The Shyam

Amadeus slid back into a crevice, melding into the shadows, as another group of guards ran by. He held his breath as they slowed down to a halt in front of him. He could barely make out the words exchanged, but the guards resumed their run towards the commotion.

The commotion that he had started, where his brethren were still about providing ample time for him to sneak in and make a heart-felt plea to the President. When he had suggested the idea to the 4th division, his division of the Grimoire Heart, they had laughed in his face.

They had questioned his sanity in even considering approaching “The Soulless”, “The Slayer”, “The Multimage”. His brothers, his friends had asked him to step down and take a leave of absence to get his head on straight. But he finally convinced 10 of them to accompany him on what could possibly be a one-way trip.

Amadeus slid out of the shadows, glancing one final time at the retreating backs of the guards before starting to run the other way. He was close now, he remembered these corridors from their recon and research. Up the stairs, through the double doors would take him to the President’s chambers.

Of course, there was no guarantee that the President would not have been evacuated in such a situation, but Amadeus had nothing but hope to go on. He ran up the stairs silently, keeping an eye out for the guard that was supposed to be here.

The whistling of the air was his only warning as a blade swung from his right. Taking evasive action and cursing under his own breath at his lack of attention, Amadeus quickly brought up his left hand which held a mechanical device. The guard gave a start of recognition and started to focus his attack on Amadeus’s left hand, but that moment had been all Amadeus had required.

A small spark was the only warning the guard received, before the spark took on a life of its own. From that spark, Amadeus drew forth a fiery fist and let it loose at the guard. At such short range, the guard had no way to avoid it, and the focused heat burned a whole right through him.

The guard face first into Amadeus, who closed his eyes in prayer, before letting the body drop silently to the floor and proceeding up the stairs. He finally made it to the doors at the top, which wouldn’t budge.

Again, Amadeus brought out the device, bringing about a spark and using it to start a bright blue flame which he then used to cut through the door. Pushing it open, he snuck in before closing the door behind him.

“You could have atleast knocked, you know? Or made an appointment. This is kind of rude, especially at this time of the night.”

The voice startled Amadeus, who hadn’t sensed anyone inside the room. Amadeus scolded himself inwardly as he reminded himself he had just walked into the President’s chambers. The man they called “The God of Elements”. He looked nothing like what Amadeus had expected.

An average man, about 6 feet in height, dressed in robes that clearly signalled he was not expecting visitors. He looked up from his desk in the middle of the room, his green eyes staring, unblinking. A confident half smile graced his young features, his white hair neatly combed and drawn into a ponytail. The surprising thing was the lack of scars on his face, especially for someone who had been at the forefront of the Unifying wars.

“I come in peace, my lord.” exclaimed Amadeus, immediately falling to the floor, trying to convey to the man in front of him that he did not mean any harm.

“You barge into my palace, you start a commotion at the front gates, slip in the back, evading my guards and killing the ones you couldn’t evade, going as far as sneaking into my chambers, and you expect me to believe you come in peace?” asked the man, the confident half-smile never slipping his face. The malevolent aura in the room increased with each point, till Amadeus started perspiring in fear, rational thought making way for primeval instincts to flee in front of an unbeatable predator.

“I guess I believe you. There is no way you could actually assassinate me at the level you are at..” With that, the malevolent aura disappeared, allowing Amadeus to breathe again in relief.

“So what is it that the 4th division commander of the Grimoire Heart, Amadeus “The Fire Fist” Bernoulli wants of me, hmm?”. The man called the God of Elements pushed back from his desk and got up to face the intruder.

“I have never respected you, nor do I trust you, Sephiroth. But I come here to let you know that there is a third player who is playing both you and the Grimoire Heart and biding his time while we fight each other. I come here to let you know of this, so we can call a truce while we get rid of this hidden threat.”

The now named Sephiroth looked down at the prostrate Grimoire Heart agent with raised eyebrows, beckoning him to stand up with his hands. “Oh do go ahead, this is amusing. And why would I believe anything a Grimoire Heart agent tells me? Especially after all this commotion you have caused today? For all I know, if I had not noticed you when I did, you might have tried to assasinate me in cold blood.”

Amadeus pushed off from the floor with trembling hands, brushing his palms as he did. He glanced around the room, noticing the fact that Sephiroth had a source of all the elements available in his room, from water in the aquarium to the ground below their feet. He gulped, as he realized that one wrong sentence could be his last, before strengthening his resolve and turned to face the bemused Sephiroth.

“I don’t hide the fact that we at the Grimoire Heart believe you commited many atrocities in the unification war. But at the same time, we do respect you for unifying the five elemental nations under a single regime. We want to replace you, but if there is another shadow organization, it is better to root it out than bring about another Elemental war. What we both want is peace and equality for all, and neither of us want to revert to the old times.”

Amadeus tensed and reached for his steel and flint device when Sephiroth’s hand flashed, but Sephiroth ignored him as he created flaming balls. Absently juggling them, he turned away from Amadeus. “By atrocities, do you mean the time when I ruthlessly killed 3 divisions of the Grimoire Heart in the war of the great plains. Or the reason why I am called “The Soulless”, since all my close family have died, while I don’t seem to care about it. What ever could you mean, Amadeus?”

Amadeus flinched at the pointed questions, unable to answer Sephiroth, for fear of angering him further. “Don’t bother, they were rhetorical questions. Rumors abound around my ascension, and if I were to be bothered by every single one of them, I would have withered and died a long time ago. Only I know the truth of what happened, and when the time comes, I will answer for them.” Sephiroth’s voice grew cold at the end, letting Amadeus know that he had crossed a line.

“But enough about that. Tell me, you seem to hold personal hatred for me. What did I do to you? You seem too young to have been part of the Unification Wars.”

Amadeus stared coldly at Sephiroth, refusing to be baited by the man before him. Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at the silence, before continuing at the persistent silence. “Oh, fine, don’t make it easy for me. Let me guess. Did I destroy your village? Or was it your family?”

Amadeus flinched unwittingly.

“Ah, now we are getting closer. Was it that your father was part of Grimoire Heart? That was it, wasn’t it?”

Amadeus ground his teeth, wanting nothing more than to strike down this abomination in front of him, for daring to bring up such painful memories. He started to lift his hand to start an attach, only to find it being gripped firmly by Sephiroth, who had suddenly appeared in front of him. Cold green eyes stared at him, as if daring him to try and lift his arm any further.

Amadeus sighed, before dropping his arms.

“Good man. I would have hated to kill you already. You didn’t seem that foolish, but you never know. And you seem to have hate festering in your heart. And it is that hate which I have been fighting ever since I was born.”

“What would you know of hate? You don’t even care that your family died. Your father, your lover, your child.” It was then that Amadeus knew he had crossed a line, as an oppressing aura washed over him, bringing him to his knees. He knew that if he looked up, he would see Sephiroth’s smoldering gaze directed at him, eyes which promised pain and destruction.

“Do not speak of things you know nothing about. I know of hate, but I also know forgiveness. It is this hate, this festering, putrid hate, that is the whole reason why wars take place. Why we had five elemental nations ever at war with each other. Distrust, alliances made only to be broken the next day. When humans are at war, they remember all the pain the others caused to them. This pain causes them to hate the cause of their pain, and the cycle keeps repeating. Every time there is a winner, there is also a loser who vows to get back at the winner. And that was why there had been 4 great elemental wars before the unifying wars.”

Sephiroth let out a huge sigh, releasing the oppressing aura, before smiling half-heartedly at the kneeling Amadeus. “I lost my mother to the fourth great war, but I was precocious. I understood, that hating the Lightning nation would lead to nothing but more misery, as I would kill someone who would have just cause to hate me. So I vowed to forgive everyone who caused me pain, focusing on nothing but uniting the elemental nations. I get called the Soulless for not giving into hate or emotions when I see a precious person die, but if that is the price of peace, so be it.”

Amadeus had a looking of dawning understanding on his face, as one of the legends of Sephiroth was explained before his very eyes. “But that should mean you should forgive the Grimoire Heart, and bring us into the fold. Get rid of all reasons for any skirmishes, and focus on this hidden operation.”

Sephiroth looked at Amadeus, absently extinguishing the ball of flames in mid air, before sighing out loud. He waved his left hand at the door Amadeus had entered from and his right at the patio behind him. Amadeus stared in wonder as the only two entrances to the room were sealed in walls of ice. This was high level manipulation of the wind and water elements, that few in this world were capable of. And here was Sephiroth doing it casually.

Coming to a decision, Sephiroth nodded and asked Amadeus. “Tell me Amadeus, what do you know about the roots of Grimoire Heart?”

Amadeus stared at Sephiroth as if this was a trick question, already a little cautious at his exits being block, before hesitantly answering. “It was formed in the middle of the fourth elemental war to unify the five nations, and gave a place to call home for all elementals regardless of their tendencies. It grew to an army, but was finally defeated by you in the Unifying wars, buts it aim was accomplished despite its defeat.” Amadeus couldn’t hide the hatred when he mentioned Sephiroth’s victory, but stopped abruptly at the clapping sound.

Sephiroth smiled as he clapped, and replied. “A well rehearsed answer, full points for accuracy. But what do you know about its leaders?”

“Our leader is Benis, who still hasn’t given up hope of overthrowing you. But our original leader was Zack, a full elemental mage who is thought to have died in the fourth war.” Amadeus replied with a shrug, freely handing out data that was available to everyone. None of this was classified, so he didn’t feel like annoying Sephiroth just to prove a point.

“I am sure that Benis suspects, but curious that he wouldn’t have shared his suspicions with any of the division commanders.” mused Sephiroth, idly rubbing his chin in thought.

“Suspects what?” asked Amadeus, now curious.

“That of course, Zack is still alive.” replied Sephiroth with a chuckle.

“What? If that were true, there is no way he would abandon the Grimoire Heart. With him at our lead, even you would be hard pressed to beat us.” replied a disbelieving Amadeus.

“That would be true. I am unsure if I would be able to defeat Zack, but the reverse is also true. And the reason why Zack would not come back to you is because he achieved his dream.” said Sephiroth, with a smile that hinted that he knew something Amadeus did not.

Amadeus gazed at Sephiroth, trying to get a guage for whether Sephiroth was lying to him or not. He could think of a dozen reasons why he would, foremost being he would try to convert him to his cause. But he didn’t seem like he was lying. He wasn’t going out of his way to convince him.

“How would you know?” finally asked Amadeus, trying to get a sense for where Sephiroth was going with this.

“Before I tell you that, let me tell you another story. Of a time before the Unifying war, of the 4th great elemental wars. You were lucky to have been born after that. But to those of us born during the war, it was a miserable time. You never knew if any given day was your last. You could barely trust anyone, as any nation was as likely to stab you in the back as to ally with you. Friends one day could be enemies the next.”

“I wanted to change all of that. I wanted peace, a peace where nations would trust one another, where there would be no reason to go to war.”

Sephiroth gazed at his many reflections on the multi-faceted ice wall behind Amadeus, before shaking his head. “So I started a small group. Elementals who believed as I did, that we could coexist. Could learn to be friends. We shared techniques, tips, and before you knew it, we were a sizeable army.”

“It was then that we felt we had a chance. We could take the villages close to the border, and provide protection for them. For it was those very villages that were worst affected by war. And so we started expanding.”

Sephiroth sighed at this point, rubbing his forehead with his fingers. He looked at Amadeus, who looked as if he didn’t want to believe what he was hearing. Like if he didn’t want to make that logical jump from what he was hearing to what it entailed.

“But we ended up making the war worse. None of the nations had any reason to trust us. And each nation thought that we were under the employment of the others. And the villages started fighting back, as they now had to deal with their own nation disowning them. I stared at the situation unfolding before our eyes. Of the possibility of an ideal crumbling before us.”

Here, Sephiroth smiled. “And this was my masterstroke. I left this group, and joined the Wind nation. Over the next few years, I worked my way up before finally become Captain Commander of the Wind army. And I took the fight back to my group. With my multi-elemental training, it was the first time Grimoire Heart’s talented army was beaten back.”

“I was hailed as a hero, as the second coming of the Wind god. But I saw an opportunity. They, who were staring at defeat in the eyes, were suddenly bailed out by the appearance of the Wind army in all their skirmishes. Asking for nothing in return, we helped each nation beat back the Grimoire Heart. It wasn’t too hard to convince my army, as they trusted me to follow me to hell and back.”

“And it was thus that the fourth elemental war transitioned into the Unifying war.”

“You…. You are…” stuttered out Amadeus. Suddenly, it all started making sense. Where this multi-elemental mage had popped out of nowhere, with training in all the elements. There was always suspicion that someone in the Grimoire Heart had to have trained “The Multimage”, but to think that Sephiroth himself had been one of the founding members of the Grimoire Heart.

“I see you comprehend. I, who started the Grimoire Heart, used it as the unifying call for the Elemental Nations. People are sheep. They weren’t willing to believe in a new group out of nowhere, but they were completely willing to believe their hated enemy could come to their help and save them. And so I gave them a common enemy they could unite against. And with Grimoire Heart’s strengths, it took a unified army to push them back.”

“Why didn’t you bring us in? We could have helped. Why did you betray us?” screamed Amadeus, his head still reeling at the revelations that made so much sense.

“Because Grimoire Heart still has a role to play. This generation still needs a boogey-man, if you would pardon the phrase. Some common enemy to unite against, for the mistrust of generations is not easy to overcome. I now have Fire elementals working with water elementals, but the minute you take away Grimoire Heart, they will resort to infighting again. But I have hope, that in a generation, the children will get used to each other, and then Grimoire Heart can cease to exist”

“But till then, I cannot afford to have Grimoire Heart defeated.” said Sephiroth, staring at Amadeus, hoping to make him understand the weight of expectations he had.

“You are just using Grimoire Heart. We are people too. We have emotions, we have dreams, we have wants. We want to live in peace, not fight. What gives you the right to use us like this? You think the people of the Elemental nations will stand for this if, no when, this comes to light?” asked Amadeus, anger coursing through his veins.

“What is it that Grimoire Heart fights for? Is it not unity? Is it not peace? And are you not willing to fight and die for those beliefs? Then what am I doing that is so evil? You are fighting for what you believe in, and regardless of what you think, it is because of Grimoire Heart that there is peace and unity in this world. That means that Grimoire Heart has accomplished its dreams and desires, even if it does not know this.”

Before Amadeus could retort that it just wasn’t the same, Sephiroth continued without missing a beat. “And would you have me reveal to this world that the peace is a lie? Would you want to go back to what it used to be? And most importantly, would the people of this world care? They are happy, well provided for. Most people don’t care if it is Grimoire Heart or me that is responsible for this peace. The living conditions have been among the best in recent times.”

“No, but there has to be a way.” replied an unconvinced Amadeus, slyly glancing around to see if there was anything he could use against Sephiroth.

“Why would anyone believe Grimoire Heart even if it made such claims over me?” asked Sephiroth, confidence showing in his peaceful smile.

“Damn you. You condemned so many innocents in your quest for peace. And what about those attacks that were blamed on Grimoire Heart. Are you behind those too?”

“Guilty as charged. Have you never wondered why they never find any survivors in any of those attacks?”

That was the last straw for Amadeus, as he let out a scream of indignation, as he gathered what fire he could in his fists and let them loose in an all or nothing attack at where Sephiroth was standing.

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at the sudden attack, but calmly raised his hands. A wall of ice raised right before him, following his hands to meet the oncoming fire. The duo met in a violent clash as steam raised from the point of contact. Amadeus quickly dodged to his right, his eyes searching out for Sephiroth, sure that he had survived that surprise attack.

Amadeus felt the oncoming attack rather than seeing it, and tried to roll out of the way. The blades of wind followed his roll and sliced his wrists and legs, leaving him a bloody mess on the floor.

Sephiroth calmly strode out from behind him, clucking his tongue at the hapless state of the 4th division’s commander.

“Amadeus, Amadeus. Did you really think you had what it takes to challenge me in a one on one confrontation?”

Amadeus spat out some blood, before gazing up angrily at the white haired devil incarnate before him.

“Fine, maybe you did. But answer me this. How far are you willing to go, to ensure peace in this world? What would you do if this was the only way to have true peace? Would you reveal it all and condemn this world to eternal warfare? If you have a better way, then tell me now.”

“I would find a better way, where no one would have to die. Where innocents would not be killed.”

“But isn’t that exactly what you did? What about those guards that you slayed on the way up? You say you wouldn’t, but your actions say otherwise. And all that to just talk to me, not even assassinate me. But I will give you this one opportunity.”

Sephiroth waved his hand in an upward motion, and Amadeus found himself being pushed to his feet by a blanket of wind. Amadeus wiped his bloody face with his forearms, spitting out some more blood in the process.

“Now that you know everything. That Grimoire Heart was just a piece to bring about unity. That peace has now been achieved at the cost of everyone in Grimoire Heart. That you could save Grimoire Heart by killing me, but possibly curse this world to eternal warfare between the elemental nations.”

“So I give you this choice. Judge me, be my executioner or my pardoner. What will you do, Amadeus? What will you do?”