Song of the Day | The Mercy Seat by Nick Cave | Spotify | YouTube
Soda rushed through the sparkling tunnel of infinity, her guts lurching. She tried to examine it from the inside but was too distracted by trying not to vomit or faint. Then she was stumbling across a searing hot carpark towards a towering, blinding white building in the middle of the desert. Was it the magic of the Sevenkin that powered the Gates? It was mechanical, dull, lifeless. Tame. It was strange to think of Lune and their siblings as tame. She came out of her haze to admire the modern monstrosity they were walking towards. Huge block letters dominated a sheer white edifice.
LORENZE BEAUTY INC
Enormous palm trees flanked the walls, surrounded by cacti and desert plants. White building, blazing blue sky, scorched desert mountains, palm trees. Even her factory is glamorous. Mick and Kitty would be shitting bricks to see this. Thinking of them sent a pang of guilt down to mix with the travel sickness. Everyone else seemed unbothered by the temporal transfer experience. They were ahead of her, but Evangeline fell back.
“Feeling alright?”
Soda swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, it’s getting easier."
“It’s always pretty horrible, even after all this time. But thank you for agreeing to come here. I’m sorry it’s not in happier circumstances. But maybe if we survive all this, I could find you a job here? You seem sharp and willing to learn.”
“Oh thanks, that’s really nice actually, but I’ve never used your beauty products before, uh, sorry. My housemate loves them?”
Evangeline laughed, charming and infectious. “That’s alright, the beauty products are only half of what we do here. They help fund my research and philanthropic enterprises.”
Like all-female African militias? Or half-human-half-monster hybrids? She hadn’t seen any man-beasts. Yet.
“Oh really? Like what?” She tried to project keenness. Just play dumb.
“My main three causes are tackling the environmental crisis, helping lift women out of poverty, and pushing for greater transparency and democracy within the Enclave.” Evangeline held up a manicured thumb, then her other fingers, as she listed them off, looking and sounding like a perfect politician.
Soda could see why certain people might never want to put this woman in front of voters. She'd win.
“Ridiculous,” growled Rene, as Loup pushed the glass doors to the lobby open ahead of them. “Transparency in the forbidden arts, you mean. Always wanting what you should not have.”
“The Enclave is frozen in time, unable to grapple with the challenges of the modern world. You’ll let us all burn rather than face change.”
“I hope you are not addressing me, Ms Lorenze! I am the youngest Patron ever elected. Under my rule, much has changed. The Enclave has modernised aggressively.”
“Fancy computer systems! It’s not enough Rene. You know that. Think about the good we could do!”
Mwangi wheeled to face her, flaring with rage. “Stop pretending this is about ‘doing good’ and admit you want power! This kind of reckless selfishness brought the world to the brink one thousand years ago and your actions have imperilled it again.”
“We’re dying anyway!” Evangeline shouted back. “It was worth trying something!”
“You think because I do not do things your way, I am doing nothing!”
Their shouting echoed around the vast, glassy lobby. Soda glanced over at Captain Pereira and Loup, who both stood loosely to attention, their faces set in the determined boredom of the deeply familiar. Soda was riveted; she soaked in every detail and turned it all over. Evangeline was very different from how the others had portrayed her.
Mwangi’s nostrils flared and he pressed his lips together. “Gods woman, nobody on this earth makes me angrier than you.”
Evangeline looked ready to say something further when the doors at the far end of the lobby opened. Everyone turned to look. A tall, broad figure emerged, wearing a crisp white uniform and a… furry suit? Soda blinked a few times until she realised that she was looking at a totally real man with a bull’s head, right in front of her, in a lab coat, nodding curtly to everybody, providing a brief in a deep voice. She struggled to listen to him:
“…the instability is increasing. The cycle has shortened from eight hours to six hours, and shifts have to be reduced to two hours.”
Evangeline and Rene were all business again, nodding seriously. Evangeline took the offered folder and looked at it closely.
“Thank you, Doctor Carter. That is troubling news. Let’s see if we can do something about that now.”
The minotaur’s expression changed when he noticed Soda.
“Is this…?”
Evangeline nodded.
“Oh thank the Lord! Maybe…”
“Maybe."
Soda felt a sudden weight in her stomach. Someone put a hand on her shoulder. It was Pereira’s, heavily scarred when she glanced at it. She looked up and the Captain gave her a single, firm nod. Soda nodded back in a similar fashion, a little of the weight lifting. The group followed the bull-headed doctor as he strode off. Everyone definitely got in their cardio around here! Soda almost had to run to keep up. They snaked through a few sanitised white corridors, then ducked through an unmarked door.
The walls fell away abruptly, and they stepped onto a metal gangway high over a cavernous warehouse. One half was full of the usual machinery and racks of a large retail fulfilment centre. The other half was totally empty, and Soda could immediately see (and feel) why. Towards one end, there was a whirling column of stormy, intense magic. She could just make out a circle of figures amongst the maelstrom, seated on the concrete. It was like standing on the edge of an airlock, and all the oxygen was being sucked out of the room, even though the air was still.
As they headed down to the ground floor and Soda set foot on the concrete, the wrongness vibrated up her legs and rattled her teeth. The Stone hummed and glowed on its own. Each step felt like nails on a chalkboard.
“Ugh! Fuck me, this is unpleasant isn't it?"
“What you are feeling is the effect of corrosive, pure chaos." Mwangi's lip curled with distaste as they made their way closer, slowing as the effect increased. “It seeks to spread relentlessly and consumes everything it touches.”
“How are you holding it back?” Soda tried to hop and tiptoe across the floor, without much use. There was a kind of… goopiness.
Evangeline seemed the least bothered, and walked normally. “Brave volunteers like Doctor Carter take shifts to maintain the barrier spell. As you can see, it distorts the body eventually. We hope to reverse those effects once we have the leak under control."
A nagging thought bothered Soda. Something about Penny's description of Evangeline's guys who came for the book. Gnarly modifications. Had Evangeline and her employees been messing around with chaos magic before now? She was distracted by the horrible feeling intensifying. Through the haze a group of people were barely visible, seated and chanting. Some of their silhouettes were disturbingly bulky and inhuman. The wrongness was so overwhelming! What could they possibly do in the face of this? The Stone gave a little zing, reminding her to be brave.
She set her feet flat and tried not to think about them. “What are we going to do here?”
“You’re going to help me reinforce the barrier spell. To buy us some time until we can close the tear.” Evangeline gave her a bracing smile.
This was all a misunderstanding. She was crazy and reckless, sure, but not evil. She'd been stupid, but she was cooperating with the Enclave, and they were all trying to fix it together. She'd just have to explain to Rowan and the others.
A hoarse, harsh voice barked from over Soda's shoulder. “You’re late.”
Soda jumped, but nobody else seemed surprised. The newcomer had appeared silently behind her. It was another of the Sevenkin, this one stout and muscular with a shaved head. She was dressed for hunting in modern khakis, but she was also wearing a much more traditional short cape made of furs. Soda felt a heavy, thick spell that screamed 'don’t notice me!' And indeed, Soda couldn't sense any kind of magic at all around her.
“Somnus, thank you for joining us," Mwangi rumbled.
“Slaves do their masters’ bidding." Her voice was harsh, her face flat with hostility.
Mwangi’s expression darkened in response, but he said nothing, instead turning to Soda. “Soda, this is Somnus. You’ve met some of her siblings already, I understand.”
Soda was about to attempt a polite greeting when Somnus interjected. “No time. Girl, do you have mastery of the Stone?”
“Oh, um. A little?"
Somnus huffed impatiently. “Well, if this fails, at least I’ll be released from eternal servitude.”
“This is going to work." Evangeline radiated confidence.
“What do we need to do?” Soda tried to radiate some confidence, but it still just felt like nausea to her.
Evangeline nodded to Pereira, who approached holding a large book, its thick pages bound in dark leather. Soda gasped. The Book of the First! It called to her in greeting, the Stone reaching out with a flood of gold that lit its closed pages brilliantly for a moment before dimming.
Everybody turned to stare at her, but she shrugged her shared bafflement. “They’re happy to see each other?"
Evangeline grinned widely. “See? This is absolutely going to work.”
Mwangi scowled in response.
She placed the Book on a dias, stroking the cover lovingly. It glowed warmly in greeting, and she opened it with utmost care, flipping pages gently while Somnus radiated increasing impatience.
“Here it is, the containment spell. Is everyone ready?”
They all nodded grimly. The spell was essentially a chant, while focusing on building a binding structure. Soda, Loup, Rene, Evangeline, Pereira and Somnus formed an outer circle around the tiny maelstrom and began the ritual.
They chanted while taking careful steps clockwise. Huge forces welled up in the room, a storm about to break. Their hair whipped around and the column of darkness in front of them swirled furiously. Closer and closer they pushed. The fierce magic of the mighty sorcerers around her made Soda feel as tiny and vulnerable as a baby bird. The darkness tore at them, roaring back against its confinement, tendrils seeking to rip the careful net of light they were weaving. They pushed on.
After what felt like hours, they were able to clasp hands. Soda’s fingers reached Somnus first. Like the breaking of a dam, gold poured out of her hand. She made eye contact and again, for just a moment, Soda saw the desert, the endless impossible starry sky, the sleeping form under the earth. There were whispers…Then her other fingers touched Loup’s, and she was jolted into a different vision. This one was foul with the smell of river mud, hot and humid. Two small boys struggled through mangroves, their breaths ragged and hiccuping with fear as insects harried them.
Soda shook herself free and opened her eyes. A feeling was ballooning in her chest and stomach, a surge of pain and confusion. The whole ring of clasped hands had turned golden. She was vaguely aware of the previous guardians crawling out past her legs, freed of their terrible duty without a moment to spare. Their bodies were horrible and misshapen. She opened her mouth to scream, but a flood of light came out instead. In one final wave, the net formed, then stabilised into a translucent golden wall. The column of darkness inside stopped roiling and crackling and settled into an unpleasant mist, creeping out of a small, thin crack of pure black that hung in the air. All that was left was ringing silence.
“Yes!” Evangeline shouted, making Soda flinch. "It worked!”
“Great…" Soda began woozily. Ah damn. Fainting again. Everything went black.
Chapter Fifteen: Lorenze Beauty Incorporated
Political causes, family fights, saving the world (maybe)