It's Only a Breath Away

(4:3:6)

The streets bustled with life.

Seih could barely move, the flow of traffic jostling him as he walked against the current. Faces blurred, one meshing into the other, cloth brushing against him. Barely making progress at all, he fought to reach... to reach....

The Ripple?

Didn’t seem right. There was something... shadows in the crowd, dark things prowling in the corners of his eyes, but never quite there. A chill prickled up his spine. She was out there— if she ran into any of them—

He spotted dark, wavy hair, standing out from the rest of the crowd, and twitched, reaching forward, stretching out to touch her shoulder—

Something dark—like liquid shadows and fanged jaws—whirled around instead.

Yellow eyes flashed, engulfing him.

And he woke up to the sound of screams.

For a moment his heart pounded in his ears, his fingers digging into the mattress, gazing into the dark exit to his chambers and half-expecting to see a monster turn the corner, teeth glinting. The first tendrils of dawn filtered through the ceiling, touching the sky with a pale blue. Screams... screams resolving into cries of celebration.

Not screams. Not cries of terror. It wasn’t the end. Not yet.

As if in a daze, he wandered out into the garden, listening to shouts of joy—singing, cheering. What in the Light’s...?

Standing there in his nightclothes, feeling the morning chill prickle over his bare skin, he couldn’t resolve the sense of sheer dread sitting heavily in his stomach with the sounds of celebration ringing through the air. All he did for a long moment was listen as they gradually petered out, distant laughter carried on the breeze that ruffled the boughs over his head.

“Did you hear the news, young master?”

He turned as Damor’s voice reached him, the old man smiling from ear to ear. At his obvioius confusion, the man chuckled, throwing his hands out wide. “The forces fighting against Darkness just struck a victory! They sent them running!”

He stared, fingers finding his forehead and scrubbing past the bare skin his crown usually occupied, up into the sleep-tousled fringe of his hair. A victory.

They’d... won?

&&&

Won a battle, it turned out, at Dhosty’s Schism. A minor battle.

Considering how things had been going before, it was worth celebrating, but it also wasn’t nearly enough. No matter how much people proclaimed far and wide that the Loh Unity continued to regain ground, driving the Dark-kind back.

“Dhosty’s Schism is at the edge of Cint’s current territory,” he murmured, swirling the liquid in his glass almost neurotically at this point. “That’s right over our heads. The last region of Coletti before they come down the Scar on our east border.”

“And they’re driving them back.” Tambo shrugged, throwing him a half-smirk. “This is the battle that turns the tide, Seih! No more worries for you, no more hassle for me, and we can all get on with the important things in life, like fine wine and debating the merits of inferior foreign philosophy.”

He snorted half-heartedly, throwing his gaze over the current crowd enjoying their “fine wine” on the Firial Palace’s grounds, the fountain glowing at full strength in the middle of the courtyard. Whether Tambo truly believed that, with all the support he’d given....

“Oh, I heard your water project for the run-downs had a little mishap, the other day. That’s a shame.” The other lifted his glass to his lips, raising his eyebrows. “Any idea how it happened?”

Almost of their own will, his eyes flicked towards where Hafest mingled with the other higher Domini, the man smiling as he replied to some question, the Divination at his side silent and expressionless. He let his gaze move on, forcing his own glass to his lips. “Some."

It had obviously been a deliberate act. There had been no reason for the newly-forged pipe to break like that, no hint of flaws, no way for any natural event to effect it and no evidence of such happening, either.

It was a message. “Shut up, or you will experience the consequences”. He would have thought Hafest wouldn’t stoop to those kinds of underhanded methods. Obviously he’d been wrong.

Do I plan to be quiet?

Excusing himself from his conversation with Tambo, he set his drink down on a table and strode towards the little speech platform on the balcony. It was currently unoccupied, despite its use earlier in the night by other Domini.

I’ve never liked threats.

It was a shame Brei wasn’t here. She’d had prior commitments, something that seemed to happen more often than not these days. He always had the feeling that though they’d carried on more or less as normal, ever since her father had left, there had been a... wall. An invisible barrier.

She’d changed, too, he thought distantly as he nodded to another group, stepping up onto the platform. Once, barely a few months ago, she would’ve done anything to attend a celebration like this.

Gazing out over the crowd stretching below, some of them twirling to the music of the band, he wondered how many of them had changed, or if they were still doing their desperate best to live in the past.

“I would like to say a few words.”

The music quieted down as his voice rang through the air, boosted subtly by a clever weaving of air scalelets built into the platform and its elegant, decorative additions.

“I know we are all gathered here to celebrate our recent victory. A victory we all own, whether we stand with the remnant of Loh and its allies or not, for we are all people of this world—people of Light.”

He had prepared for this speech, unlike his last. As he spoke, he allowed his gaze to drift, sweeping across the other Domini towards a still Hafest and meeting the unblinking golden eyes of his Divination. The people clapped and called their agreement, mindlessly accepting words that pandered to every positive aspect of this situation.

“And yet—” his gaze never wavered, as unblinking as that stare— “it is not guaranteed to be the victory that wins us this war. We have been given a chance, an opportunity to rally and support our fellow people as they struggle against the Darkness tainting this world. Yet it seems we are doomed to waste it. Waste it on petty squabbling, on disagreements, on fighting among ourselves.”

Winds’ eyes dropped, disappearing beneath a ragged fringe as his head turned away, and Seih narrowed his own, flicking his gaze towards the now-silent crowd. “Darkness can only be driven back if we are united, if we put in the effort to be more than simple spectators.”

“And what if ‘unity’ with these other powers leads to us becoming absorbed by them?”

Hafest, predictably, was the one to break etiquette and interrupt.

“There is no telling if we would be.” He met the other man’s eyes steadily. “There is a chance our society could be irreparably affected if we join with the Loh Unity. But there is a certainty we will be affected if Darkness breaks through because we did nothing.”

“’If’, ‘if’. Perhaps you should listen to the words in your mouth, Domini Seih.”

“Perhaps you should let me finish,” he countered. “I’ll tolerate an interruption, but I will not tolerate being dragged into debate. Speak your piece at the Ripple, not here.

“People of Firemount,” Seih let his voice ring over hushed murmurs and whispers, “we face a decision point. We face the eternal question—what should we do in the face of evil? Should we stand by and let others deal with it, pretending it isn’t our problem, or should we attempt to do what we can? What some of you are already attempting to do, and being vilified for your efforts? This is the problem we face, and this is the question I ask you. It’s a decision you must make, yourselves, and not a question I can answer for you.

“It is, however, a question that holds our very fate in its answer, and I hope you consider it as you enjoy all the beauty our civilisation has painstakingly built. Long may Firemount stand, and the temple of our fiery heart glow with Light.”

With a nod, he stepped back, returning to the floor. Briefly, for just a moment, he met Tambo’s unreadable stare, the man turning away. And, yes, maybe he’d shattered the warm sense of victory and security. Maybe everyone was now more uneasy than they had been before.

He could only hope it would be worth it.

&&&

|You did it, didn’t you?|

Amotas’ back was turned to him as his question filled the space between them, the other’s wild blond hair drifting in some unfelt breeze, cooler in colour than usual.

|Hafest sent you to destroy Kahnin district’s new water supply, didn’t he, Winds?|

The Divination turned his head just far enough for a dull hint of gold to glance back at Seih. Silent.

|Why?|

|What do you mean, ‘why’?| The other turned back to gazing at nothing.

|You came to me, you spend time in Soulspace listening to what’s going on. You have the most knowledge out of anyone of what exactly is going on— why would you do that? Why indulge his pettiness?|

|I don’t understand your question.| His back was unreadable. |Are you implying I have a choice as to whether I indulge his pettiness or not?|

He opened his mouth; closed it again.

|Yes, I am a Divination. I manifest in Soulspace without his knowledge. I interact with the fools known as humanity against his and my own kind’s wishes.| Amotas’—Winds’—voice dropped, a soft coldness frosting its edge, eerily reminiscent of his master. |Be grateful I wasn’t asked to take your life, instead. He hates you more than you know.|

Why, Seih couldn’t fathom. Compared to the Higher Domini, he was a tiny thorn, a nobody who could be safely ignored. His constant animosity made little sense. |Would you do it, if he asked you to?|

A bristle ran through Wind’s form. |Again, you ask as if it’s a choice.

|Let me ask you, Domini Seih, what you would do if your Divination grew a mind of its own and began disobeying you. How would you treat it?|

Simple. |I’d try to understand why, and work with him from there.|

Both gold eyes swept around, meeting his with utter disbelief. For a long moment, Winds simply stared, the blond bleeding from his lavender hair. And then he turned, stepping into an invisible portal, leaving one last hissed thought trailing in his wake.

|Fool.|