As the yacht continued on its way back to Auckland, New Zealand, its passengers continued to wrestle with what Kurse had done to them. Many chose to keep to themselves and try to forget what Kurse had done, some tried to talk it out with their fellow passengers, and two had attempted suicide. One was a man who, under Kurse's influence, had had sex with his own mother, and the other was a faithful and loving husband, who was overcome with guilt and shame for having had sex with his pregnant wife's sister. The two were thankfully found and stopped and taken to the yacht's infirmary and kept under tight watch.
All of this was a sign of the wrongs Kurse had perpetrated on them, and even with reality scabbing over, even as glass Marie and Amy tried to right other wrongs and cheating in small ways to do so, these were signs that could not be undone. Kurse had sent Samantha, then the first "Glass" to send the yacht to Big Bad Island. There all of the people were twisted into what Kurse thought was "free" before being forced to fight and then being freed by the Pack and the Pride. And it affected everyone, even those who's futures looked fairly bright.
"Rick? Darling?" Maylene inquired as she came into his stateroom, "You okay? You've been here since the Captain said he didn't have the power to marry us."
"Just thinking over things," Rick answered.
"This isn't about Harold and Garrett trying to hang themselves, is it?"
Rick looked out toward the wall across from his bead.
"I can't blame them," Rick answered, "Harold had sex with his mother... an incestuous relationship... something TOTALLY wrong... yet Kurse wanted it... wanted him to be happy in doing it. I mean, wouldn't you or Dennis attempt that if Kurse had forced that on you? Out of the shame of it all?"
"Kurse turned Dennis into a chimera," Maylene responded, "I doubt she even kept us related after turning us into different species."
"But he's still your son."
"Yes, but he's also too young to understand what "sex" is," Maylene sighed, "other then mistaking the word for the number six."
"And suppose Kurse had aged him? Or turned you into a pedophile? She certainly didn't seem to be above that sort of thing to me," Rick spoke, "especially after what she did to us."
Maylene shuddered, remembering being turned into one of the swine, eating the fallen fruit from the dark trees, regardless of what it had fallen into, and letting every male pig mate with her. It would only be a miracle if Kurse's perversions hadn't left her pregnant with another child.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Maylene asked, "If you don't, I understand... it was all rough."
"She turned "us"... those that became bears, I mean, into hermaphrodites," Rick spoke with a shudder, "having both male and female genitalia."
"At least you weren't rolling in your own filth," Maylene thought.
"And its why all of us that became bears fought among each other," Rick spoke, "because we wanted sex and the fighting was to see who would mount who. I ended up being mounted several times and was able to mount someone a few times... it was disgusting."
"No more so then what those of us that became pigs went through," Maylene told him, "rolling in our own filth... mating in it... eating food that no would touch with a pole, it was so dirty... and you know, what frightens me the most is that if you were one of the male pigs... I wouldn't have honestly minded staying that way... and that makes me shudder that I would actually like what Kurse did to me."
"She really hated the wolves and lions in wherever that "Glendale" town is," Rick nodded, "and she did anything to make them miserable... and decided to include us in all of that."
"There's got to be a way we can get rid of these memories and wants Kurse forced on us," Maylene commented.
"The memories probably can't be erased, as they did happen," Rick commented, "as for the "wants" Kurse forced on us... we need to talk with Marie. I hope she knows how to fix what's going on."
Maylene nodded
+++++++
"They were chased out of Germany by witch hunters?" Lilly asked, "but weren't they just normal people then?"
"Normal depends on how you define it," Marie shrugged, "unlike us, where our wolf forms is physically apparent from birth and the world knows we are wolves, figuring out who is a witch or wizard by physical attributes is impossible. There are many people out in the world today that have the power to do magic... at least in small spells, but do not use it... mostly because they don't know they have that power and ability... and probably a good thing to."
"Come again?" Betty asked.
"All spell-casters, regardless of whether they use white magic like I and your Priestess Amy use, or black magic, like Kurse did," Marie spoke, "rely on what the witches called the "Infinite Chaos" as outside of the "miracle of birth" magic breaks all the laws of nature and reality. As a result, most white witches and wizards try to avoid using the "infinite chaos" directly. They find some inanimate object or something else that channels the chaos for them..."
"I take it the witches used this "Infinite Chaos" directly?" Lawrence asked, "without some sort of "filter"?"
"Yes."
"What about the witch hunters? Why did they go after them, even if it was coincidence that their mother was caught?" Cassandra wondered, "were they nobles?"
"The paranoia that drove "witch hunts" ran both ways," Marie answered, "the poor commonly used that paranoia to get even with the rich that had oppressed them for years... but the rich and the nobility commonly used it too. During the sixteen hundreds, European society was changing rapidly and profoundly. The peasantry, which had willingly lived as the servants to the nobility was rapidly beginning to become more individualistic and less "blindly loyal" to their local lords. These lords, not liking the loss of their "serfs" stirred up the paranoia among other peasants to try and punish those that didn't follow them or the Church. Older women were commonly the favorite target, and it is a miracle that Balthilde, herself, wasn't arrested by these "hunters", but she wasn't and quickly set about trying to insure that her grandchildren and their friend wouldn't become the monsters that they did become..."
+++++++
The flight from what would one day become Germany went quietly and Balthilde sound found her family in Amsterdam, Holland, looking at an English ship that was unloading goods that the English were selling to the Dutch.
"Where is your ship headed?" Balthilde inquired to the ship's captain as he watched his crewmen load and unload goods, "Are you going to the new world?"
"Yes," the captain, and man named Archibald nodded, "to Boston."
"Do you have room for a small number of passengers trying to flee a plight of madness?" Balthilde asked.
"Madness?"
"Witch hunts," Balthilde answered, "mindless superstition."
The captain looked down to see Balthilde's grandchildren and their friend performing some magic tricks for some of his crew, who were supposed to be working.
"I would hardly describe that as superstition," Archibald commented.
"It's harmless tricks, sir," Balthilde spoke quickly, "nothing more then slight of hand... though the secrets of it are kept tightly in my family."
"I see," Archibald replied...
"I do have some money," Balthilde spoke, "I'm sorry it's not in English Pounds, but..."
"I'm sure there is some bargain that could allow your family to come on board," Archibald told the older woman, "but at present, I am very busy. My first mate will find you a cabin, and I will ask about with one of the more noble passengers if they would be interested in an indentured servant."
"Of course," Balthilde spoke, and then moved to her grandchildren.
"Do not play about with the Infinite Chaos so recklessly," the older woman scolded, "it isn't good for you."
"But grandma... we weren't harming anyone," the eldest grandchild spoke.
"We were just giving them flowers," the younger sister added.
"I could see that," Balthilde spoke, "but the Infinite Chaos can have an adverse affect on those who use it directly. You'll go mad if you rely on it too much. Why do you think men like Merlin and even his great rival Morgan Le Fey used things like powders and ointments and the like?"
"Why?" the friend asked, "it's magic. It shouldn't have to follow rules."
"All things follow rules, even magic," Balthilde spoke, "without rules and guidelines our powers would never be good. Remember always that cheaters never prosper."
The three were quiet for a few moments and then nodded.
+++++++
In our own time, in Glendale, two large stone hands went through a stack of bills. The hands belonged to a female grotesque, like her brother, Frontdoor, was a wolf/dragon stone hybrid. She had long called herself "Rooftop" as that was where she rested when not at work guarding an antiques store in Glendale, or dealing with matters in her apartment.
For most the presence of the gargoyles was a perplexing one. Everyone knew that humans evolved out of Africa and spread throughout the world. Leomans did much the same. Lupmans evolved in what is now Russia and spread throughout Europe and northern Asia and some moving across the land bridge with various ancestors of modern Native Americans.
The gargoyles, however, seemed to always exist in their present forms and had no evolutionary past. They also seemed to posses a large amount of magic which enabled them to reproduce, although in a non sexual matter, as their material was not conducive to sexual activity... even though many had an obvious gendered identity. Various scientists throughout history, including the likes of Charles Darwin had tried to explain the origins of the gargoyles... but their theories had largely fallen flat when the gargoyles, themselves countered the theories.
Their origins were not the concern of the gargoyles, regardless of how confused people where when they said they had no names other then the location on which they rested, or stood guard. And guarding was what the gargoyles in Glendale lived for. They were protectors, and nothing more. Six had found employment at Wolf Manor, and even found friendship with Jensen's daughter, Alice. Most of the rest employed by various businesses to protect their instillations at night.
And as Rooftop went through her bills, checking to see which ones needed to be paid first, she had little care for what humans thought of her race and what they knew. It was merely how her kind lived, and if they wanted to know, she wouldn't mind telling them what she knew.
++++++
In a high school in Frostville a biology class was underway (Kathy was not in this class). They had been discussing the various sentient races that lived in the world, though they mostly congregated around Glendale, but some did live outside that town. The best known were the Leomans and Lupmans, whose names originated from the words Leo and Lupus, Latin for lion and wolf respectively, combined with the word "man" to show how similar they were to humans in many ways. It is therefore not surprising that these two races were dealt with earlier in the week. Now, they were coming to the gargoyles.
The teacher, Ms. Kalchek, said, "Now we'll move on to gargoyles. These fascinating creatures are living rock. While there are male and female gargoyles and they have sex they don't reproduce like humans and animals do. Instead the father chisels a child out of rock and then the mother breathes life into their child. Gargoyles don't exactly grow from a baby to an adult. Instead at certain points in the gargoyles life the father will chisel a new body for his child and the mother transfers her child’s life to the new body. It's in this way that gargoyles seem to grow."
A student raised her hand and Ms. Kalchek asked, "Yes Sandy?"
"What happens to the old body?" Sandy asked.
"It's usually pulverized and mixed with other rocks to be reused," Ms. Kalchek said. "This is accomplished by compressing and heating the rocks so they become molten. Once this is done they let it cool and solidify. Yes Matt?"
"Do the gargoyles made from the old gargoyle body have memories of the old gargoyle?" Matt asked.
"There's no evidence that that's the case," Ms. Kalchek said. "Yes Lisa?"
"I've heard that humans and animals can become gargoyles," Lisa said. "Is this true Ms. Kalchek?"
"It is true," Ms. Kalchek said nodding her head. "The way this is accomplished is the same way in which the mother transfers the life of her child to a new body. I have a short film showing the process." She turned on the TV and dimmed the lights.
The video showed a young man standing next to a female gargoyle. There were other gargoyles around that were clearly male and female though a few didn't look like they were either. Another female gargoyle came up and placed her hand on the man's head chanting in a strange language. She then put her hand on the other female gargoyle's head and soon a white light started streaming from the man to the female gargoyle. This continued for a few minutes and then the light stopped and the man collapsed. At the same time the female gargoyle stretched her body and wings.
Ms. Kalchek stopped the video and said, "That was Daniel Davis. He requested to become a female gargoyle and they granted it. As you could see his life was transferred to the female gargoyle. Once that was accomplished the female gargoyle was alive while Daniel's old body was dead. To my knowledge "he/she" is now known only as Southwest. Yes, Clark?"
"Southwest?" Clark asked, "How is that a name?"
"It isn't," Ms. Kalchek answered, "Gargoyles for some reason do not give any member of their kind any name. They are known by where they rest, where they work, or sometimes even only by their address. As for why Daniel Davis chose to go by what gargoyles have done for centuries is unknown, as the process is a natural form of soul transference. The gargoyles transfer their soul from one "husk" to another. Yes Maurice?"
"Some of the gargoyles didn't look like they had a sex," Maurice said.
"That's because some don't," Ms. Kalchek said. "It's up to the whim of the father of what sex their child is. Sometimes the father doesn't give their child any genitals and no sex. They do this mainly to allow the child to choose their own sex when the reach adulthood. Yes Jamie?"
"Can gargoyles die?" Jamie asked.
"Good question," Ms. Kalchek said smiling. "A gargoyle doesn't age so the can live for a very long time. Their bodies are hard but not indestructible. Over time they can be worn down through natural erosion. Also there are other external forces that can break them. If they're broken down far enough then they die."
"How do we know all of this?" a girl named Elizabeth asked.
"The same way we know about a lot of things of this world that puzzle us," Ms. Kalchek answered, "through long study and careful observation. And as with the Lupmans and Leomans, the gargoyles have helped us by answering the questions that scientists have had throughout the years... though science isn't their calling. Nearly every "adult" gargoyle lives as a security guard of some sort."