Chapter 11: Decisions

Jaff sat with his hands on his head, his thoughts heavy with disbelief. He read the page over and over again, hoping he missed something, maybe misunderstood his late brother’s writing. But there was no mistaking Malik’s perfect pen strokes.

“When I returned to my homeland,” his brother wrote. “ I will find Jaff and hold my son one last time before I take his life. I’ve studied on this ( the Khalina Prophecy ) for as long as I’ve been on foreign shores. I must kill my son for the world’s sake; I must be the one to do so.”

For so long Jaff thought protecting Aiden was what his brother wanted. The journal he received on Nihon proved him wrong and Malik’s writing was a knife in Jaff’s heart.

“How?” Jaff muttered, his eyes fixated on the pages before him. “How could I have been so wrong?” How he wished he knew killing Aiden was what Malik wanted, because there was a brief window when Jaff wanted the same. So much death and destruction could have been avoided.

“You need to stop beating yourself up,” Amara said, seated across from Jaff. She reached over for the journal. “Throw this away.”

“No!” Jaff said, snatching the book from her grasp.

“You’re not doing your sanity any favors by holding on to the dead.”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“Wouldn’t I?” Amara responded, arching an eyebrow.

“This is different! I betrayed Aiden’s trust before. Just the thought of acting on his brother’s wishes now; after my nephew has forgiven me?!”

“Didn’t you say Aiden was in Nihon, searching for a way to get rid of Damnation?”

“What if he can’t? What if he doesn’t? Do I do nothing!?” Jaff flipped through the pages once more as if re-reading them made a difference. “How would I even show him his father’s journal? How would he respond knowing his father wanted him dead, as did I once?”

“Aiden, Aiden, Aiden..” spoke a stranger to Jaff’s eyes. A man dressed almost as smooth as his voice, joined them at the table. “I hadn’t heard that name since that fateful chariot crash.”

“And who might you be?” asked Jaff, clearly unimpressed.

“Oh, you must be Casper,” Amara introduced.

“He, I am.”

“Great! This is Jaff, by the way. He’s..”

“How do you know Aiden?” Jaff interrupted.

“Just by name,” said Casper. “But even if we’re not speaking about the same child, how about we agree not to mention his name again in my presence, hmm?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Casper’s words stirred up a cocktail of anger and disgust in Jaff’s eyes. He was ready to leap across the table at Casper when Amara swiftly intervened. She jumped from her seat, stood between the two, and lassoed Caper by the arm. “Let’s get started!” she encouraged.

“What’s your business with this person?” Jaff asked, with an emphasis of disapproval on the word person.

“Well, since Aid..um..your nephew refuses to make a Rebirth for me, I’m going to find a Rebirth on my own.”

“So you hired a hunter?” Jaff deduced. “And here you were telling me to let go of the dead.”

Amara ignored Jaff’s comment and left the diner in a hurry with Casper. After a moment or two Jaff parted ways with the busy establishment as well. It was time to get back home, and without Aiden around, he was in for a long walk back to Khalm.

Long and cold.

Trees along the road home weren’t as full of life as they used to be. And the sun seemed to be on a long vacation, sharing a few rays of light whenever it felt like doing so.

As he raised his jacket collar he caught a glimpse of a moving shadow nearby. And then it was gone. “A night ghoul?” But the night ghouls were gone; Aiden saw to that.

Or did he?

He thought about morphing into something with swift wings. Then he remembered having Aiden destroy his Rebirth; an action he never expected to regret.

“Jaff,” someone called from the road ahead. It was a woman; a clocked woman; a familiar woman. She was a woman that should be dead.

“..Farah..?”

“Hurry off the road!” she urged, lowering her hood.

“It... is you!” But how..!?

“Move!” Farah ordered, the urgency in her voice overcoming Jaff’s puzzled gaze of disbelief. They sprinted up the road, only stopping once the gates of Khalm were behind them.

“The ghouls have returned,” Farah said, pointing in the direction they just came from; now filled with slow moving shadows.

“Aiden disposed of them. How are they back?” Jaff turned to the curly haired woman. “How are you back?!”

“I never died,” Farah said, waving to a group of men carrying torches. “We need to keep a fire burning at all times. That will keep the ghouls out.”

“Farah, look at me!” Jaff demanded. “What do you mean you never died!? Noone survived the Catalyst!”

Farah turned to collect pieces of wood for the fire. “Aiden. He found me in time. He saved me.”

“What? How? When?!” Jaff blurted.

“I..I don't konw. I think he used a Rebirth..but...” Farah tossed an armful of wood on the growing fire and wiped the dirt from her hands. “That man...that Aiden was older...more mature..”

Was she..blushing? “I..don’t believe what I’m hearing..”

“Is he still in Nihon?”

“I guess so. He could be.”

“Was he still a young boy?”

“Your death wasn’t that long ago. Or should I say, supposed death. I don’t know what’s going on anymore.”

“Neither does he, unfortunately.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s worry about keeping trouble out of Khalm, right now. I’ll keep watch of the fire once I find a good weapon.”

Jaff watched Farah walk away in disbelief. If a future Aiden tampered with the threads of time for her, what else would he build the rules for? She shifted his attention to the flames standing between Khalm and a voracious enemy.

He retrieved his brother’s journal from pocket and held it over the flame.

End Act I