Blades Falling Softly, page 12
part #1 of The Brightest Shadow Series
"Perhaps everything, perhaps just me." She let them pull apart further, though she kept her hands on him. Noreinu would never let himself be swept up in such a blunt legend. "We need to go back to the lodge, before things get worse. But first, we need to visit the lake."
Canumon
Though Canumon awoke without any serious injuries, he woke in a different world. He had expected to find Kanavakis and other officers analyzing the exact details of their fight and perhaps condemning him for failing to win, since prolonging the stalemate might no longer be sufficient. Instead, he found himself alone in a complex that no longer seemed to care.
Slowly he realized that he had been returned to his chambers, which suggested that he hadn't been convicted and mansthein-human relationships hadn't turned to war. When he got up, he found the rooms eerily empty, and no soldiers guarded the exterior of the building. The entire lodge lay in a half-real state, the damage from the masters' battle cleaned up but the structures far from restored.
And throughout it all, the air closed on him like a hand around the throat. Anger and fear slid into his mind, almost as if he was under attack by foreign sein, yet his defenses were useless against it. He couldn't even tell himself that he was experiencing anything other than nerves, and yet...
"Canumon?" Gowanisa's voice made him spin with a flood of relief. She moved along one of the nearby walkways, bouncing Laghy in one arm. Their son was sucking on his fingers and looking around at everything with watery eyes, as if he had finished crying and was considering an encore.
"There you are." His voice sounded faint in his own ears and he rushed to them, wrapping his wife in his arms. Laghy squirmed into position between them and then flailed at his chest happily.
"Ca! Ca!"
All at once, the boy was perfectly content again, but after tickling his chin, Canumon had to look up at his wife. She was relieved to see him, but they both knew the reality of the situation couldn't be changed so easily. After a shared silence, she began to speak.
"The duel ended just like you wanted, but it doesn't matter. They haven't even begun any further negotiations for another challenge. No, don't ask - Anyinn is fine. The humans praised her and sent her to healers. But something is wrong over there, Canumon. There's this human calling himself the Hero..."
"Like the man who killed himself attacking the Zeitai's guards. It's a delusion unique to humans, I think."
"No. No, it isn't." Gowanisa pulled away and began walking along the rail by their rooms, bouncing Laghy absentmindedly to keep him happy. "This Hero is different. He's been preaching total war and everyone is listening, even though he's young. Just seeing him, from a distance... perhaps it really is like in the stories."
"Don't accept that." Canumon walked up behind her and leaned heavily on the rail, staring over the valley. "If we accept the terms of their Legend, we've already lost the battle."
"But you can't deny that something is happening. Don't you feel it in the air?"
"I do, but we can't respect it, can't let it be as grand as it believes itself to be." He rubbed his knuckles into his eyes roughly, trying to shake off the heavy atmosphere, then finally latched onto something. "There aren't multiple humans making these claims, always just one. And they do seem different. What if there really is something that passes between them? Could it be the sein shadow of some warrior driven to insanity?"
Gowanisa frowned skeptically, but considered it. "Can sein shadows pass between multiple people? You're the expert there, but that runs contrary to everything I've heard."
"That's a problem, I admit. Sein is life, and it can only linger temporarily over a strong connection. But it could be something similar, couldn't it?"
"What does it matter? If it convinces the humans to attack us..."
"It matters." Canumon brought a fist down on the railing, splintering the wood. Laghy stared in surprise, then clapped his hands together and chortled. "We have to think of this as a phenomenon we can understand, not a myth. If you let the enemy control the momentum..."
He trailed off, wondering what enemy he meant. Not humans in general, though the thought flickered in his mind for a heartbeat. It was impossible to fight an abstraction, yet it was those grand ideas that threatened him more than any weapon.
Before he could find any solution, tongues of flame leapt up in the valley below. His wife let out a low growl and rushed to the edge, peering closer as they realized that they might be too late.
Part of the camp was on fire and there were humans moving through it. No, they were attacking, striking down mansthein who tried to stand in their way. Some were beginning to regroup and fight back, but their organization faltered, leaving many to be struck down by the organized human force.
All of them rotated around a young man who walked forward without any weapon. For a moment Canumon saw a titan striding the earth, then a young human, then a pillar of white flame. He seized his own sein and made it still, forcing himself to look with his eyes instead of his heart.
They were led by a young man, not so many years past human adolescence. Something was different about him, even setting aside all potential illusions. If nothing else, older and stronger humans moved as he directed without the slightest hesitation.
"Zeitai!" The Hero's voice thundered over the valley, as if he possessed the sein of a far older warrior. "The Hero has come to end your life! How long will you hide yourself away?"
There was no answer from the emerald tent, not even a rustle of movement. Canumon looked back and found that Laghy was holding his ears and trying to burrow into his wife's armpit. She shook her head grimly. "The Zeitai went to consult with... whoever is in that black tent separated from all the others."
Canumon immediately turned to look, sein flowing to let his eyes pierce the mists to the peak beyond. The dark tent sat as quiet as the others. It lay some distance away, but for a master like the Zeitai, that space would be little obstacle. And yet there was no response, as if they had been abandoned to the madness of the humans.
Below, the Hero and his allies continued to slaughter their way into camp, but as the support staff and poorly trained soldiers fled, their progress slowed. Veterans formed a wall of pikes that proved difficult for the martial artists, and Catai began to form up. Their overgrown musculature and tough skin provided some resistance to any Nolese art, stopping the advance. Yet when they attempted to penetrate to the center, to reach the Hero, the humans fought back with renewed passion.
"We have to run." Canumon turned to his wife and grabbed her shoulders, dragging her focus away from the battle. "Take Laghy and go. As far away from here as possible."
"I'm not leaving you," Gowanisa insisted. "You can't be thinking of going down there?"
"That would be suicide. But I need to find Anyinn. We can't stop this battle, but if we don't create some way to contact each other..."
His wife stared at him for a moment, then abruptly turned and rushed back into their chambers to gather supplies. Canumon wondered if they even had time for that, given the fervor of the battle below. Even watching from a distance, he felt a rage rising within him, his heart pounding with every beat urging him to kill.
So long as the battle continued to stall, they had time. Yet at that moment, he saw the circling human defenses falter. One Catai managed to vault over several of them and he brought his axe down, striking the skull of the human Hero with a sickening sound.
His body fell and the axe fell with it, the Catai staggering back. Canumon's heart shuddered without understanding the reason and it took all his discipline to control himself. Below, he saw both sides hesitate, as if they all held the same breath...
Anyinn
Anyinn and Noreinu made their way back carefully, keeping to the pace her husband could maintain. She could have run home swiftly, but ever since visiting the lake, speed felt like a mistake. Her mind conjured scenarios that would require her to arrive as quickly as possible, yet she felt that rushing was a trap, falling into the rhythm of an unseen opponent.
The lake hadn't been the scene she remembered it, of course. Some trees had fallen and new ones had grown in their place, and the season was wrong for the falling leaves and dappled sunlight. Just sitting there with her husband and talking over everything that had happened still helped her to center herself and remain calm. If she encountered someone else claiming to be a Hero, she would not allow herself to be taken in.
Heraenyas remained at home with the servants, chastened and hopefully safe. Though Anyinn considered that it would be safer for Noreinu to remain back as well, she couldn't be certain that they would face a battle. If the conflict required negotiation or politics, she wanted him alongside her to keep her balanced.
They had discussed whether or not they should send clan messengers to contact their sons, and though she understood why Noreinu might want them there, she feared for them. To draw even more people into this maelstrom would only intensify it, and after so many steps had been taken in the wrong direction, she could not allow more.
Between one step and the next, Anyinn left the Taynol Valley and fell into a city of gold.
She felt a surreal power attempt to take hold of her and she could have sealed her mind against it, but instead she followed her first instinct and redirected it like a blow, moving along with the force. Her sight was consumed by a vision that she knew must be false, yet it screamed its reality to her mind.
Without having moved, she stood in the center of a vast city. She had thought it gold at first, but now she realized that only the sky was gold, the towering buildings instead formed from pale white stone. They rose skyward, shaped like the greatest of Nolese cities and yet empty. All around her they spread in neat patterns unlike any real city, desolate perfection.
Something stood behind her, she realized, with an awareness that had nothing to do with any of her combat experience. Anyinn turned calmly and found herself staring at a glowing outline. Though the glow was too bright to see any details, it stood at exactly her height and build, like a mirror image. When she took a step to the side to examine it, the glowing figure did not move.
"So much suffering..." If the figure had opened its mouth, it was impossible to see, but she heard the voice echoing in her own mind. "The story should flow toward its appointed ending, and yet all those who seek to carry it bring only pain and bloodshed."
"Who are you?" Anyinn asked, almost against her will.
"You ask that question to yourself, and it is the right question." Through the blinding light, she could just see the figure shift upward to stare toward the golden sky. "Are you the Hero who will lead your people through this chaos? Children and fools take the mantle without the wisdom to use it."
"Are you responsible for this? You... did you possess Boulanu?"
"You misunderstand. I am you, as you could be. He saw something within himself, but he failed to understand it, and so he was not truly the Hero. But one must arise, and so the suffering will continue until someone masters the challenge and tells a more peaceful tale. Is that you?"
Anyinn took a deep, shuddering breath, the air itself dead and golden. "You ask as if I have a choice."
"If you do not accept what you could be, another will. Perhaps it will be Feinouya, since she has desired power for so long. Then she would be able to eradicate the Deathspawn who threaten her clan."
"No. If... if I accept, will I be able to stop the fighting?"
"You will be able to do whatever you desire."
The words rang with falsehood, and she knew it was a lie that she was telling herself, yet Anyinn accepted it. Standing in that bleached white city, she knew with absolute certainty that the madness would only continue. It would claim the lives of young men like Boulanu, who could have grown into a good man if only she had served him better. Taking the power was wrong, but if she could save anyone...
Within the brilliant face, she thought she saw an even brighter smile, and then suddenly she found herself finishing her step in the Taynol Valley.
"Anyinn?" Noreinu turned back to her, only a slight frown on his face. "Is everything alright?"
"I just..." She stared down at her fingers, wondering what she saw. "Did something happen?"
"You stumbled for a moment. Since you haven't really stumbled in years, I wondered... are your injuries not fully healed?"
She had expected to find some golden horror clawing its way through her soul, yet Anyinn felt unchanged. There was nothing new in her sein or her mind, nothing like the strange light she remembered from the other Heroes. Her husband watched her in simple concern, in no way overwhelmed by her presence. Had it all been a moment of delusion?
Even if it was a whim, she decided that the threat of violence at the lodge was too great. Perhaps the entire vision had been her mind trying to warn her that Boulanu and Feinouya might cause deaths with their zealous fervor. Leaving Canumon and his family in such a dangerous place now seemed like the height of irresponsibility, though she remembered her desperate confusion at the time. Regardless of her experience, she was thinking clearly enough to know that she needed to act.
"Noreinu, I have a bad feeling about the lodge." She leaned in to kiss him briefly and smiled. "Follow me cautiously. I'll scout ahead and meet you before you arrive."
He agreed, though he was obviously troubled. Anyinn swept away from him, her robes flapping violently as she pressed through the wall of wind. Whether or not she was hallucinating golden encounters, the sensation that something terrible was about to happen intensified within her.
In shockingly little time, she reached the lodge and saw that her fears had been justified: bodies sprawled over the landscape beside the army camp. A righteous anger filled her as she looked over the human and mansthein bodies, none of which needed to die. Their lives had been spent on a meaningless conflict, a squabble over clan pride and the schemes of elites.
Even now, the two sides prepared to tear into one another. They had retreated from the first outbreak of violence, only to decide that they wanted another. Human warriors shouting retribution on one side, mansthein growling on the other... Anyinn raced between the two and raised her hands.
"Enough!" She called out as loudly as she could, expecting to have to shout over others, yet everyone turned to her in shock. Though the effectiveness of her shout surprised her as well, Anyinn found that she had enough words to continue. "This battle is over. All of you... go back home."
"You expect us to just obey you?" A monstrous Catai advanced, hefting a war hammer larger than her head. "You humans attacked us, for no reason, and we just defended ourselves!"
"If true, that attack is a crime we must apologize for. But more violence today will bring no one any justice. Turn back."
He let out an animal growl and lunged toward her, war hammer spinning in an overhead swing meant to cave in her head. Anyinn easily stepped aside from the broad movement, her sword singing from its sheath, lashing out to end the Deathspawn before he could rile up any of the others...
Anyinn's blade stopped just beside his neck, her entire arm trembling from the effort. Both of them stared at the edge, and it seemed that every eye in the valley watched her, but she slowly lowered her sword. Since the Catai still loomed over her, she didn't sheath it, but she instead tapped the point against his chest.
"I said turn back. The battle is over."
The enormous mansthein looked down into her eyes... and quailed. He shifted his grip on his hammer, as if his palms were slippery, and then suddenly turned and ran. As soon as he did, all the other mansthein joined him, terror in their eyes. They abandoned the destroyed part of their camp and even much of the rest, only regrouping when they reached the Zeitai's tent.
That retreat opened up an empty space between the two sides, and given their fear, another attack seemed unlikely. Anyinn stared at them, wondering at their terror. She felt no different, and for a moment she had been glad that they had finally listened to her calls for peace, yet something was wrong. Her sein flowed smoothly and peacefully, without disruption, yet...
"What are you doing, Anyinn?" Feinouya advanced on her, wildly gesturing toward the mansthein. "The Zeitai is gone! We have the chance to finish them now!"
As she always had been, the clan head was petty and vicious. It would have been better for both sides if she was removed... Anyinn carefully returned her sword to its sheath. "No. No more fighting. We should retreat and bury our dead."
Though the gathered clan warriors should have waited for a command from Feinouya, instead they began shuffling to obey. When she first arrived, their faces had been awash in shock and anger, but now she saw grief taking hold. So many lay dead around them... Anyinn placed her hand on the hilt of her sword, wondering if she could have done more.
With peace established, she turned toward the other side, just in case they intended an assault. They seemed intent on their own dead and wounded, but something lurked within the command pavilion. No doubt the Zeitai, or the power behind him in the dark tent, had intentionally avoided this battle. Some scheme brewed beneath the surface, and if she didn't uncover it, far more would suffer.
As Anyinn started to take a step, her eyes happened to slide upward and chanced upon Canumon and his family standing on a walkway. They stared down at her, and though she could see their faces clearly, she couldn't understand their expressions.
Stepping back, Anyinn forcibly turned away from the Zeitai's tent. A heartbeat ago, advancing to interrogate him had seemed entirely logical, and even now she feared that the next surge of violence might erupt from his shadow. His very presence had incited the mansthein, after all, and it was his threat that stopped the initial challenge rite that now felt almost quaint.
Unable to think clearly, Anyinn forced herself to move. She wanted to run back to her husband, or meet Canumon's family, yet both felt like the wrong step, not with her thoughts so light. Whatever she did, she needed to prevent more deaths, while the world still listened to her.
