Divided by Hostilities (Chapter 10)

[jiminee]

 Chapter 9

“What are you doing here?” Zisteau asked. He spoke with the same loud tone he’d employed in the case of last night’s traveller, but it was clear that he had lost his sense of authority. Guude stayed silent, watching.
“I came because I am needed. I believe you two are trying to decide whether to continue fighting or call off the war, am I correct?”
Zisteau was taken aback. “How did you know that?”
“I know a lot. I know that nobody here wants to be fighting, with the possible exception of yourself. But you have never really believed what you are doing is right.”
Conversation began in the crowds, and Zisteau reddened. “You’re wrong,” he said louder.
Aureylian shrugged. She turned to Guude. “What do you want?” she asked simply.
“I – I don’t really want to be fighting, you’re right. But we really need to know who you are, and what you’re doing,” Guude said.
She nodded, and then whispered something to herself. With pieces of wood she built a platform, placing a ladder against its side. She ascended the ladder, standing at the top of the platform so she was raised above both kings’ and the armies’ heads. She raised her voice, and began to speak.
“I am Aureylian, and I mostly just fix things. I don’t go around setting disasters right and stopping wars, though. I come after you take the initiative to change. I come from fire. I believe some of you Daedalians, looking towards the city of Abattia over there might have seen something significant this morning.”
There was a small murmur among the Daedalians. Some of them had indeed happened to glance up earlier, and seen the flames and smoke rising from the centre of Abattia.
“The fire summoned me. I came, and found many things in need of change. I’ll give you all guidance, but I cannot fix every single one of your mistakes.
The first thing to do is call off the fighting. Completely. Create an armistice that will last forever, no exceptions. For now, send your soldiers home and count the dead. I believe today should be considered a day of mourning.
Trust me. I can do many things that none of you are capable of, and I can promise you I mean everything I say.”
She climbed down off her makeshift podium, and began to dismantle it. A small smattering of applause rose uneasily from the crowd, as if it were unsure of the proper etiquette. Zisteau turned to her.
“Why should we listen to you?”
She smiled again. “It would be wise to. I’m not going to force you, but I have power beyond anything you can imagine.”
“Prove it!” someone called from the crowds. Laughter rippled through.
“Okay. Let’s make it stop raining,” she said. She whispered some words, and the rain stopped. The sun began to shine brighter as the clouds dissolved. There was some noise from the crowds.
“Okay, you can change the weather,” Zisteau said. There was no hiding the obvious amusement in his voice. “I’m scared.”
Aureylian raised an eyebrow. She whispered the mysterious words again and clouds instantly formed. A bolt of lightning seared the air between her and Zisteau, causing his horse to rear back. He calmed the panicking animal as the clouds dissolved once again, and stared at Aureylian.
“Do you get it now?” she asked. The cheerfulness had almost left her voice and she sounded different now, almost dangerous.
Zisteau nodded, clearly afraid. “What are we supposed to do?”
But Aureylian had turned to Guude. He was talking to her now, clearly happy at being able to do so for once.
“Let your soldiers return home. Remember to send somebody out to count and identify the dead.” Aureylian said.
“Okay,” Guude said. “Thank you. For stopping all this.”
“Don’t thank me,” she said.
“Who should I thank, then?”
Aureylian paused, and then smiled a little. “There are too many people to list, and so many of them have played a part in stopping this battle. Even the tiniest action can have a huge effect.”
“I understand,” Guude said. “But I’m still a little confused as to why you’re here.”
“I’m here,” she said, “because it’s clear everyone needs a bit of a guiding light right now.” She turned to Zisteau again, her tone changing. It was becoming clear that she had a different view of Zisteau than of Guude. “Be careful playing with fire,” she said, looking him straight in the eye.

This was the worst job, Millbee thought. He was walking around the potholed, bloodstained mess that had been the battlefield, looking for bodies and writing down the identification. He wondered why he’d been chosen, but Zisteau had told him to do it and he was going to do it, despite the horrible fear that he would stumble upon the body of one of his friends. He was glad Pause had turned up before, though: he’d come and sat silently down by Millbee while the mysterious woman had been talking, and they’d exchanged quiet, joyful hugs. He’d seen Pyro and Arkas as well, but Avidya was missing; well, Millbee prayed that he was just missing, instead of the far worse alternative.
As he discovered another body, feeling happy that it wasn’t Avidya but sad that it was just another citizen, someone he’d never get to know, Millbee noticed a man walking around on the Daedalian side of the battlefield. He was presumably doing the same dirty job as he was. Might as well have a chat.
“Hey!” he called. The other man looked up, waved, and drew closer. He was wearing a garish orange suit, and had brown hair slicked back.
“Hi,” he said. “Counting bodies?”
“Yeah,” Millbee said mournfully. “I’m Millbee.”
“My name’s MC. I hate this job,” replied the man.
“I’m just so afraid I’ll find the body of someone I know.” Millbee said. It felt nice to have someone understand what he was going through.
“Right. I mean, I’m glad the war’s over though.” MC said.
Millbee nodded. He thought of the strange, beautiful woman who had come and changed everything so unexpectedly. She was a miracle really, and everything these two kingdoms needed.
“I know what you’re thinking,” MC said, smiling a little. “She was something, wasn’t she?”
“That was kind of crazy. Do you think she’s a – a goddess or something?” Millbee said.
“I don’t know. But she’s obviously very powerful, she can change the weather and she seems to know so much…”
“This is weird,” Millbee said suddenly. “We’d never met until about a minute ago, and already we’re talking like friends. But we were supposed to believe that we’d be enemies, we were supposed to just kill each other and our friends.”
“I know,” MC sighed. “I hated it.”
“I’m so glad it’s over.”

Paul Soares was gone. Paul was dead. Vechs was lying on his bed with nothing as the world seemed to implode again.
The man had come. He was the one who counted the bodies – his name was MC – and he somehow knew who Paul’s friends had been. He’d told Vechs, quietly and regretfully, of Paul’s death. He’d asked if Vechs wanted to know how he died. Vechs almost said no, but finally nodded and the man told him he had died to an arrow.
It was unbelievable. Just seconds ago, it felt like, Vechs had been taunting Paul, making fun of his age. That was after he thought he had died. Vechs didn’t want to, but he couldn’t help recall the sickening sight of the arrow sticking up out of Paul’s collarbone. He’d given him the golden apple, insisting he take it as a precaution.
His thoughts were everywhere. Vechs tried to stop himself, but he was crying now and couldn’t stop. This was the worst part of the war. Not the fighting, not the heat or the cold or the rain, not the weariness. This was why it was so terrible.  Vechs balled his fists, anger now throbbing in his veins. He hated this, hated Guude and Zisteau and whoever had killed Paul. Paul had been like his father, always a friend, always excited about whichever adventure he would take next. He’d told Vechs stories, given him advice, and always been there. Imagining him gone was impossible.
Vechs must have been lying there for hours when somebody came and sat on his bed. He hadn’t heard anyone come in, so he was startled when he felt something heavy land on his mattress. He looked up, wiping away the tears that blurred his vision. He was surprised to see the mysterious woman from the battlefield, Aureylian, sitting there.
“What – why are you in my house?” he said, trying to keep his voice steady.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“No. I just found out one of my oldest friends, Paul was – was killed in battle.” He tried not to blubber, but he knew he must look like a mess.
“He didn’t have to die. None of them did,” she said gently.
“Why did he, then?” Vechs said.
“Greed, power, war,” she said.  “Same reason the others died.”
“Don’t you have magic powers? Couldn’t you save them?” Vechs said pleadingly.
“Human life and death is one thing I can’t control.”
“What are you?” Vechs said, half accusingly and half curiously. He didn’t understand Aureylian. She did what she wanted, seemed to know everything, and had strange powers. Now she was just sitting on his bed, comforting him over the death of his friend despite them never having met properly before.
“There’s a lot I can’t explain,” Aureylian said. “But I will tell you this: I understand your world more than anybody living here does, and I am something greater than a human being. More than you will ever know.”
Vechs was dissatisfied and still confused at her vague answer. “So what do you do?”
“I help people. At the moment I’m helping you, but soon I will have to go to the other people who are affected.”
She got up and looked at him. “The sadness won’t last forever, you know.” She turned to the door.
“Thanks,” Vechs said, at a loss for anything else to say. She left, and Vechs noticed that he felt less miserable. He was still hurt, of course, but he was less angry. He didn’t know how, but something told him he would be okay.

They met up under the tree again. Beef somehow knew Pause would know to come, so he made his way out to the huge old oak once again; just like old times. Only it wasn’t the same, and he knew that thing would never be the same because Etho had been killed.
It was unfair. Nobody deserved it. Beef wouldn’t wish it on anyone. He’d spent most of the afternoon alternating between crying, staring blankly at things, and wondering why. He’d wanted to be alone at first; after the man had come to tell him the bad news he’d slammed the door shut. He regretted it; it was rude, but he wasn’t thinking.
After that, he felt the need to talk to Pause. Spending weeks talking to him in the forest and three days beside him in a cell had instilled in him an instinct to tell Pause every tiny piece of news. They were best friends now, he guessed, despite Pause’s crush on him – a subject Beef always found himself avoiding thinking about – but best friend had always been Etho in his mind. Etho. Beef kept staring at the trees, staring at the sky, and staring out across the wasteland until he saw the familiar figure of Pause coming. He stood up as Pause stepped over the fence and walked towards him, holding out his arms. He could see that Pause had also been crying.
“I knew you’d be here,” Pause said, coming closer. They hugged for the second time that day. Neither said another word, but Beef knew that Pause had lost somebody as well. They stayed like that for a while, crying silently into each other’s shoulders.
After a while Pause pulled away gently, and went over to the tree. Beef followed, sitting down in the grass again and looking at Pause’s sad eyes.
“It was Etho,” he said. “He was always – he just always put up with me. I always just assumed when I got out of that cell I would see him again. He was great.” Beef stumbled over his words, the sadness choking him up.
Pause nodded. “I don’t know what to say, because at the moment I’m just trying to comprehend the concept of – he’s dead. Avidya. I think it was worse for my friend Millbee though. He found the body.”
Beef looked at him, and understood how he felt. He knew Pause understood too, that they were both feeling the same things.
“We don’t deserve this. They don’t deserve this.” Pause said. Beef leaned over and rested his head on Pause’s shoulder.  “I wish I could forget that he’s gone,” he said.
Pause leaned his head on Beef’s, and they stayed there. Beef was grateful; his world was collapsing, but it was comforting to have somebody to hold onto.

 

Comments

[gummy53]

;-; oh my god the feels why. you killed me. im dead. let me go into a corner for a sec.

[jiminee]

Writing this has brought out my evil side. Muahahaa *showers you with feels*

[gummy53]

*is overwhelmed by feels and explodes*

[(Anonymous)]

Ahhhh I love this story so so much, and every time a new chapter comes out I jump with excitement. So many tears though </3 <3 Feels.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm crying right now. Do you know how hard it is to make me cry? Very hard. T_T

-Eclipse

[(Anonymous)]

Oh my god the feels why ;_;