Chapter 766 - An Inevitable Goodbye

On the timescale of Zeke’s current existence, a month was not a long time.  When measured against centuries, it was nothing.  And yet, his time with Pudge somehow managed to feel even shorter than that comparison implied.  So, when the day came to say goodbye, he found his resolve wavering.

Did he truly need to go?

It wasn’t as if reality would unravel in a few more days, would it?  He could put it off, just for a while.  But he knew that if he remained, if he gave in to those thoughts, a few more days would soon become weeks, and those weeks would stretch on and on until it was too late. 

“I hope you understand,” he said to his brother. 

They’d spent the month reconnecting in a way they’d both needed.  In the wake of losing his second wife, Pudge had begun to sink into a deep depression.  Zeke’s arrival had helped him circumvent his brother’s descent into melancholy, though he couldn’t help but wonder if that stay was permanent or if it would fade the moment he was gone. 

But at the end of the day, he couldn’t change that.  Pudge was his own person, and he’d proved himself entirely capable of taking care of himself.  After all, he’d lived his own life without Zeke’s interference for more than a thousand years.  He could claw his way off depression’s path.

“I do,” Pudge responded.  Despite his words, his tone suggested that, while he might understand the need for Zeke’s departure, he didn’t like it.  But as always, he was ready to sacrifice for the greater good.

With a sigh, Zeke gave his brother another hug.  Then, without any further discussion, he turned and strode into the gate he’d left open.  In moments, he was inside the tower and walking among its residents. 

His arrival did not go unnoticed.  He’d been there for less than a minute when a light flickered into being beside him.  Eveline bobbed up and down as she escorted him to the teleporter that would take him home, silent but clearly intent on saying something. 

When they were alone in the Lord’s Manor, she finally let loose with her questions, most of which centered on asking how everything had gone.  Zeke answered them, though he didn’t get into the emotional details.  Nor did Eveline try to force the issue.  She knew him better than anyone, and she understood that addressing that sort of thing was last road he wanted to walk.

Finally, after her curiosity had been exhausted, she said, “That must have been difficult.”

“It wasn’t easy.”

“Saying goodbye never is,” she agreed.  “Where now?”

“I need to talk to Talia.”

“Do you think she’ll see you?” asked the spirit that ran his tower.

Zeke could only shrug.  “I have no idea,” he admitted.  They hadn’t left things on the best of terms, and though he felt certain that Talia didn’t hate him, he didn’t know if she still cared about him in the ways she once had.  “But I’m going to take a few days to center my thoughts before I go.”

“Do  you want to talk about it?” asked Eveline.

Zeke shook his head.  “It’ll just make things more difficult,” he responded.  “Thanks, though.”

With that, he headed into the manor and reacquainted himself with the home he so seldom used.  He didn’t really have any attachment to anything inside, largely because he hadn’t been the one to decorate it.  Nor did he store anything there.  It wasn’t like his home back on Earth, which had been filled with mementos, pictures, and various knickknacks that had belonged to his mother.  It was always cluttered, but it had felt like home.

By comparison, the manor was just somewhere he slept, and infrequently at that. 

Still, he could remember all the times he’d returned to the mansion in the wake of his various battles.  The closest he had ever come to making of it a home was when he and Adara had been together.  But those couple of years felt more fleeting with every passing day.  Now, he could scarcely even remember individual details. 

Feelings were easier to recall, so he focused on those.

That, in turn, led him to remember all the people he’d met along the way.  The ones he’d befriend, like Jasper and Eta, were the most prominent, but there were plenty of others he’d known in passing.  In some cases, he remembered their faces.  In others, just a glimpse of events.

“I know you’re there,” he said.

Eveline flickered into view.

“What?” he asked.  “Why are you spying on me?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.  I’m everywhere in the tower at once.  I can’t help but spy on you.”

“Is that true?”

“Mostly,” she admitted.  “What are you thinking?”

“Just remembering.  It feels like I should,” he answered, unoffended by her white lie.  That was just part of her personality.  A defense mechanism she used so she didn’t have to admit how much she cared.  “But you know what really frustrates me?”

“What is that?” she asked.

“Faces.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I can’t remember most of their faces,” Zeke elaborated.  “Even when I should.  I know what Adara looked like, but I can’t conjure her picture in my mind.  It’s the same with so many others.  Like Jasper.  I know he was a dark elf, so when I think of him, it’s just, like…some generic version.  Not the real him.

“And what’s even worse is I don’t remember my mom’s face.  Nor Tommy’s,” Zeke admitted.  “It’s all just a blur.  I saw them back in Hell, but even that…I don’t think it was an accurate representation.  Instead, it was just…I don’t know…Hell interpreting my imperfect memories of who they were.”

He shook his head.  “That’s messed up, isn’t it?  I can’t even remember my own mother’s face,” he muttered.  “And even worse, I can still see his face like I saw him yesterday.”

“Who?”

“My dad.”

“Oh.”

“What does that say about me?  That I can remember a person I hated more clearly than those I loved?”

“I…I don’t know,” she answered.  “Maybe it just means you’re human.”

“Am I?  It’s been a long time since that was on my status.”

Indeed, he’d gone from human to cambion to primordial, and now that he’d transcended the system, he didn’t even have a status to tell him what he was.  Either way, his humanity had been discarded thousands of years ago.  He struggled to even think of himself in those terms.

Not anymore, at least.  Instead, he saw his old life almost as if it belonged to someone else.  The only connection he truly felt to his past self was the emotional bonds he’d formed with other people.  And with those fading, he’d become increasingly disconnected from the world. 

Given what the Creator had in store for him, perhaps that was planned.  It had not escaped Zeke’s notice that it was entirely possible that everything had been planned.  Maybe there were millions of others just like him, who’d been given all the same chances.  But only he’d made it far enough to be useful. 

Was there such a thing as free will?  Or had he been manipulated from the very beginning?

Zeke didn’t have any answers.  Only more questions, especially concerning if he’d ever find any resolution to those mysteries.  The Creator had given him just enough information to ensure his cooperation, and nothing more. 

And Zeke did not trust him.  He just didn’t see any other choice but to go along with the plan.  When an entity was all-powerful, it didn’t make much difference if they weren’t entirely truthful. 

“Be grateful you remember that much,” Eveline advised.  “I don’t even have that.”

Then, she went on to explain that her stint as a demon – especially her time in the first realm – had robbed her of most of her memories.  Time had taken care of most of the rest, with her time as an imprisoned source of energy taking whatever was left. 

“Two peas in a pod, huh?” Zeke remarked.  “No wonder we get along so well.”

“It’s  our tragic backstories,” she agreed.  “Really bonds two people together.  Or maybe it was the fact that I invaded your mind and leeched off your thoughts until you begrudgingly accepted that we were stuck together.”

“Probably the second one,” Zeke said with a slight chuckle.

For a while, neither of them spoke.  Then, finally, Eveline broke the silence by asking the question that had obviously been on her mind since Zeke’s return.  “What happens to us?” she asked.  “After you’re gone, I mean.  Will the tower simply cease to exist?”

“No,” he answered.  It had been one of the first questions he’d asked the Creator, and for once, that unfathomably powerful being had given him a straight answer.

“I thought it was tied to your life.”

“It is,” he said.

“Then –”

“I’m going to pass it to you,” he interrupted.  “It’s the only thing that makes sense.  As far as I know, you don’t really age.  You’ll outlast us all, which will protect everyone in the tower.”

“How?”

Zeke shrugged.  “The Creator told me how to do it.  It’s just thread manipulation, and less complicated than a lot of the other stuff I’ve done,” he admitted.  “I should have thought of it long ago.  Just in case.”

“I…are you sure?  Don’t you want to…I don’t know…give it to someone else?  I can give you a list of potential candidates who are –”

“No.  I mean, yes.  I’m sure.  I don’t want to look at anyone else.  You’re the only one I’d trust with this,” Zeke said.

And it was true.  Not only was she nigh indestructible, he suspected she would live until the tower itself crumbled.  However, the biggest reason he wanted her to take control was because he trusted her to run it properly. 

He said as much, adding, “Please don’t make me ask twice.”

“I…I accept it.”

“Are you ready now?” he asked.

“Will it cause any issues inside the tower?”

Zeke shook his head.  “I don’t think so.  Maybe a little temporary instability, but it won’t fall apart or anything.  Nobody inside will be affected.  Afterwards, you’ll have complete control.  And…and I’ll leave.  For good.”

Eveline didn’t speak for a few moments, but then, she said, “I wanted to say something first.”

“Go ahead.”

“Thank you.”

“For what?” he asked.

“For…for everything.  You didn’t just save me, Ezekiel.  You did that, but you also did so much more,” she explained.  “Before, I was…I was not a good person.  I didn’t know what else I was, but I knew I was one of the bad ones.  You changed that.  Slowly.  Surely.  I don’t even think you knew what you were doing, but the fact that you accepted me…the mere fact that you didn’t immediately obliterate me…it did so much to change who I was.  And I know you could have destroyed me.  We both know that.”

“I liked having you around.  It would have gotten lonely otherwise.”

“Don’t do that.”

“What?”

“Minimize what you did.  Most people would have destroyed me.  I am a mind spirit.  A literal parasite.  Yet, you not only kept me around.  You supported me.  You helped me grow.  To reconnected with who I used to be,” she explained, her voice trembling.  “Don’t go through the rest of your life thinking that the only effect you had on the world was destruction.  You built, too.  You supported.  You will leave behind a legacy unlike anyone else.  And in me, you will leave behind a true friend who owes you everything.”

Zeke didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just nodded and said, “Thank you.”

Then, he asked her again if she was ready.

She said that she was.

Without further ado, he refocused so he could see the threads that comprised all of reality.  They quivered under his gaze.  He looked inward, searching until he found his soul thread.  Attached to it was a single knot of strings that represented his bond to the tower. 

He had gotten it so long.  Almost the very beginning of his journey after being reborn.  It had been with him ever since, supporting his path by providing comfort and convenience.  And eventually, a home to the people who’d become his followers.  Without the Crimson Tower, he never would have survived.  Nor would millions of others.

He plucked it from his soul thread, then cupped it with his will before slowly moving it to Eveline.  Her threads were looser than his, so it wasn’t difficult to find the one representing her soul.  It descended into the ground, presumably connecting to the tower itself. 

And by connecting the knotted strings, he completed a circle that made it a self-perpetuating domain. 

He’d half expected a few tremors, but the tower remained as still as ever.  Though it was missing from his awareness.  There was no spatial storage.  No ability to summon a gate.  It was all just gone.

Eveline let out a trembling breath.  “It is…so vast.”

“Use it well, Eveline.  I wish I could give you a hug, but…”

Suddenly, she appeared before him in the body she’d used when they’d first met.  However, instead of a mere projection, this one was solid.  And she used that solidity to bestow a tight embrace upon him.  She squeezed him so tightly that a lesser man would have been crushed beneath her grip.

That embrace lasted for long minutes until, at last, she pulled away. 

“I guess this is goodbye,” he said, not bothering to wipe the tears from his cheek.

“I guess it is.”

“Take care of them,” Zeke said.  He didn’t usually think of the kobolds or the others who lived in the tower, but that didn’t mean he didn’t care about them.  He did, and he wanted them to not only survive, but to thrive.  And he believed Eveline would give them the lives they deserved. 

“I will.”

“Thanks,” he said.  Without further hesitation, he stepped out of the manor and started toward the teleporter.  He reached it only a few seconds later, then took it down to the Entry Hall.  It looked entirely unchanged, though it felt very different.  Almost like he was an outsider looking in.  He sighed, then headed toward the nearest gate that would spit him out into what was left of the Ways.  From there, he would go to Talia’s planet.

Before he stepped through, he turned back and said, “And take care of yourself too.  You deserve to be happy, Eveline.  Never let anyone tell you differently.”

He strode through the gate before anyone could respond.