8 Pelagius II

03.02.2024

The wizards had returned mostly unharmed and most had left again. The Twilight had gone to the Dark Citadel for some sort of repair or modification (as Pelagius didn’t know even half of the ships abilities or function it was hard to say if “getting the CBD ship shaped” was something to worry about).

Zenozarax’ Warrior had stayed here, even though he had been injured. They not only fixed ships on the Dark Citadel, but wizards too and it was also where they brought the scavenged Parts from their raids. Maybe he didn’t go there because his Wizard was there already and they tried to not be at the same place at the same time.

Nothing of that had been explicitly told to him with purpose, maybe if Zenozarax wouldn’t be so busy with other things he would have. But as it was, he hadn’t even seen him since his return. Back in Treva it had been near impossible to escape that wizard’s presence, and his chatter. Now there had already been weeks where he hadn’t seen him at all, and when he did there was an awkwardness to it, because Zenozarax didn’t want him to be here either. But neither of them had a choice in that matter. And Pelagius had accepted it (unlike someone else). The events had unfolded as they had and this was the result and the consequences of it. He couldn’t change that. He could only accept it, and deal with it accordingly.

He may wasn’t able to escape Zenozarax influence on a spiritual and physical level, given the curse, but the current distance to him was an improvement. With the only downside that he could no longer rely on that well of information.

Most he knew now he knew because he talked to people. And he listened. The humans knew just what they needed to know and didn’t seem too curious beyond that. One way or another this was their life, their family and society, and most seemed satisfied with it. The goblins were a much richer source of information because they seemed to want to know everything. They had drilled him good for any information and sensation related to his immortality. And so he had taken the chance to inquire about all the things he didn’t know in turn.

At first the extremely heavy accent of the goblins had been very hard to understand. Unlike the wizards that seemed effortlessly fluent in both their native tongues he had only seen a very few humans talking the goblin language. Hearing them talk amongst each other, with all the hissing and clicking sound he could understand why. Some nights laying in his bed he had out of curiosity tried to make those sounds too and failed. But, maybe if he kept trying. He actually already understood all of them, these humans and goblins alike, like they spoke languages he already knew intimately, and he suspected that had something to do with his connection to Zenozarax. Speaking it too, spontaneously fluent in a language he didn’t know he knew, had been an utterly bizarre experience at first but he had quickly gotten used to it. Which admittedly hadn’t made it any less bizarre, especially when he was absolutely certain he could, in theory, speak that goblin language if he could only get a grasp on how to even make those sounds.

As it was, the goblins seemed to have a much easier time speaking to them in a language the humans could actually understand, so he didn’t have to worry about actually speaking whatever that goblin language was.

He had been told that there actually existed “translators” — small devices that were apparently implanted somewhere into one’s skull that would translate foreign languages on the fly. While sounding impressively helpful, Pelagius had quite enough of anything being implanted into his body, so he outright despised the idea. The wizards, the Order ones, usually introduced these translators to populations under their watch and it sure was an amazing piece of magic to have access to, but, as Pelagius understood it, it was also one easy way of keeping track of persons of interest. Consequently the Chaos Wizards here didn’t like to use them seemingly on principle. And so learning languages the hard way it was, for most of them.

Then again, he assumed it to be much easier for the goblins because technically they didn’t have to relearn anything. They remembered how to speak their language from their parents before them and so on.

Sometimes Pelagius still felt his head buzzing with all the things that were just normal now. Given that, he should be glad that there wasn’t too much expected of him yet.

But he wasn’t.

He had been raised up and trained as a knight for most of his life. He had held an important and honourable position in the king’s guard. He had held an unfortunate but firm position at Zenozarax’ side for years. Then he had helped Ravalor.

And now… he didn’t do much of anything. He had been assigned to station security which had seemed like a good fit but as it turned out there wasn’t much need for it besides taking care of some minor squabbles or drunken ruckus.

At first it had been a somewhat welcome change. It was rather peaceful and surely, after everything he had been through, it was what he deserved. A break. But by now it felt more like a curse than the actual curse within him. Trapped on this flying fortress and bored to tears.

With Ravalor here now, already taking most of Zenozarax’ attention quite evidently, he wasn’t sure it would get any better. Then again, based on his own experience and what he had been told, things seemed to have a way to dramatically and unexpectedly change when that wizard was around.

But for now he took to the only really important task he had, even though he loathed it.

Politely he knocked on the door. There was a door ringer within the access panel but he never remembered using it. Knocking still felt more natural to him. As usual he wasn’t invited in, so he unlocked the door and let himself in.

He almost stopped right in the doorway, before taking another careful step forward.

Aeven stood in the middle of the room, but there was something so unnatural about it that Pelagius hardly could put into words what it was, like he had glimpsed a ghost. It didn’t look like Aeven had been moving, not caught in mid stride or halting at the knock. He stood with his back to the door, body tense, the breath harder than it should be, raising his shoulders and back with each of them.

“Aeven?” He asked carefully, closing and locking the door behind him. If he were to call for help it would arrive too late anyways and he in his immortal state really was much more suited to handle any outburst anyways. No reason to risk the rest of the station’s population.

At the sound of his voice, Aeven flinched violently, turning around and taking a few quick steps back till he stood with his back against the wall.

His eyes were wide, like prey facing down a predator they couldn’t escape. He looked physically healthy, but the expression in his face told a different story entirely.

He saw Aeven’s lips move, barely heard a whisper of words too quiet to understand as Aeven spoke to himself, rapidly breathlessly, not taking his eyes from him. And yet he didn’t even seem to really see him.

“Have you eaten?” Pelagius asked, halfway raising his hands in a non threatening motion. A brief glance at the meal he had brought in last night confirmed that, if he had, it couldn’t have been more than a few bites. “You need to eat. You’ll starve otherwise. And that’s really unpleasant.” Not that Aeven wouldn’t be aware of that at this point after having tested out the limits of his new immortal state quite frequently and violently already.

Pelagius was just picking up the old plate when he saw Aeven move in his peripheral vision. The plate clattered to the ground as just in time he turned to dodge a heavy punch.

“Whoa — there…” Pelagius swiftly stepped backwards, his steps feather light, almost bouncing as he kept himself ready to dodge a follow up attack. He had raised his own hands halfway. “Aeven, are you listening?“

“Let me out of here.” Aeven glared at him, his voice a threatening growl.

“I can’t do that. Not when you’re like this. We talked about it,” Pelagius said, slowly circling Aeven who kept his body turned toward him.

“You’re a liar…” Aeven hissed.

“Why?“

“Because you are a lie.”

Pelagius couldn’t help but scoff. “Not that again. What do you want me to say, your highness?” He said more biting than intended. This wasn’t his prince, he had never sworn loyalty to him. As far as he was concerned, this Aeven was the lie he accused him to be. Standing before him like a really tasteless joke. He felt the pity and disdain turn into that all too familiar flame of anger, anger that still wasn’t fully his own but it might as well be, that blamed this man for ruining everything. Even in that moment he knew how irrational that was because it assumed the impossible idea that everything would have been just fine had Zenozarax succeeded. “If you keep doing this, nothing is going to change.”

“Silence!” Aeven barked. His next action came utterly unexpected and caught Pelagius woefully off-guard as at once he grabbed the plate of food and hurled it at Pelagius. Barely able to raise his arms in time to avoid the plate as well as the food to hit him in the face, he lost his focus on Aeven for but a brief moment — but it was a mistake just the same. He realised Aeven was right there, he even saw the fist, but it crashed into his face before he had the chance to do anything about it.

He heard bones break and didn’t know if it was his or Aeven’s and he was hurled back against the wall by the force of the punch. Pain exploded in his face and drove tears into his eyes, he thought he even cursed, but he was for a moment too dazed to really hear or see anything. The strong grip he felt however shot a new massive dose of adrenalin through his body as he recognized the mortal danger he was in and his vision cleared at once, driven by sheer survival instinct. While he was immortal, being left dead here, with Aeven, was the last thing he wanted to happen.

Aeven had grabbed him by the collar and slammed him to the ground, the raw, near animalistic strength behind his grip was terrifying, ready to beat him to a pulp — but before that could happen, Pelagius managed to twist his body enough to get leverage and it earned Aeven a devastating kick into the stomach, which threw him backwards and away from Pelagius.

Pelagius scrambled up, slammed his hand against the door panel and rushed out, Aeven right on his heels he knew it, and the moment the door slammed shut at his command, he glared for just a fraction of a second into utter hatred, before the door locked shut. The banging against the sturdy metal echoed through the corridor. The yells were muffled.

Pelagius had to take a deep breath to calm his own mind. Aeven’s distress was palpable to him, he could feel it as much as he heard it.

He wouldn’t calm down on his own. He would bash against this door till his hands were shattered, his body broken and bloody. He would exhaust himself to death.

And even though Aeven may be immortal, Pelagius was not yet jaded enough to just let him do that to himself again.

He almost ran when he left. Unfortunately there was only one person who could calm Aeven now.

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