Uncertain Future
The fire crackled, startling Talen from him grief.
He glanced at the fire, pulling at a forgotten memory.
Miriam's reassuring hand still lay on his shoulder.
Enrique lay quietly. His frame was relaxed on the common room table. Bloody wounds in his chest and torso indicated a dire condition. His face, though relaxed, was drenched in sweat.
A dire condition� There could be no more dire condition than this. Enrique Montoya was dying. After taxing duel with an immortal friend. A friend that he knew too well before. A friend that he had had many a sporting adventure with. A friend that had now became his worst enemy. But for the intervention of Talen, the duel would have ended in Montoya's immediate death. But the wounds that he had taken in that duel had had the desired result. No doctor could have been found to save him. No magic known that could restore him. Talen's mind was still feverishly going over every possible method to save his friend in spite of the consuming grief. But his frustration built over this inability.
He's only a few more breaths, Talen thought.
Working his Explorer ring round his finger, he thought all that more desperately. He remembered when the ring had just been to big for him, when he wore it on a silver chain, or kept it in his pocket� His ring, loosened, slipped from his finger and fell to the floor with a dull clang. Bending over to pick it up from underneath his chair, an inner voice spoke�
Calagari� His mind whispered� Or something in his mind�
Talen stood up abruptly. He hadn't thought of that family for a number of years, but it wasn't the family that the name conjured in his mind, it was the man. A long deceased man who had been obsessed with seeking an immortal life. A foe. A dead one.
"Talen??" Miriam asked, concerned.
Faced with the imminent death of a close friend, Talen had become understandably irrational. But her old eyes detected something else, something that she couldn't right away identify.
"Calagari?" He asked, more to himself. Calagari's studies had never resurfaced after his death. But�
Miriam, of course, was there, "Calagari? What�. Talen� What are you talking about?"
The Sidhe�
The Explorer narrowed his eyes. Nothing was beyond the scope of Avalon's mystical race. But dealings with them were problematic to say the least. Miriam was Sidhe, a Sidhe that had forsaken her magic for mortality. Billie, her child, was half Sidhe�
"Sidhe�" Talen said.
"Talen," Miriam faced him, "I've got no more tricks, no more favors� I can't save him�"
Talen remembered the sobbing from on top of the stairs.
"Billie�" He whispered, and then called to the child, "Billie?"
"Yes, Talen," came a tearful reply.
Talen watched Enrique's chest rise and fall for a moment. He had an idea. Or the beginnings of a desperate one.
Miriam, in turn, watched him carefully.
"Come down here, honey�" Talen asked, placing a hand on the common table.
"Ok," came the reply.
She then appeared in front of him.
Miriam pursed her lips.
Talen took Billie by the shoulders, kneeling beside her, "Billie, I have an idea, I don't know if its going to work, but I know I need your help�"
"Talen, she doesn't have that power� She can't save him, not from dying�. Even if she did, she wouldn't have the control�"
Talen shook his head and stared into the mysterious eyes of Billie, "No, I've got to save him, but Billie can give me the time."
Billie's eyes reflected curiosity and a little hope, as well. And something else, the Sidhe alienness that her precocious nature often hid.
"Honey, I don't even know if it is even possible, but�. Can you look in my mind, can you see it? You've looked into other's minds I know, can you look into mine?"
"Talen, she could kill you�"
Billie's tears had dried; her golden eyes looked into his deep blue ones. There was an imperceivable nod from the child.
"She won't." He said with a newfound confidence.
"Talen," Billie said her demeanor suddenly very adult, "You're too excited, calm down, its too quick�"
Talen took a deep breath, and slowly let it out�
'Talen, what am I looking for? Talen, what am I�'
Talen melted away, his tension evaporating. Billie placed her palms to his temples, and he was in his own mind�
With her�
And it began to share�
Billie was in his mind, taking some of hers into his�
'I need more time, Billie, you can do it. He's only got a few breaths left, we can save him, make those breaths count�'
'How?'
It was almost like he took her hand, 'Like this�'
And he showed her.
Surreal images of more forgotten memories combined with Sidhe magic. Logic and possibilities that seemed endless. Talen's instinctive intelligence combined with the boundless imagination of a Sidhe child.
He showed her. He directed her power throughout his mind, opening all of the doors in his mind's eye. Releasing all of the restrictions of his mind allowing his inspiration to take form.
She showed him. She understood the reason for his logic and applied it to her powers giving them an inspired control that she, as a child, did not have.
Long ago constructed of Sidhe magic, the Fey Queen's Rest awakened, its forgotten and exhausted powers recharged� The boards in the floor crawled with magic, writhing with astonishing forms. The flames in the fireplace paused, their colors reversing. All the flames, from the fireplace to the candles lighting the stairs burned with a blue flame. Cast in the pure light, the forms of Talen and Billie became indistinct for a moment.
Miriam gasped.
The common table began to levitate and turned, over the glowing forms of the Explorer and the Sidhe child. Blood that had run from the table to the floor liquified once more and returned back to the host.
Billie opened her eyes. Something was wrong.
Miriam sensed it as well. Or knew it.
Although Talen's mind was able to temporarily handle the untapped powers of a Sidhe, his body could not. It was beginning to fade.
The temptation was there. It would only be a little longer�
A little longer�
A little more power�
A� little� more�control�
But�
No.
The table gently rested on the floor. The blood ran again. Rampant in the halls of the 'Rest, the magic began to settle.
But it did not disappear. Talen and Billie held on to a little bit.
A compromise.
They could not reverse the damage done to the Castillian, it would cost Talen his life; nor could they wholly heal him, as they had discovered that the blade that had inflicted the wounds was just as evil as its master�
But they could extend the time given to them�
Infinitely�
Enrique inhaled his final breath, never to let it go�
The mental barriers in Talen's mind reestablished themselves. The forms in the wood stilled. And the flames were restored to their original hue.
Talen opened his eyes. Billie's were there to greet them.
"We did it." They said in unison.
Talen got up, instantly regretting it.
Miriam caught him, "What did you do?"
"We stopped Enrique from dying�" Billie said.
"How?" she asked Talen.
"He's holding his last breath, or we're holding it," Talen held his head for a moment, "I'm not exactly sure."
"I've got to get to the Knight's chapter house," he stumbled. His eyes were blurry and his head pounded, "I've got to go back�"
"Go back where, Talen?"
"The dark place�"
Miriam looked at him startled, "The cavern."
"The cavern where William died, where Fellhand was finally destroyed� Defeated�" Talen said.
"Why?" Miriam asked, "Why would you go there? What do you hope to accomplish there?"
"Not only did all those things happen there, but we defeated another�"
"Calagari? The Council?" she asked.
"We left everything there, Miriam, everything. We've always meant to go back. Me and Enrique. But..."
"You think that maybe Calagari's journals are still there?"
"Or something better�"
Her hand was on his shoulder, "Talen. You need to rest. Mortal minds and Sidhe minds rarely mix well, especially to the extent that you and Billie took it�"
The Explorer shook her hand off, "I don't know if it's going to last as well as we think it will�"
She placed her hand with force upon his shoulder, "Talen. You are wounded." Miriam said, "I don't know what happened in Montaigne, but you have injuries�" She looked into his eyes, "Your mind� Your mind is�" Miriam grasped for a word, "Frayed� Your mind is frayed, I can see it now. You need rest�"
He answered her with a gaze.
No. He wasn't going to rest. Not until this was resolved.
"The Knights have still not found that cavern, Talen, how can you find it?" Miriam helped him to the door.
Talen smiled, "It's very simple. They can't find it, because I never told them where to start looking�"
"Why didn't you tell them?" She asked.
"It was a promise to a very evil man�"
"Surely not�"
"Besides, Miriam, I think it's time to take William home�"
Talen waved the torch around. The Knight's had been very accommodating in the use of their portals. With their use, he had cut months of a journey down to a single day with the inclusion of a swift horse.
The cavern had collapsed that fateful day, but Talen had found an egress easily enough. It disturbed him to no end that it had been so easy. There had to be a reason as to why it had been so easy�
Fear crept into his heart, as he wasn't the only one that knew about this cavern, who had actually paid attention to the path taken to it.
"Reynaldo�" Talen spoke to the darkness.
The darkness did not answer back, much to Talen's relief.
Talen's careful entry wasn't as careful as he wished it�.
He stumbled on a loose rock and his torch fell into shadow.
He cursed silently, mostly about his stumbling, as he had plenty of torches� He sat on the ground, finding a spare torch, but fumbling for the matches.
It took several more minutes, and Talen's sharp eyes began to adjust to the darkness.
He paused. He looked at his hands.
What startled him was that he was able to see them.
There was a glow.
Bluish.
Eerie.
Slowly, Talen picked himself off the stone floor and made for the source deep in the cavern. He crossed many stone bridges and bypassed the ruin of the cavern. The cavern seemed largely intact, but Talen was as careful as he could manage.
He was astounded at what he found.
It was a crystal, cracked along the edges, with a man in the center of it.
It was massive, and Talen knew what it was from, it was from the Syrneth artifact he, William, Reynaldo, and Enrique destroyed in this very chamber. Part of the power source.
It was one of Calagari's many machines based on Calagari's findings of Syrneth artifacts, but it wasn't Calagari in it� Studying the text and the dials on many of the panels that surrounded the machine, he found that little dust had fallen on it. The crystal itself was the source of the glow, and the man inside could just be identified�
It was�
There was a very slow unenthusiastic applause that shattered the silence.
"Bright, Bright, BRIGHT, BRIGHT BOY." The darkness replied.
"Reynaldo." Talen stated.
The Explorer decided that it would have been an odd occurrence if he hadn't run into Enrique's nemesis. But in his current condition, Talen could not even hope to contend with the invulnerable master swordsman.
"My Theus, good job, I thought you'd never get here� But the time is needful isn't it?" the voice changed, to a mocking childlike crying, "Enrique's going to die," he sobbed dramatically.
"You planned this?" Talen asked.
His voice returned to normal, "No, I didn't, actually, not before we ran into each other in Montaigne� That shot was very good, and I thought that you never paid attention to my lessons�" The immortal Vodacce tsked.
Talen watched Reynaldo's shadow wind its way around him.
"But I decided that maybe I wanted Enrique to live�" The immortal went on, "To give him more time to consider my offer."
"Immortality hasn't done much for your sanity, Reynaldo."
Talen could almost hear the smile, "It's the first thing to go, I'll have you know�" Reynaldo said conversationally.
"Enrique would spit on his own grave before he'd join you�"
"Of course he would, but he going to have the time that I give him. THAT I GIVE HIM�" His palm met fist on every syllable, "My� good� friend� Enrique�" he said quietly, "That ingrate, arrogant snot�"
Reynaldo's eyes glittered with rage, Talen wondered, not for the first time, if this was where his life ended. "And what about me, Reynaldo? Am I to become another one of those head puppets that Fellhand taught you to make?" Talen asked.
"You're going to play Enrique�" Reynaldo paced around the Explorer. "You see� It's come full circle�" he gestured.
Mad. Reynaldo was quite mad. The malevolent spirit that gave Reynaldo his strength, his invulnerability...
Reynaldo was mad with it.
"A play. You think this is a play�" Talen said, more to himself than to Reynaldo.
"Life's a stage, my friend�"
"Alright. And who's Enrique going to play since I've replaced him on the play notes?" Talen asked.
"That's the beauty of it, my young friend�" He locked Talen in a fierce stare, "He gets to play me, the mortal Reynaldo DeRicci�" Reynaldo said in grandiose fashion, "The lead part� What do you think?"
"I think it needs work, Reynaldo," Talen said, secretly feeling a desperate dread.
"I've got plenty of time to polish it, my little thief. All the time in the world�" Reynaldo remarked.
"Unless we win�" Talen answered, "Unless we end this once and for all�"
And Reynaldo was before him, towering over Talen as Talen always remembered him to do so in the past, "I want you to win, thief, or am I wasting my breath? Why don't you understand?"
Talen avoided his eyes, "Understand about what, Reynaldo? You've killed him. You can kill me to prevent me from saving him. Or you can just kill me for old times sake� Why do you care, life is so meaningless to you, why not just end it here? It's fitting. Why, Reynaldo, why?"
The anger returned, "In some way, I want you to win, boy�" Reynaldo took him by the shoulders, flexing Talen's lean frame with his extraordinary strength. Joints popped in response, "I want to know my little friend," he said, "I want to know what I did to make this go so wrong�"
Talen looked into his eyes, startled, for in those eyes he saw Reynaldo as he used to be�
A malevolent smile, and that Reynaldo was gone, "He's still here." He let Talen go and tapped his head with his fingers, "A small part that craves for a healthy wind, a kind touch from a woman, some of the good things� Also waiting to be released, waiting to atone for all the evil that I have done in his name, wanting to die, but unable to do so�"
He began to walk away, "It's fitting that William should be there as well�"
Talen looked into the crystal, "How?"
"Calagari's genius knew few bounds. The body was easy. You all had left it here�"
"We, Reynaldo." Talen corrected, "We left it here. And as I remember it, we didn't have a choice�"
"When you're right, you're right. We really didn't have a choice did we?" Reynaldo baited him.
"What are you talking about? Fellhand had gotten up, the cavern was collapsing, we had to leave, the Council had been destroyed�"
"But William knew that the evil had been passed on, Talen�"
"What?" Talen asked.
"Reynaldo wasn't alone confronting Fellhand, was he?" Reynaldo asked Talen, "No. William was there too, there because of some imagined slight� That's why he had to stay here, that's why we kept him here� So that we could kill him�"
"Whose we?" Talen asked.
"Reynaldo and I, of course�"
"Of course." Talen said.
"In my moment of death, I knew my greatest strength, my boy. I had two bodies under my control. My old one. And this one." Reynaldo said, "But my old one had seen better times, the explosions that you had planted had done their job well� And Reynaldo was betrayed, and in a moment of weakness that I would play on for years to come, he threw up his hands and gave up." Reynaldo smiled, "He wasn't as injured as he led you and Enrique to believe. As I led you to believe�"
"We could have helped William�" Talen said.
"No need to feel guilty about it now, Talen, it was done and largely my fault. Although it was Reynaldo's weakness that ultimately betrayed him, he vowed never again to be as weak again." Reynaldo stared into the darkness. "That vow, based on my greatest victory in my dealings with Reynaldo, actually stayed my presence for many more years�"
"Why didn't William tell us?" Talen asked.
"There wasn't time. William knew. But didn't know. Not for sure."
"How did 'we' kill him?" Talen asked.
"By leaving him to die, my friend. You see, William finished off what I and you had begun, and killed the old body. Almost. He had ensnared it where it could not do anymore harm." Reynaldo smiled, "It was quite annoying."
"William survived the collapse?" Guilt swam in Talen's heart.
"Buried alive, left by the friends that he tried to save."
"And did save�" Talen said defiantly.
"Did he really save you? Did he save you from me? Did he save Enrique in Montaigne?"
Talen was silent.
"Why would I lie about this?"
Talen looked into the crystal trying to discern William's features in it. Theus, he thought, it is William. Trapped in this crystal.
Reynaldo spoke over his shoulder, into his ear, "His body was there in the entrance, trying to dig himself out. He died doing it. He didn't live much longer, he bled quite a bit�"
Talen closed his eyes. He could only imagine it�
"I watched him, taunted him. But he was resolved and spoke frequently of his Sidhe lover and of his newly freed child. He spoke of his friends� He hoped that they had gotten away in time and not buried in the rubble that he was moving�" Reynaldo smiled ironically, "I found it amusing. He spoke of his friends the most, the friends that had abandoned him� It kept him going for several days. Several days of lifting, digging, moving objects in the dark� All the time smelling the stench of death� Until one day, he stopped�"
And, without a word," Reynaldo whispered in his ear, "He died."
Talen began to feel very old, very weary�
"It helped me get back into the chamber. I was thankful."
Talen shook his head.
"So thankful, I did this." Reynaldo breath was hot. "And his soul. His soul was still here. Trapped in one of Calagari's Syrneth devices when his body finally gave out�"
Talen just couldn't absorb anymore. The stress of Enrique dying and Reynaldo� Emotions that he should have been feeling were overrun with after images of Billie's mind.
"I held a man's soul, my little friend. I held it in my immortal hand�" Reynaldo lifted his own hand out to demonstrate, "It puts things in perspective, my little man."
"What did you do with it?" Talen asked, afraid to ask, but he felt he needed to�
"Here's the good part," Reynaldo spoke to the other ear, pausing dramatically�
"I put it back�" Reynaldo said slowly.
"Tainted?" Talen said.
"No, not tainted, but a good idea," Reynaldo said, "but no. No, I didn't."
"So all I have to do is flick a switch and William comes back to life? Is that it?"
"It's a little more complicated than that," Reynaldo conceded, "But you're a bright fellow�"
"And Enrique?"
Reynaldo snapped his fingers, "That's right. I almost forgot�"
Talen's eyes narrowed.
The Vodacce produced a glowing vial, "Here it is. Or is it? What do you think? Its what you came here to find, or maybe hope to be able to duplicate from some lost piece of Calagari's notes, or a discarded diary�" Reynaldo smiled, his teeth glowing slightly in the glow of the crystal, "It's what you hoped to find here, isn't it? Well it's prepared, all ready for Enrique to swallow down his dying throat�"
"It would be hard for Enrique to play you if he were dead, Reynaldo."
"Doubtful. It would probably be his most convincing performance� But yes, I see your point." He held the vial just outside Talen's reach, swishing it slightly.
"Want it? Do you want to save your precious Enrique?"
Talen did not attempt to reach out.
"Pity." Reynaldo dropped the vial.
Talen dove for it, scarcely catching it with his fingertips.
"Bravo." Reynaldo said, tilting his head down to his feet.
Rising to his feet, Talen watched the immortal.
"What do you say? Now's not the time for pride, you know�"
"Thank you. Reynaldo."
Nodding, he turned, but Talen placed a hand on his arm.
Reynaldo glanced back at him, his eyes glittering dangerously.
"Thank you, Reynaldo." Talen repeated.
His lips twisted into a grimace, "You're welcome." He growled.
As Talen turned back to the crystal and its controls�
"And Talen?"
His heart stopped.
"Let's keep this cavern our little secret, alright?" Reynaldo said, "It's good that we can have these little talks, Talen. Makes me almost feel civil again."
Talen didn't reply.
"And Talen?"
"Yes?"
"Make sure your friends know who saved their lives�"
"The same man that caused their deaths?" Talen asked incredulously.
"Exactly�" Reynaldo said, sounding rather pleased with himself.
