The Southeastern Time Father lowered his head, thinking. Only Time Fathers could walk through the realms when time stilled. If they did paralyze their divisions, it would be Nicholai and Aggi versus Vadim, Nordjan, Avital, and Edvard. Their odds of success increased if Bartholomew and Emont showed up, but he suspected they did not receive an invitation. Still, he would not throw Bartholomew and Emont in that situation. He couldn’t risk sending good men to their potential deaths. There weren’t many left who were willing to step up and rule a division. Emont and Bartholomew needed to sit this one out.
Kazuaki and the others would be useless. Nicholai was not an unintelligent man; though it ate away at his conscience, he knew the success of their efforts rode on the captain and his comrades’ ability to kill men in the blink of an eye. If the other Time Fathers did not listen to reason, there was a high probability they would try to kill him. With the others paralyzed, it would be on him to fight back. But Darjal’s death still haunted him. Taking a life went against everything he believed.
The crew stared at Nicholai. The stillness of the situation emphasized their concerns. They knew he wouldn’t kill a man. And if he wouldn’t, that left things up to Aggi. And if Aggi couldn’t ...
"Why would they freeze their divisions?" Nicholai asked in anguish. "They would participate in the very thing they're hunting me for."
Aggi cast Nicholai an empathetic look. “They’re terrified. What you’ve accomplished, what you’ve all accomplished ... you’ve taken this further than any of them thought possible. Desperate men act recklessly. It’s their ace in the hole. Their last resort.”
A lingering quiet commanded the group. Everything relied on Nicholai’s and Aggi’s ability to take a life. While the Northeastern Time Father did not seem to shy away from the challenge, Nicholai struggled. Aggi was a strong, capable leader, but his combat skills remained limited. He was a politician, not a soldier. To expect he could slay four opponents was naïve.
Everyone knew better than to convince Nicholai to abandon his ethics. While he made his protests earlier, the Southeastern Time Father accepted Kazuaki and his crew held different solutions to different problems. After a period of adjustment, he let them execute their slayings without protest, keeping his concerns to himself. They respected him enough to offer him the same courtesy, but it left a shadow of uncertainty hanging in the room. Nobody had any advice to offer. If the Time Fathers froze their divisions, there was nothing they could do.
Kazuaki leaned forward. He looked at the members of his team. His gaze lingered on Bermuda the longest; he wanted to memorize the look of her, as she was now, before he brought the weight of his decision down on her. Perfection. Down to the last strand of salt-scented, auburn hair, with her dark eyes to match. Her skin, ravaged by a series of battle scars, each inch more flawless than the last. The way her collar bone swept up to the curve of her shoulders. He committed it all to memory.
She caught his stare and tried to assess his expression, her brows drawing together. The captain closed his eye. He didn’t want to see the look on her face when it changed. “Aggi,” he shifted his attention to the Northeastern Time Father, “if you can get us to the Time Fathers in your flying machine, I will immobilize them. Then we won’t have to worry about them stopping their divisions.”
Bermuda narrowed her eyes. Aggi cocked his head to the side. “With all due respect, Captain, we really should spare as many as we can. It’ll be a feat finding suitable replacements. And even still, as soon as you kill one, I’m certain they will trigger their Chronometers. You wouldn’t have the time to deal with all four.”
“I didn’t say I’d kill them,” Kazuaki corrected. “I said I would immobilize them. That would give you all time to confiscate their Chronometers without retaliation.”
Everyone turned to look at Kazuaki. He felt the heat from Bermuda’s eyes upon him, but he dared not look at her. Aggi took a few steps toward the man, curiosity consuming him. “What do you mean, Captain?”
Kazuaki felt a churning in his guts. Something he hadn’t felt in a long time. The anxiousness of a man with an expiration date. But he was certain. He lifted his hand and tapped the metal plate hiding beneath the patch that covered his eye. “Just get me in front of them. I have my own last resort.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
To everyone’s relief, they had almost a week to prepare for the decennial gathering of the Time Fathers. It took time to get everything organized. Aggi sent for immediate repairs to the flying machine pilfered from the battle between Northern and Northeastern. They addressed letters to Bartholomew of Southern and Emont of Southwestern. The contents detailed the goings-on, urging them to keep as many soldiers they felt they needed to maintain their division, but they were grateful for whatever soldiers they spared. The men would be a boundless asset at Panagea’s center. With the promise of blood flowing like rivers, they needed all the help they could get.
Everyone scrambled. Even in the chaos, the nights the crew spent under Aggi Normandy’s hospitality were some of the most peaceful they had in a long time. With no threat of immediate death on the horizon, there was no need to stay on edge. But as the days ticked down, and the decennial drew closer, everyone grew restless. Each sunrise meant one day closer to Kazuaki Hidataka’s looming death.
The captain laid flat on the bed in Elowyn’s room. She layered sheets of plastic on the blankets. The medic did not want to soil Aggi’s sheets with Kazuaki’s blood. Her hesitant hands reached for the instrument sitting beside her: the one that would free the screws holding the plate to her captain’s skull. Elowyn delayed her movements. She was not eager to take part in the chore, but at Kazuaki’s insistence, there was little else she could do.
“Are you sure, Captain?” she asked again for the tenth time that morning.
Kazuaki laid on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. “I’m sure.”
“Right.” She sighed. Of course, he was. Kazuaki Hidataka did not announce his plans if he did not intend to follow through with them. “Hold still ...”
The captain closed his eye and took a deep breath. He felt the pressure as Elowyn freed the first two screws holding his plate in place. It was an uncomfortable feeling, the twisting of regrown flesh, the sound of grinding bone as it released from his skull. Even in his agony, he made no noise. He did not wish to make it any harder for Elowyn than it already was.
After unscrewing the third and fourth bolt, she set them in a metal pan by her side. Kazuaki counted as the metal pieces fell in one by one. “Be sure to shield your vision before you remove the plate,” he reminded her without opening his eye.
Elowyn nodded, though she knew he couldn’t see her. She prepared to stick the flat end of her instrument under the plate to pry it up, but as the tip touched the metal, she stopped. “Are you afraid, Captain?”
“Can’t hurt more removing it than it did when you put it there.”
The medic sighed again. “Of death, I mean. Of spending the rest of your afterlife with Mimir, in that well.”
Kazuaki frowned. He knew what she meant, but thought he could buy himself time from answering it. “Not afraid. Not of Mimir, anyway.” The only thing that birthed fear in him was facing Bermuda one last time. She actively avoided him since he made his announcement in Aggi Normandy’s chambers.
“It’s just unfair,” Elowyn lamented, resting her arm and the instrument it held down at her side. “You spent hundreds of years hunting the ability to die. After everything you’ve endured, all the nightmares on this earth you’ve seen ... I just think you deserve something more fitting than an afterlife trapped with Mimir.”
“It’s my own doing, Elowyn.” Kazuaki opened his eye. It did not seem that Elowyn possessed the mental wherewithal to remove his plate yet. He’d have to ease her into it. “It’s not ideal. But a man is only as good as how he approaches his demise. Mimir may have stolen my fantasy of a peaceful afterlife, but I’ll be damned if he tarnishes my last act in life. Best to enter the fray in
a blaze of glory.”
Elowyn forced a smile. “That must’ve been where Iani got it from. You’ve done a lot for us, Captain. You took a slew of tainted individuals the people of Panagea chewed up and spit out and turned us into something better. We have a lot to thank you for.”
It was then Kazuaki knew what caused Elowyn’s delay. She was saying goodbye. He inhaled, filling his lungs to the brim before he blew it out in one quick breath. He did not know how to sound comforting. It was not in his skill set. But he knew she hoped for a poignant moment. It was understandable. She never got the chance to say goodbye to anyone else she lost. Her brothers. Iani. Kazuaki flashed her a small grin. “I did nothing any of you wouldn’t have done for me,” he concluded.
Her eyes welled up. The gloss of unshed tears strained the captain. Elowyn tried hard to keep her grief contained, cleansing the instrument she was about to use to pry off his plate, though she already sterilized it several times before. When it became clear she could stall no longer, she sat up a little straighter, forcing a smile through her shining eyes. “This may sting a little.”
Kazuaki closed his eye and leaned back on the plastic-covered pillow. “That’s all right. No matter how much it stings at first, eventually, it always feels better.”
With the captain’s eye closed, she allowed her tears to fall. She stuck her instrument under the plate and pried it from the skin it had embedded into for the last few years. As it yielded, Elowyn closed her eyes, not wanting to subject herself to the nightmare-inducing iris Mimir cursed Kazuaki with.
Though she felt the wetness from beneath her lashes, and the moment gutted her from the inside, she experienced a small sense of peace from Kazuaki’s words. He was right. Time healed all wounds. Though the pain of losing her brothers and Iani was still intense, the scar did not hurt as much as when the wound was fresh.
She felt the plate loosen, and she gave it a final pull. No matter what happened from here on out, she held fast to the last words Kazuaki Hidataka shared with her.
✽ ✽ ✽
Nicholai sat on the steps leading to Aggi’s residence. They showed their age. Though magnificent in their craftsmanship, the disasters reached far and wide. Aggi’s hometown reflected a good condition compared to the others they witnessed, but the aftermath remained. Several buildings gave way under the fragile ground. The sky shed ashes blown in from a far off volcanic eruption. The people who walked by showed evidence of the stress on their faces. Nicholai’s face matched theirs.
He lost himself since Kazuaki’s offer to paralyze the Time Fathers with his eye. While he did not know the gravity of his offer at first, he was quick to pick up on what it meant. The behavior of the crew, and helpful hints on the captain’s back story from Brack, filled in all the gaps.
Who would have thought the legendary Captain Kazuaki Hidataka possessed a weakness? Nicholai knew now why he trapped his eye underneath that metal plate. The Time Father long assumed Kazuaki lost it in battle. That it was an enchanted eye placed there by a lesser god to cleanse his soul by unleashing his darkness onto others who looked at it was certainly the last reason in the world why he thought the plate was there.
Umbriel watched him in silence. She leaned against one of the grand pillars that sprawled up from the ground in front of Aggi’s home. Darkness exuded off his body the Earth Mother couldn’t ignore, yet she found herself hesitant to approach. The feelings that surfaced inside her a week ago only grew in their intensity. The warmth was inviting though she had not intended to expose her heart to the complex nature of intimacy again.
Even after hundreds of years, A’ronn’s memory remained a powerful part of her. But as the Earth Mother learned, the laws of attraction did not bend to a set standard of rules. But it was not this revelation that weighed her feet down. Umbriel embraced the potential. It was the unknown result of Nicholai’s reaction that glued her to the concrete. Never did Umbriel hesitate in her sentiments; she was a confident woman free of restraint. But the way Nicholai’s eyes often drifted to the sky ... a part of her suspected someone already laid claim to his heart.
She sighed. Despite it all, she couldn’t leave him to battle his internal demons alone. After drawing in an encouraging breath, Umbriel crossed the distance, smooth in her motions as she took a seat beside him on the stairs. “How are you doing, Nicholai?”
Though it was clear he did not expect her, Nicholai did not startle at her sudden presence. He turned to her with a calm look, coercing a smile to appear. “All things considered, I think I’m doing quite well.”
His confidence, though translucent, was inspiring. She returned his smile and leaned back on her palms. “Are you worried about Kazuaki?” It seemed to be the central theme amongst the crew. Umbriel suspected the topic plagued Nicholai too.
“Your perceptiveness knows no bounds,” he replied with a small, defeated laugh. “I can’t believe the man has a weakness.” A weakness besides Bermuda.
“Everyone has a weakness,” Umbriel craned her neck back to look at the gray, lifeless sky. “Even legendary men like Kazuaki. It’s the human condition. Some weaknesses are just more obvious than others.”
“I should say so,” Nicholai frowned, feeling very aware of his own weaknesses at the moment. “I could save him, Umbriel. He wouldn’t be forced into his last resort if I could just ... fire a feckin’ gun.”
Umbriel tilted her head, redirecting her attention back to the Southeastern Time Father. “I think it’s a little more complicated than all that.”
“No. I’ve been going over it, again and again, all week. Kazuaki is only using his eye to immobilize them, to keep them from freezing their divisions. He’s doing it because he knows if they do, and they won’t listen to reason, that’s it. It’s Aggi and me, against four men ... and I haven’t exactly proven to be a useful soldier. It would be Aggi’s death sentence and mine.”
Umbriel listened. She waited for him to finish.
Nicholai rested his forearms on his bent knees and stole a glimpse of Umbriel. “If we descended on them in the flying machine, he, Bermuda, Brack, Rennington, the whole crew—I know they could all choose different targets. Two or three quick squeezes from the trigger would bring all four Time Fathers down before their fingers even came close to their Chronometers. I know they could do it because I’ve seen it.” He turned away, his voice collected as he talked it through. “But they won’t. Kazuaki’s a natural disaster in his own right, sweeping through a battlefield without mercy, leaving countless bodies in his wake. Umbriel, in my heart of hearts, I feel conflict can be solved with words instead of bloodshed, that death is the lazy man’s option, a temporary solution. They need to learn where they went wrong, or history is doomed to repeat itself. I’ve always thought that. I believed in it with my entire being. Since the revolution began, Kazuaki has massacred everything that stood in his way, but now he’s throwing this one to me ... letting me approach with a plea rather than a sword. And it will cost him his life.”
Though he spoke unemotionally, she sensed he still writhed in conflict. “Nicholai,” she started, “I haven’t had the pleasure of knowing Kazuaki for as long as you have. But in the short time I have spent with him, I can say with great confidence he wouldn’t take part in anything he didn’t believe in. I know your worry stems from respect, but even if you could fire a gun ... even if you could take a life ... the Time Fathers’ deaths would create more problems than it would solve. We’d never be able to find four suitable replacements before their divisions froze. Kazuaki knows that.”
Nicholai was silent. She always had sage advice, a pearl of wisdom to her words that surpassed her appearance. It was easy to forget Umbriel was over six-hundred years old until she spoke. Nicholai was a victim to his ego as he mulled over Kazuaki’s fate. He assumed the captain bent to his ways as a mercy gesture. But perhaps a part of the captain believed in the superiority of Nicholai’s approach. Enough of him to give his life for it, anyway.
The Time Father still writhed
about Kazuaki’s impending death, but Umbriel’s words brought him a small breath of relief. She had that effect on everyone. She brought the best of herself to everything she touched. His thoughts drifted to how she filtered the poison from Bermuda’s heart. In a few days, the condition disappeared and Bermuda returned to normalcy. “Umbriel,” Nicholai started, “I’m sure it must have already crossed your mind, but is there nothing you could do for him?”
Umbriel pressed her lips together as she sat up. “From the first day he asked me to help Bermuda, I have tried to think of a way to help him too.” Her expression fell as she leaned forward, wrapping her arms around her bent knees. “Bermuda’s fix was not without its difficulties, but much easier compared to what plagues Kazuaki. Lesser gods are tricky creatures. They used to be everywhere, you know. They loved mankind. But now, they’re nowhere. Driven out by those they loved. Anger and revenge fueled Mimir. I know that’s why he cheated her. They’re powerful beings, but Bermuda’s problem rested in her heart, and a heart is a tangible object composed of cells, elements that can be manipulated. But Kazuaki ... his issue rests with his soul. It’s an ethereal thing, made up of abstract concepts that make a person who they are. There are no cells present for me to cleanse, no palpable object for me to heal. Only an equally powerful force has any chance of helping him escape Mimir’s trickery now.”
Nicholai was crestfallen at her confession though he hid it well. He knew she would have helped him already if she could. “Yes. I suspected as much.”
“Do not harbor so much frustration for yourself, Nicholai.” Umbriel tilted her head toward him as she rested it on her arms. “A hard decision for a regular man comes with ease to Kazuaki.”
“Yes, Kazuaki was always good at making hard decisions. It makes him an excellent leader,” Nicholai replied as he thought back to his short adventure with the captain. Despite the situation that loomed over them, he smirked. It was easier to smile than it was to lose himself to the darkness. “If Kazuaki had been the ruler of Southeastern, perhaps we could’ve avoided this mess entirely. I never could make those hard decisions. Not without hesitation, anyway.”
The Panagea Tales Box Set Page 43