August Intruder- Chapter 242- A Use For You (Patreon)

The room was cold. Bayad could feel it on the tips of his wings—wing—where his feathers poked out to measure the temperature and keep his balance. Even now, over a month since he’d been torn from this world and left in a world where those who sought the death of his kind had lurked.

Somehow, the cold he had never felt before seemed to seep into the healing injury where his other wing had once been.

A slow sadness continued to creep up on him as it had done every single day since his return. It was breaking him and he knew it. Just last night, when no one had been watching, he’d curled into his one good wing, hiding himself from the rest of the world, and cried.

It was neither the first nor the eighth time he was doing it. Mrs. Talwort had asked more than once what he was doing when he curled up into his wing. And on more than one occasion, he had told her that it was none of her business. The woman was not like her predecessors. She did not believe in the divine. No. To be more precise, she did not see the divine as divine. To her, all things were simply tools, steppingstones to get ahead in whatever goals she envisioned.

As far as he knew, if she ever learnt about the [August Intruder], she would not bow her head in subservience or respect or deference, she would use them as a steppingstone, a tool with which to rule the world.

There was a saying in his world that somehow did not exist in this one. A true savage was not a man who did not believe in God, it was a being who did not know that God was to be feared.

Mrs. Talwort did not understand that God was to be feared, and that was what made her a true savage. Why? Because to not fear God was to think yourself beyond God. That defiance was what made monsters of people.

Monsters, Bayad thought, his hand crawling over the place on his back where his missing wing had once protruded proudly from. Perhaps I have become a type of monster myself.

It was not in what he had been doing on earth but in his existence with only one wing. He was now a rarity among rarities.

It was sad.

It was… the single door to the room, the only entrance and exit, clicked. Bayad watched the doorknob turn and sighed.

The door opened inward and Mrs. Talwort walked into the room. She wore what Bayad had learned from her predecessors was called flats. He might not have liked it but in truth, it suited her. It made her feet not look as old as they truly were.

She also wore a form fitting skirt that came to rest just beneath her knees. Bayad wondered how women of this world wore things like that and expected to get away when they needed to run. It was not as if they had wings to fly away with. Then again, people rarely ever found themselves with a need to run for their lives. Earth wasn’t that kind of world.

His eyes settled on her blue blouse. It was low cut, and for some reason she had pushed up her breast to give it quite the cleavage.

“Are you trying to find a new mate?” he asked before he could stop himself.

Mrs. Talwort stopped, hesitating at the door. “Jokes,” she said flatly, a tone of disgust beneath it. “You’ve got jokes now.”

It was not a question.

Bayad sighed. This was his fault. With that in mind, he turned away. But not before he’d noticed the look of anger and displeasure on her face. It was not because of his joke—she had carried the look into the room with her.

“Are you pouting now?” she asked, her voice taking on a calm touch. “Is this because I did not laugh at your joke?”

“I was not joking,” Bayad said, unable to fully conceal his pettiness. “You look like you are looking for a new mate.”

She folded her arms, standing in front of the door that she was yet to close. “And what if I am?”

“I would not advise it.” Bayad shrugged, still turned away from her. “Humans aren’t generally long lived. Past your prime I doubt you would be successful.”

“Now you are giving dating advice?” she scoffed. “I am intrigued.”

“Do not be. Is there a reason you are here, Mrs. Talwort?” He turned and looked at her now. “Is there something that I can help you with, something you wish to burden me with?”

“Yes.”

She turned and intentionally closed the door behind her. She paused for a moment with her back turned to him. Bayad wasn’t sure if she was thinking or if she was trying to show him her exposed back in the dress. He wondered if she thought seducing him was an option, a way to get his compliance.

Bayad shook his head. She is not that stupid.

He refused to accept that she was.

Her shoulders heaved suddenly in a sigh. She tapped her finger against the door. This one Bayad knew was a thoughtful gesture. The question was what she was possibly going through that she was so engrossed in her own thoughts.

Finally, she turned and heaved again, a deep breath, as if she had just returned from a daring combat.

“I am not here for banter or jokes,” she said finally, trying to smooth out the anger from her face. “What I need from you is very important, perhaps more important than you are.”

That had Bayad’s attention. Had the mystery man who’d informed him of the existence of the [August Intruder] done something?

If not for the existence of the man, Bayad would not have been worried about her words. She would not be the first among her predecessors to discover a problem that threatened his existence and come crying shaytan.

However, the man existed, and this was the first time Mrs. Talwort was saying something of this nature.

Unwilling to help her but knowing that some things had to be done, he asked, “What has happened?”

“The unknown,” she answered.

That was interesting. He wasn’t sure the woman had ever described anything as the unknown.

“I’m listening.”

She walked over to him, stopped at the glass that separated Bayad from the rest of the room and stood tall. There was a moment of hesitant pause, as if she was waiting for something. Bayad considered standing up to meet her, but he was not in the mood for it. It was not fatigue, and it was not some level of a sense of superiority. It was simply because he was tired, unmotivated to do anything. He was finding it difficult to care.

In the end, she rolled her eyes as if making a decision she was against and squatted. Bayad’s eyes widened slightly at that. Had she been contemplating squatting to deal with him?

Just how petty was she becoming.

“Bayad,” she said simply. “I need your help. It is important.”

He moved his wing then crawled his way to the edge of the glass so that they were at eye level. “What would you ask of me, little Talwort?”

She placed her smartphone against the glass, a video on her screen. Bayad did not look at it. Instead, he kept his eyes on her.

“Speak, Talwort.”

Mrs. Talwort looked down at the device as if she was wondering why he would not look at it, then looked at him. “You will not look at it?”

“Make your request first, then I will look at it.”

She frowned, her lips tightening. “There is a problem,” she said slowly, carefully. “One of my students has summoned a creature. He did this after disappearing into a portal right around the same time you disappeared into a portal. He went before you and went just like you—sucked into a portal.”

Now she definitely had his attention. The child could be a clue to what specifically had happened, maybe a link to the owner of the world.

“Continue,” he motivated her. “I am listening.”

“The problem is that after returning, for some reason, a portal opened and spat the creature out,” she continued.

“And the problem is?”

“The problem is that Fallen High has access to archives carrying every known creature and monster, summoned or found within the portal, created even by Chaos Runs. And there is no record of this particular creature.”

“Do you not have tales passed down through word of mouth?” he asked. Every civilization of any kind had. Even earth had. He knew this as well as he knew his wing was not growing back. “Is there no fable or folktale or even fairy tale that can assist?”

Mrs. Talwort was already shaking her head. “There is none.” She frowned. “At least none that I can understand.”

Bayad’s eyes lit up in excitement and worry at the same time. “Explain.”

Mrs. Talwort sighed, clearly displeased with the current dynamic of power between them. Still, she spoke. “I have an assistant, someone who does the jobs I want them to do and do not want any mistake in. Apparently, I believe that he knows what this creature is.”

“But he is not saying anything,” Bayad finished for her. Humans were known to act in their own interests, often acting out of what was normal for reasons others did not know.

“No,” Mrs. Talwort corrected. “He’s talking. The problem is that I’m not hearing what he is saying.”

“No,” Bayad corrected, shaking his head. “This is important. Your choice of words is important. Are you not hearing what he is saying or are you not understanding what he is saying?”

“I am hearing but not understanding.”

Bayad burst into a fit of laughter. It filled him with as much excitement as it filled him with worry. The laughter rolled out of him, rumbling from the depths of his belly. It was a full laugh, a true laugh. It was a laugh that he had not laughed in too long a time.

When he was done, he finally looked at the device. “Play it from the beginning.”

Very displeased, Mrs. Talwort obeyed. She turned the device to herself, tapped a few things on the screen, and turned the device back to him.

This time, he watched. He paid the entire video all of his attention. In it, two boys sat on a bed and a portal appeared off to the side. It spat a creature out that rolled and tumbled to the ground as if Existence could not be bothered to care about the safety of said creature.

Then it rose and looked at both boys, seeming to speak to them. Bayad’s eyes widened with every passing motion, eyes fixed squarely on the creature alone.

This is bad, he thought, trying to smother his panic. This is very bad.

One of those boys was the [August Intruder]. That much was clear. But which of them was the fool that was fool enough to summon a fucking Void-beast?

“You know what it is,” Mrs. Talwort said. It was not a question. “I can see it in your eyes. You recognize it.”

Bayad nodded. “I do. Much like your assistant.”

“What is it?”

“A creature of immense power, tasked, if the tales of history are to be believed, by a being so powerful that even Existence trembles at the mere mention of his name, to stand guard and keep beings unable to survive outside their world safe enough to function outside their world.” His eyes remained on the creature while he tried to hide his fear. “They guard the natural path between worlds, ensuring that it remains safe for those who have no power over themselves to cross unharmed. It is believed,” he moved his attention to look her dead in the eyes, “that before Existence and outside of Existence, God creates failures or created failures that continue to reach into existence. These beings, existential beings as they are, stand guard to keep them from ruining what remains of existence. Do you understand?”

Mrs. Talwort slumped, her head drooping. “Why?”

“Why?” Bayad paused, surprised. “Why would God create things to ruin us?”

It was kind of a stupid question. God did as God did. There was nothing else to it. It was the reason only the stupid did not fear God. Who would not fear a being that was only good because it was almighty? Who would not fear a being that created and ruined for no other purpose than because he could? Who would not fear a being that was capable of all things and did not care for anything?

Mrs. Talwort shot to her feet in anger and flung her phone at the wall. It slammed into the wall in a loud blow and shattered all over the place. The woman had quite the throwing arm.

“WHY CAN I NOT UNDERSTAND A WORD ANY OF YOU SAY??!!” she roared.

Oh. Bayad was no longer surprised. At a point he’d thought that she’d understood him. He was glad to see that he was wrong. After all, she wasn’t able to understand him. No one was supposed to be able to understand a conversation about the existential beings. Why? Because the existential beings were creatures that could only be understood but not explained. Living beings, sapient and sentient, did not have the necessary vocabulary required to talk about these beings.

Again, Bayad wondered what fool of an [August Intruder] would be given the option of picking an existential assistant and would be fool enough to pick a Void-beast.

What idiot would…

Bayad’s thought died in his mind as his eyes settled on something. It stood right there, existing right in front of the door. It existed behind Mrs. Talwort, looking at her as if gauging her importance or necessity. As if intrigued by it.

Mrs. Talwort turned around, running a frustrated hand through her greying hair, and the creature existed behind her once more.

Bayad paled.

The creature ignored Mrs. Talwort and looked around. It was as if it was not even aware of Bayad’s existence, but he knew that was a lie. It simply did not care for him in this moment.

It hovered over to the nearest spot of black on the white walls. It leaned in, a stub of a hand on its face as it studied the black. It tilted its head to the side in a very human-like expression and continued to study it.

This was the reason anyone with half a functioning lifespan knew not to make deals with the void-beasts. Of all the existential beings that littered the vast expanse of Existence, they one of a very few, or perhaps even the only ones, that had no emotions. They could not feel it and they could not learn to feel it.

They could only mimic it, pretend through actions to create an illusion of what did not exist.

Only a fool who did not know what they were doing gave a void-beast sentience or sapience.

The boy has doomed us all.

The creature existed in front of Bayad, right on the other side of the glass, while Mrs. Talwort slammed an angry palm into the door.

It smiled.

There was another saying on Bayad’s world about void-beasts. Nothing good came out of a smiling void-beast.

The creature’s smile was like a putrid thing, false and not of God. There were people who believed that Satan had challenged God all by himself and had thus been cast down. There were a greater many that believed that Satan had only done it after speaking with a smiling Void-beast.

When the creature finally deemed it important to speak, smiling eyes full of only self-interest looking into Bayad’s eyes, its voice was like that of a caring child.

“Veebee,” it said, “has a use for you.”