Enjoy!
Chapter Forty-One
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Mario or its franchise; it belongs to
Nintendo and their affiliates. I just am really grateful to its creators for giving
me such a wonderful game and media series to write about!
I also don't own anything related to Harry Potter, all that belongs to J.K. Rowling,
but thanks go to her as well because, using her wonderful work, I can expand this
story to make it more interesting.
I also don't own anything related to Naruto if you see me throw a little of that, too
There were few places in the palace Roy could go without seeing a capped head here or a pair of old, suspicious eyes there, and he could swear every time he looked over his shoulder he could see the swish of red robes. The Elders were making it obvious they didn't like or trust him and he was aggravated. It made him feel like some kind of prisoner, having to stay in his room to have a little privacy.
I guess I am kind of a criminal, he thought with a frown. Technically I did kill somebody. He was scum but I still killed him. And got away with it.
The king's words resounded in Roy's head and he wondered if there was some truth to what the royal spoke of. Could he be in danger now because of what he did and how he got off with it?
A few fights with those slavers is nothing, he thought, but if these old geezers mean to kill me, too…I better watch my back.
To him it wasn't fair, but then it was. He could understand the basic principle of a life for a life, under normal circumstances. But these weren't normal circumstances. He didn't kill an innocent person, he killed someone evil, someone who may have killed innocent people himself. Roy scowled harder and glanced over to the left. While he sat cross-legged on his bed, still dressed for sleep, Eriana was lying on her side, staring at the door. It was late but neither of them could shut their eyes and rest.
Bet those slavers are sleeping like babies, his prejudiced mind supplied and he bowed his head and rubbed his heels into his eyes. He was tired but his soul was restless; it was like he just had a bad feeling about…something. This situation. He felt like something foul was going to happen. He dropped his hands into his lap and his knuckles hit something cold and hard. The watch.
Roy picked it up and opened the clasp, revealing what he'd seen yesterday after receiving it: a white clock face centered behind a hemisphere of glass. Yet another pointless piece of jewelry.
"Rex."
He turned towards Eriana and saw her pointing towards the door. Had someone knocked? He hadn't heard it but got up from his bed nonetheless, if only to have something else to focus on. He stood and stretched his arms over his head, then scratched at his side, lifting his t-shirt an inch above his navel. He sauntered over to the door and jerked it open.
"Oh. Hey Ari." Roy greeted dully.
The blonde rubbed her elbow behind her back and stared up at him with a small smile.
She said, "I'm sorry if I woke you but I can't sleep."
She, too, looked the part of one fit for slumber in her immaculate white nightgown. The necklace Roy gave her, the teal one, hung well below her collar and stood out like a gem among the snow.
"You wanna' come in here?" Roy asked, moving aside.
Eriana rose curiously and grinned when she saw the blonde step inside the room. She went over to hug Ariadne as if they hadn't just seen each other a few hours ago. By the hand she guided the shyer girl to sit next to her near the headboard. Roy shut the door and came to take up his earlier spot across from the girls.
"Why are you still up?" Roy asked the king's niece.
She shrugged and said, "I'm not sure. I guess I can't shake this…bad feeling I've got."
"You, too?" Roy lifted a brow thinking, that can't be good.
Eriana put her arm around Ariadne and said, "I have a bad feeling, too."
"You always do," Roy pointed out.
She insisted, "I'm serious, Rex."
"Me, too." Ariadne inputted. She fumbled with her fingers and said, "Yesterday was the first I've seen of my uncle all week. He's been acting very strange."
"No kidding." Roy huffed. "He spent the last couple weeks avoiding me and then he starts calling me his son and goes right back to giving me stuff."
"He's always cared for you, Rex." Ariadne said thoughtfully, then asked, "What did he give you?"
Eriana peered beyond Roy and asked, "Is that it?"
Roy glanced behind him and saw the watch, nodding. He picked it up and opened it, staring idly at the watch face. The young women stared at it, too.
Eriana was the first to look away and she rubbed her tawny arms nervously. She was a worrier, her life had made her that way, so her thoughts were still on the situation at hand.
There's a change in the palace, she noted to herself, and not a good one. It's like a tension, just building up.
She said forebodingly, "Whatever's going to happen, I think the king knows about it. And the Elders. It's why they've been acting so strange."
Ariadne's grey eyes darted over to Eri's dark ones as she asked, "You think so?"
Eri nodded and said, "What else could it be?" She scooted all the way against the wood of the headboard and murmured, "The Elders are mad at you, Rex."
"I think I coulda' guessed that, Eri." Roy rolled his eyes.
She said, "No, they…they really hate you. Mostly because you're good and they're not, but also because the king likes you so much."
"Yeah, that's what he said." Roy recalled.
Eri said, "You killed Jack and all you got was a slap on the wrist. Plus you're still gonna' be king someday. That's what's making a lot of people mad."
"But the people think his brother did it," Ariadne argued. "That's what my uncle declared."
Eri shook her head and said, "I wasn't talking about the people in the kingdom. The slavers and their allies, they know the truth; the Carrows are slavers, they were there at the Justice Hall, they probably told all the others what really happened."
Roy frowned and said, "So what if they know? It's not like they're gonna do shit about it. They're all a bunch of cowards."
He used all the fights they picked with him in alleyways where no one could see as reference for the claim.
"You're right," Eriana stared at him. "They are cowards. That's why I know they're going to do something horrible to you or the king or both."
"How could you know that?" Ariadne paled, a shiver of fear wracking through her.
Roy scoffed and said, "Eri doesn't know that. She just worries too much."
"I know because you're both a threat to their system." Eriana persisted. "That's why they're going to try and take you out."
"What?" Ariadne's eyes widened with her whispered exclamation. "They can't do that! That would be treason!"
"Their loyalty isn't to the king." Eriana explained simply. "It's to the system. And whoever challenges it stands the risk of dying."
"Alright." Roy said abruptly. "That's enough of that depressing shit."
He crawled on all fours towards the head of the bed and yanked back the covers between the other two. Once beneath them, he laid on his back with his arms behind his head. He was determined to get some sleep one way or another.
"Um." Ariadne blinked, shifting uncomfortably.
Sometime during their discussion she'd sat on her knees and now Roy's elbow was wedged between them. Not too much, but enough to make a warm heat rush to her cheeks. She glanced across the boy's body at Eriana and found some sympathy in the fretful girl's eyes. She smiled softly then rectified the situation…in her own way.
"Rex, you've got your arm in her way." Eriana said, then leaned across Roy with her hand splayed on his chest for balance.
Roy grunted and sat up while Eriana moved to grip at his elbow and her hand grasped onto Ariadne's knee instead, making the other young woman flinch and scoot back.
"Sorry," Eriana said, sitting back. She did notice the subtle reactions and was genuine in her apology.
"Yeah, my bad," Roy mumbled, resuming his pseudo-sleep. He said, "Here, I'll move over so we can all get straight."
Ariadne slid closer to the edge of the bed. "No that's—"
"Eri, you good?"
"I'll just—"
"Rex I think you should let her go." Eriana replied, eyeing the blonde with a pitying wince.
I know what it's like, not being comfortable with other people touching you and stuff, she thought. She recalled how mechanical her actions were at times, having had the 'art' of caressing others drilled into her. But when it came to others touching her, well, that was something she had to get used to. She felt bad for Ariadne.
"You alright?" Roy sat up once more and gazed at Ari.
She nodded, having finally gotten her bare feet back onto the floor, and backed up towards the door.
"I'm just going to um, head back to my room." Ariadne was red in the face.
Roy asked with a concerned frown, "You want me to walk back with you?"
"No, it's fine." She insisted, wiping her hands on her gown and then gripping the fabric.
With the way she was backing up, it was a wonder she didn't trip. Her grace availed as she reached the door where she bowed a little—a nervous habit—and then left the room.
Roy shrugged and tried to get some sleep.
For someone who thought he pretty much owned the entire universe, it came as a tremendous shock to find that he'd been veritably locked out of his own castle. His own palace! Not locked out in the traditional sense of course, more in the magical one. He'd blasted open the doors and tried to set foot inside his former home, the home he'd built (er, commissioned his underlings to build) from the ground up and found that some unseen force barred him from entering. It was madness. He couldn't get inside and didn't have a sorcerer handy to help him. Speaking of those, he seethed at the thought of being thwarted yet again by his own flesh and blood. Ludwig.
It had to be him who did this, he reasoned angrily, staring at the herd of Koopas who couldn't set foot outside the palace. He'd thought himself clever and had ordered his young heir to go and fetch the mutants but then he'd realized that the same magic that kept him out was keeping them in.
Damn that little rat, he thought. I should've killed him when I had the chance instead of trying to use him.
The Dark King likened his oldest to a disease-ridden hound; it would have been better for him to just put him down and save himself the trouble later.
Bowser moved his glare from the grey clouds above to where the Koopas were gathered straight ahead. He first stared at his youngest, his heir, thinking the small redhead was to blame for the sudden sound of shuffling and shoving. But Junior was sitting atop a pile of rocks and broken wood, his bare feet in danger of getting a splinter from where he'd perched them. He was preoccupied with holding his head glumly in his hands so it wasn't him that was to blame; no, it was the other child in the fallen king's company. Lemmy. Bowser locked eyes with the boy who'd squeezed his way through the Koopas.
"Did you deliver my message?" Bowser demanded.
"He did." A new yet familiar voice replied for the child.
Holding his hand was the not-much-taller Mistress, looking both vexed and distressed. She gazed at the king with a brief amount of surprise but that turned quickly to displeasure.
"What do you mean by it?" She asked in a voice devoid of fear or respect: she almost sounded reproachful.
Bowser smirked and folded his arms. He tilted his head so as to better appraise the woman and she put her hands on her hips with a hard look of her own. It'd always amused him how she never came to fear him like the other humans under his employ.
"Look," He told her shortly, "I like you. So I'm giving you a heads up. Get your people out of here in the next…two minutes."
The woman's eyes narrowed and she snapped, "Two minutes? You call that a warnin'?"
Bowser just shrugged and said casually, "I could've just burned this motherfucker down without letting you know."
"How do you expect me to get them all out so quickly?" Came the Mistress' next sharp inquiry.
"They'll move fast," Bowser assured her laxly. "If they want to live."
"Why are you doing this?" The woman asked with a genuinely confounded frown.
She wiped her hands on her apron and glanced back at the Koopas and saw for the first time the damage done to the front entrance.
She said, "This palace was your pride and joy, Dark King. Why destroy it now?"
Bowser's mirth faded. "You should concern yourself less with my motives and more with making sure you don't end up as a human fireball."
"You really are insane!"
"Time's ticking."
The woman wasted no more time than to glance piteously in the direction of both the little redhead and his taller half-brother before turning on her heels and pushing past the Koopas. She strode off to evacuate the palace as quickly and effectively as she could. With her gone, Bowser gazed down at Lemmy and called his name. Said child stood a bit taller under his attention.
"There's one more thing I need you to do for me." The king stated.
From his seat Junior suddenly hopped up and cried, "I wanna' do it!"
Bowser ignored him and told Lemmy something, after which the seven-year-old nodded and headed back into the palace. Junior stalked over to his father with a put-out frown.
"How come you didn't let me do it?" He complained.
Bowser said, "Be quiet."
"But you never let me do nothing ever!" Junior protested, his jade eyes filled with hurt and frustration.
The Dark King rolled his and crouched down and put his heavy hands on his son's shoulders.
He said harshly, "First of all, get that pathetic look off your face. It isn't dignified to whine and complain all the time, Junior."
"But—"
Bowser narrowed his eyes and Junior shut his mouth and slated his features. With a subtle nod Bowser calmed.
He told his son, "I don't let you do anything because you keep fucking up. If you want me to trust you with responsibility, you have to be more mature. Understand?"
"No."
"I got it!"
Rather than break it down for his youngest, Bowser gazed beyond Junior and saw Lemmy coming back outside.
"Very good." The Dark King praised as he stood and took his crown from Lemmy.
The older boy went to stand beside his friend, but Junior gave him a very strange look and opted not to take his hand this time. Lemmy frowned and wondered if he'd done something to offend the prince. They both stepped back as their sire started sending huge gusts of fire towards his balled fists.
With a hard scowl Bowser shot blast after blast towards the roof of his palace until the entire thing started to cave in, then he let the growing flames take over and do the rest of the work. The whole time he watched his palace burn he thought about where he would go from here. A sly smirk spread just as fast as the fire when he came up with a very fitting place indeed.
It was intimidating at first, to face off against the tall powerhouse that was Zair. But Daisy needed only to think of the Dark King and that stupid self-satisfied smirk of his and how satisfying for her it'd be to knock it off his face and bam; she'd channeled an inner tenacity that managed to surprise the old general. Each time she left the palace and entered the dojo-style room, she felt the rage start to build and rise almost automatically. Sometimes she got carried away.
"That's enough for now." General Zair pulled her up short by erecting a thin wall of fire between them.
She was nodding and catching her breath and trying to calm herself down. Zair could see this and gazed at her curiously.
"If I didn't know any better," He drawled, "I'd say you were out for my blood."
"Not yours." Daisy panted, jogging over to her water bottle in the corner of the room.
The room looked twice as big thanks to the mirrors lining both walls, drawing out the expanse of wooden floors endlessly. She stared at her sweaty reflection and saw the general walking slowly towards her. His steps were echoed and more pronounced now that they weren't fighting anymore.
"You're doing well." The general commended. "Especially after only four days."
Daisy shrugged and dropped the water bottle at her feet, then hooked a finger under the band in her hair. She wrestled it from around her ponytail so that her hair came tumbling down against her damp cheeks. It felt good to do that and even better to run her fingers through her scalp. She closed her eyes and felt her heart start to slow down.
"It makes sense, though." The General noted, closer now. "You also did well during your fleeting time in the military."
Daisy grinned and turned towards him, saying, "Yeah. I still remember a lot I learned during that time."
Zair nodded and watched as the princess' smile turned bitter. She folded her arms and looked away.
"What is it?" He pried.
She said, "Nothing, just." Back to him she turned and frowned irritably. "I appreciate you taking this time with me because every bit of training helps…"
"…But?" General Zair prompted.
Daisy sighed and said, "But…I feel like…this might not even help, at the end of the day."
General Zair regarded her with silent intrigue, waiting for her to continue. She wrapped her arms around herself and tapped her fingers against her outer bicep, thinking of a way to put what she felt into words. The general waited patiently, even as seconds dragged on.
Finally Daisy blurted, "It would be great if I could just fight him like this. Hand to hand; er, he's got fire and all but you know what I mean."
Zair nodded.
"Yeah, so." She rubbed her arms. "If it was just a fight I was getting into, it'd be easy. But it's not. There's a good chance I'm gonna' end up alone with him again which means I'll have to deal with the…psycho-sexual, power-driven mind games." She chuckled wryly and asked, "You don't think you could prepare me for that, could you?"
The General's expression was wanting, so she gave him a bit of a summary of the type of things she went through, not knowing it would sound even worse to another person than it did to her.
General Zair's face was a bit disturbed when he told her, "I'm not certain I could bring myself to enact that kind of offense. But I can say that, in light of the fact that you already survived his abuse, you're more prepared than I could ever get you."
"Right."
"However," General Zair continued with visible unease, "I feel compelled to ask why you'd put yourself in a position where you're alone with your tormentor."
"I'm just saying!" Daisy blurted defensively, "I wouldn't be surprised if it comes down to that. And besides, I'm not afraid of him."
"Clearly." The general noted with a raised brow. "What makes you certain you'll end up alone with him?" He persisted. "With your young man and his troops joining you in this crusade, I could hardly see that happening."
Daisy snorted softly and said, "Trust me, it's gonna' happen. He might even try and go out his way to make it happen."
Zair nodded comprehensively and asked, "So he has some sort of…fixation with you?"
"You have no idea."
"And you still think it wise to confront him?" General Zair frowned. "You don't think that's what he wants? You might be playing right into his hands."
"I know." Daisy snapped. "But I'm not gonna' hide out here while Luigi goes to face him!" She promised viciously, "I'm gonna' hunt his ass down and make sure I get rid of him for good this time."
General Zair didn't say anything else but he made it obvious with his expression and body language—a subtle raise of both brows and a long, slow blink—that he didn't necessarily approve of her decision.
There were so many more important things she should have been thinking about. There were treasonous criminals in sheep's clothing hiding among citizens, unbeknownst to ninety percent of the population. The rest were either supporting the conspiracy or in on it themselves. Her life and her uncle's were definitely in jeopardy, as well as her new friends, but she'd be lying if she said these thoughts were the sole ones occupying her head. Perhaps because of her age and her lack of experience when it came to…well, life in general outside the palace, she was having a hard time concentrating on anything other than Arid City's Champion.
It's not a crush, she told herself, frowning at the juvenile term. She didn't consider herself in love or infatuated with him, nothing like that. It was just. Well. Since he'd arrived, she couldn't help but feel like her life began to rearrange itself around him, not that she had much of a life before.
That's probably why I keep finding myself gravitating towards him, she realized, glancing behind herself.
So slowly she was walking from his room. What possessed her to go there in the first place? That's right, that magnetism she felt when she just thought about him. He was so different, in a good way.
Yeah, he swears a lot and has a bad temper, she allowed, thinking of the many times foul words slipped his mouth, but he's got a good heart. He stands up for himself and his brothers and whoever's being done wrong.
That was sweet. About the only thing about him that could be called that, seeing as how he was more of the masculine type.
He's unnaturally strong, she thought and that kind of scared her sometimes, especially when she watched him fight in the arena, but it was also attractive. He was attractive.
Of course he is, she rolled her eyes to herself. Everybody can see that.
That would include not only his fans in the kingdom, but also his sort-of-but-not-really concubine. Ariadne stopped in the dark hallway, almost to her room.
Eriana, she thought, her body reacting in several ways at once. That's right, she's much closer to him than I am. I wish I had an ounce of her boldness.
For what? She blushed at the implications and rubbed her arms. It was time to stop this line of thinking. Not that she really thought of Rex that way. He was her friend.
He's like a knight in shining armor, she compared. A really handsome, really fit knight.
With her head down and her arms wrapped even tighter around her middle Ariadne began to walk much faster to her bedroom. Her thoughts were embarrassing her. She assumed the halls were free but should have looked up because, with her eyes downcast, she collided shoulders with another person.
"Oh!" She exclaimed, rubbing her shoulder and jerking her head up.
It was her uncle and he asked in surprise, "What are you doing up so late, 'Adne?"
Ariadne had a knee-jerk response to look back behind her, back towards the room she'd left. She needn't say anything for her uncle to jump the gun.
He lifted both brows and asked, "You were with Rex?"
Ariadne flushed.
He tilted his head and studied his young niece, taking in her discomfort and interpreting it after his own fashion.
King Reginald asked, "How do you feel about that boy?"
Ariadne's blush darkened because it felt like her uncle had read her mind and she knew if that were possible she'd be absolutely mortified. He smiled at this and his eyes twinkled.
"So you love him, then?" He presumed.
She frowned and stammered, "L-love? I don't—I was just…I couldn't sleep."
King Reginald's smile fell and he stroked his niece's cheek affectionately.
He said, "I know, Adne. I can't sleep either. Much troubles my mind." Smiling fondly again he asked, "Did you find solace with Rex? Why didn't you spend the night with him?"
He probably meant that in an innocent way but Ariadne fidgeted uncomfortably anyway, her skin warming and her stomach fluttering at the converse meaning to those words.
She said, "I didn't want to stay. He already sleeps with Eriana."
The King nodded and again took that the way he wanted to, figuring it meant the young Champion was intimately involved with the girl. He then brushed Ariadne's hair affectionately and gazed at her gently.
"You know, Adne," He spoke softly, "It is possible to love more than one person at once."
"What?"
"Go back to his room." King Reginald instructed. "You'll be safer there."
"Go back?" Ariadne echoed, then frowned and asked, "I'll be safer from what?"
Rather than answer the king bent forward and kissed her forehead and gave her a forlorn little smile.
Maybe I should have taken that management position back at the parlor, back when my boss first offered it to me. It just looked like a bunch of extra work at the time but now I was wondering if it could have prepared me in some small way for what I was doing now. Granted, leading troops and leading the night shift were on two different levels, but the principle was the same. I was in charge of these people. Their lives were in my hands. It was scary and stressful for me and we hadn't even left yet.
Are they even really ready?
I couldn't be sure. They were acting like this was any other day, just lingering around the camp near the mess hall in the waning hours of the day. I sat far from them, uphill on the grass. What if some of them got hurt on this 'suicide mission', as Strauss had so kindly put it? What if they got killed? Because of me.
I heard footsteps and turned and saw the General. He came and sat in the grass next to me in his usual taciturn fashion. I immediately suspected he wanted to talk and turned to address him but he beat me to the punch.
"I'm not here to press you for details on the Dark King." He told me. "I've heard about as much as I care to know of him from your Princess."
I frowned and asked, "What did she say?"
"I don't believe it's for me to repeat." General Zair responded. "However, it did give me a bit of insight on her intense motivation to kill him."
I said, "Yeah, she really hates him. I think anyone who's had the pleasure of encountering him does but her especially."
Zair nodded, his black eyes squinted against the breeze, and said softly, "Her hatred quiets reason and precaution."
"No doubt." I agreed. "She's moving too fast and she just can't see it's all our necks on the line here." I felt the panic stirring and said, "I mean, I want to support her but I don't think I could live with knowing I marched these guys right to an early grave."
General Zair said, "You're their Commander, not their god. Their lives are ultimately in their own hands."
I immediately bristled and started to argue at his callousness, but then I realized he'd been over armies before. He was retired now but he must have felt the way I did at one point, unless he was totally heartless. Which I doubt. A little sadistic, but not heartless.
Staring out at my troops again, I saw Lise-Marie and her violet-haired companion near the barracks. She smiled the tiniest bit at me but Portia took one look at her dad and rolled her eyes. I glanced at Zair and knew he'd seen her, but his blank face didn't give away what he thought of her contempt.
"Portia told me you wouldn't let her join Chai's military."
I decided to be a little nosy for once. Lord knows I was due for some prying since everybody insisted on getting in my business all the time. I sent a sidelong glance over to the General and saw his face remain the same. He looked like part of a painting, especially with the orange and pink hues of sunset behind him as he sat beside me in the waving grass. He had one knee bent and an arm draped over the cap as he stared solemnly ahead. He acted like he didn't hear me. Then he turned to face me with those hawkish black eyes.
"What else did she tell you?"
I blinked, thought for a second, and came up with nothing. So I shook my head and Zair exhaled wearily through his nose.
"When she attempted to enlist, I was still active in the military." He began. "And while it was clear she was more than qualified for an entry-level position…"
"You held her back?" I predicted.
"I did."
"Why?"
It didn't make sense: if he was so hardcore and happened to have a daughter who had a ton of potential, wouldn't he want her to follow in his footsteps? Wouldn't he be proud of her?
General Zair said, "You haven't been here very long, Commander, but would I be wrong in assuming you've heard of the tyrant Tatanga?"
"No, I've heard of him."
"I was among those who ended his reign," Zair told me.
"Really?" I studied him anew and said, "Oh yeah, Daisy did say a group of retired generals were the ones to…so what does that have to do with anything?"
General Zair said, "At the time we were, what the high council considered, a 'reckless, unstable faction' because some of the generals were a bit…senile. However, we were determined to act rather than follow their example of cowering and indulging the tyrant for a semblance of safety and what they had the nerve to call peace." Zair frowned and murmured, "Children dying in the streets; that was their idea of safety, of peace." He shook his head.
"While we took a more direct approach, without the Council's blessing," He continued quietly, "Our dear government took it upon themselves to commission a party of citizens to search for the missing royals."
"You mean Daisy?" I asked.
"The Princess," Zair nodded, "and her parents, and anyone of their lineage. They'd long since abandoned the nation with the king and, though I don't fault him for his decision, I knew it was futile to search for him and his family. The tyrant had sent out scouts of his own to track them down and if anyone from the nation were to cross paths with them, it'd end in their obliteration. No questions asked."
"Then how did the council send people to look for the royal family?" I frowned. "Who would sign up for that?"
"No one." General Zair responded. "Which was why citizens were drafted at random. My wife was in that number."
"What?" I frowned. "Well you're a general, couldn't you have done something about that?"
General Zair said, "I would have protested her involvement or even gone in her place, had I been informed of this, but I wasn't. I was out of contact with both her and my daughter."
"Oh." I said. "That's right, you were fighting Tatanga. But…how did you find out she even left?"
"Portia told me."
"How did she know?"
"She followed them." General Zair said. "And narrowly escaped with her life. Her mother was not so fortunate."
Empathetic grief knocked into me hard and I allowed a moment of silence to stretch on at that. In that time I started feeling awful for how harshly I'd judged the peculiar man because I had no idea what losing your wife could do to you; maybe it contributed to the person he was now. He didn't look sad, just thoughtful.
"The thrill of victory over Tatanga…tainted in the same hour," He recounted distantly.
He sighed heavily and pointed a lazy finger from his knee towards the mess hall. His daughter was there with her back to us. This soft-eyed side of Zair was something I hadn't seen until now.
"You two must have been close." I hesitantly remarked.
He nodded and said, "Unbelievably so. But her mother's death divided us and when I held her back she started to resent me."
"Why did you hold her back?" I asked curiously.
Zair gave me a look that said, 'think about it' and I tried to. Really it made no sense. Wouldn't he want to foster his daughter's ambition since he was already an esteemed general? It would bring them closer together since they were both no doubt hurting. So either Zair was a giant masochist or…
It's gotta be the Council, I deduced. In a way they betrayed him. It's like they're the reason his wife is dead because they sent her out behind his back…could they have known, though?
"It would seem you're coming to the right conclusions." General Zair said to me.
"Do you think they sent your wife on purpose?" I asked, feeling sick.
He shrugged and said, "It's plausible, though their mentality is to sacrifice the individual for the state. Being a general, that was fine. I didn't mind putting my country first. I was willing to risk my life to end Tatanga." General Zair's voice lowered. "However, I draw the line at my family. I can't agree with the government's need to remove all value of personal ties and loyalties. It makes everything moot for, if not our loved ones and way of life, what are we even fighting for?"
"Then…if that's the case," I sorted out. "Why did you let her join under me?"
"She's of age." He told me. "It was her decision. I merely offered her the opportunity."
"Why?"
"I would think that's obvious, Commander." Zair smiled faintly.
He stood and I did, too, wanting to get an answer.
I said, "This is even more dangerous than just being in the regular military."
"I know." General Zair said. "And I know she can handle herself well. And I know you'll lead her well." He told me, "You have a good soul, and that counts for more than you think. I wouldn't trust her safety to anyone else."
I rubbed the back of my neck under praise I didn't honestly feel I deserved. But then Zair tilted his head and looked off to the side.
"However," He drawled, "…should anything ever happen to her…"
I swallowed and Zair cut his eyes over to me, making me sweat for a minute. He then smirked and patted my shoulder good-naturedly.
"Don't worry Commander." He chuckled. "I wouldn't blame you."
A/N: Thanks for reading everybody!
Until next time!
~DymondGold~