Chapter Twenty-nine – Alliances made
Typing everything Jei says with an Irish accent, especially when I haven't many Irish people to listen to and study the accents of, is a bit awkward, so let's pretend it faded pretty quick once he was surrounded by such a conglomeration of foreign accents, okay? Basically, I keep forgetting to do it anyway, so you're better off using your imagination. ^_^
Schuldig stared around the white and crimson room. There was blood sprayed across the floor, the walls, even the ceiling. Sitting cross-legged on the floor was the teen from whence it came. His hair was the same colour as the blood. Red-gold eyes studied the broken tile slick with blood as it tug into pale flesh.
"Sick!" Schuldig exclaimed. Jei seemed to finally notice him. "That's so gross! What the fuck are you doing to yourself? Why!?"
Jei shrugged. "I was made in God's image. His image." Jei's lip lifted in a disgusted sneer and he went back to trying to cut his arm off with the broken tile. Schuldig snatched it from him and tossed it away.
"What have you got against him? I mean, he doesn't even fucking exist!" Schuldig crouched to look at Jei's arm, checking to see how much damage the youth had managed to do to himself.
Jei slapped him. "Of course He exists. Who created us? What is our purpose? Why is there suffering? Answer those," he snapped.
"Coincidence," Schuldig said promptly.
"He exists," Jei said, his voice dangerously low. "He will smite the unbelievers. Come judgement day you will regret your words."
Schuldig gave him a bemused frown. "Because he won't be just a little bit pissed at you slaughtering loads of people?"
Jei chuckled. "I do it to hurt Him as He hurts us."
"You're a regular little Lucifer, you know that? And hey, a few more unbelievers ought to piss Him off a bit. Spread the atheism." Schuldig rolled his eyes and stood, calves cramping as he stretched. He offered a hand to Jei. "Move, you're blocking the drain. No one knows what to do with you. I've 'talked' the guys in the Labs into not cutting you to bits to see what makes you tick, but you might want to hold off the massacring for a bit."
Jei shook his head in defeat. "You know nothing," he said. "Is religion discouraged here?"
"It wasn't until you killed that guy for praying. Suddenly everyone who believed in God is feeling extremely discouraged." Schuldig found a clean bit of wall to lean on. Jei didn't seem to have a problem leaning in his own blood.
"God created us. God created this world. God created suffering. Does He sound benevolent and compassionate to you? I punish him the way He punishes us, taking what is His, what He loves, and destroying it." Jei slammed his fist into the wall a few times and broke off another bit of tile. Studying his pallid flesh, he chose a relatively bare portion of thigh and started scraping at the skin.
"So because He loves you you're intent on destroying yourself?" Schuldig asked, firmly convinced the kid was loopy.
"He both loves and hates us all. He is omniscient. He knows all, and so feels all, and so loves and hates all things. This is why He gives us so much, and takes it away again."
Schuldig frowned, trying to get his head around this piece of purely nonsensical logic. He touched Jei's mind lightly.
* What? * Jei asked
* Huh? Oh, just trying to, you know, see it from your side, * Schuldig told him, a little embarrassed at having his light probe caught by the Irishman.
* I'm insane. You won't find much of any use in here, * Jei told him firmly, pushing him out.
Schuldig grimaced. Jei wasn't talented, not in the traditional sense, but he had the potential to be a null. His twisted mind acted as a natural barrier for most kinds of psychic invasion. He'd probably prove just as much an enigma to the telempaths, and maybe even clairvoyants, as he did to Schuldig. Schuldig could 'see' into Jei's head, through the 'glass', and what he saw was a ball of wool. All of the thoughts followed each other consecutively, but they were tangled up. Most people were a woven mat or hundreds of single fibres, thousands of unconnected thoughts at once, but ordered and logical. Still, to Schuldig, Jei's mind made more sense, once you'd followed the single strand from end to end.
Schuldig shook his head to rid himself of the mental images that fouled up his concentration. No matter what metaphor he applied he couldn't accurately describe his talent any more than Brad could his. It was like explaining 'red' to a blind man. It just was, a sense like the other five that couldn't be explained in terms of the other five. Trying to just confused all involved and left Schuldig looking for things that didn't exist, like glass walls and balls of wool.
"Still in there?" Jei asked, amused by Schuldig's long silence.
"Ja. So, God is, basically, all things, you were saying? So He's hate and love and… hey, isn't He the devil as well?" Schuldig frowned. "So He opposes Himself and tried to overthrow Himself… He's nuttier than you!"
Jei smiled. "You're finally getting it," he observed.
* * *
Nagi stared at the member of staff. It was the man in charge of physical education, a telekinetic like himself. His body was well past its prime but Nagi got the impression he'd never used it much anyway, always relying on his talent. Nagi's lips curled in distaste.
"Come now, boy, you must know how it works by now. Or would you rather visit Hertz?" the Brazilian coach wheedled. His name was Pablo, he was overweight and balding, and he'd had his eye on Nagi for a while. However, his eyes were brown.
"Hertz," Nagi said promptly, amused by the look of shock on Pablo's face.
"You… you don't understand me properly," the man floundered, jowls quivering. Nagi watched a sweat drop slip into one pendulous fold to be lost in amongst the greasy skin. Waiting for that drop to reappear and slide down the pockmarked chin was like dropping a stick on one side of a bridge and waiting to see how long it would take to appear on the other side, but accidentally picking a bridge over a railway instead of a river.
"No. Not you, Hertz. He will beat me, not rape." Funny how 'rape' had been one of the first words Nagi had picked up.
"Senor Pablo?" A cultured voice called. Nagi's stomach flipped. "You are required in the great hall."
"We will finish this… one on one training later," Pablo told Nagi. He spun around and swept out. Nagi watched the folds of fat as they kept turning once Pablo had stopped, orbiting under their own momentum. It was bordering on hypnotic.
"Nagi? Are you okay?" Rammi jogged over, turban on the verge of unravelling. He'd clearly been looking for the younger boy for quite some while. The conversation changed from German to Japanese.
"Good," Nagi told him. "Thank you."
"I've been looking for you for quite some while," Rammi told him. Nagi smirked inwardly. "Look, I won't press you, but I want you to know my offer to help still stands. I'm in different classes to you, I know more students than you, I'm a telempath. I can help you find this bastard you're looking for."
Nagi raised an eyebrow. "You could tell if someone was lying?" he asked softly.
"Yes, if you want. Do you have any suspicions?" Rammi smiled at him, pausing into front of an exercise bike to study his reflection and adjust his turban. Nagi wondered how he got away with the unorthodox piece of uniform. Rosenkreuz didn't exactly respect religious beliefs.
"All males," Nagi said with a tired smile. "I'm whittling it down, rather than picking individuals and proving them innocent one by one. So far I've been able to cancel all females and everyone with brown eyes."
"What about hair colour?" Rammi asked, pointedly blinking his own deeply brown eyes.
"I don't know. Dark, I think, but I don't want to be too narrow-minded. I think the eyes are grey-green, but they could be hazel or blue or even a very pale brown." Nagi followed Rammi out of the gymnasium into yet another grey corridor. Their footsteps echoed behind them.
"I can tell who has and hasn't had sex," Rammi told him. "It's not an exact science, but in general, virgins are easy to spot. Also the extremely homophobic."
"So a gay, bisexual, bi-curious or just plain horny male or hermaphrodite; probably with dark blonde, auburn, brown or black natural hair colour; blue, green, grey, light brown, hazel or combination eyes and the ability to get into the 'phys' boys dorm," Nagi ran down the list with an ironic despair. "I will find him," he told Rammi. "He will suffer."
"Good," Rammi said. "Make it public. Let them know not to touch you."
"Make it public, make it painful," Nagi's eyes narrowed. "The screams will echo through these walls."
Rammi paused in midstep as he finally wormed his way into Nagi's emotions. What he felt scared him. He suddenly found himself hoping Nagi never found this boy. He hoped Nagi would die before leaving Rosenkreuz. That sort of hatred… Only Hertz could rival it.
* * *
Brad sat down politely in Hertz's office, trying not to think of who he was sitting on. The 'leather' and 'ivory' creaked as it settled and grew used to his weight. Hertz was chewing on the nib of a pen.
"You managed to bring in the Irish boy despite complications," Hertz finally observed, having kept Brad sitting in silence for almost ten minutes. "You have experience with a range of psychic talents and have proved most capable in handling one of our most tempestuous students. You speak a variety of languages and manage not to kill every dignitary you meet, unlike most people I've come into contact with while working here."
Hertz sat back, folding his arms. "I wish to make clear right here, right now, that I am utterly against what I am about to say. I don't trust you, Crawford. You are ambitious and clever, two things which should be avoided in combination at all costs. Your loyalty has always been questionable and Frau Dubois's vision only confirmed my suspicions. But, unfortunately, there are people yet higher than I in the chain of command, and this has come from the top.
"You have three years to prepare for an assignment most of us dream of. You will be vital in making Estet's dreams come true and plans to fruition. You're going to prepare the way for the Summoning."
Brad stared. He heard rumours, vague hearsay and childish exaggerations, but he'd never thought… The Summoning. Something big really was going down, and he was going to be part of it. This was promotion beyond his wildest dreams. If he did well, he would have all the power he ever dreamt of. If not, well, dead men bear no grudges.
Hertz raised an eyebrow. "Well?"
"I… I am honoured. Flattered. Amazed." Brad rubbed his head. Flighty dreams of power and dominance were all very well, but he had to make them come true first. "I am honoured to have been picked to honour Estet in this way, and I will do all I can…"
"I don't doubt it. You're a power-hungry supercilious sycophantic little brat," Hertz told him bluntly. "I don't like you and I don't trust you, but you're not the only one gifted with visions and someone at head office seems to think you're the only man for the job. I've sent numerous recommendations that they reconsider and Frau Dubois's vision has been recorded in minute detail. But they still call for you."
"I will do the best I can on Estet's behalf," Brad murmured, for once, really meaning it.
"They told us where to find you, in Japan. They told us to collect you. Normally we wouldn't dream of collecting anyone over sixteen, especially if they've already got their talent under control, but they insisted on you. This has been in the works for centuries, Bradley Crawford. Don't mess it up."
Brad frowned. "There are a lot of students over sixteen at the moment," he pointed out cautiously.
"None were over sixteen when they started. Generally we take twelve to sixteen here at Rosenkreuz. Any younger and we have other facilities for them. That telekinetic is another exception, also insisted on by Estet." Hertz shrugged. "He's as bad as you, but twice as precocious."
Brad's lips quirked into a wry smile. "He's immensely powerful, from what I hear."
"Ja…" Hertz gave Brad a level stare. "I know what you want," he said slowly. "You want power, you want control, you want freedom. There's no such thing as freedom, Crawford, and it would do you good to remember it. We are beholden to each other, all of us." Bitterness was seeping into Hertz's voice like water around a submarine's door. It was but a fraction of what would burst in when the hinges gave. "They'll give you a semblance of freedom, I don't doubt. You'll choose a team, you'll be given free rein, and you'll order your own affairs. I don't doubt you're capable of that. But remember who holds the leash. Governments, Estet, your team… There's no such thing as freedom."
"I won't forget that," Brad said honestly. "If I can't take my leash off, I want to hold somebody else's as well."
Hertz grunted. "Like the rest of us, Bradley. The bomb's only as good as the button, boy." He reached into a desk draw and drew out a dusty folder. "I've had this for years, waiting for their golden boy to turn up. I'd even prefer that Jei kid to you, but what I do to you is nothing compared with what they'd do to me if I kept this from you."
Brad frowned. "I was always under the impression I was expendable," he murmured.
"You are," Hertz told him carelessly. "If you die, there'll be someone else. But until you do, yes, you're indispensable. You're just a tool, Bradley. You're the best tool, but if you lose the lock picks you can always make do with a hairpin." The dust file was reassuringly heavy in Brad's lap. "This organisation is huge, Bradley. There are more people in it than there are in America. We have the ability to make more psychics without depending on fate. If you don't perform, we'll kill you to leave pace for someone else."
Brad met Hertz's eye. "As long as I'm alive," he said quietly, "there's no one else, is there? It was an inalterable vision. Only my death can change it."
Hertz snorted. "Finally, the boy gets it." He waved one hand vaguely, and Brad realised he was gesturing for him to leave. He stood up, holding the file carefully. The two men stared at each other for a second, equals for the first time. Hertz smiled. Brad smiled.
After a curt nod and a proud saunter out of the room Brad collapsed against a wall, fighting hyperventilation. Sweet shit… They were putting him in charge of the end of the world. Stuff Hertz. Stuff that shit about freedom. Stuff Rosenkreuz.
Brad breathed deeply, enjoying the heady scent of fresh new power. In his hands he held the fate of the world.
He began to laugh.
I wasn't expecting that. Huh. Brad's gone mad. Cool.
