Story:Kings of Strife/Part 21

Part Twenty-One
The last thing Vainia remembered seeing before the light was Taoris’ concerned face. After it had flashed, she found everything had changed. The first thing she noticed was again Taoris’ grimacing face, at least until she realized that much of it was missing. What remained of him was the most terribly crushed form she had ever seen him in, almost to the point that he was unrecognizable. Without wanting to, she screamed and covered her eyes at the horrifying mass of bones and liquid skin in front of her. She heard a weak groan and then a chuckle. That meant that he was still alive, which gave her some relief.

She did not want to look, for it soon occurred to her that if Taoris was this badly mangled, what was left of Charlie and Santus might be even worse. “G-Gin… What was that? What just happened?” Vainia shivered as she heard his jaw scrape together and groan out an unintelligible moan. Clearly it would be a while before he could speak. “Don’t worry about it. I, um… I’m fine. I’m alright. Nothing hurts.” That was a lie, for her head ached from being slammed so forcefully into her hiding spot, but it wasn’t as grievous as that which plagued Taoris, and she knew he was concerned for her safety.

Grimly, her face fell when she realized the gravity of what exactly just swept through the city. Charlie and Santus were, without a doubt, dead. For a weapon with a magnitude that strong, that large, and that fast, the probability of it moving downtown and decimating the rioters was a very real possibility. That meant that even more people were certainly dead, both innocent people and active offenders. There had been no mercy.

Nolstuvainia Sestrum found herself shivering in the face of what she had survived through. What could have possibly caused this disaster? Never had she heard of such an occurrence; the flash had been like moving lightning, magnified in power and speed a thousand times. There had nothing she could read to study a random celestial attack like that, no real way to strategize and conquer it. Never had she met something she didn’t know about or could overcome, and nothing had ever taken her off guard like this. So many plans had been ruined; so many lives had been lost. She shed a tear, whimpered, and then another, before she wiped at her face in frustration.

This was weak of her! Never must Nolstuvainia Sestrum ever cry again, she mentally yelled to herself. Reaching forward with gentle yet timid hands, Vainia held together Gin’s mangled hands in the weak skin pockets they were covered in and let his almost entirely crushed body lean on hers. Moving slowly and supporting him, lest his remains splatter onto the ground and mix with the ashes left on the floor, she lay him down flat on his ruined back. His one remaining eye looked up at the sky with the same milky glaze it held before at the Black Castle, and he groaned. There was no discerning an emotion from his voice.

“I’m going back to the battlefield and then we’re going west to the forests. Come when you’re ready,” she whispered to Gin. He didn’t respond, but he blinked. The deed was done and he would eventually recover, hopefully, but for now Vainia filled herself with confidence in the face of her weakness and stood up.

She had to see for herself if anyone else had survived, and if they had, it was up to her to take control and lead them to a place where they can safely regroup. The focus of her intellect was no longer about a governor’s appointment; the game had changed, and she had to get a better perspective at it, so that she could make sure she would win, no matter what sadistic game it become.

Her face was hardened yet sad as she looked at what remained of the capitol building and the governor’s atrium. Gone completely were the tossed entrails and blood red walls, all replaced by sleet-like piles of ash and broken debris. The walls had been unevenly destroyed in that they were missing in some places but simply crumbled in others. Still, the coat and smell of ashes was so heavy around the area that she couldn’t even notice a spot where Charlie and Santus had died. Giving the matter a last shake of the head, she walked out of the ceiling-less room and examined the rest of the damage to the building.

The ruins could be called a building in the loosest sense. What was once a modern yet conservative staple of offices and boardrooms was now a barely standing collection of debris. No roof, walls, or windows had survived, and she could see that the same was true of the surrounding buildings, for the most part. There were no longer any tall buildings visible in the horizon. Apparently the beam had been wide enough to flatten what looked to be the entire cityscape, completely beyond repair.

As if it were still in awe of what happened, the city itself was silent. No longer did the roars and clashes of battle resound in the distance, nor did any construction bang on or traffic lights blink. Falling ashes covered everything in a blanket of mourning, and the wind had begun to pick up and move them around until a fine haze of human remains floated over the city like a crowd.

Vainia was disgusted by the thought of the ash and in awe of the complete destruction as she started to run towards where the riot had started. For the most part, everything was uniformly destroyed. Pavement was ripped up, exposing dirt, and the debris that wasn’t vaporized had been thrown about haphazardly, making what was once an orderly suburb be transformed into a post-apocalyptic warzone. There were no bodies to be seen anywhere.

It took her little over ten minutes to traverse the mile distance she was from the riot. Once she arrived, the diminutive woman found herself gazing at what she would likely never forget.

In her emergence, she hadn’t heard it, but now the cries from the square were almost deafening. For the first time in the city, perhaps because of how dense the populace was, there were corpses and wounded who hadn’t been completely vaporized. The bodies hung off of broken structures or were tossed about the area, many with gruesomely broken wounds and destroyed structures. Their collective moans and cries were slow yet consistently loud, giving the ash and blood covered area an atmosphere of a grim funeral. As appropriate as this was, it was proven fact to Vainia as she walked ever closer to the throng of death and stepped over various rocks and upturned chunks of ground. Like a larger version of the city hall’s final room, the streets and surrounding ruins were covered in gore and viscera.

Her arrival only served to further increase the collective pain of the crowd. As she walked closer to the crowd, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape, but otherwise as normal as ever, those still alive cried out and prostrated themselves among the floor in her presence. As if she were a divine savior or even the perpetrator of the celestial attack, they screamed from fear or respect and held their hands out for her to touch. It was never spoken, but all of them wanted her to heal them. They wanted her to help them.

It was then that she realized that their energetic response to her presence was all because she was the only person who looked unaffected by the calamity. Out of every other person not vaporized, only Vainia was not caked in ash, missing a limb, or somewhat burned, and the blood on her clothes was obviously not hers. As she gazed over pained, tearful, and even relieved faces of victims from afar, she could understand their feelings of reverence towards her, no matter how misguided it was. If she could have survived the attack as untouched as she apparently was, there was something about her that obviously deserved their respect.

In the face of this, Nolstuvainia felt more helpless than she ever had. Everything around her was dead, broken, or dying. There was nothing she could do about it and no way to save all these people’s lives. Worse yet; they wanted her to heal them and to be idolized by them. It was overwhelming and she grimaced as her body began to shiver. She was completely terrified by the looks in their eyes, pleading and crying and yearning for her. Riot soldier, rebellion member, or innocent civilian, their identity did not matter; all of them were looking to her, the sole one completely unharmed. They needed her. This was something she knew of in her home country, expected even, but never before had she seen it in person, especially not in a nation she had never visited before.

The wounded touched her.

Soon she began to see that they were doing more than touching her. Next she felt it in her ego as it began to swell. The wounded strengthened her.

Only a minute or two passed before Vainia’s fear dissipated and she began to look at the people around her with green eyes blazing with enthusiasm. Her purpose was clear to her and her confidence had returned. A new plan quickly formulated in her mind along with the words to set it into motion. She stepped around the fringe of the crowd for a moment, side-stepping any touches just yet and taking special care not to step on anybody or their discarded limbs, before she found her platform. She was almost breathless from excitement as she began to climb a pseudo-tower formed from rubble.

“Fair people! Citizens! Victims of all! Listen to me, I bid you – heed my words!” Vainia had to scream to be heard, and by the time she had finished her introduction, many people were still crying and moaning, but for the most part she had quickly tamed the gigantic crowd in front of her. The moving and twitching sea of death continued in front of her for more than she could truly see, all of it stained blood red. The surviving were almost indecipherable from the dead. She gulped.

"I call to you this day as Vainia; truly, as Nolstuvainia Sestrum, of Zeta and Fifth Brine!” Some people yelled at this with mirth, others with enjoyment. She continued, heedless of their heckling. “I know there are those of you who, earlier this day, hailed under the Phenicks police, or the populace! Regardless, you must listen to me as I say you nay! You are no longer of the past! Neither you all nor I can explain what has happened here, or the celestial arrow that has pierced the armor of our lives, but I assure you it has surely changed the world!” The short woman looked around boldly. “The governor and all his attendants are dead!” A collective gasp of horror began to rise, but Vainia found herself even more excited, and continued to speak unabashed.

“The previous leaders of Fifth Brine are all dead as well! If you are hearing this, you have survived the attack, and you are now the holders of the future’s mantle! This is the time we must unite and strike back against the world that has sought to oppose us! We must move forward! The conflicts you held before – pointless! The homes and families you once held onto so strongly – they are all in the past! All that remains for us is the vacuum of fates, which we must explore with fervor! I have an appetite for peace and universal change, and I can see that you all do, as well!” The general air of confusion that had been about in the air when she began to speak had almost completely dispelled at this point, replaced by interest in her words and anticipation for her point.

“The two states of your old empires have been broken down and smashed by the vile world! We must not let it control us, no matter where we originate from! We must not let the skies and those who would choose for us slay our families and ruin our communities! We must not let the world put an end to us or forgive it for its efforts!” She stopped to take a breath and gather her wits for a moment, during which those who could stood up and looked at her with the gravest respect. Her message was getting through to them, apparently, for soldiers were helping up wounded civilians and revolt members were providing basic first aid for harshly injured soldiers. There were even some holding hands together, and most of the people watching her were weeping.

“Let not our existence be fruitless! I say to you all, listen to me, and heed my words! Take hold of your neighbor, whether they be rioter or public servant! This day we have survived, and we have united! The only path for us now is to take back what the world has stolen from us, and show them we will not lay down and die! The revolution begins now, right here, in the craters of destruction and the fields of death! Take your fellow humans in your hands, turn your backs to this waste, and run! Run onward to the west, to the horizon, away from this ash rain of desolation! Leave this city and meet in the forests, rest, and regroup! There we will meet again!”

With a thunderous and enthusiastic yet slow cry, the people in front of her rallied to her voice and turned to do her bidding. Seeing all of the living people in front of her, once enemies but now united beneath her leadership, was incredibly inspirational for Vainia. She was breathless and her throat hurt from all the yelling she had just performed, but deep within her heart was a warm feeling of pride and hopefulness. The amount of people moving about was about a bleak fourth of the initial thousands, if that, but it was still a sizable amount of people devoted to her cause now.

How clever that was, she thought to herself. Not only had she completely taken over the surviving populace of Phenicks and indirectly completed the goal Fifth Brine had set out to do, she had done so singlehandedly and without raising a sword against a single person. Falling to a squat on the stack of rubble she still stood atop, Vainia smiled to herself and wiped back a strand of hair that had fallen over her face. “If I can make this work, I can do anything. Inusia will still fall.” Even in the deepest satisfaction, she would never forget her true goals. Everything else was just a stepping stone.

“You get wordier every time I hear you speak.”

The voice made her jump and she almost fell off the tower. Vainia behind her in surprise and was somewhat shocked to see Gin Taoris slowly walking towards her with a heavy limp. She let out a small breath and climbed off the tower as quickly as she could before she could rush to the slow-moving berserker.

“What are you doing?! Stop, you haven’t healed yet!” Just as she had feared, Taoris hadn’t been able to lay by himself for very long, and had started following her as soon as the bones in his legs had returned to existence. It was obvious they were still fragile, however, and he moved quickly, for every weight he put on the exposed bones caused them to wobble and creak achingly.

Taoris sighed wearily as Vainia moved beneath his arm and lay his weight on her shoulders. He was understandably lightweight at this point, considering he was made up almost entirely of bones and ragged skin. Moving his arms was still impossible, for they hung almost limply to each of his sides, but his neck and most of his face’s and back’s skin had developed a bright pink temporary coating that would soon grow into skin. Vainia lay him on the base of her tower and looked over his form once more before sighing in disappointment.

“I appreciate your tenacity, but if you overextend yourself like this, you’ll actually end up dying.” Removing her cloak, she wrapped it around Taoris’ shaking form and covered his empty eye socket with a makeshift eye patch made of her right arm’s arm-warmer. “You and I will just sit here, since you can’t stand being away from me so long, until you stop bleeding so much.” A little concern leaked from her voice, although she held in most of it skillfully.

Taoris’ head idly moved side to side and his lone working eye stared at Vainia as if it were seeing right through her. “There is no end to my pain, or bleeding. That’s just how I like it.” He chuckled darkly. Vainia had nothing to say in return. “Do not worry about me. As long as you are fine, and you are successful… This old body will never die. Not yet.”

Nolstuvainia gazed at him with her large eyes, usually sharp and focused but now confused and analyzing. “Why do you follow me so? I don’t understand. You’ve saved me many times now, and you exhibit such devotion, but… I can’t imagine any possible reason for any of it.” Despite how grateful she was for the opportunities Taoris had given her so far and probably would give her, it still slightly went against her nature to depend on anybody, especially for a reason she didn’t understand.

The taller man absently snuggled into Vainia’s cloak, much too short for him, and loudly breathed with some difficulty. His previously humorous and nonchalant expression had wildly morphed into a dark and melancholy one. “You continue to misunderstand me… All I see in this world anymore are darkened visions and cold truths. All I can do is kill and hurt people. I will never love…” He paused, collecting his wits and his emotions. “I will never bow or obey any man. Not any of these wild creatures who know only how to kill and spread war. But you…” He looked up at Vainia with his one blue eye, almost quivering from the tears that threatened to fall. “I’ve seen too many good spirits die and I don’t want to see another one be lost. Not while I still live and fight. You can change this world… I know you can. You carry the world on your shoulders, and I would have you share the burden with me. It is your right, but I would have it bestowed upon me. I need it. I need to be clean again.” By now he was grossly sobbing, quietly yet strongly, and refused to look Vainia in the eyes. She was completely speechless. “Please… Don’t let the world continue like it is. Don’t let the shadows engulf the planet like they have for me… Give me a reason to live again. Give me a reason not to hate the sunrise of tomorrow. Give me a reason to die happily. Please, just… Hold me.” He made no effort to speak again, but continued to weep. His bare arms shook with his racked cries.

All Nolstuvainia knew to do was hold him as tightly as she could and listen to the sorrows of a broken man.

*****

<- Previous Page | Main Page | Next Page ->