Chapter 100 What It Means To Be Human.
Isaac had been sitting on the edge of the rooftop at the corner of the alleyway where Lenna and the family were waiting. He was invisible for everyone except Lenna because his shadows clung to her, allowing her to peer past the veil of darkness. He had ditched his mask because as much as he liked the look, he really didn’t like things on his face. If he was being honest with himself, he didn’t even like his own shadows on his face for extended periods of time and he couldn’t even physically feel them.
Lenna had kept the family, mostly the youngest daughter, company. The little one had taken the moment of peace to begin questioning Lenna relentlessly. Lenna, for her part, was handling it admirably but Isaac could tell that it was starting to wear her out. She was anything but an extrovert and the little girl was nothing but one.
Eventually, Isaac noticed a covered wagon drawn by a singular horse come down the street. That was an odd sight for the area but not an odd one for Safeharbor. Guiding the horse from the bench was a blonde girl that Isaac had noticed at the Celestial Dawn recently. She was a new waitress who looked no older than fifteen. The fact that she could drive a wagon at that age meant that she was definitely not a Safeharbor native. The wagon came to a stop at the edge of the alleyway and the cover facing it was pulled up by Phantom who revealed Celeste waiting with a loose pile of clothes. He tied up the cover and then hopped down from the wagon.
“Good work, Phantom.” Lenna told him.
“You rob me of a dramatic exit, my Lady.” He spoke with a deep and exaggerated bow. “The misty roads I am known for would be, unfortunate, for you, so I bid you adieu.”
“Darkness will guide you.” She told him and a moment later it appeared as if his shadow reached up and devoured him. Lenna strode towards Celeste. “Thank you.” She told the motherly woman. “I couldn’t make them walk through town without shoes.”
Celeste eyed the two girls and their mother and then frowned at Lenna. “Load them up and we can talk about this later.” She told her.
Isaac appeared next to the wagon facing Lenna and the girls. “This is Celeste, she brought clothes for you.” Isaac told them and then looked at the woman in question. “Blackmarket deal, Lenna couldn’t just leave them, see if you can get any information out of them on the way back, yeah?” He whispered to her.
Celeste’s frown deepened. “You aren’t coming?” She questioned him.
“No. That way they can change in the wagon.” Isaac replied. The two finished their conversation just in time for Lenna to arrive with three tag-alongs. Isaac, Celeste, and Lenna helped the three into the wagon before Celeste started undoing the ties that held the cover open.
“We can talk after I get them settled in.” Celeste told him. “For now, what are they to you?”
“Well, they owe me three thousand gold, Phantom owed me money once too.” He told her. “By the way, I want to hear how he got you here, later.” Celeste nodded and closed the tarp. From the outside Isaac and Lenna could hear her fussing over the family until the reins clapped and the wagon pulled away. “I hope that waitress is safe.” Isaac told Lenna.
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She knew that he wasn’t referencing how much danger the waitress was in but rather how likely she was to start talking about Phantom. Everything else that happened was fair game as far as Isaac was concerned. He would prefer if their compassion wasn’t yelled from the rooftops because some might see it as him getting soft, but he wasn’t about to tell her to keep her mouth shut about it. “Me too.” Lenna told him. “Now, I would like to get back into my boots and pants, at least. I believe I have had enough of dresses and slippers for one day.”
“You can change here.” Isaac offered her. “Our Phantom is no longer being hidden by me, so I can hide you instead.”
Lenna looked at him like he had just told her the most scandalous thing she had ever heard. “No.” She told him like he was crazy for even suggesting it.
Isaac shrugged. “Why not, it’s not like anyone would be able to see you?”
Lenna’s eyes looked like they were going to fall out of their sockets, they were so wide. “I am not changing in a place this exposed, what if something happens and you need to use your shadows for something else? Will I just be exposed?” She demanded.
“Any price is worth your modesty, so no, I would just not use my shadows for anything else.” He told her.
“No means no, Isaac. Let’s go back to the Dawn so I can change and we can sort out everything.” She instructed more than offered him.
“You were incredible.” Isaac told her as he offered her his arm.
She took it as she fell in beside him. “I am not now?” She asked teasingly.
“You were more incredible than usual.” Isaac clarified as they began their walk home. “A brilliant blazing bonfire on a cold night, for those girls, more or less literally. I believe, my Lady, that you are a natural at your role.”
“And I believe, my Lord, that you show more compassion than you claim to have.” She replied. “We have saved slaves on multiple occasions but you have always kept your distance, why?”
Isaac sighed. “I just think that in many cases, they are weak and didn’t deserve to be saved.” He replied. “There are times when I can give the benefit of the doubt, like the mother of your little friend. If her children were threatened, then I can see her acquiescing to any demand, for their sake. My problem is when there are those who aren’t staying in slavery to protect a child who obviously can’t fend for themselves. Those people are weak. ‘Fate worse than death’? If that’s true then die to escape it. Fight until the final breath for any reason at all but don’t just wallow in self pity and complain about the situation being helpless. Those people, they are cattle on two legs at best, bugs at worst.”
Lenna was silent as Isaac went on and on until he finally stopped. “What about those born into it?” She wondered.
“I do not know if this applies to any of the other races, but what makes us human is not our environment or the shape of our ears, no, it is the single minded focus and ferocity to fight anything and everything that is trying to hold us back, head on. Injuries held us back, medicine and potions were created. Monsters tried to crush our civilizations, walls and weapons were made. The wisdom of our elders was dying off with them, words were created and carved into stone. Life, no, existence, existence itself is a trial by combat and any who give up on that fight, who stop striving towards something better, those are the people in danger of losing their humanity.” Isaac ranted with enough conviction that Lenna began to feel what he was saying in her heart, though she didn’t entirely agree with it.
“What about those who just want to live, those that want to grasp at the hope of a better tomorrow?” Lenna asked him.
“Then they are fighting a losing battle. One day, maybe not today, or tomorrow, but one day, their end will come and they will still be in the same place that they started from with nothing but painful memories and gray hairs to show for it.” Isaac replied. “It is better to blaze bright like the sun for but a moment than to exist as a fruitless ember for an age.”
“I see.” Lenna said after a moment. “I believe that is mostly a human way of thinking, yes. As a race with so little time on or in our planet, I can see why that mentality would be necessary. For elves at least, the chance for a rescue, like today, has a much larger window of time to come. There are those who struggle on for a hundred years only to be rescued by some unknown entity. Humans do not have that time to wait for a savior, you must be your own more often than not, even though I wish it weren’t so.”
“I have this feeling. When I think about the sky, the moon, and the stars, I have this whisper of a feeling that they were once within reach. Like there was a chance, a small one, but a chance nonetheless, that I could have reached out and touched them. That kind of thing is not something that can be done by elves or dwarves. That is the kind of thing that requires a human’s will to fight the unknown by making it known.” Isaac explained through a wince as he fought against his building headache. “That, that is what it means to be human.”