Ch: 89 Picking Up The Pieces

It was all hands on deck back at home. Gary and Shai were accustomed to a full house lately, but this was too much.

The Bathers were all present and concerned, their welcome smiles and voices lifted the spirits of the small family that dragged in after an exhausting day.

Two full adventure bands crowded the common room and public bath. The Sparrowhawks and Bran and Malus’ troupe, newly released and in town to visit Solange.

Interested and concerned friends and kin jammed all the other nooks and crannies to capacity.

Ivy had a ‘closed’ sign hung in the kitchen and was working the taps, pouring very short beers and brewing tea and coffee. The rest of his troupe were busy fielding constant queries and demands for information.

The reckless, buzzing bustle in his house soothed Gary’s jangled nerves and eased his soul, while aggravating his brain to distraction. He clapped his hands together explosively, calloused palms battering the air with thunderous force.

“Ahhh. We’re home, the inn is closed.” He called cheerily. “You are all welcome to hang around and bathe. As for food… Ivy, how are we on worm meat and demon seafood?”

Ivy shot a thumb in the air and grinned, as Becky tugged at his coat urgently. “Ok, I’m going to go to bed, you guys…” He waved at the crowd in friendly dismissal and kissed Shai deeply.

Wheatford never really had ‘boundaries’ or ‘privacy’ as a top priority, since gossip and arranging weddings was the primary social entertainment. Coming home from a stressful near murdernapping was as good a reason to gather and eat as any, to their minds.

Gary left the swirling mob and climbed the stairs, while spending what little he had left in the tank. A massive grill appeared in the garden, fueled by magic and his vast stores of scrap wood.

Ivy and Becky were already carting huge quantities of worm meat out of his magic freezer of nightmares with huge smiles on their faces. Any excuse to shift some of the worm onto others was welcome in their eyes.

Tallum, Rootedbear and Bran were cutting slabs and grilling, before most of the gathering figured out where the party was headed.

#

Shai tucked him in and went downstairs to supervise the rowdy company with a happy smile on her face and a jingle in her hips.

Gary went off to sleep and right into another gathering. Thirp and Marduk were waiting, with a few hazy notables hanging around outside the gate. Joy, Aclintherios and Beast were lurking, along with a few smaller, more distinct figures.

A group of three dark figures and a very luminous and bright form, were standing among those massive, hazy entities. Much smaller than Joy and the other deities, but far more solid, they seemed to be conversing among themselves and the gods.

Agitation and concern radiated over the islands of his home, making everything vibrate subtly. Marduk led the charge, he caught Gary as soon as he stepped outside and started talking.

“This… thing… what you did with the gift Joy and Beast created for you, it is an abomination! You took a simple and very elegant method for releasing restless souls and made it into…” He shuddered in horror.

“Who hurt you boy? Who did this to you? I have delved in your mind and memories, those are ghastly and awful enough, but this…”

The tiny god fell silent and backed a step as rippling changes crawled over the boy’s face and form. Long bestial teeth and shaggy, matted hair emerged, only to be replaced by facepaint, in black, then red, in moons stars and skulls.

Beards and mustaches appeared and vanished. Scars and tattoos crawled over his face and body in tendrils of ink or blazing neon colors as he struggled to keep a firm grip on Gary.

“I’m feeling really unsettled right now Ducky… You are going to need to chill.” His voice was calm, with obvious effort of will. “Let me get settled and we can talk.”

#

Back in the waking world, Otho stepped in and used his old man powers and general revered elder status to keep things mellow. A smile and wink from him, or a shake of his shorn silver head could change the course of an evening.

“...Now that we are all up to speed, as Gary would say, let us have a calm and restful evening, as is fitting in these times.” His shamisen set the tone as he settled onto Gary’s usual stool in the corner.

Shai danced by and kissed the old reprobate on the cheek, while Amy and Wilford followed Becky off to bed.

“When this old man heads off to bed, so should you all. Spring Festival is coming, we will all need our rest for the festivities.” The wizened old man sang, as he played a soothing waterfall of notes with blinding fast fingers.

#

Gary was still lost in contemplation of his gifts and skill tree when Shai, Becky and the kids got home. He felt them land in their dream beds and when they crossed onto his island.

He felt Shai corral them and stall, giving him time to shake off the funk and paste on a smile. He printed out his attribute list for the girls and dug deeper into his new gift while they got themselves situated by the fire.

Shai and Becky were on the couch, while the kids were sharing a web hammock with Thirp. Ducky sat on a golden cubic throne, It looked very cold and uncomfortable.

No doubt he conjured it to show his divine angst and displeasure, now he shifted and squirmed as Gary woke from his trance on the rug by the fireplace.

Silently, he stood and passed out copies of his attribute list and a separate page with the new… thing.

Might:Normal Homebody

Resilience:Plus, Secret, divine Contract, Fractured Soul, Quietus Moon

Agility:Plus, spear Wanderer's Legacy, Pockets!

Will:Normal Artisan

Mind:Normal Interface

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Animus:Plus, Joy, Divine Contract, Familiar Stranger, Entrainment

There were no changes evident there, and the rest of the island seemed unchanged, though the bees were very agitated, buzzing about furiously and hitting every bloom and blossom they could find.

The second page was far more troublesome and distressing.

Quietus Moon: Resilience, Animus, Will and Mind require Contract with appropriate entities/artifacts for full functionality.

Wielder may contact and lay to rest souls/fractional souls/shades/ghosts/spirits by allowing targeted soul/fractional soul/shade/ghost/spirit to inhabit or possess wielder's shadow for a brief time. Low mana and stamina cost, no cooldown.

Wielder may, at great cost*, sever a portion of their soul/shade/ghost/spirit, this fragment may be inhabited by targeted soul/fractional soul/shade/ghost/spirit temporarily. High mana, stamina and etheric cost*, no cooldown, additional costs* apply, consult local laws and deities before use.

Significant damage to wielder: possible/likely/assured/null.

*Quietus Moon, null/null/error/incomplete, I am. I am. I am.

“Any thoughts gang?” Gary asked mildly, while Amy and Wilford giggled and tickled the spider.

“I have any number of ‘thoughts’ Gary… Mostly I wonder what possible reason you had to tear pieces of yourself off and toss them into the world like that? I am still horrified.” Marduk shifted and squirmed in his cold, hard, golden seat.

“Have we met? You guys… and I mean everybody here, have been acting like I’m some kind of freak, message received. I don’t do obedient, I struggle with rules and resist boundaries. Get used to it, cause I’m what you got.” He glared at the gods outside the gate, Marduk and Thirp in turn.

“I understand you don’t have a choice but to use me… but I don’t have many choices either.” He grumbled and paced the rug, until Shai pulled him down onto the sofa, between herself and Becky.

“Gary, souls are infinite, eternal and indestructible… on a universal scale, in the infinite expanse of time, space and ether. They can be scattered adrift, lost and divided, diminished into near destruction.” Marduk spoke gently, as though to a barely cogent child.

“Just because you will eventually find all your constituents, does not mean you will find them any time soon… or really in any meaningful time scale you can comprehend. So much of you has been scattered and lost already, you can hardly keep your Identity stable.”

“Can aught be done? Be he stable now? Will these things manifest again?” Shai slowed herself down and took a deep breath, which also distracted the boy nicely… men.

“He is stable for now, but please, prevent him from using this new ‘gift’ to shred what little remains of him. The only real solution would be to finish his Contract suite… particularly, by Contracting his Will first.” The tiny god pressed his perfect, pink cupid’s bow lips into a thin pale line of displeasure.

“That should be simple enough. Who wants it?” Gary mumbled, still enjoying the aftermath of Shai’s deep breathing exercises.

“Your will belongs to Craft and he will not approach you.” Marduk said somberly. “He will not speak to me, but he told Order to tell Healer to tell Joy that he will Contract you on your day of indenture, or if you are fostered with his clergy.”

“First, my will belongs to me, it says so right on the tin, Craft can fuck right off with that. Second… If he has something to say, he knows what I want, before I listen to anything from him or Order. Apprenticeships and Contracts for my brothers and sisters. Not just the ones here. All of them, all the orphans. Everywhere.”

“They will not, cannot agree to that… the law will prevent them…” Gary cut the tiny god off casually, he stood up, stretched and walked out into the garden to check on the hive. As he suspected, the honey crock had only a few scant drops left at the bottom.

Gary spent a few moments contemplating the hive, and dipped a finger in the thick, sticky residue at the bottom of the crock. “So sweet…” He mumbled, abstracted and lost in the flavor.

He strolled back inside with a small sad smile. “Tell Order War and Craft to pull their heads out of their asses. They may be content to wait until I get sold and indentured, I’m not. I will flip the table and burn the rulebook before I or my friends go up for sale.”

He blinked out of the home in an instant, vanishing between heartbeats.

“He will nae be moved on this. Craft be nae in his good books, That will nae be changing soon.” Shai kept looking to where the boy had vanished so suddenly, so unlike his usual way of doing things.

“I must away, he kinnae be alone like this…” Shai said, while trying to figure out how Gary did his new vanishing trick.

“I don’t think ‘alone’ is the problem, but yes, you should be with him. There are far too many people inside him already for him to ever be truly alone again. Poor creature.” Thirp said sadly, as she reached out and tapped Shai on the hip with a single leg, propelling her back into the real world.

#

She landed in bed, as usual the kids were there, as usual he was gone. Shai picked up his trail down in the ‘lab’, where she found him bent over two of his filthy clay tablets, inscribing them with his arcane scratchings.

“Boy, an ye nae drop that stylus now I shall boot thee in the arse till it do split the other way!” She roared, making him jump and whirl in a near panic.

Once he regained control of himself, he scowled at the tablets. “Ruined. Gotta wipe them and start over. What’s up babe?”

“Are ye daft? Doin yer dark arts under where we sleep in the dead of night?” She demanded of her befuddled man.

“When else? Where else? This is the best time and place, the only time and place. While you are sleeping and the shades of the restless dead are most easily found.”

He smiled a stranger’s smile at her, deeply sad and bittersweet.

“These are to catch pieces of me, as they drift away, no one can know about them but you, me and the kids… not even Tawny or Liam, nobody. Better still if only I ever knew… too late, too late if you know Beckyknowsand everybodyknows…”

Shai’s ringing, full, open handed slap to the cheek set him looking over his right shoulder from a new perspective. “We need more light down here. It’s dismal…” He had a new stranger’s face now, happy and childlike, a young girl filled with joy.

“Still gotta finish my demon traps, even though they are for catching me… they are more spirit traps than anything…”

“Who are ye spirit? How did ye infest him?” Shai demanded. “Ye will hae trouble sealing this body!”

“I’m the part of him that loves the intricacy and precision of his arts… you chased off the part that enjoys how dark and ominous his arts are. Most of Gary is still asleep, dreaming of this solution to his problem, we are just giving him a running start.”

She cocked her head to the side and grinned like he always did, but without the sadness hidden in his eyes every other time Shai had seen that face.

“This is madness!” She whispered.

“Afraid so, we are in a fragile state right now, our body stopped bleeding, but inside…”

“It’s a bit of a wreck.” A new voice butted in, masculine, and almost Gary, but NotGary, Velvet rope NotGary.

“I’m really good at keeping the outside out, I struggle with keeping the insides in, I need help. Please let them get back to work.” The sweetly sad eyed smile returned, and he went back to softly humming and whistling as he inscribed tiny markings in the newly scraped clay surface.

Gotta get them, put up

Over every door and window

Gotta catch the good stuff

‘Fore it blows away

Dooo bee doo beee doooo!

Shai went back up to bed, climbed in and tried to pretend she had a normal life, until Wilford rolled over and curled up to her, lost in dreams of spiders and tiny gods.

#

Shai vanished with the sound of a gentle snore, leaving Becky and the kids with a distraught god and a strangely reserved demigoddess with eight legs.

Marduk stomped off on his tiny sandals, the picture of a frustrated and cranky tween, as he went to confer with his relatives at the gate.

“You have been very quiet, Thirp. What do you know?” Becky gave her eight eyed friend a long stare, until she blinked all but one.

She gave a tremulous and heartfelt sigh on her harp and whispered, for Becky and the kids alone.

“I exist outside your realm, I can touch and feel its essence through the boy and to a lesser extent, all of you…” Thirp’s voice became more confident as she sang her song.

“As distressed as wise Marduk has become, I think he does not see what the boy is doing… entirely by instinct and in desperation. Those were not pieces of Gary romping around those hills making music, they were shades of his honored dead, returned to aid him. Of their own volition, but draped in his shadow and Animus… shades from his home.”

#

Gary was red eyed and exhausted at dawn, when the rest of his family came downstairs. A small clay disk sat unobtrusively over each and every door and window, embedded in the plaster of the walls.

Over the fireplace sat a tiny clay crock, lidded with one of the tablets and covered with Gary’s miniscule runes and glyphs, incised into the clay.

“Festival starts tomorrow… If anybody needs me I’ll be napping in the grotto. I’m feeling a little ragged.” His shadow still trailed behind him, limp, ragged and wet looking, as he slipped through the inconspicuous entrance in the bath.

#