"I don't want your ring."

Xander stared at Grant for a while incredulously. How could any father be able to bear parting with his child? He couldn't understand his reasoning at all. But as Xander looked at the serious expression on Grant's face, that certainty in his demeanor was too off-putting.

Grant closed his hands confidently and stated, "Take it."

"I don't think you understand." Xander stated firmly. "Don't joke around Grant. No matter how senile you may become, you should know what your daughter wants."

Grant took a deep breath and sat down at the table once more. In his cavernous depths on his face, Xander felt numerous emotions brewing in his sightless emptiness. It was a look that didn't deserve to be on anyone's face. Xander took a deep breath and sat down, curling the ring in his hand cautiously and carefully, more delicately than the pieces of Jade he held in his bag.

"You couldn't have told me at the table for the past few hours? All of a sudden you spring onto me a ring from your dead child and expect me to act as if everything was normal? Are you serious?"

Xander was getting peculiarly heated. Even he was a stranger to this outburst of emotion, but he knew that he had to say something, somehow.

Grant kept his stoic expression on his face as he looked behind Xander, at the entrance to the stairwell. The lines on his face were pronounced, regaining that strange sense of self that Xander witnessed on the faces of men who felt they were wronged in the past.

"I am being completely serious here Xander."

"Then act like it!"

Grant suddenly declared, "There are things in this world Xander; horrible, despicable acts of human nature that necessitate proper preparations."

"You said you weren't dying!" Xander solemnly declared. "I'm not taking your memories away from you!"

"I'm not going to die. I'll try my hardest not to, I promise," promised Grant softly. He had a toothy grin on his face now but Xander felt it was a worse expression on his face than before. Grant spoke once more, "But I feel that now of all times is where I have to give it to you. Nobody knows what God is thinking, but he gives out signs. Awful signs that drift in people's minds and are only comprehended when he wants us to."

"You sound delusional." Xander judged.

"Wisdom is often called that." Grant went into a lapse of silence again, until he asked Xander, "Weren't you ever curious what my Specialty is?"

Xander paused. His nerves were cooling again as the refreshing air made its way through the stairwell, introducing a calm through the table. Xander never really thought about Grant's specialty, after all, Specialties were rarely used by people if they weren't in the Zones. There wasn't much competition between people trying to make a living and no scouts' eyes to watch. In the relatively peaceful entrance, there wasn't much need for the guards to use their Specialties in any meaningful ways, outside of parlor tricks or cheating at their biannual card games they often hosted.

"No. But Grant, I thought we were talking about your ring."

Grant held a soft look on his face. "It's nothing special. It's the sense of self, [Proprioception], knowing the location of your body through space." Grant stretched his arm out to the cold Layer lights.

"It means I can't ever get dizzy. Never felt numb either or fell over often either. I knew the exact position of my body, the exact lengths of my digits and limbs to a tee. Stupid ability, isn't it? Most of the other students in my class jostled me about it, but it made me pretty good with a sword. One girl though, she was always fascinated with my Specialty. She used to spin me around, twenty, maybe thirty times over--she spun with me too--and tried to walk in a straighter line than me. She always fell on her face though and got a bloody nose. Stupid lass." Grant reminisced as he kept on staring up into the sky. Xander spotted the usual great big smile he had on his face whenever he gave advice to his listeners.

"Sometimes she forced me to go swimming and put a blindfold on the both of us. We raced to reach the other end of the school pool, but I was the only one that made it though, being able to know where I was and I was going. She always hit the wall and started floating, head down, like a dead fish. I had to rescue her from drowning more than once. But she had the brightest look on her face whenever I carried her to the nurse's office... She was a crazy girl. She never quit with her challenges and could never stop laughing when she was with me. I was never that funny to justify her laughter, but she didn't care."

"We wandered the Zones at night, crossing from rooftop to rooftop as she told me about whatever. I wasn't good at conversation, but I listened about her life, her father, her friends, her dreams. We shared desserts there, read the newspaper, and told horrible jokes. One day, I remember it very clearly, she came to the roof of my apartment building while clutching her arm covered in a nasty bruise, but she shook her head when I asked if she was hurt again... Maria, you were so stupid..."

"She looked at the sky that day, and reached her arm out, you see, and told me she wanted to go up there. She read about how before God's punishment, we reached the stars and even further beyond, until the world became a blue insignificant dot. She wanted to take the stars for herself, that selfish girl; take it all so that she could stare at the world and use it as a pedestal to reach another universe. She had the brightest look in her eyes and we stared into the night sky for minutes after that. I asked her, 'what about me', and she kissed me for the first time up on the roof. I think that means she'll take me to the stars too, but she had never gave me a clear answer."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Eventually though, I somehow got the courage to marry her, decided to put the pants on for the first time. Used that same ring too, had to save up a lot of money doing odd jobs for it. We lived in Zone 4, nice apartment. I worked as a soldier and she was working with the Lead Savant at the time, Luster, to advance the future. At home, she broke all the dishes, made terrible food, but we were happy, even her two left feet couldn't stop our happiness."

"We had a beautiful daughter. She had her mother's curiosity and she grew far too quick in my opinion. She was stubborn, don't know where she got that from, and had lovely brown eyes and raven black hair. Why, when she was young, she used to be such a daddy's girl. Her first words were 'Dada', can you believe that? I couldn't, and neither could my wife. I was sleeping on the couch after I gloated all day."

"Eventually my daughter was grown and I was happier. I fought off her would-be suitors endlessly, and she would yell at me but then we'd make up. She found a good husband and her mother gave her permission with her ring. I didn't like it, but it happened anyway. But then Maria, oh God, Maria she began having nightmares in her sleep. She would be in a trance and suddenly scream, but whenever I asked her about it, she told me it was just stress. She never- she- she never came to me for help. I wish- I wish... I helped her more."

Grant's voice broke down as he started becoming more emotional. Xander reached out to console him, but Grant shook his head and brushed off Xander's hand. Xander opened his mouth, but found that he had nothing meaningful to say to Grant. Xander wasn't good with consoling people, so he did the only thing he could do, listen.

"I had just come home from guard duty one day, I opened the door and I saw Maria bawling on the ground next to the door to the bedroom. She looked at me and ran to me and hugged me. Her red hot tears clung to my cheek as she spoke to me for the first time in days. She said she was sorry that she was going to leave me alone. Sorry that I would live without her. I said to her 'we'll be here together'. I thought it was the stress so I consoled her the best I could, I wiped her tears away, and I embraced her. She said she was sorry that she wouldn't take us into space and watch the world turn and turn. I said it was going to be okay. A week later, she was murdered, along with my daughter."

"Grant... I'm- I'm sorry..." Xander frowned as he looked at the shaking old man. He didn't know what was going on, but Xander tightened his hand on the ring. He never knew what was going on through Grant's head. He sat down awkwardly, not knowing what to do. He wish he knew what to do, or at least how to comfort someone. They never taught him that.

"It's okay. Once I got the call from my neighbor, I ran home from my checkpoint and got to the door. I opened the door, and immediately I was met with the vision of a pool of blood. Their eyes were... their eyes were gone. The police said there was a struggle... That my wife tried to fend off the assailant but she lost her advantage and was killed immediately. My daughter suffered immediately afterward, just inches from the door. I threw up. I cried. I screamed. But they were gone. The neighbors tried to console me. The police tried to reason with me, but I was lost. I was numb. I felt dead."

"Still, I could feel them... or at least their eyes. My Specialty, [Proprioception], somehow allowed me to feel where my family's eyes were. Thank God. I knew the distance. I knew where the killer was, and so I chased him. I didn't sleep. I didn't eat. I just chased the man and I found the remains of my family. They were in a bag held by a cloaked figure. I rushed in, my sword raised, but immediately the anger that flooded my vision was obscured by a veil of emptiness, and I couldn't see anymore. However, I knew where he was. Centimeters away from the bag, I kept my momentum and struck him on the back, causing the bastard to cry out in . We fought. I lost, and he ran away while stuffing my wife's eyes into his pocket."

"A blind soldier doesn't do much good, so they sent me to the Layers for my retirement from being a commander. Rhodes insisted on giving me a medal, but it didn't give me much happiness. The killer is still out there. I can feel it. Feel it in these eyes of mine, even today I can feel my family traveling with the bastard, robbed of their innocence and future. It makes me sick to the core. But today, today he's coming. I don't know why, but he's close here today."

"You can't Grant!" Xander cried. Tightening his grip on the ring, he grabbed Grant's shoulders and shook him. "You'll die!"

"We don't know that. We've both become old, so we'll be fighting on equal terms. I never thought I would have the opportunity to face the killer under my own terms." He patted Xander on the shoulder. "But still, take my ring. Please."

"Your family doesn't want you to die! Are you stupid! I don't want you to die!"

"But how am I supposed to live with their killer on the loose!" Grant exclaims, "Do you know how it feels knowing your killer is moving, keeping your family hostage? I feel him under these eyes of mine, lurking, laughing. I feel the addition of more victims everyday. I know a lot of things, realized a lot of truths, and I know that if I don't retrieve my family's eyes, then I'll never die happy! Take the ring. I'll bring justice to my life even at any cost."

"At any cost..." Xander looked at Grant sadly with regret in his eyes. Looking at the ring in his hand, he pushed it down his pocket next to the Jade fragments. Suddenly he felt a slight lightness in his pocket until it weighed down heavier than before. Looking into his pocket, the Jade was formed, denser than before.

"You're crazy..."

"Who isn't when it comes to the people you love?" Grant questioned with a sad smile on his face. "Go on. Get going. I don't know if he's coming here today or next week, so don't be so sad. My time's not over yet, so don't count me out."

"I'll be back... I promise. So don't die, no matter what. Your family wouldn't like hanging out with me for too long."

Xander stood up from the chair and looked at Grant for his answer. He looked more like an old man than ever. Xander thought, there was nothing more he could do for Grant looking at his stark face, full of wrinkles.

Grant waved Xander off with a laugh, "I think you're a great person to talk to Xander. Maria would've loved you. She loves egotistical idiots."

Xander went through the stairwell and walked down the staircase clutching his pocket. He never knew Grant's ideas and romanticized claims, but he was a pleasure to talk to. Xander suddenly remembered the name for the expression Grant was flashing to Xander the entire time.

It was pride.