“I’ve taken care of them, we’ll be fine.”
Okita stepped out of his cell with New Baggins close behind, and in the early hours of the morning the two fugitives disappeared from their captors.
“Say, what was it that you did when you stepped into my cell? How did you change your appearance like that?” Okita asked.
“It’s a bit of a long story,” New Baggins said. “A new trick I developed during the last week. But we have a lot of time. I’ll tell you along the way.”
Chapter Forty
The Road to Home
Later that morning, Adam stepped out onto the back porch one last time. It was a very bright morning, and the sun warmed Ayumi’s backyard to the point where the icicles dangling from the roof were starting to drip down. The fresh snow sparkled in the light, glinting in every direction and blinding Adam as he opened the door. Once his eyes started to adjust to the brightness, he found that he wasn’t alone on the porch.
“Shouldn’t you be packing?” Adam asked.
Mathias Silvos cracked his neck and turned to Adam. “I travelled pretty light, so it didn’t take long. I just wanted to take some time to enjoy this for a little while before we leave. We don’t get winters like this in Leapador, so I thought I should get what I can out of this before I go back.”
“You’re going back to Leapador?”
Mathias nodded. “I decided the morning before the battle. If I didn’t die here, I was going to go back and fulfill my responsibilities there. I’m alright with it now, because you were right. Trying to kill all of the unjust people in the world isn’t going to do me or my family any good. If I really want to make my father proud of me, I’ll stand for what he believed and become a strong king for the people of Leapador.”
Adam made his way over to Mathias and placed his hand on his shoulder. “That’s the attitude I would expect from Richard Silvos’ son.”
The back door opened again and Dee poked her head out into the cold. “Oh, there you two are. The Creator’s getting ready to open to portal to the Other Universe, so we’ve got to get going. Be sure you thank Ayumi for having us before you go.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Mathias said. “We’ll be along in a minute.” Dee shut the door and Mathias sighed. “Anyway, we’re going to be going our own ways after this. I’m going to do my best to be a good king for Leapador, so you’d better take from the experiences you had here be the best king for Magid.”
Mathias extended his hand, and Adam grasped it in a firm handshake. He didn’t intend to let the people of Magid down, nor the people who stood by him and believed in him throughout the ordeal in Kyoto.
The two re-entered the house and found the Creator and Dee with Ayumi in the living room. Cody and his father had already left the night before, due to the long flight back to the United States. The Creator had offered to bring them there himself, but Cody refused. He thought it would be better to have the time to spend with his father and explain everything that had happened. The Creator understood, and wished Cody the best, even though the feelings weren’t mutual.
“Have you packed everything, Iilil-ja?”
“I didn’t bring much with me,” Adam said. “The only thing I’m bringing back with me is the Sword of Magid that Master M gave me.” This wasn’t completely true. He was also bringing back the object wrapped in white cloth that had been left on his dresser. He’d finally gotten a chance to look at it after the party. It was a human skull, cleaned and with only a few cracks in it. He still had no idea who had delivered it to him, though he didn’t intend to ask. The skull would remain a secret of his if he could, because it represented the culmination of his fears in a physical form. This was his fate if he should ever submit to his rage. It was after all, he concluded, the skull of his other half.
“It’s hard to believe it’s only been a week,” Ayumi said. “So much has happened. It’s going to feel so weird to go back to the way things were before you showed up.”
“I imagine you’ll be better off that way than with a group of criminals roaming around Kyoto,” the Creator said. “But the sentiment is still appreciated.”
She gave the Creator a friendly hug. “It was nice to finally meet you, Daniel-kun. Even if you turned out to be someone completely different from what I expected.”
“Do take care of yourself, Ayumi,” he replied. “I’m sorry that I didn’t get to see Shuya, but please extend my best wishes to him.”
“I will,” she said. Ayumi bid farewell to Dee and Mathias as well, and then hugged Adam. “You stay out of trouble. And don’t go running off the next time there’s a problem. You have good friends who are there for you.”
“I know,” Adam said, returning the hug. “Thank you for everything, Ayumi.”
She pulled away from him, tears starting to form in her eyes. “Come on, you’re making me cry. Go on, get out of here.” She still couldn’t help but smile.
The Creator led the others into the kitchen, turning back one last time to smile at Ayumi. She waved as he disappeared around the corner. There was a quick flash of light and a sound like air being sucked through a vacuum that only lasted a second. Ayumi rushed into the kitchen, but nothing was left. They were already gone, and she found herself alone again.
She let out a long sigh. It was really over now. Even if it was only a week of her life, it felt like much longer. She was really just an ordinary high school girl, after all. This kind of excitement only existed in comics and on television dramas. It was a pleasant break from reality, but now it was time to go back.
Because of the panic in the city, schools had been closed during their final week and her winter break had started early. With nothing left to do, she decided to plop down on the couch and watch some television. It was still before noon, so there was probably a children’s show on some channel that would keep her occupied with nonsense for a while.
When she clicked on the television, however, she found that all of the channels were displaying the same emergency message. Ayumi sat up and paid closer attention. These messages came on from time to time to alert people about earthquakes, but they rarely dominated all of the channels unless it was something very serious. She listened to one of the reports.
“Scientists are still trying to isolate the epicenter of the earthquake, believed to be somewhere in the Indian Ocean north of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. As of now, tsunami waves are still striking the coast of that island as well as Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, and Myanmar. It is believed that these waves, some which are being reported to be reaching ten meters, will continue to strike these countries and continue to move out even farther through the Indian Ocean as a result of this catastrophic earthquake. We will continue to provide live coverage of this event as it occurs, as well as try to reach out to those in the affected countries. As of now, communication is difficult, but it can be expected that casualty rates have been very high, even only hours after the initial earthquake.”
The remote control fell from her hand. Ayumi was paralyzed as the map on the television showing the extent of the tsunami waves shifted to the raw footage provided by a resident of one of the affected countries. The waves crashed over a beachfront resort, rushing even through the city streets and sweeping away anyone unlucky enough to able to get to higher ground.
“Shuya,” she whispered, her eyes still fixed on the devastation. Her brother was somewhere among the panicked masses, trapped by the merciless force of nature. Ayumi continued to watch, as helpless as those on the television, all sense of hope sinking from her heart.
At Magid Palace, a loud fanfare announced the arrival of the prodigal king, as well as the Creator and his assistant. Dressed once again in the regal attire that he so despised, Adam stepped into the throne room to the cheers of the palace attendants. Despite his sudden departure and the threat of the upheaval of the kingdom, they were all happy to have him returned safely.
As he returned to the throne, someone appeared at his side. It was the short girl he
had last seen at the Solstice Gala, Miko Lith. She bowed politely.
“Welcome home, good King Evans,” she said.
“Hello, Miko,” he said. “I hope that everything went well while I was away.”
“For the most part, yes,” she said. “I think I did a fairly good job at being you in your absence.”
“What are you talking about?” Adam asked.
“I think I can field that one,” the Creator said. “We couldn’t simply tell everyone you’d vanished, so instead we made it seem that you were sequestered in your chambers. Ms. Lith was then acting on your behalf to keep everything operating as normal. It was for the best really, to keep up appearances.”
“I promise I didn’t do anything you’d regret,” Miko said in a deadpan tone. “I was also careful to cover up any reports about the escape of your anger from the orb. No one who wasn’t involved knows about it now.”
Adam raised his eyebrow. “It’s odd you should mention that, Miko. The details of that arrangement were very secret, and I thought only a few people were privileged with the knowledge of my anger’s escape.”
“Perhaps a few more knew that you originally believe,” she said. “That’s all though, I’ll leave you to your work. You’ve got some catching up to do.” Miko turned and made her way out of the throne room, Adam’s gaze on her the whole way. She really was an odd girl.
“Well it looks like everything is back in order here,” said Dee. “I’m happy that everything worked out for you, Adam.”
“Dee, do remember that you’re in his court now,” the Creator said. “You should refer to him formally.”
“Right, sorry,” she said. “King Evans then?”
“I suppose,” Adam said.
“I wish I would have had more time to stay, but the Creator is leaving soon and I must go with him,” Dee said. She frowned, realizing that after spending so much time with him that she’d have to leave Adam now. The Creator noted her melancholy and cleared his throat.
“You know, Iilil-ja,” he said. “The threat posed by the Oracle group is still active. It’s interfered with my business here in the Other Universe, so logically I should be doing my part to stop them. I can gather more information, but that would require me to return to Aeris for some time. This poses a bit of a problem though. Only immortals may enter Aeris, which would mean for me to do so I’d have to leave Ms. Gatti behind.”
Dee lifted her head, as did Adam, both curious as to what the Creator was getting at. “If I were to do so, would it be quite alright with you to leave Ms. Gatti here in your service until I return?”
Dee’s face immediately lit up again while Adam was taken by surprise. He never would have thought that the Creator would be willing to part with Dee, though a moment of thought gave him an explanation. So long as Dee was away from the Creator, he could continue to avoid the subject of her master. The burden of that truth would remain with Adam, who found that he too could not tell her. The Creator smiled knowing that Adam would not refuse.
“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” he said. Dee cried out in joy while the Creator clapped his hands together in agreement.
“So it’s settled,” he said. “I’m glad that we could work something out that was best for everyone.” In truth, he had really only ensured that everything was best for him. Throughout the past month, he had made promises to others in exchange for their service: to Dee the location of her master, for Mathias a monetary payment, for New Baggins the freedom he desired, and for Cody peace of mind. In the end, he had managed to escape granting all of these. More importantly for him, leaving Dee behind provided something else: a pair of loyal eyes who would gladly report all of Adam’s activities. The Creator intended to heed Master M’s warning.
“Well, I should be off then,” the Creator said. “Take good care of my assistant, Iilil-ja, and Ms. Gatti you do the same for the king.”
Dee waved goodbye to the Creator, so caught up in the moment that she had forgotten the Creator’s promise to her. Adam didn’t remind her; he knew no good would come of that. Instead he tilted his head back in the throne and took a deep breath. Dee sat on the armrest of the throne facing him.
“So now I guess we’ve got more time to think up a new name if you’d like,” she said with a smirk. Adam tilted his head toward her and returned the smile. Even with everyone else gone, he didn’t feel alone anymore, especially with Dee staying behind. Even if there were ulterior motives beyond her control behind it, he was glad that she was there with him. For the first time in a while, he really felt like he was just where he wanted to be. At that moment, it was all that either of them could have asked for.
About the Author
J. G. Taschereau was born in Portland, Maine in 1989. He studied Chemistry and English at the University of Maine at Orono and currently lives in Bath, Maine.
Also by J. G. Taschereau
To Touch the Sky:
A Tale of the Other Universe
OverWorld
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The Kyoto Ordeal (Tales of the Other Universe Book 1) Page 34