Other Places 2: Road Blocks (20 page)

"I'll make the call. Would you two like anything? I can make some sodas?" She said it blandly, as if she weren't testing him personally on what he'd just learned.

He pulled out his checkbook, which got her eyes to light up.

"At cost?"

She nodded, and then smiled, which was a sunny thing that made him feel warm and gooey inside, in a way that was a bit out of place for the moment, given what they were really talking about, he shut that down with a bit of work and then made the check out for five dollars. She took it and didn't mention that being too much.

"Exactly like that. If you hadn't done that, she would have tried to enslave you again. She probably will anyway. Every adult Greater Demon you meet from now on will, until you become an adult yourself, and sometimes they might even try then. Don't fall for it. Just a word of warning; I won't try that myself, because it would
work
. Don't get complacent however, since you've literally seen another Demon looking like me before. It's a good trick, once you learn it. Shape shifting." She made small talk, but it was important information anyway, covering things like bowing, ranking systems for their kind and the fact that about half of them were born crazy.

She actually went over that one a few times.

"You weren't. You were broken, and before you had a chance to develop. Forced into being a full Greater Demon before you were ready for it. Like I said, that has to be fixed, and might not be possible. Remember the rules for now, because I'm pretty sure we're getting the full meeting here already." She didn't explain that, but Darla nodded after getting off the phone and called for them to follow her up the stairs.

That was all about changing clothing, into a very light brown outfit for him. The girls each got one too, and the material was the same, but theirs were darker. Keeley was about three shades so, and Darla ten. He understood the significance, since it had been explained, in the ranking thing. He was at the bottom, the closer to black you got, the higher you were.

It was just a tradition, but if someone thought you were going above your station, they'd attack. Or might at least. If they thought you were too weak, they might too. You wore about what you thought you could back, really. He was pretty happy with his light tan. White was for sacrifices, so he didn't want to go that low, after all.

They still had to wait, and Darla kept examining him, in ways that didn't make a lot of sense to start with. Mainly it involved her touching him a lot, and then poking at him occasionally with various metal and crystal devices.

She didn't say what anything meant, just letting him sit until about three in the morning, when there was a bending in space moving toward them from different places, but at great distances away. Three of them, to be exact, coming from the position of the door. That would be the terminus, he thought. The Technician nodded, but only after a few moments, and Keeley stood, turning to face that direction.

There really was bowing, which wasn't hard, since he'd been told what to do, and made himself feel relaxed enough not to forget or mess it up. The men that came were in deep brown, but different colors, with Finias being just darker than Gregor The Cleric, and the third man being in what seemed to be pure black. He didn't recognize the face, which was like a picture of a Roman patrician, more than anything else. None of them were bothering to look half as good as the women were. Then, they were a lot older, so maybe it just didn't matter to them as much?

Finias did the introductions, but realized that only the last man, the high ranking one, was needed.

"This is The Librarian. Tarsus. You've met. He looked like Keeley at the time?" The words brought the scene back easily enough. It had happened in his own living room after all.

"I remember. Librarian." That apparently was close enough to correct that no one ripped his head off, thankfully.

 The man gave him a watery smile, and then held his hand out to Zack, as if to shake, which he wasn't buying at all. Still, he did it, since he'd been instructed to be polite, and really didn't want to die that evening. Why, he had whole weeks, possibly
months
left for that.

The Greater Demon laughed.

"Fatalistic, but accurate. Still, my task is to give you information. You might not be able to make good use of it, as disjointed as your mind is. It will be there however. I suggest you make the effort. Then, I always do, and very few ever bother."

What happened next was something that Zack just wouldn't have been able to articulate to anyone. It was as if the sum of the world's knowledge was suddenly hovering over him, beating at his mind, wanting him to know it all at once. For a second it tried to overwhelm him, but then pulled back, ever so slightly, fading slowly over the course of minutes, until Tarsus let go of his hand.

"Well set, at least. That's better than I feared. Normally at this point I try to intimidate the new ones, so that they'll work hard and listen to their mentors. I'm not going to bother with you. You're either going to survive this or not, based on what you truly are. Oh, learn all you can, but being insane means that the rules are different for you than others. On the good side, you can make them up for yourself. Which of you is going to watch him?" The words went hard, and there was no attempt to volunteer himself, Zack noticed, which was nice. The man was creepy. Not in a good way either, but in the way that he associated with the worst kind of evil. The sort that knew what it was, and relished in it.

Finias started to clear his throat, and gesture, which got The Cleric to look at him with a soft smile.

"I think not. Perhaps the Mistress of Souls? Or Bente?"
That
suggestion got a puzzled look from Keeley at least.

 "The Fashion Demon? I'm not certain I see that as a good fit." That started a conversation that finally worked around to Darla, who had her arms crossed and was rolling her eyes at him behind everyone's backs. Not that they didn't get it. They were pushing her into it with their words, and by ignoring her.

"Naturally. Well, I had a short duty with Keeley, and did a great job there. Plus, it still works for the same reason, a way to get a line on Xenses. What do you say Zack? Are you willing to work with me? It won't be fun most of the time, and I'll beat you when you get things wrong, or sometimes right, but on the good side,
I
don't care if you bang Keeley's mom at all." She smiled about it and held out her right hand to shake. "Deal?"

Zack froze, knowing that you didn't agree to anything like that with a Greater Demon and feeling her energy already trying to press across his skin.

"No. I mean, the mentoring is fine and I can do that, but no
deal
." He hoped he got it close to correct at least. He still felt like him, but waited to see what she said.

"Darn. Well, I guess I'll have to actually do the work the old fashioned way." Whatever that was, he didn't know, but he was starting to run down a bit energy wise, and the others were actually hanging around, chatting.

Keeley nudged his arm.

"Like I showed you, earlier?" It was a whisper, but everyone heard it anyway and looked at him. Hard.

It took him a moment to get that she meant making himself feel awake and full of energy. It still took him a few seconds to really start on it, but he felt normal again and slightly hyper by the time that Gregor and Tarsus were headed out, making their own Nodes outside the front door, and leaving in different directions.

Then Finias turned to him, his old face looking a bit upset. That was a choice though, he understood, so was being done on purpose. Probably to make an impression on Keeley, rather than just him.

The man let out a large breath of air.

 "So much for hiding this. It's going to change things for you, and I'd hoped to spare you the trouble. I guess that wasn't the best plan ever, but it was a workable one, before you started at the Nexus. What do you plan to do now?"

Zack didn't really know. After all, every single person in the room that evening had clearly just assumed that he was going to die in a very short period of time and really, that seemed pretty darned likely, didn't it?

"The best plan I've heard so far is running away, but I have to get through this war thing first. I promised to get people there and then return them, and won't go back on that. Besides, if it works, Keeley has to pay me for it. I guess I should... I don't know, come and learn stuff here, when I can? I have no clue about any of this at all. Not really. Everything I've heard about Greater Demons has basically been bad and now it seems like I'm one of those bad things." It would have sounded sad, but he made it come out merely blank. Not peaceful, since that was the wrong emotion for it. "Do I tell everyone back home? Am I supposed to hide it? If Xenses is after me, then all that would do is make it so that regular people might be in the line of fire, right? Lenore... God, she won't want to be my girlfriend now, will she? But lying... I can't do that and MH is out of commission as far as I can tell." There was gibbering and moaning from the back of his skull, but it was nearly silent now.

Finias shook his head, looking grandfatherly and like he knew what the right thing to do was.

"If you don't have to let people know, then-" He stopped when Darla cleared her throat, disagreeing.

"Tell them. Everyone. You haven't been hiding it well anyway, and coming out to them honestly will prevent you from making a mistake later. You really need to learn to lie soon, but until then, it's better for you to just be direct. And armed." She smiled about it, and glared a bit at Finias, who made a face at her, then demurred.

"As your mentor says then. Well, if nothing else it should help you in moving on if you choose to run later. Few things will cut ties faster than admitting that you're everyone's biggest nightmare." That, apparently, was going to be his last word on the subject for the night, and while he said goodbye politely enough, touching Zack's hand instead of shaking it, he left himself shortly after that.

Keeley walked the man to the door however and gestured for Zack to watch what he was doing. It was different than what he did himself, making thousands of little bubbles in space, rather than one hole to walk through. He got the real point. The energy for it was coming from within the man.

She didn't comment on it until he was gone however and moving away.

"He's slow compared to you, on the line. But you should be able to do that. I guess if you're out, you can just have food brought in. I'll be by tomorrow or the next day, to visit."

Darla shook her head.

"No. Not that you don't have some things to teach him, but I have a specific plan and don't need you trying to take control right off the bat. Besides, we don't have time for fifty years of him acting like a baby. That means that he has to bargain with you for lessons. We need to cover that first too, since
you
make bargains like a hippie." She grinned, a little viciously. "Like... peace and love will win the day, man. I'll trade those beads and your good regard for all this gold..." It was a good impression of a stereotype at least, Zack thought.

She went on, her voice smoother.

"No, he's
mine
, and that means hands off for now. That does mean that I'll be over most days for the foreseeable future, except when I can't be. I have a business to run after all. Right now, I need for you to go and practice making openings onto the In-roads. Then we need to work on your strength and speed. I don't think you're weak, like Keeley. Not at all. It's just that you've let yourself starve for too long. So buy food, and see to eating it. You probably can't eat too much, even if what you do, inroads wise, is fairly low energy for you. I'll be at your place at six this evening?"

Zack made a face.

"I've kind of already said that I'd stay at work until at least seven. That means getting home later than that. I don't want to break my word." He waited for one of them to ridicule him for that, but Darla just agreed.

"Eight then. Be ready to work. Practice all the things that Keeley showed you, when you can. The hardest thing to learn at the beginning is to actually use what you know, and that takes raw repetition for most people."

 He nodded, and then tried to copy what he'd seen Finias doing, using energy from within to open a Node. To force one into being. He did the whole thing at once, and then focused on moving directly into his own living room. It wasn't fast, taking about two minutes, but it did let him get there directly, which was quicker than any other way would have been. The only problem then was that he was starving again. It hadn't felt hard, but it clearly took a
lot
more energy than using a point that already existed.

He went to the kitchen and started making something to eat, trying to do what he'd been told, but also leave a bit for Troy. After all, they shared the food and he was having a lot of it. It was pushing six, Pacific time, when he was done eating. He had most of the dishes done by the time that his roommate got back, and Bey was nowhere in sight.

Judy either, but then, she was planning to go and stay in Portland, to hide from the people with cameras.

Troy smiled and looked at the remaining mess, but didn't complain. The kitchen looked great after all. Clean and totally refinished already. The cabinets looked like wood and the floor like real stone. The countertops too. The new stove and fridge were silver colored, like steel and all the cooking ware was fresh and shiny.