Chapter 61: Scarecrow Showdown!

If you could wish it, whatever you truly wanted in the world, what would it be?

Now of course I wouldn’t be able to grant it, but it is meant to spur thought. Anything you desire, at your hands as easy and as simple as a leaf in the wind. What, and more importantly, why?

What and why? Don’t worry about how.

Vega, in that moment upon seeing Kaliber, didn’t worry how. Hell, she didn’t care anymore. The person, the name, the word, all of it was right in front of her.

Kaliber wore long drills and curls that reached her back, her skin matched the brown of Vega’s patchwork, and her eyes shined like yellow in the sun.

…wait a minute… nevermind.

“Kaliber?” Vega stood up slowly, gently tracing over Kaliber’s form. Of course, as she reached out to touch her, the scarecrow understood that she too couldn’t be interacted with.

The lady in front of her was unmistakably Tripolian, her movement intelligent, seating at a slight lean and reading a book to pass the time. Her eyes held heavy bags that were tinted blue with her spectacles. Lips had cuts from some combat encounter, as there were two scars by her fingers and her nose.

Vega peered a bit closer, still careful not to disrespect the form. The scarecrow saw her clothing, a strange combination between a toga and brass chestplate. For this reason and many others, Vega sort of saw her as a blend. Iozian and Tripolian. A unity, chaotic yet cultivated within reason. Something a bit like her.

“Ah, I can’t wait to go to sleep…” Ena pushed open the door and stopped, with her eyes staring large and wide. Vega understood the significance immediately, and panicked!

“Uh, would-would ya guys like me to leave?”

“Kaliber?!” Ena squealed out, holding her hands to her tearing up face.

“Yes, that is my name.” Kaliber raced up to her madly and picked her up in a swoop. Swinging around, Vega went to duck and phased through Ena’s shins.

“Oof! I would say ouch, but I can’t feel-feel.”

“How long has it been? A year?!” Ena, muffled from burying her face into Kaliber’s neck, cried out.

“Ah, it’s been too long.” The lady let Ena down to the ground, before brushing her off.”

“This-this feels very awkward to be a part of. Would ya like me to leave?”

“NO WAY!” Ena shouted in excitement.

“Okie dokie!” Vega smiled, before realizing that she was reacting to Kaliber’s gift. Which, admittedly, was a strange one for a young girl.

Cut and reshaped into a Iozian star, it glowed in grand majesty. Ena knew what it was and carried in with her two hands cupped Vega knew as well, and hoped it might be the one thing she could interact with.

“That’s… that’s a Soul Gem?”

“I hope it is! It would be weird for a gem to glow like that naturally!” Kaliber laughed as Ena kept her eyes open in awe. “I wanted you to see this, ah, to understand why I’ve been gone for so long… it’s always for a good reason.”

“I… I got it.” Ena couldn’t stop crying, so Kaliber went to her tears and wiped them away.

“Oh my god-god, just kiss already!” Vega screamed out. Within a few moments, she regretted her choice of words. “Uh, maybe don’t do-do that. I’m pretty sure that’s a crime.”

The two reunited siblings hugged for a bit before heading back down to the living room. They talked for a while, exchanging small talk on how everything has been. Even though it was all in Tripolian, Vega decided she might as well write it down. Who knows, maybe it’ll come in handy.

When a certain subject came up, well, she knew it’d be useful.

“So, I haven’t heard from father… or mother. Are they alright?” Ena spoke in a more soft tone, sensitive and not trying to prod too hard. Kaliber looked down into the table, before raising her head back at Ena.

“Ah, it’s a plague going on.”

“Plague?”

“Plague-plague? A plague in Tripolia?” Vega realized that this event, this memory, didn't take place too long ago. The scarecrow had learned that an awful plague, the Heortant, stormed Tripolia around seven years ago. Knowing that helped imagine a timeline. If this memory provides more info like this, she could find Kaliber, maybe even Ena. “Plagues are not-not so cool, but please proceed.”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“That’s what got them hold up. In fact, a lot of the family has got it.”

“Really? So that’s why all the guards are here?”

“Ah, well no. Curatus is… facing siege.” Kaliber said with a heavy heart.

“That’s fifty miles away? Really?” Ena recoiled, holding the ends of her robe hard.

“Curatus, I heard that before-fore.” Vega wrote it down in her paper. If that was only fifty miles away, that meant she had a place. A place to search. “Ooh, this just gets more interesting!”

“That’s terrible!”

“Sorry-sorry, just excited to figure out who I am and who ya guys are!”

“I know, but don’t worry. In fact, your father is on the job for it.” Kaliber said with a forced smile on her face.

“Ha… I can only hope the Iozians run. Haha, it’s funny, having Ani Arma as your dad is actually a bad thing.” Ena chuckled, feeling a bit relieved by the news.

“Ani Arma!?” Vega shot up, attempting to shake Ena a bit into order to interrogate her. “Ani Arma, that fucking voice-voice in my head, is your fucking daddy?! What the fuck?!”

As you can see, Vega was losing her shit. Sure, she wasn’t seeing her birth, but the amount of information being revealed in this memory was amazing to say the least. Not even spies or generals could figure out that much in their entire lifetimes! And here, an animated scarecrow was being let in on more secrets than a priest.

Man, the world is fucked!

“Holy hell-hell… what… What do I even do with that? That’s so much… and yet…” Vega slumped down, clattering her pencils and papers on her knees. She was wondering. Wondering as she looked at the two adopted siblings converse.

Vega was an observer, and she was unhappy.

That the two people that gave her so many questions were right in front of her, so terribly close, and yet she could not speak with them. Only separated by the memory’s retelling.

One that did not include her.

She didn’t happen here, in this event. She couldn’t be seen. Was she erased?

If no one remembers her, did she really matter?

Vega tried to keep writing, tried to maintain focus. But all she could do was listen.

She wondered if this was how the Voice felt most of the time. How Ani Arma felt…

No, she focused on how Ena had felt. So happy to meet a loved one, and so glad they had survived what the world gave. That they didn’t remind a voice from far away. In spite of destruction, there could be hope. That she could grow beyond what she was made for.

Here, in this memory, she could not. All she could do was see, not participate.

“Ena… can you keep a secret?” Kaliber moved closer to her, almost whispering. This caught Ena and Vega off guard, for Kaliber’s voice portrayed more wisdom than warning. She didn’t have any bad news to tell, but questions. Thoughtful questions.

“Sure? What, what is it?”

“A secret!”

“Ya guys have been telling secrets all the time. Can ya guys change it up-up?” Vega tried to lean on the table, but phased through that as well, crashing on the ground.

“You keep on telling secrets like that’s a fun thing.” Ena shook her head, as Kaliber snickered.

“Okay, okay. When you’re older, gossiping and finding out the truth becomes a lot more fun than how school does it.”

“Sure.” Ena rested her head on her forearms, half closing her eyes.

“Sure-sure.” Vega joined without falling to the same mistake she made.

“The… look, the reason why I had to leave is secret and I do not want your

father finding out. So… promise me. That when I tell you, you will not tell a soul. And that you will not go in search of me.”

“In search?” Ena leaned back and laughed. “Search for what? A lack of a husband?”

“Ouch kid, that actually hurt! Ha. But listen.” Kaliber's eyes and voice turned serious, drawing Ena into attention.

“Yes?” Ena asked, ready to receive the secret. Vega put down her pencil and paper, feeling that it was more important to remember what she was going to say. Afterall, it might not be captured onto paper.

“You know, Snake Skins, correct?”

“Father created them, some Ari Amir helped him with the Soul Gem, right?”

“Yes, but that’s not all. He’s… he’s researching a way on how to save your mother.”

“She is sick… how bad?” Ena pleaded, hoping for a good answer.

“...The plague has her. But, I assure you, your father is trying to find a way to save her. And… I’ve been trying to help him. In my own way.”

“Ha, I imagine you guys don’t get along well. But… mother is going to be alright?” Ena’s stressed voice even put Vega off put. She’d never had to deal with such a loss, the loss of a family member.’

“I’m figuring that out. And the secret part is that… well… I’ve been working with an Oligarch.”

“No way… but that’s… that could get you killed. What if Father finds out?” Worried, a bit of sweat fell onto Ena’s brow.

“He won’t. I won’t let him. Right now… I’m working with Galtian elfs. They have a process for Soul Gems, a… Gem harvest.”

“Gem Harvest! That’s what’s Skaldi’s tribe do. That’s what the Tripolians were doing in Fort Jao. Trying to sacrifice people for Soul Gems! But-but… that would mean…”

Vega didn’t want to believe. She didn’t want to know it. That Kaliber, the name that has driven her this entire journey, might not be what she expected. That the Voice, in all of its warnings, was right.

That the truth might not set her free.

The scarecrow wished it not to be true. Wished that her creator was not a killer.

“But it is-is.”

A voice.

A voice from the door.

“...who is it?”

A hand phased through it. Along with a pickaxe.

Vega stared at her own face, looking at her with violent intent.

“Shall we-we dance?”