Crux

I don’t… I don’t remember a thing. What was I doing back then? A wall of fog permeated my memories, making me unable to peer back to that time.

“I didn’t want it to come to this.” Grandy lightly rests his hand on the hilt of his dagger. “If you can’t give a reasonable explanation as to what you were doing back then you must come with me.”

“Stop…” Yesenia whispers while trembling, covering her head with her hands. Hanafin looks down at her with a look of concern. “This is just too strange, there’s no conceivable reason for Crux to do any of this.”

“There is one.” Grandy doesn’t drop the intensity of his gaze. “And only one reason I could possibly think of you doing this for.”

Yes… If I were to betray the country it would be for those two… I look at the prince and the princess.

“Sorry Grandy. I just don’t remember anything.” I murmur back at him. “Whether I did it or not. That time frame inside my head feels like it’s just missing.”

Celestia looks back in the direction of the place she stepped out of with a knowing smile after I said that.

“Cain, you’re hiding in there too aren’t you?” Hanafin says loudly.

Cain soon wordlessly steps out as well, him and Hanafin tensely staring at each other. leaving six people standing in this room.

“Don’t give me that shit Crux, what do you mean you don’t remember?” Grandy angrily grabs my collar.

”I simply don’t remember. I don’t wish to deceive you. I’m just telling the truth.”

“I believe him.” Celestia crosses her arms.

All of us look at her at once.

”Mmmm, I’m supposed to say something here aren’t I?” She stares off into the ceiling gathering her thoughts. “Okay! Here’s the issue. I’d thought I’d be able to quickly find who the culprit was when I first came here, but no one’s heart rate fluctuated when I tried calling them out initially, but my instincts were just screaming at me that Crux was the traitor. I met with Grandy a while back and he told me he felt the same thing as well.”

“Instincts? Are you kidding me? You did that entire investigation off instincts alone? Both of you?” Yesenia interrupts heatedly. “Aren’t you just admitting that you’re trying to confirm your preconceived biases?”

“Let me finish first before arguing. The issue is that Crux never showed any tells despite two weeks of prodding and poking, meaning either he’s a liar on the level of a psychopath, or he simply doesn’t know he did it.” Celestia continues.

“Or… He just didn’t do it. Grandy, why are you following along with her? In fact, why are you following along as well?” She looks at Cain.

…

“I’m sorry, there are no excuses for what I did.” Cain solemnly bowed his head

“Eh, I tricked him a bit, no need to give him a hard time.” Celestia grins as she waves Yesenia off.

”Yesenia, let’s go upstairs for a bit.” Hanafin asks her as the subject matter begins to hit a standstill.

Yesenia

I sit down next to my brother, feeling stuck in my own mind.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t be acting so combative.” I finally apologize to him. Crux is still the number one suspect based on the evidence. It’s impossible for him to have done it, but we still have to go through the motions to prove his innocence.

“You shouldn’t be a part of this.” Hanafin says. “I’m worried about the stress this may put on you.”

“I’m going to be fine. I’ve done and through much worse.”

“Not with this type of conflict… How should I say this? You’re just too vulnerable of a person to deal with this.” Hanafin’s gaze pierces through me. “When you trust someone, you have a habit of relying on them emotionally, you reveal your darkest thoughts—“ My deepest insecurities, my biggest fears. I knew exactly what Hanafin was about to say, because I’ve already shown this side of me to him years ago.

“So? What are you still worried about?” I say with a slightly bitter tone.

“Just… That… What if Crux is the traitor? I don’t know how you would respond to that.” Hanafin tries to inch around the subject, knowing how touchy I was being around it.

…

”I’ve been acting irrationally, I get it. Like a little child who isn’t getting what they want.” I say. ”All of you want me to judge this unbiasedly. Put my feelings aside and get to work. If I don’t calm down, I’m not going to be taken seriously. Then sure. That’s what I’ll do. Totally normal starting now.”

“But-“

“I’m going to be fine.” I stop Hanafin before he starts talking. “No matter what happens nothing about me will change.”

Crux

I can’t remember anything… No, it’s more like I’m scared of remembering. But why?

“Crux, once again I have to ask you if you’re the traitor we’re looking for.” Grandy says to me.

”I don’t know. I’m sorry. Things are just blurry to me right now.” It was like the moment after waking up from a dream, where you’re unable to distinguish reality from dream.

“Why don’t you give it a shot?” A sentence suddenly pops up in my head. Something that was directed to me. I could remember the sneer on his face when he told me that. It was… A masked man.

“Why don’t I give what a shot…?” I murmur.

I look at Cain and Celestia bickering about something. I knew about the Tetsudo before he ever arrived at Lyster. I’ve seen him before.

Yesenia and Hanafin walk back down the cellar stairs talking to each other. An intense bout of deja vu begins stirring within my stomach, feeling unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.

“Maybe you’ll surprise me.” Dundee said.

“As long as I avoid the first event. I can keep the northern capital safe as long as I trigger these memories again.” I replied back. “I will betray Lyster and make the deal with Oliviand to ensure their survival.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Are you sure? There’s no guarantee you’ll remember everything before it happens.”

“I’m positive.” At the very least, those two will survive.

“I remember.” I suddenly gasp out, with a small grin on my face.

“What did you do?” Grandy turns over to shake me.

”Yes… As long as I remember what was going to happen. Grandy… Everyone… I am the traitor.” I deliberately avoid Yesenia’s stunned gaze as I say this.

”I sent those documents out over the long course of six months, but it’s something I’ll need some time to explain. So I’m asking you to trust me. Back then… I met a masked man.”

Celestia’s eyes sparkle.

“I know it’s hard to believe but he showed me visions of the future.”

”What…? I’m sorry, are you sure you didn’t have a weird dream?” Hanafin interrupts.

”No, the masked people exist and are capable of things like that.” Celestia responds. “I fought against one of them and Rudeus when I was staying at the eye—“

“WHAT?!” Nearly everyone in the room except Cain and Yesenia clamors at once.

“Rudeus is still alive?!?” Grandy yells.

”Ah, I probably should have mentioned that earlier.” Celestia rubs her head.

“What was he doing in The Eye?” Hanafin asks.

“Well first of all, trying to kill me, but second of all recruiting one of those masked people for the cause.”

“But The Eye was destroyed about a month ago… Does that mean that he’s…” I say.

“If his fate was to die. Then I would have killed him when we fought. He’s fine; I'm sure of it.” Celestia says with an unnerving calmness.

“Who… Are you talking about?” Cain timidly says during a momentary gap in the conversation while we ponder the new facts.

Grandy turns to Cain. ”A very skilled swordsman from Lyster, while also being an incredible commander, was second only to… Well, he’s incredibly vital to our operations.” He catches himself before mentioning someone else.

”Crux, explain yourself.” Yesenia interrupts the flow of conversation dryly, staring at me cold in the eyes, visually unconcerned with the news.

“Oh… Um, well you see. I saw two visions back when I met Dundee, the name of the masked person. In one of them, during the arrival of the Tetsudo, you.” I point to Cain. “A couple months ago, the assassin that previously broke into the castle would kill the two heirs. After the subsequent upheaval and panic, you would take leadership and lead us to victory.”

Cain stares blankly at me as I say that, making unsure of what his expression exactly entailed.

“The other vision is about to occur, but we can stop it from happening if we act now. The northern capital will be attacked soon, a surprise attack so sudden that they’ll be able to practically take it for free. We need to prepare reinforcements and send a messenger before they get a chance to act.”

“Be… cause of the information you sent out?”

“Yes I detailed the routing information of the Loran mountains that avoids our scouting outposts entirely. There should currently be a flank en route. That’s also the reason the assassin never targeted the heirs due to the conditions I laid out during negotiations.”

“I’m sorry, but you did all of this from a vision someone showed you? Isn’t a more likely explanation that someone caused you to hallucinate things? Maybe drugged your drink?” Cain questions.

“Cain, have you ever seen the rift in person?” Celestia talks to Cain before I have a chance to respond.

“Yes, I’ve visited The Eye before.” Cain looks around into confused looks. “There’s one on our side as well.” He clarifies.

“And do you know the history behind its creation? The impossibly dangerous weather conditions that prevent anyone from crossing over? All made by a single person right?”

“… Right, the rogue. Don’t tell me…”

”Yes, my theory was that the rogue was one of those masked people. The history books liken him to a living god descending upon our world to end the Anku-Tetsu war, but that would be much more likely. I’ve collected lots of information traveling over the past couple years, traces of the existence of a masked person are all over the world. Many tales and stories of him doing impossible tasks with mysterious deity-like powers. I’ve heard his name many times as well, and it matches up with Crux’s story. Dundee.” Celestia takes a breath after her long uninterrupted monologue. “Hell, even your friend Rudeus has ties to him, and as far as I know that’s the reason he was at The Eye.”

“I understand.” Yesenia was sparsely talking during this whole exchange. “So tell me, what if you never remembered all of this?” She looks at me.

…

I go silent. Yes, things did turn out well in the end, but the fact of the matter was that I consciously made an incredibly risky and selfish decision to save the heir’s lives.

But I already decided long ago what the answer to this question was going to be.

”Mmh, then I would have jeopardized the lives of everyone here.” I kneel down to the ground and lower my head. “For that reason, I will accept any punishment that comes my way, including death.”

I look up as Yesenia suddenly sniffles. Her eyes were watery, and her breathing was slightly shaky, but she kept a cold and unflinching demeanor, as if trying her best to avoid getting emotional.

“I don’t want this.” She says while glancing at Hanafin, who gives a slight nod of affirmation as they communicate wordlessly. “If our deaths would have guaranteed saved everyone then I should have died back then. Why do you have to be so stupid?”

I don’t reply.

“Tell me truthfully, do you regret what you did at all?”

…

”No. I don’t.” I finally say.

“I knew it.” She whispers. “I hate you then.”

I hate you then. The words could be felt lashing into my soul, but it was something I already knew was going to happen.

Hanafin looks at Yesenia as she buries her face in her arms before turning to me. “Thank you for saving our lives, but you will get no mercy for this.”

“I understan—“

“I need to know why. Why would you do such a thing for us? You were good friends with father, but you know damn well that he wouldn’t have wanted this. So tell me... Why? Tell me...” Yesenia interrupts.

I look around at the other people in the room wordlessly listening to everything being said.

Grandy quickly gets the hint. “Let’s go back up and tell everyone. We need to make preparations quickly to rebuff the attack.” He specifically places his hand on Celestia’s shoulder.

“Aww, well it doesn’t matter too much. I’ll still be able to hear everything regardless.” Celestia throws up her arms behind her head and begins meandering up the cellar stairs. ”No pressure though!” She whispers loudly to us before getting pushed upstairs by Grandy.

Cain goes last, lightly rapping Yesenia’s back before he follows the two. “Take things easy.” He says softly.

Cain

“How did you get the papers Celestia? Were you two working together?” I ask them. Celestia looks back behind me as we walk through the castle.

”Isn’t my name kinda long to pronounce?” She talks about something completely unrelated.

”What?”

”Ce-les-ti-a, everytime I hear someone call me that I get bored mid-word from how long it is, it’s like an entire sentence on its own.”

”Okay?”

“But no-one outside of my family ever shortens it for me.” She looks at me expectantly.

“…”

”Okay, Celest. Were you and Grandy secretly working together?”

”Yep! That’s exactly what we did.” She immediately says.

Grandy slowly covers his eyes with his hands and takes a deep breath. “I approached her and asked who she thought the traitor was, our initial guesses were the same, so we started working together.”

“So you suspected Crux as well? Why?” I ask, the two seemed like good friends from what little I've seen of them.

”I don’t know, like I said, it was a first guess. I would have written it off without thought had we not discovered that ink.” He sighs.

I recall Celestia’s words about Grandy’s instinct. Instinct was very much a real thing, an amalgamation of subliminal quirks that give you an uneasy feeling about something that one can't easily put into thoughts or words.

”Seeeee. I told you he’s good, not as good as me, but still pretty good.” Celestia says, as if reading my thoughts.

”Also what was with that last line of yours. ’Take things easy.’” She says with air quotes. “You’re a real softie aren’t you? All worried about your little princess.”

“I- I guess, but let’s talk about what you did to me. Are you going to do that every time someone doesn’t do what you want? I’m going to report you for that, you know?”

“I never did anything.” She responds flatly. “You agreed to it all on your own before I even got a chance to use my Sananku. Which, by the way, I was planning on using on you, let's not get that part twisted. Besides…” She looks at her hands. “It’s much harder to influence your emotions than everyone else, not impossible but very difficult. It’s like there’s barely anything I can latch onto, like—”

I was no longer paying attention after that point however.

… I betrayed Yesenia by my own free will?