Eliza's choice

It took several moments before Veron could pull himself together enough to respond. So overwhelmed by the fact that she was here his faculties were failing him. Nevertheless his desire to impress her forced his brain to work faster, allowing him to respond before his pause became too awkwardly long.

"Eliza...it is good to see you once again. Truth be told I never thought I would."

A shy smile blossomed upon Eliza's face because she too was feeling the pressure. She had thought for the longest time that she was alone in her love for him. She had waited years after her mission hoping that he would come and find her, but he never did.

It was only after she herself got married that she would discover that Veron's bride was her former missionary companion. They had spent many nights talking about the boys they had left at home when they went to serve, one night the conversation had turned to the missionaries they found attractive. Eliza had never told anyone about her feelings for Veron, but this night she spilled the beans. Veron had left for home by then so she didn't see the harm, but boy did that come back to bite her later.

"Neither did I, after you got married I never thought I would be given the chance to tell you how I felt. But here I am, and I am choosing now to do what I should have done so long ago."

Veron stood stone still, he wouldn't miss the next words out of her mouth for anything. His entire new domain could be crumbling and yet he wouldn't care. He had to know what she was going to say, and damned be the consequences.

"Veron...I have loved you from the moment we first met, and I always hated myself for being such a cowered that I never tried to find you when I got home. I waited for years to see if you would come find me but you never did, and I only found out after it was too late that my former companion had found and married you."

A gentle tear had begun to run down her cheek as she spoke of her long suppressed love. And it was breaking Veron's heart to see the pain it caused her. Had he known about how she felt he would have found her the day she came back, but he didn't and all the wishing in the world wouldn't make time go back.

"I know it was irrational of me but I hated you for choosing another, and I hated her for seeking you out even though she knew how I felt. But then I realized that you couldn't have known, I never told you, and we really never spoke much while we served as we were focused on our missions."

The tears had become an unending stream at this point, and despite the fact that all he wanted to do was hold her he held himself back. Sometimes the best thing a man can do is just to listen, and he felt that what Eliza needed most was for him to do just that.

"Eventually I forgave you, and found a husband of my own. But he never really loved me, and truth be told I never really loved him either. I married him to keep the pain and loneliness away, but I was never able to get you out of my mind...or my heart. And now that we are here I have just one thing to say to you."

Veron's heart stopped, his body was so tense he felt like he might explode! Nothing existed apart from her, nothing mattered but what her next words might be. His blood froze, his mind was blank, it was as if his whole being was hanging on the words of this one woman. Which of course...it was.

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"What shall we do father?" Aarons voice was filled with expectation and purpose. His whole being was now focused on the calamity that was fast approaching, and what he could do to ensure the survival of his wife and child.

Icarus was equally determined to ensure the survival of his children, and to a wider extent, the world itself. There really was little difference to him between his own children and those of his siblings. They were all family, and he would fight tooth and nail for any one of them.

"You shall train with me for a time, just until you become proficient enough to use the innate gifts of your body. After which you will enter this tower and slaughter all within. Once that is done you shall return to me with your rewards from the tower, and we will begin the next phase of our preparations." 

"Yes father."

"Bethany, my daughter, please return home for now. Once your child is born we will begin your training. That you may stand equal with your husband, and that together you may ensure the survival of your little one."

"As you say Father, but when will my little one be afforded such opportunity?"

"Think not of it now, we have many things to do before such time and need not worry." 

Bethany nodded before returning home. She had utmost faith in her husband and father, and would do exactly as she had been told. She knew that she would get her turn, and was therefore pacified for the time being.

Once she was gone Icarus turned towards Aaron again, gesturing for him to follow he led Aaron deeper into the woods to a clearing that he had made just the day before.

"Here my son." Icarus began as he stood in the center of the clearing. "Here I will teach you how to use that body with which you have been blessed. And once we are done, there will be nothing in those towers of which you need be frightened."

"I understand father but I wonder if you might enlighten me about something."

"Ask and ye shall receive."

"Should we not invite the children of your siblings? Are they not also aware of the danger?"

Icarus smiled at the care he could hear in his son's voice. He knew that Aaron was asking because he wanted his cousins to be able to defend their own as well. Once more Icarus was truly proud of his son, and vowed within himself to give Aaron the best training he possibly could as a reward.

"They are aware my son, but worry not for them. My brothers and sisters have their own ways of dealing with this crisis. Fear not for your family, they are well looked after."

Aaron nodded, he too had utmost faith in his father and if Icarus said everything was okay, then Aaron would believe him.

And it was true enough, in each of the remaining continents a single 0 rank tower had sprung up. The paragons in charge of those lands gathered their children at the base of the towers, and told them the same prophecy that Icarus had spoken to Aaron.

Icarus had informed his siblings how effective it was hoping to rally everyone behind the same cause. Turns out the prophecy Icarus had made up on the spot would become local legend, depending on the success or failure of this initial invasion it had the capacity to turn into a world wide mythology. That every so often an evil beast would appear with armies of minions, and it was up to the inhabitants of the world to repel it.

Each paragon had instituted an initial training for their children to enable them to survive the tower. Not a single one of the mortal inhabitants of this world had ever fought before, so instead of throwing them to the wolves the paragons did what they could.

Granted the paragons themselves had never fought before, but Veron had been exceedingly thorough in their creation. Imbedded within each of their cores was a vast library of fighting techniques Veron had compiled during his lifetime. Veron was extraordinarily gifted when it came to martial arts, and he had spent a good portion of his life training and refining the many martial disciplines he fancied. The library implanted within the paragons were filled with Veron's own perfected techniques, and it was from this vast library that each paragon had selected a form they felt fit their children best.

The training had begun, and soon enough the real battles would commence. The mortals of the world would soon adopt these forms as a sort of heritage, and every single man, woman, and child would be trained in one form or another just based on the tradition established here.

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Seconds passed like centuries in Veron's mind as he waited for Eliza's words. Everything was happening all too fast and yet too slow at the same time. He both desperately wanted to know what she would say, and dreaded finding out. He didn't know if he could bare it if she told him all those things just to run away.

Finally after what felt like an eternity her mouth began to move once more. Veron's pulse was going so fast it felt like one continuous beat, his palms and back were dripping while his mouth felt full of sand. The rest of his eternity would be determined by what she said, and now here it was.

"Veron..."