by Oxford, Rain
The wizard told me to send her away to school. The school sounded ideal, except that she would not sleep without me. I tried to see if she could handle it by making her sleep alone, but I found now I could not sleep without her.
And then she would scream.
Even worse than as a baby, she would scream and thrash like a child possessed. The wizard had to use magic to calm her, but it made her worse. She couldn’t stand to be in the same room as him from then on.
The wizard told me to send her away, that there was something wrong with her. I refused, so we had to leave. Tomie trusted no one but me. She never talked much, but she was brilliant, and her powers had already surpassed my own. It wasn’t that she couldn’t control her powers, she just didn’t care to. No one would take us in, and I was finally twenty-two; old enough to take care of her on my own. I got a job as a blacksmith of all things, and built us a house. People thought that she was my daughter with the way I took care of her. I hired a tutor to teach her to read and to do math. She enjoyed learning, but even more than that, she enjoyed when I taught her magic. She was a prodigy. And then she became sick.
Mother had passed onto Tomie what gave her death and I could do nothing. Duran had the medical technology to help Tomie, but I couldn’t afford it and Tomie couldn’t travel. I tried to help with magic, but it did no good.
That was when Vretial found us. A god, deceitful and terrible, they said, offered us eternal life and health in return for servitude. Tomie was too weak to make a decision, and I would have given my life in an instant to save hers, so I accepted his offer.
He took us to his world and made Tomie well again… Except Tomie’s wounds were never just physical. He took away her pain; he made her unable to feel the hurt of being abandoned by everyone but me. Unable to make her happy myself, I didn’t discourage this. After so little time, I began to lose my individuality and will. Vretial was my master and my only purpose was to serve him. After trying so hard to escape being a farm boy, I became nothing.
Tomie’s powers grew even faster, guided by Vretial’s teachings. I never believed magic could be evil, only the one who cast it, but the things he taught her could be used for none other than malevolence. She lost her curiosity and her love of learning. Vretial provided her with shelter, food, and magic. She didn’t need love because she could no longer feel it. She stopped sleeping in my bed. She no longer needed me.
* * *
“Krael, what are you doing?” My sister’s voice, full of artificial curiosity, broke me from my thoughts.
I looked up at her from my bed and smiled as I stashed my book under my pillow. “You would think me foolish if you knew, sister, so why would I tell you?”
She rolled her eyes and plopped down on the bed beside me. After so long in life, her body and mind remained that of a child. It was almost heartbreaking, seeing her like this for eternity and never having my sweet little sister back. I missed her.
“I already think you are foolish. Now tell me what you were writing or I will not tell you what Vretial is making Shio do.”
I frowned. “If you must know, I was writing of our past.”
“Our assignments?” she asked.
“No, from our sago lives. Do you remember then?”
“I remember starving, and our father drinking. Why would you write about that? It was a horrible life before Vretial saved us.”
“You do not remember it as I do. I remember the morning you were born, and your first words. I remember that you hated Wignot, and fish. Whenever you got a cold, you would only eat fruit.”
“It sounds like I was a real problem. I have not needed you for a long time now,” she said, as if that is what I was worried about.
“I know. Now tell me about Shio, and why Vretial would send that incompetent fool to do anything,” I said.
She grinned, my concerns forgotten. “Vretial is going to be more powerful. He sent Shio to find the other books of the Noquodi.”
Vretial was the most powerful of the Iadnah, but it seemed he would not be happy until all were under his power. He was certainly displeased when the other Iadnah decided they would control him by working together. However, Vretial never had to waste his energy to fight them; he knew them too well. They could not work together for long, and he knew they would soon enough focus on each other, while he carried out his plans unnoticed. He could turn them against each other by fear and mistrust. He had already started turning them against their Noquodi by revealing that he knew more than he should have.
Vretial was uncertain about one thing, though it was merely a rumor. He’d heard the other Iadnah were worried about a child. This child was supposed to become incredibly powerful. I listened to Vretial’s plans about how he could use this child against the other Iadnah, whether or not he was as powerful as they feared. I was intrigued. Maybe the child would be a prodigy like Tomie. The Iadnah were wiser about this secret, though, and Vretial never found out who the child was.
“Why would he send Shio instead of me? He knows I make a better hunter.”
“You should find one. Go to Vretial and ask him to let you find a Noquodi.”
“I want to stay here. I needn’t prove myself to Vretial; he knows I am more competent. Besides that, I have no qualm with the Noquodi, and neither does Vretial; he only wants the books. There is no reason for me to kill the Noquodi when I need only to take his book.”
“Then do so,” said an all-too familiar voice behind me. We turned to see Vretial standing in his semi-mortal body before us.
It was not a real, or permanent form, but it appeared as such. We’re not sure how he chose that image, or why, but it seemed to suit him, with dark auburn hair and light brown eyes. His body never aged, and looked slightly less than a middle-aged mortal. While we knew mortals could hardly stand his overwhelming aura and weak beings would go insane from such raw power, Tomie and I were unfazed. The god was too powerful to worry about striking fear in the hearts of anyone.
“Assist Shio in finding the book and kill only if you desire it. Find a book fast, or I will be cross with you,” he said.
This was the side of him, the personality, that I dreaded the least. He gave simple, executable orders and made sense most often. I rose from the bed and bowed. “Yes, master.”
Then I was gone. My body felt cold and suffocating, but by now, this effect was familiar to me. It could have been an instant or a lifetime later that my body was released, as time meant nothing to the powers of a god. I arrived exactly where and when he wanted me to. In this case, I was standing in front of a very irritated Shio. This was not a surprise, for Shio was a very irritable fellow.
Other methods of transportation would have been easier on my body, but Vretial was trying to stay under detection. The fact was, the gods never needed the books to transport their people; the books were just a way to monopolize and protect the magic of the worlds. With their name in the books, people could travel across worlds without help from the gods.
“Did Vretial send you to do my job for me?”
“Of course.”
He snarled at my smirk, and I had to refrain from saying anything to cause more conflict between us. I didn’t particularly like Shio, since he was foolish and quick to anger, but I understood him.
The world that Shio was born into was one of poor technology and even poorer magic. The Noquodi of this world was a suspicious man, who falsely accused Shio’s mother, who was unusually powerful to this world, of being an enemy of the gods. For this unreasonable accusation, he executed her, in front of her tiny child. Shio prayed to his god to punish the Noquodi, but was ignored, for his god hardly cared about the unjust death of one person.
Vretial, like an adopting father, heard the young Shio’s prayers and took Shio as he had my sister and I. However, instead of avenging the boy’s mother himself, which he had little power to do, due to the other Iadnah, he gave Shio a very great power and the opportunity to kill the Noquodi himself. Upon facing the Noquodi, Shio could
only too well remember his mother’s death, giving the Noquodi the advantage. Shio was nearly dead before Vretial returned him to the outlands. When Vretial offered to heal his body, Shio asked only for his master to close his wounds and leave his scars so that he could live to serve Vretial with the constant reminders of Vretial’s love and generosity. So while Shio was in a sorry state, full of anger and hatred, he was a servant even more faithful to Vretial than I.
“Just stay out of my way, and when I find a Noquodi, he is my kill.”
I didn’t bother to remind him our objective was not to kill the Noquodi, but to capture their books. It seemed pointless to try to explain to Shio that killing all Noquodi for the crimes of one man made him no better than the man who had done him wrong.
“Of course,” I repeated. He returned to his task and I sat across from him around the circle. I didn’t know what kind of building we were in, only that the floor was soft wood, the ceiling high, and the large room was full of many small and large statues of worship relics. “What world are we on?” I asked. I had a suspicion that Shio would avoid his own world in fear of the Noquodi’s wrath.
“Earth. It belongs to Tiamat.”
This surprised me. “Tiamat? Doesn’t Vretial like her? Why would he send us here?”
“Apparently, he heard that the Noquodi of Earth is emotionally weak. No one is sure why, but what does that matter? When we capture the book, we can continue to more powerful worlds.”
With this, we got to work. Shio had already placed the circle. The magics Vretial taught his servants were crude, powerful, and outdated. If magic techniques could be called outdated, that is. We used incantations and charms instead of pure nominal energy and will. This magic is determined by ritual and available power as opposed to our mental and spiritual strength. This is because, as Vretial’s servants, we had little will and spirit of our own, but we had vast amounts of power at our disposal.
* * *
It took only a few days for Shio to forge the records necessary for me to blend into society while I found the Noquodi by the name of Ronez. It was more difficult than I had predicted to find information on him because he was very good at changing his records. I did find out where he lived and worked, that he was currently single and childless, and what he looked like.
By the time Shio had my paperwork, I was ready. Getting a job at the car repair shop that Ronez worked at was easy. When my “boss,” Jerry, took me back into the garage, the Noquodi was nowhere to be seen. The garage currently had two nice cars and an old, beat up one being neglected. The air was hot and dry with the sound of flies being drowned out by guitar music on the radio.
Jerry approached the nice, red sports car and knocked on the back window, then stepped aside and waited. I admit at this point I was thoroughly confused, and wondered if all my research had not been enough.
After several moments, the back door of the sports car opened and a man who could only be Ronez stepped out. To say I was startled would not do his appearance justice. His hair was short and black with shocking red spikes, which was emphasized by the silver hoops and studs in his ears. His eyes were dark brown. He wore a black tank top with a tear on the chest showing off a nipple ring. His light blue jeans were skin tight and covered in grease and dirt. Silver chains wrapped around his waist through his belt loops. Sufficed to say, I was not expecting this of a Noquodi over two-thousand-years-old. I had read that he was currently posing as twenty-five-years-old, but his attire made him appear younger.
Ronez turned back to the car to help a small woman climb out. She wore a tight, dark blue dress shirt, clearly lacking a bra, and matching miniskirt. Both were disheveled and the buttons on her shirt were wrong. She smiled at Ronez with a flushed face.
“Your car will be ready tonight. You can pick it up in the morning. I’ll be the only one on duty.”
“Nick will be here in the morning,” Jerry interrupted.
Ronez continued to focus on the woman. “Nick will have something to do elsewhere between nine-thirty and ten.”
“I’ll see you then,” the woman said. She was halfway out of the garage when Ronez pulled something out of the car and held it up.
“You forgot this,” he said. Jerry groaned and I saw that it was her missing bra.
The woman just smiled. “Keep it. The matching panties are in the glove box.”
With that, she left. Jerry shook his head in frustration. “My God, you’re a whore.”
Ronez grinned proudly with no shame at all. “No, I’m a slut. I put out for free, and I like sex, not money.” He then turned to me and smiled. “I’d shake your hand, but I should probably wash mine first.”
“Uh…”
“This is Krael,” Jerry said. “Krael, this is Ronez Rayne. He’ll be training you this week, and you’ll be telling me when he blows you off to play with his floozies.”
“Call me Ron. And don’t worry about me blowing you, you’re not my type.”
“RON! That’s sexual harassment!”
“No, it’s not. He’s more in danger of the customers than me or the other stiffs who work here.”
This is the guy who Earth depends on? This is the one who is emotionally distressed? If that’s emotionally distressed, I want to be, too.
“I’m going back inside now. Get Krael started on the Thunderbird,” Jerry said. Without another word, he left.
“I’ll be right back.” Ronez left through another door and I heard water running. Then it was shut off and a moment later, Ronez returned. “Now, to business. What experience do you have working on cars?”
None whatsoever. “My father worked on them as a hobby.”
“So I guess this is your first job out of college?”
According to my story. “Yes.”
“What’s your major?”
“Business.”
“And you figured out just before you were done that it was a boring field and you didn’t want to do it?” he asked.
It was a plausible excuse, and Ronez’s easy-going expression held no suspicion. “Pretty much. I’m still looking for a good job in the area, though. I thought this might be worth trying out.”
“Well, you couldn’t have picked a better place. Jerry might not let you get away with murder, but he’ll let you get away with three-week colds, two-hour long coffee breaks, three-hour long fuck breaks, and any religious holiday you can come up with.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“I doubt you will,” he said, considering my clothes.
“Why’s that?”
“White dress shirt and black slacks? You hardly look the partier and I would be suspicious to find you of drinking age.”
“I took college very seriously and don’t party. I have drunk alcohol before. This is how one is supposed to dress for a casual interview. And I am twenty-five.” I knew my story was solid.
“Liar.”
I sputtered. No one has thrown me for such a loop in ages. “I’m not lying! I am twenty-five.”
He laughed. “I meant that you never drank before.”
“How would you know?”
“Because of the way your tone changes when you lie. It did it when you said you’re twenty-five, also, but that could be from you defending your age often. I’ll get better at it quickly as I get to know you so I’ll warn you now not to lie to me. The more you lie, the more I’ll be able to tell the difference.”
This could be a problem.
“But, don’t worry about it, I’m sure you won’t make a habit out of lying to me and we’ll become good friends. Also, we’re going out this Friday.”
“What?” I asked. That was the first time my voice cracked since I was a mortal.
Ronez took one look at my face and burst out laughing. “We’re going drinking to pick up women! You’re so scared I’m gonna molest you or something.”
Ronez showed me how to fix cars. The first day, I mostly watched him work, fetched tools, and held things. He teased me a lot, but it didn�
�t bother me, and he wasn’t hurtful about it. It was actually fun to get out of Vretial’s lair and do something I’d never done before.
Jerry closed the shop at seven and I didn’t bother following Ronez. I fully expected him to go pick up some woman. Ronez was a very carefree man who lived for the simple pleasures in life, that being physical pleasures. He also loved solving problems, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the most damaged cars. Was that the personality of a Noquodi, or of a man two-thousand-years-old?
* * *
The rest of the week I learned about cars. I learned a lot about cars. A lot more than I ever wanted to know. Ronez had a way of making me learn what he taught whether I wanted to or not, sometimes with such vulgar references I could never forget. He also made me feel the age my body portrayed, which, considering he was around fourteen hundred years older than me, was somewhat understandable. I learned a considerable amount about humans, which I once felt were underdeveloped sago. How very wrong I was.
Many would have considered Ronez out-spoken, crass, and utterly insane. I learned by the second day to steer any customer with a bad attitude away from Ronez at the door. In truth, he reflected or complimented the personalities and moods around him. He would never arrive in a bad mood. When someone needed to be cheered up, he knew exactly what to do and say. When someone needed to argue and fight, he was a willing sparring partner. When someone needed an ego boost, Ronez would meet them in the back seat of their car.
Shio was nowhere to be found, though I confess that I never looked, and certainly didn’t care to. I assumed he was either slacking off or looking in the wrong place for the book. It was not that I forgot my assignment, only that my interests were in learning what I could. That being said, I could have lived without Ronez inviting himself into my new apartment and forcing me to watch the entire six movies of Star Wars with extras and commentary. I was much more interested in Shark Week episodes. Sharks fascinated me, and I wished that I could import some to Vretial’s worlds.
