What the Tower Knows - Part 7
Date Posted: June 28, 2024
When Amon woke, he found himself bundled up within his make-shift quiltfort in his Tower bedroom. His vision swam and his mind reeled. This was certainly some form of aether sickness… which wasn’t surprising given what he’d just exposed himself to.
“Hey, you awake?” Tad’s voice drifted over him, off to one side.
Amon squinted, making out a blurry shape that he identified as his cousin. “Somewhat…”
His throat was dry and his voice was hoarse. Tad took notice of that, moving to help Amon sit up and take a drink of much-needed water.
Tad also didn’t ask any questions. In fact, Amon was the first to shoot.
“How’d you find me?”
“Node sent me a signal,” Tad answered.
This was surprising. “I didn’t know you had comms with Node.”
“Neither did I,” his cousin agreed. “Your Node is resourceful.”
[Of course I am. I am the best node.] Node answered from his charging dock.
Amon gave a soft chuckle, “Thank you, Node.”
The machine made a pleasant hum and resumed charging.
“Why are you going about doing crazy things without letting me know?” Tad finally asked his question.
The Technologist groaned and rubbed his face. He felt strong enough to turn and sit up on the side of the bed, so he did.
When no immediate answer came, Tad waited. And waited.
Seeing he wasn’t going to out-silence the question, Amon finally spoke. “Apologies. I just ran across a lead and I had to take it.”
“Well, next time, give me a heads up before you go breaking into the Ocular. That could have serious consequences for both of us if you get caught.”
“Aye, I know,” Amon said in a tired voice.
It was Tad’s turn to sigh. “Was it worth it?”
There was a moment of thought before the reply, “Aye. I found what… who… I am. How I came to be.”
“Will you be okay?”
“I’m…” Amon began to answer the question, and realizing he couldn’t, went a different direction. “I’m not a clone.”
“I know,” Tad confirmed.
“What?” Furrowed brows shot suspicious looks across the room. “What do you mean you know?”
His cousin tapped his head. “Got this Echo thing going on, and… it tells me stuff sometimes.”
“How long have you known?” Amon was now leaning forward, gripping his knees.
Tad gave a pursed-lip look down at his feet, but didn’t answer. It would have been comical if Amon wasn’t so frustrated at the moment.
“You knew. You knew… and you didn’t tell me?”
“In my defense,” his cousin spread his hands, “Would you have listened to me, or anyone else, if you didn’t go out and find the answer for yourself first?”
Amon fell silent to this.
“We could have told you that you aren’t a clone until we were blue in the face. You’d never believe us until you found your own proof. You know that,” Tad motioned around. “This was the only way.”
The Elezen looked down at his hands where they still held on to his knees. The irony. The pure comedy of the situation suddenly overwhelmed him. He began to laugh. And he couldn’t stop.
“What’s so funny?” his cousin prompted with a frown.
“And here I thought this whole time I swindled you into bringing me to the Tower,” Amon admitted. “I even felt a little bad about it.”
“Aye?” Tad asked, cracking his own smile.
“Aye,” Amon confirmed.
Then, he reached over and gripped his cousin’s shoulder. The Warrior of Light who had traveled through time and space to save him. And had succeeded.
“I’m going to be okay.”