Danny nuzzled sleepily into his blankets. He'd just had a very odd dream…
Time to wake, little one.
Danny stirred, mind still blurring at the edges. Parent? they whispered in his True Voice.
Then he wasn't asleep at all, but staring up at Clockwork and their avatar.
Clockwork was already their parent in a True sense, but saying it out loud like that, in the way that could ripple reality, that had to have consequences.
Bells chimed from deep within Clockwork, and Clockwork's avatar smiled.
It's time for your bath, it said, picking Danny up and making sure their head, and the excess weight of the collar and chain, was supported. Cujo yipped and trotted after them as they left the nursery.
Did you have sweet dreams?
"I don't want to stay there," mumbled Danny.
That is alright.
The hall they were walking down was humid and wet. The sound of water filled Danny's ears, reminding him of the educational program in the other world. The knowledge it had given him was still uncomfortably bright and sharp in his mind.
The bathroom reminded Danny of an indoor pool in scale and general texture, although it was much larger and wickedly clean, and no pool Danny had ever seen had included dentist chairs, or so many chains and restraints.
Nor did pools generally include dozens of white-robed attendants.
They were avatars of Clockwork, just like the one holding Danny, but unlike it, these had once been human. Humans who had become little more than Clockwork's puppets.
They pledged away their souls in the event of their death. In exchange for power. Many of them did not even believe in the soul, but I obliged them, regardless.
Danny thought of all the chains holding them. Would they become like that, eventually? Hollowed out with no will of their own? Forced to watch as it happened.
No, said the avatars. These are a meal which has walked into my mouth. Pleasing in the moment, but forgotten as soon as it is digested. You, like your sibling, are part of my heart, a vital organ. Something I could not survive without.
Danny was set down on their feet, and led to a shallow, empty pool. The tiles on the bottom made patterns that made Danny's eyes water… which, he thought, might be the point.
There was a segmented hook in the center of the pool, and one of the attendants threaded it through one of the links in Danny's chain before pushing the segmented part forward and turning the hook into a loop. Danny knelt next to it and experimentally tried to open the hook again, but to his fingers it felt like the metal had fused, and his vision was too blurry from tears to properly confirm that.
The attendant avatars pulled Danny's clothes off, until he was left with nothing but the collar and the cuffs. Their body under the clothes was soft, smooth, and featureless, except for the faint suggestions of scars and freckles. It looked more like something a person might draw in a g-rated comic than anything else.
Was this how they saw themself? How Clockwork saw them? How significant was that difference?
The attendants offered him a large glass of clear liquid.
"What is this?" asked Danny.
It will cleanse you. It will expel the doubt and fear you have taken inside you.
They wrapped their hands around Danny's and raised the glass to his lips. Danny felt his shadow twitch under his feet as some of the other attendants plucked at it. This would, he thought, probably make him throw up.
He didn't want to do that.
It will only be unpleasant for a moment, my little one.
Danny didn't want to disappoint his parent. They drank and sat down, bracing themself for nausea.
The attendants didn't stop working. One of them pulled Danny's shadow away, which… Danny didn't think that could be done. The shadow was him, and he… They didn't know what to do about this. Some of the other attendants scrubbed at him with damp brushes. Another pulled one of his arms to the side and began inspecting his fingernails. It was all very rough and made Danny cringe, but now that they'd started, Danny could feel how dirty they were, and it made their skin crawl.
They wanted it off.
Something tickled at their throat, the inside of their throat, and they began to cough. The cough became gagging, and something black and thick like tar oozed out of their mouth.
When Danny could breathe again, he sagged against the attendants, who made encouraging sounds at him, and started to clean him up again. This time, the pool began to fill with water, washing away the black sludge.
There is more, said Clockwork, and another glass of clear liquid was produced. You have many doubts. It will feel better when they are gone.
Danny didn't doubt Clockwork. They took the glass.
It became a cycle. Danny didn't know how many times it repeated, but each time he hesitated less and less. He found the experience unpleasant, but he did not fear it, and with doubt washed away, all that was left was his trust and faith in Clockwork. It was obvious that Clockwork had always known best, Danny was just too stupid and ungrateful to see it. It was exhausting, however, and by the end of it he was floating, limp and boneless, at the extremity of the chain, head just above water.
The attendants peered into his mouth. They seemed… concerned? Upset? About something.
It was probably Danny's fault. He always made things worse, always put others in danger…
It is concern. Your inner self, your thoughts, should not still be so tainted. It is almost as if…
The avatar reached into Danny's throat and pulled at something. Whatever it was, it felt like it had hooks and knives clawing all over their intestines, ropes wrapped in the interstices of his organs. He arched backwards, scream garbled by the water-not-water he'd inhaled.
The Dream shuddered, the false reality of the bathroom compromised. Threads of intent and emotion swirled, a tiny, evil knot at their center. Everything snapped back into focus with a bright intensity that made Danny's head hurt… but at least they had a head.
Clockwork's avatar gripped one end of a long vine with wicked thorns in one hand. The other end was somewhere down past Danny's throat. He wheezed around it, every breath like fire.
(He deserved it.)
Self hatred. Oh, little one… How has it grown so terrible within you?
Danny shook his head, but that only brought more pain, so he stopped. The avatars stroked him, soothingly. One of them produced an instrument that reached down Danny's throat and pruned back the vine. Once cut, it instantly withered into nothing.
"Is it gone?" asked Danny, hoarsely.
It is not so easy. A specialist has been contacted. It is a good thing I have not allowed you Hate, that I removed your ability to hate others. You could have so easily destroyed yourself.
Danny nodded.
It will be some time before the specialist finishes their preparations. Let us continue to do what we may.
Danny got the distinct impression that Clockwork was disappointed in him. He cringed.
None of that.
Danny was carried to another pool where he was soaped and rinsed and abraded until every inch of his skin was clean and new. He was brought out, dried, and covered with a fluffy white robe. Then he was brought to the thing that looked like a dentist's chair, but with too many attachments.
Each of their legs and arms were strapped down, and their head held in place. Attendants worked on their nails even as they wisped away into claws, or needles, or gloves. Another brushed his hair out as it grew longer and longer. The cuffs and collar felt like ice.
Clockwork's gears turned, a deep and echoing ticking. There were no words there, but Danny heard a question in them regardless.
Who planted the seeds of self hatred inside you?
Danny answered as best he could, the words falling from his mouth in an endless stream. About how he put others in danger just by existing. About all the horrible things he did. About what he feared he was doing to his friends, his parents. What he feared, deep down, he might do to Clockwork, being so fragile and imperfect. About the stories his parents had told him. About what they said about the others, about what they did, and how Danny knew it wasn't really true, Clockwork wasn't evil, but maybe Danny was if he couldn't control this…
As he spoke, the vines grew out of his mouth in long, painful loops. Clockwork stopped him, and the attendants cut them away.
It will take time to root out all the seeds, but perhaps we can stop more from being planted.
Clockwork's primary avatar left, then, and the attendants started to clean Danny's teeth, then his tongue, then his vocabulary. When the attendants put it back in and started in on their eyes, they felt like there were holes in it. Missing words.
Their eyes were returned and everything seemed… brighter. Sparklier. Like looking through rose-tinted glasses, except these were really his eyes, and this was really how things looked, without obstruction.
Everything seemed… He felt lighter now. He sat up slowly, and looked at their hands, all of them. They were clean. Guiltless. Even with his new eyes.
They served him a light meal, not letting him dirty his hands by feeding himself, and led him back to the pools. They went in and out so many times Danny lost track. Their shadow had been brought back at some point and reattached. Danny didn't know when. The texture of the Dream had become very soft and uncertain, only growing more so as they lost focus. They were tired, and more than a little overwhelmed.
Clockwork's first avatar came back, and the attendants dressed him and braided his hair. The braid was complicated, and Danny at first thought that it was tied to the chain, somehow, but when he ran his hands over it, it wasn't. The clothes were light and many-layered, dark and concealing. They weren't quite like the veils he had been offered, but they weren't entirely different from them, either.
Maybe this would have frightened Danny before. Now, he just felt acceptance and curiosity. How would he be affected by this? They could hardly wait to find out.
Clockwork's avatar took his hand, and led him back to the nursery. Clockwork had said that they would be allowed to go back to the real world after their bath, but honestly, with how worn they felt, it was probably better this way. They needed their rest, and Clockwork's judgment was obviously the best.
The chain seemed to grow heavier and tangle around Danny's limbs as he snuggled into the blankets of their nest-cradle.
Rest, now, hummed Clockwork, all around him. I will take care of everything.
.
Sam was grateful for Horatio's advice. Her parents' resources went a long way in attracting new recruits, but getting them to commit, to believe was something else. The logistics of converting an entire city with gifts of apple-based food were untenable.
Rituals were needed. Proofs, even false ones. A deeper philosophy. Leadership. Rewards for the faithful. A place of worship.
Sam preferred a less authoritarian structure, a more genuine, personal connection, but this was effective, and that was, for now, the most important thing.
Sam split her time between volunteering, visiting Danny at the hospital, and making sure the cult prospered. When Danny woke up, everything would be ready for him.
She, her grandmother, and her parents had moved to a new house to make room for more apple trees. The old mansion had been demolished, and a temple was being constructed.
Everything was going so wonderfully.
A knock on the door jolted her from her thoughts. It might be Tucker, but she doubted it. He usually called ahead. He was a vital part of the cult leadership, managing online recruitment. Even more importantly, he was a voice of caution and doubt. Sam knew she got too involved, too close to see clearly.
No, this probably wasn't Tucker. It might be Jazz, however.
She opened the door and raised her eyebrows. "Horatio, I wasn't expecting you." She especially wasn't expecting to see him so haggard. He looked like he'd aged a decade in a day, but he was also beaming.
"We've received a gift from my patron," he said, staggering over the threshold. He had something clasped in his hands, held close to his chest. "Look."
Sam closed the door and hurried over. He spread out his hands. Nestled between them was a tiny sculpture of a spider, made of gears and jewels. Sam tilted her head, trying to make sense of the message.
Then the spider moved.
