Frays In The Weave 45 Southbound: 4

Pa.s.sion by wrath, love in pain and freedom through obedience. He knew the mandates, but he had broken them, and now he was to be punished, redeemed.

He took another step and looked around. Behind him a freckled girl faltered. He heard the whining and the crack as a whip took her back. Then a shrill scream.

This has never happened. This is a lie.

The tip of the whip bounced and snapped at his legs. Fire! Flames ate him from below. He burned from the inside, and the pain was far, far more than he could bear. He screamed, and fell.

Behind him the girl who had taken the full measure of the whip whimpered. Her life ran out of her mouth in red gushes of blood.

I'm not here. Not real. A Weave, a b.a.s.t.a.r.d Weave.

He crawled to his knees. He had to walk, had to earn his right to redemption. Pain was better than what awaited the unrepentant.

As he pa.s.sed the gates towering chimneys towered above him. Those beyond forgiveness ended their evil days there, but he still had a pure core in his sole. He could still be saved.

Not real. I'll spike your bowels to the door! d.a.m.n you Arthur a.s.shole Arrogant Vain Worthless Wallman!

The last thought lingered between realities. He clung to it but lost his grip. Redemption, he walked the last road to redemption.

#

Heinrich and Juanita, the latter with the help of two men in her news team, tore Arthur and Ken apart. Arthur, or Ken, Heinrich wasn't sure who, had done something, and when he arrived to investigate the screams he found them rolling on the floor doing their best to strangle each other.

All around them in the tavern people were on their knees, screaming, moaning or crying. By the time he was sure he wouldn't have to report Arthur for murder or bring his corpse back to Verd most of the people had crawled away. A few still stayed though, and they were staring at Arthur with grat.i.tude s.h.i.+ning from their eyes. Then, slowly as if having made an important decision they departed.

Heinrich didn't care. He barely avoided dragging Arthur through a pool of vomit on the floor and dumped him into a chair.

"What the h.e.l.l..."

"Idiot! You arrogant child! How dare you interfere? We Weave, yes, but we never interfere!"

Heinrich jumped at the tirade. So, Ken was angry about Arthur doing something. Probably Arthur's doing then. That didn't exactly surprise Heinrich.

"They had to know," Arthur responded.

The strangeness took a short while for Heinrich to register. When it did he shrugged it away. Warrior gorilla or golden eyed alien, or, apparently, some rooms voided the need for interpreters. He was getting used to a few of Otherworld's peculiarities.

"Fool! They know for certain. You changed the Weave!"

"What are you talking about?" Arthur made as if to rise.

He had calmed down, which was good, but Ken was still close to hysteria. Better let him get it out of his system. Heinrich pushed Arthur back into his seat.

"You are an ignorant cretin. Whenever we Weave we travel the threads of the Weave. You have no right to add threads or patterns to the Weave."

"Whatever. Watch and Weave, never interfere. Blah blah blah. People are dying here. We have a responsibility to make them..."

"You just changed history. You made your fantasy n.a.z.i church part of our history. Listen, learn and shut the h.e.l.l up before you tear this world even further apart!"

This time Arthur only opened his mouth.

Heinrich stared at Ken. He'd stopped believing things were impossible here. Stopped the moment a dragon appeared out of nowhere and made him and his entire command blink out of existence and reappear in the middle of combat a moment later. Juanita gaped as well. She was new here, new to the magic of Otherworld and probably still had problems coming to terms with her suddenly being able to understand the local language.

Ken rose and shrugged away the hands that tried to force him back onto the floor. "Not going to hurt him. He's trying to get himself killed without my help." He turned to Arthur again. "Now I just have to convince you not to kill the rest of us on the way."

"I don't think..."

"Shut up! I don't know how things work in your d.a.m.n brave new world, but it doesn't seem to have improved much since I left it, so just shut up and listen!"

Hairs rose on Heinrich's back. Ken hadn't spoken the local language at all. It was English, but English of a kind Heinrich had never heard from any holo casting.

Ken coughed. "He forgot to tell you? Yes, I'm from Earth and I'm a f.u.c.king seven hundred years older than that misfit of yours, so if he obstructs my lesson again would you be so kind and knock his teeth out?"

"That's, that's impossible..." Heinrich tried to swallow the words back, but it was too late. At Ken's side Juanita gasped.

"No, only unlikely," Ken said and smiled. Then he became all serious again. "That makes me senior to anyone else here. Now," he glared at Arthur, "there are a few details you should consider very, very carefully. When you Weave you Weave. You can change the Weave, add to it, and that Weave is the foundation of this world. G.o.ds do the changing, taleweavers only mend frayed threads or patch together lost patterns. Sometimes we make mistakes, and there's a price to pay. Understand?"

Arthur nodded sullenly but stayed silent.

"Good! We never, ever, deliberately change the Weave, because we can't understand what changing this world will do to it. You just changed the history of this world. People won't become unborn or anything like that, but from now on your disgusting fairy-tale is part of what happened here. Maybe in someone's true dreams, or somewhere there's a patch of land where a ghost talker can feel the remnants of a short lived nation that almost was."

Heinrich couldn't tell if the words or Arthur's silence was the worst. True or not, Ken honestly believed what he told Arthur, or he had to be one h.e.l.l of a liar That also made Arthur a criminal of a kind. Criminally stupid? Heinrich would like to think so. The newscaster had dug up dirt everywhere the last twenty years or so, and even though Heinrich had admired the charming hero as a child he'd grown more and more disenchanted with the royal pain in the b.u.t.t as he grew older. The Wallman empire never ceased to grow. No truth was unimportant—as long as there was a FEM to be made from it.

He remembered how angry he'd been when he found out that Wallman had charged, and charged well, for the holo casts they'd received during those lonely years he spent grounded here after the failed invasion. The navy paid, as Wallman must have known they would. Even a rumour about failing to make life easier for the eight survivors would have been fatal for the navy's reputation.

"...in Kordar probably have new legends they don't know where they came from as well?"

Heinrich abandoned his line of thought as Ken's words brought him back to the here and now.

"What is Kordar?"

Ken stared at him. "Sorry, you wouldn't know. It's a kingdom north of Keen. Used to be warlike with ideals similar to medieval Europe. Knightly virtues and all that."

"I don't understand," Heinrich said. He didn't.

"It's not important. What is important is that I travelled here because I heard a retelling of the King Arthur legend."

Heinrich realized he looked like a fool, but he shook his head anyway.

"You are familiar with that one?"

"I've heard about a king with that name, but ancient history, well..."

"Oh dear," Ken said. "Really! Maybe historical, maybe not, but the legends most definitely have very little with history to do. Now, our bright little arrogant idiot didn't just tell that legend. He had to Weave it I guess."

Arthur nodded again.

"So, somewhere, somehow, all those legends are indeed a historical fact." Ken sighed. "You idiot! They're as little part of this world as your last display. You had no right to interfere with reality here."

"Oh shut up," Arthur said. "You weren't here to tell me at the time. I'll stick to the facts in the future. Happy now?"

Heinrich saw Ken redden, but he didn't go into a fury again.

"I'm not happy, but what's done can't be undone. We can only hope the damage isn't too bad."

Heinrich relaxed a bit. The tension had gone and even though neither Arthur nor Ken looked satisfied an outright brawl seemed unlikely now. Maybe it would be just another calm day on the road after all.