Chapter 104: Everything And Nothing

Captain Kamcee was a bit unsettled by the man’s demeanor, especially seeing his eyes switch their colors from bright gold to red. A chill crawled down her spine, but she kept her composure and her hand on the hilt of her sword.

“Whatever reason it is you are leaving for, surely it can wait until dawn at least. Isn’t it a bit too early to travel?” she probed.

“Oh, we are already pressed for time, thanks to that beast tide,” Kadre spoke up for the first time since the encounter began. “We originally planned to leave yesterday evening. We have a very important business deal to close out this morning. And the venue is a bit far off.”

Her voice was steady, smooth, the voice of someone who had lied to better people than this.

The Captain studied them a bit more before she reined her steed to face the road. She’d originally stopped them for protocol’s sake, and there was no use delaying ordinary citizens. Even though one of them was carrying a rather ominous-looking scythe over his shoulder, and they both looked anything but ordinary.

She simply shrugged and trotted off, followed by the three other knights. But they’d barely gone a few feet when the man called out to them.

Surprised, the captain ordered her men to stop, and they waited for the two to reach them.

“Is there any issue, traveler?”

“Ah, yes. I’m afraid we need a horse, and we were wondering if you could help us with just one of yours,” Mikael asked, while behind him, Kadre rubbed her temples in annoyance and exasperation. This boy was going to be the death of her. Taking one of the army’s steeds was one way to ensure they would be constantly menaced and possibly become wanted. She was grateful, at least, that her face was safely hidden beneath the hood of her cloak. She could always relocate to a new city, or a new realm entirely.

The knights stared at him. One of them actually laughed, thinking it a joke, until he saw that nobody else was smiling, least of all the one holding the scythe.

But before anybody aside from Mikael could fully process the rather absurd demand, the lad went on to make sure they got executed.

He gently set the scythe’s blade down on the ground. Then, using the shaft as support, he leapt up and swept the knight nearest to him off his ride, armor clanking on the ground. Mikael landed atop the saddle and raised the blade of his weapon at the other knights, who had drawn swords and flared auras.

To Kadre, he said, “Get on,” his gaze never leaving the knights.

Captain Kamcee, however, was not having that.

“Arrest them,” she ordered, unsheathing her sword. Around her, the aura of a Grandmaster pulsed and flared visibly.

Mikael sighed inwardly. At the moment, neither he nor his companion was in any mood to throw hands, nor was either of them in the best of shapes to do so. So he decided to play a card, his newest trump card yet.

“Just report to General Erica, tell her it’s Mikael.”

The blades hovered, trembling in the silence. Nobody moved.

Kadre did not dare breathe. If the Captain asked for her face, the bag on her back, all of it would come tumbling out like a bad joke. She counted the knights’ swords and the distance to the nearest hedgerow, and none of the numbers favored her.

“Stop,” the Captain ordered her squad.

The name Mikael was greatly familiar. It was the name of the lad General Lithorne had received orders to escort back to the palace.

She studied him much more closely this time. That was when she finally noticed the pale skin that showed on his neck and what little showed on his face, as well as his eyes, which had turned back to their original gold color. He completely matched the description of the genius inventor.

“If you are Mikael, then you understand the Emperor has granted you an audience with himself over at the capital. And I am very sure you are headed somewhere that is not the Capital.”

“Oh, that.” He helped Kadre up onto the horse, in front of himself, and handed her the reins. “I already spoke with Generals Erica and Rodain. The audience situation will have to be put off for a while. Just ask Mrs. Lithorne.” He lowered the scythe and brought it to his side. “Off we go, Kadre. Thank you for the steed.”

The Captain’s jaw tightened, but she said nothing.

Kadre was a bit skeptical, so at first the horse walked slowly. Then it broke into a trot that turned into a full-on sprint as the knights watched them leave.

“Do we pursue them, Captain?”

The Captain shook her head, turning her horse in the direction of the city. “No. We have orders to aid the city, not pursue the boy.” She rode off without looking back. If the Generals let him go, there was no reason to apprehend him herself.

The knight who was de-horsed muttered curses as he climbed onto that of his comrade, and they rode off with their captain.

*****

“Are you out of your mind?” she hissed once the knights were small shapes behind them. “You asked a captain of the Empire for a horse!”

“And she gave one.”

“She didn’t exactly give it. You took it.”

” Your interpretation,” Mikael replied, unbothered.

After that, they rode in almost complete silence save for the sound of hooves hitting the ground. The road improved as the day slowly matured, details returning to the world in increments, the occasional farmhouses here and there, and hedgerows all becoming legible.

Mikael was at it again. He now sat with his back to Kadre’s and the scythe over his lap, and he watched the world with the same attention he gave things he deemed worthy of it.

Kadre looked over her shoulder occasionally and caught the empty look on Mikael’s face.

“You tend to do that often. Staring into nothing and yet seemingly into everything.” She slowed the horse so she could hear whatever Mikael had to say.

“This world is everything, and nothing. Depending on the perspective through which you view it,” he replied absentmindedly. He cleared his throat. “To gods, celestial beings who live for ages unending, the fleeting lifespan of worlds like yours looks like nothing, means nothing. A second compared to eons. And so to them, this world is nothing.”

Kadre noted something about his tone. It sounded distant, pained, almost longing, like he was putting himself in the shoes of the celestials.

Mikael continued after a brief pause. “What do you, mortals, think of this world?” He posed it as a question.

“As everything, I guess?” Kadre replied, after deciding to tangle minds with him.

“Exactly. This world supports your lives, your fortunes, your destinies. If the world suddenly stopped existing, all life on it would cease too. Destinies and wealth, fame and fortune, along with it. Everything your world stands for would be gone. Even if your world doesn’t die, the inhabitants of this world leave everything behind after they die. They take nothing with them into the grave, figuratively speaking, and everything they did would have been for naught. So in the end, it all reinforces the notion that this world is both nothing and everything.”

Silence once more reigned over the party as each got on with their train of thoughts.

Kadre reasoned through Mikael’s logic. The planet, Terra Verde, as coined by great scientists and thinkers, supported all life, and its destruction would logically mean the end of all life.

‘Not that that’s going to happen, anyway.’ Her mind struggled to accept a situation wherein the entire world gets destroyed. The very thought made the morning feel a little colder.

“Damn, this journey got too serious way too fast,” she joked, but Mikael offered no reply, and so silence settled back in.

Kadre glanced back once more at the distant look behind her. A boy, she kept telling herself. Just a boy with a scythe and a terrible sense of tact. But teenage boys did not speak of gods and eons as if they had sat through them.

Hooves drummed on, steady and unhurried, carrying them further from the ruins and deeper into the morning. Behind her, Mikael watched the road unwind, and for a moment, he wondered how it would feel to call a world everything and mean it.

*******

The city gate, or what remained of it, was crowded with soldiers hauling wounded onto carts. Smoke still drifted lazily over the broken wall, and the smell of ash hung thick in the cool morning air.

Captain Kamcee got off at the gate and raised a fist over her chest. General Erica stood near the gate with Captain Behemoth at her side, arms folded, a half-rolled map spread across an overturned crate.

“Good to see you, ma’am.”

“Captain,” Erica acknowledged. “Oh, Kamcee! Good to see you too. At ease.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Kamcee turned to Captain Behemoth. “Captain?” She extended her hand for a greeting.

Captain Behemoth shook it. “Captain, you’re in good shape.”

“Yes. Yes, I am.”

Erica groaned and sighed. “Seriously? What are you two, lovestruck teenagers?” She turned and walked towards the makeshift office camp. “You two, in here.”

Behind her, the two captains exchanged a sheepish glance. Erica pretended not to see it, but the corner of her mouth twitched. After a night like this, a little foolishness was a welcome change.

They chorused, “Yes, ma’am.”