Issue Number Ten
"The Price That We Set"
The sharp jab in my chest goes away after a moment. But really that’s all it needs to remind me that it’s there. It’s a badge of honor really, one more token that I’m not the man I used to be. Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself. More likely it’s one more gift from my father, along with my high cheekbones. I never got to see what he looked like as an old man, for that matter I never knew what he looked like young. But I’m guessing that he would have looked a lot like the figure that I see in the mirror everyday. Grey hair streaked with brown, a neatly trimmed beard and moustache of the same quality. Once upon a time the grey wasn’t there. Then again, time will have it’s way no matter how you try to stop it. I’m not as fast as I used to be. I’m not as headstrong, at least that’s what I tell myself. There isn’t much in the way of evidence of that, but I like to think that age brings wisdom. Even when the age is forced down your throat by some strange side-effect.
A couple months ago, I had gone forward in time, and met a very nice young woman with an awesome responsibility being placed on her shoulders. You might say that I put it there. Then I went back to my team, just in time for Brian Braddock, the guardian of the Omniverse, to place a far heavier burden on mine. There were things that needed to be done, and like a good soldier I did them. The price that I paid… the lines around my eyes tell that story. The price was my youth. If Brian was right, I would pay it each and every time. We had just gotten back into the country when the barrier went up, when the world went on its head and magick returned to the world in full force. *
(* Confused? Then obviously you haven’t been following the events in the Pendragons! Go read Barry Reese’s newest masterpiece NOW! - GD)
I thought things were bad for the rest of the England, but for Sersi…
“Franklin told me about, your situation.” She tried to throw a flash of a smile at him, but the corners of her mouth just weren’t into it. It was one thing to hear that someone who knew to be in his mid-20s suddenly showing up a good thirty-some years older. It was quite another thing to be face to face with them. He watched the smile slowly die on her face as she tried to keep her expression straight. He had dealt with it before, when he had gone back to his job at SyCorp to tell them about that he needed a to take an extended leave of absence. They hadn’t been surprised, anything but. The offer they had made… was probably too good to be completely taken on face value. Still…
“… and Franklin said that you were here so I… are you even listening to me?” Miriam asked. Dane shook the cobwebs out of his head. It seemed that he was drifting more and more of late. It wasn’t especially surprising, given that even in a body in his 50s, he had lived much longer than that. He had been in the Crusades after all, and spent several periods of time literally a piece of stone. The fact that he was sane at all…
“Yeah,” he said, trying
to cover by brushing his hair back with his right hand. It was a casual move,
that when he was young he probably would have pulled off. From someone older
though, it probably just looked pathetic. “I was just trying to figure out
what to do next.”
“They make a rather good offer Dane. Sycorp obviously
wants to keep you on their payroll, having someone of your, expertise, on hand
certainly doesn’t hurt their own reputation.”
“But paying for me to go to the continent and study the effects of the barrier there… considering that I was going that way anyway. It just seems to be an awfully big coincidence.”
“Then maybe you should just take their money and keep
your eyes open. As you said, you were going there anyway. As your attorney, I
highly recommend taking it.”
“Since when did you become my business manager as
well?”
Miriam smiled, this time for real, “Since no one else
wanted the job. Honestly, it’s a good opportunity for you. The field’s wide
open for exploration, with the world changing everyday. Giving people some sort
of solid evidence, some sort of guiding principles, I can’t imagine anything
more exciting right now. I’m sure your accountant would agree with that as
well.”
“He would have,” Dane said, “If he hadn’t been
turned into a hedgehog when his assistant realized that she had manifested
powers.” He shook his head, there was too much of that sort of thing
happening. The magick was affecting everything, transforming even the most
mundane of people into creatures of wonder. The effect was still small, and
relatively localized, but it seemed to be spreading. If the Pendragons weren’t
able to keep it in check… he shook his head again. A good portion of the rest
of Europe was under the same conditions, and the team could only be in so many
places at once. There were other heroes out there… and there was Doom… but
one or two more certainly couldn’t hurt the situation.
“Sometimes I’m not sure when you’re joking.”
He managed a grin, “That’s because we’re living the
punch-line.”
Sersi
They were after her again. She could feel them in her tangled raven hair, like gnats, running around, calling her name… “Sersi… Sersi… Sersi…” over and over again. They called her other names as well, older ones. Ones that the Romans had brought to the shores of the far away places they had invaded. Including what was now the United Kingdom. The kingdom was united - against her, it seemed. There were powers in the land, powers that had existed when she had been young, and foolish enough not to mind that the Romans thought that the Eternals were their gods. They had brought her name to the newly conquered lands, and then they had brought her, in hopes of showing the heathens the error of their ways. The land remembered her. It always had. But never before had it been in a position to do anything about it.
The memories came flooding back, all the things she had seen, all the things she had done. Sersi wasn’t even sure she had even done these things, they might have been glimpses she had seen in the Uni-Mind that had bound her people to one another. These could be someone else’s sins that she was being punished for. They could be her own. No one seemed to care. The land had turned against her, and sooner or later, it was going to find a way to consume her, to destroy her.
“Why the hell do I stay?” she asked herself. But she
knew that answer to that. She stayed for the same reason that she had come back
to England. She stayed for the same reason that she had gone with him on the
fool’s errand Brian Braddock had sent them on, the one that had cost Dane his
young, but fortunately not his… stamina. Dane Whitman was her Gann-Josin,
there was a bond between them more powerful than any force in the universe,
tying their lives together for all time. She knew it well, she had been the one
who had forced it on him. It had been severed, but someday it would be forged
again, this time willingly. She knew it in her heart. She stayed because Dane
had asked her to. That alone was worth the price she was paying everyday.
Besides, they would be leaving soon… going off to the continent, where she
hoped that the spirit of England wouldn’t pursue.
There was also the matter of the Shaping. The Pilgrim had told her that it was coming.* Despite everything that had happened to them, to the world, she knew that it hadn’t happened yet. Whatever it was, Dane was going to need her by his side. That much she knew. Dane was going to need her.
(* This was revealed in BK #8! -
GD)
Something bit into her foot, hitting bone, drawing blood…
her eyes crackled with energy as she allowed it to flow freely. Whatever it was
would soon be a pile of dust. Whatever stood in her, and Dane’s way, was going
to end up a pile of dust. The pain didn’t matter… she would find a way to
transform that as well. He needed her. That was enough.
Miriam sipped her drink as she waited. She had been part of a well established law firm when she had been assigned to handle the final arrangements on the estate of Victoria Bentley. It had been a straight forward one, there was only one heir, Dane Whitman, and he was to get everything of value from her British holdings. It was straight forward, but with enough money and status involved, that she was in prime position to showcase her promise in the field. It was in meeting Dane himself that things had gotten complicated. They had hit it off, although he was distant at first, she knew that he liked her. There was just something about his smile that intrigued her with its strength, and something about his eyes that made her want to protect him. Or maybe it was the other way around, she snickered to no one in particular, the way she had been drinking the last month or so, it was a wonder that she was still able to put whole sentences together, much less thoughts.
Dane had liked her, and she had liked him… and when her sister set them up on a blind date, that should have been that. Except of course his old girlfriend came back on the scene. Except of course that it turned out that what he did in his off-time was fighting evil. She had sneaked a peak at his file after their blind date, and found out that not only was he a scientist, inventor and a heck of a dancer he was also an Avenger and a Hero for Hire. Soon after that he had become a Pendragon and all illusions that whoever had done their research had messed up went right out the window. It wasn’t like she even wore a mask. Just a helm that didn’t cover much of his face at all.
She thought about it as she took another sip. The whole hero thing would have been fine. In fact it was kind of exciting to know one. But that was the sort of thing that didn’t really suit any sort of serious relationship possibilities. Which, as it turned out, was for the best. While she was at the firm, she had gotten a better offer and went off to work as legal counsel for Sycorp, specifically on the matter of Dane Whitman. Apparently the CEO had been taken with her work on the Bentley estate, and wanted someone on the team with hands on, or as close to hands on as he had let her - she snorted - knowledge of the man. She had been assigned as his personal attorney, to look out for both his interests and that of the company. It was a good job, it paid well… and there were, other advantages to it as well.
“How did it go?”
She looked up at him, surprised that one of those advantages had gotten so close without her hearing a sound. She looked down at her empty glass, “I think I’ve had enough” she muttered to herself, before looking back at the man who stood over her shoulder. He was tall, dark, handsome, and best of all - hers. At least that’s how she liked to think of him. Most of the time he belonged to the company, or rather, it belonged to him.
“It went well. I’m pretty sure that I convinced him to take the offer.”
He nodded, his index finger absently stroking his flawless cheek, as if trying to remember something. “Good,” he said after a moment, “We need him out there.”
With that, he turned and walked away, just as quickly as he
had come, his suit clinging to him as if it had been built around him and yet
almost seemingly to billow outward. Sometimes he stayed for just minutes, other
times they would sit and talk for hours. Mostly about business. There was no
talking when it came to pleasure.
She had won his heart, and the job at the same time. She wasn’t sure which was the bigger of the accomplishments.
As she watched him walk away, she wondered what was going on in his mind at the moment, how he was going to turn having his world plunged into chaos to his, and his company’s advantage. If there was anyway to do that, she knew that he was just the man to figure it out. Bennett Du Paris just wasn’t the type to take no for an answer.
NEXT: Dane and Sersi leave England to explore a bold new world.