The skeletal hund sat across the desk from Nemeria and Simon, not speaking, seemingly mulling something over in his mechanical brain. The unlit cigarette still between his teeth, his fingers slightly rubbing his temples as if to relieve a headache from flesh he no longer had.
Whatever this creature was, it wasn't a warhund or a rasierhund. It was something new. Kerner, or at least this version of him, had gone beyond synthetic and leaned fully into the mechanical.
His wetware pinged the creature which identified itself as a skeletthund electronic warfare capable area denial device and loitering munition. In other words, an intelligent self propelled landmine. He found himself wondering if the skeletal hund was loaded with explosives or possibly some other kind of payload.
The office was cluttered, filled to the brim with the mementos and debris that one accumulates during a lifetime of service. Then there were books, so many books, hundreds upon hundreds of them. The walls were made of literature. Everything from religious texts in their proud thick leather bindings to pulp fiction paperbacks barely contained by disintegrating spines. It smelled of paper, sweet tobacco, wood, incense, and a strange mix of other random indistinguishable scents that the nose simply categorized under "religion".
Nemeria looked at Simon, unsure if she should say something. They had been told they were going to be given a pre-marital interview. But thus far they had just sat in silence. A silence that was growing in intensity the longer it went on.
Simon shrugged. He didn't know what to say either. He was out of his element. Simon hadn't been in a church since before the war. No, that wasn't right, he realized.
When he was hunting down war criminals with Las Brujas some of his prey had sought sanctuary in houses of worship, perhaps thinking that he wouldn't follow. Though now that he thought about it, perhaps their goals had been more along the lines of atonement. Making things right with the god they were about to meet. Putting in a good word for themselves. RSVPing for their spot in hell.
The skeleton finally spoke. "I don't think you should get married, or commit to raising a child together. I don't see it ending well."
The flash of anger on Nemeria's face was immediate. "I thought you brought us here to Coven to get married. To take care of the child. I'm only here because I was promised a child." Nemeria said, hurt and confusion mixing in her voice. She was still shaken by her experience earlier and seeing Raul. "Now you say that you don't think we should go through with it?"
"Exactly." Kerner nodded. "You made a commitment while you were not in your right mind. Now that you have been freed of those mental shackles it would be good to reconsider if you even want to raise a child. If you can commit to being with Simon. If you can say in good faith that you will love and care for both of them, when you don't even know who you are or will become."
Simon gritted his teeth. "When you spoke to me earlier you-"
Kerner cut him off. "You and I have never met before today. That one you spoke with, is a separate entity. His path and mine split decades ago and we have had very different life experiences since then. He has certain ideas about the future, and I have agreed to help him as I can, for the betterment of all. But we are not the same, any more than your friend GG is the same as the other survivors that Gershwin took over. There may be commonalities, but we are not the same. I need you to understand that."
"So you won't follow through on what was promised? Is that what I'm to take away from all of this?" Nemeria asked angrily.
"Oh, I will give what is owed. Don't worry." Kerner smiled amicably, or at least Simon thought it was a smile. It was hard to tell with a face completely devoid of flesh. "If you want the child, you can adopt the child, she is nearly here. If you want to be married, I will perform the ceremony myself. I am bound to provide these things to you, if they are what you want."
"Do you truly want them though? Can you look me in the face and tell me that you want this? That you are fully committed to making this work? I'm going to count to three and when I do, you both are going to give me your honest answer as a simple yes or no. Don't look at each other for answers, just say answer for yourself. One… two… three…"
"No." Nemeria said, a word that cut Simon's "Yes" in half and broke his heart. They looked at one another in surprise, suddenly aware of the rift between them.
"Why not?" Simon asked, searching her face for some sign as to what was going on. He didn't understand it, just a few hours ago she had said she wanted to spend her life with him. And now she didn't. "I chose you… I thought we were going to start our life together. I thought we were finally going to get our happy ending…"
Nemeria sighed. "Simon, I don't know who I am or even what I want. But I know you. I know who you are even if you have forgotten. That programming I put into you in the camps isn't going to hold, not now that everyone has been released. It might be tomorrow, it might be a year from now, but you are going to revert to your old self eventually."
"What do you mean?" Simon frowned.
"Simon, you didn't love me until I programmed you to. Think about it, how could you ever love someone who experimented on you? I made you love me as a safeguard, a way to keep you under control. But it wasn't organic, it was forced and it was wrong."
She grimaced. "I have done a lot of terrible things, probably more harmful than good when all is considered, what the old me would have called a 'net negative'. But I didn't remember just how low I had sunk until this morning when I realized what I had done to you. I was lonely, but that doesn't make it right."
Simon laughed, a reaction which surprised him. He had always known that their love wasn't authentic. That it was something that hadn't happened organically. He had even feared having his programming removed, because he would rather be a slave to love than walk the world alone and hollow. But all of that was gone now. It had left and he hadn't even noticed.
His first instinct was to speak, to declare his love and disgust at the same time. To tell her it would all be fine and that she was a monster for what she had done. Conflicting programming ran through his wetware like lightning. No, that would not do. Simon clamped down on his emotions. Drawing on his training to quiet his mind.
Simon closed his eyes and took a deep breath into his synthetic lungs. He needed to center himself, stop reacting blindly, he was a rasierhund not a love sick puppy. What was done was done. He could not control it, or change it. All he could do was look to the future.
He opened his eyes and looked at Nemeria, really seeing her, taking in the details. Her face was youthful, nearly free of worry or smile lines. The vibrant red of her hair was like spun copper and the green iridescence of her irises reminded him of an abalone shell. She was beautiful, yes. But she was also not the Nemeria he knew. She was someone different. A hybrid, a mix. Old and new in one body.
He was also, he realized, not particularly attracted to her. Thinking back to times before the camps he had never really been interested in humans. They didn't have enough hair. No nose for scents. Very little animal magnetism so to speak. Sure, they were fun for a romp and a roll, but they would always be his second choice. Or third if there were katzen around.
Already he could feel their connection fading as the programming that had bound him to her unraveled. His first instinct was to hold onto it, to grip it with both hands and try to keep something of their love. But it wasn't real. It never had been.
"I want a divorce." Simon told her, before turning to face the skeletal hund. "But I will keep my promise to your brother and raise the child as my own. I will protect her, and keep her safe."
Nemeria started to protest, but then she stopped. No, there was no point in taking on that particular burden. Let him have it. She had never even wanted children, at least not before she had been programmed to. They were needy, and best case scenario you fucked them up a little less than your own parents did to you. No, let him have her.
She looked at the ring on her finger. Just a few hours ago she had been ready to pledge the rest of her life to Simon. Now she looked at him and all she saw was an uplifted pet, a memory of the dog she had when she went to university. Not an equal. Not someone she wanted to spend whatever little time she had left before the safeguards kicked in and burned this world to a cinder.
Wordlessly she got up, placed her wedding ring on the desk in front of Simon like an eviction notice, then turned to leave. There was nothing for them to talk about. She would let him make this mistake for himself. Nemeria had better ways to spend her remaining time.
She felt a sharp stabbing pain in her chest that she mistook for guilt until she looked down and saw the rapidly spreading red stain. Simon hadn't even bothered to turn his head to look at her, his eyes were fully locked on the old skeletal hund. But in his left hand was the vampirzahn, and it had extended into a long thin spear with a needle point.
Nemeria could feel it, the cold metal moving inside her as the vampirzahn spread its tendrils through her body. The smart metal hooked into her wetware and began to consume it, ripping her enhanced hardware out piece by piece. She couldn't move, couldn't scream, all she could do was wait for death to come.
The whole time she was dying Simon didn't even look at her. He just sat, eyes forward as if daring the skeletal hund to say anything. To condemn him. But Kerner returned his gaze silently. You couldn't win a staring contest with a metal skull.
Once he was sure that Nemeria was completely gone Simon withdrew the vampirzahn from her body. The weapon retracted and flowed back into the shape of a metal baton before sliding up his sleeve and anchoring in place on the inside of his forearm.
Simon felt like something had to be said, so he chose his words carefully. Though in the end he started to ramble.
"I don't know why Raul or the Red Titan put all of that programming into her head. Perhaps it was to torment her, she certainly seemed to think so. But it may also have been an attempt to make her a better person. Both versions I saw today were idealized, polar opposites, male and female. But neither was truly the Red Titan. Red would never have fallen for your little trick. Not in a million years."
He sighed. "Maybe we will never know who did what or why. Perhaps Raul was just a clone, a puppet programmed to act out a role. Maybe Red is still out there somewhere biding their time. I don't know. Perhaps I'll never know what truly happened."
Kerner nodded. "But you could feel her becoming more and more like him. So you acted while you still had the chance."
"Yes. Perhaps I was wrong. It is entirely possible she would have gone to live a peaceful life somewhere." Simon mused, still surprised that he had done this horrible thing and felt no pain or shame. It had been distasteful, unpleasant even, but it had felt more like taking out the trash than killing a loved one. A nasty thought entered his mind. "Did you know that I would kill her? Is that the real reason why you brought us together again?"
Kerner shrugged his shoulders. "I felt that once you were no longer bound to her, violence was inevitable. Either she would kill you, or you would kill her. Love or no love. You should also know that my brother hoped you two would find some measure of happiness together, he truly did."
"But he doesn't always get what he wants." Simon finished, finally understanding the true weight behind those words. "So he was the one that gave me the vampirzahn."
NO, HE GAVE YOU SOMEONE TO WATCH YOUR BACK. -COAT
Simon smoothed his lapels, half caressing the material of his coat. After a murder or execution he always felt curiously numb, lacking of emotions, a hollow observer in his own body. This one was no different, even though it was deeply personal. The cookie tin of grief had been opened and revealed to be full of sewing supplies.
He knew that eventually what he had done would fully process and then it would hit him. But for now, there was nothing.
Another realization hit him now that he was free of malicious code. They had created a blindspot in his mind, made him think that there was no way to prevent their access, to forget it even existed, to not mind their intrusion.
But he was free now and that meant he didn't have to put up with these violations anymore. Simon found the gap in his internal firewall and sealed it, cutting off their access.
The skeletal hund nodded slowly, acknowledging the severed connection before speaking. "There is the matter of the child." Kerner reminded him.
Simon pondered this for a moment. He didn't trust them, not really. But their answers might be revealing. So why not ask? "Do you think I would be a good father? The other you seemed to think I would be. I honestly don't know."
Kerner shrugged. "I would say that alone, probably not. But you aren't alone, are you? There's GG and Springer, others from the old days as well as her family in the Winterlands if things get really bad. Your little tribe should be able to meet her needs."
Kerner stood up and looked out the window with his hands gently resting on the sill and his back straight. He continued to speak.
"You may wonder why he entrusted you with this, what her larger purpose is.The decision to bring Eden south was multifaceted, there are few humans in the north and the Sühi are suspicious of outsiders at the best of times. It was felt that she would probably be happier in a place where she might have a better chance of acceptance, somewhere she could make friends and socialize."
"Then there was the fact that no matter how well she is hidden, eventually someone is going to come for her. My brother feared that his children and grandchildren might get caught in the crossfire. I agree with his assessment."
"But why is she so special? And where does she come from?" Simon pressed.
The skeletal hund went to reply but no sound came out. His mouth was open as if to speak, his head was turned, and all that came was silence. The silence seemed to grow, consuming all the little background noises until there was nothing. The chair beneath Simon no longer creaked, the wind didn’t whistle against the windows and the ventilation system went quiet.
Dust motes dancing in the sunlight from the skylights froze in place as time itself stopped. Then, there was a low chuckle from behind Simon that made his hair stand on end as it cut through the silence. He turned to see a carbon black furred hund with golden eyes smoking a cigarette. The smoke danced and wrapped around him like a living shadow, defying gravity.
“Jetzt haben wir den Salat.” The familiar voice said. “I had hoped you might do better. All the pieces were there and you still cocked it up, as they used to say when I lived in Möhi.”
Simon’s mind raced. “You...” He looked down at Nemeria’s body. “This is a simulation.”
“Perhaps.” The old hund shrugged. “Or perhaps it isn’t. Maybe I’m pulling you into a space where time behaves differently for ones such as us. You don’t know.” He leaned forward, bending at the hips. “But tell me… if this was all a bad dream and you were to wake up in that warm bed with human songs playing on the radio would you change things? Would it end up any different? What if you could go back even further? What if you could go all the way back to where your story started?”
The room disappeared and the sun faded revealing a night scene. They were standing in front of a gasthaus, watching a much younger Simon admire the painted mural over the door. His uniform was crisp and clean, his collar sported three fresh silver stripes from his recent promotion to captain and in his hand was a bundle of flowers. This was the night that Simon went from a hero of the people to another tattooed prisoner in the camps. This was when it all changed for him.
His heart ached as he thought about how it had felt when they caught him in the act, the shame and fear, how he had fought the police to give his lover a chance to escape, to buy him time. Perhaps if he had just surrendered they would have swept the whole thing under the rug because of his exemplary service.
But no, Simon was a trained soldier and he had resisted, perhaps too well. When one of the police officers went for his pistol Simon had reacted as he was trained to do and punched the other hund in the throat. Their collars were police issued, flexible to protect against bites but also allow freedom of movement, not stiff like a soldier would wear.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
The blow had collapsed the officer’s windpipe, causing him to die slowly and painfully as he gasped for breath. Simon remembered watching the dying hund desperately claw at his own throat, terror in his eyes as he fought for breath. Then that little pause, that faint hesitation as the truth sunk in and the hund realized that his life was about to end and there was nothing he could do about it. Simon would remember that microsecond of stillness for the rest of his life. That moment of near surrender before the dying hund went back to madly clawing at himself, trying to rip an opening in his own throat so he could breathe.
The old hund leaned forward again until they were nose to nose, bringing Simon back to reality, or at least the one they currently shared. “Choices are seldom what they seem. You see a young man about to be caught with his forbidden lover, his career destroyed, his life over. But I know something you don’t.”
The scene shifted again to show a battlefield, Möhin anti-aircraft fire lighting up the night sky. But it wasn’t the intermittent pop of individual munitions exploding one after the other. It was a flash of light and a roll of thunder that shook the ground as each wave of shells exploded in the air at the exact same moment. Every ten seconds another wave detonated in a flash of light and thunder like a god’s slowed heartbeat.
Smoke hung heavy on the battlefield, there was a soft pattering of rain, then the smell of hot blood in Simon’s nostrils as he realized that it wasn’t rain at all. Pieces of flesh, blood and black structural stealth composite began to strike the ground like hail as the aircraft above were shredded to pieces by the unrelenting barrage.
The old hund spoke again, the guns suddenly going quiet as if they were afraid to interrupt him. “Your unit and everyone in it died trying to parachute into Möhi held territory not long after you were arrested. It was supposed to be a surprise attack but the defenders were alerted ahead of time by a spy in the Döbian high command.
The allies knew by then that their missiles couldn’t reliably lock onto our new stealth craft, so instead they took old weapons and modernized them. It was something we had never seen before, hundreds and hundreds of securely networked guns launching shells fuzed to airburst at the exact same moment, not just fired randomly, but precisely aimed to create overlapping killzones. By the time the pilots realized what was happening it was already too late. Their planes were shredded.
Kerner leaned in close, almost whispering in Simon’s ear. “You would have died a hero. But you still would have died.”
A cascade of emotions and doubt washed over Simon but he pulled himself inward, drawing on his training, he would not let himself be rattled. He wanted to lash out, wanted to howl and bite, but instead he slowly reached out, plucked the cigarette from the old hund’s lips, and took a drag.
It filled his lungs and mouth with the flavors of spice, sweet leather, bitter chocolate, power and death. Slowly he exhaled. “Perhaps, but we will never know, will we? I could have slipped on a rock and broke my ankle in a training accident. Or been reassigned to another press tour. Many things could have happened.”
Kerner nodded, taking back his cigarette but still staying close. Simon could feel Kerner’s breath on his ear as he spoke. “You know, your lover Ruger went on to do great things. He got away safely, but seeing you hauled off changed him. He was fearless, saving thousands of katzen and other undesirables. He used his position to change paperwork, redirect rail cars, he even hid them in his basement. And when they finally caught him, well…”
Kerner let out one of his signature dry chuckles as the scene changed once again to show a fit happy Döbian male with his immaculately trimmed black and brown fur standing in front of a wall, wearing nothing but a wide smile and a blindfold. Kerner stepped aside to allow Simon to better see what would happen next.
Ruger stood tall with his back straight and his high cut ears perked up at attention. He had the musculature of a military male in peak physical condition and the metal implants running down his spine and up the back of his neck that marked him as a warhund.
“Any last words?” Asked the lead executioner, a gray faced veteran wearing black fatigues.
“Yes, I just want to apologize, you see this is all my fault. If I hadn’t rubbed that damn lamp and talked to that genie none of this would ever have happened.” Ruger said with a smirk that Simon recognized all too well. He was leading up to a joke. Ruger had always been like that, why should today be any different?
“What genie?” The lead executioner asked, thrown off slightly by the demeanor of his victim. Usually they were crying or cursing him by now.
“The one in the lamp.” Ruger explained, still smirking. “One of those katzen gave it to me for saving his life. He said it had three wishes left. So naturally once I was alone I rubbed the lamp and out came a genie. He told me he would grant my heart’s desire, all I had to do was ask. First I wished to be beautiful, and as you can see, it worked. Then I wished to be well endowed and as you can see, it worked.” Ruger rocked his hips back and forth for emphasis before continuing.
“So finally I asked if he could help me find my one true love and to my surprise, he told me that he could not do it. He said that my true love died in the camps and he could not make another one for me. I was sad, to be sure, but I understood his reasoning.” He shook his head.
“So what did you do then?” Asked one of the young soldiers, drawing a look of annoyance from the head executioner. They weren’t supposed to talk to the prisoners.
“Oh, it was a silly mistake. Ja, it was all my fault really. Poor phrasing. Everyone knows you have to be very careful when talking to a genie.” Ruger said, laughing ruefully, still smirking. “I asked the genie, if love is out of the question, how about instead you just roundup a few young studs to drill me against the wall? And as you can see… it worked!”
Simon laughed at Ruger’s joke as the firing squad angrily shouldered their rifles and took aim.
The scene faded away, leaving Simon and Kerner floating in a gray nothingness. “Perhaps now you understand what love is.” The old hund rasped. “It’s thinking of the one who holds your heart when you are standing in front of a firing squad. You may not have loved him like that, but he loved you very much. And as much as it pains me to say so, you do not love Nemeria, not really.”
“For my own selfish reasons I had hoped that your bond would be maintained, even though it was based on lies and programming." Kerner waved his hand again and suddenly they were sitting in rocking chairs on a wooden porch. The air smelled of birch and lingering apple flowers.
Kerner rocked in his chair, the cigarette hanging from his lips. He seemed to be trying to reach a decision. Finally he spoke. "May I be honest with you? Truly brutally honest? Or rather, compassionately honest, for brutality is not necessarily what I would want to give or receive."
"Can I just lay all my cards on the table and let you decide for yourself? I'm done with heavy handed metaphors and heartstrings. I'm too old and too tired for all that. What I want more than anything is for you to understand what I'm trying to accomplish and agree to help me, of your own free will, without coercion or manipulation."
Simon nodded slowly. He didn't necessarily trust Kerner but he would listen. "Alright, speak your piece, but I need you to understand that the difference in power between us affects things. You have demonstrated that you have power over me, you can toy with my mind, pull me around like a puppet. We are not on an even footing."
"Yes, that is true." Kerner took a drag from his cigarette. "I suppose I will just have to tell you the truth of things as I understand them and perhaps that will be enough. I will have to hope that is enough, because I can't keep doing this for much longer. I was hoping to be gone by now, resting in peace, sleeping in the dirt where I belong."
He sighed. "I am tired, Simon. When I was born the average lifespan was twenty five years for a hund. I remember my grandfather falling into ruin at twenty six, like a decaying house barely propped up, his eyes milky, mind and teeth no longer sharp."
"Now look at us! Two hunds with over a hundred years between us! The wonders of technology. But I am tired, oh so tired. I have let myself age and now it is time for me to die. That is the natural progression of things."
"I have become a complete person with a beginning, a middle, and an end. I have lived a full and textured life. But now as it is ending, and at a time of my own choosing no less, how lucky! I find myself worried about the future. I must fight the desire to intervene, to meddle, to stay awake long past my time. But I need to let go so I can sleep."
"I need to end before I become a ghost haunting this world, a shadow completely devoid of mercy and understanding. I can feel it happening already and the longer I stay in this synthetic body the worse it will get. But my worry keeps me awake."
"And what do you worry about? The human child? Why is she so important to you?" Simon pressed.
"Eden herself is not important. She is a child, one that will grow to be a warden, but still just a child. It is my hope that if we can raise her right and love her as we would our own kind we might be capable of someday coexisting with the humans."
"Because we will break free of them one day, and if we can't find a way to love our former masters, to forgive them, I fear that we may never find peace. We will be dragged into eternal conflict and never become what we were meant to be. We will waste our lives fighting the humans instead of exploring what it is to be free hunds."
"Simon, I have more worries than there are trees in the forest. I have set things in motion that will cascade into avalanches in the coming years. But if I continue to meddle, to dig up my seeds to see if they have sprouted, they will never bear fruit. So I must find a way to sleep. To force myself to stop."
"And the selfish reason I hoped that you and Nemeria would find a way to love one another is that I too have someone I love. And I am afraid to lose my love for her now that my mind is free. I thought that if you could make it work, perhaps we will too when we are united." Kerner shrugged. "But I don't always get what I want."
"I don't love her." Simon shook his head. "I tried to hang onto it, but it was fake, synthetic."
"Yes, that aspect of your love was false. But there may be something more to it. Here is what I ask, and after I ask I will let you go, for real this time." He turned in his chair and passed the cigarette to Simon."You are missing something important about Nemeria that may change how you respond this time around."
"Oh, and what is that?" Simon asked, taking a drag.
"Right now her head is spinning, her moods change wildly as she adjusts to her new reality, the same as is happening to you. As your code settles you are going to experience mental turmoil and it might be good for both of you to be around someone who can relate. And most importantly, she needs you. She has nobody, no support structure, no safety net to stop her from becoming like Red. I don't think you will ever be lovers again, but you may find a way to become friends."
Then just like that, Simon found himself sitting in the skeletal hunds office next to Nemeria. He looked back at the floor, there was no blood. No sign of his betrayal. He had a chance to do it all over again.
Nemeria stood up, taking off her ring and setting it on the table in front of Simon. This was the part where she left. The part where he killed her.
Before Nemeria could leave, Simon softly took her hand in his. "May I suggest an alternative? Before we leave on bad terms. Because I don't want to leave things like this. I don't like this ending and I don't think you will either."
"I am listening." Nemeria said, not sounding completely convinced but also not walking out the door. She also hadn't taken her hand back yet.
"How about this, right now both of us are going through a lot so why don't we just focus on figuring out our own stuff and put all of this marriage talk on hold."
Simon took a deep breath. "I don't know if things will ever go back to the way they were, or even if I want them to, but I do know that right now I could use a friend and Eden could use a family. So I would propose this, no more grand gestures, no more relationship chicken. No more dancing around on other people's strings."
"I want to try and raise Eden, and I'd like your help doing it because I have no idea how to raise a human child and that scares me. I'm worried I'll fuck it all up. But I'm still going to try my best."
"I know that you never really wanted children and that desire was something that was programmed into you. But I'd like it if you would help me raise her and help me figure out who I am now that my mind is my own. You can always leave later if things don't work out, and I don't know if they will work out. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'll find a way to fuck things up. But I know that if you don't want to go through this alone, because I sure as fuck don't."
Nemeria looked at him like a dog that had just stood up and started speaking. Which in a way was accurate. The uplift had spoken, and surprised her with what it had to say. The moment hung in the air, stretched humming like a high tension wire strung between two possibilities.
Would she take him up on this? Should she?
"It's dangerous to go alone." Simon said, repeating a phrase that she had often told him, unaware of the history behind it. "I'd rather face whatever is coming with a friend at my side than go it alone."
"Fuck it." Nemeria finally replied. "Yeah."
And just like that the tension seemed to ease. They had chosen a different path. Changed their futures. They did not know it then, but this small adjustment had sent ripples through time that would cascade into crashing waves as the years went on.
Wordlessly the old skeletal hund reached into a drawer, pulled out a coin, and dropped it into the collection box on his desk with a thunk.
"What was that for?" Simon asked.
"I lost a bet." The old hund explained. Then another voice spoke from his mouth, a voice that was so cold and mechanical that it gave Simon chills.
"I ALSO HAVE LOST A WAGER." Said the gravekeeper.
Simon and Nemeria shared a look of annoyance before an image of a hund with jet black fur and golden eyes appeared in front of them. Wordlessly he mimed dropping a coin into the box.
"Wait…" Simon wrinkled his brow. "Then who?"
As if to answer, there was a knock at the door and an elderly female Sühi hund let herself in. Her thick fur was mostly brownish white except for the black goggle-like patches around her eyes. Eyes which were rimmed with gold.
GG followed behind, leading a human toddler by the hand. GG had changed out of her armor into something less combat chic and more flowy floral.
"I believe zat I have won." Ani said in an accent that was as thick as her fur as she turned to face the specter of her husband. "It is time to go to bed! Ze dirt is calling and I am tired!"
Kerner laughed and smiled. "Yes, I suppose it is time for us to be going, isn't it?" He let out a dramatic yawn. "Give me a few more minutes to pass the torch and then I will join you."
She put her hands on her fluffy hips. "It is unnatural to be valking around after death! My spirit should be in Valhalla hitting someone with an ax!"
"Yes, of course dear. You are correct." He seemed to gather himself before speaking. "I am going now. But before I do…"
The air seemed to grow thick with pressure and potential energy as he clapped his hands together. Once. Twice. Thrice. The sound seemed to reverberate in Simon's wetware like a bell.
Kerner bowed his head as if in prayer and spoke. Each word increasing in power and pressure like rocks being stacked on Simon's chest.
"Here in this place of weddings and funerals I declare to the living and the dead, that all katzen, hund, and gravekeeper alike shall be bound forever to this child, her descendants, and her family. You will guard her and protect her as if she was your own. Not even death shall end this obligation. I bind our fates together for all time."
There was no doubt in Simon's mind that these were more than just words. This was something else. Something more than technology. Some old ancient magic, if such a thing could exist.
Simon didn't know what to say. Was there even anything he could say? He couldn't deny the feeling that this being had just changed the very fabric of their reality.
Ani was the first one to break the silence. "Very dramatic! Can vee go now?"
The black furred hund chuckled, his voice rasping like a coffin lid being pushed closed. He walked forward, kneeling down before the human child, getting down to eye level.
She shied away at first, but when she recognized him her eyes lit up. "Opa!" She shouted, rushing forward to wrap her arms around the illusion. She looked down at her hands in confusion as they passed through her grandfather. "Opa?" She asked, questioningly.
"Sorry, my little love." The black furred hund said in soft flowing pre-war Döbian. "It is time for me to sleep and dream. I hope we will meet again soon under a sky full of stars."
Ani kneeled down next to her husband and grandchild. "Pikku tyttärentytär…" She said softly.
"Mummo?" Eden asked, looking at the ghost of her grandfather, not understanding why she couldn't touch him. "Opa?"
"Vee will meet again." The old Sühi grandmother hugged the child her husband could no longer hold. "I promise."
Ani looked up at Simon. "Protect my little one. Raise her to be happy and strong."
"I promise." Simon said as he kneeled down to be on the floor with them, extending his hand to the child. "Hello Eden." He said in Döbian. "I am your uncle Simon."
"Onkel Simon?" The small child repeated the words as she took his hand and shook it.
Nemeria took her place next to Simon. "And I am your aunt Nem." She said in the same language, knowing that her full name would be hard for Eden to pronounce.
"Tante Nem?" Eden repeated, looking curiously at the other human.
"Ja." Nemeria nodded, grabbing Simon's hand and squeezing it three times. They were in this together now. "Tante Nem. Onkel Simon."
Simon squeezed her hand back three times. They would never be lovers again, this much he knew. But perhaps, if he was incredibly lucky, they might find a way to become a family.
Perhaps they would have a good life together. One with birthday parties and school projects, finger painting and dance recitals. Maybe they would travel the world and take cheesy photos in front of national monuments, collecting memories and keepsakes.
Simon thought of the vampirzahn up his sleeve. The cold metal chilled his skin. He felt no shame for what he had almost done. No regret or remorse. Perhaps he still might find himself needing to use it against Nemeria, if she were to try and follow the Red Titan's path.
He hoped not. He hoped sincerely that the black metal of his blade would never again taste blood. But then, he didn't always get what he wanted. So until that day came he would take the joy he could find and hold it close. He would be like the warrior in the garden, at peace and calm as he tended to his family.
The chill metal of the vampirzahn vibrated softly against his skin then went silent. It would sleep, for now.
Simon looked up at the black furred hund. He locked eyes with Kerner and opened up a personal link so they could speak privately.
"I will protect her. But you already knew that because your code is based on mine." Simon said, his lips not moving. "We are vulnerable to the same exploits. And the others cannot see it, but this child is designed to exploit our weakness. We love her as soon as we see her. We wish to protect her at all costs."
"Love is no weakness." Kerner rasped in his mind. "And there is no exploit, no code, no trick. She is just a child, innocent and blameless. We protect her because we are protectors. Our borrowed canine DNA tells us this. It speaks to us in our sinews, sings in our bones. Can you hear it? The song of our ancestors? Do you hear the bone music?"
Simon looked down at the small human and for a moment he had a vision from another time and place, another world beneath a sea of stars. He was walking on all fours, slinking through the night towards a campfire where strange two legged creatures sang and danced.
They fed him scraps of meat and bone, scratched his ears and patted his back. Simon felt his powerful jaws breaking through the bones they gave him to find the marrow inside as he warmed himself next to the fire.
Then In one of their huts a cry broke out. One of their newborns had awoken. Simon watched as one of the mothers went to tend to her infant. When it had quieted down she went back to join the others around the fire. Simon dropped his bone, left the warmth of the fire, and laid down in front of the entrance to the hut. He could hear the child breathing softly inside. He knew it was hairless, delicate, and could not fend for itself. So he would watch over it.
This was his duty. This was his purpose. This was his job. And in that moment Simon felt something change inside him as the wolf became a dog. The first dog.
Simon blinked to clear his head. It had seemed so clear, this vision. He looked back at Kerner but the old hund had vanished. Ani lay on the ground next to Eden, apparently asleep, but she was not breathing and her eyes were closed. The body remained but the spirit inside had gone to join her husband.
The skeletal hund was also laying slumped and motionless in his chair. Now that his duty had been fulfilled he too could rest.
Simon looked down at the child. She looked back up at him and smiled, unaware of all the death around her. "Up!" She demanded, holding her arms out.
She laughed as he lifted her up into the air. Wordlessly Simon carried her away from the dead body of her grandmother and the grinning skull of the old skeletal hund that had once been a priest.
Simon would take her far away from this place. He would find a home for this new family of his, the little child and the woman he both barely knew and knew all too well. He would be the warrior in the garden, the dog keeping watch outside the door. He would be a father.
-The End