Adelfried

  Minna stared back not saying anything. “Very well. Now, please. Have I restored your faith in me? Are we resolved?”

  What were they? Were they family again? They were always family, but what does that even mean? Harold was family, not that it meant things were good between them. Because they weren’t. She had also done too many things for all to be resolved. But what were they then? “We are better.”

  Minna narrowed her eyes. “That will have to be enough for now.” She pushed the door open. “Because I want you in a good mood when you meet your grandson.”

  Adelfried’s insides fluttered. “I have a grandson?” He leaned forward peering through the open door desperate to understand this place, his daughter, and what was going on. A long brown couch centered in a wide den sat opposite a large flatscreen television. Plush chairs flanked the couch. Yellow walls decorated with paintings surrounded the warm den. Faint jazz music played in the background. It didn’t feel like a cell, it was cozy. A man with a trimmed brown beard wearing a white t-shirt snoozed on the couch. In front of him a pile of books and a tablet covered a small coffee table.

  Minna removed her choker covered in diamonds and enclosed it in a small cubby next to the door before entering the room. She called out in a soft voice. “Hugh dear, we have a guest.”

  Hugh leaned forward, placing a book from his lap down on the table in front of him. He rubbed his eyes. He called back with a voice broken from sleep, “What was that?”

  Minna moved past the door into the room. With a wave of her hands the jazz stopped, and additional lights flicked to life. “We have a guest. Sorry for not alerting you sooner but there was a change in plans.” She clasped her hands together and held them to her face as if anxious. “This is your grandfather.”

  Hugh’s head snapped towards them. He was maybe twenty years of age with a dark brown stubble on his face. A huge smile spread across it. He rose to his feet quickly but still awkward from just waking. “Mom! You could have at least given me a little warning.” He hastily brushed his hair back as he approached Adelfried. He was a good half head taller than Adelfried and immediately wrapped him in a big hug. “It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

  Adelfried hugged him back as if a hole he never knew existed suddenly filled with warmth. He had a grandson! “I...it’s nice to meet you too. She uh...your mom she just now told me you existed.” Adelfried leaned back from the hug still holding him by his shoulders. “Look at you. You’re so tall. Is your dad tall?”

  Hugh nodded. “I’ve so been looking forward to meeting you. Can I offer you something to drink? Coffee? Tea? Or perhaps a beer? I brew my own.”

  “Hold on.” Adelfried released him from his grasp. “What is going on here? What is this place? Are you a prisoner?”

  Minna scoffed. “Why would I keep my son in prison? Don’t be ridiculous.” Minna fell into one of the chairs and put her feet up. And for the first time in this time, she looked like a person. Not a mighty wizard or the head of a massive evil bureaucracy. No menacing mint green glow. No enhanced voice. Nothing more than a person. His grown-up daughter. And she had removed all her ESH diamonds. “Hugh, sweety, can you make me a—”

  “I’m on it.” Hugh replied heading off to a doorway on the opposite wall from where they originally entered. “And Grandpa can I get you something? Is it okay if I call you Grandpa?”

  Every time he said ‘grandpa’ was like a tiny shot of pure joy directly into Adelfried. “Of course. And I uh, I guess a beer. One that you brewed.”

  “Coming right up!”

  As Hugh disappeared into the doorway Adelfried turned back to Minna unsure what to make of this situation. His heart was summersaulting from the extreme ups and downs. First it was a prison, and then it wasn’t. All the secrets and then the sudden openness. “What is going on? Why all this? Why does this place look like a prison from the outside?”

  Minna waved to the chair across from her. “Fine, but please sit. You act like you have somewhere to be.”

  Adelfried went rigid. The tension of the world around gone for the briefest of moments quickly returned. “I do. Remember? The house? Evan and Kae being sucked into the Earth and the Root along with them? We both have somewhere to be!”

  “Yes, yes.” She waved her hand towards the chair. “Sit. I will explain. I promise you we have time for a drink. I will also share what I have learned about their whereabouts.”

  Adelfried’s lips tightened, uncertainty creeping through him. But it was best to sit and hear what she had to say. He lowered himself into the chair, but his body refused to relax. “Please. Enlighten me.”

  Minna rubbed her face and ran her hands through her hair, like a tired woman home from a long day at work, just like Ying had done so many times. “We are in the Marshall Islands, Bikini Atoll to be exact. I built my home...our home, here because of the twenty-four nuclear bombs detonated here. That and because it is beautiful. I figure someone should enjoy the scenery. No one comes here because of the high amounts of radiation, which reminds me, you will need to heal yourself every so often or the radiation will start to make you ill and eventually kill you. This radiation serves two purposes. It obscures ESH readings so if Harold had a satellite pointing at us, all he would see is radiation. And two it...” Minna took a deep breath. Her eyes shot towards the kitchen for an instant. “It protects Hugh.”

  Adelfried remembered a few things he had read about atoms and the nucleus and even these great nuclear weapons humans had created. There was something about their aftereffects. What was it? But how would this help Hugh? “I don’t understand. Why would Hugh need to live in such a deadly place?”

  “Because I am a bomb,” Hugh said setting a tray down on the coffee table. He pushed some books out of the way and set down two beers and two stemmed glasses filled with an orangish-brown drink. He held his wrist up. On it was a heavy metal band with a white crystal and a digital display. They crystal pulsed faintly. “I could at any moment literally explode and probably blow a crater in the Earth the size of the Pacific, if we did the calculations correctly. And there’s nothing I could do about it either. I quite frankly should not even exist. I should be shot into orbit and—”

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “That’s enough of that talk,” Minna snapped. She snatched the first cocktail and downed in one go. “You are stable as long as you stay here. And if you have flare ups, I am here to deal with it.”

  Hugh shook his head and turned to Adelfried. “I’m a threat to the entire planet, but she won’t hear of it. Maybe you can talk some sense into her.”

  Minna set her empty glass down on the table. “Can we please just spend a little time getting to know each other before we dive into the end of the world?” Minna rolled her shoulders and wiped her watering eyes. Her voice cracked. “Please. Can we just for a moment, be a family.”

  The way she said family made Adelfried’s insides ache. He knew that longing and the pain that comes with it all too well. He nodded grabbing his beer. He held it up. “To family”

  Minna grabbed her second glass and Hugh his beer, both repeating Adelfried, “To family.”

  Like this situation, the beer was refreshing, even if slightly bitter. But, for a moment, the world became a little less dark. A little less painful. Of all that he had lost so long ago, finally, something of a family had come back to him, even if only in a small way, in an underground radioactive bunker, in the middle of the ocean.

  Adelfried set his glass down. “How is it you are a bomb?”

  Hugh took another sip of his beer. “At the end of World War One, over a hundred years ago that is, a disease spread across the world, the Spanish Flu. It killed millions. The ESH community wasn’t immune either. But they were shielded from most of the death since healing yourself of such maladies was relatively simple, if you had enough ESH. But what was not realized at the time was that the virus had an insidious side effect. Once infected, any children you had were also affected. And the more ESH an individual has...the more deadly the effect was on your offspring. You see, when someone wields ESH, they are unconsciously tapping into power at the subatomic level. For children born from parents who once had the Spanish Flu, this ability to tap into subatomic energy levels is accelerated to the point where the infected child can’t control it, not that a baby would have any idea how to wield ESH. For most lower level ESH wielders it was not an issue. But for someone as powerful as a mage that has a child, that wasn’t the case. Chances are their offspring would be born with the ability to tap into an incredible amount of potential energy and become a nuclear bomb, just waiting to go off. Only a powerful wielder like a mage or a wizard who has the proper training can control them. Which is why I was able to survive, Mom was able to keep me in check. And, why I have to live in this place. The ambient radiation here is usually enough to suppress my ESH. I’m basically a walking nuclear reactor ready to go super critical at any moment. Only later was it figured out that this disease had been crafted specifically to target ESH wielders.” Hugh took another drink of his beer and set his glass down.

  Minna twisted her head as if working out a knotted muscle in her neck. “Hugh dear, you’re leaving out one of the most important parts.” Minna’s eyes found Adelfried’s “Guess who was responsible for crafting this scourge on the world?”

  Adelfried shook his head.

  She scoffed. “Who is the leading expert on body magic? He's been doing this for centuries.” A wicked smile split her face. “I’ll spare you the suspense. Your brother Harold, the vilest person to ever walk the Earth. He created this atrocity in an attempt to strengthen his position. He wanted to increase the numbers of Sovereign Sect and their strength and to target Wrecht Order. But instead, he did nothing but cause the death of millions and cause the birth of hundreds of potential bombs. Do you know I have a whole division now within the Wrecht Order that does nothing but monitor pregnant mages?”

  Adelfried felt physically sick. His stomach turned. It was all too much. It was disgusting. But he knew it was also something Harold would do.

  “Grandpa you’re turning green. I think you should heal yourself.”

  Adelfried considered his arm. A sickly green tinged his skin.

  “Here.” Minna put a hand on Adelfried’s arm, and her warmth spread through him as the nauseousness passed. “I think now perhaps you can understand why I, at times, lose myself when it comes to Harold. All that he has cost me, cost the world. He needs to be stopped. I almost had to kill my own son. Do you know what that does to someone? No, you don’t.”

  The irony of her statement twisted uncomfortably inside Adelfried. “You’re right, I don’t, but I do know something about children doing horrible things. Like when your only daughter attacks and imprisons your innocent friends.”

  His words hung in the air as a surprising grin formed on her face. “That small injustice is what really bothers you?” She shook her head and sipped on her drink. “Of course, because it is so close and personal to you. That’s what matters to you and the masses. Those little things that affect their lives, your life. Not the hundreds of other atrocities that happen around the world. The countless lives lost, families broken, innocents murdered or taken as brain slaves to a madman determined to impose his own worldview on everyone. No, of course not. The thing that bothers you is that I sedated one loose cannon with incredible power enough to do who knows what. That. That is the line too far. Fine. So be it. I am not perfect. But I know I’m not perfect. And I am trying to do better. I will do better. But I am not Harold.”

  “Mom, what is he talking about?” Hugh said with a nervous undertone in his voice.”

  “No,” Adelfried said after a sip of beer. “But you are so singularly focused on him that you are starting to act like him.”

  Minna downed the rest of her drink and rose from the couch. “Yes, well, when your focus is making sure the world doesn’t explode, it’s easy to lose sight of the smaller things.” She stomped off.

  Adelfried shook his head. She was every bit like her mother. So determined. So stubborn.

  “I don’t know what she did,” Hugh said smiling awkwardly. “But her heart really is in the right place. I promise you. You realize she could have taken over the whole world if she wanted to? Well, the surface world at least. But she holds herself in check, most of the time at least.

  His words were a cold comfort, but he couldn’t argue with him. Adelfried had seen her power. The Wrecht Order was well trained, well equipped, and well organized. And begrudgingly he had to admit, for the most part, restrained when you consider what they were capable of.

  Adelfried waved his hand as if trying to swat away the negativity. “Forget it. Tell me Hugh, what is your life like? Are you not allowed to leave here?”

  “No. Nothing like that. I can leave anytime I want but I wouldn’t do that. This place keeps me from losing control of my power and well...exploding. Well, staying here under the constant radiation and her treatments. A few times a day she extracts ESH from me and helps keep it all under check. I’m like an ESH reactor. I can control it, but it takes a lot of effort and every so often I have to bleed it off. I monitor it with this.” He held up his wrist. Wrapped around it a silver bracelet held a sage green crystal with a steady pulse. “This device helps monitor my levels. If it starts to pulse too quickly or glow too brightly, it means my ESH levels are getting dangerously high. Mom has one as well to keep an eye on me. She’s my emergency release. I’ll be honest with you.” He leaned conspiratorially. “I don’t like it. I shouldn’t be allowed to exist. One mess up by me or her and the world as we know it is gone. Don’t get me wrong, we are very safe and understand how this all works now. But one mess up by us isn’t worth risking the world.”

  Minna came in carrying a third drink. “Which is why I can’t be suddenly disabled by Ying or anyone. It could quite possibly be the end of the world.” She sat back down and sipped her drink. “But, more realistically, it would probably only cause a nuclear winter and kill everyone in the surrounding island chains. New Zealand, Micronesia, and most of Australia wouldn’t make it though.”

  Adelfried took another sip of his beer. The malty and bitter flavor helped him try to not freak out too much. Or maybe he just couldn’t process all of this. It was too much. What could be done really? About any of this.

  Minna relaxed back into the couch. “Now, I know you’re going to go after the Harper kids. I understand. I really do. But before you go tearing off blindly into the underworld, I need to make sure you’re prepared because I can’t really send any help with you.”

  Adelfried frowned. Guess she wasn’t taking this that seriously. “Why? Are they simply unimportant little details that just don’t matter?”

  Minna sighed dramatically. “No. I am worried I have a mole in the Wrecht Order.”