novelraw Chapter 479: A Grandfather and a Grandson, and Life’s Greatest Lesson [2]
Chapter 479: A Grandfather and a Grandson, and Life’s Greatest Lesson [2]
Chapter 479 – A Grandfather and a Grandson, and Life’s Greatest Lesson [2]
"Why and how are you here?"
Kaden managed to ask, sitting on a strangely carved wooden chair across from his grandfather, the old man himself leaned lazily over his reclining one.
The sudden question arched Raven’s almost hairless eyebrow, his eyes settling on the young man.
Kaden had taken hold of himself by now. No longer crying like a lost child. He sat a little straighter, his eyes not as hollow as before, as if the mere presence of someone from his bloodline had somehow soothed his scarred heart and mind.
Raven smiled, pleased, noticing the considerable Will of his grandson at first glance.
Then his face spasmed. A furious chorus of coughs gripped his throat, sending him stooped forward, spit and black blood flying from his mouth, hitting the floor just below Kaden’s feet.
Kaden jolted upright in shock.
Raven’s shaking finger jabbed wildly in a direction.
Dazed, Kaden snapped his head toward it and found a wooden jar of water.
His mind worked before his thoughts caught up. He was on his feet before he decided to be, body crying out in protest, but he bit his lip and kept moving.
Two big steps and he grabbed the jar under the hammering sound of his grandfather’s coughs, turned swiftly, and brought it to him.
"Here!" He rasped, his own voice rough with pain. "Drink!"
He ignored the puddle of sizzling black blood and spit beneath and helped Raven drink.
The old man gulped at it as if his life depended on it — which it did — the coughing slowing, then stopping.
"Ahh... ahhh..." He breathed heavily, chest heaving. "My boy," he rasped, looking at Kaden’s worried face with a small tired grin, "I will tell you why and how I am here once we are done."
"Rest first." Kaden whispered.
"Then the little time we have gets shorter." Raven shook his head stubbornly. "I can’t allow that, my boy."
He leaned back, breathing shallowly, and smiled. "Ah, yes... I forgot to ask. How is home?"
Kaden held his silence for a moment, clenched his jaw, then answered. "Home... home has changed, grandfather."
"Oh, I know that much. The Red Crown and the Three Silver Crown." He chuckled. "How could that useless bastard of a son come up with that? I didn’t raise him to be a thinker."
"Maybe it wasn’t him." Kaden tried to smile. He failed. "Maybe it’s Lady Ouroboros or Lady Heavens. Or even my mother."
"Quite impossible." Raven shook his head. "Your mother is the same breed as your father. They only think of battles."
"I’ve heard that’s the Warborn way." Kaden shrugged. "Aren’t you the same?"
"Unending battle wears you down in the long run." Raven answered, looking at his own hands. "And you only realise that when it’s far too late. When you can no longer go back, hide yourself in a small cave, write your poems and carve your wood. Because by then, little lad, you have accumulated far too many enemies to sleep peacefully. And so..."
He paused, looking at Kaden.
"...stopping is no longer a choice available to you."
Kaden shuddered at the word.
"It’s hard, isn’t it?" Raven added.
"I don’t follow, grandfather."
"Then let me be clear." He repositioned himself, sitting slightly straighter and facing Kaden directly. "Don’t you find it hard, Kaden? When you realise the choice you wanted so badly can no longer be chosen?"
"What if it still could be?" Kaden countered, clenching his fist. "What if I still have that option?"
"Ah. A trick. Or the illusion of a choice." Raven smiled sadly. "Sometimes, my boy, life gives you multiple options. Not out of mercy. But to confuse your mind and shatter your inner peace by testing your Self. But you know it well, don’t you? You already know there is only one real choice available."
He leaned forward slightly, as if trying to see Kaden’s features more clearly.
"That’s why you are so torn apart right now." He sighed. "You are trying to make your heart and mind at ease while reaching for a choice you already know you must not make."
"I will lose her if I don’t, grandfather." Kaden’s voice broke. Then, in a pitiful whisper, "I will lose her."
"And so you are trying not to lose her... by losing yourself?"
The words hit Kaden like a sword thrust. His eyes went wide, his mouth opening and closing uselessly.
His dull red eyes rested on Raven, and he saw the seriousness and strength hidden in those matching red eyes, unbefitting a man constantly watching death’s scythe hover an inch from his neck.
"W-what?" Kaden stammered, then shook his head wildly. "No, I will not—!"
"You know you will." Raven shook his head. "You are trying to do something that goes against your very existence, my boy. Your very Self. And if you do it, you will lose yourself in the process — becoming something your family, your friends, and those who love you will no longer recognise."
Kaden lowered his head slightly.
"And do you know the irony of all this?" Raven laughed breathlessly. "The likelihood of losing her is greater when you shatter yourself trying not to. I thought you knew that, or has your current trial blinded the wisdom you worked so hard to earn?"
He paused to catch his breath, his body shaking so much the chair creaked, face damp with sweat from the effort of talking. But he forced out a smile and pressed on.
"You will never keep someone you love by trying to be someone you are not."
Kaden’s stomach churned, cold as ice, finding no coherent argument to throw back at any of it.
In the end, he could only whimper out something small.
"Then what am I supposed to do?" He asked quietly. "Accept what she becomes even if I lose her?"
"That is what life is." Raven said. "Change. Everyone changes, even you, my boy. Some dramatically, some subtly, but we all do. Some changes come with great pain and consequences, but like most things in life, you accept, you learn, and you move forward if you don’t want to turn to dust. That’s the nature of it. And you—"
Cough! Cough!
"—cannot stop nature from doing its work."
Kaden looked at him with worry. Raven waved him off with a smile and continued.
"What you need to ask yourself is none of those questions. The question that must be answered is this, Kaden, my boy..." he narrowed his eyes at his grandson, "Are you willing to witness her change and still choose to be with her?"
Kaden listened, eyes dazed.
"Yes." Raven bared his cracked teeth. "Life is made of choices. And making choices comes with responsibility and burden. All of that is true. But that is also what makes us alive, don’t you think? That is what makes us ourselves and not anyone else. Our choices shape us. And I want you to be shaped by the right ones. Not the easy ones. The right ones."
"It is hard, as most things are. But there is always a silver lining."
He reached out his two wrinkled hands and grasped Kaden’s own. Febrile, yet strong in a way that made Kaden quietly awed.
They locked eyes, and Raven resumed slowly, as if afraid Kaden wouldn’t hear him, or rather, afraid of running out of strength before he finished.
"The challenge," he shook their joined hands softly, "is not to be unafraid of choosing. The challenge is making the choice that makes you stronger, not the one that turns you to dust."
"So tell me, my boy...what choice would make you stronger? Not the one you want. The one you need, in order to take one more step as a person."
Kaden opened his mouth.
"Keep it for now." Raven cut in, smiling, closing his eyes. "Answer at the end of five days. Now, my boy..."
He smiled shamelessly, scratching his bare chin.
"Grandpa needs to go to the bathroom."
Kaden’s face twisted at the sudden shift in atmosphere.
"Care to help me? I’m about to shit myself."
—End of Chapter 479—