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Lucky Wind
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"I don't think Uber is a good idea," you say. "Ambrose and Rella can give us a lift."
"Oooh, us." Polyphema smiles as she takes your hand. "I like the sound of us."
"There's an author I read when I was a little girl." Polyphema watches the East River recede as the HVAO car exits the Williamsburg Bridge. The city used to have way more traffic and lights once, but that was before you lived here. Now it's possible to coast. "Author might not be the right word. Chronicler, griot... something like that. Pikluk was his name."
"Pikluk?"
"He was skuttish," Polyphema says. "Anyway my favorite by him was called Sojourns of Isocasot, a travelogue of the famed titular Oculot Philosopher. And I remember, and I'm not sure why, it never really stuck with me like some other parts, but I recall this one particular passage.
"Pikluk tells us that one day on the road, the great Isocasot came upon a garakton, skinned alive and on the precipice of death, his ribcage pried open, hung upside down from a post along the path. As he continued he saw another man, this time an oculot, displayed in the same way. And then more, and closer together, and he followed them until he came to a village that had been completely destroyed, its homes burnt, its fields salted, and a great throne erected in its center. And upon that throne there sat the largest, most fearsome Warrior Isocasot had ever seen.
"Isocasot, of course, quaked with fear, and made to leave, but the Warrior recognized him, welcomed him, and promised that no harm would come to him. He invited Isocasot to ask why he had done such a thing.
"'Why, then,' Isocasot asked, 'have you laid waste to this place with such viciousness and totality?'
"'Because,' the Warrior told him, 'I am a man of great mercy and compassion.'
"How can this be, Isocasot wondered, and the Warrior told him:
"'Death is the sole chiefest fear of all the living, and the sole thing that all the living will come to face. What we dread most is singly the thing we may be assured shall befall us. It is my aim to surpass death in the horror I instill in the mind of the world, so that there may be some number of souls with the wonderful fortune of never experiencing their greatest fear.'
"And with a genial wave, he sent Isocasot on his way."
"Wow," you say.
"It's probably just a story," Polyphema says. "But Pikluk writes that the name of the Warrior who sat on that throne has been lost to history. So. What does that tell you." She shifts in her seat. "Oh! Look! Antiques!"
Ambrose is at a red light. You follow Polyphema's eye to a little East Village antiques shop.
"I don't suppose it's a good idea to go, is it," Polyphema says, reclining back. "Not when we are who we are."
1]] We'll be back soon. Once all this is just bad memories.
2]] If we bring Brose and Rella along it should be just fine.
3]] I'm the one all over the news. Just go in yourself and I'll wait in the car.
4]] Sit tight. I'mma go find you something in there.
5]] We can visit one antiques shop without things going to hell. Plus I'm concealed carrying now.
6]] Antiques are dumb anyway. Don't worry about it.
7]] ___________________
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