Ch3-6: Sunset
“Um… let me see…. Hello. Pleasant evening, isn’t it?” Cecil paused as the sound of his footsteps carried heavily through the silent hallway. “Sunsets are always nicer come spring in Baron…”
The Paladin King broke off his rehearsal with a screwed up face and shook his bushy head.
“No… no… that’s about as lame as you get! Maybe I need to try to approach him as King… he needs to know who’s in charge of this conversation.”
Rounding the corner, Cecil lifted one hand for dramatic effect.“Greetings, sir. I hope you are finding your stay here in my kingdom to your liking. The view is very nice this time of year…”
He choked.
“Absolutely not!”
It was not like Cecil to have trouble finding the right words to say. Being a king had taught him the finer points of diplomacy and public speaking. He could easily address crowds of Baronian people and international representatives.
But for some reason, he couldn’t find a single sentence to say to his brother.
“Maybe I should address him by name? It’s always more effective to use someone’s name,” Cecil frowned to himself, clearing his throat as his feet began the final stretch up the stairs of the tower. “Hello, Ben….”
He paused.
“Golbez…”
He paused again.
“Ben?”
Then he sighed.
“I simply can’t see him as this… ‘Ben’ character. I don’t know where he gets off trying to change his name thinking it’ll change what happened in his past.” A scowl drew over the Paladin’s face as he made his way through the doorway, “Though I guess it’s not too wise to keep reminding him that he was – GOLBEZ!”
Every ounce of discretion shed from Cecil’s shoulders as the shout rose to his lips. All thought of finding the perfect introduction scattered to the wind as his body immediately launched forward in a dash across the battlements.
Golbez was hanging over the castle wall. Only his feet were left dangling precariously on the up-side, leaving the wizard inches away from toppling the full drop from the tower into the moat below.
Cecil’s desperate sprint had taken him from the doorway to the far side of the battlements in record time. One hand shot out and clamped onto the back of the other man’s shirt. With all of his strength, the Paladin hauled back, his heels grinding into the stone of the floor from the effort.
That was the moment Cecil realized just how big a man his brother was.
“Odin’s Blade!” The wizard gave a startled shout, lurching at the unexpected feeling of someone grabbing him from behind. Lurching – much to Cecil’s dismay – forward and further over the drop.
“Akk – Golbez! Pull baaaack… pull baaaaak!” the Paladin barked, catching his footing against the wall itself.
Hand over hand, inch by inch, he began to reel the other man in until they were at a point of balance. Once Golbez found his own handholds, the wizard promptly took control of the situation, sprawling the two of them back to the floor with one tremendous jerk.
His breath coming in shallow gulps, Cecil found himself staring directly into his brother’s face. Much to his embarrassment, a half-gasp of surprise fluttered from between his lips. Though his green eyes were wide, the young king fought to find composure in the presence of his former enemy.
The last thing I want is for Golbez to think I’m afraid of him!
Another wave of surprise took Cecil as he realized… his brother’s expression mirrored his own almost flawlessly. There was a hint of subdued apprehension playing at the curve of the bigger man’s mouth. Golbez’s eyes rapidly fluctuated from cold detachment to sincere vulnerability. And they never left Cecil’s face.
It was like looking at an image of a man overlapping the reality of a man. As if there were two people inhabiting the light behind Golbez’s eyes. And both were fighting to gain ultimate control.
FuSoYa… was right.
“Golbez…” the name came out as a hoarse squeak — not at all the manner in which Cecil had wanted to approach his brother. “What in Shiva’s name were you doing?”
“Me… I… I was just…” Uncertainty flooded the wizard’s face. A mere moment later, a calm mask hid away all emotion. “I could ask the same of you.”
Cecil swallowed.
He hasn’t called down the Meteo on me yet… I suppose that’s a good sign?
“I thought you were going to fall over the edge,” the Paladin answered slowly, giving a sincere face.
The words must have come as a surprise to Golbez. A hint of astonishment began to trickle through the cracks that were forming in his façade. “I was… okay.”
“Maybe…” Cecil looked down to hide his slight embarrassment. “But what else does one think when they see someone half-way hung over the wall of the battlements?”
“Ah,” the sound came as realization dawned upon the bigger man. “I’m sorry… I didn’t know that it would scare anyone.”
The young king simply nodded, not knowing what else to say.
Good job… make a royal fool out of yourself in front of him. Of course he’s not about to fall – he’s a Master Wizard! For all I know, he could probably grow wings and fly…
Golbez pushed himself to his feet. His eyes turned back to the cityscape, voice dwindling as he confessed, “I was watching the children.”
“Children?” Cecil rose to stand, brushing himself off with one hand. Then he, too, turned to look over the twilight rooftops below.
Capering along the thin shadows of the houses, a group of young children were darting back and forth through the cobbled streets. The edge of their cheerful shouts carried on the stillness of the coming night, sparking a pulse of sound from time to time. The pattern of their movements suggested they were playing a game.
The Paladin glanced over to observe the expression on his brother’s face. The wizard’s eyes were hooded in struggle, squinting slightly as people do when they are fighting to remember something that lay just out of grasp. His lips were slightly parted and his brow was drawn down with tortured yearning.
“Are you feeling okay?” Cecil ventured to ask.
The wizard’s head jerked up at the sound of his brother’s voice. Then he nodded slowly. “Something just seems… so familiar.”
Thoughts of FuSoYa’s words filled Cecil’s mind. Impressions of who Golbez might have been before he was Golbez…
‘I have a good idea that KluYa raised Golbez to be like the humans of the Blue Planet despite the powers I am sure the boy possessed even then. He was not always the evil Dark Lord that you know.’
The Paladin tilted his head, gazing back across the city.
But how can I see him as anything but the thing I’ve known him to be…
“Familiar?” Cecil’s voice was thick as he forced the question, “In what way?”
Golbez’s eyes were distant as he answered, “I think I’ve played that game before as a child. But I can’t really remember.”
The Paladin lifted a hand to his chin. Words began to match reality within his mind.
‘His memories as his time under Zemus’ control are skewed and lost to darkness. As are most of his memories from his previous life…’
“You’ve forgotten?”
“Yeah…”
“How?”
“There are ways,” the sudden shift to coldness in his voice sent a prickle rushing over Cecil’s skin. “My memory was a distraction from my ultimate purpose. So they destroyed it.”
“Your purpose?”
Sharp green eyes turned on Cecil. The Paladin suddenly wished he hadn’t pressed the topic.
“You were there. You know what my purpose was,” Golbez replied. His voice was unyielding.
“I… apologize…” the young king swallowed, breaking away from the gaze with a shaken jerk.
“It’s… okay,” the wizard’s words grew suddenly wavering. “I’m… sorry, too.”
“Sorry?” Cecil was tempted to turn back to his brother. But fear of what he might find there kept his eyes upon the rising cloudbanks.
“It’s just… the first time.”
“First time?”
“Yeah. No one’s ever asked me about… you know… that… before.” Golbez paused before dropping his voice in a childlike whisper, “I think everyone’s too scared to ask.”
The honesty in his brother’s voice struck at Cecil’s very spirit. He felt his breath catch in his throat, his words choking up, “Do you give them reason to be?”
“Be scared of me?”
“Y-yeah…”
“Sometimes,” the wizard grimaced wistfully. “I guess that’s easy for someone like me to do. I mean… considering how I look and all…”
Cecil turned to look at his brother, this time to study his appearance. Other than the fact that his towering size was rather intimidating… and to an outsider the combination of white hair and green eyes would be striking… there was very little about Golbez’s features that one could find sharply fearsome. In fact, looking as he did at that moment, he seemed almost friendly.
“I don’t think it’s that bad,” the young king offered.
“Hmmm?” An eyebrow arched as the wizard gave a puzzled frown.
“I mean…” Cecil found himself stumbling over the thought. “You and I don’t look all that different when it comes down to it.”
Green eyes blinked slowly as they traced the Paladin’s face. Golbez then tilted his head in thought, “I suppose you’re right…”
“Besides, intimidation is all a matter of how you carry yourself.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well… if you walk around all sulky and distant, sure people are gonna stay away from you. Most people are pretty good about telling when someone wants to be left alone.”
“Maybe.”
“You ever try smiling much?”
“Eh?”
“You know like…” Cecil twisted his face into a big playful grin as an example.
Golbez’s eyebrows shot up simultaneously. It wasn’t too often that Cecil grinned in front of people… and it was just as likely that his brother had never seen much in the way of a smile from him.
“You see?”
“Eh… Yeah?”
“So how about it?”
“Uh?”
Cecil chided gently, “Can the mighty Master Golbez manage to break a grin?”
The wizard gave a soft nervous laugh, “I…”
“Well?”
“Heh…” Golbez’s mouth curved upward with a slow, droll expression. Gradually, a lopsided grin spread until it lit his eyes with a vacantly benign light.
Cecil couldn’t help himself from quipping a little laugh, “Yeah, that’s it.”
The wizard’s face took on a hint of embarrassment at the encouragement.
“It’s not one-hundred-percent, but chances are much more likely that people will find you more friendly if you smile now and then,” the Paladin nodded.
“That’s it? Just smile?” the doofy grin was still pasted to Golbez’s face.
Cecil chuckled. “Believe me. A well-timed smile is sometimes the most persuasive tool known to human-kind.”
“Is that so..?” The wizard’s tone grew thoughtful as he turned his eyes back towards the shifting twilight.
Leaning forward with a new-found assurance, the Paladin followed his brother’s line of sight. The words that came now held a real conviction rather than the rehearsed hash that he had attempted to spout earlier. “Sure is pretty. The sunset.”
“I can’t get over it.”
“Why?”
“We don’t have sunsets on the Lunar Homeworld.”
“Really?”
“Yeah… there’s always some sort of illumination in the sky,” Golbez mused. “We have four moons there… including the Red Moon.”
“Seriously? I bet that makes for some interesting skies.”
“Sometimes. But we don’t have sunsets,” the wizard murmured. “I forgot how beautiful this world could be…”
“I know what you mean.” The peaceful symphony of crickets rose from the forests below as Cecil ventured, “Maybe one day I could come see your world?”
A soft scowl drew over Golbez’s face. “It is not ‘my’ world.”
“Ah?”
“It does not belong to me… and I do not belong to it.” The words held a hint of pain, “I only stay there because I have no where else to go.”
Realization shook Cecil as the words fell upon his ears.
And for the first time he could see a glimmer of Golbez not as the former Dark Lord and Destroyer… but as a torn man, lost to a spiral of events that were beyond his own control. A man who was struggling to simply remain a part of the flow of time without being swept away. A man of great power… yet so childlike and open to potentials of influence. Even to the Light.
The words of FuSoYa rang once again in his ears.
‘There is a good possibility that Golbez could become a very powerful ally to our cause. But only if there is one to guide him towards that light.’
“Hey…” Cecil pushed himself away from the wall with an encouraging smile. “How about you and I go down and grab a bite to eat?”
The look on Golbez’s face was incredulous with unspoken surprise.
“Come on. Why not?”
“I just thought… you’ve been busy lately.”
“Well, I’m not busy now. Besides, there are a lot of things I’d like to talk with you about…” Cecil paused before adding a gentle afterthought, “…Brother…”
“I’d… like that a lot…” Golbez perked up with a small grin. “…Brother…”