CHAPTER 280 – GRACE BREAK
The static number that glowed in the corner seemed to mock him. There were only two of the precious questions, and he was going to use one of them. With a deep breath, he asked what he needed an answer for. “Are humanities ranking points maximised by instructing both Keikain and Clare to invest their bloodline points into developing the fate components of their bloodline?”
The question was longer than he liked, but it covered all the key points.
“Yes.”
The counter ticked down to one and made it a hundred percent clear that the answer had been from the oracle question and not the more general room assistant.
He shut his eyes.
Damn it to all hells, he screamed in his head. The emotional roller coaster he had been through was too much. They still didn’t know if Phil had stopped the giant from entering the last ring. How long did seven snakes take to cook? Would Phil send them an update or would he find it funny to leave them hanging.
There was so much uncertainty and Phil… well the man was clearly not a team player. Most likely, despite the cost of trying to save the giant they would hear nothing. Phil didn’t know about what had happened here and even if he did Tom doubted he would care. They would be left in the dark until he had his next true dream pushed in that direction.
It was too much. The critical Phil action, which was out of their control and then there was the chosen. Theoretically his fault, but the middle being allowed to strakan had taken it from cold war status to DEFCON two. They were on the verge of a nuclear war.
It was exhausting and now the Oracle had answered yes.
A simple word that covered so much.
A response that would define their actions going forward. Sapients would die because of this decision. Hopefully, only members of a terror race, but Tom couldn’t guarantee that and nor would he stop the two of them from taking actions to save their lives. Not when the fate of billions rested on the actions of everyone who had earned a spot in the competition.
If there were no terror races to sacrifice, Tom would not stop Clare or Keikain from using a non-terror native. He wouldn’t help, and he was not an idiot. Morally, that action got pretty close to dooming him, anyway. It was, after all what the chosen had done. One bad seed while the others stood aside and let them do something that was ethically evil.
He returned to the real world and grabbed the earth mage’s arm and drew him in close. “You know what we spoke about? The thing you said that was my choice.”
Keikain nodded.
“Well…” Tom’s voice caught for a moment. “I have my answer now. Both you and Clare are to maximise the development of the fate part of your bloodline.”
Keikain’s eyes widened. “Tom, are you crazy?” he hissed. “Do you understand the cost of what you’re asking? Directing bloodline evolution will increase the number of people we need to feed on by sixty percent.” Keikain leaned in so his mouth was almost on Tom’s ear. “This might break Clare.”
Tom shut his eyes at the number the earth mage quoted. It was larger than he expected. Until his mission completed and they parted company how many extra deaths would that be? Ten, twenty, thirty and in a very real way the moral responsibility would rest on his head not either of the two people acting on his behalf. “I’m sure.” He answered hoarsely.
Keikain’s grip on his arm became tighter. “I won’t break mentally, but this is a terrible decision. What happens if we get stuck in the underground again? It will be me who goes insane, not you.”
“You asked me to decide, and that’s what I have done.”
He attempted to step back but the earth mage did not let go.
“Tom. I don’t want this. It’s not right. You were supposed to say no.”
He easily broke the grip that Keikain had on him by simply shrugging his arms and shoulders. It was that easy. A thrill of pleasure went through him. Being physically stronger than others felt good. It was such a change from a couple of months ago when everyone had been able to easily dominate him. “Then you shouldn’t have asked me to decide.” He whispered angrily.
“Tom, this isn’t something for you to piss around with. What about my life, my sanity. Life isn’t all about getting stronger.”
“I’m not pissing around with anything.”
“Then how did you come up with the decision? You haven’t asked me anything. Psychological impact, the number of extra deaths this would cause, hell even simple stuff like how long will it take me to upgrade my skills. You’re telling this to do this because you imagine it making me stronger. This is a knee jerk decision, not a well reasoned one. I expected better from you.”
“Get your head out of your arse Keikain. I’m not that type of person. I’m not going to throw you or anyone under the bus for nothing. This wasn’t my preference, but it was the answer to the Oracle question.”
Keikain’s eyes went wide and his lower lip trembled. “Fuck! No. You aren’t serious are you Tom.”
“Like a heart attack,” he answered coldly. “Buckle up and do it.”
A look of disappointment and resignation crossed Keikain’s face. The mans fists clenched tight, and he shut his eyes. “Fuck you Tom. You asking the oracle was the right call. But fuck you to hell. We’re not fucking chest pieces.” He grabbed Clare and together they approached the dying chosen.
Tom assessed their body language. They had not wanted to carry out the ritual even when the smallest had confirmed that doing so was equivalent to a mercy killing. They were even more reluctant now. They were not happy being slaves to their bloodline. It was possible that Tom had misjudged them.
When ever his thoughts drifted to Gita and Sven, he wanted to destroy these two, but it was easy to forget how they started. They had not been killing for joy or pleasure, but because they’d felt compelled to. They had chosen a way to get stronger, and the oracle question had confirmed that it was the best choice. Everlyn was convinced he wouldn’t have taken the same option, but sometimes Tom still wondered.
How much was them being pricks and how much was them being unlucky? Tom suspected it was a large amount of both.
Keikain glanced over his shoulder and had a pleading look on his face. Tom did not react. The other man winced turned around and whispered into Clare’s ear.
“What!” she squealed and spun to face him. “Tom, what ridiculousness are you up to?”
Tom refrained from answering and kept his face stoic. There was another hushed conversation between the two of them. Clare was shaking her head to try to deny what he was saying. But then, like when the smallest had asked her to do the ritual she did a long blink and when her eyes opened again, she was ready to go.
Michael was tugging on his back. “Its best you don’t watch, Tom.” He allowed himself be turned around so that he no longer faced the ritual space.
“You don’t need to see,” the healer told him kindly. “I don’t know what you told Keikain, but from both of your expressions, I have an idea of what it involved. Hang in there Tom, if we’re going to win this for humanity, we all need to do what is necessary.”
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“It’s just everything is going wrong. That middle tried to kill me. I don’t know if Phil stopped the giant. It might all be for nothing.”
“We’ll find out. As for the middle, from what I understand it had chosen its own death, the moment it attempted to kill you.”
“But I didn’t want it to die and I hate the concept of revenge.”
“I know Tom.”
“And it was my fault, my carelessness, not the middles. The root cause was me.”
“It was a mistake, and you made the decisions necessary to recover from it.” He patted tom comfortingly on the back. “Leadership is hard. I think you’re getting a taste for what it felt like to be on that council.”
With Michael’s arm over his shoulder, he was guided until they had a hedge between them and the sacrifice.
“This is horrible.” Toni said.
The sounds of the doomed middle were still reaching them. Unless they took themselves hundreds of metres away, they would be able to hear them and they were unwilling to open up that amount of space between them and Keikain and Clare.
“What do we do now?” Everlyn asked. “Do we abandon them or keep working with them? What the hell would cooperating with them even look like?”
“I don’t know.” Tom said. “I’m honour bound to try to save them.”
“What does that mean?” Everlyn asked shrewdly. “I mean what was your speech about us knocking you out? Was that serious?”
Tom sighed. “That’s a loophole if we wanted to take it.”
“There’s a loophole,” Everlyn asked, sounding exasperated. “I know you’re smart enough to write a contract without them.”
“I know.” He was thinking of Sven. “I’m not very good at contracts with people. I think I’m a little trusting when drafting them.”
“You can always ask for help,” Michael said quietly. “Loop in Keikain in any future contracts. He is the best at this. That guy doesn’t miss anything and is perfect for this, as he doesn’t trust his own shadow.”
“After the oracle question screwed him with the bloodline can you blame him?” Harry asked.
“No. I don’t, and I wasn’t judging him. It was only an observation.”
“Did you see what they looked like.” Toni said. “Sven told me how bad it was. He had to do that. He was brave.” She started crying.
Everlyn gathered her in a hug and then encased the two of them in silence. None of them could overhear what was being said between the two of them. The conversation continued without them.
“Why not you?” Tom asked curiously. “I would have thought you would be better than Keikain at this stuff.”
Michael shook his head. “No… I’m to like you. I want to trust others. Speaking of that, did you notice how the smallest spoke.”
“Yes, I did.” Harry said immediately.
“He was very wordy and forthcoming.” Tom agreed.
“He was articulate,” Thor disagreed. “Almost perfect English when every other chosen we’ve spoken to has been mashing the language.”
“It was strange wasn’t it.” Harry agreed. “I wonder why?”
“I didn’t have a lot to do with the smallest,” Michael mused. “In fact, before now, it has said very little. It is possible it is a new thing. What is a Grace Break?”
No one said anything for a moment.
“Bad shit.” Thor said finally. “Really bad. The concept of Strakan was repulsive to them.”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.” Tom agreed more than comfortable talking on this point as after all he had directly experienced their psychic. “I think resorting to strakan is equivalent to someone selling their mum and sisters to a life of slavery for an extra beer.”
“What the fuck, Tom,” Thor spluttered. “What sort of twisted imagery is that.”
Tom shifted his feet embarrassed. “I was looking for something abhorrent.”
“For a beer?” Michael asked.
“The creation of misery for no purpose. That’s how they consider a strakan.”
“And the Grace Break is worse,” Thor insisted. “All their behaviour changed when the smallest announced it. Can you explain that? And Tom no more depraved similies.”
“I don’t know,” Tom admitted. “I don’t have any framework to judge it.”
“Can we even work with them going forward?” Michael asked.
“I don’t know.” Tom snapped in frustration..
“Tom can form a contract with all the remaining ones that should mitigate the risk.” Everlyn suggested as the bubble of silence around her vanished.
Tom chuckled bitterly. “Won’t that just inspire them to lash out more?”
“Ask the smallest.” Michael suggested. “It seems to be trying to make things right at least.”
There was not much more to say they stood and waited ten minutes until there was a crunch of footsteps and Clare and Keikain came around the edge of the hedge. The sanatio’s chosen followed, with all but the smallest dragging their bellies along the ground. The number of middles had been reduced by one.
There were now only two of them left. Clare and Keikain were not making eye contact with anyone.
The smallest zoomed to be in front of him. “Leader Tom, would you like to discuss our future.”
He had known this was coming and sighed heavily. “Happy too.”
Instantly, all sound cut off.
“Leader Tom, I see the privacy screen has alarmed you. Would you like this to be a public discussion?”
“Um… Maybe it would be best if Michael was included.”
The smallest rushed over to Michael. A short time later the three of them were encased in a privacy screen.
“Leader Tom and wise Michael thank you for taking the time to discuss this matter with me.”
“And what matter is this?” Michael asked.
“Wise Michael, we need to discuss the dynamics that will exist between our races when I’m not available to guide things.”
“Not available,” Tom jumped on the words in concern. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“It’s a culture thing. An artefact of how our race develops.”
“What’s that supposed to mean.”
“Easy Tom,” Michael said. “Smallest one to avoid misunderstandings. Can you describe your race’s life cycle?”
The smallest bobbed up and down in the air. It seemed almost excited by the offer. “It’s pretty simple. We are born from a communal harmony. Each individual in the tribe donates both energy, mass and memories to help shape the new sanatio’s chosen. The memories donated shape the personality. Sometimes the newest will be shaped by moments of hardship other times with those of joy. Usually it is random but occasionally a tribe will shape the personality they want from the newest smallest by curating memories and including only those that will get the result they want. After that, a member of the first caste of our society is born with a slate of life experience and a full intellect. In fact, when we are born right up until we contribute to a new birth our memories are at their best.
It paused for a moment. “Are you following?”
They both nodded.
“Good. With the largest number of memories and because we are unencumbered by power, this first caste provides the moral guiding force of the tribe. Eventually, we metamorphosis into a middle. The flood of power associated with that unbalances us for years. It turns us into what in a typical biological sapient species is a child.”
“How do you know that term?” Michael asked. “I assume the way you create a new member of your tribe is the standard method on your home planet deployed by lesser creatures as well?”
The smallest moved to be in front of Michael once more. “Perceptive Michael, your insight is correct, but we were on Existentia for two months before coming here and are healers. We have learnt the life cycle of many organisms. The middles excluding their power are like children.”
“You sacrificed a child,” Tom gasped in horror when he realised the implications of what the smallest was confessing. “How could you?”
“No, Leader Tom,” the smallest answered calmly. “We did not sacrifice a child, or at least not in the sense that you’re imagining. The middle you are talking about had the chance to pass on his most treasured memories and was thirty years old how you measure things. We do not truly possess a concept of a child as you are imagining. It is just one of three adult stages. Which brings us to the second metamorphosis into a larger one. By that stage, they are no longer unstable and have power. They control the group while being guided on moral matters by the smallest.”
Tom’s head swam in response to that explanation. “The youngest is the leader?”
“No Leader Tom,” the smallest seemed amused. “The largest and oldest are the leaders. The young who are unencumbered by power give moral guidance.”
Tom scratched his ear. “That’s weird, trippy.”
The smallest wobbled side to side to indicate no. “It is how we do it.”
“And the importance of the Grace Break.” Michael asked.
“Inquisitive Michael, I believe you have already determined what that is.”
“I think so, but it’s not making sense.”
“To declare a Grace Break is to assert that the rest of the tribe is wrong, that they are failing, and their path is beyond redemption. It involves a smallest taking control of the tribe, a smallest wielding power they are not supposed to, a smallest irrevocably changing the path of the tribe. That is an act that corrodes the fabric of society. So, there is a balance to prevent it from happening.”
Michael starred at the smallest aghast.
Tom scratched his head sure that he was missing something. “I don’t get it. Are you exiled?”
Its whole body shook to indicate a no.
“Are you destroyed or absorbed?”
“Insightful Michael. It’s a little of both. I’m able to insert a single memory that everyone gets. One that will embed the reason for the grace break and help the largest to guide the tribe onto the right path.”
“And the rest of you is destroyed…” Michael concluded. “That’s barbaric.”
“It’s our way.”
“But you’re in a new world.” Tom argued. “You can apply new and better logic.”
“Empathetic Tom, I know this is sad for you and I agree it is a new world, but the grace break is a fundamental part of what allows us to adapt and meet challenges as a species. I will not destroy that pressure release valve. It is too important, too vital for our future existence to fracture on a selfish desire to continue my personal life.”
“This is a nightmare.” Tom said, clutching his head. “It was a slip of the tongue. And…” He kicked the ground in frustration. “Is there really nothing we can do?”