Beyond Redemption Read Online Free Page A

lose his grasp of self and be unable to differentiate between himself and his Doppels. The strongest would stepforward and take control. Konig would then become a whimpering Doppel of the new Konig.
    There were so many ways for a Geisteskranken to go. He’d heard of the Somatoparaphrenic, their limbs rebelling and claiming control over their minds. The fate of the Cotardist frightened him the most. The thought of his flesh putrefying, his internal organs rotting or fading away, was a nightmare.
    Konig sat at his desk, a massive and ornate oaken monstrosity. He’d found it hidden in one of the church’s deepest basements and claimed it for his own. It was, he believed, some kind of cherrywood, the red so dark as to approach black. Chaotic scatterings of paper littered the desk’s surface. All the business of the Geborene came through him. He was the center of everything. Selbsthass wouldn’t be what it was without his constant attention.
    Gods, it’s quiet in here . The Doppels’ bickering was distracting, but they were also useful. Though in talking to them he did little more than talk to himself, there was something about thinking out loud that worked for him. They might be little more than aspects of his personality, but they were focused aspects, condensed fragments of his psyche. Each Doppel offered something different, and though they sought to overthrow him, they needed him as much as he needed them. Need bound them together.
    Someday they will need me less than I need them . The needs of others were the fulcrum upon which his Gefahrgeist powers tilted the world. Need is weakness .
    The room’s silence bore down upon him like a weight on his shoulders. He missed the voices of others. Spending too much time alone left him feeling drained and weak. Doubt would set in. Soon he would venture from his office, surround himself with his priests, and bask in their attention.
    He picked up a random piece of paper and glanced at it; reportsfrom the Geborene church in Gottlos, a filthy runt of a city-state to the south of Selbsthass. King Dieb Schmutzig, a Gefahrgeist of minimal power, demanded the foreign church pay exorbitant taxes. Annoying, but hardly important. Gottlos would be Konig’s soon enough. For now he’d pay the self-important little prick.
    Konig snarled and slammed the top of the desk, anger flashing through him like a storm raging out of nowhere. He crushed the report in a shaking fist.
    â€œSchmutzig is less than nothing,” growled Konig, struggling to focus on the work he must do. “Safe only because he isn’t worth crushing.”
    â€œSafe because you have bigger problems to deal with,” whispered Trepidation from behind.
    Konig’s shoulders fell. “I told you to leave.”
    â€œYou’re worried.”
    â€œI can handle this.”
    â€œThere is only one god left. If he fails, it’s too late to start again. Your delusions grow in strength. Time is running out.”
    â€œAufschlag will not fail me,” said Konig.
    Abandonment, standing next to his fellow Doppel, leaned forward. “Everyone abandons you. The scientist will fail.”
    â€œNo,” said Konig forcefully. “This child is the one.”
    Trepidation laughed. “Who are you trying to convince?”

    Sister Wegwerfen stood before Aufschlag Hoher, who sat at his immaculate desk. Though the Geborene Chief Scientist certainly cut no imposing figure, fat and round, with his bad teeth and greasy fringe of hair, the young priestess knew better.
    Science, she had learned, was a terrifying and bloody pursuit. She’d assisted in enough of Aufschlag’s experiments to have developed more than a little respect for the man’s tenacious drive to learn, although Aufschlag’s willingness to go to any lengthto find answers bordered on mad. She had watched him torture entire families just to see if he could make Geisteskranken, or to determine if