not everything, sadly. I will accept your offer, if that is allowed later, by your… Friend and cohort? I think that I’ll step out of being a god. It seems to me that we do not need such now. It was, most likely, always a flawed bit of reasoning. Instead of aiding our peoples to become more, we held them back. There are forces doing such now, as well. So, I should begin here? The tomes go on the shelves alphabetically? I learned the system, to keep myself from being too bored.”
Troy was about halfway done already. Then, if a former god was willing to drop that for the luxury life of working in retail, Troy wasn’t going to stop him. Not even by being doubting in the moment.
“That would be great, actually. I don’t know that this part pays anything but you can crash with me until you get your own place. We need a new name for you. Um… Something other than Enki? That’s not horrible but…” Troy was afraid that it might be a little bit obvious, actually.
Even he’d heard about Enki. Not much about what the ancient being had done, just that such a being had been a god once. Or rather, he’d heard what he’d figured were myths that made some claims.
The man reached out, his hand callused, as if from hard work. There was a bit of a tingle, which Troy allowed to take place. It meant getting some of his memories out to push forward. Just the Troy ones though, from the last twelve years or so.
Either they were doing their deal or not. It could have all been a trick to get at his knowledge, to use it against him. It wasn’t though.
How he knew that, he didn’t know but it seemed right. The universe was telling him that working with Enki was the right thing to do. That the guy wasn’t lying or trying to mess with him.
“How about… Kind? That speaks to what I would like to become, if nothing else. It’s a bit strange, granted. It isn’t a greater demon name at all, since I’m planning to not go that route. We weren’t that, when I was young. Demons were thoughts and ideas that hunted mankind in the shadows. My people helped protect the humans of that world.”
Nodding, Troy waved for the man to follow and oriented him in the store. Not that the information wouldn’t be in his head now.
“There are different sections, fifteen of them, I think. The books are in boxes, which either go straight up on the shelves after being entered into the computer, which is already done for this order, or they go to the back, into overstock. Only if we have more than ten of one thing though. That’s normally only going to happen with the best sellers. There. You have most of what I know about this part of things. I’ll be over doing bridge travel when you get that kind of thing down. Otherwise, well, try to be helpful and good? I’ll do the same. I don’t always make it, as for being a good person, myself but if you do your best, it will be enough. No one said we had to be perfect.”
“I give my word to do that.” Then they worked until the last of the books were just going up on the shelf.
That they’d gained an extra person wasn’t lost on anyone there. The Alede women kept looking at him, sexily, with Palma finally waving for them to come over, to her section. It was neat and tidy. The woman kept it that way, all the time.
“I have some food… It’s free for those working he
re. Truly, Zack gives it to anyone that needs to eat. Would you gentlemen like anything? We have some blood? Human and animal.”
He didn’t need anything like that but it actually sounded good still. Like she was offering him a hamburger instead of raw sustenance. Something good and pleasant.
Kind looked at Troy.
“Is that allowed for me?”
The snap answer was yes but he kind of got the idea. Greater demons paid for their food. Kind had no resources yet, having been trapped for so long. He’d need to eat. At the same time, he was outside the greater demon system, never having been one of those at all. That meant they were making up the new rules as they went along.
“Yep. Palma, this is Kind. He used to be a god but has decided that working with us is better than becoming a greater demon. Those are his people but he isn’t one of them. Totally different rules, ethics and morals. I think he’ll need the same amount of food.” It was a bit of a test, since the woman could freak out, a strange greater demon suddenly being there.
Instead she bowed from the waist, getting a similar move back from the man. Troy did it as well, not wanting to be left out.
“Welcome! I didn’t know that being a line walker was an alternative for your kind. It makes sense. Really, I could see many preferring it, once it’s offered to them. All who become that sort of being are most powerful. Allow me to make something up for you then, Kind? That’s a good name. I like it.” She bustled away, her slightly square body and curly hair looking a bit frumpy. She looked about fifty, but was probably four times that or more. Hsreth didn’t age.
They settled at a table, the woman coming back with two loaded trays. On one of them was a bottle of cow’s blood. Warmed already, even if there wasn’t enough time for her to have done everything. There was also a mug. She poured it for him though, the four ounces of liquid red and inviting. To him. The new guy looked at the food, and smiled.
“This looks lovely. It smells great as well. I haven’t eaten in a while. Several thousand years. This is all new to me…” He got the names of everything and sampled it all, closing his eyes in pleasure at more than one point.
Palma walked away, quickly, since that was how she lived her life but seemed content with the act the being was putting on, even if she didn’t trust him. He’d reached out and sampled her life but didn’t make a big deal of it. It was just a pat on the hand, not being hidden at all.
When she left, he made a face. It was well done, since it conveyed a lot of information to Troy.
“I should have asked first, before reading her being like that. I’ll make a point of doing that from now on. What should we do after our meal is finished?”
The being sounded almost enthusiastic, as if he was up for anything. That got Troy to nod.
“Hey, do you like sex? The Alede here love that kind of thing. Be careful not to hurt them but I bet that they’d love to have your attention. I mean you just got out of jail, basically, so it seems an obvious thing to set up, right?”
That got a knowing nod.
“Truly, that sounds wonderful. I know not to harm anyone, unless they attack me or those I’m to protect. The people working here, or at the rest of the shops, if it comes up?”
Sipping at his cow blood, which was smooth and had a slightly vanilla flavor to it, just for the taste, he bobbed his head around a little.
“That’s about right. When in doubt, ask, for the time being? I don’t want to make too many rules or to make things not fun for you… I also don’t want to lead you into making a mistake that starts a fight with someone else, since you don’t need that kind of garbage.”
The man, who looked fine enough to get a job on television, without being way over the top, reached out to touch his hand, then stopped.
“May I check that? I was wondering if you meant what you said. I’ll understand if you don’t or have an ulterior motive, of course.”
Troy put his hand out, so the guy could tap the back of it. The tingling didn’t last long at all. Then it was mainly him passing over what he’d just been thinking.
There was a nod and a slightly impressed look.
“You actually do mean that? That you don’t want me to cause problems but also don’t wish for me to be harmed or bothered? That’s more than I would have figured, given the threat implied by someone like me simply being here. I will attempt to meet your rules. I wasn’t that fond of harming others anyway. Good at it but it wasn’t my first move. It was that, in the end that had me enslaved, at a guess. Enlil had to have realized that fighting with me physically would be a risk. There was nothing we couldn’t have worked out however, if he would have tried for a bit longer.”
They ate and drank for a while, until Zack came over, smiling at both of them. He looked at the tray, then over at Troy.
“A new friend?”
“Right. I hired him on. We’re going to work the bridge portion of things. This is Kind. He used to be Enki. Your great uncle? Tarsus trapped him, because they both used to be massive tools. Kind here is giving that up, for the life of a lowly employee and line walker. I mean, lowly, compared to being a god, that is. Not that we don’t have some perks here. For one thing, no one prays at us for favors. No, they just come up and ask, for the most part.”
Zack reached out to shake the other man’s hand. They held the move for a bit but then, after a while, The Line Walker looked at Troy, directly.
“Fine, you can keep him. I expect you to watch out for him though. That means he’s basically your son now. I mean that, too. He has to start over in a lot of ways. He has information and… Shocking as it is for one of my people, a good heart. I expect you to protect him, until he’s up to speed on everything.”
The old god of Sumer might not have been up on everything in the modern world but he had humor down, it seemed. He threw his arms out, for a hug.
“Father!” It came out with an English accent, for some reason.
Troy laughed but also gave him a hug, as if it were a real thing. Zack had said it for a reason, after all. Hopefully he’d be let in on the secret, eventually. He certainly wasn’t working it out on his own.
When a very large tray of food came out, Zack looked at the clock.
“You have some time to cover line walking now. Is Kind going to be in your class on that? That’s a great idea, by the way. Holding lessons like you have in mind. I bet we can triple the numbers of people that make it. The concepts… Duh. I should have seen that one myself. Also, you should think about going to school, Kind. That worked to get Avery up to speed pretty fast.”
Troy shrugged.
“That’s up to him, isn’t it? I mean, it makes sense but he’s not really a kid. For now, he needs to see if he can attract Felicia and get busy with her. That’s the auburn headed bombshell heading back this way.”
Zack waved at the lovely woman, who was about the age she looked. Twenty-three or so. Almost all of her kind looked that age. Some seemed older when they turned into men though, since what was good looking for one sex was different for the other.
“Felicia, this is Kind. Kind, this lovely being is Felicia.”
Being new there, he stood up, holding his hand out to the Alede, to shake. If he took a reading from her as he did it, Troy couldn’t tell.
“So nice to meet you, Kind. Would you like to come with me? We have these wonderful reading rooms. Do you like to read?” They were in a book store, and that was probably more polite to ask than if he enjoyed having sex.
At least in the first minute of meeting a new person.
“I do, actually. I think I have a job here, part of the time. I’m to be helping with the line operations? I’d love to see this room with you. Are they this way?” He’d know that part, from the different memories he had but it was polite to make small talk, most of the time.
When they were out of easy human earshot, Zack looked at him, smiling.
“Okay. I would have never figured that one out. Not in time. He isn’t a greater demon
, so why treat him as such? At the same time, he has all the abilities of one of us. Now you just have to get with Tarsus and protect him. Tarsus, I mean. Kind is good to his word but The Librarian is going to fear him, at first. I mean, who wouldn’t be holding a grudge, after all of that?”
“Kind?”
Zack the greater demon, who was one of the youngest of their kind, if not the youngest, managed to give Troy a considering look.
“It seems so. It could be a trick. I don’t think it is. Anyway, not bad work, today. That’s six of them taken care of. Nearly a quarter of them, without trashing the world at all. At this rate, I’m going to have to actually pay off on that half billion I owe you. Keep your phone on you? In case anyone else shows up, after you go home. Oh!” Whatever he had to say wasn’t that important.
Troy could tell, since he took several big bites of apple pie before going on. Zack was clearly trying to manipulate him into thinking what he wanted to say was important enough to pay attention to.
“Ann got in touch with me earlier. She wants you to come by the station, early tomorrow. Something about paperwork? You failed to hide the bodies correctly, so now you have to be made to suffer? I think it was around that basic idea.”
“Well, as long as I still get all the fun parts of my old job. I’ll do that. If I have time for it. I kind of have more important things to do right now. I mean, I have a girlfriend to keep up with and a fiancée. That… It’s really weird. Did someone set that up, do you know? The thing with Avery? I’m not smart enough to work that out for myself.” It was true, which reminded him to work on that. Making himself more intelligent.
That took energy, as well as constant healing. He was able to hold it and the increase field for energy collection at the same time. It was hard though and made his head ache, more than a little.
Across from him at the glass topped table, Zack let his lips curl up into a smile.
The Gates of Troy (Lopez Time Book 3) Page 19
