Child of The Creed

“Are you coming out?” I asked, keeping one hand on the ritual knife I kept in my pocket.

“No!”

“Why not?”

“He said I was ugly.”

The glare I threw at Nathan would have destroyed him if I’d put any magic behind it.

“He’s an idiot. Don’t worry about him.”

The hag turned to look at me. There was a smile on her lips. She was so young. I sometimes forgot they had to grow up. I felt bad coming here, knowing that she was bound by The Creed to take something in exchange for the information I wanted and that every taking would put a weight on her soul that would eventually corrupt her.

I tried to justify it with the greater good. Anselm had to be taken out of the Flow, but there was no justification really. I simply couldn’t risk another pact with a Devil.

“Can I have him, then?”

Oh, she was learning fast.

“He’s part of The Creed. You know I can’t offer him.”

She shrugged.

“I know why you’re here, Smriti Tapati.”

Her mother was one of Anselm’s victims. It wouldn’t surprise me if she witnessed the killing. She wouldn’t have intervened. Not because she was young, but because she would have had no more emotional connection to her mother than a spiderling to the spider.

“You understand why it’s so important for us to catch this Warlock, then? He disrespects The Creed and has taken souls of those who are part of it.”

She smiled, ditch moss flowing around her face as she did. She was maturing fast, this one. How many deals had she made?

“I’m going to help you, but only if you figure out why?”

“How long do I have?”

“The full moon is tomorrow.” She rose out of the water, her child’s body, wreathed in waterweed which still floated, even as she hung in the air. “It will be framed by those trees for one minute only as I stand.”

I moved behind her, letting my primal self find the time at which this would happen.

“If you’re not here by the time it’s gone, you get no help from me.”

As the car sped through the country roads Nathan looked at me.

“Would you have given me to her?”

“Would you have gone?”

“I mean if I wasn’t of the Creed.”

“Don’t be stupid,” I said, but the truth was, I wasn’t sure.

By the time we got back into the city the night clubs were heaving and the streets were full of drunks, young and old. I could feel the hollowing out as my power weakened. This was Nathan’s territory, where the Creed gave way to the Code; rules and regulations. Deals weren’t made here like in the countryside, but they were different. It was subtle; both roguish and blunt. I didn’t have the way of it. I was too honest.

“There,” Nathan pointed to a group of well-dressed men standing outside a basement club. “I recognise Nephilim. That means The Trace is in there. Listen, you need to be more respectful.”

He must have spotted my sneer. The Trace was not a thing I liked dealing with. I parked as close as I could.

Nathan shook Nephilim’s hand as we approached for a fraction of a second too long. He was clearly negotiating for access to The Trace. To me it sounded like simple compliments were paid, but some deal had been struck, as Nephilim guided us down the stairs.

The air in the club was full of people; their scent, their passion, their pure weight pushed the atmosphere against me from the moment the door opened. The feeling thickened as we approached The Trace. He sat surrounded by beautiful people. They would only see the pleasing glamour, but we could see the empty space inside him. Yet still they herded, like cows worshipping the butcher.

Nephilim spoke to him for a moment, then The Trace had his coterie make space for us.

“A pleasure to reacquaint ourselves, Trace,” Nathan opened, deliberately leaving out the definite article. “I’m sure you remember Smriti.”

Trace bowed his head, the empty eye sockets pointing at me. He didn’t see, but he absorbed. The Code forbade him to harm us, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t sample us. I detested it, and he knew that.

“You’ve been to see the water witch. You reek of its pond scum.”

“She is fragrant, I’ll give you that,” Nathan returned. Was fragrant deliberately used? It seemed ambiguous enough to be part of the game. It could be taken sarcastically but could also mean Nathan was reminding The Trace to respect others of The Creed.

The Code was definitely a male invention. It depended so much on uncertainties treated like facts.

“Did she give you anything?”

“Only a promise to help, once we figure out why she will.”

Was the game over already? It didn’t seem right for The Trace to give up so easily.

“With all her years, I would think she would ask more.”

He didn’t know! How could The Trace not know the Hag was dead? Of course, he would be reading it from me now, but how was I the one informing him.

“Because, as you now, once the body dies it becomes entropy. It disappears. The reason I wasn’t aware of the event should be obvious.”

“It was planned.”

I dared not take my gaze away from The Trace. For a moment he showed me inside. I felt the Chaos that permeated his essence, that pure unform that existed at the dawn of time. I was getting lost in it and had to withdraw.

“So,” he asked, “who did you make a deal with?”

I was loath to tell him, but he could take it from me if he wished.

“She had a daughter.”

“Did she now?”

It was coming together. I didn’t have the grasp on it yet, but The Trace had given me more than I had asked for. There was a piece missing.

“Anselm isn’t in your vision, is he?”

“No, he is not. Everything he does is planned. If there is no chaos, there is no need for me.”

“Was that as pointless as I think it was?” Nathan asked as we got in the car.

“No.” I needed to gather my thoughts. “The Trace didn’t know about either the killing or the child, so all of it was planned. The question isn’t when the hag had her child, it is ‘why?’ The question isn’t why is she helping us, but why isn’t she when she already said she will?”

Nathan was blessedly quiet for a moment. I almost hated to interrupt.

“How much did that cost?”

“Not too much. I owe The Trace a favour, which will not cost lives, but may involve opening a portal or providing an escort, and Nephilim wants his children to leave the city.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t ask, but perhaps I should have.”

“I need a shower.”

The Code always left me feeling dirty. As I sat in the living room, my head wrapped in a towel, I slowly came back to myself. I would have loved a whiskey there and then, but there was no way I could afford to be drunk tonight.

“I’m sure one won’t hurt.”

Anselm hadn’t changed bit. He was still young, with those slightly too large cheek bones supporting those slightly too large eyes.

“Hi Smriti. I’ve missed you.”

No you haven’t.

“I have, I swear.”

Then why did you leave?

“You know why. To end The Creed.”

So, you’re going to, what? Kill us one at a time?

“You’ll be last, I promise.”

He was gone before I could think of a response, leaving me angry with frustration. Little brothers were so annoying.

I woke with the dawn, as always. Everything still felt out of my control. Someone else was the author of my world right now, and I had to find out who. Nathan would be here any moment.

Gathering my wits and my ritual knife, I was ready to go, I just didn’t know where.

Despite the cleansing and the dawn, I could still feel the touch of The Trace on me. I wished I hadn’t allowed my mind to experience his chaos.

Nathan wasn’t talking, which was unusual this early in the day. Normally I didn’t care what he did. We’d stumbled together at the start of this. Anselm was my brother. Nathan was paying off a favour he owed someone. We both wanted the same thing.

His natural habits were bringing him back towards the city, but I could tell from his demeanour that he didn’t know where to go either. On the outskirts of Swords, he pulled over and found somewhere to stop.

“We’re in trouble.” I didn’t argue. “Either we’ve missed something obvious, or someone is blocking us. I’ve never not been able to find a thread. Today, there are no threads. Everything’s a mess and I can’t even imagine a place to go to untangle it.”

“Could The Trace have done this?”

“Yes, but he didn’t. I wouldn’t owe him anything if he confounded us while under The Code.”

“I know It’s at the centre of if all.”

“But, how? It doesn’t know anything.”

“Exactly. It knows nothing. When was the last time you heard of that happening?”

Nathan nodded.

“When we mentioned the hag child The Trace said, what.”

“Did she now?”

“Right. He had no idea that…”

Nathan waited for me to continue. I was there.

“He did know. He knew, but he was suggesting that it wasn’t her child, at least, not entirely.”

“It can’t be!”

I looked at him.

“But there hasn’t been one born in centuries.”

“Maybe it’s a little overdue,” I said.

“Ok, but why would Anselm kill it’s mother? Was he trying to prevent the birth? And why the others?”

“The others were the sacrifice. He was taking their essence to feed to the Hag. She needed the power to grow the child.”

“And The Trace didn’t see them because they all volunteered. It was all planned.”

Nathan had a smile on his face as he started the car. “I never thought I’d see it. An actual god!”

“Why would someone birth a god?”

The Turtle looked up at me, casually chewing a piece of carrot. I’d put up a diversion shield so the visitors to the zoo would ignore us.

“Creeeaaaaatiooooonnnnn or deeessssstrrrrruuuuuctiooooonnnnn!” he answered. “Thhhhhaaaaahhhhhtsss whhhhhaaaaattt Gooooodssssss dooooo!”

“The warlock wants to destroy The Creed.”

“Aaaaa Goooood coooouuuuuuuuuld dooooo thhhhhiiiiisssss, buuuuuttt thhhhheeeee mmmmmaaaaagggggiiiiic wwwwwooooouuuuuld ssssstiiiiilllll eeexxxxxiiiiissssst.”

“So, they would achieve nothing!”

“IIIIIIIIIIIIII diiiiiidnnnnn’t ssssssaaaaayyyyy thhhhhaaaaattttt.”

“What would that achieve?”

It was a fair question, but I didn’t have the answer for it. “Maybe they want to combine The Code and The Creed, or maybe they want to strip it down to raw power. Imagine magic with no cost? Either way, it has to stop.”

We were finally on the road back to the lake. Nathan’s phone rang.

“Trace, what can I do for you?”

“I have chosen to call in the favour you owe me. I will need a portal. You will know when and where. Is the wonderful Smriti with you?”

“Yes,” Nathan answered, “but she’s busy.”

“So useful.”

I guessed he didn’t know I was listening, but he cut off the call.

“Did he just suggest that you sacrifice me to open a portal?”

“Yes.”

“That can’t be. Anselm promised I would be the last.”

“Maybe that’s why. If he can undo Anselm’s plan he thinks he can introduce chaos and finally get a handle on the situation.”

I looked at Nathan. “And?”

“I’m not planning to sacrifice you, but you understand I will suffer harm if I don’t open his portal?”

“But you think there’s a get out?”

“He said you were ‘So useful’. I could choose to interpret that as he wants you alive.”

“But you still need my blood.”

“Let’s not worry about that until we have to.”

The surface of the water was so still, a perfect mirror for the sky. Looking at the colours fading to the east, I waited for the moon to rise. Nathan stood next to me.

“You’d better greet her this time. Respectfully.”

He looked abashed. “Queen of the Lake, we beseech you to rise.”

She rose from the water immediately, although not one ripple spread from where she broke the surface.

“You found out. Well done!”

“Thank you, Goddess.” He bowed, the suck up. Was he hoping she was still naïve? I knew nothing of Divine psychology. Gods could be capricious, proud, even petty. Could they be naïve? Even one this young?

“So, tell me Smriti, who told you?”

“I went to the ones with the oldest memories.”

“The Trace and the Shielded Toad,” she said, as though marking them off a list, or onto one.

“They told me enough to figure it out.”

Nathan was looking at the crest of the moon appearing between the two trees on the other side of the lake.

“If you will forgive me, my Lady,” he said, “I have some business to attend to before we finish.”

She was ignoring him anyway, as he made his way around the lake. He would get there in time, but he didn’t want me to accompany him. Where would he find the blood?

“So, Smriti Tapati, why am I helping you?”

“Because you said you would.”

“That’s a childish answer. You know better than that.”

“Because you want to end The Creed.”

She smiled as she drifted to and fro on the water’s surface.

“Closer. That’s the end of it, but why am I helping you?”

“Because I am the last. If you help me capture Anselm, you achieve your goal. But why? He’s helping you.”

“So wonderful, Anselm. He comes to the answers quicker than you, but he has the same vision.”

The moon was half up. I could make out the vague shape of Nathan making his way to the trees, ready to open the portal. Thinking about it, it did seem like an appropriate place for it to happen. I could see why The Trace had chosen it.

And there it was. Suddenly I could see how it all connected. As far as we understood it, The Creed came from the energy of the Universe. The Code was the commerce of the intelligent, but The Creed was pure. But we had it wrong. The Creed was the lifeblood of the universe. It provided the power upon which everything ran. My magic was no different from The Code. I still traded in the resources of existence. I simply touched it more closely than those of The Code.

The Trace knew this. If he could have The Creed removed from the Universe, entropy would begin to swallow it all and he could return to his home. Was he really so bored with existence?

“When the portal opens, The Trace can return to the source. He will no longer watch over our affairs. That would give you the freedom to do whatever you like with the magic that is no longer bound to existence.”

She clapped her hands and jumped up and down on the surface of the water. Again, not a ripple. The lake remained a perfect reflection of the sky and horizon.

“But he doesn’t have the blood…” I murmured. “Is he planning to sacrifice himself?”

I knew his ritual knife couldn’t hurt him. Quickly, I slipped my hand in my pocket to be sure he hadn’t stolen mine. No, the weight of the blade was still there.

“Oh no!”

The moon was framed in the trees. In a flash, Anselm appeared between the two alders. I could feel him in my mind the moment he arrived. Anselm Tapati, my brother, of my blood. I couldn’t see the shock on his face as he saw what I knew. It wouldn’t matter. Nathan was already there, his ritual knife in his hand.

The Goddess smiled, waiting for the blood to spill. I watched the trees, waiting for the portal to open.

It didn’t come.

The Goddess looked confused. She glared at me, and I could feel the press of her anger. My nose started to bleed. I shook my head, trying to say it wasn’t me, but she wasn’t having it. She moved towards me, no wake stretching behind her.

Seeing the moon, hanging between the reflected trees, I saw the last piece.

Throwing my blood in the water, I watched as the reflected moonlight flashed. From the bank opposite, a red stain spread across the water’s surface and, there in the reflection, a portal began to open. The goddess turned to look at what I could see.

She wailed like a child, twisting her hands to muddle the water. The surface became a maelstrom which only served drew her closer to the planar opening.

Screaming and calling my name, she was drawn down to wherever the portal opened. She cried, and threatened, but ultimately, there was nothing she could do. The Trace had played his cards right.

With a snap, the portal closed and the goddess disappeared.

We were nearly back in the city before Nathan spoke.

“I’m sorry about Anselm.”

“I know. You did what you had to do,” I said, although I felt there could have been some alternative. “How did you know the portal wouldn’t open?”

“I reversed the terms of the trade,” he said. “I’d hoped the reflection would take up the meaning.”

“Won’t The Trace seek you now?”

“No,” he answered. “In the strictest sense, I honoured our agreement. I don’t expect I’ll ever get another chance to.”

I nodded again. “You can drop me off here. I’ll make my own way home.”

“If you’re sure.”

He pulled over.

“Good luck, Nathan.”

I got out and he drove away.