Ibai is a difficult child, to say the very least, but they are managing him. Really, the boy just needs entertainment and supervision--but those two needs are constant. It becomes clear that Ibai is unfit to be the House’s heir. They attempt to have a second child, but it is thus far proving fruitless.
He appoints Cousin Horatio as the new heir as a precaution. It is unfortunate, of course, and he does not tell Horatio of his decision, but he can at least rest easy in the knowledge that Horatio is a man of admirable, if curious, intelligence and fortitude. It should really be Cousin Melchor, he feels; but he has no idea where that man is, and even if he did, Melchor had already refused the role of leadership before and doubtless would again should the time ever come.
They reach out to Parson Miles once more. They aim to apologize for being so brusque with him before and hope that he has learned more about aberrations in the intervening years. Parson sends word, saying that he was planning to visit them soon, anyway.
When he arrives, however, he does not seem very interested in helping them with Ibai. Instead, he requires a favor of his own. “As Lord of Marshrock, you oversee the Northwestern Border Guard, do you not?”
“I do. Why?”
“On the fifteenth of next month, could I trouble you to give your guardsmen the night off?”
“What ever for?”
“I have some friends who need to get into the country.”
“What sort of friends would need to sneak past the Border Guard?”
“The sort you would be better off not asking questions about,” says Parson.
He narrows his eyes. “Excuse me?”
“Ismael, I come to you with this because it is a matter that requires discretion, which I know to be one of your strong points.”
“I understand that, but even so, I am afraid I must know more about these people if I am to help you smuggle them into my homeland. And the way you speak of them does them no service in my imagination.”
Parson’s youthful smile wanes. “Well then, this is awkward, because I can’t tell you anything else about them.”
“Then I cannot help you.”
“But you can. And you will. Or would you like the rest of your kin to know about your son?”
And there it is. The façade drops at last, though they do not yet know the extent of it.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
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"the way you speak of them does no them no services in my imagination." not sure what this is supposed to be.
ReplyDeleteFixed now, thank you.
ReplyDelete"You better not ask questions about them"? Whatever happened to good old "that's classified"?
ReplyDeletePulling the "top secret Vanguard business" card might even have worked.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I find myself wondering something. Maybe Aberrations started because some reaper, desperate to live again so that they can die and crossover, tried possessing an unborn baby. If they could displace the still forming soul and take over the body, they would be born a mortal child. But it went horrible wrong and the first aberration was created.
ReplyDeleteThis would mean that Ibai would not necessarily have been created by abolish, but a desperate reaper who just wanted what every other soul they collected got.
But reapers can be killed, so they technically wouldn't have to die and crossover. I know it goes against the basic oath of ferrying souls, but I'm guessing that if a reaper wanted to die, he/she could find a willing servant that would oblige.
ReplyDeleteMore probably a reaper who hoped they could have a body again AND reaper powers, or perhaps even be their own servant.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they are afraid that the nature of dying as a reaper prevents them from the true after life. They aren't ferried on they are destroyed. They wanted an afterlife, not a cessation of existence.
ReplyDeleteA reaper wouldn't even need to get their own servant to kill them. Just walk up to some stupid Abolisher and tell them that they're ugly and their mother dresses them funny
ReplyDeleteAs we all know, about half of Abolish is stupid as hell. So that just might work.
ReplyDeleteI got a definite sense that when a reaper is destroyed, they are basically forced to ferry themselves, but that they can't under any other circumstances.
ReplyDeleteI don't think so since it always said that they vanish other reapers have never said there he goes to where ever it is we take people. It's just that they are gone.
ReplyDeleteHA Called IT!
ReplyDelete