Episode 27 - Borrowed Time

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I ran into Nassoumi and told her, like everyone else, that I would be brief. I asked her to deliver some letters for me at the tavern.

She looked at me confused.

"Why did you go there in the first place?"

"It's not something I frequent, I just ran into someone who is helping me with some matters."

"The guards have been asking for you, don't lie."

"I went into the Merciful's palace."

"What did you do?"

"Before you say anything, remember your friend? The Merciful took her to live in his palace and kept her at the cost of tributes."

"So?"

"And so? The king wants to kill me just for knowing the things he does in there."

"I don't know what you expected, I did everything I could to answer your questions. I don't know how I was so foolish not to see that you were against the king all this time. The guards alerted me, but I had faith in you, Broken Forever."

Damn, she doesn't understand...

"Will you deliver the letters?"

"I doubt it."

"Maybe I'm just talking, but if it's to avoid raising suspicion, it's too late, many guards have asked to kill you."

"Are you serious? If what you say is true... I guess it's too late, but I want you to know that as an overseer, I have to show order even if it's the last thing I do. If your idea is to destabilize that order..." Her face changes to a more depressed one. "I don't know if I can help you."

"Things are getting ugly, it's better that you do the right thing, maybe you think they're afraid of you, but many respect you as a leader, that's something the king will never have." I approached with the hand holding the letters to deliver. "Do what you think is best."

She doesn't say anything, she doesn't even care about giving orders, she just freezes.

As I walk away, she yells at me.

"I'll deliver those letters! But this will be the last thing I do for you!"

As for Nassoumi, I feel like she was in a mix of disgust with this situation and at the same time wanting to help me. I could only understand that I left her in a difficult situation.

But being on my side was obviously the right thing to do, she deep down knew that.

To some extent, what I was trying to ensure was my own survival, persuasion was not necessary since everyone has hated the king at some point.

I am only fanning the flames of that fire and, besides that, shaping them so that the flames and sparks point towards my greatest enemy. Although at this moment my fiery whips are metaphorical and therefore ethereal, the king still has his guards and I was about to remind him of that.

I heard knocking on the door of my apartment unit, and quickly hid almost everything I had at hand. Opening the door, I found someone I didn't expect to see, accompanied by two guards dressed in purple garments... The Merciful himself.

"If you'll excuse me, can you leave me alone?"

The guards nod and stay outside.

"So... Broken Forever, huh? The truth is that you were a headache, but I'm tired of avoiding problems. I want to talk to you face to face."

"I thought it wasn't something you did regularly."

"Believe me, I don't. But when something is stolen from me, it makes me very angry."

He heads towards my bed, where the original blueprint for the firearm I had obtained were lying, luckily I had already sent copies to the others, but this still caught me by surprise.

"Do you already know? And so what? Are you going to tell those two guards to pin me against the wall?"

"No, that's what I should have done when you first challenged me several days ago. Now you've become a hero to many, but we both know you're not."

"If you had killed me at that moment, it would have been a bad time too because people didn't start getting tired of you. They always were, but they're afraid of you. Admit it, it's over. No matter what you do, you'll always be viewed as a villain."

The Merciful makes a face that shows his contained fury in his airs of mythomania in an image that was falling apart more and more.

"And do you think they'll listen to you when they find out you're a thief?!" He stretches out his hand and shows me the rolled-up plan. "Do you know what we do with thieves? It's the highest sentence along with murder. People like you are either locked up in dungeons or hung. I decide that, since I'm the only legislator and judge in this city, and believe me, I'm going to choose the latter."

That, for some reason, made me angry, it's something that touches my psyche, but I don't know why exactly, so I focus on the current situation, there's no time to digress.

"The gallows? Why don't you kill me now?"

"Let's say there's already a date in three days at this time. And you know what? I am merciful. If you value your life as much as any common person... Maybe you could leave and we won't follow you if you stop being relevant to the central plaza, otherwise when they see you again in three days... Just know that he who warns does not betray." He explains to me in an arrogant and conceited way.

"First of all, why don't you tell them about the founding members? Do you think it's right to hide the heroes who created this city from its foundations?"

"Heroes?! Founding members?! We already had this conversation with the few who claim to be cultured in this city. People from Europe and probably also America constantly confused Central Asia with the African continent.

"Do you really think we should remember them in a good light? Political action and all its emotional and full of post-truth speeches doesn't work. Do you know what post-truth is? An emotional lie. I don't know what you think of me, but I have a clear conscience knowing that I am not a corrupt person."

"That's not exactly post-truth, it's more complex, besides, what do you prefer? That they don't know that the founders of this city existed? That won't immortalize your image."

"There are people who must be forgotten in history, most of those biographies or autobiographies talk more about him than anything else. If they never came to the city, it's because the old world people must have frowned upon the millions of funds diverted for the development of this city. But seeing your face, it seems like you didn't know the ulterior reason for... My actions."

"Speaking of knowing, when people know that you stole those diagram that you say will alter people, how do you think they will react when they find out that harvest tributes are not so much for the horses, but for your maidens?"

"Oh my!" He replied in a mocking tone. "Broken Forever evasively dodging questions, I didn't think you did that habitually."

"You can consider and reflect on whatever you want, but the people don't want you anymore."

"Who told you that?"

"Do I need to present them? The next time you look at your people, look at their faces, seek the answer to your question in their eyes."

The Merciful takes a deep breath and his tone of voice lowers with it.

"Let's see, I think we've both gotten angry, the thing is that you're not going to get out of this no matter what you've devised, or do you not think that my guards have been watching you? This ends now."

"If you were watching me so closely, I think you already know what I want."

"I took you to a reasonably good place to sleep in while it was available, I gave you a job. What do you want? To live in my palace?"

"I insist, you should already know what I want, and I repeat; I don't want anything from you, it's too late for that, the people know."

"Do you know what?! Alright, tell me." He asks with abrupt changes in his way of speaking.

"Admitting to the people that you are not plausible, that you represent a social backwardness, you are nothing more than a burden to all the inhabitants of the central plaza with tributes that are only there to feed you, your guards and the women who will never be able to fill the void within you."

"Is there nothing we can agree on? The guards are not just for my supposed 'big ego', this city was full of criminals a few years ago, some of whom were friends of old political parties that I had to dismantle for being problematic.

"Do you know how you would have ended up if you roamed this city at night before I strengthened surveillance? You don't have to thank me.

"Because I know I did the right thing while you did nothing but question a city you didn't even know, I was born within these walls, I can choose what to do or not do, I was loved and will be until the day I die!"

"No, there's nothing you can do to convince me, much less will you receive my gratitude, so are you going to kill me now or can you leave?"

"Fine, understood, just know that you know your days are numbered, if that's not enough mercy, remember that this could have ended well, but you never wanted to stop until you reached the point of no return."

"We both know that your ultimate plan is to make me look bad for accepting these privileges, but your idea shows how little and misinformed you are about the citizens. Write whatever laws you want, execute them and exceed whatever limits you want, nobody cares what you do anymore, your circus is over."

"We'll see..." He reluctantly said as he turned his back to leave.

I peek through the keyhole; He had already left.

I throw myself onto the floor and search through my notes. I still have a copy of the blueprints.

I will try to sleep now and go to the mines tomorrow. With them, there will be three groups and everything will be fireproof.

Fire...

That night I thought about something else besides saying "The dreamland awaits me." As it was impossible to turn off my mind and leave it blank.

So, I let myself go and thought about other things.

As Maisha suggested, I will no longer bother thinking about the past for something that is not what I like and I remember well.

"If it helps, in your case, leave the past behind."

On the other hand, this current issue reminds me of Polyphemus, the Cyclops, whom Odysseus poked in the eye and when the beast shouted "Who did it?" He replied "Nobody" and so when he asked for help, others believed that he did it himself.

Well, that's exactly what I'll do with the king. The merciful one won't see it coming.

So who am I? Nobody. A wandering spirit, a man without memories, with a sword for those who come too closer.

But that night, I wanted to think about something more pleasant.

The monochromatic images were illustrated and the voices of Doctor Maisha on that visit to the laboratories, her voice was like listening to a mother.

Lying on my bed, I remember talking with Maisha.

"Well, you don't remember people, places, but you do remember 'things.' Do you know what a 'house' is?"

"What is empty in this entire city."

"Well..." She responds with a little laugh. "That's true."

"Insects?"

"Very small, but sometimes I see some."

"Animals?"

"If I remember correctly, insects are part of the animal kingdom."

"Of course, but I mean vertebrates."

"Well, there's something I don't know. I never heard the word 'vertebrate' in my life."

"I have a list of animals, dogs, cats... Here, we're lucky to have horses and cows."

"I know about primates, horses, and cows just sound like a name to me."

It may seem irrelevant, and in fact, it is, which is why I didn't write it down earlier, but the idea of ​​talking about something so ordinary to see what I did or didn't know about my previous life was pleasant.

I want to spend more time with her, I want to know more about her interests.

And that's why I must succeed.


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