"You. You listen to me, or you will be next," you snarled as your still healing body protested, as you forced yourself to your feet. You were unsteady on your feet, swaying from side to side as you did your best to keep your balance, yet your eyes burned with malice as you stared at the man before you. He was one of the ones responsible for harming Eurochkoles, if not directly then by association, he was one that you would gladly kill if you didn't have need for him. "Nothing you do can kill me, no bonds will hold me, nowhere in this world shall you be safe from me if you do not do exactly as I tell you."
The man nodded timidly, glancing nervously between you and Joy, Joy, who while unsconscious still was also clearly recovering rapidly from her injuries. You knew that you had to get help for Eurochkoles first, that you needed to ensure he was stable so he could start recovering, you needed to get this man to confirm your identities, you needed the civilians if they hadn't fallen, to be sent home. You glanced from the man towards Joy, towards the body of the bursar who lay there motionlessly, your brow furrowing as you turned back towards the man fully.
"First, I want you to go and get whatever medical supplies you have laying around and bring them here. Then, I want you to go and find a radio or a phone or whatever and confirm our identities," you paused, rolling your shoulders briefly as you shifted stance, both looking and feeling much more stable on your feet now. "Once you have done that, arrange for people to burn the bodies of these people. Now, get to it, and I don't expect to hear a word from you until you've confirmed our identities."
The man nodded, hurrying away as he dropped the rope, while you staggered over to Eurochkoles side, glancing briefly in the direction of the carriage as you took note of the scared faces that glanced through the windows. The people were safe at least, though you knew that this day would likely give them nightmares for the rest of their natural lives. You didn't care about what they thought or felt right now however, as there was only one true priority for you.
You knelt down beside Eurochkoles as you cringed, the sensation of the bullets inside you shifting causing you some discomfort, though you knew that in time your body would break them down. The manner in what he was injured worried you, as you could see three gunshot wounds to his chest, you could see blood pooled beneath him yet no longer flowing. You could see no sign of movement, of respiration, making you wonder if his so called immortality could be ended in other ways when the time was close.
"No," you whispered to yourself as you tore the waistcoat he was wearing, along with the shirt open, tracing your fingers over the wounds briefly as you frowned to yourself. "You can't be dead, you can't die by any hand other than my own. That's how it's supposed to be, that's what fate says," you mumbled, refusing to believe that this was as it appeared, that he could indeed have been killed. You couldn't lose him, you couldn't be without him, not when he was all that you had to live for in this world, not when he was all you cared about any longer. Where was that useless man with the medical supplies, why wasn't he here already with the things you would need to remove the bullets from the wounds?
It was some minutes before the man returned, holding a doctors bag, setting it down near you before he stepped back, nervously watching you. You glared at him, dismissing him with a wave of your hand as you did so, hoping that he wasn't as stupid as Eurochkoles, that he would take that as a hint to go confirm your indentities now as you had already asked him once. If he didn't stay away, you'd stab him to death with anything sharp inside this bag, to make it perfectly clear that he was one of the last people you wanted to see at the moment.
Your work to remove the bullets using the tools you found inside the bag was something that was mostly done through guess work, as you carefully tried to avoid causing further damage. The three bullets took as many minutes for you to remove, that was followed by fishing through the bag, withdrawing what looked like a suitable fluid for cleaning along with a number of bandages. Some of the bandages were quickly doused with the fluid, a fluid that had a scent that was unpleasent, a scent that was mingled with alchohol, a scent that you knew from how it burned your nose, probably meant it was very suited to this task.
That, or it was the worst thing you could have picked.
Another quick sniff told you that it probably was good for cleaning, that it would likely burn like hell, had he been conscious. That was good enough for you. Using that damp bandages in your hands, you quickly cleansed the wounded areas, frowning as you wrapped the other bandages about the wounds. You knew that you had done this all wrong, that there was more you were supposed to do to treat those injuries, yet you didn't know what treating them involved.
This was all far from your area of expertise and made all the more awkward by the fact that you were afraid to try doing more than this. Then, you sat there, watching, waiting, praying for any form of reaction from him as you stared down at his body, nudging his shoulder with your hand as you struggled not to start hyperventilating. "Wake up, please, wake up," you begged, pausing as you caught sight of a pair of feet out of the corner of your eye, feet that you knew belonged to the man you had sent away.
"I... I got through to them, they confirmed your identity and asked... They asked us to put him on the line," came the mans words, words that were unsteady as he could no doubt see as clearly as you that Eurochkoles wasn't moving.
"He... He'll get up. He... He just needs a moment more," you stammered, still adamantly refusing to believe that this was what it looked like, still adamantly refusing to believe that he could actually be dead. You had seen him survive wounds like this before, you had seen him recover after he had taken a banshee's claw through his chest, bullets couldn't, shouldn't have been able to kill him. "He just needs a moment," you repeated, almost sobbing now as you started to rock back and forth.
The man nodded, no more than that nod before he awkwardly shuffled away.
Several long minutes passed in silence as you felt tears rolling down your cheeks, as you squeezed your eyes shut and rocked back and forth. Several long minutes alone, several long minutes in what you tried to deny that this was it, that he wasn't going to awaken. Several long minutes passing as you came to the realisation that he wouldn't have wanted you to cling onto such futile hope. You needed to face reality, you needed to let go, to admit that he wasn't coming back.
You needed to let go, to say goodbye.
You needed to find a new reason to live.
Yet without him, you had no reason to live, you had nothing to strive forward for, no reason to care if the world about you thrived or burned. He was the only friend you had, he was the only person who truly cared about you, who tolerated you and tried to help you, the only person worthy of your respect.
Now he was gone.
It wasn't fair, it wasn't fair that he had been taken from you, that the world could do something so cruel as this, that the one person who made you happy had been taken away from you. You had nobody in this world other than him anymore, not since your family had disowned you for joining the Enlightened and it was a cruel hand that fate had given you, that you were destined to kill him. A cruel hand, that was never going to come to pass as he was gone.
Gone...
"Goodbye," you whispered as you leaned down, moving to give him a kiss, your farewell to him before you sought to find some place in the world again, before you sought to find some form of happiness again, even if it was to be without him. Your lips met with the tips of fingers, fingers that were clammy with the blood that coated them, fingers that pushed you back as you opened your eyes, as you found yourself staring into those familiar, piercing blue eyes.
"If you've been planning on kissing me goodbye and running away all this time to stop me getting cake, I'll be forced to kill you in your sleep," came his words, words that were barely above a whisper. You stared in disbelief, blinking away the tears that had been running down your cheeks, before you lunged, snapping your teeth down as you bit his fingers before you leaned back, huffing indignantly.
"You bastard, I thought you were dead!" you barely managed to respond, your voice trembling with a mixture of emotion, of shock and anger.
"I had a revelation while I was laying there, a moment in what it all became clear to me, in what I started to remember everything , yet now I have awakened it all seems jumbled and confused. All that knowledge, everything laid out bare to me, everything that has been and will be. All of creation laid bare before me, the beauty and horror of it all and I saw my role in it, I saw my thread woven poorly into the tapestry of fate."
Even as he spoke he rose to his feet, the bandages about his chest reddening as blood once more started to flow. He took a deep breath as he lowered a hand to you, as he helped you to your feet, as he gestured with his free hand to an imaginary scene before him.
"Imagine it, the threads of everything fated to be, everything woven together, all held together by how they interlap. All those threads, with strategic threads vanishing here and there, with the threads that hold it together being taken away, and your own thread, a thread that does not belong, wound about it all, keeping it safely together."
"And this didn't make sense to you?"
"Silence. I should not be, yet I am, my presence here is somehow relevant, my thousand year cycle is somehow important. I saw so much more, yet all that remains of it now is confused images, misplaced voices and concepts that have no association," he paused, glancing towards the figure of the returning officer, tilting his head slightly as he did so. "Well, hello there. No need to look so shocked, I believe you said that they were waiting to hear from me?"
"How... How could you know that, you're supposed to be dead!"
"Humans, as ugly as they are stupid," he sighed, shaking his head as he did so. "I don't have time to explain all this to you, so I'll put this in terms you can understand," he paused, thinking briefly as he did so. "Or are these terms still beyond you.. I can never tell you with humans," he muttered.
"You're... Dead!" the man restated, pointing at him now.
"Ah, right. I don't die like you humans do, you see, I am-" he paused, shaking his head. "Too complex, too complex. Way above your head. Smaller words, right... Smaller words..." he breathed out slowly, pointing to himself now. "Me," he stated, while the waited for the man before him to respond, to show that he comprehended.
"You?" the man responded, trembling as he waited for him to continue.
"No, this me," he restated, pointing to himself, before his finger moved to point at the man before him. "This you," he stated, his tone condescending and insulting. "Me, smart. You, stupid. Me, immortal. You, mortal."
"I'm not stupid!" the man protested, while you moved to take Eurochkoles hand, squeezing it tightly, as if you were dreaming and letting go of it would have you lose him, have you awaken and find he was dead still.
"So you say, but you keep telling me I am dead, despite the fact that I am currently showing all signs of life, while i'm on an endorphine high that is about to wear off, so can we get to the fucking point and get to the radio, phone or whatever it is?"
The man nodded, quickly leading the way from the station towards a building with a faded sign on it, a sign that declared it to be the police station. You could see towns people in the street, staring in shock at you, watching as you were pulled along behind Eurochkoles as he made his way past the police man, hurrying into the station. Before you had even noticed it, he was slipping free of you, hurrying over to a phone mounted on the wall, picking up the hand piece as he did so.
"Hello, may I inquire to whom I am speaking?"
A moments pause.
"Ah, Alexandrina!" he laughed, moving his hand to clutch his chest as he did so. "I appologise for keeping you waiting, but the officer here insists that I'm dead for some reason I cannot hope to understand."
There was a long moments pause as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, clearly doing his best to supress his breathing.
"That is correct, I am afraid. I'll get them to send the civilians back, along with the body of the bursar. I'll get them to burn the bodies showing plague symptoms, too."
Another brief pause.
"I'm not evading the subject of my injuries, what gave you that impression?"
A slightly longer pause followed, as you moved over to settle on the edge of the desk nearest to him, watching as he started to animatedly talk now.
"Listen, it's just a few broken ribs and some gunshot wounds, I'll recover from the worst of it in a few days, but, I cannot come back yet, even if you insist. I cannot return yet, as there's something about these events that reminds me of events four, five hundred years back. I will not elaborate on them until I have at least confirmed that they are, or as I pray, are not indicative of a repeat of those events, but I will ask you one thing. Do you remember what we used to talk about, about how it was a shame that you were little more than a figurehead for the country, about how you would make a fine queen, a queen whom the people would rally behind without a second thought?"
There was a brief moments pause, while he nodded slightly.
"It might be worth considering, as I believe the technocracy in charge of things through the country is no longer reliable. See, there are these things, Ghouls you may call them, humans of another an ageless nature, who I believe have infiltrated the local government here. See, we came across a town that had been completely overrun by the same thing that you're battling there, a town that they had to have covered up this happening to."
There was another pause as he frowned.
"Yes, I believe the mines no longer sending shipments is connected with this, somehow. I suggest you surround yourself with people you know you can trust, people you have known long enough to see age. I cannot stress that point enough, people you have seen age, people that the ravages of time have not spared."
he nodded briefly before speaking again.
"Yes, that is exactly what I am suggesting you do. Even one of them being present would be reason enough to do that. I wish I knew how to expose them, I am sure that some of your people will find a way however, however, I should get going, I have people to get safely on their way home and all that, as you have likely heard."
He smiled this time, sighing as he closed his eyes.
"Yes, I will take care, as long as you promise to do the same, my little princess."
You felt a twinge of jealousy as you heard the fondness in his voice, though you did your best to hide it as he turned back to face you, placing the receiver of the phone down. You wanted to ask him why he didn't speak like that with you, why there was no such tenderness as that towards you, yet you knew that there was something more immediate to worry about. You may have only caught half of what was being said, you may have only heard his side of the conversation, yet you had clearly heard him suggesting a course of action you had an inkling about. You just needed to hear it from him, as you could scarcely believe that he of all people could have been suggesting that.
"Well?" he asked, having clearly seen the look on your face, knowing that you had something you wanted to ask him. "What is it?"
"Did you seriously just tell her people would stand behind her if she tried to overthrow the government?"
"Yes, and the people will stand behind her. All it takes is a little scare about the government, a reminder their beloved queen is a powerless figurehead and a single phrase and they'll be behind her every step of the way."
"And what magical phrase would that be?" you asked, huffing as you gave him a look of disapproval. This had to be the stupidest thing he had come up with yet.
"For queen and country!"
End of Part Six
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Topic: They told me I could be anything... (Read 78916 times)