Renegade Reborn (31 page)

Likos let him go, and rose to his feet. He looked down at his friend, thought he may weep, but nothing came. He tried to bend down and lift him, but lacked the strength so he did the only thing he could do. Walk. And walk he did and with every step realized that it wasn’t just Leobotas that died that day, but a part of himself as well. From that point on, Likos lived not one life, but three. One for himself, one for Leobotas, and one for Sparta . . .

Chapter Fifteen: Purah’s Past Revealed

“I never thought the chain to be an actual, physical thing we’d bring back,” Rolce said. The chain was the darkest of black, yet, still glistened in the light, and this set Rolce’s stomach in a churn. They stared at it now, draped over the stairs where they had returned, both not ready to touch it.

“The very moment we touched it, we validated the Dragon’s memories and made them real,” Jackobi said.

“Don’t know if I like how you put that.” Rolce said.

“All that we can know of Purah’s story, his strengths, his weaknesses, lies within that chain, and only a Sybil can activate it now. Are you ready?” Jackobi asked. Rolce sat down upon the staircase, staring at it, imagining that at anytime, it could become a snake, or a dragon, and snap at him.

“Not really, but it has to be done,” Rolce said. He took a deep breath, reached out, grabbed onto Jackobi with one hand and touched the chain with the other as he activated his mind link . . .

“Guess what?” A young Purah, barely out of his twenties, asked while flinging open his front door. There was a big, boyish grin upon his face, threatening to explode. From the family room, a woman with golden, straightened hair looked up, meeting his excited blue eyes with her own.

“Oh, not this game again . . .” The woman said. Purah bounded across the room, and rather than reply, swept her up in his arms and spun her about the kitchen, laughing with fits of glee, before putting her down and giving her a long, deep, passionate kiss that made the woman’s knees wobble.

“ . . . Woo . . . tell me, you’re going to finish what you started here?” The woman said, taking in another breath and biting her lower lip gently.

“I did it,” Purah said.

“Did what?” The woman asked.

“It,” Purah said.

“It?” The woman asked. She thought for a moment, fighting down the goosebumps and lightheadedness from the kiss, and then it hit her. Her eyes grew huge, moist, and then tears starting flowing as it was her turn to sweep him up in a hug, as she leapt into the air and forced him to catch her. Together they just stood there, holding one another, and for the first time since moving into their dump of a home, didn’t hear the rats scampering in the ceilings, or the creaking floorboards where an infestation of termites lay just below Purah’s right heel, and did not notice the five yellow late bill envelopes, or the ten red letters, signifying repossession. No, the only thing the young couple noticed, was the open letter in Purah’s hand and the five figure sum advance of Tarries promised to Purah Brennan for his fiction novel,
Tears of Flame.

“I told you, didn’t I, Charley?” Purah asked, placing Charley back down, with tears of joy now streaming down his face. “I told you I would make it! And you, oh my dear, sweet, Charley, you were the only one, the only one who stood by me and believed!” Purah said, as he then kissed his wife again and lifted his head to the ceiling. “YOU HEAR THAT THERA? PURAH BRENNAN IS AN AUTHOR!”

“Keep it down! It’s half past midnight, crazy!” Charley said, shushing him.

“Let ‘em wake! And you, Charley, my beautiful, beautiful Charley, this book and every one after, is dedicated to you! My heart, my life, my soul, is all within these pages, and you, you brought it out of me, YOU! And now, the world will know, that even when I’m long dead, my story will go on, and live in the minds and hearts of all who read it, and every time it gets opened, the first thing they will see is your name! I can’t give you the moon, or the stars, Charley, but this is better. I’ll immortalize you in the minds of men and women for all time to come!” Purah said, with startling sincerity and passion.

“Well, that was a mouthful . . .” Charley said.

“I’m, I’m sorry, I, I don’t know where that came from, I . . .” Purah started.

“Oh shush, it came from that wonderful, huge, heart of yours! I, I just, I can’t believe it . . . we can go anywhere, do anything!” Charley said.

“Name it, let’s go!” Purah said. “Anywhere!”

“I don’t even need to think about it, let’s go to my father’s!” Charley said. Purah put on a face of bewilderment.

“Your Father’s? But, but why?” Purah asked.

“So I can shove this letter in his big fat face and let him know how wrong he was about you, about me, about everything!” Charley said.

“I love you,” Purah said, and that’s when Charley’s face took on a grimace.

“Oh, OH! I, it’s kickin’ . . . wow! Fierce little shot that was,” Charley said, keeling over and holding her stomach.

“She gets it from you no doubt, look at these thighs of yours,” Purah said.

“Shut up,” Charley said. “Oh, ow, ow, ow!”

“Let’s sit you down,” Purah said as he took his wife’s hand gently and led her to an ugly, yellowing suede couch that had one leg missing. Together they sat down, but the couch had had enough. With their combined weight, the couch gave way, and snapped beneath them as they landed harmlessly atop cushions. They looked at each other with shocked eyes, then at their destroyed old couch, and erupted into fits of laughter until, from below, they heard the prodding jam of a broom handle from their crotchety downstairs neighbor.

“’EH! KEEP IT DOWN OR I’LL CALL THE LANDLORD AND GET YOU TWO HOOLIGAN’S EVICTED! EVICTED! YA HEAR ME!?” The old crotchety neighbor, a neighbor they no longer had to deal with, threatened. This caused them to explode with laughter all the more, until they were hoarse, and tears were flowing down their faces.

When they had their fill, they laid back, wrapped in each other’s arms and had the most peaceful, content sleep of their young lives. They could do anything, go anywhere and the only limit they had, was their own imagination, and one thing Purah Brennan was not short of, was imagination . . .

“What have I done?” Purah exclaimed. He held his mug tightly in his hand, which now contained cold coffee, as he looked out his bedroom window located in the main castle of Oak County, at the sight of two groups of people, spewing hate and venom at each other, all the while, raising colorful, glittery signs.

“Honey . . .” Charley started. She came up behind him and wrapped her arms in a hug from behind. Purah reached up, held her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“The Purist party . . . what was I thinking? I should have seen this coming, Charley. I should have seen how this would go,” Purah said, as he broke free from his wife and slumped down upon the bed.

“How could you have known? No one can see the future. Something needed to be done. There can’t just be one side to every argument! There can’t just be one sweeping generalization to how Oak County is run. You did the right thing!” Charley said, her last line sounding forced, because it was.

“Listen to them. It’s a race war out there, all because of me creating this party. They even named it after me, Charley, and I let them. I’m responsible for this. Just look! Things used to be so civil. Now look at it. It’s evolved past anything I could have imagined and turned into a monster! Just listen to them, simplifying things that were never meant to be simplified!” Purah said. Charley sat down beside him and caressed his knee.

“You couldn’t let the Flarians become boogeymen. What else could you do? This was the only peaceful way.” Charley said.

“I love the Flarians, Charley. I admire their strength, their tenacity, their never say die attitude, but, now, in times of peace, they’re . . . outdated, bored, a dying breed.

The great Veil war, its aftermath, it’s crushed the hearts of the people. It’s made them afraid. Oh, Vadid. If he were here, I know he would find a way through this, he’d find a way because he’s a true Renegade, and true Renegades see both sides to every argument, but his son, his son’s no Renegade. He and his Freeist party, they’re so one-sided and now, in my plan to stop it, I’ve created an argument that has turned one-sided as well. I may be a Renegade in name, but now? I sure don’t feel like one.

Look at them out there. They are deadlocked, fighting and arguing, thinking only of themselves, their, ‘teams’, and their pride, rather than the people who put them there in the first place. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had another war on our hands, Charley, a war where science is on one side, and religion on the other.”

“It won’t come to that,” Charley said.

“But it can! Both sides have so much to lose. One side controls the media, the other the churches, and both are spewing their lies and the people, depending on whose side they emulate with, eat it up as if they were blind, deaf, and dumb! They question nothing, and take everything they see, and hear as fact! And now the Flarians, thanks to Karm, they’re caught in the middle, and he’s making them out to be the central problem! They lost so much in the war, so much culture, and there’s so few of them left, and their voices, they will be snuffed out,” Purah said. “I don’t have the charisma of Vadid, I’m no leader.”

“You had to do something, you had no choice. You couldn’t bend to Karm’s decrees. Democracy cannot come from a racist, one-sided leader!” Charley said.

“It’s not working period! I feel that very soon, it will come to blows. Why? Why do people come to extremes in the face of adversity? Why can’t they just see both sides, and realize that everyone is just trying to find their place in the world? That was what Oak County was supposed to be!” Purah said.

“If you could reason with extremes, there would be no extremes.” Charley said.

“I know. I just can’t help but feel responsible. I attempted to simplify the human condition, for humanity, and as a result, I’ve taken away its mystery and power and turned it into a two ring circus. This, this isn’t the way of a Renegade. I will go tomorrow. I will stand up to them, both of them, resign my position and try to make them see reason. I have to try, for the sake of the Flarian, for Vadid,” Purah said.

“Want to know what I see?” Charley asked.

“You see a lot more than I. That’s why I keep you around. Someone has to keep me in line.” Purah said, forcing a smile.

“Quiet, mister. Shut that mouth of yours for a change and listen.” Charley said.

“Fair enough,” Purah said. Charley raised a finger to her lips for silence and continued.

“Now, what I see, is a man with a huge heart, a heart, that if ever broken, will suffer much. You cannot put the world on your shoulders husband. That’s why you have a wife, to help bear the burden, to take on the world, to walk side by side with, not one in front of the other, hand in hand, not giving fifty-fifty, but one hundred and one hundred percent. That is love, and with our love, together, we will mend this broken system. Do not blame yourself. You at least acted when no one else did, and to fix this, you will act again.” Charley said.

“What would I do without you?” Purah asked.

“Oh, probably be out gallivanting and getting into trouble with that Falcon Vadid and Moordin Grandir. Their poor wives . . .” Charley said, stifling a chuckle, then, she took on a more serious expression. “But, I’m not done. Now, as for this problem, what I see, is both sides are merely trying to protect what speaks to their hearts, and when you cover tricky subjects like abortion, same sex marriage, religion, etc. things get personal. What works for some, will not work for others, and while some things are outlawed, it will help one group, while hindering another, but these are all surface problems of the human condition, and you will find varying opinions on such issues across both party lines. I feel we need an alternative. We need to instead look past the surface problems and get to the core stances these parties were founded on.

The Purists, at their core, believe in personal responsibility. They believe that the role of the government should be small, non-intrusive, and we, as a people, determine our own destiny, whereas on the flip side, the Freeists believe that who we are is dictated by society, a tabula rasa, and that we are a product of other people’s actions as well as our environment, and the government, a big government, needs to be there to step in and care for the people who won’t care for themselves. Now, think about what I just said, and tell me where your brain takes you.” Charley said with a smile.

“Believe me, I have.” Purah said.

“Just jump on from what I just said. Talk out your thoughts with me. Go.” Charley said. Purah looked at her curiously, then, shrugged, and poured out his thoughts, and heart, to his wife.

“Oak County. This was Vadid’s dream. A place where the races of Thera come together, to rise together, strong, and sturdy, like an Oak. This was his dream. It was also my dream, to make his a reality, but people, they are so, so different, and as much as I hate how this two party system has turned out, what I hate even more is that somehow, the question of a higher power, of IAM, has lead its way into politics as an absolute fact on one side through religion, and an absolute lie on the other through science.

And both sides, oh, they are just so, so spiteful toward one another. Do you remember when we all used the terms, Oakian’s for a while? Sounded so silly, I know, but, I feel it united us! Maybe though, it went away because it was silly. Now? It’s Freeist or Purist, rather than people . . .