THE WIEKTS

Hart Wiekt didn’t know how much longer he should lay there on the dirty road in the border of Elesia and Proscris and in between the fast-leaving life and the waiting death. He didn’t even know how long he had stayed there, not moving, not doing anything, except waiting for the life to drain from inside of him. He had long ago forsaken the chance of coming home alive. Now, as he lay there, barely breathing, he started to think that death was a welcomed opportunity. However, the rain that had fallen so hard a moment ago suddenly stopped and the sky cleared. It was a complete mockery to the state he was in. For the sky to be so bright and blue while his life was bleak and grey and starting to leave him, it was the final straw that triggered his tears to flow. It was a hopeful gesture from every deity up there, but it was what crushed his hope. It all seemed impossible to even think of. The odds were against him. He knew his body. There was a very slim chance of his battered body survived the wounds that the war brought upon it. In the end, he knew that there was no chance after all.

The following days after the big announcement from his father were eerily quiet. No shouting, no protestations, no complains whatsoever from Elydite. Deep inside, Hart knew that the war that his father mentioned as his way to glory would bring nothing except defeat and shame. He also knew that he would not come out unscathed from it. He was not a trained soldier. He made weapons, yes that was true, but that was it. He only made them, but he never used them in battle or even for simple practice. It was more of his brother’s expertise. But Thoar was still 16. He would never be allowed to join the King in this upcoming war. Hart was the oldest and as the oldest son of this family, it was his duty to bring honor and glory to this family, just like what his father said. This war would be cruel and bloody but this was his chance to bring the name of the Wiekt family even higher than before.

“Elydite…” called Hart softly. His wife didn’t respond.

This was the last day in the period given by the King for all of the men in his kingdom to report to the nearest post. They must report in order to fulfill their duty as a citizen of Proscris. They must report in order to join the King’s army. This would be the day where Hart finally decided what he was going to do. Seeing the odds, this would also be the last day that Hart would be able to see his wife for an undetermined period of time. On this pivotal morning, they were going on their daily routines just like any other day. As if everything was normal. Everything was the same. They were bustling around their small kitchen, preparing things for breakfast and for work. The fire roaring, outside the birds were chirping happily, as if absolutely nothing was happening.

“Elydite, please, talk to me,” pleaded Hart. He was preparing to go to work for probably the last time, and Elydite was preparing his breakfast for probably the last time. But his wife wouldn’t talk to him.

“Elydite, please,” said Hart. This time, he stopped her from setting up the table for their breakfast. He grabbed her hands and tried his best to look at her eyes. “This is the last day that we’ll meet.”

She pinned him with a sharp look. She wrenched her hands out of his grasp and turned back. Inhaling and exhaling, trying desperately to calm herself down to no avail. She started to sob despite her best effort to stop herself from losing herself.

“What would you like me to say?” asked Elydite.

“Nothing. Anything,” answered Hart.

“No matter what I said, you will always follow your father.”

Hart sighed. “Elydite…” he also had this debate inside his mind. He had just started to love his wife. Even though they didn’t get married because of love, but now, he was starting to be really content with her, and he was beginning to love her. But he’d followed his father his whole life. It was not easy to suddenly stop doing so. And there were also the social repercussions that his family would suffer from his actions. It was much more complicated than it looked. He put his hand on his face and said, “It’s complicated.”

“What’s so complicated about this?” asked Elydite. She turned to face Hart, her tone rising fast. “I’m not saying that your father is wrong all the time. God knows that making us marry each other was one of the best decisions he has ever made. I’m just asking you to keep yourself from getting slaughtered. Is that too much to ask?”

She was crying now. Hart felt like he was punched on the gut by her words, because deep down inside, he knew that this war would be nothing but a slaughter. Proscris had too few men and Elesia had too many.

“Elydite, I can’t do that, you know that,” said Hart.

“Can’t or won’t? There’s a difference there, Hart.”

“I can’t, Elydite,” said Hart, exasperated. He sighed and sat down on the chair nearest to him. He put his both his hands on the table and slumped. “I can’t. I can’t.”

“Can’t? Why can’t you?” asked Elydite desperately. She sat on the chair beside her husband, her face on her hands.

“If I do not follow the order from the King, I can be named a traitor to the kingdom. The punishment for a traitor is death. It’s a no win situation, you know that.”

“No, I don’t know that. You don’t know that. You don’t know for a hundred percent that you will be named a traitor to the kingdom. You don’t know that.”

“But the talks! There will be talks, Elydite. Talks about my cowardice. Talks about our family. Do you want our future children to have to bear that kind of shame?”

“No!” shouted Elydite. She stood up and paced around the kitchen. “I don’t want that!” She stopped her pacing and kneeled in front of her husband. This time, she was the one who take his hands on hers. Her voice soften. “No, I don’t want that.”

“Then you understand why I —“

“No,” cut Elydite. “I don’t want that. I only want my husband to stay alive so that at least my husband will be there to see our future children.”

“Elydite…” begged Hart.

“Hart, please.”

Hart stayed silent.

“Just…think about it. You have the rest of today to think about it,” pleaded Elydite. She stood up and wiped her teary face and continued to prepare their breakfast.

Hart looked at her back quietly. He sighed and continued to prepare his things needed for work. There was just nothing to think about.

“CONGRATULATIONS!”

The shouts of celebration welcomed him when he entered his working place. Hart looked at Bern, his mentor, and the other apprentices with a confused look in his face. He stood there in the middle of the room trying to make sense of what just happened.

“What brought this on?” asked Hart.

Bern gave him his famous belly laugh and a pat on the back. “I heard from your father that you were to serve the King as a member of his army,” said Bern. He smiled, ensconced him in a bear hug and then proudly continued, “Congratulations, Hart. You’ll do your family proud.”

Hart reluctantly hugged his mentor back. A lump was forming in his throat. He swallowed and tried his best to smile and act as if he was happy to be given this opportunity. Right after Bern let him go, the other apprentices — his friends — started to congratulate him and give him a pat on the back, just like when they congratulated him for his marriage. His stomach lurched with the realization that when — because it was never an ‘if’ — he went to join the King’s army in this war, he would never finished his apprenticeship. He would never be a blacksmith. He would never reach his dream. He swallowed another lump forming in his throat.

“Thank you.” He said quietly. He gave them all a bitter smile and proceeded to start working. At least, the pounding of the metal would give him a small reprieve from all these mass of information and duties that he had to fulfill. But apparently, fate had another plan for him, because Bern stopped him from opening his bag.

“Stop.” Bern said. “You don’t have to do any work today. You’ll leave tomorrow, right?”

Hart couldn’t give him a straight answer, not when his heart and his mind were still in conflict with each other. So he just smiled weakly, hoping that Bern would take it as a yes. Fortunately, Bern did.

“Come now. Gather your things. You are excused from work for today, Hart. Go enjoy this day with your friends and families,” said Bern dismissing him from work.

Hart did as he was told and started to put his things back into his bag. With a small smile, he left. He was planning to head home, but he felt like he needed to sort himself out first, so he decided to walk towards the nearest tavern. While he was walking, he saw a group of housewives gathering in front of a house. They were huddling together, talking in a hushed voice. As he went nearer, he could hear snippets of their conversation. Apparently, they were talking about the upcoming war.

“It’s barbaric, but it’s a great chance for our family to secure a position in the King’s army,” said one woman nearest to him.

“That’s true. My husband said the same thing. I don’t understand politics, but apparently, the King is currently looking for new soldiers and knights,” said another woman.

As Hart went on, the conversation dulled in intensity. Now, he could only hear some words and not a full sentence.

“If my son…war…family…proud…” another woman said.

“…pride…name…” another woman added.

Hart kept on walking. Their conversation was in his mind the whole way. He kept on thinking about his choices. He scoffed right after he thought of his choices. I don’t really have any choices, do I?

He stopped at the entrance to the tavern and was entering the tavern through the door when he heard his name.

“Hart!”

He looked back and he saw his father there. He cringed inwardly. He was trying to get away from his father and his wife, the two opposing poles in his life, and here he was, meeting his father. Reluctantly, he greeted him. He seemed to be doing that these days, being reluctant.

“Father.”

“What are you doing here, Hart?” asked Arn Wiekt. His voice was as cold as ice itself. Again, Hart cringed inwardly, but he decided to tell the truth and all of his doubts to his father. He believed that while his father seemed very keen on sending him to this war as a soldier representing the Wiekts, but he wouldn’t be so cruel as to force him to if he stated his reasons well. His father was a reasonable man, he was sure of that. If Hart could make him see reasons, then he wouldn’t force him to go, even though there would surely be repercussions afterwards.

“Father, I have to talk to you about this.” Hart started.

“What is there to talk about, Hart? And why are you here instead of going to the post to enlist yourself? I thought I made this clear days ago that this is our chance to get the glory we deserved.”

“Yes, but Father —“

“You seemed to understand me the last time we were talking about this, Hart. I thought you had enlisted yourself immediately after. I already told my friends and workers that you’re going to war in the name of our family and King. So, what in the name of god are you doing here?!” Arn’s voice started to rise in volume.

“Father, please.”

Arn Wiekt might be a very strict man, but he was extremely aware of the people’s views about him and his family. He would never embarrass himself or his family’s name. And so, realizing that the people around them started to look at them because of his raised voice, he gritted his teeth and said, “Let’s talk about this at home. You will not embarrass me further with your stunt.”

“But —“

“I said, home. Now,” said Arn still with gritted teeth.

Hart could only follow his father. That time, he felt like he was a child again, powerless against his father’s decision. He walked behind his father towards his childhood home.

Soon, they arrived at the house that was Arn’s home. Just after they reached the front porch, Arn marched inside and left Hart to follow him. Hart did. His mother was shocked to see him and his father at the house because it was not something that happens often. They were supposed to be at work at this time of the day. She was cooking, judging by the stain of flour on her hands. Baking for dinner, thought Hart. He was sure that there would be a feast tonight. To celebrate him going to war in the King’s army. He could see their proud faces while seeing him off. He was still in doubt whether or not he should go to the capital and join this war, but if he wanted to be honest with himself, he actually didn’t want to go. Even though every people in Proscris thought that it was the right thing to do and that it would bring honor to the family name, deep inside, more than anything else, he wanted to live. He was still young. He could achieve many things. And he wanted to see his children growing up. Seeing his mother’s proud face, his parents’ lives together, he felt as if he was punched in the gut. He realized that he wanted that. He wanted what they had. He wanted to be the father who would be able to see his children grew. And he wanted to grow old with his lovely wife. He wanted it all. He wanted to really live.

Now that he had this little revelation, he was determined to fight for his fate and life. He would talk sense into his father and he would go back to Elydite with good news. They would love happily until they grew old and grey. Yes. Yes, that was what he would do. So, in determined steps, he followed his father and went inside the house. He stood in front of his father.

“Father —,“ began Hart.

“What were you thinking?!” shouted Arn.

Hart was confused. His father was enraged. He never saw him this angry and furious towards anybody. “What?”

“You fooled me into thinking that you enlisted yourself days ago. You fooled me! You fooled your own father. Bah! Do you know how embarrassed I am? To find out that you haven’t even report to the post from the guards there, and to find out that you haven’t bothered to let me know about it before I told everyone that you are going to the capital!”

Hart was shocked. How did his father come to such conclusion? It was not his fault that his father thought that he was going to follow his orders right away. It was definitely not his fault that his father told everyone he knew about this. He was dying to speak to his father about what he was feeling, but he found himself frozen to the spot. The same lump in his throat was back and he found himself incapable of speaking. Years and years of cowering before his father’s method of disciplining his children went back full force. He found himself spouting these reasons and protests towards his father. He found himself shouting and screaming his innocence. Outside, he was doing nothing except standing frozen on the spot. His father kept on shouting at him, speaking about how he had raised him to be the man that he was today and how he failed to repay that. His mother was sobbing in the background. Sobbing for him or his father, he was not sure.

“You are my first son. My hope for this family to be better. I have followed your wishes to become a blacksmith by getting you an apprenticeship with Bern. I have chosen a perfect wife for you. I have given you everything. Everything! Now, I asked you to do this and you did this stunt of fooling me and the rest of the town!” Arn yelled while pacing around the room.

Hart was only half listening. He felt that inside him, anger started to surge because of his father’s words. It was unfair and his mind knew that. His anger started to boil.

“You will bring disgrace towards this family! No, I will not let that happen. You will not be the one that bring this family down. You will go to that post, report, and enlist right away. If you don’t do that, then don’t call yourself a Wiekt,” ordered his father.

Hart snapped. Something inside him yelled at him to fight back. To prove to his father that he was right. To prove to him that nothing good would come from this. To prove to his father that he would never get the glory that he dreamed of. So, Hart Wiekt looked straight at his father’s eyes and said the one word that would change his life forever.

“Fine.”