When All Else Fails (A Push of a Button Novella)

Chapter Twelve

SEB STAYED THE night with the man who'd demanded the story. The man, as it turned out, went by Corentin. Now that the introductions and his tale were out of the way, the two of them sat in rockers before a dancing fire, drinking hot herbal tea. He glanced at his host, noting the glint of silver in his hair and the tension in his shoulders. "What are you so afraid of, Corentin?" He sipped at his drink and tried to ignore the thick earthy flavor the oregano gave it. "Out here in the middle of nowhere, I'd think you'd have less to worry about than those of us right under the Supremacy's thumb in the communes and cities."

Corentin snorted. "The fact that you're saying that is proof of how ignorant you are. As long as I'm still alive, I have to look over my shoulder. The only reason they didn't kill me was because they knew I'd give them up from beyond the grave. So I'm in exile here. As soon as they find a way to make sure what I know won't be shared, they'll kill me."

"Exile for what?"

Corentin eyed him from the corner of his eye. "For asking questions. For deciding not to live with the lies anymore." He turned his attention back to the fire. "What I know is enough to ruin every single one of the men at the top."

"You mean..."

"Yes, boy, I do. I was one of them. A Supreme One. At first, being God to a people too brainwashed to see what was really going on had its appeal." He shook his head sadly. "And when I woke up to reality one day, it just terrified me."

"Playing at God terrified you?"

A short nod.

"What made you leave? Give up the power you had?"

"Being a Supreme One isn't the highest you can go. The ones who control them are handpicked from our numbers." He knocked back the rest of his tea with a grimace. "When I was still young and foolish, I wanted in on that top tier. And, eventually, they let me in. Obviously, none of you really know what we do, and the masks ensure you don't know who we are. But I was good at what I did. One of the best out of the thirty Supreme Ones who run the day-to-day operations of the Supremacy."

"Thirty? That's all there are? Just thirty people to run an entire planet..."

"Just thirty, but obviously it wouldn't work without the people under us, the henchmen and minions who follow orders without question." Corentin sneered at the crackling fire. "No one below us had the right to ask questions. But as it turned out, neither did we."

"So when you reached the upper echelon of the Supremacy?"

Corentin tightened his grip on his mug. "I found out we weren't—I wasn't—all-powerful. Far from it. If anyone was, it was them."

"Them? You mean the final tier in the Supremacy leadership?"

Corentin shook his head. "No, no... The puppet masters pulling all of the strings. Oblivion. Their goals, their desires... They were pure evil, and I knew it the first time I encountered them. But when I tried to fight it, tried to back out on it or ask why we obeyed those who had done nothing to build our civilization or enable our success? I was exiled here."

Seb shivered. An evil worse than the Supremacy? How was that even possible?

"It's possible, boy."

He frowned. "I didn't say anything."

"You didn't have to. It's written all over your face." Corentin leaned back in his rocker. "The Supremacy wants to keep their power. They don't have any interest in specifically making everyone suffer. Only in doing what they must to maintain control. Oblivion isn't like that. The beings that run that shadow world want only to inflict pain and create chaos in the human soul."