Our Legacy - Episode 14

Maha was placed in a small room with one simple ceiling light. It reminded her of old crime movies where bad men were placed for questioning. She was sitting at a table just like them too. The door at the corner opened and Officer Ulyssa walked in with a clipboard held tightly against her chest. She hurriedly closed the door behind her and sat down opposite her.

"Ma'am..." Maha whispered, feeling sad and confused. She was intimidated by Ulyssa, yet happy that it was her and not some stranger. 

"Maha Azim... We won't be alone for long. General Mara will be joining us shortly."

"Ok..."

"How do you feel?" Ulyssa leaned in, trying to get a good look. 

"In terms of what?"

"Have you healed?" The question felt like a dagger. Have you healed? Of course not.

"I suppose so, ma'am."

"You suppose..."

"...so." Maha repeated the end, irritatingly. 

"I know you haven't had time to mourn..."

"At all." Officer Ulyssa stared at her when she got interrupted.

"But cut me off again and you really won't have time for anything." Maha crossed her arms, disgruntled by the way she was being treated. "I come here as a friend. The General isn't pleased with how the battle with the Necromancer ended. He wants to know what happened." Maha didn't respond. "Please don't show any aggression towards him. He's the last person you want on your bad side. All he wants to know is what happened. I understand that you've lost your whole team and your partner and that you'll blame him for all of that, but restrain yourself from putting yourself in a bad position."

The door opened and the General walked in with a stern smile.

"Ms Maha. Are you ready for your interrogation?" he asked. Maha looked at Ulyssa who's eyes darted towards her crossed arms. She quickly sat straight and clasped her hands on the table.

"Yes, General."

"We're in the middle of a war so I'll get right to the chase. How are you alive?" They both stared at her. Maha didn't know what to say in reply.

"I don't know, sir."

"When we arrived, everyone was dead except you. You were simply unconscious."

"Yes."

"How is that possible. What are you last memories?" Arcadeus walked to the side of the table, now standing between the two women. "What do you remember?"

Flashbacks of Keyla being tortured whipped across her thoughts. Her screams echoed inside her skull. This wasn't a place she wanted to return to. Her last thoughts... Keyla barely alive and pushed against her while wrapped around by an electric web. Her heart suddenly felt a sharp pain. The need to cry and hold something warm overwhelmed her. The General backed up as Maha tried to hold herself from crying.

Her lips were battling hard against her will, the top and bottom pressing against each other. The inevitable rolling of tears weakened her. She suddenly burst into a vocal cry.

"Keylaaaaaa!" Ulyssa couldn't hold back the urge to comfort her as she pushed her chair back and wrapped her arms around Maha. "Keylaaaa!"

"Ssshhhhh, it's going to be fine."

"She's gone!" Maha couldn't stop her tears. Her eyes had turned red and what little mascara she had was running down her face. "She's gone! She's gone and she's not coming back!"

"It's going to be ok. We'll help you get through it." Arcadeus stood there, almost awkwardly, and watched the whole event unfold without saying a word.

A minute had gone by before any of them had said anything. Ulyssa still had her arms around Maha. She could feel her heartbeat. It was slowing down, as was her breathing, and the tears were drying.

"You ok?" Ulyssa whispered, backing up a bit to look her in the face. Maha didn't reply. Instead, she turned to face Arcadeus.

"Ask away... General." Her voice broke. Arcadeus felt her pain but couldn't show it. He knew exactly how she felt but it wasn't the time or place to revisit memories. But then, almost as if she read his mind, she asked a question that hurt his heart. "Don't you miss her?"

"Azim!" Ulyssa warned her.

"I do..." replied Arcadeus, very much to Ulyssa's surprise. Even Maha was surprised when she heard the words. "But if I allow myself to connect with every soldier's loss... I will become incapable of leading our people to victory."

"To feel emotion isn't..."

"I do not lack the education on emotion, Ms Azim." he interrupted. "I have learned enough, if not more so, but if I am to continue in the position I'm in then I must create distance between myself and any matter of emotion that may disrupt my leadership." Maha wanted to agree with him but she couldn't.

"I can't feel her anymore..." she cried. "I can't feel her presence, I can't..."

"Death is part of life." Arcadeus cut her off once more. "This war will only have a happy ending for some. Many of us who are fortunate to come back home will, unfortunately, be returning to a shadow of a previous life we once knew. We don't all keep our loved ones... No matter who we are." Arcadeus's last few words almost came out like a whisper. He was suddenly being pulled into somewhere he didn't want to go to.

"I don't know how I can continue, sir... I don't know what to even do with myself."

Maha looked for guidance in the eyes of the General but he wasn't looking at her. He was blankly staring at the table.

"General," Ulyssa cautiously addressed. "perhaps we should start?"

"Leave the room." He suddenly said bluntly.

"General?"

"Leave." Ulyssa immediately grabbed her clipboard and hurried out the room, softly closing the door behind her.

Maha became anxious at her departure. She had never imagined being alone in a room with Arcadeus. He took Ulyssa's seat and buried his face into the palm of his hands, resting his elbows on the table. He dragged his hands down, wiping his dry face. Maha saw that the powerful man was crashing down inside. She had taken him on a trip he did not want to partake in.

"Did you get to say anything to her?" he asked. Maha simply shook her head. The recent nightmarish memories vibrantly came back. The feeling in her chest wanting to make her cry came back. "Nothing? Not even... the touch of her skin... before she was gone?" Maha shook her head again. "Neither did I." Maha burst into tears. Her jaw dropped and her hands rushed to cover her open mouth. A different memory played in front of her eyes, one where she and Keyla were on a balcony. She had asked her what Arcadeus may have said to Tasia Mara before her death. It was the definitive moment that made both of them join the Demigod army.

"I asked Keyla what her final words to me would be if I was going to die. She said she'd continue to fight but I never got to tell her what I'd say... I never..." Maha brushed away more tears. "I never... Nooo... Keyla... Nooo..."

"There isn't much we can do about loss. We can only hope that in death, those who leave us, will support us in all our future decisions and actions. I fight for my Tasia. I fight for her every single day. I fight day and night... to stay sane." Arcadeus brushed his hair back and briefly stared away at the wall. "There isn't a moment that goes by that I don't think of the way she smelled. The smell of hair, her skin... The sweet natural scent of her body after a hard day's work."

Arcadeus stood up. It almost looked like he was going to leave but he left his fingers on one hand attached to the top of the table.

"This life... it's a bizarre thing. We come to life, barely figuring out what happened yesterday with our memory still developing. We experience a million different things in our lifetime. Some of these experiences are unique, others are common... Many are inevitably shared. Death... Ms Maha... is inescapable, even to us Demigods. No one is truly immortal. If anything, it is love that binds one soul to another that is truly immortal. Love is undying. Love is true. For love... we would give up our own being. For love... we would burn the whole world." A single tear formed in the corner of his eye. He quickly dried it off with his sleeve. "I understand your pain. Losing a loved one is a terrible nightmare. Every hour, every day that passes without them is a nightmare. Tasia and I knew the risks of getting into this war. We knew there were lives at stake. We said people would lose their lives. We saw it every day too. Death everywhere. We seem to think the people we love are untouchable by death. Death feels like a lie told by the government and television. It isn't real until it takes someone you love. And then it's all too real. The sight of your own skin suddenly makes you feel uneasy, this sack of flesh and blood. This life we thought beautiful abruptly changes colour. What we once saw, an array of infinite hue becomes but three simple colours. Once you've seen death you see the true colours of life, white, black and red. Life, death and blood. We come to this world in blood and leave it in blood."

Something suddenly clicked in Arcadeus. A certain motivation reactivated within him causing him to smash the table in half.

"WHY ARE YOU ALIVE!?" he roared. Maha fell off her chair and crawled to the corner of the room. "WHY. ARE. YOU. ALIVE!?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" She screamed in horror.

"WHY ARE YOU ALIVE!?" he repeated, thunderous in his tone.

"I DON'T KNOW, I SWEAR!"

"LIES!"

"I SWEAR!"

"WHO KILLED THE NECROMANCER!"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Maha cried. Arcadeus advanced towards her with killer eyes.

"YOU MUST!"

"I DON'T!" The General leapt like a lion, striking at her neck with an open hand. He grabbed it, small in his hands, and began to add pressure.

"MAHA AZIM!"

Maha suddenly had flashes of the man who killed the Necromancer. She wanted to throw up. She hated the sound of her name again. Arcadeus made her feel just like the unknown man did. What if... No... No that can't be. They locked eyes. There was hatred in his eyes.

"TELL ME WHAT YOU REMEMBER!" You already know, she thought to herself and she wasn't going to entertain his rhetorical question. "WHO KILLED THE NECROMANCER! WHERE ARE THE GOD PARTICLES HE COLLECTED!?"

"I don't know!" She screamed. Arcadeus threw her across the room. She hit the wall upside down and then the floor head first.

"You will remember. I will not allow a Demigod with such powers to walk amongst us, not when there is a war going on." He walked towards the exit but took one last look at Maha. "All threats to my people... will be eliminated. If you wish to be a part of us, you will remember."

The door was shut loud and hard. Maha had crawled back to the corner again, crying, her arms wrapped around her legs. She didn't know what to think or say anymore. Keyla was gone and Arcadeus was mad at her. She couldn't tell him what she saw. Her mind could be playing tricks on her, she was tortured after all. If she told anyone that a man capable of eliminating the all-powerful Necromancer knew her name, she would be a potential suspect, not a victim. But then there was the way Arcadeus made her feel. Her mind was making connections.

The General of the Demigod army had to be powerful so that no one undermined his leadership and rule. He could easily guise himself to collect more God Particles, an act which he himself stated punishable by death. Of course, eliminate the competition and then do it yourself. Maha wiped away her tears. She suddenly had a very clear goal.

"Keyla... grant me strength. I'm going on a suicide mission."