Imperial (Insight #8)(60)

When his front faced me, I lost the will to breathe as I fell to my knees. Across his soul was a jagged mark, a mark that spelled out MAZING.

Pure light was shining through each letter. I could swear it was flashing at me, demanding that I look at it.

The armor of a Witness manifested around his soul like a cocoon, shielding the name of my First from sight. Silas was gently let down, and he didn’t stand; the entire event had left him exhausted. Instead, he let his body fall to the grass and his eyes closed as he fell into a deep sleep.

I stood to run to him, but then I froze in place. That was Colton, or was at one time. That was the soul Mazing found a rush in, the one that she had coupled with, the one for which she had both rage and grief for.

There was no way out of this. If I killed him, I killed Mazing, which in my state of hindered power would hurt me to the point of no recovery. It would also hurt Vade immeasurably. I couldn’t do this whilst Vade was in the presence of those kings; they would see it and strike.

This was a tangled web that I could not manage to see through.

Silas was not a Fated Escort. He was a fated soul.

I could not understand what I had done to deserve such a punishment. Why were the two sovereigns that adored their charge tormented this way, whilst the ones that betrayed that sacred charge lived in bliss?

“That was a mighty fine sunset,” I heard a familiar voice say as the smell of a pipe tingled my nose.

I glanced behind me to see the Cowboy sitting on a bench. Not only had he managed to make it to the very edge of the Veil, but he had also figured out how to manifest objects. I guess it wasn’t his first walk into the sunset after all.

He was smoking his pipe and carving a rather large stick.

“Cowboy,” I breathed, not really caring to have company while I stared at my doom.

“Manifested this here bench for you, pretty lady. Now do me the honor of sitting a spell with me.”

Why the hell not? I all but fell onto the bench, keeping my eyes firmly locked on Silas’ sleeping body.

“You look troubled.”

“Family problems.”

“Are there any other kind?”

That kinda made me smile on the inside. “Suppose all roads lead to one.”

“Do tell,” he said with a bit of a grunt as he dug deep into the wood in his hands.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“I’m not asking you to tell me so I will understand. I’m asking you to tell me so you will,” he said with a puff of his pipe.

I didn’t think I had the mind power to play this game, to think of the time he had lived in and alter my dialogue and story to fit something that would have occurred in his time, so he was just going to have to hear it raw.

“My father despises me.”

That caused him to halt his knife against the wood he was carving. “Why on Earth would you think that?”

“I failed Him,” I breathed.

“That is no reason to despise someone. And no child can fail their father.”

“It was an epic fail. I’m sure He regrets my birth.”

“No father does such a thing.”

I smirked. Maybe in his time, but I’d seen quite a few horrid fathers in my time. I never would have placed my Creator with the likes of them, but nevertheless my Creator had a valid reason to regret such a choice. “Well, like I said, I failed Him. I wanted to be His voice, stand up to the others in our family and defend Him, but my wrath stopped me from that.”

“Wrath can be quite powerful,” the Cowboy said, returning his attention back to the stick he was carving.

“And damning.”

“Explain to me how you failed him,” he said with a puff of his pipe and a strong force against the stick he was shaping.

It was hard to say it because I really didn’t know how. “Apparently, He has been trying to teach me something for some time now. I can’t hear Him, so I didn’t learn it. And because I didn’t, I lost those He entrusted in my care. I lost the man I—I care about.”

“I see. What does your Ma say about this?”

“I have no mother.”

“You just appeared here?” he said with a chuckle.

That made me smirk; if he only knew. “A woman gave birth to me and hated me for it.”

“So a vessel brought you into this world, poorly looked after you, then your father took you away and became your teacher?”

How the hell did he gather that so quickly?

“Basically.”

“And you feel that you have let him down.”

“Right.”

“Interesting…tell me, what kind of lesson would he have wanted to teach you?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“You know that he is speaking to you, though? You sense a lesson?”

“I didn’t sense it. I was told that was what was occurring.”

A frown came to the Cowboy. I knew this was too confusing for anyone to understand, no matter in what time you were born.

“That boy in the field, what is his story?” the Cowboy asked, focusing on his stick once more.

I clenched my jaw. “It’s a tragic one.”

“Listening.”

“Well, apparently as an infant he was kidnapped and abused. Later, a girl fell for his heart. When that affair was discovered, they were both murdered. His essence was rescued by a beautiful light, then discovered again by the one that had kidnapped him before. Now, he stands between what he was and what he is…he was given a charge, and if he fulfills that charge he will end up killing masses—including the girl he fell for—which I suppose was my father’s point.”