When Kazius woke up, he was feeling quite energetic. It was early, as usual, with the sun not even up yet.
He looked around his new room for a bit, especially at the stack of books and papers on his desk. Paper was not as easily accessible in Vargstam compared to Ratier, so most of the books were considerably rare. Mosty of them were books that had belonged to Blaeser or Zelphar in the past, gifts from Damon and Caleb. With the help of some books and Alice, he finally felt at least somewhat competent as Chief.
Aside from the massive pile of books, his room contained quite a large bed with meticulously crafted wood and high-quality bedding. Originally Damon had given them a big room to share that was meant for siblings… A temporary measure, since originally Kazius and his friends were not expected to stay long… But now, Kazius was Chief. So, Damon found it fitting to have everyone pick individual rooms of their own.
The only ones that had not been happy about such a change had been Azanor and Eve. The two spent one night in separate rooms before Eve began crying about feeling lonely without him. Azanor himself had looked even tired after that night. The Demon did not sleep, but being away from Eve left him looking exhausted and unhappy as well… So now, the two shared a ‘best friends’ room, as Eve had dubbed it. The two had their own separate beds though, were it not for that, Kazius would have assumed Eve finally understood the sort of feelings Azanor had for her… Sadly for Azanor, that was not the case.
As for Kazius himself, after some insistence from Damon, he finally agreed to take The Chief’s bedroom. It was the master room of the massive home. It felt like he was taking something important, but after a while, he got used to the new big bedroom… But he would be lying to himself if he said he did not miss waking up to the others nearby.
With that in mind, Kazius got dressed and stepped out of his room, Azanor already waiting for him by the door.
“Good morning.” Kazius stated with a small smile. He enjoyed lurking around in the dark with Azanor. Just enjoying the peace of the town when no one was up. The darkness that blanketed Vargstam was almost soothing.
With how eager Azanor seemed to be, it was clear that their walks also brought Azanor some level of peace as well. It was almost like in their walks, they could take off their masks and stop pretending to be creatures of the day, which they were not.
“Good morning…” Azanor stated with a small smile.
With that, the two just silently began to walk out of the house. It was so lively in the evening when Kazius worked as Chief and held council meetings, but currently it was dead quiet.
“I haven’t had much work lately, I hope that means that I have been doing a decent job…” Kazius commented as they passed the conference room that they designated for work.
“There was not much that had to be fixed to begin with… And now things are running more smoothly than they could ever have imagined, you probably are trying harder than you should. Honestly, with some of the things you’ve done, you would think you were getting ready to feed an army… Given Vargstam’s current capabilities… If I were in your position and I was going to war, I would have done everything you are doing now… There is not a single thing I would do differently… Could you finally tell me why? This feels like this is about more than just The Church.” Azanor questioned with a raised brow. He was probably the only one in the group that found his preparations questionable. The others just thought Kazius wanted to be overly prepared.
Azanor was the only one that realized that there had to be more to it. Then again, out of the group, he had been the one to have seen war. At least that much was clear with the little Azanor had told them and his relationship with Zelphar, Ratier, and Thimdur.
“Will you finally tell me more about that 8th hero stuff?” Kazius questioned back with his own raised brow. The two had a bit of a pot calling the kettle black situation between them. They both knew the other was hiding a lot of important information.
Azanor tsked at this, frowning, but he did drop the matter. Not like this would stop him from trying to get the information out of him later.
By now, as they walked, they were outside, going their usual route by the river.
“I will tell you when I am ready, it is better you don’t know though. We have enough to deal with now… Besides, you think the same way I do. You will tell us things when you are ready too.” Kazius pointed out.
Azanor sighed at this. He knew the two were quite similar. This meant that they got along well, but also butting heads was unavoidable.
“You are a terrible hypocrite, you know that?” Azanor grumbled out.
“I know, so are you.” Kazius chuckled out with a bit of a smirk.
Azanor simply rolled his eyes at that, but he did not disagree.
“So, changing subjects… How is that ‘best friend’ room of yours treating you?” Kazius teased.
Azanor scoffed at this, looking a little flustered.
“Good… But it is hard.” Azanor admitted with a sigh.
“You really do love her, don’t you?” Kazius questioned, his expression softening a little, no longer in a teasing mood.
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“I already told you I do… Or at least that she is the most important thing to me in this world…” Azanor agreed in dismay.
“Why don’t you just tell her that already? I understand hiding things about the war, but why not just confess to her? I didn’t take you for the shy type.” Kazius questioned in confusion.
“If it is so easy, then why don’t you talk to Alice then? Ask her on a date or something?” Azanor grumbled back.
It was Kazius’ turn to grow flustered. While Kazius liked Alice, he was in denial about his feelings about her, refusing to confront them. Another thing was that Kazius felt like he had a lot to do, so he did not have time to confront such feelings… So, he simply did not acknowledge them.
“T-That is actually totally different!” Kazius huffed out in embarrassment, losing his typical more stoic composure.
“I’m sure it is…” Azanor responded with an eyeroll, clearly not buying it at all.
“Shut up… We are talking about you, here. Not me.” Kazius grumbled out, regaining his composure.
“I don’t think your excuse is very good, but I will drop it. You are also right about one thing; I am not the shy type. If you must know… Since at this point, I may as well tell you… She is my wife. Or at least was… Before she forgot about me…But… I won’t impose anything on her, even if every part of me wants to tie her to me so she never leaves my side ever again.” Azanor admitted with a scowl before following up further.
“So, there is no point in confessing, I already did this dance before.”
Kazius was surprised to hear this. He had expected that he knew Eve, loved her for a long time… But to be forgotten by your wife like that… Kazius could not help but remember Eve’s words when she admitted to her mental state and how she was not bothered by it. The fact she said she did not care whether she remembered anything or not must have hurt.
‘That explains a lot… But now I can’t help but pity him… I have no idea what I would even do in his position…’
“So… You two are married?” Kazius questioned in shock.
“We are… We were… I am not sure if I can say we are anymore. Hard to claim she is my wife when she doesn’t even remember any of it…” Azanor admitted in dismay.
“How did she even lose her memories?” Kazius decided to ask, surprised Azanor was telling him all this out of nowhere.
“That is what I wish I knew. I don’t sense any sort of spell. It isn’t a curse, or something I can undo… Her name isn’t even Eve…Though I guess it is close to her actual name… Her personality is also just so different too… She is a different person… But I know that soul anywhere… If… If only I had not been sealed away… I would at least have seen what happened, or prevented it… But you know about as much as I do about what the fuck happened.” Azanor admitted, his hands tightening into a fist, gritting his teeth at the thought before letting out a sigh. He looked deflated, entirely defeated and worn out.
He had likely been struggling with this on his own for sometime now.
Azanor’s disdain for Ratier, Zelphar, and Thimdur seemed to only make more sense now. Azanor had been their friend, then they sealed him away… And due to that he was separated from his wife… And now that he is back, she doesn’t even remember him…
“Have you tried bringing up her actual name to her?” Kazius decided to ask, curious as to what it even was.
“Of course I have, I’ve done it when we were alone. I’ve done it multiple times. The name Evesorane means nothing to her…” Azanor admitted.
‘Evesorane? Why does that name sound familiar? I definitely have never heard that name before… But…’ Kazius began to think to himself in confusion. Most unnerving of all, he could swear the shadows were laughing.
It was a quiet mocking laugh. Whether it was at the state Eve was in or Azanor’s grief, Kazius was not sure… But he had never heard them laugh before.
‘Stop that, it isn’t funny.’ Kazius scolded.
“If a way I can help ever comes, I will… I can’t even imagine what it is like to deal with that Azanor… Thank you for telling me…” Kazius admitted.
“I trust you… But that fact means that I also want you to not mention a word of this to anyone else… Not even to Alice… The less who know the better. I don’t want Eve finding out about it… I won’t force her to be my wife… I will just… Well… I honestly don’t have a plan… I will just sit and wait… There is no contract of amount of souls that could give me the strength to change the state she is in… But then… If Evesorane is gone…” Azanor stated firmly before growing deflated again, looking troubled as he entertained the idea he was most afraid of.
“I am of the belief that you are just as much your soul but also your memories as well… That defines who you are… And Eve is Eve because she does not remember me… At first when I met her… I wanted to manipulate her into summoning me so I could be there in person… And undo whatever spell put an imposter in place of my wife… But it wasn’t a spell… And all the time I have spent with Eve… I… I don’t dislike her… But I also don’t like seeing my wife in that condition… I… I just… Ugh… Lets not talk about it anymore.” Azanor stated with a sigh.
It was not a situation with easy answers… There was also the fact that if their personality was so different… And memories too… Like Azanor said… Wasn’t it like Eve was an entirely different person? If she ever got her memories back would Eve be gone and only Evesorane remain? By that logic was Evesorane basically dead already? Then there was Azanor’s emotions and relationship… It was definitely a pitiful and messy thing.
“Alright…” Kazius agreed, having a lot of questions, but decided to drop things.
‘The tall one is approaching.’
Kazius heard the whisper in his ear warn him. The voice was that newer distinct deep voice.
‘Alright, thank you.’ Kazius responded, even though he knew he would not get a response. As of late, he attempted to communicate more, to no luck. He never could hold a conversation with the whispers or the voice… For better or for worse.
The sun was almost up, so when the two saw Damon approach eagerly, it was not surprising. He was probably the first one up after Kazius.
“Buahaha! Good morning! Are you ready? I bet you are! I have a feeling today that you will make it to the top! You were so close yesterday! I was too excited and couldn’t sleep.” Damon admitted giddily.
“Good morning.” Azanor stated, relieved that Damon was here it seems. He likely wanted to think about something else.
“Good morning… I am, I think you’re right… I would have tried to keep going yesterday, but I wanted to make sure I had time to check on things in Vargstam… Today for sure though… Alice sounded confident yesterday too.” Kazius agreed.
“You two are that confident? I might actually go see for myself then. I’m sure Eve will enjoy watching you go up… Don’t think you are roping me into climbing though, I absolutely refuse. I plan to watch from the bottom.” Azanor would add.
“Buahaha! You are really missing out, you know! But up to you! Come on then! Let’s have breakfast!” Damon beamed, probably more excited than they were about the accomplishment. Then again, getting high up in Mount Cyklon was a big deal… And now that the tribe was not zombified, they actually were inspired by Kazius, Alice, and Damon to attempt the climb more regularly. For more than just proposing marriage.
“Alright, let’s go.” Kazius agreed contently, curious as to what was waiting for them at the top.