And now I give to you my first one-shot involving the final hours of Canas and his wife (whose name in this fic is Lilly). I looked and saw a depressingly low number of Canas fics, and I don't believe that any of them involved his death, unless it was resurrecting him. I too, would love to resurrect one of my favorite characters, but I can't bring myself to do so. In my mind, dead people are dead. End of story.
A change that I made is that here, it is not a snowstorm but a hurricane. It just suited my purpose better than a snowstorm could have.
And so with that, here's the end of Canas's story. Please review if you have the time.
The skies were turning black. The winds were picking up. Looking ahead, I saw not a storm cloud, but an airborne ocean of death. Badon's elder had been right. This certainly was the storm of the century.
It wasn't more than two days ago that our elder in the Port of Badon had a terrible premonition. He saw a great black eye cover our peaceful town. When under its shadow, it was as though the sun had never existed. It poured rain by the gallon. The gales that it spawned mercilessly ripped at everything. In its wake was death. He spoke of no survivors.
A hurricane, I had thought immediately. I could think of no other storm that appeared to have an eye. Throughout my travels, I had heard of these legendary monsters, and our elder's descriptions sounded dead on. I was pretty sure that our town had been hit with remnants of a hurricane before, but we had been saved from its full force by Valor. It seemed extremely unlikely that a hurricane would be able to avoid Valor and hit us at maximum strength. Though there I was, staring at proof that I had been wrong.
At that time, our town had begun to panic. Our elder had never had a premonition of a storm that hadn't been true (I'm still trying to think of a logical explanation for this). We had very little time to evacuate, and even if we did, there was no telling that the storm wouldn't follow our group. Its strength, I knew, would be diminished, but with no roof to hide under, the storm could be even more deadly.
I surprised myself that day. I am not a courageous person, like Lord Eliwood or Lord Hector (though I think that Lord Hector's courage might come a little more from his ignorance of mortality, but that's just me). I was always just a frail little shaman, hiding behind Hector or Oswin and reading books in the midst of battle to take my mind off of the fact that I very well might die any instant. That day though, I stood up and said that if a ship would take me, I would sail into the heart of the hurricane and attempt to quell the storm. I told them that even if I could not stop it, I could weaken it greatly so that it would be little more than a thunderstorm.
Whether it was their permanent intoxication or their bravery, I will never know, but a pirate crew (not Fargus's crew, but I'm sure that they would have offered had they been around) agreed to take me into the hurricane. Either way, I was grateful. They boasted that they had sailed through hurricanes "that be ten times the size an' with gettin' not a scratch". I had also once heard them boasting about how their captain had battled the god of the sea himself and won, making him into the new god of the sea. I had about the same confidence in the credence of both stories.
Everyone called me mad. They too, had never known a Canas who would not just agree to help such a dangerous task, but offer to do so! I told them that I wanted to research what sort of power elder magic had over nature. I told them that it was just another experiment, another path on my quest for knowledge. I knew that I was lying, but I said it anyways. In honesty, I didn't know what the truth of it was.
Then everything turned upside down. My beautiful wife, Lilly, announced that she would join me as well. She told us how anima magic was much more closely tied to nature than elder magic. In theory, she would have much more power over the storm. Even so, I begged for her not to go. She refused to back down. I told her that Hugh needed to be watched. She insisted that Mother could do that task fine. I told her that it would be extremely dangerous. She told me the same thing. It was no use. If I were to go, then she would as well.
If I could have, I would've backed down at that time. I could not have my Lilly following me to her death. Unfortunately, it was too late. The port town wouldn't have enough time to evacuate. My guess is that Lilly planned to tell me when it was too late, making it certain that she would come. She had always been devious like that.
The rain pelted down on everyone who was above-deck. Lilly and I had to tie ourselves to the mast to keep the wind from taking us away. The captain shouted orders, but none could hear over the chaos. Only the storm could decide our fate now.
I saw men die. They were tossed from the deck and into the sea. One had fallen and broke his neck. Another was mutilated by flying debris. All lost for my selfish reason, whatever that reason was.
Fascinating, I thought as I looked up at the storm cloud, trying to take my mind off of the death that was all around me. The cloud seemed to have a peculiar circular motion. If magic could stop or slow this spinning, the storm might die. That was my theory anyways. I thought that I might write a book about these storms if I returned.
Why am I pondering this? I wondered. I had given up on my quest for knowledge long ago. It was three years ago, when I joined with a group of people who fought the twisted dark druid, Nergal. Later in our adventure, I had met a young girl named Nino. What an intelligent girl she had been! She showed me the importance of family. That was when I decided that my family came first, and when I returned home, I would not leave again.
When I finally got back to Badon, I was not sad about the end of my adventures, I was excited. I would finally get to know my little son, Hugh! My smart little boy had just started speaking when I left, maybe now he would be saying sentences! Lilly could finally stop nagging me about never being around!
I pushed open my door, ready to announce my news, and the first thing that I heard was a little voice. "Who's dat?" it said. My son. Hugh. Hugh didn't recognize his own father.
Lilly tried to convince me that because of the light behind me, Hugh could only see my silhouette. It didn't matter to me. I was too late. My son couldn't recognize his own father. My revelation had come far too late.
Since then, Hugh was always distant from me. He would rather play with his friends than with me. He would run to tell his nightmares to Lilly, not me. For comfort, he would go to Lilly, not me. I could have been just another bum in a back alley. I had failed miserably as a father.
We were as close to the center of the storm as we were going to get. We could even see a small patch of sea that was completely calm, a spot that signified the true center of the storm. It was time for Lilly and I to finish this. We searched deep inside of ourselves, I for my elder magic and Lilly for her anima power. We released everything that we had, pushing against the circular motion of the storm. At first, it did nothing. Like a child pushing against the walls of Ostia Castle. Slowly, though, we gained ground. The storm didn't seem to like this force slowing it down. It became even more violent. Even so, we pushed our hardest. Lilly blacked out from sheer exhaustion. Then it was only me. I did everything that I could to slow the storm's motion. Finally, the storm gave way. It hardly fought my pushing anymore. The calm piece of ocean became covered by black clouds. We had closed the black eye.
The ship we were on was a good vessel, but its hull could only withstand so much punishment. One last wave hit us dead on and the hull was destroyed. We began to sink. A crew member ran over and cut us free from the mast. Everyone was heading for the dinghies, our final hope of survival. I had to support Lilly. She was conscious now, but she couldn't walk well. Neither could I, for that matter, but at least I had a chance of standing straight. Suddenly the ship lurched and Lilly and I were catapulted over the railing and into the sea.
At last, I realized why I had been so "brave" back at Badon. Why I had proposed such a ridiculous plan. I wanted to die. It wasn't bravery, but cowardice that forced this upon me. I was too afraid to admit that I wanted death. I was too afraid to go on with a life that I had royally messed up beyond repair. I was too afraid to fail again.
I did my best to keep Lilly and I afloat. Lilly tried as well, but it was no use. The waves kept forcing us under. I couldn't fight it anymore. If another wave hit, which inevitably, one would, I would not be able to swim up again. And so I shouted with my last breath, "I'm sorry Lilly!" There was so much to be sorry for. For not being strong enough to swim back up again. For not forcing her to stay safely back at home. For not protecting her like a good husband should. For not protecting Hugh like a good father should. For failing her as a husband. For failing Hugh as a father. So many failiures.
It seemed that Lilly had chosen her final words carefully. It was like she had known all along why I had chosen to embark on this voyage. As the final wave towered over us, and all that was left in our lives was darkness, sinking, and silence, she asked, "Sorry for what?"