Chapel Orahamm

“Why are we here?” one of the male Chair demanded.  The soft grey of the testing chamber gave me haunted mansion vibes.

“So ya’ll wouldn’t be tempted to straight-jacket me,” I muttered.

“I’m sorry, I missed that,” the one female Chair had tempered her attitude from yesterday in time for me to have to check how much of a twat I wanted to sound like today. 

I could try to not channel my inner dark sarcasm for five minutes. “We are here because I know this is a location safe to me, and to you.  I figured we could talk here about what I need from you and what you need from me,” I tried bluntly honest with them in hopes of not being molested for an outrageous paycheck once again. One I had yet to figure out how I was to access if I couldn’t get hold of my internet connection to check my bank statement. The longer I was down in the subterranean tunnels of the Librarian’s Guild, the more I had to wonder if I’d ever see real daylight again. And if I should pick up a vitamin d supplement at the guild’s grocery store. Somehow. With money I didn’t know how to access. I needed to remember to ask Sylwyn how to access that when I got a chance because I was not about to ask the crazy loons from Mars.

“What do you mean safe?” one of the Chair moved toward the stairs, nervous.

“It seems that my actions always startle you.  I figured if any actions had to be taken, that this arena, being designated as a testing chamber, with plenty of recording equipment, would make you feel better about what was happening. Or do you have a better idea that doesn’t end with me in a soundproofed broom closet?”I stood at the podium overlooking the field.

“What do you need to know?” one of the Chair caught the other from bolting.

“What am I supposed to be doing here for you?  I know that Simil acts as your guard dog and assassin from time to time.” I turned to look at them.  They all stared at Hatter.  He had taken over for Sylwyn when he had left the apartment.

“Your position in the Guild would be equivalent,” the female Chair replied.

“I had heard something about the woman you are looking for who took your manuscript of the great gods.  Is there a plan for retrieving the manuscript?” I asked them.  They shuffled, waiting for someone to answer me.  “Do I have the ability to go up against her if she does Read the manuscript? Is this a suspicion of yours?”

“It hasn’t been Read since Biblical times,” one of the male Chair cautioned.

“It’s not like I’m determined to use this information for bad things. There is a reality to the situation that I need to understand, though, if we are to find some kind of use for me outside of random novelty.” I leaned my hip against the podium and crossed my arms. “Have we lost the power to Read the old manuscripts?  Do we have to worry about someone having it?”

“You can have multiple people Read a manuscript together.  That can work for large-scale summons, like fortified castles, or armies that will last through a day of war.  Something longer than what you regularly summon here on the floor,” one of the men explained.

“Seriously?  You guys are always a surprise.” I turned from them and tapped into the terminal.

“It helps if the Readers have a close bond, that they can share the same wavelength when Reading,” one of the other Chair cautioned.

“Can you do it?” I asked them.

“Why do you think we are the Chair?” the female countered.

“Because you like being dicks to people?” I muttered under my breath.  Simil choked.  “So, you are the ultimate stop-all for world destruction when it comes to things like Godzilla?” I surmised.

“So to speak, yes,” one of them said.

“So, really, why do you need a Simil then if you are so powerful?” I asked.

“Because we are not Simil.  We cannot Read unconditionally.  Even we as the Chair must Read aloud scripts together, and we are not capable of so many Readings.” One of the men approached to look at my terminal.  I was flipping through manuscripts, searching for a god of Europe or North America that I recognized.

“So, you guys are like a one-shot RPG or missile, and we’re more like a pair of revolvers,” I tried to grasp at our differences.

“You could call it that,” the female agreed.

“Are you going to try commanding a god?” the man next to me asked. For once, expecting sarcasm, I was more nervous that he sounded interested instead.

“I was preparing if one of you dared me to.” I smiled at him maliciously.

“Try it then.” He waved me to the floor.

My heart tripped in my chest. Sylwyn and I had mucked about for the better part of four hours the night before summoning a serious of more and more powerful fae. But fae are not gods and I had not been brave enough to summon Cernunnos or Bridget in my traipsing through Irish folklore. 

Swallowing, I chose a title at random. A children’s picture book faded onto the screen. The colors under the green-tinted screen left the daisies on the cover looking sick. Clearing my throat, I read the legend of Coyote who stole fire from Sun.  The floor changed to the sands of the Mojave.  Pueblo rose up out of the dunes.  But no Coyote, and no fire.

“See, even if you can command many things, and push lava around, and all the things you did the other day, this is something you can’t readily summon,” the male Chair who had goaded me explained.  

“What about the unicorns and centaurs.  Those are just as mythical?” I asked.

“It has everything to do with tapping into power.  Gods subsist on power, that is their magic, their mythology, to do impossible things.  Creatures are just impossible things, not trying to maintain a free will.  When you summon a god, you are summoning something intelligent with power that you then have to supply it,” he continued.

“So, if I read manuscripts on gods, I don’t have to worry about accidentally breaking something?” I asked with a bit of relief.

“Was that why we came here?” the female Chair sneered.  I nodded.  “You wanted to know if you went looking for the lost manuscript if you would destroy something by Reading it?”

“I can randomly summon things just by glancing at texts; how was I supposed to verify that I had the right manuscript if I couldn’t read it without the possibility of Reading out a god by accident?” I bit back

“Why did you summon us here, then, if that’s all you wanted to check?” one of the men asked me.  

I glanced back at them.  “Because I didn’t want you trying to electro-shock therapy me again today if I succeeded because you weren’t around for the whole fucking story,” I shot.

“Well, you now know you can’t.  If that’s all for the day, we have business to conduct.  We don’t have any projects for Simil for the morning, so we’ll leave you here.” The tallest of the Chair beckoned his robed brethren down the stairs.  They wandered out, the door banging shut behind them.  I stood at the podium, staring at the story, trying to determine what it was that I wasn’t feeling that I seemed to have had a grasp on just a couple days before.

Simil slid up next to me to look at the text.  “Why does this captivate you?” he asked, his odd eyes pinning me, sliding along my skin.  

“Because I can feel the power in the words,” I mumbled, my fingers tracing the lines of the text.

“Let me try,” he offered.  This would be the first time I got to see him Read anything.  I moved aside and watched him. He began, and it wasn’t the field below me that drew my interest, but the intensity of his gaze on the manuscript.  A flicker of lavender light illuminated his pupils.  “Did you know your eyes glow when you Read?” I asked, mesmerized.

“Your’s do too,” he chuckled.  He had also only pulled out the desert village.

“Really?” I squeaked.

“Reader’s Illuminations are beautiful to watch,” he smiled at me warmly.  I blushed, a smile tugging at my lips as I ducked my head.

“I-I think I want to try the Read again,” I moved up next to the terminal.  He backed away.  “We have the whole day.  If you think you can do it.” Simil waved me to the podium as he went and reclined in a chair.  He pulled out his broadsword and began honing.  I had a feeling it was his habit to hone when waiting for people to test.

I don’t remember how many times I tried to summon Coyote.  I was becoming weary of the text, though.  I had to have been on at least my twentieth iteration.  My feet hurt. I found myself swaying with weariness. Truth be told, the whole of me was dead sore.

Warm breath on my neck and the cold slide of silk pulled my attention from the blurring words. Simil’s lips trailed down my neck, his hair cascading around me.  I leaned into the feeling, my body suddenly clenching.  His arms wrapped around me, pulling my back against his chest.  “You’re not focusing anymore,” he murmured.

“You’re distracting,” I countered.

“I’d say it’s more you who is distracting, Alice-Deus.” Simil nipped at my ear, pointing down to the floor. Expecting a desert village, I was stunned instead to find a maze of rose gardens, each dead end occupied by a four-poster bed.

“If you don’t focus properly on what you’re Reading, your distractions seem to pop out.” He pressed cancel on the terminal.  The fans whirled down as the electronics in the room blinked off.

“I don’t remember what I was saying,” I whispered apologetically.

“Oh, you were definitely thinking of quite a few things that would make a grown romance novelist blush.” His fingers tugged experimentally at the hem of my shirt.

“There are cameras, you know.” I stepped away from him.

“Where would you have us go?” He proceeded to shut down the last of the equipment on the floor.

“I know of a room with a great view.” I smiled at him mischievously.

“I might know of this place that you speak of,” he smirked back.  He had dropped his odd speech pattern, but it was most definitely the Mad Hatter and not Sylwn that was speaking to me.

“Would you like to join me?” I offered as we descended the stairs back to the main floor.

“You honor me,” he bowed, opening the door.

In the hallway, we were stopped up short.  A man in a grey suit and black tie was leaning against the wall.  “Took you long enough, Simil.  Chair sent this for you.” The man handed Simil a sheet of paper. 

A muscle tensed in Mad Hatter’s jaw. “Thank you, Roger.” He flipped the sheet open.

“What’s our order today?” the man in the grey suit asked.

“Looks like the white rabbit has come out of her hole,” Simil mused.

“Hatter?” I asked after the interruption to our free afternoon.

“Let’s eat, then we’ll go set up a tea party,” Simil straitened himself.

“Who are you?” The man in the grey suit turned to me. The tone of his voice was at best hostile, at worst down right volatile.

“Thaddeus Jaegar,” I growled with the lowest voice I could get.

“Simil,” he turned away from me, “are you escorting her somewhere?” he asked.

“The Chair has left him in my charge,” he shrugged.

“Are we bringing her with us?” Roger asked.

“It wouldn’t be a tea party without Alice-Deus,”  Hatter smirked.

“Is she any good?” the man asked.  My heart beat hard in my chest.  Simil turned to look at me, his pink eye piercing.  I quarked an eyebrow at.  A toothy grin snaked across his face.  I returned the smile.

“You’ll see soon enough.” Simil sauntered down the hall.

The man in the grey suit stared after Simil, perplexed.  He glanced over his shoulder at me dismissively.  A dark shock of hair was swept back with a heavy dose of pomade.  Dark brown eyes in a thin face watched me with little more than the regard one gives a cockroach.

We both started walking down the hall, following Simil.  “Roger, was it?” I asked pleasantly.

“Yes,” he replied, curtly.

“You work with Simil?” I took a deep breath and channeled my inner customer service voice.

“What, have you been stuck in a closet all your life?  Of course I work with him.  I’m his handler.  Everyone knows that,” he snapped.

My fingers tingled.  I twisted my neck to pull the pinch in my shoulders apart if only to keep from launching pyroclastic blobs of lava at the man.  “I was just brought in,” I explained with the calm voice one uses on unruly toddlers.  “I’ve been around him for a couple days now, and this is the first time meeting you.”

“Newbie?  Oh freaking great!  The Chair’s so busy that they have the Simil babysitting?” Roger was practically spitting.  I couldn’t deal with that at the moment.  I quickened my pace to catch up with Simil, leaving Roger behind.  The squeak of his shined leather shoes against the linoleum guaranteed an eye twitch from me soon.

Simil extended his elbow for me to slip my hand in.  A hiss from behind us made me wince.  Simil slowed down to glance behind him.  “Problem, Roger?” he asked pleasantly.

“Miss?” Roger asked.

“What?” I asked, not turning to look at him.

“Miss?” he asked again.

“What?” I hissed.

“What are you doing?” he pressed.

“Heading to lunch? What are you doing?” I blistered.

“Why are you touching him?” he practically choked.  I turned sharply at that.  He almost collided with me.  He stood much taller than me, but I was ready to go up against Goliath in that instant.  “Let’s get a couple things straight here, k’ Rog?  My name is Thaddeus Jaegar and I am The Alice to the Mad Hatter. And I’m dating Sylwyn, who Mad Hatter is a part of. I don’t see you being the March Hare or the Walrus or any other paltry subplot to my story so I will damn well touch him and more if I please, got it?” My teeth clicked. 

He made to protest, then what I had said dawned on him.  His face sallowed.  He stepped back a pace.  “You’re…you’re…” he stammered. 

I sighed, exasperated.  “Is this going to happen every time I meet someone?” I turned to Simil.  

“Meeting, such sweet parting, they must happen again and again,” Simil mused.  

“Now, I am hungry and ready for lunch.  Are we going to eat or not?” I asked them.  

“Simil?” Roger asked.

“Roger?” Simil replied.

“Is she really Alice? Are you really Sylwyn?” he asked.

“He is Mr. Jaegar to you,” Simil answered.

“But…but what happened to you?” Roger gulped.

“I became a Simil,” he opened the door to the lunch room.  I walked in and went to the counter.  I nabbed a tray and utensils from the end cap and picked up a couple of dishes.  Roger and Simil had stopped talking, aware of the intense gaze of the audience that was the lunch crowd.  They both retrieved trays of food, and we made for the furthest corner table away from prying eyes.

Seated, Roger turned his attention back to Simil, “I had wondered why Sylwyn suddenly disappeared last year.  You were in training, weren’t you?” Roger mused as he chewed on a slice of beef.  “But you don’t look like Sylwyn,” he pointed out.  He turned to me.  “Are you sure this is Sylwyn?” he demanded.

“Cut it with the ‘this’ and ‘it’.  Use ‘he’ if you don’t want your tongue cut out. How long did you know my boyfriend, Roger?” I chomped down on a piece of steak and chewed my frustration out.

“About three years.  I was transferred here from the Hong Kong branch,” he shoveled alfredo noodles into his mouth.  Not the most elegant eater.  I took a bite of my salad before continuing.

“Have you looked, truly looked at Simil?” I asked.

He turned his attention to Simil, openly staring at him rather than at his shoulders or chest, “What do you mea-…”  His jaw dropped.  “Sylwyn?” he asked.

“He’s not here right now, but I can take a message.” Mad Hatter broke apart a roll into fluffy layers.

“What the?” Roger sputtered.

“You can see it, though, can’t you?” I finishing off a cucumber sandwich.

“He’s Sylwyn, but not,” he whispered to me.

“A person takes on the Simil, and doing so can change them,” I wasn’t even amused anymore.

“But…but…how could we have been working together these last couple of… and me not know?” Roger sounded incredulous.  “Did you know?” He blustered at me.

“About the time I met the Chair, and he put a sword to my throat.” I flicked my fork indifferently.

“He…you…wait, what?” He was confused even more.

“Who are you to him?” I demanded, fixing him under a disdainful eye as I smeared butter on a roll.

“I’m…I’m his handler.  We work together on cases the Chair sets up.  I get him to and from locations, find lodging, set up equipment and meetings if need be,” he answered meekly.

“So, you aren’t always together?” I bit into the roll.  Good lord, I had to get the recipe from the lunch lady.

“When we are at the Guild, we go our separate ways.  When the Chair has to send Simil out for duty, then I come get him,” he replied.

“He hasn’t been on duty then for a couple of days, and that’s why I haven’t met you yet,” I mused more to myself than to him.

“I take it you were tested?” he asked.

“On so many levels,” bitterly, I got up and took my empty tray to the bussing station.  When I returned, Simil was watching me, worry smeared across his face.  I slid my hand across his shoulder as I circled behind him to my chair on the other side.  I laid my hands in my lap and waited.  His worry seemed to fade just a little.

“It’s still disconcerting to see someone so openly touch Simil,” Roger muttered.  

There would have been a lot more than just touching going on if you hadn’t shown up, I thought to myself.

“Our white rabbit has set up house,” Simil decided to change directions.

“We have a flight, hotel, and cars arranged,” Roger produced papers.

“For two or for three?” Simil asked.

“Just tw-” Roger stuttered as he saw the extra papers in the packet.  “…three.”  He looked up, keenly aware that he would have been more prepared for the situation he was in if he had just looked at the papers he was handed.

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