Knights of the Grey City

Chapter 26 - DECISION

The 'trolley problem'. I kept telling myself it was stupid, but I found myself thinking about it throughout most of my shift at work. If I'd read the problem a couple of months before, I'd have probably just rolled my eyes and forgot about it. It was designed to have no right answer, so why bother?

The fact of the matter was, our situation was different to that stupid moral exercise. We weren't killing the person we brought into the Grey City, we were putting them in an ongoing life-threatening situation. We weren't killing billions of people in our world by doing nothing, we were risking that demons might escape their world and enter ours. We didn't know if that would actually happen or, if it did, whether our world would be in significant danger. Modern weaponry would make short work of them, right? Not if they started popping up in small, rural towns, or in isolated countries without modern weaponry.

I surprised myself with the urge to call Esther, but of course I wouldn't be able to relate this to her with any clarity. I actually considered just telling her about the Grey City and finding some way to prove it. I was so tired of trying to hide it.

But, even if I could find a way to prove it, she didn't deserve to know the dangers that faced this world. For some reason, I found myself texting her about the trolley problem to see what she'd say about it.

That's stupid! she texted me back. I rolled my eyes. I hate questions like that. There's no moral right.

Exactly! I texted back. But my friend and I keep arguing about it. Was wondering what you thought.

If I'm honest, if I was in that situation, I probably wouldn't pull the lever, she texted back. I wouldn't have the guts to take action. But I'd definitely feel super guilty about it.

But if you had the guts, you'd pull it? I asked.

I guess so.

I found myself watching faces as I went about my business in Toronto, trying to spot our Viking or our spearwoman. It was pointless in a city this big. And what would I do if I found one of them? Run up to a stranger and start raving about another dimension?

I watched anyway.

The fight got desperate in the Grey City that night. The Leviathan's wounds had added up so much that I was slow, clumsy, and stiff, even in my native element of water. It was all I could do to fight off the rising waves of demons that clawed their way out of the currents. And then, a spiral-shell appeared.

Those things were tough even when I was in top form. But the Leviathan had no word for retreat, and I was too mentally exhausted to push through those instincts.

Somehow, I won. Barely. The creature left three harpoons sticking out of my scales, hooked deeply into the flesh. I could barely swim, but I got myself back to the surface and crawled on land, one foot in front of the other. I lost track of what was happening, and when I came back, I was human: sitting with the broken harpoons spread around me.

The Gargoyle swooped down in front of me. "Okay, we have to get to the Sanctuary. If you don't heal, we're screwed."

"Agreed," I said dully. I felt winded and a bit dizzy, like I was recovering from a knock on the head.

We managed to get there even though the Sanctuary did not come to the waterfront to meet us this time around. We had to work our way back through the main city and into the garden district, where it stood in its usual location.

Feeling a bit more clearheaded, I stood in the open area of the atrium and tried to change shape. The Gargoyle watched impatiently, tapping its tail on the ground.