Of Lands Ruined

“It’s spreading quickly.”

Seih leaned against the vibrating wood, utterly exhausted, as Winds examined another—already healed—wound on Ged's leg, his frame shielding them from frightened murmurs and hushed whispers.

The little girl and the teenager Seih had saved at least took some of the attention away as the other Divinations tended to them, residents offering whatever they could, even Ehna’s shawl-blanket given up willingly.

“Yeah, I can feel it,” Ged grunted. “It’s like a damn fire under my skin. Like a miasma.”

Seih breathed out, feeling it under his own. With the Light gone and the Scale locked away, silently sleeping within the Temple, it was no wonder they were succumbing so quickly. So much for Light shields. So much for one last flicker of hope.

“At least it’s healing you.”

“Healing one thing.” Ged shifted, grunting again. “And making its own problem.”

Seih opened his eyes, glancing over to see him massaging at his arm, half-muttering, “Can you hear those howls?”

He strained to hear over the rush of the wind, the rattle of the wood around them, and the quiet chatter. There was... something. Distant sounds that prickled at his shoulders. “Barely.”

“They sound loud to me.” The man shook his head. “Too loud.”

“You’re too warm.” Winds narrowed his eyes, reaching forward to touch his forehead—

A low growl rumbled from Ged’s throat and Seih froze, Winds pausing.

The older man shook his head violently, pressing a hand to his forehead. “I’m sorry. That— Dammit, I’m slipping.”

“Your aura is darkening quickly,” Winds said softly.

Seih met his eyes. “There’s nothing we can do?”

Winds shook his head. "My command of Light isn't meant for this. We need scalelets—"

A thud rocked the cart, an ear-splitting howl jarring through his entire body as a splintering crack tore at the wood.

Ged doubled over, Seih’s hands plastering to the sides of his head, choking on his own breath. He barely had the presence of mind to twitch away from the door as it partially opened, pulling Ged back, catching just a glimpse of Winds slipping outside, another crack shuddering the cart. A snarl rose above the cries and whimpers, and his jaw tightened.

“Stay here, look after them.” He tapped Ged’s shoulder, receiving a tight grunt in response, and slipped out after Winds.

The wind immediately made his eyes water, blasting through his hair as he gripped at the ridge running around the side, glancing up at the roof. He couldn’t hear any Shadows through the rush in his ears—

A flicker. He barely avoided having his head torn off, ducking in close against the wood as a claw whipped past his ear.

Breath hissing between his teeth, he lashed out awkwardly with his dagger, driving snapping teeth back. Its claws gave it better purchase than his efforts to hang on by his nails, another swipe coming dangerously close to his shoulder.

Where’s Winds? At least he was distracting it from tearing the cart apart, but that wouldn’t stop it once it’d shredded him. Tensing, he shoved up, cracking his heel into its jaw, lunging up and over the top, scrabbling at the solid roof.

He rolled over just as a blur shot after him, claws cracking down into solid wood, teeth snapping at his face.

Swiping across its skull, he managed to stagger it, driving forward to press the advantage—

It twisted and swiped him over the side, heart choking in his throat as nothing but empty air met him, snatching wildly at a wooden blur.

He found himself dangling above the half-open hatch, Ged yelling at him through the noise as he swung out, attempting to land inside. Only for something to snag at the back of his tunic and rip him away.

Tumbling, black and stone and fiery lights blurring in his vision, he scraped to a gasping, dizzying halt. A low clicking rumble sent shivers up his spine, his lungs shuddering, a rattle seizing him. Light— Pushing himself up against slick stone, he slipped, arm giving out with a ragged gasp.

Twisting, he could see shadowy paw/feet stalking towards him, sickly yellow gaze unblinking, its bared fangs dripping.

He gasped for breath, kicking back across the ground—the back of his throat clenching as some sort of grating sound shoved its way between his teeth, the Shadow coiling, tensing to pounce—

Something slammed into it, throwing it back and painting its blood across the ground with a savage slash. Winds? No, Ged. The sound of a distorted, not-quite snarl shuddered up his spine.

It cut off quickly with a vehement curse, but not before his own lungs hitched against his will. Every muscle in his body tightened, yet a grating tone still betrayed him, rasping from his throat. It sounded almost like a whine.

He couldn’t help it, he laughed—a shaky sound he couldn’t stop once it started, slightly hysterical, barking dryly across the bloodstained cobblestones of a wide street as shuffling footsteps stumbled over to him. Ged dropped to his knees next to him with a pained, querying grunt.

“Are we being twisted into Shadows or canids?” He let himself slump onto his back, a pitch-black sky stretching into infinity above him and lit only by a glow from somewhere to the side, another soft huff shuddering free.

“Darkness has a twisted sense of humour.”

“Hounds straight from the Void....” He pushed himself up, stiff muscles loosening even as he moved, and his gaze caught on a thin scratch along his forearm, the skin zipping up and smoothing over before his eyes. Just like the Shadows’ did.

Pushing down a slick sense of nausea churning in the pit of his stomach, he turned away, glancing back towards the rail and the dark form of the cart. “Was that the last of them?”

Winds dropped down next to them out of nowhere. |We need to take a detour.|

|Where did you go?| He started for the cart, his eyes catching on the buildings around them. It wasn’t a wide street like he’d first thought, but a depot, storage warehouses leading up to the rail.

|I fell.|

His eyebrows rose. Before he could mention it, though, Winds walked off, gesturing sharply to the side. |We need to get them out of the cart—|

Seih followed the gesture, and felt his heart drop as the glow he’d noticed before resolved into a raging fire further along the track, engulfing everything in front of it in blazing orange.

|—The tracks are compromised.|

ⴡ≼≎≽Ϡ

“How are you holding up, dear? I saw that nasty wound.” Ehna peered sympathetically up at him as they passed between storage houses.

He forced his hand away from his side, giving her a smile. “I’ll be fine.”

“Hmm.” Her gaze was knowing. “Well, you seem better than your friend.”

He glanced up towards Ged on the other side of their group, towards the back, the man’s face resolute even with his hand gripped around his arm like a vice. At this rate, he might succumb before they even got out of the city.

Both of us might.

He resisted the urge to press against the maddening prickle of a hot needle under his skin, fingers twitching despite himself. Scrubbing a hand through his hair instead, cold sweat slicking against his palm, he could only wonder how long—

A howl split the air apart.

“Gh!” He gasped against what felt like a knife punched through his chest, clutching his head as the world burned and blurred, a distant impression of a black form leaping at the group streaking through his vision. If they screamed, he didn’t hear it. All he heard was that howl echoing, like nails screeching across the blackboard of his soul.

Ged was right. It was loud. Too loud.

"RUN!"

Gasping, straightening, he picked up the call hoarsely, the whole group stumbling into a panicked rush. Urging them on, he scooped Ehna up, depositing her with a wheelchair-bound resident, all of them breaking through into an opening—

Only to meet flames burning against the sky. Seih threw up his arm, gritting his teeth as the heat washed over him, eyes darting for some other way out.

Winds shouted, waving them towards the side, and he spun to follow—

A snarl barrelled into him from behind, claws slashing across his arm as he tumbled, lurching back desperately. And another blade sliced through it from the side, a rough hand grabbing and throwing him back.

Somehow he twisted, landing on his feet, hyper-aware of other Shadows enclosing them and more distantly of the snarl on his lips as he crouched, tense. Ged stepped back to his side—

And collapsed, sword slipping from his spasming fingers as he clutched at his arm, a low choked cry searing at Seih’s ears.

“Ged!” He reached for him— and slammed against the ground, thrown back, the fiery light catching the man’s eyes almost turning them yellow. His expression twitched, struggling.

Seih abruptly caught the black veins pulsing up the other's throat, spiderwebbing across his skin. They grew even as he watched, frozen, a shudder wracking the other man. The silence of the Shadows around them pressed in, oppressive. Watching, waiting.

Oh Light no.

“Ged—” He rolled slowly back to a kneel, holding his hand carefully out, keeping his gaze locked with the other’s increasingly unfocused one. “Ged, don’t—”

The man rose, slowly, blackened fingers twitching, a hint of something sharper than nails glinting at their tips, his eyes flashing a fiery yellow. 

And turned away from him.

Snapping forward, Ged launched himself at the dark circle, a rabid snarl cutting through the crackle of flames warping his shadow. The tension cracked, a chorus of burning, raging howls shattering the silence as claw met fang, ripping at Seih’s head, driving him to his knees, not sure if he was crying out or howling with them, burning his chest and his throat—

He barely managed to roll away from a pair of reaching jaws, shoving himself to his feet, lurching for the mass of black and a flicker of colour buried beneath them, glinting black-red.

Arms locked around him before he could reach it, wind surging past as he flew above swiping claws and tumbled over hard stone. A hand snatched him up in an instant, forcing him into a sprint, breath choking in his throat with a spike of white-hot agony through his ribs that nearly blanked his vision.

When he came to, he’d been thrust behind a crumbling wall, vaguely aware of others shivering silently in the shadows, the roar of flames all around them.

Cool fingers touched at his throat, and his body twitched away, the sound of a snarl sending panic shooting down his spine. They were too vulnerable here—

Hands pressed him firmly back against stone as his heel scraped the ground, pinning him, light abruptly burning his eyes. And he realised the sound had come from him even as he jerked against the grip, instinctively struggling to tear loose.

“Stop. Seih. Listen. Seih.” Winds’ voice reached his ears, quiet and intense, and he gasped for breath, locking himself rigid. “Seih, can you hear me?”

“Ged,” he groaned, heaving in a breath that threatened to turn into something else and grinding his teeth. “It took him.”

“I know. He did his best.”

A ragged laugh shook him. Or he meant it to be, at least. It came out with a clicking edge—a churring rattle he cut off, slamming his eyes closed. “I’m joining him.”

Winds didn’t answer for a moment. “I can heal you. I will heal you.”

His eyelids fluttered open, and he looked down at his arm to see threads of black creeping across his skin. “Winds.” Meeting golden eyes, he clenched that hand in the other’s tunic. “Don’t. If I become one, I won’t be myself. Ged knew that. I know that. But they can be saved. I—”

He choked off as howls rose through the night, drilling into his ears, seeking into his soul, demanding an answer.

No.

He clenched his teeth, twitching as he fought against it, gasping in a ragged breath with a whimpering edge, barely aware of Winds dimming, moving away but not lifting his hand from Seih’s shoulder. His fingers spasmed, a click coughing in the back of his throat as he shifted in an attempt to escape the burning lodged under his ribs, the rasp of cloth in his ears lost under the ebbing rise/fall of howls and the pounding of his heart.

He could... he could see it. Could see the blackness spiralling out from Firemount’s centre across all ten dominions, Shadows and twisted, screaming souls thirsting for blood, miasma pumping in their veins.

Saw streets littered with slumped bodies, saw family members clutching their gasping loved ones as they thrashed and fought against the Darkness consuming them. Everywhere he looked.... No Light, no hope, nothing but pitch-black, suffocating Darkness.

Like the last guttering flicker of a candle, he saw Brei, soothing the feverish forehead of a child, the echoes of a blackening, jagged mountain reflecting in her eyes as she gazed up. Her lips moved soundlessly, breathing his name.

“Ahk—” The back of his skull ground against the ruined wall, his eyelids clenching tight, his teeth locked desperately together against the howls drawing closer, hungry yellow eyes boring into his soul, reaching for him—

And he saw the temple, the quiet, abandoned halls winding down into a chamber lit with the faintest of glows from a dragon’s Scale, so dull. Almost gone, snuffed out; cut off from the light of the moons.

"Hh-h." His eyelids flickered, black veins creeping in at the edges of his vision, barely aware of his ragged, whimpering breaths; the fire flaring to clutch his heart, his head tilting back of its own volition, air catching in his throat—

A glimmer stirred within that dull stone— a spark.

|The Light illuminates, and the Light sees.|

His eyes blazed open, a gasp of sweet air filling his drowning lungs, pure white blooming in his vision. A flash, rising through the tunnels, bursting free of the Temple in a brilliant beam.

And the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard rose above the grating screams of Shadows—a pure note swelling, shaking and cracking the darkness covering the sky.

A howl.

A song.