Globe Tracers 6: Chaos Storm

Chapter 37: Little Xao

Xao:

In 1833, I lived on the road with my parents. I don't know the exact date everything went down and honestly I wasn't told what set it all off, beyond what I could observe.

"Our supplies are running low," came the voice of Camdaleon.

My mom had been playing a game of marbles with me in the back of our wooden wagon. "How far are we from the nearest trading post?"

"Honestly? With the number of people we have, we won't get there without severely tightening our belts," the man reported.

I was grabbed from behind by my father. I smiled and giggled, thinking it was part of a game- until I was just thrown off the wagon.

I hit my head and rolled several times on the hard ground of the wasteland, barely keeping my senses when I recovered my feet, barely able to stand. However, I was able to get power to my legs and shoot after the horse-drawn carriage and thus jump back in.

Holding my head I shouted "That hurt!" angrily at my father, who only smiled at me in annoyance as he pulled out a set of cords.

In minutes I found myself hog-tied and beaten by my own parents, left in the middle of the Nebraska desert. My electric power let me easily cut the cords, but the welts and two broken ribs made getting up impossible. I lay there, convinced I would die.

I could barely move, the hot sun burning my skin, each breath labored, the smiling faces of my father and mother playing in my head as they had taken pleasure in hurting me.

A traveling group of missionaries found me in that condition and gently took me into their numbers. I think they believed me to be a native of the region, or maybe they would have had their bandages and bibles at hand either way. They were good people and I stayed with them for a long time.

Eventually, I was found by werewolf agents among them who guided me to a population center in Massachusetts. The wolves cared for me, kept me semi-secret, and promised to tell me any news of my parents- but no one ever reported that they were looking for me.

I wish the story were longer but- that's it.

(***)

Frace:

I blinked a few times at the boy. His story was tragic, but so fast. I didn't even begin to know how to respond. "You don't have any inclination as to what..."

He shook his head while biting his lip. "Oh go ahead, offer possibilities. What ya got? Why would that happen?"

"Were your parents psychopaths?" Floreen asked. Xao just shrugged. "You wouldn't know of course."

"Are there records of things like that happening spontaneously?" I asked.

"Were your parents ever cruel to you before?" asked Floreen of Xao.

"I don't think so. My memories before then were of them teaching me manners... I mean dad rarely spared the rod and that wasn't the first time I found myself tied but... it was a different time."

"You were only in your sixth age..." I said. "He beat you?"

"What did your mother do?" Floreen asked in some shock.

"Sometimes watch, sometimes walk away... I don't know. There were good times... and bad times. Who knows, maybe I was better off abandoned. I'm sure something happened between them and maybe the other pharaoh passengers in our wagon train- the memory is blurry and I barely remember what the wagon itself looked like. I did learn that rib bones heal at a decent pace on their own. After all, it's not like the missionaries or the wolves had pharaoh healing drugs. A few decades hanging around Massachusetts- I eventually just moved on." He shook his head. "There- that's my most painful memory. Did it make any difference? Will you negotiate what we do with my sister?" He looked toward the sun in the sky and his body shivered a little.

I gave the boy a blanket that had been in my coat. "You have my pity," I said after I was finally able to speak. "I suppose it was unfair to allege you don't understand pain... but you are the child of a man and woman who could do that. That fact only strengthens my resolve that you shouldn't have a storm walker child. What if you eventually act like them? You don't know what caused it. Whatever was wrong with them, could be wrong with-" the boy threw off my blanket, kicked the snow on the ground on my boots in frustration, and stormed away from me.

I sighed and turned around to Floreen. "But- you understand my point yes? That kind of behavior can be hereditary, can't it?"

The woman shook her head. "So is obesity but the solution isn't to just give up trying to be better. Xao didn't defend the actions of his parents and he isn't trying to be like them. In fact, he distances himself from the subject. Why are you acting like he's just a byproduct?"

"Because we all are," I said sensibly. "Men, women, pharaohs, storm walkers, sane, insane- these aren't things we choose. Tell me I'm wrong, go ahead. Half the point of your career is discovering the essential differences between people. No ordinary human is going to wake up from a bad dream and level a skyscraper. The power just isn't there- but a storm walker child..." I shook my head.

"That's just a starting point. The real point is figuring out how people can work and live together. You're putting far too much stock in physical realities and ignoring the human spirit altogether."

"What are spirits? You've met angels, right? They're hardly mystical once you get to know them." I walked back to the fire and sat down. "Don't fight reality, you'll be less frustrated. We storm walkers are selected for extinction. We should die together. It's so obviously fate, as every time we try to survive we are slapped down."

"I don't know what to say to you. Do you really not care that you're hurting the girl you say you want to help? Are- are you really going to give up on your race?"

"You could probably run away from us in the night if you think we're so bad," I noted.

"But you just established why we need you. Jess will lose control at some point in her development. Is there a way you would allow yourself to be convinced to help us instead of fighting us?"

"Help what? Help with this delusion that physical realities and histories can be- negated?"

"That they can be worked with. Don't force the girl to choose between our worlds."

"Well, there's a reason I haven't said anything about Raven living with Elain specifically. It's a physical reality that Elain's abandonment will have made the girl hate her. I plan on them never talking and just living in the same general camp. I only note their blood relation to illustrate biological reality. If there's anything of note we need from Elain for Raven or Jessica's betterment- however being a split works I don't know- we'll have the mother on hand, but not in an acting position as a caretaker. But hey- if you make them accept each other then maybe I'm wrong..."

"If I make Jessica accept Elain as her mother she'll be abandoning Nadine."

"No- just make them accept each other, they don't have to have a direct mother-daughter relationship. Make a raped woman get along with the byproduct of what was done to her- make an abandoned child not hate her mother. Good luck."

"Ravicca is not obligated to take that woman into her life after what she did."

"Agreed. However, I am not obligated to work with you despite the risks to my people."

"What risks?"

"Pharaohs take advantage of walkers- it is a reality. You need us as weapons, your kind cannot see us as anything else."

"That's not true."

"Then use your training as a therapist to help one of us instead of just telling us we're the bad guys."

"I'd rather not. Neither of them asked for my help on this."

I only blinked at her.

The woman got up with an exasperated sigh and stomped away to the tent of Elain.

Well- whoever of us was right... Either I would prove my point or one of my children would be made more whole with her own child. I could live with either.