Fire of the Inquisitor
Chapter 27

This was the final dream of Octavius Manius.

The general, now an old man, walked down an unfamiliar dock surrounded by strange ships. His hands were covered in liver spots and skin dangled off the bone. Despite this, he felt no pain and he was content in his quietness. Above him was a luminous night sky with more falling stars than he could count. The entire earth below him seemed to hum with a music of its own.

“Where are you going?” a voice said behind him.

Octavius looked over his shoulder to see a man with a large smile following him. The old man quickened his pace, but he could see the stranger keeping pace behind him in the shining hulls of the docked ships. There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to lose the man on the long and narrow dock. Octavius grew tired of running and turned to face the man, although the stranger exuded on warmth and friendship, Octavius felt no desire to talk with him.

“Where are you going?” the man said again. He wore very old robes and smelled of the ocean.

“I don’t know,” Octavius said. “And I don’t care.”

The man nodded. “You are a soldier aren’t you?”

“What makes you say that?”

The man laughed. “I guess we’re all soldiers of a type.”

Octavius shook his head, angered by the man’s irreverent attitude. “I am not just a soldier, I am a general, a leader of men.”

“I see.” The man frowned. “I don’t envy you, a man responsible for more souls than his own.”

Octavius snorted. “Leadership is not for the common man.”

“But it is not unusual for even uncommon men to not know where they are going.” The friendly man pointed out toward the opposite direction. Octavius followed his gaze and was dismayed to see that he had barely traveled any distance from where he started. “I suggest you go there.”

“What’s out there?” Octavius asked. He looked out at the ocean of stars, bright as staring into the sun at some places and darker than blackest cole in others.

“I don’t know.” The man smiled. “No one does.”

Octavius looked at him. “But isn’t that where you came from.”

The man put his hand over his eyes and looked out at the ocean. “Yes and no, it is different for everyone.”

Octavius turned and looked the opposite direction. On the horizon, he saw a giant city, bigger than the eternal city herself, though not completely unrecognizable. Among its towers and monuments flew bright flashes of explosions and beams of light that brought down the stars. Octavius could hear the march of soldiers footsteps and the bloody shouts of war.

Octavius pointed toward the city. “I want to go there.”

The strange sighed. “It is your choice, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Octavius frowned. “Isn’t that where you are going?”

“Yes, but I hope it won’t be a long stay,” he said.

Octavius grabbed him by the shoulder and gave the man a smile. “Then, we will travel there together.”

For some reason, the man seemed to be repulsed by the general’s touch, but he followed Octavius as he walked toward the city. The old man couldn’t help, but feel excited by the sounds of battle and the idea of joining a fight. The other man, however, looked very ill indeed with every step they took toward the commotion.

“What are you, a coward?” Octavius turned to him.

“Yes,” the man said. “I have tried to so many times to avoid coming here.”

Octavius snorted. “Then, why are going to the city?”

“I am a messenger,” the man said. “I have something urgent I must tell the people of the city.”

Octavius held out his hand. “Then give me the message and I will deliver it.”

The man curiously at the general’s hand for a moment. “I’m sorry it doesn’t work that way.”

Octavius withdrew his hand. “If you cannot run from your mission then runs towards it as fast as you can.”

The man nodded and smiled. “You are a very wise man, I don’t know why you wouldn’t head in that direction.”

Octavius looked over his shoulder toward the star ocean. “I don’t own a boat.”

“It is true.” Octavius turned to see the man was now a few paces ahead of him. “You would have to ask a captain for passage.”

Octavius eyed one of the huge ships they were walking bye. “Do you know why I never became seaman like my grandfather?”

“Why?” The stranger sounded distant.

Octavius turned to see him now a dozen steps ahead of him. “On the sea you never really have control, you are always at the mercy of nature.”

The man pointed upward. “But do you really have control there.”

Octavius looked up to see a crimson tower reaching toward the heavens. It pierced the sky with a red spear and shattered the space above the city. From the silver lined hole, he watched as giant towers started to fall from a place outside of existence and brought with them terrible beasts and strange apparitions.

“We can fight them.” Octavius looked down again only to see that the man had vanished from his sight. He smiled, hoping the man had finally grown the courage to complete his mission and the fact that he was once again alone.

Octavius tried to run towards the battle but found it difficult to move his legs fast. In front of him, he saw two soldiers emerge from the city, wearing strange armor and wielding even stranger weapons. They pointed at him and shouted, he responded by reaching down for his sword. He took hold of the hilt and pulled it from its sheath only to feel a weird ripping sensation.

The old man looked down to see a skeletal arm holding a sword. Octavius gasped when he looked over his shoulder to find that his right arm was missing. He stumbled forward, tripping over his own feet and falling painlessly on his knees. As he struggled to pick himself up off the ground he turned to see his reflection in one of the ship’s silver surface. The man that looked back at him wore the same uniform he wore, but instead of his face, there was only a skull.

Octavius screamed out for help, but his voice was drowned out by the sounds of battle.

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