When Simon finally stopped attacking and withdrew a few steps, his opponent sheathed his sword and sat down cross-legged across from the fire from him. He did likewise, but he did not sheathe his weapon. Instead, he left it on his lap and glared at the other man.
“Well?” he said after a mont, “I thought you wanted to talk.”
The other Simon smirked. “You don’t seem to be in a talking mood.”
“Sorry, I’m not usually in the mood to chat with monsters,” Simon spat.
“That’s not true at all,” the doppelgänger laughed. “You just had a really nice talk with our friend, the necromancer, as I recall. In fact, if he hadn’t moved to kill you, I seem to rember that you would have been happy to talk with him for another five or ten minutes. You’re happy to talk when you think you’ll get sothing out of it.”
The words burned because of how true they were, but Simon quickly countered, “Well, if that’s true, then maybe you have nothing to teach .”
“Maybe I don’t,” other Simon laughed. “We do love to learn things the hard way, don’t we.”
Simon was silent at that. He was torn between countering that they weren’t the sa person and asking how it was possible that they were. Truly, he didn’t know which one was the worse outco.
While he sat there scowling and speechless, his evil twin started to speak again. “Regardless, I ca only to ask you a question. First, though, I wanted to apologize for not being able to spare you that ugly ti with Freya. I truly would have if there was a way.”
“It wasn’t so bad,” Simon lied. “After a hundred years in the dark, what’s another sixty.”
“Well, you showed real restraint when you were freed, and if it makes you feel any better, she certainly got what was coming to her.” the doppelgänger said with a shrug.
“I don’t give a shit what happened to Freya. She made her choices, and I hope she rots in hell,” he answered, trying and failing to keep the anger completely out of his voice.
“She probably will,” his evil twin agreed, “When the Murani finish dissecting her, of course. They won’t let her die for a long ti. Not until they learn her secrets. In that way, she ended up rather like you did, though her cage is a bit nicer than a rotting, bricked-in casket.”
“She has no secrets to give,” Simon answered. “Even if that’s true, she has nothing to teach them.”
“And maybe soday the n that put her to those terrible questions will believe that,” the other Simon nodded, “But for now, all they can think of is how dearly they would love to have her powers. Perhaps one day, if they conquer Gravenstone, they’ll put it together, but you set them back a very long way on that front.”
“I don’t want to talk about that life,” Simon said, uncomfortable at the feelings of joy and sadness that swirled through him as he thought about his torntor suffering. “I doubt you taunting is the reason you ca here. You’ve done that already.”
“More than once,” his doppelgänger agreed with a nod. “No, I ca here to ask you a question. You want to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people, correct?”
“Always,” Simon answered, seizing the opportunity to give a clear answer. “The right thing has nothing to do with the right historical outco, no matter what Helades says.”
“I’m so relieved to hear you say that,” the doppelgänger said with a smile wide enough to make Simon feel like he’d fallen into so sort of trap. “If she had her way, this whole region would be wiped away, for the greater good, of course.”
“Are you talking about the war?” Simon asked. “Is that the point of these levels? She wants Ionia and Brin to lose and—”
“She wants just what she’s told us she wants,” the other Simon interrupted. “I don’t think she’s ever outright lied to us, though it feels that way sotis. Her version of peace is just… well, I don’t think that either of us would like it.”
“Do you know what she has planned then?” Simon asked, leaning forward as he was drawn into the conversation despite himself. “Do you know what’s on the last level?”
“Last level?” his doppelgänger laughed. “My dear Simon, you haven’t even made it halfway yet, and you already want to skip to the end? You’ve got so work to do before all that. Besides, that’s not the question we’ve been brought together tonight to discuss.”
“What is it you want to know?” Simon asked with a sigh.
“You know about the various Murani offensives. You’ve seen at least two yourself now over the decades, and—” the doppelgänger started.
“But they seem different,” Simon said. “Much different than the wars in the past that I’ve read about. We’ve… you’ve done sothing to change that, haven’t you?”
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“That’s not the question either,” his evil twin said, “Though you were certainly involved with any changes that might have affected the things you described. But that's—”
“I’ve never had a level that dealt with them anywhere,” Simon countered firmly.
“Oh? So, you know exactly where the vine-choked city and the giant spider are now? You know exactly what the ripple effects were when you hid that treasure on level two? Tell more about exactly how the future would have played out without your input.”
“Are you saying that getting rid of the demon seed caused the wars to—” Simon asked, but his doppelgänger cut him off.
“I think I’ve already shown you that no matter how much information I give you on what’s about to happen, it doesn’t help,” the doppelgänger sighed. “So now I want to know sothing. What would you do to stop the invasion from coming or even delay it? You know what it does to Ionia… even a strong Ionia where Ionar doesn’t fall—”
“Where you don’t burn it down!” Simon interrupted.
“Even a strong Ionia doesn’t hold without your direct intervention,” his doppelgänger continued. “Not unless you buy it more ti to prepare.”
“Of course,” Simon said. “Why do you think I’m here. I’m trying to help the nations of the region grow stronger so that when the fighting cos, they can—”
As he spoke, his doppelgänger reached across the dying fire to hand Simon a slip of folded parchnt. Inside was a crudely drawn map. The southern part was marked Bahd Pass and scattered through the mountains around it, and just to the north of it were three x’s.
“What’s this?” Simon asked.
“What do you think it is?” his doppelgänger countered.
“I think it's so bit of mischief,” Simon said, trying to decide if he should just throw it into the fire. “It's sothing you want to change to make everything worse.”
“Sothing like that,” the doppelgänger agreed. “You just said you’d always do the right thing and that you’d do anything to stop, or at least delay the war. Now we get to see which one you choose.”
“I— What do you an?” Simon asked. Confused. “They’re the sa thing. I stopped the zombies and got more funds so that Schwarzenbruck could defend itself. They’ll be in much better shape to—”
“True. In this case, those goals were precisely aligned,” his evil twin agreed. “But what about when they diverge?”
“But they can’t diverge. The right thing to do is—” Simon paused as he suddenly realized what the other him was getting at. “Those x’s… they’re zombies, aren’t they.”
“Well, them and whoever’s still left at the fort,” the doppelgänger said with a thin smile. In the weeks you were playing peacemaker and coin minter, one of the stragglers made it up to the fort and bit a few people before it was put down. They spread from there, and in ti, well… You know what happens next.”
“Well, that’s bullshit!” Simon said, rising. “If there really are zombies moving north, then we’ve… Then I’ve got to take them out.”
“You’re welco to,” his doppelgänger agreed, rising much slower before stretching. “I’ve got things to do anyway. I should be going soon. It’s just… the only reason that invasion ca so soon in your last life was because of how thoroughly you scrubbed the area. If you kill those three little x’s, then you’ll start that sa cycle all over again and plunge the entire area into war in a few years instead of a few decades.”
“But if I don’t—” Simon started.
“If you don’t, then tens of thousands will suffer and die until the northern peoples get the problem under control. It’s true,” his doppelgänger agreed as he turned away and started walking off into the night.
Simon was stunned by the revelation, and he stood there, squirming against the revelation, trying to figure out which way was up. His grip tightened on his sword, and for a mont, he considered trying to fight his evil twin a second ti but decided against it. Instead, he called out, “What is it I’m supposed to do?”
“That’s easy!” the Simon-shaped silhouette called back. “Just do the right thing!”
Then, he was gone, and Simon was left there twisting in the wind. He had his sword in his hand but no one to strike with it. His doppelgänger certainly didn’t deserve it. Maybe he did for other things, but not for this. This wasn’t sothing that Simon could reasonably bla on him. It was a problem of his own making. He hadn’t been thorough enough while he was worrying about the necromancer’s grimoire and trying to keep everyone from killing each other over a pile of gold, and now it was catching up to him.
“But if I had killed them all, then I would have just unlocked another wave of suffering later…” he said softly to himself as his mind chased itself in circles. After what had happened with Freya, and helping the girls escape, he knew that he should just give up on trying to save everyone. It truly wasn’t his problem.
All I need to do is make sure I commit no evil, and finish the pit, he tried to tell himself but those words rang hollow. It was what Helades wanted him to do, and worse, it was what his doppelgänger wanted him to do, and while he had a hard ti accepting the forr, he found accepting the later impossible.
Simon eventually laid down in his bedroll, but he didn’t sleep. Instead, he just kept going back and forth in an attempt to find a third option, but there was no alternative. If he didn’t intervene, tens of thousands would suffer and die from a spreading wave of undeath, and the course of history would be irrevocably changed, and if he did, then tens of thousands would suffer and die as the arc of history led to a war.
But there will always be war, he told himself. If that’s the case… if the war is inevitable, then isn’t it the right thing to do to stop the zombies? He’d certainly thought so a few years ago. That was the reason he’d co here. Despite the Oracle's attempt to show him that there was so good in letting the miniature zombie apocalypse play out, he’d co up here to stop it anyway. That had done so evil, too. The civil wars of Brin were likely to continue longer than they would have before.
“A war from the north might unify them at least,” he said softly, desperately trying to give himself permission to decide one way or the other.
“Soone always decides who lives and who dies,” he told himself in the early sleepless hours of the morning when he finally got up and packed his things by the light of the setting moon. “Does it really have to be ?”
It was a terrible riddle, and he was sure his doppelgänger ant to show him for a hypocrite. He was supposed to admit that the lives he was protecting down here were greater than the lives of the people to the north, past the mountains and the deserts. He was supposed to let them suffer so that his friends and their descendants could flourish. Simon couldn’t do that, though. To do that, even by inaction, would be to admit that Helades was right about the whole thing.
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