I couldn’t decide about the Bringer thing the next morning, so I postponed the decision yet again. Until when, I didn’t know.

  In any case, I swung by the library after school and got a few history books that looked like they had some stuff on Bronze Age civilizations. At first, it didn’t look like they had anything, but then one of them had a bit on something archeologists had named ‘Civilization X’. Helix saw their writing and some kind of strange seals and said that they belonged to the Helixians. I asked about the seals, and he said that he had created certain seals that could be drawn and activated for certain effects. He offered to show me one, and I had no reason to say no, considering I didn’t think it would actually work.

  He had me find some chalk and draw a line across the walls of the secret room that connected with itself at the door. On the door, he had me draw additional symbols connected to the line. I asked him what the seal would supposedly do, and he called it a ‘silencer circuit’. That it would silence anything coming into the room or coming out of it. Once I finished it, he told me to stand right outside, hold my hand through the doorframe and then snap my fingers.

  I did as asked… and I couldn’t hear the snap. I could feel it, but I couldn’t hear it, not really. At first, this was very impressive, but then I realized that Helix could have just as well used his powers to mute the snap as it happened. I stepped into the room and told him that I didn’t buy it. He said that he had other seals he could show me, but I declined. Maybe another time, if I got really bored.

  I decided I’d change the subject right then and ask about the whole ‘getting strong’ thing, if Helix knew how I should go about starting to exercise - and he said that he did, but that it would take time. And if I wanted Helix to stick around for that long, I’d have to agree to become his Bringer. Or more like receiving the training for becoming one. It was apparently still possible that I’d turn out not to be suitable for the position. It was strange of him to suddenly have standards after being so desperate to get me to bring him home from the cave.

  I took a moment to think about his proposal again, but I found myself torn the same way as before. I asked him how much longer he could give me to decide. A few days more, apparently.

  A few days… a few days before he’d be gone, and I’d be alone again. And I’d continue to be alone for the rest of my life.

  That’s when I decided it. Decided to take the plunge. Exactly one second ago.

  “Okay,” I say. “I’ll be your Bringer. But only if you keep your promise - that I can back out of it at any time.”

  ”Of course,” Helix says. ”The Bringer cannot be forced into his position, in any case. He must do so of his own volition.”

  “Right.” I sigh, leaning back in my chair. “So… you’ll make me a god, then?”

  ”That is still quite far away,” Helix says. ”Only after I have become absolutely certain of your suitability shall I initiate the ascension process. A delay is also necessary for building up the power required.”

  “How long do you need?”

  ”Provided I can switch to a more energy-efficient state once I have taught you what you need to know… between two to four years.”

  “Oh.” Hm. “This isn't anything quick, then.”

  ”Unfortunately, no, it is not. For you, anyway. It is quite quick for an ancient being such as myself.”

  “I'll bet.”

  This needing to take at least two years might actually make this less likely to be a scam. Scams usually prey on your wishes for a quick fix, right? Then again, this could be something said to deliberately make it seem less like a scam…

  “So how am I supposed to… convince you of my suitability?” I ask.

  ”If you are able to undergo the training for becoming my Bringer and succeed, you will most likely be suitable. I say ‘most likely’ as unexpected complications are always a possibility.”

  I frown. “These odds don’t sound very good.”

  ”I would not be worried,” he says. ”As I have previously suggested, you are quite a promising candidate.”

  “What exactly makes me in particular a promising candidate?” Do I just seem very gullible?

  “You may recall that I called you ‘strong of mind’ back at the cave.”

  He did. I’m pretty sure. “Yeah. What did you mean by that?”

  “The way you wanted to hurt your tormentors. The way you had used to torment people yourself. The way you found the execution of the old king in Kohath’s story, in your own words, ‘awesome’...”

  “Those things mean I’m… strong?” I ask, frowning. “I thought they just made me… kind of a psycho.”

  ”’Psychos’ are quite strong of mind. They do not concern themselves with the wellbeing of others. They are not shackled by empathy. This… is strength. This is freedom.”

  “You want me to be a psycho?”

  I think back to what Helix said before. We briefly discussed how I thought it was cool that Kohath managed to kill his abusive masters, how I said that made me sound like a psycho. But Helix wasn’t shocked or anything. I don’t know if he can be shocked. He hasn’t shown much human emotion so far.

  ”I do not want you to be the kind of person you think of when you speak that word. I do not want you to be careless or unstable - quite the opposite. I want you to think before you act, and I want you to think rationally.”

  Huh. Yeah, that makes more sense.

  ”However, I do want you to discard some of the notions you have been taught. For one, I want you to stop acting in the interest of other mortals. Act only for the two of us. No one else. Do you understand?”

  “I guess?” I say. “I’m not sure why, but it also shouldn’t be too hard - I’ve already made most of my decisions based on what’s best for me. Unless you think I should start acting like a piece of shit as much as I want…? Because I’ll get in trouble for that, and then it becomes my problem again.”

  ”You are entirely correct, Red. Getting caught breaking rules and laws may have dire consequences. I do not want that to happen to you.”

  “...Getting caught.” Not ‘doing’, but ‘getting caught doing’. Huh. I’ve never heard of an authority figure advocate for crime…

  ”Yes. Executing an infraction or crime without consequences is, as said, without consequences.”

  “What about…” I don’t know. I feel like I should question him at least a little bit. “Guilt?”

  ”Do you tend to feel guilty, Red?”

  I sigh. “Not really.” He got me there.

  ”That is strength,” Helix says. ”That is the next stage of human evolution.”

  “...Is it?” I ask. “I know it’s… liberating to stop following rules, but if everyone did that…”

  “Free-for-all. I know. You did suggest this before.”

  “And you said I was correct.” I think. I hope I remember right. “So why should I be allowed to do it?”

  “You are not like the others, Red. You are… a predator.”

  “Woah.” I raise my palms. “No. I don’t touch kids. I’m not gonna touch kids. If that’s what being your Bringer is, you can count me out.”

  “I do not mean a sexual predator, Red. This is older terminology - Helixian terminology. It means something else.”

  “Oh.” I still don’t like it.

  “Perhaps another metaphor is more familiar to you. You are a wolf, Red. A wolf among sheep.”

  “Yeah, that’s more familiar.”

  ”Wolves and sheep. Predators and prey. That first class of people is strong, cunning, efficient. The second is weak, dull-minded, wasteful. In the wilderness, that first class would thrive and the second perish. Natural selection.”

  I nod, though hesitantly. I’m glad I’m in the first class.

  ”Without the proper guidance, however, a predator may act foolishly, given they still possess imperfect minds. This is why a god is necessary - the Lord of Predators. This god can guide the predators, remind them of how crucial it is to cooperate. Tame them, but only under himself. To the prey, they are still deadly.”

  “And you are this… Lord of Predators?“

  “That is one of my titles, yes.”

  Kinda badass. But also sounds like bad news. Helix is starting to seem kind of… well, his ideology is pretty different from what gets taught in schools. What Hojo prides itself on. Hojo takes care of its own, Hojoans has affordable healthcare, being born in Hojo is like winning the lottery.

  But… we’re in a lot of debt, right? And that debt keeps growing. That can’t be good. Surely there’ll be consequences down the line for that, and then everything will come crashing down.

  People would have to be strong to make it through. Strong. Like wolves.

  “In any case…” Helix speaks up again. ”Because you are a predator, Red, and this society is run by prey, it is your right to exploit it as you wish. You have a responsibility only towards other predators, and those, I believe, are quite uncommon these days.”

  I process his words. “Really?”

  “Which part?”

  “The fact that I could just… exploit people, like you say. Can I really… just do that?”

  “What prevents you?”

  Common decency, I could answer. But do I really think that? That feels more like something a character on TV would say in this situation.

  I’ve tried to be decent for the past four years or so. Has it actually done anything? My mom still hates me. Everyone at school still hates me. Seiichi and his friends weren’t around back before I changed, so they’ve only ever seen me when I’m trying to be decent, and they’re still assholes towards me.

  Who the fuck am I trying to be nice for?

  “I guess nothing,” I say. “Nothing prevents me from exploiting others.”

  ”I am glad to see you realize it.”

  Silence fills the room. I replay the conversation in my head. It’s honestly kind of strange that I never realized it before. That I don’t need to be a ‘good person’. Or maybe I knew that before, before I changed. But coming back to it…

  ”May I give you another vision, Red?”

  I flinch as he says that, yanking me back into the present. “What would it be like?”

  ”I would like you to meet Kohath again. I believe it will be more enriching for you to learn from him what I look for in a Bringer and a Helixian in general.”

  Helixian. “Am I going to be a Helixian?”

  ”Naturally. The Bringer must be Helixian.”

  “Are you going to… give me yellow eyes and fangs, too?” I’d really prefer keeping my normal eyes and teeth…

  “Not to worry. I shall not bestow my mark upon you. It would raise too many questions.”

  Whew.

  ”Do you accept the vision?”

  I shrug. “Sure. Sounds cool enough.” I’ve certainly been thinking about Kohath every now and then. I didn’t have an awkward dream last night about him, though, I think.

  ”Splendid. Go lie down, please.”

  I do as he says. The same transition happens as last time, only instead of a throne room, I find myself in… some kind of ancient garden. And I have my shoes on now - not sure when they appeared. Not complaining, though. I wouldn’t want to walk on my socks on dusty ground.

  I take a better look around. There are plenty of different kinds of plants here, and while I’m not any kind of expert in vegetation and biomes, they seem pretty fitting for a drier, warmer climate. Palm trees, more regular looking trees with waxy leaves, some shrubs, then some flowers - pink, yellow, white.

  A few meters away, I can see Kohath staring out into the expanse, where a grid of paths separates the planting areas into rectangular islands. This place is pretty big, with a lot of different plants. Must be under royal ownership.

  He turns around to see me and smiles, making me flinch a little. He’s not wearing his crown, so his head of curly hair freely catches the breeze.

  “A bit cool today, is it not?” Kohath calls out to me.

  “Uh…” I make my way towards him, feeling the air around me and the sun shining on my back. “Not for me, really. This seems like a regular summer day in Hojo.”

  “Then it is fortunate for you,” he says as I reach him. He’s still so offensively tall. “Warmer days would surely be too hot for your liking.”

  “I bet,” I say.

  He crosses his arms and looks off into the distance again. “So, you wish to be my master’s Bringer.”

  Technically, no. I don’t particularly want that title. I just want Helix to help me get stronger and not leave. “Yes.”

  “And you must know that to become the Bringer, you must first become Helixian.”

  “Yes. Helix told me that you could tell me more about that.”

  “That I shall, then,” he says. He turns to me. His yellow eyes are even more striking in direct sunlight. “The most important part of being Helixian is to obey Helix. He is your master, your lord. While you may inquire about the reasoning behind his decisions, perhaps even suggest something else if you believe you have information he does not… if he does not change his mind, you must change yours.”

  Kind of stupid, but not too surprising. Hell, it may actually be surprising in the sense that it isn’t worse. Plenty of religions just straight up don’t want you to question the god at all, let alone talk back to them.

  “What happens if I don’t?” I ask.

  “Then you are no Helixian,” Kohath says. “And… well, you may even become his enemy. You do not want that.”

  ”Note that I do not think it will come to that,” Helix adds, reminding me that he’s listening - not only to the conversation, but to my thoughts. ”Were you to disobey me, you would simply lose your Helixian status and be required to return me to the cave, as we agreed before.”

  I don’t think I like the words ‘obey’ and ‘disobey’ here. Could we not have a more equal relationship?

  ”I desire the revival of Helixism. To be true to what it once was, this power dynamic is necessary for you to accept.”

  Hm. Is this the price of not being alone?

  ”I shall not abuse my power, Red, if that is what worries you. I wish for this relationship to remain amicable.”

  If you say so.

  “Okay, understood,” I tell Kohath. “What else?”

  “You must be strong. Both physically and mentally. My master tells me you are already doing well on the second front, but the first…” He looks me up and down and frowns.

  Yeah. “I know,” I say. “I was hoping Helix could train me.”

  “I am certain he will,” Kohath says. “Adhere to his instructions. Do not skip days unless he permits it. Exercise requires not only execution, but consistency. You must integrate it into your routine.”

  I nod.

  “You must also learn to eat properly. Meat, eggs. Things with protein.”

  I nod, but then frown. How does a Bronze Age man know about protein?

  ”Translation. He used a term I invented which refers to protein, but literally translated means ‘egg white’.”

  I see. Did you find out about protein through your experiments?

  ”Experiments and observation.”

  Right. The reality-sense.

  “My master will surely have more fine-grained instructions to give you regarding diet,” Kohath continues. “After all, I do not know what kind of food your people typically consume or have available.”

  “Right. Anything else?” This list is kind of piling up.

  “Learning the Helixian language and familiarizing yourself with the artifacts left over from our kingdom.”

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  Learning an entirely new language? Well, old language. Extinct language, most likely.

  “Okay.” I cross my arms. “So… obeying Helix, exercising, eating healthy, learning the language, studying the artifacts. Is that all?”

  “These are the most tangible things to becoming Helixian,” he says. “There are smaller things that will surely come up as you progress. There are also special requirements for becoming the Bringer, but I would not concern myself with that quite yet. After all, if you cannot be Helixian, you cannot be the Bringer.”

  Mm. “Alright.” What have I gotten myself into? Is this really worth it?

  ”Give it a try,” Helix chimes in. ”At least a week. You can do that, can you not?”

  I sigh through my nose. Yeah, okay. If nothing else, it’ll be something to do.

  A sudden thump against my back startles me. I look to Kohath and realize that he’s patted me. He’s smiling.

  “Do not fret,” he says, smiling. “You are in good hands. Helix will help you become a marvellous Bringer, I am sure.”

  Yeah, it seems possible, but do I actually want that?

  I try to think about it, but the fact that Kohath just touched me moments ago keeps distracting me. I haven’t been touched like that since… I don’t remember when.

  I need that. I need more of that. I need to feel the touch of another person. But I can’t just ask Kohath to do it again, no. I’m gonna have to wait for whenever it’ll happen again. If I can wait.

  “Do you have additional questions about the Helixian way?” Kohath asks.

  “Oh. Uh, not right now.” I think if I had some, I’d prefer to discuss them with Helix directly instead of doing these strange theatrics, even if they do contain pleasing imagery. By which I mean both the garden and Kohath.

  “Very well. May I, then, ask you some questions?”

  “Go ahead,” I say, though then realize that a king really shouldn’t need to ask for permission. Maybe I should have said ‘of course’ instead. Or maybe it doesn’t matter because all of this is fake anyway.

  “I am fascinated by your clothes,” Kohath says. I look at what I’m wearing - just a gray t-shirt and jeans. “They appear expertly sewn. Is your family rich?”

  Okay, it doesn’t seem like this is anything too important. I can relax a bit.

  “Oh, this isn’t really expensive in my time,” I answer. “We have machines for sewing these days. They aren’t fully automatic - you still need someone to operate them, make sure the needle goes in the right places - but they get the work done much faster and with much better quality…”

  My chat with Kohath didn’t go into very shocking places after that point. I just kind of explained a bunch of things about the future and its technology, and Kohath seemed pretty interested. He talked about how these inventions could possibly be recreated in his kingdom, but I told him that he was probably kind of a long time away from actually having access to the resources necessary for creating them. I mean, the Bronze Age was the ‘bronze’ age because they hadn’t figured out iron yet. He begrudgingly accepted that fact, though remarked that surely with Helix’s wisdom they were closer to these things than the other peoples of their time. That much seemed true, so I didn’t disagree.

  After the vision, I called it a day when it came to Helix. I was worried that he might actually pull some shit like ‘no, actually, I am your master now and I say when you may rest’ but he didn’t. Possibly just because he’s also wanted me to pace myself and rest properly in the past, but hopefully also because he respects my wishes not to end up as an errand boy.

  The following day, my training properly started. Working out, eating better, learning the language of the Helixians. I won’t lie, it was tough, even when I knew Helix was trying to make it lighter and easier in the beginning. I just found myself with a lot less free time with all the exercise and the cooking and the language studies. This was on top of my regular school life, you know. Although Helix did prove quite helpful with my homework once he got the gist of our writing system and properly learned to read.

  A week passed. My mom came and went twice without issue. Bullies still didn’t give me trouble at school - I started to be more certain that it had to do with whatever Helix had shown them back at the cave, and that they had assumed I now had some kind of guardian ghost that wasn’t to be fucked with. They weren’t exactly wrong.

  Helix had previously asked me to give him a week, and he decided to ask how I felt now. I thought about the time that had passed with him by my side and determined yet again that it wasn’t something I was ready to let go, even if my muscles had gotten sore from suddenly seeing so much exercise. Another week, I decided to tell him, though I was pretty sure that I’d just end up forgetting about it anyway.

  The dread I had felt at the thought of Helix ordering me to do something I didn’t want to do had also diminished. It seemed that our goals were compatible enough for few conflicts to arise, and when some did, Helix either made really good points that changed my mind or conceded his loss and allowed me to do as I pleased. Not that the things we argued about were serious in any way - just whether or not I was allowed to eat this or that or whether I needed to study when I was in a bad mood. Come to think of it, he was acting like a parent. A proper parent who didn’t yell at me or call me a little shit or drink. Maybe someone who was billions of years old and had strange views on human morality, but someone who was… raising me.

  He did give me one more requirement for being a Helixian that I found kind of stupid - again - but it was easy to humor him. He wanted me to address him as ‘my lord’ and overall think of him with respect. It was weird at first, but honestly, it became kind of fun. Like he was some dark lord from a fantasy book and I was his faithful servant. Those kinds of characters could be lame, like the sniveling ones, but some were pretty badass. I wanted to be one of those latter ones.

  Things with Kohath also got better with this. In the additional Helix gave me, Kohath seemed to be very encouraging of me speaking of Helix as my lord. Of course, that made sense, as the whole thing was just puppeted by Helix, but some dumb part of my brain kept mistaking Kohath for a real person with his own thoughts and feelings. Well, real living person. He did exist at one point, just 4,000 years ago.

  I’m starting to like him a lot, too. He was hard to connect with before, but since then, he’s told a lot of stories about his days in the wilderness. It’s really cool how he managed to survive there, even if Helix was helping him. I wished that I could be that strong, that skilled. He told me that Helix could get me there. I hoped that he was right.

  Of course, I then got a very painful reminder of the fact that I was still weak.

  On my way home from school, I was jumped by Seiichi and some other guys. Not his usual friends, no. His older brother and that older brother’s friend. Big guys. Men, really. They then beat the everloving shit out of me. From what they yelled during it, it appeared that Seiichi had told them I’d groped him at some point. Get it, because I was a fag? Well, anyway… I did try to struggle, but it wasn’t much use when they took turns holding me back and punching me in the face and torso. I don’t know how no one saw. Maybe they did, and they didn’t care. In any case, they eventually stopped after they’d forced me to apologize and swear I’d never go anywhere near Seiichi again. They left, and I hobbled home, aching like hell.

  I went straight to Helix in the basement. He healed me, which I was hoping he’d do, and… I’ve just finished telling him what happened.

  “Honestly…” I say. Tears prickle at my eyes, but I try my best to hold them back. “I’m scared. What if it happens again? And again? What if they never stop? I…” It’s getting really hard not to cry right now.

  ”You can cry if you want, Red.”

  “No…” I sniff. “I’m not… men don’t cry. I don’t wanna be pussy.”

  ”You are still just a boy, and you have been through an awfully upsetting experience. You are allowed to cry.”

  The tears well up and leak out of my eyes. I sob. “Th-thank you,” I blubber.

  ”However, while you may cry, I do not want you to cower. You have been wronged. You should be angry.”

  ”I am angry,” I say, wiping my nose on my wrist. “I’m fucking furious.”

  ”Good. Anger means you respect yourself enough to be upset by unfair treatment towards you.”

  “I just wanna hurt them.” I sniff. “And I wanna make sure they’ll never bother me again. I wish I could just… I wish I could kill them.” I shake my head. “But that’s a pipe dream.”

  ”Yes. It would be unwise to make attempts on the lives of people who have just recently wronged you. The event must surely have been witnessed, not to mention the perpetrators have likely bragged about their act to their acquaintances already.”

  I hold a stare at Helix. It’s definitely strange to hear someone give that reply to that prompt, but it doesn’t contradict anything he’s said before. If anything, it matches up. If he only wants me to care about him and myself, if the only issue with committing crimes is the risk of getting caught… then it would not be wrong of me to end their lives.

  Then again, I don’t know. Technically only Seiichi was really doing something nefarious. His brother and the brother’s friend actually thought I was sexually harassing Seiichi. If someone was sexually harassing someone close to me, not that I have anyone like that, I’d also want to kick the pervert’s ass. Seiichi’s brother and his friend don’t deserve to die. But Seiichi… Seiichi I would kill.

  Would. But I really doubt I could pull it off, and like Helix suggests, they’d just know it was me right away.

  I sigh. “Yeah, you’re right. I just wish there was some way to get back at them, though. Something that wouldn’t backfire.”

  ”Well…”

  “‘Well’ what?”

  ”There is little you can do to get back at the real Seiichi, but if you wanted, I could show you a vision where you could do anything at all you wanted to him.”

  I blink. “That sounds… awesome. I want that. Please, give me a vision like that.” I’m forgetting to say something. “My lord.” There we go.

  ”Very well. Go lie down.”

  I do as asked and wait as Helix brings me into the vision. This time, I’m on an endless, smooth white platform under a white sky. Well, perhaps there’s some light gray in the mix, since I can actually see the horizon.

  A black haze appears in front of me, taking on a vaguely humanoid shape. It becomes darker and more refined until it has become the silhouette of a teenage boy. It brightens, showing the colors and features of Seiichi, who’s wearing the same clothes as he did when his gang jumped me. His expression is blank.

  “How would you like him to act?” Helix says.

  I think about it. “Cowardly.”

  ”Understood.”

  About three seconds pass before Seiichi’s expression changes to one of alarm.

  “Red,” he breathes, raising his hands defensively. “I-I didn’t think I was gonna… bump into you like this.” He chuckles nervously. “You’re not still mad about earlier, are you?”

  I ball up a fist, swing back and ram my knuckles into Seiichi’s jawbone. It hurts me, but it surely hurts him a hell of a lot more. He recoils back from the impact and falls down on his ass.

  “Wait! No! I’m sorry! Please, stop!” he says, holding out a palm. Gods, how satisfying. But there’s more work to be done…

  I circle to his side and kick him in the ribs. It seems I have shoes again - Helix must have expected this. Seiichi, with a whine, rolls over and then gets back up to his feet, wincing from the pain in his side. Nice, but… if he keeps moving around like this, this is gonna take forever. So…

  “My lord,” I say. “I want you to hold him steady.”

  “What?” Seiichi whimpers. “No, no, no, no…”

  Bluish tentacles erupt from the ground behind him and pull him back, coiling around him like snakes. He struggles, but to no avail. I raise my fist and punch him in the face again. And again. And again. Yes! I move on to his gut, drawing wheezes from him with each jab. I alternate between both areas. My knuckles are getting sore, but I don’t care. This is well worth it.

  After a bit longer, I step back for a break. I’m breathing heavily, blood rushes in my ears, my heart pounds. Seiichi looks like the same applies to him, only he’s also sobbing. Sobbing. What kind of a pussy -- oh, right. Well, anyway…

  “How’s it feel, Seiichi?” I sneer.

  Seiichi raises his head to meet my eyes with tears streaming down his face. “Please, stop. I-I learned my lesson. I’ll tell the guys that I lied about the groping. I’ll tell everyone I’m a liar. Just… please, let me go.”

  I consider it for a moment. Ideally, that’s what I’d like him to say. So I’ve got what I wanted, right? To do more would just be going overboard? Like, I’m not gonna kill him over this, right? I was just being melodramatic.

  But… I do like hurting him.

  Seiichi, seeing me approaching for a second round, screams at me to stop, and I don’t care.

  ”I take it that you enjoyed the vision.”

  “Yeah!” I say with cheer, having returned to reality just a few seconds ago. I’m still sitting on the blanket on the floor. “That was great!”

  “It pleases me to hear you say that. I am also impressed by the level of violence you seem to be capable of.”

  “Huh? Oh. Yeah, that’s…” I sigh. “That’s what I’m like when I don’t keep myself in check.”

  ”There is no need to sigh. This is what I have been looking for.”

  Yeah, that makes sense. Helix has been open about the fact that he thinks lacking or suppressing empathy makes one strong. It is, I have to admit, a lot nicer a thought than the notion of those things making someone sick in the head.

  ”Just so that you are aware, the offer of these visions does not expire,” Helix says. ”Not as long as I have the energy to spare.”

  “Are you gonna run out at some point?”

  ”It depends on a variety of factors. That energy can, however, always be regained. It may simply take a while.”

  I hold my stare, inquisitive.

  ”Rest assured, Red. I do not foresee my energy running out at least for the next few months. It is more likely for you to lose access to my visions during that time by denouncing yourself from Helixism.”

  I huff in amusement. “I don’t think that’s gonna happen. This deal is just too sweet to go back on.”

  ”It pleases me to hear that. It truly does.”

  I smile. There’s a small silence before he speaks again.

  ”I believe you should get to your homework now.”

  “Right,” I say. “Thanks again for the vision, though.”

  ”You are welcome.”

  I get up and ready myself for my homework. Seiichi might still be laughing to himself wherever he is, but at least I have the image of him whimpering as I break his nose in my head to keep me sated.

  I have found my new favorite pastime.

  You see, I’ve had quite a few visions of beating people up ever since that first one. Mostly Seiichi, but also others. Seiichi’s cronies - Rokuro and Jake - knew my fist quite soon after I started doing this. They were obvious choices, as they’d been complicit in Seiichi’s bullshit for so long. But then I realized that there were a lot of people that had wronged me.

  The ones that looked on and laughed. The ones that gossiped. The ones that knew but didn’t care. The ones in charge that had blamed me for everything, especially now that Seiichi had gone ahead and spread the rumor about the groping and gotten me in actual trouble with the principal. He didn’t seem to believe it himself, but just the fact that he still considered it necessary to admonish me just in case put him in my sights. I broke his glasses into his face, driving the shards of the lenses into his eyes. In a vision, of course. In real life, I just took everything silently, studying my targets’ faces carefully so that Helix could recreate them with the best accuracy.

  There were a few lines I crossed during all of that. Beating kids younger than me. Beating girls. Beating what some would argue were just innocent people. But I don’t think they were. They were still complicit in their own ways, perpetuating the society that shuns people like me. Helix agrees. He’s the one that told me that, actually.

  I do also have to admit that not all of my beatings were motivated solely by vengeance. I’ve discovered that seeing people in pain, in terror… thrills me in some way. I think it’s because it makes me feel so powerful. It makes me feel strong.

  Helix tells me that this is what it’s like to be a Helixian. Considering that, I think I’ve finally come to a conclusion.

  I really, truly want to be a Helixian.

  No. I am a Helixian.

  I am a wolf, a predator. I am strong and cunning. I am further evolved. I am simply better.

  I open the door to the basement’s secret room, a smile on my face. “Good day, my lord!”

  ”Good day, Red. You seem quite cheerful.”

  “Of course,” I say. “Wasn’t nice having to spend time with my mom again, but she’s left by now. And school’s out for the next two and a half months! I don’t have to see Seiichi and those other bastards for a long time.”

  ”I am pleased to see you in good spirits.”

  I nod and close the door behind me, locking it. “You know, I feel so nice that I don’t think I need one of those violent visions today. Could I see Kohath instead?”

  ”Certainly,” my lord says. ”I can even have him hold a feast, to celebrate your passing of the eighth grade. But first… I would like to talk to you about something.”

  “Sure.” I take a seat. “What is it?”

  ”I trust that it comes as no surprise to you that you have made great strides in your training.”

  I glance at my arms, then at the Helixian documents that Helix has made me fetch from the cave. My muscles have gotten firmer, and I know how to read and speak aloud some Helixian as long as it’s the newer orthography with vowels added. Eating better has become a strong habit, too, and I feel a lot healthier than I did before.

  “I’m grateful for your guidance,” I say.

  ”Considering your progress, I believe you are ready to advance to the next stage.”

  “Next stage?” Does he mean…?

  ”Yes. I believe you are ready to begin training to become my Bringer.”

  I’m… overwhelmed. I’m so honored. I didn’t realize I was that far! I thought I was still years away!

  ”What do you say?”

  “Of course!” I say. “I want to… reach new heights! Please, show me what lies beyond!” I feel a bit embarrassed about my oddly poetic choice of words, but I guess all that archaic speech from the Helixian documents has stuck with me. Upon further consideration, though, it does feel like it suits the situation. My lord himself speaks in a pretty fancy way. Or ‘sophisticated’, if we want to stick to more elegant language.

  ”I am pleased to see you accept this training with such enthusiasm. However, do realize that Bringerhood also comes with a stricter set of requirements.”

  “Like what?” I hope it’s not too strict. But, well, I’m willing to go pretty far to keep this relationship going. It’s only fair. My lord has given me so much. He deserves compensation.

  ”To promote a higher level of understanding, I would like to receive your permission to read your mind even outside visions. That means unrestricted access, around the clock. I would even see into your dreams.”

  Read my mind… around the clock?

  Well, he’s already seen most of what I’d consider secret through visions just by accident, and he’s never judged me for any of it. I know for a fact that he won’t be sharing those thoughts with anyone else, anyway.

  “You have my permission,” I say. “What else?”

  ”I want you to think of me with reverence.”

  What does that mean? I open my mouth to ask --

  ”It means that you place more importance on my name and on any pronoun that refers to me.”

  Oh. Oh, okay. He’s already reading my mind.

  ”That I am.”

  Okay. Well, this isn’t so strange. I’m already used to this from the visions.

  What does it mean to ‘place importance’ on his name and pronouns, though?

  ”Do you remember how the Saikarians referred to their god in text?”

  They… capitalized his name, every letter of it, and did the same for his pronouns.

  ”You can probably imagine how much importance they must have placed on verbal references to him based on that.”

  Okay… I think I kind of get it. So you think I should --

  ”Try again.”

  So… YOU think I should think of you -- YOU… in this way?

  ”Yes, good. That is what I desire.”

  This could take a while to get used to.

  ”That is alright. I do not expect you to adopt this habit immediately. I simply want you to make a fair effort.”

  That’s fair. Though I have to wonder if this is really necessary…

  ”It is for the Bringer.”

  Okay. Okay. Can you -- can YOU --

  ”Yes. I apologize. I shall not respond to your thoughts unless I sense you are comfortable with it, or it is otherwise important.”

  Thank you. I mean… thank YOU. Oh, this is tiring. No, don’t think it’s tiring, that’s rude…

  ”You are allowed to find it tiring. Do not worry. I shall not judge your involuntary thoughts. I know those cannot be controlled.”

  Thanks. But… please, could you stop responding to my thoughts directly for now?

  He doesn’t say anything. I sigh in relief. This is… this is already pretty tough. But maybe I’ll get used to it. Yeah, I’ll get used to it. I have to.

  I swallow. “Are there… other requirements?”

  “Two more.”

  Two? I hope they’re not any worse than the ‘think of me with reverence’ thing…

  ”The first is that you must become celibate.”

  “Celi… you mean I can’t have sex?”

  ”Yes. That, and you cannot have romantic relations, either. They are too distracting, possibly even corrupting.”

  I sigh. Well, it’s not like I was going to have any, anyway. I’d just kind of hoped that maybe Helix -- HELIX would make me into someone who could achieve those…

  Wait. If sex is banned, what about --

  ”Pleasuring yourself is still allowed, in moderation.”

  Alright, Gods, wow, okay, I didn’t want to talk about that with him. I better change the subject. “Okay, I can agree to that. What’s the final requirement?”

  There’s a small pause before he answers. ”For the final requirement… I want you to prove your strength and loyalty by performing a certain ritual for ME.”

  “Ritual?” Like, candles and chanting? I can do that.

  ”This ritual is… well, it in itself is not complicated, but the preparation for it will take days, if not weeks.”

  “So… what do I have to do? Fast? That doesn’t sound very pleasant, but I… I can do it, I’m sure.” Can I? Well, I have to.

  ”No… no, you will not be required to fast. But it will require you to do something you have never done before. That most humans are not capable of doing. But most people are sheep, Red, and you are a wolf. I have faith that you will be able to do it.”

  “Okay…?” I raise a brow. “You can just… say what it is, my lord. I’m sure I can handle it.”

  ”Very well. The fact of the matter is that, for the purposes of the ritual…”

  I listen in closely, my pounding heart betraying my apprehension.

  ”...I require a human sacrifice.”