The Aeon and the Star

-GoldenEagle

Author's Notes:Yay again! Another fairly good timed part came out. This one doesn't even talk about Cassiel and her group, since what's going on is MUCH more interesting. It's also a bit shorter than the last chapter, but hopefully still good. Oh, note on Playing God. I won't continue it till I've seen all of the series (which should be soon, thanks to a local Anime rental place), which I need to do to make the plot work out JUST right. Alright? Well, enjoy this chapter. It was rather fun to write, and once you read it, you'll all give me weird looks. Ok? Okay.

Last time... Evan and Cassiel take a small trip into the debris that was once Palas in search of answers to who attacked their homeland. Unfortunately, trouble seems like it may be brewing...

Chapter Eight

Clip... clip... clip... clip... The horse was slow, to say the least, trudging along. The North gate loomed farther ahead and Evadne rather felt its approach than saw it from her position. Her head was still pushed harshly into Evan's chest, pushed so tightly to it that she was afraid she was smothering herself to death. But there was no way of knowing. She felt empty. The scent of dead bodies, the sound of vultures bickering over pieces of meat, the slightest glance of burnt flesh, writhing with maggots... All of it ate her away, ate so deep into her system that she felt sick. Distanced and sick, her stomach writhing within her body. Part of her resented Evan for being so pigheaded, making her come. But she was grateful, as well. Grateful because she wasn't alone anymore.

Clip... Clip... Clip-clip... Clip-clip-clip-clip Evadne's eyes shot open at the same time that she felt Evan stiffen against her. The horse had picked up its pace, but the rhythm of its hooves on the stone roads seemed off... Her eyes widened. No, there wasn't the sound of just their mount's increasing pace, but that of another horse, as well. As she looked up, she noticed that a thick fog had settled in over the area, partially blinding them, and a breeze had picked up enough ash to hinder their sight as well. Evan was still stiff when another set of hoof beats set in, and another. They seemed to echo off of the tall walls of Palas's border, making it impossible to decipher from which direction they were coming from.

"Evan..."

"Shh!" Hissed the elite Privileged, his back still stiff. He stopped the horse, though it seemed to paw the ground restlessly, suddenly alert and edgy. "When I count to three, we're getting off the horse and running towards the wall. Keep your back to it." He said between clenched teeth. He felt her nod against his back. I should have worn my armor in... I'm at a disadvantage if they're trained soldiers... "One... Tw-"

Thunk

The horse reared back, screaming in pain. He kicked it in the sides, trying to get it to go forward, but the whites of its eyes shown bright and a slight foam dripped from its mouth. "Evan, the horse!" Cried Evadne. He risked a glance back and caught sight of a large arrow protruding from their mount's side, a few inches if front of Evadne's thigh. A gathered cry rang out, that of a group of men, and their horse reared back again. Evan lost his grip in his still half-turned position as the stallion twisted to the side. He fell backwards as it fell to its left, ramming into Evadne, pushing her out of the way of the falling animal, one final push from him as he tried to-

Pain, brilliant, splitting up his leg, flashing like liquid flame through his skull, blinding him in its intensity. He cried out in a high pitched scream, his face contorting into a grotesque mask.

"Evan!" He had forgotten about Evadne. He gathered all his self control, focusing on her as he squinted up. His teeth were bared like a wild animal's and his eyes had dilated so fully that all color but black and white seemed invisible in those orbs. The horse tried to rock itself back up before falling back down, too injured and exhausted to make it to its feet. This only caused the weight to reestablish itself back onto his injured left leg and he screamed out again. No, no, focus on her... Focus on Evadne. Focus, focus... His eyes opened again to look up at her in a pleading way. Her hair was in disarray around her head and she held her own grimace to mimic his, a look of detached pain that she felt for him. She also looked pale, afraid, almost frail.

"Evadne!" He managed to cry out with the same speed of the hands that came from the fog, clamping down harshly beneath her chin. She yelled out first in surprise, and then in fury. The Schezar thrashed in the man's arms, a rather underdressed man. A strong breeze rushed through, swirling some of the fog and ash away, displacing it. Evan could now see a group of men, maybe only about ten, gathered around on foot, their mounts further behind them. The good thing was that they looked like petty thieves, bandits. A group of murderers, perhaps, but not a militarized one. The bad news was that they were armed. Evan was guessing that their horses were probably Asturian and stolen from the desolated city. He should have seen it coming... He should have known there would be groups vandalizing what remained of Palas. And now, the two of them were in deep shit. Catylin would be so disappointed...

"What do we have here?" Asked the man holding Evadne's weakening form, though she was still blindly trying to kick and hit him. He sounded serious, much more so than the group of traders that she had run into before. This group even seemed to be much more sober... The demolished city seemed to have even ruined their high hopes for loot. There was a long pause as the man (seemingly the leader of the group) looked the two of them over. His hostility went down a notch before he spoke to his men again. "I'll bring the girl back to camp. Get the horse off of the boy. Put it out of its misery, for all I care. Bring the boy back to camp as well, unless there's any sign of him being too much trouble." With that, he began to drag Evadne along, who willingly came with him, figuring it was better to go along without a fight. This man didn't seem to have intentions too horrible for them, and he seemed almost gentle as he pulled her along by one arm as they moved farther from the north gate, further outside of the city. In fact, Evadne was so hopeful that they wouldn't harm them that she even imagined them treating any of Evan's wounds-

"Aw, shit!" It was a cry from one of the smaller men. Evadne turned around suddenly, as well as her holder. She turned so quickly, in fact, that the position and movement twisted her arm back in his grasp rather painfully. What she saw made her blood run cold. The horse had already been killed and laid in her view of Evan, so she couldn't make him out except for his two legs, one straight and the other in a funny angle. But it wasn't what little she could see of him that made her skin pale even more. It was that the men were gathered around a skinny, mousy man, who was barely holding up a weapon, looking at it as if it were a venomous snake. It was Evan's weapon, the symbol of Zaibach evident, even through the fog and ash. "He's a Zaibach, Carm! A mother fucking bastard, that's what he is!"

From there, things only got worse.

There was the pause of silence and she could feel the scowl on her holder's face rather than see it. And then he growled out, barely above a whisper, "Kill him. Kill him for what he's done to Palas. And make it slow." His voice carried not because of its volume, but because of its emotion.

"NO!!!!" Evadne's high-pitched scream was drowned out by the howl that escaped Evan's lips as the man above him plunged the sword down. The dead horse blocked her view of where the blade hit, but she could see a pool of blood quickly spreading beneath his body. His good leg curled in a convulsion, but the other one lay limp a crumpled, twitching a bit. His roars of pain weren't even human sounding any longer. Evadne felt all rational thoughts fade. There was blood and there was danger and there was an invitation for a fight. She rose to the challenge well.