Page Turners

Page Turners - Chapter 3 [Page 34] - An Od Request

Od courteously waited for Charlize to stop her hysterical laughter. The girl sitting next to her had a joyous smile plastered across her face watching Charlize laugh. It was the first time since they had met that Charlize had shown any real sense of positive emotion, reassuring her, if only a little, that staying together was the right choice, for now.

“You seem to be having a great time at my expense, but I would really like to get down to business if you don’t mind. I presume you weren’t the only one to get my request. Though I had no doubt you’d be the first to make it here, I guess there is at least a Bookwyrm or two still on their way? We really should wrap this up as quickly as we can,” said Od, rubbing the remnants of crust from his drowsy eyes.

Charlize wiped the tears from her eyes before replying, “Don't worry, this won’t last long at all. Maybe one of them can help you. I’m done. Girl, we’re going,” said Charlize, still catching her breath.

“Woah, hold on a sec. You’re as prickly as they say, huh? How about you humor me for a moment? Do you really think I would be so stupid as to summon someone like yourself here without a real job? I may not be a Bookwyrm, but I am a rather accomplished Page Turner.”

“Accomplished according to whose standard?” asked Charlize, her face hard and seemingly incapable of the laughter it had just produced.

“Listen, my proposal is real. Now, we both know you wouldn’t be here unless you wanted the reward. I respect you, Charlize, I truly do. And because of that, I’ll be direct: listen or leave. Your choice.”

“Then I will listen until it’s time to leave.”

“Great! First things first, the girl needs to go.”

“No, the girl stays,” she says without hesitation.

The girl's eyes gave Charlize an unreturned look. She was quite shocked to see her jump to her defense so quickly and once again felt reassured in her decision to stay. But Od was scaring her. He had barely glanced at her since she entered the building and was agitated by her presence. There was an intentional venom to his words, and she felt their sting.

“I’m not paying to have stragglers dragging us down.”

“You’re paying to have the job done, nothing more. And so far, you’ve yet to convince me that you’re even being serious.”

“I’m fucking serious!” Od replied, slamming a fist on the table.

Charlize stood up from her seat. “And I don't need to say those words aloud for you to know I am. Come on, enough with this clown. We’re going.”

“Wait! For fuck's sake, wait. Fine, the girl can tag along. As long as you promise she won’t slow us down?”

Charlize returned to her seat but didn’t answer. She waited for him to continue, but he was distracted. For some reason, he was now staring at the girl. His deep brown eyes gleamed with a wetness as they locked onto her. It was like he was mesmerized, as if he had completely lost himself in the girl's visage. She was visibly becoming uncomfortable under his gaze, as was Charlize, who snapped her fingers to successfully regain his attention.

For the rest of the meeting, he continued as if the girl didn’t even exist.

“Like I said, I want to kill God.”

“Yes, I heard that part. I just missed the bit where you explain how you intend to complete this impossible task. I hope you don’t think I have an answer for you?”

“No, no, I’ve got it all figured out. Mostly. The mechanism to achieve my goal is the same one I’ll use to provide you with the promised reward.”

“Let me guess, a Creation?” Charlize asked, unexcited.

“Ding-ding-ding! We have a winner!” replied Od, his hand gestures matching the rhythm of his words.

“No Creation can do what you're claiming. This really is a waste of my time.”

“Well, that’s surprising. I heard you were one of the best, figured you’d know better than that.”

“Excuse me?” she said, knitting her brow.

“If you already know that a Creation is a thing not created by God, then you know they exist beyond God’s realm. Which means, by their very nature, Creations can achieve the impossible.”

“Yes, in theory. Theoretically, they can do anything. That doesn't mean they can.”

“Oh, poor Charlize. You are most certainly old and wise. But you're neither eternal nor all-knowing. You’ve seen a lot, but you ain’t seen it all,” he responded with a grin.

“Then show me something I haven’t seen.”

“Gladly. But not here. Let’s head to the next forest over. Get some privacy.”

“No. Before we move, I want you to remove the summons on the thread you put out. The stunt you pulled back on 33 sent out an indiscriminate message across the entire Page. I don’t want any other Bookwyrms interfering while we conduct business.”

“Impressive, right? Took me a long time to weave each piece of String and program them to seek out competent Bookwyrms. Took a bloody long time."

"I'm sure it did. What you did was simple but effective, and certainly required a lot of determination and time. You're clearly no novice. Now, the summons," commanded Charlize.

"Of course, no problem,” Od smirked, then snapped his fingers. “Are we good?”

Charlize checked her button—the thread had vanished. “We’re good.”

“Then off we trot!”

Charlize insisted Od walk ahead of them as they moved across the blue field to the next forest. He was waffling about how he'd been waiting in that village for years and how they refused to let him make his camp, insisting that temporary guests sleep outside. His hands flailed side to side as he talked, swinging his decorative bag all the way.

Charlize paid him no mind, instead keeping a vigilant eye on him, still cautious of his intent. She turned to the girl and gave her a gentle pat on the head followed by a soft smile. The girl looked up at her, returning the smile, and took a step closer.

Charlize questioned why she did that—if she was still manipulating the girl or if it was something more genuine.

Before she had a chance to analyze her thoughts, they had passed through several rows of trees and arrived in a clearing. Charlize stopped, and the girl followed suit, while Od took a few steps ahead and then turned to face them.

“I want you to look in my bag, Charlize,” Od said with a trickster's grin.

Charlize stepped in front of the girl and whipped her arms behind her with force. Her palms faced up and formed loose claws, her fingertips ready to weave threads of Seam into String—the trained fighting stance for weaving Seam.

“Woah, Nelly! Relax. Fuck me, you’re highly strung. No pun intended—or was it?” he responded with his arms in the air, still smiling.

“Enough with the games already. Why don’t you tell me what it’s called first?”

“You know I can’t do that. Look, these tests aren’t necessary.”

“Why? Why can’t you tell me?”

Od sighed and shook his head, lowering his arms to clutch his bag. “Seriously? Fine. I can’t tell you the name until you’ve seen it, and I can’t tell you how I got it until I tell you the name. Do I pass?”

“You do. But I still don’t trust you.”

“Well, obviously. But now you know I’m not a fool. And let me be clear, I don’t trust you either. I don’t doubt what I’ve heard about your abilities—too many stories. But I don’t know you. And when you rock up to a meeting with a mysterious young girl, I gotta say, it seems pretty suspicious. Taking two jobs at once is plain bad etiquette, and you don’t seem the type,” he paused to adjust his flat cap, “You may be my senior, you may even be the best Bookwyrm that ever turned a Page, but you ain’t one of a kind. What I’m offering, what I plan to do? One of one. The only problem now is proving my lofty claims. And for that to be resolved, you need to look in the bag.”

Charlize glanced at the girl behind her. On the outside, she was as stoic as always, but inside, she was in hysterics. He was right, of course he was. She’d already signed on to guide the mysterious girl from Page 5, and now she was quibbling about this? The hypocrisy was truly laughable. She was already gambling on one life-changing mystery—what was one more?

“OK, but the girl stays right here. You pull something, and you’ll find out how good I really am. Got it?”

“Yes ma'am! No funny business? No problem,” Od answered with a salute.

She walked over, stopping right in front of him. He called her over to his side. As she stood next to him, she glanced at the girl, then at him, then at the bag.

“Before I open the bag and let you have a look, I need to put my hand on your shoulder,” said Od.

“More games?” Charlize replied.

“Like I said, no funny business. It's for your own sake. Besides, it just means I’m that much closer to you if you decide you need to hurt me, right?”

Charlize nodded as Od placed his hand on her shoulder. He held the bag in his other hand, the two handles bound together with a gleaming copper clasp that had the strangest shape. Sometimes it was a perfect four-sided diamond. Other times, one side would have a semi-circle cut out—sometimes two. Every time someone looked at it, the shape changed, never the same twice. The indefinable shape wasn't an uncommon attribute of Creations, but it was the first time the girl had seen something like that, and she was hypnotized.

Od unlocked the clasp with a flick of his finger, let go of one handle, and let the bag fall open. Charlize leaned over and peered inside to see something her mind was not ready to comprehend—an entire universe.