Chapter 2 ( Part 10 )

Artkeepers are often violent with their own selves. The violence warkeepers dish out in the world, artkeepers deal it to themselves.

'There can be no peace without violence. There can be no creation without destruction. Your son or our son, artkeeper or warkeeper, it is a given that he's violent. You don't reprimand him for being violent to others, why do you hate him for being violent to himself?'

'Perhaps it is because you haven't given that order?' said Kaya, 'If the sun pushes away planets for having a violent core, there will only be rubble left in the solar system.'

'If the sun doesn't know restraint, the crops will burn,' said Talanni.

'If the sun is too high, the light is dim. If principles are too high, reality is cold,' said the mother.

'You three left your little menace in my hand and are speaking principles, aren't you?' said Nate.

'Nate, don't sweat the details!' said the mother.

'Dear, don't sweat the details!' said Kaya.

'Love, don't sweat the details.' said Mariaka.

Nate remembered these words and the memory very well. Since it was the first time he confessed his fears to anyone, let alone his women.

It was the beginning of the end. Aniket's mothers became more and more remote, more esoteric, more creative and more mysterious after that. It was as if they never again wanted to interfere in practical matters with the Twice Eclipsed Sun.

It was as if they are the shadows that loll their tongues in front of the eclipsed sun. They don't want to face it straight and disappear in his light.

'I don't have a headache Nate.'

'I have a headache Aniket.'

'There's no oil either…'

'There's cologne.'

'That…please don't use that.'

'I want to.'

Aniket dipped his head into his collar and pretended to be very obedient. He surreptitiously pulled the bottle of cologne from his pocket and tried to dispose it. Except...it's a little warmer?

It's a rock.

A smooth bottle shaped rock that somehow snuck into his pocket. And the bottle of cologne?

Aniket's nose was blasted with ten doses of Nate. But his head felt cool, like it was in a misty cloud on the Himalayas. What a good cologne. Aniket jumped to his feet and ran urgently to the stream. On the way, he rubbed all kinds of bland smelling leaves and crushed their juices on his head.

After having his sexy time with Anita, he dreaded her reaction after waking up. If she knows what he did after he talked to her like that, she will definitely beat him up!

The legend of the Bareclaw Tigress is real! That time he ran from the pod and secretly followed Nate and Anita to the battlefield. He knows it is real!

Nate laughed a little watching the punk run for his life. Aniket has a dirty mouth and an ugly personality. The only redeeming quality about him is that he is afraid of his parents. He plays their tolerance to the limits but will pipe down the moment the limit is reached. He has no arrogance or compulsion to prove his point like a normal rebellious teenager. There had never been a point in the first place. Just the devil making mischief.

It is said that parents are blind to their childrens' faults. That is not true. It is children who raise their tolerance until sky is the limit. Or until hell is the limit, in our devil's case.

Nate sighed like an old father, when he's barely reached thirty the fortnight before. He opened his XO to read the report.

XO is a swarm of nanobots that lives inside a timekeeper's body. It can be called an assistant and a communication device between timekeepers. It was invented a hundred years ago and was one of the most secretive technologies of Progeny. A bug and a radio that cannot be detected on any detectors and even in autopsies.

The XO has a secondary function while living inside a timekeeper's body. To witness the death of a timekeeper and record the cause of death.

These records are the most confidential in Progeny's information network. However, Nate was able to use the pod Sun's influence to access the reports of Aniket's Maa.

In those days, XO's interacted with the human host through some nerve signals. There are only a few such signals, so a code was used to pass limited messages between timekeepers on the field. However, XO can access any length of data from within the host, theoretically the entire server's worth.

Nate transferred the codes he received to his smart screen and read the data on his phone.

He read it repeatedly and for a long time. So immersed in the details of his wives' deaths and the moments before their deaths, he didn't notice the faint scent of cologne coming closer to him from behind.

'Huh…'

Nate shook. As an alert warkeeper and soldier, he shamefully dropped his phone from being startled.

Aniket emerged from the thicket and gave the phone to him.

He used a napkin to scrub his head hard, still trying to get rid of the smell. He left showing his back to Nate.

Nate saw him leave with an extremely ominous feeling in his heart. The reports Nate requested were autopsies guided by XO. They were conducted because Aniket's mothers were young. Their deaths appeared natural, but were sudden. It was timekeeper protocol to examine the cause of such deaths. Guided by XO records moment to moment in days and even months before their deaths, the autopsies are very precise. More detailed and accurate than any other postmortem protocol throughout the world.

Yet, the reports showed nothing strange. All three deaths were completely natural.

After reading them to painful detail for hours, Nate didn't catch anything abnormal. He was just about to put them away when he heard Aniket behind him.

Aniket has such a character that he would commit any vice he can if Nate's tolerance doesn't break. As naturally as water flows downhill, his sight would've fallen on Nate's screen.

Yet he didn't react at all. The light hum in his throat didn't drop a note. He read everything and everything was ignored.

The tremor in Nate's body suddenly became violent. For some reason, his right leg and his right shoulder felt as though smouldering iron was supporting them instead of bone. The sudden painful stiffness and the tremors caused him to take a step back. Unknowingly, Nate slipped and fell off the cliff.

It was Anita who realised something was wrong after seeing Aniket play with the ashes of the bonfire. He made them into three small pyramids and rolled a round pebble through them.

'What are you doing Nikki?'

'It's the sun rising over pyramids, Niti.'

'But the sun doesn't topple the pyramids Nikki…'

'Who knows Niti. The pyramids are graves to begin with. They're ashes to begin with.'

'Nikki…why do you smell like Nate's cologne?'

Aniket looked up and told her blankly. 'I brought it 'coz I thought there might be an opportunity to sleep with you in the forest.'

'...' Anita swallowed her reaction. She felt something more urgent. She said, 'I was not going to come to the forest.'

'That doesn't matter. What matters is my wish to be with you.'

'Where is Nate?'

'Where would the sun be when he knows the truth about the cliff?'

'Nikki! I'm asking you a question!'

'When he knows the pyramid is not a mountain, but a pile of ashes. That the cliff is not a safe place to harbour his rays, but a grave that eats his vitality and spirit. Where will the sun be?'

'Nikki…Nikki! Nikki you damn bastard! What did you do to Nate?'

Anita whistled the hounds and ran urgently in Nate's general direction. When she left, Aniket dragged the left over deer the hounds hunted. He calmly cleaned it with a little water and ate it raw.

After a while he continued humming the song about spring's sunshine and morning's charm.

After nearly finishing the whole carcass, the hounds had returned. They closed in and growled at him.

He straightened up. 'Oh. I only meant to roast a little cut. Hmm…sorry guys. Looks like I threw my stash of pot on the rack instead of meat. This…goes against the creed of an addict. I feel ashamed of myself. I humbly plead your forgiveness and understanding.'

The hounds were not amused. They chased Aniket across the woods with every intention to tear him to bits. Such good hounds that are trained to perfection. He was probably the first human they so viciously attacked. But that's how Aniket was.

Beyond infuriating. Beyond maddening. A worm in the belly that you hate to bits, but it laughs at you.