The Lesser One Arc 2 Chapter 24: Arbitrary

 

Arbitrary

“Markus!” Esla approaches me. “It’s been, what, a day or two since I last saw you? And now you’ve ended up being part of a major shootout?”

I put my glass away. “It tends to happen around me for some reason.”

Esla scoffs. “Yeah. I know.” She takes a champagne glass from a roving butler. “Cheers.” She downs the glass.

“So what have you been doing?”

“Sneaking.”

I chuckle. “Well, I’ll fill you in on what’s been happening to me.”

I tell Esla about what I’ve been doing over the past two days. She taps her bionic hand’s index finger against the glass she’s holding in her real hand. It seems like a tic of some kind. When I’m done, I ask her.

“How has your new hand been treating you?”

“I’m two thirds through the manual.” Esla sighs. “Man, there’s so much cool stuff inside this.” She flicks her finger and a small flame appears on her index finger. “Go go gadget, right?” She extinguishes the flame. “I’d thank you, but the problem is that I get pains every now and then shooting through my wrist.”

Sage? Can you diagnose and fix it?

Sure. I know exactly what’s wrong.

I smile. “Come to the lab after the party and I’ll fix it for you.”

“Thanks.” Esla grabs another flute of champagne. “I’ll probably have some trouble taking this through airport security. It’s not like I can just take it off, right? It’s embedded in my nerves.”

“We can get you an exception.” I turn to Sebastian, who is never more than a few meters away. “Hey, can you get your people working on a way for Esla to take her flight home? Her bionic hand might be a problem.”

“We can charter a private jet.”

“That’s overkill.” I frown.

“No, it’s not. We were planning on doing it anyways to get you home. With all the attacks that have been happening recently, there’s no saying what could happen. I wouldn’t put it past some of these guys to shoot the whole plane down just to get you.”

I shudder. “Yikes.”

Esla looks at me with a confused face. “It’s that bad?”

“Yeah. It’s that bad.” I shake my head. “I’ve been attacked more times than I can count here.” I pause. “Though I think it will get better when I, uh, I get a certain position. You know, at the organization.”

“Right.” Esla downs her champagne. “Anyways, what can you tell me about this Alice girl?”

“Why do you care?”

Esla appears hurt. “You know, never mind. I’ll figure I out on my own.” Her face is pouting.

“Ma’am,” Sebastian takes the champagne flute from Esla’s hand. “You probably shouldn’t drink any more tonight.”

Esla sighs. “Sure, sure.” She sniffs. “But man, this food is good stuff.” She grabs caviar from a table. “I mean look at this stuff!” She eats it. “Not very good. I was expecting it to taste like unicorn golden marshmallow. It tastes like fish.”

“Yeah, that’s caviar for you.” I take a small sandwich from another table.

Esla, of course, appears a bit drunk. No one is paying attention to the fact that she’s underage. It doesn’t seem to matter here.

I socialize, begrudgingly, with the big shots that are gathered here. I’m the star of the show, after all. I get a lot of compliments about my ability. Of course I would; it’s going to earn everyone here a buttload of money.

As soon as I can, I retreat into a corner and sip my diet cola, watching the proceedings from afar. Esla is as outgoing as ever. Which is probably a good thing, as the connections she’s making here will really help her in the long run. Like, if she needs an internship at an adventuring guild. A professional one. Not like how it works at Ixtham.

Crayton walks over to where I am standing. He stays beside me for a minute without saying anything.

“So.” He lets the word hang. “I know that you’ve been experiencing trouble recently with a terrorist organization.”

“Right.” I shake my head. “I can handle it on my own, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Oh, no, I know. I was just wondering how in the hell you’re still alive after all those attacks. There was the gunning of the Penthouse Restaurant, then there was the break-in at my apartment, and then there was that shootout just earlier today. What in god’s name is keeping you alive?”

“Frankly, I don’t know myself.” I shrug. “I have a lot of people helping me, of course, but in the end I think I’m just a really lucky guy.”

Crayton raises his glass. “Cheers to that.” He nudges me with his elbow. “Go out there and have some fun. There are a lot of interesting folk around here. They’re not all stuffy aristocrats.”

I sigh. “Okay.” I then proceed out into the main room to do some more socializing. Of course I find it boring and useless, but I do it to keep Crayton off my back.

When the night is over, I take Esla to the lab. Sebastian and Tia come with me, and several devils stand guard at the door.

Esla lays her hand on the operating table. I put Sage’s console right next to it.

“Hm, hm.” Sage’s emoji face narrows its eyes. “Yes, indeed. Tia?”

“Yes.” Tia walks up to the operating table. “What do you need?”

I roll the projector screen up to the table. Sage’s console projects onto it. Sage beeps. “This is what needs fixing. Can you do it?”

Tia nods. She holds her hand over Esla’s bionic limb and starts singing.

Something explodes. Tia is thrown backwards by the force. Esla’s hand shines like a fireball.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Esla grips her hand. It gets even brighter, brighter than the sun.

Even behind my closed eyelids, I can feel the intensity of the light. Then it fades away. The room is pitch black even with the lights on.

“Esla? Are you okay?” I hold my hands out in front of me as I try to find my way to the table.

“It’s fine!” Esla’s voice comes from my right side.

I walk towards it, bumping into her. She grabs me and hugs me.

“Markus, what happened?”

“I don’t know. Sage?”

Sage beeps. “A singularity.” Her voice is electric. “I was not expecting it to happen now.”

My vision begins to come back. I can see Esla’s outline on the table. Her hand is formed of pure gold—or at least that’s what it looks like.

Esla lifts her hand and stares at it. “What just happened?”

Sage whistles. “The anima density in your bionic hand reached a critical mass.”

“What does that mean?” Esla continues to stare at her hand.

“It means that your hand has become a celestial artifact.” Sage’s voice is filled with awe. “In all my years, I have never seen one being born.”

“Again, what does that mean?” Esla lowers her golden hand.

“It means your hand is worth more than the entire net worth of planet Earth.” Sage’s emoji face grins. “You’re lucky. Most people would have been killed by that.”

Esla’s eyes are wide. “What can I do with it?”

“You can make COMMANDS.” The word “command” floats across Sage’s screen.

“Commands?” Esla lifts her hand. “Um, I want a swordfish?”

Esla’s index finger on her bionic hand blips with a blue light.

Sage laughs. “It won’t happen immidiately, of course. Unlike Markus’s anima, which creates an object in the immediate moment, a Command Device warps reality to give you what you want.” Sage shakes her head. “Even though it is a celestial artifact, it’s a pretty low power one. So don’t try and snap away half of the population of the universe.”

“Yeah, otherwise we’d have to gather a team of superheroes to stop you.”

Esla lowers her bionic hand. “Okay. I didn’t really want a swordfish. Will I have to build a fishtank for it?”

“You must live with the consequences of whatever you wish for.” Sage’s console lights up with various colors. “Please, don’t misuse your power. Even now I’m doing the electronic equivalent of a cold shiver.”

Esla raises her hand. “Don’t worry. I’m a good guy.”

The door opens. A devil walks in with a package. “A box from Esla’s grandmother?”

Esla takes the box. “Thanks?” She blinks. “What the heck?” She opens the box.

Inside it is a swordfish keychain and a note. Esla reads it. “I got this on my vacation to the Bahamas. I hope you enjoy it.” She raises an eyebrow. “My grandma went to the Bahamas last year.”

I laugh. “Well, you got your swordfish.”

“How in the world did it get here?” Esla frowns. “Oh, right. I told Ixtham to reroute mail to London while I was here. I’m expecting a package and I don’t want to wait for it. But how did it find me here?” Esla appears very confused.

“That’s the power of the command device.” Sage’s voice is smug. “Now that we know its power, I must ask you. What do you plan to do with it?”

“Help people.” Esla holds up her golden hand. “I want world hunger to end.”

The hand bleeps, faintly. Esla lowers it. “There. Was that good?”

“Giving vague commands to a command device is actually counterproductive.” Sage sighs. “But you’ll learn how to operate it eventually.”

Sebastian looks at me and motions. When I point to Esla, he shakes his head.

“Okay, Esla.” I turn to her. “You can speak with Sage here. I need to have a conversation with Sebastian. I’ll be done in a moment.”

Sebastian pulls me into the hallway. “We’ve lost another key.” He shakes his head. “If we lose a third, then the portal to Crazehell will open and the world will be flooded by demons. I don’t want that any more than you do.”

“Crazehell?”

“The home of the demons.” Sebastian looks around. “They’re much different than devils. I am a devil, and thus I am bound by contract. By demons? They aren’t bound by anything.”

“So how much of a problem would this be?”

“A very big one.” Sebastian shakes his head. “We’d do best to nip this in the bud before it gets out of hand. I want us to go on a recovery mission for the missing keys.”

“That means I’m going to have to negotiate with Deeve.” I frown. “Maybe this will give me a chance to get his vote.”

“Right. I suggest you bring some backup. Get some of the Brights to come with you.” Sebastian nods once. “Okay. Set aside some time after work tomorrow and we’ll get this taken care of.”

We return to the lab. Esla is holding up her hand as Sage is lecturing her about how to use it.

“So how are we doing?” I walk up to Esla. “Did you learn something about that hand?”

Esla grins. “This thing is like a monkey’s paw.” She shrugs. “So I won’t use it if I don’t have to.”

I turn to Sage. “Are we good here?”

“Yes. I am printing more documentation for Esla to read over.”

I nod. “Okay. Esla, you look tired. Why don’t you get some sleep and we’ll meet up in the morning. Maybe I’ll show you what I’m doing in the lab.”

Esla nods. “Sure thing.” She turns to Sage. “It was great talking to you again.”

“My pleasure.”

Esla leaves the room.

Sebastian and Tia look at each other. “It would best be time for you to sleep as well. We’ve got a big event tomorrow.”

“Sure thing.” I return to my room.