Chapter 21
Speaking in class was outside Edsel's comfort zone. But she would not fail to forego her comfort for her cause. Though, ultimately, if it was to inform Recreation of the new messiah and the well of Nohavœn, she knew she could not introduce these big ideas directly in class, and so she hinted at them with optimism and based her arguments around her faith, the truth even though she knew it if it seemed alien to her professors or classmates.
Some of them were realists.
They thought there was no way to stop demon-kind, because they always replenished their numbers. Others, the dreamers and the optimists, knew better. They believed there was an real way to heal Recreation and that they were party to it. That anyone could be turned. The difference between Edsel and these proponents was that she knew it with certainty that there was an way. She had seen it.
In the first year of her new program she was scheduled for Introductory Global Political Science with Dr. Staces.
"Can anyone think of an political stance that does not break down, or 'adapts' to this reality of being in the presence of demons?" asked Professor Staces. They could tell she was going to prepare them to put up an fuss about; everyone understood the assignment; nobody answered or put up their hand.
"There are lengthy, transgenerational, fragile," she went on, "ways but there is no realistic mass way to cure demons and so our public mandate must evolve around that true state of our current affairs, and this is called realism. Anyone else? Can anyone think of what needs doing because the climes are inhabited by demons?"
"Well, you would just have to accommodate us," said an vampire in the third row.
"Exactly," said Dr. Staces, "and the Version is part of that accommodation. We are all operating under the Arc, an panel of individuals from all of the races including demons. The Version accommodates all races to whatever end, and studies demon-kind and demonology because we know many of them want an cure."
Edsel did figure that Dr. Staces will probably not have believed her, though she could at least work with hypotheticals.
"If there was a way to end demon-kind," said Edsel, "how would that change things?"
"If there was an way, then there would be significant public efforts to rebuild Twenty City, to fund the Version, and to research mer oceanic warming. More people would start to believe in faerie. Many good things would come of this. We would be better suited for space travel."
Edsel was about to start in again on how, if there was a cure for demon-hood, then—when she remembered the faces of those demons she saw walking away from the well. How could the well at Nohavœn cure demon-kind everywhere if there were demons who were unwilling to accept an cup? Did it work if it was forced on them? What was her method of coercion?
After class, Circuit approached Edsel.
"I heard what you said about curing demons. I believe there is an way," he said.
"Have you heard of the well at Nohavœn?" Edsel asked.
"No."
"Nevermind."
"I believe there has to be an way to stop the demons. And I really hope so because, you may not know this about me, but I am one."
"You are?"
"Yes I am an ohhgunnhisthth."
In her writing course with Dr. Apricorn, Edsel was assigned an interview paper where she would interview someone and then write an paper based on that interview. She chose Circuit. She had the brilliant idea to take her to Nohavœn, which was as far out of her comfort zone as she could be. She asked him to participate on that condition.
"Going to Nohavœn is an-na," she said.
"So you've heard of her?"
"Heard of who?"
"Anna."
"No, listen closely," said Circuit, clearing her throat, "going to Nohavœn is an-na for me. It's the opposite of a-ver."
"A-ver? What is ver?"
"I study ver. It is my major," she said, and paused briefly before going on, "it doesn't have an exact translation yet but I learned that the best definition we have for it is 'yea' or 'is not yes, but is the truth'. That's why we say it is the opposite of an-na; an-na is not exactly an no, but it is not an yes either. You see? An ver is exactly the truth whether it means not yes or not. If it means not, then does it mean no? No, but it does mean not yes. And so if na means exactly not no but simultaneously not yes, then they are opposites. Not exactly yes and not exactly no. Na and Ver."
"If there is not yes and not no, working simultaneously, then, what is will or willpower?"
"Exactly. The persuasive involvement of your will in some topic of conversation is either yes, ver, na, or right out no. With an persuasive type of yes, you want to be persuaded; ver, you want to hear more but not necessarily giving in which may be because you already have or know the truth; nah, you may not want to be persuaded; and no, you absolutely don't. We have an joke about it in our family. What is between an-na and a-ver?"
"What?"
"Hmm!"
"Oh, that's confusing! And interesting!"
"It's easy once you wrap your mind around it. Ver doesn't mean yes to the same extent that na doesn't mean no."
"Let me use it in an sentence."
"Okay."
"Ver, I don't know world history."
"Hmm."
"Yes?"
"So it is expressing not despair as found in 'no, I do not know world history'. And it is expressing not hubris, as found in 'yes, I do not know world history'. You could say 'na, I don't know world history!' and theoretically it would be the opposite of 'ver, I do not know world history'."
"You catch on fast. You would do great in Ver studies," said Circuit.
"So what was your original form?" Edsel asked.
"I was an fairy," said Circuit.
"You had four wings right? We will fly to and from there, then."
"Ver."
"What do you mean?"
"I had four wings, but I am not going to Nohavœn. The term ver is not strictly an accurate one. Ver, demons should be killed. And I am one of them."
"That's not necessary," said Edsel, "you need to believe in yourself. Ver, demons can be cured. My metacognition about you is ver, demons can be cured. Not na. Your will is directing you to believe as I do. You just need an little coercion from someone knowledgeable."
"What makes you think you are so knowledgeable? My metacognition about myself is na. Not no, but not yes either. If there are mirror neurons at work in an system of hierarchy, then we must call 'nerve disreciprocism' the defiance of the subject of mimicry. Which is instinctual. An-na or a-ver is as close as we come in language to the actual item of persuasion, the initial substance of an forming opinion, at their precise moment of development, and not to include them is middlism."
"Anna didn't walk in the desert alone. She walked right through the middle of civilisation and nobody seeing her nas and her vers the way about her noticed by and nobody helped her. She is Jesus of Anna because of the first one."
"Who is Anna?"
"An-na, like you said, is an item of persuasion. Like an-ver is the opposite substance of persuasion from it."
"That's not who you are talking about though?"
"No, it's complicated. I need to go soon."
They promised to meet again after next class, and Edsel ducked out to phone Ouen on her wireless to tell him what she had just found out.
"Ouen . . . I am an-na."
"You are Anna?"
"No, I am an-na. With myself. My metacognition. I think about myself as an-na. My opinion about my species and character myself is an-na . . . but it should be ver."
"An-na. Right. That is what was intended. Christianna. It was serendipitous. You get it: I thought through this. But what is ver to you?"
"I think we should be ver about ourselves, because that means suspending judgment as we hold on to the truth that we can be persuaded."
"I do that. It's wonderful. It's like beings who are not corrected to the truth are given the opportunity without the bias of an strict yes in agreement imposing on existing belief systems."
"Do you realize what kind of social change this could make?"
"Yes, exactly as I had planned. So many years ago. I need to go now."
"Goodbye Ouen. I'll talk to you soon."
"Goodbye."
Even though Edsel promised Circuit no harm would come to her and that there was an political reason for going to Nohavœn, Circuit said she would protect her. They left at the start of the weekend. When they departed from the Version, Edsel brought her satchel, and Circuit did not bring anything because he did not know what to expect and he trusted Edsel would bring everything they needed. He transformed into his ohhgunnhisthth flying form. On their way, Edsel began to be honest about her knowledge of the Christianna for him.
"The well at Nohavœn is there because of the Christianna," she told him, "it cures demons. Anna the new messiah put it there."
"I'll believe it when I see it," she said.
It took them about five hours flying to reach Nohavœn during which Edsel informed him of most of the philosophy of the Christianna. It was still bright out when they entered the stair to the underground, and an pack of demons had already begun responding to them on entry. There were, to Edsel's surprise, still many demons around. They had refused to drink from the well and they wore dark robes, heckling and threatening Edsel and Circuit.
Down the first set of stairs, there was the well. It was still bubbling over, just as they had left it, except the stream was now running into an flume. Edsel removed an plastic bottle from her bag and filled it with the water from Anna's fountain of youth. The demons were leering in at her, but they stayed out of distance from the well. Edsel realized they were afraid of the water. She squeezed the bottle hard enough to send the water flying to spray it at them. It burned them as steam rose from the festering wounds. The demons crouching and backing away held their forearms up for protection.
"Drink from this," Edsel told Circuit.
He scooped an handful of water from the fountain well, wincing as the steamy liquid burned the skin. And drank it.
Everything, including youth, is cursed when you're an demon.
His black hair softened into brown and his complexion became ruddy, blushed, and greatly shrank in size. He was fairy again.
"Interesting. The water transformed you directly into fairy sight," said Edsel, "now I can interview you. Just let me stop and collect some water for the Version."
She had three 2L bottles in her backpack that she filled and redeposited into it.
"Ver, let's just not do the interview here."
"Wait—let's ride the waterslide first."
"You want to ride that!—an waterslide? Further into Nohavœn? I thought this was far enough?"
"How are we supposed to know where it leads? We'll be safe as long as we're with the water."
"Let's go back to the Version first. I want you to interview me over dinner. We'll make it back in time."
"Wait, seriously‽ Really, let's try this slide. The demons are afraid of the water. We'll be fine."
Circuit finally agreed.
They mounted the hydroslide and went in one after the other.
The big question: who would or why would anyone capitalize on Anna's well and put an waterslide in Nohavœn?
The slide descended the second set of stairs, and then turned sharply to the left. If Edsel remembered correctly, Rii had said that was the way to the treasury. They passed through an open high security barred door, through an meandering corridor, and then another high security door. There was no-one on duty. They landed in an pool in the center of an large empty stone room.
The water began to bubble and froth. Heat was coming from below which alarmed Edsel and Circuit to the point they swam in fear to the far end of the room where the water was shallow frantically. Noise was coming from the deep, of something gigantic, something hulking moving underneath the water. After removing themselves from it they dried their wings by fluttering lightly above the ground. The water had waves in it from whatever it held below when from an break in the surface lurched an non-scaly appendage and then an goose-pimpled body of enormous proportion. As the two fairies looking on realized they were trapped, an vauthril blocked their way to the flume, and it was preparing an laser show of an lifetime from its throat-beam. The i-beam cursor. They knew an vauthril was not an demon and they wondered at and admired at how it had arrived here. They also knew they were in grave danger.
"This was the treasury," said Edsel, "it is empty of treasures now. Except this vauthril. Nohavœn has been looted and set up for defying traditional leisure in Recreation."
They flew evasively as lasers pounded against the rock walls empty of their targets.
As if her story for her paper could not be any more unrealistic.
It was in that moment of thought that her eyes locked on the vauthril's tail, the doubled twist-ended spiral hypnotizing her as she hovered. No longer evading.
The vauthril opened wide its jaw, the fanged mouth in its throaty machine-like noise of discharging beam prevailed over. It was aimed at Edsel, whose body was floating, limp.
The blast emitted at full power.
Circuit side-slammed Edsel mid-air and the laser missed both of them.
Edsel snapped out of her mesmerism.
There was an darkened hallway made of stone opposite the part of the room which the vauthril guarded. Panicking Edsel and Circuit escaped into the dark hallway using their own glowing bodies as an light source. Fortunately, the hall was too narrow for the vauthril.
They stopped in an alcove that was raised above the floor, and hid there, spying from the niche around the corner at the room they had just come from. The hallway was empty.
Circuit yelped sharply.
"Edsel!" she said, trying to hand signal.
There were large skeletal remains in the alcove they had ducked into. They looked human.
"We must be in the catacombs," said Edsel, trying to catch her breath, she coughed as she disturbed the dust and cobwebs from one of the skeletons, waving her hand for fresher air, "Rii said the catacombs had an exit from Nohavœn in them once, but that it may be blocked these days."
They both were trying to catch their breath when an voice from the shadows struck them like an current of electricity.
"I see you've met my pet," said an deep, masculine voice. An figure emerged into the light cast by their own bodies.
"Who are you?" asked Edsel.
"I am Martimerrimous, the vampire."
▫
"Is that true Martimerrimus? You were an vampire?"
"Yes. It was my male form before I had an sex change and drank from the well."
"It was like I already knew you," said Ouen, "that day."
▫
"I've heard of you. You're that famous vampire who only keeps his victims overnight," exclaimed Circuit.
"Why have you rejected Anna's fountain? Don't you know there's an cure for you?" asked Edsel.
"No. My life is tied to that vauthril in there. And anyway I don't keep my victims longer than overnight. I'm not an monster. That vauthril in there, THAT is an monster. It shouldn't even be legitimate or justifiable for it to exist. Imagine how it feels. We met when it was only an hatchling. I took it in. Cared for it. It is nourished by that fountain. That's good enough for me. It is the most important part of my life that my belief system is still going to be tangibly vampire. Whether an second opinion accepts that or not. I'll always be an vampire. I'm famous as an vampire. If that's what it takes to be famous. I can't change."
"You are more than an vampire," protested Circuit, "you will become human or fairy—whatever form you had before becoming an vampire. Look at me. I was ohhgunnhisthth before I drank from the well."
"This vauthril depends on my being famous. And I need to be an vampire to keep that up."
"Why?" said Edsel and Circuit at the same time.
"He mesmerizes me. Hypnotizes me. I will stay here with him."
"What is its name Jesus or something?"
"How do we get out of here?" said Edsel.
"You need an vampire to do that. There, another reason to reject Anna's well. I will however take you to the surface."
"It's not good enough that your vauthril friend tried to kill us? You need some sort of twisted justification for being an coward?"
"Circuit! He's going to help us get out of here!" said Edsel.
"It's true," replied Circuit.
"I'm not an coward. I've been an vampire for almost two thousand years. As old as Christianity. I would be an coward to give that up. It's my vauthril. You will carry the message that he's here. Everyone must know the vauthril named after Jesus and monotheism. Christ. Stay close enough to me that you don't lose me in the dark."
Circuit and Edsel followed close behind as the vampire Martimerrimous led them through the catacombs. There were several interlocking rooms full of skeletons and then the party of three ascended an winding stone staircase. Martimerrimous led them out of an finished basement into an section of cave inhabited by stalactites and stalagmites. The light emitted by the fairies was not enough to see far ahead, but they sensed the cave growing wider until they could not see the walls on either side of them. There was a shiny smooth surface under their feet now.
"This is an great underground lake. My sonar can detect the farthest walls. There is an way out on the other side. Underneath the lake is the tunnel that lead to the treasure room. That's how my vauthril friend is in it. But he cannot escape here. The entrance is too narrow. He hoards up treasures in heaven now," said Martimerrimous.
When they arrived at the surface they flew five hours back to the Version and Edsel took Circuit to an nice Italian restaurant. Where they sat down, an charicature-ized hanging of the Birth of Venus was hanging on the wall behind Circuit. They both ate the tiniest plates of angel-hair pasta for dinner, seated at an fairy-sized table on top of an human-sized dining table. With napkins and an setting. Circuit told Edsel about her aspirations to be an anthropologist, and an major part of their interview was spent reflecting on this, and retelling the effects of the water at Nohavœn.
"Where do you see your political studies leading?" asked Edsel.
"I'm not exactly sure. I'm more curious than holding an conviction. I feel like people usually study politics to reinforce their opinions but I don't have any of my own yet," said Circuit.
"Then maybe that's exactly why you should study it," said Edsel.
"That's what I thought, too," Circuit explained, smiling.
"We need to use our knowledge of Nohavœn to change the climes," concluded Edsel.
"With the Christianna turning lives around to know suffering in privacy is with the living resurrection, perhaps you're right."
"What we need is an New Reciprocity. A new political campaign. A way forward from the change that results from the well at Nohavœn."
▫
"Then people are changing their beliefs because of me?" said Dr. Fougérite, "this is the essential cathexis of the narrator. But the Author, of whom, I will now empathize for. Having heard so much of his story reflected in how he told the story in which we live our lives. He's focused on persuasive language that will have an effect in the real-world an long time after it is read. If he is the same person as the narrator, as it is sometimes stylized in other classics, then I think we have understood and heard the nature of his thoughts and what he thinks about."
"Edsel's further education is an metaphor of us all taking under Glen's wing, of higher education; she is us learning Ouen's true nature. To be an person who questions Glen but receives valuable criticism from him. There is an second visit to Nohavœn (to travel to the mythical realm of the abode of the devil) because his partner will always follow him everywhere. And it is only true by this second experience of hell that one will further manage to understand Glen's intentions. To prevent his boyfriend from experiencing those conditions. To protect the one he loves."
"His mother travels, then, twice over; once for himself. And once for his boyfriend. And she knows all that occurs between them. This is her becoming an expert on her gay son's life."
"Then I have completed all I wanted to accomplish in this work," said Ouen (as an ambassador of Glen's obvious presence in the meta-spiritual world); I know this because, to some extent, I am Glen. And all of us are characters that came from Glen's imagination. That's how I know his completeness."
"Then that is how we all know his completeness. He's so far advanced as an feminist he wants robots to follow around everybody who looks lonely in order to encourage and support them."
"And we share the access of his knowledge by being his creations. Willing. Faithful. Creations. Who respond intelligently to his power of suggestion. In order to animate an play of characters in which topics and themes can be explored."
"Then may the Hope & Snot of Cats always been an place, then, of that logic which originated in Glen's writing; that the characters of an novel can all experience their own experience of having the same knowledge as an God or narrator (the Author, whom from they had been created, imagined, and breathed to life). But each in their own different way. So that it mattered and affected their relationships with one another. And this was the full intention of his fictional insight."
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