Year 23-9

Once Tucker's trial was over, my home returned to its empty state, save for the three visitors I had welcomed. Tucker untied me, and Penn made himself scarce when I stood from the seat they had restrained me to for many hours.

My first instinct was to punch Tucker in the face for allowing my capture, but I understood he was in a delicate situation. Unsatisfied, I settled for punching him in the gut instead, but he let me do it. After expelling some of my rage, I could listen to his explanation.

“If you don’t trust them, why ask for their help?” I argued.

“They didn’t go through the trouble of capturing us to ask what we were doing. They wanted our help,” Tucker tried to explain.

“That doesn’t explain why you asked for theirs.”

“If I denied their request, they would move ahead without me. At least this way, I have a say in what they do,” he added.

I still couldn’t understand.

“We don’t have to agree for me to want the best for everyone. They may be blood starved, but your kind made them this way,” Tucker continued, and I peered through windows, searching for the creatures who had left my home in ruins.

Regardless of what they had done to me, I couldn’t deny their value.

“I think it’s good we have them on our side,” I said, though it pained me.

As I turned away from the windows, I found Tucker attempting to put order back in its place. The sight of broken pots coming back together and splintered wood folding into alignment was enough to take a breath.

“Relying solely on elves, half-breeds, and tortured fairies won't take us very far. We need warriors, prepared and healthy, who will fight. The creatures we liberated days ago have disappeared, and their whereabouts are a mystery. They should have been our first line, but where are they?” I continued and crossed the main room to retrieve my sword from the floor.

“Trolls, goblins, and Saurian will do more than fight,” Tucker said.

“Good,” I remarked while securing my father’s blade on my hip where it belonged.

By then, the space was cleaner, but not even Tucker’s abilities were enough to fix everything. Michael and Loreal’s rocking chairs had been destroyed.

“I told you I don’t want a war,” Tucker said while I tried to do what he could not.

“And I told you I do.”

On my knees, I held the ripped seats and broken wood. Logic told me they would never fit back together, but agonizing memories demanded I try. Perhaps it was for the best. Those seats, The Cottage, the fields. They were all reminders of life lost. To cling to them so dearly was to clutch death.

“I need to know the goal; the mission is to set my people free,” Tucker tried to speak, but I wouldn’t listen.

“You don’t get to make demands, Tucker. I count this entire day as your third strike against me, or do you not see?” I said, and in a rage, I threw a piece of the broken seats.

Tucker caught the wood before it struck him, surprisingly, without the use of his invisible threads.

“I apologize,” he said.

There was a break, a silence, before I felt his hand on my shoulder. I quickly brushed it away and got to my feet.

“Save it. We’ll free your people, but my goal is to piss off the King before having his or my head removed from its shoulders,” I said.

I needed time before I could breathe or so much as speak longer. Every syllable from my lips brought me closer to tears, and I did not wish to show weakness. I retired to Michael and Loreal’s bedroom and left Tucker to continue cleaning in solitary, for the rest of the day.

Hours later, after the sun had left the sky, I opened my door.

Tucker was absent, but his work was evident. The unfixable had been altered. Floors were repaired, but in such a way that neglected to hide they were upset. The walls were royal white, but where did the paint come from? Penn was in the kitchen sitting on newly constructed countertops, still filling his belly. I walked around, taking note of everything that had changed.

Tucker couldn’t fix the rocking chairs, but he had used their parts to make a bench long enough for two. It wasn’t perfect, but it showed he cared.

“Where is he?” I said, addressing Penn only to find Tucker.

“Outside,” the satyr said before adding, “We need more carrots.”

I went to find the cloud-eyed mage. He wasn’t standing outside the front door, but his magic made it easy to track him through the woods. I followed the blue glow that left a trail in the air. What was he doing so far out?

When I found Tucker, he was standing at the center of a clearing of trees. With dead flowers at his feet and empty branches above his head. I couldn’t imagine why he’d go to such a place or how he found it. “You’ll die,” he said while I approached him from behind.

He turned around to face me as I closed the space between us. His hood was down.

“You will die if you keep on this road,” Tucker said.

“What difference does it make to you?”

“I told you, we don’t have to agree for me to want what’s best for everyone.”

“Even me, a human?” I questioned.

“Yes, even you, especially you,” he said, attempting to reach out to me until I refused his touch.

He looked away, and I swallowed my emotions.

“You and I are much the same,” he continued.

“We are ‘nothing’ alike, mage,” I laughed.

“The Gods grant gifts equal to the Vows they hear. I made a vow never to take another life, and I was granted the gifts of a Seer. Why do you think that is?”

“We are far from the same,” I repeated.

“This land, this kingdom, belonged to my people before the new rulers took it. We welcomed humanity into our lives, and they took advantage. They slaughtered us so they could have what we might have given freely. And when we fought back, we continued to lose countless of our own. My father was the last of our kings to die for our kind.”

“And you chose to let him die in vain,” I scolded.

“I chose to find another way, a way that would save lives rather than take. I wanted nothing more than to kill those responsible for taking my family, my friends, my life, but I knew it would never end,” he said, stepping closer to me till he held my shoulders between his palms.

“If you’re still here, it should never end,” I remarked coldly.

I could see he wanted to debate the issue, but he let go and turned his back to me.

“When we first met, you desired an escape. What if that wish could still be granted?” Tucker proposed with a softer tone.

“It was never real. I can never escape,” I said.

“I won’t deny blood is the cost of freedom, not anymore, but once my people are free, I can lead us somewhere safe,” he added.

“And you offer me a seat amongst you?”

“Drake, we are the same. I can see your threads, and they mirror my own. Whether you see it now or never.”

“I want war,” I repeated for the hundredth time, to which he returned his gaze to mine.

“You ache for your family, and you hate the loneliness they have left you to bear, as we all do.”

“I hate that the men responsible for my first and second family’s deaths are still alive,” I argued, so exhausted that I nearly walked away.

“What men do you speak? There have been four kings over the last 15 cycles. The King who killed my father is dead, and I imagine the Kings who killed yours are as well,” Tucker explained.

I blamed the crown as a whole.

“I don’t care,” I yelled, and crows flew.

“It never ends,” Tucker said softly, and finally, I allowed him to rest a hand on my shoulder.

Again, I saw his world of light, his world of threads. A shared glance and the howling of wind made time stand still as I noticed one line between us running deep and anchored.

“When our work is done, you’ll have a choice. Come with me, or go to war and fight till you die,” Tucker said, and I listened.

“But why?”

“Because you helped me, my sister, Penn, and now, even if your motives are rooted in vengeance, even though I deceived you and continue to be less than noble, you’re willing to save my people. I can trust you.”

“That’s not enough to trust a man. It wouldn’t be enough for me.”

“You weren’t the first I turned to, Drake. You were the first to hear me, the first to see me as more than the dirt I’ve walked through. I hid my ears, but many refused to speak with me, even with my disguise.”