It Rhymes with Fool

I am awake. I am shivering. I am sweating. I am afraid. I don’t think I will live much longer.

Today I began my day like any other: walking around the compound, seeking out friends to break the fast with. Instead of friends, I found a large number of people studiously avoiding me. I tried to figure out why, but, well… they were studiously avoiding me.

Finally I caught up with Jonas. He was very stone-faced. He didn’t look like he felt much like talking, so I just walked by his side. I noticed his shoulders relax a little, hardly visible, but still there. We walked to breakfast together, where we caught up with Saki, Ren, and Sir Nuttor. Ren and Sir Nuttor were in a quiet conversation, but upon seeing me Saki waved and smiled.

"Bishop, I hear you’re going to die on Wednesday!"

"Die?" I asked, "Is that why people are avoiding me? How am I going to die?"

"What, you don’t know? Yesterday Captain Amazing announced that he would be dueling you to the death on Wednesday. He figured that would give you enough time to cut all your ties. From the looks of it, most people are cutting the ties for you."

"Duel? I couldn’t possibly duel Captain Amazing. He’s a very powerful warrior and I don’t fight."

"Yeah. That’s why you’re going to die." (He said in his usual cheerful voice)

I sat down hard. and hardly ate any breakfast as I heard that he had declared that I had gone too far and that I had to be dealt with. Since he respected me as an equal, he would fight me as one. I insisted that I would have to decline, but they insisted that it wasn’t a request.

"So what are you going to do, Bishop?" Ren asked. He was looking at Jonas when he did, though.

"I guess… I’ll just have to try to talk him out of it."

"You’re banned from seeing him until the date of the duel. His men will make sure of that." Jonas finally said.

"Then I’ll try to talk him out of it on the day of the duel. There has to be a way to solve this in a non-violent way!"

"You could kill yourself," Saki suggested.

"I look down on suicide more than anything." I responded.

"You could run away." Saki suggested.

"Amazing’s goons’ll make sure you can’t do that." Jonas replied.

"You could… actually fight him." Saki tried again.

"I’m going to die on Wednesday."

"Very well," said Ren. "Bishop, you look faint. I suggest you drink some water and get a day of rest."

 

So here I am. Drinking water and… not feeling restful at all.