Grandayria: Dawn of Heroes - Chapter 10

Claude grabbed a rope and tied it around the wooden frame in the dark, musky and crammed basement. He gripped the rigid, thorny exterior, squeezed it with his cold hand to make sure it was tight enough.

He fastened a noose with a classic knot. Then threw it around his neck. He contemplated what it all meant, what life was leading up to that point and why he was such a failure. Why he was so flawed, and why it was possible that things in his life would end up the calloused way they would. But it didn't matter anymore. With this rope, it brought peace to his suffering. A warm end. He'd already accepted his savior, and his fate. There was nothing left to do.

He took it off. Stomped over towards the exit to the basement.

Walked back over to the makeshift noose. Grabbed the rope in his hands and started to sniffle. “God! Why did you make me such a coward?” he shouted.

“Do it.”

In a puff of violet smoke, the seer appeared in the basement. “Take that rope, tie it around your neck and hang yourself,” she said. “I long for your painful death.”

Claude’s fingers trembled, his lips twitched. His eyes glowed when he recognized the woman. “You! I remember you. You’re that seer Ethan talked about. You were at my execution.”
“I crave your death,” the seer snarled. “Your presence alone causes a great disturbance to my land. I know what you did to that mine boss.”

Claude shook his head. “Then why don’t you tell someone? Tell someone what I did. Have them arrest me. Or not? Why not? Is it because you’re afraid?”

The seer began to sweat.

Claude’s eyebrows elated themselves in happiness. “You’re afraid of me! You of all people. That means the world to me. That makes me a practical god, doesn’t it?”

“I will have you executed. I just need a certain someone to come through for me first.”
“Ethan!” Claude gasped. “You want Ethan to kill me?”
The seer, realizing she had said far too much, disappeared in an aura of smoke and embarrassment. Claude looked around the basement and grabbed his makeshift knife from the floor.

“Not if I kill him first,” he heaved, staring sorrowfully into the blade.

Elsewhere, Ethan tossed stones into a nearby pond, trying to get them to skip but to no avail. Cricket-like creatures chirped in the distance, except Ethan wasn’t entirely sure if they were actually crickets or not. He didn’t feel like he knew anything anymore.

“You’re doing it wrong,” Rucy sighed. Ethan grabbed a stone in his hands. She pushed her soft thumb against his palm. He flinched, his heart pounding thunderously.

She pushed the rock out of his hands, letting it tumble to his feet. “You need a flat one,” she said. “It should be about as big as the palm of your hand.”

She parted her hair behind her head, scanning the gravel and rocks surrounding the pond. She spotted a well-sized stone with a moderately flat bottom, and gave it to Ethan. “Now, you just flick your wrist,” she said, grabbing his stiff forearm. He tensed at her touch, but soon she soon felt him breath and relax. “And just let it go.”

He flicked the stone off through the pond, watching it hobble through the waters, skipping several times. “That’s awesome,” Ethan laughed.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Rucy folded her arms, and Ethan’s smile dissipated.

Ethan dusted off his pants, humming quietly. “Well, I’ve got training to go to with the Blademaster,” he said. “Guess I’d better get going.”
“Did you want to talk first?” Rucy twirled her foot in the dirt.

Ethan shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, sure. Why not?”

The young teenagers sat in the sand surrounding the pond, clearing rocks out of the way with their hands. The stars in the night sky were brighter than they’d ever seen them, almost breathtakingly so. The half-moon watched over them ominously, a bird-like creature flying across it with skillful ease.

“I’m sorry I made you cry,” Rucy said, feeling the heavy burden of guilt lifted from her shoulders.

Ethan shrugged again. “No big deal. We’ve all got weak spots, right?”

“I guess so.”

Ethan looked out to the calm waters, a strange feeling overwhelming him. Rucy looked in his direction, witnessing the definitive nature of infinite sadness. An empty face filled with tucked away sorry. A single tear escaped down his eye.

“Are you crying again?” Rucy asked as he quickly wiped it away. “What’s gotten into you?”

Ethan swallowed, taking a deep breath, trying to fight the urge to shed more tears but losing the battle. “I’ll be okay,” he muttered, taking yet another deep, long breath to fight away the tears. “It’s just…you know.”
“What? What do I know?”
Ethan curled his fists into tight little balls, then let them go. “I’d just like to be able to talk about my parents. Like everyone else. That’s kind of what people do, right? But I just…can’t do it. I think of their names, and I know their names, but I can’t even say them anymore." He breathed deeply once more. “Do you know what a hospital is?”

Rucy shook her head slowly. “I’m sorry, I don’t.”

“It’s okay,” Ethan lamented. “It’s a place where I spent a lot of time. It’s funny. I close my eyes and I try to think about my mom and my dad like everyone else does, and all I can hear is their voices. They talk, they say things, but where is the love? There was never any…they…they never did. They never even liked me. They did things to me, Rucy.”

“What’s wrong? What did they do to you…?”
Ethan gagged. “My dad. I can’t even say what he did to me. Why am I so weak? Why can’t I just tell you? Why is it so hard…? I just want to get it off my chest but I can’t.”

Rucy gulped. She looked up to the calm night sky, a dreary and lost shade of empty black. The stars were now gone. Hidden away by the faded clouds covering the scope of the vast darkness. “I don’t know what to say, Ethan. I just don’t know what to say.”

“There’s nothing to say,” Ethan responded, laying down in the sand, the back of his neck bludgeoned by a hard rock. “When I was four, my parents dropped me off at the hospital. Didn’t even take me inside…they just…they just left me there on the sidewalk.”
“Wow…”

At a complete loss for words, Rucy could do nothing but sit there as Ethan rose to his feet. “The hospital found them, and they took me home,” he said. “I kind of wish they never did.”

“What were they like?” Rucy asked, sniffling. “Your parents, I mean. Were they nice?
Ethan gulped. “No. They kind of just smoked a lot of cigarettes. Drank a lot.”

“…”

“I’d better get going,” Ethan added. “Blademaster is expecting me, and it’s a long way to Roach. It was kinda nice, talking to you and everything.”
Rucy nodded, standing to her feet. The two of them hugged tightly for several minutes. “What are you going to do?” Rucy asked. “Are you going to go home?”

Ethan shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I kinda like it here, honestly. I’ve got the chance to do whatever I never got to do at home. I want to get stronger. I really just want to help people. That sort of thing. Maybe I can do that now. I always sort of wanted to do that sort of thing, but I never knew where to start.”

“Yeah…I know what you mean.”
“And there’s still King Hogan to worry about.” Ethan gnawed on his lips. “He’ll pay for your father’s death. He’ll fall.”

Ethan started off into the dark and foggy distance, before turning around and facing the former princess. “The seer wants me to kill Mr. Vilean too,” he added. “He’s the only person I’ve met who was ever nice to me. Maybe he yelled a lot, and called me mean names. But he was there for me. None of my other teachers cared that I was failing my classes. But Mr. Vilean always cared. He always made me stay after school and in during lunch to try and get better, even when I didn’t want to. None of my other teachers did that.”

“…”

“Now this woman wants to me just murder him. Just like that. But I’m not going to do it. I know what you think of him. But I’m the only one who can save Grandayria, right? And if he dies?”

“…”
“If Claude dies, Grandayria dies with him.”