Brass Automaton

16 - Stab of Betrayal

John recoiled from the figure's words. Fury surged through him for even considering that this could be his Reese, his long dead tutor, compatriot, and friend. He scrambled back from the figure and seized his sword again as a glint of moonlight showed where he had dropped it.

"Foul creature! I shall have your blood!"

"I am Reese, John. You loved me. I am here through that love. Do you not remember us?"

"I will see you for what you are yet!" John exclaimed, holding the sword out and pulling a large, intricately cut Crystal on a thin, black cord from under his shirt. It was like the crystals issued to the Keep Guards for dispelling simple magicks, only this one was far, far more powerful. "We will see who you are, or what you are, soon enough."

He yanked on the cord to snap it free, and held the crystal aloft, its facets reflecting dots of moonlight around the dark clearing. He began slowly circling it above his head, waiting for the vapors of magick to vanish to see reality. As he waited for the Crystal to dispel the magick he found himself again indebted to the counsel of Jarvis for urging him to always wear the crystal. The crystal's pendulum turn smoothed its rhythmic thrumming - the only sound in the clearing. "Reese" merely stood there, hands folded and head cocked, looking at John with the patient disappointment he so well remembered from his most embarrassing of failures.

"How much longer are you going to need to see that I am Reese, John?"

"This can only be magick! Even if what you say is true, only magick can bring you to me."

"No, John, love brought me here. The love you shared with Reese was strong enough that the third power that binds reality together, love, summoned me."

"Magick and time are the only powers," he declared, remembering his lessons. Lessons that Reese herself had taught him.

"Magick and time are the only powers that humanity can control. That doesn't mean there isn't a third that is not controllable. Time is incessant with clear rules but without form. Magick can be shaped, but it waxes and wanes and is governed by capricious rules. Love, though," Reese smiled and stepped toward him, "love is stronger than either, but cannot be controlled by conscious thought or action. Since love does what love will, and can never be used otherwise, humanity always overlooks it."

"How do you know this then?" asked John, allowing the crystal to stop its perambulations.

"Because I am here. Because I am not the Reese you knew but another, that is yet her, and my heart can still feel her love for you. And, because my head knows the betrayal of Snow White, your queen. Only so high of a betrayal by one you so thoroughly love could have brought me here. Only another that you loved, and lost, could love beckon."

"Then speak," John commanded. He raised himself to his full height and lowered his sword before continuing, "Speak of this betrayal you know."

"It gives me no pleasure to tell you this," Reese whispered, wiping tears from her delicate features. "Only I can know the depths of your love, and that you have given yet more to Snow White. It is because-"

"Hold, Reese, hold. I beg you, hold. I need not hear of love any longer." He stepped forward and grasped Reese by her shoulders. "Please just tell me of Snow's plans this coming fortnight."

Reese, again on the verge of tears, nodded her head in acknowledgment of John's request. "You have become a better man than I could have ever hoped," she said before she began to describe Snow's plans.

John became more ill with every revelation that passed Reese's lips.

* * *

"The Sun will not allow me to stay, John," Reese said after she finished her long elocution.

John's sword remained embedded in the trunk, stabbed into it during the strongest wave of anger he had felt at Reese's words. Now, with that moment gone, and the full horror finally spoken, the two sat on the trunk with the sword between them. John let the words linger a bit longer before he spoke, "I'm sorry, Reese, I should have known you couldn't stay with me forever. I was just..."

She smiled and nodded. "Caught up in other things, yes. I understand. I really do. Please, just do me the favor of leaving me now. I know that I must surrender to the dawn, and I would have our parting be of our choice this time."

"Of course. It is the least I can do," he said and stood. He grasped his long-lost tutor's hands and whispered, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," she replied with a sheepish smile and stood as well.

He briefly tried wrenching the sword from the gnarled trunk before giving up when he saw how deep he had buried its blade. "It's just as well," he declared, letting go of its handle.

"Fare thee well, John."

"Farewell Reese," he replied, and turned rapidly to avoid her seeing the tears that had so quickly started streaming down his cheeks.

* * *

John walked out of the clearing and disappeared into the orchard without another glance back. He didn't hear Reese's sigh of relief.

She looked to her right at the sunlight just over the jagged peaks of the Broken Mountains. The timing had been closer than she had anticipated. If he hadn't finally noticed her walking by the kitchen door for the seventh time...

She slumped again on the trunk as the first of the Sun's rays lit her face, instantly washing away the magick and revealing true reality. He looked at his reflection in the sword's polished surface and chuckled as he imagined John's reaction to his beloved "Reese" instantly growing a beard and morphing into his "most trusted" advisor, Jarvis. He then downright laughed remembering the crystal.

"Oh John!" he said to a brightly ripened apple at his feet, "when will you ever remember that crystals can never dispel the magick of their creator?"