Chapter 56: Gloom

  A thick, black sludge finished dripping from Erik’s hand, his skin was left clean without the black goo leaving a trace. The sludge pooled in on itself, somehow still growing despite no more mass being added to it, like a black jelly getting inflated.

  When it reached the approximate size of a medium-sized dog, it stopped growing but still wiggled and shook like jelly for a while more. White bubbles appeared from within the stuff, never leaving, but moving around sporadically. Two average-sized bubbles seemed to stop in Erik’s direction, and several more hurriedly approached the same spot inside the mass.

  Glom.

  “Gloom?” Erik asked, surprised.

  Another set of small bubbles formed close to the ‘eyes’ from before and merged before escaping the mass once more.

  Glom!

  The pitch was higher the second time, sounding more jubilant.

  “What’s Gloom?” Emma asked.

  “It’s my spirit! Or, well, it’s one of them. But how…” Erik started, then looked at the spirit more closely.

  “What?” Emma then asked.

  “It’s a copy! Or rather, a construct of the spirit. Nice!”

  “The same spirits you can see because you’re a ‘Titan’?” Angela asked.

  “Yeah, but just in my—” the Titan responded but froze mid-sentence.

  “And Jessie can’t because she’s a ‘Witch’?”

  “Err…” was all Erik could muster as his eyes rotated toward Angela in a slow manner.

  When had she found out? The only thing Erik and Jessie had divulged was that they were both magical beings, not that they weren’t even human anymore. Sophie knew Jessie was a witch because of their family history, but she didn’t know what that meant. She was a human witch, for all Sophie knew—Erik was likely the same, seeing that they had been in Afterlife together and could do much of the same magical stuff.

  The difference in their Core abilities could even explain the spirits Erik could see and talk with, as Jessie, too, could feel the spirits in their natural state. Erik believed not all Witches could sense them, and only Titans could see and talk to them. His spirits had said so, after all; the ability to interact with them had been lost when the Titan bloodline was diluted into the other Remnant species, like Witches.

  Did Angela know they weren’t even human anymore? Maybe she just overheard him and Jessie talk about it? In which case, she might think of it as more of a category than a species, like Sophie did. But what should he say? She seemed upset that they hadn’t divulged everything about themselves despite everything they had been through together—and she had every right to be. Keeping secrets among friends and allies was no better than lying outright, at least morally speaking. When had she found out, and why would she bring it up now, especially considering their guest and their military allies?

  “What have you heard?” Erik asked, his voice serious and his face grimacing.

  Emma, Sophie, and the rest all noticed the tension rising, but didn’t speak up. Even Roger had stopped mumbling.

  Glom.

  Gloom didn’t notice the tension at all.

  “I’m sorry for bringing it up like this, but I’ve been waiting for you two to tell us for some time now. Considering what we’re about to do tomorrow, I’d like it if everything was aired out,” Angela said.

  “What are you talking about?” Emma asked.

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  Erik was waiting for Angela to drop the bomb, telling him what she knew before saying anything himself. It was cowardly, and he knew he had to share everything with them, but judging by what Angela already knew, he might figure out when she found out, then see if her behaviour had changed since that time.

  “Erik and Jessie aren’t human,” Angela said after a deep breath. “Technically, I mean,” she added in case she needed to calm the rest.

  “What do you mean?” Sophie asked.

  “I’m sorry, everyone. Please, let me explain,” Erik said, resigning himself to his fate.

  He then told his and Jessie’s actual story of rebirth.

  “—meaning, technically, I am not human, but a ‘Titan’.”

  “And Jessie is a Witch? Which isn’t a different culture or another race, but a different species?” Emma asked.

  “It’s a bit complex, but I suppose so. Elves are real, but elves can also be Remnant Witches—the same species as Jessie—but still look elven, like Jessie looks human now. The thing is, we don’t know much more than you at this point. My poor explanation of everything is not for lack of trying, I promise you that.”

  “You died in a fire, didn’t you? The police must have found your body, so you aren’t in your old body right now. Your current human-looking body could be just a mental reflection of yourself. Either that, or it’s a Goa’uld-like situation, but no, that doesn’t make as much sense. Android? Why fake it though? I feel like we keep coming back to the mental reflection hypothesis no matter which avenue we go down. If we could test your blood, we might see how your blood looks in relation to a normal human, but—”

  “Hey, Roger?” Erik interrupted.

  “Yes?” the minute man asked, catching his breath.

  “Welcome back, buddy. How are you feeling?”

  “Oh, very well, thank you. I must say, if you’d allow me to experiment—I mean, research your…condition…I’d be ever so grateful, Mr Fried,” Roger said, almost bowing by the end.

  “Roger, please relax. Call me Erik. And no, I don’t think so. The reason we’ve been keeping mum about all this magic stuff is that we don’t want to be lab animals. We’re stopping this war, and then we’ll go straight into hiding.”

  “Of course, I didn’t mean…Sorry.”

  “What’s a Titan, anyway?” Sophie asked.

  “In Greek mythology, I think, they were the first gods, meaning before the Olympian gods most of us know. Cronus or Cronos or something was Zeus’ father, I think, who was the one to defeat him. This is just ancient memories from school or something, mind you,” said Angela.

  “Yeah, that’s the gist of what I know as well. Not sure if they're the same kind of Titans, but the ‘first gods’ and the ‘first people’ does seem like more than a coinkydink, don’t you think?” Erik said.

  “Supposedly, even the Titans were created by primordial gods, though the primordial ones are more like concepts than beings, like Love and the Underworld. I believe it was Gaea and Uranus who made the Titans, the primordial gods of the earth and the sky. It might just as well be the same kind of Titans from Greek mythology, but what then of these other Remnants, like Witches? What are they?”

  Roger paced back and forth, never minding the people he was lecturing. He continued:

  “Based on what you’re saying, and I’m just theorising here, these other Remnants were what—maybe indirectly—brought the decline of the Titans. In that case, the other Remnants would be the Olympian gods, at least if we keep to Greek mythology. What irks me about that is that I haven’t seen mention of the gods themselves being ‘witches’ or anything else other than ‘gods’. And if all this is true, why stop at Greek mythology? What of the Roman gods, the Norse? What if—”

  “Hey, Roger?” Erik interrupted another verbal onslaught.

  “Yes, Erik?” Roger asked, taking another breath.

  “In your place of work, are you considered a ranter, by any chance?”

  “Not particularly, no. Why do you ask?” asked Roger, his face neutral except for the slight curiosity glistening in his eyes.

  “Just asking.”

  Erik was sitting on a black chair with two armrests and a moving backrest and seemed to sit in a comfort somewhat higher than the other plastic chairs available; the back of his chair tilted backwards in a resting position.

  “Where did you get that chair?” Angela asked. Just then, white bubbles moved through one armrest.

  “All this talk is because I wanted to try out my new power, so that’s what I’m doing. Carry on as you please,” he responded.

  Glom!

  “So, how are you all feeling about this? I know it can’t be easy learning about all this stuff, which is why both me and Jessie decided not to say anything about it. In the end, it shouldn’t even matter, because we’re still the same. I met all of you after the fact, so it shouldn’t change anything,” Erik said, but frowned. “Now, ‘should’ doesn’t change the fact that it does. I am sorry for keeping this from you. Truly. I hope it doesn’t change anything, and so does Jessie. We still consider ourselves human, after all.”

  “I’ve known for a while, though I have been light on the details. You’re a magical being; you haven’t hidden that from us. I agree that categorising you and Jessie even more is unnecessary. I just wanted everyone to be on the same page,” Angela explained. Erik nodded in response, gesturing that it was okay.

  “I don’t really care,” Emma said, and didn’t seem to have more to add.

  “It is a bit weird, I won’t lie…But I don’t think it changes anything,” Sophie said after having a short time to think. She smiled at Erik.

  “Well, we are under attack from a demon dog army, I don’t see why this should change our current relationship,” said Bumley, receiving a nod of agreement from his two officers.

  “Thank you, everyone. Sorry for hiding this from you.”

  Glo-om.