Chapter 66 - Decision.
The pounding at the door came again as Eveline stepped toward it and stopped with her hand out to the handle.
"WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE! OPEN UP, NOW!" a soldier shouted from the other side.
Eveline let out a shaking breath and turned to Aren, who lowered his shoulders and gave her a nod.
She swallowed and opened the door, and found a group of patrolmen standing in front of her.
The soldier at the front looked the girl over, then raised his eyes and saw Aren.
He frowned and seized Eveline roughly by the shoulders, then shoved her back into the other soldiers.
"Hold her!" he ordered, and activated his magical sword at once.
"HEY! LET GO OF ME!" Eveline shouted, and Aren leaned forward with his fists closed when he saw three more come into the room, one of them leveling a mechanical crossbow with a magical head at him.
Rexy growled, ready to spring at the soldiers, but one of the patrolmen turned a second crossbow on him.
"Rexy, don't—" Aren began.
"STAY WHERE YOU ARE AND PUT YOUR HANDS SLOWLY ABOVE YOUR HEAD!" the commander ordered.
Aren stood without moving, his eyes going between the soldiers around him and Eveline held behind them.
"I SAID PUT YOUR DAMNED HANDS UP!"
Jaw clenched, Aren opened his fists and slowly raised his hands above his head.
One of the soldiers leveled a third crossbow at him, one of a different shape, and fired; Aren's hands were locked together at once in a hard magical binding.
The squad commander stepped forward with the blade trained on him, closer and closer, until he caught Aren by the shoulder and shoved him toward the door.
As Aren went past Eveline she lurched toward him, but the soldiers dragged her back.
"Aren! Take me with him!"
"You and I will be having a different conversation," the commander answered, and shoved Aren on.
"And what conversation would that be?" said a man who had cut off the soldiers' path.
Eveline's eyes went wide when she saw her father.
The commander stopped dead at the sight of a formal officer's tunic with a lieutenant's epaulettes on the broad shoulders of a tall man.
Gold ran along the standing collar up to a short-trimmed white beard, and amber eyes looked down at the commander.
"L-Lieutenant..." he began.
"Lieutenant Deron Garden. I will ask my question once more — what exactly is this 'different conversation' you will be having with my daughter?"
Every one of the patrolmen exchanged looks as the commander tightened his grip on Aren's shoulder.
"We have an order from Supreme Archon Aurelius Bright. To detain this foreigner."
"You did not answer my question. What has my daughter to do with it?"
"She is an accomplice to the crimes, since she was hiding him in her... in your house."
"Dad, he was trying to protect me!" Eveline cried out and lurched forward again, but the soldiers hauled her roughly back once more — and Deron's brows came down.
"I see. Now listen to me. I am giving you exactly three seconds to take your hands off my daughter before I cut them off."
"But this is the order of Arch—"
"One."
"You can't—"
"Two."
The soldiers holding Eveline let the girl go immediately; the commander did not move, and watched Deron come around Aren and the other soldiers to stop directly in front of him and stand over him.
"Allow me to explain what you are going to do next. You are leaving this foreigner and my daughter with me, and you are getting your backsides out of my house, and I had better not see you here again."
"You cannot go against the order of an Arch—!"
"I will deliver the foreigner to the Archon myself," he cut in.
The commander gave no answer and looked away.
"I do not hear an answer."
"Yes, sir... Lieutenant."
"Lieutenant Garden."
"Yes, sir, Lieutenant Garden," the commander repeated.
"And what is my daughter's name?"
"E...Eveline...Garden..."
"Correct. Now turn to her."
The commander turned to Eveline, and the soldiers around her stepped aside.
"As far as I can see, my daughter is extremely distressed by the way you treated her. Wouldn't you agree?"
The commander clenched his jaw and lowered his head in a bow.
"My... apologies..."
Deron looked over the soldiers standing near Eveline, and they bowed in turn.
He set a hand to the back of the bowing commander's head and lowered his own head to his ear.
"And now get off my doorstep."
Feeling Deron let his head go, the commander straightened and started off with the rest, but Eveline's father caught one of the crossbowmen by the forearm.
"Take the cuffs off him," he ordered.
Once Aren's hands were freed he rubbed his wrists, and then the patrolmen were finally gone.
The net curtain in the sitting room went on stirring from the open balcony, Eveline and Aren on the couch and Deron in the armchair opposite.
"I see," said Deron, propping his elbows on his knees and lacing his fingers, once Eveline had told him what had happened.
"Are you really going to take him to the Archon?" she asked.
"An order is an order, I cannot disobey it. And what other options are there anyway?"
Eveline said nothing and lowered her eyes, which did not escape Deron, and he turned his own to Aren, who sat calmly, his eyes fixed on one spot.
"Well then. Let's go," he said, and got up from his seat.
Eveline rose after him and started off along with Aren, but Deron stopped at the door and turned back to his daughter.
"You are staying here."
"W-what? No!"
"Eveline. This is not up for discussion."
"B-but I'm involved too! I-I have to!"
"YOU... do not have to do anything."
Eveline looked into his lowered eyes without answering.
"This is my duty. Do you remember our agreement?" Deron went on.
"Yes but..."
"I trusted you. And now I am asking you to trust me," he said, laying a hand against her cheek.
Aren watched from the side, his lips parting a little, while the father looked at his daughter and the daughter looked at her father.
A feeling came up in his chest, heavy and warm at the same time, and with all that unbelievably familiar.
Leaving the house, Aren set off along with Deron; Eveline stood on the porch with Rexy in her arms and watched them go.
The bright white houses of Midar gave way one after another as the two of them walked the street in silence, not quickening their pace. Now and then the smell in the warm air turned to the light scent of fruit trees, which took Aren's mind off what was ahead for a moment.
"Tell me, Aren. Do you have many friends?"
Aren glanced at Deron, who walked on without turning.
"Well..."
Faces rose in his head: the people of Golden Flow, the Greenfield family, Bernard, Erik, and even Edith and Aurey.
"Yes."
"Mm," Deron answered.
They stopped at a crossing to let a caravan through, then went over it and walked on.
"Eveline has practically none," Deron added.
Aren made no answer and lowered his eyes a little.
"She has one... his name is Ilau. Only she hasn't said a thing about him for a long time. I don't know what happened there between them, since we haven't talked much lately... I'm on duty all the time, and even during my short leave Eveline was busy with her own things... with her preparation."
"She studies hard," said Aren, and Deron laughed a little.
"She gets that from her mother. Just as hardworking and just as stubborn. Moves forward no matter what. And I am proud of her."
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A warm smile spread across Aren's face, but then a question came into his head.
"What happened to her mother? To your wife, I mean?"
When Deron did not answer at once, Aren glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and saw his lowered gaze.
"She passed away. Several years ago. She was a scientist... an expert on Pandorum and the Unified Field."
"What happened?"
Deron smirked and glanced at Aren.
"I see your curiosity is stronger than your manners," he said, and then saw Aren rub the back of his head awkwardly.
He sighed and turned his eyes back to the street.
"On one of the expeditions in the neutral lands, she came upon a dead zone. There have been more and more of them lately, and she was trying to work out what was behind it... except... she and her team took Exdurum."
"Don't tell me..." Aren began.
"...the ones who survived managed to bring her home... except by then she could no longer walk... or even lift her head..."
They stopped on a bridge with a small canal running under it, where Deron looked out at the view while Aren took in what he had heard.
"To tell the truth... I didn't want Eveline to see her like that... but I couldn't keep my daughter from seeing her own mother either... except..."
Glancing at Deron, Aren saw him draw a breath and turn his eyes one way, then sharply the other, looking somewhere far off. A broken breath went out through his nose, and his eyes grew slightly wet.
"She could no longer recognize... or even remember her own daughter... or me... Her brain... her whole body began to literally..."
Deron took hold of the bridge rail, gripped the stone and lowered his head, while Aren stood beside him with his brows drawn together and his gaze on him.
"Eveline was still small... but she saw it."
The silence held for several more seconds before Deron went on.
"After the funeral, Eveline... swore an oath... that she would become the same as her mother... someone who would be of use to our republic and to science."
He smirked and put out a hand to the side, showing how tall the small Eveline had been back then.
"Can you imagine? THIS tall, and she's already swearing an oath like that... Haha... Whenever I think of it, I'm still amazed at how astonishing children can be..."
Aren could find no words for an answer and went on listening.
"And when she came of age, and understood that her Pandorum was never going to get any better... she still didn't give up. You know that yourself. Though I tried to talk her out of it, more than once. I... tried to protect her... but as you can see... I'm doing a shit job of it... On one side there's a father ready to walk into that damned university and beat the shit out of everyone who laid a finger on my daughter... and on the other there's the man his daughter trusts... the man who gave her his word that he wouldn't stand in the way of her goal... Hell, if only none of this were so complicated."
Stepping up to the rail and laying his hands on it, Aren lowered his eyes to the water.
"I think... in the end I'm the one who ruined everything," he said.
Deron turned his head to the side, to Aren's hand where it lay against the stone.
"You protected my daughter. You did what I should have done. Don't you dare doubt the decisions you made. Do you understand me?"
Aren did not answer at once, then nodded; Deron turned to him and laid a hand on his shoulder, and the two of them looked each other in the eye.
"Aren. I don't know who you are, what is on your mind, or what your true aims are. And to tell the truth, I don't care. All that actually matters to me is that Eveline trusts you and sees a friend in you. And you gave up your freedom, and probably your future here, for my daughter. That is enough. And as her father, I am in your debt."
"I only did what I had to," Aren answered.
Deron did not move, his eyes still on Aren's, where he found no trace of doubt or of a lie.
A smile spread slowly across his face as he let Aren's shoulder go, clapped it and gripped it tighter, a bright look going meanwhile to the view opening out before the bridge.
"How good it is to see the kind of friends she picks for herself."
The Temple of the Sun rose over an open plaza at the end of their road, and Artus and Olen stood before the entrance with their hands behind their backs as Deron and Aren came up to it.
Deron looked each of them over in turn before Artus stepped forward.
"Lieutenant, thank you for bringing him. We will escort him from here ourselves," said Artus.
"I am going with him," Deron answered.
Olen's hands dropped to his sides; Artus did not take his eyes off the lieutenant's, and then nodded and stepped aside.
"As you order."
Deron moved off first and Aren followed, while the cadets walked at the rear.
Coming inside, Aren noticed that the temple was empty, and that at the far end, by the main altar, stood Aurelius, Varian, Gray, Niavey, Magister Voren and the dean of Midar University, Orvilan Hel.
Aren and Deron stopped a few paces in front of them, Aurelius with his back turned and the rest not taking their eyes off Aren.
"As I recall, the purpose of your coming here... was to gain knowledge... am I right, Aren?" Aurelius asked, turning slowly.
"Yes, Aurelius," Aren answered, lowering his eyes.
"Young Gray, and Magister Voren as well, state that you attacked students, and that most of your group is now recovering from injuries."
"Your Grace, with all due respect..." Deron began, and every head turned toward him.
"...I would not call it an attack," he finished.
"And what would you call it?" Varian asked.
"Self-defense."
Voren let out a short laugh and looked away for a moment, then brought his eyes back to Deron.
"Self-defense?!... Forgive me, but who exactly are you?... I don't recall you among those who saw what happened on that ground!" said Voren.
"I am Lieutenant Deron Garden. The father of Eveline Garden..." he began, without raising his face.
Gray and Voren stood frozen, while Orvilan straightened his back.
"...the very girl the two of you, you and this young man, beat savagely in front of a laughing audience of students..." Deron finished, raising his cold eyes to Voren and then to Gray.
Gray set his teeth, and out of the corner of his eye Varian caught the reaction.
"What nonsense is this?... That is an insolent accusation with nothing behind it. We were conducting a practical paired sparring exercise, using a protective magical shell and impulse staves," Voren answered.
"Is that so? Do you really think I don't know that with enough effort a person can be hurt even through a magical shell?... It only works as a coupling for a repelling impulse, and it is not absolute protection from physical damage," said Deron.
"And what would you know about the technology of our university?!"
"Enough," Aurelius ordered.
Stepping forward, Aurelius looked at Aren, who raised his eyes to him.
"Now I want to hear all of it from you."
"...It is all as Lieutenant Garden said... Magister Voren deliberately did not stop the sparring, in which Gray went beyond the limits... and began tormenting Eveline and deliberately causing her more and more pain..."
Varian looked at his son again, who stood with his fists clenched; sweat ran down Voren's temple, and he too glanced at Gray.
What the hell are you keeping quiet for, you little brat... say something!, Voren thought.
"I... couldn't just sit there and watch... and listen to the other students laughing and enjoying what Gray was doing to her... only because she isn't like everyone else," Aren added.
"What do you mean by 'isn't like everyone else'?" Aurelius asked.
"She's... a Level I Conductor... only a very weak one and... her skin is beige."
Aurelius lowered his eyes further, thinking.
"A Level I Conductor... weak on top of that, and beige-skinned... but how did she get in?" he asked.
"She... passed the written entrance examinations with the highest marks, Your Grace... and those marks covered her shortfall in the magical testing," Deron answered.
"Is that so?" Aurelius asked, with a slight turn of his head toward the dean.
"That is correct, Your Grace. In our university she is the only one who passed the written examination with the highest grade, and also the only one who very nearly failed the magical test. It should be noted, however, that failing the magical test means only the absence of Pandorum, which automatically excludes a person from the ranks of future students," Orvilan answered.
"I see," Aurelius answered, and turned his eyes back to Aren.
"Look at me, Aren."
Aren raised his face and looked Aurelius in the eye.
"If all of this is true... then what do the dozens of other students have to do with it? Did they deserve what you did to them?" he asked.
Aren's lips pressed together, and then his eyes went to Gray for a moment.
"They... they were laughing at her... backing Gray up and enjoying her pain..." said Aren.
Aurelius's face did not change as he stepped closer still and laid a hand on Aren's shoulder.
"And what came of it? Did that decision help you get rid of the root of the problem? Or did it only bring you more trouble?" he asked, and Aren lowered his eyes.
"With all due respect, Your Grace... but you should not believe words that have no evidence behind them," said Voren.
"I am the evidence. My daughter came home not long ago. With a split lip. And I was damn well ready to walk into that damned university and kick YOUR son's backside for what he had done... but I gave my daughter my word that I would not interfere and would let her handle it herself until it crossed the line," said Deron, glancing then at Varian.
Gray closed his fists harder and turned to Deron, set on answering.
"How dare y—"
"Shut up," Varian cut in suddenly, and Gray froze and looked at his father, who did not take his eyes off Deron even while addressing his son.
"The only thing you are to be doing right now is standing there with your mouth shut and listening to everything they say. Do... you... understand me?" Varian added, turning his head slowly toward his son.
Gray looked away and then nodded.
Aurelius watched it all in silence, then turned to the cadets standing behind Aren.
"Artus, Olen. Have you anything to add?"
The two cadets exchanged a look, their hands behind their backs.
"No, Your Grace. We only learned of what happened from Master Niavey."
"And in all these days of living together, what can you say about Aren?" Niavey asked.
"Well..." Olen thought it over, shifted his weight onto one leg and set a hand on his belt, while Artus scratched his temple.
"He's fairly... simple... I suppose... he learns quickly and on the whole... he's pretty calm... though we often have to clean up after him in the kitchen," said Olen.
"He has shown no signs of hostility, though we haven't really had any conversation with him as such. We only escorted him on his way to the university, the Midar library and home," said Artus.
Aurelius nodded thoughtfully and walked off to the side, over to Deron, who bowed his head as the Archon stopped a step away from him.
"Raise your head, Deron Garden."
Deron raised his eyes, and Aurelius laid a hand on his shoulder, closed his own eyes and held there a short moment.
When he opened them, his face slowly warmed into a smile, and he stepped back.
"I am sorry that your daughter had to go through something like this."
Deron lowered his eyes again, though the corners of his mouth lifted a little.
"She's a strong girl, mine. And thanks to this young man..." he began, turning his head then toward Aren.
"...it is far better than it might have been," he finished.
Aurelius held his gaze on him, then turned and walked over to the rest.
"I have heard both accounts from both sides. And I will say it plainly... Aren," Aurelius began, standing with his back to him.
"Regrettably, I can no longer allow you to study at the university," he said as he turned to Aren.
Aren gave no answer, while Voren stood with his nose in the air.
"But with all of that, I believe you, and I believe you, Lieutenant Garden."
Voren's face changed the moment he looked at the Archon.
"You may go," said Aurelius, who turned back and gave Niavey a nod as he went.
"W-Wait! B-but you cannot simply take them at their word!" Voren began, as Niavey blocked his view of the departing Aurelius.
Voren froze, raising wide-open eyes to Niavey, who looked him over and then the dean standing beside him.
"I take it the Supreme Archon's decision is clear to you," he said.
Dean Orvilan Hel turned a cold gaze on Magister Voren.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Voren asked.
"Voren. You are officially dismissed from the working staff of our university," said Orvilan, who turned on his heel and walked away.
"W-what?! Hey! W-wait, what the hell is going on he—" Voren began, until Niavey laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Let us be reasonable, Voren. This is the lightest punishment our Archon could have handed down."
Bringing his face closer, Niavey spoke more quietly, looking him in the eye.
"Were I in his place, you would be an Erz right now, cast out to wander the desert."
Letting his shoulder go and drawing back, Niavey turned and followed Aurelius, with a bow in passing to Varian, who answered with a short nod; Gray stood beside him without a word.
The door of the house opened toward evening, and Eveline sprang up from the armchair at the sight of her father, Aren and the two cadets.
She ran over and stopped in front of them.
"Aren...Dad?..."
Deron let out a breath with a smile, and then glanced at Aren.
"It all worked out... though now I won't be able to study at the university," Aren answered.
Eveline pressed her hands to her chest.
"So what!... Remember, you said yourself that you get more interesting things out of me than out of those boring lectures!"
Aren's brows went up, and he let out a breath with a smile.
"By the way, Master Niavey said that while most of the students in your group are in recovery, your sessions are suspended," said Deron.
"Really?... All the better," Eveline answered.
A silence hung between Aren and Eveline, and then she threw her arms around him, pressing hard against his chest.
"I'm so glad it all worked out..." she said, and his mouth curved as he put his arms around her in turn, stroking her back.
The smile did not leave Deron's face, while Artus and Olen barely held back the urge to grin themselves.
Meanwhile Sergeant Alpina Blair, who had survived the attack in the Golden Desert, opened her eyes and saw a white ceiling in front of her.
Turning her head, she saw a drip with a line running to her arm, then looked around and realized she was in the infirmary. Pushing herself up to sit, she put a hand to her head, feeling the weight of it, then looked at the arm itself, where red burn marks ran across the skin.
She then pulled the drip needle out and, dressed in a long turquoise infirmary shift, set her bare feet down on the cold stone floor.
Walking to the door, she was only about to open it when it opened by itself, and a nurse stood in front of Alpina, frozen with fright.
Later Alpina was sitting on the cot again, this time surrounded by physicians and by the surgeon who had operated on her and was now checking her condition, until Lucia came over to them.
The physicians left the room straight away, and Lucia stood in silence, running her eyes over Alpina.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"F-Fine," Alpina answered.
Lucia came closer, tilted her head to one side and looked her in the eye.
"Do you remember anything of what happened?"
"Only... climbing onto my flier... and then... blood hit my eyes... and nothing after that..."
"Mm. I see," Lucia answered, and turned her eyes away to one side.
"You're of House Blair, aren't you?"
"...Yes."
"Right. Rest, and later I will give the order for someone to help you pack your things and return to Midar," said Lucia, turning to the door.
"W-what?! B-but why?... I can still serve!"
"You lived through what most of your detachment did not," Lucia answered, stopping in front of the door.
Alpina did not move, her eyes still on the Archon's back.
"You and Lieutenant Keir are the only survivors. It is thanks to him and to the surgeon, who all but dragged you back from the dead, that you are alive now. You are plainly unfit to continue your service at present, and so I am sending you home. And this is not up for discussion," said Lucia, and left the infirmary.
Alpina gripped the blanket, then looked around the room and put a hand to her head, still feeling the unpleasant weight in it.