Chapter 37: Tools or Weapons

Alps

'Who's a pretty girl then?' Fly-Eyes crooned to a straw doll. 'Who's a pretty girl? That's right. You are.'

His moment was interrupted by another Night Creature coming over to set down another body that was beyond forging. As soon as he laid the body down, he turned and looked at Fly-Eyes curiously. Fly-Eyes didn't noticed until he snarled inquisitively, asking a question. Fly-Eyes looked up at him quickly.

'What are you looking at?' he demanded. 'He told us to place possessions to aid later identification if need be.'

The other Night Creature looked at him with amusement and snarled something else out.

'I needed to see if it still worked,' Fly-Eyes insisted before putting the doll down on the grave of the little girl who'd owned it. Then he stood up. 'I'm going to see Isaac.' He turned and started to walk away.

The other Night Creature picked up the doll and held it out with a snarled question and a cheeky look on his face.

'No! I'm not taking it with me.'

The Night Creature through his head back and laughed as Fly-Eyes left.

Isaac sat near the tower, enjoying a plate of berries while he surveyed the work.

He looked over as Fly-Eyes approached. He knew what was coming. What he was doing now, what he was using the Night Creatures for, was unusual. It was understandable that his creatures would wonder. And Fly-Eyes was the only one who could talk in a way that Isaac could understand.

Fly-Eyes stopped in front of him. 'May I ask you a question?'

'Of course,' Isaac said.

'What are we doing here?' Fly-Eyes asked.

'That is a very broad question,' Isaac told him. 'Be more specific.' Isaac gestured to the pile of stones opposite him. 'Sit.'

Fly-Eyes climbed up and sat on the pile of stones opposite him. 'I do not need to tell you what Night Creatures are, Forgemaster.'

'You can call me Isaac.' Isaac picked up a berry and held it up. 'Would you like a berry?'

'Case in point,' Fly-Eyes said. 'I am a Night Creature. I eat blood and meat.'

Isaac smiled. 'A berry would probably not kill you.' He ate the berry himself.

'Night Creatures kill, destroy, and despoil,' Fly-Eyes pointed out. 'It is our pleasure.'

'Night Creatures do the will of their Forgemasters,' Isaac corrected him.

'Then perhaps I simply don't understand your will,' Fly-Eyes said. 'You have us burying people.'

'The city was littered with dead.' Isaac dropped his head mournfully. 'Too many of them were too decayed to be converted by magic.'

'So?' Fly-Eyes asked, making Isaac look up at him again.

Isaac straightened up. 'So they need to be buried.' It'd been so long since Fly-Eyes was human, he had forgotten this. 'You are not a fool. Insects and diseases would breed. And I would remind you that everyone here was a victim. They deserve a burial.'

'Then why do we care about insects and diseases?' Fly-Eyes asked, his frustration coming out in his voice.

'Ask your question,' Isaac said.

'We kill, destroy, and despoil!' Fly-Eyes curled his hand into a fist. 'You have us burying the rotten dead, and rebuilding and repairing this place. Why do you have us going against our nature?'

'Your nature is fluid,' Isaac explained. 'You believe you're tools of destruction only because this is how those of your kind have always been used.' He picked up the plate and held it out. 'Have a berry.'

Fly-Eyes considered the place and then he selected a blackberry from the plate. He put it in his mouth and slowly ate it. He straightened up. 'Memories…' he whispered.

'I'll answer your question,' Isaac said. 'This city was once home to many hundreds of people, perhaps more. It could be resettled…once the bodies are buried, the debris is disposed of, and structures are repaired.' He paused as Fly-Eyes looked back at the city. 'We will be moving on soon. After we're gone, the city will be here for people to find and make homes in.' He turned back to Fly-Eyes. 'Would you like another berry?'

Fly-Eyes looked back at him. 'I think so.'

Isaac offered the plate again. 'Take one.'

Fly-Eyes leaned over and took another berry.

'You see,' Isaac said, 'you can use a hammer to build a house…or crack a skull.'

Fly-Eyes seemed thoughtful as he chewed the berry.

'You are returned to Earth as tools and I will use tools as I wish.'

But Fly-Eyes was a million miles away. 'So many memories…'

That was fine by Isaac. 'I can also choose, in the end, to recognise that you are not tools at all. For no tool would taste a berry and remember the time in its first life when it encountered them.'

Fly-Eyes's head snapped up. 'But…we are creatures of Hell…to be commanded to fight.'

Isaac quoted his favourite passage. '"One day Hell will be emptied and its doors will rattle in the wind".'

'What?' Fly-Eyes asked.

'Through my hand,' Isaac said, 'God lifts the damned from Hell in his mercy, to enact their penance on the Earth as my soldiers.' Isaac's eyes narrowed.

Fly-Eyes leaned forward eagerly. 'Yes!'

'Should their penance on Earth be eternal too?' Isaac demanded.

Fly-Eyes looked down. 'I…do not know.'

'Neither do I.'

Fly-Eyes looked back up at him.

'We should find out together. In the meantime, we can both do a little more than what we were intended for.'

Fly-Eyes inclined his head. 'May I make an observation?'

'You may.'

'You are changing. There is still revenge in you, I think, but other things too.'

Isaac stood up. 'Perhaps.' He set the plate down next to Fly-Eyes.

'Are we still fighting, Isaac?'

'We're always fighting for something. But I take your meaning. Soon.' He turned and headed into the tower.

Walking up the spiral staircase, Isaac stopped at a room half-way up to where he'd met the mad magician. He had erected a statue for him. When the new settlers arrived, they could decide what to do with it, but Isaac had the statue there so they knew what he looked like and the plaque beneath listed off what he had done.

'He might have a point,' Isaac mused. Entering the room, Isaac looked at the statue. 'What do you think?' He walked around the statue. 'It took me a few weeks to transform the viable bodies in this city.' Isaac turned to survey the bookshelves. 'Weeks more to restore the city and bury those too destroyed to convert. Is it so bad to take my time and think for a moment?'

He took a book out and sniffed it.

Isaac looked back at the statue. 'Have I changed?' He paused. 'Go on. Say something. I killed you, old wizard. You must have an opinion on that. No?' Isaac turned back around, returning the book to the shelf. 'I have killed many people, old wizard, for many reasons. But killing you felt…just. It felt like repairing the world a little.' He lifted his head and sucked in a breath. 'I liked that feeling.'

Isaac wandered across, running his fingers over the spines of the books.

'For a time, I was content to be the knife that others wielded. But lately, old wizard, I have felt more like the hand than the knife.' He pulled another look down and looked at the cover. 'My whole life, I have reacted to things. Rarely acted.' His hands shook on the book. 'So…' and then they stilled, '…yes, I have changed.' He turned back to the statue. 'I have agency in this world. I can create futures! And, happily, I could create a future and end yours at the same time.'

Isaac walked out of the room.

'God is good. I wonder what I will do next.'