The Oracle

Chapter 58: Living in the Present

AKARI

After a long trip and finally managing to sneak in to the castle thanks to Evory using her runestone to break the barrier after I gave it back to her and Darius using his abilities to shield us from sight, we arrive at the castle's front gate at night the same day we set out for it.

"I can keep us all invisible but the further you travel from me the harder it'll be to reach you," Darius says as we hide out by the entrance to the castle.

"Akari and I can go in and find the others," Gambit suggests. "I'll look for Sora and them and Akari can look for the runestone."

"By yourselves?" Sekai frowns, furrowing his eyebrows worriedly.

"It'll be easiest that way," Gambit smiles reassuringly at him. "Trust me, we'll be okay. We can handle ourselves."

"I know that," Sekai runs a hand through his hair. "It's just— we don't know what to expect."

"Well, whatever it is, we'll handle it," I back up Gambit, and Sekai nods begrudgingly.

"Be careful," Evory says with a small worrisome smile.

"Yeah," Sander nods, nudging Evory gently with his shoulder with a small teasing smile to try and lighten the mood. "We can't go almost losing anyone again."

"Before you go, a woman named Cordelia, the strategist of Aurora, has the runestone," Miroslava says. "Something was keeping me from being able to see her up until her run in with Carmin's forces and the others. Oddly, I can't see anything about her before that moment, either. So...be cautious."

As Gambit and I go to run into the castle, I find myself being stopped by a hand gently grabbing my wrist and I look back with wide eyes to see Kaito standing behind me, a sad smile on his face, and I don't miss Valentine briefly looking between us quizzically.

"Be careful," he says, and I nod with a small smile before he lets go and I run off after Gambit.

I sneak around the castle, deciding that if I were an important member of the court I would probably be hiding up somewhere high. I decide to take the staircase and make my way through several hallways, the hallway I'm currently in consisting of several wooden doors on the right side of the wall and a banister on the left, the moonlight shining in through the open balcony.

At the end of the hallway, I notice there's a grey stone spiral staircase off to the left, a little hidden out of plain sight. I decide to take the staircase, running my hand along the smooth stone wall and pausing for a moment when I reach the stained glass window in the middle of the staircase so that I don't run my fingers over the glass. At the top of the staircase, I come to a set of wooden double-doors with gold framing and I slowly twist the knob to open the door. Upon opening the door, I notice a woman standing by the window across the room, her back to the door. I also notice the rain that must've began to pour shortly after I entered the castle as lightning crashes outside, thunder rumbling. As I step passed the threshold, the floor creaks and I look down, noticing that Darius's abilities have now vanished upon entering the room.

"Cordelia?" I decide to call out, deciding there's no point in trying to hide anymore.

"I knew you'd come," Cordelia says as she faces the window, lightning flashing in the dark sky as the sound of the rain hits the window and horse hooves clomp in the distance, Cordelia's cerulean Victorian styled dress, tall and laced up brown Victorian boots, and long blonde french braid lighting up with the strike.

"We have good men and women fight our wars for us instead while we play in the background, arguing back and forth until there's enough blood spilled that we decide one side wins and the other doesn't," Cordelia says seriously, her hands clasped behind her back and her striking blue eyes meeting mine as she glances slightly over her shoulder. "They're treated as if they're expendable chess pieces, pawns in a larger game instead of human beings, but they shouldn't be. Human beings are not dispensable and should never be treated as if they are. Every life matters, it always has. I will never forgive pointless fighting, pointless deaths, stolen lives. Yet, one may say the lives were not wasted, were not spent in vain. They were spent fighting for freedoms, yet so many of them never receive those very freedoms they fought for, and many do not have a choice but to do as they're told. I do believe in freedom, I do believe ultimately it is necessary to fight these tragic wars in order to maintain said freedom, but I do not believe in treating human beings as nothing more than pawns. I only wish soldiers were treated like humans, ones who are able to be traumatized and have families and loved ones just as we do. Sometimes, I think the denarcotyzing of it all makes people forget the greatest losses, the true sorrows of war. Humanity has many kinds of wars, Akari. What's yours?"

"My war?" I say after a few moments of staring into Cordelia's eyes. "My war is knowing that I can't protect everyone. I can't do it. I can't save everyone, can't keep everyone I love in my life. It doesn't work that way, it can't possibly work that way, but I refuse to want to accept that it works that way, that I can't do something to keep the bad from happening, and that when the bad things win it's my fault. Despite wanting to refuse accepting those things, I've come to. You can't live if you don't. Not the way you were meant to, anyway, but that doesn't mean I've stopped trying to stop the bad things. I'll never do that, never stop trying, because I could never give up on the ones I love, even if it's the death of me. We don't all have forever, you know. Anything could happen any day. I don't believe in maybes. Why wait to tell someone you love them? Why wait to do the things you want to do, say the things you want to say? Such wasted time..."

"You lost someone," Cordelia says, her eyes holding empathy among other unreadable emotions, "didn't you? To learn that? That's how most of us who learned the hard way have, anyway. We've lost too many and too much to lose any more."

"Yeah..." I say quietly as Cordelia turns back to the window, her hands clasping behind her back again.

"You make a good Patience, Akari Hana," Cordelia says after a few moments. "Don't lose yourself trying to become it."

"Thank you..." I trail off, raising my eyebrows in surprise.

"Do you want the stone?" Cordelia says suddenly, turning back to me. "You can have it, if you'd like it. Either you or Sora could, really. But something tells me that I should be giving it to you instead. After all, you're not the one Carmin's hunting down to murder."

"Wait, what?" I furrow my eyebrows. "But what about using it to help further sharpen your strategist skills? To help keep your kingdom safe?"

"Do you know what a placebo is, Akari?" Cordelia's lips twitch into a small smile before she goes to pace leisurely around the room, occasionally looking back out the window.

"You mean..." my eyes widen in realization.

"Precisely," Cordelia chuckles. "My dear, I don't need the stone for anything. I simply used it as a cover to hide the fact that I could do everything I do now with or without the stone. It's genius, really. People often don't like to look at a deeper meaning when a more obvious one, a simpler one, is staring them right in the face."

"You're Present," I conclude. "That's how you knew I was coming, why you didn't stop us before we entered the kingdom, and that's also why you don't need the stone."

"Most people don't know that the runestone of Patience and Wrath doesn't allow you to see the present," Cordelia sighs. "They simply chalked it up to being part of the stone's abilities because Patience deals with controlling time. Being able to slow down or speed up time is far different than being able to see what's happening miles or even feet away."

"Why couldn't Miroslava see you?" I ask. "Why didn't she know?"

"My father knew how to hide himself well, even from the prying eyes of a Chronos," Cordelia says. "He did it for centuries, after all. Before he had me."

"Your...father?" I trail off.

"Yes, my father," Cordelia nods, turning back to the window. "I had him imprisoned when I finally gained respect, finally gained an authority in this place, finally made it a better place. Nobody wanted to listen to me when I told them of his crimes, how he murdered Mariposa to become Present. They all thought it was a fairy tale. It's a shame how people tend to only listen to you when they have a reason to..."

"I'm sorry, Cordelia," I frown. "That's horrible."

"Yes, well," Cordelia sighs before she turns around and offers a sad smile. "You and your friends may stay the night. Attend the gala tomorrow. Once it's over, I'll give you the runestone. That's my deal."

"Okay..." I agree warily, wondering why she's making us all go to the gala, why she's waiting, or more specifically— what she's waiting for.

"You can tell your friends they can stop hiding and running around the castle," Cordelia says, looking back out the window as lightning strikes again. "And, don't worry. Carmin's special team won't harm you, the ones you came with, or your other friends who came before you. Besides, something tells me there's more to them than it seems. Anyway, enjoy your night, Akari, as best as anyone who grew up faster than they had to can."

"I feel like you understand that all too well," I say before I turn to leave.

"Perhaps..." Cordelia's words faintly float around the air as I head down the hallway. "Perhaps."