Interlude – Be reasonable

It was a nightmare. To him, it was the worst conclusion. It was like fate wanted to laugh at him. As if in his every triumph there would be that devilish smile barring his way.

He jolted awake. The cold disposition he had vanished. He looked around. He saw a medical room with four beds. One of the beds was occupied. The person was slightly familiar. She had black hair and light blue eyes. She was looking at Joshua with surprise.

“You are awake,” said the woman. “I expected you to stay asleep for days with your injuries.”

Joshua didn’t reply. He sensed around and felt that the place was shaking. There was a humming sound comparable to a commercial aircraft. He realized that he was hovering around on a skyship. This is bad, he thought. She seemed to have guessed what he was thinking. “You could try to jump again,” she chuckled. “But I doubt the lady hasn’t thought of that. And thanks for the large in the scar. I think it suits me.”

He looked at her. “You got injured by the last?”

“Yes,” she nodded and smiled. “I should hate you right now for giving me such a horrible scar. But I decided to be reasonable after seeing you sleeping there without moving an inch. So before you go on thinking about how you are going to be turned into a slave or forcefully be violated again. Let us be reasonable.”

“You expect me to believe that?” He said. How can he easily trust someone, especially the one who watch him suffer with a stoic expression? He recognized her and the way she followed her master without thinking. She was her loyal servant. That was clear enough.

“You should,” she shrugged her shoulders. “But haven’t you had enough killing? Or are you a person that likes killing people? Would you like to gun down the people of this skyship to escape? Know that they are poor former slaves who are now happy that they are being treated like working people by the lady.”

He frowned. He folded his arms and looked at the outside. There were snowflakes swaying around. He remembered that the snowfall wasn’t that heavy. “How long have I’ve been sleeping?”

“Oh, about four weeks, you were in some comatose state. The lady was worried about you.”

He cringed at that thought. He then looked at his wounds and found out that he was half healed. It seemed like the regeneration ability that Zola has given her was sufficient enough to heal him. He could still pain around his limbs but it was tolerable.

“You heal fast,” she remarked. “And although a scar on a man really isn’t that as terrible. So can you do me a favor?”

“Why should I?” He said.

She raised her shirt up, revealing the wide scar on her stomach. It was rather nasty.

“Because you put a scar on my stomach, and I think you should listen to me. Listen, I do not need anything other than you to listen to reason. Be reasonable. Do not suddenly lash out and attack my lady. She just wants to talk. She wouldn’t slave you. She’s bored of that.”

“Did she talk you about this?” he narrowed his eyes.

“Yes,” she admitted. “Still, all I want from you is to be reasonable human being. The lady is a reasonable person. She would listen to reason and I think after seeing you sleeping for weeks. I think she can be perfectly reasonable. You really impressed her to the point that she would save you from that building. You should be thankful that you didn’t get killed by the swarm of Templars below.”

He moved his legs and touched the floor. He tensed up and felt that he could walk. “Were there a lot of Templars?”

“Hah!” She scoffed. “The whole building was filled with Templars. The skies were filled with skyships and griffons. The streets had walkers and four-legged machines waiting for you. The moment you went out of the building looking like that, you would have died. So you can say that by meeting the lady. She saved your life. So that’s why I asked you to be reasonable.”

Be reasonable. It was the first time that Joshua wanted to scoff at that phrase. He wanted nothing to do with the lady. He wanted nothing but to escape her grasp. She was his first nightmare. When he sees her, he would only be filled with anger and fear.

It was a hard thing to do. But what choice does he have at the moment? He was inside her skyship and he did not have any way out. He could see the clouds from the foggy window. So there was no way he could just jump. He would certainly die.

Joshua knew fear. He has experience horrible things that would break him. But he didn’t break. He was somehow able to convince himself to trudge through despite fear. Be reasonable. The maid said to him. It was a perfect reasoning. Joshua would rather jump off a cliff or gun painstakingly planned an assassination. He thought that he just needed to put his mind to it.

So as a solution he focused his mind on making it an objective. The maid, Elesia, wondered what he was doing. But Joshua was focused that only when the words appeared above his head that he calmed down. The words ‘Be reasonable’ floated like a constant reminder. It calmed him down and put his thought into focus.

This drastic change was felt by Elesia. As if his face flickered, his worried expression vanished and was replaced by an impassive and stoic one. Elesia thought how different he was. It felt like the person she was speaking to got replaced by someone else.

Joshua calmed down. His thoughts cooled and his anger and fear almost disappeared. He stood up despite his wounds and as he was about to stretch his limbs. The door opened. Dolce stepped into the room and saw Joshua standing up. Their eyes met. Her smile reached up to her ears. Joshua jolted back. His focused expression vanished for a moment but it returned to the floating words above his head keep him in place.

“Hello...” Joshua said, his voice seething with anger.

Dolce widened her eyes. She grabbed the end of her coat and bowed her head while keeping an irritating smug look on her face. “It is nice meeting you again, formally, Joshua.” This time she made it sound like she truly wanted to talk to him. And it scared Joshua, wondering what this woman has in her mind.