Of Noble Chains (The Ventori Fables) (33 page)

I walked up to the women and took a brief moment to consider where we were, after all this time.  Hands in my sweater pockets, I stared down at the blonde woman.  She seemed normal enough; humming a small tune beneath her breath while she scribbled something down on paper.  Brown roots showed through under the bleached strands with eyebrows matching neither of the colours on her head.  Her nametag read “Heather”.

Luke cleared his throat beside me, drawing everyone’s attention. The blonde woman and her petite partner smiled at him, their thoughts written cleanly on their faces.  Luke was a reasonably attractive man; sandy brown hair, big blue eyes with a lean figure.  I was often told by others that he was every girls dream.  I didn’t see it; he was just Luke to me, the boy that I had grown up with.  Lucky me.  At least according to the girls at school that never talked to me unless Luke was picking me up.

“What can I help you with?” the blonde asked, completely ignoring me.  She set her pen down and folded her hands in front of her, focusing all of her attention on Luke.  This much, I was used to.

“We’re here for Dr. Wineman’s lecture,” Luke replied, “we’re uh, we’re a little late.”  He gave a small, innocent shrug.

“Names?”  She lifted her pen and flipped through some papers.

“Lucan Harroway,” he said.  When the woman gave me an observant look he added, “Plus one.”  He held up one finger before quickly putting it back in his pocket.  The receptionist looked down her list and checked off the name.  Next to her, the small one handed Luke two stickers saying “Hi, my name is” and a blank space.

“Write your names and stick it to your chest,” she instructed, “humans on the left, everyone else on the right.” She patted her own nametag, sitting over her heart.

“Oh, um, all right,” Luke said nervously as he picked up a pen.  Elegantly, he wrote his name in cursive and peeled the back off.  He was about to stick it over his heart but quickly rethought and patted it down on the right side of his chest.  I tried not to give him a pitying look; poor Luke had never wanted to broadcast the fact that he wasn’t human, even after the “revolution” last year.  Without looking me in the eye he handed the second sticker to me with a pen.

Unlike my friend, I didn’t have to think about what to write, or where to place the sticker.  I quickly wrote “+1” in the empty space and stuck it over my heart.  Nobody seemed to notice what I had written though.  I felt more amused than insulted by their lack of observation.

“Walk on in,” Heather said, that same secretive smile on her lips, “the doctor is just getting started.”  I held my arm out to gesture for Luke to go first.  He followed my order and carefully touched the door handle.  Pushing the entry open, he peeked his head in first before stepping inside.  I followed behind him, not nearly as nervous as he was, but then again, I had no reason to be.

“Welcome to New History!” The man at the front of the lecture hall looked at us with open arms.  I glanced around at the rows of chairs, the five dozen other people were looking at us too.  “Please, take a seat.  I was just getting the introduction finished.”

“Sorry,” Luke said, holding his hands up.

“Not to worry,” the man said, “everyone is
wel—“ he stopped talking when he saw me.  Or saw my badge to be more accurate.  His already bright eyes lit up even more.  “A human!”  I gave a small, panicked look towards Luke, who was already at the first step up the chairs.  The number one reason I didn’t want to come was about to happen.  Humans almost never showed up to these things, so they stood out when they did; and not everyone was so welcoming either.

“Uh, she’s not—“ Luke tried to stop him, but the kind Dr. Wineman was already in front of me with three long strides.

“We never get human’s here,” he exclaimed and wrapped me in a warm hug.  I couldn’t help but notice he smelled like a mix of vanilla and cinnamon as my face pressed into his chest.  My arms stayed at my sides as my fingers grew tense, not knowing what to do.  “I knew the human’s would come around, it was only a matter of time.” 

His head rested on mine and he sighed happily.  With one free eye, I surveyed the room; nobody else had the nametags over their heart, which meant I was the only human.  Great. 

The doctor continued, “Now tell me, darling, what made you decide to come and learn about New History?  And so young!  How old are you?”

“Seventeen,” I said quietly, hoping he would be the only one to hear me.  I was often told how mature I looked, at least compared to others my age.  Luke was the opposite; always being mistaken for younger when in reality he had just turned twenty.

He pushed me back and held onto my shoulders as I blinked at him.  My pause didn’t seem to bother him though, a large smile still plastered on his face when he released me from his grip.  He kept his hands firmly on my shoulders, not letting go until I answered why I was there, so instead of saying the reason I merely pointed at Luke.  If I was going to suffer through this, so was he.

As my one, plain finger rose, Luke flinched at the stairs.  I hated to be singled out in a crowd but Luke hated it just a little bit more than me.

“I just thought it would be good for her to learn,” he explained, “with everything that has happened.”  The doctor took a quick look at Luke’s nametag and gave a knowing nod before patting me once on the back.  I wondered if he knew Luke had lied; we were here for his benefit, not mine.

“Well, take a seat,” he said, “you’ll be learning a lot.”  Luke let out a small sigh of relief as I walked over to him.  I resisted the urge to wipe away at my arms, feeling as if the doctor was still hugging me.  It felt strange to hug someone I didn’t know, or to even shake hands with them.  Luke said that made me weird.

We found the last two seats together at the very back of the room, allowing us to easily see over everyone else.  The seats rested on the end of the row, so I only had to sit next to Luke and the aisle.  Thank God for tiny favours.

“Thank you all for coming,” Dr. Wineman said, “and welcome to New History.  Here you will learn all about what the humans never knew about the past.  You will find out what started the revolution and what ended it a year ago.  You will learn who and what the players really were and maybe learn a little bit about yourself.  Your true self.”

“Sounds like a lot of information for one class,” I mumbled to Luke without taking my gaze off the speaker.  I saw he began to play with his hands from the corner of my eye.

“Did I say one class?”  H
e laughed cautiously.  “Because it’s actually a six week course.  Guess I forgot to mention that?”

“Hmm,” was all I managed to say.

“I’m sure you all know what happened last year,” the doctor said, he seemed to enjoy talking with his hands, “the revolution started for those of us with… for those of us who aren’t human.  And within a week, it had ended.”

But what a week it had been.  My hometown didn’t have much happen, a few fires and looters, but the rest of the world lost their minds on a whole new scale.  What did the non-humans expect though, coming out all of a sudden like that?  One day demons, vampires and the occult were ju
st stories; the next, they were real.  They went from haunting children’s nightmares to haunting everyone and the humans didn’t really like that.  I was lucky, I already knew because of Luke.

Luke had told me when I was eight years old that he wasn’t exactly normal.  He wasn’t a demon either, but not fully human.  At eight I was amazed; he told me that everything from my nightmares and my dreams were real, that about half of the people I saw everyday weren’t what they appeared.  He thought I would hate him though, call him a monster and run away.  I didn’t, I swore to keep his secret and I did just that.  I smiled to myself, remembering how Luke’s parents reacted when they found out I knew.  What seemed to annoy them the most was that he only told me because I swore not to tell; that
that was all it took for him to confess it to me.

When the humans discovered who their neighbours were, who their friends were, they sort of freaked out.  Very few of them accepted it, most feel that the Eidolon, those that aren’t human, should be tagged, like animals; they’re still petitioning to have it done.  I try to ignore what people say about Eidolon’s, I try to stay out of the battle all together.  It annoyed me how they felt my closest friend should be treated, but I wasn’t welcome to fight on the side of Eidolon’s, since I was a human.

Luke elbowed me in the ribs to draw my attention back to the doctor.  I hadn’t noticed I had begun staring at the ceiling, lost in thought.

“Now how many of you,” Dr. Wineman said, “know exactly where you come from.” People glanced around the room as a few raised their hands in the air.  I counted about fifteen.  “And how many of you have absolutely no clue as to what you are; you just woke up and started having abilities.”  Almost everyone else in the room raised their hands, most being very careful not to be the first.  Most Eidolon’s that didn’t know who they were and were still nervous to identify themselves in public.  There are a lot of humans out there that are ready to kill if
necessary.  Actually, there are a lot of humans out there ready to kill if not necessary.  I noticed Luke never raised his hand; which made sense; he didn’t fit into either category.

“Don’t be ashamed,” the doctor said, “it’s perfectly normal.  After all, Cleopatra may have had no idea of her true nature.”  The crowd began to murmur amongst themselves at the mention of the Egyptian queen.  I had to admit, my interest was piqued. 

“Yes that’s right,” Dr. Wineman smiled, his lesson going as planned, “Cleopatra was not human.  Can anyone guess what she was?”  Nobody said a word and I spotted a few shrugs across the room.

“Succubus,” I mumbled under my breath, quiet enough so that even Luke couldn’t hear.

“What was that?” Dr. Wineman was watching me now and he pointed to me, excited.  Damn, how did he hear?  Whatever he was, it gave him good hearing.  “Ms…plus one,” he said after looking at my nametag, “cute.  So, what did you say?”  I saw Luke cover his eyes in embarrassment over what I had written.  Made us even, he tricked me into a six week course, I embarrassed him.

Everyone was looking at me now, some with curiosity as to how I knew the answer and some with annoyance that a human knew more than them.  It’s not like I actually knew though, I had just guessed.

“Succubus,” I said again, barely any louder than before.  I kept my eyes down, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone in the room.  It was a little strange that I was right, I supposed. 

“Please, louder so everyone can hear,” the doctor’s smile grew wider.  Was he enjoying my discomfort or the fact that a human was right about something for once?  I guessed it was the latter.  I didn’t like talking loudly, or even talking much at all so I looked to Luke and he knew what to do.

“Succubus,” he said loudly, “Cleopatra was a succubus.”  The fact that Luke answered for me seemed to throw the doctor, whose endless smile finally faltered.

“Uh, correct,” he beamed, “Cleopatra was indeed a succubus. 
Ms… plus one, would you mind telling us how you knew and perhaps your real name?” He chuckled to himself, amused.

“Just guessed,” I said, “it seemed obvious.”  Luke repeated my answer but never said what my name was, probably because I didn’t tell him to.

“You just guessed?” Dr. Wineman seemed surprised, enough so that he forgot to ask for my name.  I nodded at him, confirming the truth.  “Well, an excellent guess it was!  But how did you arrive at the answer?  There are a lot of creatures out there to choose from, why succubus?  Most people don’t even know what a succubus is.   And to know at your age…”  Why did the doctor want me to explain so much?  I inhaled deeply through my nose.

“Cleopatra was known for her beauty and seducing men at a young age,” I explained, not trying to be heard, “she was also ruthless when it came to killing and backstabbing.  Seemed obvious.”  Luke didn’t repeat anything this time and the doctor seemed happy with the answer.  Then again, he seemed happy all the time; it seemed out of place with his greying hair and distinguished reputation.

“Very good!” he clapped his hands and began to wander around the room again.  “Cleopatra is only one of many famous, or infamous I should say, people in history that were not actually human.  How about you all shout out some names and I’ll tell you if they were human or not.”  He stuck both hands towards the crowd and flicked his fingers towards himself.  For a moment everyone was silent but it quickly changed.

The crowd began shouting names, most of them celebrities; the doctor ignored them.

“Nixon!” One man yelled from the center row and Dr. Wineman pointed at him, a large grin on his face.

“Excellent choice young man,” he said to quiet the others down, “Nixon was in fact human.”  Some people laughed, while others were surprised.

“Hitler!” Another man said from the other side of the room.  Not an imaginative bunch here, they were just going for the obvious.  The doctor laughed, most likely thinking what I was.  It made me wonder how many times he had to go through the same people in this class.

“Adolph Hitler was human,” he said and some people groaned, “but he did know of demons.  He summoned one and sold his soul.  Can anyone guess what for?”

“Power?” the same man who suggested Hitler said.  Dr. Wineman shook his head.  Other people began suggesting money, world domination, an army.  No imagination what so ever.