WEBVTT - CZM Book Club: The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion: Part Two 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:02.880 Whole Zone Media. 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:10.559 It's a book club. It's a Cool Zone book club. 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:14.680 That's that's our jingle. Now it'll definitely take to the. 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:18.240 Cool Zone book Club. Our motto is the stories are 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:19.200 better than the jingle. 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:23.239 That is our motto. We both got a tattooed. It 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:24.639 was it's our friendship tattoo. 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:30.200 Yeah. I got mine tattooed directly on my face. Yeah, yeah, 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:30.840 which is weird. 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:33.680 It's actually you got a tattooed before we agreed to 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:35.400 do the book club. 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:40.480 Uh huh, yeah, I I yeah, there were there were 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:42.960 a lot of reasons for that, but at the end 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:45.199 of the day, I just wanted to be impossible to 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.240 hire again for like a straight job. 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:51.320 That was actually that was part of my decision when 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:52.240 I got hand tattooed. 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:54.600 That's actually that is why I got hand tattoos. It's 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:58.040 like I finally, I had always told myself at some point, 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:00.920 if I ever feel secure in my career, I want 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:03.160 to get a tattoo that makes me unable to like 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.800 work a straight job again. And the irony is that, like, 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:08.920 over the course of time that it took me to 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:11.720 reach that point in my career, we hit a period 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.679 a level of tattoo acceptance in society where it's like 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.640 I actually don't think any degree of tattoos makes you 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.480 ue hirable now as long as they're not like Nazis shit. 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:24.120 Yeah yeah, because like I see people I go, I 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:26.520 can go into a fucking bank to like starting to 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:28.640 count and see somebody with a hand tattooed. 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.640 Yeah, no, totally, totally. Well, it's like I used to 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:34.840 tell people that I would get a face tattoo once 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:37.319 I was a New York Times bestselling author, because at 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.600 that point I had reached all of the level of 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.920 clout that society has to offer a writer, So what 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.119 do I have to lose? But since then, what face 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:52.640 tattoos mean have changed dramatically in terms of their level 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.600 of acceptance. Maybe it's for the best. I don't know 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:57.240 what I would get, that's the real thing. 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:00.840 Yeah, I mean, it's it's one of those like we 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:03.760 spend so much time, for good reasons, focusing on, like 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:07.160 you know, the shit that reactionaries are constantly trying to 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:09.960 push back against, but like low key, Like when I 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:12.519 was like nineteen or twenty, one of my good friends 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:18.399 was like a tattoo acceptance activist, Like she she was 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:21.200 like the first really heavily tattooed person and was like 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:25.200 fighting like legal cases against like wrongful dismissal for getting tattooed, 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:29.720 and like that's just not a social issue anymore. Like no, 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:33.280 like there, I can't imagine anyone being like I'm standing 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:35.280 up for the rights of the tattooed because it just 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:39.360 has become like I'll walk across like seventy year olds 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:42.480 who have like fucking sleeves and shit these days, like 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:46.160 it's wild how it happened in like five years, just 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:49.840 like went from I don't know, some sometimes shit like 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.120 that hits a tipping point. Pot was kind of the 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:55.560 same way where like one day all of the adults 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:57.240 in my life were like I remember when I got 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.160 my first tattoo, and my mom was like, you know, 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:02.600 that's closing down some options for you. And then you 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.400 know the same thing with pot where it used to 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:07.679 be such a serious thing, and then like all of 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:09.920 the old people I know are like buying weed and 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:11.320 smuggling it into Texas. 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:19.480 Yeah, well, you know what else is wild is fiction 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:24.200 is stories is so this is the cool Zone book 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.000 club and every week if you're just tuning in now, 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:29.400 I recommend going back and listening to last weeks, although 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:30.920 you're not going to always have to do this, but 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:34.160 we're going to do some series. Every Sunday, I'm going 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:36.160 to read a story or someone's going to read a 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.560 story to me, and it'll mostly be speculative fiction. It'll 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:42.160 mostly be stuff that relates to the themes of it 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:44.800 could happen here show. But it's just stories that we 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:47.440 think that you all would enjoy or that you all 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.840 ought to hear. And the first one that we're opening 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.440 with is my novella, a novella called The Lamos Slaughter 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.920 or The Lion, which is a it's technically horror, which 0:03:57.920 --> 0:03:59.760 I didn't realize when I wrote it that I was 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:02.200 a horror book. And I say this sometimes on the 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.800 Internet and people are like, chapter two begins with a 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.800 deer killing a man and ripping his heart out in 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:11.360 front of a crowd of undead animals. I'm like, yeah, 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.600 but I didn't think about it as horror. Anyway. That's 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:17.880 the story we're starting with, and I've just spoiled part 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:20.400 of it because this is going to be chapters three 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:22.279 and four that you're hearing today. It's going to be 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:25.000 four episodes as an eight chapter book because it's a novella, 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:30.719 which is shorter than a novel. And where we last 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:34.360 left our heroes, Danielle Caine had just come to Freedom, 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:39.000 Iowa looking for information about why her friend Clay, who 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:42.960 had lived in Freedom, Iowa, had later killed himself, only 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:45.680 to discover that magic is real, and it is very, 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:51.160 very scary, and a man named Anchor has now died. 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:56.360 Chapter three. I zipped up my hoodie when I stepped outside. 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.040 It's amazing how fast a hot June day gets chilly 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:02.359 with the sun gone. One hundred people or more overflowed 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:05.560 the patio and onto the grass, bearing torches or stabs, 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.200 or holding empty hands at their sides. A few faces 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.360 were bare, others bore ski masks or bandana masks, or 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:16.640 homemade bird masks or bank robbing style bright plastic animal masks. 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:19.560 It was so quiet. I could hear the toads from 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:22.080 the river. It was so quiet. I could hear the 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.200 oil and the torches burning. It was so quiet I 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.080 couldn't help but mistake every shuffled foot for the lungless 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:30.360 rasp of one of those demon creatures I knew were 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:34.880 lurking somewhere. None of that could shock me. Nothing could 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:39.719 shock me. Six ski masked figures hoisted a pine coffin 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:42.440 to their shoulders, because apparently I was in the kind 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.640 of squatted town where people have pine coffins lying around 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:48.560 in case someone gets murdered by the local pet demon. 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:53.960 I recognized Doomsday by her tattooed hands. She was a pallbearer. 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:57.720 A hand touched the center of my back and startled. 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:00.840 I jumped for a moment. All those strange hidden faces 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:03.240 turned to look at me, and some gazes lingered for 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:08.240 far too long. Sorry, Vulture, whispered in my ear. He 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.839 was unmasked, as was Britn. When the pallbearers left for 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.240 the street and the crowd followed, those two walked with 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:18.719 me alongside me, flanking me like guards escorting a prisoner, 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:24.080 or you know, like friends trying to comfort someone. In 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:26.800 that strange procession, I got a chance to see more 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:30.000 of both the town and its denizens. Though the landscape 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:32.920 was masked by darkness and the people were just masked. 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.760 Torchlight and the realization that magic exists in the world 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:40.320 lent a beauty even to those mass manufactured Midwest houses. 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:45.520 Every single one might be holding mysteries beyond imagining, most 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:48.520 presumably just housed the punks and hippies and widows who 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:52.680 surrounded me. A handsome small man in overalls and a 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:54.640 ball cap joined us at the back of the march, 0:06:55.040 --> 0:07:00.159 and Vulture whispered in introduction, Danielle, meet Kestrel, my partner. 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:03.760 But Kestrel, after shaking my hand and holding Vulture for 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.680 a moment, ducked back into the crowd. I didn't have 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:09.560 a chance to really get a first impression of him. 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:12.560 We wound our way up the hillside, passed a half 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:15.640 collapsed school and its attendance sport field and a rusted 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.520 hulk of a yellow school bus. Passed a burnt out 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.880 post office, passed a fire station that was clearly lived in. 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:26.160 The only electric light I saw shown inside a small grocery, 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.520 which was lit up by its bank of fluorescence. The 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:33.480 place was filled with furniture, tools, and food, well lettered 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.040 and red and yellow. Along the facade were the words 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:40.920 everything for everyone. A folding sidewalk sign out front read 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:46.080 a free market shouldn't mean everything is free. We continued 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:48.480 past the coffin leading the way, A few of us 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:51.880 straggling behind the crowd just after the market, a few 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.280 abandoned lots were filled with spires and mounds and bare saplings. 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:58.600 When the procession turned off the main road and we 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:02.000 wound our way along c plywood paths, I recognized a 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:06.720 permaculture garden. The spires were stacked tires, presumably packed with 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:11.040 dirt and growing potatoes. The mounds were like long barrow graves, 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:14.960 but they were likely hugeo monds, each built around dead 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.920 logs designed to break down into raised beds for gardens. 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:21.760 Several vegetable beds were marked off and showed a wide 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:25.440 variety to harvest in the coming months, spinach and beans, 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:30.800 cauliflower and spring onion, penelin peas. The spinly young trees 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.680 were newly transplanted and likely had yet to bear fruit. 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:37.400 We kept walking, and as the path turned back over 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.320 on to itself and spiraled through the field, it left 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:42.320 me dizzy with the fire in the air and the 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.640 magic I'd seen, and the strangeness of the place. The 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:49.280 garden went on forever. I was walking forever, trying as 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.200 hard as I could to keep myself grounded, keep myself 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:57.319 focused the ground beneath my feet. At last we reached 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:00.360 the tree line. The trees were my agor younger, still 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.920 threatened by their undergrowth, between us and the forest, and 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.560 the liminal space at the edge of the garden. Four 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:10.560 wooden posts marked four graves. A fifth grave sat empty. 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:15.960 Whispers began to break the ceremonial silence. I made my 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.679 way to the grave posts ornately carved and oiled stakes 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.439 about as high as my waist, with lettering running down 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:29.840 their lengths. Daniel Rojas, Benjamin, Philth Simmons, Danielle Keeler, Desmond Smith. 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:33.520 Daniel's name was followed by what I presumed was his 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:38.559 name in Mayan pictographic script, Benjamin's by Norse ruins, Danielle's 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:43.480 by Irish ogum Daniel and Danielle. Half the graves in 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:46.640 Freedom Iowa bore a version of my name. What a 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:52.520 fun coincidence, What a great evening I was having A hush, 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:55.280 went over the crowd once more, and the pallbearers set 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:58.760 the coffin upright in front of the empty grave. There 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:02.520 was no lid an the anchor's naked corpse faced the crowd. 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:06.360 Loving hands had cleaned and stitched his wounds, and while 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:09.360 his chest was mangled and his ribs were broken, He 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:11.480 was not so horrific to look at as I would 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:16.680 have expected. Four pallbearers climbed down into the grave. One 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:19.199 masked man was tall enough that his head was still visible, 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:22.560 but Doomsday and the others were lost to sight. The 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:25.640 remaining pallbearers eased Anchor from the coffin and into the 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.280 waiting hands of those below, and he was set gingerly 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:33.600 into the grave. He was to be buried naked, without 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:37.280 chemicals or fiberglass or steel, or even the pine box, 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:43.400 but not without ceremony, not without love. The crowd helped 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:46.800 the four grave attendants climb out, and townspeople lined up 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:50.800 to put handfuls of soil into the grave. Still no 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:55.240 word had been spoken. Wildflowers had taken over the oldest 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:59.800 grave nearby. Clay was buried somewhere outside Denver and a 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:04.480 mind anecured field adorned only with cut flowers slowly rotting 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:08.840 in a fiberglass box. Maybe he belonged here where the 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:11.680 weeds in the wild could grow over his body, where 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:13.720 he could feed the soil that fed the people who'd 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:17.400 known him. Or maybe he was better off where his 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:23.240 mother could visit. Anchor named himself better than anyone I've 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.160 ever met, Thursday said, standing at the foot of the grave, 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.719 alongside the now empty coffin. I know he picked the 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:32.400 name because he'd spent so long as a sailor, but 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:34.640 he kept us grounded into the bedrock of both the 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:38.520 land and our collectivist ideals. I don't know that there's 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:40.960 one person here who would live in freedom right now 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:46.040 if it weren't for Anchor's work as a mediator, A facilitator. Sure, 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:50.679 more than that, his work is a friend. No one 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.440 is perfect, but as far as I can tell, Anchor 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:55.640 got all that being imperfect out of his system when 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.240 he was younger, before half of us were born. The 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:01.840 world is darker for me now, and it will be 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.480 from now until someday when I join him buried here 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:08.720 in the black earth of freedom. The masks were off 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:13.640 and I saw faces hung down in silent prayer. Anchor's 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:16.800 death was needless, and there's no ignoring that what he 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:20.920 made we should unmake. What he summoned, we should unsummon. 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:25.559 We'll get by on our own. Thursday shuffled back into 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:29.520 the crowd and into Doomsday's embrace, and he started sobbing. 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:33.480 A stranger went up one of the tallest men I'd 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:36.280 ever seen, the pallbearer who had stood head and shoulders 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:39.360 above the edge of the grave. His arms were freckled 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.160 from the sun, and torchlight glittered on the studs of 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:45.280 his punk vest. He had an easy charm to him, 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.439 the kind of easy charm that raises red flags and 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:51.960 anyone who's known a lot of handsome, entitled men, Anchor 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:53.839 was more a father to me than my pops was. 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:56.400 He said, I guess that's not saying much as it. 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:00.080 A few people chuckled at that, but I don't I 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.000 think it's right to sugarcoat any of this. People ain't perfect. 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:06.040 I'm not perfect. None of you all is perfect. We 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:08.679 do bad things, people do bad things. We do good 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.240 things too, but you don't get props for not hurting people. 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.360 It's the bad things we do that define us. I 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:16.440 don't know what bad thing Anchor did, but I know 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.960 it was something beside me. Vulter's jaw had dropped as 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:23.560 far open as it could without falling right off, and 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:25.640 he kept breathing in short little breaths, like he was 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:28.960 about to speak about to interrupt the man. Instead, he 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:33.880 started walking toward him. People ain't perfect. But Anchor and 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:37.679 Clay and Rebecca and Doomsday they found something that is. 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:40.760 They pulled Ulyxe right out of the river, and Eulyxe 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:44.520 knows right from wrong. Eulyixe hurts. Predator's end of story 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:48.319 hurts people who prey on people. Anchor knew that when 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:50.400 he cut open his palm to bring an endless spirit 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:53.439 up from the river, and we know it now. If 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.040 we want to respect Anchor, then let's respect the best 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:58.440 thing he ever did for the world, even if it 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:03.000 killed him. Chaos reigned for a moment as everyone jostled 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:05.160 to replace the tall man. As he left the head 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:08.400 of the grave, an elderly Chicano woman raised her hands 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.920 and let out a short, wordless shout, and order was restored. 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:14.679 She looked at the line and pointed to Vulture as 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:18.800 next to speak. A year ago, there were only three 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:20.400 people in this town. Who do you have even heard of? 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:23.320 Endless spirits? Vulture said, Two of them are dead, and 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:26.680 the third one Rebecca. She's off living in the woods, 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:28.720 and I bet she doesn't even know what's happened yet. 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:32.400 Eric Talis, Fuck, You're my partner's best friend, and I've 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:35.240 got nothing for respect for you, and the best way 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:37.440 I can think right now to show you that respect 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:39.240 is to tell you that you're a terrible person and 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:43.840 you deserve to die. The hell Eric Talis fuck knew 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:47.440 how to roar what It doesn't feel nice when someone 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:49.480 feigns respect for you while telling you that you should 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:53.400 be dead. Then shut the fuck up about Anchor. Vulture 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:56.560 then looked at the grave. Anchor, I loved you, You're 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:59.160 great and will stop the evil demon. That probably wasn't 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:01.760 an evil demon when you summoned it, but maybe it was, 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:03.840 and it definitely is now, and maybe you shouldn't have 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:08.080 summoned it. What the hell is going on, I asked, Bryn. 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:13.080 Everything's about to go to shit, she said. She strode 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:15.560 into the crowd to join the argument, leaving me alone 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:19.520 at the edge of the forest. She was right, Everything 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:24.720 went to shit In the end. Both sides or and 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:27.200 against the murder of a man by an immortal deer 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:31.160 fell to accusing the other of disrupting the funeral, and 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:34.080 the small faction of would be mediators managed to interject. 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:37.240 They proposed the problem should be addressed in the morning 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:41.680 at a general assembly, and the town agreed. It almost 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.880 came to blows. It wouldn't have been my fight, but 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:47.240 I probably would have acted to protect at least Vulture 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:50.600 in Bryn, if not the days I fingered the armament 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:52.680 on my belt, glad I didn't need to use it. 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.680 With nothing left to say, half the crowd dispersed, while 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:00.160 some people stayed to pay their respects to anchor of 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:03.880 women in paper mache masks took turns with sledgehammers, driving 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:06.680 a memorial stake into the earth like railroad workers setting 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:10.640 a tie. I didn't notice Eric until he was right 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:14.080 next to me, looming over me. You must be Danny Kane, 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:18.480 he said. I didn't correct him. How'd you know Clay 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:22.560 used to talk about you, he said. I nodded. Listen, Danny, 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:24.960 you showed up on a pretty weird day. This isn't 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.040 exactly us at our best. He was doing that thing 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:30.200 where he used my name in sentences to try to 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.520 charm me. Since I hated the name Danny. It wasn't working. 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.440 Clay trusted you, so I'm going to trust you. If 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:39.320 you want to know what's really going on, Let's go 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:48.920 for a walk or something. I looked around for Vulture 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.400 and Brin, but they were gone. Even the days were 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:54.200 nowhere to be seen. I could find my way back 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:56.680 to the house, sure, but it was hard to imagine 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:59.080 someone so callous as to leave a newcomer alone on 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:03.200 a night like that. On a whim, I went with him. 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.080 I could always stab him if he tried anything. After all, 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.879 we stopped in the everything for everyone. A few townspeople 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:13.840 were there, filling baskets with potatoes and carrots and greens 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:17.679 breakfast foods. Mostly the place was a bizarre mix of 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:22.680 grocery and thrift store, without cash registers or clerks. Near 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:25.520 the front, a refrigerated stand held fresh bottled juice and 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:29.439 homemade sandwiches. Someone had written take one if you're hungry, 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:32.359 with sharpie on the shelf. I took a bottle of 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:35.760 green juice. The same person, with the same handwriting had 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:41.200 carved returned me when empty, asshole into the glass. Eric, 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:44.520 for his part, grabbed a juice box from a stand nearby, 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:49.119 labeled prepackaged snacks. Please don't hoard. Simple as that. We 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:53.119 walked out the door. No money, no accounting, no ration cards, nothing, 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:57.639 trust alone. I'd found a town that worked on trust alone. 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:01.000 We walked another two blocks to the school yard, and 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:05.199 Eric strode off towards the playground. I followed him. I 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:07.960 didn't open my juice because that took both hands, and 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:10.359 I don't follow strange men as the darkness without at 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:13.879 least one hand free for fighting. We sat at a 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:16.720 picnic table lit only by the moon, and Eric sensed 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:19.680 my discomfort and set several feet away on the opposite bench. 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:23.480 I opened the juice and the smell of celery and 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:26.840 apple and ginger rose up. I took a sip. It 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.080 was delicious. You know why we get to have things 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.800 like this, he asked, poking the plastic straw through the 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:36.840 top of his juice box. A combination of dumpster diving, 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:41.359 farming and food bank handouts, I asked, Because no one 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.359 has any authority over anyone else, he said, ignoring my 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:48.280 literal answer, Because no one is trying to accumulate material goods, 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:52.119 political sway, or even social capital a wheeled against anyone else. 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.840 All right, I said, it was, I admit the world 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:00.359 I wanted to see. People always say anarchy can't work 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:03.160 because you can't trust people to rule themselves, to which 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:05.560 I've always said, if people are as untrustworthy as that, 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.000 how do you trust them? To rule one another. You can't. 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:11.800 I had already figured I was older than the fellow, 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:14.560 but I realized by now just by how much. It 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:16.840 Wasn't that I disagreed with what he just said, but 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:18.439 there was something in the way that he said it, 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:23.080 something in his tone or his uncynical platitudes. I believed 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:29.480 in anarchism, Eric, he believed you, Lyxe. We can trust 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.720 you Lyxe. I know this sounds crazy, but he doesn't 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:35.640 crave power. He doesn't have wants or needs. He just is. 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:38.640 He is the power of the people to strike down 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:42.760 anyone who takes power over the defenseless. He is that power, manifest, 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:47.000 that power incarnate in the flesh. A figure was crossing 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.840 the field toward us, and I've shifted in my seat 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.840 so I could see it and Eric both. So your argument, 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:56.960 I said, is that man Anchor, the one whose heart 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:00.000 I just saw ripped out of his chest, did something terrible. 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:05.840 He had it coming. Is that so hard to believe it? 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:08.840 It wasn't. Not really. I'd lost track of the people 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.760 in my life who'd committed horrible acts, of people who'd 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.680 stolen from the hungry and desperate, of the men who 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:18.760 fine in company were monsters to me when alone Anchor, 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:22.040 I didn't know him at all. What do you think 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:26.520 he did? I asked, I don't know. Eric said, I've 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:29.919 got my suspicions, the silhouette said as it approached the table. 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:35.280 Close up it was Kestrel, Falter's partner. He sat down 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:37.080 on my side of the bench, much closer to me 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:41.840 than Eric Clay's gone, been gone. He said before that 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:45.320 he was fighting with Anchor. They broke up on rough terms. 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:48.320 Neither one would talk about it. Anchor spent more time 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:52.080 with the days after that, with Doomsday. I don't trust her. 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:56.200 Kestrel lit a cigarette, took dramatic pauses to suck in 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:58.959 smoke like he thought he was in a movie. They 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:02.879 were both ridiculous, which didn't mean they were wrong, but 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:06.760 they were both ridiculous. We know Eulixe only has power 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:10.240 when the sun's up, Kestrel continued, He's comatose or whatever 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.560 at night. We also know he was summoned on summer solstice, 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:16.320 and I'd bet Freedom Iowa on it that he can 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:20.360 only be dismissed on the solstice too. You think Eulixe 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:24.440 is killing his summoners and self defense Eulixe doesn't act 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:28.600 in self defense. Eric said, no, Kestrel said, taking a drag. 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.080 I think Eulixe killed Anchor because I think Anchor and 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:34.520 Doomsday were going to dismiss him in order to summon 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:39.200 something worse, something that would let them take power. All right, 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:41.960 I said, why are you talking to me? Then? What 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:45.560 do you want from me? I'm not gonna say that. 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:47.680 I can't think of ways you can help. Eric said, 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:50.160 but I'm talking to you because I saw you talking 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:52.840 with them, and I wanted to warn you. You're new 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:57.320 in town. Everyone loves fresh meat. More than that. Everyone 0:21:57.359 --> 0:21:59.920 knows you knew Clay. For someone who's trying to take 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:05.320 some like Doomsday, that means your social capital. Aren't you 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:10.000 Vulture's partner? I asked Kestrel. It's been rough since Clay left. 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:13.600 Kestrel said that house clicked up tight, got more secretive. 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:17.200 Vulture has been more distant and after tonight, after tonight, 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:19.480 I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:22.439 with me and him. He lit a second cigarette at 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:24.879 the end of the first one. He wasn't smoking as 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:28.040 an affectation. He was smoking because he was scared. As 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:31.120 hell and trying to keep his cool. What's your plan, 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:35.320 I asked, I don't know, Eric said, then he thought 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:39.080 that over, no, I know what my plan is. I'm 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:41.320 just not going to tell you right now. I don't 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:43.399 know that I can trust you, but I'll tell you 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:47.439