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"How do you know, though?" you say. "Are you sure it won't just destroy you all? It really likes destroying things, I think."
"I wouldn't say that. You must understand, to the Wyrm, humanity is a... a foreign body. It did not create you or sanction your creation. You were made by the Wyrm's own children, the traitor-gods, who— er, I suppose it's in the name. They cast the Wyrm down under the earth and made it sleep there. You are guilty by association. What's more, you were made imperfect. It doesn't like that much either."
"And you're perfect." You tilt your chin.
"Goes the party line, yes. In any case, the Wyrm did create us. In the grand family tree, then, we are your aunts and uncles. You are our little nieces and nephews. The Wyrm cares nothing for Its grandchildren, but it does care for us, in theory. It would spare us and free us as a show of this caring."
"When it hasn't bothered to break you out... ever?"
"In theory it can't, regardless of whether it wants to. Thus the channeling."
"That's a lot of 'in theories,'" you say.
"Yes."
"But you still..."
"There's no alternative. There never has been. All we can do is believe, blindly, that the desired future will come to pass. I think you know a little something about that, Charlie."
"Don't call me that," you say.
"Hm." Richard opens his palm and reveals a cigarette. He wedges it into his mouth. "Would you like a smoke?"
You wrinkle your nose.
"Well, don't say I didn't offer. Go on. Surely you have more to say than that."
You do. You just need to think about it. "...You said you were born three years ago. Or woke up three years ago, or something. But you also said you picked me out as a client specially. I don't see how. I'm— I'm the one who found you. In a box."
"Mm-hmm." He's lighting the cigarette.
"A sealed box," you elaborate. "And also, it seemed like... like maybe my father knew what was happening. So he knew you were in the box, maybe. But I don't see why he'd keep you there and not throw you out the window, if he knew about you. And wouldn't it be dark? And boring? And how did you know when I was going to open it? Unless you were in there for years and years—"
"I wasn't. My position comes with a great number of indignities, but not that." Richard inhales, then turns his head to blow out the smoke. "What did you find in the box?"
"Um, a snake?"
"No. What did you find? You still have it."
What did you find? But it wasn't even real. And you gave it to Lottie, and she didn't give it back. All that, but when you unfold your hand, you drop a key with a snake on it onto the table.
"Good. Thank you. Do you recall how snakes reproduce?"
Not an interesting topic, but a hard one to forget. "They, um, hijack your brain? And come out of your spine?"
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