II. Gwynn

Jensen returned to the laboratory he was currently working in with the captured bird. He had his assistants take the bird to a special room. While he attended to the bird, Jennifer rushed to him. She held him tightly from behind. "My love, you're home. I heard you caught a firebird!" She nuzzled her face into his back. "I did. I've brought Thomas and Gil home too." He said. "You did? Where are they?" She asked. Jensen held up the bag of skulls. "In here. At least, the parts I know are them." Jennifer pulled away. She stared at the bag. As she often did, she sensed what Jensen was feeling deep inside and let it flow through and mix with her own emotions. So overwhelmed by the pain, she fainted on the spot. Jensen picked up his wife and put her on the table. "You've always been so frail, my dear." He lifted her skirt and unbuttoned his pants. Behind him, a fairy stood. Hair as white as snow and eyes darker than night, his older brother's fairy slave watched him with disgust. Thick iron shackles decorated his wrists and ankles. An iron collar adorned his neck. Beneath the iron, dried blood and scars were visible. The fairy spoke. "Can't you wait until she wakes?" "Silence, Slave. It's my right as the husband. You only complain because you have no wife anymore. Save your jealousy." Jensen continued what he was doing. "Your own wickedness does not extend to all husbands and lovers. Such claims are always the excuses of monsters." The fairy turned away from him. He picked up the bag and looked inside. He put his hands on the skull of Virgil. "Poor Virgil. You couldn't escape without Death's embrace. Poor child." "You speak so fondly of him. You know, when I last spoke to him before he died, he said I should run away from here, kidnap you, and keep you as my slave to force you to heal my wounds forever." Jensen laughed. The fairy held the skull against his heart. "He said that because he wished for your freedom. I cannot blame him for that. And if I am to be cursed with this fate, I'd much rather have a master who only wants me as a healer than for what your older brother uses me for." "What? You think that's all I would do with you?" Jensen got off of his wife and grabbed the fairy by the hair. "Your turn to play the woman." "You are not my master." The fairy averted his eyes. "You are unable to harm me. Those chains on you won't allow it." Jensen knocked the fairy to the ground, then got on top of him from behind. The fairy did not resist him. He held in his pain and gently kept the skull against his chest. Jensen took the skull from the fairy after he was done. He put it back on the bag. "Tell my older brother to send me anyone he can spare to sacrifice. This bird eats a lot, and it isn't fully grown yet. I want to see how big it gets. Tell him to send me first some of the Beaumonts." The fairy struggled to stand. "Why the Beaumont family?" "They've been quite the nuisance lately with their wanting to stay in the south to keep those damn human slaves of theirs. What a useless lot, obsessed with their damn cotton. We can enslave dragons and elves. What use is a negro?" "The Beaumonts who've come to this area are all against slavery. They're the side of the family that freed their slaves. Many of those former slaves also now go by Beaumont. I don't think there's any of the family that is for slavery around here." The fairy said. "They gave those simple simians their family name, bestowing the twenty families' powers to them. Again I say, what use is a negro?" Jensen sat down in a chair. "Fetch me the new Beaumonts first, then their former masters. We don't need people who do not understand our order." "As you wish." The fairy left the room. Jensen pulled up his shirt and examined his gaping wound. "I wonder if I eat some of that bird what properties it might gift me...if only it could rid me of this curse..." Calmer in mind after ravishing his wife and the fairy, Jensen took to examining the bird again. For his first experiment, he cut off a small piece of its back and ate it. The firebird took three days to heal the wound. Jensen, upon eating it, gained no magical abilities, but his wound hurt less than before. Every three days, he took another bite of the bird. After two months of eating on the bird, he ceased to feel pain from his wound. The wound had not healed any. It expanded at the same rate as before, requiring the fairy's regular healing treatments. During one of the healing treatments, Jensen asked the fairy his opinion about what was happening to his body. "The firebird has inherent healing properties to its flesh. That is why it can withstand its own flames. It does not turn to ash like the phoenix." The fairy explained. "The magic that has destroyed this part of your body is a much stronger magic than that bird's flesh, but it seems able to dull your pain. You would not likely feel any negative side effects from consuming the bird's meat." "Then alive I shall keep it." Jensen declared. The fairy knew another benefit of the bird's meat, but he chose not to tell Jensen that information. "You should have been gifted to me. I'm the one who needs a healer. Another beast would've been more useful for my idiot brother, Eric." Jensen sat up from the bed. "The one who bound me declared to the families I can only be passed down to the one who holds the title of the Doctor amongst the Blackwell bloodline." The fairy reminded him. "That cannot be you. Eric has a son. He will likely receive the title next." "That's the rules of the family. I know what actually holds power over you is your name. Those shackles have rules that control you, but what binds you most is your name. So long as you wear those shackles, there is no order you can refuse if your name is called." Jensen tapped on the iron collar. "If you gave me your name, I can control you too." "Do you want to run away like Virgil did?" The fairy asked. "No, that is useless. I want more power." Jensen laughed at him. "I run from nothing. Tell me, Fairy, what is your name?" "I am forbidden from giving it to you. Only my master is allowed to know that." The fairy said. Jensen grabbed at one of the fairy's wings. "I know this hurts you." The fairy froze in agony. "Please, stop." "Your wife's name was Gwynnever. So was your daughter's. I heard you called her Nev though." Jensen pulled harder until a tear started to form in the wing. "My grandfather told me that. Their names can be said because they're dead. They were quite useful in teaching us how to kill immortals. Destroy the head entirely and you've guaranteed a kill. Your bodies can endure a lot without dying. Should we find out what it takes to make you say your name?" "I cannot say my name. That is part of the magical contract bound on me. I cannot say it to anyone other than the one who commands me." The fairy said, eyes watering. "You would need to get it from your brother." "Useless. They should've kept one of the women alive. I heard your daughter was good in bed. And with one female, we could breed more." Jensen kept pulling on the wing until he was able to rip off part of it. The fairy collapsed to his knees. He covered his mouth to hold in his screams. In his mind, he was amused at his captors never learning many of his kind's secrets. He did not need a woman to create a child. He could do it on his own with magic. His body itself was something he could easily change. His captors knew fairies had some shapeshifting abilities, but he and his wife lied to them that only certain fairies could do that. His wife had never actually given birth to their daughter. He carried the child, then she breastfed the baby. They used to shift their bodies all the time into many different forms for their own amusement. Before they had been enslaved, humans were one of their favorite transformations. Speaking of the fairy's daughter and breeding fairies got Jensen thinking. "Fairy, can one of your kind produce a child with a human?" "Yes." "What would the child look like? Would it have magical abilities? Would it be immortal or mortal?" Jensen asked. The fairy was reluctant to answer. He was already sensing what Jensen might be wanting to do. "The child's appearance isn't consistent. Some will look entirely human, some are born with wings, and some may be born with poorly formed wings. They are almost always mortal, and almost always possess natural talent for the same types of magic the fairy parent is skilled in." Jensen put his hands together. He grinned. "So...suppose I bred you with a human woman...the child would likely be good at healing then." "And my other abilities. But yes. That would be the most likely outcome." "What about your contract? Would the child be enslaved to my brother?" Jensen asked. "No." The fairy picked up the piece of his wing Jensen had ripped off. Pain shot through his back with the slightest of movements. "My wife and my daughter were enslaved at the same time as me with the same terms, but there were three spells performed that day. Enslavement through that sort of magic is not passed down to children of the slave." "Oh, that is very interesting." Jensen grinned widely. The door opened. Jennifer walked into the room. "Has the healing treatment been completed? Oh, why is the fairy on the floor?" "I wanted to play with him a bit." Jensen looked at his wife, his eyes wandering down to her stomach. "My dear, how would you like to finally become a mother?" "Oh, Jen. Could it be? Did the fairy finally find a way to fix your infertility?" Jennifer clasped her hands together, eyes bright. "Unfortunately, no. However, your womb is perfectly healthy. The fairy and I were just discussing something very interesting. Very, very interesting." Jensen grabbed the fairy by the hair. "Did you know fairies and humans can have children together and the child will have magic just like the fairy? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had our own little fairy to heal me instead of me having to beg my brother to let me borrow his slave and hope he does not allow me to die?" "Make our own fairy...Then, Jen wouldn't need Eric or the twenty families for anything. We could be free." Jennifer said, eyes bright. "I'm not planning on running away, my dear. No, I plan on ruling them from a distance. But I need a healer and I need that bird. Then, everything will be just right for us. I won't be able to be controlled by anyone and I'll have the mind and body to control all of them." Jensen walked over to his wife. He put his hand on her stomach. "Let's get you pregnant. Your womb is going to grant me the keys to all the power I desire." "Anything for you, Jen." Jennifer hugged her husband. She looked at the fairy. "But...what about the conception? Do you want me to..." "You won't be beneath him. We aren't children to be used as toys anymore. Your body is only for me to enjoy. No, we'll collect the semen from him and then I'll carefully transfer it into your body. I'll enter you after so that you will not have to associate what you feel inside you with another man." Jensen kissed his wife down her neck. "Make a child for me, won't you, Jennifer? My beloved, you swore to me when we were children you would give me anything I ever asked of you. Your body, your heart, your soul, and your death. Whatever I want. Will you not submit to me now?" Jennifer's face flushed. Whenever Jensen said those words to her, her heart hurt greatly and she wanted to cry. She clung tightly to him and smiled. "What ever you wish for, Jen. I am yours." "We will keep this a secret. You understand that, Fairy? I will make you wish for death if you tell Eric anything about our plans." Jensen warned the fairy. "I already wish for death." The fairy said. "Talk back to me again and I'll rip your wings clean off." Jensen warned. "We'll tell my brother somehow the fairy has healed me of my infertility. The fairy will deliver the baby, as he always delivers the Blackwell children. When the baby is born, if it has wings, we'll get rid of them." "They'll grow back." The fairy said. "You'll need to do it continuously if you remove them." "That's hardly a problem." Jensen kissed Jennifer again, then picked up a bag off the floor. He put it on the bed and opened it. Jensen sifted through the various tools inside. He took out a syringe and a Griffin beaker he bought abroad a few years ago. "Eh, that should work. Fairy, I have a task for you." Weary, the fairy lifted his head. "We're doing this right now?" Jensen handed him the small beaker. "Ejaculate into this." The fairy lowered his head. He took the beaker from him. "Could Jennifer be out of the room until I'm done?" "No. I don't want to waste a single second between when it's expelled and when I put it in her. I'll have her turn the other direction." Jensen turned Jennifer around himself. "Please look away for now, my love. And cover your ears." "Yes, Love." Jennifer closed her eyes as well in hopes of pleasing her husband. The fairy, knowing he could not leave without doing what Jensen wanted, forced himself to get the task done as quickly as possible. Jensen collected the semen and inserted the syringe into Jennifer. Afterwards, he had sex with Jennifer. The fairy covered his ears. Jennifer had become pregnant by the first attempt. The fairy could sense that in ways a human could not. He informed them right away to avoid having to go through that process again. In December, almost a year since Thomas and Virgil's deaths, Jennifer gave birth to a girl born with brown hair like her mother and blue wings like her biological father. Jensen cut them off and burned the spots where he cut for good measure. He introduced the girl as his daughter and named her Jennifer, Jenny for short. The fairy cried when he delivered her. As was tradition since his enslavement, the fairy did most of the childrearing for the girl as to not burden Jennifer with tasks the families saw as beneath their women. The girl was dressed in Virgil's baby clothes, in gowns of blue that would have matched the wings she should've had on her back. The fairy kept a secret from the family. Though Jensen had given the girl the name Jennifer, the fairy had gifted her a name already before her birth. He told no one. For so long as no one knew her true name, no human could enslave her. During those months, Jensen fed the firebird locals and those within the twenty families who he found unworthy or in his way. He continued other experiments on the bird. Eventually, he removed the bird's eyes. He waited until the bird had reached its full size. The giant black eyes were kept floating in a very large jar. Not wanting to get mixed up in affairs he didn't care about, Jensen Blackwell stayed in the far north until the end of the war. During those years, he spent a lot of time getting to know his nephew, Alexander. Alexander was Eric's son and the next to be head of the twenty families. Alexander was not fond of his father and often ran to the fairy for comfort. "Alexi, why don't you bring the fairy and we'll play together in the lab." Jensen often said to him. He would take him to the lab where Alexander didn't have to participate in the children's sexual games. The fairy would do magical spells to entertain him while Jensen taught him about powerful artifacts and scientific techniques. Whenever Alexander had questions about the pact between the twenty families and the goddess they worshipped, Jensen revealed another bit of fraud about each claim. "Remember, there is no goddess. That was an act performed by our ancestor, Leon Blackwell and his daughter, Rose, who pretended to be her sister, Delilah. There was no goddess in Delilah Blackwell or any of the women we've pretended are her reincarnations. Your aunt is not magical. There is no magic anywhere in our bloodline. We've snatched it by our own hands through our research of the occult. But never tell the others that, especially not the ones we've recruited to join our worship. So long as you do that, you will be ever more powerful the more we capture." Sometimes, Alexander would make confessions to Jensen he would share with no one other than the fairy. One confession led Jensen to a very useful discovery. "Uncle Jen, I wish you were my father. I don't think Father loves me." Jensen would soothe the boy with cruel manipulations. "He doesn't. Love isn't allowed within the twenty families. If your father loved you, he wouldn't hurt you and make you do so many awful things. That was why your uncle, Virgil, ran away. He wanted to get away from this cruel place so much it cost him his life. But a kind heart still beat within him until his last breath." "Uncle Jen, do you love me?" Alexander asked as he stared at the two skulls Jensen kept on display at his writing desk. "Of course I do, my dear nephew. I wish I could have more children, but it seems the fairy was only able to help gift me one. It would be so wonderful for Jenny to have a brother." Jensen did his best act of feigning love. "If your father tries to hurt you again, you can always run to me or the fairy. I'm sure things will be easier for you once you inherit him. He can do more to protect you than I can, but you must know his name to make those orders of him." "But I do know his name. Great-grandfather told me last year, in case something bad happened to everyone who did know. He said I was old enough to know and it was alright since I'd be the next one to inherit him." Jensen tested his luck. "So, you already know it. Then, do not hesitate to call him if you are in danger, even if it's your own father harming you. I wish I had someone like that. The fairy can't hurt me, but I can't call on him for protection like that. I'm not ever allowed to know his name." Alexander, seeing how sad his uncle appeared, did something he knew he wasn't supposed to. "Uncle Jen, I don't want you to get hurt by Father. I'll tell you the name. Please, don't tell Father it was me who told you. The fairy's name is Gwynn." "Gwynn, is it? Thank you, Alexi. This will be our secret." Jensen hugged Alexander. "You're such a kind child. I really wish you were my son." "I don't want to have to be controlled by Father and Aunt until I'm old. They're so mean. They always hurt me. Gwynn can protect me, but he can't hurt them the way they hurt me. I wish I could make them go away forever." Alexander hugged his uncle tightly. He cried into Jensen's coat. Jensen smirked. "You're that afraid of them? Maybe...oh, but it would be wicked to do such a thing...but...if it's me, then it is only my wickedness. It will not be yours." "Uncle?" "If you really want to get rid of them...perhaps there is something I can arrange. We could use the bird. It's always hungry." Jensen smiled. "What's it always saying? Bad bears get cooked. That's what we'll tell everyone. They became possessed by evil bears and I had no choice but to feed them to the bird. We'll make everyone fear bears disguised as men." "But Auntie is pretending to be the Goddess right now. How can a goddess be possessed?" Alexander asked. "Oh, I know what we will say. They've been possessed for a long time. They've been fooling us with a fake goddess since the ceremony and that the goddess isn't actually supposed to return for another generation. One of your daughters can then be the next girl we claim is the goddess and the power of that will be yours to control." "Won't grandpa and great-grandpa get in the way? They won't believe that story." Alexander pointed out. Jensen smiled wider. He put his hands to Alexander's face. "Haven't they hurt you too?" Alexander lowered his head and nodded. "I'll get rid of all of them for you. Then, it will only be us and no one will hurt you anymore. Gwynn will be ours together, and we can be happy." Jensen said. "What about all the bad stuff everyone in the families has been doing?" Jensen hugged Alexander again. "Alexi, I know you want it all to end, but they don't. All that cruelty gives them purpose. It's what they crave most, to be hurt and controlled. We can't fix this so easily. That will have to be for our descendants to gradually change. For now, we must keep up things as they are." "If that is how it must be...what about Gwynn? Couldn't we free him?" "Gwynn rightfully has much distain for our family. If we free him, I will die. I need him to heal the wounds our family caused me to have. I wish I could free him, but...I can't risk dying, especially not now if I am to assume the role of your father." Jensen continued his dramatic performance. "Father...does that mean when he's gone, you'll adopt me?" Alexander immediately forgot about Gwynn. "I am your godfather. It is only right." Alexander's eyes were full of light and hope. "Kill them all." The following day, with the help of Jennifer and the bird's preserved eyes, Jensen led many of the Blackwell family to their demise. The firebird was more than happy to gobble up all the people in Jensen's way. After killing the members of the family who would question his story, Jensen told the others within the twenty families and their many followers the lie about the magical, evil bears who disguise themselves as human beings. They agreed they would perform a new ritual to search for the goddess's next vessel once Alexander had children of his own. In the years between then and the next ritual, the Blackwells and the rest of the cult moved back to Georgia. With the much of the state in ruin, they used their collective wealth to snatch up even more land and assets than they had before when they had been gifted Indian land shortly after the Revolutionary War. Much of the white Beaumonts who stayed in Georgia did not survive the war, leaving most of the Beaumont family made up of the whites who fled north and west and their many former slaves. The black Beaumonts greatly outnumbered the white Beaumonts. The slaves of the Beaumonts who had stayed in the south, having no resources of their own after the war, sought out the white Beaumonts of the north for support. They were admitted into the cult with the rest and too gifted the name Beaumont. Jensen was initially unpleased at the growing number of black cult members, but he soon found them to be quite useful in experiments he didn't want to waste on humans he deemed more valuable. The other families who previously owned slaves within the twenty families--Lowell, Devin, Morris, and Lobo--similarly gave their surnames to their former slaves. This increase in black members caused tension amongst the older members of the cult. When the idea of allowing other groups in came up in meetings amongst the most powerful members of the cult, the families were split down the middle on who they would and would not allow. There was only one position all of them agreed upon--no Indians. Jensen led the families until Alexander came of age. He chose Alexander's wife for him. For Jenny, he decided he would not allow her to marry when she was old enough. Jenny was to be his tool alone. He couldn't allow some other man to have his healing half-fairy child, even with him knowing Gwynn's name. The more options he had for survival the better. As time passed, Jensen made another discovery. He wasn't aging anymore. He asked Gwynn about it, who confirmed his suspicions that it was from eating the firebird's meat. Learning this, Jensen began to feed Jennifer the bird's meat. He would wait until Jenny finished growing before feeding her the meat. Alexander soon noticed that Jensen wasn't aging. Jensen made up a lie about why. "It's from one of the deals your great-grandfather made me make with a monster. It extends to my wife and any children I father. Jenny will stop aging when she's a older. I can't give you this ability, and I do no wish it on you. What the family made me endure with that monster...I would never want you to go through something so awful." Always trusting of his uncle, Alexander believed him and never asked him about it again. In 1884, when Alexander was thirty-three and Jensen was forty-eight, Alexander's youngest daughter was now old enough to participate in the Goddess ritual. Alexander had three daughters: Lorena, the oldest at fourteen; Edith, who was twelve; and his youngest daughter, Alice, who was ten. Alexander had two other children. His oldest child was a young man named Forrest, who was fifteen years old and would be sixteen by the end of the year. His youngest child was his other boy, Thomas, who was eight, not far from nine. Jensen had picked out Thomas's name and was his favorite of Alexander's children. The ritual required each of the twenty families to bring forth one child that could be of either sex, even though only the girls could be chosen as the goddess. Two of the original twenty families who started the cult no longer had any representatives of their name. Night and Shaw were gone. Alexander, at Jensen's suggestion, offered all three of his daughters to compensate for the two lost spaces. Per the ritual, all the children would be stabbed through the heart. The girl who lived through the ritual would be declared the Goddess. This meant all the boys were doomed to death, and all but one of the girls. The Blackwells had been staging one of their daughters to be the survivor since the beginning. Alexander didn't want any of his daughters to die. Before the ritual, Jensen and Gwynn worked together to make a drink that would leave two of the girls in a death-like state for a day. They would sneak the daughters out of the area in the night and give them new identities to live as. The other daughter would have a sac filled with animal blood inside her dress that would be ruptured during a fake stabbing. Alice was chosen to be the survivor, while Edith and Lorena would play dead. This was also at Jensen's suggestion. Lorena was too docile and shy to make a convincing goddess. Edith was too harsh and tomboyish. Alice was submissive yet graceful. She filled any room she entered with her presence. Alice was perfect for the role. After the bloody event, Alice was declared the new vessel for the Goddess. Lorena and Edith were quickly forgotten about and would live their lives in obscurity. Alice enjoyed her new position. The Goddess chosen, that left the next Doctor to be picked. Typically, this role went to the eldest male of the current head of the Blackwell family. Jensen had other thoughts. He much preferred that Thomas, the younger boy, should take the role. Alexander agreed to change tradition to appease his uncle. Gwynn, Jensen, and Jennifer had managed to keep Jenny's wings and powers a secret from everyone. Her wings had to be severed and burned every three months. As Jenny had endured this since as far back as she remembered, she thought nothing of it. Jenny was aware of who her biological father was, but she only saw Jensen as her father. To her, Jensen was more than a father. She worshipped him as if he were a god. Jennifer instilled the belief in Jensen's superiority to other people early in Jenny's life. Whatever Jensen wanted, she would do. She didn't care about the goddess at all or any of the cult's teachings. Only Jensen's words mattered. She grew jealous of Thomas, who Jensen favored more, and hated Alice for being seen as superior to Jensen. Her abilities nearly matched her biological father's by age eight. Gwynn thought she was unusually talented. He expected she would far surpass him in a hundred years or less. It saddened him his talented daughter would be used for Jensen's whims. "She worships you so. It is as if you have bound her with shackles I cannot see." Gwynn said to Jensen one day. "That I have, with not a spell uttered. It is the nature of a good woman to willingly enslave herself to a man. First, to her father, then if he so choses or if she is stolen from him, to the man who becomes her husband. Women are good for nothing but servitude and birthing." Jensen always disappointed Gwynn with his answers. Gwynn sighed. "Why do you hate your women so deeply? It is sickening to me." "You can't help your foolishness. You are barely better than a beast, though your abilities and immortal body makes you much more useful than them. I've heard fairies are more likely to serve queens than kings. Is that true?" Jensen laughed at the idea. Though the cult followed the Goddess, all the inner members knew the Doctor was the one who controlled her. She was merely a living puppet, he thought, as all women should be. "There are ancient lords with old magic, some of whom are fairies, but there are no fairy men who call themselves kings. We have princes, princesses, queens, knights...but there are no fairy kings. We have always been that way." Gwynn said. "Absurdity. You're practically a woman then. What good is your cock?" Jensen joked. Gwynn snapped back at him. He spread his legs. "You tell me. You seem quite fond of my cock. Do you need another ride on it?" "That is not to be spoken of in rooms where the door is not locked." Jensen kicked him in the groin. Gwynn fell forward. He yanked Gwynn by his hair and forced his face against Jensen's crotch. "I'll shove every bit of this down your throat." "Silencing me with that won't silence the desire your entire body has for the feel of me spilling inside you. No amount of women you subjugate will make you any more manly than the day you were born. Denying your desires won't make you more of a man either. You are a weak, horrid creature who thrives on harming others to justify the harm done to yourself as a child as meaningful and deserved. Step on me all you want. Kill me. Rape me. For all the power you contain, none of it will mean you deserved the suffering from then and none of it will make you any more or less a man." Gwynn raised his head high, despite the pain in his body. Jensen's demeanor changed. His eyes were empty. He spit in Gwynn's face. Jensen took out his knife and cut Gwynn's clothes off from his body, then severed his wings. "Your body always heals. I wonder how long it would take for you to heal if I cut all your limbs off." Jensen hovered over Gwynn's body. "Perhaps I should make you cut up yourself." "I won't." "But Gwynn, you will." Jensen said. Gwynn's blood went cold hearing Jensen speak his name. The iron on his body glowed brightly. Gwynn's mind emptied of thoughts. He calmly took Jensen's knife and cut into his own skin. "Lie on your back, Gwynn." Jensen locked the door and took his clothes off. He got on top of Gwynn. "Do you remember the actions you do when you are commanded by your name, Gwynn?" "No." Gwynn said. His eyes were dull. "Good. I have many more commands for you to not remember, Gwynn." After that day, Jensen regularly used Gwynn's name when they were alone for various things. Many were to do things Gwynn would normally complain about. Having Gwynn commit murders and risky experiments made life easier for Jensen. Many of the tasks Jensen forced on Gwynn were things he was too ashamed to admit he desired. Since Gwynn could remember none of it, he held nothing back in his commands. Some days, he would simply command Gwynn into silence for hours at a time. During these quiet hours, Jensen would say things to Gwynn as if he were speaking to different family members, both living and dead. Gwynn did not react to anything Jensen said. He couldn't. To complete the scenarios Jensen wished to live, he would command Gwynn to say all the words he wished to hear. "Thomas...today, you'll pretend to be Thomas, Gwynn. Here's our script. Recite these words after I say my lines. Don't stray. I want everything to be perfect." Jensen handed Gwynn script after script. He got a rush out of commanding Gwynn, and a bigger rush out of knowing Gwynn would not remember anything he did. Under that heady high, deep in the parts of his mind Jensen would never discuss with anyone, Jensen longed for Gwynn to kill him. Jensen was commanding Gwynn so often Gwynn was left constantly disoriented. He couldn't hold proper conversations or focus on anything for long. He would often be found quietly staring at walls. Alexander became concerned about Gwynn's sudden changes in behavior. He approached Jensen about it in private. "I trust you, Uncle, I really do, but I think you're burdening him too much. If you have so many needs, couldn't some of your tasks be given to someone else? I don't think poor Gwynn can handle it all by himself." Alexander said. He lowered his voice. "I pity him greatly. The two of you are the only ones who ever protected me. I've been thinking...I should free him. It isn't right to own a person." "I agree with you it isn't right, but at the moment, we need..." Jensen started to say. "Enough. I love you, but I won't have you work him to death. I'm going to speak with him tonight and set him free." Alexander stood tall before his uncle. "You won't persuade me out of this. We'll manage without needing slaves. I want you to free the other beasts we've captured." "I can't...I can't free them all. I need the firebird. It also has healing abilities. Please, let me keep at least that one." Jensen begged. Alexander clenched his fist. His shoulders dropped. With a heavy sigh, he said, "You may keep the bird." "What of my wound...if we free Gwynn..." "You don't need him for that. I know your secret about Jenny." Alexander said. "I commanded the information out of Gwynn. I am disappointed you kept that from me, but it matters not. Gwynn can be freed. And I will allow you to keep the bird. Do not command anything else of him today." Jensen bowed to his nephew. "As you wish." Alexander was dead within the hour. Jensen had Jennifer poison Alexander's coffee along with his wife's tea. Gwynn was passed down to Alexander's son, Thomas. Jensen took on the role of caring for Alice and Thomas. With leadership gifted back to a child once more, the cult was beginning to waiver in support. After the Civil War, they were already struggling to acquire new members. Various growing nearby protestant groups were siphoning off members into their churches. Others had been glamored by other occult-oriented groups and grifters, shifting from group to group at the slightest change in the wind. Forrest, the child of Alexander's Jensen disliked the most, had a suggestion. "Uncle, we're not winning right now with our spiritual beliefs. They're flocking to the churches because the churches have broader reach and far more power here. We need to gain more power first. Then more will come to us. I have an idea. Why don't we start a scientific research company? We can get money from the the government to fund us for whatever cause we pretend to care about. Through business, we can acquire more power. Then, we will use the business to control their thoughts." Jensen was impressed with Forrest's idea, though it made him dislike the man more. Forrest would make a great leader. Jensen needed to keep Thomas under his thumb and in control to maintain his own power. In 1890, a year after Alexander's death, Forrest founded Moone & Wolfe Corp. The name was chosen to honor the most recent two families of the original twenty who had died out. It was Jensen's idea to do so. He told Forrest it would appease the older members of the cult, but he had chosen the name to honor his former lover, Thomas. Thomas had been one of the last remaining members of the Wolfe family. Jensen also wanted his nephew Thomas to be co-founder of the company, but at the time, Forrest was twenty-two and Thomas was only fifteen. The company was founded as a medical research group. Copious amounts of tax payer dollars were showered on them. They opened hospitals and asylums. The asylums were Jensen's personal playground when he wasn't busy experimenting on the creatures they captured. The people of the United States cared little for those deemed mentally ill, and those who were perfectly healthy but admitted for other reasons such as wanting to take the person's property or being a woman who angered some man. He took often from the homeless and out of state travellers. No one noticed a bum going missing, nor prostitutes. The more Jensen looked around, the more bodies he found he could take without punishment. Having the backing of the federal and state governments for medical research made him even less likely to be questioned. To the newer members of the cult they recruited through the hospitals and asylums, he had an easy excuse for the most vile of experiments he conducted. They were bad bears. Things were going well for the first five years of the company's founding. Jensen began to travel more, trusting Thomas to be left to run things while Jensen investigated unusual claims in other states. He rarely returned home. He had discovered the firebird's pain relieving powers worked even if the meat was salted or cooked. He would only return to refill his supply of meat and check on the company. It was best if he was away for a while, he told Thomas and Forrest. It wouldn't be good for too many people to realize Jensen, his wife, and his daughter were not aging. He told them when he was done travelling, he would introduce himself as his own son. In December 1898, Jensen investigated a place that was now a ghost town. The old Blackwell Farms. Jensen had never been here before. This was where the cult was founded and the twenty families created their pact with one another when the colonies were under British rule. His ancestor, Leon Blackwell, had traveled from Europe with his family in hopes of regaining any power they could. From what Jensen had heard, long ago, his family once had a kingdom. Leon Blackwell himself had been named after one such king down their family line. Moving to the American colonies presented more challenges than opportunities. The Blackwells suffered frequent setbacks from crops they didn't know how to farm on unfamiliar land. Leon Blackwell concocted a plot with the Beaumonts to pretend a supernatural event had bestowed magic to them. Leon Blackwell convinced the rest of the families in town to give him all their land. In exchange for losing their land, the Beaumonts were given all the slaves currently owned by any of the twenty families and were allowed to work on all the lands acquired. The families became fully dependent on what the Beaumonts produced on the Blackwell land. In exchange for expanding their power over owning others, the Beaumonts allowed themselves to be completely subservient to the whims of the Blackwells. If they could not be number one, they would gladly maintain their position as number two within the twenty. As they recruited others to their cult, those outside the Blackwell family were given the total land of all new members each year. This served as an incentive to the newer members who lost their current land. They had nothing, but one day they would have much, much more if the goddess chose them. All the lands were abandoned when the families moved to the south to snatch up free Indian land. Jensen assumed others would have taken over, but the land was barren. No grass grew there. The river that once flowed through the land had dried up. All the old houses were in ruin, but no plants grew over them. Jensen had come to this abandoned place following a rumor that man-eater was in the area. Some of the rumors claimed it was an animal eating people, some claimed it was a cannibal, others saw a monster that was half-human, half-beast. Jensen expected a shapeshifter of some sort or a disturbed Indian to be the culprit. His leads often went nowhere. He presumed far more he would find an Indian than a beast. "Why here? There's nothing to eat here." Jensen wondered aloud. "Nothing? But you have come." A voice said from behind him. Jensen turned around. He saw a black deer larger than an elk or moose. The deer's fur was drenched in blood. It reeked of rotten meat and death. Jensen checked that his dragon hide cape was on well and his gloves. "Did you speak, Beast?" Jensen asked the deer. "You see a beast? So, those rings around your eyes are exactly what they appear to be." The deer walked over to him and gently pulled the glasses off Jensen's face. The deer now appeared as a man with long, wavy black hair. Antlers decorated the sides of his head, in the same shape but smaller as the ones he saw on the black deer. The black-haired man looked at the glasses. "Humans are disgusting. Did you eat the unicorn too?" "Not that one in particular. I have eaten ten of them." Jensen backed away slowly as the deer-man approached him. "You don't look like the old beasts of the new world. Are you from the old world?" "This world is only one age." The deer-man said. "I am older than the maps you've drawn. My birthplace is far from here, but I will not tell you where. I am going to eat you." "Why?" Jensen asked. "Perhaps, we could make a deal of some kind...I can get you plenty of people to eat." "I don't need your help to find meat. I don't care if I eat human or another animal. It's all the same. Live, dead, decaying." The deer-man looked around at the empty land. "I will not stay here for much longer. This place is cursed. You seem well suited to its barrenness. I wonder, are you cursed?" "In many ways." Jensen reached into his bag for his enchanted knife. "That won't kill me. I am older than that magic." The deer-man calmly unclasped Jensen's cape. He knocked Jensen to the ground and gently pulled off his gloves. The necklaces with protection amulets and control over various magical items were ripped one by one from Jensen's neck. The bag of items was tossed aside. Jensen tried to push the man off of him. The deer-man was much more powerful than he was. With no effort at all, he ripped Jensen's arm off. Jensen screamed. Unconsciously, he swatted at the black-haired man with his other arm and kicked. He could not free himself. The pain was a familiar one. Gwynn was far from him now. Jenny was back in the nearby town in a room at the inn he had rented for the week. There was no one around to hear him scream. Jensen couldn't stop the tears flowing out of him or the whimpering. The deer-man took Jensen's severed arm and ate it whole. The deer-man ripped open Jensen's shirt. He noticed right away the gaping wound. Without hesitation, he plunged his entire hand into the open wound. Jensen screamed so loudly his voice cracked. The deer-man felt around inside him, then pulled out a slim, long, black worm-like creature. He ate it. "Haven't seen one of those in a long time. I would've swore all of those beings were long extinct." The black-haired man wiped his bloodied hand on Jensen's face and chest. "I am surprised you're even alive. Those creatures, once they burrow into you and lay their eggs, the offspring typically devour the poor, unfortunate being alive. A young healer must've been keeping it from developing further. A more skilled one would have removed it from you. A young fairy, perhaps, or have you learned that skill yourself?" Jensen wanted to compose himself before the beast. He had made so many deals with ancient monsters before while in all manner of states of agony and fear. With this creature, he could not. He wet himself and sobbed. The black-haired man licked off the blood still on his hand. "This taste...is familiar...oh, you are quite cursed. I remember you now. Your ancestor made a deal with me long ago for power. I would've thought you lot would've definitely extincted yourselves by now, given the arrangement we made." Jensen was able to mutter softly. "A-a d-deal...?" "Long ago, when my father had me imprisoned in that cursed well for my crimes, a human man came to me wanting to make a deal. He wanted power and for the strongest in his family to always be in power no matter what. I was hungry, having not eaten much more than rats and other poor creatures that had the misfortune of falling into my well. I asked for one of his sons to eat. I granted his wish. But I'm not a kind person. My deal came with another sacrifice. That power would come at any cost. The most powerful would rule, no matter how many within their own family they had to kill to get that power." The black-haired man peeled off a portion of Jensen's skin and ate it. "How many have you killed so far?" "I don't know. Many..." Jensen admitted. He didn't know why he answered. The black-haired man picked up the dragon hide gloves and glasses made of unicorn horn. "How monstrous you've all become. You came here hoping to capture a creature and do something wicked, didn't you? How much of the world do you wish to control, human child?" Jensen reached up and grabbed one of the deer-man's antlers. "All of it." "You wish to swallow the world whole to satisfy your hunger for power. The people of this land have a name for you, but they dare not speak it." The black-haired man put his hand over Jensen's, then ripped it off. Jensen screamed again. He managed to ask, "Then what of you? What are you killing for?" "I have done something taboo, and my mind is lost. I wander causing destruction, because I cannot stop myself." The deer-man swallowed Jensen's hand. "I long for release from this addiction. I long for the one I loved most who I allowed to be destroyed. You have those longings too, don't you?" Jensen writhed on the ground. "Love is a useless emotion. There is no need to long for anyone. It only makes you easy to control. I will take it all. Then no one will have power over me." The black-haired man stepped on Jensen's knee until his leg snapped. His eyes were full of rage. "I won't finish you off today. No, I will eat no more of you. I curse you again. The next time we meet, I will watch something else devour you, something that has the same emptiness inside as you, and then I will devour whatever eats you. No matter what you do in your life from this moment on, there is nothing you can do to avoid this fate. I will watch your end, in all its long agony, and consume what consumes you. Say more, and I will curse your blood a third time." Jensen said nothing more to the man. The black-haired man walked on through the ghost town. The pain was so great Jensen couldn't feel anything anymore. He struggled to stay awake. There was no one who could help him. Even if he screamed as loud as he could, he was too far from any nearby town. No item he had on him could help. Desperate, Jensen could only think of one thing to try. He hoped the contract was strong enough for it to work. "Gwynn, help me." In a flash of light, the fairy appeared. With dull eyes, Gwynn silently worked to heal Jensen's injuries. He restored Jensen's body, aside from the injuries Gwynn could not heal before. He brought Jensen back to the inn where Jennifer and Jenny were. Once they returned, Gwynn briefly regained his senses. "A black deer?" Gwynn asked. Jensen undressed. "A man-eating deer. He reached inside my wound and pulled out something black. He said it was intending to eat me. Did you know that was there?" Gwynn nodded. "Yes. I could not remove it without killing you. My treatments were keeping it suspended. It was the only thing I had the power to do. He was able to remove it?" "Easily. Then, he ate it." Jensen stared at the wound. It looked smaller than before. The pain had dulled. "With it gone, shouldn't you be able to fully heal it back?" "No, not all at once. This magic is very old and powerful. I can only heal a little at a time. An ordinary human wouldn't likely live long enough for me to finish healing it. But, with that bird...I might be able to fully get rid of it one day." Gwynn was alarmed by what Jensen told him. He knew very well who Jensen must have encountered. There were few individuals who could do all of what Jensen told him with such magical abilities. Only one matched that appearance. "The scars on your arm and chest have faded some." Jensen pointed between his legs. "What about there? Do you think you could restore that?" "I'm not sure. It will likely be like with the other wounds. It will take time to gradually repair." Gwynn said. "Who was that deer-man? He's an old one, isn't he?" Jensen asked. Gwynn nodded. He carefully chose his words to not lie without fully telling the truth. "He would have to be. I cannot say for absolute certainty who he is without encountering him myself, but I can say the magic is within the domain of Life." "What does that mean?" Gwynn thought carefully on what he would allow Jensen to know. He wanted to give an answer Jensen would be intrigued and satisfied by, but would not leave room for Jensen to ask questions Gwynn did not want to answer. "There are many domains of energy within this world. But all fall within two greater domains, Life and Death. The one you encountered is of this power, despite the destructive behavior you saw. I am a healer. The magic I use is closely aligned with that, but the masters of that magic can heal any wound, create life through their hands, gift immortality, rearrange fate, and revive the dead. I am a novice in comparison. This person was a master. He chose to heal you slightly, and specifically to not heal you any further. I can tell the intentions in the magic." "He said he wanted to watch me die another time. That he cursed me." Jensen put his clothes back on. "Gift immortality...could you learn to do that?" "I don't know if I would ever be that skilled. That is an especially rare talent." Gwynn said. It was indeed rare. Gwynn, if he had been left to study on his own without being enslaved to the Blackwells, would likely have already mastered that ability by then. His magical contract locked his abilities at the skills he had when he was trapped. If the Blackwells had befriended him instead of enslaving him, he could have gifted them that in time. Gwynn changed the subject. "Your injuries should continue to heal a little bit more with each of my healing sessions." Jensen changed the subject back. "Do you know how I can find the identity of this deer man?" Gwynn looked away. "He could be very, very ancient. Even if you discover who he is, he likely has the power to ensure you will only ever find him should he allow you to. My advice to you would be to avoid him. Ones that old often think in ways that are strange to understand. If you did not offend him in that moment, it's possible he may have a connection to your bloodline. Perhaps, that is why he spared you. He might be mentioned in older records of your family's." "Older records...hmmm...But we don't have any records older than Leon Blackwell's diaries...I might have to go abroad for anything older than that." Jensen muttered to himself. He left the bedroom. In the other room, Jennifer was reading a medical textbook. Jenny sat beside her knitting a blanket. "We'll be leaving tomorrow. The two of you will return to the main lab to keep an eye on things. I have research I need to do back in the old lands." Jensen said. "Take the fairy back with you. Tell Thomas to avoid using his magic for a while." In the bedroom, the fairy wondered on what the meaning of the meeting between Jensen and that ancient one meant. Whatever the reason, it couldn't end well for Jensen. He couldn't dwell on it for long. His thoughts became hazy before he entered a state of emptiness. The following morning, Jensen parted with the rest of the group. He made his way to the coast, then boarded a ship. As America grew distant behind him, Jensen's body buzzed with excitement. He always enjoyed travelling through Europe. He was so busy with his familial manipulations and lab research, he didn't visit as often as he thought he should. When he arrived, the excitement of the trip got to him and he spent several weeks sightseeing. III. Jenny