The Art of Forgiveness

Chapter 3

"Wow, great going out there Bleck," Dimentio sarcastically huffed from behind bars in the local Flipside jail, which was actually much smaller than he thought it would be. His tone was low and monotone. "You really got the crowd to sympathize with us there. Bravo, bravo."

Blumiere rolled his eyes, sitting on the opposite end of the small prison cell. He honestly wasn't sure what he expected to happen. He knew that hoping the people of Flipside would welcome them back with open arms was a long shot, but still, he didn't expect to be outright arrested within the first ten minutes. That had to have been some sort of record.

Dimentio pointed out various times that they could very easily teleport to escape, but Blumiere refused to let him. He knew that if they broke out, things would only look worse on them. He convinced Dimentio that they would just have to be patient and play the long game. Or, he at least TRIED to convince Dimentio. The only reason Dimentio was actually staying was that he was still technically required to stay near Blumiere, and if he teleported too far away, Jaydes would be alerted and would figure out that they weren't exactly where they were supposed to be, and he didn't want to throw himself and Blumiere under the bus. Mostly himself.

"Just calm down. We can figure this out..." Blumiere breathed.

"Oh, sure we can! I'm sure citizens will be just lining up to visit us and give us their forgiveness!" Dimentio chimed sarcastically with a sing-song tone.

"Well, I don't see you doing much to help!" Blumiere pointed out, holding his arms out. He let out a frustrated huff, then picked it the lantern, which he had set on the floor earlier. As soon as his fingers touched the handle, it began to glow once again, filling the small cell with light. He was missing his usual staff, so it was nice to have an object to hold once again, even if it was just a lantern.

"What exactly am I supposed to do?" Dimentio exclaimed, holding the book up. "We can't really do much until the book decides to quit being difficult and share its contents with us. Honestly, what is it with books being so difficult?"

"If you keep insulting it, it's never going to cooperate," Blumiere breathed.

"Books don't have feelings!" Dimentio cried out. "What are you, five? It's a magic item, not a person, which means we have to do something to trigger the reveal, and I do sincerely doubt that being polite to the book is going to be triggering anything aside from stupidity."

"Well, I doubt insulting it is going to trigger much either," Blumiere exclaimed, holding his free hand out.

Was this really what his life had come to? He used to be Count Bleck. He had the fate of all the Dimensions in the palm of his hand. He was known and feared by all. Of course, he didn't like that he was a villain, but at least he was important. Now, he was sitting in a tiny jail cell in Flipside, holding a lantern and arguing about a book's feelings.

There was the sound of footsteps, then quiet breathing. Blumiere hid the lantern behind himself upon instinct, then looked up to see none other than the Ancient himself, Merlon.

Blumiere had seen him before, but he didn't often get a chance to actually see him up close. The ancient wore his usual blue cloak, which was slightly faded from being worn so often. Merlon wasn't actually that tall, now that Blumiere saw him up close. Yes, he was taller than Mario and Dimentio, but just barely. 

As stated before, Blumiere had known who Merlon was long before he became Count Bleck. Back in the Tribe of Darkness, Merlon was one of the few members of the Tribe of Ancients that his father would openly talk about, and he would never say good things. Of course, knowing his own father, Blumiere wasn't sure if Merlon actually was as horrible as his father had described but still found himself slightly fearful.