Chapter 82: Jack Cradles The Empty Air

Mon December 7, 2074 4:21 am: Pleasantview Youth Boarding House-- Tolsbury, Pleasantview



Jack could barely make out her appearance in the moonlight but he knew with the certainty of a man who was dreaming that this radiant chimera, half hidden behind the wall of the hedge maze was his mother. Her hair caught in the branches as she tilted her head to spy on him past the hedge. She ran her fingers through its waxen leaves, considering him.



A delight brought about by recognition flooded over her, and her lilting laughter rang throughout the battlements. Jack held his breath, momentarily stymied. She was innocence personified. Opposite her childlike display of happiness, he knew himself to be sordid and lowly. His proximity to her could only be a fragile thing, destined to expire like the ruptured surface of a bubble. Jack would awaken to find himself adrift in the real world once more.



There was a part of him behind his numb indifference that never forgave his mother if she lived and that never stopped mourning her if she had died. It was a dull ache and a lingering uncertainty that sometimes proved raw to the touch. Inside, he was a starved and frightened child, forever attempting to map his features onto the faces of strangers. Now here she was, her embrace close enough for him to fold his body into.

Jack took one tentative step towards her. A twig snapped underfoot. His mother, still laughing, gathered her skirts and darted into the maze.



His wooden shoes were unfamiliar and proved unfit for running. He could barely keep up with the disembodied sections of pink lace that vanished around corners, weaving in and out of the walls.



Candles burned along the path, pooling light onto the earth below. At the end of one passage, Jack located his mother creeping along the intersection ahead. When he reached the spot where she had last disappeared, he found no trace that she had ever been.



He felt a hand on his shoulder. Jack turned to see his mother watching him. She tiptoed backwards along the wall, holding his stare.

"Momma." He might have said something more pertinent but in his gut, he knew that this was his one opportunity to practice that word. His mother placed a finger to her lips and beckoned him forward. Jack followed slowly, stepping around the undergrowth. A white mist rolled in around their ankles and the vision that met him at the final bend was no longer that of his mother.



Jack's stomach plummeted. He felt the simultaneous loss of his mother and a foreboding sense of gravity at the appearance of the creature standing before him. A chill penetrated far deeper than his skin. Her energy was crystalline and it sought to absorb his. She smiled somewhat indulgently. Her metallic lips were caked with dried blood. Jack averted his eyes. Staring too long at any part of her felt indecent.



"The cambion Jack Dalton is advised to approach." She had not moved her mouth to speak. The voice in Jack's head was stern and commanding, very much in contrast to the creature's gentle expression. Jack walked into the center of the labyrinth with the boldness of a man who knew that he was dreaming.



Inches away, he found that their proportions were so exactly matched that their pupils aligned. The creature's eyes were a fathomless scattering of stars, like a fae's eyes but broader, all-encompassing. He wanted to ask her who she was. He wanted to ask what the word 'cambion' meant. But he had the most uncanny sense that to ask her anything was sacrilegious.



"Parameshvara Tethys, the Ren of Deus Rex, honors the divinity within the cambion Jack Dalton and welcomes him into her service." Jack closed his eyes and said nothing. When he opened his eyes again, he found the warmth in the creature's affect to be strained as though she were under the influence of some great burden. Her hands made little fluttering movements as though she wanted to touch him but could not. He wondered if the voice he heard in his head was hers after all. Jack began to reach for her hands, hoping to calm her agitation.



"The cambion Jack Dalton is not permitted to touch the daemon Lexis." Jack cradled the empty air before dropping his hands at his sides. Lexis lowered her gaze. Her lips parted but no sound emerged.

"The cambion Jack Dalton is brought before the Mouth of God that he may receive instruction. He is to assume his role as Magus before the Spring Equinox. Deus Rex recognizes the Son of Lotan's free will, but cautions him that to defy their will is to invite catastrophe."

Jack gradually bit down on the interior of his cheek. The son of what? He had nearly worked up the nerve to respond when the world went black and his alarm clock faded into view.