Palaver

Jeremiah looked at Ayres and thought he would vomit. The man who had chased Radcliffe and himself from one side of the world to the other was claiming to be his father. It was a lot to bear. What if this man, this personification of all the things that Radcliffe had taught him to abhor was telling the truth? Would he have to give up his role as an adventurer’s aide? Could he persuade Ayres to turn over a new leaf?
“Jeremiah, come give your father a hug. It has been so long.”
“Ayres, what are you trying to pull? If I come over there I go from being a hostage to what? A henchman? A corpse?”
“Jeremiah, you injure me. You think that I would cause harm to my own son? I am not a monster. I am merely a man who wants to reunite with you.”
Jeremiah found himself somewhat moved by Ayres’ plea, but remained unconvinced. There was something about Ayres that put him ill at ease, aside from the ghastly mask he always wore, his whim-some murderousness, and his rumored casual sodomy. No, Ayres had a reputation as a cheat, a liar, a charlatan. If you were dealing with him, the only thing you could be sure of was that he would step over you to get to his goal. If you were his goal, you were in danger.
“Ayres, you are a man who would strangle a babe in its mothers arms for the privilege of bragging about the deed. Do you really think that I would just believe you without any sort of proof? Your pleas of injury and harm only cement the big bad wolf you strut the world as.”
“I see that you have inherited my innate sense of logic. What a chase you’re leading, Jeremiah! Fine. Let us palaver together in the old way. Have a seat, my young man.”
With this, Ayres swept past Jeremiah into the wider area. He sat cross legged on the ground and bid Jeremiah to sit across from him. Ayres swept his vision across the room and found Radcliffe crawling towards his dropped device.
‘What a foolish man I have chosen as an adversary,’ Ayres thought, ‘an overgrown fraternity boy and a whelp with too much cynicism for his own good. What good will the the machine do him now? Even if it worked it would not help him put this cat back into its skin. I have won. The only thing left is to use the mirror. Corrupting the sidekick will be an additional knife in Radcliffe’s back.’
Jeremiah hesitated for a moment and stepped over to the place that Ayres designated. He sat cross legged to ape the position Ayres had assumed. The palaver protocols were clear.  Anyone may call for a palaver to resolve a finer point of the goals. During such time the game would be suspended, even if the authorities of the game or their duly appointed representatives arrived. Palaver took priority. No weapons were allowed during such a session so Ayres gave Hardigan a look. The henchman lowered the gun slowly and switched on the safety before placing it in his pocket.
“Palaver, my son. We must palaver together and resolve our dilemma.”
“Me being your son is the dilemma. I do not believe you. You have put forth no proof to your claim. I see no reason to believe you.”
Ayres twirled his fingers at this as if they had been through this many times before. Jeremiah felt his breath stop then gather once again. The villain was trying to put him ill at ease in order to push him into a state of agitation. His leg throbbed as in response to his mental state. He could feel whatever had splashed into his wounds begin coursing through his body. There was nothing he could do about that right now. Palaver took precedence.
“You are my son. I will do my best to prove that to you. I give you my token to show my earnestness in this endeavor.”
At this Ayres took his insignia from his great cloak and offered it to Jeremiah. The young man held out his hand and Ayres let it drop into Jeremiah’s hand. It fell with a dull thud and the exposed metal still felt like the chill of the winter wind still raging outside the cave.
“Radcliffe is still trying to activate the device isn’t he?”
Jeremiah just stared at Ayres blankly.
“Really, Jeremiah, it isn’t difficult to work out. I’m afraid he won’t be successful. It is the only reason I haven’t sent Hardigan after him. The key elements that make it work are back at Monmouth. What he’s trying to make work is a mostly empty husk with my tracking device installed within.”
“Do you ever play fairly? I know that it is your job as a villain to make things difficult for us, but why do you play so far outside of the rules?”
“To me, the rules are a suggestion. I always follow the rough outline, but the fine lines are blurry. I don’t care about them, so they mean that much less to me. It is not a fair life that we were born into, Jeremiah. You would do well to remember that.”
“I know that life is not fair, but this. This was set up to be as fair as possible to all parties. Why have rules? Why have anything but chaos if they aren’t followed?”
“Don’t you see? I play the part of chaos. I am the ruiner of lives. It is the part I play. Your part, like it or not, is to keep Radcliffe from becoming me. You serve as reminder to him that innocence is always in peril and it is his job, no, his duty to protect that. You are his balance, and in turn, I serve as the balance to you both. I have to be ruthless because it is the role I play. The power I gain supplements me. It is the only way that this truly works.”
“Couldn’t you rise above this farce and become better than a villain? If I am your son, as you say, then you must not be completely evil. I am not evil, so this must be a choice that you made at some point in your life. Even the Red Mist remade himself into a hero.  Surely there must be some good in you.”
“I would be lying if I said that I had not considered this. I have had with me a hero’s heart for quite some time. I just don’t know how to make the transition. It’s not an easy road, Jeremiah.  For one such as myself, even the slightest misstep on the path to good can lead to expulsion from the Competition. I have no other career options. This is my life.”
Jeremiah thought about this for a minute. He opened his mouth as if to respond, but Ayres held up his hand. Jeremiah closed his mouth.
“There is not one thing that makes me who I am. I am a product of my experiences. But, if I could go back to the one moment that drove me down this path, I would choose my participation in the war. I did things there, I was made to do things there, that no one should ever have to do. We lost an entire generation of men and women in the war against the Grokols.”
“That may be so, but there are plenty of people who fought in that war that took it to heart. They aren’t villains. Radcliffe was in the war.  The fact that there is a possibility to go back in time to fix things makes your argument invalid. There is no reason, save for the game, that explains the fate that you’ve chosen for yourself.”
“That is not actually possible. When the war looked like it would be won by the Grokols for certain they erected a time barrier around those key months when they put so many of us against each other. I would have already made that change if it were possible. You speak with intelligence beyond your years, but there is more to the situation than is readily visible to you. The aliens had machines that patterned human minds to their will. Our scientists worked hard to remove those patterns, but there was only so much they could do. Some base urges remain.”
“You have said a lot. I’m sorry that happened to you. Have you thought about trying other means?”
“You mean magic.”
“Yes. I guess I do. It sounds a little silly to say it out loud, but magic.”
“Please. Don’t you think I’ve tried that? What do you think I hope to accomplish trying to win artifacts?  Your naivete is only so charming before it becomes tiresome.”
“Okay, I hadn’t thought of that. It makes sense, but we’re back where we started. I don’t know that you’re my father. You’ve just talked about why you’re this way, leaving out the reason for this palaver.”
Ayres nodded. Then he reached into his shirt and pulled out a necklace with a small medallion hanging from it. He held it out as if this were the only answer that mattered. Jeremiah held his hand out for the bauble and Ayres dropped it. Jeremiah then noticed that it was a locket. He opened it with shaking fingers to reveal two photographs within. One of his mother and one of him as a small child. He had carried his mother’s picture for all of these years. Jeremiah choked back a sob of surprise and looked over at the other man.
“You. You weren’t lying. You are my father. “
“Yes. Now you see why I need to obtain control of this mirror. I can cure myself, son. I can be the man I used to be. Do you understand?”
“Y-yes. I do. I’m sorry I doubted you, father. Please use the mirror. I won’t try to stop you.”
Ayres stood and walked over to the pew where he had laid the object. He looked back to Jeremiah as if in hesitation. Then he whispered something to Hardigan. The henchman smiled and pulled the gun from his jacket.
“Thank you for helping me win the competition, Jeremiah. I mean, I’d already won, but corrupting you was just so delicious. It also gave me so many points. There are two things I should tell you, though. One, the Grokols patterns could only work with things that are already there. Two, of course I’m not your father. I stole this from him after I thought I’d killed him. I will, of course, find and kill him as soon as I leave here. Quite helpful to discover that he’s still alive out there somewhere. As he takes his last breath I’ll be sure to let him know that it was your fault.”