CHAPTER TEN
The line for San Ginés chocolatery resembled the bread queues they’d seen in photos of Russia or Romania, snaking around the corner, along the Pasadizo.
“Bloody hell,” Alex said. “I hope you aren’t proposing we get churros?”
“We can if you like. Don’t worry, you’re just seeing San Ginés from another time. Once the magick passes through you, it’s impossible to tell what residual effects might linger. In my case, visions of the past or the future were common. It stands to reason you might see the same.”
Alex stared at the river of people in casual fashions that would have stood out for all the wrong reasons among the fashionistas that haunted Chueca. “It’s sure as fuck not the Franco years.”
Jago gripped his hand, then smiled as this simple act appeared to allow him to share Alex’s vision. “You’re right. Twenty-first century, I’d say.”
Alex’s gaze fell on a young woman holding one of the many illuminated rectangular discs that anyone in line not talking to their friends seemed to be holding.
She tapped at it with bored indifference, pushing her thumb along the glowing surface as if in search of something. “What on Earth are they doing?”
“On the other hand,” Jago said, guiding him down the hill toward the palace district. “Too much detail about the future can ruin one’s connection to the present. It seems like we’re both getting ahead of ourselves.”
“You’re telling me they’re from the future? That there are people from the future, here in 1980, queuing for churros at San—”
“I said you’re seeing people from the future. What you’re seeing is perfectly real, it just hasn’t happened yet. Seeing snatches of it here and there are fine. Just keep in mind, it can come from the past too. I saw a dinosaur once. That was a trauma.”
“Jago…” Alex gritted his teeth. “How?”
“What happened in the theatre? Surely you didn’t think that was just a three-way experience?”
Alex’s mind drifted to the image of Vis spooning Joanna, Jago spooning him, and the human cross they’d formed.
“Exactly.”
“You’re reading my mind now?” Alex let go of Jago’s hand, quickly looking over his shoulder to check if anyone had seen.
“Not unless you share it with me. What sort of busybody do you take me for? I told you, I’m a witch.
I’m sure it won’t surprise you to learn what happened in the theatre stems from that power.
I’m more specifically trained as an Entropist. My powers lie in the manipulation of time, fate, and the paths it might take.
And after you tap into those powers? You might see visions of tourists from the future, or great beasts or monuments lost to time.
” Jago shrugged. “Or you might see nothing at all. They’re echoes of magick, nothing more.
They won’t hurt you. They can’t even see you.
Just don’t go looking for them. Your brain won’t like being tested in that way. ”
Alex tried to gather his words as they rounded the block, and the lights the Royal Palace emerged.
The largest palace in the world still in use, it gave the city one final burst of light and grandeur before the darkness of the monarchy’s private hunting grounds, now a park for all to enjoy, stretched out for several miles below the ridge.
“That’s not how it felt, though. It was more primal and willful than that, like Joanna and I were in this weird mental conversation. ”
“Willful?” Jago took hold of Alex’s arm, guiding him away from the palace, up the hill toward Plaza de Espana. “Perhaps you’re savvier in the ways of Shapers than you think?”
“Shapers?”
“A fanciful term the more political among us use for themselves, shaping reality and whatnot. I’m more interested in that term you used.
Willful? It carries some weight in Shaper circles too.
It is commonly said that magick is divided by what is known and what is unknown, and by what is fated and what is—”
“Willed.” It surprised Alex how much sense this made. “You mentioned politics? You mean there are more of you?”
“Too many. Personally, I’d rather limit my involvement.” Jago gave him a wan smile, squeezing his hand. “I prefer to commit my energy and talents to people I care about. To art. To beauty.”
“And what do you mean ‘more savvy’ than I think?”
“You felt that will to explore flow through you. What manifested on stage was a love letter to discovery and curiosity. A pardon for Eve, perhaps? That would make a fine title, if you want to invoke fairy tales. These are natural concerns for a new initiate, but you’ll grow bored with them quickly.
And will your audience share them? That’s the real test.”
“Jago… I’m not a witch.”
“You’re right, let’s not jump to conclusions.
You may have simply tapped into my power, but honestly, Alex?
The kind of connection that transpired between you and Joanna is something I’d expect of a Mentalist. In terms of the four schools of magick, they’re our polar opposite, a magic that is known and willed.
Entropy, on the other hand, stems from fate unknown. ”
Alex stared at him blankly.
“Are you keeping up? I can draw you a chart.”
“I understand your… quadrants.” He slowed as they passed the Cervantes monument, one of his favourites in the city.
Jago smiled at him as they admired the statue dominating the plaza. “Now, he definitely had it.”
“Cervantes was a witch?”
Jago laughed, squeezing Alex’s shoulder. “No, but he did know how to weave magick. It’s that lightning in a bottle I described to you.”
“Look, I don’t know if I’m a witch or not, but…” Spying a cluster of broken needles at the monument’s base, Alex dismissed a foolish thought that they might be overheard. “Do I have it? Don’t tell me you don’t know.”
“Whether I know or not doesn’t matter. I can’t answer that, Alex.”
“Jago, please?”
“If I tell you no, you’ll give up and stop creating.
You’ll call yesterday a fluke produced by your connection to me and my magick, and we will have killed something beautiful.
If I say yes, you’ll spend the rest of your life beating yourself up over not being the next Cervantes or Lorca.
Neither of these outcomes is acceptable.
You’re the man you are and the artist you are, and that is enough, at least for me. ”
Jago’s lips were on his before he could say anything stupid, and they were more than welcome. They were warm, eager to forgive his doubts and flaws, and he could have allowed it to go on all night if he didn’t need answers.
“Then why did you want us to close after just one night?”
“Have you ever seen lightning keep its brilliance for two weeks? Your play as it stands right now is a love letter to discovery and exploration, played out on stage through your willing vessel, Joanna. You’ll get one hell of an opening night out of it, perhaps even a few nights’ run.
But by the end of two weeks? I fear your audience… ”
Alex resumed their walk with a harrumph.
“Don’t misunderstand me,” Jago continued, catching up to him. “I’m not trying to belittle your triumph or get in your head. What would I know, in any case? I’m here to support you, Alex, whatever you decide.”
They paused again at the Fuente del Nacimiento del Agua, where Jago squeezed his hand again, leaned forward, and kissed him.
Alex accepted it, hoping the purity of the sensation would sweep away the confusion, self-doubt, and anxiety now clouding his heart.
It did nothing beyond tasting good and stiffening his dick.
“Nice to know I can still get a reaction from you.”
“I’m sorry. My head’s just…”
“Overwhelmed with discovery?”
“Is it dangerous? Magick, I mean.”
Jago scoffed. “Sweet, lovely man, exploration’s always dangerous.
” He pointed toward the illuminated windows of the palace.
“To their ancestors—our ancestors, let’s be frank—discovery justified wiping out entire nations.
Greed justified the extermination of empires.
Now, we walk streets paved with the blood of those empires, and there was a lot of it.
Even Queen Isabella told Columbus to steady the fuck on once she learned the price of that wealth. ”
“I’m not sure a lecture on colonial sins is going to help me navigate this, Jago.”
“Navigate what, exactly? Your latent powers, assuming they exist? Or are you hoping to understand my powers? All right, let’s talk about the entropy of colonialism, since we’re on a theme.
God rolls the dice of history. Nation A destroys nation B and takes what it possesses.
Now, what if this had happened in reverse?
Would nation B have destroyed nation A, given the chance?
For greed? Religion? Sheer cruel fun? All are human temptations, and all played a part in nation B’s destruction as fate has played out for us.
Now, let’s jump forward a little way. Nation A—Spain, in case that wasn’t patently obvious—has now squandered its ill-gotten gains and lost its once formidable place in the world.
It falls into dictatorship a few decades later.
Cut off, forgotten as the world goes to war, left to fight its own hellish dispute for a soul it has long lost. Perhaps this dictatorship is the nation’s time in Purgatory?
Perhaps the religions of the East are right, that Hell is merely a temporary state to clean one’s karma before starting life anew.
Let’s be honest, if in the next century tourists are lined up around the block for churros at San Ginés, I think we’re going to be okay.
” He cradled Alex’s chin in his hands with sensual confidence, then put an arm around Alex’s shoulder, pointing to the hilltop building on the other side of the gardens.
Alex shuddered, recognizing the Templo de Debod. The shallow waters that had drowned Si-Man reflected the moonlight, bathing the temple’s shadow in a strange glow.