Unmaking Percy

Part IV - II, continued (The Parted Glade)

"What I did in the clearing. Will I be able to do that again?"

Astred, his eyes lowered, smiled faintly at the tunic on his lap, his hand still flattening its creases.

"I do not know. I suspect it will be much harder if you try that again. Benign uses of magic have become rare, you see. It is far more likely that you will use magic for sourer ends. I am sorry to tell you this, my boy."

A shudder went through Percy, as though he tried instinctively to shake off Astred's words, fearing they might cling to him like a viscous, pestilent thing.

"I'm not your boy" he muttered.

"Perhaps you are not. Yet I have a far greater claim over who you are now than any other being in your life."

Something deep within Percy sunk its claws, and drew blood. He sent a frantic look at the frosted glass door to the greenhouse.

"Why did you do this? Beyond... your concern for Evans" he added. He could not bear to hear Astred claim once again that it had all been for Evans' sake. He had no wish to scratch at an open wound. "You said the mission you gave him was dear to you. Why?"

To his surprise, rather than seeing Astred tense and wall off the truth of his feelings, he watched as the man leaned back on the chair with a long sigh. The sound of it swelled like a rising tide.

"I am tired, Percival. I have a weariness in me that I would not wish for you to feel, or even to understand. There are many problems in this world that are near impossible to solve. The solution to many of them, though not all, is to close gaps. Gaps give rise to uncertainty, incomprehension, despondency. Gaps between peoples give rise to conflict. They are a waste of space, time and potential. In them reside the useless, the trivial, the nonsensical. In a world with so much to fix, how can we allow for that? I will not tolerate something that could be purposeful and efficient, and is not."

He rested his arm on the chair, his head on his hand, and his weight on the world. Percy felt its crush on him.

"In other words, you're using Evans to enact your vision of how things should be" Percy said.

He was too dazed and worn out for any displays of anger or outrage, and his words came in a flattened muttering. And yet, for the first time, he saw Astred wince visibly, his elbow shrinking an inch where it rested on the chair's arm, as though Percy had shouted loud enough to rip apart the quiet of the room.

"I am no tyrant" Astred countered in a murmur. "None of us are. We are carrying out what the people asked of us. We spoke to thousands, for years. We held assemblies and audiences. Even the most distant and isolated villages sent representatives. It was not unanimous – it never is. But a majority of them spoke of the problems created by gaps, their magics, and those who dwell in them. Each day there are more sorcerers cursing us than ever before, uncaring of who they destroy in their eagerness to display their power. There were good uses of magic before, this much I know. But lately, as I told you, there are only ever curses. I confess I was surprised that you were able to use magic to heal Evans: such powers drawn from gaps have become almost always noxious, and, as of late, they have rarely ever been kind.

"Still, most agree that not every fae or sorcerer is malicious, but that all should nonetheless be kept in check, at the very least. These beings and their power might lay this world to waste – waste us, our future and our potential, if we are not careful. Their curses cast us adrift in a maze, drive us off-course. It is for this reason that I have tried, for years, to enact laws that will clearly lay out who is and is not fae, and of these, who must be watched with care. I confess this ambition of mine has been better received elsewhere in the kingdom than at its very heart, with the royal family. But I have time. The king and queen might not see the urgency of the situation as I do – as most in the realm do. They are, through no fault of their own, rather detached from ordinary reality, protected from its dangers. I fear that their inaction might soon fatten the resentment of their subjects. But the people all believe in Evans. The mere promise of his existence is enough to save them from fears that would otherwise haunt them."