Chapter 26
The Right to Choose
Montreuil, Arielle, Bonaventure
The General's bodyguards opened fire on Mordekai. Rather than bullets, their weapons fired these little flashes of light that were all harmlessly deflected off the barrier Mordekai had raised around himself. He then stretched out his hand and jets of steam burst from the bodyguards before their shrivelled corpses fell to the ground. It was the same trick Mordekai used on the guards at El-Kasamar. It was no more pleasant witnessing it now as it was then.
Four others in the General's entourage formed up in a defensive wall between him and Mordekai. They had some device mounted on their left wrists that were different from the weapons wielded by the bodyguards. They tapped on the devices and then quickly drew something from their belts, flicking their wrists to reveal some sort of baton. Because they were weaker than Prissy or the Ladrieu girl, and especially Mordekai, Giger did not realize they were supposed to be mages—or Arcanists or whatever it was they liked to call themselves—until they actually started to cast.
Giger did not know what they thought they could do against Mordekai, but all it took was a wave of his hand and they collapsed in spasming balls of agony bleeding from every hole in their bodies and probably several new ones that popped open along the way. It was not clear if it was mercy or cruelty that he did not kill them outright. However, this meant the last practical defense of the General was gone. Would he try to send Prissy and the Ladrieu girl against Mordekai? Use Gally as a human shield? As if Mordekai in his current state would let that stop him...
It was a vain and foolish thing to do, but Giger ran forward to take the place of the mages writhing on the ground. Mordekai simply gave a slight bemused smile at the sight of this.
"What are you trying to do, Giger?" he asked. "Defend that man? Or are you under the impression that I might hurt Priscilla and Galatea? You know that I have no need to."
"Right now I'm not sure if what you need to do is necessarily what you're going to do," Giger replied.
"That man is inconsequential," Mordekai replied. "The others have suffered the fate they have because they tried to attack me."
"You didn't have to go that far."
"How else am I going to set an example, Giger? These people. these Imperials... they won't leave us be. We'll either have their bootheel on our neck or else they'll destroy us. They've given me no other choice, and besides, they killed Kamellia. Do you expect me to forgive that? Should you forgive that?"
"Kamellia..."
Giger stopped himself before saying, "Kamellia is alive," but the look Mordekai gave him told Giger that he knew.
"Kamellia lives on as a memory. The woman I loved, the woman you loved... There wasn't even anything left to bury."
"And you'd have every man, woman and child on the planet share her fate?"
Mordekai gave him a scornful look.
"Since when have you become so benevolent to care for every man, woman and child on the planet?"
"Would you find it more plausible if I said I was doing this just to save my own ass?"
"If your ass was the only thing you were worried about, you would not be standing in my way right now, so what changed?"
"You did, ever since that thing took you."
Mordekai scowled and said, "You know it annoys me when you talk about us like that, Giger."
Giger touched his heart and said, "You put a piece of that thing in me, called it insurance. At first, I thought it was just a way for you to restore yourself if anything happened to your main body, but how many copies did you already have running around by then? And then there's the fact that I didn't change like the others. I know there aren't any coincidences with you."
"And what has my star pupil concluded from all this?"
"That whatever is left of the Mordekai I knew could see where all this was going. That's why you installed a handbrake and put it in my hand. Everyone you, you infected, we're all connected."
"Nice rhyme there, Giger."
The quip would have annoyed Giger on the best of days, but in a situation as desperate as this, it made him particularly angry.
"I wasn't trying to rhyme, dammit," he growled. "Since when have you been a wiseass anyway?"
"As you said, we are all connected. I can only imagine it's your influence."
Giger drew in a slow breath to get himself back in sorts and focus. He did not know if it was better or worse that Mordekai was making a point to simply annoy him rather than attacking him outright. One way or another, his old master was always testing him. This would be the last time.
"All these wells fed by the same reservoir," Giger said. "You poison one, you poison them all."
This did not seem to faze Mordekai, but how often did he ever lose his composure? Even if Giger were to entertain any doubts about his plan, Mordekai seemed to dispel those doubts right away.
"Can you do that, Giger Taus—no, Barz Falkner? Can you give your life for all these people here below who would persecute you and those above who would oppress you? You don't even have the excuse of saving your own skin. Can you truly be that selfless?"
Giger sighed and opened up his shirt, revealing the magic circle he had carved into his chest.
"We're about to find out..."
He dared not give himself the chance for his courage to fail him. He placed his hand in the center of the circle and activated it. It felt like a stake had been driven into his heart, as if he were a vampire from the penny dreadfuls he used to read as a child. The strength drained from his limbs and he fell to the ground, shattering one of the lenses of his tea shades when his face struck the pavement.
"Giger!" two women's voices cried out. Prissy and Gally, he imagined.
His body felt numb, but he was able to muster just enough strength to look up at Mordekai. Though his eyes were misting over, he thought he saw Mordekai smiling, in that rare way Giger would see when he actually succeeded in meeting his master's exacting standards.
"Thank you, Barz," he said. "You really are my star pupil."
He then closed his eyes and fell backwards. Giger was not sure if he closed his own eyes or if his vision simply went black. The sound of Prissy and Gally crying out to him faded. Maybe one or both of them were shaking him, but it could have been his imagination.
What a way for things to end for the outlaw wizard Giger Taus. His reputation would never be the same after this.