Ghost Fragment: The Last Word 4
Name
- Ghost Fragment: The Last Word 4
Image URL
/common/destiny_content/grimoire/hr_images/700190_3843ba1b5edfea56410c50fa9e7bf68f.jpg- /common/destiny_content/grimoire/hr_images/700190_2855c0ccd14610a5d62e30532ef773f6.jpg
Description
Then.<br/><br/>- <i>Then.</i><br/><br/>
- Palamon was ash.<br/><br/>
I was only a boy – my face caked in soot, snot and sorrow.<br/>I’d assumed Jaren, my friend, our Guardian, the savior of Palamon, would always protect us – could always save us...<br/>- I was only a boy – my face caked in soot, snot and sorrow.<br/><br/>
- I’d assumed Jaren, my friend, our Guardian, the savior of Palamon, would always protect us – could always save us...<br/><br/>
- But I was a fool.<br/><br/>
- Jaren, and the others, only a handful, but still our best hunters, our hardest hearts, had left three suns prior. Tracking Fallen, after the bandits had caused a stir.<br/><br/>
- The stranger – the other – arrived the following day.<br/><br/>
- He rarely spoke. Took a room. Took our hospitality.<br/><br/>
- I was intrigued by him, as I was Jaren when he’d first arrived.<br/><br/>
- But the stranger was cold. Distant. Damaged, I thought.<br/><br/>
- But I wasn’t afraid. Not yet.<br/><br/>
- Only a child, I knew the monsters of our world to walk like men, but they were not. They were something alien. Four-armed and savage.<br/><br/>
- The stranger was polite, but solemn.<br/><br/>
I took him for a sad, broken man, and he was. Though, at the time, I didn’t understand how that could make one dangerous.<br/>- I took him for a sad, broken man, and he was. Though, at the time, I didn’t understand how that could make one dangerous.<br/><br/>
- As with Jaren, father made an effort to keep me away from the stranger.<br/><br/>
- It wouldn’t matter.<br/><br/>
- As the silhouette approached, fear held tight.<br/><br/>
- The dark figure towered over me. Looking into me – through me.<br/><br/>
- He smiled. My knees weak. All lost.<br/><br/>
- Then, he turned and walked away.<br/><br/>
- Leaving ruin and a heartbroken, terrified boy in his wake without a second glance.<br/><br/>
I’ve been chasing that stranger’s shadow ever since.<br/><br/><br/>Now.<br/><br/>- I’ve been chasing that stranger’s shadow ever since.<br/><br/><br/><i>Now.</i><br/><br/>
- We stood silent, the sun high.<br/><br/>
- Seconds passed, feeling more like hours.<br/><br/>
- He looked different.<br/><br/>
- He seemed, now, to be weightless – effortless in an existence that would crush a man burdened by conscience.<br/><br/>
- My gaze remained locked as I felt a heat rising inside of me.<br/>
- The other spoke...<br/><br/>
- “Been awhile.”<br/><br/>
- I gave no reply.<br/><br/>
- “The gunslinger’s sword... his cannon. That was a gift.”<br/><br/>
- My silence held as my thumb caressed the perfectly worn hammer at my hip.<br/><br/>
- “An offering from me... to you.”<br/><br/>
- The heat grew. Centered in my chest.<br/><br/>
- I felt like a coward the day Jaren Ward died and for many cycles after.<br/><br/>
- But here, I felt only the fire of my Light.<br/><br/>
- The other probed...<br/><br/>
- “Nothing to say?”<br/><br/>
- He let the words hang.<br/><br/>
- “I’ve been waiting for you. For this day.”<br/><br/>
- His attempt at conversation felt mundane when judged against all that had come before.<br/><br/>
- “Many times I thought you’d faltered. Given up...”<br/><br/>
- All I’d lost, all who’d suffered, flashed rapid through my mind, intercut with a dark silhouette walking toward a frightened, weak, coward of a boy.<br/><br/>
- The fire burned in me.<br/><br/>
- The other continued...<br/><br/>
- “But here you are. This is truly an end...”<br/><br/>
- As his tongue slipped between syllables my gun hand moved as if of its own will.<br/><br/>
- Reflex and purpose merged with anger, clarity and an overwhelming need for just that... an end.<br/><br/>
- In step with my motion, the fire within burst into focus – through my shoulder, down my arm – as my finger closed on the trigger of my third father’s cannon.<br/><br/>
- Two shots. Two bullets engulfed in an angry glow. <br/>
- The other fell.<br/><br/>
- I walked to his corpse. He never raised his cursed Thorn – the jagged gun with the festering sickness.<br/><br/>
- I looked down at the dead man who had caused so much death.<br/><br/>
- My shooter still embraced by the dancing flames of my Light.<br/>
- A sadness came over me.<br/><br/>
I thought back to my earliest days. Of Palamon. Of Jaren.<br/>- I thought back to my earliest days. Of Palamon. Of Jaren.<br/><br/>
- Leveling my cannon at the dead man’s helm, I paid one final tribute to my mentor, my savior, my father and my friend...<br/><br/>
- “Yours... Not mine.”<br/><br/>
- ...as I closed my grip, allowing Jaren’s cannon, now my own, to have the last, loud word.