“Oh, Eric,” she said.
Finally, she made the move. She put her arm around Eric, who felt sure she could feel his beating heart. He put his left arm underneath her head, and she scooted in as close as she could to him. Eric’s breathing increased.
“You sound nervous,” Yeva said. “Are you OK?”
“Yeah, just thinking about tomorrow, that’s all.”
Yeva sat up. She placed her left hand on Eric’s chest, looked at it, then looked back at his face. He’d seen such an expression once before…
“Is that really why?”
Now or never, Eric.
He didn’t waste any words. He didn’t waste any more time. He didn’t waste any space.
Eric took his right hand, put it on the back of Yeva’s head, gently pulled her in, and kissed her.
When he did so, he felt the elation of a true kiss. Kara had manipulated him. Yeva liked him. Kara had tricked him. Yeva showed her true feelings. Kara had used him. Yeva wanted him.
As he kissed her, feeling the true passion of a true romance, he felt an overwhelming sense of content. If he died tomorrow, he would’ve died showing his feelings to a girl he’d come to like more and more with each passing day. For all his fears at never finding love… he’d found something that could turn into that. And that was good enough.
She pulled back with a smile and snuggled as close as she could.
“You’re a good kisser,” she said.
Eric tried to find the charming words which would get her to kiss him like that again. But he hemmed and hawed before finally saying, “Thanks.”
Yeva just giggled and kissed him quickly on the lips again.
“Let’s just fall asleep here,” she said. “This is perfect. We can talk tomorrow.”
Eric nodded and squeezed his left arm around Yeva. He loved that he didn’t have to risk saying something underwhelming or stupid in the moment.
Instead, he closed his eyes and held Yeva against his body. Her head rested right on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Slowly, it settled down as he felt more and more comfortable with her by his side.
He wondered how she felt about this. Norius wasn’t that far removed. Did she feel sadness? Confusion? Bitterness? Or was she genuinely happy and doting around Eric?
He wouldn’t find out tonight, he knew that. He might not ever find out.
But in some ways, that was just fine with Eric. Tomorrow would bring a battle to the death. If he died having spent his last night with a beautiful girl truly his age, he couldn’t have found a better way to go out.
CHAPTER 24: ZELDA
When Zelda and Yeva got into bed and tried to sleep, neither girl succeeded in doing so.
Zelda couldn’t escape the thoughts of that night’s conversation. No matter what the three of them did, she was an outsider. That didn’t even account for the budding romance between the hunter and the mage—Zelda genuinely felt no physical attraction to Eric, though she did feel slightly jealous that Yeva had found love and she hadn’t.
She feared, instead, that the battle might bring peace to Hydor, but it would bring her loneliness. Perhaps if Eric quelled the resentment of the magi enough, she could live in Mathos, but would that do enough? Would she have enough peace? Which was worse—being alone by choice, or being surrounded by people but having no one to relate to?
She couldn’t say.
What she could say was that there was, as far as she was aware, only one person in the history of Hydor who could relate to her. That person had passed away recently, but he’d left behind enough information that Zelda might find a way forward after tomorrow.
The journals of Garo.
As far as she knew, the library still stood in what remained of Caia, perhaps one of about four buildings that had not suffered critical damage during Ragnor’s rampage. Even if it crumbled, the journals might still stand.
She decided that when the battle with Ragnor ended, once she had done what she needed to do with Eric, she would take Emera to what was left of Caia and go to the library. She would collect his journals. And she would not do anything else until she had read all of them. If she had to, she’d dig through the rubble for the next decade to find them.
Perhaps they only contained texts of the past. Perhaps they only contained religious teachings. But they would contain things Zelda could understand and relate to, and that was more than most other things she could think of.
Despite this decisiveness, she tossed and turned. She would’ve felt bad about keeping Yeva awake had the other mage not also shifted her position in bed seemingly every five minutes. They didn’t speak to each other, perhaps naively optimistic they’d eventually fall asleep, but neither girl had any luck doing so.
Finally, after a couple of hours, Zelda decided that her body would not fall asleep without doing something else. She got up, stretched, and went to the door.
“You’re leaving?” Yeva said, her voice tired.
Zelda turned and nodded. She had her head upright and made strong eye contact.
“Just going outside,” Zelda said. “I want to think about a few things.”
“Understood,” Yeva said.
Zelda left, leaving the door open, and headed for the front door.
Outside, the town of Mathos had mostly gone into a deep slumber. A few of the evacuated citizens of Caia wandered the few streets, exploring the small town. Zelda also overheard a couple of the locals wondering about the newfound arrivals, but they also expressed tremendous fear. They’d seen Ragnor.
Anything living had seen Ragnor. To not see Ragnor required willful blindness.
She walked to the Dragon Hunter Guild’s headquarters and looked at the massive building from the outside. It looked like a cone, with the top narrowing the further up the building went. A wall surrounded the building, but it looked designed more for intimidation and signaling than actual protection. Dragons didn’t get deterred by walls. Nor would anyone who wanted to access the building. No one even guarded the entrance.
A man in imperial clothing walked by her. Zelda crouched in case she needed to use her magic. He did not take notice of her. Nor, Zelda noticed, did he walk with any sense of formality or as if on a patrol. Instead, he kept glancing at the sky. The guards are as afraid as we are.
There’s no more human versus magi war. It’s the magi against evil. Humanity just happened to get caught in between. That’s the war we’re fighting. That’s the war Tetra wants me to make my legend in.
She left the base of the hunters. Perhaps after tomorrow, that building would have some meaning. Or, perhaps, tomorrow, that building would burn to the ground.
She walked to the beach and listened to the calm, gentle waves sliding up and down the sand. She sat down, finally having found a place of peace.
She didn’t have to adjust for Yeva’s presence. She didn’t have to listen in on conversations. She didn’t have to account for soldiers. She could just sit.
For what seemed like dozens of minutes, Zelda just sat. She tried to clear her mind. She tried to empty her thoughts. She didn’t care about Ragnor. She didn’t care about magic. She didn’t care about the future. She just focused on the gentle rolling of the waves, the gentle breeze of the sea, and the occasional chirp of nearby birds fluttering at a short distance away. She hoped that it might lead to her meditating as Garo had and seeing what needed to be seen.
She succeeded for the most part. Sometimes, a thought would pop up about defeating Ragnor, but mostly, she just simply found peace.
Soon, she found her eyes closing. She could not stay awake.
She didn’t try and fight it. She’d wake up when dawn came. She’d have the rest she needed for tomorrow.
She shut her eyes.
Suddenly, she heard shouting.
She opened her eyes, but the place looked much different than before. The town of Mathos did not have as many buildings as it did now. The guild’s headquarters did not have a wall built around it.
O
ff in the distance, she saw a young couple running her way. They did not seem to notice her. One of them had long, flowing black hair, muscular arms, and a strong jaw. The other, the woman, had flowing brown hair, a giggling temperament, and a smile that could not have gotten any wider.
“Are you insane?” the woman said with a giggle. “You’re this close to the palace?? Do you want us to get questioned?”
The palace? That’s the guild’s base. What is this girl thinking?
“Let them try,” the man said jovially, nevertheless gently tugging on her arm away from the palace. “We can see them, but in this darkness, I doubt they can see us. It’s not like we have torches on our heads.”
“No, but we could.”
Magi?
“I might. I don’t want you losing that hair of yours.”
“Yes, because you have no hair and I care not at all about your appearance.”
The laughing continued between the couple as they, too, took a seat on the beach. They did not even glance at Zelda, let alone acknowledge her existence. It seemed like the couple had gotten caught up in their own world. Ignored, once again.
But something about this is different.
“This is nice,” she said.
“You can say that again,” the man said, drawing a short chuckle from both of them.
Silence came between them. It looked like the awkward pause of a man trying to muster the courage to say something and the woman pretending not to notice. Zelda strained to recognize the two, but she had no such luck. She had no idea who they were. What am I seeing?
“What, you scared of the sand?” the woman said, teasingly.
“No, not quite that,” the man said. “Just a bit nervous, is all.”
“You know, if every night was like this, I think I could see myself just staying in Mathos forever.”
“You mean just the two of us as the only survivors of humanity? I think I would like that.”
You might just get your wish if we fail, Zelda thought. Though you won’t stay in Mathos more than a day or two. Maybe longer if you can hide.
“Oh, I know you would,” the woman said, her eyes narrowing. “But… You think we’re headed that way.”
“The empire has become greedy for land and resources,” the said. The empire? The empire is gone. Who are these people? “I have tried to explain to them that man exists to live with the world, not to live above it. Not to lord over it. But when a man becomes greedy, nothing can satiate him.”
Wait… I’ve heard someone speak like this before.
“Even when he gets what he wants, his greed has become less about a specific desire and more a state of mind. As soon as the emperor gets the land to the north, he’s going to cross the great lake and take the land to the south. And over the mountains. And east through the forests. And so on. The emperor would take the stars in the sky if he could.”
Garo? Tetra? But you’re dead.
Is this from the past? Are you spirits now that I can see?
How am I seeing this?
“And now he wants to go after Bahamut, the greatest known magical dragon.”
The past. But I still don’t know how…
“Why? Because Bahamut is territorial and protects its land, and yet the emperor wants the land to the north. I’m not even convinced that the emperor knows what lies beyond there. Not that I do. But I’m pretty sure even if it’s wealth beyond what Mathos has, it’s not going to make us better and happier. We have what we need. I don’t know why the empire can’t recognize that. It’s like he doesn’t know the definition of the word ‘enough.’”
How things never changed.
And, wow, how intense Garo was about his disgust toward the emperor. Strange to think Tetra became more belligerent than him.
Wonder how we all will change over time.
“So what would you have us do, Garo? Fight?”
“I would like to,” he said. “But… I don’t know. They are not yet encroaching upon our way of life. I suppose that if they want to send men north to die at the hands of Bahamut, then good for them. But it just strikes me as ethically… it’s wrong. Hydor is not ours to do what we want with it.”
Now he makes more sense.
“I know, I agree,” Tetra said. “But killing will just beget more killing. You kill the emperor, hypothetically. Then someone more violent rises in his place.”
Possibly true. Arthur had even less mercy than Rufus.
“You kill the guards. The entire city will seek to destroy you. Garo, you have to find a way to reach them with words. I know it’s like you’re speaking two different languages, but you can find common ground. Can you promise that for me? Can you do all that you can to try and reach the empire that way?”
“I will continue to do as you hope,” Garo said. “However, Tetra, tonight, I did not bring you here to worry about the future of the empire or its actions. I brought you here to demonstrate to you my love for you. My commitment for you. My hope for you. And in doing this, I wanted to take you to the spot where we first fell in love, here on the beach, when we were just young adults, struggling to figure out how to use this thing called magic without destroying ourselves and the city.”
“Still doing so,” Tetra said.
Zelda gasped. She had a feeling of what she would soon see, and it made her heart rush. Excitement filled her as she couldn’t help the smile coming to her face.
“Five years ago, our love began here on a starry night, much like this one. Five years ago, I saw you and thought ‘there is no one I want more in my life.’ And now, five years later, at this present moment, I am ready to act upon that desire and make it permanent. Tetra, will you—”
“There they are!”
“No!” Zelda shouted, despite knowing what she saw wasn’t happening now.
Several imperial guards approached, their weapons at the ready.
“What are you doing?!” Zelda shouted, but even as she remembered she couldn’t control what she saw, she remembered another crucial detail. Garo had never had the ability to cast magic without a medium, and Tetra did not at this point in her life.
“Stay close,” he whispered to Tetra, pulling her tight. “If they separate us, you say nothing to them. If they separate us, I will find you, I promise. I will not let you go. I love you.”
Then a man who looked like a younger Rufus Syrast approached, lines of anger etched in his face. The first emperor in the Syrast army.
“Garo and Tetra,” the Syrast emperor began, his voice weak and scratchy. “One, the most powerful mage I know of in Mathos, the other his lover.”
Zelda watched intently as Garo and Tetra said nothing.
“Take her.”
“No!” Tetra and Zelda both shouted.
“Take her to the prison in the palace,” the emperor snapped.
“Garo!!!” Tetra shouted.
“Now then, Garo,” the emperor said, folding his arms. “Come with me to the palace. You and I need to have a talk.”
“Garo!” Zelda shouted.
But then, the vision faded.
In one sense, Zelda felt relieved. Both Garo and Tetra had survived the ordeal. But—
An overwhelming power gripped her mind. Zelda fell to her knees, bending her head to the ground and grunting in tension. Her muscles flared and her body warmed.
“Zelda.”
The voice sounded familiar.
“Zelda. Listen to me.”
Garo?
“This is Garo.”
Zelda couldn’t believe it. She’d only heard Chrystos speak. Now Garo had found a way to bridge the gap from the afterlife?
“I can reach you because of the common thread of our souls. Just as I was made in the image of a god, so too are you.”
Zelda slowly gained control of herself, although she still felt the heat from her body and the tension of Garo’s control over her.
“I sense much trouble within you, Zelda. I sense you fear you will be alone in this world. All
ow me to speak to you, though you will not be able to reach me. Zelda, I, too, felt alone. Even with Tetra by my side. In fact, in some ways, it made me feel more alone. Here was my wife, the woman I loved, the woman I would have died for and the woman I actually fought Bahamut for, and she could not understand my experiences. Nothing will make you feel alone faster.”
How? You were still by her side?
“For several years as we built Dabira and rescued magi from Caia and Mathos, I felt as you did. Alone. Unworthy of love. Guilt. Shame. But I pulled myself out of it. In time, you will too. What matters to you right now is not that you know your future. It is that you concentrate on tomorrow.”
A silence came. Zelda knew that. But it didn’t make the fear of the other side any less easy. In some ways, in the darkest of moments, Zelda wondered if she might sacrifice herself so that Hydor would live. At least then, she’d be close to Mama and Garo once more. I might even learn who my father was, though that matters little.
“When you finish your task, should you live, you will find another purpose. I know this because you take after your mother so well.”
Did you know my mother?
How well did you know my mother?
“You will use your magic for good. You will find a way. Perhaps you will teach a new generation of magi. Perhaps you will help Eric oversee the new world order. Perhaps you will meditate as I did and discover the truth of existence and the spiritual realm.”
What can you tell me about it, Garo? Is everything you wrote true?
“But know this, Zelda. You will accomplish great things. It may take time. But you will be a force for good, even after tomorrow. Chrystos showed you my beginnings to show you what I fought for. My future wife. But what you fight for does not have to be a spouse. It can be the magi’s future. It can be anything. Just as Eric has found a new purpose in leading the survivors of Hydor out of the chaos, you, too, will find a new purpose.”
Zelda had many questions, but her inability to communicate back with him left her frustrated. Even when she thought of her questions, Garo did not seem to address them.
Then, just as quickly, the tension wore off. Zelda could move freely. The grip that the spiritual realm had on her mind lightened. She had control of herself.
Legends of the War (War of the Magi Book 3) Page 34