Solitude: Alone, Together

Chapter 7

"Everything is prepared. As soon as Amalexia kills me—"

"You mean the fake you."

"Yes, yes—as soon as the act is complete, the City will begin lockdown procedures. My link will be severed with the City and I will transport us to Artaeum."

Sotha Sil was bent over a desk reviewing plans. He'd gone over them countless times before and had them memorized, but even the 'god' seemed to be showing signs of nervousness.

"You're worried."

"Everything will go according to plan."

"I don't mean about the plan. I know everything will go according to plan. But it's the result of the plan you are concerned about. Your beloved city. I'm so sorry, Sil, that you have to leave it behind. I-I didn't anticipate that factor when I created the basic idea of this whole endeavor. I—I suppose I've grown selfish in my time here—I've forgotten what it is like to consider others above myself. I didn't think about the—"

"Selea," he said as he turned and faced her.

She'd stopped pacing and had collapsed into a chair, shoulders sagging. She suddenly felt guilty for all she was asking Sotha Sil to do. Separating himself from all he'd known, all he'd been. He'd retain his powers, at least for the time. At some point they both had a feeling he'd lose his divine powers once Amalexia had her way with the ancient ruins that had originally started the Tribunal on their path.

She was deep into her thoughts when she suddenly saw a familiar white robe in front of her. He knelt down in front of her. "Selea, you are a remarkable being. You are a powerful mage, a wise friend, and my closest confidant. You are... my other. But do not think for a moment that you have somehow convinced me to do something that I did not see as path necessary to go down. No matter what, it is time for me to die. It will either be me in that room to be ravaged by Amalexia's powers, or the counterfeit we created. What you did was create an alternative that allows me more time to exist before my true end."

"But without your people, your City, without your purpose..."

"What good would I be to my people, and my city if I allowed Amalexia to kill me?"

"I should have been coming up with a plan for how to defeat her and change the path all together. I was selfish, Sil! I wanted..." She stopped herself as tears welled up in her eyes.

Rarely had he ever touched her. The bond that had formed between them had been a connection of minds, intelligence, and emotions, as it were—as much as it was for Sotha Sil and his different way of showing emotions. His metal hand reached and a finger tipped her chin up to look at him. "What is it you wanted, Selea. Tell me."

"You know, Sil. You know what it is I want. More than anything. Artaeum—it was my idea."

"And I agreed with it. If you remember, I inferred that if I was to leave this City, to become mortal, I wanted to go where ever you were, Selea. You did not somehow implant that idea in my head."

"But perhaps I did, Sil. Causality. I came back to Clockwork City. I placed myself back in your reality. My action, and these are the consequences."

"Amalexia coming here to kill me is the consequence of an action that occurred long before you were even born, Selea. And as I recall, it was I who had you meet me here, at the Observatory. You were right, you know—offering you this place was rather significant. And intentional. I knew that it was what had to be and I saw no reason to change the course."

"And I invited you to dinner."

"And you told me I could leave. I stayed. And I came back. I kept coming back. Do you know why I remember all that so vividly, Selea? Because I refused to release those memories to the Mnemonic Planisphere. What I am is a result of a decision to store away memories that I felt would keep me from performing the purpose I was destined for. But by the third time you stepped back into my personal reality, I couldn't bring myself to release any of it. I calculate that you have made me better. I cannot choose any other path than this, Selea, because you are my destiny now. Actions, consequences, causality—it's a tangled web that is woven not just by one individual making choices. This path is one that has been created by a tangled web of past choices, some in our pasts, before we met, that neither of us are proud of. But here we are, and here we go. We haven't much more time, Selea. Will you come and stand with me as I give the final command?"