Chapter 4: Milo
Milo and I took some time to get acquainted. He wanted to know every detail of why I was accompanying Frederick to the Grand Central, and his company made me feel comfortable enough to share with him what had happened to me and the little information I knew from before that. At the end of it all, he gave me a huge smile.
"Well Rennee, Frederick doesn't just bring people around here you know? the Daxon's are legends around here, Mr. Daxon himself is well-known throughout the inner circle. and even then to be able to pass the threshold of the employee door you need to be marked" I was marked, I saw it when I was able to take my first bath, a small crescent moon on my shoulder, just like the one my mother had. At first, I thought it was a birthmark, but it was too perfect, too bright.
"Marked? Like cattle?"
He left out a burst of raucous laughter that echoed through the air, a robust symphony of joy that seemed to ripple through the surroundings.
"I never heard it described that way, but yes. All the children of Phanes have one, you should have one on your shoulder if you were born by his will. Me on the other hand" He pulled his sleeve and a white sun appeared and disappeared blending into his skin "I'm just a keeper I have access but none of the perks you got" he winked.
"I didn't know I had any perks"
"Well, you have lived a life and a half in the past few days – But what if I could show you some of those perks while we wait for good old Fred, Perhaps some of your old memories too," he said as his smile grew larger and larger.
"What do you mean? Like an album?" I asked with skepticism.
He chuckled at the question. He seemed excited to show me who I was. Who I am. "No, silly, something better," he responded. "If you have been here before you should be able to come in"
I followed him to one of the doors located on the left side of the hallway. Next to the door, there was a hand pad. He asked me to put my hand on it, and so I did. The system gave me a gentle beep and a door opened. The small screen then said, "Rennee Daxon, Welcome."
The room was a small studio apartment. A rectangle divided by a vast bookcase that you could see through, the bed on one side and the living room on the other. There wasn't a Kitchen on site, but I could see a bathroom door in between the bedroom and the living space. It was tastefully decorated with small trinkets, probably passed down from generations ago. The walls had newspaper articles and mostly black and white pictures all over them.
"So… What do you think? Do you like it?" Milo said as he entered the room.
In all truth, I didn't know if I did. According to the machine outside, this was the entrance to my old life. The space was limited; across the surfaces, I could see a thin layer of dust, hinting that I hadn't been here for a while. I didn't know what to say, I just wanted to take it all in, walk around the room, and read every article and picture I could.
"Yeah, it is a bit small, but most have smaller spaces, it's necessary since you guys find so many items some wouldn't be able to resist the temptation of bringing home more trinkets and artifacts. But we can go see some of the ones you have brought back in the museum if you have any over there. later today while Frederick and George sort you out." He was waiting for me to answer, but I was baffled.
"So this is all mine?" I asked as I gestured around the room. Still, I did not quite believe what was happening was real. I stepped out of the room, opened the door back into the main hallway, and took another step inside. "Do all these people live here too? Where are their rooms?"
His face lighted up at my question with the same excitement of a kid left alone at a candy store; he was dancing around the room, looking at all the pictures. "Yes! You all get one, but you can choose to use it as a passing room. Not everyone stays here long-term," he said as he signaled me to come closer to the other side of the room.
"Where are the other ones? There aren't many doors out there. I can't see how it can fit all these people in rooms like these."
"Oh!" he exclaimed. "Is because of the pad. It just opens directly to your place. See, Phanes reverse-engineered the Yggdrasil, the tree of worlds, and made it into a miniature version of the actual thing; these are all pocket dimensions connected to a physical representation of the tree."
He continued to explain as he gestured around, moving his arms to pretend he was a tree too, and miming a door opening
"And this is how we are here! You guys are lucky. Pocket dimensions are not very common to come by, but I mean, I guess when you work for the God of Creation himself, the sky is the limit." He shrugged
"You don't get one?" I asked, stepping closer to him; he stopped dancing as his face dropped with disappointment. His shoulders dropped down when he finally said.
"No, I'm not like you guys. I'm just simply human. I do get my own space, but it isn't here. I have lived in the area most of my life, and many librarian kids do. I train under George to upkeep the library and keep all your guys' discoveries and history well-kept. Someone has to do the admin work. – You know?"
Then he shifted his weight on his feet and pointed towards an old picture on the wall. "This is you!? Seems to be from back in the day." it was clear he wanted to change the subject at hand.
I looked at the picture, inspecting it closer. It was just hanging with a thumbtack on the wood in the bookcase. The picture was black and white with what appeared to be an older version of me in front of an archaeological site and a thumb. I took it off the wall to examine it better. Behind the picture, there was a small scripture, "1922, Tutankhamun." It took me a second to connect the thoughts together, but Milo just said this was me, and if the date was accurate, this was well over a hundred years ago.
"What do you mean this is me? I look similar, of course, but there is no way that this is me."
Milo's Blue eyes shimmered. He loved the disbelief in my voice. And he was clearly loving being the one explaining it to me.
"Oh, but it is," he purred. "Clearly, you are in need of a history lesson because I don't know what Frederick has been telling you, but clearly, he has been keeping out the good stuff."
As quickly as he walked into the room, he left it and me with it, and then he yelled from the outside, "Are you coming or what? There is no time to waste. I have so much I want to show you."
I finally snapped out of the initial shock and ran beside him.
"You seem to excited to give me the grand tour" I chuckled
"Well this place is mostly a secret, and most people can't even come in through those doors" He pointed at the employee entrance "And the people around here have been here as long as time, getting to show someone all of these has a certain something to it you know?"
"You finally get to spill the beans"
"EXACTLY!"
He stopped standing by the fire pit and looked up towards the big wall reflecting the blue lights from the fire, the crackling of the flames behind us.
In the wall, windows going all the way to the ceiling with stained, all together it was shaped like an arch glass window and at the top, a smaller arch framed the moon as it shone brightly through it; bellow the moon's arch the windows were divided into sections three sections. In the first picture, there was a man and a woman with what appeared to be a small mud sculpture. In the second picture, the man had the sculpture in one hand and a small fire in the other. In the third picture, the fire was gone, but the figure had come to life. I looked back at Milo, puzzled by the story before us, his blonde hair gleaming under the moonlight.
He winked at me as he said, "This is you and, well, most of the people around here."
I was more confused than before. "I think you need to elaborate. "
He moved around the fire, creating shadows for me to admire as he told the story. My story.
"Well, where to start? From the beginning, I guess?" he laughed at his own joke.
"As you know, I study under George to help maintain the library, but that's not all I do. I also help you guys spread the word about your 'findings.' You see, thousands of years ago, Phanes and Gaia loved humanity very dearly, and they loved how they continued to evolve and create. One day, Phanes decided he wanted to make a creation of his own, to, in a way, record everything that was happening so it would never be forgotten."
He pulled a notebook from his back pocket and pointed at it, showing me a list of tasks he was given and some drawings here and there. Then he went to the first page of the notebook and pointed at it. It read, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Then, he proceeded.
"Gaia then proceeded to grab a part of her. Then, she and Phanes started making these figures; they were human-like but not quite human. Phanes used the Primordial Fire to bring the first of their race to life. He then gave you guys meaning to your lives, to live among the humans and to record the history of what was happening for the generations to come so the knowledge will never be lost. He named it the golden race."
He smiled as he pointed up. "He also gave you guys something else. He wanted you to live as long as humanity lived, so he pulled a little extra god-like magic to make you guys immortal, but he didn't want to freak humans out with people not aging around them, so he gave you guys ecdysis, like a snake you shed your old human skin out and return to young adulthood to continue living among humans without raising too many eyebrows."
Milo continued prancing around the fire. Some others stopped to stare at him as he told the story of our creation. "Soon, the humans began to grow in bigger groups and scatter around the earth; too many for the small group created by Phanes, so he gave you guys a new power of sorts. He allowed you guys to create more like you, except that not everyone can just grab a piece of mud and make another one like you. — Oh, if it was only so easy," He said, primarily to himself.
I could imagine a younger Milo playing around with mud and clay, making smaller versions of us and waiting for them to come up alive.
"If not everyone can, and let's say I wanted to make a friend for long travels, could I?' He stared deep into my eyes and came closer until he was next to my ear and whispered, "No." He stepped away — "Only the small few in the inner circle can make more; they have the north star on their shoulder if you want to identify one. However, If you want a friend, I suppose you could take me with you." He smiled. "I long for adventure, plus I'm great company… If I say so myself."
Milo's story about our creation made little sense to me. Although it seems like he does have a great love for what he does for us here, I wasn't sure if he was made for adventure. If I'm immortal and will continue to live as he ages, wouldn't it be best for me to ensure that he has as long a life as he could have? Adventuring out could be a dangerous task. I have been proof of that. I didn't end up in the hospital for having too much fun.
I was deliberating with myself when the fire started crackling a little louder than before, and before I could react, a small piece of paper flew out of it right into my face. "Oh" was my only reaction. It didn't hurt. After all, it was just paper, but it did startle me. Not every day, a piece of paper flies out of a fire.
Milo was the first one to approach me to pick it up. He undid the folding in the note and read it out loud for me.
"Meet me at the library -P." His face paled, and his shoulders dropped. He let out a loud sigh, "The boss wants to see you."
"The boss?" I asked
"Yeah, Phanes himself has decided to honor us with his presence. Whatever you did to gain his attention," He grabbed me by my arms and said, "Undo it, IMMEDIATELY." He pronounced that last word like my life depended on it.
Milo's whole attitude changed after the note. I did not want to risk getting him any more perturbed than he already was, so I just said "understood" and started walking towards the library. He pulled my arm back in his direction and pointed toward the other side of the building.
"That's not the library the Boss wants you to go to. There is another one. At the end of the hallway, go through the big gold doors. The gates look like wings; cannot miss it."
I thanked him for his help and left, he was right the big golden wings in the back of the hallway couldn't be missed. As I walked by all the old paintings and artifacts showcasing the history of the world, people stopped to stare at me. I could feel their whispers and their looks. I couldn't make what they were saying, mostly because I was more concentrated on calming myself down; it had already been a lengthy enough day. Milo's words got into my head, and I couldn't stop thinking about them.
He seemed legitimately worried about the presence of Phanes in the building; my hands felt clammier and colder as I opened the doors to enter the library, which was funny because the room irradiated warm and light. My heart felt like it would beat out of my chest any minute now. This may be a good moment to turn away. I thought to myself. But, like a cat filled with curiosity, I walked right into the library.