Markus watched the contenders. He knew them both. Fought them both. And beat them both. They really weren’t worth his attention any more, so he turned back to his friend. “I hate teaching and there’s not a single person in this entire Empire I would lay my life down for. Well, maybe for you, when you aren’t being a nagging bastard. But last I checked lords or captains in the Vanguard don’t get Protectors, so…”
“While I appreciate that––I think. Maybe you should have considered that issue before you entered the Program. You certainly would have saved yourself a lot of trouble from your father and the other noble houses. They all think you’ve lost your mind.”
Markus felt the irritation rising up at a conversation that had gotten way past old and expired. He didn’t understand why people insisted on harping on this. Why couldn’t Nathias and all the others get it through their thick skulls that Markus had long since stopped caring what any of the high and mighty royals might think about him?
“I don’t care what they think. And I joined the College because they were teaching what I wanted to learn. I’ve done that. Now I’m putting it to use. Do you know how much money I’ve made just these past months? I could almost buy a planet with what I’ve earned since I started these fights. A small one, but still.”
Nathias let out an exasperated sigh. “Seriously? Your father is literally in charge of hundreds of planets. You could have been too if you hadn’t have been squandering all your time away.”
Markus waved a hand. “Boring, and not even a little interested. And I don’t actually want to buy a planet, Nathias.”
The other man put his face in his palms and groaned. “You are missing the point.”
“No, you are. Let me speak slowly so you get it. I. Like. It. Here. I. Like. What. I. Do. And if you can’t accept that, you can disappear like everyone else in my life.”
“Interesting you should say that. Have you looked at your messages lately?”
Irritation rippled through Markus and he was finding it hard not to throw a punch at his once friend. “What is it with you and my messages? You know I haven’t. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here. And you obviously know what I am missing, so why don’t you just tell me already?”
Markus glared at his friend, trying to get Nathias by will power alone to tell him whatever it was that was going on, but the other man just looked out into the boisterous crowd like he had no care in the world as he held out his unity ring.
That gave Markus pause. Normally, his tactics worked on Nathias. This must be serious. It was enough to get Markus to take the slim silver bracelet. Markus didn’t even know where his unity ring was. Maybe buried somewhere in a stack of unwashed clothes, or hiding under one of the few pieces of furniture he had in his tiny residence.
Cresta wasn’t a place that had security check points or made sure everyone were who they said they were. In fact, the underground city of Cresta was exactly the kind of place you would go to get away from the Empire’s obsession with knowing everyones’ business. So Markus didn’t need it for identity purposes, and he most certainly had no interest of talking to anyone. So he’d been perfectly fine with it staying lost.
Once Markus was able to access his personal network identifier with a quick retina scan, the ring projected a blue transparent screen in the air in front of him, and it started scrolling through a long list of missed messages. There were hundreds of unopened entries, but it was six that were flagged from the Chief Commander of the College near the top that got Markus’s immediate attention. He opened the first that had arrived just over twelve hours ago. An enlarged image of the Commander’s stern face began to speak.
“Your immediate presence is requested at the College. Check in with Lieutenant–Captain Dexter as soon as you land. This is a time sensitive manner. Respond to this message as soon as you receive it so that we know you are en route.”
Markus quickly checked the other five that had been sent nearly two hours apart from each other. All of them had the same message, but with increasing urgency and demanding Markus’s immediate response.
“What the yavit is this all about? I thought they had forgotten about me.”
Nathias snorted. “You wish they had forgotten about you. There’s a difference, Markus.”
He didn’t feel like starting another fight, or maybe it was the same one that never ended, or at least it seemed that way of late. What was wrong with Nathias? Markus had always been who he had been. It never seemed a problem until recently. What had changed?
“You are just loving this aren’t you? Did you put them up to it?”
Nathias shook his head. “Why would they listen to me? I’m just a Major in the Vanguard, not the Protectorate.”
“Then who?”
“Why don’t you go back to the College and find out?”
Anger stirred inside of Markus. He was getting tired of this. He just wanted answers, not rehashing old arguments.
Markus also knew that the way he had left things at the College there had to be some major upset for the Chief Commander to be personally calling him back. Either that, or they were finally stripping him of his Pledge status and membership to the College, but if that was the case, they could have just sent a stern official message telling him all about it. He’d actually been expecting that particular message long before now. Instead, he had gotten nothing but silence since he’d left Sora X two years ago, until today, that is.
“For all that is holy, would you stop playing around and tell me what this is about?”
Nathias pushed himself off the wall and turned to face Markus. His face red and his eyes ablaze. “I wouldn’t have to tell you anything if you would stick your head up out of this yavit hole every once in awhile. You used to know everything about everything, but since you’ve come down here, you just pretended the rest of the galaxy doesn’t even exist. Did you even know that Adar was back?”
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Markus stilled. He wasn’t sure what to do or say. Nathias was a mild mannered person, and he had only seen his friend loose his temper a handful of times over the years. He didn’t understand where all this sudden anger was coming from.
“Did you hear what I said?” Nathias was almost shouting at this point.
“Yes, calm down.” Markus put up his hands to try to settle his friend. “I don’t see what the fuss is about. There are always new rumors resurfacing every two or three years about his return. You know I stopped listening to them years ago.”
“Well this time it’s true. He’s really back.” Nathias practically spit out the last words and his nostrils flared.
Markus almost laughed at his friend, thinking this was some sort of elaborate prank. Nathias was certainly capable of it. Both of them had taken part in pranking wars since childhood. But Markus could sense the truth behind his friend’s words. It was like someone had rung a bell that only he could hear, and in fact, only he could. Markus’s Dome-ni of Verity was not a common talent. Nathias was speaking the truth, or at least a truth he believed in.
He narrowed his eyes at his friend. “You have legitimate proof. You aren’t trying to mess with me?”
Nathias looked like he wanted to throw a punch at Markus. Instead, he yanked his comm device from Markus’s hand and spoke a few voice commands. A moment later, a transparent full length image of a man hovered between them both. It wasn’t actual life sized, only about two feet tall, but Markus had no trouble recognizing the person in the image.
It was of a young man in his early to mid twenties. He wore the blue and gold long coat of an Imperial Prince. Though, his hair was nowhere close to standard length. The dark chestnut waves barely brushed the tops of his shoulders.
His face also didn’t have the cold hard look Markus had become accustomed to from the Zahn family. This man looked more like he was out of place and a little confused. But what made Markus’s breath stop were the eyes. The bright blues Markus remembered from his friend might have been a little darker, but he’d know them anywhere.
It was like the whole universe stood still as he stared at the image before him. His thoughts running wild. His pulse thundering in his veins.
“He’s really back,” Markus finally breathed.
Nathias rolled his eyes. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, but you’ve been too thick headed to listen, as usual.”
Markus looked up and threw the other man an annoyed look. “You could have just come out and said so. You didn’t have to be all cloak and dagger about it.”
“You think the only reason I’m here is because of this? I could have come weeks ago if that was the case. That’s how long this has been news. You really didn’t notice it was real this time?”
Markus motioned to the cave of the shouting and bustling crowd. “You know how this place is, and when I’m not fighting, I’m drinking, sometimes sleeping. And training, don’t forget the training.”
“Adar’s on his way to the College. He and the Emperor are looking for new Protectors.”
A jolt of surprise went through Markus. “What happened to Hame?”
Nathias shook his head in disgust. “Seriously, Markus? You need to get off this planet. The sooner the better. So are you going to Sora X, or not?”
Markus narrowed his eyes at the other man, but he decided there were more important things than responding to that sort of comment. “There’s one thing I don’t understand. Why would the Chief Commander of the College want me there? I’ve been ghosting them for two years, and they have yet to seem to care.”
Nathan shrugged nonchalantly, almost too nonchalantly. “Maybe the Commander was convinced to call you.”
Uh huh. There was definitely more to this. Markus could smell it. He narrowed his eyes at a sudden suspicion. “By who?”
Markus watched his friend closely. There was a moment where the other man had opened his mouth as if to say something, and then he quickly closed it. He gave Markus a steady gaze. Yep. He knew Markus knew exactly who.
Finally, Nathis gave out a long sigh. “Who do you think?”
Markus snorted. He certainly had noticed there hadn’t been a single missed message from his father. He wouldn’t have bothered. He knew Markus would never have answered. It didn’t matter if the entire Empire was burning. Markus would rather burn with it, than talk to that bastard.
“Yavit,” was all Markus could say.
“You better get going. I hear Adar’s ship is supposed to land late tomorrow. It’s at least a nine hour trip from here.”
Markus crossed his arms in front of his chest surprised at the stubborn feeling streaking through him. He couldn’t decide if it was in the way Nathias had come here to tell him about Adar, or if it was Markus’s father that had been behind Nathias even being here. “You’re assuming I will go.”
Nathias raised an eyebrow, “And why wouldn’t you? You’ve been waiting for this for years.”
Markus swallowed feeling uneasy for the first time in… well, a very long time. Markus did not do uneasy. He was the one who made others uneasy, and that was a point of pride for him. But now… Adar was back. Like really, truly back in Ethia. After all this time. It had been something Markus had desperately wished for most of his life. Then why did he feel the unease and a knot starting to grow in his gut?
“That’s the keywords. Have been. It’s been twenty years, Nathias. He probably doesn’t even remember me. Yavit, I barely remember it all myself.”
Nathias gave him a knowing look that Markus tried to ignore.
“Fine, Markus. Let’s just say you did forget all about your time with Adar. That you don’t care about the childhood friend you spent years crying about how he left you behind, and then when that wasn’t enough to sooth your anger, you turned on your family and blamed the whole lot of them. Let’s pretend none of that even happened. Would you be interested to know that your long lost friend happens to know quat-lo and that he kicked Hame’s ass? He did it so bad that the Emperor wants to severe his bond and get a new Protector.”
Markus blinked at his friend, trying to register what Nathias had just said. It took a moment to let that settle in. Adar had beaten down a well seasoned Protector? Not even other Protectors would attempt to try such a thing unless they’d had many years under their belts. Markus himself would give it a good long consideration before doing something that bold.
But then Adar had grown up under Aragon’s influence and care. That man would have no trouble besting someone like Hame, and Markus was certain he’d pass that kind of knowledge on to Adar. Aragon wouldn’t have allowed Adar to come back otherwise.
“Aragon’s doing, no doubt, and I’m sure Kaller won’t be happy he was bested. I bet good money Zorren will get in on that. It’s just the kind of thing he’d exploit.”
“Funny you should say that,” Nathias replied with that tone that Markus knew all too well.
He eyed his friend with suspicion. “What do you know?”
The other man shrugged like what he was going to say wasn’t that important. “Only that I heard that Zorren may have influenced Hame into confronting Adar the first chance he got.”
“Of course he did,” Markus scoffed. “I just can’t believe a Protector like Kaller could be so yavit gullible.” Markus stood up from the wall. Pain raced up his ankle, reminding him of the injury. “Yavit. I don’t have time for a treatment.”
“You can get one on my ship on the way the College.”
Again, Markus found himself eying his friend. “I thought pavi said I couldn’t use your Vanguard ship for free rides anymore.”
“In this case, he lifted the ban. Guess he was serious about that promise he made you.” Nathias stood up from the wall too and began making his way through the crowd. Before he got too far he turned back to Markus. “Are you coming? We are wasting time standing here.”
Markus stood there for a moment, more than a little in shock. He remembered pavi’s promise all those years ago. They had been standing side by side, watching the ship Adar, his mother, and Aragon had boarded to leave the Empire. He remembered his father’s words as if he’d spoken them yesterday.
“I am truly sorry, son. I know how much you care for him. It is never easy to loose the ones we love. I promise that I will make this up to you. Somehow, I will make this right for you and him.”
Markus sighed heavily as he let the memory dissolve and he moved to limp after his friend. “Yeah, I’m coming, but pavi better not think this makes up for what he did.” But even as he said it, Markus couldn’t help but feel a flicker of warmth to the old man. It was more than he had allowed toward his father in a very long time.