The Champion's Companion Ch. 21

Stepping around to Mios, he pulled him upright and looked over his broken body. The old man shivered and wiggled a bit trying to stand but was unable to move as Marcos whispered into Mios' ear. When the broken man nodded to whatever was said, Marcos grabbed his head roughly and gave a sharp twist snapping the neck.

Moving over to Paes he put his foot down on the back of her neck forcing her face into the dirt. "I'll have to get some convicts from our army to breed the cowardice out of this one." He announced haughtily.

Marcos let his body relax even as his mind stayed at full alert. "I think I will now show you the true Heaven's Resentment."

Dropping his head and rolling his shoulder's forward Marcos seemed to shimmer as though some thing was pushing out from within. Behind him a line in space, a line in nothing appeared then started widening and opened into a hole showing a shadowy image of the clearing they stood in. From where Janis was looking it appeared to be the same clearing but the people on the other side couldn't be seen. Only a colorless image of the a moonlit hilltop was visible.

The edges became indistinct around the edges of the portal even as the darkness inside the hole became more intense. A cold wind blew from that darkness and shadowy figures that lurched out on stiff legs.

"Close your eyes Janis we aren't-- We cannot see this." Saliss screeched dropping onto the seat of her stool and covering her eyes. "Don't look at him, and don't open your eyes."

Janis had a moment to see the look of pale fear on her face. Looking back, she saw a large figure emerge from behind Marcos and meet her eyes.

"Garec?!"

"Close your eyes Janis!" Saliss shouted.

"But?" Janis looked behind him and saw others coming out walking towards other villagers. "Shut your eyes it's an illusion! Don't get sucked in!"

Garec reached for her as he moved closer. He reached out to beckon wordlessly with the sheepish grin he wore sometimes on the few gentle days they were together. Around the circle, a macabre reunion was taking place as villagers wept and embraced departed friends and loved ones.

"Wait let me see him," Janis shouted not knowing why she was suddenly so curious about what he had to tell her of the other side, "He wasn't that bad, I just want to know he's well. Let's talk to him--"

"Damn it you fool," Saliss stood and groped for Janis' arm with her eyes closed. Pulling her close the blond clutched her head to her breast blocking her sight. "Just be still..."

Robbed of the vision of an ideal Garec wishing her well from beyond the grave, Janis's other senses told her truth around her. The cold wind was picking up as the happy voices of the living greeted back their ancestors, dear friends, and even pets.

"...You came back!" The cries were one sided only the living could be heard.

"Come...Look at our son!" The dead did not speak words Janis could hear but those in the illusion conversed with them.

"You saw them on the other side too? It gives me pleasure to know you aren't punished. We were wild back then weren't we?"

Saliss tightened her grip when the shouts they heard over the now steady freezing wind turned to panic one by one. "Mother! Father! NO! Let go!"

"...Please you're hurting me! No!--" A woman screamed making Janis stiffen.

"It's too late for them. It's almost done, let them go over." Saliss whispered quietly. Around them, the wind a picked up to a gale and buffeted them. People's panicked shouts and loud torturous screams could only be heard as the wind picked up even more till even they couldn't be heard anymore.

The wind began to die down and blow from the other side as it pulled back. The air became warmer and the smell of grass and flowers rode the gentler breeze. Finally, it stopped with the sound of a long held sigh and gentle warm breeze came in from another direction. Saliss let her grip slacken once the sounds of crickets reached them.

Opening her eyes, Janis looked around at the fury of Heaven's True Resentment. What shocked her initially was the lack of anything. Marcos stood with his foot atop a very dusty Paes. Around them the people, the camp, and even the grass had disappeared in every direction on the hill. The flat surface Marcos had started his fight on was now barren of all signs of life, and any traces it had ever existed.

"All those people—" Janis muttered as the totality started to become apparent.

Under foot, the magnitude of what happened was even more stark. The ground was now only fine dust. Rocks, pebbles, and sand were reduced to a fine white-grey powder that made clouds around Janis' tentative steps.

"I read once that the dead envy the living." Saliss said quietly from behind her. "It was muttered by a knight-captain bleeding to death in the halls of the castle he was charged with defending..."

Janis turned to the blonde and saw her somber look and the tears in her eyes.

"This..." Saliss motioned around herself. "'All that lives would be taken to appease that hunger, that jealousy. The people, the plants, and even the things the wriggle in the soil are hated by those without breath in their chest. Perhaps it is envious despair.' He survived the wound, and when he wrote those words, he was trying to put the feelings of death in words. He became more famous than the battle he fought."

"But don't you see what he's done?" Janis sputtered. "This is- This is just...I mean...what Marcos 'unleashed' was- is just..."

"Extreme?" Saliss finished for her, "How much do you love life? All the aspects you can name and all the ones you forgot?"

Janis let the thought hang. Her life had never had any truly happy times. Even in childhood, she was shunned for her misshapen weakness among Amazons who idolized the Goddess's ideals of strength and femininity. Recently being saved and the optimism of training were the only things of happiness that were easy to recall.

The man occupying her thoughts stood unmoving. As Janis approached, the wind glided past her breaking the stillness of the wasteland.

"I hope you learned from this day." Marcos said in a dry voice. He lifted his head to study the sky. "You saw a fight that could teach you much about the nature of combat."

"Marcos these people-"

"They are with the Goddess now. In fact, they never really left her. For them, the dream is over." He stepped back from Paes and let her raise herself. With an astonished look of wonder she took in the scene around her.

Marcos let her scramble up to the spot where the old man had fallen. She dug through the dust trying to find a clue. After a moment, she stopped and looked back at them with a look of pained confusion.

"That girl needs you. You should go to her." Marcos said quietly. "Tell her she'll see those two again. Tell her they are close and that they will leave room in her life for the rest of what fate has in store."

Walking over slowly, Janis dropped down to Paes who shivered pitifully in the grey powder and they embraced as only two women with grieving hearts can.

**************************

"So... you hate him for that?" Ruegin asked after the group came to grips with the story.

"No that was just his nature," Janis admitted huddled on her seat. "It was a perfectly reasonable to him to do what he did."

"It would be years later when the after affects of that potion Saliss gave me started to rear itself. I had flashbacks of a life that wasn't my own. I'm surprised he can live with himself, you can't love someone knowing everything about them."

"And they say familiarity breeds contempt." Ruegin offered, "But enough to ruin love?"

"You know him too much is that it?" Ein asked swooping in close enough that Janis had to nudge her away.

"I suppose. Honestly, he and I both have things we wish we didn't do, but I don't know anymore. I don't know if it's him I hate or myself, the line has been blurred so much." Janis muttered looking around. "Ladies, let's finish this later. I don't know how princess Nossin does it but I feel like I've been reliving those weeks. It's just too much for right now."