Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 36 - Sacrilege (Patreon)

“That…certainly is a puffy coat,” Elijah remarked when Sadie joined him in the hotel lobby.  They’d been in New York for two days, during which they’d seen all the sights.  It wasn’t all fun, though.  Elijah had also introduced her to the guild leaders, all of whom received her with the respect she was due.    

She had also gone shopping, and one of the results of that expedition was the subject of Elijah’s remark.  In his defense, the coat was exactly as he described – a black, thigh-length puffer jacket she’d been extremely excited to find.

“You have no fashion sense.  You know that, don’t you?” she responded with feigned haughtiness.  “This is Lululemon, and it’s exactly the coat I wore in my last year of college.”

She’d also bought a matching beanie, jeans, and a sweater to complete the look.  The cold weather gear was entirely unnecessary.  Even in the middle of winter, she could have walked around the city in a bathing suit and not suffered any ill effects.  Other than attention, which tended to make her uncomfortable, of course. 

By contrast, Elijah was wearing his normal clothes.  Just a simple, white linen shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a pair of dark trousers, the hem of which only reaching mid-calf.  He eschewed armor, and not just because they were in the middle of a city.  After searching the available stock – and even contacting Atticus for help – he’d discovered that any armor he could buy was less durable than his bare skin.  It would’ve been useless, save for a few extra attributes and maybe an underpowered trait that wouldn’t make any difference.

He had chosen to save his money.

“I’ll have you know that lots of people appreciate Hobbit chic,” he pointed out. 

“Not much of a hobbit anymore, are you?” she asked, glancing up at him.  “You’re almost six feet tall now.”

“I’m a growing boy,” he remarked with another grin. 

“Are we ready to leave?” she asked with a roll of her eyes.  “As much as I’ve enjoyed visiting, we do have other demands on our time.”

“The others can wait.”

“But the world can’t,” Sadie reminded him.  “We need to get this done, and there’s no sense in delaying more than necessary.”

Elijah sighed.  “You’re right.  I’d hoped to catch a show or something, though.  Can  you believe Broadway is still open?”

She shrugged, answering that she could believe it.  It had been nearly a decade since the world had changed, and it wasn’t surprising that people still clung to old forms of entertainment.  They had even visited a movie theater on their first day in the city.  The film they saw was just an old romantic comedy – Sadie’s idea – but it was enjoyable enough watching Matthew McConaughey try to force Kate Hudson to break up with him. 

And all the ensuing hijinks.  The whole scenario was ridiculous, but the leads were charismatic enough to carry it.  The result was a pleasant evening, which made Elijah wonder what might’ve happened to famous actors and other artists. 

Probably dead, if the rest of the world was any indication. 

They had also dined at Matin d’Or, and Sadie had been very impressed with their plethora of vegetarian options.  That had scored Elijah quite a few brownie points.

But now, it was time to go. 

Thankfully, aside from Sadie’s Dimensional Sack, they were traveling pretty light.  Most of what Elijah owned was stored either in his Arcane Loop or the Herbalist’s Satchel.  Unfortunately, he’d retired the Ghoul-Hide Satchel, mostly because Sadie said that wearing both made him look ridiculous.

He disagreed, but in the interest of keeping the peace, he’d left it behind in the grove.

They continued to chat as they headed toward the dock and took the ferry to the mainland.  After that, they followed the road west, then took the first northern route toward the mountains.  That track was far rougher, though Elijah was interested to find that it played host to small waystations every ten miles or so.  It reminded him of the structures he’d seen on the road connecting the Conclave Spires to Rubibi, though these weren’t nearly as sturdy.  Instead, they were just meant to be safe places for travelers to rest.

At Elijah’s insistence, they ventured away from the road on a few occasions, just to see the local wildlife.  During one such instance, Elijah caught sight of a massive structure in the distance.  Even from miles away, it was obviously abandoned, with one side having collapsed. 

“You want to go take a look?” he asked.

Sadie didn’t immediately answer, so he asked again.  “Oh.  Sorry.  I think I recognize that building.”

“Really?”

“That’s Fenway Park.”

“That doesn’t make sense.  I haven’t seen anything else from Boston around this area,” Elijah reasoned.

She shrugged.  “I don’t know how it got separated from the rest of the city, but I’m sure of it.  That’s Fenway.”

Elijah only had a passing interest in baseball, but even he knew a little bit about that famous stadium.  What surprised him was that Sadie recognized it, and to such a degree that she could identify it from miles away and surrounded by dense forest. 

So, he asked her about it.

“My grandfather loved baseball,” she answered.  “When I was young, he would take me to games in Taiwan.  We went to a few in Korea and Japan, too.  So, when I came to America for university, I made a habit of attending games.  And considering I went to Harvard…”

“Which is in Boston.”

“It is.  I sort of adopted the Red Sox as my team,” she admitted. 

“Do you want to swing by?”

She did, though if it had been any further off course, she probably would have supported returning to their journey.  Over the next half hour, they trekked across the wilderness, with the stadium looming ever larger with every step.  Along the way, they saw increasing evidence of former occupation.  Mostly buildings that had been reclaimed by nature, and to varying degrees.  However, there were a few that still stood strong, probably because they’d been used more recently. 

“Do you recognize any of this?” Elijah asked.

Sadie shook her head.  “This isn’t Boston.”

“Weird.”

Then, Elijah told Sadie about the lonely skyscraper he’d once found in the wilderness.  It wasn’t the only instance of the world’s transformation separating pieces of a city and sending them to the other side of the planet.  Considering they’d heard nothing of Boston’s survival, it didn’t bode well for the fate of that city.

Finally, they reached the stadium.

Or what was left of it.  The brick structure had survived mostly intact, though one side had collapsed almost entirely.  The pile of red bricks had mostly broken into thousands of much smaller pieces, and they were in turn covered by ice, snow, and dirt.  From the intact side hung fluttering, red-and-blue banners that the wind had torn to tatters.  According to Sadie, they were meant to commemorate the team’s success, from victories in the World Series to league championships. 

They entered through a half-blocked gate bordered in chipped green paint, finding themselves in a cavernous concrete corridor.  As they climbed the ramp, Elijah couldn’t help but notice the rusted pipes lining the narrow passage.  He tried to imagine what it must’ve looked like before, but it was difficult to see past the damp, dark hall. 

Soon enough, they reached the end of that corridor, where they saw overturned carts, rotted signage, and what was left of the concessions area. 

“I remember my first time here.  I bought a pretzel right there,” she said, pointing to a booth.  Now, it was just a mass of unrecognizable debris.  The only sign of what it had once been was the remnant of an aluminum counter.  “Dat came with me.  He made friends with the vendor, so I just left him here so I could watch the game.”

Elijah took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.  He well knew just how difficult it was to deal with memories of the world they’d left behind.  It was even worse when those memories included Dat.  He’d not deluded himself into believing that Sadie had left her grief behind.  She pretended otherwise, but Elijah knew that the loss remained with her.

With him, too.  Dat had been his friend as well, even if he could never have been as close to the man as Sadie.

Finally, they found their way to the stands. 

The first thing Elijah noticed was the giant green wall in left field, which even he knew had been referred to as the Green Monster.  Some of that green façade had fallen, exposing the steel frame and system of catwalks and ladders inside.  The rest of the field was overgrown, though in the middle of winter, the vegetation wasn’t as thick as it would’ve been during other seasons. 

Still, it barely even looked like a baseball field.  The only indication of what it had once been were a few bare patches of red dirt, though they’d clearly shrunk considerably since they were in use.  It wouldn’t be long before nature completely reclaimed the field. 

And judging by the creeping vines climbing the rest of the stadium’s walls, it wouldn’t take much longer for the entire structure to fall. 

They sat in a pair of seats behind the first-base side dugout.  For a while, neither said anything.  Sadie was lost in her memories, while Elijah knew better than to interrupt. 

Finally, after a few minutes, she sighed, “I miss baseball.”

“What do you miss about it?” he asked.

“The game itself,” she answered.  “When I was very young, I dreamed of playing.  I even begged my father to allow me to join one of the children’s leagues in Hong Kong.  It is not a popular sport in China, so he only saw it as a child’s fancy.  And when I insisted, he reminded me that girls didn’t play baseball.”

Alyssa had dealt with similar issues, though she’d never really asked for permission for anything.  If she wanted to do something, she just did it.  If it turned out to be a mistake or against the rules, then she would apologize and take her punishment. 

As it turned out, Sadie had a similar attitude, and at some point, she managed to acquire a baseball glove and a ball.  That foray into the sport had ended when her father found her throwing the ball against the wall and fielding the carom. 

“He forbade me from ever doing it again.  That was when he enrolled me in martial arts,” she explained.  “I didn’t have the temerity to go against his wishes.”  She shook her head.  “I suppose I should thank him.  Without my training, I would not have survived.

“I never lost my taste for the sport, though,” she said.  “My grandfather never told my parents when we went to games.  It was our little secret.”

Elijah struggled with Sadie’s image of Song Tianwei.  The man was backwards, frustrating, and infuriatingly self-serving.  However, according to Sadie’s memories, the man had always doted on his granddaughter.  He clearly loved her.

“I also miss the atmosphere.  Watching a game on television is not nearly the same as being in the stands,” she went on.  “Dat liked it because it gave him an excuse to eat and drink and make new friends.”

“That sounds like him,” Elijah said with a small smile.

And it did, though the Dat Elijah knew was not the same man Sadie had befriended so long ago.  By the time Elijah had met him, Dat had experienced the trauma of having the love of his life ripped away from him.  He’d been a deeply depressed man who’d masked the darkness with friendliness and affability.

In the end, the darkness had won.

As they sat there, Sadie maintained a grip on his hand and leaned close.  They remained in those seats until the sun set over what was left of the Green Monster. 

“We should stay here tonight,” he said, pushing himself to his feet.  He pulled Sadie up after him.  “What would you say about camping on the infield?”

“That…that would be nice.”

After that, they climbed atop the dugout, then leaped onto the field.  Soon enough, Elijah had deployed his tent while Sadie made a fire.  Elijah had slept in some truly extraordinary places over the  years, but few were as surreal as camping in the center of a major league baseball stadium.

He said as much to Sadie, then asked, “Did you ever think you’d do anything like this?”

Sitting next to him and staring at the fire, she responded, “No.  My grandfather would call it sacrilege.”

“Well, it’s a good thing he’s not here.”

She leaned closer, and he put his arm around her shoulders. 

Elijah added, “For more reasons than one.  He doesn’t like me much.”

She let out a small chuckle.  “That’s an understatement.”

“Any chance he’d ever get over that?”

“About as much of a chance as you being respectful to him,” she countered. 

“Oh.  So, not high.”

“It wouldn’t kill you, you know.  He’s not as bad as you think he is.”

“I’ll tell you what – once we get finished with the Primal Realms, I’ll make every effort to endear myself to him.  I’ll be nice and respectful,” Elijah promised.

“Even to Nico?”

“Not a chance.”

She sighed.  “Fair enough.”

And like that, they remained in one another’s arms until, at last, they retired for the night.