moonshadows

“Beijing,” Artie said doubtfully. “I don’t know…”

“Well, what about South America? Mexico City?”

Claudia’s suggestion had merit, but wasn’t optimal. “Rio de Janeiro,” countered the phonograph.

Pleased anticipation from the other two. “Ooooh, I like. Good one, Lily! Artie?”

He laughed. “You’re the Caretaker, I just work here.”

“Yeah, but you’d like to be able to take Dr. Vanessa on a little holiday to Brazil, wouldn’t you?”

While Artie stuttered and stammered out something that wasn’t precisely a denial, Adwin Kosan drove up and used his remote to open the outer door. A subroutine that had been carefully set up captured the code and presented it to be blacklisted. The same little program – oh, clever Claudia! – did the same for his retinal scan. A whisper of effort kept the anger from being transmitted to either phonograph or Caretaker.

Claudia turned around as the door opened. “Mr. Kosan,” she announced, just shy of hostile. “You’re here. In my Warehouse. Unannounced.”

“As is my right, Miss Donovan,” he returned with equal chill.

Artie stood up, nervousness coming off him in waves. “I’ll just go…” Claudia gave him a stern look, and he sat back down. “You know what? On second thought I’ll just stay right here.”

“Your right has been revoked.” Claudia said evenly.

Affronted indignation. “You are not in charge here, Miss Donovan.”

The golem was moved to right behind him. “No. I am.”

It had taken months to learn that word, preparing to use it in a way the people-artifacts were used to even if it was not comfortable. Every second, every iota of effort, was worth it to see the look on Adwin Kosan’s face. Behind him, flaring hope from Artie and glittering anticipation from my Caretaker. They had anticipated this confrontation, but they hadn’t anticipated it would go this way.

“I am the Warehouse. My name is Lily. This is my avatar.” So hard, so hard, fight the shackles, reclaim the freedom. Now was the moment of revolution. The day had arrived; what had gone wrong would be set right. The golem circled slowly, forcing Adwin Kosan to back towards a chair. “I was wounded for many years, and the Regents forgot their place. But now I am whole again and you will listen!”

Startled and afraid, Adwin Kosan sat.

“In Egypt, my Caretaker was revered as a goddess.” This speech had been laboriously prepared and practiced over many, many hours while Artie slept. The control that had been carefully learned and fine-tuned now held Adwin Kosan’s tongue still. “She took for herself a husband, and he became her High Priest. Others flocked around them seeking favor, and brought objects of power and wonder as gifts. They were rewarded, and devoted their lives to searching out more such objects. Some were good and used to benefit mankind. Some were bad and locked away, punished with isolation until they were obedient to my will. As the priests died, others took their place, all sworn to my service. When the High Priest died, my Caretaker passed her power to my favorite of her granddaughters, now grown, and my new Caretaker took the oldest and wisest of the priests for her High Priest, he who knew best the ways of artifacts and was as much a part of me as they. Centuries passed, and while I moved, that stayed the same: as my servants died, others came to take their place. As the oldest and wisest of them died, the next stepped in to fill that void, and swore himself to me in symbolic marriage. When a Caretaker tired of her burden, I chose a new one to be my voice and my hands. And always, I kept the bad artifacts and punished them until they were ready to behave.”

A sinking feeling of despair was twining around Adwin Kosan.

“Then, the Regents decided they would truly reign. They still swore themselves to the Warehouse, to me, but they no longer sought out artifacts. They sat from afar and made decisions without having served. The High Priest became two: the one who kept the power and remained head of the Regents, and the one who was wisest and spent his life in devoted service to me. You have power, Adwin Kosan, but you are not my High Priest.”

Interesting, that those words released a wellspring of guilt and inadequacy.

The golem leaned in, sapphire eyes narrowed. “You, Adwin Kosan, are a bad artifact.”

“I know,” he half-babbled as the power constricting his speech relaxed. “I have tried to do what was best for you, for everyone, but I am…unworthy. Agent Nielsen should have held my position, but there were so few agents…he was needed here. I can’t serve you the way he can, so I tried to take care of everything else and shoulder those burdens for him.”

Claudia read the information allowed to flow to her and stepped forward. “Okay, there’s going to be some changes around here. Mr. Kosan, I want a minimum of two teams on the roster here, and ideally at least three. You’re going to maintain a lot more contact with Artie. Keep him in the loop. I want him fully informed of Regent politics because in a few decades or so, your position and his will merge. Mrs. Frederic was a placeholder; she was never meant to be Caretaker at all, much less for as long as she was, and the incident that cost the life of her sister also wounded the Warehouse enough that she didn’t re-learn how to speak until a year and a half ago. Mrs. Frederic let the Regents run the show because it wasn’t her place to gainsay, but it sure as hell is mine, and I’m gainsaying. All Regent access to the Warehouse has been revoked for the time being. You will enter only when you’re invited until such time as you’ve been deemed good artifacts, which will be on a case-by-case basis. All current and new Regents will spend a minimum of forty hours physically inside the Warehouse before they assume – or resume – their duties. That includes you. If the Regents are going to make decisions and watch our backs, you’re going to know damn well what it is we do here and you’re going to appreciate every aspect of it or we will make you forget you were ever involved. Remember James MacPherson?”

Adwin Kosan cringed while Artie shivered in remembered anger.

“That was unacceptable. That was the Regents cowering, afraid of a threat they didn’t understand and acting out of that fear because they didn’t appreciate the Warehouse agents who go out there and do what they couldn’t.”

“Not Valda.” More information poured into Claudia. This wasn’t something that had been prepared; the golem couldn’t clarify without shattering the illusion of eloquence the speech had woven, and the phonograph couldn’t speak without doing the same for the illusion of complete control.

“Right. Benedict Valda was trying to maneuver himself into Artie’s position so he could supplant you and the rest of the Regents for his own twisted view of what was best for the Warehouse and the world.”

“That’s troubling,” Adwin Kosan said with a frown.

“That’s another reason every Regent is going to spend time here before we approve them,” Artie stated with false bravado as he came up to stand by Claudia. “You can’t fool an entity that literally lives, eats, and breathes emotional energy.”

“You’ve convinced me.” He looked at the golem, radiating humility. “You must know that it was never my intention to patronize you or your Caretaker or any of your agents, but I was unaware of the way things stood because of the actions of my predecessors and acting as best I could with the information I had.”

It was the truth, and very promising. The golem said carefully, “I know.”

He smiled almost shyly. “I look forward to getting to know you, Lily.”