Wednesday has come around again and I’m happy to present this week’s flash fiction.
“They killed all the truths.” Antold’s words were flippantly stated as he scurried up the spiral staircase to the bookshelves lined the second floor of his sanctum.
Jase halted at the bottom steps. He raised his hands, frustrated, before letting them fall to his sides. After in the wastes and up Iberat’s slope he hadn’t expected Antold to block him.
He should have.
The truths, creatures which ruled before the first city stone was laid, had vanished. Antold was the last Truth student who lived. “I don’t believe you.” Unless Jase became one. If he’d believed the Truths gone, he would have stayed home. No he’d have fled somewhere as remote as Iberat’s peak.
Antold paused at the top and grinned at him. Jase rolled his eyes. “But I didn’t hide!”
Antold shrugged and ran his fingers over his books’ spines. “So why seek the Truth?”
“Because upon one Truth can more be found. And if we don’t…” Antold waved his hand vaguely toward the world. “If someone doesn’t, all will be lost.”
Antold pulled a book out and flipped through the pages. “Only one Truth remains.” He glanced up, eyes peering at Jose over the book.
“Then I will retrieve it. Protect it.” Antold gave him the same look as when he’d arrived. Calculated. Appraising. Invasive. Jase tucked an arm behind his back. Appraisal he didn’t fear.
Antold snapped his book closed. “Very well, but you won’t thank me. Truth can be ugly. Especially when scorned.”
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