The Odradek

Although the corridors were sterile and modern, Hannah couldn't shake the feeling that swords were hanging above her head, waiting for the wrong moment to fall, killing her. Kasha said she would tell her everything Julian had been planning, and his end goal, but she fully prepared that this sudden trust from Kasha was only a part of Julian's plan to get rid of her.

She hoped that she was, in truth, 'fully' prepared.

The corridors looked entirely built by metals, as she could see their blurred reflections on the walls, ceiling, and floor. The only lighting was coming from along its ceiling's corner, enough to light their way, but still too dim for her liking. The access to these corridors was also very suspicious, as it was hidden behind the curved wooden walls of the 'office' given for her by Julian. Kasha needed to push several panels in a particular order to make the door revealed itself.

"Are you sure Julian won't know that you lead me here?" she tried to break the silence between them.

"Well, showing you what you're about to see is part of the plan," Kasha answered without looking back, "it's the timing. He was going to show you this after you achieved a certain point of conditioning. He knows if this corridor is being entered, but he'll think that it's just me or his people."

"Excuse me?" Hannah asked, " 'conditioning' ?"

Kasha stopped walking and turned around, "Yeah. Let's say, to make you more sympathetic towards his cause," she then turned around once more to assume her walk.

"Basically, a brainwash…" Hannah muttered to herself.

Kasha stopped walking again, and moved awkwardly in her place, then resumed her steps. Now it was slower. She probably heard that remark. She could sense that 'brainwash' might have switch something inside of Kasha, hence the hesitation. She decided to know more about this woman.

"So, Kasha?" she started, "where are you come from?"

"Far away from where you are seated, hahaha…" she answered, "…and none of your business."

Sure. Hannah apologizes and tried to profile Kasha secretly. A bouncer, so to speak. A muscle of a religious leader who didn't question every order she received. This was a very classic case of people who had been emotionally manipulated. Kasha was probably groomed by Julian when she was vulnerable. It was almost always the case. Hannah just needed to find out why Kasha was vulnerable, and when. Julian was always a charismatic person, and his position in her household made their family never second guess his activities.

If only she could point out when and where Kasha was being approached by Julian, she might find some other technique to break her and persuade her to come to her fold, as oppose to Julian's. Apparently, she was saying the right thing to pushed Kasha into helping her, but she wrote it off as a happy accident. She couldn't rely on that all the way. Kasha appeared to trust her for now. Hannah needed more ammunition.

"We're here," Kasha suddenly said in front of what seemed to be just a wall, "oh Bel, forgive me."

"Bel?" that was a devil's name. A goddess of death and destruction. She wondered why Kasha should pray to her instead of Aster. Was Julian an Aster Priest?

Kasha didn't answer, she only whispered to some random surface, "Deas Sententia Liberatum…"

The regular wall hissed, followed by minor beeping, and suddenly a red slit formed vertically from the middle of the wall and crawled upwards and downwards. 'Another secret door,' Hannah thought to herself. She felt like she knew the phrase from somewhere, but she couldn't point it out now. The red opening was now widened, as the walls slid to their respective sides.

At first, she didn't understand what she saw, as they were basked in red lights. After she adjusted her vision, though, she could see a crude silhouette of something that resembled a five-pointed star, with one arm missing. It was put together rudimentarily, with strands of cables that went back and forth across the … thing to hold it together. She walked slowly toward the object and she immediately fell ill.

She panicked and couldn't think clearly. It was a mutilated body with each limb held together by machinery and cables. She covered her mouth to keep herself from screaming, but her tears ran down her cheeks involuntarily. The head of the corpse was that of a man, with eyes opened looking straight to seemingly her soul. She gagged.

She felt Kasha's grabbed her from behind, supporting her, "Behold, Your Highness…" she whispered to her ear, "Aster's Hero. The Odradek…"

"What is this?" Hannah heard herself whispered back. The voice was weak and trembling.

"This is the one who will build the world just as Aster intended," Kasha answered with a frightening blind absolution. There was no hesitation, "The Odradek will rise as Aster's knight and eliminate her enemies."

"Aster?" Hannah said with her still trembling voice, "didn't you just pray to Bel?"

"We prayed to all the Goddesses. Aster, Sin, Tia, Amnu, and Bel,"

"Bel is a devil. She is not the Goddess."

"That is a lie," Kasha answered.

"Whose corpse is this?" she didn't really want to know, but it probably what her heart wanted her to ask.

"These are the parts of the catalysts…" Kasha answered.

'The what now?'

"These were taken from all the knights of each of the Goddesses across history. We never knew their stories, because they died without anyone ever acknowledge their achievements to the human civilizations…"

So, this wasn't a person's corpse. This was an amalgamation of many corpses. Hannah dropped to her knees and barfed.

"We only miss one piece. The last catalyst. Only his right arm is needed," Kasha continued her story. Hannah couldn't understand any of it. All of this sounded like a crazy rant of sacrificial devil worshipper.

"A 'he'?" Hannah asked. She lifted her head braved herself to see the 'Odradek' in detail. It was truly different body parts. Different skin colors, different genders, different ages. The torso of it was some sort of a black oblong-shaped pod. The cables from each limb were centralized to this pod.

"Yes. We found him," Kasha said, "we almost captured him with the blocks that your family was keeping for the longest time. Lucky Julian was able to persuade you to let it out in the open, to exhibit them."

"The Ogrario plates?" Hannah asked.

"Yes. Those weren't ordinary art pieces. They were critical in the process of bringing the Odradek to come to life," she then hesitated, "and another last piece for the central pod. The heart, if you will…"

She didn't want to know.

"The womb of Aster."