Red Axe, Black Sun

Breakup

“Why are you hiding in a crypt?” Kyra said, looking over her shoulder. “I assume this is your way of leaving everything behind. It’s funny, the world is tearing itself more and more apart each day, and I’m not even sure if you realize it.” She almost laughed at the notion. “What made you leave?”

Dryston’s face froze.

“I never hid from anything. I’m just dedicated to my life here.”

“So, you’ve gotten used to living without the possibility of a knife in your back at any moment”, Kyra said. “Have you grown soft?”

“Not likely,” Dryston said. “I still have to constantly watch my back here, living with these lawless vagrants.”

“I heard this crypt was dangerous,” said Kyra. “Some of the people I asked even told me it was haunted.”

Kyra felt his chest against her back when he shrugged.

“Darling, you should know it is always the haunted places that I choose,” said Dryston.

“As your home?” Kyra asked. “Hmm, I’ve noticed that you seem to have an obsession with death.” The hoist reached the top of its ascent and Dryston opened the cage and helped Kyra get her footing on the new ground.

Dryston shook his head. “No, you’ve got to understand, this is not my home.”

The way led to an opening, a terrace enclosed by a stone balustrade. The wind whipped rain into the vault, but Kyra let her shoulders sag and instead relished the prickle on her face.

“This does not belong to me,” Dryston said. “It belongs to no one, except only the dead that reside in those tombs. Like everyone else here, I am just a temporary occupant, and it is a fragile habitation. There are rooms and tunnels down there which are unknown to me. None of us has journeyed that deep into the crypt. Well, none that have come back, at least. When we sleep here, our rest is disturbed by dreams of the undead moaning in anguish and anger at our intrusion. It’s like sleeping in a bad part of town with your door unlocked and swung wide open. You can never rest easy.”

They stood under the arched entrance of the upper crypt, staring out at the abating storm. The only source of light was an occasional flash of lightning, briefly illuminating their faces. The grumbling aftermath of the storm brought with it the fragnant scent of freshly fallen rain.

“I see self-preservation is not an instinct you possess any more. You have become reckless,” Kyra said and laid her hand against Dryston’s chest. “You seem to have no regard for your own life anymore, or the lives of others. Well, fine by me.”

She touched his amulet in the shape of a silver star embossed with a wolf’s head, a talisman and former badge of office of the Shire Reeves. The Reeves were famed for their dedication to duty and the preservation of order and life.

“But then you shouldn't be wearing this,” she said.

“The man this here belonged to is long gone,” Dryston said as if he was catching her drift. “This is just a souvenir from another time. It almost feels like I killed that man and just took it from him like a rogue in the night.” Dryston shrugged. “Who knows, maybe I did.”

“You still have that talent, to bring order to chaos, to make people follow you,” Kyra didn’t mention the other thing Dryston did frighteningly well – killing people – but they both knew it would always be included in any conversation regarding Dryston’s talents.

“I made the man I am today all by myself. It was a choice,” Dryston said. “You have a talent. What I have is not a talent; it’s beginning to feel more and more like a curse. I had to work harder than anyone else in the world to do what I did. But not being able to use that work, seeing it all thrown away by those above me, is depressing. At the same time, having the need to use it is frightening.”

“I don’t feel any different, to be honest,” Kyra said.“I am one in ten thousand, just like you. The difference is, people understand what you do. You are a fighter. There is nothing more simple than that. But no one understands what I do, and people will always be afraid of what they don't understand. I was not asked to choose. I was born that way and failed the path, but at least I found a profession in which to use my gift for good. Maybe you should try the same.”

“You know,” Dryston said,”every one of those hooray patriots serving for the crown would probably say, ‘Thanks, King Tancred, it is an immeasurable honor.’Everyone but me. I would say, ‘Tancred, you're welcome, you have been telling your people for years they have the greatest man the gods ever made, and now, they finally do.’ You don’t have to be thankful to be in his service. He should be thankful to have you. There was a time when I would have given everything for him, but that time is over now. It took me a few broken bones to learn that much.”

“Then prove you are above these things,” Kyra said.

“Kyra, are you even listening to me? I don’t have to prove anything to anyone anymore,” Dryston said.

“That is a sad statement,” Kyra said. “I think everyone should have something to prove, or else you should just quit.”

Kyra earned a glance from Dryston, though it felt like she hit a soft spot with the truth.

“I never quit”, said Dryston, despite all the evidence to the contrary. “Failure may always be an option, but quitting is not. Has life in the cities told you that quitting is acceptable?”

“It's graver in the cities than you might think,” Kyra said. “Entire settlements are cut off by natural catastrophes. The rule of law has broken down or is broken. Every township is on its own. Imagine a village in the darkest wood, cut off from the world around it.”

“Sounds just to my taste.”

“Dryston, crime and strife are wide-spread.” She swallowed to bite back her nervousness at the thought. “Tomorrow, I will be out in the streets looking for two criminals.”

Dryston threw up his arms. “They are using you for chasing outlaws? They are completely wasting your potential!”

“Are you trying to flatter me, Dryston?” Kyra looked up. “Someone has to do it. They and I know I'm the best for that job.”

“You're the best for every job,” Dryston said, stepping closer. “But this is destroying you. King Tancred uses you. If I learned one thing during my service to the king, it's that it's not worth it to put your life in danger for someone else.”

“Oh really? Well that tells me a lot about you.”

“I hope you didn’t come to me begging me to help you,”Dryston finally said. “Because I won’t, and I offer no apology.”

“No. I just came to give you this.” Kyra gave him a small package wrapped in leather. “Because you were always there for me when we were together.”

“Ah, it’s been four years since the day we met,” Dryston said with a smile. “You always manage to remember this date.”

“Of course I do,” Kyra said. They were standing close, wallowing in memories till Kyra backed away. “It’s a one hour ride to my client at Wolf Pit Plains. I want to be there in a half.”

“You should stay the night,” Dryston said. “Riding your horse fast at night is a good chance of broken legs.”

Kyra shook her head, not falling for his trick. “It isn’t like that anymore. I’m engaged.”

Dryston stared at Kyra in shock, and she smiled at him regretfully.

“I’m sorry to have to tell you like this. I know we had feelings in the past, but a big part of the reason I couldn’t wait for you was because you gave up. I must continue with my life as best I can, and if you rot in a crypt, then so be it.”

Kyra looked directly into her former lover’s eyes. “I’m sorry for what could have been, Dryston. But now I have to go.”

She turned and he let her go, the small package feeling heavy in his hands. He was keenly reminded that some injuries could hurt much worse than an injury to the knee.

Long after she was gone, Dryston stared into the blackness that Kyra left behind.