Teleka: Dawn of a New Age

Chapter IV: Desperation (1/2)

Format legend:

<<• = beginning of flashback scene

•>> = end of flashback scene

• • • = switching perspectives

~[dialogue]~ = telepathy contact

words in bold = sound effects

- • - = beginning/end of chapter

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<<•

On a late night at the inn's closing, Cedrick stood at the counter of the empty pub room, speaking bluntly of his plans with Mac, a long-time worker and a formerly close associate of Cedrick's father, Idris.

"You want me to do what?" Mac asked. His tone and skepticism growing more potent in the face of analyzing Cedrick's capability as the inn's new owner.

"Enforce the rule we discussed earlier, any number of the rolled dice adding to 4 gives us the coin. Use the wisp to control the results of the rolls; I don't care how you do it, or when, so long as it's not obvious enough to be noticed."

"You can't be serious."

Cedrick recoiled his head, allowing his sudden suspicion of disloyalty to be displayed through an empty stare as he fought to hold open sleep-deprived eyelids.

"Need I remind you who it is you work for now?" Cedrick asked.

Mac paused with a brief silence; thoughts of what Idris would have done differently rushing back to him at that very moment. "Nay," he replied, "With you in charge I'd rather forget."

"The hell did you say?"

You've ears. Your father was my closest friend, someone I wouldn't have hesitated to call a brother even, and I knew him well enough to know that if he were still alive right now he'd no doubt despise the man you've become, assuming he hadn't already."

Cedrick took a step forward to assert his growing frustration.

"Babbling cunt! You don't know a goddamn thing about my father!"

"We both know even you don't believe that," said Mac, "And I knew him well enough to know that 20 years ago, he opened this inn to help give people shelter, not rob them of it-not deceive them out of their coin. You seemed to have forgotten that."

Immediately taken aback by Mac's desire to speak so openly without a single fear of consequence, Cedrick fiercely looked onward at the man whose loyalty he could not buy like so many others who served at his side.

"I've not forgotten his charitable deeds," Cedrick replied. "What I've forgotten was how clearly willing he was to tolerate some of the ungrateful pricks who worked for him. You want to discuss whose memory serves best? That it? Because I remember his dedication to keeping this business afloat! No matter the cost!"

"Including at the cost of his own reputation? What a load of shit."

"And what good is a reputation of failure but a stain on my father's legacy? These pathetic dolts you had working here clearly didn't care so I replaced them with more competent men. Guess I shouldn't be shocked you aren't one of them-"

Without any hesitation, Mac released a short burst of laughter, accompanying the shaking of his head at what he believed to be nothing more than the unmistakable sound of a desperate man's disingenuous concern; an act for which the facade began to disintegrate before him.