The cacophony was deafening. This time a lot more of the elders had joined the video conference, and the wall had to be subdivided more, so each face was almost unrecognizable, but the volume was just as loud.
What I could make out of the screaming summarized to, why had I waited so long to contact them, where was the artifact, how dare I attack another elder, how dare I claim the victory form myself, and more ridiculous claims.
“Will you all shut up!” I yelled. And it worked. Maybe I needed to start yelling more? “Now, how about one of you ask the questions? You all have phones, message him.” I look at the cougar seated next to me as the yelling started up. “If this becomes the norm, you have to get a mute button installed. I am not a screamer.”
“Sometimes you are,” Max smirked.
When silence returned, I looked up. The armadillo’s window was three times larger. I had not expected Colby’s father to be the one nominated. “Where is the artifact?” he asked.
“Hidden.”
And the screaming began anew. I pulled a chair and put my feet up on the desk. Max looked at me, ear tilted, and with an exaggerated sigh I put my feet down. I didn’t stand when the silence returned.
“Who gave you the right to make that decision?”
“Like I was going to hand over the most powerful artifact we’ve ever hear of, to one of you. An artifact that He went out of His way to hide from us.”
“So you’re you’re going to hold it over our heads,” someone said. “Typical Rasia.”
I bit my tongue. Still? I saved the whole fucking Society and they couldn’t drop that?
“How do we know it’s hidden?” the Rowling elder asked. “I don’t mean to imply you can’t be trusted, but—”
“Really? You say I can’t be trusted and want me to believe that isn’t what you meant?” I preferred Colby’s few words over his fathers’ full phrases. “Can I say anything that’ll make you believe me? Or is my last name going to be a constant red letter on my breast? Yes, I know where it is. But I’m one person and I know it can’t be extracted from me, so it’s the safest I can make it.”
Please don’t ask about mind reading, there only so far I can lie to the lot of you. I could stop a mind reader if I was holding the artifact, but then what? What else would I be tempted to do with that power? Max didn’t react to anything I thought. That guy had an amazing poker face, because he had to be listening to my mind right now. Ar least of all the elders, him I trusted.
“Why did you wait so long to have this conference? it’s been more than a week since Damian has been defeated.”
Been defeated, not since you defeated him. They weren’t going to give me any credit, were they? “You fight a champion, and then tell me how much rest you need. Ask your people in my company how often I’ve been out of the bedrooms there.”
“You only left to go home,” the armadillo said, “which begs the question when you could have hidden the artifact.”
And we were back to that. The accusatory tone didn’t help. “You want to get it? Be my guest, scry all you want. You’re not going to find it, and I’m not going to tell you where it is. Can we move on to a more constructive subject?”
“You mean the way you disrupted the whole world?” a rabbit said. No Canadian accent, so another one. I couldn’t keep track of how many rabbit families were in the Society. They really did breed like bunnies. Max cracked a smile. “Well?” the rabbit said. I’d missed the whole speech, and I wasn’t sorry.
“Well what? I didn’t do anything but stop the guy who was set on killing our god, or would you have preferred I let him do it? He’s the one who killed all those people, not me.”
“So you claim,” someone said, “like a Rasia’d ever tell the truth.
I stood. “Okay, I’m done. I am fucking done with this bullshit. I am going to say it one final time, in a way that you guys will hopefully understand. My name is Denton Brislow. I am the elder of the Brislow Line. My son is named Edward Brislow. There is no Rasia Line. There hadn’t been one since they were murdered over twenty years ago by the same guy I saved you all from. Update whatever book you keep that information in, because I’m no longer going to honor that name.”
This time when the chaos erupted I didn’t bother with it. I turned and went home.
* * * * *
I stood in a plain. I was dreaming, I knew it, although this felt real. He stood next to me.
“I didn’t think you’d come.” I’d called to him while having sex with Zee. Stopped myself short of pleading.
I felt his answer, amusement and a sense He belonged to me.
“What do you want me to do with it? They’re going to look, it’s too powerful. Now that they know it exist they’re not going to stop, and one of these days someone will catch me with my guard down.”
He looked at me and I turned to face Him, peering into his empty orbs. He touched my forehead with a claw and I was back in the early dreams, reliving the act of killing the previous version of myself, the sensation of power and change as I ascended to my place. The pain of this part of me that had committed this repugnant act wanting out. Throwing it up and with it part of my identity. I was no longer what I had been, and neither was it.
I was back in the plain, the cool wind on my face. The sense of His question simple. Did I understand? And I did. I wished I had earlier. A lot of trouble could have been avoided if I had. Or maybe not. I doubt Damian would have believed it.
He turned from me.
“Wait. I need to know something.”
He stopped, faced me again.
“Did you let Damian kill my parents? Did they have to die, so I’d be your champion?” I hesitated. “Are you that callous?”
His disappointment flowed over me, tainted with sorrow and a sense of loss. He cupped my cheek, and I felt the energy of each death flow through him, along with the person’s personality; their joys, regrets, hopes. Sorrows.
The pain my father felt was endless. Not the physical pain, but the knowledge he had taken himself from me in an attempt to protect me. That I would never remember how much he loved me, that I wouldn’t know the dreams and hopes he had for me.
He’d been there, at the moment the last of his fully initiated of the line died. He had watched, unable to act because the magic belonged to another god. He felt the hope my father felt when my mother told him I was safe. That I was out of the house.
I felt Him, cradle my fathers memories, keep them from dispersing. Holding on to my father’s hope that all wasn’t lost.
“If you’d able to, would you have saved them?”
The sense of things being so more complicated than I could understand enveloped me. Of there being rules, of there being right and wrong things to do even where there were no rules.
The bottom line was simple. No, he wouldn’t have saved them. Just like he played no part in my survival. I wasn’t part of a plan. I was an opportunity he took advantage of. It didn’t.
He offered me what comfort he could with a hug before vanishing.
* * * * *
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Fred asked as I opened the safe.
“Yeah, I do.” I took the briefcase out of it. “You’re certain the phrases will keep anyone from sensing it when I open the case? Unlike last time, we have people looking at this place very carefully. I have no idea who long it’s going to take.”
“Sensing the artifact through my phrases is impossible. They’d have to be in this room to feel it. What you’re attempting on the other hand, I have no idea. For all I know you’re going to blast everything in this room to dust.”
I poured the cum out of the container onto the case. “You might want to step out in that case.”
“And miss this, no fucking way.” He grinned, and if it works, you might need me to fuck you before getting the others. I opened the briefcase and Fred took a hard breath. “You know, I could fuck you right now. You know, for good measure.”
“That’s okay.” The energy didn’t affect me as hard, this was nothing compared to touched it. “If I need it, it’s going to be afterward.”
“I’m ready.”
I glanced at him. He was already hard and leaking. I took the artifact out of the case and I knew. I knew everything about it, and I knew why I hadn’t known it when I first picked it up. There was too much knowledge, I had to have an idea what I was looking for to find it, and I hadn’t understood what I was holding enough to contemplate questioning it.
It wasn’t a piece of a god, it was a piece of what He had been before but imbued with his essence, his magical essence. I didn’t have to hide the fucking thing. I could just break it.
If I could pull enough power out of it. It might be near-infinite, but I had to contain that power in me so I could use that on it. I wondered how many times I’d have to be fucked to have enough energy to accomplish this. I sent the case in the vault and shut it. If I could save it, it would be nice.
I closed my eyes and drew in the energy. I did it until I thought I was full and kept going. If Fred was right, I got one chance at this. People were going to be kicking my door afterward and if the artifact was still here, the chaos with Damian would be nothing compared to every family fighting over it.
“Dent,” Fred said from far away. “If you keep this up, I won’t be able to stop myself. You’re getting way too hot.”
He’d have to. I needed more.
Fred screamed something indistinct
More, I had to be certain.
Certain of what?
It didn’t matter, I still needed more. I could never have enough. There was someone? Something? A sound?
Was there anything outside this?
No, this was all-important.
Enough.
The feeling came with a touch at my back.
I still have need of you. Act now.
And knowledge of why I was doing this was forced on me. I shunted all the energy into Fred’s ability and used it on the object in my hands.
And promptly passed out.
* * * * *
I woke up to moaning. My own. The men over me paused. “Don’t stop,” I mumbled. Unlike the previous times I’m magically exhausted myself, I had no confusion. But I was going to enjoy the sex before moving on to business.
“Asshole,” Colby whispered. “Stop almost dying.”
“No if it means you’re going to fuck me this hard each time.” Tom definitely had something with getting me pissed before I fucking him.
Colby didn’t hold back, and the bed slammed against the wall over and over. He grunted and came. I let out a satisfied sigh as energy flowed in me.
He pulled out, and I rolled onto my back. We were the only one in the room. I’d expected a line up by the bed. I motioned to my hard cock. “You going to help with that?”
The armadillo rolled his eyes and flipped me the bird before dressing.
I laughed and dressed too. The need to fuck wasn’t as strong as I expected, but my cock wasn’t going down. I exited to find Fred pacing along the orgy room, ignoring the guys having sex.
“So?” I asked.
“You are certifiably insane,” the lion snapped.
“Yes,” Tom growled from the chair he was glaring at me from.
“Did it work?” I decided to ignore their accusations.
Fred huffed. “Yes, it did. I watched it dissolve into light as I tried to get to you so I could plow your ass. Good thing too, because that light show burned through every shielding phrases we put onto the building. Those people watching you had no trouble getting in, but they didn’t do anything.”
Tom chuckled. “Oh, they did. They pissed themselves and ran off. Congratulation Brislow, you’re just terrified the Society into leaving you alone.”
I sighed. “Not how I wanted it, but at least now I’ll time to get work done.” I headed for the exit.
“Not going to fuck anyone?” Tom asked.
“Having twenty-six guys fuck me in a row is enough for the moment.” I stopped. That hadn’t been a guess. I could still feel the distinct energies flowing through me, the older ones fainter. That was something to explore later. “I have work to do.”
“You need to learn to stop, Brislow,” Tom called.
“Later, I replied as the door closed behind me.”
I got looks from every Society guy I walked by, apprehension and awe. The others looked puzzled by the reactions. I made it to my office without anyone asking about what had happened. I brought up my message center and looked at all the messages I had; most of them were international calls, the rest business-related, except for one a name, instead of a number. Timothy Brislow.
I tapped it before fear took over.
“Hey Dent.” A sigh. “Dad’s going to strangle me if he finds out, but I’ve been listening to the news. Are you okay? Call me. I think it’s time I was an adult found out what’s really going on. That’s if you’re willing to speak to me, bro. I know you have reasons to be pissed at—”
I stopped there and called him. “Tim?”
“Dent, it’s good to hear your voice.”
“You have no idea how good it is to hear yours, how are the little ones?”
The world try to end tomorrow. Today, I was going to reconnect with my family.
