The Denial of Truth and Change

Slam!

The door from the tower of the princess was slammed open by the cleric's furious hands as he departed down from the royal palace. His face refuses to look back on the librarian, who is saddened by his unfaithful wrath. The news was too much for him to handle.

"Cyrus! Come on!" Eve walked right behind him, but he kept walking away from her and headed elsewhere.

"Cyrus, please!"

"Oi, where have you been? I've been waiting for you here since you were looking after that force? So can we leave now—" Charger awaits on the street with his half-finished gun. It was broken and sawed in half, but there was something he was about to make out of it. He just needed more than wires.

"Get off my path, creature!" Cyrus pushes him with fury. But that fury was not for her.

"Woah! Easy there, mister Hot Rod! You know this rock has a feeling too, right?"

The three wanderers are at a fight, standing alone on their own thoughts once again as they find one more thing to debate upon. But this time, the cleric wanted only one RIGHT matter from this standoff, for he had no wish to toil with the librarian again. Soon, the wanderers watched a fight they had never seen in their lives.

"Cyrus!" She begs him to stay with her grip on her.

"No, no, no! I'm not...I can't do this! I can't believe you!" Cyrus slaps her hand off.

"What? What's the matter, cleric? Too faithful in your own soul before the adventure?" Charger lowers his gun and joins the convoluting wanderers. He was confused, thinking Cyrus was being too cowardly again.

"No,but I think someone here is not faithful to us! This whole adventure was nothing but her attempt to persuade us out of the town!"

"Wait, what? Eve?"

"No, I didn't! I was just—" Eve was cut off from Cyrus's anger.

"I can't believe you dragged me here for nothing! I thought we were supposed to be in this together! But you're just putting me here for nothing! And now I'm wasting my people for nothing!"

"But they're not your people! They're just some stupid denizens that nobody will miss! You didn't know them out of the faith, didn't you? Do you think they miss you?" Eve retaliates out of shame.

"They miss me! I'm the priest, and they are my friend as much as you do! But why didn't you miss them?"

"Because they're not my friends! So do they to you! Cyrus, just think for a second!"

"Think for what? My hometown there was set in a rubble and you wanted me to stay here forgetting everything??"

Little did they know that their fight had brought the attention of free spirits on the street to their mess. The citizens were in disbelief to watch a metal-bearing librarian and cleric tossing out hatred with their designated thoughts in their peaceful town. From reason to wisdom, all that was spouted there were beyond their understanding.

"What is happening here?"

"Is that a commotion?"

"I smell a sense of reason here!"

One could not stand the truth of their homeland, believing still in the remnants of that very faith of his. He who sets on the clergy's path never learns to realize in their lives. But the librarian was patient, having all the time she had to wait in the town while the cleric still clung to the church of a fallen home.

"Don't you want to have a place to set your faith here? You can make one, you know!" Eve argued.

"I wanted home, Eve! I don't want any of this! This...terrible, savage place!" Cyrus replies.

"*Gasp*"

The town has never seen such a faith strongly mentioned here. The architecture of reason was spread in a world of freedom and desire, where it became clear that the cleric was too faithful to be free. The denizens, alongside Eve and Charger, were backed by this thought of his.

"Terrible?"

"Savage?"

"Watch your mouth, outsider!"

But the cleric wanted nothing more but a home. Even if the people didn't favour his stale reasoning, he just wanted to feel the taste of a place that gave him more purpose. But—of course—he couldn't be used in a world that could live without a leading figure like him.

"What? What? You don't like that? Fine! I'm going! I'm not even trying to stay anyway! I don't want any of this!"

"All of you are not sane! Where are your senses when you needed it? Riding a storm? Wearing thin metals between your hips? Trying to build towers against the sky's will? You have nothing but shame! All of you!"

"But I'm not as embarrassed as someone who has a reason to move the world! If I was not a man who I am now, I wouldn't be here with someone like her! And that!" Cyrus pointed out Eve and Charger. He proceeded to leave the crowd without a word.

He left the crowd in disappointment—a betrayal he had never seen. With the librarian and the Tin Man behind his back—still—he didn't want to see them even for a sight. The sun was still hiding behind the clouds, yet the boat was clear enough for him to leave. However, even the truth still crawls for him.

"Cyrus! Where are you going?"

"Home! And I'm going home now!" Cyrus was pushing the boat into the water, still not looking back at her friend on the coast.

"But the boat wasn't even ready yet!" Charger muttered.

"Then I'll walk onto the ocean myself!"

Faith brought the blindest move for the cleric, for he chose to swim the endless sea himself rather than be living in an honest, new life. The truth was too much for him, even to look behind with such pity. But the librarian knew this would happen from a man who wants nothing but reason through his life.

*Swimming* "See you on the other—bubble!" It didn't take long for Cyrus to find a depth where his foot couldn't lay down.

"Come on, Cyrus! You can't do this to us!"

"I can't hear you! I'm swimming my way out of this place!"

"Wow, and I thought the girl would've been a dumber one here. I guess every librarian comes with an intellectual perk, aren't they?" Charger stays off the coast and pauses for a moment after realizing his best friend is swimming towards Cyrus.

The librarian persists behind, always helping the cleric even if he doesn't want to. For her, the absolute truth had already sealed their fate in this town, and there was nothing they could do about it. Once realized, the truth cannot be reversed and undone by the act of reasoning. So, as the cleric swam further into the ocean, sinking in the abyss of apathy and slowly drowning in its truth, the librarian had to join him in that quest.

"Don't worry, Cyrus! I'm coming!" She said, swimming as far as she could.

"Hey, reach my hand now! You're going to drown here!"

"Aagh! Eve, help me—blblblb!" A sinking Cyrus kept his grip on Eve. But heavy he was, the two ended up joining the abyss ocean together.

"Aah! Cyrus, don't pull me out! Cyrus!! Aah—blblblblb!"

It was a struggle to pull the cleric out of his denial, especially when the librarian also repeatedly denied his offer. But the two wanderers can only endure the new paradise as their only reason to survive—the only reason the cleric wouldn't accept. Eventually, fate has given them an undeniable life.

And the Tin Man was there, still indifferent to the world he had come forth. He finds the truth doubting, but he wouldn't dare to question it back in a place so distant from home. Here, he lays without a lie, bearing a gap that still lingers in the world of desire and self-fulfilment. For him, there's still more to ask than to think.

"*Sigh* Of course, who else but the Great Charger...? I guess this world gave me more effort to work onto something." Charger grabs a rope and ties it to himself. He then tied one into a fence on the coast.

"Now I just hope I didn't electrocute them when I swim on this very conductive liquid."

"Hang on, you two! I'm coming!" said the Tin Man with his body swimming through the ocean prepared.

With truth so unbearable, the two wanderers were washed off ashore into Alphiore once again, relished from the lives of a dark, absolute judgement but lost the very essence of their lives—their home. There is no hope for them to change the effect, and the librarian herself has learned how to start everything back from ashes through the tower of a princess.

"*Cough* *Cough* Ouch...ouch..." Charger dragged the two wanderers back into the coast, soaked but still strong. Eve was coughing the most.

"There...there...you two are going to be fine now. Just don't drink too much of that water and you'll be fine..."

"And as for you, dear friend. I would like to be reminded that my trip here comes with a cost. So if you don't pay me now, I'll have you know the boat will leave this place without you." Charger pointed out at Eve.

"*Cough* *Cough* I...I can't...I can't believe you, Eve..." Cyrus muttered.

"Outsider, are you okay?"

The princess awaits on the coast, seeing that the wanderers haven't left yet—nor can they. She was still by the back of the librarian, trying to help her stay in this town together with the wanderers. But the cleric was now alone, cold, and not wanted by anyone. Here, he was a fire soon to be extinguished by the gust of history.

"I'm fine, princess. I'm...I think I'm fine. But the priest is not...well..." Eve glanced sadly at the lone cleric at the shore.

Once a fire of reason and hope, he was now snuffed without notice. The cleric had lost his way in a terrible realization that he'd never find a way to light it back. So all he has now is to watch the daylight without a sun, seeing the light that still shines even in the crowds of apathetic clouds. Silence is what is left in him—the serene, meaningful silence.

"I'm lost...I'm lost..."

"I can't...I can't lose..."

"I was just...close..."

"Close to...enlightenment...close to...salvation...close to...happiness..."

"Why...? Why did I deserve this...? Why did I deserve to be forsaken in this way...? Fire Son, what have I done to receive this punishment...?"

Today was not the last day a fire has ever shone. It died long ago in the town of Gold Creek, but the cleric still lives in a false warmth the librarian had made through the wrap of a lie. But lies, it has never stood for long, and the librarian cannot endure such liability. They were all here, alive and well—but not all of them are happy.

He cried, but the tears were unnoticed by the winds. His name has become nothing but a call from his two so-called friends, whom he may have disdained anymore. There was no defiance in him, only acceptance and a stillness in the despair of nostalgia. There was nothing that the librarian could do to stop his cry or to take his attention.

"Cyrus..." Eve was saddened, hand slowly reaching for Cyrus. But Alpha stopped her mid-way with a confident grip on her shoulder.

"No. Let him be, outsider. That was his decision, and he deserve to pick that offer..."

"If he wanted to go home, let him dream of a boat and a second life. If he wanted to mourn his home, let him be in his loneliest hour."

"And if he wanted to be your friend, let him look back and see the figure he once called a friend. For a change remembers everything that happened in the past, yet still, we moved towards the horizon with our heads front."

The fate has been sealed, and the wanderers were strayed between. The librarian stays with the princess in the tower, now to build herself a new life through novelty and passion. The Tin Man? He has never been so different than before, but he has no change of heart to follow the cleric. For him, all that mattered was staying close in a place with so much wealth to control.

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The night returns in Alphiore—never have been so bright for the princess and the librarian. As they survived yet again another darkness, the novelty has claimed their hearts and minds at last. The librarian had never thought of herself in a life far better than Gold Creek with her new friends on the land.

"Woah! Hahaha! I love this place!" Eve muttered with her metal dress clanking by the winds. On the door of the tower, she was about to be guided by two guards of the Engine.

"Can't you believe it, Charger? This is a perfect place to start everything! Everything!"

"I know. Which is why I'm about to make a tin house yet again on the shore as we speak! Nothing beats the nostalgic view of the coast like the day you haven't met a noisy human before!" Charger was heading away into the coast with a pile of tins in his hands. For the horizon awaits his arrival in the shape of an old house.

"Hey! But I get it...just returned to the tower so we can ready for the dinner, okay? Alpha's making this for us?"

—————————————————————————————————

The librarian ascends to the tower, meeting the princess with her hat of wisdom on her head. Today was a tiring day, and the librarian wanted only the comfort of her new friend in the empty room in her tower. The outside was blowing with a tense gust, but she was warm and comforted with the princess in her reading room.

The room was peaceful, but books weren't sufficient to fill the shelves. The librarian felt disappointed with the view but was still comforted enough in the presence of the princess. Seeing her thick, royally armour fills her with a future to realize. Enlightenment lies here, waiting to be made into knowledge.

"Feeling comfortable now, outsider?" The princess sat beside her on a pillow chair together with the librarian. But now they are wearing something different—something that isn't metal anymore. It was cloth, and even the princess wore one. Even the princess still hides a secret within her tower that nobody else can find but the librarian.

"Please, you may call Eve now that we're friends here. Aren't we?"

"Oh, forgive me. Of course, we are an acquaintance by the wind of the newness."

"I'm so glad you have some clothes here. I mean, the metal sure works, but...I like this one more. A shirt and pants always do me a favor..."

"Yeah, forgive me for burning your clothes there. I had to stand firm with my idea for my people..." Alpha's hand was lying once again on Eve's shoulder.

From a distance, she could still see the cleric on the sand, pondering with sadness in his eyes to the ocean that didn't answer him back. He had swam over and over again, but he always returned soaked and cold. And still, he hasn't yet to look back on the sight of a bright town like Alphiore.

"Cyrus..." Eve perched from the window with a worried face. She has never been this worried before.

"Hey, don't worry about him. I'm sure he's a strong one to survive there on his own. If not, he wouldn't be here with you, right?" Alpha comforts her with her hands toiling on her hair.

"Yeah, I guess so. I just thought being a liar to him was a terrible idea, especially after I made a selfish choice to pick that boat and leave with him. He didn't like being selfish, after all..."

"Oh, but it's not your fault, Eve. You were helping him, after all. What else can he do to save the town that was swept to the end? He should think of himself first before others, because he would know that his followers would do the same."

The princess remains a comforting figure for the princess. And as the night goes, the librarian sat still in the tower, watching the moon floating with a chilly breeze as a drizzle soon fell. But despite that, the moon still shines bright from the distance, uncovered by the clouds.

"Yeah. He should've been..." Eve muttered.