24th Tick: Loyalty
1002 Words
Thomas turned around and faced the monk. He had heard of what he did when Thomas was still recovering. Simply by walking into a battlefield, all forms of fighting came to a halt, just from his presence alone. Thomas faced the monk, both of them looking the other in the eyes.
“Who are you, really?” Thomas asked the monk.
“You should already know this.” The monk replied. “I am Amon, the right hand man of Lord Astel.”
“You’re the right hand man of a demon general.”
“That is correct.”
“So what are doing here?”
There was a moment of silence as the two men looked the other in the eyes. The air became deadly still, not a single breeze passing them. Rose held her breath, afraid of what might happen. Amon tilted his head, his eyes had a menacing glare, “What are you implying?”
“Demon generals, are they not to rain terror upon humans?” Thomas asked, shrugging.
“You know nothing of Lord Astel.”
“Then how did he gain control of a town? He had to have killed quite a few.”
Amon clenched his fists. “Keep your mouth shut.”
Thomas put his hands up, deciding not to talk any longer. He might have wanted to know what drove Amon to protect the town, what exactly established the town, but he still needed him to deal with any threat Wish sent at them.
There was silence before Amon turned around to leave, saying, “You know nothing of loyalty, of devotion.”
Thomas was unable to retort as Amon walked away. Rose asked, “Why did you anger him?”
“I don’t know, felt like it.” He replied halfheartedly.
“Wow, perfect reason.”
“I’m sorry, my body was blown to pieces so many times just because he was slow.”
“Everyone knows you won’t die.”
“So?”
“There won’t be a problem then.”
“Shut up.”
He sighed, looking in the direction of the forest. He stopped Rose from saying anything when he saw someone walk out the forest. The boy was blonde, had brown eyes and a smile. Thomas looked in his direction, the boy looking back, grinning. Events registered in his head, running back to centuries ago.
“Please don’t.” He begged.
The boy appeared in front of Thomas, floating in the air, a mad grin on his face. His brown eyes reflected insanity. He said, “I’m here to play.”
Thomas felt the winds change. He grabbed Rose by the shoulder. “Ninth Hour.”
They sunk into the ground, into another timeline. Thomas’ eyes were wide as they sat on the ground of the other timeline. Rose asked, “What kind of power did he get?”
“He didn’t get any power at all.” Thomas explained.
“Then what was that?”
“That human broke, he broke and allowed Wish to take over his body.”
“What?”
Thomas tried his best to explain. “Of the four Myths, WishEarth is something like a ghost, that’s why people can’t touch him. Only other myths can come in contact, otherwise, he’s untouchable.”
Rose remembered, Wish had never even tried to touch her once.
“He’s like a ghost, his power is restricted to only granting wishes, he can’t do much otherwise. The only way for him to personally cause chaos would be to ‘break’ a human and take over their body.”
“What’s his power exactly?”
Thomas looked at her, pointing at the clear sky. “Everything from Heaven...”
He pointed to the ground next. “To Hell.”
“What does that mean?”
“His power is everything from Heaven to Hell. He controls everything, nothing is free from his grasp, he can kill on a whim. And with his personality, the world could end if he found it too boring.”
“How do you stop him?”
“I didn’t.” Thomas said. “The only way to stop him is to make him feel bored. And only one of us can do something like that.”
“Who is it?”
“Second of four Myths, JoyRide.” Thomas said. “But getting him out is a whole different issue.”
“So we can’t stop him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can’t you try and reverse time, stop time, do something to stop him?”
“It won’t work, he controls reality, he can make everything I do irrelevant, I would just die over and over again.”
Thomas sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “And JoyRide won’t cooperate with me, or anyone for that fact.”
“So you’re planning to hide until he destroys everything?”
“It’s the only way. He’ll get bored eventually, so I just have to restore everything back to its original state.”
“You’re that weak?”
“I already told you, my job is to only keep things in order, I don’t like fighting.”
“Who told you that?”
“My-” Thomas stopped himself.
He stood up, not wanting to talk anymore. He told Rose, “Just stay here, don’t move. I’ll pick you up eventually.”
“Where are you going?”
“Away from you.”
He sunk into the ground, appearing in another timeline where Wish did not exist. He sighed, walking. He only needed to wait for it to blow over, but he kept feeling an uneasiness in him. Something was wrong, the words Amon told him was stuck in his mind.
“You know nothing of loyalty, of devotion.”
Thomas sighed. Of course he didn’t, he had been alone for so long that he lost count. He had never talked to others, there was no loyalty, no devotion, for he was eternal. He pulled his pocket watch out and looked at it. It was a gift, a gift from someone important to him that also left him. The person had taught him all he knew, but just disappeared.
“As a ClockKeeper, you have a duty.”
Thomas could still remember those words of his teacher.
“Do not, for a moment think that you can fix it after. Solve the issue then and there, is that understood?”
Thomas waved the thought aside, he could not resolve it either way, there was nothing he could do. But Amon’s words kept sticking to him, what was it about that one sentence that bothered him so much?
Thomas scratched his head, unable to bear with it anymore, he sunk into the ground once again, appearing in the original timeline. Thomas stood on the wall, Wish smiling at him. Thomas looked behind him, everything was frozen in a block of ice, every townsfolk was frozen in place.
“Glad you could make it back.” Wish laughed.
“Would rather not.” Thomas replied, pulling his arm back.
- Writer
