Darius Arkehi

  “Here. Careful, it is hot.”

  Theo turned around, shuffling over to make room for the Ancient. “Thank you.” He took the outstretched mug from his classmate’s hands.

  “It is my pleasure,” responded Darius with a smile as he sat down beside him on the steps of their class workshop.

  Nursing his piping hot tea, still too hot to drink, Theo gazed out into the distance. Past the surprisingly pristine gates of the Academy, down the grassy hill, at the tiny buildings of the village below. Thinking about the silent trek back to the Academy from Hythe. Thinking about how much more run-down the school looked with its half-restored Great Hall, its patches of burned, trampled grass surrounding and inside the campus grounds, some of its stone steps leading down to the village either displaced or completely missing. There were even a few buildings near the outermost and center walls that had clearly been put back together again after being torn down; several workshops ranged from missing entire walls to only a few pieces. Theirs, thankfully, was far enough from the middle to be untouched.

  “It’s surprising how much has changed over a week,” he murmured, craning his head to the left so he could see the group of four MATS officials standing guard at the gates.

  The Ancient turned his head as well, mug to his lips. “Time moves fast,” he responded quietly. “Either we follow it…or get left behind.”

  Theo smiled and chuckled softly. “And who wants to be left behind, right?”

  “Right.”

  As Theo let out a sigh and rested his head on the stone doorway of the workshop, he gazed up at the orange-violet sky. “I’m glad everyone is safe.”

  “Me too.”

  Slowly, he sipped his drink, simply enjoying the moment for what it was. It had been a while since he last had one of these chats with Darius, and he had forgotten how nice and comforting it was to be in his presence.

  “Hey, Theo,” the Ancient asked after a long period of silence.

  He kept staring out into the horizon, across the flat Lycean Plains, its gently swaying blades of sun-kissed grass. “Hmm?”

  “Can I tell you something?”

  “You’re going to leave, right?”

  The Ancient did not respond.

  “You don’t want to be left behind.”

  “I…I must go. The Earth Mother, I could hear her words from the Chasm of Hythe. I can feel…something different this time. Like a branch in the path. I think perhaps that Ty has a plan. And the Earth Mother is angry. There is danger.”

  “Where will you go?”

  “To where it will end. The Rite.”

  “Where Ty will die to fulfill the Fate of the Ancients?”

  A heavy silence followed the bitter words.

  “If you know that, then you must also know…that I am among the sinned.”

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  “No…she did not tell me that.”

  There was an unmistakable smile on the Ancient’s face. Fragile, full of sorrow and regret. “Ah. I see. To the end, she still surprises me.”

  Theo took another sip from his mug. “It’s not the end yet.”

  “It is for me.”

  Theo’s gaze rested on his friend, who, bathed in the golden glow of the fading light, now wore a content smile on his face. “Stay, Darius. Stay. Don’t leave. Don’t fulfill the will of your people. Be selfish for once and stay.”

  “I have been plenty selfish all these years, indulging myself in watching every one of you grow up time after time, knowing that every introduction at the start of the year is to a treasured, decades-old friend.”

  “One last time, Darius.”

  “As much as I would have loved to enjoy school life together, until the rest of time, as much as I have dreamed of traveling the world with everyone and experiencing the wonders of the Earth Mother with the people I love the most by my side…much like these Circles, one day…one day we must choose to move on. Even though we are used to life in stagnancy, trapped in a bubble of comfort where we play over and over again, where we stay with the people we love forevermore, where we never say goodbye. Today…this time, I choose to move on.”

  When Theo finally found his voice, it was hoarse. “We’re a class. We’re a family.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Darius shake his head. “It is something personal to me. Something I must do. Like when Ty left, even though it pained me greatly, even though a part of me wished she could have stayed so that our small family could continue for another year, I did not follow her. Moving on from these years, from this life, is something that everyone will have to do one day, something they must choose for themselves. It is something you must choose for yourself one day.”

  “I want to see her,” he finally admitted aloud, letting his weakness become words. “I want to see her again.”

  “Is that truly your goal? Will it help you move forward?”

  The tactician brought the mug up to his lips, hoping that the wise Ancient would say something else, give him an answer. Another way out.

  But there was only silence and the darkening sky.

  “Why…why does it feel like everyone has some sort of thing they need to do? I’ve felt lost for so long, and I still feel lost. There’s so much happening around us, so much chaos—it’s like I can’t hear my own thoughts properly. I can’t hear anything but the tolling of death’s bells, calling me to action before the world crumbles into oblivion. What can I possibly do with this small power I have? I keep asking myself if this is what Ty wanted, if this is what I need to do. But how?”

  Darius turned to him, a peaceful smile on his face. “Theodore, my miyen’amo. A love that transcends time, a love that transcends death. A love that transcends the greatest loss. It is okay to feel lost. Life is filled with so many beginnings and endings that it is hard to pinpoint where the end is, what you are working toward. Where the goal is, if there is one. After living so long, asking myself the same question, I have realized that one of the great joys of life is to realize that there is no end. Life, it keeps going. Going and going, and you find one thing after another that fuels you. Things you want to do, things that make you feel alive. The path will lay itself out for you, filled with happy things and sad things, sometimes difficult things. But it is a path that makes you who you are, that you can proudly say is yours and yours alone, that you will have painstakingly created with every precious breath, every precious beat of your heart. So that when you finally look back, you will smile and remember how many pieces it took to get you to where you are right now. And ahead, where you will need to go. Theo, your story will not end here. And it will not end soon. You will find your path. Your next step. I know you will.”

  Looking up at the violet sky, Theo let his tears fall.

  “Come.”

  He saw Darius stand up and head back inside. His eyes, too, were full of tears as he looked at him and opened his arms. “The first and only hug I ask for in this life, I want to give to you. My friend across time.”

  Wide-eyed, Theo set his mug down on the workshop floor and stood up slowly. Then he walked forward three steps, opened his arms, and wrapped them around his friend, feeling a burning warmth that he had not felt in a long time. The beating of another heart, the feeling of undeniable life and love. And as they held each other tightly for the last time, he would not believe it. He would not believe that Ancients were unable to love. They had just been deprived of anything resembling affection for so long, all in the name of tradition and honor, that they had themselves begun to believe that it was not a necessary part of life, that it did not exist in their people.

  Darius, he was proof of that. He could love. He loved his life. He loved his friends, his people. He loved the world, even when it gave him nothing. He loved the Earth Mother, even when she did not love him. Even as he walked away from his home and family into the jaws of death. Even when he was gone.

  He loved.