Empyrean

Chapter 20

Chapter 20-Jacob

Zenith One, Palace on the Palace

Midday, 8th of Pachon, Year 612

            The conversation I had with Mentor yesterday, it was interesting. He told me what actually happened those six hundred and twelve years ago. And when it was over Mentor gave me a choice. I have come back again today to tell him my answer.

            I find him sitting in the same place he was yesterday, but this time with only one cup of tea. I guess he caught on that I didn't like it. “Mentor?”

            “Yes, child.” It sounds nothing like a question. Does he already know my answer?

            “I have come back like you told me to, like you asked me.” I sit down across from him. “I have made a decision.”

            “Oh? You sound convicted.” Mentor pauses and sips his shitty tea. I don't even know where you could get such tea. It really just tastes like unpurified water, like five hundred people had spit and the tea was the collection of it. “The fact that you came back. I like you more already, despite your answer of course.”

            It would appear he just answered for me. “You gave me the choice of fighting against the City of Light and their oppression.” I sound like a self-righteous fool just saying that. “Or, I could continue to support them even knowing the truth.”

            “Boy? What is the point of words that express nothing?” He seems to change the subject.

            “Are there such words?” I feel like I am talking to Sophocles or one of those other philosophers that I was not supposed to read about.

            “Are we playing a game now boy?” He catches on to me. I can feel that he understands more than me. I can’t pinpoint what, but he does.

            “Why did you ask your first question?”

            “Why did you respond with one?” He’s good.

            “What are the words with no expression?” I try to push the conversation back to the original point, or at least closer to it.

            “What is the purpose of saying something that the listener, as you already know, agrees with?” He takes another sip and waits for my next question.

            “Self-satisfaction.” I lose the game. But he doesn’t celebrate. He doesn't acknowledge we were playing a game.

            “That is correct. So could you stop satisfying yourself and just tell me your answer?” His voice sounds impatient, but his demeanor is anything but. He looks calm, serene, and old. Like he has been sitting there for ages and learned to own it, no matter prestigious or infamous that spot may be. Typical, only a person so deprived from good things in life, for presumably most of it, could be so fettered to one place. He has no ambition.

            “Where is Serena?”

            “There is a GPS tracker in her Epoch. Based on the planar system she is in the palace. But after I modified it to account for three-dimensional space, it would appear that she is on top of it. Does that answer your question?” He doesn't pause in between anything he says giving me no time to react.

            He finally pauses and gives me a chance to speak. I understand what he is saying but the fact that he was able to modify a modern GPS to find a three-dimensional location…that is beyond me. “Yes. It does.” He says nothing. It is time for me to give up my answer. “I can’t. I won’t help the Zenith and Red fight against the Emperor.” I am proud I am able to say it, but my voice is hushed so that no one around us hears.

            “I gather what you are saying. But treat this old man and tell me why.” He takes another sip of his tea.

            I move closer to him to lock my words in the centimeters between us. “After you told me about the new Emperor I realized that he was corrupt. Raping and killing for no reason is unforgiveable. But I do not fear our Emperor. He might kill Zenith and Red’s to keep his throne. He might sacrifice Alexandros to keep his throne, but the order of the City of Light will remain the same. The colors will stay aligned and only the people who don't agree with him will die. Soon enough all the people that don't agree with him will shut up and we will be back to how it was before.”

            “This is only a third of your decision child. What do you think about the history of your fair city?” He entreats me.

            “You told me about how the City of Light was formed six hundred and twelve years ago. It was a wild tale…and I believe you. But regardless of what the origins of the City of Light are we are here now. Whatever claims to rule the Emperor has, however illegitimate, are, in general, believed in. I cannot fight a person for their ancestors’ mistakes.”

            “You sound very valiant. Now for the final part, the reason you will not fight them. What do you think on Orion?”

            It takes me a second to answer honestly. “I fear him, all the way to my core. The fact that one man, Zenith no more, has access to that much knowledge, that he knows how to manipulate people like he does, that he can speak in any language I have ever heard of and fight in any style I have ever seen. He sounds like an Emperor if there ever was one. But that much power, coming from a person who has been scarred that much, it would be disastrous. He would kill anyone who disagreed with him in a heartbeat. He would destroy all order. This is why I cannot fight for him.”

            “And that is why I can.”