Ch: 42 People are People

Down in the workshop Gary had cloth and tools scattered everywhere. “Thirp helped with the pattern, she has a feel for textiles… it has so many parts though.”

Weeks of early morning crafting practice was paying off nicely. Time he had well spent, conjuring ersatz materials to sew, smith and tinker his way to proficiency. Getting the basic and intermediate levels of each skill in hand, without wasting real goods was a win. 

 

One final poke of his finger and it was done. “Ahh!” He said, around his pricked pinkie. “How does it look?” 

A tiny tailor’s form wore a full length dress of fine wool, with a quilted jacket embroidered in flowering vines. 

The rich indigo blue set off a myriad of miniscule stitches of spider silk and silver grass thread, they sparkled and gleamed in the shop lights like ice crystals.

A thick felted cloak of the same blue, with a  white groundworm fur collar and hood and a pair of sturdy winter boots finished it off.

“Ye hae nae made clothes fer me boy, ye are a dab hand wi that needle!” Shai laughed in delight and just a touch of jealousy. “Though never did I see one sew wi nae shears, only knives. Why do ye alway be so odd?” 

“Jenna made your clothes, she’s so much better than me. There is no comparison.” He said, hugging her close. 

After a few finishing touches he boxed the whole outfit up in two nice packages and handed them off to Shai. 

“Would you make the delivery, I’m sure she wants to go outside… knowing your clothes will disappear as soon as you step out of bounds is really mean.”

 

“Ye dinnae wish tae give it tae her yerself?” Shai nudged him on the shoulder distracting him from his next project. “Why?” Her stance said she was getting an answer, one way or another.

 

“It has to do with gender roles and a bunch of bullshit from my world. Where she and I came from, dudes don’t sew, and only a super weirdo would know how to make little girl’s clothes and underwear…” 

 

He rubbed his head in frustration. “She is already thinking of me as ‘Nakie uncle Gary’, that sets off alarm bells.” 

 

Shai laughed and punched him lightly in the arm. “Aye, ye do hae a point. She do hae enough to be dealing with, we need not be careless. When did ye become a thinker boy?”

 

“I only get one chance, kinda feels like I should do whatever I can for her.” He shrugged. “I have a daughter… I can never give you a child… but maybe?”

 

Shai held him for a while, before kissing him on the ear and skipping upstairs “Ye hae changed so much Gary… an nae at all.” The door closed on anything else she might have said. Before long, he was back at work.

 

A face melting stratoblaster in exquisite haunted plumwood burl with an Ironwood neck and monster bone frets wasn’t going to build itself. 

Each tiny rune and glyph he carved into the body, each flake of haunted plum amber he placed in a tiny cavity carved just for that one carefully inscribed jewel, was a weight off his soul.

He stayed down there for a timeless evening, whistling and working himself into a state of mind suitable for human interaction.

 

At some point, all his girls came downstairs, sitting on conjured furniture. They enjoyed a tea party catered by Becky, who was clearly, deeply into having a new sister in more ways than one.

“Jeez, how long have you guys been down here?” He asked when he came up for air. 

“I hae be playing along wi yer whistling and toe tapping fer a good while ye great oaf, dinnae be absent frae yer own life fer working. Though that do look fine!”

 

Amy cut through the noise, a sparkling blue and silver blur shot in, hugged him savagely and then bounced away, while giggling out her words. 

“I love my dress and dolly, thanks Gary, I don’t think you're a creepy weirdo.” She scampered off, challenging even Becky’s ability to keep up.

 

“She’s gonna wind down soon, don’t worry” Becky called as she scurried after her charge.

 

Shai pulled him down onto the abandoned sofa and started some fresh tea. 

“The doll were a fine touch Gary, twere marvelous detailed, ye did even capture her nose and ears. I did nae think ye had such in ye.”

 

“That was my great aunt Joan’s idea. She was a music teacher in the public schools forever. When she retired she took up sewing as a hobby. Someone ordered a child’s guitar in bright pink for a little girl from my grandpa way back when.” 

He had a faraway look of pleasant memories. Shai slid him a tea cup in silence, trying to keep him going.

 

“Aunt Joan made a doll that looked just like the little girl to go along with it, as a fun little gag. Grandpa built a tiny matching toy guitar for the doll and we got back a letter and a picture of her with them. Grandpa put it on the shop wall. It became Ward family lore and tradition.”  He sighed quietly.

“Mom took over when aunt Joan passed, I learned how to make doll sized instruments first, it really makes you get the details right. You gotta focus on the scale and how they fit together…” He shrugged again. “A few cloth scraps and a bit of woodcarving, if it makes her happy I’m over the moon.”

 

“Ye dinnae make me nor Becky a doll. Now mine feelings be hurt.” She sulked prettily, perking up his mood with a little sass. Gary was easy at this point, Shai was in control of the boy until she was done with him for the evening.

“Dae ye fancy Amy more than poor Shai?” She sulked, while swishing her coppery hair past his face in a way she knew drove him to distraction. 

 

They played a familiar game, he would make oafish and clumsy attempts to catch her while she slipped just out of reach until they reached her destination. 

He lunged and grabbed at her while she teased and flirted him up to the common room.

 

“I thought you might be offended, some people take it weird. We got an order from a distant country once, for a child’s oud, a traditional lute from their culture.”

“They sent the doll back with a nasty letter about cultural something or other.” He shrugged and produced a pair of small boxes. 

“Tradition is a tough habit to break, it feels even more important here. Yours is green, the yellow is Becky’s. Please, don’t give it to her if it’s gonna get weird. I keep stepping in taboos.”

 

Shai peeked in each box and giggled in delight. “Oh ye hae done well, fain I should ever stop finding surprises in thee boy!” She looked him up and down slowly, perhaps hungrily. 

“Aye, well done indeed. Eat! Tis late, yer daughter...” She giggled a little. “Our daughter, be surely ready tae sleep now, an she will sleep wi Becky… who will nae be in our bed.” She giggled again. “Yes, eat, ye will need strength. Ye still be recovering.”

 

Gary could still feel a number of elders and clergy in his pool, no doubt discussing matters of grave importance while soaking in the life giving overflow. That meeting might never end.

#

 

“As usual the temple of Joy will direct the Winternight celebrations, in conjunction with Craft… Why is there no representative from Craft here?” 

The duchess asked, lounging in the pool with a glass of surprisingly good wine. “More importantly, why have we ever had meetings elsewhere? I take it as a personal insult that I was not invited immediately, daughter.” She cheerfully scolded Tawny, who smiled under sad eyes.

 

“If I had, perhaps I would still be on the other side of the hedge.” Tawny shook her mane of golden curls sadly. “I regret deceiving him, though only a true idiot would not have at least suspected and asked me.”

 

Gunnar floated by and tisked sadly. “The true magic of this place is a steamy hot bath that does not destroy those luscious curls.” He sighed with the confidence that only a master hairdresser can manage around such powerful women.

“That alone is worth fighting for. Talk to him, he seems quite reasonable. Despite the appalling situation going on in his cuticles and those callouses… no thank you!” 

Gunnar Shah, heir to seven generations of Shah family lore, was no stranger to the halls of power. No advisor is so indispensable as her hairdresser to a woman who bears the burdens of leadership. His family arts and his gifts gave those light and frivolous words a subtle weight. 

“Watching your little group plot and swirl around town since that boy appeared tells me he is up to something, I like everything I have seen so far.” His aggressively handsome face sculpted itself into a perfect smile.

“As for Crafts, I am the only representative from the temple that can come here, the God Craft has commanded all his clergy to avoid the boy. My invitation superseded that order. There is some delicious secret here and I simply must know.”

 

Tawny huffed, before shooing him away with a smile. “Everyone wants a peek behind the curtain, but once you look…” She sighed, feeling hopeless and lost. No doubt how her friends felt constantly, adrift and unrooted. Perhaps that explained how that fool had bound them all so tightly together.
Tawny decided to give it a try. “Mother, if you and Papa were to pass away suddenly tomorrow, I would be sold into indenture at the next feast of War. Please consider that for a moment.” Tawny let that distressing idea hang out there for a few moments.

 

“What a dreadful thing to think, never mind say aloud! There is a reason such things are not spoken of!” She fretted, visibly upset and letting it show in the private corner Tawny had led her off to. “This is the law, no matter how we feel.” She hissed, trying to avoid a scene.

 

“Why? Why does poor Liam become a thrall of War, while I live the life we both should have shared? Why do I go on alone, while he falls into despair?”

 

“We cannot intervene, Healer has refused, War will not and Order has no standing in the matter.” Her manner was coldly dismissive. 

“Your foolish friend’s suit will no doubt fail. Mortals do not contest with gods and the law has stood for countless generations. Were his case successful that would mean…”

 

“That we have sent untold numbers of children into slavery and to their deaths unjustly? That our family profits from a loathsome and immoral trade in human flesh?”

 

“Yes, yes,” she waved distractedly. “That would mean no more recruits for War, beyond volunteers. That is unsustainable, we are already being pushed back step by step.”

 

Tawny sighed and waded to the edge. “It took me a few weeks and some thinking to see it, I suppose it is unfair to expect you to do so much better, I had hoped though.” She strolled to the connecting bower of vines.

“I’m off to make amends, tread carefully mother, you have lost one daughter to the indenture system already.”

“Orphans are human beings, despite their lack of parents, even the odd ones, even the new ones. I think they are as much my family as you are now. I would rather not be forced to choose.” She vanished through the steam as her mother sat back to think.

#

 

Gary felt it when Tawny crossed over into the private bath. Just as he felt her approach. 

Since his earliest magical education, he had an interest in vermin, particularly keeping crawlies away from himself and his goods. Naturally one of the first charms he learned to enchant was a simple bug repellant, he could have made a tidy living enchanting those and selling them in any town.

Once he learned it, adding it to his home and playing with the parameters was simple. Now any person who was not invited, or more importantly felt like they were not invited, would feel a subtle pressure and unwelcomeness in the air around themselves. 

It was entirely an illusion, a simple, low energy field of ‘I don’t belong here’ that drove off pests, scavengers and nosey wanderers. 

 

Tawny had never felt it before and it was deeply unsettling, feeling so strange among familiar things. She pushed on to the house and entered the common room. 

 

That familiar Gary, Shai, floral and mineral steam scent washed over her and broke the spell. 

“I’m home.” She said, dropping lightly into her usual spot near the pianoforte.

 

Gary nodded, pulled out his mandolin and began strumming ‘Ode to Joy’ again. “I think Beethoven would have done well here. I really need to teach you guys to read music.” 

 

Shai dragged a sour note across her strings. “I do already read boy, did ye forget?” Point made, she started following along. 

 

“Musical notation love, it’s a way of writing down music so you can see where we're going, rather than following after. A whole new language and alphabet.” He grinned naughtily. “Wait till we get to jazz theory.” 

 

Tawny felt a familiar tug at her senses, so she slid over and pulled the cover from the keyboard. She slipped in, following the music. Before long the room was reveling in the deceptively simple piece. 

“That is what I am talking about,” Gary sang, chanting in time rather than rhyming. “Right now we are in harmony, all playing together, on one melody.” He intoned. “This is just the intro…” 

 

Ivy, who had been tapping out the simple beat, letting her kick, toms and cymbal hold the others up, felt a jolt. Something in Gary’s gift cracked like a muleteer’s whip, just over her shoulder. 

Her kickdrum started thudding a complex riff inside the time signature while her snare and tom tom found space for themselves in and around that frantic heartbeat.

 

Gary switched out for something new and an almost human moan of pleasure teased the room. His larger instrument, though similar to Shai’s in appearance, had a distinctly animal sound.

As he fell in with Shai’s violin, a thread of magic tweaked her off into a breathy and exuberant variation on the theme, while Gary and the rest of the band held steady.

 

Ivy and Shai bounced back and forth, trading solos and riffs for fills and breakdowns. 

Before long, Tallum’s bass was thudding and moaning in the tummies of everyone around, lifting spirits and raising booties from chairs. Liam and Dannyl kept up gamely, despite feeling lost in the mix. 

With a twist of magic and dip of his hip Dannyl shifted into a sassy little sonic space all his own. Strumming the rhythm in a higher register, mirroring Tallum’s bass line, he brought the whole arrangement greater volume without actually getting louder. 

That left Liam and Tawny holding the melody all alone, driving the group without realizing they were in charge.

 

Slowly and gently, the rest of the band dropped their volume, letting those two chase each other around in a musical landscape of their own.

When they finally tired out and came back to solid ground, the room had a hushed and intimate vibe that no one wanted to break. 

 

Finally Gary spoke. “Well, that was supposed to be a lesson on the difference between simple melody and harmony, versus more complex and nuanced polyphony…”

 

“Play under tha sea!” Amy squeaked out from the stairs, dressed in pajamas and wrestling with Becky like her life was on the line.

He shrugged. “Amy, they don’t know those songs here.” 

 

Rank disbelief and outright horror crossed her face. “Is that why they didn’t know who Elsa is?” She dashed forward and hugged Shais skirts, burying her face in them.

“Those poor kids!” She wailed, lost in the first realization of perhaps how far from home she had come. 

Keening notes sounded in resonance from the instruments on the wall, sending chaotic waves shuddering through the room. 

 

Gary grinned evilly and dropped down to the floor beside her. “Amy, how about we teach them together… do you like to sing?” Becky and Shai shared a nervous glance, while Amy’s wailing slowed.

“I know some of those, maybe you can teach me more?” She began to bounce excitedly, pulling her face from Shai’s skirts.

“The kids here have songs too, you should learn theirs, ask grandpa Otho too. Shai is not allowed to teach you any songs Amy. Shai only likes naughty songs.” He said with a wink while outrage and laughter exploded above them.

“Tawny promised to play with Liam until bedtime, so why don’t we all sit down and listen?” He said with a wink at the surprised pair. They shrugged and started one of the local folk tunes that everyone knew by a completely different name. 

 

Gary’s hopes were dashed immediately. He found himself holding doll Amy, all alone on the couch. Shai and the rest got serious and taught Amy some local dance moves until ninth bell. 

#

 

Luna and Khan headed home, just a few steps across the garden to their door. Annie’s warm scent welcomed them, feelings new to all of them swelled and engulfed the tiny home all their own.

#

 

“Ohh! That tickles!” Shai whispered in his ear, just before they both drifted away in languid bliss. 

“Hmm?” Gary moaned, half asleep. “Yeah, they just decided that they live here now. There’s a special feeling when someone decides that they are really welcome in our home.” He curled up closer to her. “That’s also what it feels like to be alive again. Funny huh?”

 

“Why be that funny boy? Tis sweet and tender, yer magic.” She huffed, rankled by his attitude.

 

“That’s theirs, they cast that spell on themselves, we just kinda feel it cause they are in our home.” He tickled her softly on her hip. “You did that the night I gave you your bells.” 

She swatted him for his cheek, then tucked in closer. “Sleep, we hae much tae do on the morrow.”

#

“Oh yeah, Joy is waiting for you, she is really eager to Contract.” Gary said meekly when they arrived. “I kinda got distracted love, sorry.” He looked abashed and scuffed his heels on the mossy floor. “She’s outside the gate waiting for you right now.”

 

She sprinted down stairs, blasting past Becky and Amy, before skidding to a stop just inside the garden door.

 

“I thought it was bedtime…” Amy complained, hovering between curious and cranky.

 

“You are asleep honey,” Becky explained patiently. “We’re dreaming, but all together. Everyone inside here is our friend, but nobody outside is, ok?” 

She hugged her sister close. “Thirp is really nice ok, she is going to be super excited to meet you.” Becky met their eyes and shrugged. “She followed me here.” 

 

Gary swept Amy into a hug and fell in behind Shai, carrying the tiny girl in the crook of his arm. “I guess we meet the rest of the family now. Thirp, Ducky, we’re home!”

The god and spider duo were in the pool, chatting over the wall with a luminous, towering figure that radiated a sense of simple pleasure. 

Even across his boundary wall her essence percolated through his soul delightfully. “Ooo! Is this how Otho feels all the time? No wonder he’s so obnoxious!” 

 

“Gary, you have an unpredictable nature… and a new human in your soul. Let’s not risk rupturing your essence into the void.” Thirp sang in urgent tones, distracting Gary from the radiant figure. Though she kept drawing his attention over the wall.

 

Amy stared at Thirp in fascination, peering from Gary’s arms, wide eyed and still. “You aren't a spider at all… you’re a people!” She shrieked with joy.

Gary, Becky, and Marduk all stifled some form of laugh at poor Shai’s expense. Thirp was too classy and sensitive to laugh through her harp, those pedipalps and fangs clattered subtly though.

 

“I shall forgive all o ye some day, fer now only Amy be in mine good books. Ye pack o naughty urchins, why must I play mother tae such a misfit home?” She sang between laughs. “Fer now I hae business at the garden gate. Dinnae burn down reality whilst I bargain wi Her Right Proper Ladyship, Joy.” 

She kissed them each in turn and dashed off to the gate, kissing velvet rope Notgary on the way by. All the Shai-lites followed her out, chattering excitedly in their impenetrable brogue.

 

Amy nodded wisely when all the Shais trooped by. “She was getting all tangled up in you. That’s why your stuffing keeps coming out.” She poked him in the tummy. “You’re supposed to keep most of that inside.”

 

“You are very good at this, Amy.” Thirp sang softly, skittering closer. “I’m Thirp and yes I’m a people, but I am a spider too. That does not frighten you?”

“Becky said everybody here was a friend. Nobody can lie here, especially not Gary and he loves you.” She said, peering at the flowering vines and trees in the garden excitedly. “Can I go play now?” 

 

She dashed off into the garden at Becky’s first nod, disappearing in the foliage without a sound. Thirp set eight accusing eyes on Gary, hinting that an explanation was due.

“What? She followed Becky? I dunno. I thought I was gonna be facing some outsider cultist with creepy powers, not a four year old with my condition.” He shrugged again really feeling the burn, this was a workout for the ‘I dunno’ muscles.

 

“Fascinating…” Thirp sang. “Spontaneous entanglement, this has something to do with that law of theirs.” She skittered nervously in a few circles, before settling down. 

“The magical ecology of your world is very complex. Sadly, gods know what their followers know, only in ways that can be interpreted through their worshipers’ level of understanding.”

 

“So getting the god of knowledge out of the way… not even a little bit suspicious there. What could these jerks be doing with their stolen magic and souls, any idea?” He asked, gnawing on his cheek in agitation.

 

“Literally, anything. Your inability to utilize even the tiniest fraction of the raw magic dumping through the veil every time your heart beats is the only thing keeping you from evaporating into a mild breeze. Any errant thought in that torrent of chaos could unspool you into your constituent elements.”

 

“Thanks?” He chuckled, stroking the spider gently to calm her.

 

“How does that work, My species does not even… ahhh…” Thirp played a satisfied little air on her harp while Gary went to town on her abdomen. 

 

“Scritches are a unique human magic, Annie and Otho the dog say it’s one of our best features.” He said, while watching Becky, chasing Amy, chasing illusory butterflies in his garden.

Shai came back in from the gate, seeming touched by a bit of the radiance of Joy herself. She joined the game, in hot pursuit of Becky, with Gary bringing up the rear, whooping with joy of his own.

 

“I have the worst Secret cultist.” Marduk complained merrily from a lawn chair, watching the antics and scritching Thirp. 

 

“True, but he does keep things lively, now onto the business of keeping him alive, at least long enough to get you back where you belong.” Thirp’s song was bittersweet. “It’s a good thing there was so little of him left, I suppose.”

 

“Don’t give up on Shai’s boy yet, he’s lost his mind, but there is still enough soul left to stitch up a new one. Marduk said. “I think our new friend Amy will help with that.”