What I Must Do

“Daim!” Zida yelled, Kohr now instantly appearing some distance from the liege, having altered reality yet again. But this time, something was different. The effects of the strike he’d just received were stillnotable, meaning Daim’s plan had worked.

Zida was eager to find out what had occurred, joining Daim by his side as they analyzed the situation.

“Kohr’s blasts are a form of light scripts,” Daim explained, “He concentrates the light that emanates from drawing scripts into an unbreakable projectile that he then launches at his target. But what most light script users can’t accomplish is how to manipulate natural light.”

As Daim spoke, Zida eyed Kohr’s unmoving stance, like a deliberate invitation to try and unravel the enigma before them. Was it encouragement, or perhaps resignation? Zida contemplated, unable to decide if the general had conceded the fight or was simply stalling for time.

“Kohr, is in fact, able to manipulate natural light,” Daim continued, “Such a skill awarded him tremendous advantages, but at a cost. It required too much focus and could leave him vulnerable. To think he could now use it to accomplish this is beyond my imagination.”

Daim placed his palm to the ground, calmly chanting, “Return to space.”

Kohr reappeared before him, knocked to the floor as he once was. Daim held his palm firmly to his head, uttering, “Direct contact.” Kohr dropped like a dead weight, his consciousness escaping his body.

Daim’s ratio script board reappeared beneath their feet, stretching all the way to the fractured remains of the library. Zida offered no reaction, merely deferring to the world unfolding in front of them.

With Toyo remaining trapped in her panic, Sina tried everything she could to reach her, begging for her to come back to her senses. Though the cut to her neck wasn’t deep enough to be fatal, the shock clung to her, stained across her writhing body.

Sine knew a medical script to steady her mind, but so long as the barrier remained sealed tight, none of her scripts would activate. With her eyes locked on the guard, she weighed her dwindling options. Time slipping through her fingers.

“Unresolved pain can break through the tallest walls. Spread like a disease and bringing everything down with it,” the guard ranted as he glared upon Sina, his expression disturbingly blank. It was that emptiness that confounded Sina the most. She’d noticed before as well, from the moment her eyes met with the face of the man who’d ignited this horror.

“I’ll admit, being able to erect an enclosed barrier script in this garden, and without a base medium was expected. Barely an inch away from the urumar trees… I misjudged you Ayurs yet again.”

Sina was irritated by the guard, his words of praise striking her like poison, a distaste brewing within her as he carried on.

“Ayurs, no matter how much I try, are the only race of people that I can’t reach. The fortitude within you people is unmovable… It absolutely disgusts me.”

“What do you want?” Sina roared at the guard, unable to put up with him any further.

His expression unraveled, revealing the wrath held beneath, yet as he spoke he whispered softly, “Just to quiet the screaming heart of a young boy that has suffered long enough.”

A yellow hue suddenly filled his irises as he placed his hand against the barrier. “You should have expanded the barrier a few more millimeters,” he chimed before building a barrier of his own around hers, its walls having less than a centimeter of space between it and the surrounding urumar trees.

Sina clutched Toyo close, resignation befalling upon her. As the walls conjoined, Sina’s barrier shattered.

The guard’s eyes returned to normal, and the barrier dissipated. He then glared down upon Sina as she stared back upon him. And in a flat voice, he bestowed upon Sina and Toyo his final words of grace.

“You’re going to die today.”

At the outskirts of the shopping district, Daku stood over the man’s limp body, unmoving as his last words echoed in her head. “May you show your hand, child.”

Pressing her fingers against his neck, the stillness was striking. “Will all of this be worth it?” she murmured to the now lifeless body.

Turning her gaze towards the horizon, she was overcome with a feeling of conflict. For once, her heart wavered, struggling to come to terms with what lay in the palms of her hands.