by Clayton Wood
“No!” she exclaimed, pulling away from Kalibar. “You can't give up!” But Kalibar shook his head.
“I'm not giving up,” he insisted gently. “Please, hear me out. As I said, it is my duty to exercise all options in ensuring your safety – and that of my people,” he continued. “I cannot ignore that my children offer a unique opportunity – the only other opportunity – to fulfill these obligations.” Ariana blinked, turning to eye Kalibar questioningly. She did not, however, say anything.
“Kyle, you possess – and are the only person alive that can use – a weapon that has the potential to defeat Sabin,” Kalibar stated. He turned to Ariana. “And Ariana, you alone have the ability to sense the Chosen, and possess their amazing power.” He rubbed his palms together, taking a deep breath in, then letting it out. His jawline rippled, and Ariana put a hand on his shoulder.
“Father...” she began, but Kalibar stopped her.
“I must assume Sabin will destroy us,” he interjected. “I must plan for diplomacy to fail.” He looked at Ariana, then at Kyle. “The only way to ensure your safety is to destroy Sabin...and only you can do it.” He sighed. “But traveling to the very center of Sabin's power is suicide.”
“But...” Ariana began, but Kalibar cut her off.
“You cannot succeed,” he stated firmly. “Ariana, you may have the shard of a Chosen, but you don't have the experience or the training of one.” He shook his head. “The Dead Man – and any Chosen with similar skill – would easily destroy you...and that's without Sabin taking over.”
He turned to Kyle.
“Kyle, you may have the only weapon able to destroy Sabin,” Kalibar continued. “But neither I, nor Ariana, nor anyone else, would be capable of bringing you close enough to Sabin's lair to use it.”
“You can't...” Ariana protested, but again Kalibar cut her off.
“I must,” he countered. “Your welfare is my primary responsibility, and though in theory your plan is sound, in practice it is impractical.” He shook his head. “I've led, and fought in, hundreds of battles. Ideas that seem brilliant on paper often fail on the battlefield. Sending two children to a foreign continent, across unfamiliar terrain, to a vague location on a map, is a daunting task in and of itself. Traveling into the heart of enemy territory – with absolutely no knowledge of the enemy's defenses – is pure folly.”
Kyle lowered his gaze, feeling his cheeks flush with shame. He and Ariana had been ready to hop on a boat with a map and a bomb, without any real plan of what to do next. Kalibar was right; they were woefully unprepared.
“This would be true even of an enemy of similar ability as our own,” Kalibar continued. “Our enemy is more powerful than Ampir. Do you really think you'll be able to walk right into Sabin's home and detonate a bomb there?”
To that, neither Kyle nor Ariana had an answer.
Kalibar gave a heavy sigh, putting an arm around Ariana's shoulders and gesturing for Kyle to sit next to him. Kyle slunk over to Kalibar's other side, and the old man draped an arm around Kyle's shoulders as well.
“I’m heartened that my children tried to come up with a plan to save the Empire,” Kalibar stated. He smiled at them both, giving their shoulders a squeeze. “I'm proud of you both.”
Ariana pulled away from Kalibar, standing up and facing him.
“So we give up,” she concluded angrily. When Kalibar didn't reply, she crossed her arms over her chest. “What about your speech?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“A week ago,” she clarified. “When you were commemorating the new lobby,” she added. “You said: 'I will give up my life to defend your right to be the captains of your own lives. I will die, as did those we commemorate, before I allow this Empire, this great nation and all it stands for, to perish.'”
Kalibar stared at Ariana for a long moment, then smiled ruefully.
“I forgot about your new memory,” he admitted. Ariana didn't smile back.
“You lied,” she stated flatly.
“I did not.”
“You lied!” Ariana retorted angrily. “You're going to surrender!”
“I said I would discuss the terms of a truce,” Kalibar corrected. “I will insist that we be allowed our self-governance, in return for accepting Sabin's role as a consultant in developing the Empire.”
“You can't,” Ariana protested.
“I must.”
“He killed my parents!” Ariana shouted, standing up from the couch and glaring down at Kalibar. “He burned my village to the ground!”
“He'll burn a thousand more,” Kalibar countered quietly but firmly. “Leaving tens of thousands of children without homes,” he added, shaking his head. “I have to try to avoid that.”
“What if Sabin refuses?” Ariana pressed. “What if he refuses your truce?”
“Then we fight,” Kalibar replied.
“Or drop the bomb,” Kyle offered. Kalibar and Ariana turned to him. “If we're going to die anyway, we might as well try,” he clarified.
“If it comes to that,” Kalibar replied, turning to Kyle, “...then that is certainly an option.” He shook his head then. “But only as a last resort. I will not risk your life if I can help it.”
“So if Sabin won't cooperate, you'll let us use the bomb?” Ariana asked. Kalibar turned to her.
“Not you,” he replied. “Kyle will go with a contingent of Battle-Weavers, activate the bomb, and be flown to safety while one of the Battle-Weavers sacrifices themselves deploying the bomb.”
“But...” Ariana began.
“And then I will send you two far from the Empire, where Sabin will never find you.”
“What?” Kyle blurted out.
“You can't!” Ariana protested.
“We won't leave you,” Kyle agreed. Kalibar shook his head.
“I cannot risk your death, Ariana,” he replied. “You are too important. If Kyle survives the mission, but the bomb fails to kill Sabin, Kyle will join you, and you both will go into hiding.”
“No,” Ariana stated firmly. “I'm not spending my life running from him anymore. I'm not spending every day looking over my shoulder, waiting for him to find me.” She shook her head, her hands balled into tight fists at her sides. “I’m not going to stand there and watch Xanos kill everyone I love!”
“Ariana...”
“I watched my parents be murdered in front of me, and I couldn't do anything,” she interjected. “I watched my village burn to the ground. I watched you get your eyes taken out,” she added. “I watched Erasmus get stabbed,” she continued, her voice wavering. “I watched Ibicus nearly kill Master Owens.” She balled her left hand into a tight fist. “I watched as a man cut me open on my own bed, just watched as he butchered me, and I died watching.”
She raised her fist up suddenly, slamming it down on a small end table beside the couch. The wood shattered with a loud bang, splinters flying in all directions onto the floor.
“I'm done watching!” Ariana declared.
Kyle and Kalibar stood there staring at her, no one saying anything. Ariana stared back at Kalibar for a long, uncomfortable moment, her dark brown eyes smoldering. Then she spun about, storming to the front door. She yanked the door open with such force that its protective runes activated, showering her with pulses of bright blue light. A dozen gravity shields appeared around her, and a strobe-like series of blue flashes burst outward, ripping the magical door off of its hinges and sending it flying across the room. It smashed into one of the marble columns, gouging the thick stone, sending pieces of rubble scattering across the floor.
She walked out without a word.
Kyle stared at the ruins of the door, then glanced at Kalibar, who was staring silently at the empty doorway, looking old and suddenly haggard. Two elite guards rushed into the room, staring at the ruined door, then at the shattered end table strewn across the floor. Kalibar waved them away.
“Leave us,” he stated. “I'm not hurt,” he added. They paused,
then saluted, leaving the suite. After they'd gone, Kalibar stood up from the couch, patting Kyle on the shoulder without looking at him, then walking toward the doorway, his shoulders slumped forward, his head bowed.
And that, Kyle knew, was a lie.
* * *
The torrential rain of the early morning gave way to scattered clouds, the sun burning through these to shine its warming rays on the puddles that the downpour had left behind. As the sun passed its peak, swinging ever westward over the campus of the Secula Magna, all evidence of the morning's rain had vanished. Now, as it fell gracefully behind the shadowy buildings rising toward the heavens in the distance, sprays of brilliant reds and purples shot across the sky.
It was, Kyle thought as he walked down the cobblestone path away from the Tower, like a painting come to life.
He sighed, looking down from the heavens, spotting Ariana's favorite tree in the distance. He'd left Kalibar's suite soon after Ariana had, taking the riser down to the lobby and walking out of the Tower to find her. As he drew closer to the large tree, he saw a slender black form sitting by its trunk. It was Ariana, he knew. And if he'd spotted her, that meant she'd long since spotted him.
He slowed his pace, feeling fear grip him. She'd been furious with Kalibar – more angry than he'd ever seen her before. There was no telling what she would do now. But he continued forward until he'd passed underneath the limbs of the tree, stopping before Ariana. She ignored him, sitting cross-legged with her back resting on the wide, smooth trunk, her eyes on the grass in front of her. He hesitated, then sat down next to her. Still she ignored him, neither blinking, nor even breathing. She was as much a statue as the one he'd seen of Ampir earlier.
“I'm sorry,” he said at last.
Ariana said nothing.
“I'm sorry I told Kalibar,” he continued, letting out a heavy sigh. “He...he knew something was wrong, and he asked me.” He shook his head. “I thought about how he'd worry with us gone, thought about everything he's done for us.”
Still, she didn't respond.
“I remembered what he did for me back in the Arena,” Kyle said. “I couldn't lie to him, Ariana.”
Nothing.
Kyle sighed again, picking up a small acorn-like nut from the ground and staring at it. Faint flashes of blue light – so slight as to be nearly invisible – pulsed on its surface. A seed, cut off from the tree that gave it life, the magic it wove the only sign of the life that existed within.
“I'm sorry I betrayed you,” he muttered.
Ariana stirred then, turning her eyes toward him, strands of her dark brown hair blowing across her face in a sudden wind.
“I made you choose,” she stated. Kyle blinked, staring back at her uncomprehendingly. “Between Kalibar and I,” she clarified. “I forced you to betray one of us.”
“Ariana...”
“It wasn't fair of me to ask,” she interjected. “Not after what he did for you. For us.” She turned away, staring down at her feet. “I'm still mad at you,” she admitted.
“I know.”
“I'm more mad at myself,” she continued. “And at Kalibar.”
“Because he wouldn't let you go with me?” Kyle asked. “To Sabin?” Ariana shook her head, turning her head away from him. “What?” Kyle pressed.
Ariana said nothing.
“Talk to me,” Kyle insisted. He hated that she was being so aloof. It'd always been so easy to talk to her in the past; now she was so distant that he wondered if she cared about him at all anymore.
“You really don't see it,” she murmured at last, not turning around.
“See what?”
Ariana laughed then, a bitter, hopeless sound that burst from her lips. She turned to face him, her eyes filled with anger and hurt.
“Don't you see what he's asking me to do?” she demanded.
Kyle just stared at her.
“I'm supposed to run and hide while everyone I love dies,” she declared acidly. “Spend years, or maybe even decades or more alone, watching my back, wondering when Sabin is going to find me, and do god-knows-what to me.”
Kyle said nothing, swallowing through a sudden lump in his throat. He wanted to say something – anything – but he no words came. He hesitated, then put a hand on hers, saying nothing at all.
She leaned toward him then, resting her head on his right shoulder, her hair tickling his neck. She slipped her hand around his, squeezing it gently, and he squeezed hers back. They sat there silently under the tree, watching the sun set behind the tall buildings of the Southwest Quarter far in the distance. When the first stars began to wink down at them, Ariana stirred.
“It's not fair,” she murmured. Kyle nodded, squeezing her hand. She brushed a few errant hairs from in front of her face, then turned to look at him. Her almond-shaped eyes were barely visible in the starlight, but he could almost feel the intensity of her gaze.
“What?” Kyle asked.
“I'm not running.”
“What?”
“I'm not running,” Ariana repeated. “I'm not going to do nothing while everyone I love is destroyed.”
“Ariana...”
“No,” she interrupted. “I won't do it.” She squeezed his hand again. “I'm not afraid of dying anymore,” she continued. “I'm afraid of living like this.”
Kyle sighed, shaking his head and staring down at his feet. He knew how she felt; no matter their past victories over Sabin, the threat of utter annihilation was ever-present, a crushing weight that grew heavier to bear with every passing day.
“Come with me,” Ariana urged, breaking Kyle from his reverie.
“What?”
“If we don't stop Sabin, he'll kill Kalibar, and he'll destroy the Empire,” Ariana explained. “Even if I run and hide, Sabin will never die...and even if I wait centuries, he'll still be there.” She shook her head. “The minute I reveal myself, he'll find me, and finish what he started.” She stared into his eyes, taking his right hand in both of hers. “Come with me, so we can kill that bastard once and for all!”
“Ariana, it'll never work,” Kyle protested.
“Maybe not,” Ariana admitted. “Maybe we'll die. But if we don't, we're dead anyway.” She lowered her gaze. “When the Dead Man murdered my parents, he was following Sabin's orders. Sabin killed Rivin and Bartholos, and he tried to kill Kalibar.” She looked up, staring straight into his eyes, and touched her forehead with one finger. “And he killed me.” She shook her head. “I'm not running anymore,” she declared. “I'm going to find him, and I'm going to kill him...or die trying.”
Kyle said nothing, but he rubbed his chest, remembering the spacetime bridge generator that Ampir had placed there. With a thought, he could return to Earth, where Sabin could never find him. He could escape with his life. But if he did, he would have to live with the guilt of knowing he'd abandoned his friends, leaving them to die. And that even if they somehow managed to survive, he would never know for sure...and he would never be able to see them again.
He dropped his hand, knowing that was something he could never do. Ariana was right...it wasn't fair of Kalibar to ask her to do the same. While it gave her the best chance of staying alive, it would hardly be a life worth living.
Kyle shook his head then, a rueful smile curling his lips.
“What?” Ariana asked.
“I was just thinking,” Kyle answered. “Of the last thing...Ampir said to me before he left.”
“What's that?”
“No regrets,” Kyle murmured. He took a deep breath in, smelling the sweet aroma of the night air, of nearby wildflowers and recently cut grass. A soft, gentle breeze blew through his hair, and he closed his eyes, savoring the moment. Then he opened his eyes, and turned to Ariana.
“Okay,” he declared at last. “Let's do it.”
Chapter 11
“Take this,” Ariana urged.
Kyle took a large leather backpack from Ariana, surprised by its weight. Ariana had handed it to him with one hand,
as if it'd been empty. But it must have weighed forty pounds, if not more; he struggled to place it on his back. Ariana turned away to pack some underclothes into another bag, then turned to glance at him.
“Too heavy?” she asked. Kyle nodded ruefully. “Sorry,” she apologized, grabbing the backpack back from him. She slung it casually over one slender shoulder, then finished packing the other pack. She was about to hand it to Kyle, then pulled it back. “I got it,” she decided.
“I can carry it,” Kyle protested, but Ariana ignored him, throwing the second pack over her other shoulder.
“You'll need food,” Ariana said. “At least until we catch up with the boat.”
“Wait, what do you mean, 'catch up?'”
“There are two boats scheduled to travel across the ocean,” Ariana explained. “One left this morning, and the other leaves tomorrow morning.”
“So we should board the ship tonight, before it leaves,” Kyle reasoned. But Ariana shook her head.
“Once Kalibar realizes we're missing, he'll stop that boat,” she countered. “He won't think to check the one that already left.”
“Wait, we're taking the boat that left twelve hours ago?”
“We'll fly out to sea,” she explained. “We can catch up to it, then board it.”
“We'll never find it,” Kyle countered.
“You forget my vision,” Ariana replied.
“Right,” Kyle conceded. “What's in those backpacks, anyway?”
“Your Aegis, and my Tempest cloak,” she answered. “And some food, and a cup to put water in.”
“We should wear disguises,” Kyle reasoned. “If anyone recognizes us, they’ll send us back home.”
“Already thought of that,” Ariana agreed. She sat on the bed then, setting her backpack down and taking off her boots. She peeled off her black Weaver shirt then, and Kyle turned away to give her privacy. “You can turn around,” she added. “I'm wearing an undershirt, you know.”
Kyle paused, then turned around, seeing that she was indeed wearing a dark gray undershirt. She smiled, slipping off of the bed and walking into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
