[I am in an upscale restaurant on the far side of town, waiting for the subject of my interview to arrive. It is getting late. I am wondering if they have decided to stand me up. I curse myself for thinking this story would go anywhere. Just as the third basket of bread is brought to my table, however, a suntanned and spindly-limbed individual with thick glasses and a cream-coloured ponytail enters the restaurant and is shown to my table. I notice as he sits down that the rain outside has stopped. He shakes my hand. The interview begins.]
Before we start, I must thank you for your kind invitation. [He is clearly nervous.] I, uh, I didn't catch your name.
Mark Deschamps. What shall I call you?
[He sighs and shakes his head.] I hate answering this question. Being a part of our society means – [he pauses to think] – relinquishing one's identity. I avoid using my given name wherever possible simply because names don't really mean anything anymore. I've used more fake names and aliases than you can count on both hands. It's not something you're forced to participate in, but once you're one of us, you want to.
So, would you rather I not call you anything?
Sorry, sorry. I'm getting ahead of myself. I am Number Two of the Covenant of Ten.
Alright, Number Two. If I may ask, what does your number denote? Rank?
No. It just means I was given the second relic. [He shakes his head with condescending derision.] I guess you wouldn't know what that means. Well, in our society, the Covenant or the Ten or whatever name pleases you, there are ten of us. Each one carries a relic. They are each numbered and we take on the numbers as our names.
Why?
I told you. I don't know. It just feels right. Looking at your relic is like looking at a piece of your soul. You don't know how you lived before you could hold it. You keep it with you at all times. We build our lives around protecting these relics and we keep them from getting lost.
Forgive me for being so bold, but you're being incredibly cryptic. Can you show me a relic? What do they do? Where do they come from?
Here. Look at mine. [He pulls up his shirt sleeve to show me a bracelet of wooden beads held tightly around his wrist. There is a large, square bead in the centre with a “2” emblazoned on it.] It looks just like a useless trinket you'd find at a flea market.
Is it?
Absolutely not. The bracelet changes the weather. Wherever it is, the sun is always shining, without fault.
[I am incredulous.] Can you seriously defend that claim?
I haven't seen a drop of rain in forty years. We can go cause a drought if you need proof. Anyway, no point in trying to make that point. The relics are self-evident. You asked where the relics came from. Number Seven gave them to us.
[I decide to humour him.] And what is the seventh relic?
It's gone. Gone forever. Not squandered though. Number Seven had all the relics when we met him. He selected us based on his own arcane observations and contacted us through letters. He tried to keep us apart, but the relics are drawn to each other. I still keep in contact with Number Three and Number Eight and One and Five got married, but that's ancient history. I probably couldn't tell you if they were still alive.
Do you know where Seven got his relics?
No. He is miles more cryptic than I am. The only thing he ever explained to us outright was what his did. That was part of the pact. We had to partake of his gift to receive our own. It was strangely altruistic.
So what was it?
A chocolate bar, segmented into twelve pieces and wrapped up in gold foil. I remember that each piece was branded with a big 7. When you break off a piece and eat it, you are frozen in time. Immortal and changeless for a hundred years.
Immortal? [I chuckle with disbelief.] How old are you?
One hundred and three. I still have another sixty on the clock before I turn to dust. [He laughs this time.] Three has it rough, though. She was much, much younger than I when she was chosen. She's been seventeen for the past forty years. Can you imagine how frustrating that must be?
Honestly, I'm having a great deal of trouble imagining anything you're saying. Wouldn't nigh-eternal youth attract negative attention?
A century is hardly “nigh-eternal.” The relics, like anything else, come with downsides. People like Three and myself need to move around a lot. Not because I look young, because I don't, but because I don't want to cause a natural disaster. Three tends to cross the country every decade or so to remain inconspicuous.
[I feel slightly put-off by what I'm being told. Number Two speaks with the solemn face of a man on trial for murder. It's absurd.] How about we turn to the subject of the Covenant's practices as a group, rather than its individual members. Do you have meetings or reunions?
We used to. But some people began to regret their inclusion. They drifted away. I don't know for sure if they're still in possession of their relics, but there's a good chance they are. A relic is like an addiction.
What was so awful about the Covenant that would make the others leave?
They couldn't handle their powers. Keep in mind it wasn't a total dispersal. I'm still well-adjusted. So are most. It was Number Four and Number Ten that had it the worst.
What relics did they have?
Four got the perfume. An unassuming little bottle with “No. 4” on the label in fancy script with an endless fount of sweet-smelling magic inside. The perfume made Four wildly attractive to nearly anyone.
Nearly anyone? Who could resist the magic perfume?
The perfume repulsed the people he loved. It was a curse certainly, but I think he might have been better off. When Seven took notice of him, he was just a scared, shy little kid. Picked last for gym class, all the cliches. Seven spent a long time watching Four, looking for the perfume's caretaker. It had to be a real special case. Seven waited until Four was all grown up before letting him have it.
Four was special?
Four deserved it. His relic showed him how to be well-adjusted and he lost his social anxiety issues. The only problem was that Seven misjudged him. I'm just taking wild guesses, but I don't think that a life of wild, meaningless partying was what that little bespectacled nerd had in mind. He put the Covenant behind him decades ago.
[I can feel hostility rising in Number Two's voice. Am I probing too much? He shouldn't make the story so enticing if he doesn't want me to be genuinely interested, albeit extremely sceptical.] You also mentioned Number Ten. What happened to them?
Ten started off as a nice guy. He was without a doubt the eldest member. Seven gave him a dog.
[I have to interrupt at this point.] A dog? The “relic” is a dog? [Scepticism is thick in my voice.]
Yes. A great big sheep dog. Named Decamus.
How appropriate.
Indeed. He had a little golden name tag hanging from his collar with a big 10 on it. Anyway, this dog makes gold.
Excuse me?
The dog produces gold. Every morning, it'll hork up a huge ball of precious metal. Ten got rich. He retired and lived on the little “investments” Decamus left him. He developed a taste for studying history. He needed something to do with all the free time. So he got Three to help him.
[I'm finding myself more and more engrossed in the mad fantasy of this man. I'm practically kicking myself for almost thinking he stood me up.] You keep mentioning Number Three. What was special about her?
Three got a necklace. A silver chain with three pearls at the centre that is still as beautiful as it was on the day she first wore it. As long as it's around her neck, Three can merely touch a book and learn whatever knowledge is kept inside. For Ten, Three was a much a pet as Decamus. Anyway, Ten eventually went mad from greed. He's retreated to an island in the South Pacific for the rest of his life. He doesn't want to see the Covenant ever again. So, in answer to your original question, we used to meet up to talk about our lives and be normal people decades ago, but Four and Ten have since estranged themselves.
I see. I think we've established enough background on the Covenant of Ten. Let's get to what I'm really interested in hearing about: you. How does this affect your life? [I don't even believe that these words are coming out of my mouth. I'm letting myself get absorbed.]
I'm fine, just as long as I don't stay in one city for weeks on end. I've been blessed with the obligation to become a jet-setter. I don't call it a privilege because I don't have a choice. My bracelet makes the weather balmy and beautiful. There isn't much of a downside. Although, I used to spend a lot of time worrying about the others when I was first inducted.
Tell me more about that. [Why am I believing everything he says so freely? Number Two has superhuman charisma.]
Despite my number, I was one of the last to be found. I'm surprised that Seven felt the need to go to great lengths to find the one man worthy of never getting caught in the rain. After I ate the chocolate, Number Eight took a liking to me. He was a bit too friendly to not be suspicious at the same time, but I entertained the friendship. His relic was this huge gas lantern, like the kind you go camping with. If he lit it and held it up to a wall, he could see inside. He loved to take me on little joyrides around the suburbs, watching people eating dinner, fighting, fucking, whatever. He was a little weird and depraved and I worried about his mental health. He was the Lex Luthor of Peeping Toms. [Another derisive laugh. He turns his gaze to the ceiling, as though lost in his own memories.] Those were the good old days. We felt like a secret club. It was kind of funny; I always thought we'd end up being superheroes like in comic books. Now, that just feels like a dumb, youthful delusion. The gifts we possess are more suitable for personal gain than actually helping people.
You said you still keep in contact with Eight. Why?
Because it's hard to forge relationships when you live like me. Eight understands why I live the way I do. Three understands because she does it herself. They're friends of convenience. I'll take what I can get.
Do you have any regrets about joining the Covenant?
Wouldn't matter if I did or didn't. I don't, by the way. I certainly was resistant at the time. The whole thing felt too weird. I had as much disbelief in my heart then as you must now. I certainly would not have wanted an “average” life. I can't be sure how many of those exist, anyway. [He pauses for a moment to think. He slowly starts to speak again.] How did you find out about the Covenant of Ten?
[I am taken aback. I didn't expect him to ask about my sources.] No one special.
I can tell that's a lie. You think no one special would be aware of us? Of me? Who told you? [His tone is rising. I am growing fearful. I worry that the interview needs to be cut short.]
[I sigh. I've lost the will to hide anything from this man.] A woman came into my office at the newspaper. She said she had something she wanted me to write a story about. I agreed and followed her to an alley behind the building at her request.
And you didn't find this strange?
[Suddenly I'm the one on trial.] Yes, I did. That's why I went after her. She refused me every time I asked for her name. She said she didn't want credit. She just wanted the story told. [I pause for breath. I'm worried that I'm toying with forces I shouldn't be.] Anyway, when we got to the alley, she gave me a hammer and said to wail on this old TV she found as hard as I can. I tried to ask her why but I could only get the same predictable refusal of information. I complied, if only to see what she was planning. I completely destroyed the thing. She then, totally wordlessly, pulled a small brass bell from her purse. She rang her little bell and, and I have no way of explaining this, she fixed the TV. The plastic and glass and little bits that were all over the ground were once again a television. Then she scribbled down your info in case I wanted to learn more and left.
[Number Two is clearly enraged by this.] Number Six! That bitch! I don't believe it. What did she think she was doing? [He takes a deep breath.] I should have seen it coming. She was capricious, always liked to push people. Me especially. Eight and I used to joke that she liked to collect the looks on people's faces when she was done with them. Was this her idea of fun?
I don't know.
[Number Two is quiet for a moment. Then, he rifles through his bag. After a brief search, he produces a remote control. It is emblazoned with the number 9.]
For you. The chocolate made us immortal, but not invincible. Nine was killed. This was his.
Why are you giving it to me?
Just try it. Seven said it lets you change your appearance to whatever you choose. Nine loved it. He took the impersonations too far, though. That's why he's dead. Don't do that.
Why are you telling me this?
Seven's been watching you, Mr. Deschamps. Six may have spoiled the surprise, but Seven assured me that you're the right fit for the Covenant. I guess what I said is true. The Ten always find each other.
Sometimes, when I'm alone, I think about you
