Chapter 9
A Mother Provides
District C-1, Central Sector, Dominion of Nylos
"Good morning, sir," Gally said crisply.
Based on his haircut and the way he carried himself, the old man appeared to have been in the military, so Gally tried to muster her Youth League training whenever she spoke to him. She thought that maybe if she treated him like he was used to being treated in his previous life, it might awaken something. So far, nothing.
"I'm forgetting something..." he muttered to himself in a gravelly voice. "I know I am... Something important..."
"We've been over this, sir," Gally told him. "Something bad happened a long time ago and you were probably right in the middle of it."
The old man furrowed his brow.
"You tell me it's been over three hundred years, that you're like me and the others. But you remember. How?"
"I told you, sir. It just happened."
As always, her answers never satisfied him.
"So, what?" he asked. "Are we supposed to just wait in this stinking hole until our memory just happens to come back?"
"Well, yes," Gally said. "It's not like I want to be here either. I mean, I wanted to come because I thought maybe I'd understand things better if I saw what caused all this for myself. Instead it only made everything more complicated." She sighed. "I never thought I'd miss scrubbing Giger's bathtub and burning his bacon."
"If you'd learn how to cook, maybe you wouldn't burn the damn bacon," Giger grumbled.
Giger had not been there earlier, so Gally jumped a bit.
"Giger! Where did you come from?"
Remembering that she had taken off her choker to speak with her fellow Ancients, she was about to put it back on, but then she realized that Giger knew what she was saying.
"You understand me?" she asked.
Giger flicked his earlobe with his thumb. There was an earring that was not there before.
"It was faster than me making an enchantment for all these people," he said. "I haven't finished work on a collar yet, so you're still going to do the talking."
Gally could not quite suppress a grin.
"I never thought I'd see the day where you wanted me to do the talking."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah."
"If you two sweethearts are done playing grabass," the old man growled, "I'd like to hear a plan that doesn't involve just sitting around doing nothing."
A flustered Gally stammered, "We— We're not—!"
"There's not any ass to grab!" Giger objected.
Although she had been busy tripping over herself as she always did when someone made implications about her and Giger, all it took was Giger making one of his usual comments for her to forget all that. Gally's mind cleared, and in the void, a chill flame began to burn. She channeled that flame into a well-deserved kick to Giger's shin.
"Ow! Dammit!"
Their little exchanged was interrupted by the sound of someone clapping. It was not the sort of clapping one would do to applaud a performance but rather the sort done to get people's attention. It was Mordekai, back from wherever he had been.
"Come now, Giger, Galatea. What sort of example are you setting for our guests?"
"Where the hell have you been?" Giger asked annoyedly.
"I have been providing for all these people, Giger," Mordekai replied, making a sweeping gesture to the huddled masses of Ancients. "And you don't need to be so testy every time someone takes notice of the unresolved sexual tension between you and Galatea."
"Unre—!?"
"Se—!?"
Mordekai clapped again to stop them.
"Enough, enough," he said.
Regaining his composure, Giger then asked, "And how have you been doing that? Providing for all these people, that is."
Mordekai cupped his breasts, saying, "A mother provides for her children as she can."
Giger seemed to turn a little blue at this, earning an unamused look from Mordekai.
"I'm kidding, Giger. Really, now."
Perhaps the only reason Gally did not share Giger's revulsion was because she was too busy being jealous that Mordekai had a nicer figure than her. The universe seemed to be full of cruel tricks.
Setting his inappropriate humor aside, Mordekai said, "I have been busy transmuting matter into necessary materials, purifying water and the like. I'm working on a way to feed everyone. If I could get my hands on some seedcorn, I was thinking I could accelerate the growth cycle, increase the output. The quality might be reduced, but it would be better than starvation, which is what we are risking in the very near future."
Gally did not really understand the limitations of magic, but judging from Giger's reaction, Mordekai was proposing something rather incredible.
"You couldn't possibly—"
"There is very little I can't do, Giger," Mordekai replied. He flexed his hand. "It's not a matter of power, just one of technique... and control."
"It's the control bit I'm worried about," Giger said.
"I'm taking the necessary precautions, Giger, but time is running short."
"Normally, I'd believe you," Giger said, "but ever since you came into contact with that thing, you've changed, and I don't just mean the obvious bits either."
"Don't call us 'that thing', Giger," Mordekai said.
Gally could not help but notice the hard edge to his voice. She had never heard Mordekai talk like that before.
"Right there," Giger said. "It's 'us' now?"
"Of course it's 'us', Giger. The more time passes, the more we reconcile ourselves to a single existence."
"Don't you think that's a problem?"
"Why would I? You can't even begin imagine the sort of power we have."
"I can imagine enough to know I don't like where this is going. Mordekai, we've got to split this thing off you before it's too late."
"I told you not to call us a thing, Giger," Mordekai warned.
In what was probably a dumb move, Gally put herself between the two of them before tensions could rise any further.
"I, ah, I was thinking... Couldn't we find a better place for these people? Didn't you say most of the towns here in Nylos are ghost towns anyway? Even if they're run down, I'm sure they'd be better than this. And if we were closer to the railroad, it'd be easier to get supplies."
Somehow, she managed to successfully distract Mordekai, who turned his attention away from Giger.
"We can't risk relocating these people without putting them in danger. Right now the guild is negotiating under the table with Central for a more peaceable solution to the current situation. Any big moves and they could panic, order a purge of the Ancients rather than take the chance of them becoming a threat. We are already at our limit having saved as many as we have."
Gally did not press the issue any further. Her goal was to defuse the tensions between Giger and Mordekai and she accomplished that. The same trick probably would not work a second time, though.
Mordekai turned his attention to the old man. He cocked his head, like a curious dog, and got closer.
"It's been bothering me for a while now," he said. "You... I don't like you."
"Well, I don't think I like you either," the old man replied.
Mordekai shook his head.
"I suppose I should say that she doesn't like you. It would seem that she remembers something about you. Nothing specific, I'm afraid. She sees you as an enemy."
"Now, Mordekai," Giger said, stepping in, "whatever he was, whatever he did before, that's got nothing to do with him now, right?"
"We're not going to do anything, Giger," Mordekai replied. "Not yet. It's not just to damn a man for sins he doesn't know. Should he remember, though..."
"Is that a threat?" the old man growled.
"No," Mordekai said. "It is simply a statement of fact. Over three hundred years have passed, but the statute of limitations does not apply to some crimes."
"And until those crimes come to light, if they even exist, this man is innocent," Giger said.
Mordekai gave Giger an amused smile.
"Giger, I never knew you were so passionate about the forms of justice. You never did strike me as the type."
Gally noticed Giger's jaw tighten. She knew he had done a lot of illegal things. It never seemed to bother him before, but it was bothering him now. Maybe it was just stress.
Thankfully, Mordekai relented.
"You're right, Giger. If we abandon 'innocent until proven guilty', what are we left with but petty tyranny?"
Seeming to change the subject, Giger said, "You remember when we merged your two halves, what Kamellia said to the whiny one? She said it was like making milk tea, right? But what happens when you mix two things that shouldn't go together, like tea and coffee?"
It took Gally a moment to realize what he meant, but Mordekai caught on right away.
"Just because you think they don't go together doesn't mean everyone will agree with you, Giger. If you like caffeine, mixing coffee and tea should give one hell of a kick."
"Kopi cham," the old man said.
"What?"
"Coffee and tea, it's called kopi cham."
A grin crossed Mordekai's lips as he said, "There. You see, Giger? There are people out there who appreciate the sort of combinations you find so unthinkable."
Gally wanted this to stop. Mordekai was becoming less and less like himself with each passing day. If this went on much longer, there would not be any Mordekai left, just this kopi cham.
Mordekai took notice of Gally and asked her, "What is it, Galatea?"
"Uh, nothing," Gally lied.
She felt like Mordekai saw right through her, but he did not let it show.
"I have work to do," he said. "I was just checking in on you two. I know it's still early, but let me know if you have any breakthroughs. Keep up the good work."
"Yeah," Giger muttered.
Mordekai gave a nonchalant wave as he walked away. Giger just stood there watching him go. Gally could tell there was a lot going on in his head, but she knew he would not tell her anything if she tried to get him to open up to her.
"That's quite the piece of work you got there," the old man said.
The old man grunted and held his forehead. Gally went to his side and asked him, "Are you alright?"
The old man waved her off.
"I'm fine," he said. "Just got a feeling there's some unfinished business that needs tending to."