Avalon:Volume 0 Chapter 15
Chapter 12 - The Path of Life
"Isn't this too weird?" I asked as I mentally switched the AR display panel from one channel to another and then another, "entertainment shows or technical difficulties, all of them! Not a single detailed report!"
"In war, truth is the first casualty," Kayeten declared as he leaned back against the wall. "I forgot who said that; some Greek writer I think. The 1st District is likely still trying to figure which media station they could rely on to spin things their way. They could transmit broadcasts from Avalon, but they probably knocked out all of the main network's interplanetary links to disrupt communications. Either way, we do know what happened, both on ground and in orbit, and nobody will grasp the full extent of the damage or casualty counts until things start settling down."
I had passed out for a few hours before they revitalized me, and in that short window of time what little balance this world retained had collapsed. The 2nd District fleet was in tatters, its command structure destroyed and its planet invaded. Nuclear strikes had been launched against ground-side targets that the initial detonations failed to destroy, including --- an attack on the battle at Château de Falaise.
Fortunately, Shirayuki's Thermonuclear Suppression aura was able to nullify the attack, which gave her lieutenant Midori enough time to teleport all the 3rd District, Seventh Cross, and Moonlit Eclipse members out to another safehouse on Brocéliande before 1st District ground troops could arrive. However, this old place was magically warded to scramble targeting from those unfamiliar to it, and lacked a teleportation beacon to guide 3rd District's few interplanetary teleportation experts, and Midori would have to recover from her magical exhaustion before she could take anyone to Kunlun, main planet of the 3rd.
"How's your arm?" Kayeten inquired with sincere worry.
The healers from the Moonlit Eclipse had mended my broken arm and began bone and tissue regeneration spells even before I awoke. But they had my arm wrapped in special bandages and in a sling while my body's natural healing caught up with the spells' progress, making my current injury look far worse than it was.
"Numb and stings a little, but fine otherwise. Thanks." My reply was automatic as I concentrated still on finding information.
"I'm glad though," Kayeten turned towards me with an approving voice. "I'd been worried that you'd be one of those in denial of unpleasant facts like casualties---"
My thoughts halted instantly. My eyes slowly turned towards Kayeten as a calculating grin slowly crept up the corner of his mouth.
"As Shirayuki mentioned that you were Arkadi's Tac, mother wondered if you were to be Speer to Arkadi's Hitler-persona."
"...Speer?"
Kayeten then began to recite in quote:
"My clination to be relieved of having to think, particularly about unpleasant facts, helped to sway the balance. In this I did not differ from millions of others. After years of frustrated efforts I was wild to accomplish things. For the commission to do a great building, I would have sold my soul like Faust. Now I had found my Mephistopheles. He seemed no less engaging than Goethe's --- by Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and Minister of Armaments for the Third Reich."
The few sentences of words hit me like hammers, knocking the wind out of my lungs.
Relieved... about unpleasant facts: all the time.
Frustrated efforts, I could not deny.
Commission --- the ever-sought recognition.
Sold my soul. Perhaps if Shirayuki hadn't taken me, that was my inevitable path.
"There's... I wouldn't have..." mingled words and half-completed retorts filled my mind in an instant. Then: "I tried to persuade him otherwise."
"I have no doubt." Kayeten replied in all seriousness, without a hint of mockery. "Whether you would have succeeded, was debatable. What would you have done if he continued unerringly?"
The first answer that surfaced into my mind was kicked aside instantly.
Relieved of having to think...
I dragged the thought back and re-examine it once again.
(I would have followed.)
Because my only motivation thus far had been to prove myself to others, rather than decide for myself.
"All right pretty-boy, save the rest for later," came Shirayuki's voice as she stepped through the door, her white Miko outfit adorned once again and a resolute stare directed towards the Colonel.
Kayeten shrugged:
"Sorry; carried away. I have a habit of quoting the movers of history, hoping their experienced wisdom may wear off upon me."
"He's just trying to impress the girls," Shirayuki countered with an unimpressed tone. "Anyhow, I've finished my confirmations. This imbecile," she gestured towards Captain Arkadi, still unconscious in the bed at the room's center, "has over two dozen spell auras of his own magical signature on himself, all enchantment-compulsion types."
I was getting used to seeing Kayeten in surprise and shock:
"His affinity is in enchantment but... that's ridiculous!"
"Pretty liberal use, that's for sure."
I looked towards the two of them, still confused and unsure...
(Or perhaps simply not wanting to acknowledge.)
"It means," Shirayuki explained in a consoling tone, "that the entire personality you knew of Arkadi was a fake, wholly conjured by him and enforced by his spells to accomplish his goals."
Time slowed down as my mind replayed the moments onboard the Somerset, of the fatigued Captain taking everything upon himself, of his friendly interactions at dinner, of his encouraging words yet downtrodden world views in the crystal's light...
Was everything a lie?
(No, not everything.)
Stand up for the sake of our beliefs and ourselves...
To be kind and gentle one moment, yet callous and cruel the next. To kill a trusted comrade without blinking, yet push himself to exhaustion for the sake of those who remain. The inconsistencies within his personality were obvious, even if the means were not. It may have been a fake, but the one who decided how to shape that mask was still him.
I will seize the throne of the demon king and bring holocaust upon this irreparable system! I will give them a thousand years of notoriety, to ensure responsibility by fear, to force the return of true representatives that shall stand for the masses, as our parents once did!
These compulsion spells had been the ultimate declaration of his conviction: to deny his very own self, to kill his very own being, all for the sake of his sense of righteousness, as twisted by hatred and the thirst for revenge as it was.
"Can it be Disjunctioned?" Anger simmered beneath Kayeten's flat voice as his eyes swept over the Captain's unconscious body once more.
"Of course."
"Then let's be done with it." He continued in an executioner's voice as he turned his back on the room. "On this day Arkadi Kernow, the Black Prince, is dead of his crimes."
"Maybe then," a bare whisper escaped the Colonel's lips as he stepped out the door, "the one I knew who spent entire days outraged after reading about the Evian Conference, instead of this notoriety nonsense, will return to us."
----- * * * -----
The Evian Conference: Convened from July 8th to 13th, 1938, when representatives from thirty-two countries met in Evian-les-Bains, France, to discuss the issue of increasing numbers of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Hitler responded to news of the conference by essentially saying that if the other nations agreed to take the Jews, he would help them leave. However, with both the United States and Britain refusing to take in any substantial number, the conference was a failure, leaving the Jews no escape and ultimately subjected to what was known as Hitler's Final Solution...
(The greatest tragedy of the Industrial Age could have been prevented merely by saying 'yes'.)
It wasn't that different from many of the problems in this world.
(No, I refuse to accept Arvitors as mere tools. They're people.)
(No, I will not support a bill proposed to further the aims of tyranny.)
(No, I have my own will in this world.)
I leaned back in my chair and pondered over the quote entered into the article:
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. --- Albert Einstein.
To do without my own purpose was little more than nothing. Nothing brought decline, brought ruin. To cease positive action was to falter into stagnation, decline, and ultimately destruction. This was the basics of any business; life and society were no different.
One must stand up not for the righteousness of our ideals, but for the sake of our beliefs and ourselves.
It was not about proving myself to others. It had never been. It was about earning a place for myself in the world, through my own hands. A place where I could stride in confidence, freed from the fear of being scorned, of being oppressed.
Your heart alone holds the key to your life, your universe... as long as your heart is set, you can accomplish anything.
Maybe, just maybe, I really, truly, was the Eternal Chronicle. Then...
Mother was right. It was time to accomplish that anything.
(And if this world is my origin, then I'll help rebuild its Avalonian dream.)
It was time to talk to Marshal Sidika, to Hime-Miko Shirayuki, to affirm that I was not merely an ally, that we share a common goal and dream.
| Back to Chapter 14 | Return to Main Page |