Epilogue 10: Argent Ephis. |
Argent finished the last of his preparation by placing flowers in a circle around the ‘tent’, this one of human make. He double-checked that the fruits were fragrant, that the leaves were dry. All of it was to the best of his abilities.
A part of him, the cautious one, said he should ask Nezhra for assistance. None other could relate, but he also knew he was delaying. He owed Death Bloom the truth. He would no longer live as a liar and a coward. Time had run out.
Death Bloom approached the clearing with confident steps, briefly stopping at the edge to taste the air with her tongue. She bobbed her head once in quiet approval before moving closer.
“Beloved. You have clearly done me a great wrong if you deem this necessary.”
“I have done you a great wrong,” Argent hurried to admit.
Clearly, this was not the good thing to say. His partner froze, anguish visible in the fall of her crest. Had she been expecting good news? Argent Ephis pushed down the wave of panic in his chest, for he was committed now.
“Who is it? That mottled snake Pleasant Dawn?”
“What? No! No, I did not sleep with another.”
Death Bloom frowned.
“No. It is about what I am. Please sit.”
“I will listen to what you have to say. If I like it, I will sit by your side. Speak. Now.”
Argent looked dejectedly at the fruits. They had been difficult to obtain. His neck bowed from the stress.
“I am of another species. I am not fully, or truly, one of yours. My species is a foreign one.”
“Argent Ephis, have you been stung by some buzzing thing with a red stinger, perhaps? Eaten any mushroom of vivid colors?”
“No. Death Bloom, beloved. Perhaps it is best if I show you.”
Argent removed his mask. His true form was not massively taller than his birth one, though it was broader. Just enough to fill the entrance of the tent and then some.
“It is I, beloved. I am sorry for hiding this from you for so long. The truth is that…”
Death Bloom had stopped even breathing. Argent Ephis, despite being the Bleak Spears’ best hunter, despite leading raids, despite having collected the portal treasures of other clans, was at a loss. This was unknown territory.
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He did not have the ruse or weapons to proceed.
And so, he did not react when tendrils sprouted from the ground to bind his limbs. He did not call out when Death Bloom ran away with a cry of horror. It took him entirely too many heartbeats to accept what was happening. And he knew he would not run after Death Bloom either. There was something in her gaze that told him that it would serve no purpose beyond hurting her further.
Argent Ephis’ heart turned to ice in his chest, the cold spreading like a plague that deadened everything it touched. If one day he was cored in battle, it would, he believed, feel like that.
It was not will but the memory of a plan that let him snap the bindings. Markers in his mind guided his steps to the small valley where he had asked one of the laborers to take his children for ‘a walk’. The laborer asked questions when he swept by. His two spawn asked questions when he grabbed them with his hands, carrying them at a dead sprint. Fear needled him when the first horns of the hunt blew behind them, the death knell of his life entire existence thus far. His concern for the spawn grew wings under the sole of his feet even as they bit his arms with their distress. It took a long while, but he had chosen his timing well ‘just in case’. There were no fourth ascension present at the camp. No third ascension could hope to match his speed either.
His two spawn screamed after the first hour of race. They were scared and confused. They wanted their mother and he had no reply. How does one tell their child that their mother would now kill them on sight? Even the wordy humans would surely struggle to answer that.
His clan would put a blood price on all of their heads.
Argent erred for a time, his path curving around known territories. He stopped to feed the spawn, even as they fought him and asked for explanations he could not give. The only word he could repeat was ‘sorry’, and even then, it sounded hollow and false, as empty as his mask. After a while he used the datasheet Nezhra had gifted him. With slow gestures, he used the ‘map’ function to find their territory.
The first human patrol did not so much intercept him as he purposefully ran to them. They were understandably on guard, but they relaxed when they realized he had the small ones with him.
He took out a translator from his dimensional pocket.
“Hey what’s the matter bruv?” a tall, dark man asked.
“I want to see Clytemnestra Palladian,” the translator replied in his stead.
“Hey I know her! No wuckas bruv, got her number. You want to come with in the meantime? The small ones can come as well.”
Some of the ice melted away. The patrol led him back. There were caretaker humans who goaded his two sons with toys and fruits. When they didn’t cry.
It took a while for Nezhra to appear. He joined her on the promontory of a small hill overlooking the ocean. The sun was setting by then, and the air smelled of cooking fires.
“I am sorry,” she said, wearing the mask of his people.
“You know what happened?”
“I can guess. You recently ascended. The urge to leave is strong. You decided you would try. I cannot blame you.”
“She was not even angry. She immediately went for the kill.”
Both of them waited in silence for a while. Argent Ephis refused a fruit. He could not stomach anything right now.
“I believed it would be different for me. I wonder how many of us fall for the same trap, again and again. They believe that they have not changed so of course, the others will accept them as the same person with a different skin. But it does not happen. We are hunted, our children slaughtered, our legacy, ruined. My name will be struck from the Bleak Spears legends. All my achievements will fade from our common memory. There will be no tales of me. The only trace of my passage will be Death Blossom’s grief and the loss of her children, and of her chance to have more. Such is our path.”
There was no resentment against Nezhra in Argent’s heart. Envy was not resentment.
“You were lucky,” he said.
“I know. I still am. I can’t give you what luck gave me, but I can still help you some other way. We will take care of your children while you find our home world,” she promised, which was what he had wanted.
“I hate to be in your debt once again, sister, and yet I must ask. Would you lead me to our home world, so that I may not wander?”
“This wandering is an important experience, part of the Aszhii path. An initiation.”
“But I can wander all I want after the children are grown, yes?”
Argent Ephis had become accustomed to human features now, so he recognized the twist in it.
“You are correct. And this is more important. You’re right, Argent, I’ll help you. We’re going to need a month though, at least.”
“I will wait to grant my little ones some time first. We are not very good at sudden change.”
“Don’t worry, I’m here for you, like you were there for me.”