All conducted experiments point to our hypothesis being correct: Vesperta vitae, once attached to a victim, is impossible to remove. Furthermore, the effects of its compound does leave the victim fully conscious. It is the recommendation of the panel that the latter be omitted from any public reports due to moral implications.
-Collected studies on the nature of the Gargoyle, page 586
Evelyn couldn’t remember the last time she had dreamed. She always awoke from emptiness, from the nothing. Yet now, for the first time in what seemed like centuries, she was dreaming.
Back between the void and the universe, she floated behind the strange creature. Though silent, its one word still reverberated through her head.
Alone.
She tried to speak through an immobile mouth. The creature turned. Starry eyes stared through her, peering into her mind. Its face churned and roiled like the sea, until it finally settled into joy.
Success.
The enormous voice rattled through her, and a startling buzzer snapped her awake.
She quickly sat up, knocking her head on the top bunk.
Will chuckled groggily. “Good morning.”
“Mornin’.”It didn’t hurt much.
She rubbed her scab as she looked around the room. The lamp on the wall burned her eyes like the sun. She looked downward, and a faint blue ‘30’ appeared on her wrist. Just a month left, huh? And I’m already insane.
The prospect of another 15 missions soured her already bitter mood. There was nothing to do but persist, like her brother had wanted her to.
Entering the mess hall, her mood improved. Vanham was nowhere to be seen.
Deanna and Will approached from behind.“Do we just sit down, then?”
“I suppose.” Will said, gazing longingly at a cook. She shook her head, so the four of them sat down at a table.
Evelyn was glad to see Deanna and Magnus back, though the boy seemed a bit different. She had expected him to be in some state of panic or despair, but he was remarkably normal. Wonder how long that will last.
“So, how did your part of the mission fare, Deanna?” Will asked.
“Fine.” She said coldly, looking around. “Would’ve preferred not to…” she pointed towards the exit. “Is that a child?”
Melvin walked in, followed by a pair of guards. He wore a suit similar to Vanham’s, but with black and white tassled shoulder pads. He was small for a ten year old, but bore the uniform well.
“Good morning, everyone.” his voice was oddly commanding for one of his stature. “It seems the twenty-eight individuals who arrived have been shortened somewhat. Congratulations to you all for completing two missions back to back. I assure you, such a charge is a rare occurrence. Your sorely needed reinforcements should arrive tomorrow.”
Evelyn looked around, and saw that he was very right. Of the seven pairs that went out yesterday, only five remained. Kitsch and Brannaghan were still there, as were an old man and the stinky italian guy. The final pair consisted of a tall man with a large scar on his face, and the man who had been stabbed by Vanham in training. Wonder who’s next, she thought.
Melvin continued. “You will therefore not be sent out on a mission today. Don’t think that you can relax, however. There are several duties you must perform on your days off. Do your work correctly and to the proper quota, and you will not be sent out tomorrow, either. You have the following two hours to to yourselves.”
With that he left the room, jogging to keep up with his guards.
Magnus beamed. “No mission tomorrow?”
Will smiled and nodded. “Yes, though we have to work for it.”
“What kinda work?” Evelyn asked.
“Refinery duty, most likely.”
Magnus nodded to himself. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”
“There is blood involved, Magnus.”
“I can handle that.”
The kitchen bell rang, and Evelyn scrambled towards the scrambled eggs. They were not on the menu today, sadly, so she had to make do with a bowl of oatmeal drizzled in honey, and two plates of bread, cheese, and crispy bacon. She almost forgot the apple juice.
After the meal was sufficiently devoured, she finally had a free hour. As Will and Deanna headed towards the gym, Evelyn realised that, for the first time since being thrown in jail, she didn’t know what to do with her time.
A familiar problem, and one she would have to get increasingly used to as the years would drag on. Still, it daunted her. There had to be something to do, right? There always was. Working out was useless, of course. She already showered yesterday. Books were boring. So what should she do? What could she do?
Alone.
It made sense for her to finally show signs of insanity. She thought of that creature. It looked vaguely familiar. Was it Evelyn? Was it what she would become after living out uncountable millenia in silence and isolation? Had she seen herself?
So she sat for half an hour, in quiet despair. Eventually, boot heels echoed towards her, and Magnus sat down.
“Oi.” He said, nudging her with his arm.
“What?”
“How are you holding up?”
I don’t know, how often do you freak out about infinity? “Fine.” she said flatly. A sudden fatigue overwhelmed her, but she tried to keep from resting on the table.
He nodded, expecting something from her. Whatever it was, she didn’t give it.
“I’m fine too, thanks for asking.”
“Sorry, mate”, she said, “I’m just knackered.”
“I get that. What do you think of the Corps so far?”
“I dunno.” She propped up her head with a knuckle, elbows resting on the table. “Haven’t had much time to think lately.”
“Life comes at you fast, huh?”
Doesn’t feel like it. In fact, it’s felt horribly slow for almost as long as I can remember. He didn’t need to know that, though. “I guess.”
“Yeah.” He leaned towards her. “So, what did you do before you came here?”
‘What’s it to you?’ She wanted to say. But Magnus deserved better. “Lots of different stuff. Odd jobs, whatever we could get, really.”
“Did you do anything cool?”
She smirked. “Got hit by a storm doing upkeep on the hull, once. It was on a wire too, so I was swinging like a clock for, like, half an hour.”
“Above the open sea? Sounds more horrifying than cool, if you ask me.”
“Nah, it was fun. Very cold and wet. I got some sick air time, though. I mean, how often do you end up dangling a hundred meters above the ocean?”
He considered for a moment. “About as often as I want to. Zero, if that wasn’t clear.”
“It was. No offence, but you don’t strike me as the type to enjoy that.”
“Because I’m a wimp?”
“I didn’t say that. But didn’t you almost faint when someone mentioned blood the other day?”
He blushed. “Yes. Yes I did.”
She looked him in the eye. Something seemed different about him. “But you’ve changed.”
“Yeah.” he sighed in a long, deep breath. “Guess I had to.” He seemed reluctant, in regret.
“It woulda happened eventually, mate.” She rubbed the scab on her hand. “You can’t get through life without a few scars.”
“Actually, I always imagined I’d be one of them at this point in my life. You know, immortal, invulnerable, unable to get any scars?”
She sighed, feeling the fatigue even more.“Immortal people still get them, kid. They’re just not so visible.”
“I don’t believe that. I mean, what scars are there to get when you can live forever?”
“Trust me, mate.”
He shook his head. “No, but can you imagine immortality? Never having to worry about dying or getting hurt. You can do whatever you want, for as long as you want, with no limits at all. And you’d be rich enough to not have to worry about ending up somewhere like this.”
If only it were that easy. “You’d have to worry about staying rich, too, mate. What happens if you can’t afford the next dose?”
“You honestly believe that crap? You think Ithunn would sell people immortality, all for it to wear off and make you die in pain?”
“Ithunn is the reason you’re here, mate..”
“Yeah, because I killed someone. Besides, it’s just a rumour. Where did you even hear that?”
She scratched at the scab on her hand. “If every rich person can be immortal, wouldn’t there be an insane amount of rich people by now?”
“No, that’s not how the economy works, Evelyn.”
He really did afford school, huh. “Mate, how many 200 year old celebrities can you name?”
“Tom Cruise. He’s gotta be like 250 years old, at least. He’s weird though. Gwyneth Paltrow too, right? There’s also…” He looked deep in thought. “Damn.”
She nodded. “Now, where do you think they went?”
“I don’t…”
A guard walked up. “Stop that.” he said, face invisible through the sooted glass of his mask.
“Stop what?” Evelyn answered.
“Your conversation. You are not allowed to talk about that here.”
Magnus butted in. “I thought freedom of speech was…” He trailed off as the guard raised his wrist monitor, finger ready to torture them.
A child’s voice piped up behind them.“Guard, what are you doing to this woman?”
The masked man spun around, and quickly saluted once he saw Melvin. He looked Evelyn in the eyes. “What did you do?” Melvin said, like she was a misbehaving child.
“I was just talkin’. Apparently that’s a crime now, too.”
The guard threatened with his display again. Melvin looked at him pointedly, and the adult walked away. “I’m sorry about him. I think it’s his first week on the job.”
“Thank you, Captain.” Magnus bleated. He rose up and gave a sloppy salute.
“It is quite alright, don’t bother saluting me.” He said, blushing. “They’re usually quite eager to constrict our inmates.” He shrugged. “Can’t say I blame them most of the time, haha. But you seem different, Evelyn.”
He remembered my name? “Uhh, thanks. Captain”
He nodded. “Now, what were you two talking about? As eager as that man is, he has shown good judgement so far.”
Magnus studied his feet intently.
“Immortal people.” Evelyn said quickly.
“Oh? What about us?”
Magnus’ head snapped up. “You’re…” he said, mouth agape.
“I am.”
“How… how old are you?” He said reverently.
“That does not concern you, young man.” the boy - the man? Turned to Evelyn. “Now, what did you say about us?”
She studied his eyes. Though he was physically young, she could see a certain familiar age in those brown eyes. He didn’t seem that old, though. Mid twenties, maybe.
“I would prefer to keep that private, Captain.” she said, immediately regretful.
“I can’t fault you for that, I suppose. Though in my eyes, your right to privacy is waived whenever you…” He leaned back.
“When I what?”
“Oh, I don’t want to get punched, miss.”
She balled up her fists, disrupting the scab. “Breathe, Evi” her brother would say in times like these. She relaxed her hands.
“Thank you.” Melvin turned. “Gather your partners, your work begins now.”
Above deck, pinprick rays of sunlight streamed in through the oppressive chain link fence. The ocean was calm, the wind almost completely still.
“Why’d you think they have that fence, Deanna?” Magnus asked.
“No idea, actually. Makes it way harder for pirates to attack, I guess?.”
Evelyn wondered the same. She had her suspicions, but it seemed an expensively odd addition to an already massive ship.
“Where do you think that is?” asked Magnus, pointing at a far-off piece of shoreline.
“Europe.” Deanna said.
“Given the position of the sun and the direction of the wind, I would say we are sailing north.” Will added. “We might soon be entering the English channel.”
“Smartass.” Deanna mumbled.
“Correct, young man.” Melvin added from behind him. “Give or take a few days.” He said with a wink. “Now, this deck is in need of scrubbing. Will, report back to me once you are done with the upper half.”
As soon as he was done speaking, the Captain turned and walked to the elevator.
A dejected Kitsch walked up to Will. “How big is this deck?”
He sighed. “125 000 square meters.”
A guard walked up, carrying a bundle of brooms, another arrived with buckets of soapy water.
The old man walked up and eagerly grabbed a broom. “Best get to scrubbin’!” he said, voice like an untuned guitar.
Only Will strode forward, met by praise from the old man.
When he saw that none of the others moved, he threw one at Evelyn. “C’mon now, get to work. We haven’t got all day! Lazy kids…”
Evelyn caught the broom, but didn’t say anything. She found a puddle of water on the deck, a mirror for the world above. Evelyn didn’t quite recognize herself in it. Then again, she hadn’t when she was young either, though for a wildly different reason. She had changed that, yet some vestiges of that old feeling remained.
She could hear the old man begin his work, so she dipped the broom despondently in the water, and got going.
They scrubbed until their arms were sore, and the brooms worn down to the wood.
Initially, they all worked independently, but the old man organised them into a line. They worked side by side, struggling to keep correct pace with each other.
For a while, no one spoke, not even Magnus. They just bent down and scratched at the dirty asphalt, up and down and up and down and up and down, until the sound of it all made Evelyn want to tear her ears off.
“What is your name, sir?” Will asked the old man.
They were side by side, and Evelyn wondered why he hadn’t asked sooner. “Seamus.” he responded, in a weathered voice. “You’re Will, right?”
“I- Yes, I am. How did you know?” Will straightened his back, and met Seamus’ eyes. “No, I know you. Did you not get discharged a week ago?”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
The old man laughed and stroked his bushy beard. “Aye, I did. Felt a bit lonely though, and I knew there would be some kids here in need of helpin’.”
“Mate, you survived, but still went back?” Evelyn said.
“Indeed, miss.” He bent down and kept scraping.
Evelyn did the same. “You do you, I guess.”
“I’d wager no one’s done him in a few decades.” Brannaghan sneered to her left.
Seamus simply chuckled at that, and kept going.
“So, where are you from, Seamus?” Will asked.
“Glasgow. You’re from Fairhair, aint ye?”
“Yes.”
“Wait, I think I know you, lad.”
Will cocked his head.
“Or, I think I knew your da’.”
“My father?”
“Yes, we worked together for Ithunn, bless his heart. We met him once, y’know. I shook his hand.” the old man looked at it reverently.
She looked at Will in a new light. That explains it.
Will seemed eager to change the subject. “How did you end up here the first time?”
The old man kept going. “He even looked me in the eye, he did. And I could see it in him, that invincible look. Never has there been a man like that. From one touch it felt like I could see the infinite.” He stood up, staring at the sky. “He told me, laddie. What he saw that first time. The words it spoke…”
The words it spoke?
A guard walked up, threatening with a baton. “Back in line!”
Seamus hurried back to the rest of them. “Sorry, laddie. That memory always stirs me.”
“I could tell. Father never spoke of meeting him.”
“And you should thank him for that, elsewise you would have arrived here sooner.” His eyes narrowed. “How did you end up here, lad?”
Will looked away, cleared his throat. “I would prefer it if we worked.”
“See? I knew he was loaded, the snooty bastard.” Brannaghan whispered to his partner. Evelyn said nothing, and went back to scrubbing.
“Say, what happened to yer partner? Andrius, was that it? Quite fond of him, I was. Looked forward to seeing him again.”
Will kept scrubbing.
“Alright, alright, I won’t press ye.”
Seamus fell silent, and they returned to more monotonous scrubbing.
The old man had to take breaks, blaming his back. Will seemed in pain too. Evelyn was just sore. Sore and tired. The late autumn sun beat harshly against their backs, as if to prove its strength one last time before its wintery torpor.
Kitsch complained of blisters, and Deanna had to take a few breaks. Not Evelyn, though. A small part of her felt guilty for last day’s mission, though she knew it was just Vanham being a self-righteous stool.
A soft singing voice broke through her concentration. “Love, only when I’ve paid my dues, will I lie down next to you”. It was Magnus. He sung in time to the scraping, a slow, determined beat.
“But I must dig a grave for two.”
“What comes around, goes around.” Seamus sang back, his voice as pure and deep as a lake.
“Dirt flies, never will I” Magnus sang
Seamus answered. “Hear the symphony of her sigh”
“Still, Lord, I’d like to survive”
“What comes around, goes around.”
The pair kept singing and singing, until the upper half of the deck was finally scrubbed clean. Evelyn never knew there could be that many verses to a song, nor people to remember them. It had helped them work, however, and Melvin seemed satisfied.
As they were about to take the elevator down, a regiment of guards poured up from it, running towards the fence.
10 meters off the ground was a pink-clad person with a large birthmark on his bald head, desperately climbing. The climber was barefoot, and blood dripped down the links.
“What’s his plan of escape once he gets over the fence?” Magnus nervously asked.
Will put a hand on his shoulder, and spoke with reverence. “This is his plan.”
“CLIMB DOWN, NOW!” a guard shouted.
“I control my future! My life is in my own hands! Tell Ithunn to go bugger himself!”
He let go of the fence, and fell with waving arms, head down towards the deck. Halfway through his flight he seized up, falling like a pink log. He plummeted to the deck like a statue in a revolution, and hit the ground with a deafening crack. Guards rushed to, and slung him into a net. He was carried past them, constricted and whining. Evelyn looked at the place where he fell, worried at the cleanup they would have to do, but there was none.
“Guess that’s what the fence is for.” Deanna concluded.
…
Melvin addressed them as they gathered around a table in the refinery, after having eaten lunch. “I’m sorry you had to see that. That is the sad side effect of what we do here, and the reason you are divided into pairs. Please, take care of one another.”
She looked at Will, who had been silent since the conversation of the deck. Was she supposed to take care of him?
Kitsch and Brannaghan both scoffed at that. “What happened to him?” Brannaghan asked.
“He has been placed in rehabilitative care.”
Do they still count his days? Evelyn wondered.
“Anyway,” Melvin continued, “Seamus, would you mind teaching the rest how to operate the refinery?”
He smiled. “Aye, Captain.”
“Excellent. I will leave you to it, then.”
The refinery was its own building, smack dab in the middle of the cargo hold. Erupting from the building were two smokestacks, emitting a thick red smoke absorbed by massive fans above it. An alcove was built into its side to accept the tanks they carried on missions.
Inside the building was a bunch of chemistry-looking gear Evelyn didn’t recognize. Various differently shaped glass flasks seemed haphazardly connected by tubes and pumps and boilers and stirrers and dispensers and piles of weirdly-smelling gear.
There were apparently four simultaneous lines of production in the refinery, meant to be operated by thirty people. Each line was placed upon a long countertop, stretching from the stacks of partially filled tanks at the left of the rectangular room, to the final inspection chamber at the far right end.
They were not thirty people, however, so they only operated one line. Evelyn stood near the front. Magnus, two places to her left, was the first. When Seamus had placed him there, Evelyn half expected him to panic as he had to connect the first tank to the line. He initially messed up the connection, getting violet-red blood on his gloves.
Evidently, he was no longer the scared boy he had been just a few days earlier. He didn’t make a sound, and simply kept working. Maybe there’s hope for him, after all.
After Magnus got the tanks connected, Kitsch worked a pump and Will did… something else, Evelyn had to carefully adjust the dosage of a separation flask. It separated the blue stuff from the blood - somehow - and she had to make sure not to have too much in the flask at the same time.
It was monotonous work, pressing the button when the fluid reached a line, letting go once it was fully separated. The first twenty minutes were boring, but she would rather do this than scrub the deck. And compared to being out in the field, it was the best thing she had ever done.
Still, it left a bad taste in her mouth. Their hard work in the field, risking not just their lives, but an eternity of torture, for this? Inane liquid moving through a tube was worth all of that. And the things it was used for… She looked down the end line, where Brannaghan was turning the liquid serum into a gas. Was there a way to tamper with it somehow?
Will, to her immediate left, shuffled on his feat. “Andrius got taken.”
Seamus, to her right, answered softly. “Oh. Did you see it happen, lad?”
Will nodded, and swallowed.
“It happens.”
The tall man seemed close to crying. “It shouldn’t have, though.”
“Everything happens for a reason, lad. Maybe you were needed as a partner to this nice young lady instead.”
“Maybe. Be that as it may, it does not erase the guilt.” He was barely holding back tears.
To Evelyn’s surprise, Magnus consoled Will. “There was probably nothing you could have done, Will.”
He let loose a singular sob. “He got taken because of me.”
“Oh dear…” Seamus mumbled.
“I stopped him because I wanted to turn in the tank that time, and I was in the helicopter, and I just…” He leaned on the counter with his head in his hands. “I can’t get it out of my head.”
Evelyn, as always, had no soothing words to say. Baldrian would have. She thought, absently.
But what to say? She didn’t feel as strongly as she should have. Yes, it was sad, but there were around 600 million just like this Andrius fellow out there as well. Should she be broken-hearted about all of them as well?
A guard approached, and Will stood back up and kept working.
They went on with their work in silence for a while. There was little to distract them from the monotonous work, except for the liquid in the pipes.
Seamus spoke up again. “I have a theory, y’know.”
“About what?” Will said, his voice giving no indication of having cried.
“Vesperta Vitae.”
“The gargoyles?”
“Aye. Ever wondered how they work, lad?”
He thought for a moment. “They are parasites, no?”
“Yet they have no digestive system. No way to absorb nutrients. Your da’ and I researched this back in the day.”
“How the hell do they work, then?” Evelyn asked.
“Emotions, lassie.”
She scoffed.
He smiled knowingly. “I know, I know. Sounds like hippie gobshite. But during every mission I keep one thought in the back of my mind. You see my husband and I, every morning, I make him coffee and he makes me some tea. We fetch some biscuits and sit in the garden, rain or shine, and talk for hours. Thirty years we’ve done that, and we never once grow bored of it.” He breathed out. “The thought drives away some ‘tae screams.”
Will leaned forward. “And?”
“Never once has a gargoyle come within an ox’s cock of my foot. Even when I call for extraction, they’re mellow as can be.”
Evelyn scoffed again. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“With that attitude, you won’t.”
She looked forward, at the tubes of blue and red streaming past.
“Well, we shall have to try being more chipper on the next mission, Evelyn.”
She eyed him as she emptied the separation flask. “So long as Brannaghan fucks off.”
“Yes, that could lighten the mood.” He leaned towards Seamus. “If this theory of yours is correct, it could increase our chances of surviving this affair.”
Magnus’ voice cracked. “A-are they that low?”
Back again, I see.
Will turned to console him. “No, not at all. But this could help.” He looked even more hopeful than usual.
“What if I don’t have many good memories to look back on?” Magnus asked meekly.
“Surely you must have some, lad. What’s your story?” Seamus asked Magnus.
“Oh, I don’t…”
“You can tell us, young man, there’s no place for judgement here in the Corps.”
Even unjust judgement?
Magnus didn’t answer, so Seamus kept going. “My first time around, I broke into an Ithunn distribution centre, tried to get me some serum. Four whole weeks, that earned me. And I served them with pride. A just punishment, that was.”
Amateur.
Magnus detached a spent tank. “Only four weeks for that? Evelyn here got five.” She glared at him, but he was too busy fetching another tank.
“Five weeks, eh?” Seamus emptied a flask of pure blood. “What earned you that, if you don’t mind me asking?”
She could still hear the judge’s abrasive voice in her head. Fratricide, he’d called it. The injustice of it all brought her blood to a boil.
“Him first.” She said, pointing a thumb at Magnus.
“I accidentally killed Ithunn’s great-great-great-grandson.” He said tersley.
Seamus tightened up. “Makes sense. A great man, I bet he was.” He turned to Evelyn. “Comes with the name, you see.”
“Mhm.” she nodded. The only good thing Ithunn ever did was taking money from rich people, she considered saying, but thought the better of it. A pair of guards stood right behind them.
“Lad, if it was an accident, don’t feel so bad. He should have been more careful.”
“I’m trying not to. It just feels unfair, that I should live while he is dead.”
“And why is that?”
“He’s worth so much more than me.”
“Lad, if he died, he wasn’t immortal. That made you equal.”
“Okay.” Magnus suddenly looked his age, meek as a meerkat.
Seamus turned to Evelyn. “Allright, miss, your turn now.”
Why would he need to know? Explaining would just make her mood worse.
Baldrian wouldn’t like you clamming up like this, a small part of her thought.
She found her heart racing, oddly enough. “Tax fraud, armed robbery, the like. I also made a bomb, but I didn’t get to use it. And that’s just the stuff they know about.”
“And that earned ye five weeks?” Seamus said suspiciously.
“Yes. Yes it did.”
“Righty-o, miss, I won’t pry. I just like to get to know my fellow inmates, is all.”
She pointed at Will. “You two should be best friends, then.”
Her partner looked mildly offended. “Oh, is it so wrong, wishing to know my brothers and sisters in this struggle?”
“Not at all, lad. Frightful bad habit, that, keepin’ to yourself. Made me lose sight o’ everything my first few weeks. Then I got to know good old Andrius and Ellie. Fantastic pair, they were.”
Will spoke softly. “He never did tell me his old partner’s name.”
“That so? They were a proper pair. Spoke of gettin’ married when they got out. Sad, that.”
“Indeed.” Will said, failing to hide a stab of sadness. “He told me not to hope for anything beyond these next, draconian weeks. It was so strange to me, then, how certain he was that he would make it out.”
Seamus nodded to himself. “Andrius always was a fool. Hope got me through the first four weeks.”
“What did you hope for?”
“That I would have another one of those lazy mornings with my dear.” He smiled. “Were he any sweeter, I fear my teeth would fall out.”
“Did you get a morning like that?”
“Aye, I did. They wanted me back, though.”
Magnus turned in surprise. “Wanted you back?”
“I kept one vial of serum from my first break-in, and they found it somehow.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” the boy fetched another tank.
“Don’t be, Ithunn and his Judge were merciful this time. One more day, and I’m out of here!”
Will smiled. “I think we are nearing our quota too, Seamus. It looks promising.”
“Indeed it does.” Seamus said eagerly. “Tell me, William, what is the first thing you’ll do when you get out?”
“My name is not William.” He said.
Then what the hell is it short for? Evelyn thought.
“Anyway, I think I will apply for a scholarship position at the medical facilities on Fairhair. I hope to discover a cure one day.”
Evelyn got a strange feeling in her stomach.
“Wonderfully ambitious, son. I will wait with baited breath.”
As will I.
He leaned backwards, past Evelyn and at Magnus. “And you, laddie. What do you wish to do?”
“Get his driver’s license.” Deanna said wryly from further down the line.
“Not funny.” Magnus replied. “I will… ascend one day.”
Seamus whistled. “A noble goal, that. Do you have a plan?”
“Well… I’d wanna do it in a nice way. I don’t want to exploit anybody.”
Fat chance, then.
“I would probably start my own company, maybe invent some cool things? I have a cool idea for a new type of holoprojector.”
Really? Evelyn couldn’t help herself. “What kind?”
“Well, the current ones run on gas, which I think is kind of wasteful. It also means you can’t carry them around. I have a concept for a kind of non-newtonian aerogel. I got the idea from the gargoyles actually. They seem liquid, but if you punch them they’re solid. And when you touch them slowly, they seem like something in between. Now, if I could trap gas in the aerogel, and apply a constant semi-pressure, I could make it the same! So it would be see-through, portable in large sizes, resistant to shocks and vibration, and cheaper in the long run, too!”
“Wow.” Evelyn said. “I never thought of using it that way. I did some work on the holoprojectors at the University of Boudicca, and they leaked like crazy. Older lecture halls needed massive fans to not kill every student after a while. That could be huge.”
Will seemed proud. “I never took you for a gearhead, Evelyn.”
“And didn’t you say you were from Vercingetorix?” Magnus added.
She shrugged. “I’ve been around.”
“You seem traveled beyond your years, Evelyn.” Seamus said.
She turned and looked him in the eye. He smiled back, innocent as a baby.
“Thank you.” She said coldly, and looked back at her work. Her heart was racing.
“What are you looking forward to, Evelyn, after all of this?”
“After.” she mumbled, with an uncomfortable laughter. “I’ve got thirty days left, old man.”
He seemed perplexed. “And? You’ve made it through five days soon, why not the next thirty?”
“I almost got taken on my first mission, mate.”
“Almost?”
“Will pulled me away.” She gave him a look of thanks. He reciprocated. Guess you didn’t want to repeat your mistake, eh?
“You would have done the same.” He said.
At that, she simply nodded.
“You still haven’t answered my question, miss.”
What did she want? To see my family, she almost said. “I… dunno, to be honest. Always thought I’d figure it out later.”
Will nodded in agreement. “And as later became yesteryear, you kept wondering.”
“Yeah.”
“No shame in that, lass. Took me a good thirty years to figure it out for m’self.”
“Pretty quick, all things considered.”
He laughed heartily. “True, true.”
“Can it really take that long?” Magnus asked.
“Aye, son. I’ll let you in on a little old-person secret: no one really knows what they’re doing. No matter how smart or well thought out some people seem to be, we’re all flying by the seat of our pants. Even Ithunn Himself never intended to become what he is today. He was thirty five by the time he made his first thousand! A promising young lad like you, you’ll have plenty of time.”
“Thanks, that helps. And I hope you get to see your husband soon.”
“Thank you. If any of you stop by the London area, I should like for you to meet him! He was so very fond of the stories I told of the people I’d met here.”
“You’re from the mainland?” Evelyn asked.
“Yes, aren’t you? You sound straight out of east London! Or do you maybe have family there?”
She went quiet for a moment. “It’s where I learned the language. No family there anymore.”
Brannaghan piped up from the other side of the room. “Would that be on account of killin’ your brother?”
She turned towards the snarky asshole, nails digging into her palms. As she stepped out of line, Will grabbed her arm.
“Evelyn.” He said firmly. “Not now.”
She wrested herself from his grip, and ran at Brannaghan. He was still smirking as her knuckles met his nose in a wet snap.
He hit the ground, and she followed after, grabbing him by the shoulder and punching him across the jaw. He went out like a light, and she let a guard restrain her.
For once, she finally felt something.
Rage.
…
Surprisingly, no one had reprimanded Evelyn. After Brannghan came to, he continued working in silence. He hadn’t had to pick up any teeth yet, but didn’t seem eager to try her again. Soon after, their quota for the day was fulfilled, and they were released to eat dinner.
It was as delicious as usual, a filling beef stew with garlic bread. Evelyn could have punched someone for a glass of wine to go along with it. She’d done enough of that today, however.
She eventually found out about the little store they had on board. It wasn’t large however, and they wouldn’t actually get any money to spend before their seventh day. ‘Why give money to someone with a high chance of getting taken?’ Seamus had said.
Apparently, if you made it through the first week, you were more likely to complete the sentence than not. She doubted that was wholly true, more from caution than anything else.
It could also have been Seamus in his high spirits. Evelyn wondered how it would feel to be only a day away from being released. A small part of her suspected she would never know.
After dinner, she sat on her own, the large mess hall feeling dark and cramped. Magnus walked up, a concerned look on his pimply face."You look sad, Evi."
"Do I?" was she sad?
"Yes. You get like that whenever someone mentions… y’know."
"My brother."
"Yeah."
"I just want you to know that I’m here if you need someone to talk to about it. Will too."
She smiled faintly. "Thanks."
Did they actually care? She found it hard to believe. An older, unburnt version of her could believe it. Baldrian would also have…
"His name was Baldrian." she said, matter-of-factly. "He… he died." she swallowed in a dry throat. "A few months ago." How many, she couldn’t say. They had all passed in a numb haze.
"Oh… were you close?"
"Inseparable. I don’t remember a time without him." She was surprised at how little she felt from this. If Magnus said she looked sad, he must’ve been good at reading faces.
"I don’t have a brother." he fiddled with his fingers. "Or a sister. How is it?"
She smiled, for real now. "Wonderful. When I was around him, I always felt like a better person. More human, I guess. He brought out the best in me. And now he’s gone." She got a familiar clenching feeling in her jaw, and felt a strange phantom lump in her throat. Like a dam of trash clogging an overflowing stream.
She staunched it. It would not overflow its banks, not ever, not again.
"He must’ve been a good guy."
"He was. Horrible taste in women, but… yeah. I wish he was still here."
Magnus raised an arm. "Can I…?"
She nodded, though she couldn’t say why. He put his arm over her shoulder, trying to comfort her, like Will had him only a day ago. He said something, but she wasn’t there. She was back under the sun, fighting in the orchard with swords fashioned from the trees of her youth. So, so long ago. Her branch-turned-sword was deadfall from an oak she had gotten stuck atop in her childhood, brought low by a blackening pest and the demands of modernity.
"It could spread to the big tree" her father had said when they’d sawed it down. She had cried then, as she’d failed to do now.
Her brother had bested her that time. He had never done that before, he was too young. She remembered how strange it felt, to be beaten by a brother who, despite his thirteen years of age, still seemed a toddler to her eyes. Overpowering the strange feeling, was pride. His smile had outshone the sun that day, a sight she had returned to in previous bouts of melancholy.
"Thank you." she said.
“It’s what friends do.”
She disagreed for a moment. Then again, she hadn’t had much experience to base it on recently. Just try it once, alright?
“Yeah.” she whispered.
And the world seemed a little bit brighter.