Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Closure

After a strange silence took over the room, it was Diven who brought them all back.

"Why now? I mean there is nothing wrong with that. It won't mean you have to leave the Afflicted or anything, but shutting down the entire Keep all at once sounds rather extreme."

"As I said before, I finally found some peace." Kresha waved Arkyn to step inside the call boundaries.

He walked into the boundaries of the floor, standing at attention with his arms behind his back.

"Arkyn . . . So the preservation project worked then?" Diven seemed mildly shocked, but not nearly as much as Silvesh.

She jumped out of excitement again, and brought herself much closer to the imaging of Arkyn. She mumbled a few things before stopping after a full circle of eyeing him.

"Hmmmm, I don't think so, look at his posture and face. He used to always make little glances at Kresha too. He isn't anymore . . . I never could tell if they were from fear or arousal."

"Only you'd remember something like that Silvesh. He is perfectly capable of giving his own piece without your strange analysis." Harrow bluntly remarked. It was his first time speaking since the call began.

"Oh hush, you never even met the man. He's much older than you too, so put the damn notes down and give him a bit of respect." Silvesh told him off casually with an eye roll.

He merely grunted and eyerolled right back.

"My name is indeed Arkyn," he said, thinking this was the best moment to make the introduction. "A golem designated to assist in maintenance, experimentation, and lab preparation; to which I record all findings that may be of some use to Runesmith of the Ash Keep."

During the silence, he added one more thing out of uncertainty of what to do next.

"Though after having received the same news as you three, I don't think I'll be carrying those tasks for much longer."

Harrow didn't look up from his notetaking, but Arkyn could see the look on the other two's faces were that of many emotions, none of them positive. Silvesh stepped back in a bit of surprise, and Diven was a cross between a wince and sad disappointment.

"I apologise if my introduction upset you. It seems I have failed at our overall goal to let the rest of the Afflicted not be offended by my existence."

"Oh no no, you did nothing wrong." Diven quickly interjected. "You are- Or I mean, you were- Oh for the love of the gods! Harrow, stop writing and contribute something."

The draconid didn't know how to fix the mess of the conversation, so he deflected his panic at Harrow; simply because the human was not stressed about the situation.

The man sighed out of exasperation and tucked the book under his arm. "Harrow Calebra, human scholar and current overseer of the Vault Keep."

His tone was flat and face as expressive as a mining golem. He went for a handshake for a split second before realising his blunder. In a quick correction of himself, Harrow awkwardly bowed at Arkyn.

He seemed to look around the room in hope of having saved face, but based on the confused looks from everyone else, he failed.

To end his socially awkward suffering, he quickly tapped on the runes to end his projection and fizzled out of the room. Even without colour, Arkyn could see his face glowing bright red.

"Aww, he's embarrassed." Silvesh cooed, "I'm gonna go override his projector and try to cheer him up.

So long guys, Kresha let me know when you're finished shutting down the Keep; you can come visit and we can tell this Arkyn all sorts of fun stories from before."

Her projection disappeared shortly after, leaving Arkyn and Kresha alone with only Diven's hologram. He didn't express anything at Silvesh's farewell, instead He took his spectacles off for a moment to clean them.

He took the time to think over his next few words, not wanting to repeat his moment of panic. Kresha waited patiently, as she knew he would have opinions to share about what was going to happen next.

"One of our oldest, yet so young at heart." He pondered before putting the glasses back on and pulling out a glass of liquid from the invisible boundaries beyond their sight. Diven's nostrils flared as he whiffed the glass, and took a large gulp.

Judging from how much he grimaced, the elixir was extremely potent.

"Silvesh doesn't realise what you truly mean when you say you're ending your experiments. You intend to stop drinking the Fangbell too, don't you? End everything."

"Not everything." Kresha said while turning to Arkyn.

"Uh huh, so you aren't going to keep your promise?" He asked, sounding as professional as he could, but the disappointment still leaked out in his tone.

"I can't," she said strongly, "not when it took me so long just to reach this point. It isn't ever going to change, so now I am just too tired."

"Kresha, let us come to you. We can talk about the next step, it's not worth taking the time you've been gifted and turn it away after everything you discovered and built."

"Diven, you need to understand . . . I am too tired." Kresha took a deep breath, looking for a moment like she was about to be sick. Her strong tone was quickly losing it's edge.

"We can make as many plans and goals as we'd like, but I can't keep it going like this."

Diven looked like he wanted to keep arguing, but Kresha could see he was still looking back and forth between her and Arkyn.

"Arkyn, go ahead and continue working on maintenance tasks." She commanded. "You did your part this evening and now it's time I do mine."

"Understood Madam, It was a pleasure to meet you, Diven of the Frost Keep." Arkyn gave a bow.

"And you as well, Arkyn of the Ash Keep." Diven said with a small nod of the head before Arkyn turned and left.