Asmireen
©2024 by Jonathan Scott
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Chapter 10 - A New Life
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Asgael's Son Asgael
17.3 Good, because it be the most valuable, it also sometimes be the most expensive.
"Hey Jake! Who are your friends?" asked a man that was smiling. The man was tall and balding. He was also wearing a bloody apron that smelled of fish.
Jake's mind was reeling and he found his body not completely under his control. This was the effect of healing, and especially deep healing. Jake groggily turned his head to see a man that he knew.
"Isaac!" he exclaimed softly.
Jake walked unsteadily to his uncle and both hugged each other in the middle of the crowded marketplace. Had Jake's mind been clearer he probably would have begun to cry out of relief. He probably would have done more than simply cling to his uncle as though he were drunk.
"Jake, what's going on? Are you ok? Why are you here?"
Isaac asked Jake question after question with an immense look of concern on his face.
"Everybody's dead Isaac." answered Jake unsteadily.
"What do you mean 'everybody's dead'?"
Jake, who was tottering slightly, sat down in the road. His injury, which had been much graver than Zeb had thought, had been healed. Jake had a difficult time sitting up straight.
"What is going on here?" asked Isaac as he looked at both Marie and Zeb.
"Sir, do you know this fellow?" asked Zeb.
Isaac, still looking at Jake's companions, sat down next to Jake and pulled his body towards him so that Jake could have some support.
"Yes, I do. I'm his uncle. Who are you?"
"Nobody in particular sir. Your nephew here, he had himself a fight that he lost, so I brought him here to this healer." answered Zeb.
"Do you know Hank?" asked Marie abruptly.
"Who are you?" asked Isaac who quickly turned his head to look at the little girl.
"I'm a friend of Jake's."
"Hank?" asked Isaac.
"Yeah, I think his name was Hank Utopia or something." answered Marie.
"Hank Atobia?"
"Yeah, that's the guy that punched him."
Isaac eventually heard everything. He heard about the monster. He heard about the explosion. He heard about how his sister Saja and her entire family, except for Jake, had been destroyed in the blast. He heard about Pine Mountain. He heard about Hank and Jolie. He heard about everything. At first he just sat there next to Jake, holding onto him, supporting him. Eventually, he rose and quietly walked back to his fishmonger stand. Jake and Marie followed him there. Jake walked unsteadily.
"Sir, I must be getting back. I have a job to do. I'll leave these two children to you. I'm sorry about your news." said Zeb with a look of sadness.
Zeb turned and walked away hesitantly.
"Thank you for bringing my nephew to me." said Isaac, somewhat breaking out of his trance of woe.
"My pleasure sir." said Zeb, who once again turned around, waved his giant hand and sadly smiled back.
Isaac turned his tall body back towards the stand, looked down briefly, and then looked up with a smile. The children could see the pain in his eyes and they could see the nervousness in his temples. The smile though seemed to pierce through all of that and brought with it a breath of relief and composure for all. This man, who had just learned of his sister's death, was now trying to comfort others.
Isaac was Jake's mother's brother. He resembled her somewhat in the face, although his body was much different in proportion than was hers. He was very tall and quite thin. He had deep blue and extremely wise eyes. Isaac was in his mid-forties and was a very handsome although quite unique looking man.
Jake looked at the fish stand. He looked at the smelly stained apron that was tied about his uncle's waist. He looked at the pile of fish heads that lay near Isaac's feet. Isaac had been a professor at the language guild. He was fully fluent in a dozen languages. How was it possible that this man could be standing here selling fish for a living?
Jake watched Isaac cut fish after fish. Everyone was silent. No one knew what to say.
"Isaac. What are you doing here?" asked Jake as he stared at the fish that Isaac was cutting.
Isaac looked down once again allowing the pain and despair to creep back to his face. He raised his head and said "Things have been bad recently."
Jake cursed himself for having asked the question. He knew that Isaac was already in pain, and also knew that he should have been silent. Isaac, angrily and silently, cut several more fish as Jake and Marie stood there next to him. Marie was nervous. Jake was also nervous. The silence that was there, surrounding the cart, was thick and seemingly infinite.
Isaac then, losing control momentarily, picked up a fish and angrily threw it at a nearby building as he screamed aloud.
"That's enough for today." he said, pretending to be calm, as he began to clean the cart.
"I'll take you home now." he said again.
"Tell me about your family Marie." asked Isaac with a painful smile.
Isaac was as sad as he had ever been in his life. Simply standing still without screaming out loud took all the effort he was capable of.
Isaac tied his cart to the back of the wagon and they all rode out of the open air market past streets filled with buildings whose purposes Jake could only guess at. Jake, who was sitting next to Isaac, forced himself to not show disapproval at the intense wreak of fish that seemed to pour out of his uncle.
They passed building after building. There was one that appeared to be a flour mill. He saw another building that seemed to be used as a sort of construction supply center. He passed pubs and restaurants. He even passed a building with a sign on it that said "Goldsmith." He himself had only seen small gold coins before. He couldn't imagine anyone having enough of it to actually smith anything with.
Eventually they pulled up in front of a tall crumbly building. It seemed that each and every window of the place was adorned with some manner of wet clothing that was attempting to dry in the dirty smelly breeze that filled this place. Behind each lump of clothing sat either an old woman, a cat, or several children. He saw very few smiles.
"Jake. This part of town is kind of rough. I don't know what we're going to do with Gideon or your wagon. People steal things here all the time. And I don't have the money to stable your horse properly. We're just going to have to leave him tied down here and hope for the best. I'm sorry Jake. Things just aren't good right now." said Isaac.
Behind them, a group of men stood around a chalk circle that was drawn on the ground. One was as large as Zeb. They appeared to be gambling and they appeared to be drunk. Two of them carried swords. High in the sky, a boy flew carrying a large crate.
Jake climbed up to the third floor where he found a small and ugly dwelling. Within was Isaac's wife Hannah, a gracious woman who was once beautiful, but was now very much torn and worn.
"Jacob? Jacob! What are you doing here Jacob? What a surprise? Homer and Saja must..." Hannah began.
Isaac lovingly took Hannah by the arm and walked her into a second room where there was a moment of silence followed by gasps and cries. Jake looked at his feet. Marie came close to Jake and held his hand.
Jake walked to a window, still holding Marie's hand. The smell that seeped through the opening made Jake feel like vomiting. The odor of urine seemed to be everywhere. Jake bent his head down slightly and closed his eyes and with that, he heard a scratching sound coming from a wall of this room. Looking down on the floor, Jake saw the rat droppings that told him everything he needed to know about this place. Jake looked at Marie and began to seriously wonder whether their decision to come here had been wise.
Isaac and Hannah returned to the room. Hannah immediately walked up to Jake and began to hug him.
"How long have you lived here?" Jake asked.
Homer and Saja had always been jealous of Isaac and Hannah. Homer had thoroughly been a farmer. He was strong and dependable. He was comfortable with the hard work that comes with a farm. He was happiest, it seemed, in the open air. But nonetheless, he and Saja always seemed to somehow wish that they could trade their lives with Isaac and Hannah. They had heard about the restaurants and the theaters. They had been envious of the respect and admiration that his career as a professor had brought to him. Now though, there was nothing whatsoever to envy. Jake was filled with pity and loathing for their situation. He tried his best to conceal it.
"About six months." Hannah responded with an honest gracious smile.
"When Nahli came, the school that I used to work for lost a lot of its students. I don't know what you know about Nahli, but..." said Isaac.
"I'm a runner. I explained it all to him." said Hannah.
Isaac looked at the little girl with a look a shock and sadness.
"Yeah. Anyway, some of the Nahli people got the gift of teaching and learning. These guys can actually just walk up to you, touch you, and give you everything that they know about a subject. I can't compete with that. There are even some that can also draw information out of you the same way. They just touch you, and then all of a sudden, they just know what you know. I studied foreign languages for decades. Some fifteen year old boy just walked up to me, shook my hand, and learned it all for himself in an instant. Then he went and taught it to all my pupils behind my back, and within one day, I was out of a job. I just couldn't compete with him." said Isaac.
"Why didn't you just come to William's Peace? Homer would have helped you out." asked Jake.
"At first. we thought we could tough it out. We thought we could manage. We lasted for several weeks living off of our savings, but then..." began Isaac.
"...we were burgled." added Hannah sadly.
"We woke up one morning and literally everything was gone except the shirts that we were wearing. Literally. I had no idea that anyone could do that. Somehow, one of these Nahli pigs had put us to sleep, and kept us asleep for three days as some of his other Nahli friends slowly took everything out of our house. The food was gone. Our furniture was gone. My books. My diaries. Our wedding rings. Our silverware. Everything was gone." blurted out Isaac in near rage.
"Nahli is such a disease. They give these amazing abilities to anyone. There is no screening for morality whatsoever. They never take back the powers either from those who use them illegally." said Isaac.
There was a small pause and then Isaac muttered to himself something he seemed to have muttered to himself many times before.
"If Nahli is a religion, then I'm a fishmonger."
Everyone overheard it. But only Marie was willing to respond to it.
"But, you are a fishmonger." answered Marie too quickly.
"Yes, I know." answered Isaac as he stared into Marie's eyes hoping that she would someday understand what he was trying to tell her. Today though, she wouldn't.
"Why don't you just join them? If you had a power, you might be able to make more money?" asked Marie.
Isaac looked down at the ground in grim disagreement.
"Look at us Marie. Look at this city. Nahli did this to us. They put too much power into the hands of people who simply shouldn't have had it. Think about what it's done to other families. If we join them, we'll just be doing to others what that worthless little fifteen year old boy did to us. ...and we refuse to leave Papa Voice." responded Isaac.
"Why not?" asked Marie.
"Think of the world that Papa Voice gave us Marie. It worked. People worked. People studied. People ate. There was a balance to it all. When people were evil, they were most of the time limited in the amount of evil that they could do. Other people were strong enough to keep the evil at bay most of the time. Look at us Marie. How can you possibly think that Nahli is fine. Look around the city and pay attention to the pain that you see, and then you'll see the world that Nahli is giving us. I want Papa Voice's world instead." answered Isaac.
There was a small pause and then Jake broke the silence.
"Why fish Isaac?"
"It was all that was available." said Isaac.
"We were starving Jake. There were no other options. We had to take it. Hard work and discipline just seem to not be very valuable commodities anymore." said Hannah.
"So then, let's just go back. You can move into our house and you can run the farm. I'll teach you all about it." said Jake.
"Yeah. Let's go back." said Marie.
There was a moment of silence and then Isaac stood up. His face was full of shame and fury. He stormed out of the room and down the stairs. Hannah began to cry somewhat. From time to time, below, there was screaming.
No one was willing to break the ensuing silence for quite some time until Hannah once again spoke.
"Isaac's an indentured servant now Jake." said Hannah sadly.
"What does 'indentured' mean?" asked Hannah.
"It means that he's made a contract to work for someone and can't break it. He can't leave. If he does, he can go to prison." answered Hannah.
"You have to stay here? Like this?!?" answered Jake.
"For how long?" he asked.
"Another four and a half years." responded Hannah who then slowly hid her face. She was crying, but was far too gracious to allow it to happen in front of her guests.
Isaac grimly walked in with some of the boxes and supplies that had been in their wagon. He placed them on the floor, stood up and walked back out.
"How could everything change so soon Hannah?" asked Jake.
"We were all so happy. I mean, I didn't know it, but we were, you know. It just feels like someone blew out our happiness like it was a candle." said Jake again.
"Yeah. I know what you mean Jake." answered Hannah.
It was now dark. The sounds from the street had lessened. But the eerie quiet only amplified the rat scratching sounds from the walls. Marie and Jake, who were laying on their bedrolls on the floor of the room, both stared with wide open eyes at the flaked ceiling. The smell of urine continued to assault them. The scratching noises made them afraid to sleep. And the rat droppings that lay about them had attracted the foulest of mites that were now finding their way into Jake and Marie's clothing, hair and bedrolls. Both lay like this for hours until daylight finally came.
This was the life that they would have to somehow become accustomed to.
During the night, Marie and Jake spoke.
"Jake, I don't want to stay here." said Marie.
"Yeah. I know. Me too. I want to go. I just don't know if we can." answered Jake.
"Why not?" asked Marie.
"Maybe I could live on my own. Maybe I couldn't. I don't know. I just don't know. But, you know, I think my uncle needs my help. I just don't feel good about leaving them alone." Jake answered.
"I'm itchy." said Marie.
"Yeah, maybe we can do something about it tomorrow. Just go to sleep if you can Marie." answered Jake.
Marie rolled onto her side as Jake stood. He walked to the window to look down at Gideon and the family wagon. He was happy to see that they were still there.
Soon, Jake heard the quiet heavy rhythmic sounds of Marie's breathing. Marie was asleep. Jake continued to look out the window.
As Jake stood there, he saw a ten year old boy walking down the road with a lantern. He was alone and the streets were very dark.
And then, seemingly from out of nowhere, two large men came out and surrounded the boy.
Jake was from a small town that seemed to know how to get along. By any standard, his town was abnormally pleasant. Because of this though, Jake was handicapped here. Because the entire idea of crime was so foreign to him, he did not know when to be afraid. So, when these men appeared so suddenly, he did not think to realize that something wrong would happen.
Jake heard laughter and saw that the boy was afraid.
He then saw one of the men begin to jump. The jumping was very unnatural though. With each leap, the man jumped far into the sky, landing a half dozen yards away each time. The man continued to jump back and forth. Sometimes close to the boy, sometimes farther away. The man was intimidating the boy as much as he could, and it was working. The boy was afraid.
The other man began to grow in size. His body began to swell and raise in height. Soon the man was twice the size of Zeb. He then uprooted a tree and held it in his hands as though it were a club and began to walk to the boy.
And then finally, the jumping man chose to jump directly on to the boy, knocking him violently to the ground.
It was then that Jake felt the weakness in his knees and the tingling of his skin that comes when one's body tells one that someone is about to die. Helplessly, Jake watched the two strange men approach the now wounded young boy.
And just when Jake thought that he had gained enough composure to run to his uncle and tell him about it, Jake saw the little boy explode with light.
At first, the street itself became as light as day. Then, the light quickly died down, centering on the boy, and giving him an eerie blue crackling luminescence. The two men, seeing the light, began to run, but not before the boy began to throw strands of it towards them. The jumping man managed to avoid two of the strands. The third though, caught him by his left ankle, and with that, the man fell to the ground shaking as the strand of crackling blue luminescence travelled about his body. The giant was hit by the first one the boy threw at him. But, being that the man was immense, the one strand of light was not enough to topple him. So, the boy threw three more. Eventually, the great man fell to the ground shaking just like his partner.
The boy then went to each of the men and began to strike them with more of this blue crackling light until each and every one of them appeared to shake so violently that the shaking itself seemed to die. The large man, once the shaking ended, began to shrink.
The boy then went to each of the now motionless forms and placed his hands into each of their pockets and stole everything from them that he could find.
The boy then picked up his fallen lantern, and walked away from his attackers, spitting on them and laughing an evil laugh at them as he left.
After a short amount of time, several people came outside and began to tend to the fallen men. Eventually, the police arrived and the men were covered in sheets and taken away in the back of a wagon.
Jake had watched all of it. He'd been incapable of withdrawing himself from the window. He'd been incapable of looking away. Jake had watched two men die and his very young mind, was shattering from it.
All of these people had been Nahli.
Jake did not like this city. He did not like it at all.