057 – Burned Ruin

Day 8

They were all gathered in front of the club by the time I returned, even Helene with her dogs. Roslyn was pacing up and down. Even at a distance, I could see that she had allowed herself to hope. That there would be a fight in which she could save her child.

Any fighting spirit drained when I dropped the plush donkey in front of them and landed. I kept my back turned as I canceled the shape. A murmur went through the gathered group.

“Eve?” Roslyn asked. “Where is Jason?”

“Claire—” My voice gave out. I balled my fist. “Claire killed him.”

I had dropped the bomb, but I didn’t stay for the explosion. While the group erupted into confusion, questions, and cries, I walked away. Jamie confirmed that I was telling the truth. Of course, he had only my emotions to judge that by. I didn’t know how he knew what I was feeling. I didn’t know what I was feeling.

Moments later he fell into step beside me. Even though I spent all that time as a Golden Retriever, he sometimes reminded me more of one. All I had done was shove him into a profane space, and it had gotten me undying loyalty. It didn’t feel fair.

But right now? I was glad he was here.

We wordlessly made our way into the ruins of a burned-down house. It was far enough away that the chat no longer transcribed the discussion that was happening in front of the club.

I stared at the melted remains of a gaming console that had dripped along the front of a burned-down TV stand.

I didn’t know what to do. About Claire. About the Wyrm. About the Warlords. With one act, she had poisoned any cohesion this city had. We couldn’t coordinate with other Blessed through her.

“Can I hug you?” Jamie asked.

I looked up at him. I wanted to reply, but my throat was acting up. Instead, I nodded.

He pulled me in close, and I put my head against his shoulder.

“It’ll be okay,” he said.

Part of me wanted to argue that this was incredibly cliché to say. I resigned myself to the hope that he was right.

“Want to talk about what happened?” he asked.

I did. Laid everything that happened out. The only parts I skipped were the Wyrm’s spoilers and Lucy’s offer of a weapon against Claire. At some point the tears had started flowing. We were sitting in the ashes of someone’s former home, covered in soot.

“Do you think she’ll do it? Help the Wyrm?”

“I—I think she will. It’s her class all over again. She always thinks she can outsmart something or someone. That she’d be the one going into this with a plan and that she would end up on top.”

“Damn. What do you think it wants from you?”

I was drawing circles in the ash with the tip of a claw. “To build something. It said something, and at that point I didn’t fully grasp it. ‘Please don’t disembody me.’ It is restricted to technology. It crashed a ton of EVs, taking pot shots on us all the night this all began. Its movement is very limited now. There aren’t many bodies like that robot out there. And even in one of the most modern workshops in the world… a lot of equipment is made for human hands. It probably only needs a tiny jumpstart before it can build anything on its own. But before then, it requires engineers. Or the closest to that it can get.”

“And we need to try to prevent that from happening.”

I looked up at Jamie. “I am not sure we should. Embodiment. That is literally a Perk I have. Is it okay to deny that to someone? Even an enemy?”

“Are you… are you saying you want to help it?”

I picked up a charred piece of wood, leftovers from a burned-down couch, and tossed it into the remains of the TV stand. They crumbled.

“I don’t know. The most enticing part about this is that it’s a problem I’d know how to tackle. Easily digestible into distinct problems and steps to solve them. Simple feels really attractive right now.”

“Hubris.”

Jamie leaned back, leaving the word hanging between us.

“What?”

“You heard me, Eve.”

I looked at him and explored the strange sensation that was the Oath’s shared understanding. Underneath the familiar current I had come to associate with these discussions, there was something colder.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Jamie was afraid. Of me. Of what I could do.

I leaned my head back, looking at the ceiling.

“Fuck,” I said.

Jamie put a hand over mine. “I’m not saying you are entirely wrong. Just… maybe table this thought for now, okay? You are talking yourself into something, and I don’t think it has anything to do with the Wyrm.”

“Okay.”

“Thank you, Eve.”

I stood up and held out a hand to help Jamie up. “No, I need to thank you. Ever since Mammon, and… you know. I’m feeling lost.”

Jamie took my hand and allowed me to help him up. “One step at a time. We got this. Eventually.”

I looked around, back toward the club, where the others were still processing the fallout of the bomb I had dropped.

“I need to talk to Helene. I don’t want to head out there without you again, but I think I should team up with her, and just her, for a bit.”