Page 60 of Tyton: The Spider and the Dragonfly
“No.I have a solution.”The way Sesi said it was almost nonchalant and it was causing Callie to ire.“But you’ll need to tell Talia.”
Callie’s face dropped.Callie wasn’t sure why she didn’t want to tell Talia how she felt.Maybe it was because Talia didn’t feel guilt.Talia had her revenge kick against the Natalists and seemed to believe that corporate security was subhuman.
“I figured.”There was a twitch at the corner of Sesi’s lip.She turned to pick up a roll of cloth and began wrapping her hands.
Callie knew Sesi was keeping something back.Worse, she knew that Sesi knew she was keeping something back.And Sesi was waiting for her to ask.
“Go ahead, tell me,” she said with a hint of acid.
Sesi continued rolling the cloth through her fingers.“Penance.”
“Penance?”Callie rolled the word around in her mouth.“Like, give to the homeless?”
Sesi shook her head.“Before corporations set up shop here, it was the Catholics.”
“Like Santa Muerte?”
“Kind of.They did a lot of questionable things to us back then.Even they knew it was horrific.”Sesi pointed at the punch pads with her chin and Callie picked them up.Sesi threw a few warm up punches.“But nobody is better at dealing with guilt than the Catholics.”
“And so, they did penance?”
Sesi jabbed twice, hard.“They dealt with their guilt in a couple ways.One,” She jabbed again, “they told themselves that we were savages who needed to be saved.Two,” Sesi made to weave as if Callie was any sort of threat, “they did penance.Sometimes it was a Hail Mary or a prayer, but I don’t think that’s what you had in mind.”
Callie couldn’t imagine herself praying.Lighting a candle to Santa Muerte was as close as she got.“What do you have in mind?”she asked tentatively.
“Flagellation.”
Callie stayed silent, absorbing Sesi’s punches as she thought it through.
“It came from an even older idea.The flesh is impure and must be repressed so that the pure spirit can reign.”
“And you do that through flagellation?”
“It’s certainly one way to repress someone” Sesi smirked.
“Do you believe that?”Callie caught a few more punches.
“About the spirit?No.They probably just put themselves in subspace.”Sesi danced around, forcing Callie to circle so she stayed facing her.“But,” she continued, “we both know the body will carry guilt.Fixing the body will fix the mind.I know that you practice similar forms of therapy.”
“Did Talia tell you that?”her voice raised an octave.
Sesi laughed.“No.I own the club.”
“Were you watching?!”The mix of shame and titillation was becoming an uncomfortably common experience lately.
Sesi dropped her guard, her eyes boring into Callie.“I promise you, I wasn’t watching.”She bounced on her heels and punched her gloves together.“But it’s not like you rent those rooms for tea.”
Callie wanted to bite her fingernails again, but her hands were occupied with the punch pads.“I thought you said it was a bad idea.”
“It is.”
“Then why did you suggest it?”
“Because sometimes bad ideas are the only ideas left.”
Callie couldn’t really argue with that.
“What about Talia?”
