by Samuel Small
“Do you want to grab a jacket or something?”
With the words, Dante sunk lower and peered at Sara suspiciously. There wasn’t anything to be suspicious of though, so she just stared back, hoping he’d get the memo.
“Well, I guess if you really wanna,” Dante said. Sara rose along with him and they went to the counter, paid, then she followed him out of the door.
It was a beautiful night, the moon suspended high in the clear sky and casting light off of the many sparkling buildings. It was starting to become winter, so the nights were getting longer, although Sara didn’t mind. She liked the feeling of the night air in her lungs and the quiet serenity of the dark streets. Not many people were out that night, it was almost like she and Dante were alone in such a large and grand place.
“Well? Where are the stores at?”
When she turned Dante was behind her, staring with his teeth chattering. She had been so caught up with how nice everything was that she forgot her objective: go to dinner with Dante to gather information and get him a jacket so that he didn’t freeze to death. She was only spending time with him this late at night because she had things to do, stuff to figure out. Also, she supposed she was kind of grateful that he wasn’t dead.
The store wasn’t far from the restaurant so she led Dante on a short walk and had him trying on warm clothing 10 minutes later. He hated almost everything she picked out for him, yelling that it was way too fancy or that he’d trip over the damn thing if he got into a fight. Finally he found a simple black coat, which he zipped up over his jacket, and seemed to find it pleasing. His happiness with the simple garb made it hard for Sara to suppress a smile. The two went to the counter and paid for it.
With Dante no longer at risk of hypothermia, Sara opted to walk him to his hotel room, which she’d also set up free of charge. He thanked her for the place to stay and the new coat then followed her, looking at all the buildings like they were magic.
“This place used to be part of a larger country,” Sara said.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. You know that man who was at the meeting? The one with the blue cloak?”
“I saw him. That guy didn’t talk much.”
“Did you notice that his national colors are the same as mine but inverted?”
Dante stopped dead in the road and glanced around. There were several banners hanging from a few buildings, and even flags in nearby entryways. He glanced at each of them but must’ve had difficulty telling the exact color in the dark as he squinted and leaned in.
“Well trust me – they are. Niflheim is white and blue; Magnum Undo is blue and white.”
“Ah, so they ripped off your color scheme? That’s kinda shitty.”
“No, Dante. We used to be one country,” Sara said, then came to a stop in the plaza. An ice-hewn statue was proudly on display there, one of a single girl holding hands with no one. It was so tall that Sara had to lean back just to see the top of it, but it was an intricate part of her history and the reason why they still had conflict with Magnum Undo to this day.
“A long time ago we used to be one nation. There were two tribes then, those who wielded the power of ice, and those who used regular Sol, typically plain old water. My ancestors were really uptight and wanted to preserve a pure bloodline, since ice Sol is actually genetically inherited,” she glanced at Dante to see if he’d gotten any of this but he only stared like she’d been speaking in tongues. He didn’t know how to read, so it made sense that he probably didn’t have any formal schooling at all, meaning that he wouldn’t know much about how Sol worked.
“The presence of Sol is genetic. If one parent has it and the other doesn’t the baby has about a 50 percent chance of getting it. If both do it’s nearly 100. But that only means that they’ll get Sol, the element they end up with seems to be completely random. Two people with water Sol can have a fire baby and vice versa. The only exceptions are…” she trailed off and looked at Dante, whose mouth fell slightly open at the realization of what she was going to say. “…are Pure Sol and ice.”
“All right, gotcha teach,” Dante said then stuffed his hands into the pockets of his new jacket before walking around the statue. Sara picked up her pace to walk alongside him, but he didn’t focus on her, his head held forward. She must’ve bored him with all the history talk and he didn’t want to listen to her anymore. For some reason that made her feel sad and she dipped her head lower.
“Well? You guys were all snooty so you could keep your fancy ice Sol, is that it? What happened next?”
“My family got really strict about marriage and wouldn’t allow members to marry outside of the clan. But one girl fell in love with a commoner with a water Sol and the two tried to run away together. Both families were furious. They ended up demonizing each other, one side claiming the boy had kidnapped the girl and the other calling the girl a temptress and a whore. My ancestors went after the boy and the water users targeted the girl. It ended up leading to a great battle right at the border of the two districts. The lovers died in the fighting but nobody learned from their sacrifice. Instead the wedge only grew and the two sections separated into independent nations. That was centuries ago, but tensions are still running as high as ever.”
“I think I get it now…” Dante mumbled, a hand resting on his chin. That made Sara happy, he’d never received an education but she’d managed to cram a lot in a short amount of time. History, genetics, even a little bit about herself. They should talk like this more, get him up to speed on how things work, and maybe teach him how to—
But Dante snapped his fingers, breaking Sara’s thoughts, then pointed at her. “So you’re inbred!”
“That’s what you got out of that?!” she shouted and smacked him in the back of the head. His whole body shot forward then slammed into the ground, skidding along the slippery walkway. The boy groaned and stood up, muttering that she was crazy under his breath.
“I’m crazy? I tell you a whole story about history and your big take away is that I’m inbred?”
“Ain’t that the truth though?” Dante said as he stood back up, rubbing his cheek with his palm. “Like, in order to pass on your Sol you’d have to fuck your cousin. Am I right?”
“They’re extremely distant rela—”
“So basically you’re, like, a royal hillbilly.”
With that, Sara had had enough and stormed off in the direction of his hotel. She heard Dante chuckle behind her then speed up to match her pace, which only made her want to hit him more. She couldn’t exactly abuse a foreign leader in public any more than she’d already done. Still, to think Dante had been the leader of the Purists this whole time. He seemed ill-equipped to handle the task. Then again he was very strong, and maybe that was all they required. If that was how their assembly worked it would do a little to explain his eccentric personality.
It wasn’t long before they made it to the hotel, a towering structure featuring many rooms. She stopped before the entryway alongside Dante and stared at him. For whatever reason her mind was empty of all thought, the only things her brain willed her to do was stare into his green eyes.
“Uh, anyway,” Dante said, taking his first step toward the door. “Thanks for the meal, it was delish. Oh, and the jacket too – now I won’t freeze my ass off. Night then,” he finished with a casual salute.
“Wait, how long are you going to be staying?”
Dante looked to the ground in thought. “I don’t know. How long is that Führer guy staying?”
“Don’t tell me you plan on attacking him again. He is my ally, you know, so attacking him is tantamount to an act of wa—”
“Listen Sara,” Dante said. His eyes were especially cold and narrow, and the shadows of the archway above their heads created darkened ridges all over his face. To Sara he looked possessed, if only for a second. “I’ve got my own objective and my own shit to do. We worked together before, but that was cos the Voids were causing problems. There ain’t nothing threatening hu
manity, so now I gotta pursue my original goal.”
“Those mercenaries, right?”
“Yeah, guys with lightning symbols on their jackets. Let me know if that Führer guy tells you anything about them.”
“Nobody’s mentioned anything to do with them. And how are you sure the Führer knows—”
But she was broken off by Dante’s intense stare. The resolve of his body language in that moment led Sara to stop asking questions. He was sure of it.
“All right,” she said, “but don’t do anything crazy. He’s the leader of an entire country and I’m not sure if they’ll look the other way if you do something to him again.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna attack him directly. That guy, he’s crazy strong. There ain’t much point in throwing a punch at him so I’ll probably walk around and dig up information, keep training. Eventually I’ll be able to take him on.”
That was good, it meant that Dante wasn’t an imminent threat to one of her allies. He’ll be traveling and training, nothing to worry about, she thought. She smiled and nodded. Dante took that as an opportunity to take his leave. He said goodnight again and turned, but Sara found her hand seizing the cuff of his sleeve.
She had to look away when he turned toward her because she honestly had no idea why she’d done that. It was like some sort of primitive instinct. As her vision trailed along the floor, she managed to stammer out. “J-jake’s in the same hallway as you. Be sure to pay him a visit and let him know you’re all right. Room 215.”
“Right,” Dante said then gently seized the hand that held his jacket. Her heart skipped a beat in the moment he peeled it off but he soon let go and entered the building. Sara was left alone with a fading feeling of warmth on her palm. She glanced over at the statue of the girl in the distance, the head peeking out above some of the smaller homes. Is this what she feels like? Sara thought.
Chapter 13
Several hours after arriving in an entirely new country, Jake realized that everything was the same as when he left the Republic. He was trapped in his room, more so now than before due to the frigid weather, with nothing to do aside from leafing through a few books. He was even more behind on his guard classes and now he didn’t even have the luxury of going to the training hall. He glanced out of the window, the area beyond it seeming especially dark, and was able to make out the first few flurries of a snow storm. He sat up in his bed, rubbing his hair, then glanced at the clock.
It was late, but not late enough for him to go to bed yet, even though all he really wanted was for this night to be over. The whole trip was pointless, he didn’t even get to talk to the assembly because of that one guy in the leather jacket, who, according to a conversation he overheard from a few of the elite guards, probably attacked Führer Bellator. They’d mentioned a loud and obnoxious boy, and although he considered the guy to be a man as opposed to a boy, little details were bound to get confused as they passed through the rumor mill.
A series of rapid knocks began on Jake’s door, showing no sign of stopping. He glanced over at it, confused. He’d just checked the time and even though it wasn’t late enough for him to go to bed it certainly wasn’t time to be bashing on someone’s door with all of your energy. The trainee got out of bed and crossed the room, thinking, It can’t be Major Miles or someone from the Republic or they would have just called me on my comp. The hotel staff wouldn’t knock this obnoxiously so—
Jake flung the door open then his jaw dropped in shock. The knocker hadn’t stopped their ceaseless actions and still tapped at the air a few times before quickly bringing the arm to the back of their head. They rubbed their hair bashfully.
“Hey, uh, Sara told me to come talk to you. Let you know I’m not dead and stuff.”
Jake couldn’t believe it. It was Dante in the flesh, even though he’d seen an entire building collapse on the boy so—
“Oh that?” Dante said, seeming to read Jake’s mind. “Well, while everything was falling,” he pointed his finger and thumb up so that they looked like guns and fired imaginary bullets, “I blasted my way through. Each and every layer, man was it exhausting. When I was done I literally fell on my ass.”
It didn’t make much sense to Jake, but with Dante nothing really did. Especially his outfit. It was a jacket with a tie and he didn’t know what the hell was going on with that hair. He sighed and figured he should just accept it.
“Good to know you’re among the living,” Jake said.
With that came another thought. Hadn’t they only been working together because of a mutual enemy? Now that they were gone, what was he going to do next?
“Regarding that mercenary group you’re hunting, got any plans?”
Dante leaned back, folded his arms, and placed his head down. “I don’t know. I tried to get some info out of your King Führer guy but he wouldn’t budge. Guy’s an asshole.” So that was him, Jake thought, not really surprised. “I guess I’ll just have to travel around and try to pick up some intel.”
“Okay,” Jake said with a sigh. At the very least, that meant Dante wasn’t going to attack the leader of the country any time soon. If he was intent on that Jake would have to report it, although he doubted much would happen as a result. The guy had literally attacked the Führer with zero repercussions just a few hours earlier.
Dante pointed to a room a couple of doors down. “Anyway, I just figured I’d stop by. My room’s down the hall and I’ll probably be gone tomorrow afternoonish.” After waving, the boy walked down the hall and into his room, slamming the door shut behind him. Jake stood in the empty space of the doorway for a few seconds as his mind tried to digest everything that had just happened, then quickly shut his door too. He made his way to his bed and tried to resume what he had been doing, which was absolutely nothing, but the revelations about Dante kept pounding in his head. What about the Void King? What had Dante been doing for the past two months? Had he seen Elizabeth at all?
The questions just wouldn’t stop and Jake decided he needed to get some air to clear his head. He grabbed his jacket and zipped it up over his uniform then headed out the door, down the hall, and finally out of the hotel. He wandered the streets, which had become even colder during the night, warding off sudden gusts of wind by ducking his head well into his collar. Despite the assault by Mother Nature Jake did find the walk good for clearing his head.
Dante had to be one of the leaders of the great nations if they allowed him entry into the assembly, and he figured that nation had to be the Purists. A shiver went down Jake’s spine when the possibility of Dante being in charge of a group of powerful people flashed through his brain, but then he realized that Dante was almost never home. He’d been with Jake during the Void incident for about a week and had to travel even longer to reach Niflheim. Besides, Jake didn’t think it was in the guy’s personality to stay in one place for too long.
A couple walked just ahead of Jake, their arms intertwined. The girl laughed at a presumed joke made by the man before they turned the corner and left Jake’s sight. Those were the last people on the street and now he was alone. He liked this, it reminded him of the solidarity of Republic Park and helped him think straight. Maybe he could work out a plan of action regarding Dante, even help clear the Republic’s name about their involvement with whatever mercenary group he was after. But he’d need to get—
All at once, Jake’s thought process shut down. He glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone had entered the area and his eyes widened upon taking in a familiar figure. Two in fact, both dressed in a black trench coat and one waving erratically and calling Jake’s name. From this distance, Jake could see the bulges under his coat that would be his guns. The other strode behind, fists clenched at his sides.
“Hey, it’s been a while, huh?” the one who had wielded the guns said. He took a few steps closer to Jake, but his comrade grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back. This second person had a very scrawny build and a tight-fitting coat to reveal it in all its gl
ory. Despite this, his voice was loud and gruff. “What the hell are you doing?”
“It’s all right, he already knows about us.”
“That so?” the scrawny guy said, removing his hand from the speedster’s shoulder and clenching it as his side. “Then I should kill him.”
There was some kind of insane conviction behind those words that Jake got the sense the man was absolutely positive he could do it, despite his lack of muscle. But if he was a teammate of the speedster Jake should be hesitant about fighting him.
“Come on, there’s no need for that,” the speedster said with a casual wave of the hand, prompting his comrade to stop his advance. Jake took the opportunity to reach behind his back and pull out his sword.
“What’s this all about?” he said.
“We’re not here to fight you. Actually, I want to give you a warning.”
“A warning?” Jake said, not relaxing his grip on his sword.
“Yes, a warning. I just wanted to tell you to grab your friends and get out of here! Something big and bad is about to go down and I, being the humanist that I am, want to limit the number of casualties as much as possible.” He shook his head at the ground. “Sadly there’s a limit to what I can do by myself. What I need you to do is grab that Pure Sol friend of yours, maybe even the girl if you want, and get the heck out of here.”
“What exactly is happening?”
“Well—”
“Don’t tell him,” the scrawny man cut him off, arms crossed in front of his chest.
The speedster spoke fast, as if he could use his Sol on his mouth as well. “The-water-nation-is-gonna-start-a-war-with-the-ice-people-and-a-bunch-of-folk-are-gonna-die-so-I-don’t-want-you-to-get-pulled-into—ack!” The palm of his comrade found its way to the back of his head, but the sheer speed with which he spoke allowed him to get most of it out, although Jake couldn’t completely decipher it. His body went limp and his comrade caught him by the waist then scooped him up over his shoulder.
