Chapter 50 – A Song of Mockery

The current Adam gasped softly at the mention of Julienne and Alef: two of his old friends. His heart ached to laugh and have some nonsensical banter with Julienne once again, as they’d done endless times in the Badger. The mere idea of Alef, alive and well, halted his breath.

The young Adam looked at all his notes about Reminiscence and winked conspiratorially at Caine. “Better keep this for ourselves, eh?”

Caine smiled and made an exaggerated bow. “By all means, oh beacon of wisdom,” he whispered, drenching every word in sarcasm. He quickly removed the sheet of paper from the note board and laid it underneath other notes on Adam’s desk.

Someone knocked the door softly. “Is this the lair of the terrible cave bear?” Alef asked with a fake quiver of fear in his clear voice.

The current Adam gave a melancholic smile; he’d almost forgotten the inside joke, born out of a silly song that Caine, Julienne, and Alef had come up with at a party. At the time, the song had stung Adam’s pride a little. Now, he would’ve given a fortune to sing it with them once again.

The young Adam sighed. Silently, the current Adam mouthed the answer along with him. “No, but enter at your own risk.”

The short priest opened the door slightly and stuck his head through. Wide-open blue eyes looked around the room as if they beheld an abhorrent slaughterhouse. Adam took a deep breath in his struggle to hold back tears; he’d never expected to see his old friend again. Apparently, Caine remembered Alef well; the blonde, curly beard and shiny bald head matched perfectly with how Adam remembered him. However, the red apple cheeks and baby face seemed a bit exaggerated.

Alef closed his eyes and shook his head. “As expected... the monster’s cavern is filled to the brim with the prey and prizes of his rampage across the lands!”

“Hey, scooch over!” Julienne said. A bit of playful wrestling later, her head popped up right below Alef’s. Her typical Oberian features, like the bronzed skin with a warm orange undertone, were contorted in a theatrical expression of disgust. “The smell… it burns! How can something even live in this place?!”

Caine laughed loudly. The young Adam smiled as well, although the way he crossed his arms and set his jaw gave a hint of his wounded pride. “Sounds dangerous then, to just barge in here…”

Julienne promptly stepped in with big steps. “Ha! Not if the monster has already been drinking at this hour.” The current Adam smiled to see their old friend, who used to live in the Badger as well. As always, the short, athletically built girl radiated almost frighteningly good health. The lack of ceremonial braids in her black hair suggested it was one of the few days in which she wasn’t training for her epic gladiator matches.

Round-bellied Alef smiled broadly and grabbed Adam’s big paw with two soft, balmed hands. “Are you finally done with the books, laddie?”

The young Adam raised an eyebrow. “Says the priest of all people. I was until this guy showed up,” he said with a hushed voice and pointed at Caine with his thumb, as if Caine was too young or dumb to understand.

Alef sighed deeply. “Well, if you’re stuck with him we might as well take him along, eh? Some smugglers managed to sneak supplies past the Pure’s blockade. The Green Hare got their hands on some salted venison, sounds good, eh?” He shook Caine’s hand. “Aves sees you.”

Caine smiled. “May he gaze upon us with pride. Sounds tempting, but are you sure we should do that, with the end of the world coming for us and all?”

Alef shrugged. “A falling shadow is to be feared, aye. But in pitch-black darkness, one can appreciate the light even more. Honestly, what could we gain by worrying about what might happen all the time? I can’t imagine a better time to celebrate life and its joys now that we still can.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Ooh, speaking of life and its joys…” Julienne wiggled her eyebrows at Caine. “That blonde girl with the ribbons asked about you again.”

Caine groaned and scratched the back of his head. “Annabelle, she’s still after me? Yeah, maybe I should talk things over with her.” He sighed dramatically as the group walked out. “You don’t know how lucky you are, Alef. Already being happily married, boring and all.” He rubbed Alef’s bald head as if it was a lucky charm.

Alef laughed. “Thanks, I guess? But who knows, maybe there’s still hope for a lost soul like you.”

“For sure.” Julienne eyed Caine with a twinkle in her eyes. “I can’t imagine Annabelle running away from a cosy wedding in the woods. Or Halie, perhaps?”

Caine groaned with a pained expression. “Oh, come on, you all promised you wouldn’t joke about her again!”

The young Adam rubbed his bare chin. “No, pretty sure that was Maria. You know, the one who—”

“Shut it!” Caine punched the young Adam’s big meaty shoulder.

The four walked out of Adam’s office, making jokes until the sound died out. The vague, shimmering shape of a waiting Caine appeared before them again, as did the sprite that circled around it.

Emily snuck a smile at Adam. “You truly were a bunch of idiots, weren’t you?”

Adam chuckled. “Undoubtedly.” He tried to smile, to feel nostalgic for the good times. However, the image of Alef’s lifeless body after the disaster of Ziecherhein bobbed up again before Adam’s mind’s eye. No matter how hard he tried to repress it, the cold gnawing of guilt in his stomach remained. He shook his head in an attempt to focus on the here and now. “One thing is for certain: Caine had an interesting approach to ‘give me the credit’ for rediscovering Reminiscence.”

Oliver stared red-faced at the green shape of Caine. “The nerve of that slimy, disgusting… ugh!” Oliver shook his fists in frustration. “He took all the knowledge about Reminiscence and made sure Adam can’t remember it himself? I wish I could grab Caine straight out of that memory and—” With his hands, he made some suggestive movements that included some creative form of strangulation at least.

With a tired nod, Emily waved her hands in a calming gesture. “We can’t do anything about it now, save it for when we see him.” She looked at Adam. “It seems to be even more important to restore your memory than before.”

Oliver stopped his frustrated rambling. He looked up at Adam as if he was the prized treasure Oliver had been searching for. “Indeed, all that knowledge about Reminiscence must still be stuck somewhere inside that thick skull of yours! Or, in your own Realm of Remembrance should I say! Did hearing this make you remember anything new?”

Adam crossed his arms over his chest and squinted, prying his memory for new info. “I can vaguely recall meeting up with just Caine regularly around this time, so maybe those were the ‘lessons’ on Reminiscence? But I’m not sure where we did that.”

Emily looked around the office carefully. “Seems like it wasn’t in your office. This is the only shape of Caine here and we saw that whole memory.”

Oliver peered at the office with more than a hint of frustration. “Oh, marvellous! And there are memories of you two all over Ziecherhein talking about nonsense!”

Adam shook his head. “Finding those memories by walking around would take a long time. Plus, it shouldn’t be long after this conversation that both Caine and I were stationed in Utenanga Fortress within Oberia. So maybe those sessions weren’t held in Ziecherhein at all. Maybe it’s best if we focus on memories that seem the most useful to us now we’re still in here.”

“Fair,” Oliver said. “So, which memories seem important?”

Adam remembered several fun events, like Oliver’s surprise birthday party, or how Adam and Caine disguised themselves to take a look at one of Emily’s dates. He could still see Emily’s annoyed face before him when she found out who the people with the big hats were. Adam snickered softly.

Emily counted on her fingers. “Oof there are lots of those. There are the war-speeches of Machtild the Brazen. There’s the Night of White Eyes...”

Oliver nodded. “Back in the Starwing Grove, I saw a group of those green mirages behind the windows of the High Lodge.”

Adam whistled softly. “That’s… a private area for the highest echelons of the Starwing Order, right? What would they have to discuss with Caine?”

Emily shrugged. “Hmpf, nothing surprising. Just my dad taking his favourite kid along to the higher-ups. Again. Or it’s just a lame overdue parent-teacher conference.”

Adam smiled apologetically. “I don’t think so. And if Caine is close with people like the Holy Council, he’s got some powerful allies indeed.”

Oliver coughed uneasily. “He could be more dangerous than we’ve thought so far. Don’t forget he smooth-talked his way up the Penduli’s ranks well enough to end up in the bed of the Queen of Glass.”

Emily closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. “Okay, fine!” She stepped brusquely out of Adam’s old office. “But it’s not my fault if this turns out to be useless!”