The Fall of the Society

Chapter 41: Phoenix Ending

     "True to his word, the man and a handful of others were waiting for me outside of the inn when I had finished my breakfast. I led them out of town and too the cave, showing them where the man was buried. They insisted that I go into the cave first, before entering cautiously, afraid that I was waiting to spring a trap on them. However, the evidence of our fighting was spread across the opening, a dried pool of blood where the man had fallen. The men that had accompanied them quickly began gathering up the more valuable items, the person in charge stating they would come back with a horse and cart to gather the rest of the stolen possessions."

     "After a short while he turned to me and offered me a small bag of gold. I waved it off and told him to keep the money for the town. He eyed me warily for a moment and offered me a handshake. I shook his hand and took my leave, disappearing into the dense forest beyond the cave, his eyes following me out of sight. His suspicion of me was warranted, in that day and age, my behavior was quite mysterious. Turning down money for the work I had accomplished was unheard of, especially for something as difficult as taking down a high-profile bounty."

     "My trip back to Gwendalynn  went quickly, I took no breaks and ran almost the whole time, but it still took me two days to travel. While she was happy that I had returned, the defeat in her eyes was even more apparent. Her face was gaunt, pale, and heavily lined. Dark bags hung under her eyes, lines tracing where her tears had streamed. All the hope I had built up faded immediately at the sight of her. Her beautiful features were taxed and tired, my desire to help her stood resolute. When I told her I had a way to help her, she lit up as much as she was able."

     "I would need some time to prepare her a poison that would allow her to fall asleep peacefully and never wake. Sadness rolled heavily over me as I prepared everything for her passing, a pot with the potion simmering quietly. In between preparations, I would simply lay beside her, holding her tightly. This action calmed her, but her desire to pass on stood resolute, and I knew what remaining with the living was costing her. Immortality in humans is incredibly rare, we are not built for it. We are meant to die, to change realms like a passing breeze. The human brain can only contain so much knowledge and memories and eventually wears out, for most anyways, and I believe that is what happened to her."

     Rose looked slightly shocked, "Will that happen to me?" Concern highlighted the beautiful features of her face as she stared into his eyes.

     Sid shook his head, "I cannot say for sure, but she never had the ability to heal others, mostly relying on her powers to save her in times of desperation. Her focus was never on growing more powerful, but to live freely and without worry. She never had a need to defend herself because she was always with me. You have had a much different life, your healing abilities manifested very early and you were keen to use that power to help others. The offensive abilities you possess were originally pulled from you by the Society, not of your own free will. I believe that had you continued your life free of the Society you may have never developed that side of your power spectrum. It could also be a difference in genetic makeup that causes your powers to be different than hers, but it is difficult to say for sure as neither of your parents appeared to have manifested powers, though they may have had dormant identifiers."

     "Are you saying that these abilities may have been passed down genetically?" Rose asked him quietly. "Does the parents powers have a say in what develops in the child?"

     "It is difficult to say as all the research ever done on the subject has led to mixed results, but it is nearly impossible to track every single member of a bloodline and find the proper identifiers that would give an accurate map of what possible markers there have been and what they may be able to combine into over the course of history. Your abilities are even harder to track as a male can carry the markers that cause one to become a phoenix, but they cannot manifest it. Only a female can be a phoenix and I believe it is because only a woman can give birth, only a woman can be reborn."

      A silence fell over them while Rose continued to process what she was being told. Her mind raced as she thought through all the information she had been given when a sudden question blasted into her mind. "Do you think I am a distant descendant to Seralynn, or even Gwendalynn?"

     Sid stared at her; his signature smile spread across his face. "For that to be possible you would have to be my descendant as well."

     This had not crossed her mind as the shock of his statement was plastered on her face. "Are we related?" she asked dumbfounded.

     He did not answer right away but fiddled with a stone on the ground while he contemplated how to answer. "It is plausible to believe so, but I have not interfered in the lives of my descendants since Gwen passed."

     Rose did not feel like this was a full answer based on the look in Sid's eyes, but did not want to press the issue as he still had more to tell her. "What happened next?" she pressed on.

     "The poison was finally ready, and so was she. She was resolute in her decision and I loved her enough to help her with her desire. After she drank the poison, I held her hand firmly while concentrating on blocking her powers. I am not sure how much time passed while I sat there, focused on nothing but keeping her body from reviving itself, but her skin had become cool and clammy by the time I stopped."

     Sid took a breath and stared at the sky for a moment, watching the heavens pass above him, as though he may catch a glimpse of his long-lost love there. "Once more, I was alone and friendless. I took her body and traveled to where her mother was buried, wanting her to rest with the only other person that had ever loved her as much as I did. Things in the area were much different than my previous time I had been there. Luckily the graveyard in which her parents were buried was untouched, so I laid her to rest there forever more. To this day I have not been back to that place, but it is always on my mind."

     "What did you do after that? Where did you go?" Rose asked him sincerely. "How did you manage to carry on? After Tripp died a portion of me just wanted to stay where I was until I wasted away myself."

     A slight smile appeared on Sid's face, masking the sadness he was feeling. "Giving up was never an option. It was something I had learned up until that point. I realized at a young age, well young for me, that I would always eventually outlive everyone I loved. No longer would I work to make lasting connections to people, but I would continue to build my abilities and my skills. So, I set off into the world determined to learn as much as I could while honing my skills. Each new village or city I stopped in I would take up an apprenticeship wherever I could manage. I learned blacksmithing, medicine, cartography, philosophy, criminal science, biology, mineralogy, and countless other things, never stopping as the times passed and new technologies came to be."

     "My travels took me far and wide, until I found a very rare and unknown substance. I collected as much as I could and created the first of my many blade weapons. It took me a while to figure out a proper way to temper it. The process was grueling but paid off in the end because I had managed to form the strongest and sharpest compound the world had ever seen. I spent the next century tracking down the substance, the most common place to find it was at the bottom of very deep chasms in the ocean, but it was possible to find it in remote deserts and jungles. The discovery of this metal is one of the secrets I have most closely kept and hidden from the world."

      "I have hidden many things from humans as I have moved through the ages. Most of my discoveries in alchemy and mineralogy I have not shared. Mankind is vicious and uncaring toward one another, more concerned with how they can further their position and standing instead of helping those next to them. Any discovery I made that would allow people to kill each other more easily I kept for myself, destroying any research that had been written down or recorded. The knowledge is not lost however, I remember all of it and I am unending." His last statement came as more of a sad declaration rather than a boast and Rose could not help feeling for his loneliness.