Chapter 186: Erik and Zeka

"There is bad blood between us." Erik spoke slowly. "Why me?"

"Because you are the only man in this city who can still walk on his own two feet." Zeka answered without the slightest shame. "And because you are foolish enough to do everything yourself."

"What is inside?"

This time, Zeka was silent for longer.

His bony fingers curled slightly atop the velvet cushion. Then he spoke, his voice lowering, so sincere that it surprised Erik.

"I saw Dark Mist, Erik."

Erik did not reply.

"Right beneath this tower. It spilled out, swallowed the Succubi guarding the place, and turned them into puppets. I lay on the stone floor, unable to get up, watching them walk toward me." His hand trembled faintly. "My device was useless. The Council’s seal was useless. The only thing that saved me... was the outfit Laviana gave to her former husband."

"The astronaut suit."

"It scattered Dark Mist like morning fog." Zeka’s eyes shone with a nearly greedy light. "Inside that ruin, there may be more suits like it. I need them. The Council needs them. When the sky dome falls, at least we need something to defend ourselves."

We.

Erik heard that very clearly. Not the city. Not the Succubi kneeling outside. Only "we," the men inside this tower.

He said nothing.

But in his mind, he had already calculated everything.

Something that could scatter Dark Mist. If they obtained even one suit, Meira could study it. If they understood its principles, perhaps one day, the female soldiers at the outpost would no longer have to shed blood. People like Runi would have a chance to be freed. Silver Moon would gain another shield when the sky dome was gone.

It did not need to be enough for everyone. One suit was enough to begin.

"All right," Erik said. "I will go."

Zeka raised an eyebrow slightly, as though he had not expected him to agree so easily.

"On one condition, I keep one suit."

"You want to wear it?"

"I want to understand it."

Zeka looked at him for a moment, then waved a hand. "Do as you wish."

...

Viper rolled up the map. The negotiation appeared to be over.

"There is one more thing." Erik did not rise. "The protective dome."

Zeka narrowed his eyes.

"You saw what happened that night. The sky split apart, and half the eastern district sank into a sea of fire. The sky dome will not hold much longer." Erik caught the edge of the map Viper was in the middle of rolling up, spread it open again, and placed his finger at the center, where the lighthouse symbol stood. "The Lighthouse is in the Council’s hands. The light atop the tower has been flickering weakly for years. Are you not going to reinforce it?"

"Reinforce it?" Zeka repeated, as though he had just heard an unfamiliar word.

"Relight the Lighthouse. Open the doors to people capable of repairing it. I can help. Anyone in this city would be willing to help, if you would only-"

"Why should I?"

Erik froze.

Zeka leisurely leaned back in his chair. "That light only needs to be bright enough to keep this tower standing. Everything outside..." His long claws lightly slid across the map, sweeping over streets, districts, and rooftops. "Whether they exist or not, what does that have to do with me?"

"That is an entire city."

"That is a pile of Succubi," Zeka replied as calmly as if discussing the weather. "Let some of them die, and they will learn fear. If they all die, it does not matter. As long as the Council remains, as long as those suits are in my hands, this tower will still stand, and the sun atop it will still shine."

Erik clenched his fist beneath the table.

Behind him, the lid of the teapot in Runi’s hand gave a faint rattle.

"What about the other men in the city? The ones who have no place in this tower?"

"Those unqualified to enter here are also unqualified to be saved."

Two gazes collided in the middle of the room. One hot as fire. The other cold as the bottom of a well.

Then Zeka suddenly laughed.

"Erik. Do you know why my nails are this long?"

He gently raised his right hand. The two Succubi kneeling beside him immediately lifted the velvet cushion with it, afraid that his claws might touch anything.

"Every inch of nail is a year in which I have not needed to lift my own hand to do anything. Every inch of hair is a year in which I have not needed to bend down myself. In this Council, the longer one’s nails, the more their hair touches the ground, the greater their power. Because it proves one thing only: someone does everything for you, and they do not dare refuse."

He looked directly at Erik.

"You have something no one in this tower possesses. The entire city has seen your lightning wings. The Succubi outside are willing to kneel for you without needing a device. If you stand by my side..."

His voice was slow, sweet as honey being poured. "I will give you a seat equal to mine. The first astronaut suit taken from the ruin. And when the sky dome collapses, you and the women you care for can remain in this tower, in absolute safety. You do not have to save the entire world. You only need to save your own people."

The room fell completely silent.

It was a sincere offer. Erik could hear that. And because it was sincere, it was terrifying.

Elowen. Meira. Felyn. Saraya. Absolute safety, in exchange for turning his back on the rest of the world.

"No."

Erik spoke very softly.

"I cannot save the whole world. But I will not stand by and watch it die in exchange for a chair."

Zeka watched him for a long time, then sighed like a physician watching a patient refuse medicine.

"I still do not understand. Why do you care about them so much?" His long claws slowly tapped against the velvet cushion. "Succubi are born to serve men. They need us to live. Do you think they love you? They are only hungry. And when they are no longer hungry, when they become stronger than you..."

His voice suddenly grew hoarse.

"They will betray you."

The room went silent.

"That is why they must be suppressed. They must be taught fear. They must be made to kneel, so they will never have the chance to stand again. That is not cruelty, Erik. It is the only way to survive."

Erik was silent for a long time. Then he asked, very quietly:

"You were betrayed, weren’t you?"

Zeka’s fingers stiffened on the velvet cushion.

For a long time, Zeka said nothing.

Then the long claws on his right hand suddenly twitched.

Screeech!

Five claws raked straight down the armrest, tearing the velvet apart and leaving five deep gashes in the precious wood. The two Succubi holding the cushion released it in terror and fell back onto the floor.

"Betrayed?"

Zeka’s voice cracked, soaring shrill and piercing, no longer carrying any of its former slowness.

"You ask me whether I was betrayed?!"

He lunged forward, his gaunt body shaking violently in the chair. His white hair jerked free of the hands of the Succubi behind him and spilled across the stone floor. For the first time, Erik saw him disregard his hair touching the ground.

"What do you know?! What have you seen?!" Zeka screamed, his purple lips trembling. "You have never stood before a gate in the morning! Never looked up and seen... seen..."

He choked off. His breathing hissed in bursts like a punctured bellows.

"...seen the price of what you call a heart!"

His hand fumbled across the armrest, searching for the black pen. The nearest kneeling Succubus went pale, trembling as she lowered herself to the floor, as though she already knew what was about to happen.

Erik rose halfway from his chair.

But Viper was faster. At some point, she had already appeared beside the chair, one hand gripping Zeka’s thin wrist while the other placed a dark purple pill in his mouth. A pale blue rune circle appeared around his veins and began turning slowly.

"God Zeka. Your heart."

Her voice was even and entirely without emotion.

Zeka panted harshly. His bloodshot eyes still glared at Erik as though he wanted to tear him apart. It took a very long time before his breathing was gradually pulled back under control.

The room was terrifyingly silent. Only Zeka’s heavy breathing remained, along with the sounds of trembling Succubi gathering up the white hair that had fallen to the floor.

Erik slowly sat down again.

An old memory suddenly surfaced in his mind. An apartment in a world far away. A woman who had once been his wife. Lies, betrayal, and nights he had sat alone in the dark, thinking that he would never trust anyone again.

There had been a time when he wanted to hate everyone.

But one person, no matter how terrible they were, was not the entire world.

"I do not know what you saw before that gate," Erik said, his voice very soft. "Perhaps it was something no one should ever have to see."

Zeka did not answer. But the hand in Viper’s grasp curled slightly.

"But whoever did that to you was not the girl holding up your hair. Not the people kneeling outside in that hallway. You are making an entire race pay for the sins of a few."

He took a deep breath.

"Like someone walking down a road who stumbles and falls. It hurts. It hurts terribly. Then he decides to sit there forever, never taking another step, because he is afraid of falling again. He will never fall again, that is true. But he will also never see what lies at the end of the road."

Erik lightly placed a hand over his chest.

"I fell too. But I stood back up and kept walking. And I met people willing to rush into the rubble to pull me out. People who cry when I am hurt. People who choose to remain by my side without any device binding them. No collar can hold a heart, Zeka. Only another heart can hold it."

Zeka watched him for a long time.

His breathing gradually slowed. His gaunt shoulders stopped trembling. The Succubi behind him had finished gathering his hair and were shakily lifting it off the ground as though nothing had happened. The two velvet cushions were placed beneath his long claws again. The five claw marks remained on the armrest, but Zeka’s face had returned to its usual blank, cold expression.

As though the storm from moments ago had been an illusion.

"Very good," he said, his voice once again high and slow. "Very good. It sounds like a poem."

He lightly flicked one finger. Viper released his wrist and stepped back to her original place.

"The one sitting by the roadside..." Zeka smiled faintly, a smile that did not reach his eyes. "At least the one sitting by the roadside will not be stabbed in the back while admiring the beautiful things at the end of the road."

Erik remained silent.

"You are young, Erik. You have only seen them cry for you, smile at you, rush into rubble for you." Zeka closed his eyes. "I saw those things too. I also once thought they were real."

He did not continue. But the unfinished sentence carried more weight than any words.

Erik looked at the man sitting there. At the five deep gashes on the armrest. At the white hair that had just been lifted from the ground. At the long claws no one was allowed to touch.

He suddenly understood something.

Zeka had not been born a monster.

He was only someone who had fallen too hard once. Then sat there for the rest of his life. Building walls around himself out of nails, hair, devices, and rows of kneeling people, just so no one could ever come close to him again.

Sitting for so long that he had forgotten he once had legs.

And no words from Erik could make him stand again.

"Three days from now, the Council’s group will take you to the ruin," Zeka said, his eyes still closed. "Go. Then you will understand, Erik. One day, when one of your women turns her back on you, you will understand too."

Erik stood.

"I hope not."

Just as he turned around...

Boom...