Inanimate
Ethan explored Wonderland. He fell down hole after hole, chasing the mysterious white rabbit—or rather a young girl. Each time he dropped in and out of consciousness, he saw her methodically tapping a large, gold pocket watch. Time ran down, but he was no closer to finding her than the night she died. He hoped to see some of the floating stationary objects from Alice’s fall, to at least meet the Cheshire Cat, but nothing appeared in the never-ending darkness.
“Not even a piano?” he asked irritably. He hit the ground hard and lay under a blanket in a white room.
“What’s this about a piano?” Dwayne stood at the shiny metal counter in the room and dried his hands with a paper towel. A large smile rested on his face.
There’s the Cheshire Cat, Ethan thought.
Absalom and the Red Queen were suddenly far preferable to the Cheshire Cat. Unless Luana played the Red Queen—then he’d choose to be stuck in perpetual teatime with the Mad Hatter…
“Where am I?” Ethan asked, his brain stuck half-way in dreamland.
“Council medical room—fully stocked for our use in case of emergencies. All materials and data remain hidden to anyone but us,” he paused. Dwayne laughed. “I’m your doctor, Dwayne Tebogo, if you don’t remember. Are there any places where it hurts?”
“What happened to the holding cell?”
“We have a lot to explain.” The smile dropped from Dwayne’s face. “Molelo is really worried about you. I haven’t seen her that scared before.”
“Who’s Molelo? And weren’t you trying to kill me?”
“‘Were’ being the operative.” Dwayne pursed his lips. “We were trying to kill you until we did some research in London and discovered a discrepancy in our records. I’ve spent the last couple weeks stabilizing your vitals and waiting for you to wake up. You’re on the fast-track healing process and should be good to go in the next while. As for Molelo—she is the leader of the Council.”
“Why did you bring me back?”
“I’d much rather have Molelo, and the others explain it to you. I haven’t had a chance to explore the research myself. Dickens would be a good choice since she found the information.” The door opened. “Ah, Ethan, let me introduce you to Muuyaw and Mulan.”
“Hey Ethan,” Scarlet said. “In case you don’t remember my name, I’m Lí Scarlet. Dwayne calls me Mulan.”
“I remember you. We met through the door of my cell,” Ethan said.
“We did. Your ability is quite interesting—especially since Eilene and I looked over the missing data.” She held the clipboard from her hands toward Dwayne, and he took it. Ethan watched him input the information into the Council specific database. He couldn’t make sense of all the numbers.
Instead, he said, “I’ve noticed Dwayne has a nickname for everyone.”
Series laughed under her breath. “It’s his personality quirk. Kind of endearing one you know him. He’s generally nice enough to not call anyone anything they’re uncomfortable with.”
“Series and I chose our nicknames,” Scarlet said. A smile slid across her lips. “I always looked up to the legend of Mulan.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Her strength is inspiring, so Dwayne adopted the name for me. It reminds me of what I want to become.”
Ethan looked at Series expectantly before prompting, “And yours?”
Series bit her lip. “It comes from a Hopi story. The first light in the world was the moon. Since my powers are the most powerful at night when I’m sleeping, I feel a certain connection to the moon.” She held out her hand, and a gold glow spread from her fingertips up her arm, over her head, and down to her toes. Under the fierce LED lighting, the gold barely reached past her stocky frame. “My power reminds me of the moon—fighting to shine bright enough for others to see by. Muuyaw means moon.”
Ethan bit his lower lip. “How’d the others get theirs?” he asked.
“Well,” Series’ brows pinched in thought, “Eilene loves Charles Dickens, so that is obvious.”
“From what I understand, Hans’ is a joke relating to something from history. I’m not quite sure what it is, but Dwayne likes antique music and television,” Scarlet said. “Scott doesn’t complain about much, and he’s hard to get to know, so I know why Dwayne chose his nickname. Luana’s nickname means fire in Tswana. Straightforward.” She shrugged. “How are you feeling after everything?”
“Confused. But not about the names. Mostly about what I am and why I’m here,” Ethans said.
“Is Ethan awake?” Luana poked her solemn face inside the room. Bags rested under her eyes. Hans shuffled into the room ahead of her.
“Hey, Solo,” Dwayne said. Hans nodded politely. To Luana, he said, “He’s awake and swapping stories about my wonderfulness.”
“That sounds like a lie,” Hans muttered with a small lilt on his lips.
“Hi, Luana.” Ethan lifted his IV riddled hand and waved. “Dwayne said you could explain what’s going on with me?”
Her brown eyes wavered as they looked at him. “There was some important information regarding elementalist history which disappeared from our personal and extensive library. We’re unsure if it was removed on purpose or unrecorded because it was believed these two elements had more of a permanent place in our society. Due to this error, our current Council was not aware of the existence of two elements with low population. There’s supposed to be nine elements. While we can identify you as a Death elementalist, we’re uncertain about the ninth element. It’s possible in the last few years we identified them as Rogues and—” Luana couldn’t finish her sentence.
“Always the politician,” Series muttered under her breath.
“Death elementalist?” Ethan shifted his hip.
“Yes, the element which is commonly paired with Dwayne’s in the human world. They have little connection in our understanding of the cycles of elementalists,” Luana paused, “Do you like reading much?”
“Yeah. I once survived a raging fire in an orphanage while distracted reading.”
“Do I want to be friends with him? He attracts death.” Dwayne took the pulse oximeter off Ethan’s finger and readjusted part of the configuration.
Ethan cleared his throat. “Death element makes sense. What do you have for me to read?”
“Eilene is working on binding an official reprint copy now.” Luana pondered her next words. “It goes into detail about the nine elements. We assume the short life spans of humans and elementalists attributed to the cutoff and loss of information. As I said before, it’s possible the elements tried to resurface before, but those before us, and even us now, killed them without awareness.”
“Only if they are of the Supernatural element,” Eilene corrected as she stepped into the room. In her arms rested two copies of newly bound books with blue velvet covers. She set her left hand on her hip and tried to use her head to flip her hair back, but it didn’t react as she wanted. Dwayne stepped over and pulled it behind her back. “Thanks, Dwayne. Those of the Death element, like Ethan, can’t be killed unless certain requirements are met. The book outlines a little more than a handful, but I would assume there are more viable options as well. I assume lack of a list results from a loss of test subjects which is an appropriate way to end a list. One of the ways the book outlines is our Plan AZ which we used on Ethan a month ago.”
The beeping of Ethan’s heart monitor filled the quiet. He broke the silence with, “I really lost track of time. I thought I was only in there for a few days.”
“It’s July twenty-fifth,” Scarlet whispered.
“I have to reset my brain,” Ethan said.
“Your vitals are back to normal, so nothing to worry about.” Dwayne lifted Ethan’s left arm to unwrap the bandages.
“Why am I this heavily bandaged?”
“You peeled like week old roadkill,” Eilene said as Scott joined them in the room. His steps paused long enough for him to give her a puzzled look before he settled into the corner.
“Roadkill, Dickens?” A grin settled back onto Dwayne’s lips, and a warm chuckle bubbled in the back of his throat.
“I think I’m going to be sick.” Ethan tried to roll over on his side, but a strap around his waist kept him down.
“Need a trash can?” Scarlet waved at the overflowing biohazard bin by the door filled with old IV needles, empty blood and medical bags, bandages, and medicine bottles.
“It looks worse than me.”
“That’s what life looks like.” Eilene walked over to his bed and placed one of the books next to him where it wouldn’t disturb any of his medical lines.
“Dickens is insulting me again.”
“I’m not insulting you. Life is messy and having a mess like the one in the trash proves people fought a battle for a singular life. It’s proof we need to keep the precious people in our life living if we can. Death will only ever be a dead body—proof of failure.”
“I was the one being insulted.” Ethan winked at her.
“Wow, Eilene managed to say something profound for once.” Luana said. Eilene opened her mouth to retort, but Dwayne cut them off.
“If you want to argue, take it to the hall. I won’t have any of it in front of my patient.” Dwayne straightened his slouching posture. When he breathed in, his bulk added a new layer of intimidation. Everyone shuffled out of the room, and the man mumbled several words in Setswana. Ethan settled into the pillows for more sleep while Dwayne worked.
Hans took a seat at his desk and pressed a button on the front. A panel slid open, and a computer screen emerged. It projected a keyboard and trackpad onto the desk, and he used the trackpad to pull up the legal documents for review.
Luana, who trailed his heels from the infirmary, took a seat on the bed behind him and didn’t say anything. She had the other copy of the book they found in London in her hands and a notebook clipboard combination. She borrowed one of the pens from his desk while he opened the first letter.
He worked in silence until he sent the final draft of the document to the Council law department. Hans spun around in his chair to find Luana face down on his bed in a starfish position. The book rested against his double pillows, and notes scattered around her on the duvet and floor.
“Are you living in my room now?”
Luana took a long time to reply—her voice muffled. “Maybe.”
“Where do you expect me to sleep tonight?”
“Don’t know, don’t care.”
“Your room?”
“No.”
“Alright.”
Content with his break, Hans adjusted his posture and turned back to the desk. The chair creaked. He checked their email account for any urgent issues. He spent ten minutes sifting through the work and compiling it into flagged folders for completion on specific dates. Another contract renewal application filtered into the cleared inbox. Hans gave up on completing any more work for the day. He stood and stretched his arms above his head.
Hans walked to the bed and sat in one of the empty spaces between Luana’s limbs. She jumped at the sudden shift in the mattress and pulled away from the source. Hans squeezed into the smallest space on the bed he could find.
“What are you doing?”
“Laying, on my bed.”
Luana huffed at his sarcastic tone and ended her impression of a starfish. Hans took the opportunity to stretch out properly next to her.
“What’s bothering you?”
“You already know.”
“You’ve never regretted killing people before. Not in your nature,” he said, staring at the ceiling depiction of a lazy cloud drifting through a clear blue sky.
“It’s different this time. We almost didn’t save the renewal of one of the two missing elements. I’m worried that in the last few years I might’ve been the one to order a Supernatural elementalist to be killed. I can’t ever bring that person back.” She wiggled on the bed and hung her head over the edge where he could hear her easier. The blood rushed to her brain and cleared her thoughts.
“Lu, it wasn’t you who made the law to kill Rogues. You also weren’t the one who chose not to record the Death and Supernatural elements. None of this is your fault. It’s true our records are lacking, but we can’t move forward and change our people for the better if we dwell on the ‘what ifs’ of the past. We saved Ethan, and that is repayment for all our mistakes.”
“But—”
He interrupted her. “No, it is time you look to the future. We need to take initiative and give a directive to our people. We need to educate them with our new knowledge.”
“When did you get so wise?”
“I’ve always been this wise.” Hans winked.
“How are we going to tell the nation about this?”
“Delegate it to Eilene and Scarlet. They know what they’re doing when it comes to these things.” He rolled over on his right side to look at her. “You can put your trust in the rest of the Council. You are one of the people who helped choose us for this position—you know what we’re capable of.”
August 25, 2316
Council members had a lot more downtime than many assumed. While they resembled a Constitutional Monarchy in terms of responsibilities, they weren’t seen consistently outside their chambers. Unless they had a pressing issue to attend to, they would find other ways to entertain themselves.
Dwayne and Eilene preferred video games. Something about video games made them feel a little more normal amid the chaos.
They played a few rounds of virtual table tennis and virtual tennis, they needed less space than for the real sport, before they moved onto the newest version of a racing game. Round after round, they pushed their cars to the limit to win the cup at the end of the set of four. They switched to a brawl style game where they could fight each other for number one.
“No! Don’t you run away,” Eilene yelled at the TV screen. She jammed her thumb into the remote harder than before as if it would help her attack.
Dwayne pressed A, and his character jumped away from the attack onto a higher platform. He laughed as Eilene resorted to physical ribbing to break his concentration. They jabbed elbows into each other’s arms or shoved each other’s feet and knees.
“You’d have better luck winning if you could trigger combo attacks. Plus, that finisher button has been blinking for about a minute now. You just have no strategy,” a new person in the room said. The interruption startled Eilene and allowed Dwayne to get several good hits on her character. She launched off the platform, and the game timer ended.
They pivoted to see their resident goth lounging on a recliner.
“And you think you could do better?” Eilene threw her arm over the back of the couch.
Scott shrugged.
Dwayne flipped through the character screen with their remotes and chose two new characters. “What brings you in here?”
“Ethan,” Scott placed his hands behind his head and leaned back farther on the seat. He nearly blended in with the dark fabric on the chair.
“Does he need help?” Dwayne stood halfway. Scott shook his head, and Dwayne returned to his seat—he should’ve known if something pressing happened the other would’ve said it before debating strategy. As Ethan grew healthier and more demanding, his actions grew increasingly more frustrating and tiresome for everyone involved. “He annoyed you too much as well?”
Scott nodded, and Dwayne laughed brightly.
“This is why he gets left alone,” Eilene pushed her angled bangs off her forehead. She picked up her remote again and chose a small pink character on the screen.
Dwayne started the new round. As they dueled, they fought on the couch with jabs and grapples at the other’s remote. Scott tried to relax while he watched them, but he couldn’t help but recall the conversation with Eilene weeks before. The one where he encouraged her to tell Dwayne about her feelings for him—used his own experience of keeping quiet to keep her from making the same mistake. He wanted to be on the couch with her laughing and play fighting, but, once again, Dwayne remained at her side like a loyal guard dog. After the end of the next round, Scott stood to leave and find another activity, but Eilene’s soft voice stopped him.
“Join us?” Her hopeful gray eyes met his, and he swallowed hard. She held out a third controller. Scott’s lips parted and, against his better judgement, his right-hand rose from his side and closed around the remote. His fingers brushed hers and a wave of happiness rushed through his chest as she let go; it made him feel like he breathed for the first time in years.
A video call from Scarlet interrupted them about an hour later.
Dwayne answered the phone with one hand while he continued controlling his character on screen with the other. “I’m busy, Mulan,” he said in Mandarin.
Scarlet slipped into her native tongue without question. “Playing video games?”
Many in Elementōrum Patriam spoke multiple languages, but only Luana among the Council refused to learn a language besides English.
Eilene grabbed his phone and spun it around, so it showed her leaning against Scott. “He’s here with us.” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Aren’t we cute hanging out together?”
Scarlet rubbed her nose and bit her bottom lip. She held back her comment on the red flush coloring Scott’s cheeks. “As cute as both of you are, really,” she smiled at the uncomfortable look Scott adopted and the glare he sent her way. “I need to ask Dwayne a medical question about Ethan.”
“What do you want to know?” Dwayne tried to grab the phone.
“Series and I wanted to start the physiotherapy with Ethan to give you some relief—but he says it’s painful.”
Dwayne hit pause on the controller. “I’ll come check it out—make sure there’s nothing serious going on that we can’t see on the outside.” He ended the video call and pushed off the couch.
“I’ll come with,” Eilene said.
“Nah, stay. I shouldn’t be long.” He nodded to Scott. “See if you can’t get that one to talk more—or you could kick his ass at a game.”
Dwayne didn’t wait around to hear the rest of their conversation as he hurried through the winding halls to the infirmary. He pushed open the door to Ethan’s room and paused when he saw him sitting on the bed clutching his lower back, talking with Scarlet and Series.
“But if you knew about the nine elements—you said they were mentioned before—why didn’t you explore it? Is that not a part of the Council’s job?”
“Well,” Series hopped onto the counter, “it’s not like it said, ‘Hey, there’s nine elements.’ That would be too simple.” She rolled her eyes. “You know there were nine victors the same way we do. We didn’t know why the original Council doubled elements, but that was the assumption for a long time.”
“And we don’t know the reason why we went from a Council of nine to seven. Obviously, we do now since Eilene found that book.” Scarlet waved Dwayne over. “I’m sure we’ll tell Elementōrum soon. Renew the Council of nine.”
“Hurts in your spine?” Dwayne’s question made Ethan jump, and he grinned. He reached out his hand when Ethan nodded, and it glowed green. “Lunbar injury affected nerves L1 through L5. Pain clear into hips, thighs, buttocks, and down the legs. Simple fix.”
“That doesn’t sound simple.” Ethan rubbed his lower back.
“You’re the one who failed all their Life tests.” Dwayne removed a syringe from a chilled box in the corner.
“Fair enough.” Ethan followed his instructions to lay down on the bed on his stomach. “The Academy infirmary wasn’t too fond of me after the ammonia-bleach incident.”
“That was you?” Scarlet laughed. “You nearly killed everyone in the entire room.”
“I see my horrible legend precedes me.” Ethan cringed as Dwayne inserted the needle near his spinal column.
“You should be good in about twenty-five minutes, Namune.” He nodded to Ethan. To Scarlet and Series, he said, “Let me know if you need anything else with the physio. I really appreciate you taking that over for me.”
“No problem. Enjoy your afternoon,” Scarlet pushed him toward the door.
“Namune?” Ethan asked once Dwayne left.
“You got a nickname.” Series smiled. “Congrats, you’re one of us now.”
August 26, 2316
“I’d like to make a request,” Luana announced during dinner. She set a stack of papers on the table between Eilene and Scarlet.
“I’m not doing your paperwork.” Eilene lifted the fork to her mouth and pushed the stack a little closer to Scarlet with her free hand.
Luana growled. Hans gestured for her to stay calm.
“I’m requesting you and Scarlet both write the directive in educating the elementalists about our lost history. It’s up to you how the teachers will be given information to present it to current students, as well as how it will be delivered to those who already graduated from the Academy.”
“You’re trusting us with this?” Scarlet picked up the first few pages and flipped through in awe.
“Hans suggested the both of you are the best choices for this task, and I had to agree. On the premise that Miss Water Wheel found the information in London.”
“Who are you calling ‘water wheel’?” Eilene’s hand balled into a fist, but before she had a chance to stand, Scott’s hand grabbed her arm and held her in place. The entire room stopped—he never reacted like that. Scott cleared his throat and removed his hand. Eilene remained in her seat and avoided looking at him.
“Dickens knows what she’s doing,” Dwayne confirmed with a full mouth.
“Eilene and I will be more than happy to take care of it. Do you have a deadline in mind?” Scarlet smiled.
“It’s a bit rushed. If possible, I’d like to have the first few lessons distributed by September third. I arranged for our public press conference with the seven of us on September second.”
“We can do it.”
September 2, 2316
The Council handled the press conference in the morning and prepared themselves for the start of the annual Culture Festival in the afternoon. Ethan would miss the festival, but he wasn’t an official member of the Council and everyone he knew from before thought he died. He couldn’t participate no matter how much he begged. Dwayne hooked up the room with a television to have something mildly entertaining while they attended.
At lunch Series pulled her phone from her pocket and groaned. She turned the screen to face the others. The temperature showed over one hundred degrees Fahrenheit. “There’s no way I want to wear dark red in this weather.”
“We’re only required to be there for the first fifteen minutes. We need to start the ceremony then we’re free to come back here. You know that,” Luana snapped. Her stress grew to ultra-high levels during the days preceding their political appearances. Luana’s element reacted accordingly, and Hans kept a closer eye on her to ensure she wouldn’t spontaneously combust into flames and reveal her face. They still needed to update their robes to be fire-resistant.
The Culture Festival, among the most popular celebrations in Elementōrum Patriam, moved as a caravan and spent seventeen days traveling between cities. The fair had a myriad of food carts and handmade goods. The festival always started at the Academy. The day focused on eating, and night showcased large spectacles of dance and music. All the elementalists came together to share their world heritage without separation. Every country was represented. Only the Elementalist Olympics rivaled it. Since most of the elements were listed as banned from the regular Olympics, they hosted their own to celebrate their people’s talents in sports and other skills.
The Council only had to appear long enough to open the festival; common tradition dictated for them to disperse among the crowds and partake in the merrymaking. They never stayed for the night events as they couldn’t participate in any dances or musical performances since it would reveal information about their identity. Series longed to participate in the dances of her Hopi people. Because of these desires, the Council introduced their own tradition to continue the celebration in their home.
Luana stood and placed her empty dishes in the dumbwaiter, taking them to the kitchens. She recognized the excited expressions on her fellows’ faces. They craved authentic dishes passed on from generation to generation of elementalists from foreign countries. A few carts boasted elementalist authentic cuisine from the settling of the country.
Hans’ skin crawled as he thought about the carts that would host kolbasa and pirozhkis. Eilene went on the hunt for tomato-based stroganoff. Scarlet whispered under her breath about finding jiaozi since the Academy kitchens could never make it quite right. The previous year, the Chinese food carts failed to make any, and she wanted them to redeem themselves.
They walked the empty halls in a formation like migrating birds. Outside the Academy on the marble steps leading to the lower Academy, a crowd stood. They cheered when the seven stepped onto the small platform. One microphone waited behind a large blue ribbon. An Elementalist Sign Language Translator stood off to the side in front of their own camera to broadcast the speech to their d/Deaf people. The waiting crowd filled with Academy staff and students, and they quieted when Luana took her place in front of the microphone.
“It’s my pleasure to speak to you a second time. Today, we celebrate an auspicious occasion. Not only are we bringing together the world on our continent as one body, but we brought great news to you this morning regarding our history. We will now open the three-thousand and seven-hundred and thirty-first Culture Festival. All of us on the Council are excited to walk amongst you and partake in the wonderful food and celebrations.” Luana stepped down from the platform to cheers. She walked to the large ribbon, and one of the attendants held a microphone close to her face. “As this is the year of Life, we will have our Life elementalist open the ceremony.”
Another elementalist handed her the large scissors. Dwayne walked forward from his position and bowed at the waist in front of the leader. He stretched out his arms with his palms up and waited for Luana to pass him the scissors. When he straightened, she waited in a similar position. Once they both stood upright, Dwayne cut the ribbon to a raucous of cheers and applause. Music started and the people immediately milled to their chosen carts.
Eilene grabbed Scott to her left and pulled him along behind her into the crowd. Dwayne joined them. She stopped at one of the food carts from Spain and dropped several coins into the tip box before she asked for a serving of Patatas Bravas. The two men didn’t order anything, but Dwayne stole several potatoes from her plate as they wandered to the other sections. Eilene offered some to their other companion, and Scott did his best to deny, but she persisted. He relented after a few jabs at his character. Dwayne couldn’t see either of their faces under the hoods, but he had a feeling Scott was embarrassed.
“Now this is where we want to be.” Dwayne spread his arms and gestured to the carts of food and merchandise filled with Botswana originality. Eilene laughed at the happiness creeping into his voice. Dwayne ordered several dishes and gestured for them to commandeer one of the empty temporary tables. He explained each dish as he set them down to share. “Seswaa, stewed beef that’s heavily salted. Don’t eat if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure. Serobe, probably better if you don’t know what it’s made from. Matemekwane, they’re dumplings—and Magwinya, otherwise known as fat cakes.”
“The way to convince me to eat Serobe is not by telling me I don’t want to know what’s in it. That dish is entirely yours.”
“Come on, Dickens. It’s amazing.” Dwayne lowered his voice.
“No, thanks.” Eilene was determined to not try any Serobe until she had a chance to look up the ingredients. Scott muffled his laughter with difficulty. She nudged him with her arm and leaned into him. “What food do you want us to try?”
“Nothing in particular. American cuisine isn’t in short supply.” He shrugged and elicited a sigh from her.
“I forget you’re from America. Anyone else have any ideas for what we want next?”
“French crepes sound good right now.”
“French food next.”