Vanya's Journals, Entry 50: Kenzon "Good morning. I am glad to see you already at work," a voice calls from the door of Vanya's tomb. You turn, and see an expressionless Dr. Thian Russ walking towards you, carrying several steaming mugs. Their contents are soon detailed, as he explains, "I brought coffee."
You take a sip, and find it an unusual beverage, and not exactly to your taste. You can't recall them having anything like "coffee" on Everoc. "Might I just have a beer?" you ask.
Thian Russ, a human, looks at you queerly for a moment. He lacks your dwarven metabolism, and can't quite seem to understand it, but he finally nods and leaves.
Shooting a glance at the woman across from you, you notice she's not having any difficulty with this "coffee", and in fact seems quite accustomed to it. You begin to feel a sneaking suspicion of who she is... The rest of the shuttlecar trip was quiet. We sped through the underwater tubes, the light-rings flashing by like lightning, and eventually, we approached the looming hulk of the mainland, shooting up its slope. When we emerged from the water, climbing rapidly into the dusky sky, I saw a sight that will stay with me until the end of my days... It was an entire city made of metal, stretching all the way to the horizon; tiny vehicles hovering in the air, speeding back and forth between the buildings; gigantic towers arising from the ground like trees, each bearing the Parasol logo on its side.
"The capital of Division 3," Katie told us quietly.
We passed through another switchpoint building, and though I held my breath for fear that the vehicle might derail, nothing happened. The shuttlecar continued smoothly onwards, taking a path to the upper right when the tracks split. Without incident, it exited the huge building, curving up between the towers of the city. From time to time, the tube would pass against one, a shielded hole on one side, giving access to the building.
I noticed that the closer we got to her home, the quieter Katie grew, almost as if the thought of home was depressing to her. It confused me... and at the time, I couldn't imagine why.
Finally, as we neared one of the towers, the shuttlecar began to slow. I couldn't really tell anything different about it... it looked like all the others, and we came to a gradual stop beside an entrance, hundreds of feet above the ground. A railed, blue-carpeted ramp slid out to meet us, gently stopping by the car's side. On looking through the airshielding, I saw a beautiful room, furnished with what I later learned were sofas and benches, and decorated with potted plants and paintings. Even by itself, it seemed almost kingly... so far beyond anything I'd ever seen.
"You people
live here?" Reudh asked, as awestruck as I was.
Katie shrugged. "Where else would we live? Let's just go." Then, as an afterthought, she added, "And make sure you call my dad 'Mr. Kenzon'. He'll get offended if you say 'sir'."
The three of us started down the ramp, passing through the airshields with a hiss. Before we had even left the walkway, a muscled, balding human was marching towards us briskly, a stern expression on his face. "Katalina Wilya Okablokum," he growled crossly, "You have caused me more
grief over the past two years than a lifetime of military experience has brought me."
"Dad, I
had to go," Katie started, stepping forwards, but her father interrupted.
"You didn't have to do
anything!" When he reached her, she looked up at him defiantly. After a moment, he seemed to break, putting his arms about her. "I'm glad you're all right," he said softly, a trace of emotion in his voice.
"Dad, I..." Katie started, but she seemed taken aback by the embrace, as if she wasn’t used to it. She was just starting to put her arms around him when he stepped away.
"Don't you
dare ever use a shuttlecar again!" Kenzon told her. "When you need to go somewhere, I'll take you there myself."
Katie seemed to hate the idea. "But, Dad -"
"
No! I won't hear of it as long as you live under my roof." He glared at her for a moment. "Now, explain to me what happened with the shuttlecar. First the SCCS notified me that it crashed and all aboard were lost. Then I got a
second message telling me you're alive and coming home." He folded his huge arms, giving an expectant, questioning stare.
Katie directed a helpless glance in my direction, and Kenzon followed her gaze, doing a double take as he noticed Reudh and me for the first time. Redirecting his eyes at his daughter, he leaned forwards and hissed, "What is
she doing here?"
My friend seemed distressed. "It's not what you think," she began defensively.
Kenzon seemed livid. "Do you know what you're getting yourself into?! Do you have any
idea how many problems this could cause?? It's
illegal!"
"Dad, it's not like that!" Katie talked over him as he continued raging.
Beside me, Reudh spoke loudly, interrupting them. "Mr. Kenzon, in all due respect, it is not the girl's fault!"
Mr. Kenzon straightened and examined the dwarf suspiciously. "And who are you?" he asked with a hint of disgust as Reudh seemed to shrink back under his gaze.
"He's the dwarf that saved your daughter," I offered, hoping a change of subject would calm him. I didn't know what was going on, but I had a feeling it had something to do with the fact that Reudh and I were from Everoc.
"Saved? ...What?" Kenzon asked, confused. He stopped, as if rearranging his thoughts. "Katalina... what exactly happened on that shuttlecar?"
She seemed relieved to have the subject changed. "I was coming here with my friend, Vanya, who is a Parasol agent that I met a few weeks ago," she began, carefully enunciating her words, "when the shuttlecar derailed at the switchpoint and fell to the ground. The shield went out and Vanya and I hid in the trunk to preserve our air."
Kenzon narrowed his eyes. "Katalina, I'll believe a lot of bad things about those contraptions, but one does not simply 'derail'."
"There was an explosion," I offered.
It had a desirable effect: the man halted abruptly, staring at the floor and scratching his clean-shaven chin, deep in thought. After a pause, he murmured, "That isn't natural... it sounds like foul play." He turned back towards Reudh commandingly. "How do you tie into all this again? And who are you?"
"I am Reudh," the dwarf explained modestly. "The door on the 'trunk' was stuck, so I sliced it off with my pike... It was no great feat."
It seemed to put Mr. Kenzon into a good humor. He offered a brief smile, walking past his daughter to shake Reudh's hand. "A man of arms... I like that. And you saved my daughter's life, too. I'd like to thank you properly for it... Come over to Kenzon's Armory next Wednesday if you'd like – I'll give you free lessons. I'm a Weapons Instructor by trade, and I could probably teach you a thing or two."
"I thank you very kindly, Mr. Kenzon," Reudh said with a respectful nod.
The two men stood there for an awkward moment. Finally, Kenzon nodded towards the waiting shuttlecar, gave a strained smile and said, "Goodbye."
Reudh glanced hesitantly in my direction. "Yes... I will see you next Wednesday." With that, he turned, heading back towards his vehicle.
After Reudh had left, Kenzon turned to me, frowning in annoyance.
Katie spoke up quickly to defend me. "I told Vanya she could stay with us... She thinks someone is trying to kill me." She was trying to distract him from the former by changing the subject without giving him time to object, a tactic I eventually picked up from her.
"Don't be ridiculous," the man scoffed, raising a scornful eyebrow at me. "Why would anyone want to kill my daughter?" Then, he hesitated, doubt entering his eyes. "All the same, I'll hire a private investigator to look into it."
"It was probably just a freak accident," his daughter said.
"That's even less likely. And as for you,
Vanya..." He said the name distastefully, as if it soured on his tongue. "I will allow you to stay at my home. But it is
temporary!" he added, spinning quickly back to Katie with a glare that quelled the excitement in her eyes. "Now, let's go."
Several hallways and technological marvels later, we arrived at Kenzon's apartment, which sat conveniently just across from the elevator. While there was a slot beside the door for a card, just like the ones at Ballpoint, all he had to do to gain access was speak. The door opened smoothly of its own accord, revealing a room far larger than any I'd ever seen at Spearbreakers.
"This is an
apartment?" I remember asking in astoundment, to which Kenzon replied, "Apartment? No. This is a sitting room."
Though dim, it was wonderfully furnished, with a sort of "modern-rustic" theme. A chair and three green, backless, bench-like objects surrounded a low wooden table in the center of the room, elaborate designs carved into its wide, dark legs. There was some sort of device in the center, but I couldn't tell what it was. Apart from that, there were shelves all around the walls, filled with model naval vessels: some carried full sails, others strange columns, others with no obvious propulsion at all... Kenzon had a hobby of collecting them. Aside from that, there were other pieces of furniture arranged here and there, photographs, and other alien oddities that I've since grown accustomed to. Strangely, one corner of the room was almost dark, and looked like it had been untouched since he'd redecorated – it was the only portion of the room with Parasol's theme.
"Are you going to keep staring, or are you going to come inside?" Kenzon asked sardonically in annoyance. "Does it not suit your elvish sensitivity?"
"Dad, stop it," Katie broke in, grabbing my hand and pulling me in. "Vanya, let's go. I'll show you my room."
As she led me inside, Kenzon called after us, "I've already eaten, but you may find something in the cooler."
We stood in the sitting room. Kenzon had already went into his own room, but Katie stood outside her own, trying to get her door open.
"You don't like him," I noted cautiously, observing her reaction.
"How can I?" she replied with an exasperated sigh, punching combinations into the lock. "He won't let me do
anything. He treats me like a child, and he won't even act like I'm his own daughter... more like I'm a prison inmate, or something."
"No, he doesn't..." I corrected her thoughtfully. "I've been in a prison before. ...sort of."
"I know," was her absentminded reply.
I started to nod, but stopped as I realized something odd. "Katie, I never told you about that... How would you know?"
She punched a few more failing combinations before she realized what I'd said. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking," she said, glancing back at me with a guilty frown. Then, she walked towards one of the potted plants down the wall – a real one, not one of Parasol's fakes – and dug her fingers into the dark, damp soil, pulling out a dirty card. "He never found it," she whispered, smiling, and swiped it down the pad. At once, the door unlocked, popping open. Katie grinned. "Yes!! He changed the lock, but I can get past now. I'll reset it later. C'mon!"
The first thing I noticed was that Katie's room was better lit than the rest of the apartment. The second thing I noticed were the gold and silver statues sitting on the dresser at the back wall, which was covered in posters of different people.
"What are those?" I asked curiously, walking over to the statues. Their creators had skillfully worked into the shapes of dwarves and humans, all wearing jetpacks on their backs. Some stood on pillared platforms, others simply on the base. Still others lifted two-handled goblets.
"I got them for my jetpacking competitions," Katie said proudly.
"Okay, but what
are they?" I asked again. "What do they do?"
She paused a moment, raising a surprised eyebrow at me. "They're trophies... Haven't you seen trophies before? They don't do anything. They have trophies on Everoc, don't they?"
"Not like this," I answered, wishing I could read the human writing at their bases. "You have to remember how I grew up."
She tilted her head and nodded. "I guess so." She pointed at one of them. "I got this one when I won first place overall, but everyone else was sick that year, so... And this one I got for getting second place in the Diving Style competition," she went on, pointing at another. "And this one was when..." her voice trailed off. I cast a glance at Katie's face in time to see her mouthing "Saemin" as her eyes glazed over with a distant stare.
"Katie?" I asked.
With an effort, she pulled her attention back to me. "Yeah, we should keep going." She sighed, and stepped away from the dresser, but she still seemed lost in a memory. "There's not really much to show you in here. Not that you'd find interesting."
"I like the bed," I said thoughtfully, trying to keep her from feeling down. It was a single bed, and pink wasn't really a color I liked overmuch, but it looked so comfortable, especially with how sore and tired I felt.
It seemed to amuse her, and she smiled faintly. "You like the bed?" she asked.
"Yes, I do," I confirmed, smiling myself. "It looks very... soft."
Though Katie managed a laugh, it sounded sad, and she remained quiet.
When she didn't reply, I glanced about the room at the other furnishings – posters on the walls of different people, a desk with a mirror on the back, a cushy chair, and a bookshelf full of books. This last caught my eye. "You have so many books!" I exclaimed, walking over to it and eagerly examining its contents.
"I like old classics," she explained from behind me. "I don't like 'modern' literature, especially not something from Parasol... Parasol doesn't look too fondly on entertainment. Not 'sciency' enough."
I hardly heard her, too busy reading the bindings:
Dracula,
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and
The Wizard of Oz, among many others.
"You can read them," she offered. "Just come get one from my room whenever you want."
I spun around excitedly. "Really?"
She laughed softly at my expression. "Of course, silly. C'mon, I still have to show you your room." She turned, and I followed her across the blue carpet and out into the sitting room, down the wall to a second door. "It's the guest room," she explained, swiping her card and messing with the buttons. "It's where my grandmother used to stay, but I think you'll like it."
I wasn't so sure.
Katiewent on, "I'm setting the combination to 33584... can you remember that?"
Nodding, I assured her, "Mr Frog made me work on my memorization skills while I was his assistant... so '33584' shouldn't be too hard to remember."
When she was finished, she swung the door open, waving her hand over the light panel. What I saw left me breathless: the walls looked like marble, the floor a soft white. There was a dressing table like the one in Katie's room, and a lavender double bed, tucked up under a window revealing the nighttime cityscape. I found the silver lamps in the corner beautiful. There weren't really any other furnishings besides a dresser, and everything looked a little dusty... but it was far more than enough for me. Except for the bed, it reminded me of Spearbreakers.
"Why does he keep it sealed off?" I asked in wonderment. "It looks like no one has been here in a long time... but it's so beautiful." I glanced over at Katie, who frowned uncomfortably.
"It was my mother's room," she whispered hesitantly. "She never married my father, but stayed here until she disappeared... I don't know much else about her, though."
"You don't?" It was an innocent question.
With an uneasy hesitation, she changed the subject. "I need to go fix us something for supper. You can make yourself comfortable, or something." With that, she left hurriedly, almost as if fleeing unseen ghosts.
~~~
When Katie had supper ready, she came and led me to the apartment's kitchen/dining room. She didn't seem to want to talk, but I didn't like how quiet she was.
"This is good," I eventually said, trying to start a conversation. I had no idea what I was eating, but it tasted okay: some sort of brownish meat, and little greenish vegetables.
"I'm sorry," Katie apologized. "My dad never cooks, and there's almost nothing here to eat. He had
me learn to cook when I was little – he thinks it more 'fitting' for a girl. 'Girls should know how to cook for their men,' he always said. But it looks like he's stopped eating at home, and there's almost nothing here."
"Girls
should know how to cook," I said, giving my opinion. "Though I don't know how..."
She frowned. "Vanya, you're from Everoc... that's how they think there.
I think girls should be able to learn whatever they want. Most people in Parasol believe that, but my father doesn't... He won't let me anywhere near his military gear, and he won't teach me how to fight." She paused, and continued in an unhappy rush, "I think it's just because I'm a girl. He used to say he wished I was a boy." She permitted herself an annoyed glance in the direction of the doorway, which seemed out of character for her.
I watched her quietly. After a moment, I said, "He loves you, you know..."
She turned quickly back to me, wiping her mouth with a napkin. "You think? You hardly know him."
"No..." I admitted, "but he's so worried about your safety. Maybe he's afraid you'd get hurt if he taught you how to fight. Maybe he's afraid he'll lose you."
"Of course," she replied, rolling her eyes. "He's afraid of losing anyone at all. He lost his father when he was my age, and he lost his son and wife later. Then he lost my mother, but he won't talk about her. If he lost me, he'd bury me away in a darkened corner of the apartment, too."
"The dark corner of the sitting room," I guessed.
Katie nodded. "That was her favorite place. While my grandmother lived here, it was her favorite place to read, too. She wouldn't let him change it." She sighed, and picked depressingly at her food, an elbow on the table, her head propped against her hand. "Sometimes I wish I could just get away from here forever, and never have to see him ever again."
It hurt me, somehow... I'd always envisioned families as sticking together through thick and thin. "Would you really do that?" I asked softly. "Leave, and never talk to him again? Disappear into the night?"
She didn't answer.
"Katie..."
She put her fork down, looking distressed. "No, I wouldn't do it. I hate saying it..." She hesitated. "...I hate saying it, but I would miss him. He causes so many problems, and he won't let me do anything. I know you'd say family is important, but sometimes he makes it so hard to get along with him." She looked about ready to cry.
I felt the urge to give her a comforting hug. "You're tired, Katie... You should get some sleep."
With a resignative nod, she slid her chair back and stood. "I'm sorry I don't make better company," she whispered.
Getting to my feet, I shook my head. "No, you're a gracious hostess."
The girl managed a weak smile. "I've had lots of practice," she answered, and took our plates across the room, setting them in the sink. She pressed a button, and I heard a hum; when she pulled the plates from the sink a moment later, they were clean, and she put them away in the cabinet. "Goodnight," she said, and headed towards her room, rubbing at her eyes.
That night I slept fitfully... I heard Katie screaming in terror more than once, followed by the sound of her door opening, and Kenzon's loud but worried voice. The first time, I could hear her crying... the others, if she spoke at all, the walls muffled the sounds, and her father left quickly. The third time, she screamed "Saemin" very clearly, and I decided she was having nightmares about his death.
"Only the gods know what horrors she saw that day," I whispered, offering Armok a quiet prayer for her. I've since learned what she saw... Seeing someone you care about twisted and violated in such a manner, and then having to kill them... I can't imagine the pain it would cause.
It reminded me of my nightmares of the forges.
☆
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Topic: [34.11] Spearbreakers - It shudders and begins to move (Read 2280251 times)