Expanded Horizons: Beyond the Blue

Greed and Blood: Chapter One

Johnny walked proudly off the stage, degree in hand and standing tall, toward his mother off to the side where she awaited him with a look of strong satisfaction. She smiled sternly at him, a smile which he readily returned, and embraced him with open arms upon arrival. He hadn't felt her embrace him like this since he miraculously recovered from a near-death incident the year before.

"I knew you had it in you, Johnny," Clare said. "Come on, let's go home."

"Let's."

The mother and son exited the arena where Rainier University held its graduation ceremony every year and walked the short distance home. Dark clouds loomed overhead and Johnny gingerly placed his degree in his bag to keep it safe from the rain. Before long, the overcast turned to a drizzle and then to a downpour, forcing the duo to speed up their journey home.

They slipped inside and shut the door as if they caught a tail behind them and set their belongings on the kitchen table, then moved to the living space and sat in the only two chairs they had. Johnny leaned back and relaxed in his chair while his mother put a hand to her chin and thought.

"Mom," Johnny said. "What's next?"

"Next? We get you the right job. Somewhere in the governor's office, where you can speak with him directly every now and again."

"Why only every now and again?" Johnny asked. "Wouldn't it be better to be, like, his apprentice, or something?"

"No, we don't want you being a career politician. And we don't want you connected to anyone who may make... mistakes in the future."

"Mistakes?"

"The kind that destroy a man's career, and many men's futures."

"Can we rely on that happening?"

"Oh, we can count on it," Clare said darkly. "But not too soon. We don't need that can of worms to open up quite yet."

"So what, I take some generic management job in the governor's office, learn the trade, get some wisdom on leadership and stuff, and someday I go for the office?"

"Exactly," Clare said, leaning forward. "Let's face it, he does a good job. Very good. He's certainly not as hated as past governors. But every man makes a mistake eventually. You need to learn everything he's done right, and use that in your planning."

"I need the people to be behind me," Johnny said.

"And so you have to get on their good side. And, like what he's done, you get on their good side by offering them whatever it is that they want. And you give it to them, in a manner of speaking."

"He's given them a lot," Johnny said. "How much more can people want?"

"Give them an inch and they ask for a mile," Clare said with a wry grin. "You'll hear plenty about what the people want, how it's a shame they don't have it. That'll turn into them having a right to it, and you will use that to get them on your side."

"How will I give this thing to them, whatever it is?" Johnny asked, hypnotized by his mother's genius.

"You'll give them the most basic form of it. Just enough to show you care, but not enough to satisfy them," Clare said. "When they demand more, and their dissatisfaction has grown, you show them where it can be found. You show them who does have it, and you tell them that they are the reason our society is wanting."

"Even if that's not true?" Johnny asked uncertainly. "Won't they know?"

"People; elves and humans and even dragons; are pack animals, little more," Clare said. "It doesn't matter if it is true. If they want something as a group, they will believe whatever they have to in order to justify getting it. By any means they deem necessary."

"Even if it's wrong?" Johnny asked. "They'll really just accept it?"

"Oh yes, they will," Clare answered. She stood up and started pacing around the room. "Everyone wants to be the good guy, the hero of the story. People want to be on the right side of history, to be morally above the rest, more secure than the rest, better off. What they don't know is that their 'side' is a farce: History-" Clare made a circle in the air with her hands- "is a sphere. And when you get down to it-" Clare dropped her hands and stared out the window- "There are no good guys, and there is no right or wrong. There is the survivor and their story, and nothing else matters."

"Well... if nothing else matters, why do we want this?" Johnny asked. Clare chuckled.

"Context, my son. Nothing else matters to them, to the greater picture. To me, the only things that matter are you, and..." Clare started to choke up at the thought of her late husband, but held back her tears and sighed. "The world can burn for all I care. I want you to be happy. And I want your father back."

"We will find him, mom," Johnny said, standing to go and comfort his mother. "We'll find this Pact-maker you met once before. You'll figure it out, and I will make it a reality."

"I know, my son," Clare said as her son hugged her with one arm. She leaned onto his shoulder and squeezed his hand with hers. "This world will pay for all it has done to us. And we will come out on top of the sphere."

The mother-son pair shared a few more moments of comfort before splitting and going to separate rooms to continue the creation of their plan to take control of Rainier and use its resources to locate the Pact-maker.