Chapter -44: The Men With Clipped Wings
High atop the twin peaks of Canofloe and Cryofloe, Magmankey is neck deep in the water, letting out a low-energy sigh.
His buddy and brother Chillo is beside him paddling his feet upon the surface. He leans over to ask, "Isn't this around the time you start another battle?"
"Eh, oh yeah, you're right," He was starting to get out but then decided to sink further in, "Bleh, y'know, maybe tomorrow."
"Haaaa..." Chillo laid on his back and started bobbing like a rocking chair.
The sky just felt a little more...dark today.
Magmankey growled and growled and then growled some more until he had to clamp his teeth down and mumble, "That damn kid..."
Halfway around the world, the winds of Arc Hurricanos were going through a little turbulence. A lot of people were staying home and the general mood of the city was distressful.
None were hit harder by this than the Stratos household. Darnia had been spending the past few days tending to his wife in bed. She was coughing more and more and even her attempts at bravery felt more pitiful than inspiring.
It was time for breakfast, and he brought the meals up on a stone tray so they could sit and eat together.
There was a third plate on the tray, just as there had been the prior days. The two looked at it with a long gaze and then exchanged saddened looks with each other.
"Nothing..." Darnia sighed.
"He'll come back to us." Misty said, her voice hoarse from all the coughing.
"You have to understand the state he was in, Misty. His eyes were-"
"I don't WANT to understand," She raised her voice, and began to break into tears as her voice fought viciously against what was being implied, "He's our SON. H-He's still a good boy...!"
Her fork rattled in her hand and then fell out onto the floor, upon which she squeezed her hand into a fist and hit her leg with the force of a feather, "Why won't he come back to us, Darnia...?"
The loss of her perseverance made him want to cry as well, and all he could do was close his eyes and whisper, "I wish I had the answers..."
He then leaned in to let her hug him.
Upon the highest point in all the land, Twinbeak gazed up at the discordant skies and then took a deep breath, taking flight to survey the lands once more...
In the forest, the leaves rustled. Ividae was unsettled and Carmine was at their side, applying a medicinal gel to its body to no effect.
His expression was one of a man speculating and disturbed at the same time. His concentration was so deep that the moment the leaves rustled a different way, he sprung to face the noise with his body on edge.
It was only Brine. Having just vaulted over a log, he broke into a stroll with his hands raised and his own body tense with sweat.
"E-Easy, chum. Just me."
Once they were together, Carmine lowered his hand and the fatigue under his eyes became very clear.
Brine bit his teeth down and following a brief fling with the awkwardness in the air, he cut right to the point, "...No guesses as to what I'm doin' here."
"You too?" Carmine muttered.
"Depends on whatcha mean by that."
"..." Carmine closed his eyes and sighed, "He tried to 'fix' the forest, mumbling something over and over again under his breath like he was caught in a trance."
"The damage he could have caused was too much for Ividae to bear, so he forced him to leave."
"He walked out without saying another word. He didn't look angry, or sad, just...lost. Confused...Alone."
Carmine began to curl his trembling fingers and then stood up, tucking both hands behind his back, "I have been one of his closest friends, but the way he wandered past me...It was like I didn't exist anymore."
Brine crossed his arms and muttered, "That musta been the same time he wandered out onto the beach...Scared the kelp outta everyone the way he looked."
"I tried to get a hold of him but the moment I got close he flew off somewhere else."
Following a brief moment to let their thoughts sink in, Brine looked to his friend and wondered, "...What're we supposed ta do?"
Carmine's eyes squirmed and he rose towards him with a brief, piercing gaze, "Nothing...! We're powerless to help our friend...!"
Brine got goosebumps and Carmine felt immediate regret, which was eased by Ividae nuzzling its wooden snout against his cheek.
Carmine petted him on the nose.
Brine then looked up towards the sky and wondered, "Damn it Sarajin, who put ya under the water like this...?"
…
Over in Pulsa Minoria, Valic has been fiddling away at scrap for a few hours, trying to make something comprehensible out of these abstract designs he's wound up with.
One part removed, another replacing it, all of it coming crashing down into another pile. He pushed it off to the side with the back of his head and let out a heavy sigh.
Pitori walked over and scanned the piles of scrap, wondering, "You feeling alright, teacher?"
"Leave me alone, I'm trying to find some inspiration." He replied with his face tensed up.
"I can help?" Pitori offered in earnest.
"No. No you can't..." Valic stood and looked up through the glass ceiling towards the sky above, "I need a particular type of help..."
On the outskirts of Oreore, the Sage Stonestein was in the middle of exploring ruins with Ezekiel's aid.
This place had an underground area, so required the use of glowstones to get around. Fortunately, Stonestein's shield made for an effective holder for small stones, and the gleam amplified the light.
They weren't finding much in the way of progress, just some dusty tablets and a pot full of old clothes.
As they were about to wrap up their time here, Stonestein looked around and briefly saw a shadow of an old memory.
A young boy who he had helped give water to, his eyes so bright with hope.
He pondered just what became of those eyes...
"Nothing 'ere." Ezekiel noted, his voice lacking the usual "Oomph".
Stonestein pulled himself up and collected his shield off the nearby wall. Ezekiel then noted, "Yer mind seems elsewhere."
"As is yours."
"...Bet we're thinkin' the same thing." Ezekiel muttered.
Stonestein nodded, and Ezekiel told him, "It's been...too quiet. Y'know. Without him."
He then scratched the back of his head and let out a series of quiet growls, "I...I was the one who complained he wasn't doing enough."
"It is not your fault." Stonestein assured him.
Ezekiel laughed in a forceful manner, "Sure don't feel that way."
Meanwhile, all the way back at the ravine, Cecilia sat at home drinking a specially made Oreore beer. She was a little pink in the cheeks and hung her head against the table, staring out towards the memory of a recent sight she saw.
On her way to investigate Cryofloe, she had found Sarajin sitting precariously off a stone formation.
His eyes had hollowed out, pitch black like a beast of horror.
The rest of him barely resembled a man.
"You finally broke your oath. Now you get why war can't be stopped..."
Her eyes began to narrow in a brief moment of lucidity and she mumbled a curse upon herself, "Why am I happy about this...?"
But no one, absolutely no one, was suffering from the shift in mood worse than Auris.
She saw this coming, she had wished for him to reconsider going...But her voice was no longer enough to reach his heart.
Now a boy was without his father.
And she was worried that he had lost him forever.
How could she possibly keep a brave face to her son every night that she tucks him into bed and feeds him his meals?
She couldn't. That was the truth.
And even the youngest of children can tell when there is something wrong...
Zeno ended up asking her "When is dad coming home?" over the course of these last few days and every time she looked him in the eyes and said "Soon."
But today he was more persistent, egging her on while she made lunch, "Mom, I miss dad, when is he coming back?"
She was shaky, dumping excess spices into the meal. Her eyes were left in a trance facing forward, horrified by the last spoken words they shared together.
And as the echo of his voice mixed with that of her son begging for comfort, her heart was no longer able to hold on...
She squeezed the pan until the metal handle crumpled and then lashed her face around shouting, "I don't know! So quit...ASKING!"
Her son recoiled and started trembling and whimpering until tears were loosened.
She dropped her pan to the ground and fell on her knees to hold his shoulders and look at him with eyes full of regret.
This was the most she could offer, so damned that she couldn't even offer him the full warmth of her hug.
"He'll come home. Don't cry. He'll come home, I-I swear he will..."
The tension exhausted her boy so he had to skip this meal and take a nap. After she put him to rest, an ill-timed knock came from the front door, tapping away with a sense of urgency.
She wanted to believe...
But that didn't feel like him in the slightest.
She slowly descended to the door and pulled back the cloth.
And from there the politeness of her company was revealed to be a ruse, as Justek barged right into the house and towered over her wearing an utterly disdainful look in his eyes.
"How could you let him go in that state?" He said with such haste that he was struggling to catch his breath afterwards.
Auris stumbled back and then put down her feet, glaring at him back, "What are you talking about? How...H-How would you know what happened?"
Justek froze and then planted his staff on the ground, looking down upon her with a little forced joy over having to present his argument to someone like her, "A good friend can sense when something's amiss. I'd expect a wife to be even better at it."
Auris bit her teeth and tried not to raise her voice too much in retaliation, "I am not in the mood for this unneeded aggression, Justek, I TRIED, but he refused to listen to me."
Justek furrowed his brows and breathed deep through his nostrils to sigh, "You should have tried harder...!"
"And you would have done better?!"
"I CAN'T...!" Justek roared, stamping his feet against the ground to push closer towards her.
After letting the echoes of his voice go silent, he glared down and mumbled, "That is why you won, because you are supposed to be the sole person who could reign in his stubbornness."
"But if you can't even manage THAT much, then..." He stopped, eyes heavy with regret and his sigh even heavier to match.
He then stood upright and shook his head, casting a loose gaze towards the side, "Look at us...Squabbling like we're prepubescent souls again."
Auris tucked her arms under her chest and was weak in the eyes, her voice barely audible and cracking at every syllable, "I just want him back..."
"So do I..." Justek whispered mournfully.
Auris bit her teeth with bitterness and a scowl, "It's all those damn 'higher-ups' fault...They pushed him into becoming this..."
"Perhaps they hold a lamb's share of the blame...Or maybe we just refuse to see how tenuous of a grip Sarajin had over his sanity to begin with."
"We let him pile upon all these expectations, it was only a matter of time before the weight grew to the point of collapsing."
Auris shook her head and vehemently disagreed, "All he wanted was peace for everyone...! That should have never hurt him like this...!"
Justek nudged his glasses up and remarked, "Perhaps too much kindness can become toxic as well."
Auris trembled and with a gentle turn around, Justek squeezed his staff and began to make his way out the door, but not before stopping underneath it and glancing back at her.
"...I apologize for my behavior. You are not to blame for any of this."
He then faced forward, eyes tense with hate, and muttered under his breath, "Once more, it is those accursed Ten Sages..."
Auris glared, then felt lighter in the chest in a more hollow fashion. She then closed her eyes and tried to rely on the future to seek some form of shelter for herself...
All she saw was darkness coming down around her.
Her heart nearly sprang from her chest and she bit her lower lip, looking upstairs to be reminded of her son in bed...
"..." She shook her head and then waltzed out the door, activating her Aegis Dragoon Drive and murmuring, "I have to at least TRY...!"
She then sprang out towards the wastelands to hunt down the man she loved.
But her efforts would amount to naught, because the man was so lost that he didn't even know where he was.
He was simply a doll of his subconscious, wandering to places where not even a single sight existed to remind him of all his failures.
He remained perched atop a high cliffside overlooking endless oblivion full of rotting beasts. His eyes had rings around them made of dry blood and his body was scarred and dirty, his poncho barely remaining strung together.
He no longer carried a sword, nor any sense of respect in his posture.
His knees bent up against his face and he clasped them against himself, trembling from the chill of this warm weather.
His bones were starting to press against his skin and his fingernails were thin and almost textured like his skin.
There was no solace in the light, no comfort of slumbering in the darkness...He would face his regrets either way.
"Killed them...!" He mumbled incoherently under his breath, "They were innocent...killed them...!"
Rivers of blood flowed at his feet as he stood at the top of a mountain of corpses much grander than what had happened...
His thoughts were fading deeper and deeper into darkness. There was nothing left to hold on to but despair.
"I-I'm sorry...I'm sorry...! I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry...!" He begged for absolute repentance from the darkness, but it fell on deaf ears.
Until his voice went hoarse, and he fell back into silence...
A few seconds later, he twitched and turned back to watch a figure rise from his shadow.
He glared at them before they fully formed, grumbling in a voice as coarse as gravel, "I told you to leave me alone...!"
It was Atrax, approaching with a cautious bow and an arm folded before his chest, his mind locked on recent events...
Lilith was giddy over the news of Sarajin's good-nature finally crushing him down like the ant he was. So to take full advantage of his vulnerability she demanded one thing of him, "If you find him, bring him to me. I will give him the 'salvation' he so desires."
Atrax moaned internally and then drew his hand out towards Sarajin, sighing deeply before trying to be a friendly face in stressful times, "I cannot be away, I am the shadow draping your back."
Sarajin stood up with aggression but the moment he armed his hands he found he could barely hold his fists together and his knees weren't faring any better.
And the sheer jolt of standing rattled his heart and made him bend over and throw up.
When he was done, he kept his head hung and muttered, "...Go...AWAY...!"
Atrax turned his hand and shook his head, raising his voice in a more serious tone, "Unfortunately, I do not come as Atrax the Messenger today...But rather, Atrax of the Ten Sages. And your presence has been requested..."
Sarajin raised his head and growled in defiance, "Y-You'll have to catch me first...!"
Suddenly, strands of shadow emerged from beneath him and entangled him, with Atrax pitying him with a mournful tone, "...I knew you'd try that."
Sarajin's squirms were hurting no one but himself, but he hardly had the energy to do any more damage than already has been done.
The two of them sank into the shadows and then emerged a few seconds later in a darkened space faintly illuminated by floating candles.
Atrax released the restraints and took a bow, "I have brought him, as requested."
Sarajin shook all over as the lights illuminated the way to a table dressed up in a tiled cloth that hung all the way to the floor. On it were two fresh cups of spiced tea and two chairs. Sitting in the opposite chair...was Borealis.
The man planted his gauntlets on the table and sighed in relief, "Thank you, Atrax."
As Sarajin's trembling reached a definitive peak, the Gaia Temporis began to glow independent of his touch.
Borealis shifted his hand around and the glowing ceased, replaced by the rattling of aquamarine chains. Sarajin jolted stiff and glared at the stone and then back over to Borealis, who faced him with a sincere, timid glance as he slowly snapped his fingers.
A pair of mistletoe bells floated over Sarajin's hair and bathed him in holy aura.
Suddenly he was able to stand upright without feeling weak in the knees. It did nothing for the state of his expression nor the rest of his mental discomfort though.
Borealis then gestured his fingers at the other chair and said, "Take a seat."
Sarajin looked back to see Atrax barring the door and then glared at him before facing Borealis and dragging his feet over to the chair.
He pulled it out at a slant and then plopped down, dropping his elbow onto the table and avoiding looking the man in the eyes.
Borealis' eyes were dragged down by his inability to start the conversation properly, and Sarajin did not seem willing to do the job himself...
It took a solid minute of silence before Borealis clasped his hands together before his chest and whispered, "You're ill."
Sarajin's brows solidified like stone and he started digging his fingertips along the tablewood, making noise that grated on Borealis' ears as he attempted to say, "...What has become of you, Sarajin?"
Sarajin tapped his finger in a quick motion and then clamped the hand into a fist, brushing him off with a coy smirk, "I don't know...guess I finally came down with a case of savagery."
Borealis furrowed his brows.
Sarajin then tensed up his fist and growled at him, "...What do you want, Borealis?"
The man spoke with an honesty towards what he understood of himself, "I am the seeker and the keeper of knowledge. My mind is thus beholden to a certain pattern of events in my life...And knows when something has changed for the worse."
"Ha...!" Sarajin bit his lower lip, "So it's all about you, once again..."
"Listen."
Sarajin turned his head and brushed his fingertips up in the air, "Shouldn't you be celebrating? You were right about me."
His blatant self-loathing left Borealis in utter silence, gazing at him in a contemptible manner, "This isn't you..."
Sarajin shifted the chair in his direction and slammed his clasped together fists on the table, propping himself up and shouting with unhinged laughter, "Who AM I, really?! Ha, you never cared about that before..."
"In your eyes I'm just a lowly savage, no different from the rest..." He pushed that through gritted teeth and then fell into a slump against the chair.
The silence returned between them, but Borealis strove to pick up the conversation, even if he could hardly stand to look Sarajin in the eyes anymore, "...That has hardly changed, but at least the man who once stood before me had conviction."
"The shell I see before me now is not even a tenth of the man he was."
Sarajin sat there and let that sink in while drawing his hands up on both sides of his face and steadily creasing out a smile, "You'd know all about conviction, wouldn't you?"
His voice grew loud and dripping with sarcasm as he gestured towards him with grandiose presentation, "The great Borealis Aurora, leader of the Ten Sages, ruler of Sancturia! O' how mighty his conviction be...!"
His gaze immediately narrowed and he planted his hands down to prop himself up, "Sorry, did I say 'conviction'? I meant 'stubbornness'."
"There is not a single person I know who is more stubborn, more arrogant, and more fickle than you, Borealis...Aurora...!"
"Nothing's ever good enough for you. I tried, and tried, and TRIED to make you see the better world I was putting together, but you refused to look the other way...!" He bit his teeth down and started shaking, so fell back into the chair and shook his head.
He then propped his fist against his cheek and looked away, his skin growing paler as his voice cracked and the weight of blood spilled fell upon his mind once more, "I-I put more work into this world than anyone and even I couldn't do it...! I...I..."
He squeezed his teeth together and hissed in pain, "I really am nothing special..."
"just another killer..."
That whisper exposed the strain on his heart to Borealis.
He had smelled the blood caked over his body, but was not ready to cast judgment until hearing him out. But now that he understood, his heart began to ache with a heavy weight tugging it downward to his gut.
A long silence followed, leading to Borealis laying his hand flat upon the edge of the table and closing his eyes, furrowing his brows.
"...I understand the pain you feel."
Sarajin jerked his head back in an inhuman fashion and growled, "How could you understand...anyone's pain?"
He then rose and slammed his hands down, lunging his head forward and spewing at his face like a rabid dog, "I. TOOK. LIVES...! My whole life...means...NOTHING now...! Because I...I couldn't..."
He recoiled back into his chair and curled his fingers up against his tearful eyes while whimpering in desperation.
"Oh lord...so much blood...I did it...all of them...!"
Borealis shivered and felt ill in his gut, but didn't know why...
From this forming sense of pity, he felt compelled to reach out with his voice and whisper, "...I once cherished a life more than my own...more than the world itself."
Sarajin calmed down and settled on paying close attention to what the man had to say.
"I was but a young, timid lad, primed to rise the ranks of Sagehood like my father before me, and his mother before him..."
"I replaced friendship with a curiosity for the world around me."
"And that led me to her...this most precious, unique angel in a dull sea."
"Her name was Silvis. Her hair shone under the moonlight. Her eyes were like stars cut from the dark sky."
"She was stagnant like the rest of her kin, but in my presence...a spark of life grew within."
"I found her tailing me as I wandered the city, and even as I began to expand my reach beyond the borders of my home."
"She would wander wherever she felt like going as long as I was close enough to see her."
"She would purposefully get in danger to test how far I was willing to go to rescue her...Ha," He chuckled fondly, "But I would be her shining knight every time."
"Beasts of burden, ravenous hordes, and even the march of war could not keep me from acting as her sword and shield."
"I became but an accessory to her adventurous spirit, letting her show me the world whereas my heart seemed quick to falter back otherwise..."
"The way she would describe everything she saw with made-up terms was done with such conviction it tickled my heart pink, to the point even I began to believe it was the truth..."
"...I knew I loved her from the moment I first saw that spark of curiosity we shared in our eyes. I could just not muster the courage to say so..."
"She was but a citizen. Our love was pure, but only as far as our feelings. By the norms of a Sage, our blood was not allowed to mix."
"She knew this, yet still chose to remain by my side."
"I...was a fool, caring more for the shame upon my name than the sincerity of her loyalty to her heart."
"But slowly, our feelings bloomed, and I suckled upon her strength like warm nectar."
Borealis reached for his chest and clasped a sparkling rock around his neck, "...One night, I made the decision to elope under the stars."
"It was a rare night where the lights fell to crest the horizon. To honor the occasion, I had to prove the full weight of my love the only way I knew how."
"Pointing at the stars, I made the strongest light fall towards us, a comet composed of stone that could reflect many lights like a rainbow..."
"The comet was forged into a necklace for us to bear, the embodiment of an eternal promise."
"Through life, through death, to the edge of oblivion and eternity beyond...I swore my soul to her heart."
"She would stand beside me as I became a Sage. And she would be there when I told my father the truth about our forbidden love."
Sarajin then spoke up, "But then your wife died in childbirth."
"H-How do you...?" Borealis was flustered, but with a couple coughs continued, "...No."
"At my coronation event, the Sages of the time were gathered to split wine and be merry."
"As we were set to drink, I sensed something amiss with our drinks. They had been tampered with."
"...I tried to warn the other Sages, but I was but a millisecond too late. And all of them..." He grabbed the side of his head and shook it, eyes tired from the weight of anguish...
"I still cannot fathom how it was possible, but our sacred home had been infiltrated by a terrifying enemy."
"They left their mark, robbing fine youth of their parents, and me with a promise incomplete..."
"...Yet a part of me was...relieved. Now I had to bear no shame for my feelings for the one I love."
"Life continued forward. I came to take leadership over the Ten Sages. Silvis was allowed to live with me in the palace."
"Soon, the next step of our love would produce a child..."
"And soon, I would be punished for my arrogance..."
"My wife was strong of heart, but weak of body. She was unable to handle the labor process..."
"...M-My last recollection of her voice was her moaning in pain as her life was suffocated so another may be born." He started to choke up, squeezing his eyes to the point of tears.
"Lord almighty...It was all my fault. I let my heart stray towards savagery by making light of my father's passing, and the world saw fit to punish me."
"She loved the world, seeing even flaws as something...beautiful. But the world would not spare her the same grace. Someone had to pay penance for my sin, and she was chosen."
"But anguish and sorrow merely drove me mad with temptation..."
He raised his hand towards the sky, "Someone had to be responsible. I know this with utter certainty."
"And whoever stole her from me deserved death. But I felt it in my heart...A rage so great it could eclipse galaxies."
"Revenge wouldn't have satisfied me. My heart would never be quelled until I scoured this whole planet clean of filth..." And when he spoke, there was no lie to his words...
"But..." He slowly reached down to grab the necklace, "This...this trinket brought me to my senses. It reminded me that there was a good man underneath all that rage. The very same man...she fell in love with."
"Thus my rage was withdrawn into the deepest recesses of my heart, and I forged that fire into a conviction to ensure that a tragedy on this level could never happen again...That the savagery of the outside world would never contaminate my people again."
He then laid his hands down on the edge of the table and sighed, taking a massive weight of his chest.
The silence was replaced with a slow clap from Sarajin, who gasped in awe, "Wow..."
He then smiled with a mocking bite behind it as he told the man bluntly, "Borealis Aurora has a heart. A big, big heart. Just the perfect size to hold all his people...and TRAP them...!"
He then dropped his hands onto the table and growled, "You didn't kill someone, and that's supposed to make you...better than everyone else?"
"See...this is the problem with you...! You...refuse, to see the world in any other way."
"And you can hide behind your...justifications all you want," Sarajin thrust his finger at the man and shouted, "But if you wanted to make this world a better place you would have long ago! YOU'RE A COWARD...! A lazy, self-righteous...COWARD!"
"Too scared by some...figment of your imagination...!"
"YOU ruined your own life, Borealis...! It's always. Been. YOU...!"
Borealis rose tall and slammed his hands upon the table, making it clap like the roar of the thunder as it splintered to pieces, "Do you think I demanded this life...?! These...burdens?!"
Sarajin held his defiant scowl as the man swung his hand out and declared with a face as red as roses, "All that ever was expected of me was to be a Sage as mighty and wise as the greats..."
"To protect my people, to keep them SAFE from harm...And yet I couldn't even save the life of the one I loved the most..."
"Excuses, excuses...None of that changes the fact that you've kept your people under lock and key, and turned them into walking dolls!"
"That not did not start with me...!" He bit back tearfully, "Every generation has kept them protected from the human condition that has infected their minds."
Sarajin forced a gasp of disbelief and then waved his hands out to say, "So you disagree then...?"
Borealis froze up in utter silence and Sarajin did not even hesitate to lay him out with a scoff, craning his head back to look down on him like the lowly man he saw him as now, "Then what difference does it make who the FUCK started it...?"
Borealis hung his head and admitted in a pitiful tone, "I-I don't know..."
Sarajin bit his lower lip and shivered with a hiss. He then closed his fists and hung his head, tears starting to flow down his eyes, "Y-Yeah well...!"
His mouth pulled open with a frustrated scream of anguish as he stomped his foot upon the ground, "Grraaaaaaaagh...! This is pointless...! All of it...!"
"Nothing ever improves...! Being KIND doesn't change anything...! KILLING doesn't change anything...! We're all TRAPPED...and I can't TAKE IT ANYMORE...!"
"I tried, I tried...I swear I tried...but my conviction was just a mask to hide my arrogance..."
"This power wasn't meant to help people..." He looked at his open hand cursed with death and then extended it towards Borealis, "Here...! Take it! It's what you've always wanted!"
When Borealis didn't respond, Sarajin thrust it out some more and shouted, "Well?! Go on...! You win...!"
Borealis stared with his mouth partially agape until finally, Sarajin withdrew his hand to his chest and bit his lower lip hard enough to break the skin.
"See? I'm handing you victory and you're doing nothing with it..."
Borealis shook his head and muttered, "This...was not how I wanted it."
"Yeah...?" Sarajin sniffled, "Well what do you want?"
"..." Borealis hung his head and closed his eyes.
"...You'll have plenty of time to do nothing but think about it. Because I'll never bother you again."
Following a long silence, where Borealis looked like he had something balancing on the tip of his tongue, the man instead chose to draw his fingers out from behind his back and snap them.
The binds on the Gaia Temporis were undone, and Borealis continued to stare at Sarajin without saying a word.
But instead of using it, Sarajin turned and made his way to the door.
Atrax stepped out of the way but as this hunched man opened the door, he raised his voice out of its silence.
"...It's not hopeless. You did sway people to your cause, Sarajin."
"You can be stronger than despair, even after blood has weighed you down."
Sarajin stared blankly at the empty road ahead of him and muttered out of the corner of his mouth, "What kind of fool would want to believe in a murdering, selfish hypocrite?"
"...Never look for me again, I can't be trusted not to kill you…"
He slammed the door behind him and Atrax withdrew into the shadows at the corner of the room, propping a hand up against his chin, "If I fool I be, then a fool I am..."
Yet at this juncture...whose voice could possibly hope to reach Sarajin's heart?
Next Time: So Speaks...!