Echoes of the Past

Chapter 6: Sleepless

Following Ed Tatcher's orders, Edward spent most of his week on bedrest with his mentor sleeping on the couch to insure Edward's compliance. He had been "allowed" to leave his flat only once to go to the doctor and even that was under Ed supervision. It was driving him crazy. He knew he needed to sleep as much as possible, but the nightmares plaguing his sleep made it impossible. He had held for three days with no real distractions to shake the dreams from his mind, before it became unbearable. Tatcher has asked him to stay in bed. Fine, he would. However, doing absolutely nothing like some glorified houseplant was absolutely out of the question. Especially when there was work to do.

Pretexting the need to sleep, Edward had locked himself in his room immediately turning on his old laptop. He searched for the Athena in every search engines he could think of and found nothing. The name was common enough and several navy ships and merchant vessels had shared that namesake. Then there was the croix pattée that marked the cannons. His instinct led him to think there was something important about its presence. That it was the answer to a question he just hadn't asked yet. Hoping it would come to him he had researched the symbol extensively and it's various meaning throughout history. It had been a prominent symbol through out the middle ages with many orders adopting it during the crusades. It was also frequently found on royal crowns since the renaissance and became a symbol of military valour for the Prussian army. None of which explained why someone would place it on a Spanish cannon.

A loud knock on the door, forced him to interrupt his search and hide the computer under his bed.

"You better be sleeping in there!" called Ed's voice from the other side.

"Yes mum!" shoot back Edward as he settled himself under the sheets with a yawn. He was more exhausted than he had previously realised and his eyelid felt heavy. Might as well give sleep a chance.

****

She leans back against the wall, struggling to sit up. Her breathing is laboured and she can barely keep her eyes open. Guilt and horror claws at his stomach as truth hits him: she won't make it out of here alive. He tries to fight the realization, to hang onto denial, but she doesn't give him that luxury.

"I've done my part... Will you?"

"If you came with me, I could."

She looks up to him and smiles sadly, her dark eyes filled with tenderness.

"I'll be with you, Kenway. I will."

***

Edward eyes flung open as he jolted awake with a scream stuck in his throat. For a second, he was almost tempted to let it out, but part of him fear that if he started, he wouldn't be able to stop screaming. He pulled himself out of bed, wiping tears from his face he hadn't realised he'd shed. This time, unlike before, he remembered something from his dream. It wasn't much; just a sentence. "I'll be with you, Kenway. I will." He didn't know why, but it was enough to make a sob rise in his chest from somewhere deep within. He clutched his fists and he buried his face in a pillow, choking on his tears.

It was dark in the flat, probably still the middle of the night and the only sounds he could hear were the buzzing of the A/C and Tatcher's loud snores coming from the living room. In his mind, one thing was certain. He couldn't stay here. Waiting in the dark with the words from his dream spinning in his mind and listening to Ed's snoring would drive him insane.

Taking a thousand precautions not to wake up Tatcher, he snuck out and left the flat, determined to wander around until the city washed the dream from his mind. At least, that was the plan. As soon as he stepped outside, he found himself getting into a cab that happened to cross his path. When the driver asked where he wanted to go, Edward answered without thinking. "Calles Sol y San Ignacio, por favor."