Rana

The countdown to the beast’s arrival ticked down, the nearby Terminal was blocked by… was blocked, and none of them were in any shape to run. They each grappled with their own shades of fear and despair with no chance of Rana snapping them out of it in time to escape—but Lea could.

If Rana got Lea on her feet, they’d listen to her. Except, by her defeated slouch, the uncaring splay of her legs, and the anguished sound of her voice, Rana saw how difficult that’d be. Lea cried, inconsolable, but a person could act now and mourn later if their life depended on it. Lea knelt alone in the far depths of sorrow. She’d lost the will to go on.

Rana ignored the twisting knot of pain in her chest from looking at Lea. The beast wouldn’t wait for her to heal Lea’s wounds. If they wanted to survive, Lea needed a push. Rana made a fist.

“Get up.”

The Libra girl didn’t respond. Rana hadn’t spoken loud enough. “Keep them alive,” her brother had said. If they survived, things could get better.

“Lea, get up!”

The girl flinched and turned as if jolted from a memory, now searching for her tormentors. Lea looked right through Rana.

“You do not have to wait for me. You can leave me behind.”

Hearing this, Kenta rallied himself and shouted, “We have to keep moving! You can’t give up!”

“I do not care, Kenta. You can’t tell me what to do—your sister could still be alive, isn’t that enough?”

His posture caved, beaten down as if her words were physical blows.

The rumble of the enormous beast’s footsteps came louder, nearer, more insistent.

Rana kept trying, “We have to go now!”

Lea exploded, red-faced, eyes squinting with tears, “Don’t you get it? There’s no reason anymore! Not for any of this. All of you, Go away!”

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That was a Command, and Lea reinforced it with all her power.

The order was no less irresistible than the mountain-skinning winds of Red Tail’s wings. The others were weeds blown by a hurricane—they tumbled away as if thrown, but they threw themselves. Limb over limb, they rolled and ran and stumbled and flapped away as if there were nothing else in the world but getting away from that place.

All except one.

Rana anticipated the attack and Camouflaged herself. However, Lea’s spell was auditory and untargeted—she didn’t have to see Rana or even remember her existence to issue a Command. Rana knew the risk of pushing Lea and braced herself for a mental pummeling but got caught off-guard anyway. Habit and trust combined to make Rana want to gloss over all the reasons she knew she shouldn’t leave and made Lea’s Command seem like a perfectly reasonable request such as, ‘Be a dear and hand me that cup of tea.’

Rana stepped back and turned without thought. Nothing could have prepared her to face Lea’s Charm at full strength.

Rana would’ve been the first to admit Lea’s ability completely outclassed hers. Camouflage was like flicking on a switch. She didn’t target anything and couldn’t turn ‘dial’ on the power. Her Camouflage affected allies, monsters, and gods in the same way to the same degree—with the same predictable applications, exploitable weaknesses, and possible loopholes—at every level.

A one-trick pony.

Charm was different. Its effect scaled with power, could be deviously finessed, and could give specific or generalized Commands through speech, sight, or touch. Beyond the superior quality of her ability, Lea was talented. She was no weaker than Rana and held one other advantage.

These factors were amplified by the very feelings of respect, admiration, trust, and love Rana felt for Lea. Everything within her told Rana to believe Lea knew best and had nothing but good intentions.

What stopped her from taking that second step was the niggling doubt Lea had never asked for anything like this. Rana wracked her brain for a sensible reason why Lea would tell her to go away, but everything outside her tunnel vision seemed unacceptably muddled.

She knew one way to fix that.

Rana reached with her right, grabbed a finger on her left, and bent until she heard a crack. Pain pierced her mind like a knife, and a shot of energizing fire flooded her brain, yielding clarity. She remembered their lives were on the line.

Resisting the Command with all her Will, Rana hit a solid wall; not physical, but mental. She pressed and pushed but couldn’t get a grip. Her mind drifted to thoughts of obedience. The pain centered her, but the wall became a vice of pressure tightening until her skull almost cracked.

In this contest of Wills, Rana was losing.

Unable to find a solution, she looked to Lea. The girl’s eyes burned brighter and brighter red as Rana lost ground. If she wins by using my love for her against me, Lea will become a monster.

Rana wouldn’t let that happen.

Lea…