Misbegotten Memories

Chapter 287

Esther checked on him two days later.  “Are you never planning to move again?”

Hector squinted up at her.  “How did you get in here?”

“A perk of being the building manager.”  Esther eyed his entire length.  “At least you’re making it to the bathroom now.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Hector, but if you thought there was a chance something might happen with you and Restoration, that is permanently off the table after all the puke and piss and shit she cleaned up.”

Even in the midst of his misery, Hector felt his cheeks heat.  “That is mortifying.”

“Yeah.  What ever made you want to try the Sandwich Technique again?”

“I got a point three gain from it.”

The woman whistled.  “That is something.  Still not worth it.”

“No.  Not even close,” he agreed.

“How long until you’ll be ready for a return to Aes?”

He sighed.  “Maybe another week.  Are you missing your cultivation heaven?”

“Of course I am!  Hector, they pay me to get stronger.”

“Don’t you have things to handle on Union Central?”

Esther sat down next to his head.  “Your… whatever Zara is to you… stole my business partner.  I still get a cut of sales from the cafe, but Wayne isn’t collaborating with me anymore.  He doesn’t have the time.”

“Wayne is the one who stole Zara,” Hector muttered.

“She isn’t the prize you make her out to be, you know?”

“What?”

“I’m just saying that she’s not a princess from a story.  You shouldn’t act like you lost out on a once in a lifetime opportunity.  There are a great many women in the world, Hector.”

With a great deal of effort, Hector sat up.  “I’m not hanging onto Zara.”

“Then what are you doing, my friend?  The rest of us have been watching the Hector show, wondering if you end up with Restoration or Isabel.  And the only conclusion I have been able to reach is that you’re not even in the game.  It’s Zara, right?”

Hector shook his head.  “Honestly?  I have too many things that need done.”

“You’re too busy to date one of the women you see every day?”  Esther raised a brow.  “Come now, Hector.  The opportunities were there for both of them.  It still could happen with Isabel – she didn’t have to clean up your messes.”

After a few moments of thought, he reclined on his bed once more.  “I’m not sure why you care about my love life, but I’m too tired to care at the moment.”

“Seriously?”

“Goodbye, Esther.”

The woman huffed.  “I’ll pay you to date Isabel.  It has to happen on Aes, though.”

“What?”

“I bet on Isabel.  Ajax had Restoration.”

“Esther….”

“You can’t blame me for striking while you’re vulnerable, Hector.  I have a bet to win.  Besides, it’s good advice.  You’ve been alone for too long and Isabel is a beautiful woman.”

Hector grunted.  “What about you?”

“Me?”

“You have been single for as long as I’ve known you.  Why is that?”  He asked the question and waited for an answer.  Then had to open an eye to make sure she hadn’t disappeared from the room.  “Esther?  Is something wrong?”

“No.”  She rubbed her face with both hands.  “Yes.  I don’t know, Hector.  If you’re actually stuck on Zara, then I have no right criticizing.  I’ve been infatuated with Matthias for years now and he is obviously not interested.”

Hector considered the combination of Esther and Matthias.  It didn’t make any sense to him.  One was boring and overly cautious – even if he was rich.  The other was personable and adventurous.  Maybe there could be an argument that opposites attract or people need to find someone to balance them out.  That hadn't worked out very well for him, though.  “I’m not seeing how the two of you would ever work, to be honest.”

“Why wouldn’t we work?  Please tell me, Hector, because I don’t see the problem.”

“I don’t see any common ground for the two of you to build a life together.  A relationship like that is going to run into problems.  Trust me, I’ve been there.”

Esther studied him.  “Yeah?  What happened?”

“I married her.  A couple decades later we separated.”

“Wait, wait, wait….  Are you still married?”

“Technically.”

“This explains your reluctance with Isabel.”

He could have let her assume that just to be done with the conversation.  “Not really.  I’ve been intimate with other women since then.”

Esther frowned.  “Did you have relationship problems with all of them or are you just refusing to commit while still bound to another woman?”

He smiled in spite of the ache in his soul.  “One was a woman I met in a rush, so there was no time for anything.  Another was a Strigoi who died soon after.  There was the attempt with Zara.  And….”

“Why did you stop?  Hector, the fact that you stopped so abruptly makes me think you were about to mention the most significant one.  Was it Isabel?”

Hector sighed.  “No.  The Sage of Foresight.”

“An Arahant Sage?  Where did you meet this one?  I don’t think there is anyone with that title in the Reconquest.”

Despite how long he’d ruminated upon the lost relationship with Evelyn, Hector had never told their full story to another person.  What began as a flippant remark about a strange younger woman asking him to save the world turned into a full narration of their interactions.  When he reached the end, Hector felt like he’d set down a heavy burden.

“So that’s the big one since my wife.  A temporary relationship forged when we thought the world was ending.  The two of us have nothing in common, just like you and Matthias.  I’m a stubborn workaholic and she’s a sarcastic bum.  I spent a lot of time pining for something that had no future.  Fortunately she sees the future – or potential futures – and knew enough to set me straight.”

Esther snorted a laugh.  “The two of you have nothing in common?  Hector, please.  Maybe you started off in different places, but you know what I just heard?  She’s obsessed with saving humanity in this never-ending war.  You know who that sounds a lot like?  Yeah.  Wherever the two of you started out, you’ve converged onto the same cause.”

“That’s not something unique to us.  How many millions of people are part of the Coalition or Reconquest right now?”

“Hector!  It doesn’t have to be unique.  The two of you have history, presumably chemistry, and definitely the common ground you claim is so important.  If you’re not going to help me win my bet by going after the beautiful Isabel who has totally been flirting with you, then you should get in touch with this Foresight.”

“Did you somehow miss the part where she isn’t interested in a future together?”

Esther flicked the top of his head.  “Have you never watched a movie?  You are one grand romantic gesture away from being back together.”

“Movie logic doesn’t always translate to real life, Esther.”

“It does if this woman has ever seen a romantic comedy.  Trust me on this one.”

“Damn it, Esther, I do not need you putting this garbage into my head.  The relationship was never the grand thing I imagined it to be and I’m not going to disrespect her by chasing when she isn’t interested.  I don’t even think I could get close to her, considering her status.”

“If that’s how it is, why not help me out with my bet?”  She batted her eyes.

“No.”

“So you’ll think about it?”

“No.”

“We can talk more about it later.  In other news, you should probably be aware that Siegfried asked Riley to marry him.”

Hector’s breath hitched.  “Crap.  What was the fallout?”

“No one knows for sure what her answer was, but Riley and Darius left Promise City and volunteered to delve the dungeon of Union City the next day and haven’t been back since.  Union City, Hector.  The most romantic place on the planet.  I never thought Darius had it in him, to be honest.”

He rubbed his temples to ease the headache that was growing to match his soul ache.  As much as he might hope that the saying ‘where there is smoke, there is fire’ would hold true, it seemed far more likely to him that his two friends were being anything but decisive.  He could picture them sitting in a fancy French style cafe, Darius insulting the wait staff while Riley offered apologetic smiles.

“Well, you’re no fun today, so I’ll be going.  Get better fast!”

There was only so much marinating in his own misery Hector could tolerate, so eventually he turned his attention to the matter before him.  “System?  Remember how I wanted you to respect the privacy of other people and not tell me things about them that aren’t public knowledge?”

You want me to make an exception.

“To my shame, I do.”

It was never my rule.  Darius and Riley departed Promise City fifteen days ago.  They spent five days in Union City, running the dungeon there a total of six times.  They recently arrived in Peninsula City, though they have yet to enter that dungeon.  They plan to continue on to Mountain City to complete a tour of the equatorial dungeons.

Hector squeezed his eyes shut to hide his shame.  “What else are they getting up to?”

Typical tourist behavior.  Riley has not cheated on her fiance.

That was a double kick to the gut.  “She said yes?  To Siegfried?”

Technically, she said ‘wow, I don’t know what to say’ and then didn’t correct Siegfried when he assumed his proposal accepted.  He is very confused about Riley disappearing on an impromptu dungeon tour with another man.

“Meanwhile I’m stuck in bed.”

Did you think advancing at the pace you set for yourself would be without consequences?  You are firmly in the middle levels now, where easy gains do not exist.  You’re already past where the vast majority of people stop.  Availability of cosmic energy may not be a bottleneck for you, but it still takes a lot of time and effort to improve yourself.  The scions of nobles can match your advantage through a wealth of elixirs and they still choose to take the slow path.

“I know.  That doesn’t change the fact that I have to grow stronger for the Reconquest.”

My Users have taken over defense of a second Stronghold.  The work of the Mitigation Squad is reducing injuries to negligible levels in the other ones.  Things on Aes are better than they have been in years, all due to your meddling.

Hector sighed.  “Maybe this was Evelyn’s plan for me.”

Perhaps.  Though I wonder if we over-analyze her behavior.  Every random encounter she has cannot be part of some greater plan.  The concerns that Persuasion used to justify that meeting were not based on nothing.  Every physiological marker I observed indicated that Foresight was under a great deal of stress – and had been for quite some time.  It would be reasonable for her handlers to perform preventative maintenance on such a potent tool.

“You don’t think Evelyn was trying to point me in a specific direction?  Even after seeing the vast improvements our introduction caused for the Reconquest?”

Again:  perhaps.  I cannot make up probabilities on the spot like movies depict me doing.

Hector chuckled at that.  The System didn’t have many pet peeves, but it hated how media portrayed its functioning.  It was always getting hacked by clever characters, then being used to magically invent probabilities for events without sufficient data to create a statistical model.  Movies simultaneously under- and over-estimated its capabilities.

“Well, whether it was intentional or not, I think the two of us are making miracles happen.”