Mortals Fic

[thelorax42.livejournal.com]

Dave, and he made sure all his employees called him Dave, it's good for morale, you know, looked at the security contractor with a worried look. He knew security guys tended to be a bit well, full on, but this guy seemed to be downright hostile. He cleared his throat, trying to interrupt the mans prognosis on his security, and was rewarded with a near feral glare. Trying to salvage it, Dave tried to remember his name. Ed... Elliott? Eli! That was it.

“erm.. Mr Eli... What did you say there? It seemed like you were suggesting we buy protection from assault and ramraiding. We're an accountancy consultancy...” he added, as if excusing his own objection.

Eli looked at the small, thin man, so hesitantly afraid to contradict, to stand out, and fought a sneer.
Weak. Slow. Ready to be cut out from the herd. . he shook his head.

That was predator thinking. The most recent of the revelations he had been gifted had been filtering into his life, his thinking. Mankind as a prey, and predator. Life as survival. Hunting in humanity and taking what was the right of the strong. He'd seen behind the veil that the world hid behind, and had seen the part of it that snarled back. He had seen the infinite, the Divine and the Iconic, and it's thousands of changing forms and subtle variations had shown him the reality which underlies the lie of the world. The false veneer of mundanity could be stripped back to see the hidden world of the Divine and the glorious. He stopped to think about it again, shuddered, and pretended it did not excite him. Failed to convince even himself.

But that was no reason to ruin a good business deal. The man had seen his theatrical shudder, and it was time to work from there.

“Mr Hurby, I have indeed seen places of work such as your own broken into in cases of industrial espionage on their clients, and this society is becoming a steadily more dangerous one, I fear.”

Fear . that was what drove him to seek security. And so it was his job to sell the man some fear, and then he could buy from Eli something to ward the fear off, when it came hunting for him. The Divine and fear were closely linked, he had always known, and now would never doubt. A god fearing man. The first words out of the mouth of the Lord's messengers were invariably be thou not afraid, simply because they were so fearsome. One of the lords of the decans, through whom all divine powers is spread to the world ruled fear and took it as his central power. Fear was a real thing, and as fundamental as the sky, or the earth.

It was a living thing, too. It hunted in the night, finding those weak of mind, and unable to turn it from their door. The spoor of those already hurt brought it to the hunt, and the surrender of will from the truly terrified called it to feast.

He had seen it in his customers, who thought they were trying to keep thieves from their homes and business, but Eli knew they were trying to defend against fear itself, to sleep soundly.

He had seen it on his days in the streets, when someone braced for the pain of a beating, or the loss for transgressing against it's rules, or the choices of the more powerful, higher predators in the order.

He had seen it written large in the very fabric of reality, when it had revealed itself to him.

He could see it in the little man, now.

“and of course, in some cases the proprietors have been injured. While the closed circuit television let to the prosecution of the offender, that did not restore the full functioning to the man they broke in on limbs. Terrible, but the nature of things today...”

The man baulked. Before long he was willing to buy some extra provisions he didn't really need, but was now convinced that without it his health would be forfeit. Technically this was a triumph. A sale of more than was needed and a new customer.

But it was ashes in his mouth. For he had seen the hidden glory of the world, and all this was but a shadow and dust in comparison. He had seen fear hunting, and knew it spared no man.

In his dreams he had seen it coming for him, and he was afraid.

Comments

[akonken.livejournal.com]

I love that. And not just because it's Mortals fic!

I'm extra sorry I missed the last game now. :(

[sl4irl.livejournal.com]

Fabulous. :)