The first scene of Chapter 27: A Northbound Train

Character Perspective: Bedlam, Balor, and Mentia.

In this first scene, we get to have an insight into a character that is a chimera. This is a creature with the body and head of a lion, another head of a goat, and finally, the tail ends with the head of a snake. We’ve met this character before through the eyes of others, but not from their perspective. I wanted to play around with the aspect of having three persons within the same body and how that would work from a mental perspective and a gender perspective since one of the persons is a female, one is a male, and the other… is something else. This is an evil character within the book, but fascinating for me to write about. Let me know what you think.

Getting himself and the rest of the troops from the Cront’s main city of Creo Tera boarded onto the elevator deep within Pillar had been a trial. It was a large platform elevator, and there needed to be tons of equipment, soldiers, and supplies brought up from the Cront tunnels and onto the surface of Pillar proper. Organizing all of that had taken a lot out of Bedlam. Using Smoke was not taxing within itself, but pulling that much of it from his surroundings had required continual concentration. Keeping the Cront in line and working had proved to be a more difficult job than they had initially thought it would be. The enormous steam engine off to the side of the shaft started up and the platform jumped before beginning the slow ascent towards Pillar above.

Bedlam, Balor, and Mentia were a three-in-one creature. Most of the time, when asked, they just called themselves Bedlam, but in reality, it was more than that. They had the body of a lion, with a tail made of the head of a snake, and beside the lion head, was the slain head of a goat. They had heard someone refer to them as a chimera once, but really that didn’t fully encapsulate what and who they were. Dumont had created Bedlam, all three of him, soon after being awakened. Balor, the goat head of themselves, never really spoke much. She tended to provide the power for whatever Bedlam wanted to do. Occasionally Mentia, the snakehead person, would require some form of Smoke power for something, but they were mostly quiet as well, only occasionally putting in their thoughts or wishes.

It was odd to them that they would occasionally think of themselves as a he or she. Clearly, Bedlam thought of himself as a them, working to consider the whole of themselves, all three. But also, Balor was clearly a she, even without really speaking much. There was a feminine aspect to her thoughts and feelings. Mentia though… Bedlam wasn’t really even sure. he did refer to himself as a “he”, but he was just more of Bedlam, just like Mentia. They were all the same person, not distinct. So, they found themselves thinking of themselves in a fluid state of being. Sometimes a they, sometimes a he, and other times a she. Other times, they were just an it or a thing. Could someone be a they, if they were created by another?

Now the Cront were not that intelligent, not really, but using a hypnotic Smoke on that many of them was challenging. Bedlam would place a renewal of the spell on each of them, every week or so and that seemed to keep them in line and working. As it happened, they only really needed to control the leaders, most of the time. They would then direct the majority of the troops to accomplish the task at hand. That wouldn’t work on the Flemi or on the enlightened races on the surface of Pillar, they were too smart. They would rebel against unjust leaders. He could take control of a single individual, with effort, but it was a chore and took weeks of torture or manipulation to achieve. With the Cront, they didn’t question authority, just went along with it. Convenient that.

The rails on the side of the elevator platform squealed as it continued up. Inside his head, he heard Mentia speaking to him. “We will need to be careful upon the surface,” Mentia said within his mind. “Those above are far more difficult to deal with than those below have been. They will see us as a monster and shy away from us. No one will come to our aid without the help of Dumont.”

He was right of course. There was no other creature within all of Pillar, Bolster Heart, or Creo Tera who came close to being anything like Bedlam. They were unique and that was dangerous in more ways than one. They had been imbued with the ability to use Smoke, just like Dumont, but unlike Demont, they were not a dragon. They were something else. Something the world had never known before. The shaft heading up to the surface of Pillar had not originally been an elevator shaft. Originally, it had been a cloud shaft that led to a cloud tower on the surface. Some years ago, though, the Cront, or maybe more likely early Flemi from Bolster Heart had used that shaft to create this elevator. If it had been the Flemi though, it had long been forgotten. Which was odd, he thought, since traveling the outside stairs was such a troublesome task. If they had remembered this device, it would have made trade and travel between the two lands of Pillar and Bolster Heart much easier.

Dumont had promised Bedlam a place at his side, ruling both of these lands. He had made a lot of promises honestly. So far, many of them had actually come true. The Cront city of Creo Tera was essentially his to rule even now. Looking up, they could see a bright light above them coming closer. As they neared the top of the elevator shaft, the troops began to shuffle about in anticipation. Most of them had never been to the surface, it wasn’t something the Cront typically did. As the platform settled into place, level with the top floor, he saw now the numerous trains, waiting in the tunnels that would be just below the surface of Pillar. They ran across the entirety of the surface but were almost completely unknown to the people who lived up there now. They had built extensive train systems above out in the sun, but these underground trains had been completely forgotten in the years and years after the creation of Pillar. Or so Dumont had claimed.

Bedlam left the elevator platform and walked towards the leading train, green stripped, and tall. At two stories, it dwarfed normal trains on the surface that were only one level. These double-decker trains had wheels on the roofs as well as below them and would ride on the rails below them as well as some above them, once they left this depot. Several Flemi carried their crates and bags for them as they walked over to the train. In the numerous raids, they had taken many slaves. These were easily controlled and made to believe the sun and moon set with him. Over time, they would need less and less Smoke to continue the control. Over time, the spell would just embed itself into their soul and they would just believe their devotion to them was just a normal aspect of who they were. They had always been this way, they would think. It would just make sense to them.

What a nice thought. These ones who needed them so badly could find their true purpose in serving him. At first, before they had really embedded their desires into these others, the others had worried he would eat them. It had made him laugh out loud. The “they” that was Bedlam, Balor, and Mentia could understand the sentiment though, he was part lion of course. But oddly enough, Balor’s appetite for vegetation was the predominant desire they found within themselves. Hay, vegetables, and the occasional fruit was what he desired more than anything else. It was silly when they thought about it, but that’s how it was. They were a creature of three, and each aspect of themselves was equally notable.

D. Michl Lowe