Chapter 44: Part 45

The rest of the fight and the next couple hours after are still a blur to me. I know that Warden managed to get his spear out and killed Evil Boddy with it. It wasn't the choice I would have made, but it was a very real life-or-death situation. Live gunfire was in play. I felt Warden fade, but I retained enough awareness to scoop up his fragmenting thoughtstuff to restore him later. Hopefully Gary Westlake can give me a hand with that. I'm not really even sure how I would go about it.

There was some time lost in there. I'm pretty sure I never went fully unconscious, but I don't remember how I ended up in one of the rooms in my own House, my leg properly bandaged and poulticed with one of Her's abhorrent concoctions. I just hoped it didn't give me sepsis.

Boddy was there. Both of his eyes were red, like photos of people who were too close to explosions or boxers after a long fight. Red on the inside, not just a black eye. He was supposed to be resting in his own room, but Archie had apparently brought him a cot. He was asleep, but it was reassuring that he had stayed to watch my back.

I remember Her and the Cousins coming and going a couple times. Little Cousin stayed longer than the others. Mean Uncle didn't show up.

It was a day after the fight before I had recovered enough to have the presence of mind to ask what had happened. Apparently, Mister Carver had been lethally shot in a second firefight that had broken out while I was out. Mean Uncle and one of the Butlers had managed to keep the House staff in line long enough to establish a proxy seat. For now, Lady Liu was in charge of the House. I guess I'm off the hook for leadership, for the moment. Other than the four residents of my own House, that is. I felt bad for Carver, despite everything. He was more than a little unhinged, but he hadn't been malicious. I knew I shouldn't; that he was a regressive maniac, but I still felt it. Human nature, to mourn the dead.

Loyal returned that second day. She seemed pleased with herself. I wasn't sure what to make of that. How intelligent was she, really? Did she know that by failing to capture Carver, she had led to his death? Would she care if she did? She was Loyal to me, but that didn't mean she shared my distaste for killing. I reincorporated her anyway. Someone had to keep foreign thoughts out of my head until I could restore Warden.

Thanks to Her's magic, I was back on my feet in a week. Boddy's eyes were fully healed as well. We celebrated with a small meal of fast food, acquired with shocking speed by Little Cousin. Head of Resources, indeed.

I went back to the realis to discover that everyone I knew was in a panic. I lost my position with the delivery company, of course. It would make it hard to pay rent, but then I guess I didn't really need an apartment anymore. I had my little House on the Lane. Still, I needed to figure out my money situation one way or another. Boddy and Little Cousin and Her and Archie needed to be paid, after all. In the aftermath of the conflict, I hired Archie. She suggested that until the House needs more positions, that she could be a Personal Assistant. Boddy had to lean on me a little bit, but I allowed it in the end. Maybe I'd look into freelancing as a Constructor.

Speaking of which, Janet was turned over to the House of Penance. Her and Gary Westlake saw to her arrival personally. Apparently, the House of Penance keeps a lot of dangerous irrealis people. Sort of like a prison, but for your imaginary friends. And for people whose thoughts can warp irreality. She left me a message with Her saying that she holds no grudge. I'm not sure if I believe her, but it would be nice not to have an enemy out of the woman.

Eventually, I managed to reassure everyone that I was, in fact, fine. At Her's suggestion, I passed it off as having a stress breakdown due to debt (I didn't have outstanding loans, but it was a plausible lie), and claimed to have been in self-isolation at a remote campsite for the past week and a half. Dana was the only one who knew it was a lie, but she didn't say anything. I felt bad; she had been a good manager.

Tonight, I rest at my House. My rent was paid up through next weekend, and I've been slowly moving my stuff into the Lane, one trip at a time. I know I could ask Little Cousin to get it and it would all be here inside the hour, but I did the hauling anyway. Maybe it reminded me of work.

Tomorrow, I don't know what will come. I suddenly have a lot more world to explore and a lot less reason to want to. But that's for tomorrow.

My name is Daniel Corners. I am the only individual on the Lane who is the head of House for their own conceptualized resonance peak, so far as I know. I'm a thought constructor. And I am very, very lucky.

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