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“Yes,” the model maker said. “Does it surprise you?”
His name was Ghoika and he was known as the Creator.
“I thought you would be… different,” I said.
“Different how? There’s no need to stand on ceremony.”
Meaning: I was going to die, so anything I said didn’t matter. The outcome was always going to be the same.
“I thought you would look more aggressive,” I said.
“Why should that be? The ones at the top never need to take aggressive actions, only order others to do it for them. Like our friend Iron Hoof here. A fine, powerful beast. He could snap your neck like a twig if I told him to.”
He looked excited by the idea. He might not physically look like a monster but he had the mind of one.
“But I won’t,” he said. “We’ve developed a much more… dramatic end for you.”
He approached me. Changelings were tall creatures, so he towered over me. He surveyed me with his black eyes.
He appeared to be looking for something. I wondered what it was.
He straightened up.
“You’re not the first to ruin an episode and you won’t be the last,” he said. “I like to get a good look at the perpetrator before he meets his end. I’m always underwhelmed by what I see. Today is no different. Your family was relying on you. Now they will have to come to a sticky end. Or else we’ll recruit them for one of our other many productions. Tell me, what made you turn your back on them?”
“I never turned my back on them,” I said through gritted teeth. “You never gave me proof they were still alive. I don’t believe they are.”
The words stung my lips. I’d never said it out loud before—I didn’t want the Changelings to overhear my concerns and consider me too much of a risk not to continue using in their games. Both me and my family would end up dead in that situation—if they weren’t already. But I’d thought it many times.
“What if you’re wrong and they’re still alive?” Ghoika said.
“Then I’d have to hope they fight to escape you the same way I did.”
Ghoika smiled at me.
“You underestimate Changelings,” he said.
“I only know what you’re really like.”
“And would it surprise you to learn they’re still alive?”
“Yes.”
“So that’s why you chose to save your partner’s life?”
“It’s one of the reasons.”
“What are the others?”
There was only one real reason. It trumped the others.
“I fell in love with her,” I said.
Ghoika threw back his head and barked an ugly laugh.
“Yes,” he said. “That is always the excuse they use. For the longest time, I thought love was a kind of madness that made you act against reason. But as I studied it more, I realized it’s merely a dysfunction of your brain. A connection you develop to other things due to chemical imbalances.”
“That’s a scientist’s explanation of love.”
