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This is actually a one-shot intentionally, but it took two scenes to finish the one POV, so the second POV will be in another chapter, m’kay? So, no, no story, just the two chapters methinks, after all, I only just finished up to Lyude this evening.
Piers: I loath new fandoms…
Guardian Angel
Part 1
“But, my spirit didn’t agree with me, so… We erased its memory back in Moonguile forest…” The flames crawling within the walls seem to flare and fall as the words ricocheted off of them, echoing through the vast caverns around us. Lights, the predominant red and ruby hues of the magma flowing around us, the fading whites of the Imperial firearms, the flashes and glitters of gold from the five End Magnus, cast a tirade of colours into my eyes, blurring my vision. My eyes are paining me, both burning from this deeply rooted despair and disbelief at what my mind is accepting as truth, and stinging from the beads of sweat dripping down into them. Beads which are freakishly chill despite the consuming heat around us.
“Why don’t you snap out of it! Don’t you get it yet? No one wants you here, there’s no place for you in this world!” Laughter, the chilling cackles and brilliant lights drown out everything around me, washing away the heat as I feel only frigid cold.
“No, Kalas, no!” The words are torn from my throat as I choke them out, in a daze I feel myself lumbering forwards, my limbs feeling as if cast in iron and dragging me down. All to abruptly though, I taste copper filling my mouth, a weak pain pushing through my clouded mind as rough words are flung out into the air in a voice I don’t recognize.
“Look at my beautiful wings! I am complete! I feel the power of the great Malpercio!” I can only choke on the thick fluid filling my throat, my leaden limbs dragging me back and down as another blow is delivered to my ribs. In a rush I feel that copper being sprayed out past my lips, less than I had thought, but causing me pain none the less. A pair of arms catches me though as I make to fall backwards to the scorching ground.
“Xelha!” The voice sounds to far away to hear, but then it echoes loudly in my mind, as if bringing me back from the confusion marking my thoughts. The arms which caught me, one is around behind my shoulders, keeping my head up as I cough abruptly, spitting away the blood from my bleeding mouth, the other hand is gripping my wrist loosely. Words fly out around me, but it’s a cry from the one holding onto me which forces my vision clear, my arm moving from the hold around it to clasp hands with the person abruptly, my eyes focusing on what’s happening before me.
Harsh white is circling around him, two full wings ruffling majestically from his back. That brilliance is painful to the eyes, his own are blank, his face twisted in a look of insane pleasure, screaming out to the world as his hair flares wildly around his face, the woven cords around his head askew as he lifts his arms up in a triumphant manner. This… this is the man I’ve looked to for comfort so many times? This is, my friend and companion? This is… who Kalas really is?
My thoughts are mimicked, as the light isn’t only from Kalas’s wings and the End Magnus glimmering around him, a fourth source of energy drowning out that of the flames yet more so. To call it light really wouldn’t be right, this doesn’t cast a shadow against the ground and those of us around it. Instead of glowing, it is simply spread out through the air, and the entire cavern is charged with wordless emotions.
Male or female, I really can’t tell, that haze shrouding the figure which may or may not even hold a human like appearance. Deep panes of anger, betray, sadness, frustration, and many other nameless emotions ripple outwards from Kalas’s guardian spirit, what appear to be thread-like fibers connecting the spirit to Kalas become visable.
I don’t think he can even feel the sickly dread and pain crawling across my skin, and that of the others around me. The arm around my shoulders tightens marginally as I grip the person’s hand all the more seeking comfort of my own. The soldiers guarding us shuffle slightly at the display, seeming at a loss for words as the five of us remain frozen, not even trying to use this as an opportunity to escape.
“Kalas!” I cry out, trying one last time. But, he doesn’t even turn towards me now, I don’t even think he did the first time. His voice rises up above mine, drowning out my words as that haze becomes more and more defined, growing thicker as if some power were amassing behind it.
“You’re game is over! Now leave, and don’t ever come back!” His head flies back, his shoulders hitching up and down as that insane cackling returns, chilling me to the bone despite sores forming on my legs from half-laying across the burning stones.
I can feel the darkness coming, be it the true might of Malpercio, or the simple dread welling deep within my soul, it crawls sickeningly across my vision, blotting the world out inch by inch. The world, it just stops existing, fading away with the haze of the Spirit we as a group have come to know and respect, to draw strength from, to derive hope from. That guiding light, always so sure of the trust between each of us, I can watch it flickering out as the most important bond is not only damaged, nor simply broken, but shattered, tightly bound ropes of friendship and trust fraying fiber by fiber, and unwound completely.
Our Gracious Spirit is giving up… our Light in the Shadows is flickering away… our Ray of Hope isbeing blotted out… our Guardian Angel is loosing it’s wings…
I feel beaten, I feel broken, I feel completely and utterly lost. But, I’ve been this way before, I’ve been through similar things as this, so why is it now so much harder? More difficult to think, to feel, to smile, to act? Where are you, Spirit? Why am I all alone now? I know it wasn’t to me you were bound. But, ever since my companions were lost to me in the forest, the same one in which you lost all of your memories, you’ve always been there for me in part… Where, oh where is your gentle warmth now, Spirit? Now, when I need it most…
‘Xelha…?’
My eyes open into the darkness, seeing nothing of the cell I know is closed around me; the layers upon layers of metals and wires, keeping me entombed within the fortress of the Empire. But, I open my eyes none the less, only to have a gentle keen come to me in the darkness. My heart falls farther than I had thought it had risen since I was placed here.
“Meemai…” I call softly into the dark, the shadows dispelled for a brief moment before the details are swallowed up yet again. “Meemai, what’s wrong?” Another keen answers my words, but cannot feel enough drive to pull the meaning from the long cry.
‘X--la…’
I wonder; laying my head back down on the thin pillow tossed here into my cell, a fading glimmer of warmth across my arm and shoulder fading into the chill of the room itself. I wonder though, what will become of me, and the world itself… Will I be executed as was planned in Sudal Suud? Even if they order it done, will there even be time for something like that before everything ends.
We failed… we failed so horribly, so miserably, so terribly. We knew what was at stake, we knew what we were fighting for, didn’t we? Oh… Oh, Kalas, how could you do this to us? To me? I thought we were friends… you wanted revenge on Giacomo, I know you did, and the Spirit did to! But you got that revenge with our help, not hers!
Why, why, why? Why, Kalas, why? What did she do that we couldn’t? Why did her method of trading in the world for nothing entice you more than saving the world and gaining everything?
‘Xelh-!’
My eyes are again open, this time I know they were closed before, as I open them to sudden light, catching the rest of it before it fades once more into the inky dark. I hear Meemai squeal yet again, her plush seal-like body bouncing a number of times before her blue-speckled form is lost to my eyes. I seat myself up straight on the small cot, feeling a definite tingle along the backs of my shoulders, one which trails down my spine and arms before vanishing again. My eyes can only search in vain though in the darkness, and I slowly feel myself beginning to buckle down yet again at the sick feeling of hopeless dread weighing me down. My cry into the shadows from both mind and mouth is weak…
“Spirit…?”
‘Xel--! It’s m--! Are ---right?’
No, it’s too hard… Fading snags of words, how do I know it isn’t simply my mind playing tricks on me? The world may very well be unraveling around me as the light doesn’t shine, I just don’t know…
“I can’t… hear… You’re too far away…” I murmur softly, knowing, nothing is really there, just, weak fragments of hope.
‘-----!’
“Please…” I whisper, bringing my hands up, my shoulders being forced down by this unbearable weight as I hold my head, feeling as if I should weep yet without the will to even form a sob. “Give me strength… please… Spirit…”
‘…’
Silence, I feel it wrapping itself around me so tightly, like a blanket of shadows choking out the light as it flickers weakly again. Not real, our Guardian is gone, what was I thinking, calling out into the darkness? Anyone who heard me now probably think I’m insane… Meemai croons softly, and I find myself staring through the inky dark towards the sound, it seems to cut through the silence for a moment.
I feel… like I have to stand. I find my feet under me not a moment later, although I feel as though I shouldn’t be able to support myself. My hands climb up, clasping just under my chin, my face lowered towards the cold ground of my cell. There isn’t any sound, there isn’t any light, I see and hear nothing at all, feeling only the air slowly fill my lungs before a faint breath slips past my parted lips. As I exhale, I feel a blanket of warmth being draped across my shoulders, like the warm embrace of a friend, a presence standing just behind me. There is a soft tug on my heart, something I can sense more than actually feel. I open my eyes, they must have drifted shut again, and I see light.
“Spirit…” I whisper softly, that burden; that pain of failure, that sting of betrayal, it’s still there, but, now I’m not holding it up alone. That presence behind me stands strongly, beaten and hurting, but strengthened now, a powerful resolve flowing from one soul into my own, steeling me as well.
‘Are you alright?’ The words are not really words at all; I always thought it was an actual form of speech from Guardian to human, but it isn’t really, the thoughts coming into my heart, nestling there and giving me hope, rekindling my will to act. It’s a glorious feeling…
“Yes, I am now. Thank you,” I say, my voice sounding so light to my own ears, I feel myself smiling, slowly, softly, but then it grows, and I feel that burden lightening for the both of us now. I laugh, the tight weight around my chest loosening, my mind clears now. Where I am is apparent, the weak light of the cell flickering out again and thrusting my world into darkness, but these shadows are hold nothing I cannot face. “You came back for me…”
‘I shouldn’t have gone; it was wrong of me. But I was so… Never mind. Hurry, we must find the others.’ I frown slightly as the emotions are cut off from me, the thought not completed as the Spirit directs my attention forwards. I remember though; the fragmenting bond between two souls, to a Spirit, it must be a very traumatic experience.
“Meemai, let’s go!” I call out, a gentle croon filling the air before a tiny bit of weight is added to my back, Meemai’s presence not something I need worry about at all though. I reach down towards my belt, undoing the small snap which keeps my magnus case closed.
“Don’t worry, Meemai, I’m going to set off a small explosion now, but we’ll be fine.” I say, slipping one of the slim decorative cards out, feeling the energy held within it, the warmth flowing down my arm. “We have our Guardian Angel back after all.”
As the metallic door of the Imperial prison is rendered from its hinges, I can feel the deep caress of the Spirit laughing softly. If only it knew how true my words really are.
