Chapter Fourteen #2
Paris tilted her head. “That’s our eighth’s father, I’m assuming?”
How young did they start conceiving?
Rain nodded before she furrowed her brows. “But even I don’t know what’s happening on that front. The Letums are… exceptionally ignoble.”
If Rain, after what I’d seen from her mother, was saying that, it meant something.
“What is so elusive about them?” I asked.
Rain ran her finger over the photo, a conflicting look falling over her eyes.
“My grandmother met Valerius at his son’s christening.
Silas Letum. He’s our age, but I don’t think he’ll be attending Castle Hill, let alone joining the Founder’s Society.
He’ll simply assume his father’s seat when he passes or steps down. ”
“Can he do that? Sit on the board without the whole… archaic process?”
Rain spoke to us all, almost as if she was warning us, “He can’t. But… I don’t know what’s being discussed behind closed doors. You heard Thaddeus. Things are changing.”
I understood the logic, but Thaddeus also spoke of unity, trusting each other.
Paris shared my sentiment. “Why would Thaddeus emphasize teamwork and whatnot if Silas Letum would only worry about himself? How would the board even hold with a weak link?”
Rain didn’t get to answer because the door into the room opened, and Marigold was quick enough to close the book and slide it under the couch, surprising us all. Even Wolf was pulled out of the depressing trance he was in.
Thaddeus’ figure appeared at the entrance, and he paused there, watching us with a suspicious look. “What were you all doing?”
For some reason, we’d all assumed August’s mouth would be the first to open, as we all glanced at him, and we were proven correct. “Sir, are you feeling okay?”
August looked genuinely worried, and I’d never seen this version of him, conniving.
“Quite right, actually. Now answer my question.”
“That would be unproductive, sir.”
“And why is that?”
“We answered your question. Three times…” Because August had pulled us in already, there was no backpedalling out of this now.
I heard Wolf’s resigned sigh and Rain’s low click of her tongue.
She quickly slipped on a mask of indifference with a slight furrow of concern in her brows, all of us along with her. “Sir, is everything alright?”
Thaddeus blinked, maybe too astonished by August’s audacity to blatantly lie. And maybe that was why he took a moment to think.
I knew what was running through his mind. If August could lie so unabashedly to his face, perhaps there was a thread of truth? Was Thaddeus really going crazy?
“I am doing just fine.” A muscle in his jaw ticked.
The fact that someone with as much brain power as Thaddeus Saltford-Windsor was even considering playing in circles in August’s game was laughable.
Paris lowered her head into her hands, her warm palm leaving mine, feigning distress, but I could feel her shoulders shaking with laughter.
Ajax mumbled, but we all heard it in the quiet room, “Just leave the old man to his devices.”
Thaddeus looked appalled, face scrunched in a ‘what did you just say?’ manner.
For a moment, he appeared paranoid, looking into all our eyes as a heavy moment of silence passed before he let out a breath. “… I know what you all are doing and despite your admirable show of unity, I am not so easily riled.”
August shrugged but spoke slowly, as if he’d understand better that way, “Whatever you feel is best.”
He rubbed his heart to gesture the last bit for good measure, and I could see Paris almost lose it, lowering her head into her hands again just as she’d begun to lift it.
Ajax suddenly found the opposite wall very interesting, and Wolf looked like he needed this to distract him from his mood, a hidden smile playing on his lips.
Thaddeus’ eyes twitched. “Go stand outside.”
“Again?!”
“That would make me feel better, so.” Thaddeus shrugged before a smug look filled his eyes. “Why don’t you accommodate this old man?”
I wasn’t going to lie; he had him there.
August’s mouth twitched, and when he turned to us all for a show of comradery, everything else in the room became so interesting.
Paris turned to me and muttered, “Did you do that homework?”
I nodded along, “Mhmm, yeah. Did you?”
One by one, we refused to meet August’s eyes, and when he saw the blatant hypocrisy, he stood up with a shove, his glare heated as he left with a parting fit. “We all smoked in Paris’ dorm after The Gallery dinner.”
Paris gasped.
Rain stood with her hand behind her back. “I don’t recall.”
Ajax threw a fit, waving his hands around. “That is a lie and August should be punished ten-fold. Give the order, sir.”
Wolf shook his head. “I went straight to bed once we’d returned.”
Thaddeus remained standing stoically, taking in the scene like a nanny watching the children make a mess.
August marched back in. “Huh?! It was Sasha’s pack. He bought a whole bunch when we went out because his last stock ran out, because he and Wolf chain-smoke together every night. He hides them behind his nightstand.”
My eyes widened at the words coming out of his mouth, for the first time seeing August’s ire turned on me. Sure, he was at times bothersome with a big mouth and an attitude to match. But it was then that I vowed to keep a closer eye on him.
He hadn’t ever seen me hide the packs there and yet he knew.
August wasn’t here because of his stellar grades.
The little traitor had a knack for wandering eyes and information just like the rest of us.
With those parting words, the little snake slithered out to face his punishment and left us with the wreckage.
Suddenly, Thaddeus’ eyes met mine and I blinked at him, forming the words of the first thought that came to mind, “I don’t smoke, sir.”
Wolf nodded along. “Me neither.”
Rain, because she’d been smoking that night as well, added, “Nasty habit, that is.”
“In fact, sir, I think we’d all appreciate it if you could tone down with the cigars. Pungent smell and all.” Paris’ words, despite the perfect ones for the moment, had a ring of truth in her voice.
The memory of her laughing off her rehab days came back to me.
Thaddeus cleared his throat, and I waited for what he might say.
I would prefer he wouldn’t have my room searched or revoke The Gallery dinners because of me. I wouldn’t be able to restock that way. “Sasha.” he sounded out the nickname and smiled lightly, still standing in the entrance. “I don’t care.”
And that was that.
We all slid back onto the couches with blank faces, reeling on the inside. But Thaddeus didn’t elaborate, only handing Rain what I’d now noticed was a large envelope under his arm.
Watching the manila envelope fall heavy into Rain’s hands was like listening to the echo of a clock striking twelve on a stormy night, a foreboding feeling feathering through my bones, washing away any humour or joy of free rein left in my body.
The reminder of what I’d gotten myself into came back to me.
We sat waiting as August’s muffled counting filled the silence until he’d reached sixty. When he returned and took his seat next to Wolf—I was too focused on the envelope to send him his due glare—Thaddeus spoke.
“Alright,” his voice brought my gaze back to him.
“We don’t have much time, as I have much more pressing matters waiting for me, so let's make this quick. As you are all well aware, the board was able to sustain its existence for so long because of a few things. Of course, each family’s actions, but also the actions of the societies and, on a larger scale, the global village.
The way they did this is by, first, having the people believe in an imagined order, one of our choosing.
Democracy, capitalism, religion, whichever sways the people of the region we wish to gain control of.
Second, never admitting this imagined order is exactly that, imagined.
Always insisting and believing, as the people follow by example, that the order is an objective reality.
One created by the laws of nature or God.
Again, whatever holds control and sways the minds of the smaller societies.
People aren’t equal because Thomas Jefferson said so, but because God made it so.
Free markets are the best economic systems, not because of the words of Adam Smith, but because these are the immutable laws of nature.
“You then educate the people. Ironic, yes, but when you instill the idea and reality of this imagined order into them from birth and continue to remind them to depend on this order through stories, film, songs, manners, architecture, political agendas, art… you’re free to control them without fear of a revolution.
Because then, and only then, they become slow, lazy, too comfortable in the life of their own, believing themselves special in their interests, interests we created.
“You do all of this through three things. One, you weave the order you created into the material world. Out there, you’re taught individualism.
That only you determine your worth and value.
Here at Castle Hill, your true worth is determined by your place in the social hierarchy.
Second, the imagined order must shape society's desires. Push the narrative of romanticism, which then gives birth to consumerism. The marriage between romanticism and consumerism creates an infinite market, one that we can benefit from, especially if we are the ones setting the trends. The trend to buy experiences, to buy love, to buy comfort. Third, and last, the order must be intersubjective. It cannot exist in the mind of a select few. It must be a shared idea, one that connects billions. That way, even if one gains consciousness, they can hardly influence the masses.”