The Darkened War

Ch.29

Katomi stared into the eyes of the man before her, and despite all his other changes, his eyes had remained the same. They stared at each other for a good while in silence, because it was clear Alain had nothing to say, and the words Katomi tried to force out refused, lingering on her tongue. She was just beginning to realize after all these years how much she missed his dark hair, even though it now belonged to a man rather than the familiar face of a boy. His hand was at his sword; as if he was planning to draw it, but she knew he wouldn't now. He was frozen, and no longer had anyone to point it at. Alain was good at wearing masks and faking expressions, but nothing could have prepared him for when he would look up and find an old and forgotten friend in front of him, and now no mask could have wiped the shock from his eyes. But Katomi wasn't expecting it either, to find that the man who had rushed in was Alain, with a hand gripping his sword ready to defend his King. King; the thought of Alain serving this pathetic King hand and foot made her want to laugh, or maybe scream. He was chosen to be the leader of the magic cult. He could have been so much more, and yet this is where he had ended up. This is where he had left her, and all Aigua, to spend the rest of his days. Or so he might have thought. Katomi had believed he was dead, and until she had been reunited with Calvin, she thought he and Alyssa had died as well. But here he was, standing perfectly fine. So he had run away, to grow up in some faraway Kingdom, and leave everything and everyone else behind. Katomi placed her hand on her sword, and glared at Alain, which caused him to begin stumbling over his own feet in an attempt to back up. He was going to try and run away. Run away again.
Removing her hand from her sword, she used it to motion Alain to stop. He obeyed. Good. So over the years he hadn't been so stupid as to forget when she told him to do something, he did it. Then, it was like her legs were moving without her permission. Then her feet were moving, and before she could think about what she was doing, she had made her way across the floor, drawn her arm back, and without holding back punched the face of the man who'd left her. She closed her eyes for a moment afterwards, hoping to hide the tears that had welled in them. The moment they were flushed away, she reopened them, staring at Alain as he rubbed his cheek. The guards had already seized her before she had fully realized what she'd done.
The young King of Effulgence had already rushed to his friend's side, glaring at her, "If you've come to start conflict, I suggest you all leave immediately."
Calvin's eyes were wide as he looked from one person to the next, and Darryl, as well as Coyle,were too pale for a moment to move. It was Cam who spoke up while the rest were driven speechless.
"We didn't come to bring you harm! Like we said, our only intention is finding Alyssa, you have to forgive Katomi, I have no idea what she was thinking--"
"Shut up Cameron!" Katomi hollered, but then, calming down, turned back to Adrien and added, "But he's right, I'm sorry. I acted rashly. I have no intent on starting anything with Effulgence. "
Adrien scowled, "I'm afraid it's too late. I don't take violence towards my advisor lightly."
"It's fine Adrien." Alain said, and the young King turned to his friend to object when Alain continued, "I know her. And we are going to go talk in the other room for a moment if you don't mind."
Adrien was startled, "I'll send Brutus with you . . ."
"Alone."
"I'm hardly going to allow you to endanger yourself like that. Letting you be alone with this clearly crazy girl from a magic cult."
Katomi scowled at the King, and Alain crossed his arms and sighed, "If I remember correctly, which I do, you went and had dinner with the very assassin that was sent from Rayland to kill you. Despite my objections. So I think it's only fair that you let me do as I please here, and trust I have a good reason."
Adrien stared at his friend for a moment, before rubbing his temples, and saying, "Fine, but if you're gone too long, I'll be checking on you."
Alain smirked, "Sure."
Katomi followed Alain out of one room and into another. She knew she should have probably handled things a little better. Still, if she was expected to remain calm and let Alain off easily after ten years of believing he was dead, she had little regret disappointing them. So as she and the boy from her past stood there staring at each other, Katomi only crossed her arms. She could usually ignore personal anger for the sake of the more serious issues, but this was different. She didn't care. She didn't care what Darryl said, or Calvin said, hell, Alain was even her authority now, and it didn't make a difference. She had spent most her life believing she'd never see his face again, and now that she had, punching him once wasn't enough.

Alain watched her silently as she glared at him. He had told Adrien he was going to speak with her, but now he couldn't find the words to say. Even his pale face still struggled to regain color. Only the sound of the foot Katomi had begun tapping broke the silence, but still their words stayed buried in the bitterness that filled the air.
Finally, Alain took a breath, and deciding that they would get nowhere unless someone began, took the first step. "I ran away, Katomi. That you must've figured out by now. All those years ago, I grabbed Alyssa and Calvin and ran. I didn't want to accept the fact that my parents were dead and that I had been left with the responsibility of leading our cult, already, as a kid, without even time to grieve. I was ten years old, yet,I remember feeling like I had been alive too long. With everything that had happened, I knew my time of childhood bliss had ended. I would be expected to grow up, just like that. Earlier that day, I had found some Aiwirith fruit. It prophesied my parents' deaths, but I didn't understand what it was, or its warning. I thought it had simply made me delusional. But that night, it had come true. It was years later I actually learned about its power, and why I had gotten that vision. The second the doorbell rang, I knew something was wrong, and then when I heard about my parents, I had myself convinced it was my fault. I thought I could have saved them. That I had wasted my warning, and was responsible for their deaths." Katomi stared at him for a moment, and while he looked ashamed, and terrified all over again, he also had a bit of relief. The secret he'd kept to himself, after all these years was out. He no longer had his burden of the past; finally, he was confronting what he'd kept buried away for ten years.
Then, she said, "Are you finished?"
"Yes."
"You really are stupid Alain," She continued, "I mean, if you thought you could run forever. You should have known I'd catch up eventually. You should have known running out the door at any speed couldn't change your fate. Sure, our fates are for the most part undecided, but Alain, you were chosen by magic. Not me, not Aigua, it wasn't a person who wanted you to lead us; it was the magic itself, the same magic that lives in you. That's not something you can hide from, because it's a part of you. All of us showing up here today was not a coincidence. We were meant to finally find you. Show you that you were wrong in thinking separating yourself from your home, and leaving the people who care about you, would somehow erase who you used to be. You may not be the same person I knew all those years ago, but you don't have to be your past for your past to be a part of you. It gives us something to stand on, and gives us our reasons for the decisions we make. I mean, you did run away to Effulgence for a reason, right? And even though you tried to forget that reason, you haven't. I could tell by the way you looked at me. Every day eventually ends and becomes only memories, but they are memories worth remembering. I don't think I'm willing to forget what I've left behind, because it erases all the good things that came beside the bad.
"Was it worth it, Alain, trying to forget me, and your younger brother and sister, just to escape some bad memories? Facts of life? But you couldn't forget us, could you. How have you lived for so many years, haunted by all of this? Running and never taking a moment to stop and catch your breath. This is your moment. Take it. Don't keep running and deceiving yourself. So many people make the mistake of teaching themselves the wrong lesson. Don't do it Alain. Stop running. Come back. Be our leader; help us find your sister. Return home."
Alain only smiled softly and shook his head, "Katomi, in a way my years here have made Effulgence my home. You are right, the past will always exist, but I don't live there anymore."
"I know. I can tell by the way you rushed to defend Adrien. The way you look through the walls of this glass castle and out onto the city with love. This has been your home for a good many years, but now that you have found yourself reunited with your cult, don't you think it's time you stopped running, and finally return to do what your magic chose you for?"
Alain remained silent for a few moments, and then said, "There's more I haven't told you."
Katomi scowled, "Don't ignore what I just said!"
Alain looked up at her, "I'm sorry, but this really can't wait."
Katomi sighed, plopping into a chair, and waved her hand at him, "Alright, what is it?"
"It's been so many years, but I never forgot what the Aiwirith fruit looked like. And recently had gotten a hold of more. For most people, its predictions are short, vague, and hard to understand—but with me it's different. My magic turns the fruit's small glimpses into the future into drawn out visions. When I was child, it gave me the prediction of my parent's deaths, and told me I was going to become one of the three. All of it came true. Now, it's predicted something else. When I ate it, I had a vision of destruction. We are at war with Rayland, but the fruit told me that was minor compared to what's coming next. It told me Rayland was not the real enemy. If that powerful, destructive kingdom is not our greatest fear, what is? It terrifies me, just the fact that there's something else coming . . . because this war had taken over mine and Adrien's world. It's torn us apart, become everything. And yet, my visions have made it seem small."
Katomi frowned and rose from her seat, "Alain, have you told anyone about this?"
"Only Alyssa . . ." His eyes saddened as he muttered, "However she disappeared weeks ago."
"Did Alyssa know who you were?"
"No," Alain responded with a sigh, "She caught me with the fruit and I ended up telling her everything. My mind was in shock after what I'd seen. Afterwards, she never brought it up again. Probably because she knew I hadn't meant to tell her. Even after that, I got even more fruit in hope of getting a clearer vision about what was happening, but it didn't give me any more information than it had before."
"My guess is, the fruit can only predict so far into the future when it comes to details. For instance, the first night you ate the fruit as a kid before your parents died, it could give you a lot of detailed information in that small amount of time because it was all occurring on that night. It allowed you to see clearly into the future even after only one piece of fruit. This time around, no matter how much fruit you got a hold of, it was still too early to give you the actual situation. So instead it just gave you a peek of what was going to occur. If we got some of the fruit now, however, we could probably get more from it that you could before."
"There's a problem with that." Alain responded, "There no longer any way of getting the fruit. I got the Aiwirith fruit directly from its Prince. But by now he has long returned home."
The color faded from Katomi's eyes. "Then, I guess the only thing we can do is keep a sharp eye and clear mind, hands on a sword at all times, ready to anticipate anything." Alain nodded, and folded his hands. Already his palms were sweaty.

Adrien's suspicion grew the longer he waited. Still, he didn't move yet, he just kept his arms folded and mouth thinned out in a line as he stood beside Brutus. Now more than ever Adrien was completely convinced this magic cult was up to no good, and had begun to feel rather ill as he watched the hand on the clock tick on. Another second his friend was behind that wall, possibly in danger, while Adrien simply stood and waited. Alain had always found his King ridiculous for going into dangerous situations unguarded, and here he was, doing the same thing. He was even more baffled, however, on how it was his friend knew the girl who'd punched him. Either that or he had lied about it so Adrien wouldn't worry, and had some other plan up his sleeve. That was more likely. It made the young King so uncomfortable how he was in there alone with someone who had probably a hundred times the power Alyssa did. Adrien tapped his foot for a while, and then deciding he couldn't wait any longer sent Brutus to go check on them. That way, if Alain got mad and blew up, it would be at his perfectly well trained to handle difficult situations Captain of the guard.
Meanwhile, Adrien tuned into the conversation the group of six were having. It was Darryl who was speaking. Then, realizing the king was listening in, turned to him. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions," he said, "Know, your highness, that I am willing to answer any you might have."
"If anyone has quite a lot of questions, it's me," grumbled the youngest boy standing in the back. He was the one who was said to be Alyssa's younger brother, "I knew Katomi could be a little harsh, but that was ridiculous, who was that guy?"
Darryl looked back at him, a slight smile on his face, "Well, Calvin, I did promise to answer your questions when I first met you, didn't I?" The boy nodded, and the rest of the group looked at him with questioning looks as well.
Darryl laughed, and then turned to the man with snow white hair who was standing beside him and asked, "Should we explain?"
"I fear we'll have some issues if we refuse."
"Shall I begin?" Darryl inquired. The man nodded, so he continued, "Like I said, our only goal was to find the second of our three, your assassin Alyssa, but, in a change of events . . ." a sly smile crept onto his face, "We found the third."
Adrien paled, and stared blankly at them for a moment as the realization hit him. "You have got to be joking."
Darryl smiled at him, "We are not. Alain is the third leader of the Aigua cult, and Calvin and Alyssa's eldest brother."
Adrien's throat was dry making him unable to respond. Years, he'd spent with Alain by his side, only to now discover, he really didn't know much about him at all. What other secrets had his friend been keeping? Even his room had been the one with only a single small window completely isolated, where he could keep anything buried. Suddenly every memory from the time Alyssa had arrived came rushing back to him. How Alain merely glared at her from a distance. Did he know that the assassin who had tried to kill his King and friend was his little sister? And if he did, when did he find out? How did he manage that, keeping his secrets and lies day by day, having to watch her train and not say a word. Had Alyssa known Alain shared her blood, or had she remained ignorant? If ignorance was the case, it seemed Alain wanted to keep it that way. He was inches away from his childhood and had still tried his hardest to ignore it.
Wearily, Adrien leaned back against the wall while Darryl's eyes danced with amusement. The young King found himself speechless, and breathless. He was angry, though he couldn't see why. And shocked most of all. He also had a twinge of hurt and sadness, aching in a small corner of his heart.
Alain reentered the room with his eyes downcast, the girl at his heels. When he did finally raise his eyes, they met Adrien's, and held. The girl went back over to the group, but the King couldn't hear her footsteps. He couldn't see or hear anything, he was too focused on the man before him, and the eyes which held so much guilt. It was only then Adrien realized how much distance had truly grown between them. They used to simply know what the other was thinking with one glance. But now, it felt like they'd been looking at each other for hours, and Adrien had no clue what thoughts were swarming in Alain's mind. The King watched as his friend's eyes welled with fear, at the realization he no longer had his secrets and lies to hide behind. He had been exposed. So why now, more than ever, couldn't Adrien see as well through Alain as he could the glass walls around him?
Slowly, the King made his way across the floor to his advisor, and then turning towards the others, said, "Excuse us for a moment. We will be discussing what happens next." Then, Adrien looked at Alain, eyes beckoning him to follow. And he obeyed.