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“FOR SOMEONE WHO IS so brilliant and brave, sometimes you can be properly stupid,” OneLove’s tone was unusually stern and very human sounding.
“Well, you can go get lost, found and lost again, Myrch. You’ve always been a pain in my ass and some spans, I get a little sick of being your flesh servant!” Padg had only really hurt his pride, but after spending so long as a warrior being bested by anyone stung.
“He does have a point,” said Dun, chuckling.
“Don’t start siding with the vat,” said Padg, “We flesh-bots need to stick together.” That started OneLove chuckling too.
“And we still the problem of where to stick my cable,” said Nev.
After the obvious we-can-tell-you-where-to-stick-it jokes and another round of laughter, they settled. These days, there seemed to be less crisis meetings requiring the old adventure team, for which Dun was duly thankful. The Tribe’s Moots that he, Padg and Amber had introduced were working beautifully in getting Folk to take matters into their own paws, and it seemed like they’d been waiting to be given permission to do it for years. There was an odd clunkiness to the solutions of each of the mini-moots that these broke down into for the allocation and actual carrying out of tasks, but it seemed like stuff was getting done. The metaphorical drains were getting looked after. On the odd occasion they weren’t, people were bringing it up with surprisingly little rancour, and compromising or finding a different solution. Whilst it warmed his heart, Dun didn’t dare speak his feelings about it aloud for fear he’d curse the whole endeavour and it would all come crashing down.
At this meeting Dun noted as well as himself and Amber and Nev and Padg, Laly, the de Facto leader of the Tinkralas, self-appointed religious observers and guardians to OneLove. Padg liked the old priest and had become her effective deputy. It was Laly’s ever practical take on everything that everyone was really waiting for.
“So, what do we do now?” she asked.
“Doesn’t that depend on what they did to Fin?” asked Amber.
“We don’t know they ‘did’ anything,” said Padg.
“Seems a lot like brainwashing to me,” said Dun. When Padg snorted out a laugh, Dun said “what?”
“It’s not so very long ago, you were suspecting that I’d fallen foul of the same thing.”
“I suppose,” said Dun.
“It does happen,” said Amber. She’d long been a slave of the Stone-folk empire of the Underfolk, until Dun and Padg had rescued her.
“Yeah, I know it happens. I just imagined you all thought more of me than that.”
“We do, but we weren’t discussing you in this instance,” said Laly. “Are we aiming to connect the cable or see if Fin needs rescuing?”
“Fin,” said Dun.
“Cable,” said Nev.
The vat let out a noise that could have been a sigh, or a valve venting. “There is nothing stopping us doing both,” said OneLove.
“I don’t want you all barrelling in there and coming back brainless zombies,” said Amber.
“How would you tell?” said Nev, which earned him a punch on his arm from Padg.
“When you’ve settled down children, shall we assess what we know?” said Laly, more wry than longsuffering.
“Well, Fin joined the Grey Duchy, and in three spans had become ‘one of theirs’,” said Dun.
“What exactly does that mean?” said Padg.
“You were there,” said Dun, “you know exactly what I mean.”
“Humour me and explain it,” said OneLove.
“Okay,” said Dun. “It was like he’d changed.”
“How?” said Amber.
“It’s really hard to describe, he was just different.”
“Down?” said Laly.
“No not really. More neutral.”
“He was pretty neutral to start with,” said Padg.
“That’s artists for you,” said Nev.
“He’d lost interest in his sculptures, all of a sudden,” Dun said, ignoring the jibe, “in the space of three spans. Who gives up their life’s work like that?”
“Clearly Fin,” OneLove was pensive.
“We still we need more to go on before we can risk anyone else going into what is a very dangerous situation.”
Nev said, “Sorry to distract everyone—”
“That’s it!” said Dun.
“Sorry, what is?” said Amber.
“Distracted. He was distracted.”
“That doesn’t sound all that serious,” said Laly.
“Very distracted?” Dun was struggling. “It’s the best description I can think of.”
“Extremely distracted?” said Padg helpfully.
“It was almost as if he wasn’t really there with us anymore, you know? Like he was off in his own head somewhere. Almost as if he could have walked into a wall and not noticed.”
“Terminally distracted?” Padg asked.
“Come on! Cut me some reeds here, you were there too,” Dun said.
“I was. He was weird. I was just resenting the implication that religion turns Folk into mindless morons,” said Padg.
“Point taken,” said Dun.
A series of drips fell from the roof into the pond. Dun wondered if Myrch could feel it. Nev scuttled to find a tool to do the appropriate tightening. He began a reasonable amount of crunching round in a toolbox in the corner of the Sanctuary.
“Do you think it was some kind of religious experience, Dun?” The vat rarely addressed him by name. It seemed weird.
“I guess, it could have been? You and Padg and Laly would have more idea than me though. I’m not really— I don’t really— You know—”
“Could a religious experience cause someone to behave like that?” said Amber.
“It has been known,” said Laly. “Certainly on meeting OneLove Folk have been impressed to the point of silence or tears, and it has profoundly affected them. Some for the rest of their lives, so far.”
“It is a very strange world we now live in,” said Nev as he dragged a small set of steps to the nearest edge of the vat from where they’d heard the noise. He ascended with heavy feet and began tapping on the pipe with the wrench he’d found.
“And wonderful,” said Amber patting the side of the vat. “Religious or not, it is wonderful, what you do. What you can do.”
“That aside,” said OneLove, “do we intervene again, and if so how? We can’t now pay a polite visit.”
A spray of drops from the overhead pipe and loud swearing ended the conversation.
