Chapter 13

Oh, sweet silence, where is thy sting?

What is the make-up of a person is it the deeds we do in life? Or is it the experiences we share through lovingly told anecdotes, ponder then are we able to choose our own future, or does society itself dictate the heights we can aspire to? If everything is already written, can we choose our actions, or are we merely players on a grander stage and therefore do our actions really choose us?

He read the beautiful prose of the scholar

These thoughts ran through his head as he spied himself in the mirror that hung on the wall in the quaint little refreshment emporium, it was Where he usually sat late on in the evening. The Barista, a familiar acquaintance, had been called away urgently. And so, he was minding the quaint little bistro until he returned, He struck an odd image as he was different to the other citizens his face and complexion were black, not just simply darker but jet black he shared the attributes of his native Mercians, but his eyes were light like the hue of the bumblebee in contrast to his crispy dark skin. Sipping a brew of honey and mushroom, he continued to sit and read the manuscript, it was odd he was reading in the old traditional form, but he believed there was something more honest about thumbing through the papers and feeling their textures as he ran his finger down the characters that formed phrases and so made the world.

He swept his brow his head was hairless.

He sipped his drink as a fair-haired woman entered the empty emporium. He followed her around the dining area with his eyes as he noticed she caressed each empty chair that sat at empty tables, as she moved in ever decreasing circles until she was standing before his table. She pulled out a chair and then proceeded to sit across from him as she looked over a menu she found from its center.

“May I ask, what are you reading” She enquired as she refrained from making eye contact “one of esmies plays the sentinel!” He answered “as he closed his manuscript “what’s it about?” She asked once more, He gazed at her with hurt eyes as if he knew her in another capacity, but now it was as if they were merely strangers sharing kind words. “A soldier who comes back from war, only to realise that the world he left…his world doesn’t exist anymore!”
“Oh!” She said, “I know how that feels !”
“Don’t do that!” Pleaded the man “do what?!?” Asked the woman succinctly, “go over ancient history?!”
“ what make comparisons how he!” Her words stuck in her throat as she struggled to say them in the cold light of day
” he utterly destroyed my life !”
The man interjected,” I’m not going to let you do that !”He said talking over her, as he cut her to the quip.
He paused and continued to give testimony “ he, Li kay gave me a job when no one else would touch me with a barge pole!”
He continued in calmer tones “ we’ve all suffered !”
“And so has he!” He paused.
“I miss her every day!!” She said as she visibly shook but did not cry, he thought to himself She was in turmoil poor thing kays actions had collateral damage attached to them, but he knew in truth that he was a victim of a cover-up, that vile changeling the knightmare was dripping nepenthe into the queens’ ear, so much so it addled her brain and impaired her judgement, so that she could go along with murder on a grand scale.
“I still light a candle for her…Y’know,” he said trying to comfort her “at the warriors’ gate, sometimes I go there when it’s quiet!” he tried to put a brave face on it.
“Li Elkie – we all loved her, including li kay he loved the very bones of her” he had reverted to his advocate executioner role, as he was deliberating once more over the facts “just ask yourself Min why? For heaven’s sake, and go on from there!” Tum jai could scarcely contain his enthusiasm, it ran away from him, but he stopped as he saw a look of overcharged disdain etched from the very bottom of a tormented soul as rage spread across Mins face as she drew back her hand and slapped him across the face.
“How dare you!” She said apoplectic with rage.

Tum jai raised his cheek and turned it outwardly to her in protest “you can’t silence me!”
He looked her straight dead in her eyes, the eyes of an executioner were the probing eyes of the Inquisition “you want to know why I quit defending kay!”
She clenched her jaw “because he’s guilty!!” She exclaimed like some raged harpy “everybody knows!!” She panted.

“no!” He answered, “I didn’t want to kill an innocent man!”
“Why are you here Min??” He Asked.

“ because unlike some… I still have a sense of honor and duty!” She recoiled and continued” the Queens state of mind is fractured of late, you’d do well to disappear.” She grabbed his drink from the table where it sat passing steam into the air, it drew a hard stare from the former executioner, she drank from his cup and then pursed her lips with an ahhh sound as she diverted her eyes over to tum jai “before you actually disappear” she said on a cryptic note “I can tell her you’ve been emancipated!” She said with a perverse sense of satisfaction “best I can offer,” and with that, the female captain walked away without pausing or looking back, and lastly jai heard the door close he sighed in relief, for different reasons.

Sometime later the door opened again, and a svelte fellow, short in stature with slate coloured hair and amber eyes walked in. Tum jai greeted the man with perfect suavity as if he knew the man “did you manage to procure the item, Vir?” The man replied, “yes Brother, but it was, oh so terribly difficult it will be only a short time before it’s noticed as missing!” The man placed a wooden square box on the table Which was slatted as if it were for some obscure candle Tum jai opened the housing by flicking over the tin latch and opened the box to see an ampule jar, taking out the jar he held it in his palms and drew his countenance close “well, aren’t you going to say anything!” He said directing his words into the ampule, the jar lit up as a small blue orb, like the light of a firefly flickered, and the words came back “NO!” In a sulky manner, Tum jai trying to appeal to the weird looking jars better nature said “Em~res, Emrys! He is a sulky one today!”
The jar lit up once again “well, perhaps… IT… wants to be left alone !!!!”

“He’s as touchy as I remember” Vir joked, “I think he’s even got a bit more cantankerous in his old age!” Mocked Tum jai, the ampule jar lit up as a blue like orb shone out incandescently “Your Promise?” Said the strange creature that lived in the jar “I haven’t forgotten!!!” Said tum jai forthrightly. “I will continue what kay started!”

“I see he’s regained his old potency, “the jar said prophetically “Yes I’ve heard that!” “Min then!!??” Enquired Emrys, He paused and then continued “Action at a distance!” Tum-jai nodded as he looked over at the manuscript That was beside the jar as he began the cold Hard realisation that he may be being catfished. something began to plague him eerily, the notion of everything being too easy, unearned, he placed his hand on the old beaten cover of the manuscript, as he said loudly
“ Oh, sweet silence!” Casually as if he were cursing something, that had vexed him ,And he had paused , to regain his composure , his ebony skin began to go pallid , he waited, for the correct response as a veil uncomfortable silence began to overcome the small dining area, slowly, silently jai made up his mind to take the life of the other man.

Tumjai moved with quick, decisive action, like a cat pouncing upon a mouse, he adopted a look, a killing look ,he knew what needed to be done, as he stabbed his executioner’s knife deep into the body of his friend ,it pierced his rib cage. He gasped, the air rushed out of him, his body went limp as he pulled out the knife to see no blood, the man fell to his knees he looked shocked and slithered onto the tiled floor of the dining room, pressing his cheek into the floor as his eyes went lifeless and then. He was dead!
stone cold dead!!

A new anxiety took Tumjai, It was mere moments long and painful before Vir began to lose his shape as he began to go blurry and disperse and melt as if he were effervescent, jai breathed a sigh of relief as the impostor wrought his ghost on to the floor a question remained, why had jai been so sloppy had meeting min earlier clouded his judgement, there were spies everywhere this one was one of the primaveras spies or the knightmare as the proletariat Had branded him.

“Where is thy sting” replied Emrys it broke the tremulous atmosphere of the moment, confirming that he was actually the A.I born from magic and not someone broadcasting through an elaborate ruse on some audacious sting.

“Changelings, those damn changelings!” He cried as he began to put the pieces together in his mind, why have they delivered the Emrys A. I wouldn’t that be stupid, unless …. there was another agenda, perhaps he was to lead them to Li kay, or maybe the insidious nature of the knightmare was playing both sides against the middle. “hhhmmm!!!”
“We have to leave at once!” Cried Tumjai as he gathered up all his belongings and made haste for the door.

in the streets there were many people, he looked around and tried to move freely amongst the crowd moving more quickly he bolted for a bridge, as he hid a moment in the shadows, he saw a team of men tracking him, like a big cat hunting its prey, he checked his belongings he couldn’t see anything and they were getting closer as a parade of worshippers stopped them to talk to them, about the power of belief
Looking at the base of Emrys’s jar he saw a thin film with a slither of metallic material inside , they were so close now meters away as he tied to stifle his breathing.. he covered Emrys with his shawl as he tore it off with his fingers as he fumbled with the device and walked away into the crowd.

later that day the agents of chaos would merely find the lantern housing with a curious book called the sentinel and the page marked out that began (sweet silence where is thy sting.)