Soldiers of Ancient Seas, Part 9: "The Winds of Death"

When they met again, at the same coffee shop, Sia and Oliver each sat down with cups they intended to drink.  Sia noticed that Oliver didn’t add anything into his this time.  He seemed nervous, agitated, kept sipping at his cup.  He’d removed the lid.  She watched him with anticipation.  She held hers in her hands, and brought it up to her lips for steady swallows.  She didn’t much notice the temperature.  There was a single packet of sugar mixed in, a little creamer, which changed the color to a dark tan.

     “The whole point of all this is that there’s going to be a war,” he said finally.  “A war.  A full-on, all-out war.  A true world war.  It’s going to be all of us, all on the same team.  I’m not sure we have a chance.”

     “I actually don’t think that’s true,” she said.  “Why would she have even bothered.  Night.  Her name is Night.  In case you didn’t already know that.”

     “In fact I didn’t,” Oliver said.  “Feeling a little inadequate these days, thank you very much.  I was workshopping Danab Lady.  Or maybe Mad Lady.”

     “Night,” she said.  “She’s actually a very nice lady, when you stop worrying about all the horrible implications.”

     “I’m sure she is,” he said.

     “We had a little chat,” she said.

     “A lot of that going around, lately,” he said.

     “I’ve found them helpful,” she said.  “I mean, I don’t think we have to worry about it.  About the war.  I mean, there’s going to be a war, and it’s going to be worldwide, global, devastating, as wars go…but I don’t think it’s an extinction event.  I don’t think it’s about annihilation.   I don’t think it’s avoidable, no matter how you look at it, but that’s just how these things go.  That’s how humanity says hello.”

     “That’s awfully cynical,” he said.  “And also, since when were you the level head in all this.  I’m the one who was supposed to know what was going on.”

     “That’s awfully condescending,” she said.  “Since you asked…I guess I knew what this was all going to lead to, somewhere along the line.  At some point.  I kind of had to figure a secret as big as the one I’d stumbled onto was never going to be simple, not with that scrubbed from the historical record.  There had to be a reason, and…there was.  There absolutely was!  C’mon, you had to guess, too, at some point?  You know more than I did, for longer, and you’re going to tell me you honestly thought it was going to turn out any different?  That you thought it was really going to be like all those silly movies?  I mean, I’d love to see the movie, if I didn’t have to experience it, but I guess there’ll be a movie, eventually, anyway, humanity’s brush with its destiny!  From its past!  I’m sure it’s going to be horrible, but…Endurable.  They’re not going to just come wipe us out.  Weaponry has to exist on a scale that makes sense, if we’re essentially the same people.  And we are.  They can’t invent anything we wouldn’t be able to understand, or confront.  We already know this, Oliver.  Ollie.  Can I call you Ollie?”

     “Actually, I’ve been workshopping,” he said.

     “Night came here like she’d road a bus, took a cab,” she said.  “I don’t know, drove a car.  If she had been, I don’t know, part of a vanguard, she really wouldn’t have just orchestrated our bumping into each other like that.  Think about it.  I know I have.  Very little else.  Actually, that’s a lie.  I’ve been distracting myself a lot.  You have no idea.  You’d think I would be able to think about anything else.  But I had to.  I think that’s really how all of this works.  Some of us are able to cut through the chatter.  I guess somehow I’m one of them.  I know you are, Ollie!  C’mon!  You can’t tell me otherwise!  I don’t know you at all.  Really!  But I know you better than anyone.  I know the type.  I know you, Ollie!  I know you understand this.  It’s going to be war.  And then it’ll be something else.  We’re just going to have to learn to deal with it.  That’s going to be a whole thing.  It’ll get complicated.  That’s how these things work.  That’s how it always works.  It’ll be okay.”

     “It’s really supposed to be me,” he said, “explaining all this.”

     “Don’t be crass,” she said.

     “Suppose we’ll have to invite her over for dinner.  Also, each other.”

     “I don’t think she’s here anymore,” she said.  “I think she went back home.  Or somewhere.  I don’t know.  I don’t really know her.  I mean, I know her.  But she went out of her way to clarify how little I could possibly understand her life.  But that’s life.  Biggest story in history, and that’s what it boils down to.  I guess it figures.”

     “It just needed someone capable of seeing it that way,” he said.

     “I have no idea how it ended up being me,” she said.

     “I think if you thought about it enough you would,” he said.  “Coffee’s awful.  I don’t mean coffee in general.  I’m drinking plenty these days.  I mean the coffee here.  Just awful.”

     “You know what?” she said.  “I think I agree.  It’s just awful.”

     “Let’s not come here again,” he said. 

     “Agreed,” she said.  “Easily.  See?  Something ordinary.  Simple.  That’s how these things really are.  Just ordinary life, regardless of the circumstances.”

     “You still curious about Duende?” he asked.

     “I think I learned enough,” she said.  “For now.”

     “I know what you mean,” he said.

     “I’m not finishing this cup,” she decided.

     “A wise decision,” he said.

     They slipped back into the night, together, and then went off in different directions.

     In the ensuing years, Sia never saw Oliver, much less Night, again.  It’s not worth summarizing her experiences, here.  That would be another story, and really, Sia wasn’t a part of the fighting, and her life wasn’t significantly impacted by it.  Not anymore than it had already been, before it had ever begun.

     So the rest is mere epilogue, as, too, this, as is everything, mere prologue.