The Morningstar Brigade

Chapter 67

XXXXXXVII

DAKEN

As Kat Visits Uriel

Brigade High-Security Containment, Eden

Hosea nodded approvingly as a red-veined Daken stumbled backwards. "You're doing very well," he complimented Daken, studying the red sparks coursing around his protégé's body. "You've made progress in weeks that would have taken me years. You should be very proud of yourself."

"It's still not enough," Daken argued, biting down on his thumb as a bead of sweat dripped down his forehead. "And if what Uriel told me is true and Faust has eaten the Fruit of Life, that only makes the process even more difficult. I have to find a way to rewrite not only the composition of his blood, but remove immortality itself." He kicked the wall of Hosea's cell, leaving a foot-sized dent. "I don't even know how to begin thinking about something like that."

Hosea raised an eyebrow. "And what if Jonathan succeeded? What if Faust truly is gone?"
Daken shook his head. "He isn't. I don't buy it. I won't accept that," he insisted. "All I can do is be ready for his return."

"When the time comes, you'll know what to do," Hosea reassured him. "If there is one thing that should be clear to you by now, it's that Breath grows even stronger in the face of adversity." He smiled and clapped a hand on Daken's back. "And you, my boy, have no shortage of that."

Daken groaned. "So, what? You can tell the future now?"

"Perhaps," Hosea said, a twinkle in his eye, "or perhaps I'm simply getting old faster than I think." He straightened his back. "It's today, isn't it? The funeral?" he said, his expression darkening.

"Yeah," Daken said quietly. "Time isn't easy to keep track of down here, but based on the number of cage rotations... yeah, it's today. Funny thinking the world was supposed to end today. Now I'm just... here."

"How are you feeling?" Hosea asked, sitting on the floor of his cell. "Loss is not something you become accustomed too. It's a wound that never stops bleeding. It doesn't heal; you just learn to forget about it until the next cut."

Daken chuckled miserably. "Now there's a cheery image," he said. "How am I feeling? I don't know," he admitted. "I ask myself that same question every single time I think about him and I haven't found the right answer. I haven't found an answer that deserves him." Daken looked down into the black abyss below the cell. "I could get angry that he's gone, but I know he'd just try to calm me down. I could get sad that he's gone, but I know he'd just try to cheer me up. I could try to live like him, but then he'd just tell me he doesn't have all the answers."

"Then perhaps the secret is not living like him, but rather living for him," Hosea offered. "Strive for his ideals, not his execution. Draw strength from his spirit, not his reality. Be the better version of him that he never had time to realize. Be a better version of yourself."

"I wish it was that easy," Daken replied. "I'm just glad Lady Vigilant is letting me go to the ceremony tonight. It isn't him in the box, I know that. But it's where he'll be, or at least it'll feel that way."

Hosea smiled. "He'll be there because you're there, and he's always with you." he sighed. "I wish we had more time, but you'd best return to your cell. I'm sure your escort would be more than a bit dismayed if they arrived and you were nowhere to be found."

"You're right, I should go," Daken agreed after laughing for a moment about what the guard's face would look like if he had disappeared.