Solomon really wants to have misheard it, she really, really hopes that it’s a different person than the one she has in mind.
“How do you know that?” She asks, trying her best not to show that she knows. “It’s one thing after the other these past days…”
“We found a letter signed with this name at first.” Says Ludwig. “My men are looking into it now, they should get back to me about it soon.”
Solomon feels the creator’s anger become a sense of amusement. Maybe she should speak up about it… But then again, she has enough regrets about doing such already.
“A Spanish bloodhound priest.” Ludwig goes on. “It’s always the people you least expect, eh?”
“I’m not so sure about that.”
“Truly.” Solomon says with a sigh of exasperation.
“Benedict, take the book back to the warehouse and tell Vanessa that the Acid One’s awake.” The raccoon nods and picks up the book. Rather than fear, he looks at the cat with trust. He then exits the room.
“Who’s Vanessa?” Solomon raises an eyebrow.
“Head of the information department.” Ludwig replies with a grin, likely having a lot on his mind. “If this turns out to be the one… We’ll be further in our plan than ever.” He gestures at Andreas to leave as well. With a salute, he walks out the room.
Ludwig then turns to look at Solomon, clearly trying to look compassionate.
“Listen… You’ve only been here for a week, yet I found out so many interesting things about you. Why not stay with us? You could…”
“No.” Solomon cuts him off. “I’ll let you look into my magic, but that’s the end of it. Once we’re done, I want nothing to do with you.” She states adamantly, swearing that she can hear the wolf softly growl as she responds.
“But why? Isn’t this exciting? One of a kind doesn’t even come close to defining what your power is!”
Solomon scoffs.
“That’s the thing, you only care about my power.” Ludwig frowns at her response. “You can’t have my power, so this is the next best thing. I need you to understand, I’m the person behind this power, vile and evil, and deceitful, apparently.” She looks down at her hands, then back at the wolf, who seems to be growing increasingly impatient. “I want a normal life, Ludwig. I understand how important this is for you.” She raises her hands and shows off her markings. “But I don’t want to live in a place like this, I don’t want to live a life like this. I agreed to help with the cult and now even more. That’s the end of it. I’ll give you that and no more.”
Solomon knows the risks of having this conversation with such a short-tempered person, but it’s a risk she has to take if she ever wants to live what is at least close to a normal life again.
Ludwig growls, much more audibly this time, but stops by the end of her speech.
“I’ll give you time to rethink your choice. We’ll see about it.” Without another word, he walks out the door.
Solomon feels a strange sensation of relief coming from the creator, like he’s glad that the wolf left.
“Now what?” She says softly, inspecting her hands. The dark green spirals haven’t changed one bit. “He has no intention of letting me go, does he?”
Solomon spends some time thinking about what the best course of action would even be. “Why did any of this have to happen to me? Did I enrage a higher being somehow?” She can’t think of a proper explanation to any of this. And now, a metal wolf wants to learn how to make his own magic. She’s certain she is the only person in the world with such a problem. What could she do? Disappear on that mission of hers and live the rest of her life in hiding? That doesn’t sound like a preferable alternative… Yet.
“Pray for me, Father…”
She lies there for what feels like hours, her hands even stopped tingling. She wishes that the pain in her chest was also gone. She is left alone with her thoughts… Well, not quite alone. His feelings have shifted to just sadness and regret once again. Unlike last time when his feelings and emotions spread to her, Solomon can clearly separate their feelings. If she was looking at him from the outside and saw him be sad, she wouldn’t believe him for even a second. But coming from inside, it feels much, much more different. “It’s easy for some to fake emotions on the outside… But what about this?” She knows not what to think of this tonal change, but she feels like it’s for the better. In fact, despite everything… She wants to know more. She wants to know more about the creator, hear his side of the story, albeit with apprehension. Currently, she’s the only one who could even possibly talk to him, as bad as an idea that that could be, but she wants to try, she wants to know…
She holds out her hands and stares at the markings.
“What do you make of all this?” She asks, a little nervous. She senses him go from sad to confused. “Yes, I’m talking to you. Acid One. Creator.” The confused feeling lingers. “Let me rephrase… How do you feel about all this? The System? Ludwig?”After her question, she feels a burning sense of hatred from him. “You and me both.” She states. His anger once again turns into amusement.
“Did I just find a way to communicate with him? Or is this just a sick coincidence?” She thinks about things she could ask the creator. She still can’t help but wonder how he could possibly understand English, however.
“How do you feel about what happened after I…” She pauses for a second. “After we read the book?” She corrects herself, certain that he read what she read as well. “He must have seen through my eyes. Can he still do that? He can certainly hear, that’s for sure. But how does he understand me?”
To her surprise, he seems to feel a deep sense of regret about it. “Interesting.”
“How do you feel about me?” She asks, somehow not having thought of anything better. He “responds” with a feeling of warm comfort. Solomon herself isn’t sure what to think of that.
“Alright then, Acid One…” She pauses for a moment, remembering how much she herself hated being called that. Feeling all these different emotions of his herself, she finds it hard to believe that he’s just a monster like he was described in the book. She knows that she isn’t evil, who’s to say that he really was? Even though she saw the destruction he caused, the things he could do… It just doesn’t feel right one bit to call a person such an epithet.
“Despite everything, it doesn’t feel right to call you that. Do you have a name?” She feels a sense of mild anger followed by indifference. “I’ll take that as a no.”
“Can I give you a name?” She realises how weird it sounds to ask a creature that intelligent such a question, but his response… Solomon knows this feeling. It’s the same feeling she used to have whenever she asked for an allowance, except much stronger. He is pleading.
She feels terribly confused by that. His pleading grows even stronger. “Does he feel what I feel?”
“Alright. I’ll give you a name.” She says and looks at the ceiling as she thinks, more on just how bizarre her current situation is, all things considered. She never was good at coming up with names, but she can at least try.
“What about… Cecil?” She suggests. She is met with a feeling not of anger, but disappointment. “Don’t like that one either to be honest.” She remarks. “Maybe something more old-fashioned…” She contemplates a little more than she likely should on something like this. She frankly has no idea what names people used to be called thousands of years ago.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Okay, how about…” She takes another second to think. “Genesis?” It’s not a name, not a proper one, but she feels like it would fit him. “Since you were the first one, the creator. It means creation, so I thought…” She feels a sense of satisfaction coming from him. “Alright then… Genesis.” It may not be the sanest thing to get so comfortable with him so soon, but it just might keep her sane a little longer. She doesn’t want to spend the rest of her life possessed by someone evil, she wants to believe, as unlikely as it is, that the book lied about him.
“How do you feel about the rest of them? Shaquia, and the others?” She senses indifference from Genesis. Now her curiosity is properly piqued.
“If you remember my friends… What about them?” She herself feels comfort whenever she thinks about them, like now. “What about… Lisa?” Her own feelings grow warmer, but Genesis, he’s completely indifferent.
And Lisa… Having spent a few days away from her friends, she realises something: that she misses the wolf the most, in a completely different way. She misses having her by her side on most days. She wants to be with her again, to see that often much too smug face of hers…
“Let’s change the topic, okay?” She suggests, feeling her slight embarrassment and his confusion. “Such emotions… I mean, he was a person at some point.”
She thinks back to what she read in the book once again. Vile, evil, and deceitful, just like its creator… She can’t help having doubts about her intuition. Just to be safe, she will stay suspicious of Genesis until she can know for sure. She can’t grow too comfortable with him so fast.
She then feels her hands tingle, specifically her right hand.
“I do NOT trust you enough for that.” The tingle fades with a sense of disappointment.
Another nurse only comes back into the room until what feels like an irresponsibly long time to leave someone who created a fifty-metre radius hole alone. Solomon at least got to think a little more during this time, even growing ever more curious about reading the rest of that Ledger. It may be partially responsible for this, but all that information on magic… It would be a shame not to have a look sometime. She feels like she should limit her curiosity for the time being, however, given the circumstances.
She tells the nurse about the pain in her chest, which he begins to work on right after, shining a soothing, warm light onto the left side of her ribcage. He looks awfully uneasy about treating her now that she’s awake. “Maybe that’s why he put it off for so long.”
“I’m not going to hurt you.” She states. She can tell he’s afraid despite the mask over his mouth. It doesn’t seem to ease his mind too much. The cat feels like she really shouldn’t share the information about Genesis with any more people.
“I assume you’ve seen what happened at the warehouse.” She tries to start small-talk. The nurse nods, looking concerned. “Yeah… Sorry about that.” She doesn’t feel she can make up for the damage she caused with Genesis, but at least she’s trying.
“Do you have any idea how expensive it’ll be to fix that?” The nurse says in response, his voice shaking at the end, likely regretting saying a response in the first place.
“I can imagine…” She says with a soft chuckle, which seems to unnerve the nurse even more. “Hey, it was a nice demonstration for Ludwig, right?” She feels a certain sense of delight from Genesis.
“A demonstration?” Says the nurse, more annoyed than afraid. “You call that a demonstration? I call it senseless destruction! Why does Ludwig choose to…” He bites his tongue.
“Ah, forget it.” Solomon rolls her eyes. “Just fix me up, s’il vous plaît. The sooner I’m done with Ludwig’s plan, the better.”
It takes just about all day and switching nurses four times, but eventually, Solomon’s chest pain is finally gone. She feels dreadfully hungry, thirsty, and tired after the experience, the IV may have kept her alive, but it doesn’t exactly count as a substitute. The last nurse tells her to go find Ludwig at her earliest convenience, on said wolf’s orders.
Solomon visits the cafeteria, people are giving her various looks as she casually sits down to eat. Fear, hate, and even envy are all present. The staring eventually stops, but most glance at her every now and then. She isn’t sure how much they know, but she can safely guess that everyone knows about the incident in the warehouse. She hopes that Ludwig hasn’t announced the nature of her magic to them.
She doesn’t feel any strong emotion from Genesis as the people look. Finishing her meal, she leaves. Two days of sleeping… That would make this her eighth day at The System. She wonders how much longer she must stay there. Given that they apparently don’t even know where the cult is exactly, she feels that it’ll be much longer than anyone would prefer.
She also decides that three days without showering is about three days more than she’d normally like. It’s always been natural to her, and that’s a habit she isn’t breaking. She grabs clothes to change into from her room and heads to one of the bathrooms, no one seems particularly interested in talking to her on the way. When she enters, she gets a thought that makes her feel thoroughly uncomfortable. Just how much can Genesis see? If he really sees through her eyes… Now she would really prefer to know.
She feels no emotion from him as she gets ready to take a shower. Midway through, she takes a quick glance at a mirror. She then feels a mix of surprise and embarrassment from him, but a lack of interest. She promptly looks away with a blush. At the very least, it confirms that he can see just fine after the incident. “Great. Just great.”
After she is done, she looks at her hands as she exits.
“If you can close your eyes, please do when I shower.” She isn’t quite sure if the awkward feeling coming from him is because of the situation as a whole or because he can’t. It certainly doesn’t encourage Solomon, especially since skeletons don’t normally have eyelids.
Feeling considerably less relaxed than she usually does after a shower, gets ready to go meet Ludwig. She really isn’t looking forward to it after their last conversation.
When it’s finally convenient for her, she makes her way to his office and knocks on the door. She hears that he is engaged in a conversation inside.
“Come in.” He says as the room falls silent. She opens the door to see the wolf and a lioness with an eyepatch over her left eye. She looks like the one in the painting, except she didn’t have an eyepatch there. Rather than a suit, she wears a dress, allowing the orange markings on her right arm to be seen. They are unlike what Solomon has seen before, much more intense, covering more of her arm.
“Sheila, I’m afraid our meeting concludes here. Thank you for the information, but this discussion I’ll have…” He is cut off by the lioness, Solomon can see a pronounced vein on the side of his forehead appear.
“You must be the new member.” She says in a tone that Solomon finds less than comforting. “The one whose so-called friends pulled that little stunt at Lion’s Den?” She adds.
Solomon thinks back to what she overheard the wolf say. “She must have arrived here when I was out.”
“She’s the one, yes.” Says Ludwig, trying to remain calm. “And she’s essential to our operations.”
Sheila keeps scowling at Solomon.
“Right. And whose bright idea was it to take her in?” She asks, turning to face Ludwig.
“You’re looking at him right now.” He responds with a grin.
“That’s just wonderful. And you chose to keep her after what she did too?”
Solomon looks at Ludwig, hoping that he won’t just give out her secret.
“Yes, I did. That power is exactly what I was looking for! Why would I cast it aside?”
Sheila shakes her head.
“This place is going to fall because of decisions like that.”
Solomon feels a sense of burning hatred from Genesis. She looks at her hands and smiles, which results in him feeling mildly confused. She steps forward and puts her hands on Sheila’s shoulders, causing her to slightly jump. She quickly turns around to face the cat with fear in her eyes.
“She could have killed you right then.” The wolf states. “She’s now a part of us, Sheila. Whether or not you like it. Lion’s Den is but a small price to pay for her power.”
Both felines look at Ludwig in disbelief.
“You. Are. In. Sane.” The lioness remarks.
“I’m not exactly happy about such a loss, but let’s just say that she will make up for it greatly.”
Even Solomon has a hard time believing what the wolf is saying. “I understand that this is a great discovery, but that’s just not even correct.”
“You want to be alone with her? Fine. Go ahead.” Sheila announces, followed by her storming out of the room. Solomon doesn’t feel too good about her remark, but she’s getting more and more used to it.
“Please excuse her temper.” Says the wolf. “That’s rich coming from you.”
Solomon sits down on her side of the desk.
“I heard you were discharged from the medical room over an hour ago. What were you doing earlier?” The wolf asks with a dry expression.
“Went to eat, shower, do the laundry, things like that.” The cat replies casually, causing Ludwig to raise an eyebrow.
“You did all of that before coming here?” He questions.
“I have my priorities.” Says Solomon, crossing her arms.
Ludwig grunts, snapping out of whatever train of thought he was having.
“Anyway… My agents found something I’m sure you will find most intriguing.” A smile stretches across his face. “This bloodhound clergyman, he is indeed connected to the Lighborn.”
Given the things Durazo told her about the priest, Solomon isn’t too surprised.
“His expression when asked about the cult told them everything. He folded quickly, he’ll lead us to where they are located! Can you believe that?”
Solomon can’t help but have her suspicions, all of this seems awfully convenient.
“You’ll be going to Spain tomorrow.”