Chapter 2 – When Morn Comes
"Of demons and men, who wander through the forest of shadows, the crown of dawn shall be your shepherd to the glade of peace—lest the luk kae devour your sheep."
- Third Angel Shinoa
The silver columns dotting the edge of the Pit, waned under the night's shadow as if stretching it further out among the streets with their own depths. The darkness clung to the columns, inching down the narrow silhouettes that fell just before Makoto's post. Makoto gnawed at the inside of his cheek as shadows from the columns twitched and slinked closer to his post. His teeth soon grazed his lip, nibbling fretfully when a rustle brushed by his ear. Makoto leapt towards the lantern by his side and swung it out. His hand hovered over his side—his fingers itching for the firm press of metal against it.
"Naiphra namkhong huachai nangfa khong thad kan—" The prayer trailed off into a mild strangle for breath as the light in the lantern swept the shadows back. A pair of crimson eyes glittered up at Makoto. A lone tooth gleamed a sickly gray that matched the gnarled horns jutting from its head like thorns. Makoto's grip on his blade slacked. He tapped the side of the lantern, letting a thin piece of glass slide to the side. With a flick of his wrist he sighed, "Pheu hell."
The light in the lantern flickered from gold to blue. A wisp of flame hopped from the light and whizzed over the thick rim towards the horned rat. As the flame grazed it, a shrill squeak pinched the air before the rat dissolved into the wind's arms. Tufts of burnt fur whirled in a puff of smoke, following the trail in the air. Makoto slid the glass back into place and held the lantern to his chest. The warmth of the light thrummed against the glass, matching his heartbeat as he settled back against his post uneasily.
"You're getting lazy too soon aren't you?" Makoto flinched. He glanced over his shoulder at the man leaning over the railing above his post.
Makoto huffed, cradling the lantern carefully, "It's not like it was greater than a rogue demon. Why aren't you at your post anyway?"
Shusaku blinked blankly at him. "Making sure your corpse doesn't stain the post like the last keeper's."
A shiver tore down Makoto's spine, brushing the hairs on his skin up to attention as he bolted straight up from the post. He glared at the faint curl against the corner of Shusaku's lip and growled, "That's. Not. Funny."
"I never said it was." Shusaku replied. "I had to clean up the last mess."
Makoto ground his teeth together, grumbling under his breath when another rustle cut in. Makoto jerked his head to the side, his fingers tightening around the lantern and the other hovering over the blade strapped to his side, as another rat crept out of the shadows. His nose wrinkled at the even longer horns jutting out of the rat's head while its elongated claws scraped at the cobblestones along the ground. He slid the glass of the lantern aside when a dash of violet flicked past him. The rat let out a strangled wail as the dart pierced through its skull. The violet flare spread over its fur, devouring it in a sheer flame of black and purple before its ashes were carried off by the wind.
"Lucky shot," Makoto mumbled under his breath. "I was about to do that myself. I don't need babysitting from—"
"Makoto." Makoto's jaw snapped shut at the clipped tone. He raised his lantern towards Shusaku with a grimace. The light fanning over his cheeks made his skin glow eerily white. Shusaku's flicked his stare at the fist gripping Makoto's lantern tightly, then back on the keeper with a firm frown creasing his brows.
"I mean it Makoto." Makoto sucked his bottom lip beneath his teeth. "You have a duty to uphold."
"Like I haven't heard this before."
"Makoto—"
Makoto's knuckles popped around the blade. "I've heard this since before I was born Iwasaki. 'Keep the Flames alive at all costs, but don't let them burn you in your haste for control.' You're forgetting that I was handpicked by the Angels themselves. I wouldn't be here now if they thought I wouldn't be a competent Gatekeeper."
The startling silence that surrounded his spat out words whipped Makoto instantly. He felt his blood run cold at the icy glare gleaming from Shusaku's dark, inky orbs as if the night itself were judging him.
"Anyone can be a Gatekeeper Makoto," the words pierced through him like a knife, thoroughly wrenching him into dust, "no one else can be a Flame."
Makoto dropped his gaze to the lantern practically melded to his hand. His eyes narrowed on the white light glimmering within the glass cage and cursed under his breath. He jerked away from the other Gatekeeper and sank back into his post. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck twitch at Shusaku's impeding gaze.
"Would you like me to accompany your watch?" He asked.
Makoto flinched, snapping, "You have your own gate to watch, don't you?"
Shusaku stared at him for a beat longer before disappearing into the shadows. Makoto's grip on the lantern tightened with each faint step Shuskau made until the thundering gears and moans of the night ravished his mind once more. Murmurs of past rumors about the previous Gatekeepers before him taunted his ears before a rustle broke his thoughts. A flurry of a prayer rushed to the tip of his tongue as he swung his lantern over the post. The flame stuttered to a halt however at the sight of a mouse scurrying across the ground. Makoto's chest tightened around his thundering heart. He slowly sank back into his post uneasily, absentmindedly cursing the cool sweat soaking through his uniform.
Makoto peered onto the thin wrinkle of darkness reeling back ever so slowly against the dull purple dusting the horizon and frowned. He glanced back at the colossal torch lying overhead the gate, its ivory flames devouring the thick, black branches. As wisps of ash fluttered past him, he stared longingly at the horizon, wondering with a gnawing sense of dread what lied beyond the post in the kingdom of night that his Flame lit through.
And if the last Gatekeeper shared his same thoughts.
ᴕ
The soft beat of breath rising and falling resonated through his veins. Every twitch of muscle his own mirrored; the slightest tickle of hair brushing against a cheek the same. However, at the faintest slide of a hand—callused with dry patches of skin—tightening against another, he jerked out of place as the melody of slumber carried on without him. His lips pressed together in a tight frown, for he couldn't imitate their warmth…not with so much innocence bared in their vulnerable chambers.
Mika threw his self up with a huff and rested his chin on his knees. No one wants you holding them, he silently cursed to his self, his fingers rapped against the tiles of the rooftop with a somber glare.
His ears long since trained themselves to hear from the flicker of the wind straight to the very pulse of insect, yet in his many hunts through the city he couldn't fight against the urge to listen for the sound of humans. Not for their thundering heartbeats nor their strangled curses towards one another—but for the queer hum of their beings in their sleep.
His brothers constantly berated him for such a habit while hunting, Lacus adding none too discreetly how, "disturbing," it was. Alas, Mika noted with a wry smirk, there he was once again listening to his blue ghosts leave the land of the living for a strip of peace. If only I could see what it was like.
Mika glowered at the tiles a moment longer before moving it toward the silver rim glinting back at him. Amongst the blues, red, and yellows dusting the city, a stark band of silver circled around Silica where faint sighs of waves crashed against it. Mika watched the wall glimmer and wane, towering one second over the city's compact maze and shadowing it the next. The boy strained his neck up and back, squinting to catch a glimmer of the sea beyond it to no avail.
He fell back onto the rooftop with his frown deepening. Not only had the wall kept him from glancing beyond yet again, but now the slumbering humans beneath him were too far gone to have their sounds lull him into their safe haven. Mika, sighing dejectedly, stared up at the mirage of dark blue film rippling over him while green specks of stardust burned through. He raised his hand up, stretching his red dusted hand to trace the stars and hissed at the gray that blindsided him. He covered his eyes as washed out gray bubbled along the edges of his vision. The dark blue began to shrink away from the edge of the wall with each nip of white wearing into it.
Mika's brows furrowed at the horizon and groaned. He rose to his feet, snatching his staff in one hand, and pulling his hood over his head. Turning towards the darkness, his vision swirled back into color as his boots dug into the tiles and leapt. The wind snapped his cape wildly behind him until he fell to the next edge of another rooftop. Clatters of tiles crunching beneath him broke the whirling silence the wind brought the further he leapt into darkness.
Mika watched the city's blue aura rise and fall beneath him, flicks of blue and yellow growing faint under the light's shadow. The bitter tang of copper tickled the roof of his mouth, yet he merely flicked his tongue across the puckered corner of his lip—taking the blooming pain in stride.
The colossal column of the Pit towered in the center of the city. Ashes swept across Mika's cheek the closer he got. As he leapt off the last building, Mika scanned the ground from the air. Vibrant pulses of blue and yellow glimmered back at him until a stark silver figure caught his eye. Through wiry thickets caging the block, the silver gleamed from the figure as if gracing its frame in a gentle touch, sliding to and fro as it tilted its gaze to the trees. Mika's brows rose quizzically, jerking his self down to the trees. He snatched a branch and swung around the trunk. He flicked his gaze across the wooded area, yet the halo of silver was nowhere to be seen.
"Just the light." Mika huffed bitterly, shaking his head. He broke through the thicket of branches over him as he soared through the air. Snapped twigs fell from his cloak with each leap, the silvery halo fading from his thoughts.
As Mika landed near the Pit, his boots sank beneath him. He arched a brow, glancing down at the torn up cobblestones along the street. He sighed, strolled towards the flickering flame overhead the gate. A low scuffle made his ears perk as he raised his staff in front of him in time for the blade that landed against it—inches from his face.
"You're late." Mika rolled his eyes. He saw a light dusting of red lingering on Makoto's face. The Gatekeeper threw another blade at Mika only for the boy to swing his staff to catch it against the metal.
"No." He eyed the sharp glints of silver idly and plucked them out of the staff. He tossed the blades back at Makoto. Makoto glared at the blades piercing the post with cracks spider webbing around them while Mika pointed his staff behind him. "I made it back before that."
Makoto ducked away from the staff blindly swinging towards him and idly followed it back to the wispy crown of golden blue bleeding tendrils into the night. He felt his chest release its hold on his heart and smiled lightly. As he jerked the blades out from the side of the post, he caught of glimmer of Mika's blazing eyes slowly dull into pale lavender and frowned. "Just get back inside."
Mika titled his head to the sound of his voice and tapped his staff against the gate. The blinding symbols waned to a dull copper as they jerked to the side. The gates swung outward as Mika trekked through. The white flame flickered madly along the middle of the torch overhead froze instantly. The flames curled around the edges of the torch before slowly creeping upwards. Ashes began to whirl around the torch, clinging and piecing itself onto the burnt stub until a pristine, ivory torch jutted out from over the gate.
The symbols on the gate slowly fell into the center as they creaked close behind Mika. A bleak gray began scattering across his vision when a rush of air blew behind him, scattering the colors of night like dust. Mika leaned against his staff when pinpricks of pain began throbbing through his muscles. He scraped his staff along the ground, straining his ears as he crept across the courtyard. He ducked beneath the shadow against the edge of the Pit and pressed his hand against the metal. When the wall began to dip, Mika stalked down the opening.
The metal walls pressing against his shoulders softened into crumbles catching along his cloak. The scent of wet earth tickled his nose, engulfing him as he wandered into the cellar. He blinked in the gray settling into his vision until the familiar shadows of cots lined along the ground were recognized. Mika took a step forward, wincing at the newfound pain gnawing at his leg. He shuffled ever so carefully to the wall when a sing song voice called out, "Mopey's home!"
Mika groaned. A faint violet silhouette waltzed around him before slinging an arm around his shoulder.
"Damn, you reek." He whistled lowly, pinching Mika's cheek. He tugged on the morsel of grimy flesh and wrinkled his nose. "And now you've probably gone on and trudged demon guts everywhere. You're so going to get it this time."
Mika rolled his eyes, replying, "At least I'm not a sopping blood mop."
Lacus narrowed his eyes on Mika's faint blue shadow and growled, "That was one time!"
"Every other month," Mika murmured.
Lacus's brows furrowed, whipping his hand against the back of Mika's head, albeit lightly, when he tottered back. "Come on Rene!" Lacus whined as the elder peeled him off of Mika. "He was asking for it that time."
Rene stared at the violet shadow writhing in his grasp and turned his head in Mika's direction. "You sound awful." Rene stated.
Mika sucked in a sharp breath, swallowing thickly as he caught eerie squishes of his flesh and muscles remolding beneath the surface. He shivered and shook his head. "Could you not listen to me healing myself?"
"Only when you stop needing to." Rene replied flatly.
Mika turned away, mumbling under his breath, and felt the cool support of his staff meld into air. His legs swayed under him, leaving him grappling for air as an arm wrapped around him. He let out a sigh of relief and patted the arm firmly around him.
"Don't be thanking me yet." Mika cringed at the daunting, wispy aura at the corner of his eye. Mika wriggled in his grasp and winced at the pressure pressed against his side. He groaned as he pulled his head up. "And where do you think you're going?"
"I was just going to wait for Acacia," Mika said warily. He shot a blind glare in the direction of Lacus's cackling and forced his muscles to cease their trembling. "You know I don't want you to have to—"
"He has things to do as well. He's not your personal nurse." Ferid snapped. Mika's lips thinned as the words pierced the ones on his tongue. He squirmed, weakly, when he felt his self being tugged out of Ferid's grasp.
"It's fine Ferid." Ferid arched a brow at the red shadow brining Mika's arm over his shoulder. "It's not like Mika's never been klutzy before."
Mika halfheartedly glowered at the red shadow as Ferid begrudgingly watched him half drag, half carry Mika through one of the tunnels. "Be back for—"
"—dinner, I know. You're more pestering than the keepers." Mika stifled a laugh, feeling a deep frown radiating from Ferid's aura. As the two trekked through the tunnel, the light hearted warmth permeating from the shadow quickly dropped to a resigned cool air. Mika silently cursed when he set him down, his body thrumming in pain. "What. Happened?"
"Why does everyone make it sound like I was torn limb from limb?" Mika groaned irritably, throwing his head against the earthy wall. He winced as his cloak slid of his shoulders and Acacia held it in front of him.
"The cloak reeking of blood does wonders to the imagination."
Mika frowned and cast his gaze aside. Acacia pushed up his tattered shirt to the side and squinted at the dull flashes of red cringing along the pale blue shadow before him, inching from his neck to the base of his side. Acacia tenderly brushed his fingers over the gashes writhing back to together and cringed. He shuddered as if the pain leapt from Mika's body onto his and hissed, "Mika."
"They're healing aren't they?" Mika retorted.
"They shouldn't have to." Acacia snapped. Mika dropped his head, wincing at the sight of the shallow red tearing through his blue aura his self before Acacia sighed heavily, "And you shouldn't be subjecting yourself to this kind of fighting."
Mika furrowed his brows while Acacia arched a brow at him. Mika chuckled breathlessly, sinking back against the wall. He ran his hand through his hair, ignoring the grimy stickiness of his blood caked gloves grazing his scalp, and stared at the shadowy roots waving at him overhead.
Quiet rustles of clothes being shoved aside and pressing against his wounds filled the air when Mika whispered, "There's a new shop."
Mika felt Acacia tense against him, pausing mid-drape of a bandage against him, and swallowed thickly.
"Was there?" He replied quietly. He straightened for a moment, straining for the sound of footsteps within the tunnels. As silence answered him, he pressed the bandage against Mika's abdomen. "What kind?"
"Bakery." Mika closed his eyes at the soft touches. "Right in the tenth spiral. Quaint place."
Acacia nodded, murmuring, "The observatory was torn apart."
"What?" Mika gasped.
Acacia held up Mika's arm, wrapping the gauze around a disturbingly blackened wound. "Damn demon shattered everything before I got there. Though the library underneath is still intact. Even the old man got out okay."
"Really?"
Acacia pinned the dressing and gauze together, shrugging, "He'll just wake up from a nightmare about losing his leg outside the wall. He seems ancient enough to have lived from then."
Mika chuckled, his muscles wincing at the sudden jerk in his limbs. "I don't believe Ferid would approve of that deduction." Mika's low laughter was cut off as Acacia pinched his nose.
He smirked nefariously, "Neither of you drawing out your fights."
Mika let a small grin trace his lips, looking up at the red shadow.
"You wouldn't do that," he said nasally.
"And why's that?"
Mika leaned towards him, not noticing the instant tension in Acacia's arms or the jump in brightness in his shadow. Mika breathed, "You love me too much—too much to be like him."
Acacia's mouth grew dry as he flicked his tongue across his flaky lips. He swallowed heavily and release Mika's nose with a somber smile. "If I loved you more, I would be like him."
Mika blinked quizzically as Acacia rose to his feet. The elder shadow shook stretched his arms over his head and tapped Mika's forehead.
"I'll save something at dinner." Mika jerked up only for Acacia to spat albeit coldly, "You shouldn't have let yourself be hurt so easily."
Mika pursed his lips out in a mock pout. "Fine."
"Leave the pouting to Lacus. It just looks bad on you." Acacia ruffled his hair, ducking out into the tunnel. He called back, "Keep the bandages in line or—"
"—or they'll inflame in the light, I know!" Mika called back with a groan.
He slumped onto his side and rolled onto his back to stare at the earth overhead. The straggly, dark roots gnarled into meshes above while burrowing into the tunnel's cavern. The others, locked out by the tight knit roots already feeding from the walls, strained for the ground—growing thicker, yet fragile the more they stretched downwards.
Mika's lips returned to their thin line as he tilted his head to the side. I wonder if that's how they live up there, he pondered, dangling until the world above them says otherwise.
"Luk kae!" His thoughts derailed by the sudden echo of the woman's pained cry. A bitter scoff fell from his lips that quickly crumbled into a sickly bark of laughter. He held onto his sides, his lungs burning from the strain on his body until it slowly died down.
"Luk kae," he chuckled the word bitterly. An alien prick of warmth pooled at the corner of his eye, sliding down his cheek until it hit the ground. As the tear was devoured by the earth beneath him, Mika whispered,
"…if only we were that."
A/N: FINALLY! It took three weeks of battling procrastination and work, but it's done! \(*o*)/ I hope you enjoyed it! Please let me know what you think or look forward to. Have a wonderful day!