Chapter
5:
Cody had to get his shoes before he could freely walk
around, but after he did he was free to explore. He walked the hallways and saw various
doorways but didn’t open any of them.
While curious about things he just didn’t feel like learning about what
lied within the walls.
After walking down the halls he finally came to a door
where he heard a woman scream. Fearing
something was wrong he burst into the room to see a rather disturbing sight of
several dozen mannequins standing all around several not wearing anything and
others wearing very odd looking fashions.
Looking around he saw the woman that had
screamed. She was wearing a very formal
black dress that had no sleeves but had sleeves that hung nearly over her hands
on her forearms. It had a silver trim
around the edges of the sleeves and shoulders and a dark yellow lace around the
neck line and the bottom that hung just to her ankles. The dress looked very beautiful on her and
the man that was kneeling before her with pins and needles in his hands looked much
more casual in plain jeans and a stylized t-shirt. It seemed like he was trying to draw the
dress in a bit to better fit her figure.
“Geeze, girl, I’m sorry but you gotta relax some,” the
young man spoke in a slightly effeminate voice as he looked up at the woman.
“I sweat Vince if you poke me one more time I’m going
to take one of those high heel shoes you’ve designed and stab you in the throat
with it!” She glared at the man called
Vince and rubbed at a spot on her leg that it seemed she had been poked by a
pin, “And quit talking with that voice, you know how I hate it.”
“Oh you enjoy it, Marci my love, just like you enjoy
wearing and modeling my works.” Vince
spoke with a slightly deeper voice but still on the higher side than most.
“Just hurry Vince, I’ve been standing here for far to
long now and- Hello, who are you now?”
“Huh?” Vince
looked back and smiled at seeing Cody standing in the doorway, “Ah, another
model I hope? I need a guy to try some
of my new clothes as well. Please come
in and get comfortable I’ll be with you in a minute as soon as I’m done with
Marci here.”
“Uhh… I’m not here to model for anything or try on
clothes, I just heard someone scream and I guess I just barged in here without
thinking… That’s a very nice dress though.”
“Thank you,” both people said at once before Vince
scoffed up at Marci.
“Please, Marci, I’m the one who designed this
dress. I’m the one who worked with the
scribes for over a month inlaying all the runes and words to make this, and I
spent three more months working on the mechanisms for how all the knives would
be placed and how you could easily throw them.”
“Yes, but you can’t wear it and it looks far better on
me than it would on you, so I think he was talking to me, after all I’m the one
who’ll be wearing it and testing out all of it’s special features. You just make it.”
“Well aren’t we being a bit bitter, is this because of
your birthday last week?”
“Oh let’s not get started on that again.
“I already told you though-“
“I don’t want to hear it, Vince, you always-“
The two started to bicker and argue amongst themselves
for a few moments before Cody coughed loudly to get their attention and stop
the awkward fighting he had gotten in the middle of.
“Acutally I just thought the dress looked nice and so
I guess I was complimenting both of you.”
He looked from one to the other before he blinked, “Did you say knives?”
“Yes I did, there are approximately 58 knives hidden
in various places within the dress that can be accessed and thrown, stabbed, or
slashed at people or things. If you
could the hidden daggers in the high heels that’s 62 and if she wore that
special bit of-“
“OK VINCE!”
Marci interrupted as a great flush of red came to her face, “He doesn’t
need to hear any more, and 62 knives is more than enough.”
“What the hell… You’ve got knives hidden in that
dress? Why?!” Cody looked at the outfit and stared trying
hard to imagine where someone could hide a dozen knives let alone nearly sixty.
“To fight the Silent of course. This is my art, making armor for the fighters
to wear. People think fashion is not as
useful a physical art as say sculpture or metal work or something, but with the
use of the scribe art I can put all sorts of abilities in my work making it
light as a feather, breath like Egyptian cotton, and yet strong enough to
withstand a bullet at point blank range, YEAH!”
Vince pumped his fist into the air and shouted with enthusiasm.
“You’ll have to forgive him, he gets very excited when
he starts talking about his art and skills, not that we all don’t but he gets a
bit more so than most others do.” Marci
smiled and looked Cody over.
“I take it you’re new here though and to everything
huh? Are you the guy they brought in
earlier?”
“Heh, that obvious that I’m new and have no clue about
anything?” Cody rubbed the back of his
head feeling slightly self conscious now.
“Please, we’re a small community and anyone who’s new
is spotted in an instant, and besides everyone that comes here learns from day
one that we’re warriors as much as we are artists. We all have skills that we use to fight. My skills are used to make armor and Marci…
well…” Vince pulled back for a moment
and allowed the young woman to spin around and throw out a small dagger from
her sleeve that flew through the air and embedded itself right in the middle of
a mannequin’s forehead, “She’s a dancer.
Her choreographed movements are indeed quite beautiful, but if you add a
weapon to her or if she gets a little more daring her moves look like they came
from a martial arts kung-fu movie only her moves will leave you broken,
bruised, and more than likely dead.”
“Wow…” Cody
gulped at seeing the deadly accuracy she had thrown the knife without having to
actually aim.
“You think this is good you should see what she can do
with knitting needles.”
“Ahh… no thanks I’m good.” Cody turned away before he could think more
about how someone could use knitting needles, “Ah it was nice meeting you two.”
“Oh wait!”
Marci called out, “If you’re new here we can show you around. Just give me a second to get into something
easier to move around in and we’ll be right with you.”
“Oh that’s alright I’m doing fine just looking around
on my own.”
“Nonsense, if you’re just wondering around aimlessly
you might as well have some guides.”
Marci got down from the podium she had been on and left Vince to put his
stuff up.
“No sense arguing, man, she’s a very pushy lady and
when she wants to do something she does it…”
He sighed and looked after her smiling, “Just one of the many reasons I
love her.”
“You’re a couple?”
“What, you seemed surprised by that? What did you think a guy like me couldn’t be
with a girl like that?” The angry tone
of Vince’s voice told Cody that he had likely just seriously insulter him or
implied something bad.
“No-no! I
wasn’t thinking-“ Cody started to say
but was suddenly interrupted by the man before him laughing.
“Ease up, man, I was only joking. Yeah we’ve been together for a few years now,
she’s my inspiration and I love to make things for her.”
“Yeah, though I wish he’d keep in mind that I prefer
looser and freer feeling clothes. Tight
clothes may look good but it’s SO hard to move in and it makes hiding weapons a
lot harder as well.” Marci came out
wearing a baggy pair of jeans and a grey-pink sweat shirt. Her long brown hair was left hanging loose
around her shoulders and she had a red scarf around her neck.
“Maybe so, but baggy clothes do not look good in high
end society and especially do not look on women most times. They have to be fitting, clothes, and
accentuate your figure. Besides I’ve
left plenty of places for you to hide knives so I don’t see why you’re
complaining.”
“It just doesn’t feel like me, Vince, that’s all, but
we can talk about that later we’ve got to show our new friend here
around.” She walked over to Cody and
nodded her head, “Now have you seen the scribes yet or the other aesthetics or
musicians? You’re currently in the
aesthetics’ section of the compound but we can show you more here or one of the
other sections if you like.”
Cody cocked his head to the side in confusion, “Ok,
musicians I understand, scribes though… that’s like writers, right? And what do you mean by aesthetics?”
Both Marci and Vince stared at the man before him with
extreme surprise written across their faces, “You mean you don’t even know
about the three types of art? Are you
really that ignorant of The Order that you don’t even know that?”
“Lady, up until like 20 minutes ago I didn’t know a
thing about this place, you people, or anything relating to it. I’ve just been pushed into this and I’m
beyond lost already with it all.”
“Oh dear…” Vince sighed and shook his head, “Then I
suppose we should start in the main hall to explain everything. Follow us.”
They started to walk ahead of Cody, not saying
anything as they passed various doors.
Everything was so silent that it felt more like walking through a crypt
than anything. The only thing that made
it feel like it wasn’t supposed to be some cold and lifeless passageway inside
a mountain was the warm lights that hung above them, the various sculptures,
paintings, and photographs that decorated the walls, the occasional set of
chairs and table in what seemed to be a lounge area, and nonagons on doors.
“Hey what’s with those nine sided shapes on the
doors?” Cody pointed towards one that
had a vase inside it.
“The nonagons?”
Vince looked to where Cody had pointed, “ It represents the original nine
muses of Greek myth and has been our symbol for centuries. What’s inside it tells what a person
specializes in. That’s a vase so that
room is for ceramics. If it was for
music it would have a music note inside it, armor and fashion arts have fabric
inside them, scribes have letters, and each art has something to distinguish it
from the others.”
“Huh, I guess that makes sense. And speaking of, what are these three types
of art you mentioned before?”
“That one is easy,” Marci chuckled amused, “Our art is
aesthetic, that is it is purely visual and we use that for our purpose. Dancing, design, painting, sculpting, even
topiary all fall under the aesthetic style of art and is symbolized by the
eye. Scribes use words, symbols, kanji,
hieroglyphics, and even brail. Their art
is based on communication and could be described at its base as being similar
to spells and enchantments that most people see preformed by witches and magic
types in movies, books, and so on. They
can use words to do anything from melting a stone, freezing water, inflicting
pain, or even healing. The art of the
scribe is symbolized by the mouth because before words were written they were
spoken.”
Cody reached up to feel the area the gauze under his
shirt was. He remembered seeing all
those strange symbols and wondered if it was from those things that had made
him feel better.
“The last basic form of art is music and that is all
things sound based. Music, sound,
singing, rhythms and beats are all musical and are used for the widest range of
effects here. They can attack long rang
easily, melee, and even cast illusions and affect a person’s state of
mind. They are symbolized by the ear.”
“Interestingly enough…” Vince smiled, “Talking is considered an art
of the scribe, but singing is still considered musical. I guess because for talking you need actual
words but for singing you just need to make a sound in a certain key.” To illustrate his point Vince cleared his
throat and sang in a very off key, “LaaaaAaaAAAaaaaAaAaAAa~”
Marci and Cody both cringed at the sour note the young
man was trying to hit before he stopped much to the satisfaction of both.
“Heh, sorry, guess I got carried away, but hey look
we’re here now.” He smiled and pointed
ahead at a large open room at the end of the hall.
As they walked into the open area Cody saw a small
garden growing in the center of it with a large tree growing in the middle of
it with various flowers and plants growing around it. A small pond was also featured with one of
those bamboo fountains where the bamboo would fill with water before it lowered
and made a noise as it dumped the water out before going back up to do it
again. At the top of the ceiling was a
glass dome that let in a great deal of light and to the left was a series of
steps leading down the mountain Cody guessed.
To the right were other hallways with those same nine-sided shapes above
each path; inside one was an ear and a mouth in the other, and if Cody looked
above the hallway they were exiting he would see the same shape above it but
with an eye inside.
In between the passageways were carvings of women
holding various items. Masks that were
smiling and frowning like he had seen around old time theaters, some kind of instruments,
a scroll, a tablet, a veil, and a globe were each held by each of the nine
women he saw. Each woman had her hair up
in some kind of bun like shape and they were all dressed in togas.
“These are the muses, huh? Do you guys like… worship them or something?” Cody looked back as both of his companions
looked shocked at him before they looked at each other and burst out laughing.
“Hahahaha-heavens no… I’m actually Jewish and Vince
here is a practicing Buddhist though he still eats meat.”
“Hey meat is good!”
“ANY-way… No… we don’t worship the ancient Greek
goddesses, we only use them as an icon of what we are. Guardians of the arts, ones who give great
inspiration, defenders against those that stifle creativity; we are all these
things and more but we are still people with our own beliefs and ideals.”
“So you guys just use art to train to fight these
Silent people?” Cody walked out into the
area and took in all the sights that he could.
The beauty of the carvings, the light coming from the ceiling and coming
through the leaves on the tree, everything was beyond his understanding. This place seemed so peaceful and beautiful,
it was nearly impossible for him to think that this place could be used to
train people to fight and even kill someone.
The fact these Silent people were the ones to try to kill them and so
they had to defend themselves and if that meant kill them as well didn’t bother
him, but the fact they made it their life’s mission just to fight off these
people made him feel like all this fragile beauty around him was wasted.
“Cody…” Marci
put a comforting hand on his shoulder and looked at him concerned, “We do so
much more than just train to fight against the Silent. We train to become the best artists we can so
that we can inspire other people who will in turn change the world.”
“Yeah. My
great-great-great-great…” Vince looked
to the side for a moment in thought, “Great-great, I think, grandmother
designed the American flag that the soldier fought under. What no one knew though is that it was thanks
to the inspirational power she put into that flag that drove the men to fight
for their freedom and it was that same flag that later inspired the national
anthem.”
“You mean you’re a descendent of Betsy Ross?!” Cody’s eyes went wide at the admition that
this man was related to someone so famous.
“Yep, though not all of us ever become that famous
some of us do. We tend to keep in the
background most of the time, but there are instances when we have to use our
most basic and powerful ability to help give the world a slight…push so to
speak.”
“You see, Cody, we don’t just train to fight, we train
to inspire others. Art can be a very
powerful thing. It can remind us of
pain, of joy, it shows us great beauty and shows us the evils in the world. Art can be made to inspire any type of
emotion and drive, and with the proper combination a person can go quite far
and it’s all because of us.”
“So… You really are like the muses for humanity. Like when someone says ‘You’re my muse’ in a
way… it’s you guys they’re talking about?”
“Ehh not always, after all we just help inspire we’re
not the source of it. Even if we did
nothing people would still occasionally be inspired by things and to go far,
but it would likely take longer as people tend to stagnant when nothing
happens. And let’s not forget something
else either,” Marci chuckled and pushed her finger into Cody’s chest, “You’re
one of us too. You have a great power
inside you and with the right training you’re going to do great things.”
“I… I just don’t know… this is all still really
strange to me. Not to mention
confusing.”
“Don’t fret, man, you’ll get used to it, but for now
walk around some more and maybe meet a few people. You want us to come with?”
“Nah,” Cody turned to vince and gave him a small
smile, “I think I’ll just walk around a bit and see what all you guys can
really do.”
The couple nodded and started to head down the stairs
leaving Cody alone. He thought about how
he had played before and how people seemed to feel better when he played. He once recalled a young girl who had been
watching him play in a restaurant and had asked him several questions about the
instrument. Cody had shown her how to
strum the strings and push down on them between the frets and she had told him
that she wanted to learn how to play too.
Was that really because of him or was it just her idle
and young mind wanting to do something ‘neat’?
He thought more about how people just enjoyed themselves around him and
looked back at the so called ‘aesthetics’ section. He figured he might have missed some things
before and maybe seeing some more from the artists here would maybe inspire him
on what to do next.
