Formation of the Dominion: Chapter 4 – The Infatuated and Plotting

Chapter 4 – The Infatuated and Plotting

I watch and listen to Deborah’s daily talks on the phone with her husband. John calls her all the time to tell her the most mundane things and always asks how she and their son are doing. Her reaction to his kindness is always cute and wholesome to watch. The love of my life, Timeo, is always busy, and I understand that he doesn’t need to call me all the time, but I’d appreciate a call or the odd visit in the night. I’ll make sure that he more than makes up for our time apart, and I get my next child, whether he wants to or not.

He won’t resist me. I won’t give him a choice. Even when we weren’t an official couple and he resisted my initial advances, cracks formed as a result of my pulling at his inner desire for me. I knew he was in love with me, and it was only a matter of time until he finally accepted it. Deborah doesn’t know how good she has it to be on the receiving end of a loving husband who doesn’t hold back his feelings and intentions.

Her simplicity is admirable, as is her beauty, which reveals the story of the struggles she’s gone through on her face, with pale skin and black and white eyes. If I’m jealous of anything from her, besides receiving overwhelming amounts of attention and affection from her husband, it’s her husband’s hometown of Poca Bellezza. Unlike Meridian, which is always noisy and has a reputation for being one of the most crime-ridden cities in the world, that rural town was always peaceful. When I can hand off my power and responsibilities to my children or successor at the point of my retirement, I plan to convince Timeo to stay there. For now, I embrace all that God has given me and wield the influence given to me for His purposes.

“Darcy?’ Deborah says to me.

“Hmm? Yes?” I ask.

“Are you ready to go to work?”

“Yes. Excuse me, I was just lost in thought.”

At work, I go about my usual duties, making calls and seeing people in my office for meetings and interviews. During this time, Deborah hangs around as my protector and someone I ask for her opinion on.

She wonders why I do, despite having other advisors, and I tell her, “Everyone has their own view on things, and no matter how similar they may be to the views of others, sometimes, hearing an opinion worded in one person’s unique way can reveal a truth otherwise missed.”

Deborah looks at me, processing what I said for a second, before tepidly agreeing as if only partially understanding what I said. My friends Lancetto and Klinge soon come in to talk to me about our upcoming plans. It’s then also that Polina stops by to ask if Deborah can help her and my sons in a rescue operation of theirs that would be greatly helped by Deborah’s ability to melt things and people with her acid and heal people. I let Deborah go since she’s been wanting to feel like she has a purpose, and she’s thankful for it.

Resuming our meeting, the always well-dressed Lancetto asks, “Has my brother given you any hint of his greater plans for the Dominion?”

“Nothing besides business as usual. Timeo has been influenced by John’s way of doing things, and who can blame him? John’s basic plan of doing the right thing every moment of his life has caused a lot of trouble in the best way. By simply helping and saving others, we can change this country for the better,” I say.

“I can’t disagree with him, and wouldn’t want anything complicated anyway,” Klinge, the mutated superhuman, says in a relaxed and relieved tone. “All I can do is set my people where he says, keep them on the straight and narrow, and basic bruising, when I see people getting out of line.”

“That’s all, Timeo and I can ask of both of you. We all turned this city around and have to hold down the fort.”

“Then what did you call us here for? I assumed it was to talk about tomorrow’s political convention being held in the city that we’re protecting.”

“Eh. Handle it like we always do. Kane, Raziel, Polina, and the allies of my family will handle the blind spots. I called you here to bring you a gift.”

I press my buzzer, and my assistants bring in the finest wine and personalized gifts that Timeo and I knew that Lancetto and Klinge would love. We kept them hidden and safe for their sake and used the gifts as an appetizer for the anniversary party of making Meridian a safe place to live. For the next couple of hours, the two men and I decide who handles and pays for which parts of the party and the different people we should invite.

“Besides friends, family, allies, and supporters of the Dominion, we should invite people we’re trying to be friendly with. If anything, they should appreciate the gesture,” Lancetto says.

“Timeo and I thought of the same thing. We need to make as many friends as possible so that our influence and reach go beyond Meridian, Solis, and Poca Bellezza,” I say.

“But also make the right kind of enemies,” Klinge adds.

“Haha, you’re right, but that’s the easy part.”

Deborah returns and reports a job well done, to which I congratulate her by taking her shopping again in the suburbs of Meridian and showing her the more naturally beautiful part of the area. It used to be a place ashamed to be associated with the city, but is now a proud part of it. The area reminds me much of Poca Bellezza; however, the people who live here are upper-middle-class and rich, and the restaurants and shopping stores are priced accordingly, though they have lowered their prices a bit since more people are coming to the city nowadays. Deborah thanks me again for a nice time out, and then we go back to my house to finish the day. Ever since I spent nights staring at the stars in Poca Bellezza, I’ve made a habit of doing the same at my home, as if trying to recapture the same feeling I had when I did it the first time.

Sitting outside with my children, I talk to Kane and Raziel about their day and the criminals they faced. They tell me they’re related to the ones who attacked the office the other day, and may be planning something more tomorrow, to which I trust that they’ll handle it. The day quickly comes, and Deborah mentions that it feels ominously quiet since not much is being reported in terms of crimes or people needing help.

“Could be a good thing too,” I say.

“Or a sign of a worse storm coming,” Deborah says.

“We’ve dealt with them before, like when Raziel set the city on supernatural fire. We’ll get through this.”

“He what?”

I distract Deborah from how she’s feeling by telling the story of the foes we’ve faced and the many challenges. I even include the time when I was Timeo’s foe because I tried to influence others to act like he did with no regard for the law.

“That was my most humbling moment of my life, and probably the time when I knew that Timeo was meant to be my husband and father of my children,” I say.

“Heh. Your life is like one of the stories your family makes in their fiction and art pieces,” Deborah says.

“Fiction is a reflection of reality, with some pieces being exaggerated for the sake of the story and others being conjecture that tell of deeper truths that non-fiction can’t reach on its own.”

After some quiet time at the office, Deborah and I head to the political convention. It’s filled with many stages and rooms for varying ideologies to debate and win converts to their side. The people here range from conservatives to traditionalists to liberals and everyone of various levels of religious devotion in between. They debate how much their beliefs should influence the country’s laws, how much violence against crime should be allowed, the role of hero associations, and how much leniency with the law should be allowed for independent superhumans, heroes, vigilantes, and hero associations.

One of the debaters says, “Don’t we all refer to the source of our morality when we decide whether an action is right or wrong? Therefore, if they happen to have the majority and convince the country they are right, then they should be allowed to fix the law to their beliefs.”

“Should they be allowed to rule simply because they have the majority?” another argues. “Who is the majority? If a group convinces the country that we should control the entire world takes power, should we not fight against the laws they make, whether through talk or self-defense, if the need arises?”

 Deborah is captivated by the conversation we are watching and is interested in how it’ll turn out, so we watch it from the side. I look around the area and see something in the skylight above the stage. It’s faint, but my eyes are trained enough to immediately see a cloaked figure with some sort of weapon in their hands that is aimed at me. Deborah mentions something to me before noticing what I’m looking at. Before she can say or do anything, the cloaked figure is shot with a silenced weapon by Polina and taken away, the crowd below none the wiser about what is happening and unbothered by the soft thud of the silenced shot.

I whisper to Deborah, “I told you there’s nothing to worry about.”

Throughout the rest of the day, I point out to her what to look out for so she can see our would-be troublemakers receive justice and disappear in plain sight.

“I might not have superpowers, but the influence I hold and the people I command allow me to cast an invisible veil of protection, a trap for those we expect to cause trouble,” I explain.

“If I were on your bad side, I’d be afraid,” Deborah says.

“As my enemies should be.”

After the convention, I get a report from my sons, Polina, and allies on what they discovered from the people they either knocked out or killed, and I put a bookmark in it now to take care of later. John Elio and my beloved show up at the office. John relentlessly hugs and kisses Deborah and incessantly yaps about how much he loves her, asking her about what she’s been up to, and what he’s done, all the while having that infectious smile and bright demeanor about him. Meanwhile, Timeo gives me a simple hug and kiss, which I make last longer by holding onto both. He apologizes for not calling as much as John calls his wife, and mentions that he and John have recently allied themselves with former villains and dealt with an internal threat.

I mention the minor villain syndicate my people took care of before saying that, “Never mind talk of business and what plans we may have. The Dominion’s imminent future is secure by what we have done, just like we planned. Now, it’s time for something more important.”

“And that would be?” Timeo asks, pretending not to know.

“I want another child, and it’s going to happen tonight.” I hold Timeo more tightly to me and use handcuffs to bind our wrists together. “You’re not denying me this, and I won’t let you leave until we’ve made up for lost time.”

Timeo and I laugh at one another as we kiss again, tell John and Deborah we’re heading home, and leave the office. Together, we planned a simple goal of allowing conflict to find us so that the Dominion could prove itself in its infancy, and our gamble paid off. With the present secured, we can rest for today and hope for the future of our hero association and family.

 

The End