Chapter 24: 24. Heart

“Wake’up, Silver. How long are you gonna sleep for anyways?”

“S-sleep?” Responded Sylvan groggily as he surveyed his surroundings. He was sitting by himself in the library of his old home. All around him, on the tables, all across the floor and packed onto bookshelves were hundreds upon hundreds of books.

In the center of the room laid a massive and ornate rug. And directly beside that was an empty reading chair which sat right next to an open window. A gentle breeze was blowing in, filling the room with the smell of freshly cut grass and bringing with it the sound of crickets chirping.

Directly beside the window, standing with her back against the wall, was an incredibly beautiful woman in her early forties: The only woman to ever make Sylvan’s heart skip a beat… She was short, though not quite petite, with full breast, a full figure, and white skin. She had flowing red hair with brown, almost red, freckles dotting her dimpled cheeks, and a quaint button nose beneath sapphire eyes that would drive a jewel thief mad.

“Maybelle?” He said in disbelief. “H-how is this possible? You’re—”

“Dead?” Said Maybelle. She tittered, putting her hand over her mouth to cover her teeth. “Yes. Indeed, I am. And here comes my blockhead of a husband to join me before his time.” She smiled but her eyes were intense, almost frustrated. “Who rides with their arm hanging out of the window when they know that they’re being chased?!” She blurted.

Sylvan smiled. “You know I’m a complete mess without you, May.” As he said it, he crossed the room and stood by his wife’s side, not caring to look outside.

Maybelle was taken aback. “W-well, look at you, being all talkative!” She blushed, turning to look out of the window so that Sylvan couldn’t see her rosy cheeks. “Not a word for 30 or so years and now he’s Romeo all of a sudden? Hmm.” She huffed in mock frustration.

Sylvan didn’t speak. He only looked his wife up and down with such longing that she began to get uncomfortable. After a few more seconds his eyes settled on her breasts and he said with an eyebrow raised and a mischievous smirk plastered on his face, “You know the two things I miss most about you?! Your Giant—”

“Hey! You can’t be seriousl—”

“Personality!” Sylvan finished with a laugh.

Maybelle looked completely stunned as her cheeks turned a deeper red. “Quit teasing…” She huffed again and turned so that he couldn’t see her face. “And that was one thing, you neanderthal.”

Sylvan didn’t wait another second. He took her by the shoulders,turned her around, and planted a kiss on his wife that was fit for cinema.

Maybelle didn’t even try to resist. She met his passion with a furious passion of her own.

After several seconds Maybelle pushed her husband away from her and said gently, “That’s enough, big-boy. Did you come here just to steal yourself a little kiss?”

Sylvan didn’t speak.

“Silver…? Why are you here?”

“I’m ready, May.”

“Ready for what?”said Maybelle in an understanding tone, leading Sylvan to the large reading chair that was just a few paces away.

“Ready to die…” declared Sylvan as his wife pushed in down into his seat. “I-I’m all washed up. I got no fight left in me…”

Maybelle didn’t speak but only massaged her husbands shoulders.

“In the last year I have been beaten, battered, bruised, buffaloed, broken down, and bewitched! I can’t do this anymore, May!

“I know. I know.” comforted may, digging down deeper into his shoulders with her thumbs.

“I got dozens of people chasing after me trying to kill me! I’ve coughed up blood and now I even lost my arm! And my good arm at that!” He blared.

“That was just silly… Did I already tell you how silly that was?”

“This isn’t a joke, May…” He started to remove her hands from his shoulders but she slapped his hands away and said sternly, “Watchit, Silver. Or you’ll lose both arms this time.”

Sylvan didn’t even react, partially because he knew this would be the outcome and partially because he certainly wanted to feel her touch. “May… What should I do…? I just can’t do this anymore. I want to stay here with you…”

There was silence for along time as May continued to give her massage. Then she said, “Do you remember our 30th anniversary, Silver?”

“Oh, don’t start with that nonsense, now!”

“What?!” May chuckled. “It was one of the best days of my life…”

“Yeah, *your* life! You didn’t end up in the hospital for a week!”

“What do you mean?! You didn’t end up in the hospital that night! And certainly not for a week!”

“What are you talking about, you old bird?” Sylvan laughed incredulously.

“Tell me what happened, then, if you remember it so well.”

“Yeah. I got beat—”

“From the beginning.”

Sylvan rolled his eyes and let out an exasperated sigh, but he never once stopped smiling.

“So, I took you out to your favorite place. That Italian restaurant on the corner of Fritz-Green and Maple. What was it called again?” He snapped his fingers repeatedly in an attempt to summon the memory from the depths of his mind.

“Terrazano’s.”

“Yeah! That was it!” He said with satisfied recollection. “That place was a serious dump but the food? They don’t make it like that anymore… Well, we were eating and as we got up to leave a group of young guys approached us and they…” Sylvan trailed off.

“Two of them groped me.”

Sylvan furrowed his brow. “Hey! Watchit!”

“What are you, a 12 year old from the 1700s?! I’m just saying what happened. Don’t even act all innocent, Silver. I been watching you this whole time! I seen you cuss countless times, ya’hear?!”

Sylvan blushed and then cleared his throat and continued as if nothing had happened. “Well, yeah… Then they beat me up. The end.”

“Booo!!” hooped Maybelle. “You went and skipped the best part!”

“The best part?”

“When you stood up to them for me! Five men, each taller and bigger than you, and you raised your voice and said—”

Sylvan cut her off, “Please, don’t say it.”

“‘Did you just touch my woman, you clowns! You b*stards must be tired of livin’!’ Wooo. I still get chills to this day.”

“Yeah… I still get chills, too. From the brain damage I sustained from the subsequent beating I suffered.”

Maybelle came around the chair and kneeled by her husbands side so that they were looking eye to eye. “You haven’t changed, Silver. Always focusing on the negatives and pains of this life. Let me tell you what else I remember. I remember you bouncing on your toes and smacking those boys around until they cried to their mommies.”

“And I got hit dozens of times!”

“But each time you got knocked down, you got right back up…”

Sylvan’s eyes grew wide and misty with understanding.

Maybelle put her hand on Sylvan’s heart. “You’re a fighter, sweety. Always have been and always will be… Your strength has never been in your fists, your stride, your intellect, or your ambitions. Your strength has always been, and will continue to be, in your heart.”

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Sylvan cast his eyes down and away. “May… I-I feel so lost. So ready for death. I can’t fight anymore, I tell you…”

“I know. But you will, nonetheless. The man I love would never abandon someone in need because he was tired. Finnius is counting on you. Zeff is counting on you. They need you, Silver.”

Sylvan turned so that he could look Maybelle in her Sapphire eyes. “What if I fail…? What if I let Zeff down…?”

“Die trying, love. But don’t give up. Be the man I know you are. Fight to the bitter end.”

Sylvan smiled warmly and stoked his wife’s cheek. Then after a moment he promised, “I will try, dear… I will.”

Maybelle exhaled sharply. “Good. And I’ll be waiting for you right here when the time comes. Now, wake up, Silver. A friend is here to help you.”

*****

Sylvan’s eyes shot open as he woke from his dream.

All around him, a green mist was filling the small space of the ambulance in which he found himself. And stranger still? The ambulance wasn’t moving at all. It was parked on the side of the rode.

*Shoohw* said the green mist as it poored out of the hand of a petite green-eyed woman with a pixie cut.

“W-What are you doing…?” rasped Sylvan.

“Saving your life. Now, be still.” Said the woman who didn’t even spare a moment to look in his direction.

“I—” He stopped short as a strange itching sensation spread across his right hand. “Why is my hand so itchy…?” He said scratching his right hand with his left. “Wh—” Reality hit him hard as his eyes fell on another person in the ambulance. A female police officer, sitting by him with a gun pointed at his head, wearing a devious smile.

“Hey!!” He shouted, flinching to the side in an attempt to dodge the tip of the gun. He swiped at the pistol, knocking it from the woman’s hand to the floor.

The woman, however, didn’t react at all. In fact, she didn’t even move. She was completely unconscious, her gun had been sitting in her lap .

“What—”

“Sylvan.” interrupted the woman with the green eyes. “My name is Matea and I have been sent here to help you. This woman’s name is Yessica and she was hear to kill you, until I saved you.”

“Saved me?” Sylvan sat up as Matea stopped showering himwith the green mist. “What do you—” He stopped short. Just at his side, supporting his weight and good as new, was his healed right arm. “H-how did you— Why did you—”

“Sylvan. If I have to explain everything your friend Zeff could die.” Sylvan might have said something more but Matea didn’t give him a chance. “You need to leave and save him now.”

“Who even are you, woman!?”

Matea sighed. “I was ordered to help you. Commanded by my master to put myself in grave danger, jeopardizing the lives of countless people, for your sake. You’re going to shut up, now. And you’re going to listen carefully because I can only say this once.”

Sylvan, though he was a stubborn man, resisted the urge to speak and decided to listen to the woman. Not because he trusted her, but because of the last thing his wife had said to him. ‘A friend is here to help you.’ Maybelle had said.

“I am a member of the Rings of Rutigorn—” With that, Sylvan sat up straighter and, almost instantly falling back into his stubborn attitude, was about to protest and even lash out, but the woman spoke up before he could, “—BUT. I am here to help you. There has been division amongst the Rings for decades, a battle raging for power since long before you were ever our prisoner.”

Sylvan flexed his hand thoughtfully. ‘So she knows about my days there as a captive… So, she’s no peon… And she healed my arm., anyway?’ Then, he said aloud, “Why is your master helping me… What is his goal.”

“You will know soon enough. For now, my master has ordered me to give you this.” She handed Sylvan a cell phone. “On this phone there are no numbers and not even calling or texting capabilities, though you can receive calls. There is only a single navigation app. If you make it to the place where the Navi points, my master will help you and Zeff get into the Underworld. Remember this woman’s face.” She said pointing at Yessica. “She works for Leo, the man who is after your life.”

Sylvan surveyed the woman’s face, logging it into his memory.

Matea didn’t wait for him and continued speaking at a rapid pace. “We had planned to intervene from the beginning but we never thought it would be this soon… You are too reckless Sylvan. You have suffered countless injuries in a very short time… My master commands that I tell you: ‘This will be the last time we help you before you find me. If you are at death’s door again we will be forced to let you die.’ Nod if you understand.”

Sylvan nodded obediently.

“Now, for the most important thing.” Matea pointed a cute little finger at Yessica and said, “This woman is knocked out because of me…Though I am not a G.I.. There are people in this world who have access to a special power called ‘Aura’. With aura a regular human can rival a G.I. and one of these people, an Auramancer as we call them, has just awakened and is fighting Zeff right now. And Zeff *will* lose.”

“Wait. Wait. Wait a second! What are you saying?! How can that be—”

“Sylvan. Shut—”

“No! You shut up! I have sat quietly by and listened to you jabber on for a good minute! Do you not understand that I was just before the pearly gates?! Who do you think you are that you can just command that I not be at all curious when I wake up in a van with a woman spraying me with green pixie dust?! Now shut your mouth and answer my questions before I bend you over my knee, young lady!”

Matea was wide eyed with shock and Sylvan could guess why…

“O-Okay.” Matea said sheepishly, blushing with embarrassment. “But make it quick… Zeff *is* in danger…”

“O-okay.” Said Sylvan, thrown off by her sudden change of attitude. “How can a regular human stand up to a G.I.? Even with this auro, orea, orion stuff?!”

Matea clicked her tongue impatiently, “There are three categories of aura. Magenta, Cyan, and Yellow. Each has it’s own strengths. Yellow strengthens things. Cyan makes the impossible and abstract into reality, and Magenta controls other things, to over-simplify it.”

“And which are you?” Asked Sylvan looking over at the frozen Yessica nervously.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out later… Now you really should get going. The man who Zeff is fighting against for dear life has awakened to Yellow aura. The most troublesome of them all. His life hangs in the balance and only you are strong enough to stop him…”

Sylvan’s mind was racing to process all of this new information. Auramancers? What was this nonsense? Fynn hadn’t told him any of this…

Or had he?

Fynn had mention that in the Underworld there were many powerful people… Only *some* of which were G.I.s.

“Well, I hate to tell you but there’s nothing I can do. I won’t be able to fight for another few hours. And only for a few minutes at that.”

“Ah!” exclaimed Matea. “I almost forgot. I have one more thing for you.”

She reached into her pocket and produced a red ring. “This is for you.”

“And what is that?”

“Geez, Sylvan! He said you were hard to deal with but, man! Just take the ring and go! Put it on and you’ll instantly understand.”

Sylvan smirked. “Forget I asked… Okay. I’ll do what I can to make sure Zeff and I make it to your master. I made a promise to my wife after all.” And with that he jumped out of the car.

And began running towards the distant sirens.

When he was about 10 meters away, the ambulance turned on and drove away, its sirens wailing into the night.

‘Now…’ he thought, fingering the red ring in his hand. ‘Should I trust this stranger and put this thing on?’ But, even as he asked himself he saw his May staring into his soul, urging him to be the man she knew and loved.

‘Okay. Here goes!’ He thought as he slipped the ring onto his finger, the world instantly fading to gray as a terminal popped open in front of him.

>> DracoEx Model 1.19

>> Commencing NanoManipulator (dRas) extraction & containment.

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