“What am I going to tell your mother?” Maksim said.
“Tell her the truth,” suggested Casimir.
“She couldn’t handle hearing the truth the last time. Losing two of her children might tip her over the edge.” Maksim Shuisky said. It was a painful moment to see this kind of vulnerability from his father. Casimir liked to think of him as indestructible and unshakeable. Someone who always had a plan and could smile in the face of the end of the world. That trait did not always make the Shuisky family’s head likeable, but it did make him a constant. Something as immovable and eternal as the stalagmites and stalactites that people tunneled their cities into.
“I’m not her true child, not like Ekaterina. Neither is Rina. This might not mean a true loss either way, if I can’t come back from whatever fate the Ascendancy assigns me to, but my twin can walk and eat again. I’m the one that can live a human life, but I was Inverted, not born. Mother would make that sacrifice.” argued Casimir.
“Don’t say that about yourself. Never think of your life that way. Your mother loves you; it is why your sister turning into that stone monstrosity because of your accident hurt her so terribly. She has told me as such, your mother said that she blames me because she can’t bear to fully blame you,” admitted his father.
Maksim stared down at his own hands, opening his mouth to speak, struggling to find the words.
“Dad?”
“It is my fault, not yours. I should have never allowed my business partners to place the gateway in our cellar, and I should have never let you two play in it,” said Maksim, finally speaking. It was a different kind of openness for Maksim to place culpability on himself. Casimir placed an arm around his dad and leaned his head against his father’s.
“What do you think I should do?”
“You must go forward with it obviously. This Barasa isn’t giving you a chance to think over your enlistment, he’s given you a taste of real power to get you hooked. The Ascendancy does not understand the word ‘no’, only orders and obedience.”
“Then tell Mother that I got in, that I impressed a faculty member and got an apprenticeship in System access from them. She’s shut off from gossip anyways, she won’t hear about it except from us.” Casimir said.
“I don’t like to lie to your mother, so you’ll be doing something for me. Two things.”
“Name them.”
“The bottle hidden in your closet, you’ll give it to me.” Maksim said.
“Can’t you just take it?” Casimir said.
“These things must be done of one’s own volition. You can come to me when you need more.”
Casimir laughed. “Don’t you want me to stop?”
“That depends on how far along you are. Sometimes you can’t always stop without the lack of it killing you.” His father said.
“Fine. And the other thing you wanted? The second?” Casimir asked.
“I expect you have manifested some Skills already.”
“Yes. Observation.”
“Good, good. I need you to look at something and ask no questions.” Maksim said.
He opened his mouth and then shut it. No questions. Right.
“Ready when you are.”
Maksim nodded his head first in the direction of the closet.
Damn. Casimir thought and went in to grab it. Something sat heavy in his chest the moment his hand clasped it and drew it up. Hesitant, he placed it in his dad’s hands, his fingers struggling to let go. When they were empty of the cool glass, so was he.
“You did well.”
“I did nothing at all.” Casimir said. “Just handed you something.”
“I’ve known a great many men who couldn’t do that.” His father led Casimir onwards through the house. Rather than descend into the lower quarters where the deepest secrets of the Shuisky family lay waiting, like what remained of Casimir’s twin, Maksim went to his study. Nearly every hard surface in the mansion estate was crafted from stone, but of many imported varieties. Rich colors and carefully selected patterns mimicked wood. One could fabricate substances much like any of the organic materials that had once lived above from altered fungi, but imitation was beneath the family’s esteem.
Stone was pure, stone was strong. And yet so cold at the same time. His hand brushed the wall, wishing that it was actual wood. Something genuine. True wood did not grow anymore, not without sunlight. Humanity had survived the apocalypse, but it had not been unscathed. If life was to continue under the Earth’s surface, it had to adapt. For instance, the door to Maksim’s study was organic, but of mushroom craft, as rock would be far too heavy to have to open and shut on one’s own.
“Take a seat.” Maksim said, ambling to his throne of a chair.
As Casimir sat across from his father in a much shorter chair, Maksim produced a key from his pockets and unlocked one of the drawers. He tossed assorted valuables onto the desk like they were trash and then hooked the false bottom up to pull a small black sack out. Both father and son favored similar tricks.
“I can take a look at it, Dad, but I can’t promise much. I had to wander home with my shirt over my face to block out most of what I was seeing just to get here.”
“Really?” Maksim said, intrigued. “And it isn’t a problem once you are indoors?”
“As long as I’m indoors it is fine. I think it is… it’s something to do with the spaces in between the pillars. Something unseen happening, maybe whatever keeps the stalagmites standing without gravity crushing them. Not here though, no. I can see,” answered Casimir.
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“What about below the house? When you are near her?” Maksim said.
“I haven’t tried. I’m not sure I want to face Ekaterina yet.” Casimir said.
“You’re closer to your goal than ever.”
“But with these eyes I don’t know what I’ll see when I look at her.” The thought of something even more horrible than the physical being shown made Casimir shudder.
“Well, let us start with what those eyes see right now in front of you. Anything?” His father said, nudging the small sack, just big enough to fit in the palm of one hand.
“No. Nothing.”
“Is it all blocked out?”
“I think it’s just showing up as a normal black. It is black colored right? To you?” Casimir said.
Maksim nodded.
“May I?” Casimir said, reaching out to touch it. He did not know how valuable or dangerous it might be when it came to his father’s prized possessions. The last time he and Ekaterina had made that mistake, it had left permanent reminders on both; mutating and transmuting her body and scarring his mind.
“You may. It won’t hurt you,” his father said, leaning back in his chair and stroking his blond beard.
Casimir picked it up and shifted it in his hand, something clinking inside. He ignored the sound, merely looking at how the fabric shifted and how the light of glowfly lanterns bounced off it.
“The bag’s surface isn’t being blocked out by my powers at all. I just wanted to be sure that the color and the effect were not overlapping.” Casimir said.
“That means the bag really does prevent detection. Good to know that some promises are being kept after all.” Maksim mused, lost in thought.
Something that can’t be pierced by the System’s passive Observation? What are you messing around with, Dad? Casimir wondered.
The knot that fastened the item shut came undone easily enough, through the rope’s material was strange.
“What is this? Flesh fibers?” He asked his father.
“Leather.”
“Bat leather? Rat?”
“Just leather.” Maksim said, smiling like he was a mischievous child who had just let loose a secret he should not have. When Casimir turned the dark bag upside down, copper coins fell out. They rattled against the desk, bouncing around until they vibrated the motion into stillness. Nothing was amiss about them that he could tell. There was no great blackout of information, nor was there any kind of shining like Barasa had looked for in the clay sculptures. They just looked like regular metals.
“They’re just ordinary coins.” Casimir said, shrugging. “I don’t see anything amazing that immediately jumps out as supernatural.”
“Ordinary, you say? Curious. Why don’t you look at their fronts and backs.” His father suggested.
Faces of men and women from their side profile were on one side of the coins and a dragon-like emblem on the other. It would all be well and good if it were not for the fact that he recognized none of the faces depicted or the insignia on the back.
“I don’t even know this writing.” Casimir whispered in awe. “Where are these from, Dad?”
“Another world.” Maksim replied.
“A… what??”
“You know just as well as me that there are other realms that can be traveled to and from.”
“Yes, but there are people on this. Humans.” Casimir said.
“Not humans. They just look like us. All of gods’ creations resemble the forms that the Anunnaki had when they themselves were mortal. We’re born from mixtures of their blood and the soil of the worlds they seeded,” revealed Maksim. It was a suspiciously informed amount of information about the origins of the species.
“Is this like another universe? Another reality? Another Earth?”
“No, no. You could travel to this world with natural methods if you had something that could fly fast enough, I’m told. Not that we would survive leaving this rock’s atmosphere.”
“Does… Are there a lot of worlds with humanoids like us? Made like us?”
“Hundreds.” Maksim said. “All with their own purposes.”
There was nothing to say to that.
“You must have wondered what your new organization does all day, haven’t you? Ultimately, the Ascendancy and the Academy’s roles are to help the Hierarch make the case for this world to be allowed continued existence.” Maksim said.
Casimir’s mouth was dry.
“I would not terribly mind if you tried to convince me against going back,” said Casimir.
“The choice is out of your hands, I’m afraid. I’m told that once you have System access, going without an infusion is unpleasant. Small men like Kaczmarek are brutish like he is for a variety of causes, but the Academians’ souls are starving. One reason I want you to put the bottle down is to not have two addictions fighting over you at once.” His father said.
“This is unfortunate.”
“Life is that way sometimes. I have found it best to take what you are given and try and find something profitable out of it.”
“Clearly you managed to make someone else’s money.” Casimir said, rubbing one of the coins.
“The Ascendancy are not the only ones who know how to make their way through the Walls that divide the realms and leap across space. Not even close.” Maksim said.
“This puts that in danger, telling me. They might ask me about what I know.” Casimir said.
“Oh, they already know. And if they had not, they would have found out about my little business when you went through your background check. Now, I want you to try one more thing. Activate your Skill on it and see if there’s anything more you can glean.” Maksim Shuisky said.
Casimir stared at the coins, willing something to happen.
His father coughed. “With, ah, the command.”
“What command?”
“From what I hear, you need only to say, ‘Observe’ and to name whatever the object is for the activation. The rules for people are supposed to be different.” Maksim said.
“Observe coins.” Casimir said, reddening.
Observation report ready!
Brytharian Empire Coins
-Description: Six coins of Brytharian minted copper-zinc alloy.
-Origin: Wager-03
“What did you see, son?”
“An Observation report, I guess. Said that these were Brytharian Empire coins, and then gave a description and an origin.” Casimir said.
“And what did it call the planet?” Maksim asked.
“The, uh, world was… is origin and planet the same thing?” Casimir said, tripping over his own tongue. He supposed it probably was and that his father expected it to be obvious. “It called it Wager-03.”
“Is that what they named it? How cruel.” Maksim said, shaking his head with an ironic smile.
Cruel?
“What about us then?” Casimir asked.
“You’re welcome to scan me.”
“Observe Maksim Shuisky.” Casimir said.
Nothing happened.
Maybe it won’t activate if the name is not logged in the System’s database. Casimir wondered.
“Observe.”
Nothing.
Barasa did it with one word. Why won’t it work for me like it did for him?
“Observe human,” he commanded.
Observation report ready!
Maksim Anderovich Shuisky
Description: Patriarch of the Shuisky lineage.
Origin: Harvest-09
Stats: Locked
Skills: Locked
Traits: Locked
“Harvest-09.” Casimir repeated the words after he heard them. “Sounds grim.”
“Happily, for us, the harvesting took place about four hundred years ago.” Maksim said.
“The Cataclysm.” Casimir said, his mind racing.
“The very same. Our world’s primary purpose was fulfilled quite some time ago, and we remain to live in the benefits of surviving its wake.” His father said, not seeming particularly concerned about what was lost.
“I thought the gods were punishing mankind for abandoning them, for embracing false idols and disobeying the edicts of Mesopotamia.” Casimir said.
“They were reaping a long-standing investment. Feasting on the souls of the fruits of their labor on this planet long ago,” said Maksim. “Most who learn the truth are disturbed by it. Personally, I find it comforting that even for the divine, it really is all just business.”
----------------------------------------
Casimir Maksimovich Shuisky
Stats: (Unallocated)
-STR:0
-VIT:0
-CHA:0
-PER:0
-FOR:0
-DEX:0
Skills:
-Observe Lvl 2
Traits: Shuisky Heir, Inverted Human
Allegiances: Shuisky Family, Cult of the Delving Wyrm, The Ascendancy
+10 Obedience Points for Allocation.