MUSINGS OF THE STRANGERS

Caleb sighed helplessly and walked over to the other side of the pond, joining the snickering, strange man and Talisha who was still sending him nasty looks. Sitting down, he whipped out a bottle of beer, taking a sip and getting a closer look at the man; on the surface, he appeared entirely una.s.suming, draped in hemp clothes, sporting disheveled beard and hair, one wouldn't go wrong with a.s.suming he was an ordinary beggar. However, the atmosphere surrounding him was all but – rather, perhaps it was the opposite.

Each one of his movements seemed to stir the world around him, entirely unconsciously at that, and the pair of black eyes seemed completely impervious to all forms of illusions and tricks.

"… I know it's rude of me to ask," the man said suddenly. "But, if you would be kindly inclined to reply, why did you break into my home?"

"… I'm Caleb." Caleb said, extending his arm, deciding it was best not to go along with the antics as they may never end.

"… Lino." The man replied, smiling faintly and shaking his hand. "You've got a strong grip there for a sissy."

"… why is he a sissy?" Talisha asked curiously.

"Oh, he knows." Lino grinned, causing Caleb to sigh once more. "Anyway, how can I help you, Caleb?"

"We simply heard some chatter about you," Caleb replied honestly. "And wanted to see whether you lived up to it or not."

"Is he telling the truth?" Lino turned toward the woman and asked, causing Caleb's eyebrows to twitch lightly.

"Yup!" Talisha nodded as she accepted a strange bottle from him, uncapping it and smelling a brilliant fragrance that shuffled right into her lungs, revitalizing them. "This is great! What is it?!"

"Ah, that? Not much, just my personal brew; I've spent eighteen long moons hung upside down over the volcanic mouth, gathering tiny embers of flame and refining them through Uteric Flower—"

"Do you think that s.h.i.+t up at a moment's notice, or is there a whole collection of nonsense already stored in your mind?" Caleb interrupted quickly as Talisha was, somehow, being dragged into the story.

"Yo man," Lino frowned slightly. "You're killing my buzz here."

"And you're killing my brain cells."

"Wow. I didn't think you'd have those." Lino said with a serious expression.

"… alright. So, we're going to go."

"What for?" Lino chuckled, getting up and stretching. "You took a trip all the way here. May as well stay and let me guide you through my humble home. We've got some fine brothels here as well."

"… is this your mission in life?" Caleb said, ignoring the dagger-spitting eyes next to him. "To screw over everyone that comes in contact with you?"

"Nope," Lino replied as he led them through the archway. "It's to have fun at other people's expense."

"… isn't that the same thing?"

"Yeah, but I worded it more eloquently, which makes it seem less piece-of-s.h.i.+t-like."

"It really doesn't."

"Sure does," Lino said. "I've concrete proof."

"… does it have something to do with us following you right now?" Caleb asked, his eyes slanting.

"… you could have let me have it, you know?"

"I've spent all but two minutes with you and I don't want to let you have anything."

"Ouch. What did I do to deserve such cold eyes?" Lino mumbled, putting on a pained expression and glancing back. "Is he always this hurtful?"

"Yup." Talisha nodded. "You can never joke with him…"

"He's not joking with us," Caleb said. "He's f.u.c.king with us."

"Is there really a difference?" Lino questioned, taking a side hallway instead of the one that led back into the grand hall, moving through a curved corridor decorated with hanging chandeliers and several dozen magical crystals s.h.i.+ning warm colors onto the tiled floor down below and the surrounding, stone walls.

"… where are you taking us?" Caleb asked, looking around curiously.

"On the grand tour of my little house," Lino said. "And this really cute cemetery just down below."

"Your sense of humor is jumping all over the place," Caleb said as they pa.s.sed a wire-hung painting on the right-side wall depicting a scene of a woman in the garden of rosemaries. "From goofy to psychotic. Could you, maybe, make up your mind?"

"My sense of humor is all-encompa.s.sing," Lino chuckled faintly as they exited the corridor, landing on the outside terrace hanging over the middling walls of the fortress well down below. The wind quickly grazed them gently, the s.h.i.+ne of the moon and the stars cascading down the mountains forming a wall on the horizon. "You can't limit yourself if you want to be successful."

"Successful at what? p.i.s.sing people off'"

"You got it." Lino grinned as the three walked up to the waist-high stone wall, looming over it for a moment.

The scenery down below exploded in the expanse, capitulating the ever-expanding sky and giving way to the far-reaching meadows and plains that surrounded a ring-structured city beneath the fortress. High-rises stuck out in the midst of humble-seeming outskirts where the majority of the dwellings were constructed. The central plaza was built directly beneath the shade of the fortress, over twenty bridges connecting a small, artificial island hanging above the crystalline-clear lake.

"… what do you think?" Lino asked. "The most brilliants minds came together to design it."

"So… you had nothing to do with it?" Caleb fired off.

"Wow. Two out of two; you're on fire man! Calm down, you might burst inside out."

"Don't worry about me, just ensure your mind doesn't implode over all the moronic thoughts it's endlessly concocting."

"Ah, I wouldn't worry," Lino said. "The force of dumb in there is counteracted with the force of genius."

"So you admit there's enough dumb to form a force?"

"Life ain't fun if there isn't," Lino chuckled. "If you know answers to everything, act properly on all occasions, say and do the right things all the time, and comply with all the expectations others have of you… are you really living?" he glanced at Caleb from the corners of his eyes, smiling still. "Or are you just playing along with the script someone else wrote for you?"

"… aren't you a bit too old for philosophy?" Caleb said, smirking lightly.

"How old do you think I am?" Lino scoffed. "I'm not even seventy yet man. I've plenty of time to spit out abstract philosophy that makes me seem deeper."

"… I imagine your people must love you." Caleb sighed bitterly, shaking his head. "Must be nice."

"Aren't you the same?" Lino smiled, glancing at Talisha who was too lost in the view to hear the two of them. "You have the love of the one that matters the most."

"… that's true," Caleb chuckled. "Though that love is interspersed with a whole host of other things."

"As it should be," Lino nodded. "Life's all about having as much fun with however much time you've got. And you can't do that if your other half grinds down your will to live through sheer boredom."

"… what are your plans now?" Caleb asked suddenly, causing Lino to look back at him. "You've bought time – but that's all. Eventually, the fury of all of the Creation will land on your doorstep."

"… does that scare you?" Lino asked, grinning.

"It should scare you." Caleb replied calmly.

"… I've lived in a state of perpetual fear before," Lino shrugged. "And worrying about what might be gets in the way of other, good stuff. How and when and where and in whichever manner they come… is irrelevant. The moment I picked up my sword against them, I knew the outcome of my decision, as well as my response to the eventual inevitability."

"… fight?"

"Win."

"You sound awfully confident." Caleb snickered. "Looks like your trip didn't teach you enough about the depth you're up against."

"If you're the best at something," Lino said, his tone calm. "Do you go around looking at what others are doing, fearful they might reach you?"

"…"

"No; you continue pus.h.i.+ng yourself, higher and higher – so high that, no matter what others are doing, they will never even see the bottom of your a.s.s, let alone reach your level."

"You're saying you're the best?"

"No, we are," Lino smiled once again, this time around exuding a strange sense of warmth. "I'm confident I've with me the smartest, most hardworking people the entire of Creation has produced. My job isn't to protect them indefinitely, Caleb; it's to give them the room to breathe and grow and transform in what I know they can be. By that day, whatever army may come knocking, it'll be knocked right back to where it came from."

"… I've shared your confidence once," Caleb chuckled bitterly. "But, eventually, you learn to compromise, Lino. There are no absolutes anywhere out there. However strong you may become, you'll find out there's always, always, someone stronger than you. So you learn to pick your battles – fight when it's winnable, and retreat and hide when it's not. It let the two of us survive all this while, even prosper."

"… isn't the answer simple, then?" Lino said after a momentary silence.

"Simple?"

"Simply ensure that all those stronger than you are on your side," Lino grinned, suddenly extending his arm. "On that note – how about you and this lovely creature next to you join me? I'll give both of you a nice house on the edge of that mountain over there as a compensation. Ah, what the h.e.l.l, I'll even throw in a hardwood-furnished bed that will make your a.s.ses so sore you will forgo sitting until the day you die."

"…"