In his purple meck and with his reading glasses, Mad looked like the penultimate academic man – competent with a side of eccentric behavior. His movements were as precise as his concise, assured words. An intellectual confidence oozed from him, and he had such undeniable inner sharpness that even Ted, with his notoriously difficult taste in people, was impressed.
"I have been looking for funding in the east, with little success," Mad said while politely declining a third cup of coffee. "I can tell you more, cor Tobias, but you will have to make a commitment to the truth I am about to reveal."
"Please." Ted shifted in his chair, eager to get to look inside Madorn's head. "Call me Ted. I will do anything to get a mind like you on my side. We need an actual expert, and I have heard great things of a genius who sometimes goes by the name Mad."
Mad was not yet convinced. Therefore, Ted decided to demonstrate how much he knew of him.
Mad was working on a machine that would have many purposes, a sort of an automatically calculating logical device, but one of the things that had caught Ted's interest was that the machine could potentially predict weather based on simple, real, accurate measurements set as the premises of certain calculations. Mad intended to use fluids in the machine. This was not something Ted could elaborate further. However, the mere mention of fluid and calculating machines, Ted's acknowledgement of them and the part they played in Mad's great plan, and probably the possibility to talk about his work resulted in the scientist finally opening up.
He had been studying Worthgul's Machine for years. Now he was ready to assemble his own machine, one that would operate on an even more sophisticated principle. For this, he needed funding, but the Diamond King and his Scientists of the Crown were strangely unwilling to cooperate. This had caused Madorn to choose a self-imposed academical exile and search for sympathy elsewhere. Sadly, he had found no one to support his research.
A genius mathematician and an expert on the laws of physical nature, Mad had some excellent ideas and some strange ones. Electricity fascinated him, but with this passion, he was alone. Ted didn't know enough about the subject to argue about it. For him, electricity belonged to the field of occult.
He had to build up a special kind of trust with this man. Ted mirrored Mad's movements, but every time he perfectly imitated a movement, the scientist changed his body language. Ted just couldn't get a proper hold of him.
It was puzzling to see that this thought-oriented being was also in tune with the social undercurrents of nonverbal messaging, although consistently swimming against said currents. Mad was not an ordinary man. He was not even an ordinary genius.
After fifteen minutes, Ted was starting to feel like he had met twenty different people disguised as one.
"So, you need the Fin," Mad said. He had ditched the cors and needless groveling already. "I can understand why. This is a cult, yes, am I wrong?"
The words pierced Ted through his shriveling, black heart. This specimen saw through his Society. He had to do something about it.
"Yes," Ted said. "It is a cult. Do you have a problem with it?"
Way less subtle than he had intended.
"Not if I'm being paid." Madorn stared at him with such intensity that even Ted shuddered, although internally, of course, and he knew he had met a worthy supporter.
With all his intelligence, Madorn had to lack something, and that something was the power of his own will. Restlessly, the genius twitched. Every movement Ted made accelerated the constant changes in body language. Mad was subjected to the whims of other people all the time. He would bend to Ted. It was certain.
Mad got a room in the manor. It was clear from the start that he would not actually be a part of the cult itself. Still, he could be considered a supporter and this in turn required Ted to give him preferential treatment. Ted considered giving Mad a status as a holy man as well. This would have made it easier to make the cultists accept that someone who was not one of them was so closely associated with the most important projects.
"The Worthgul Machine can teach us to create a principle that thinks for itself. With my machine, we will create principles that will create their own principles that can think on their own. I am chasing the ultimate converter of reality. You move one part, according to what you know already, and another part tells you what the logical solution is. It's mathematics, but it is also the connection to the fabric of this reality."
That was apparently supposed to be the explanation for common folk. Mad had, however, provided so few actual, technical details that Ted did not even know what the machine was supposed to be like or look like.
Mad still acted like a shadow with its own spine. Ted was endlessly intrigued by his way of changing his entire style of speech within a single sentence.
The presence of the scientist was barely visible. He did not speak much, either, he was not one of those tedious people who had to talk about the weather or different sickness they were having. When he said something, it was to the point, mostly clear, too, unless he was talking about the invisible principles of the universe.
Ted had his own set of mental principles.
Everyone was secretly evil and a hypocrite.
Everyone was selfish.
There were innumerable ways to be selfish.
People could be good assets.
Ted never spoke these things out loud.
He lived them out.
All in all, Madorn had a pleasantly neutral presence. This made him good company for Ted, who considered cold reason the cutting edge that sliced away all of the difficulties in life.