so remember ______'s melody

“I never wanted to see you like this,” Pearce said, retrieving his staff and gripping it tight. The technique made Zane think of how Lucian held his staff as he hummed and calmed the queen. “Lucian. Why have you taken Blythe? What are you telling him?”

“Hey—I chose to be here,” Zane said. A soft sob filled the empty space—he had a feeling Lucian wouldn’t have much to say right now, but that was just fine. Zane had more than a few things he wanted to unload on this guy. “And stop talking like that. You killed someone, just own it instead of throwing on your bullshit justifications after the fact!”

Pearce donned the behavior of a fellow mourner; capturing the image of someone who cared, though the bow laid at his feet. “She left for a reason. Yet you brought her back—I wish you stopped to ask yourselves why, before it was too late. Before I had to do the unthinkable.”

A breathy sigh. Pearce acted as if the years caught up to him, but Zane knew better. He knelt and scooped up a handful of dirt, shoving it into his ears. Shay wasted no time doing the same, albeit with more confusion.

Pearce said something. Fuzzy, almost undefined, but even Zane’s best efforts didn’t block out the words completely: “And I’ll do this as many times as it takes to heal our world.”

He began to sing.

If Calm could soothe even a terrible beast, to what ends did soothing melodies carry a life?

The dirt muddled the melody, but a gnawing pit in Zane’s gut formed, and he turned to see Lucian slump over. He ran over and wasted no time shoving fistfuls of dirt into Lucian’s ears before the song reached his heart.

An immense talent over Calm—songs meant to soothe and slow became songs meant to stop. Stop one’s will to fight, one’s heart, organs, until you it drove you to a gentle death.

Pearce wasn’t one for combat. He conducted the swan song and wore his opponents down, delivering them eternal rest.

Zane wouldn’t go down quietly. But saving Lucian meant leaving himself open.

“What kinda excuses are you spouting!?”

A clang rung out from behind Zane. He turned around and saw Shay collapse, hammer knocked out of his hands. Pearce doubled back, and Shay scrambled to get his weapon back as Pearce resumed the song.

Shay protected them—it wasn’t the first time, which meant Zane had another favor to repay the asshole for. As Zane rolled out of the way, Shay continued to rant. “You’ll do what? Kill a creature for no reason!? At least I had a reason!”

Your reason sucked, too, Zane thought, before shaking his head and diving. His dropping strength weighed each step down, but he had just enough focus to throw a hand over Pearce’s mouth, kneeing him in the stomach.

The older man braced himself—and shoved Zane to the ground. “She led you here. That’s reason enough. Better than exterminating monsters, harvesting their food to line your pockets.”

Shay grit his teeth, looking down. Pearce sucked in a breath, swinging his staff at Zane and knocking him down again. “Zane—send my apologies to this one’s father. But this one must die here.”

Always a must. Always what he had to do.

Then, Zane would—

“No!”

Lucian jumped over, slamming Pearce in the head and sending him to the ground. A gasp, and the man crumpled, pursing his lips as the green energy of Happiness faded from Lucian’s heels; he readied his staff, looking down at Pearce until the trembling in his legs sent him down.

Pearce, for a second, seemed sad, as if someone like him could feel that way without burying the feeling.

But he buried it all the same, just as Zane knew he would. Then he began to sing—exactly as he did before. Zane knew there’d be no more talking, the sliver of song filtering through his dirt packed ears knocking the wind out of his lungs. They had a few minutes to fell Pearce before the song caused them to fall unconscious.

“I’ll keep him distracted,” Zane said. “You two’ll think of something like before.”

Zane reared a fist back. Pearce dodged, maneuvering around each swing and kick Zane delivered. The scramble of footsteps kicked up clouds of dirt as Shay and Lucian scattered for their plan—the unspoken agreement of the people he’s somehow placed his trust in.

Well, Shay was a different matter—

Pearce’s staff smacked Zane’s face, bringing him back to reality. Zane tackled Pearce, but he kept singing, pursing his lips before throwing Zane off.

Digging his heels in, Zane re-launched his assault. Big, wide, predictable swings.

He had to save something new for when it mattered most. Pearce looked on in disappointment as he grabbed Zane’s fist and tossed him again—Zane got back up.

He hit the ground and reality faded, but he got back up.

The world swam, the ground shook underfoot (or maybe his legs did, Zane tried not to think about it), but he got up again. Again, again—

Pearce’s song changed.

Zane thought he heard it at a funeral once. A send-off to their souls.

A flash of white light.

Not the light of the beyond, but the light of Calm—someone grabbed Zane’s arm and yanked him back, as Pearce’s song stopped, a yelp cutting it off.

“Good thing I brought my bag of supplies! You never know when you’ll need a few yards of rope, or some steel balls, or some pliers, or a bear trap, or—”

“You used a bear trap on Pearce?”

“Eh. No, I passed on that thing, in case we wanted the sucker alive.”

Damn it. Zane almost thanked Shay for once. When the light faded, Pearce’s legs were tied—and a makeshift rope trap laid at his feet. Shay jumped to bind rope into Pearce’s mouth before the man got his bearings back, and Zane stumbled over to bind his hands too.

Lucian collapsed. “I—my heart, it feels funny…”

“It’ll go back to normal,” Zane said. “Just don’t fall asleep.”

“But I’m so tired…”

“I’ll come over and slap you awake, just don’t sleep or I’ll kill you.”

“Okaaay…”

Pearce struggled against his restraints, but the funny thing about Calm was that most of its offense laid in its defense—take away the weapon and the words, and they didn’t have much to work with. They got lucky dealing with just this guy.

Zane frowned. The tunnel out of the little chamber seemed empty. The mourning Sparks began to listlessly burrow, as if trying to find somewhere to be with the loss of their Queen. “Did he come alone? Really?”

“Doesn’t matter, what’re we gonna do with the critters?” Shay jabbed a thumb at the Sparks.

“Well,” Zane nudged Shay, “what do you wanna do?”

…

“…Can the damn bugs get along with another colony?”

“Probably. Might as well try. I’ll go ahead and get some ore to lead them with—you make sure Lucian doesn’t fall asleep.”

“And that guy?” Shay pointed at Pearce.

Right, that guy. “Eh, we taught him a lesson. Lucian can put him to sleep once we’re ready to go.”

Then they’d dump him outside the village and move on. Hopefully beating up a Guardian put them in some kind of good graces with the Dwim here—

A shiver traveled through Zane’s spine. The sound of metal clacking against pebbles in the soil traveled through the tunnel from far, far away. Metal meant many things—but Dwim’s historically used leather-based armor due to the landscape. Traditional stiff knight armor often adorned the knights of Vitam.

He didn’t come alone.

And the three of them, exhausted, were sitting ducks for a hoard of knights to pick apart. Pearce gazed at them with pity, then said no more.