And here's chapter 7... yeah that's all I got.
Chapter 7:
Dinner was beyond anything that Cody had ever
tasted. The symphony of flavors danced
on his tongue and sent a pleasant warmth throughout his body. He was told as he ate that the cooks also
were artists who were able to use their gifts to make food taste better than
anything. Marci said that it was a
combination of their vigor for the art, specially grown herbs, and all the
spirit they put into it.
Cody could barely listen to the conversation around
him as he ate. Being on a small budget
he didn’t get a chance to eat this well, and because he didn’t know how to cook
much a lot of what he ate was premade, easy to make, or fast food. The warmth of the meal and the air about this
place filled up places inside himself that he hadn’t been aware were depleted. The feelings of having people around him were
something very new to him after being alone for so long.
A cough from his side suddenly alerted him to someone
trying to get his attention, looking over at James he jerked his head to where
Howard was looking at him and sipping at a glass of red wine.
“Sorry, I guess I was a bit lost in thought, what did
you say?”
“I was asking what you thought of our little compound
here. It seems like you’ve already made
some friends and if that’s any indication I hope you will be settling down
easily so that you can start your physical training soon.”
“Physical training?”
Cody cocked his eyebrow at hearing that, no one had said anything like
that to him.
“Well yes, we have a very grueling training regimen
that you’ll be expected to follow including martial arts training, schooling in
your latent abilities, the standard gym training, and learning more about our
history and culture.”
“Whoa-whoa-whoa!
Hold on. I agreed to stay here
and learn how to do some of the things you do so I can protect myself, I didn’t
agree to any of this other junk.”
“Cody…” James
looked at him shocked, “We may be artists but we’re still trained as
warriors. We have intelligence all over
the world, jobs to do, people to inspire, Silent assassins to fight against,
and a culture to maintain. We have to be
like an army, I thought you would have figured that out.”
“Well… I didn’t.”
He shoved his chair back as he stood up and groaned, “This is just all a
lot to take in and I don’t know what to make of it all yet! Not to mention the fact that my apartment is
a mess that I need to clean, my dog is with a co-worker who probably doesn’t
know what happened to me, not-to-mention the crazy people who are now trying to
kill me because I’m apparently a part of some secret order I was never aware
of, and now I’m going to become a soldier against my will? I just…”
Cody took a deep breath and headed for the door, “I just need some time
to take this in, ok?”
“I understand, Cody, perhaps it would be best for you
to get some sleep. I will escort you to
where you will be staying while you’re here.”
Howard stood up, and while Cody wanted to argue about him showing him
the way he just didn’t have the energy for it.
They left the room in silence, Howard leading the
way. He walked ahead of Cody and he
followed behind him silently and just watching his feet as they trudged along
the stone floor. It had been a long day
and he hadn’t realized it but Cody was finally starting to feel tired.
“I am sorry that so much has been forced into your
lap, Cody, but this is sadly how things have to be. Your father thought he could raise you away
from all this by laying low and not drawing any attention to himself but sadly
he couldn’t. You should have been
instructed and taught about everything we are about. Instead you are having to be taught all of
this at once after so suddenly being thrust into it all. I wish you could have continued to live your
life alone and bohemian but at least here you will be around people who are
similar to you. You can hone your craft,
become a better musician, and do what you love, and all you have to do in
return is some basic training and some chores around the place.”
“Chores now…?
What am I, 8?” Cody scoffed and
shook his head. He didn’t mind doing
some work but saying it like that just made it seem like something a grunt
would have been assigned to do.
“Chores are also a part of training. Almost everything revolves around our
training no matter how mundane it might seem.
You’ll have time to settle in though, don’t worry, and don’t worry about
your next few meals, you can eat in the kitchen if you don’t feel like
competing with the others. Most just
prefer to fight for their meals and show off a bit. I’m afraid we all tend to be a bit flashy and
we all have a need to show off for each other.”
“Isn’t being a show off a downfall for many people in
stories and things?” Cody glanced up,
feeling a bit of his own arrogance rise in him to point out something to this
older man.
“It is, yes, but we only show off for each other. When we are serious we go all out to destroy
our opponents. It’s just that instead of
a big and fiery explosion full of smoke, our types of explosions are fiery but
flashy like fireworks. I like to think
that war, fighting, and killing are all ugly things and while it is something
needed that does not mean that we can not bring our own beauty to something
that is originally ugly. To bring beauty
to something ugly I think takes a true artist and that’s what we all strive to
be.”
Cody felt deflated at that. Howard had a way of just taking all the wind
out of his sails and no matter what Cody might be able to say he felt that he
would have something else to counter it.
He suddenly cringed, feeling that he had been acting like a child. This man may have technically kidnapped him
and all, but he had still taken him into what was essentially his home and was
willing to help him against some very bad people.
“I’m sorry…”
Howard suddenly stopped on the stairway that they were
climbing and looked back, “Sorry?
Whatever could you be sorry for?”
“Just… I guess I’ve been acting a bit like a
brat. I really should appreciate what
you’re doing for me instead of complaining about it.”
“Oh Cody, you don’t have to apologize for that. You’ve been through a lot in very little time
and it is understandable that you’d feel the way you do.”
A smile found its way onto Cody’s lips as they walked
up the stairs to the artist halls. For
the first time since he came there he went down the hall of the scribes. He didn’t know what all could be down this
hall but when he passed a few open doors he was surprised.
He expected to see a lot of pens, papers, books, and
inks but while there was that there was so much more. Inside one room it looked like a room to
study anatomy. It had a medical
mannequin with all the inner parts showing, a skeleton, and various books that
looked to be on medicine.
“Thinking about becoming a doctor?” Cody jumped in shock at Howard suddenly
talking to him in such a quiet area.
“Uh… no, I was just thinking… what’s the deal with
this? I mean I thought scribes wrote
things and that they focused on making spells and enchantments. What’s this about?”
“Healing arts.”
The man smiled and walked into the room and picked up a stamp Cody
hadn’t noticed before.
“Using words, symbols, and glyphs a scribe can do
great things. Using negative words can
harm things or make them volatile, but using positive words can benefit things
or fortify something. Using positive
words and symbols like ‘healing’, ‘wellness’, ‘mend’, and even ‘stasis’ and
‘love’ can help bring about healing magics to speed recuperation in a
person. It’s fairly simple to explain,
but it is so much more complex than what you could possibly imagine. It is a wondrous art form and it is nothing
to scoff at. Sometimes words are the
most deadly things we as humans have, but for us the scribes make up a key
aspect of our medical staff.”
“You mean these bandages I’m wearing around my
chest…?”
“Yes, those bandages have special words and symbols on
them that promote healing and well being in a person. They were able to mend the small fractures
you had in your body and speed the healing process of the bruises and sprains
you received. In fact with a good
night’s sleep and after that good meal I think you’ll be back to a hundred
percent in the morning or at least 85.”
He chuckled and ran his hand over his grey hair before he put the stamp
back down and walked out.
They continued down the hall until they reached the
foyer area at the back again. They
walked up the steps at the back and when they finally reached the top there was
yet another foyer and more hallways and another two flights of steps in front
of them, one leading up and the other leading down. This hall seemed much more different than the
ones down below and as he looked around he saw that one hallway had a water
drop over it.
“That hallway holds the baths, showers, restrooms, and
so forth. There’s one for men and for
women. The one’s with the bed rooms
though are the ones with the pillow shape.
It’s not exactly elegant but it’s a simple symbol and it works well
enough. Follow me.”
Cody was lead down a hall that looked the same as all
the previous ones he’d seen. The only
difference was that above or on the doors were different markings. Some had names written on them, some had numbers,
a good few had those nonagon shapes on them with a symbol inside, and yet
several others had some combination of the three.
Eventually they came to a stop at a door that only had
a number above it. With a sly smile
Howard turned around and waved his hand at the door. Cody looked at the door and then back at
Howard before he reached out and turned the handle on the door and pushed it
open.
He was instantly greeted by a familiar barking and a
sudden hit to his stomach as his dog charged at him and jumped up to lick at
her master’s face. Cody hadn’t expected
to be greeted by his dog and grunted at the sudden pain to his abdomen as he
kneeled down and let her lick his face in joy.
“Bella? But I
don’t understand, why’s she here?” Cody
looked up and tried to pull back from his dog’s happy licking of his face that
was just as much joy from seeing her master as it was excitement at the smell
of chicken on his breath.
“She belongs to you doesn’t she? And she’s part of your family right? It only made sense that we’d bring her here
to stay with you. We also managed to
collect some of your things that weren’t destroyed, though we weren’t sure if
you wanted them or not. We got your bed
sheets in case you didn’t like the ones we had for you, your clothes, books,
and such. I’m afraid your guitar was
beyond repair but I’ll have a new one made with the tuning pegs from the old
one. I figured it might have been
special.”
“Thanks, I really appreciate it, but what about
Bart? I mean I was going to crash with him
until I could get my place fixed back up, and did you get my music book it
belonged to my dad.”
“We got everything we could, including your book. It’s right there on your nightstand.” Howard pointed to the bedside table where his
old notebook lay and turned around to leave.
“As for your friend, I called him personally and told him that I was
your uncle and that I was going to offer you a place to live with me until
things calmed down for you so do not worry about that. I have also already had your dog watered,
fed, and she was outside in our enclosed garden to relieve herself not too long
ago so she should be fine for the night.
Get some sleep, Cody, tomorrow will be another big day for you and it
would be best to be well rested for it.”
The young man stood and nodded as he continued to pet
and stroke his dog. He shut his door
after Howard had left and went to sit on his bed. Bella walked with him and rested her head on
his knee happy to be back with her master but Cody couldn’t stop the thoughts he
had in his head. He wondered what would
be awaiting him in the future and what all he could do now.
Would he be living in the shadows, could he live a
normal life, would he die like his parents did, and many more continued to
torture his mind as he laid his head down upon a the pillow on his bed. Bella jumped up on the end and circled before
laying down. Cody just watched her
settle down before he looked up at the ceiling again.
“I guess our simple life has turned into something a
bit more, huh, Bella?” a soft shuffle at
his feet made him look down and saw that her eyes were closed and she was
likely asleep already.
“I guess we got a bit more now with these folks, but I
gotta wonder if we have to much now…” He
sighed softly and turned off the lights in his room from the bed side switch
and turned onto his side looking at his father’s old book. There was suddenly a lot of bad coming his
way, and he wasn’t so sure anymore if he could handle it all.
