Hope is Fleeting

In less than an instant, everything around her turned into a highway of images zipping by so fast it all blended into a concoction of nothingness. Not even the air could be felt. It was as if, for a moment, she’d entered a void of nonexistence.

“Ugh!” she cried out in despair. Vertigo flooded her eyes as a nauseating feeling poisoned her head. Her body felt as though it’d been sawed in half. Every nerve in a frantic panic.

“The thin line of opportunity spanned a mere half a meter. Two centimeters to the left and the impact of a collision would have snapped your body into pieces”

Sir Didact stared down upon Akari, his vigor pouring over. “Patience was the key.”

Laying her down, a flood of vomit hurled from Akari’s mouth, the consequence of having been shifted miles in a matter of mere seconds. Her body felt as though it was crumbling on the inside. In a panicked fritz, Akari attempted to flee, stumbling over her feet as she struggled to gain any distance from Sir Didact. Pebbles fastened their way into her palms as she fought to prop herself up on the cold, dust coated floor. The light through the half broken stained glass window coated her in a purplish red hue. As she collapsed within the shadow of a weeping angel, the only thing that filled her was despair.

“You’re fragile, child. Like the petals of a flower. The only hope it has of surviving the grasp of its holder is through mercy.”

Sir Didact crouched down to Akari, tears rolling down her saliva and blood-stained face. With a gentle caress of her cheek, he dangled that very pity he spoke of over her head. Witnessing the silent cry for help that filled her eyes.

“Shall I offer you such mercy?”

Azu screamed at the top of his lungs, his outstretched hand still grasping for Akari. Left with nothing but an empty grasp. It was only a moment. Akari stepped outside of the house for only a moment, and before Azu knew it… she was gone from sight… He had failed to keep her safe.

“The villagers,” Mihd howled, watching as they all collapsed to the ground one by one. “They’re no longer being controlled.”

Azu looked around, his thoughts running at high speed. He then darted towards the village center, with Mihd trailing along from behind. The unconscious villager bodies filled every path they took, with Azu appalled by the sheer extent of the mind control. To think he believed such a script to be impossible only mere minutes prior.

“Can you locate her?” Azu desperately questioned Mihd, “If I’m close enough, yes.” Mihd replied, his certainty wavering in his tone.

Eying the pub owner’s carriage, Azu raced over while passing a glance inside. The owner was sprawled out over the bar, painting a grim picture of just how closely Akari was being watched. “We follow the direction Akari was pulled towards, and we don’t stop until we reach her.”

Although his words of bravado were commendable, deep-down Azu knew the odds were stacked against him. As he clutched on to Mihd and dragged him into the carriage, the drunkard whaled out about his painting still left in Azu’s home. But Azu hadn’t the time to entertain Mihd’s misplaced urgency. “Leave it be,” he barked before abruptly taking off.

Why now? Azu contemplated, the carriage racing down the open road. Could it be to keep her away from the capital? Was the conversation between Norin and I compromised?” He began to think back to his exchange of words with Norin, desperately searching for where things could’ve gone wrong.

“If you intended to hire the Mu twins for security, I’d like to have been made aware, Norin.”

Talking to the old man, Azu spoke as though he believed Iddak and Saba’s claims of being hired by the retired Scytale to be true, but in truth he already anticipated a response proving the opposite. Or at least, hoped for one.

“You believe a person, who’s seen what I have, would be willing to trust the word of a member of the Mu clan when pitted against the Empire?”

Norin continued to make his suspicion of the Mu clan clear. “There is no offering that the Empire can’t exceed in value. Such a transactional mindset would never pit itself against such an absolute force. The Mu will always choose the promise of power offered by the Empire. I figure you’re well aware of that?”

Azu sat down at the table of the small home of the pasture. It was the room he’d first met Akari at when he was asked to treat her. “We had a run-in with Sir Didact at the incident site. He managed to pull information from Akari’s memories. I’m not sure what. The Mu twins stepped in and kept him away, but my concern is with their presence to begin with.”

“So, you don’t trust them?”

“Not any less than you do, that’s for sure.”

“And if you had to consider who could have commissioned them?”

“The Coordinator General is the only person that seems plausible.”

Norin peeked out the window at the urumar tree. It’s marine blue leaves swaying vibrantly in the sun. “The Coordinator General and Sir Didact rarely work hand in hand,” Norin explained, “I’m sure you’re aware of the rumors surrounding the eccentric character of the Empire’s top ranking general, yes?”

“He’ll make her one of his so-called wives. Another prized possession of his collection until the day she dies.”

“Sir Didact could care less about propping up the general’s deranged tastes. If he’s interested in Akari, it’s likely to learn what she knows. To understand whatever it was that her memories managed to tell him. Once he’s done with her, she’ll be handed over to the Empire. It wouldn’t be a stretch to believe that the Coordinator General doesn’t want that.”

“So, he’s keeping her a secret from the royal family?” Azu reconfirmed, “That’s my assumption,” Norin retorted.

Standing face to face with Azu, he introduced another line of thinking. “The real question is why are the twins monitoring her rather than just taking her by force?”

Azu contemplated the question. It was true that had the twins kidnapped her and took her straight to the general, there would be nothing much Azu could’ve done to stop it. Even at the abandoned encampment, they simply chose to leave. It made no sense.

“The Coordinator General’s line of thinking isn’t something I’m good at contemplating,” Azu admitted, “It’s strange, yes, now that you mention it, but there could be a number of mundane reasons.”

“Is there anything they said to you that could maybe help tip us off?”

“There’s one thing…”

With the thought conjuring up to the front of his mind once again, Azu began to consider just what the Mu clan was truly after.

“There’s a building up ahead,” Mihd howled, drawing Azu’s focus.

“It’s an abandoned church,” Azu announced as he yearned his eyes up towards the top floor of the chapel. “He probably had a clear shot of the village from here.”

Mihd began counting his fingers with his eyebrows furled like a rollercoaster. “I’ve never heard of anyone shifting this large of a distance. The precision required alone would make it unfathomable,” Mihd deduced.

“If we carry ourselves with that mindset, I doubt we’ll survive for long,” Azu foreshadowed, only to be surprised as they managed to enter the chapel without trouble. Even the silence within the aged structure was deflating. His hopes of finding Akari melting away with each step he took.

By the time he reached the top, all that was left was the open sky peeking through the half missing stained glass window. “Mihd,” Azu alerted.

“She’s gone.” Mihd flatly revealed, “I can’t locate her.”

Azu looked up at the ceiling above, swallowing his overflowing despair. With his head tuning out every ounce to destruct in a fit of rage, Azu calmly replied, “Let’s go.”

“And where to exactly?” a wary Mihd asked, timidly tagging along.

“The capital.”