The Loose End

“Kael, are you listening?”

A boyish voice broke through the fuzz, cutting the background of softened bird calls and running water. As his eyes pricked open, the beautiful glare of golden sunlight flooded his vision, rubbed away by his softened hands.

He faintly remembered a hollow feeling that tore at his chest, plagued every inch of his brain. But each blink of his eyes dusted it into the background, outshone by the radiant sun.

“What?” He muttered, before the blur settled into a clearer picture, and the person before him didn’t fit at all.

Grey strands of fluffy hair marked the appearance of a person he thought to be lost to time, a curious look prevalent upon his features.

A heart skip at the sight, such a delightful head upon solid shoulders.

This man had not changed one bit, distinctly the same as the last time they’d crossed paths, down to each line of his face and clothes that he recognised. A solid hand gripped his forearm, greeted by a gentle shake as the dormant warmth spread across Kael’s chest.

“It’s only five, have you been sleeping poorly?” Nico smiled, teeth peeking out from behind chapped lips.

His dearest friend. The person he’d feared and longed to see the most since his rebirth, equal parts ashamed and desperate.

“No, I… I’ve been sleeping fine,” He murmured, reaching up to rub at his eyes for a second time as a little water welled up within them. Nothing changed.

The man before him seemed entirely unphased, as if they had never parted at all. Like he wasn’t staring at a ghost that walked and breathed as normal.

Was his vision betraying him? Had he finally gone mad?

“What are you doing here?” The words fell from Kael’s mouth, breathless. A strange part of him wanted to reach out and touch his friend, to verify he was truly there.

“We’ve been in classes all day? Have you hit your head?” Nico’s smile persisted, perhaps believing Kael to be pulling his leg. Another tease hiding its punchline from view.

Classes. That could only be in reference to the academy of scholars, cherished within the city walls. At least it was.

But… he remembered being told the academy shut down, closing its doors never to be opened again.

How strange, the memory was quite distant now, lost in a crowded array of faces.

“Where’s the Priestess?” Kael asked with the conviction of a man who wasn’t quite sure what answer they wished to hear, as if to place a paper boat upon the still surface of water. Would it sink or would it sail?

“Who’s that? You’re acting strange,” Nico replied, his laugh gradually falling to a state of minor concern. It sank.

This Nico hadn’t yet earned lines of stress etched into the space above his brow. Hadn’t yet fallen between the open pages of a history book, waiting to be forgotten.

His memories felt as though they were clouding, merging into one collective moment that blurred at the edges. How, scratch that, when did he get here?

Nothing seemed to make much coherent sense.

But there was one thing that he knew to be true, carved by the tip of an arrow onto the meaty flesh of his heart.

Daphne, the Priestess, was dead. Her lifeless body, Nico’s mourning face, his own plunge in the depths of an endless chasm - they were each firmly burnt into his memory.

This wasn’t the Nico Kael was searching for, aching to know where he went and how he ended up.

This Nico was none the wiser of what Daphne would become, what would happen to her, and the answers that neither of them had. Perhaps Kael was the lucky one, after her death, he was allowed to die, to deflect himself from being overcome by that pain.

Nico never had that luxury. He was condemned to live on without both, left to wonder why such a horrific incident had occurred. He could only wonder what had led to his friends turning on one another, left with no answers, no trail to follow.

Maybe that was why he’d disappeared into the unknown. Maybe the painful bloodstains that littered each memory were too hard to carry alone.

“I meant Daphne, where is she?” Kael tried to recover, his heart still pounding in hard beats in his chest at the sight of his former friend.

He faintly noted the absence of hair that rested upon his back. This body was full of youth, with bones that hadn’t yet stretched skin to accommodate them. His eyesight wasn’t as sharp as he last remembered it, not so quick to catch the action.

“I’m here, were you waiting?” Daphne bounced in, the slight heel to her flats clicking against the wooden boards as she entered under the wide arbour they resided under.

For a second, the sunlight that shone behind her appeared like a halo, cupping the pink strands of hair that kissed at her shoulders. Their Daphne, alive, stood there in the flesh. Her eyes still twinkled in her childish wonder, unbeknownst to the weight of a city she’d carry one day.

Oblivious to what would become of her, of the fate she held, and that her killer stood a mere metre away.

This Daphne was ever so simple, stripped of the endless layers of jewellery and pearls that defined the image of the Priestess.

“Daph! Did you bring the sweet bread?” Nico asked, rising from the log he’d been sat upon, shy cheer rising the intonation of his voice.

When she presented him with a basket, he dug through the pastries, selecting one for himself, and tossing one to Kael.

“How were your classes?” She spoke ever so quietly, pulling bite-sized chunks from the body of her bread. Her other hand focused its concentration on a quill, guiding the inked tip against a spare piece of parchment paper. On the page, the body of a fleeting bird set flight, magnificent wings represented in each careful stroke of the feather.

So alive. So full of simple joy and carefree whispers.

“They were fine, but I think Kael hit his head. Let me have a look for a dent,” His friend joked, running circles around Kael as he tried to grasp at his scalp.

Ecstasy blossomed within his veins, a fullness he hadn’t felt in years flooding back in a tidal wave.

He knew it wasn’t real, merely a memory or a shallow dream, but he couldn’t bear to let go of it. When had a dream ever hurt anyone? He’d stay here, just for a little while. Drink in nostalgia, dine over fond words. Once he’d had his fill, he’d let his body wake, ready to face the reality that awaited - whatever that may be.

It certainly wouldn’t be going anywhere.

“Go away! You’re a nightmare,” Kael laughed, biting into the plush pastry, sponge layers springing back under the pressure.

For a while, he watched Nico and Daphne’s chatter in silence, enjoying the nostalgic sight of the pair of them. Ever full of life.

He followed them through the tall grass meadows that bordered White Lily City, danced within the shallow stream as water splashed between them, and rested his head between theirs, pillowed by mossy clumps.

“Tomorrow we’ll visit the next town over, I’ve all but run out of the sweets you gave me, Nico,” Daphne announced, her hands busy fiddling with loose strands of grass. Within her grasp, she twisted them into delicate twine, in the same fashion that she sometimes had with her hair.

She spoke absentmindedly as she continued her work.

“And the day after we’ll head further north. We can fish for our keep. We’ll find shelter beneath the tallest willows and bask in the sunset. At night we’ll watch the stars, just as they will watch over us. After that, we’ll return in a boat and sail for a few days at leisure. Kael will navigate while I’ll keep watch for landmarks, Nico can fetch us a dinner that will leave us full. We could do it all together.”

Her sparkling eyes filled with expectant glee, met by the chaste nod of Nico, who mumbled along in agreement.

But Kael had fallen very still.

A stray thought crossed over in his mind, chasing away whatever image he’d begun to muster up in his mind. It was something unwanted, yet impossible to push down.

The serenity had shattered, a mirror with a thousand jagged pieces and a ghastly reflection that stared back.

What would make her volunteer him as the navigator? He’d always been quite useless at it.

Their first sail together had been at the hands of himself, leading them so far astray they’d made him swear to never lay hands on a compass again. Ever since, Nico had kept a promise that no matter where they travelled, he would take charge, even if he complained through it.

It seemed slightly absurd, he remembered sailing not all that long ago, beside two others. Not the companions that lay either side of him, but a pair that carried a greater baggage, that had already been burnt by the hot iron of the world.

And just then, his mind landed upon a place far away from here. A place that was not of the land his childhood companions lived within, but of an entirely separate life.

“When can we fit in Dusk Town? You said you wished to visit, on which day will we head there?” He asked, very careful to keep his tone free from anything that might give the game away.

An eager nod followed suit.

“We’ll slot it in before we return,” She hummed, so absentminded that the thought seemed to entirely pass her by.

Dusk Town. It didn’t belong.

It probed memories that she hadn’t been there to experience, of a time painted in the company of another. A place her hands had never touched, her lips had never spoken of.

But she’d agreed without a thought, as if he had spoken only the truth.

As if she wasn’t Daphne at all.

As if she was a projection of what he wanted to see.

And then he was certain, this wasn’t a dream or a memory at all - but an illusion.

Cast by an outside party. Playing with the memory of his friends like they were dolls to be toyed with.

“You don’t own these bodies. Who are you?” Kael demanded as he scrambled to be seated, glaring eyes cast down on his two ‘friends.’

The people before him never forgave a reaction, never attempted to deny it.

Not even as the world crumbled around them, falling into piles of rubble that revealed the dim reality, vacant of the joy from just moments before.