Empyrean

Chapter 24

Chapter 24-Fenix

The Rising Sun Café

An hour or so after sunset, 24th of Pachon, Year 612

            I realize now who I am. It took me two weeks of living in this war-struck city alone reading and killing to understand that. The amount of Alexandros patrolling in the upper Epochs is innumerable. This is war. I have no idea who attacked first, but someone did. The same day that I got Echo and Eris out of the city it erupted into fire. The Revolution Army has taken, without many casualties, the Zenith and the Red sectors on the bottom of the hill to the palace. To prevent the rebels from attacking the back of the palace close to where I used to live, the Emperor has built a wall of steel and other metals on the slope between the Violet and Zenith areas. There is only one way to the top of the hill now and both parties know that. Orion will have to get up the mountain the old fashioned way, climbing the slope, taking each color as he goes along. I have no doubt that he will be able to do it. I would be able to. What I don’t know is whether or not I would’ve killed more or less than he has already, but I would have killed. I have anyway.

            Finally my knock is answered and Emilia appears in front of me with bags under her eyes, tankard in hand, and clad in her battle clothes. I have seen her wear them once before. It was not a happy occasion. She lets me into her café and off of the silent streets roamed only by patrolling militants. The light is dim and the wood is damp, but I sit at the corner table all the same. There are no customers to be seen, even though at this time of night there are usually some Reds or Zenith who came across a little money or barter, and some beggars or street performers. Most of the time this café lives up to its name, anticipating a world, a City of Light, where Epochs are irrelevant and people mix and move over each other like water, your eyes can move from one person to the next and wonder. How different are they?

            Emilia interrupts my thoughts. “If you are looking for Orion, he isn’t here. He left when the fighting broke out.”

            “I wasn't looking for him.” I get up and move to grab a cup of water. “I came to see my big sister.”

            “Ha!” She takes another swig and sits down across from where I was. “If I were your sister I couldn't love you more!”

            I can’t read her sarcasm, never could. Soon my tongue slips back into where it likes to be, Greek. “Thank you. But why are you dressed like that? Are you fighting? And don’t you think, Emilia, that three swords is a bit excessive?”

            “I do not fight for either side. I am just protecting myself and those I love.” Emilia takes her beer and pours it on the ground, slowly, looking at the liquid as it fell. I look to the bar and see we aren’t alone. There is a little boy sitting on it silently swinging his feet back and forth paying careful attention to us. I guess I have a nephew? “I will get through this. Have you ever seen a dead bartender? We happen to live a long time.” 

            “I’ve read that book, sister. You aren’t a mule.” I sit down with my water and face her.

            “Benjamin’s a donkey, not a mule. And stop speaking Greek.” The second sentence is snaps like a firecracker. She is speaking to me in my first language again. The first time it happened I had neither the time nor the reason to ask her how she learned it or why she never told me. “Why are you here Fenix?”

            “I haven’t uttered a word to another soul in this language for more than three years.” I feel the air flow through my teeth and lips to make these foreign sounds. It feels amazing.