Chapter 454: Something Other Than Human (1/2)
“Dr Asano, I would like to thank you again for letting us set up the interim government here. Best estimates are over a year before Paris will be restored to the point of initiating repopulation.”
“Thank you for helping push through the Transformed Relocation project with the UN, Mr President,” Yumi said. “The first of the transformed will be arriving this week.”
“It’s not entirely selfless, Dr Asano. We will be in Saint-Étienne for a time, but for the transformed, it will be a home. Many have been treated poorly after losing their humanity and I believe that things will be more harmonious if we earn some goodwill.”
Yumi and the interim French president walked along an empty street. The city of Saint-Étienne was, for the moment, still largely empty. Most of it was occupied by Jason’s spirit domain, which had remade the city. There were some remnants that the transformation zone hadn’t absorbed, left in ruins by the vampire occupation. It was not back to the way it was. The new Saint-Étienne was more like a French city as imagined by a man whose knowledge of France came from watching too many whimsical French films. The interim president was diplomatic enough not to point that out.
The vampires had abandoned France after the transformation zone was unsealed and Jason’s spirit domain became the centre of a new high-magic zone. It was retaken by eager Network forces, although it was made clear that Jason’s spirit domain only answered to one man.
“If I may ask,” the president said, “where is your grandson? He has never been big on public appearances but it’s like he fell off the side of the world in the last few months. The Network would very much like to–”
“We are aware of what the Network would very much like,” Yumi said. “Jason has not fallen off the side of the world quite yet. He has eschewed his worldly concerns, outside of preparing the clan for his departure.”
“If I may ask, Dr Asano, what exactly is this nebulous threat your grandson is saving us from? He’s not exactly forthcoming on the details, which is why so many doubt him. I’m an administrator, chosen both for my ability to get the reclamation up and running and for lacking the charisma come election time. I know little of magic and am just one more person struggling in a world that has completely changed.”
”I think you might be a better politician than you claim, Mr President. I don't understand all that much myself, but how long has it been since there was a transformation zone, anywhere in the world?”
“Forty-two days.”
“That’s where my grandson has been, Mr President.”
“United Nations Liaison to the Asano Clan?” Jason asked.
“You’re the one who started taking over chunks of sovereign territory,” Anna told him.
“That was never my intention.”
“Then give it back.”
“Anyone who wants it can come and take it,” Jason said, his voice an iron fist in a silk glove. Jason led Anna from the helicopter pad outside the pagoda in Saint-Étienne, taking her inside. The atrium was full of people, very few of whom were human. They walked through the crowd towards what was now a bank of elevating platforms, part of various design changes Jason had made to accommodate the clan. The pagoda was ultimately a cloud construct, even if it rarely showed, and could be altered with alacrity and ease.
“I’m surprised no one is looking at you,” Anna said as they navigated the crowd. “You’re more or less the head of state, at this point.”
She was awkwardly stepping around delicate elves and huge leonids while they unconsciously parted for Jason. Anna quickly learned to walk right behind him.
“They don’t see me. Or, more precisely, their minds actively ignore my presence. It’s an aura manipulation trick I picked up some time ago from Craig Vermilion. There is a lot to learn from how vampires use their auras.”
“There’s a new leader who had managed to rise up amongst the vampires,” Anna said. “They’ve separated from the Cabal, who pretty much rule Africa and Russia at this stage. She’s concentrating power in parts of Europe and Central America, pulling back from aggressive action.”
“I’ve met Elizabeth,” Jason said lightly. They arrived at the elevating platform and got on, alongside several other people.
”So I've heard,” Anna asked. ”I'd love to hear more.”
“She and I spent some time together. I tried to kill her but she outplayed me.”
“Some of our intelligence suggests that she's holding back until you're gone. That she wants to avoid you trying again and knows that you intend to leave this world behind.”
“That’s more likely obfuscation,” Jason said. “She's probably just taking the time to consolidate her power.”
“Our analysts agree. The ancient vampires seem to have realised that they need to work together but that isn’t natural for them. Many aren’t happy about pulling back after the successful attacks on network holdings in Germany and want to take advantage of the civil war in the US.”
“She’s not stupid enough to poke the dragon while it’s chasing its own tail. Not my concern, in any case. The vampire war is your apocalypse, Anna, not mine.”
“And how is your apocalypse going?” she asked. “A lot of very powerful people made very sure that I’d ask.”
“It’s all finished but the paperwork,” Jason said. “I need to finish up in the other world but for practical purposes, the job is done. To the best of my understanding, the dimensional membrane stopping the earth from spilling out the side of the universe will slowly recover over the next couple of decades. At the very least, things here are no longer escalating. Barring some god-like dimensional entity showing up to make trouble, you can rest easy.”
“Some kind of public announcement would be nice,” Anna said. “We can do it with the UN, make it nice and legitimate. There are a lot of worried people out there, and a lot of crazies stoking trouble. It would be nice if you could explain it all.”
“What do you want me to do, Anna? Go on TV and start talking about alien gods? You want the UN to endorse a message that goes directly against most of the world’s religious beliefs? Remind me what the revelations about magic and monsters did for global religious harmony?”
“We can couch the language to excise anything contentious.”
“People never much liked the truth, Anna. There’s little point feeding them half of it. Let them think what they want. I don't care anymore.”
Anna looked at Jason’s impassive face. She remembered the wild, animated man she had met just a couple of years ago. He seemed much older despite, if anything, looking younger. There was a tiredness to him, to the way his bizarre eyes watched the world around him.
“Coming back to this world has done more to you than going to the other one did, hasn’t it?” she asked.
“Any sign that Gerling or Mr North are still alive?” he asked, ignoring her question.
“I thought they were both dead. I heard you saw it with your own eyes.”
“I looted their bodies, but I’ve been deceived before and death isn’t always the end. I know that better than most.”
“There has been no sign of Gerling or Mr North. As best we can tell, they both are truly dead. I have no information on Adrien Barbou, either, past Gerling raiding the EOA headquarters and taking him. I don’t suppose you know his ultimate fate.”
“He’s dead. That, I am certain of. Is the EOA showing signs of recovery?”
“No. Somehow, someone got access to the vast majority of their funds and siphoned them away. They lost half their leadership. More, once you realise how much Mr North kept from the others, which we’re still only finding out about now. Recovery isn’t possible and do many of its people are being absorbed into different Network factions.”
Jason nodded absently but didn’t say anything.
“Jason, we traced where the money went.”
“We’re taking in non-humans from all over the world, Anna. Even with the infrastructure I’m bringing to the table, that takes a lot of funding.”
“The UN has offered to help with that.”
“Talk to my uncle Hiro. He’s managing the relocation program on our end.”
The elevating platform took them to the pagoda’s portal chamber, now a warehouse-sized space occupying an entire floor. The walls had archways much larger than those Jason created himself, all of which were open portals. It was a hubbub of activity, with people, forklifts and even supply trucks coming in and out under the direction of a harried group of Asano clan members in visibility shirts.
Jason led them to one of the portals where Asano clan members were checking everyone going in and out.
“Patriarch!” one of them said, startled as Jason stopped masking his presence from her. She was nineteen years old and Jason’s second cousin. He had given up on trying to stop the clan members from calling him that.
The clan structure had been instigated by the former members of the Japanese Asano clan, mostly Asano Akari’s father. Nothing had been heard from the Japanese Asano clan, led by Akari’s grandmother, Noriko.
Jason had not been on board with formalising the clan at first but was railroaded by his grandmother. Yumi had told him that if wanted a say in how the clan was organised, he was welcome to increase his participation in administering it. Jason had declared surrender, washing his hands of the whole thing.
“We’re going through to Slovakia,” Jason said.
“Of course,” Jason’s cousin said.
Jason and Anna went through the portal, arriving in an almost identical portal room. They took an elevating platform up to what was now known as the Patriarch’s suite on the top floor and Jason led them out to the balcony. Compared to her last visit, when it was ruined and empty, all was repaired and odd folk roamed bustled about the streets. Celestines and leonids, elves and even more exotic people. The once devastated landscape had been repaired under the attentions of Jason’s father, Ken.
“It’s looking better,” Anna said.
“Yes,” Jason said. “My father has found it very fulfilling. There’s a lot of damage to be fixed around the world and my father’s powers and experience are well-suited to handling them.”
Anna turned to look at Jason.
“You wanted to take him with you,” she intuited.
“He has found a new purpose. I won’t try and deny him that.”
“So it will just be your sister and her family leaving with you?”
“No,” Jason said. “They’ve elected to stay.”
Neither his face nor his aura betrayed his feelings on that.
“My sister had taken the food logistics of the relocation project in hand,” he said. “You’ll be seeing a lot of her in your new role, I suspect. Her husband is working with the new medical infrastructure and research team.”
“I heard you poached Gladys from the Network. Ketevan wasn’t happy.”
“We need a lot of people with a lot of expertise. Learning the ins and out of many new species is quite the challenge, even before you start getting into essence users and any other magical quirks that may appear.”
“What about your niece?”
Jason bowed his head.
“I’m not the uncle she knew. Not even the one who came back, from before the monster waves. They love me, but they look at me and don’t recognise these eyes. Or the man behind them. I scare them.”
“I won’t lie, Jason; you scare us all. You went into that transformation zone with some of the most powerful beings on the planet and only two of you survived. One of you came out queen of the vampires and the other came out with a kingdom.”
”I'm not a king. Mayor, maybe, although that's my grandmother, really.”
“Jason, unless you want to let the French and Slovakian authorities reclaim the land, you’re a de facto head of state. They’re playing nice now, while they’re scared and happy that the vampires are staying away. The time will come, though, when they start looking to take that land back. And even if they don’t, what will you do with it? You know you have more territory than the Vatican, right? That’s not even counting those astral spaces of yours.”
“I’ve left grandmother in charge of all of that,” Jason said. “She’ll be more amenable to cooperation than I am anymore.”
“She can’t do the things you can do.”
Anna’s aura senses weren’t sophisticated enough to understand what Jason did but everything around her seemed to go still.
“Rather than try and get me to do the things I can do,” Jason said, “you should be very glad that I’ve elected not to. I’m done with it all, Anna. I’m leaving the clan with as many resources as I can and I am going. This world is better off without me, now, and I’m better off without it.”