Lilly said, “Okay, sweetie, I’m waking Williams up. Sherrod Williams, speak only the truth as you know it, all of it, freely, and as you would. Adon…John, anything you’d like to ask before I start?”
John sighed again as he stood and approached the Vice President. “I’d like to know more about this Team Human. His answer was very evasive.”
Through his orb-eye, John saw Lilly roll her eyes. She said, “John, Team Human is the G40. I’m guessing the spook told you that. He was just messing around. It was just, like, a metonymy. Same as WD40.”
“Ah. Understood.” Metonymy was close to Greek and Latin for ‘change of name.’
“Was there anything else you wanted to ask, my dear heart?”
“No. I really dislike this, Lilly. This is extremely dishonorable.”
Lilly laughed. “He’s a politician, Adon. They’re even worse than the kings of old. Here, listen to this and tell me if what we’re doing is dishonorable. Sherrod, why hasn’t the US sent more troops or even spoke to us about the demon invasions that started in China and Nigeria?”
Vice President Williams’ eyes cleared as he said, “It’s in the national interest. The more damage done to BRICS countries and other threats to America, the better. We couldn’t drag our feet longer with Brazil and the dark walker. It had to be right after France. And as…”
Lilly interrupted. “Sherrod, silence. See, my pretty little monkey? What’d I tell you? I just want some truth, and these aren’t good people.”
John didn’t like what he heard. The man seemed to be struggling with an internal conflict. John could see a certain desperation in the man’s eyes, and he wanted to find out more about him. “You were right in this instance. Ask him if he agrees with that strategy. If he’d do the same if he were making these decisions.”
Lilly asked and Vice President Williams said, “No. This isn’t the time for jockeying for dominance. There’s a real existential threat to humanity. We should band together and focus on saving our planet. Do our best to help China and India and expect them to do the same for us. How can we expect that now? We’re shitting all over a golden opportunity to bring the world together in a real way, and face whatever else is out there together, united.”
John was surprised by that answer. He said, “Ask him why he became a ruler.”
“Oh, John. I could answer that, but I’ll ask for you. Sherrod, why’d you get into politics?”
“It was the easiest path to what I wanted. Money, fame, women, fine dining with important people, all that’s best in life. Being a lawyer was difficult and required a lot of thinking and effort. The hard part of politics is just getting elected. Once you’re in, if you play ball, it’s easy street unless your reelection is seriously contested.
“Until recently I didn’t have to try. As a congressman my staff did everything, I got told what to vote for, and just said what my constituents wanted to hear. VP was even easier. If I knew all this shit was going to happen, I would’ve avoided getting tapped for VP. I’m trying now. Trying to rise to the occasion. I can’t mess this up. Stakes are too high. ‘These are the times that try men's souls.’ I won’t shrink from my service. Not now.”
John looked back at Lilly and her sparkling eyes. She smiled at him and said, “Can I ask my questions now, my dear heart?”
“Go ahead.”
Lilly asked, “Sherrod, are there current plans or discussions on ways to harm me, trap me, lie to me in any regard at all, or fail to live up to any commitments and agreements made to me on behalf of any parties you know of, including rumors and hearsay?”
Vice President Williams’ eyes cleared as he said, “Yes.” His answer was long and Lilly learned from him everything she could. When she finished, she had John hand her the ball and ended the mind power. The meeting continued as if nothing strange had happened.
Many of the key leaders of the G40 didn’t attend the teleconference with the companions, but some of the ones that did had heard the “Epic of Gilgamesh’ was based on John and his master and asked about his origins and history.
John couldn’t remember where he was born, and all his earliest memories were too fuzzy and lacking in detail to give good clues. He remembered foothills and plains and mountains and heard of a lake and river. He never actually saw the lake and river until after he gained the power.
When John and Ahn were conquering the region he was born to, they mainly followed a river south. They crossed the river a few times and would go some distance west and east of it.
There were many rivers, and once John’s thirst for conquest was satiated, they kept following a large river south. It could’ve been many rivers. He couldn’t remember.
John and Ahn didn’t rush the voyage and traveled a long, long way on their journey south, or it seemed like an unimaginably great distance to John at the time.
At one point Ahn cut west and headed towards the shore, and John first saw the awesome, powerful, and majestic ocean. South of the ocean, he first saw large cities. Large cities for that time.
John made some attempts to find the land of his birth, but he made no serious attempt until long after he was married to Lilly. He was tired of Lilly searching for magic and wanted to do something else.
John thought he was born near the river that went through the same area he lived in for so long, so they followed it north. He couldn’t recognize anything. When the river ended, he was certain he hadn’t traveled far enough, and they traveled further, and found new rivers, and others. They traveled until they went far deeper than he had ever traveled before into the lands where people were strange and pale and had hair the color of fire or wheat. He knew he had traveled too far.
Later, long after John thought he killed Lilly, when his mind was diminishing, he felt a great need to find his people and his birthlands. He needed some connection to something. He could only remember one name of a river, the Balahtu. He wasn’t even sure if that was the right river. No one heard of it, and he traveled the length of Gaul to deep into Burata asking and searching.
It saddened John that his people and birthplace were lost to him. He didn’t know why, but it filled his heart with joy that many leaders of the G40 wanted to claim him as their country’s own, and hearing that seemed to fill something that was long missing within himself.
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John no longer had to hide. Many countries clamored to say he was of them and their people. They wanted him and were proud of him. It gladdened his heart.
The G40 also asked about Stretch, the World Quest that was offered by the NCS, if anyone had a way to contact the Eternal that harbored the children and mothers of the young, and other questions none of the companions had answers to. When leaders started to talk about India and ask when action would be taken against the demon invasions, Vice President Williams apologized for his busy schedule and ended the conference.
It felt strange to John that he wasn’t more amazed by the fact he just talked to people all over the world through a moving picture on the wall. He had seen so many amazing things in such a short period they stopped being so amazing.
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John and the invisible Amber were alone in a conference room. Hubaba left to infuse the dark walker rituals in Rhode Island and Brazil, and Lilly was called away by Stoddard.
John knew he could no longer look at Amber how he used to since he held such power over her, but still, he wished she would turn visible so he could see her, even if only for a moment.
“So, you caught up to my rank. Congratulations, but it won’t last for long. I’m so close to ranking up again. I’d offer to help with the phone I got you but we’re getting new fancy government ones. I guess they get internet everywhere, even if no one else is getting it,” said Amber.
John grunted. “I don’t see the use of these devices. They won’t help us kill demons.”
“Well, it could help you kill reporters. Jerk.”
John really wished he could see Amber. He thought it was much harder to communicate with someone that was angry at him when he couldn’t see their expressions or read them. “He insulted me to my face. Many times, as if I were low and he had the right.”
“He did have the right! Literally! There’s free speech and free press in this country. And…you can’t kill people over insults! Did I kill your wife when she called me those…all those horrible things!? You didn’t even defend me! You’re such a…aarrggh! You’re a real…”
Yammering out noises for some time without ever finding the right insult she wanted to call John, Amber just gave up and the two sat in uncomfortable silence for long moments.
“You look bad. You look like a little boy without your beard and having no eyebrows makes you look super crazy. You should put your hat back on and hide your bald head. No one wants to see it and people stopped caring if men wore hats inside in the sixties,” said Amber.
John could hear in Amber’s voice she felt uncomfortable insulting him. His hair would grow back, so they were poor insults. He thought about correcting her use of hat, but let it go. He said, “Having my dead wife reappear after thousands of years took me by surprise. Her insults against you were the first thing I addressed with her in private. I told her I wouldn’t tolerate it and said you might kill her if she did it again.”
“I don’t murder people over words, John! I have animal forms but I’m not an animal. You know how many horrible things people say about me in my comments and DMs? All I’d do is kill people…” Amber trailed off again.
“Well, if those comments are related to the illicit pictures you want other men to see, you invited such. If another man insulted you in front of me, I’d kill him too, no matter how truthful the insult. I did nothing to warrant the insults that man said right in front of me. I don’t create and distribute illicit pictures of myself, and as a man it wouldn’t be half as bad as you doing so.”
Amber yammered more noises for a moment before she got out, “Oh my God! You’re such a sexist!”
John couldn’t believe what he heard. “I haven’t had sex in thousands of years. I never once tried to force myself on you or pressure you after my desire returned. You’re the one that asked to do kissing. My wife’s in a child’s body so of course I still haven’t. Now that I am healed and can again, I…this is very inappropriate to talk about. Far, far more of my life is taken up by cultivation and battle than all else. I am much more of a cultivationist or battlist. But sexist? That is far from the truth, and you know it.”
It took Amber a moment before she responded. “No, John! I…Jesus! It…”
The door flew open, cutting Amber off. Through the door marched Colonel Stoddard, Lilly, and many others.
Lilly started to say, “These are our…,” when she got cut off too. A yellowish light covered the room and images began to flood John’s mind. Stretch appeared in the desert watching a demon horde rush forward, untold numbers of demons flooded out of the portal that followed behind the Gold tiered demon leading the horde. Wood and Copper tiered demons spread out in all directions to cause mischief.
Stretch fearlessly attacked the horde. An arm was stretched out and wrapped around a Silver, pulling the demon to him as he pulled himself to the demon, and once the demon was close, Stretch performed his jackhammer punches on the Silver with his other arm, turning the Silver’s head to mush.
Then the images showed the fight turning against Stretch. Manifestations knocking Stretch about. Stretch trying to escape and being prevented. Stretch being battered horribly, and the Gold approaching him.
New images of the table in the room turning into a portal that could only open for a few moments. John and Amber jumping into the portal and saving Stretch.
The images stopped and the yellowish light moved to the table. Colonel Stoddard said, “What the hell was that shit? Did everyone see that?”
Before anyone could say anything else, Lilly said, “No, Adon! Don’t trust it. Could you feel it? It’s wrong. It felt…feels all wrong. This isn’t essence and a concept. This is something I’ve never seen or even heard of before.”
John replied, “Stretch saved me once. Am I to forget that?”
Lilly raised her voice. “Stretch is a fucking psycho, and you owe him nothing. He was compensated…overcompensated for his service to you by all the crystals he stole from us. This feels like a trap, Adon. Don’t be stupid. Please.”
John grunted. “If I thought saving people was stupid, you’d have been burned on a pyre. Or killed a thousand times since.”
As John watched Lilly’s child face crinkle in anger, Amber was the one to respond. “She’s right, John. This doesn’t feel right. It feels…off. Really off. Stretch is just a puppet anyways. It’s not a person.”
John sighed. “You both heard the rulers, same as I did. How many cities have been destroyed? How many people have been killed while we sit here, doing nothing?”
Amber said, “John, I’m almost ready to rank up to peak. I need a day or two at the most. Baba isn’t here. I don’t want anyone else to be killed either but think how many more will die if we…if we die. When we attack the demons, we do it right. Do it…smart. We do it when I’m at peak and Baba’s with us. With the military backing us up. Coordinated. With a really good plan. Not rushing in like idiots.”
Lilly smiled at John. “My dear heart, listen to Amber. We don’t know what this is. And even if it isn’t a trap, that psycho isn’t worth dying for. Please, Adon, I fought so hard to get back to you. Please.”
John hated that. He hated it when people twisted him up with wrong things they made sound right. He watched as the table slowly warped under the yellowish light.
Colonel Stoddard said, “I hate to do this, John, but on behalf of the US government, I’m ordering you to stand down.”
John felt alone. In a room with his wife and one of his only friends in all the world, he still felt alone. He found it strange it seemed the people that placed the least value on honor always tried to dictate the actions of those that valued it greatly.
Still smiling, Lilly said, “Remember my promise, Adon? Remember what I said would happen if you got yourself killed?”
John grunted again. He put his cap back on his skull, took his shield out of his ring, and decided to leave Fireblade in its scabbard for now. It’s always, ‘do as we say, or else,’ he thought. “What you do when I’m dead is your own business. I’m tired of being told I should wait around doing nothing while those I swore to fight slaughter those I swore to protect. And Stretch helped me when I was in a real bind. You say he’s just a puppet, then demand I be even less of a man than a puppet.”
Lilly laughed. “No, Adon, I only want you to be less stupid than a puppet.”
“What you want is for me to be your puppet.”
John let the rest of the words of those in the room wash over him as he waited, alone, for the portal to finish forming. Of what use is a fighter and warrior that doesn’t fight and war? He wondered if he should equip the bracer on his right arm. The portal fully formed before he could decide, and he jumped into it, grateful all the words trying to twist him up inside could no longer be heard.