ETTING 
OME 
O 
LFANDRA
Saga and Christi's Journey part 7 - Revelation
ETTING OME O LFANDRA
Back on board Decker's flagship, Saga dumped his armor and weapon on the floor of his an Christi's quarters. He also came to a realization of what he had to do to maintain the tenet of honesty that he swore himself to when he became a High Paladin.
He was going to have to "let it all go."
What this entailed was a release of all of his sadness caused by the pain dealt to him through his entire life. He knew that this would not be easy, but honesty about true feeling rarely was. But before he could cleanse his heart, there was somethis he had to do.
"You want me to do WHAT!?" Decker
looked at Saga incredulously "That is the most ludicrous request I've EVER
recieved in my entire career as a mercenary!"
"I'ts only for one night, and I'll
repeat it in case you didn't understand me the first time. I want the entire
ship to be empty of crew members and passengers, except Christi, for one
night.
"And you expect me to do this HOW!?"
"Simple. When we arrive at the headquarters
station, it will be at about standard lights out, right?"
"Yeah, so?"
"Soooo, when we get there, just
tell them that two of your passengers require their 8 hours, no matter
what, due to some health condition or other. Just don't make it sound *too*
serious, otherwise they'll send in a buttload of EMT's.
"All right. I wouldn't normally
ask, but why? Oh, waitm it's probably some wierd, Paladinal, ritual type
of thing, right?"
"You might say that, yeah."
"Good. Just don't make a mess, all
right?"
They then soon arrived at the headquarters
station of the Mercenarie's guild. The station itself was actually a self-contained
space colony, complete with shipyards, commercial and civilian docking
areas, agricultural domes, and even a complete sprawling metropolis, all
built on the surface of a huge asteroid which was towed into planetary
orbit that supplied the natural recorces which the colony thrived on.
It was here that Decker docked his
ship, and made the necessary excuses and greased the right palms to make
sure that the repair crews didn't enter his warship for the next 12 or
so hours. He figured this would give Saga plenty of time to do whatever
he was going to do.
After slipping into bed together Christi sat up
and said;
"Saga, I can tell there's something
wrong. First off, there's nobody else on the ship, and second, you seem
so nervous and tense, what is it? Is there something you want to tell me?"
Saga shuddered, knowing the difficulty
of this, but also its necessity. "Christi, in all truth, I haven't been
honest... not oly to you, but to myself. You were right when you said I
was... lonely, but..." He shuddered again. "I've been holding in a lot
of pain for a long time, and its just..."
"Saga, please. If you need to let
it go, that just do so. I'm always ready to help, so please, let it go."
With this reassurance, Saga did
something he wanted to do, but was afraid to, for the past 25 years.
And so Saga wept.
He wept for his parents, who were killed by the paranoia of man. H wept for his brother, whom he killed with the very sword that was lying on the floor of the room to prevent his soul from being corrupted by evil forever. He wept over his family, who rejected him as thier blood because of his desire to save the world. He wept for those people he was unable to save due to his weakness. He wept for all of the soldiers he knew that died under him in the past. He wept for the brave warriors like Xane that he fought beside with but are now naught but dust and spirit in the present. But, he also wept for himself. In dragon years, he was still a mere child, but what is a child without childhood? Saga wept because cruel fate forced him to mature too quickly into the warrior he is today. He also wept for three hours straight.
But while he wept, Christi cradled
his head in her arms, and folded her wings around him. When he stopped
crying, she said to him: "Saga, you did the right thing, and I'll make
sure, that as long as I'm around, you'll never have to be alone again,
ever." And with that, Saga fell asleep, comforted.
-----------------------
The ship was not completely empty,
however. There was one man, who was standing just outside the door, who
heard all of this, and thought: ~So, Saga, this is why you wanted everyone
out. I can't blame you for it, though. If I had an outpouring like that,
I wouldn't want my men to see it either. That girl is the most valuable
thing you have, Saga, just don't throw it all away.~ Decker pulled a ring
out of his pocket, flipped it, and put it back. ~Just don't make the same
mistake that I did.~