“You're welcome.”
Johan held his hands up and shrugged. “Hey, not that I'm not thankful, but that was the moment the power had built up the highest. This brings me to point number two: your sword.”
Aryu glanced at the sheathed blade sitting beneath the window. He'd not even remembered putting it there but assumed it had been set down as he looked out the window at the goings-on below. Odd how it had wanted to be held so badly at times and could fade entirely from your memory at others.
“What about it?”
“You said this Nixon guy said it was old and powerful, something more than it seemed?”
That and it made Nixon need to kill him, but that was unnecessary information at this point. “He did. Called it the Shi Kaze and claimed it held great power. It's certainly sharp, but as for the power…” Aryu knew it was there, could feel it swell up in the blade even from where he was standing, but again said nothing. His secret. His burden.
“Kind of like my knife?”
“I think so,” answered Aryu, unsure. He didn’t have the attachment to the knife that Johan did, so it was difficult to say.
“And Nixon is some kind of holy warrior?”
“Yes, something like that.”
Johan thought for a moment, then looked at Aryu to be sure his words were heard. “We’re going against something we’ve never seen before, but if it cut as easily as you say it did, just like my knife, then you had better learn how to use it. Get this Nixon guy to teach you if you have to.”
Aryu was glad to see that he and Johan had the same train of thought. “Anything else on your mind?”
“One last little thing. What are we supposed to do with him?” Johan motioned to Esgona, his head in his arms. He could have been sleeping or dead. It was hard to tell.
“Esgona?”
No response.
“Esgona, are you awake?”
“What do you want?” His voice was quiet, like a cold wind. It threw off Aryu for a moment. He wasn't expecting an answer, let alone one so obviously pained and malicious. That same part of Aryu that had felt shame at Johan’s obvious treatment of Esgona now triggered a distant feeling of fear. Something about this boy wasn't right. This was the response of a man, not a boy, who was one shove from being pushed too far.
“Watch your mouth, you fucking coward,” Johan chastised from across the room, legs still swinging playfully over the desk. He loved every moment of this.
Esgona didn't look at him. He just looked up at Aryu and waited for whatever it was Aryu wanted to be said.
“Look, I did what I said I'd do for you. I promised Nixon that I'd take you, find Johan, and return. I've done that. My part of the deal is fulfilled as far as you go. You can stay with him or be on your way. I don't really care either way, and believe me, neither does he.”
“Damn right.” Johan glowered playfully at them both.
“You can go wherever you want now, and if you left I wouldn't blame you in the slightest. You can take your shame to someone else for all we care, but remember this; we, the three of us, are still alive, still breathing, still here to honor our loved ones. I'll be right back into the fight when I return. No one else you meet will have the same drive and determination to see that army beaten and destroyed as we do.
“You are a coward, Esgona. That much is public record. You can live with your childish cowardice or you can stand and hope to die like a man. Johan will help you to that end, and when I return, so will I. A coward from Tan Torna Qu-ay is still a person from Tan Torna Qu-ay. Am I right, Johan?”
“He can tag along all he wants. I'll be civil.”
Esgona doubted this. “All I want is to get as far from here as I can, and I can't go anywhere but where he’s going for the time being. But listen: as long as I am with either of you, I will make sure no machine walks away. And I will not forget the thing I saw leading them, Aryu. The thing just like you.”
It was so forceful and to the point that Aryu had no response. Johan didn't seem to suffer from the same affliction. He sprang from his desk perch and across the room to where Esgona had been sitting. Esgona knew what was coming and rolled away with an astonishing amount of dexterity for someone so depressed and with a crippling leg injury. Esgona made his way to the other side of the room by the door, looked at them both in turn, and exited into the hall.
“That little fucker! He has the balls to talk like that to us after the shit he pulled down south? I should just forget about him and leave without him.” For a dishonored, lying bully of a boy to be so direct to someone accepted to be his superior, it seemed to prove beyond all reason that this was not the same world it had been only a few days ago. The rules they’d grown with no longer applied.
Aryu agreed to leave at sunup, still some hours away. Rest was needed and far more than a few hours could afford, but one last night with his friend was enough for now.
Johan passed out instantly, but Aryu dwelled on everything for a while. The echo of Nixon’s words about the things Esgona had seen and the experiences changing him so much bounced in his head.
Aryu
