“I think we can arrange to prove the case. We shall cause them to go to the police themselves and confess, and give full details.”
This appeals to me.
“Do it, then!”
The horse reached out. In a moment the youths were getting themselves ready to go out. By the time Seqiro and Darius reached the abode of the Sin Eater, the four youths were in the police station making their confessions. In fact, as Seqiro explored their minds, he discovered that Colene had not been the only case; they had done a similar thing with several innocent girls. It was their way of having fun. So their confessions were making extremely interesting listening for the police, who were rapidly becoming satisfied that there was substance here.
Darius nodded, satisfied. “This is a thing that has been worth doing.”
I am glad to have been in contact with you on this occasion, because without you I would not have had the initiative or motive to accomplish this action.
Darius patted the horse on the massive shoulder. “We make a good team, Seqiro. Now we must address the mission we came for. How can we gain justice for the Sin Eater?”
We can not benefit him by leading him past the Chain Gang or making him confess to the police. He is now on his way home from school, knowing nothing of us.
“What of the actual rapist—the one who committed the crime of which Raff was accused?”
The horse quested through the local minds, as they stood there in the street. The houses here looked much like all the other houses they had been passing, only worse.
People were coming and going constantly, ignoring the man and horse because Seqiro encouraged them to do that. They were not well dressed, and a number were engaged in what Seqiro fathomed as illicit trade.
The rapist is a close relative of the girl. He told her he would kill her if she exposed him. So she blamed Raff instead.
“Would the man have killed her?”
It is possible. The girl remains afraid of him, and no longer protests when he comes to her, though she has no liking for his brutality.
“Then we had better make him go and confess too. But that still will not make the community respect Raff.”
That is true. I find nothing here but closed minds. They do not want the Sin Eater exonerated.
“They are as bad as the rapist, in their way,” Darius said, angry. “How do you change closed minds?”
I can do that only temporarily.
“I am afraid that Amos is correct. This problem can not truly be solved. We can only enable Raff to go to some other community.”
He is approaching now, coming home from school. He does not want to leave. He wants only for the torment to stop.
Darius looked down the street. He saw a youth walking toward them. There were others his age, also coming home from school, but they walked on the other side of the street, emanating contempt.
Then three crossed over to join Raff. But they were not suffering a change of heart. One carried a stick. Raff saw them and broke into a run, trying to escape them, but they pursued him, jeering.
“Do it,” Darius said grimly, sending a thought.
The boy with the stick swung it, striking one of his companions on the shoulder. When the third protested, the boy struck him too. The injured ones screamed with pain and protest.
A man heard the scream and charged out of his house. He saw Raff and grabbed him. “You hit him! You hit him!” the man shouted, shaking Raff. The man hadn’t even bothered to ascertain the truth.
“Do it,” Darius said again.
The boy with the stick came up behind the man and thwacked him across the back. The man, hurt and amazed, let Raff go and whirled on the boy.
But other neighbors were converging now. Several were stalking Raff, evidently intending harm. Raff, not understanding any of this, was trying to avoid them and run for home. He wasn’t even protesting; it was evident that this sort of thing happened to him often enough to be routine. He expected to be cursed and beaten, in the name of the righteousness of the community. No one was siding with him, or pointing out that he had done nothing here. He was guilty by definition.
“They are determined to blame the Sin Eater, no matter what,” Darius said. “When we try to help him, they just go after him more.”
Raff is feeling truly awful now. Use your magic.
“It doesn’t work that way. I can only draw joy and spread it to the multitude. I can not take away prejudice, ignorance, and mean-spiritedness.”
Spread his grief to the multitude.
Suddenly Darius understood. “Give me all the power you can.” He jumped down and ran to Raff. The people of the neighborhood gave way before him, directed by the horse. He caught Raff and threw his arms around him. He drew from Raff, depleting him of all his misery. The terrible emotion came into Darius.
Then he let the youth go. He multiplied the grief and sent it out to the multitude. Suddenly everybody in the neighborhood was surfeit with the same emotion Raff felt. Raff felt it too, but for him it was familiar, and not quite as intense as before.
Darius walked back to the horse. Raff resumed his dejected walk home. The neighbors, of all ages, stood appalled. They all felt terrible, and did not know why. They would feel this way for several months, as the emotional transfer slowly wore off.
Perhaps, by then, they would have learned some compassion.
Darius mounted Seqiro. They set off for Colene’s house some distance away. They, too, were depressed. But they understood why, and knew how to abate it. They were satisfied. It did not matter that the community’s mass depression would have no rational explanation. Colene’s debt to Amos had been repaid.
CHAPTER 13—WEDDING
COLENE was in a whirl. She was trying to stay current with Burgess, who was trying a new pill each hour, as Nona ground it up and proffered the powder for him to suck up weakly. So far there had been no significant effect, and she was beginning to fear that this was not the answer. She was also trying to follow Darius and Seqiro, who had headed off to the seamy section of town to see about the Sin Eater. They were competent to travel alone, because Seqiro’s telepathy was operative, readily reaching across town; in fact it seemed to be able to reach thirty miles or so, here on Earth. Seqiro had long experience controlling human beings, and that’s what was here, by no coincidence. Darius provided the human brainpower and initiative and nerve; they would do something for the Sin Eater if it were possible. Amos would be pleased when he learned of this quiet effort, later.
But mainly Colene had to keep track of her mother, who was hyper. She had stayed home from work, to manage this occasion. She was determined that Colene was going to have a perfect wedding dress, come what may. And a grand bouquet of flowers. And a wedding cake. Everything. So she was measuring Colene, and sewing material, and baking, in parallel columns as it were.
“But Mother, it’s only a justice of the peace in Texas,” Colene protested. “A dinky little civil ceremony, no frills.” She didn’t have the heart to say that it was just so that Darius would accept her as Old Enough, and not go seek a relationship with someone else before Colene was of age. This really was a case of being born too late. Fortunately a token ceremony would remedy that. Nona really had found the way to solve her problem. She also didn’t say that the marriage would be valid only in the Earth Mode; she would be a mere mistress in Darius’ home Mode. But this was the necessary compromise she had to make, unless she could learn to be a vessel of joy.