A
long time passed before I heard from Ahriman again. The delay only made my fear
worse. I wasn’t helped by the fact that Sky had decided to go into her Saying
Creepy Rhymes phase again, and she always was looking at me with a smile
whenever she said them.
When
he did finally show up at our door, it was almost a relief. Almost. The smug
smile on his face hinted at the dozens of horrible tortures he imagined I would
be put through.
Lepidus
tried to play the peacemaker again, telling Ahriman that none of this was
necessary, I had learned my lesson, I was too valuable to the organization for
them to get rid of me…. Ahriman would hear none of it. He told the Jackson
brothers to take Lepidus away “so that he wouldn’t try anything heroic.” Given
the way he glared at Ahriman as he was dragged away, I honestly think he might
have had he been given the chance.
I
expect Ahriman wanted to spend more time gloating at me, but Sky entered the
room, and he was quick to leave with me. I think he’s still a bit frightened of
her because of the knife incident.
The
car ride, however, gave him plenty of time to gloat. We were heading to a
different part of the city, to the more upper crust, fashionable areas. Eventually
he shut up long enough for me to get in a word, and I asked where we were
going.
“To
see our Oracle.”
Wait,
Oracle? “You mean an Oracle? The people who the Boss actually talks to? Like
the guy on Messenger’s blog?”
“Justice’s blog. Do not disrespect the
new name he has taken. And yes, someone like that. Not the same person, of
course. You will be answering to our region’s Oracle.”
Oh
fucking fuckity fuck fuck. That was the point I realized how completely in over
my head I’d gotten. All I’d done was point out a discrepancy between how much
money we got and how much we spent on our livelihoods! Couldn’t they just dock
my pay or something? They didn’t have to take me to the closest link any of us
had to the Boss!
I
kept quiet for the rest of the ride. I didn’t want to get into any more trouble
than I was already in.
We
parked in front of a skyscraper further in town. Ahriman tossed the keys to a valet
standing in front of the building, and we walked inside.
The
skyscraper looked like it was being used by some business company. One with
some very old fashioned ideas about employee dress code: business suits everywhere. More than once I nearly
jumped when I saw someone who looked like the Boss.
Ahriman
took me to an elevator and hit the button for the top floor. When the door
opened… I gasped. I’d never seen such luxury before. The room looked like its
designer had been told to make the most decorated and gaudily rich place he
could think of. The floor tiles looked like ivory or marble, as did the walls,
with gold gilt patterns acting as highlights. Also on the walls were several
paintings, all of which looked like they were worth more money than I’d ever
see in my entire life. Most prominent amongst them was a painting which took up
most of the wall opposite the elevator. It depicted an immense tree, with
branches reaching above the clouds and roots stretching into the depths of the
earth. The golden plate at the bottom labeled the painting as “Yggdrasil.” In
front of the painting was a solid black wooden desk, at which sat an old man in
a suit.
He
looked like someone who would have appeared on the cover of Fortune 500. Given
the surroundings, he might really have been on the cover before. Silver-grey
hair, pale blue eyes, and wrinkles on his face that hinted at a lifetime of
hard work.
I
only got a quick glimpse at him before two muscular men (who were also wearing
suits. I’m sensing a pattern.) stepped out from the side and began patting
Ahriman and I down. It was a quick, professional search; only a brief few
moments later, the man who’d been searching me finished and returned to his
position flanking the elevator door. Ahriman’s search took slightly longer; the
guard found three knives concealed on him before finishing.
Ahriman
was snarling at the guard the entire search. When it was over, he stepped
forward and spoke to the man behind the desk. “My lord Truth, is this really
necessary? Surely you know that I would never dream of harming-”
“Your
loyalty to Father has never been in question, Ahriman.” The man coldly cut
Ahriman off. “But that alone does not grant you special privilege. We are all
equal under He That Is.”
I’ve
never seen Ahriman at such a loss for words before. He looked… well, he looked
exactly like I imagine I look
whenever I say something wrong in front of Ahriman. His eyes darted around as
he looked for inspiration on how to pull himself out of the hole his mouth had
gotten him into, until they locked on me. He grabbed me by the arm, and pulled
me forward.
“You
are in the presence of the Oracle, Truth.” He said to me. Truth? That was a
much cornier name than I had expected. In any other circumstances, I might have
laughed at it. “He shall pass judgment upon you.”
Truth
looked me straight in the eyes, and said to me, “Ahriman tells me that you have
made several statements criticizing our current distribution of resources. Do
you deny this accusation?”
Well.
This was it. I was going to be sacrificed to the Boss and my body would be
found hanging from a tree next week. I decided I should at least go out trying
to make a stand. “No, sir. I don’t deny it.” And then I explained our financial
situation.
It
took a while, but Truth didn’t interrupt once. Ahriman tried to, but Truth
raised a hand to silence him. When I finished, Truth turned his stare to
Ahriman and said, “Is what she says true? Are you supporting our brothers and
sisters on starvation rations?”
“Of
course not, my lord! They are being adequately supplied for their purposes!”
“Really?
Then you will have no complaint with me reviewing your latest financial
records?”
For
the second time in my life, I saw Ahriman speechless.
“You
did bring the financial records,
didn’t you?”
Ahriman
just managed to stutter out a “No my lord.”
“Well
stop standing here then. Go and get them.”
He
fled out of that room, back into the
elevator. I was in shock. What the hell had just happened?
I
wasn’t given much chance to recover from my shock either. With Ahriman out of
the room, Truth looked back at me. This time, he smiled, and when he did it
looked like his entire persona changed, from a cold CEO to a kindly
grandfather. “You must excuse Ahriman. He means well, but his eagerness is
often misplaced. It is something I see often. Far too many of our brothers and
sisters look at Father and only see a monster. They fail to understand the
beauty and purpose behind the killing, and thus focus only on the killing.”
With
my brain still at a loss for what was going on, I stupidly said the first thing
that popped into my head. “To be honest sir, I thought the killing was what we
were all about.”
Thankfully,
his response to that was laughter. “And then you go and illustrate my point
perfectly. So many think of Father as nothing more than a monster, it makes
sense that even members of our community would begin to view him similarly.”
I
wanted to ask, “Isn’t he?” but felt that might be pushing my luck a bit too
far. So instead I asked, “Does the Boss really talk to you?”
“’Talk’
may not be the best description. He communicates with me, but it is not through
language. I understand what He intends for me to do, but beyond that I doubt I
have the vocabulary needed to completely explain how He does it.” That wasn’t
much of an answer, but the fact that he was even answering questions was a
surprise. “Though now that you’ve asked me such a personal question, may I ask
you one?”
I
didn’t feel I had much of a choice, so I nodded.
“Diana.
It’s not your birth name; I checked. The Roman goddess of the hunt. An
interesting choice for someone in your position. For a tracker, it would make
sense, but a financial bureaucrat?”
Guess
you guys are going to be getting an explanation for that name as well. “It
wasn’t my first choice, sir. Sky started calling me it one day, and it stuck.”
There
was a flicker of… something on Truth’s face. The emotion passed too quickly for
me to identify it. “Ah yes, Sky. You’re housed with her, aren’t you?”
Before
I could answer, the elevator door opened and Ahriman stepped out. He was trying
to appear calm, but it was clear from the sweat and the state of his clothes
that he’d been running. “I just had the reports faxed here, sir.” He said as he
handed Truth several papers.
Truth’s
face switch back to the CEO one, and he quickly looked through the papers with
an experienced eye. At one point, he paused and said, “I see we spent quite a
large amount of money acquiring fragmentation grenades through black market
channels in the US military. For what purpose, Ahriman?”
“Combating
groups of runners, or driving them out of fortified positions, my lord.”
“I
see. Diana, in your experience, how often do our comrades find themselves
needing to do either of those things?”
He
was asking me questions now? Ahriman glared at me with a “Answer that and you
will suffer” look, but given how much higher Truth is on the pecking order, I
assumed it to be an empty threat. “Almost never, sir.”
“Then
what were these grenades used for in actuality?”
“I
believe some proxies tried playing baseball with them, sir. Except they didn’t
work very good as balls, so they took them to a junkyard and used them all
blowing up whatever they could find.”
“Would
you call that a proper use of our financial resources, Ahriman?”
“No
my lord.”
“No
indeed. I sympathize with your intent, Ahriman. But you are failing to match
your intent with the reality. I’ll need to have some of my own men look over
the numbers. They’ll give you the guidelines for how I want our funds to be
proportioned from now on.”
“But
my lord-”
“Your
weapons will be returned to you as you leave.” There was a note of finality in
that statement that rejected any chance of reply. Dejectedly, Ahriman walked
out, with me following. Before the elevator door closed, Truth spoke to me
again, once more with that kindly smile. “I thank you for what you did today,
Diana. Through us, Father is building a new world. And each of us has a part to
play in its creation. Even your work, mundane as it may seem, is vital to the
foundation.” Then the doors closed, and the elevator started going down. And it
probably was just because the way he said it was like a parent congratulating a
child, but for the first time I actually felt a tiny bit of pride in the stupid
work I’m always doing.
That’s
how my “judgment” went. Now to sit here with my fingers crossed, praying this
doesn’t backfire horribly. It’d be nice for it all to work out, but I’ve grown
used to expecting the worse these days.
