The Seeds of Evermore

by Andrew Haines

  They bowed and quickly shuffled out of the room and back into the outer sanctum of the castle. The six stood there, taking in what was going on, Tuomas did what he could to explain to Elana what had happened with Archangel, but she struggled to wrap her head around the idea. “We need to devise a plan.” Donovan started, “If we run in blind, Scott will get away and we will be knee deep in so much crap we won’t be able to do anything.”

  “And if this goes right we get Scott back, get paid, and prepare for whatever this goddess that Archangel was talking about to appear and defeat her… it… whatever it will be.” Alissa continued, “We need to get some help.” She looked at Charlotte, “Are you still in contact with Liliana and Dracus?”

  Charlotte nodded, “I am but it is going to be really hard to spin this to them without them either figuring it out or demanding the truth. Or if we could just tell them the truth about us being here…” She trailed off.

  “No, that is still very dangerous for us.” Tuomas said without a second thought.

  “You won’t even consider it?” Charlotte asked him, a stern harsh voice came from her, “And what if that is the difference between saving Scott and letting him die? For real this time?”

  Tuomas did not respond right away, “I…” he paused again, he didn’t know how to answer this question, he didn’t think about that, nor the consequences that it could affect them with, “I need to think about it a bit more. There is more I need to consider.”

  Charlotte looked him dead in the eyes, “We don’t have that kind of time, and if you don’t come to a conclusion, I will make the decision for us. Like you said in the forest I am going to be leading soon anyway.”

  Tuomas looked at her, “This is not the time for that.”

  “I am making it the time, if you are dying maybe it is time for you to step aside and let me lead,” Her voice began to elevate.”

  Nick, Alissa and Donovan stood there with their jaws down. “Hold up!” Nick interrupted, “Dying? Who? What?”

  Tuomas sighed, “This is not how I wanted this conversation to go.” He looked at them, rubbing his temples “I am dying I have stage four lung cancer. The apothecary has been taking care of me and I don’t have too much longer, I was hoping to see this to the end…”

  Alissa interrupted him, “When did you find out?”

  “That isn’t important…” Tuomas got out.

  “It is, when?” Alissa asked again in an angry tone.

  Tuomas sighed, “Before we left to acquire the potion to revert Scott’s memories.”

  Alissa’s face developed a face of hate, “And when were you going to plan on telling us?”

  “After we got him back.”

  They stood there in silence for a few moments before Tuomas began to speak again, trying to justify his decision, “We already had one major thing going on; adding my woes to the pot wouldn’t have helped. It would’ve just drove us apart more than losing Scott had done.”

  Donovan sighed, “Why did Charlotte get to know before the rest of us?”

  “Elana knew first, then Charlotte.” He started.

  “That still doesn’t answer my question.”

  “Because the other half of what she said is true, I want her to take over in my place. You deserve a good leader, and it is time for her to come clean about her past and her silver tongue for that to happen, or I’ll die before I let you take over.” He looked at Charlotte, trying to turn this on her.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Nick asked, “Why do I feel like the three of us mean nothing to this group anymore? So many secrets have been kept from us.”

  Tuomas shot him a glance, “And you don’t have any either? Everyone keeps secrets, nobody is a completely open book, are they Nick? Did you tell your sister yet? Or shall I?”

  Nick look horrified at his words, “What are you talking about?”

  “Don’t think me so naïve. I know what has been happening in that Inn, and your fancy of more than one woman.” Tuomas spouted, “Since we are getting this all on the table, might as well put it all out there!” Tuomas became heated, his voice rising, and his face turning red with anger.

  Alissa looked at Nick, “You what?”

  “You don’t know what you are talking about Tuomas!” Nick yelled back, “You have no idea what it is to be like being a seventh wheel to a group of six! It’s not like it was anything serious either, if you must know. I am alone unlike the rest of you!”

  Alissa slapped Nick, tears in her eyes, “How could you think that!”

  “Oh don’t play innocent.” He countered, “You and Donovan have become pretty comfortable, Tuomas and Elana.” He pointed to them, then moved to Charlotte, “And you have a second chance!”

  Four guards appeared, they had become loud and distracting to everyone else in the castle. They approached, their faces stern and their demeanors defined. One that had a plume on his helmet approached and removed his helmet before speaking over them, “You have been deemed a disturbance in the castle, either remove yourselves or we shall remove you.”

  As quickly as they became loud, silence took them when the guard boomed over them. The moment allowed them to realign their thoughts. Elana spoke, “I shall escort them out.”

  The guard looked at her, “You will join them. Your duties have been deemed finished for the day.”

  She looked at the guard and he spoke again before she could, “You are part of the disturbance madam councilwoman, it would be best to not continue to cause a scene that could jeopardize your position.”

  She closed her mouth, and nodded at the guard. Turning to face the others, Elana signaled to have them start making their way to the doors to the city. They all marched silently, they were not going to risk causing any other scene or have the duty that was just bestowed upon them stripped, risking the rescue of Scott.

  25:

  They were silent until they all returned to the mansion, before going their separate ways for the night, there was nothing left to be said until they all had calmed down, and they all knew it. The day grew late and the star in the sky began to crest over the land as the world rotated around its axis.

  Tuomas was sitting in his study thinking and staring at the bottle that Archangel placed in his satchel. The liquid was clear, which is not what Tuomas would have thought those ingredients they had acquired would have looked like mashed together and turned into a potion. He expected some kind of tinted color, knowing the three basic colors game designers liked to use: Red for health, Green for stamina, and Blue for mana. And then of course: Purple for poisons. He sighed, he was counting down his days, and the hours until they were able to bring Scott back to the group.

  He heard a light tap on the door, “It’s open,” he heard himself say.

  “Can we talk?” Elana’s voice entered his ears.

  He looked up from the bottle, and set it down on his desk, “Yes, what would you like to talk about?”

  Elana came around his desk and wrapped her arms around him, “We need to talk about the next steps for you all. What happened today broke a lot of trust between you all. And to save Scott that needs to be put back into place. You need to talk to them.”

  Tuomas rolled his eyes at her, “Or I just sit back and give the leadership role over to Charlotte before I cause anymore fractures in this team.”

  Elana looked at him, “I have never known you to sit back and do nothing that is not like you. There must be something else going on that is keeping you from fixing this.”

  Reluctantly nodding, Tuomas spoke, “There is. The whole thing with Archangel has me messed up, me dying, I could just not wake up one day and it’s over for me. Getting Scott back after we found out the truth took over and I just stopped being able to keep track of it all. I broke, I shut down there in the castle, the last time that happened…” he trailed off.

  Elana finished his sentence, “Was when I was in the accident.”

  Sighing, Tuomas continued, “Yes, but this seems so much wo
rse, the compiling of it all has taken a toll on me and I don’t know how much more I will be able to handle. Both physically and mentally.”

  He stood up, “Come on, let’s go find Charlotte. We need to have a chat.”

  “Do you have a plan?” She asked him, placing her hand on his unshaven face.

  “I think so.” He responded, placing his hand atop hers, “And it starts with an apology.”

  Charlotte was sitting in her room, her sketch book in hand. She had settled for the night, there was not much more she could do, or she wanted to do. Tired: she could not get anything off of her mind. She was tired. There was so much that came up today. They were all tired, mentally, physically, of each other. She looked at her drawing, a picture of a cabin, next to a river. Days she had been working on it, but she decided it was finally finished. She folded the book back to where the cover was on the top with the pages protected underneath. Placing in on her nightstand, a light knock echoed from her door. She was hesitant to answer, she wasn’t really in the mood to talk to anyone. A voice came from behind the door, “Charlotte?” it was Tuomas, “I know you are mad at me, and you have every reason to be, but no matter what you think of me or yourself or anyone else at this point in time, I want to say that I am sorry.”

  Charlotte looked at the door that was the first time she had ever heard those words come out from Tuomas’ mouth. He never formally apologized for getting them trapped here, for Scott’s technical death, for waiting to talk about his cancer, never, not once, at least in her presence.

  “I am giving you the role for leadership, I am stepping away, and this sickness is going to take me soon.”

  There was a long pause before Tuomas continued, “You need to lead the rescue of Scott, and I am leaving the decision to tell Liliana and Dracus up to you. It is time for me to live the rest of my days here, with Elana and fade away.”

  She could hear him walk away from the door. Silence is what she sat in, no sounds, only her thoughts, thinking about what had just happened. I need a shower: was all that she could think about at the moment, all that she desired after that load of information made her way into her mind.

  She slipped off her leggings and pulled off her top and placed them on her bedding. The tile was cold on her bare feet, when she walked into the bathroom. Still in her underwear, Charlotte reached for the shower handle. The water began to spout from the shower head onto the closed section that made up the shower. Watching the water go down the drain for a few moments before checking the temperature.

  Charlotte thought about what she wanted. Tuomas just told her that she was the leader, no vote, no decisions but his own. Is that what I want? She couldn’t decide as she kept looking at the pros and cons of the position. To go back to her old ways and lead again, to be able to maneuver around words like soldiers dodged bullets on a battlefield. She pulled of her bra and panties, and sat them on the closed toilet seat by the shower.

  The warm water flowed down her hair and skin. Moments passed before she finally let out a sigh. Why is this the world that we were placed into? It could have been something nicer, less chance of death and worry of fighting and killing.

  She backtracked her thoughts for a moment and remembered what Scott had said about Cogs of War. His time there, I wonder if it was similar to this, making these hard decisions, making the judgement calls like Tuomas is. To see so much death. She shivered at the thought of losing more than she already had. The one question that had haunted her from the first time that Scott had told her about it crept back into her mind. How is he not broken?

  Her eyes, widened when the realization hit her: He is.

  Letting the water run down her as she continued to sort her own thoughts helped her come to the conclusion that she needed, the one that would get Scott back, and keep them all together. To finish the fight and get home.

  Charlotte reached for the handle and turned off the water. After pulling back the curtain, she pulled her towel off the rack and began to dry herself off. Standing at the sink she pulled open one of the drawers and nabbed one of the hair ties that were in there. Before she put it up she looked to see how far down her hair went on her back. It reached her lower-mid back. Her green tips were all but faded, and her blonde hair was shining from the water. She put her hair up in a ponytail.

  Having dropped her towel to put her hair up, to make it easier, she picked it back up and wrapped it around her at her chest line, near her collarbone. Returning to her room she went through her drawers to collect clean clothing and put them on and retire to her bed to sleep until morning.

  26:

  The morning sun broke the horizon and Charlotte awoke much earlier than she had wanted too, with not left to do before she approached everyone at breakfast, she decided to go and wait there as they all arrived so she could keep them there. Alissa was the first to arrive, she sat across from Charlotte; she was silent. A servant arrived and placed a plate in front of Alissa and removed the steel platter cover revealing two eggs, a hash of bacon and two piece of toast.

  Without any words Alissa began to eat, filling her mouth with a piece of toast. Donovan meandered in moments later with Nick behind him. They sat down in their normal spots quietly, as the tension in the room rose. The two allowed the servants to place the food for them and began to dine on their morning breakfast. Alissa finished and attempted to stand up when Charlotte waved her to sit back down. Alissa nodded and sat back down. Charlotte waited for both Nick and Donovan to finish their meals before beginning what she had to say.

  As she began the servants took away the last of the dishes, leaving the dining hall just to the four of them. Charlotte looked into each of their eyes as she spoke, “We are going to save Scott today, and we are going to enlist Liliana and Dracus to help us. That is if they are able to. I know that yesterday got heated, we were tired, irritated from travel, hungry. We need to set aside what happened for a few hours and work together. If not, fine. I will go save Scott alone, I will do it even if it kills me.”

  Donovan moved to speak but Charlotte shot him down, “You have two hours to prepare, then meet me by the gate. I will go get the cabin location from Tuomas. If you are not there, I am leaving you behind. I am going to save the man I love, and if you want to help me do it, be there.” without another word she stood up and left the three of them there at the table.

  The moment she left the room Alissa spoke up, “What do you guys think?”

  Nick spoke up, “I am crippled, I’m pissed as hell at Tuomas, and we have an undisclosed amount of time before this goddess shows up?” He looked at his sister, “I am going.”

  The shock on Donovan and Alissa’s faces showed, “Why?” Donovan asked, “You never got along with Scott, why the change of heart?”

  Nick looked at them, “Because as much as I hate to admit it, he held this team together, I mean look at us, we are falling apart. We looked up to him in our own ways, and it wasn’t until we lost him that I realized that. Charlotte is right, and so is Tuomas to some extent. We need to work together, and you know what, if that first step is saving the person who kept us together.” He stood up and looked toward the door of the hall, “Then by God we are going to save him.” Finishing his sentence he began to make for the door of the hall.

  Pulling the door open he looked back at Alissa and Donovan, “Are you two coming or not?”

  He waited a moment then continued out the door. Leaving just the two of them in the dining hall. Donovan looked over at Alissa, “What do you think?” He asked her, as if looking for her approval to do anything.

  “I think that we should go,” She told him, “If my brother is willing to risk it all for Scott, as injured as he still is, I think we owe it to him.”

  “You’re brother?” Donovan asked.

  She shook her head, “To Scott.”

  ***

  Charlotte stood in front of the door to Tuomas’ study. She had become skeptical about this operation. Liliana and Dracus were nowhere in Crystle and all o
f their usually friends were missing too. There was a rumor of a large guild event that had been placed in the game and they were all out hunting for the reward.

  Her hand hovered over the wooden slab of a door, she was hesitant to even knock. Letting out a low sigh, she tapped the door. “Come in,” the voice said from other side of the door.

  The door creaked open and Tuomas looked up to see who was standing in the doorway. “I believe you have come to retrieve the location of Scott and the potion, am I right?” He said standing up from his chair.

  She nodded, “I am.”

  “You’re mad at me, I know.” Tuomas continued, opening up a small chest that was on one of his bookshelves, “You have every right to.” He shifted some items around the sound almost louder than his voice, “I was never prepared for this. Then again none of us were. We were never supposed to be here this long, and well I don’t know if I make it out, this project will continue.”

  Charlotte just sat there and listened, she didn’t speak. She was waiting, connecting the dots, seeing if Tuomas would admit something. He continued, “The pain I have put this group through is nothing short of a terrible leader. But here is where I get off and let someone else lead. I know when I am no longer suited for leading,” He finally pulled out the bottle and set it next to the chest so he could close it.

  It was only a few steps for him to make it to Charlotte with the potion. She reached out for it, and he handed it to her with no resistance. She slid it into her satchel and looked up at Tuomas, “Where is the cabin?” She asked him, only focusing on saving Scott.

  He nodded, and stepped back to his desk and opened one to the top drawers. The ruffling of parchment echoed in the room before Tuomas closed the draw again and held up a folded parchment, “A map, here.”

  This time Charlotte made her way to his desk and reached out her hand to accept it. But before Tuomas obliged he commented, “You will tell everyone the truth won’t you?” He asked her. “Please tell him. It will help you move on too.”