A Concept of Apathy

Chapter 9

“Want is the death of necessity.”
– A Makroism teaching

I was eating breakfast while reading one of the books my father had tasked me to read. It was introductory, but needed. Horribly dry reading as well, but there was only so much one could do about that. This was evidently one of the books that was the foundation of magic, and if I missed it I would be without a basis to return to.
I was rather absorbed, trying to get through it as quickly as I could while still knowing what I needed to know. I wanted to do magic, and was heavily applying myself. That fact had me unaware of my surroundings however, so I suddenly moved my head when my shoulder was tapped.
“Finally, I was calling your name!” Kaeo told me, hands on her hips.
“I’m sorry, did you need something?” I replied after finishing my mouthful of food. I only had one bite left which I took while she replied, taking my plate and fork to the sink, rinsing them off.
“Yeah. I want you to come with me and Madam Lie to my house.” I knew Kaeo fairly well at this point, and heard the confidence hiding something away. I was unsure what, but I doubted it was anything good.
“Okay. Let me run my book up to my room and grab my stuff.”
She gave a nod, and I put my bookmark back into the book, closing it. I was somewhat happy to have an excuse to take a break. It had been about two months since my father came back, and I had furthered my education rather far. We had also found a few people sculling around the house, and they… Well, I had found out that my mother with the help of Madam Lie could find out if you had spoken the truth or not, and force you to speak. It was not very pleasant to watch, as their bodies writhed under my mothers scornful gaze, and most of them became trees once they admitted to trying to harm us.
I shuddered as I strapped on my sword thinking about it. My father said it would end soon, a few months at most. He was somewhat worried about the clerics, who he said would likely end up in town around the same time. Considering he thought these people were from the religious capital of the world, he feared he might have to fight the clerics at the same time.
I sighed, double checking I had my knife, sword, and needle. I picked up my cane and cloak from by the door, and I headed downwards. I had managed to start tinkering with my cloak, and was proud of what I had done so far. My father had told me the downsides and benefits of making singularly powerful items, which pretty much boiled down to it being easier to steal, break, or otherwise lose the work entirely if it was a singular piece.
That didn’t stop me from having fun with the cloak. It was currently fully water proof, and although it would keep you warm it would also not feel like you were wearing it if it was hot enough. It was also tied to one of the hills behind our house, meaning the damage it took hit the hill and not it. I would still feel the hit as well, but it made the cloak fairly indestructible.
Madam Lie and Kaeo were waiting outside on the front porch. Thanny had gone with my father to work, but seemed to be back now as Kaeo groomed his fur. My mother had brought Kaeo her own brush for Thanny so we didn’t keep taking the stablehands. Madam Lie offered me a smile, and Kaeo told me I had taken long enough.
We started off, and I knew that Madam Lie had started cloaking us. You couldn’t tell in any way, but if someone looked at where we were it would be like no one was there at all. From what I could tell this wasn’t actually an illusion by the technical definition, more like a lie to anything sentient that they had to believe.
It was evidently more impressive that Madam Lie could choose for specific people not to be affected by the illusions or lies or whatever you wanted to call them than the working itself. Kaeo started humming and skipping as per usual, which amused Madam Lie to no end. The town went on like nothing was wrong at all. Evidently they had been attacked once before, but the rebuffing that my parents had done to the enemy force had been so absolute no one was worried.
I wanted to ask, but I wasn’t allowed out of the house without someone, and I didn’t think it was worth the bother of their time for something so inconsequential. It was a nice walk, a gentle breeze blowing through and flowers in full bloom with the end of spring. The birds were also out, chirping away as they excitedly talked. Evidently my mother could talk to them, and had made the entire local wildlife a type of spy network.
Every once in a while, when stuff like that happened, I realized how ridiculous my mother truly was. I had once asked my father who would win between him and her, and he had sadly smiled at me and answered that everybody else would lose. I found that somewhat terrifying, and asked him a different question.
“Is there anyone out there that could beat mom or you?”
“Yes, but to call them people is a bit of a stretch.”
“How many of them are there?”
“Two.”
“Who are they?”
“One is my teacher, and the other is a monster who’s sleep has become a god and all we can do is wet that altar with blood.”
I did not sleep well that night. Concepts had power, and the way my father described that sounded to me like a concept made to only become stronger. Like a wheel no one could stop spinning, because it had already started and stopping it would kill everyone. I dragged my thoughts away from that, and back to the present. I had been lost in thought for long enough that we were closing in on her house, and I could see it at the end of the street.

***

It had clear signs of negligence now, and Kaeo’s face became stiff with a smile. The door’s paint was a bit chipped, and Kaeo pulled out a key to unlock it. The lock clicked open, and the door swung inwards.
“Okay you two, do what you need to do. I’m going to protect the house.” Madam Lie didn’t even wait for a response when she disappeared, and then there were only two people in the house. After all, one of the three had become a lie. I turned to Kaeo, who looked somber. I walked over, taking one of her hands, and she offered me a soft smile.
“Why are we here?” I asked her, and she sighed.
“Closure, I think.”
We carefully walked around the house, Kaeo sometimes smiling, or sometimes silently crying. She opened the back door, and the garden was far from the lovingly tended garden I had first seen. We had seeds from each of the more rare plants, which Madam Lie had gotten although I had no clue as to how.
Kaeo stepped into the garden, fingers running along plants. I limped alongside her, and I think both of us thought about how last time we came through here, there had been no clicking of bone on the ground. She wandered through the pots and elevated tables, and she picked up a trowel. She held it gingerly, looking at it.
“It was my fathers, you know.”
I stayed silent, letting her speak.
“I loved this trowel when I was little. I wanted to use it, but they had gotten me my own smaller one. And now, if I wanted, I could use it.” She dropped it, watching it hit the stones. “I don’t think I want to. Is that… weird?”
She had tears in her eyes, and a fragile smile. I limped to stand next to her, looking down at the trowel with her.
“No, I don’t think it is. Not in the way you mean atleast.”
She gave no answer, just looked at it for a while longer. We eventually walked back in, and into her room. Her closet was empty, the dresses had already been moved over to the house. One side had splinters of blood and bone, but neither of us looked at it for long. She walked over to her bed, fingers trailing along the side of it, over to her nightstand. It had a picture on it, one of her and her parents. She picked it up, looking at it.
She flipped it in her grasp, pulling off the back and grabbing the picture. She folded it up, holding it in her hand. She didn’t bother to look at anything else, walking out of the room and I followed. She sighed, walking back to the front door and she crouched. Slowly, she pried up a floor board and started moving a crank that it had hidden.
It took a bit of time, maybe five minutes, but eventually she finished and stood back up. We walked back to the living room, and there one of the walls dropped into a narrow staircase. It looked like the door had dropped away, which I had not expected. Kaeo walked down the stairs, picking up a fire starter that was right at the entry way. She started lighting torches as we walked down the stone passageway, and she laughed to herself.
“You know, I don’t even need to do this.” She said, lighting another torch. “I can see in the dark now, or close enough my brain can’t tell the difference.”
“And yet.”
“And yet, I find I want to. It was done every time we went down here, and I find I want to.”
The staircase led to a giant stone room, likely as big as the house above was. Silently, she walked around lighting the sporadic standing torches. One side of the room had clothes, cloaks, makeup, and pieces of leather armor. There also looked like a wooden wall that was made for knife throwing, having some knives still sticking out of the wood. Another had a mat on the floor, which I took to mean hand to hand combat or something similar.
The last side of the room was what had me confused. It was made in such a way so that a gentle slope funneled into a small hole in the center of the slight funnel shaped dip. Around it were carvings which looked magical in nature. They had nothing to power them however, which made me narrow my eyes. If I was reading it right, when the correct concept was brought to the center it would empower it, but the empowered concept would still be dormant.
I was so focused on it, I jumped when Kaeo came up to take my arm in hers. She had an expression that I had no clue what to make of, staring at it with me. She leaned into me, and I put my arm around her.
“Would you help me with something?” She asked, looking at it.
“Of course.”
My eyes widened as she started to pull off her dress, but she was wearing pants at least. She had a chest wrapping as well, but I saw her torso which had been scarred. Up and down her arms, wrapping around her chest, back, and stomach, white scars worked their ways around her. She carefully folded up the dress, setting it down by the stairs back up. She handed me a black knife, which felt wrong. It felt hungry, and I instantly did not like it. I held it firmly however, as I felt even less like I wanted to break it and I did not want to drop it.
She went to stand at the center of the working, and beckoned me over. She took a deep breath in, and then she sat down cross legged over the hole. Her hair was bound into a bun today, keeping it off of her and I could see the tension in her shoulders.
“What is this?” I asked, walking over.
“I don’t know, not quite. I do know that I was supposed to do this one more time however.”
“How many times have you done it previously?”
“Six.”
Which would make this the seventh. There was a lot of magical significance around seven.
“I’m going to have to cut you, aren’t I?”
“Yes.” She didn’t meet my eyes, and I felt very reluctant.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” I pleaded.
“I know.”
“And yet.”
“And yet.” She agreed.
I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. If this was going to get done, I wouldn’t do it slopily. I had a feeling if I didn’t she would do it herself and that sounded like a worse idea.
“What do I need to do?” I kneeled at her side, and she gave me her arm. The entire scar looked like one continuous line, even as it swirled around her arm.
“Start here,” She indicated on the front of her shoulder, “and end here.” She indicated the back of her shoulder. I found the lines, but she stopped me before I could start. “It doesn’t need to be much, just enough to draw blood.”
“Okay.”
I started, and her breathing was overly firm, like she was concentrating on it. I noted whatever I did on this arm seemed mirrored on the other, and I very carefully traced the lines of the scarring down her arm. Her skin was warm and soft, even with the scaring, and the knife drank up the extra blood.
It was slow, as I was very careful. It seemed important, and it seemed very important to her. I had a feeling the entire reason we came here was to do this. I had to force myself to keep calm, and eventually I was done. She reached for the knife, and I passed it to her.
“Leave the tracings.” She asked me, sounding like she was barely keeping it together.
“Okay.” I did, limping away making sure to grab my cane which I had left next to me.
Once I had left, she made small cuts on each of her fingers and like that the blood flared. It started glowing red, and when she opened her eyes they glowed the same. It seemed to open up the rest of the scarring, and it started to glow red as well. She finally smashed the knife on the ground in front of her, and it burst into thousands of shards flying out and starting to spin around her. At the same time, blood started to well out of the handle like a river of blood.
The magical runes started to get filled, and the blood started to glow as Kaeo plunged her hands into it. Slowly it started to spiral, and it only spiraled faster and faster. I could barely see her through this, with the blood and black fragments flying in a sphere around her. The magic was so thick I could almost force it into its own concept, and suddenly it all stopped. It hung in the air for a moment, and I wanted to scream out in denial but I knew it would do nothing.
It all plunged into Kaeo, going through her skin and she screamed. Cuts kept opening up, and she sealed them as fast as they opened. One of her eyes popped, but again she fixed it screaming all the while. I could barely hear the scream, it was like the broken fragments of the knife was eating the noise, and I watched it all through the Sight, helpless.
I didn’t know for how long I stood there, watching it all spiral into her, when it eventually ended. She was standing, and her scars were gone. Most of her clothes were shredded at this point, and it was all I could do to dive and catch her as she passed out. I thought I was crying, as I held her pricking my finger with the golden needle Madam Lie had gifted me.
I called her down, I must have for she came, but it was all happening so fast. I thought I fought Madam Lie when she tried to take Kaeo away from me, but that was the last somewhat coherent thing I could remember for she grimaced and darkness was all I saw.

***

I woke up in my bed, gasping for breath. I tore the blankets off of me, standing up. I was still in the same clothes, and absent mindedly grabbed my cane as I went out of my room. I went down the stairs, and found both my mother and father there but no Kaeo. I was about to ask about her, but saw their faces.
My fathers face was blank, and my mothers was furious. Both watched me come down the stairs which I took at a more measured pace now, and took the seat my father gestured at. They both looked at me for a long time, and I started to shift, uncomfortable.
“What happened?” My father said in a tone of perfect neutrality.
“I don’t really know.”
“Madam Lie?” He asked, and I noticed she was behind me.
“Not a lie.” She said, and I suddenly felt trapped.
“Interesting.” My mother said, and her tone could have frozen over an active volcano.
“You can use more detail about the events that happened.”
My eyes flicked between them, and I could see Madam Lies tall form in my peripheral vision to my right. She stood perfectly neutral, hands clasped in front of her. My parents seemed impatient with my not answering the question, so I took a deep breath and described the circle, her request, and my thought process.
“You should have called Madam Lie immediately.” My mother told me, face still angry.
“I feel like Kaeo would have done something in the spur of the moment that could have been worse.”
“Is that so?” My mother coldly said.
“Kaeo is in a comma.” My father said, face still perfectly calm. I was starting to hate it because at least I could tell what mom was thinking. I wanted to ask more, but it felt like they were baiting me.
“What do you want from me?” I asked, trying a different approach.
“You want to rephrase that?” My mother asked, and I started before my father cut me off.
“We want you to understand that what you did is dumb. You had things you could do, say, I don’t know, claim you needed to use the restroom then get Madam Lie.”
“I-” My father held up a hand interrupting me.
“You made a mistake. You don’t make a lot of those, but this one was pretty big. So yes, we are upset at you, but you are young. That being said, you could have done worse.” My mother sighed, face softening.
“There is a saying. The only worse decision than a bad decision is no decision. You messed up, but you could have frozen. That being said, you will be spending the rest of today in your room. Think about what you did, but we are glad you’re safe.”
“Okay. I-” I stopped myself. I would go and think before talking to them again.
I walked back up to my room, and changed into my pajamas. I laid down, staring at the ceiling. I lifted my hand with Kaeo’s ring on it, using my Sight. It still looked to point at her, and that brought me some comfort. I hoped she was okay, and I would likely see if I could check on her later.
Lunch was dropped off by Madam Lie, who I started to speak to but she shook her head. It seemed I was truly alone with my thoughts. I was up late that night, hoping for the best but planning for the worst.

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