Path of Dragons 14 - Chapter 18 - Avoidance

The words echoed across the ruins of Meridian Lux, cutting through the sound of gravel shifting beneath Elijah’s feet.  He paid very little attention to his surroundings, though.  Partially, because he’d spent the week pulverizing buildings into rubble, and there wasn’t much left to see. 

But mostly?  Elijah’s focus remained fixated on the new arrival.

Sadie Song looked better than ever.  Her armor gleamed, sleek and powerful, though it couldn’t hide the familiar contours of her body.  Her face was exposed, reminding Elijah of all the mistakes he’d made trying to recall its unique shape.  The pert nose.  The high cheekbones.  The expressive eyes.  The lips he’d kissed so many times. 

She was more beautiful than any dream.  His memories couldn’t begin to do her justice.

But there was more to her than simple looks.  The way she stood spoke of absolute authority.  A level of power rarely seen, even amongst the demi-gods Elijah had fought on Gorveth.  Some of them – like Vhalor or the twins – desperately tried to capture that essence, but where they failed, Sadie succeeded without even trying. 

In so many ways, she was perfect.

And yet, Elijah knew she wasn’t.  He could see that cold, judgmental gleam in her eyes.  Before his time in Gorveth, it had softened.  But now?  It was harder than ever.

Even so, he wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her.  To hold her.  To be with her.

But when he took a step forward, Sadie shifted.  Only slightly, but enough to signal that she was ready for a fight.  Her companions – all clad in silver armor – were more overt.  The severe-looking man standing next to her even drew his sword and hunkered behind a kite shield, as if readying himself to defend from an imminent attack. 

Elijah held up his hands.  “I’m not here to fight.”

Sadie narrowed her eyes.  “Is it really you?”

He forced a smile that he hoped would cut through the tension.  “If I’m not, I missed the memo.  I sent you a message.”

“I read it.”

“But you didn’t respond.”

“This is not the time.”

Elijah glanced across the squad of Adjudicators arrayed against him.  There were eight of them, not counting Sadie, and they all twitched with violent need.  None of them were weak, either.  Three total demi-gods, though they didn’t feel like particularly powerful examples.  Especially not compared to Sadie, who blazed like a bonfire to his senses.  After only a second, Elijah determined that she could have held her own against most individual members of the Synod. 

Clearly, she’d gained a significantly powerful demi-god evolution, and she’d not been idle since then. 

“I suppose it’s too much to hope that you came here to welcome me home,” he guessed.

“You just destroyed an entire city,” Sadie stated.  “You killed thousands.”

“They deserved it.  And besides, I also freed a lot of slaves.  I healed a bunch of people, too,” Elijah pointed out.

“You think that absolves you of guilt?” demanded her right-hand man.  He looked like he was spoiling for a fight. 

Elijah shrugged.  “I’m not concerned with that.  I did what I thought necessary.  I don’t care if you agree with my assessment.”

The man stepped forward, growling, “Then, by the order of the Adjudicators –”

“Think very hard about whether you want to finish that sentence,” Elijah ordered.  “The last person who went down that route ended up regretting it.  Then, he died.  That last bit was a mercy.”

“You treacherous snake!  I –”

“Enough!” Sadie spat, interposing her arm between Elijah and her underling.  A good thing, too.  Because if it came to a fight, Elijah had no intention of holding back.  He would put the man down quickly so he wouldn’t be overwhelmed by whatever the others had in store. 

He wasn’t afraid.

But he’d seen Sadie in action, and often enough to know that she was not an opponent to be underestimated.  He had no idea if she would attack him, but even if she didn’t, her underlings would doubtless prove to be more powerful than the other Adjudicator Elijah had killed.

And even that man had managed to stop Elijah in his tracks, if only for an instant.  These people were stronger than that.  In any case, Elijah didn’t want a fight.  Too often, his desires didn’t much matter.

“We need to talk,” Sadie said.

“I’m all ears.”

“In private,” she insisted.  The right-hand man began to protest, but she cut him off with a glare.  That glare turned into a sweeping look that took in the rest of the Adjudicators.  “Leave us.”

“High Judge, he is too dangerous to–”

“Go, Enoch.  Now.  I can take care of myself.”

He clearly didn’t like that, but in his frustration, Elijah saw something else.  Faith.  It was a trust so complete that he didn’t even question her ability to stand against Elijah.  What she’d done to earn that trust, Elijah had no idea.  But there was a part of him that was glad she’d found people to watch her back.

Even if their confidence was woefully misplaced.

The next few minutes saw the right-hand man – Enoch, apparently – lead the other Adjudicators away.  Neither Elijah nor Sadie spoke as they slowly wound their way through the rubble toward the distant Conclave Spires.  Nor did they move.  Instead, they simply faced one another as if preparing for a duel.

Finally, when they were well out of sight, Sadie’s shoulders slumped slightly.  That was all the invitation Elijah needed before he finally stepped forward and embraced her.  Her armor was cold and rigid, but it was a meaningless impediment in the face of Elijah’s relief at finally having her in his arms.  After so long, nothing else mattered.

She collapsed against him, her head on his shoulder. 

Sobbing, she said, “You got taller.  Again.”

Elijah gave a soft chuckle.  “I guess I did.”

For a while, they just held one another.  Elijah didn’t shed any tears, though his eyes did water a bit.  Meanwhile, Sadie wept openly, her tears soaking through the cloth parts of his armor. 

Elijah wasn’t certain how long they remained in place, embracing one another in the ruins of the city he’d destroyed, but by the time they broke apart, Sadie’s tears had run dry.

“Tell me everything,” she said, her voice quivering.

Elijah complied, going into as much detail as the situation would allow.  He ended by describing the journey through the void.  “I don’t know how long I was there.  Time…it kind of lost meaning.  They tell me I was gone for a few decades, but…if I’m honest, it felt like so much more.  And at times, less.  I…I missed you.” 

He ran a hand through his hair before continuing, “That sounds so inadequate, doesn’t it?  I missed you.  I just…I just don’t know any other way of saying it.”

“I missed you, too.”

Elijah sat on one of the stones, asking, “What about you?  Do you want to talk about what you’ve been doing for the past thirty years?”

“Working.”

“That’s it?  Is that all I’m going to get?”

She sighed, sitting next to him.  “It all blurs together,” she admitted.  “Training.  Running towers.  Participating in Primal Realms.  And in between, I’ve built the Adjudicators.”

“What’s the story there?” he asked, doing his best to avoid the accusation he wanted to levy.  After all, the Adjudicator he’d killed had clearly been complicit in what was happening in Meridian Lux.  Perhaps he hadn’t approved of slavery and the like, but he’d allowed it to exist. 

“The world needs structure, Elijah.  We need laws.  Rules.  We need consequences for breaking the social contract,” she explained.  “The Adjudicators offer that.  We offer independent and objective justice.  When someone breaks the law, we’re called in to judge them.”

Then, she went on to describe other aspects of the organization, which included charity work, Knights-Errant who traveled the world, fighting for those who couldn’t fight for themselves, and Healers who responded to outbreaks of powerful diseases. 

“Ron’s helped a lot with the latter,” she explained.  “He won’t join – not officially – but he’s never turned us down.”

“That’s…impressive.”

“A lot can change over the course of three decades, Elijah.”

“Yeah.  I guess.”

“I think we need to talk about what happened here,” she said. 

“It’s not complicated.  They attacked a grove and took a bunch of Druids as slaves,” he answered.  “Some of them escaped and joined my grove.  I couldn’t let them continue to exist.”

She sighed, leaning forward, her elbows on her knees as she hung her head.  “It is complicated, Elijah.  Maybe not for you, but the rest of us don’t live in a world of black and white.”

“It was slavery, Sadie.”

“I know.  It’s wrong.  I don’t condone it.  But there are other factors at play. Things that –”

“They forced people to take Courtesan classes.  They forced them to become sex slaves,” he pointed out.  “And that’s just the ones they didn’t kill.  That’s not counting what they did to the Druids they captured.  Do you have any idea what it would be like to lose a grove?  To have it destroyed?  To then be forced into these farms?  It’s like putting a lion in a dog crate.  Then starving them.”

“Elijah…the world is complicated.  There will be far-reaching consequences for this.  War is not out of the question,” she said.  “A few thousand people died here.  You freed a few thousand more.  But this single act could spiral into a conflict that costs millions of lives.”

“This is who I am,” Elijah said.  “I’m not going to apologize for what I did here.  And if I see something like this again, I’ll come down even harder.  Of all people, you should understand it.”

“I have to look at the bigger picture, Elijah.  That limits the scope of what I can do.  Of what we can do.”

After that, silence stretched between them.  Neither moved.  No one spoke.  Not for a few moments, at least.  Then, Sadie raised her head and settled her gaze onto him.  “You once cautioned me about Sense of Sin.  Do you remember?”

Elijah nodded.  “I do.”

“You said that I couldn’t completely rely on it,” she went on.  “You implied that the world wasn’t as clear cut as Sense of Sin depicted.”

“I said I remember it, Sadie.”

“Then you probably know what I’m going to say here.”

Elijah let out a deep breath.  “I know.  The world is complicated.  Morals are fluid.  Right and wrong is often too simplistic to apply to every situation.”

“Something like that.”

“This is different.”

“I thought my situation was different, too.”

“What do you want from me, Sadie?  I can’t let things like this go.  It’s not just about morality.  It’s not even about my disgust.  It’s –”

“It might not have started out like that, but I know you Elijah.  Despite everything, I know how you think.  And all of this,” she said, sweeping her arm out to indicate the destroyed city.  “This was about your disgust.”

Elijah wanted to argue.  He wanted to tell her that his actions were dictated by a need to protect nature, the Hartwood Grove, and the sanctity of Druids as a class.  He was meant to be their protector.  A shield against a world that would take advantage of them, given half a chance. 

That was what had driven him to destroy Bloodrock Bay, and he’d fooled himself into believing that was why he’d attacked Meridian Lux.  But it was a lie.  The reality was that, regardless of the impetus behind the action, he’d kept going because he wanted to destroy the people who’d inflicted so much hurt upon the world. 

And in the back of his mind, he knew he was lashing out at a world that had left him behind. 

In short, the entire situation was a lot more complicated than he’d initially wanted to admit.  Reasons upon reasons, backed up by so many emotions that he couldn’t catalogue them all.

“What are you thinking?” asked Sadie.

Elijah started, suddenly realizing he’d been silent for a couple of minutes.  “Sorry,” he mumbled.  “Bad habit.  Being alone for so long…”

He sighed, then hung his head.

Sadie shifted closer to him.

“I half expected you to show up ready to fight,” he admitted.

“Don’t be stupid.  A lot can change over thirty years, but I still remember who my friends are,” she countered.  “I still remember the sort of person you want to be.  If you destroy a city, I assume you had a good reason.”

“And if I didn’t?” he asked, looking up and into her eyes.

“Then we’ll work through it,” she stated.  “Together.”

That simple word was enough to remove the weight from his chest.  Suddenly, he felt like he could breathe again.  A lot might have changed while he was on Gorveth, but the trust they’d developed remained as strong as ever.  And that simple reality was the most comforting thing Elijah had experienced since returning to Earth.