Through Her Mismatched Eyes II

Telos refused to say anything to Cavillace. He had her chained to a tree, and would simply stare at her for long periods of time, in deep silence. She stared back, unwilling to say anything that might give away her purpose.

Many thought a duel was happening, a duel of wills, as Telos’ and Cavillace’s eyes would dart about wildly while neither of them made any noise. But a duel was not happening. A conversation was happening, a dialogue within each to themselves. They were both coming to terms with the impact the other had had on them.

For Cavillace, shame and anger were the dominant motifs. She was furious at this man who had charmed her and then robbed her of her innocence, only to leave her in the clutches of Syme. Telos had made her a woman, a woman unprepared for womanhood, and then abandoned her, to face the cruel world as an adult, alone.

For Telos, humiliation and betrayal commanded his thoughts. He was embarrassed by the memory of deserting her, especially after they had given themselves to each other so completely. He did not like to be reminded of his weaknesses. He was the leader of a revolution. He could have no faults. Her betrayal, her desire to kill him further shamed him, but also enraged him: how could she want him dead?

They had been lovers once, after all, and hadn’t that love come with some kind of transcendent understanding? Could she not see his own pain, his own struggle with his simple humanity? If she could, then she was here to strike out of revenge, a petty motivation. But if she couldn’t… that would mean she had never really loved him in the first place.

The whore.

On Damascus III

Telos had been gone from Damascus for over half a year, and many things had changed since his departure.

Syme had completely disappeared from the public eye as the strong arm of the King; what became of him is not well known, at least to the common person. But with his withdrawal came the internal collapse of the Jinyi Wei. Minos felt the organization was vital to his control over the city so he kept it together, but without Syme the secondary leaders within the Jinyi Wei began to bicker and fight, with factions and splinter cells quickly springing up.

The two most prominent factions had been the Speculatores, headed by James Connolly, and the other was codenamed AIR, which stood for Agentes in Rebus, the cell led by Eoin MacNeill. Both began with the noble goal of maintaining security in the post-Syme era, but AIR quickly developed into its own kind of police force, taking over various criminal organizations while executing anyone who thought maybe they could try and stop AIR’s ascent to power.

Connolly was content to stay in the background, doing what he saw as real policing, but we all know what happened to him: a long swim down the river that ran north towards Skara Brae. The Speculatores were all but disbanded, and MacNeill further secured his hold on the Jinyi Wei.

The coup d’etat happened rather recently: a week prior to Telos and Beatrice arriving, the King had been assassinated and MacNeill took the throne, assuring the gentle public that he was only doing this to make sure the city didn’t descend into chaos and anarchy. He wouldn’t be King for long, he promised. Just until everything was secure for a new, proper King.

Cavillace and The Fussbudget III

Not knowing how better to explore his feelings for Cavillace, Syme locked her up in the bottom of the Jinyi Wei headquarters and all but threw away the key.

She stayed down there so long she forgot about Telos, she forgot about Damascus, she forgot about Skara Brae. She forgot about the sun and the sky. Syme didn’t abuse her, as it were, but he kept her for his amusement. Eventually he stopped frowning and she stopped crying.

Sometimes she would smile at him. His reactions were varied, until as time went on he simply smiled back. He started talking to her, and she, in time, spoke back. They never talked about anything in particular. He would ask how she felt, if she were hungry, and she would answer.

Cavillace came to know the place as her home, and Syme as her friend. She was rather fond of him. He gave her food. He kept her warm. No one else came to talk to her!

It’s remarkable she never wondered why she was down there. It would seem she had grown complacent. Satisfied. Happy.

Cloverleaf II

Syme failed to come to work the next day. This was not shocking in and of itself, except given his reaction to Cavillace the day before. Even though he was the head of the Jinyi Wei, he was the presence of Minos on the streets; his reaction had been sudden and awkward and people had noticed.

People were starting to talk. Eoin MacNeill specifically enjoyed talking, theorizing, extrapolating on Syme’s reaction. MacNeill was a direct assistant to Syme and figured, perhaps rightly perhaps not, that he could assume more power if Syme were deposed.

Catching wind of the rumors that were going around from his friend James Connolly, Syme quickly returned to work the following day to interrogate Cavillace. Both James and Eoin were there, to take notes and help if necessary; both reported that Gabriel was unusually harsh. Incidentally, the notes that James supposedly took are now missing from the public (or otherwise) record.

After both Eoin (disgruntled that his rumors had proven false) and James (unsettled by the interview) had left, Syme watched Cavillace for a few more minutes. She was crying and he was frowning: even if he wanted to make her feel better, he wouldn’t have known what to do.

On Damascus I

I don’t want to say that Damascus is a loveless town, because it’s not. However, that is not to say it is like Syme, because it is not. Damascus wants to believe in love, it just can’t. Rather, it cannot explore love because love is stamped out and rooted out by Syme.

Moreso than Minos, Syme is married to the city in the sense that he cares about it more than he cares about anything else. Everything he does, he does for the betterment and safeguarding of the city. If he believed in love, if he had that ability, he would recognize that he loved Damascus more than anything else in the world.

So Damascus expands economically and grows socially, as romance and passion are hidden and confined to the outskirts.

Why don’t lovers leave, you ask. It’s not that easy. Damascus is a port town, but desert surrounds its blue-and-green walls. To leave would be to throw your fate into nature’s hands. To leave would be to abandon the life you had made for yourself.

Some leave, that is true. They leave and are never heard from again. Whether by Syme’s design or cruel fate of the universe, they disappear. So most choose not to leave. Most just surrender their love.

Cloverleaf I

The question one must ask themselves is, if all relationships in Damascus are discovered by Syme (and thus destroyed) or forced to run their course (since marriage does not exist), is it really worthwhile to become involved with someone else? People never think in terms like this though: they only think in terms of desire and satisfaction. Well, they never think like that initially. At some point, after successfully evading Syme for a few months, thoughts like these creep in, like sunlight through shades in the morning.

Cavillace and Telos were discovered at a bar called The Chestnut Tree Cafe, after having one too many drinks and becoming more than a little amorous. People watched aghast for about four minutes until a few Jinyi Wei agents entered and dragged them out.

They were jailed for two days, at which point Syme extensively questioned Telos, who admitted to nothing except being drunk and making a mistake. Syme made a few long-winded speeches designed to get Telos to confess, but they failed. Syme released him (to be kept under further surveillance), then changed tracks to question Cavillace.

He had never seen her before, and when he did, he became flush with emotion. Suddenly he understood why Telos would break the law to be with this woman, and why he would lie to cover it up. She would be worth every risk.

Syme left immediately before asking her any questions.

The Fussbudget II

Word had made its way to Syme about Telos’s dereliction. Just because Minos did not directly rule over Tell Ramad did not mean he would never hear anything of it. Careful precautions had to be taken in order to trap the lovers.

It is unclear why Syme failed to believe in love.

He ordered their favorite bar, the one where they had met, the one that fueled illicit thoughts, to be under careful surveillance. Should they make any mistake that revealed they were anything more than friends, the Jinyi Wei would descend. Hawks upon mice.

The records on Syme are abysmal: maybe he had loved and lost.

There was no reason to report the Telos-Cavillace case to Minos. They had not done anything exceptional. A number of couples every year made their way to the outskirts and performed foolishly. It was nothing new. Minos did not need to know.

Perhaps he had not been loved in return. It is unclear. What is clear is that Syme made a point of ending every romantic relationship that existed in Damascus. Sex? Reproduction.

Nothing else. Nothing else.

The Fussbudget I

The result of King Minos’s social plans was the annex of the Jinyi Wei, a long-standing association of detectives. The Wei was originally designed to simply take on tough crime cases and observe that the Law was followed by all citizens. Minos decided to use them instead as his eyes and ears in the city, so that he would be everywhere at once. The Wei was transformed into an abusive and law-skirting agency, and average people began to suspect that around every corner an agent of Minos waited.

When Minos decided to reorganize the Jinyi Wei, he put Gabriel Syme, a war-hardened patriot, at its head. Syme challenged the old Wei system and quickly instituted the changes that Minos desired. It was he that created the society of abuse and deceit, fear and chaos.

Their system of surveillance was impressive, and details rarely slipped through. While Syme was a harsh and mean supervisor, he was skilled in all the ways he needed to be and succeeded in every task. The Wei was as talented as it was cruel: a startlingly merciless police force.

Although Syme was widely despised, he worked quite plainly in the middle of the city, in a nondescript office building next to some mega-corporations. No one outside the Jinyi Wei knew what he looked like, which allowed him an absurd amount of freedom despite being one of the most feared men in the city. Gabriel Syme, it is said, had a grizzled countenance and short, grey hair. He always had a cigarette in his mouth, and a cough that implied the cigarette had been there since he was born.

It’s not that he was loveless. It’s just that he didn’t believe in love. You cannot lack something that you don’t think exists.