Daydream (ONC 2024)

Chapter 10: Guilty Only of Love

"Don't mind them," Xin said as he stepped off the walkway and past the eagle who was now polishing the wood at his feet with a rag. "They just do the chores and tend the gardens."

Oh yes, don't mind the animal-faced, hunchbacks going about their dastardly mission to keep humanity enslaved. Though I had to admit they weren't doing the best job of that as one brought Xin a platter of stout grey cups and another set a kettle on the low table ahead. I was in no condition to flee even if we were in trouble, and I wouldn't make it far on uneven and shifting sands at my best anyway, so I settled for joining Xin on the garden pavilion.

We passed a boar lighting incense sticks at a small shrine, and it didn't so much as glance at me while I examined the silver tusks coming from its mask. I wondered if I plucked the mask off if there would even be a face beneath, but I wasn't quite ready to know that. I skittered past to a low-lying table, and after the miserable climb up the mountain, the square cushions were too good to pass up.

My suspicion muted to bliss as I sank into the comfort of a real resting place after relaxing on hard rock for most of the day. Velvet tickled my fingers, and the stuffing cushioned my weight so perfectly that I slumped forward on the table with a groan. Kearo stifled a laugh as he settled in the adjacent corner, but we both sat up straight as Xin approached.

Xin sank to a knee and poured steaming tea into each cup before setting them in front of us and then settled himself onto the remaining cushion to dispense tea for himself. It was rather polite for all his abrasiveness, and I blew on my tea as I tried to figure him out. Out of the corner of my eye, I followed the eagle as it stood and polished a statue of a tiger in the corner.

"Ask," Xin said as he adjusted his long hair to lie on his lap and took a sip of the boiling tea without caution. I tasted it to see if it wasn't that hot, and nearly dropped the cup when I singed the tip of my tongue.

"Ask what?" I asked as I rubbed my tongue on the roof of my mouth, my eyebrows sinking as a smile spread on Xin's lips. That jerk knew I'd burn my tongue, but how did he still have skin in his throat after sipping that?

"You're here for answers, Heidi Vanders. I will give them. So ask, for the dreaded truth you put so much importance in."

So many questions had filled my mind since the moment I'd awoken, and I had no idea how many Xin would answer before his patience wore thin, so I started with the most important. For all of this to return to the way it was, I had to know how it had gotten this way in the first place.

"Who made the world like this?" I struck right at the throat of the beast.

Xin set down his tea cup, relaxed a hand on a single uplifted knee, and then locked his obsidian eyes on me as he spoke. "I did."

I dropped my tea cup and hot liquid poured all over the table. A few drops dripped onto my bare ankle, and I jumped up with a curse. My hands trembled as I looked to Kearo still sitting with a cup of tea in his hand. Impulsive was not in Kearo's nature, and he was doing the smart thing, watching, waiting, learning all he could from Xin while he could. With a huff of shaky breath, I sat back down and clenched my hands on my crossed thighs.

"You enslaved humanity?" I hissed through tight lips.

Xin lowered his cup with a single eyebrow lifted. "I didn't do that. What use would I have for the suppressed minds of billions?" Xin sipped his tea with a stereotypical bad guy laugh despite the words, deep, rumbling, and condescending. "There are no chains here binding anyone, no adversary which you can defeat to save the masses. That which controls humanity is just that—themselves. They live in cells of their own making, their dreams lost so long ago that they cannot dwell in a word constructed of them."