Our Mother the Mountain

49. Kingly Confessions

The couple's embrace was eventually interrupted by the strange sensation of others-not the gentle touch of wispy ghosts of others in the mold that Ethan blocked out for the last month or so, but the embrace of others like him, others revived from the Mold. Jochen's hug was more of a tackle, and then Eva's was a deft squeeze. Donna and Moreau completed the circle around them. Rosemary was attempting to climb one of Ethan's pant legs, and Eveline was trying to yank Karl away by his shirt-she did not want to share.

When the blond finally pulled away, letting the others celebrate as the family that they were, he folded his arms and paced backwards, toward the open dining room door. Ethan turned at the sight of movement behind him. But it was simply the curtains in the open doorway; the fabric swayed through the open area as if pushed by a breath. Without thinking further, he moved to them and began to pull the fabric down. He was tall enough to unhook the curtains from the rod on the inside of the frame-it felt strange, and good, he decided.

Ethan was surprised when Eva appeared beside him, to gather the fabric in her hands. She looked up at him with a strange but delighted expression, and began to fold the curtains as he removed them. Afterward she tilted her head toward the doorway, urging him to move further inside. But Ethan paused, staring at Karl again before following her. He felt the familiar urging to stay near - it was as though his body feared being too far from Heisenberg's, lest he vanish again.

Learned habit.

"I'm relieved," she admitted, out of earshot of the group. "None of us quite knew if this would work."

"If what would work-Eva, how did this even happen?"

"The Black God did what we could not do-capture and catalogued a soul, if you will, of someone infected by cadou. In doing so, it seems to have replaced its own consciousness with Heisenberg's. If the Duke is correct."

Ethan swallowed and met her eyes directly. "So it...died, for him, in a way?"

"Yes."

He didn't quite know what to say to that. Ethan turned and stared out the now-open doorway. He stared at Karl's wide smile, reflected back on his brother's scarless face. Moreau was speaking softly, but with a wide smile, and everyone else listened. Even Donna had a smile on her face, which Ethan realized was both a beautiful and uncanny sight.

"Does that mean that this really is Karl? Will he be...different?"

Eva shrugged, her palms turning up. "The Duke believes so. Perhaps the way you were different after you touched the root? Or perhaps the way you were different when you were re-animated. Or perhaps, some other way."

Ethan thought of Maricara's words to him, long ago. Death changes you.

Eva stepped beside him, leaning her cheek against his bicep. "What if he is different? How would you feel?"

Ethan didn't answer right away and simply stared at the scene. The rain had returned, but only whispers of drops fell. The grey garden was enveloped in an almost greenish hue, reflected in the daytime winter clouds. Rosemary was in Karl's arms as the group spoke. His face was hidden in the leftover glower of rain clouds, but it was absolutely Karl's face. Karl's hands, too, that patted the toddler's back reassuringly. Memories resurfaced of those dancing hands-on a piano, on a machine, on Ethan's skin. Moving metal, flinging knives, pulling apart vehicles.

Karl could flick a wrist or fling a hand and cause utter chaos. But, probably not anymore. That alone would be a change, wouldn't it?

"I don't know," Ethan ventured, finally.

"Was he not different in the mold realm?" Ethan turned back toward her, blinking. He answered this one quickly.

"He was. He was younger. Or...it seemed like who he was there was only...a part of him, a piece."