Epilogue

 

The calls of the cocks outside signaled the dawn of the morning. Everman heard it but could not quite believe it. Even something as simple as the call of a rooster seemed surreal to him right now. After witnessing so much destruction, and having the very foundations of his existence rocked so severely, how could something as simple as a bird's call still sound through the air?

A hand shook Everman gently. Collecting himself, Everman realized himself to be lying down in a place that was immediately familiar. The jostle and clank of steel armor being pulled on around him, the sound of heavy boots tramping to and fro, the crackle of a roaring fire below it all: he knew exactly where he was before he even parted an eyelid. How could he forget? He had spent the greater years of his life here.

The hand shook him again, this time more vigorously, but not unfriendly. “Are you gonna sleep the whole day away or what? Come on, get up, we're gonna go into town!”

Everman's eyes flew open in surprise. He looked up directly into the face of his old friend, smiling back down at him.

“Gabriel?” Everman asked cautiously.

“Not so lucky as to be woken up by a fine lady this morning, I'm afraid,” came Gabriel's replied.

“No,” Everman responded, jesting easily with his friend once more, as if nothing had happened. “But she's be a far sight prettier than your ugly face.”

“Ain't that the truth?” Gabriel agreed easily. He leaned back, plunking down onto the side of his own cot as Everman swung around and sat up. We looked around with wide, unbelieving eyes at the barracks around him, warm with firelight and bustling with bodies. He stood, looking more directly into the faces of those around him. There stood Taneth, perched against the wall tugging on his leather boots. He leaned back, returning Everman's stare curiously, as livid images of Taneth's death, stabbed in the heart by his own hands, raced through his head.

Gabriel followed his gaze, misreading his stare as only Gabriel could do. “You've been couped up in here far too long if your looking at him like that.”

“No, it's...” Everman let the matter drop with a shake of his head. He reached for his own boots, found them where they always were next to his cot. He had for some reason expected them not to be there, along with the cot itself, the entire barracks and everyone in it.

Everman changed the course of the conversation. “Where are we off to?”

“The tavern!” Gabriel replied anxiously, his voice jumping up an octave or two. “There's a couple of new ladies there that haven't yet had the privilege of buying me a drink.”

“I think you may have that backwards,” Everman assessed. Gabriel ignored him.

Everman claimed his heavy traveling cloak and sword from nearby. Gabriel looked at him quizzically.

“Today isn't guard duty,” he explained. Everman just shrugged, wordless.

Everman reached one of the deep pockets of his heavy fur cloak and felt something small and hard brush against the back of his hand. He curled his fingers around it, discovering a firm rectangular object only inches across. He knew it instantly to be the device Mr. Vance had mentioned.

Everman heard the words of Mr. Vance play through his mind.

“It's a Transponder. Works kinda like a damned cell phone. You just punch in the coordinates of where you wanna go and poof you're there.”

So, his henchmen had found a way after all. He had not been certain if they would.

“Something on your mind?” Gabriel asked, pulling Everman out of his thoughts. Everman looked up suddenly to see a dim smile trying to mask the sudden concern on his face.

“No,” Everman replied quickly, reassuringly. “Nothing is amiss. Just pondering the events that would happen if the hand that woke me belonged to a beautiful young blond.”

Gabriel laughed heartily, ignoring completely any concern he may have witnessed on Everman's face since being roused.

“Indeed, indeed!” hailed Gabriel, clapping Everman on the back. “There may be hope for you yet!”

 

Everman and Gabriel left the barracks, Everman allowing himself to be led as they crossed the courtyard. A call from across the yard alerted Everman's attention.

“Everman!” hailed Atherton with an enthusiastic wave. “Gabriel! Good morning!”

Gabriel replied with a friendly and vigorous “Good morrow!” whilst Everman just waved. He could not wipe from his mind the image of Atherton, cold and dead upon the cobbles of the marketplace, slain by the fierce monsters of the Nexus.

Everman hurried on quickly, trying to outrun the images that sent cold shivers running up and down his spine. Gabriel followed, questioning Everman's sudden pace. He did not reply.

They reached the marketplace. Gabriel entered with an easy gait, ambling over to a group of young ladies who had gathered around the apple vendor. His attention clearly elsewhere, Everman was left alone with his thoughts and haunting memories.

Everman stood at the edge of the marketplace, his eyes seeing the bright colors and excited bustle of the crowd, his mind seeing the blood of dozens of men spilt across the cobbles, an army of flesh-wearing machinations come to pull the flesh from his limbs, and a giant roaring fire on top of which Uriel screamed and screamed, already lit aflame with no way to save her, not this time.

Everman crouched down in the middle of the street, blocking the flow of pedestrians, gripping the sides of his head tightly as if trying to force the memories out. He shut his eyes tightly to the world around him, but that only allowed him to see more clearly the madness in the rotting faces of the Steel Abominations as they closed in around him. He could still hear the screams of the dying all around him.

Time passed like that, Everman did not know how much. The people of the marketplace detoured around him. Gabriel approached once more, gay and light-hearted from being surrounded by so many pretty faces.

He looked down curiously at where Everman crouched. “Find a pretty rock?” Gabriel called out in a voice that said 'the world is perfect, nothing is amiss!'

Everman opened his eyes once more. They hurt from being forced shut so tightly. He stood upright slowly, the ghosts of the images he saw still fresh in his mind's eye.

Everman turned his head to consider Gabriel, who in turn simply tugged him away from the crowd and led him into a nearby tavern.

Once inside, Gabriel selected a table for them and ordered two mugs of brew.

“Taneth will be along soon,” Gabriel reported excitedly. “We'll have us a gambling match in a little while.!”

Taneth... The mere mention of his name brought to mind Everman's crime of stabbing his gambling partner through the chest with his own sword as he lay dying.

“Hey, you sure you're alright?” Gabriel asked, suddenly serious for once. “You look pale. Stomach bothering you?”

“Need some air,” reported Everman as he swung out of his chair, headed for the door.

Once outside of the dim, smoky tavern, Everman still could not take refuge. The marketplace was too near. The citizens were walking to and fro, giving him looks that accused him of betraying his king and city for some woman, for letting each and every one of them die because of his selfishness.

Everman began to ran. He ran this way and that, down street and dirt path, trying to avoid the looks of the townspeople, but everywhere he want they saw, and they accused. They knew that he was guilty of slaying them all! They were merely waiting, buying their time, until Everman lowered his guard, then they would slip a dagger into his back, or slice his throat! They would kill him if he gave them the chance!

“No!” called a voice loudly from within Everman's mind. “This is madness. You're going insane!”

Everman halted to a sudden stop in the middle of a dirt track between two houses. He looked around, leery of those around him, fearful that more hid behind the corners of houses, waiting to ambush him as he came around. He was right, this was madness!

Reaching into his pocket suddenly, Everman pulled out the Transponder, gripping it tightly. He felt the smooth plastic of the molding, the rubber of the buttons on the surface, and he felt calmed. No longer did his mind frantically conceive unwarranted fears or fictional adversaries. He was comforted by this simple object, moreso than he could even explain why. It grounded him.

And, running a loving hand down the buttons on the face, Everman at that instant knew what he had to do. He began to push those buttons at random, seeing the display light up with each button pushed. It was those buttons that would take him anywhere he wanted to go. Or to anybody he wanted to meet.

But first, Everman realized with conviction, if he were to be a great adventurer, there was something that he would need to do first.

 

Caleb Everman passed through the open gate leading out of Anrene into the wilderness. He saw the trees before him, his Transponder clutched tightly in one hand, comforting him, reassuring him. He began to laugh wildly. He did not know why he laughed, but he did. It was controllable. Hysterical. He laughed like a moontouched madman. As he ran, he turned back and saw the king's guard chasing after him. They hailed him, weapons held out before them. They meant to kill him if they caught him. This only made Everman laugh all the harder.

With a few final button presses, a Nexus Gateway leapt to life before Everman and he ran through it, his lunatic laughter hanging in the air in his wake.

And from behind him, Everman's newly acquired cloak of bright velvet flapped in the wind as if mocking his pursuers.

 

 

Everman and Uriel

 

January 1st of 2007 – March 13th of 2008

 

 

The First of Many,

Gods of the Nexus be willing.

 

 

 

Christopher Withey

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Author Guidance for This Story

As you creep down the corridor, hewn roughly into the bare rock, doubts begin to float into your mind.

excerpt from The Waiting Game   by KatieBrain