Kismet’s Tale

     At the end of the king's crest,  when the new sun arrives, there the exiled traveler comes, bearing a crown made from the corona of the sun, the exiled traveler each step blackens the sky, and it shall grow red at the sight of the exiled traveler’s presence.

And the exiled traveler shall lead a flock of beasts!

The driven ‘demimen’ and ‘demiwomen’ of the southern seas shall flock under the exiled, they bear the hope of their people.

     Mavin glanced at the document he was reading. Ike was inserting a tube in his veins and then driving the needle further inside of him. Mavin showed no painful expression, remaining casual as he focused on the document that he wrote back when he had a trance about the memories that showed him the ‘evil’ that was coming.

“Please raise your hand,” Ike instructed.

A frown passed over Mavin’s face as Ike drove the needle and tube in. The needle and tube were connected to a machine that they had invented. Mavin had been born strong, and healthy that the addition of the boons to his body had made him take a step into the realm of being superhuman after taking the last concoction. Most of the Hounds had already been taking some of his blood, and in a way they annoyingly call him their blood-father after bestowing them with his concocted blood.

Mavin had created the concoction with the help of Aunger, Ike, and Martina who provided his research with the amount of knowledge to actually concoct said material.

“There are many reasons that one should not stick a vein up their arms.”

“Not that you would ever feel anything, Boss,” Ike said with his face remaining on the needle and tune he was inserting in Mavin’s arm.

“Your skin is tough enough to prevent small cuts, Boss. Do you know how much work that was needed to be done to operate you?”

He flipped the switch. The machine started injecting and taking blood samples from Mavin. “Once this concoction is done we’ll be able to award fifty Hounds the chance to strengthen themselves. Their loyalty will be tested, pushed to the edge, and questioned. We will try to break them and those who remained unbroken will be the benefactor.”

The Hounds were made with the lesser version of the boons. The boons that they have were inferior and superior in a way that they are not as potent as his boon but superior in that they do not have the ‘cost’ that Mavin had to pay in order to sustain the boons and counter them using another boon.

Think of the boons in Mavin as parts that counters one another. Great strength doesn’t necessarily mean that he would have great endurance. So to counter the price of using said boon, he had taken in the boon that would give his body the endurance to actually use said strength.

They were truthfully what the memories called ‘collectibles’ that grants ‘stats’ to the body which Mavin thought was foolish until he was able to collect the boon. The change in him made him truly believe and after collecting said boons. He had become someone capable enough to somewhat survive. The last boon that he collected was called the ‘Whole of Body’ which made his body’s regeneration factor become absurdly fast.

He would have not survived the operation that they did to him which put him into a coma. It was only now that Mavin truly felt complete. Unfortunately he was out of time.

Mavin didn’t know when he would be safe. He at least could witness a new year passed.

Fear truly is my greatest enemy, Mavin’s heart started palpitating. He placed the document that he had written. Martina took a glance at the document,  her face turning serious.

“What?”

“You said to me that one day you would teach me that language of yours.”

“I had already said why I couldn’t teach you.”

“Your vow of silence is rather selective isn’t it?” Martina commented. She watched the measuring tool. “Boss, what made you change your way?”

“What do you mean?”

“You looked at us like human beings now. Not your puppets.”

A frown happened on Ike. The mask broke. “Martina, stop now.”

Mavin shook his head. “She’s right. I did treat you two as my pawns, my puppets, and my tools that I truly trust to do my work. Before you two came here, what were you two? You two were beggars, geniuses who have nowhere to go. I had picked you two bluntly without pretense. Remember what I told you, Martina?”

“Come and join me, don’t waste your talent in this shithole,” Martina said as if that was the most damning and fondest memory that she had.

“You beat me up,” Ike complained. He tapped the vein on Mavin’s arm. He took samples of blood and placed them inside the test tubes. “Told me that I should be capable of understanding this and that. I hated you for three years and then I started to learn that I was eating better and I wasn’t working underpaid in taverns and bars and ale houses.”

“I recruited you two because I know that you two had potential. Perhaps it bothers you that I’m acting like I give a shit about you two now.”

“Yes, it is honestly jarring to me, Boss. Although we have stayed away from each other in the past five years, and it was only when there was a stalemate that we got in contact again, it didn’t mean that we couldn’t forget how you treated us. Perhaps, the Boss matured during the war, and understood the sanctity of life.” His tone of voice had a hint of mockery.

“Somehow, I was able to understand that in the war. You two. Robert...Aunger...and the Hounds that are working for us. I had treated you all like my pawns and pieces. I am not changing that, but I won’t lie about how I am starting to doubt whether I should continue this,” Mavin snorted. “Then again, I believe that this is simply the whims of someone who is out of time. “

“I believe that’s the case, Boss,” Ike gently removed the needle and tube from his arm without a change in his expression. He started to sanitize the needle and tube while Martina checked his pulse and took another sample from him.

“Boss, despite all you did, all the talk about how you were using us. I always thought that you were afraid that if you treated us better that you would have a hard time to let us go.”

Mavin looked away from Martina. He caught a glance of Martina raising a smile on her face.

It was not true at all. She was wrong that he did treat them as his pawns and tools for his convenient use. All that he did was for the sake of the goals that he must accomplish and they are nothing more than the parts of a vehicle that will carry him to said goals.

“You two...are not side characters...not people that I could treat like they are just  part of a list that needs crossing out.”

Martina and Ike regarded him amusingly. Mavin didn’t elaborate further, embarrassed by the words that naturally came out of his mouth. He looked away and thought that he did treat them as if they were just there for him to use.

It was odd that even though he barely knew Kohl that he believed that there was more to him than being the guy who couldn’t make it out alive.

Kohl was supposed to die in that prison. He was just some guy in the memories that were unfortunate enough to not make it. He didn’t even have one of those ‘profiles’ that every person in the ‘memories’ had. 

His story, goals and motivations were nobody’s concern. Mavin had truly believed that if not even Kohl could meet Maria.  He would have been far harsher to this damn world and treated them less than person, and more of talking puppets with pre-programmed lines.

It bothered Mavin when he saw those memories. Memories of people written in animated portraits, and showing blatant expressions. It felt like he was violating their souls, and revealing their secrets by knowing what their ‘profile’ contained. He knew what ticked them, what made them angry, and what made them agree.

They have their personal history, goals, motivations, and even dreams yet Mavin didn’t care about that and squashed them or uplift them if it serves him in preparing the ‘car’ that will bring him to his destination.

He couldn’t be passive when threatened with a continent spanning war that would drove the Empire into a twenty-year war that ended only in misery and the Empire being weakened enough for the tripartite-alliance to break the Empire in half, and make the continent war-weary to the point that the eastern continents crossed the continents to conquer them.

Not to mention that the Imperator would come and ‘save’ the Empire at the brink of destruction. Who would want to stay passive when such a threat looms? He could not wait for the right ‘timing’ and the ‘events’ to come up to him. He had to be proactive in dealing with whatever comes their way, knowing that inaction would only somewhat worsen the situation.

Mavin had dulled himself to achieve what he had done. He had to have a heart of stone if he truly wished to accomplish anything he wanted. What was the point of waiting for the sickness to come when he could prevent it?

He was out of time.

He couldn’t be everywhere and he had to treat them like boxes that needs checking.

That was why he found himself looking at the two warily. It was too late to treat them as if they weren’t his pawns and tools. The only thing that he could do for them was to let things go their way.

It wouldn’t be long until he runs out of time. Although this era had finally started to settle down because of how the war had been prevented. There were parts of Mavin that wanted to see how this era would unfold. Witness what good may come to this world where the war had been prevented.

Loneliness was one of the burdens that he had to carry when having such memories. The vow of silence was a curse that came with seeing that ‘streak of light’ that gave him ‘memories’ and was a spell that was simply impossible to break.

No one could understand. No one would know what he was aiming at. He could only direct them without telling them. Those who were more perceptive could at least understand where he was going.

A curse that assures him a vow of silence, and the boons that were taking away his time. Many would have called him a fool for taking all the boons in him. Mavin was somewhat sure that there were more than fifty boons that he could gather if he personally went to the farthest east side of the world. The ‘memories’ had contained all information in different eras of this ‘world’ that he only had to take what he needed in the current era.

Mavin wondered what he should do about Natalya, he thought. After all, if he does run out of time, and at the same time go down that path. Then this marriage that they had would have been short.

Despite all the things that he was concerned about opening his heart to her. She was still Mavin’s legal wife. As much as he wanted to at least make her know what would happen, he could not do it. Not only that the vow of silence prevented him from doing so, he fears that she would prevent him from going down that path in the first place.

A woman who could mention that she had cut your limbs to prevent Mavin from escaping was not easy to talk to. She had become tamer lately, but he simply couldn’t trust Viola Whitefall.

He felt like a hypocrite, how he had gone through thoughts that he had treated some people as if they were puppets, but in the end the fear of her still remained in him.

Mavin simply just couldn’t get rid of the ‘Mavin’ that prepared years against the Imperator.

It wasn’t easy after he had dedicated almost thirteen years of his life for the sale of his self-imposed goal.

karsev

Thank you for reading!