TwoKinds: Redemption

A Fan-Fiction Novel

Written by WildSnivy

Epilogue: Records, Rope and Relaxation

The half-fox leaned back in his chair, and sighed softly to himself. This little interview had been two weeks in the making, and he had been completely deprived of his old life ever since Domino was found. Though he would say Rammstein had a very valid point, that he was still a criminal despite uprooting what may have been the single largest plot against the world he had ever seen. But the least he could have done was permitted the spymaster leave back to his residence. He didn't have anywhere to go, and if they were really that worried about him disappearing they always could have given him an anti-magic brace or something like that. Tossing him into the stockades, however, was probably not necessary. Was the watch really that distrusting of him? One would hope that wasn't the case; after all, Clovis had been nothing but credible throughout this venture. Why it was only being questioned now was something he couldn't quite fathom, and that was arguably more unbearable than the prison cells to him.

The door wailed on its hinges as it opened into the interview room, the minimalistic table and two chairs stationed perfectly between the four braziers in the corners. A muddy grey colored wolf entered, and briskly walked to the chair opposite Clovis. He collapsed into it, exhaustedly, and gently placed the thick paper stack in his hand onto the table. Neither him nor Clovis said anything for a few seconds, with the small crackling of the braziers the only noise in the room.

Sythe cleared his throat and placed his elbows onto the table. "First off, you didn't put us in an easy situation. I just want you to know that."

"The hard puzzles are the most rewarding ones."

"You have single-handedly divided almost every Keidran in this city between letting you live as a hero or die as a criminal."

"And what's the majority ruling, might I ask?"

Sythe subtly smirked from behind his stoic visage. "Amazingly, they want you to live."

Clovis hummed in piqued interest. "Shocking, most people who meet me want the opposite."

"We're preparing to release you this afternoon. We'll clean your slate as a thank you, you'll get your stuff back and we're going to act like this little incident never happened."

"And what about Domino?" Clovis asked. "Anything from him lately?"

Sythe flipped through the pages in front of him, seeing if there was anything to address that question. Nothing turned up. "If anything has happened involving him and the trial, either it's just now happening or we don't have any documentation for it."

"So no, you don't have any news."

"Not at the moment," Sythe huffed as he peered back up from his papers. "But if I know Keith like I think I do, then I think we're in good hands."

"And then it goes around the standing end again, right?"

"Twice, then punch it through the loop you just made."

Natani took a deep breath to clear her head, and picture the result she wanted. Mike and Evals were leaned against the deck's banister, eagerly anticipating what the wolf could do. The dying sunlight was far from perfect lighting for this sort of job, but it sufficed, as Natani continued to visualize the knot.

Then, in a series of quick premeditated motions, the wolf swiftly whipped the end of the rope through the metal ring embedded onto the side of the ship and looped it back over itself. She brought it back up a couple inches, then executed two more turns onto the rope, punctuating it a hefty jerk as the knot slid its way down to the anchor, snugly securing itself to it.

She plucked the rope like a guitar string a few times, enjoying the thumping bass sound it gave off as she did so. She glanced back up at the sailors, waiting for an evaluation, but neither of them seemed ready or even capable of giving on the moment, if their stunned appearances were representative of their thoughts at all.

Maybe she tied it wrong, and Natani pointed at her work for confirmation. "That's it, right? That's a taut-line hitch, right?"

Mike would have loved to say that yes, that was indeed the hitch he'd been teaching. Evals definitely would have chimed in to say that it looked amazing for a first run through. But collectively, the two sailors didn't produce anything more coherent than a mystified "Whoa."

"I'll take that as a yes," Natani beamed as she slipped the knot loose and handed the loose end back to Evals. It sat limply in his hands, as he continued to gawk at the now vacated ring where the world record knot once lived.

Mike finally broke out of his stupor enough to get his speech back. "Why do you have to be so good at everything?"

"If I was good at sailing, then I wouldn't be here taking lessons on it from you two," Natani stated. "So, what's the next one?"

"Next what?" Evals woofed, dazed.

Natani blinked, unsure of why that rudimentary hitch was so engrossing to the dog. "Knot?" she inquired. "That's what we've been doing for the last half hour?"

Mike took the rope out of the dog's hands and started to coil it over his elbow and shoulder. "If you're going to tie everything that fast, you might just be better off with a book. Let's go to something else."

Natani wasn't very fond of that answer. "What does that mean?"

"Did you not see how quick that last knot was done?" Mike skeptically asked back.

"Mike, I told you. I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to get better, alright?" Natani reassured. "And you two are the only friends I have that sail on a..."

"Wait, wait, what?" Evals interrupted.

"What?"

"He said the 'F' word," Mike whispered to the dog.

"We're really your friends, Natani?"

"Well, yeah. Why wouldn't you be?" the wolf replied, perplexed.

The two sailors looked back at each other for a brief moment. After a while, the fox grinned and let loose the rope, collapsing it onto the Quantum's deck. "Alright then," he warmly responded.

Evals mirrored the expression and got to work turning a new knot over the banister. "Let's get back to work."

Clovis cringed a bit as the stockade gates were thrust open, permitting him to finally exit that drab estate. He was slightly grateful that Sythe had somehow cleaned his background for him, even if he was just going to dirty it again right away. The offer was not really effective in that regard. It seemed more of an appreciative gesture if anything, and Clovis could understand that the whole nation would have been on fire had he not intervened.

But that entire fiasco was over and done with now, and that meant he could finally go home. He took in a breath of the city air like he would with a sip of his wine, and nodded at the two wardens holding the gates open as he crossed to the other side. The metal fell back down with an audible clang as soon as he was back into the main street, and the half-fox prepared to receive his home once again.

He stopped immediately as he noticed a trio of Keidran standing in front of him, almost expectantly. Zen was at the front, his hands resting in his pockets, very relaxed and at ease. Blitz stood off to his left, his bandana pulled down off of his face for some reason or another. At least he had his knife out, as proof that he wasn't an imposter. Then there was Kayle, who stood out as particularly unusual for Clovis. She was not sporting her usual outfit, the white shirt and blue pants that were practically uniform for whenever she was at Macmillan's. Well, maybe she was still in her usual clothes at the moment, but that would have been impossible to tell under her bright yellow hooded shirt, in almost the same style as the other two.

Clovis wasn't sure if he was supposed to be honored, amused or befuddled by the escort waiting for him here. "The job is over, you know. You don't have to follow me everywhere."

"Yeah," Kayle replied. "We don't have to."

The half-fox couldn't do much more than deploy another crooked smile as he walked past Zen and the Foxes, leading them casually back to his manor. "How did the trial go?" he asked Zen from over his shoulder.

"Life sentence, no parole," the wolf answered. "Or at least that's what Nat said."

"Apparently he's being left in the Basitins' custody," Blitz added. "Guessing they don't want him passing notes."

"So we won, right?" Kayle interjected.

"Resoundingly," Clovis replied with esteem. "I'd argue that this couldn't have gone too much better, actually."

"What were you doing in the stockades that long anyways?" Zen asked.

"It seems that our King didn't like the fact that I of all people just did our country a favor. So I was in limbo essentially until your friend Sythe showed up and talked them out of killing me."

"And how'd it go?" the Polar Fox said, snapping his knife shut and tossing it open again.

"They gave me a fresh start for my past and kicked me out the door, long story short."

Zen scoffed. "I'll tell Sythe you say thanks."

"You can also tell him to start chaining his wallet to his belt," Clovis added, pulling out a brown leather wallet and waving it in front of him, tauntingly in a way.

Kayle was stupefied momentarily and leered at the half-fox like a mother about to scold her child. "What did you do that for? You're clean now!"

"One of the few things I absolutely loathe, Kayle, is the idea that there isn't someone out there thinking about me," Clovis chuckled as he thumbed through the diplomat's belongings, examining everything from bank notes to documents and even a couple safe deposit keys as he rummaged around in it.

Kayle continued to protest. "Clovis, this is a new start. Why would..."

"Sweetheart, just let him be Clovis," Blitz sighed, rolling his bandana back up his face.

Zen shrugged as well. "Yeah. Besides, in the end, it's just a wallet. Not really a big deal when you think about it." And no sooner was he forced to swallow those words when the clamoring of bells echoed off of the buildings lining the main street. They were emanating from the stockades behind them, judging from the echo patterns, and Zen could have sworn he heard some yelling from further up the street as stockade guards began to march out of the gates and into the Keidran community, asking questions to anybody who dared make eye contact with them.

Clovis took the hint and raised his hood, as did everybody else. The last thing anyone wanted was to be associated with Clovis after he just reinstated his criminal record.

"Anybody for luncheon?" he offered his three colleagues as they continued to push into the jammed, swarming streets of the capital.

Back below deck, as the Quantum continued to cut its way back through the ocean, the Basitin continued to pen his way through the papers in front of him. It wasn't at all related to his job, by no means. After the trial that put Domino behind iron his work was practically finished. All that was left was to head back to wolf country and pick up where he had left off: the Human-Wolf situation. Though that seemed a very paltry situation compared to what he had just undone. Nevertheless, the Templars would probably want some reason as to why he wasn't anywhere close to their headquarters in the past month. So ever since Natani ported both of them back to the harbor, he had been madly writing away, like a novelist pressed for a deadline, detailing every single event and occurrence that caused him so much delay. They would hear everything: The Fang, Clovis' spy ring, the bomb planting. Nothing could go unrecorded.

The quill ran dry once more, and Keith reached over to replenish it, dunking it in the one partly filled ink well amongst several depleted ones. He readied himself to start the next paragraph, this one on Sythe and The Fang's raid of the Quantum, as the open door to his cabin was rapped upon by the wolf.

"Hey," Natani kindly greeted her friend as she showed herself into the room. "Mike's cooking off some hamburgers, if you wanted to join us."

"Yeah," Keith replied, over the soft scratch of the quill on the parchment. "Yeah, I'll be there in a second."

She walked up to his side and looked over his desk and the sheer entropy on display there. "Jeesh, you writing a book or something?"

"That's what it feels like, yeah," he answered, setting the quill down for a moment to flex his hand, feeling it cramp slightly. "But someone's got to explain why I wasn't around to mediate the Human-Wolf talks."

"I think you may have outdone yourself, Keith. That's, what, fifty pages on that stack there?"

"Front and back."

"How long have you been at this?"

"Since we left port. I did a little of it right before we left too."

"And that's it?"

"That's all."

"Alright, you know what?"

"What?"

"Look here for a second," Natani ordered, prompting Keith to turn his head right, to where the wolf was standing. He was immediately ambushed by a well-timed smooch from his ally, a cleverly disguised kiss that would have surprised all but the most tempered of souls. Keith did not mind it whatsoever, and placed his arm onto Natani's back, affectionately scratching her. A small gust of wind picked up and lifted the top couple of pages on Keith's stack, rustling them slightly.

Natani smiled one the kiss had ended, and rested her head on top of Keith's. The Basitin grinned back. "I think that's the first time I've seen your tail wag like that in a while," he quietly noted.

"It's only like that when you're around," the wolf softly replied, before heaving a heavy sigh and repositioning herself to see Keith again. "Which is why I'm hoping you take some time off soon."

Keith chuckled and pressed the pen back to the page. "Can I at least finish this paragraph?"

"Mike and Evals found some fireworks too. Thought they'd shoot them off tonight. Just...taking the night off, yeah?"

The Basitin nodded back. "Just give me a couple more minutes, alright?"

"If you're not on A Deck in five..."

"Tell Mike I like provolone."

"Say you're gonna be there, Keith."

"I'll be right up!" Keith laughed, waving a hand and shooing the wolf out the door. "Just let me wrap up here."

Natani smiled again on her way back out. "Alright," she replied as she turned for the corridor up. Keith waited for a second before he turned his attention back to his papers, prepared to start once again...

The ink wouldn't flow. The quill was perfectly functional but his hand was frozen. Not out of any amount of cramping, but just out of thought. His mind couldn't focus. It was glued to one concept and refused to budge. He felt compelled to continue his letter, but the motivation was gone. Thoughts of Natani flooded into his mind, one after another, blocking out any hope he had of continuing to write his report. He tried forcing his hand to move, make it write something on the fresh sheet. He finally did get it to twitch and scribble something, haphazardly and nigh on illegibly. But at least it was something:

What are you still doing down here?

A crack of exploding sulfur from above deck and a shower of purple sparks raining from outside the cabin's porthole quickly answered that question.

Keith set the quill down on his paper and replaced the rubber stopper in his ink well.

And Yet One More Note From the Author

One epilogue, by popular request! I'd like to thank all of you one final time for making this work as big of a hit as it was. Seriously. We're nearing 1000 views as we speak, which is insane. I love this community and I love writing, but most of all I love everyone who supported me while I was writing this and stuck with me while I was struggling to hit my deadlines. And that includes you people. So sincerely, one hundred percent sincerely, thank you. For everything.

This will likely be the last big update the story gets. If you see any glaring issues (weird grammar or spelling), PM me right away so I can fix it. (I'm a bit OCD about that sort of stuff.) Other than that, I'm off to work on my second piece for the site - Dust: An Elysian Tail. Keep an eye out for it!

Cheers,

WS