Birthright Part 9: Epilogue
By Dave Church
The moon was rising in the sky. A cool damp breeze could be felt. Very little light could be seen, except that from lights that reflected off trees nearby. Crono had been sitting on the hill for 5 hours, pondering what had happened, and the memory that Bane had made him remember. Crono had almost been responsible for Lucca’s death, and he couldn’t believe that he had zoned out right in the middle of a raging battle.
Crono was not aware of the passage of time as he normally was, though. It felt like 2 minutes to him as another hour passed. It was almost midnight, and Crono just snapped back into reality. He looked up, realized what time it is, and decided that he should go home.
Until he saw a light behind him. He turned to see Phil, dressed in civilian’s clothing and holding a lantern. He was wearing a white vest over a green shirt and brown coloured pants. Crono could also make out another figure just right of Phil. He guessed it to be Marle, as who else would come see him this late at night?
Except Lucca…
Crono got up, smiled and tried to avoid their looks. “Well, I guess I’d better be going.”
Both Phil and Marle got in his way. Their intent was clear. They weren’t going to let him go yet. Phil opened his mouth, but Crono gestured and stopped him.
“Let me guess: You want to know what happened to me in the courtroom?”
Phil and Marle exchanged glances, and Marle took the initiative and nodded.
Crono sat down, and attempted to change the subject. “Is Lucca ok?”
Marle sat down beside him, and Phil took a seat by Marle.
“Fine,” Phil replied. “I’ve been with her for most of the evening.”
“I’ll bet you have,” Crono said under his breath, feeling just a tad irritable.
Marle heard it and slapped him. Phil gazed at Crono curiously.
“Ow!” Crono said.
Phil avoided a confrontation, and blurted, “Now, do you want to tell us what happened in there?”
“It was nothing,” Crono told him, but even Phil was not so naïve as to believe that. Knowing Crono for less than a week, he decided to push it.
“Hate to remind you, but someone almost got killed back there,” Phil declared.
Crono sighed, and decided to pour his heart out. “It was something I remembered about Bane, as if I’d seen him before this little incident.”
Marle and Phil nodded, waiting for him to continue.
“As I realized where I had seen him before, a painful memory came back to me.” Crono said, sorrow coming into his voice. “About my father’s death.”
Marle gasped, and Phil had a shocked expression on his face. “Did he kill…”
Crono shook his head. “No. It was more than that.”
Crono described to them, in detail, how Bane was involved in his father’s death….
.
(Year: 990 AD)
Crono was wandering in the forest in front of the castle. He was evading his father, who was trying to get him to help with a chore. Crono ran into the castle. Crono rubbed his eyes as he went in there, and could not believe what he was seeing.
He looked at the massive castle and couldn’t believe his eyes. “Whoa,” was all he could say. All the villagers’ stories could not do it justice. He could hear his father coming in behind him, so he ran down a set of stairs to the right. As he got to the bottom of the stairs, he saw a guard lying unconscious on the ground.
“Uh oh,” Crono said, realizing that he could be in more trouble than he would get from his father. He also saw a teenager looting some chests. The boy spotted Crono, and Crono started to run.
“You’re going no where, little boy,” said the kid. The kid grabbed Crono, who looked up at him. The kid had long orange hair, and a bag full of gold, probably taken from the treasury.
Crono’s father rushed down the stairs, and saw this scene. He pulled out a knife, and prepared to defend his son. “You let go of my boy, you swindler!” he yelled.
The teen put Crono in front of him, a human shield, as it were. The two circled for a few seconds, and then Crono’s father slashed high with his knife, giving the teen a gash down the left side of his face.
The teen yelped, and Crono squirmed from his grasp. The teen ran his hand over the cut, and looked at the blood that appeared on his hand. He glared at Crono’s father, and his neck pivoted to the right as he heard guards coming down the stairs. The teen threw the stolen gold to Crono’s dad, and fell to the floor.
They saw Crono’s dad with the gold, and the teen on the floor. They went to both sides of Crono’s dad and grabbed him. “You! thief! You’re under arrest!”
As they started to take his father out of the room, Crono yelled, “Wait! He didn’t do it!”
The guards stopped. “All right then,” one of them said. “Who was it?”
Crono opened his mouth to speak, but then the orange-haired teen, one hand over the gash, whispered to Crono, “If you talk, I will kill you.”
Crono, having been scared silent, kept his mouth shut.
The guards, holding Crono’s father, just waited for an answer.
As one guard inspected the merchandise that was “stolen” by Crono’s father, the other bent down on his knees to speak to Crono. “Son, unless you can tell us who it was, we’ll have to execute this man here.”
Crono wanted to say something, but was scared stiff by the teen’s threat.
The guard threw his hands up in despair, and went over to the teen. “Are you ok, son?” He said, inspecting the wound on his face.
“I tried to stop him, but the man was much stronger than me,” the teen said.
Crono’s father would not go easily. “Don’t listen to him! He stole it and tried to blame me!”
“Yes, like I would steal from our beloved kingdom,” the teen replied. The guard who was helping the kid seemed convinced.
The other guard, apparently done inspecting the stolen merchandise, said, “That is a lot of money. He’ll have to be executed immediately.” Crono was going to protest, but then he remembered what the teen said.
The guards took Crono’s father to the prison to await execution. One of them told the wounded teen, “Stay here. We’ll get someone to help you soon.”
The teen stood up after the guards left. He smiled an evil smile, one that Crono thought he would never forget. Crono tried to run out, but the teen grabbed him. He whispered,
“If you ever tell anyone of this, I will find out. And then, I’ll kill you.”
Young Crono ran from the room, terrified. He screamed as he ran out of the castle and all the way home.
.
“I don’t remember anything more until the execution,” Crono said, as a tear came from one eye. His voice was filled with sorrow.
Phil nodded, and swallowed. Marle’s eyes also showed sadness. She gave Crono an embrace, but he was oblivious to it. It was like in the courtroom, where he didn’t know what was going on at all.
.
“Bring out the prisoner!”
Crono didn’t dare look. His mother was at his side, having protested the execution as much as she could have. She was crying, and sobbing quite loudly.
The king announced who the prisoner was, and his charge. “Mr. Tinara, do you have any last words?”
“Yes. Is my son in the crowd?” he said, the noose around his neck.
The king looked out, and saw Crono running toward the stage where they were. “Is that him there?” he said.
“Yes!” Crono’s father said. “He can prove I’m innocent! He knows who did it!” Crono’s father motioned Crono up to the platform.
Crono came up there, and looked up at the king. The king bent down, and asked, “Can you really prove that your father is innocent?” Crono nodded.
Crono’s father looked at him expectantly.
“Can you tell us who did it?”
Crono looked for the teen that stole the gold in the crowd. He spotted the thief. Then the teen drew a sword, and made a cutting motion across his neck with the other hand, knowing that Crono would see it.
Crono tried to point his arm at the teen, but it shook wildly, remembering the thief’s threat.
The king and the crowd looked at him expectantly.
Crono pulled his arm away, not wanting to be killed.
His father looked down, knowing that the end was near. The king looked at Crono’s father, not too far away from death.
“Any more last words?” the king asked.
“Can I talk to my son for a minute?”
The king nodded. “Certainly.”
Crono ran over to his father, crying. “Why didn’t you tell him, Crono?”
Suddenly, Crono’s father saw the real thief in the crowd, and the sword in his hand. He put 2 and 2 together, and figured out why Crono was silent.
“Do me a favor, son,” he asked. Crono nodded, while sobbing and crying. His father hugged him for one last time.
“Make sure he gets what he deserves,” his father said, tears in his eyes while motioning toward the thief. Crono nodded, vowing that he would remember.
As the guards pushed his father off the platform, Crono looked away and ran.
.
‘I wouldn’t talk much at all after that,” Crono said, his face tear streaked, but obviously recovering from the emotional outpour. “I felt like it would betray my father’s memory.”
“You’re talking now,” Phil said, somewhat touched by Crono’s story.
Crono’s tone changed to one of irony. “Eventually, I forgot how he died. Defeating Lavos brought a new confidence to me.”
As the story had gone on, light returned to the outside world. It was almost dawn, and the trio was exhausted.
Phil got up. “It’s been fun talking to you, but I have to go.” He walked toward his home, off near Porre.
Marle had been silent the whole time. She pecked Crono on the check and got up.
“Thanks,” she said. She turned toward the castle. “I should go check on Lucca.” She headed toward the castle, near where Epoch was parked.
Crono also got up and yawned. He looked toward the sky. The sun was coming up, and he was tired. “Am I happy?” he asked, to no one in particular. Then he headed for home, tired out by the day’s events.
.
Elena Goran yawned in her bed. She stretched, and then got up. She put on some clothes, and went downstairs to make breakfast. As she was getting something out of the cabinet, she nodded.
She didn’t know why she did it, or what made her do it, but she did it.
.
Somewhere, the Entity looked over all of time. And he smiled(Or, whatever passed for a smile in his place), for all was well again. For now….
.
THE END