Metal Guardian by A.L. Knorr & Aaron D. Schneider

Author:A.L. Knorr & Aaron D. Schneider [Knorr, A.L. & Schneider, Aaron D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Intellectually Promiscuous Press

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“I’m afraid I am ill-suited to rehabilitate our patient,” Lowe confessed as we seated ourselves in the rearranged commons. He held Kezsarak’s prison on his lap, hands folded possessively on the top, but I was glad to see they were no longer caressing the cube.

“It seems that he has more effect on me than I on him.”

The magic that maintained the ghost-station had ‘reset’ the damage from Lowe’s poltergeistian episode, The only reminders were the bruises forming on Jackie and me, and the wary looks everyone gave Lowe.

“When did you notice that this was happening?” I asked, trying to keep myself from looking for that terrible glow in his eyes.

“I’m not sure,” he confessed, his voice subdued and haunted. “To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure anything was happening until you brought Sark here.”

His gaze turned to Uncle Iry, abject shame written in every line of his face. “Mister Bashir, again, I cannot apologize enough for my behaviour.”

Uncle Iry flapped a hand, but none of us were under any delusion that he didn’t see Lowe in a new light. Initially, he’d watched Lowe as a kind of oddity, interested but in the most banal way. Now he couldn’t keep himself from tracking Lowe, subconsciously determined to keep a threat in front of him.

Sark made a kind of coughing growl, and Lowe turned to look at him stonily.

“Yes?”

“I was just noticing the distinct lack of concern for me,” Sark observed dryly. “Just sayin’.”

Lowe turned to me with a long-suffering look.

“We’ll get to you in a minute,” I said in a tone that brooked no argument before turning back to Lowe. “Okay, if you don’t know when it started happening, do you at least know what is happening?”

Lowe sat quietly, a pensive expression on his face.

“I don’t know how else to describe it except corruption,” he said with a long, surrendering sigh. “The more time I spend with Kezsarak, the more his bitterness seeps into me. I can feel it, and combined with the frustration in my own failure to help him heal, I feel that … frankly, I feel like I am losing myself.”

I found it hard to argue after what we’d just seen and the way he held Kezsarak’s cube. When we’d first brought the demon here, Lowe had to be convinced to let him stay in the Station and then cajoled into considering trying to rehabilitate the monster. Now he held onto the thing like a child with a security blanket. Had I been wrong last year in trying to help the grief-maddened gallu?

“Is he trying to influence you?” I asked, pointing at the cube. “Trying to control you, or something?”

Lowe’s hand enfolded the cube protectively, and his face became wrought with concern.

“No, no, nothing like that!” He shook his head but folded more of his body around the cube. I suspected that Lowe was not the most objective party. The interaction was between a ghost and a demon, and I wasn’t about to consider asking the demon.

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