It turned out the Victors did like the pizza. Well, Childs liked it. Fu Hao loved it. Seriously, between all the different kinds the woman tried, she put away the equivalent of two full pizzas all by herself. Even if she did insist on carefully eating all of it with a knife and fork. In a day that was already jam-packed with incredibly surreal things, watching that Asian woman (who looked like she was in her early twenties despite being astronomically older than that) carefully and daintily eat slice after slice after slice of pizza with a pair of gleaming silver utensils was still pretty extraordinary.
The pair of them also asked Persephone a lot of questions throughout the meal. They seemed fascinated by what she was. From context, I knew they had killed Revenants before, but they obviously never actually sat down and talked to one. They seemed surprised that she was capable of holding an intelligent (if somewhat weird) conversation, and kept asking her questions about how Revenants were born or created, what sort of society they had, and more. The answers basically amounted to Persephone having no idea. She cheerfully explained that she had no memory of any others like her. She had always been instinctively aware that they existed, but had no idea about any family structure or society. Her earliest memory was in passing through a sort of alien cemetery searching for a body that ‘smelled right.’
Of course, there was no telling yet if her experience was universal, or if she was the equivalent of an orphan left at the side of a road or something. Both Fu Hao and Childs insisted that, while they were on the side of believing that not all Alters were inherently evil, neither they nor anyone they knew of had ever had any encounter with a Revenant that amounted to anything more than psychotic murderous violence. And when my mouth opened, they immediately reiterated that the violence was often started by the Revenant. Heretics were called to the scenes of massacres that the Revenants perpetrated to create a cache of bodies for themselves. As to the question of what they needed a large supply of meatsuits for, the answer always seemed to be ‘so they can keep killing more people.’ It all seemed a bit… circular. They needed to kill people to get more bodies to inhabit, and they needed more bodies to inhabit so they could kill more people.
Pushing my empty plate away, I squinted. “You mean you’ve never found out what they want? They just kill someone, take over the body, run it down killing more people, take more bodies, and do that until someone stops them? Why? What’s the point? Do they get anything out of it?”
Childs pointedly replied, “As it happens, you seem to be in a better position to get an answer to that than we’ve ever been. Like we said, never met a Revenant who bothered chatting.”
Carefully cutting herself another bite of bacon, chicken, and onion pizza, Fu Hao added, “Indeed, I am not certain that you truly comprehend the magnitude of the opportunity for learning and study that has, ahem, fallen out of the sky for you. I hope it is not wasted. But then, if all I have heard of you is true, then I cannot imagine that it would be.”
Naturally, before I could respond to that, Persephone herself happily piped up with, “Oh yes, my wife is quite wonderful, and intelligent, and beautiful. She is–”
“Okay, okay, that’s enough.” My face was red as I shifted to squint at the white-haired woman. “Just, uhh, well, do you have any idea why the rest of your people are so crazy murderous? And do you know why you’re not? Wait, did you used to be that way before you got that body right there that doesn’t run out? Does it have something to do with searching for the perfect body or something like that? Or did something about the body being a Tartarus-enhanced Seosten like… change you? Except, wait, you said you were drawn to them because you sensed Manakel’s power and you possessed Kore because you thought making her body move again would make him happy. So, you were like, actively trying to please him before you ever possessed her, right? What, uhh, what’s the deal there?” Belatedly, I added, “Sorry, do you mind me asking stuff like that? I mean, I don’t know how, uhh, private or whatever it might be.”
“Oh, I’d just love to answer all the questions you have!” After that bright, cheerful assurance, Persephone’s head tilted sideways. Seriously, her cheek was touching her shoulder. It was like those overly exaggerated body expression things in anime or whatever. “But I dunno that much. It’s like I said, I don’t know anything about other Revenants, and I’ve never talked to any. I just woke up by myself in the graveyard looking for a body so I could stretch. I never really felt like killing a lot of things though, even when I was in other bodies. I liked to run around. I liked to jump, jumping’s really fun! Oh, and swimming. It took me a long time to figure out swimming. Especially when people kept interrupting me with the screaming and the fire. I had to find quiet places to practice, but it’s hard to find dead bodies that aren’t near places with a lot of people that get mad when you borrow them. Oh, maybe you could ask one of the creators.”
I had been blankly nodding through all of that while struggling not to focus on the adorable and horrifying (adorifying was the word, right?) imagery of a young Persephone possessing various corpses and trying to learn how to swim before angry villagers attacked her. Which meant that it took a moment for the last thing she’d said to really hit me. With a quick glance toward the Victors, whose intense gazes made it clear that they too had picked up on it, I hesitantly asked, “Uhh, what exactly do you mean, ‘ask one of the creators?’”
Her response was as simple as it was confusing. “Oh, you know, ask one of the beings who created me.”
Childs apparently couldn’t contain himself, and immediately pointed out, “You said you didn’t know who your parents were, or even how your people reproduce. And you also said that you don’t know anything about your society, so how would you know about any religious belief?”
With a giggle, Persephone replied, “I don’t know anything about my people. But I know who made me. I don’t know why, or how, or what makes the rest of my people do the things they do, or why I don’t, or anything like that. But I know who created us. Revenants us, not you and me us. I mean, I don’t think they created humans. I just… know. I’ve always known, right here.” Her hand indicated her stomach. “Deep inside. I know where I come from. Nothing else, just who our creators were.”
After letting that run through my head for a moment, I took a breath and nodded. “Maybe some kind of genetic memory or something? Anyway, I’ll bite. Who created the Revenants? Anyone we know about? And I swear to everything that calls itself a god, if you say the Fomorians…”
Looking positively delighted that she could answer one of my questions, the woman promptly replied, “Nope, not Fomorians! But you do know them. In fact, you’re already connected to them!” She spread her arms wide while brightly announcing, “You call them Reapers!”
Yeah, it was a good thing I had finished eating already, or I probably would have choked on pizza. My eyes widened as I stared at her in confusion. “Wait, what? You mean Reapers created Revenants? But–” Glancing toward the Victors, I managed a stammered, “I sort of got the impression from talking to others over the summer that Reapers don’t exactly like necromancy, or anything connected to it. I mean, I know it’s not the same when you take over a body, but I didn’t know if they’d see it that way, or–I mean…” Realizing my rambling wasn’t getting anywhere, I gave a quick headshake. “You’re serious?”
“No, silly,” she immediately shot back, “I’m Persephone, we already met!” With that, she doubled over laughing at her own joke before giving a rapid nod. “But yes! Those are the creators. They made us a long, long, long time ago. I dunno what they wanted us for, or why they don’t have anything to do with us anymore, or… anything else. Just that the Reapers created us. So uhh, whatever the rest of my people are doing is probably because they were told to.”
Following that, my eyes caught movement as the two Victors both slumped back in their seats. Childs was staring not at Persephone, but me. “Well, I’ll be damned. You truly do find yourself tripping over the answers to a staggering number of old questions, Miss Chambers.”
“Yeah,” I muttered, “and as always, those answers lead to more questions. Not to mention danger, violence, usually explosions and fire, and plenty of screaming.”
Fu Hao was speaking thoughtfully, mostly to herself. “If it is true that the Revenants were created by the Reapers so long ago, it was likely their more… violence-oriented selves. Though long before any of our times, the Reapers were once all far closer to their so-called Hangmen versions than what we know now. They were a true scourge upon the universe, and committed truly heinous and abominable acts. It is quite possible that they created the Revenants as foot soldiers, and that the way they behave now is a result of following their creation-level instructions. They are, in short, doing what they were created to do in the first place.”
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“But the Reapers aren’t like that now,” I pointed out. “I mean, most of them aren’t. Unless they–never mind. The point is, why haven’t the umm, not-omnicidal Reapers hit the off switch or whatever? Why haven’t they stopped them, if the Revenants are their weapon?”
“That’s a good question,” Childs agreed. “A few thoughts come to mind, but most of ‘em aren’t very good. I think the bigger point here is… what makes this one different?” Picking up the bottle of whiskey he had pulled from somewhere, the man used it to indicate the nearby Revenant. “She’s ahh, not like any of the others we’ve ever seen.”
As though to prove that point, Persephone was currently leaning back on the table she had been sitting on, to the point of almost laying down entirely. She had two very different pizza slices, one in each hand, and was holding them above her face so that the slowly dripping cheese made it to her open mouth. Every couple of seconds, she would make a loud, exaggerated chomping sound as she took a bite from one of the slices. Then what sounded like a happy purr would emerge before she took a bite of the opposite slice and repeated it.
“Uh, Persephone?” I somewhat awkwardly managed after watching that for a moment. “I know you said you don’t know why you’re different from the rest of your kind. You’ve never really interacted with them. But, it also took you a minute to bring up the whole Reaper connection. And I get that, it’s because you assumed we knew already, or whatever. But can you… umm, can you think of anything else that might be related to why you’re different? Even if you assumed it was something we already knew. If we haven’t outright, expressly talked about it right here, I mean. Anything at all, no matter how obvious it seems to you.”
From the corner of my eye while the Revenant considered that, I noticed Fu Hao giving a slight, approving nod. Apparently I’d asked the right question.
Meanwhile, Persephone tilted her head from one side to the other before sitting up straight. She shoved what remained of the pizza slice crusts into her mouth and chewed vigorously, swallowing it all before finally announcing, “Well, you know the one who created me. I can smell him on you. On all of you.” Her gaze moved to look at the two Victors. “You’re all connected to him. Could you tell me what he’s like? I always wondered, and I thought I’d be able to ask him when dearest beloved Mannikens asked all those questions before about finding him. But then I never got to talk to him, even though I helped find him before. My sweetest cupcake said it was too dangerous.” She sighed, not in annoyance but almost dreamily. “Isn’t it sweet, how much he cared about what happened to me? Even worried I’d get hurt if I met my creator.”
Okay, that was a lot to process. Which was obviously the motto of this day. Before I could actually respond to that, Childs grunted. “The Reaper connected to the… huh. Well, I’d say that explains a lot, but not really. ‘Cept for how they targeted the thing in the first place, I suppose.”
“Him,” I immediately corrected, thinking of how Aylen and Bastet would react to that. And my mother, come to think of it. “Not ‘the thing,’ him. But yeah, I guess they used her connection to find him and…” Trailing off, I grimaced. Boy was all that complicated. It was obvious that Persephone hadn’t intended to help lock up her creator and have him put in the position he’d been in for centuries. Manakel had used her. He’d–yeah. And I wasn’t sure how much of that I should point out, or how soon. She still called him her beloved, even if it was all connected to his power, which I now had so she wasn’t mad at me for killing him, yet she still referred to– ugh. Complicated. The whole thing was really complicated, and I couldn’t focus on that now.
Of course, Persephone simply asked, “Is anything wrong, sweetest frosting on the cake of my new life?”
Feeling my cheeks burn with embarrassment, I shook my head. “I’m not–I mean that’s–never mind. Just… yeah, I’ll talk to my mom about… your creator. She might have some thoughts.”
The silence after that stretched on for a moment before Fu Hao cleared her throat. “Well, you’ve certainly given us plenty to think about. And a pleasant meal in the process. This pizza was very… delightful, Miss Chambers. And to you, Miss… Persephone, I would simply like to say thank you for the information you’ve volunteered. As has been well-established now, you are very different than the rest of your kind, and I believe we would all be delighted to hear more from you at some point.” She glanced toward me before adding, “Once everything has had a chance to settle in, of course. But, for the moment, I believe we should take the time to process all of this.”
Childs nodded once. “And like we said, we’ll look into our old colleague, see if we can figure out where he might be keeping this Tiras guy. That’s gonna take a while. You know, if we don’t want Shamon to hear about it. Gotta be subtle and careful, so he doesn’t just move the guy.”
“Yes,” Fu Hao agreed. “But we will do what we can, you have our word on that. Let this Asenath know that we will pay her back for everything she has done and risked to bring us to this point. It may take a few weeks to get any real results, but we will not forget. In the meantime, perhaps use this opportunity to do what it seems you have not managed in quite some time. Relax. Enjoy time with your family and your friends.” Pausing then, she looked toward Persephone before adding, “Both old and new. Embrace these breaks when they come, Miss Chambers.”
After that, the two absurdly powerful and old Heretics excused themselves, wishing me luck while giving meaningful glances toward my new… companion. Rather than simply walking out of the room, they both literally vanished from where they were sitting. One second they were sitting at the table, and in the next, there was no sign of them.
Which, of course, left me sitting there with Persephone. She was looking at me curiously, already slipping down off the table before popping up onto her tiptoes. “Did I do good?”
“You, umm…” I nodded, rising to my feet. “Thanks, Persephone. I know this is all probably pretty different and new for you too. And that the way we react to things is just as confusing to you as you can be to us. I get that you’re trying, and that you think about things differently than we do. So thanks for that. And for being patient about all this.” Pausing, I added with a cough, “Oh, and thanks for not being a murderous revenge-obsessed monster trying to kill me.”
“You’re welcome!” the Revenant chirped happily. “I’m glad I’m not a murder-monster too. But I wish I could tell you more about why. Like I said, I’ve just always been this w–oooh.” She practically dove over to the other table, having spotted one last slice of pizza with garlic, sausage, and green peppers lying in a corner of the otherwise empty box.
Watching her devour that, I half-smiled before blinking as something she had already said tickled my brain. Considering for a moment while gazing off into the distance, I finally looked back to her. “Hey, actually, I do have a question. The umm, the Seosten you took over was named Kore. And you said you never interacted with your own people. Plus, I doubt all the people who thought you were a monster took the time to name you. So where did ‘Persephone’ come from? Was that just what the Seosten decided to call you once you were on the Olympus?”
She, however, shook her head while correcting me. “Actually, it is what the people who saw me used to call me. It means ‘bringer of death.’” She said that perfectly cheerfully, before her hand snapped out to grab a piece of bacon from a nearby pizza box so she could pop it into her mouth, offering me a bright smile. “See, remember how I said that it was hard to find bodies I could use that weren’t around a lot of people? Most of the ones I found were either living all by themselves and didn’t have anyone to check on them when they died, or they were murdered by someone and the bodies were hidden. When people saw me control the bodies of the ones who were murdered, they thought I killed them. Same for the ones who didn’t have anyone to check on them to find out they were sick, or depressed, or had an accident. They didn’t know why the people died, so they thought I did it. That’s why they started calling me Persephone. Bringer of Death.”
Once she finished explaining all that, I bit my lip and tried to think of what that was like from her point of view as well as from the point of view of all those people who had apparently seen her puppeting the corpses of people they cared about, even if she didn’t really understand what was wrong with that. Finally, I asked, “I don’t want to sound doubtful or… or anything, but you’re not actually saying you never killed people back before you were in Kore, right? I mean, I know you’re different from the rest of your people, but–”
“Oh, no.” Her head shook quickly. “I defended myself. If they tried to kill me, I fought back. Not just to wound them. I killed them, so they’d stop trying to kill me. I got really angry sometimes. But I don’t like to be angry. It makes my insides feel funny when I’m angry.”
There was probably a lot more we could have gotten into with all that, but now wasn’t the time. Instead, I turned and started to walk. “Well, come on. We should probably get back and see what’s going on with the others. And…” Grimacing, I murmured, “And I can explain just who you are and what you’re doing here. Not to mention all this stuff about Bob. And if you’re really connected to him–err, the Reaper, I’ve got someone you should meet. It’ll probably be a whole–”
By that point, we’d reached the exit and stepped out of the restaurant. As I did so, with Persephone happily trotting behind me, we both stopped at the sight of two figures a few yards away. They were both standing there on the curb next to the parking lot, clearly patiently waiting for us to emerge. Once we did, their gazes swept over us, lingering on Persephone before returning to me.
“Hiya, Flick!” Shiori called, giving me a wave.
“Yes,” Avalon agreed, “hey there, Chambers.
“So, anything new going on with you?”