The Meat Tree by Gwyneth Lewis

made?

    Apprentice
    As a she-wolf? Perfectly fine, if you want a partner who can kill and hunt. I’m not sure that’s what’s required here. The boy needs a wife who can hold her own at court. That person’s not a sow nor a hind, I guarantee it.

    Inspector of Wrecks
    Let’s approach the problem from another angle. What are the qualities we’d want in a wife? Beauty? Ability to reproduce?

    Apprentice
    To be faithful, and to be a companion to Lleu for the rest of his life, a comfort. To be a match. An answer.

    Inspector of Wrecks
    To be… a flower. Why don’t we make a woman from flowers to be his wife? If we conjure her from this coming season’s growth she’s not of a race already on the Earth.

    Apprentice
    A woman from flowers?

    Inspector of Wrecks
    She’ll be fruitful.

    Apprentice
    This must be a joke.

    Inspector of Wrecks
    No, Math’s very serious. It will take the two of them, him and Gwydion, to achieve it.

    Apprentice
    And what about her?

    Inspector of Wrecks
    How do you mean?

    Apprentice
    Forced to be human, to follow a script dreamt up by two perverts in order to please a bastard created by incest?

    Inspector of Wrecks
    It would seem a good solution all round. An elegant magic. I’ve never come across another tale with this motif in it. Striking, I’d say. Very desirable.

    Apprentice
    You make me sick!

    Inspector of Wrecks
    It’s a stroke of genius.

    Apprentice
    I’ll have nothing to do with it.

    Inspector of Wrecks
    Nona, you’re breaking your part again. Gwydion…
    Nona, don’t do that. It’s dangerous for me and for you to leave before we’re finished. Nona! Come back!

    *

    Synapse Log 8 Feb 2210, 10:10

    Apprentice
    So he says to me: ‘You can’t storm out of the VR like that just because something in it offends you.’
    And I go: ‘Oh no? Just watch me.’
    â€˜And besides,’ he says, ‘it’s just a story about wizards and flowers. I can’t imagine what can be bothering you.’
    â€˜Then you’re more stupid than you look,’ I say.
    â€˜I beg your pardon?’ he goes, looking ten times more dense and he sputters on, ‘You can’t try to control a story like that, it’s going against everything we’re trying to do.’
    â€˜Oh, is it? What are Math and Gwydion doing except forcing a plot to go their way? And you’re no better.’ That wiped the superior look off his face.
    â€˜What do you mean?’ he goes.
    â€˜I know what you’re trying to do with me. Mould me to be a little version of you. Because you’re lonely.’
    â€˜But it’s my job to teach you.’
    â€˜You’re doing far more than that. You’re hoping I’ll make a Little You, to carry on your legacy.’
    And by now he’s going, ‘But, but, but’, like a fish out of water.
    So I go on: ‘If you think I can be pushed around by a saddo who’s failed to make a life for himself and who can’t cope with retiring, then you’ve got another thought coming. You’re just a desiccated old fool and you’re sucking me dry, draining the juice out of me!’
    At that, he looked embarrassed and left me alone.

    Inspector of Wrecks
    In all my years in the Service, I’ve never been spoken to like that. The woman’s neurotic. All my training tells me that I have to maintain an adult demeanour and not descend to her level of hysteria.
    I think back to the scenario in VR, to see what might have sparked such an outburst, but I can’t see it. Gwydion and Math are just finding their way around a curse in a most delightful and original way, I can’t wait to see what happens next.
    What can have got into her? Should I read the Riot Act? Or ignore the outburst?
    It’s not that I haven’t got a private life. My work life is it and when that’s gone, what’s left for me?
    I told her to take an hour