All that remained was the pathetic sight of Galanthus on the floor, whose pursuit had been battered aside by the pair of alares, Wisteria and Hyacinth.
As we rushed out, she sat with a hollow gaze after the darkness in which the pair had vanished. By then, I was at a loss for what to say or do. Do we pursue or wait for the matter to be settled after the ritual?
Valerian was not so wishy-washy. She marched to the wyverness and seized her arm. “Up, you go! Why the Under are you sitting there for? Go!”
“After them?” asked Galanthus with ire, “don’t I wish that!”
“Aye!” With another heave, the knight dragged the slight girl to her feet, “Take up your wings. Take me! You have me, do you not? Take me with you!”
I could understand her distrusting look in return. All this time, ever since our coming to Tithonus, Valerian had acted in opposition to her will. From taking the pledge with Wisteria to checking her enmity with the heir of that wyverness.
“I do what is right,” said the knight, “that does not contradict the fact I am your friend. But if still you doubt me, then at least doubt not your purpose! All is not over, but here comes the final stage. Did you not hear what Loredan said? This is a chance to decide if all that you had done was to your heart’s desire. Well, was it to yours?”
“Yes,” she said. And bitterly she took Valerian’s hands.
Up they went, the golden saintess and the mysterious wyverness of first snow’s white.
A hand searched for mine the moment they took off.
“Let us see this through to the end, Aster,” Litzia said, peering into the dark.
I nodded.
It wasn’t long before we caught up with Valerian and Galanthus. The hastily made pact had hampered their pace. And still, they struggled to catch up with the speed of their marks.
Past the fallen walls, whereupon the devastating confrontation had taken place, the hallway led on in one straight path. Through the cracks of cumbersome roots of darkness, we could chance glimpses of Wisteria’s beastly form. She was no larger than a child before the pledge, but now she was as we had flown by side before, grown and slender with powerful wing beats.
And yet Hyacinth, not Acis, was somewhat inexperienced. The veteran knight’s skills eclipsed hers in this contest. Presently, Valerian’s runes glowed in a strange pattern, too quick to discern by the naked eye. A blast several magnitudes a downgrade from her usual output arrowed ahead. It assumed the shape of one trailing thin line, aptly altering its own path from the obstructing roots, and upon catching up with Wisteria steered to port, bursting stone and dust from the wall. The Loredan wyverness coiled and wheeled from the hazardous situation, skirting the falling stone. The maneuver delivered her from aught significant damage. All the same her escape was checked. And by the time she regained her altitude, Valerian was upon her.
Galanthus bore upon her with unrelenting ferocity. Only by a hair’s breadth did her rival escape Galanthus’ jaw. Right after, a shot from Valerian drove the two into a reckless plunge.
It was then that we arrived.
There would be no peaceful conclusion to this conflict, that much was clear.
And if I was wanting in intellect and emotions, I had with me a pledge, a power greater than most common folk could fathom. Litzia and I had the ability to tip the scale.
“Corner them!” I cried.
Galanthus had driven the other pair downwards, Valeria’s blasts checked their every attempt to regain a steady trajectory. But for my part, I had no mind to train my staff on them. If we could narrow their space for maneuvering even more, however...
Litzia plunged. Heedless of my will, her mind was singular. And only then did I realize her intention. The world rushed past too fast for my discerning, spinning as it did to confuse my senses even more. But Litzia’s mind was clear as day.
The lower we went, the closer the roots converged, forming crooked, bent paths, at times might afford little more than a wyvern through. Litzia overtook it all with sheer violence. Her wings withdrawn, she clawed past the black obstacle, gaining on Galanthus with the propelling force of her hind legs upon a gnarled root. Messily, the mass of muscles slammed at the white wyverness, enough to push her back, even to knock her off the air had she not whirled away in time to lessen the impact.
Our intention, or Litzia’s at the least, was clear. And already, the muzzle of Valerian’s staff greeted us squarely, allowing but scarce a moment for warning. “Away!” the blonde knight shouted, “it grieves me to harm a sister!” But she would. And Galanthus advanced upon us.
All I could do, with what feeble strength I had, was to pound my hands of vulnerable flesh on the armor of scales. “By the Under, Litzia, what is the meaning of this? What side are you on!”
“What is right!” Once more she folded her wings, so absorbed was she in the frozen determination on her objective and decided course. Her length coiled up in preparation for another ruthless assault.
“To under with your righteousness!” I cried. Again, I could not understand her. So much for a pledge deeper than the depths of the world. Even her mere surface was beyond me in times like these. All that is ever said of the bond, pledge, and understanding had amounted to a big pile of nothing when put to test. It is impossible, but impossible, after all to come to an understanding even with two hearts connected. Sugarcoat it all I liked. It is but selfishness that drives one to such mindless pledges, I realized - the selfish desire for flight, for connections, disregarding all else, of one’s own ideals, of one’s morals, of one’s conscience. Such a thing, I say, I have no need for.
“Then this pledge I revoke!” I said. And with the last I fell my knuckle on her scaled skin, a glaring light swept over us, and dissolved from us.
So the pledge came undone, and together we fell fumbling on the protruding roots.
I rolled. I stumbled. And to be sure, I fell. My grasp on the slippy, crumbling roots never held. So the uneven, tumultuous surfaces rocked me back and forth, juggling between its unpredictable reaches my body, until the blunt traumas my every limb suffered lost their meanings, and I found myself a ragged thing.
I could scare notice then, what was it that had caught me, like as not a crevices betwixt stone and root, holding me in place. As my dazed eyes peered out, some sort of creature was darting overhead, dancing down the sloping roots, leaping, falling. And finally, as the ground began to slide once more beneath me, the form made a reckless dive to seize my arm.
Once more the world wheeled, and then the earth ceased its movement. I found Litzia’s face over me, drawing ragged breaths.
“You utter fool!” she said, “Would only by dooming us all with your obstinacy might you be satisfied.”
“Well,” I coughed. And as soon as my wit was restored, I glared at her, my savior from death, “If only to prevent a greater folly. Then I would do it again, and some.”
She sighed. “You are dumber to death than most humans. But I fear in this you are wrong. Emotions blind you, Aster. What were you thinking trying to aid Galanthus?”
“I was about to ask you the same, but with Loredan.” I blinked, then struggled up, and failed. My body ached all over. Even moving was inviting sharp pains to many degrees now. “Where are they? What happened.”
“Somewhere below. It doesn’t matter. We could do no help now, that our pledge is broken, and would not be fixed with you unwise.”
“Ah, that is nothing new.”
“You are blind,” she frowned, “You are naive, that I give you, and only for that I hate you not. Still, you pick the wrong side. Can you not see something so obvious? Even an azure should understand what a great sin it is to tamper with souls. For what’s in Acis that Galanthus gave her is not a natural soul, but a sorcery construct. A vile thing. Do you not understand? Are you saying you would allow Galanthus to restore her foul pact, and bring that abomination once more into the world!”
“The way you say it...” I grimaced, “You know Acis. You have seen, have conversed and have fought beside her! Can you not see that she is no different from you? Peculiarities aside, she is a proper person!”
“What even is such a thing? Her birth was unnatural, even Hyacinth just now confessed her bafflement in such an existence.”
“Even as I, is it not? But I’m simply unable to look at her that way you do. She’s a friend. And the facts of her soul’s making does not alter that.”
“All this farce, Aster,” the wyverness said with ire and gestured her arms about, “Who do you think allowed it to be? This is a stage, even as Loredan claimed. A stage for amusement, I am sure. Who it was that authored this farce is clear. No mere sorceress has the might to tamper with living souls, so it could not be Loredan’s mother, even if she was one. Not her, but some being of immense power. ‘Twas arranged, don’t you see. The ouroboric dreams of Loredan, the mirages that we had seen, the activation of the soul-keeping device. Only one being could have devised and enacted all that upon her stage. I could all but see the woman right now on her lofty throne laughing at us tumbling fools!”
“So you say,” I closed my eyes. “Because it might be the captain’s doing, that it is vile, and that it is your justice to prevent it?”
Litzia shook her head, “Do not presume my act mere vendetta. Common sense and a conscience alone necessitate such judgment. I would that you can see the truth and aid me in what is right...”
For a while I lay there as my pain slowly subsided, thinking, staring at the darkness overhead. I thought and thought, and yet I could not accept Litzia’s point, nor could I her plea for the sake of what is right. In the end, I could not understand her at all.
“I don’t know, Litzia,” in the end, I said, “I am not wise. I am not one to discern the truth through complicated patterns. It is your and Thea’s domain. And for someone dumb as me, I could but see and act on what my own eyes and heart may tell. I see Galanthus and Acis, and I saw what was there between them. Ever I envied them. And I would hate to see them apart. I knew not about Loredan and Hyacinth. I really struggle to see the blasphemy you speak of. Mayhap you are right, that Acis’ soul is not real. But I do not think it’s fake either. Nay, I think a fake is a thing done with malice, to satisfy a selfish purpose or to hurt and deceive. But what Galanthus and Acis had done was for themselves only. So what if they had hurt themselves? I think they gained something else regardless. They did it for love, and wouldn’t have cared to commit that sin had they another choice, no matter how grave the alternative could be. They did not pretend to be something they were not. They but chose to cast off what would keep them apart, and devoted all that was left to be together. And it is in this utter devotion and sacrifice that I could not see your blasphemy. I think ill deeds are done for much more base reasons. Not love, Litzia.
“Of course, I am in no place to speak. For I am dumb and unlearned. I only know what I know. And this I do: one had taken on another’s color, sacrificing themselves to preserve the pledge. That is something I failed to accomplish. Don’t you see? It is for this that our pledge is broken. We both hold to our beliefs. And so our pledge could never be. For that is the meaning of a bond deeper than all, even the selves. We have not it...”
And then I was quiet again, trying to make sense of what myself had said. For even I could not comprehend it fully.
“Why are you laughing?” I asked.
Litzia was. Only a slight, mirthless chuckle. But it was done no doubt in humor.
“You know,” she sighed, “at the end of the day, you and I may debate our point to death, and still we are powerless. And it is not logic or reason or morals or even what lies in the heart of hearts that may dictate the result. But the victor of their violent combat. Whoever wins may claim the right to their cause. Ah! How idiotic it is! This world is so exceedingly idiotic! I could but laugh! My justice and your feelings - and feelings they indeed are, don’t contradict me, Aster - both exist only to embellish their respective winning side. So lean on me, even if our pledge could not be, and let us come down and see for ourselves who it is that will prevail in this damnable and ridiculous battle between the champions of our ideals.”
