Part III: Albert's Pride, and His Folly

"Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.
Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly,
Than to divide the spoil with the proud."

Proverbs 16:18-19

Despite that the ground was trembling beneath his feet and the columns toppling to his left and right, Albert Silverberg felt like laughing. How clever, how cunning, how damned ingenious he'd been! How brilliant, to use Luc's scheme for his own purposes, and to succeed so flawlessly!

Albert had never actually believed that Luc could take his ridiculous plans--plans to destroy god--so far; a minor miscalculation of absolutely no consequence. He had been right in predicting that his little brother and his motley army could take down the Masked Bishop--no, not masked any longer. Let us call him the Mad Bishop!

Now Albert did laugh, at his own wit. Oh, I am a genius!

The strategist's humor was cut brief, however, as a great shake went through the hall he'd been running along in his hurried escape from the Sindarian temple. He fell to his knees, feeling his skin scrape hard against the stone highway. Albert tried to stand, but the earthquake wouldn't stop its convulsions long enough for him to steady even his palms flat on the ground. The ground...was it groaning? Could the earth do that?

No! Oh, shit--the column!

Albert looked up just in time to see the huge, cylindrical support structure come crashing down upon him. And he couldn't move. God dammit, he couldn't move!

Then suddenly there was silence. Stillness.

...Is it over?

Albert uncovered his head, sitting up from where he'd curled up into a tiny ball of terrified mortal flesh. He slowly opened his eyes, shocked to see that the path ahead of him was clear.

What...the hell...?

He spun around, then realized that the huge stone column had fallen behind--and not on top of him.

"Shit," he breathed. "Oh, shit...." That was close--almost too close.

Too close for comfort, at any rate. Albert stood and brushed his jacket and knees, surprised that the fabric hadn't torn when he'd fallen. In fact, his knees weren't even sore.

Smirking, the strategist continued on his way out of the temple, now at a leisurely, self-assured pace. The danger was over; he'd succeeded.

Albert stepped out of the dark cavern and into bright sunlight. Ah! Almost home free. Now he just had to remember the way out of this place.

It was so very still in the crumbling ruins of the road where the Sindarians had once thrived. How many people must have crossed these bridges, how may children must have played in the streets, how many lovers must have strolled... Fools. All of them, fools. Fools to think themselves invincible, to not see their own imminent destruction.

He almost felt like whistling. In fact, he decided to give it a try. But the sound fell eerily on his ears, the only sound in the land of the dead. Behind him, nothing had changed. The temple hadn't crumbled apart, at least not on the outside. But that didn't mean that it wouldn't. Best to just hurry and get away.

Why weren't the birds singing? It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining in a cloudless sky, the wind was completely stilled.

Where was everyone? Was Albert the only survivor?

It wouldn't surprise him. They were all so very stupid. They may have stopped Luc, but they'd all given up their lives to do it. Why should they have bothered? Luc's idiotic scheme probably wouldn't have worked, anyway.

Probably...

Seriously, to try and kill god...

...and I helped....

Albert stopped dead in his tracks.

Haven't I come by this way before? He thought he recognized that particular bit of crumbled wall. But he couldn't be sure.

But still....

Albert decided to take the opposite direction he thought he'd been on. It seemed he'd circled back by mistake somehow.

What was I thinking about....? Ah, yes. Fools. All of them, fools.

Eventually Albert came to a bridge. He crossed, hardly thinking twice about where he was walking. This looked familiar; he'd have no trouble getting out of this place on his own.

Albert thought about Caesar, how foolishly his brother had chosen the opposing side, and worked for free--he didn't get paid, he didn't get rewarded, he gained nothing... So why bother? Wasn't it better to work on the side of the powerful, rather than the side of the weak? No matter who was in the right, if there was nothing to be gained, why...?

Fool.

And--hadn't he just crossed this bridge? From the other side?

Albert paused again. He frowned. Walking over to the side of the bridge, he leaned over to look down below. Was this...?

"Hmph." It didn't matter. He'd just keep going on--he couldn't have gotten turned around that easily.

Caesar was a fool, and so was Luc. All of them were idiots. Even Sarah. What was she doing? Why did she work towards Luc's goal? What had she to gain? Yuber at least had the promise of blood and pain and death, the things he craved and revered above all. Sarah didn't seem to have a purpose. She was another idiot, more so than the others. At least Luc and Yuber had ambition; Sarah followed mindlessly. A doll, that's what she was--a puppet of Luc's to do with as he pleased.

But not Albert. Oh, no--not Albert. He had fooled them all. Cunning, clever Albert. Crafty, witty, and--

--and he knew he'd just been this way twice!

Albert stopped on the bridge, for the third time in passing. Something wasn't right... He walked over to the side again, looking down below. It looked...familiar...but, dammit, everything looked the same!

He looked around, but for as far as he could see, in all directions, the labyrinth just stretched on and on and on...

He could almost hear laughing, the mocking voice of a playful child. But it wasn't really there... was it?

"Oh, no," he muttered to himself, or whatever invisible foe he was dealing with. "You're not getting the best of me--not after I've come so far."

Albert tore a bit of his jacket. It pained him to do so; he loved that coat.

But, he reminded himself, with his newfound position in the government, his new title and land, he'd be able to afford dozens more like it.

He let the piece of his garment fall, watching it float quickly down to the road below. "Ha!" he said, confident that he'd outsmarted...whatever. Now he would be able to tell for sure whether or not he had been walking in circles. He crossed the bridge for the third time.

The fourth time Albert crossed that bridge, he wasn't surprised to see the piece of cloth lying down below.

It wasn't very far to jump.

Albert clung to the edge, looking down below and readying his legs for the impact. Then he let go.

He landed, falling to a crouch, but after a slight jar, he was fine. Nothing broken, fractured, or bruised.

He bent to retrieve the piece of cloth he'd lost. Then he looked up, to bid a haughty farewell to the bridge that thought it had fooled him and failed, but he stopped mid-smirk when he saw the shadow watching him.

It was gone as quickly as it had shown itself, and it left Albert confused, and not a little nervous. He found himself walking almost too slowly in an effort to look calm. He couldn't resist the paranoia that forced him to check over his shoulder so many times.

How long he had walked, he couldn't be sure. It was still daylight, amazingly. It should have been getting dark... It had been late, late afternoon when he'd entered that temple. After what had taken place inside, after his multiple crossings of...that bridge--yes, it should have been getting darker. But the day seemed intent on staying with him.

Ah, well... He should be nearing the end of the path soon. He'd be out of the maze before long, and on his way back to Harmonia in triumph.

But then--there was that goddamn bridge again!

Albert stopped dead in his tracks, a frown more of worry than confusion now settling on his usually apathetic face. He walked very slowly, very shakily over to the edge to look over. It looked the same, but since he'd picked up the bit of his jacket he just couldn't be sure....

But that was a ridiculous notion; he must be tired.

After crossing that same bridge twice more, he was no longer sure that fatigue was the answer.

God! How long had he been going on like this? Hadn't he crossed this bridge a dozen times? Hadn't he been walking all day? It felt like it had been longer, somehow.

A giggle. It wasn't in his head--he'd heard it this time, he felt sure.

Albert rushed over the edge of the bridge--yet again--and caught just a glimpse of a shadow running down another path, its form obscured by toppled, crumbling walls.

"Hey! Wait! I said wait, you--!"

The figure wasn't stopping for him. Angrily, he started climbing over the side of the bridge, again.

"Halt! That is an order! Don't you know who I am?"

Fool! He'd pay when Albert caught him, whoever he was.

"Unf!" It hurt a little more this time, since his legs were getting so tired. Standing up and brushing himself off once more, Albert looked around to see which way that guy had gone. He was probably hiding somewhere, waiting for Albert to catch up, just so he could follow and taunt him.

Albert took another path. He walked for hours--

--and ended up back at the bridge.

"What is this?!" he screamed, to no one in particular. Or maybe...to...someone. "Why are you doing this to me?! Just let me go!!!"

Laughter. Mocking, amused.

Albert wasn't laughing, and he wasn't amused. "Why?!" he yelled. "Why must I be punished? It wasn't my idea! It wasn't my fault--!"

What was he yelling about? He didn't remember. Something... But...oh...what....? He only remembered crossing that bridge so many times and wanting to leave, but he was beginning to forget why he had to get away. Other than, of course, the fact that he was sick of crossing the same bridge, over and over and over again.

"God, just let me out of this maze!!!" Albert finally fell to his knees, crying out, begging.

"I'll show you the way out."

Albert lifted his head, then held it tightly as a terrible wave of dizziness suddenly hit him with its wrathful intensity. Everything was foggy, blurred, and grey--but he could make out a shadowy figure standing before him, a voice that almost belonged to him, but sounding as he had in his youth.

The fog whisked away as quickly as it had crept in, and the dark form that he hadn't recognized became bright with color, slowly, as though a candle had just been lit in a pitch-black room. Then Albert could see his little brother standing before him, his perpetually sleepy eyes peering down at him with...what? Love?

Ridiculous. It was amusement, surely.

"What the hell do you want?" Albert asked, gagging as his mouth filled with blood.

"Hurts, doesn't it?"

"What are you talking about?" Albert growled, wiping his mouth on his sleeve, reminding himself again that he could always buy a new coat. But the blood was thick and there was so much of it... Albert coughed up what he could, scared because he didn't know why he was coughing up blood to begin with, and also because someone was seeing him so vulnerable. And that meant he had some fault, a flaw. But he knew better.

Caesar was shaking his head, his eyes almost sad. But they'd always looked that way...hadn't they?

"I know what it's like, Albert," Caesar said quietly.

"You don't know shit," Albert spat back, wondering why his back ached so badly.

"I know how to get out of this trap," Caesar argued gently. "I can take you home, Albert."

The older man snorted. "What? You expect me to walk through the Harmonian gates with--with you?" He shook his head, a look of disgust on his face. "Like hell."

Caesar's face went completely blank, his eyes looking out hollowly at nothing. "Like...hell..."

"If you don't mind getting out of my goddamned way, I need to be going now." Albert started forward. He was glad he sounded more like his old self--confident and in control. But Caesar didn't move from where he blocked his path on the bridge. "I'm not asking again."

"Neither am I," Caesar said, his tone pleading. "You're going the wrong way, Albert. You've been following the wrong path. Come with me!"

"I'm not following you anywhere!" the elder Silverberg snarled.

"I'm not asking you to follow me," Caesar said in earnest. "I'm asking you to let me help you, to show you the way--so we can go together!"

Albert got right in Caesar's face. "This is your final chance."

"And this is yours."

"Fuck you!" Albert wasn't wasting any more time, and while it was nice and quiet...and no one was watching, he might as well shut his brother up for good.

He hardly knew what had happened. He hardly believed he'd been capable of it. But there he was, standing on the bridge and looking down, and there was his brother's broken body, splattered all over the ground. Strange... He hadn't thought the bridge to be quite that high. Hadn't he himself jumped down twice?

Pathetic weakling.

Albert laughed out loud at himself. He was starting to sound like Yuber. He was starting to think like him, too, maybe.

I guess there's a little demon in us all.

He turned around, feeling the eyes on him before he saw the shadow. But there it was--a shadowy form at the end of the bridge, just as before.

"Huh--?! How--no!!!" Albert shook his head hard, rubbing his eyes. He had to be seeing things. And then he opened his eyes wide, and looked, and it was gone. He smirked again, but with much less assurance than he'd felt when this terrible journey had started. He hated to feel helpless, but until he'd killed Caesar a moment ago, he'd felt quite powerless in the situation at hand--lost and getting frightened. His ego had been bruised when he'd had to confront the fact that he was lost.

But now--! Now he was getting somewhere. Possibly.

Just in case...

Albert took a peek over the side of the bridge, just to make sure.

Caesar's body was gone.

Albert rushed to the opposing side, his heart in his throat, hope against hope, fear against fear.

Nothing.

Caesar's body was gone.

"Oh... God..."

Then, his eyes spied the shadow; it was running from him.

Not this time--!

Albert climbed over the side of the bridge again and let himself drop down lightly, barely an impact. And yet, it was extremely painful this time. His legs ached and burned like the bones had cracked from the fall. But he wouldn't let his body give up now.

Things looked sort of different this time. Like... maybe before there had been too many paths to choose from, and he'd continuously made the wrong decisions. Now, though, there was but one path to follow; he had no choice.

Albert followed the old, rocky road all the way back...

...to the temple.

The column he'd seen before--the one that had almost smashed him--was blocking his path. That was the only way that shadowy figure--was it Caesar?--could have gone. There was no way around the huge pillar, so where...?

Something was poking out a bit from under the stone support. Albert ceased to breathe as he stepped closer, his eyes widening impossibly as he realized what was caught under the colossal stone structure.

Albert Silverberg collapsed to his knees, his bones crushing audibly and painfully as his lungs resurged with blood.