He partook of some wine from a fancy cup. As he lifted it to his mouth allowing the contents to pass by his tongue and go into his throat, someone came up to him.
“I imagine you’ve received nothing but praises all evening,” Rinas said softly. “They’re all more than deserved if I say so myself.” Rinas smiled at him as Kiran pulled the cup away from his lips. “When I first heard about a mysterious man who had lost their memories and somehow willingly bound their soul to a familiar, I didn’t know what all to expect. But I can undoubtedly say I am pleased to have brought you in. Others may have been skeptical to have you rise more prominently in our coalition in a relatively short amount of time, but I did so believing you would truly be invaluable to us. And as we can all see, that has been proven true.” He tipped his glass to him taking a drink of the same wine Kiran had been drinking.
Invaluable, eh? He had done a lot for the coalition. There was no doubt about that. He still wasn’t quite sure how he ought to feel about things, unfortunately. He figured it was just his mind messing with him and overcomplicating things. “So,” Kiran began to say preparing to take another drink, “where do things go from here?”
“I suppose that’s admittedly a somewhat difficult question to answer. We have undoubtedly made a lot of progress but we can expect some amount of unrest and trouble sooner rather than later to develop. Although the public is still unaware of the queen’s death, they will hear of it soon I imagine which will worsen the conditions in the city. In the meantime, our coalition will lay low for a while and try not to get into any major trouble. It’s best we avoid confrontation and instead work towards forming a link of communication with whoever tries to seize power. Our control of the central pillar ought to ensure cooperation with whoever that ends up being since no one—reasonable that is—wants any problems revolving around that particular thing.”
If not for having control over that, he imagined an entire army sweeping through the streets to purge everyone and everything that gave the slightest hint towards having any link to the coalition. There was always the possibility of that occurring anyways. It was somewhat of an assumption that controlling the central pillar would keep them relatively safe. The leadership in the coalition appeared confident that they would avoid things getting that bad. The powers within Liall also couldn’t afford to strangle the city too much otherwise a rebellion would spring forth and compromise the lives of everyone. The reality was that by being the last remaining city in the entirety of the fifth domain meant taking a level of precaution that might not otherwise be taken.
“Can we expect better leadership in the queen’s absence?” He dumped the last remaining bit of wine from the fancy cup into his mouth and let a nearby maid dump more wine in the cup.
Rinas lifted a finger to his recently clean-shaven chin. “That’s the real issue, isn’t it? There’s always a risk in removing a powerful figure. What comes after may end up being worse. But at the same time, there’s at least an opportunity or chance for something better as well. Whichever it ends up being, we will act within our best abilities to adapt as needed. My expectations are that something better will arise from it. The queen was long seen as overstepping her powers even by those who loyally served her. Silvy is just one instance of someone having taken enough of it to the point of openly betraying her. We can assume many others within the deceased queen’s fold feel at least somewhat sympathetic to the idea of her having gone too far, especially after what she did during the winter festival.”
His words made it clear that he at the very least felt optimistic about the future. He still entertained the possibility of it not turning out well so he wasn’t delusional, which in Kiran’s opinion, was certainly a good thing.
While he could go around and drink or simply talk to the others all gathered in Yorais’s mansion, he decided he wanted to be alone for a little bit so he went outside where the sun hadn’t yet disappeared from the sky.
An orange glow occupied the sky and with the current position of the sun, it caused long shadows to cast out from not only his body but from the fencing around Yorais’s front property as well along with the aura-infused street lamps that hadn’t come on yet.
He sat on the front steps leading to her mansion that wasn’t covered in snow since it had been shoveled away earlier. A cool breeze brushed up against the exposed skin on his face and hands. It was getting much colder by the minute. Earlier in the day it got warm enough that a lot of the snow had melted in the city, although plenty of it still existed. Now it was starting to reverse course and get as cold as it had been the preceding days.
From behind, someone began to approach him and stopped right behind him. Whoever they were chose to tap his shoulder. “Heya!”
An overly excited Juna decided to come by. “Hey,” he said as she sat down beside him. She crossed one leg over the other and put both of her hands behind her to hold her up as she slouched backwards just a little. “What’re you up to choosing to be out here all alone?”
“I just wanted to step outside for a bit. Maybe try to think about everything that’s happened so I can untangle the mess that’s inside my mind.”
“Oh I can relate to how you must feel. Sometimes my mind ends up so tangled in knots that I end up giving up trying to untangle things.” She eyed him briefly then averted her gaze. “Should I, uh, go if you want to be alone?”
He shook his head. “Not at all. You might do me some good being around.”
Juna was easy to please. She smiled at his kind comment and tapped her boots on the steps leading up to the mansion.
They sat in silence for a time enjoying the breeze and actively cooling air. Sometimes it felt nice to feel the intensity of cold air. He had gotten used to training in a cold climate so he had a bit of a better tolerance for it in part because of that.
Outside of the fenced-off area, people from all kinds of walks of life walked by down the street oblivious to the big circumstances that had gone on in the city. How many lives were there in Liall? He wondered and thought of how many of them simply didn’t know what all they had done just for today alone. And they would all in some capacity be affected by their decisions. It made him feel even more concerned over his actions as of late coming to understand that fact. Queen Luvia Aenveld must’ve thought about that often. The thought of having to rule an entire large group of people just felt like a role he was better off never having to take for himself. Others can take on that responsibility. I mainly want to be responsible for myself, and potentially a few others I deeply care about.
Juna pulled her legs closer to her chest wrapping her arms around them. She clasped both of her hands together as she did so appearing somewhat comfortable in those warm furs and leathers she wore. It was still strange seeing her in attire that covered her almost entirely. She liked wearing more revealing clothes but in the winter, she had little other choice than to cover up like everyone else.
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Kiran turned his head towards her. “Are you optimistic for the future?”
She sighed a tad bit. “Phew. I sure wish I knew. I’d like to think so. It would suck if everything went to crap after everything we’ve done. I’m guessing you’re not sure whether things will get better in the future judging by your tone.”
“There are too many unknowns.” How am I to know? “I think my greatest fear in all of this that I currently am experiencing is the thought of whether I should’ve taken the drastic actions I’ve recently done.”
“That’s a tough one,” she said. “Especially considering you’ve, you know, killed the queen and helped seize the central pillar. That’s a whole lot of accomplishments to achieve only to end up second-guessing yourself right after the fact.” She spoke about the obvious truth of the matter in a concise manner. “Is it because of—“ she hesitated to finish the sentence.
He chose to finish it in response. “Della.”
She nodded her head.
“Without a doubt. I thought if I killed the one who murdered her, that I might feel better after and perhaps make things better at the same time. Maybe I’ll feel that way eventually, but it seems as more time goes on, I’m feeling rather unsure about that.”
“I think you’ve put yourself in a rather tricky situation.”
“I know.”
She gave him a hefty pat on the back. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. If anyone can, it’ll be you.”
Will I figure it out? The world felt so much simpler months ago. All he had on his mind back then besides figuring out who he once was, was to simply have a bit of food to fill his belly with a roof over his head. He didn’t want or need much more than that. He just wanted those things along with Della of course. But somewhere, somehow, things couldn’t stay that way forever.
The orange glow in the sky turned more and more into a dark blue until eventually the light of day itself surrendered itself to an eternally dark cloudless sky. The aura-infused street lamps came on keeping the city from being a nightmare to walk around in at night.
Around this time of day, the central pillar would always do its thing. Powerful energy would surge within it rising to the top of the pillar and explode out in the sky to reach all of the outer pillars that surrounded the city.
Due to the direction they sat towards, they could see the top of the central pillar from afar even with all the nearby two-story structures in this district. The central pillar was truly massive and he hadn’t ever seen it up close. He had stood right below it in those chambers beneath it, but never stood beside it in person above ground.
The symbols etched onto its outer surface began to exude a greenish glow. They ran up it as they normally did which was a good sign at least to him. It meant that Noreko was managing to provide it with the necessary power. According to him, if it didn’t receive sufficient power, it wouldn’t carry out this process until it reached sufficient power reserves.
As the glowing etchings reached the apex of the pillar, a green tip of aura surged at the top growing in not just length but also width.
While it appeared to do as it normally did every day when the night sky ruled over this domain, something unexpected began to occur.
A bright flash of light blinded him for a second. He covered his eyes with his hand and when the blindingly bright white light disappeared from the top of the pillar, an explosive sound forced its way through his ears.
A wave of energy blew him back a little and he began to wonder whether his eyes were betraying him.
What is happening?
Both Kiran and Juna stood up observing the pillar as chaotic green energy burst vertically from the apex. It surged, and surged, and surged, until finally, a giant beam of green energy shot towards the heavens lighting the entire city in an intense greenish glow.
A loud explosion rang aloud from the far right. Light towards the eastern horizon appeared and although the tall white walls of the city blocked the view of whatever it was that exploded from beyond it, it didn’t take a genius to know what had happened.
One of the pillars outside the city must’ve exploded. Bits of debris landed in the city and broke apart some of the exterior walls causing more broken pieces to fly into the city.
Juna wrapped a hand around his arm with a noticeable shake as she did so. “Kiran…”
“I know,” he said softly as they both observed what was happening.
Another burst of light occurred more towards the northern horizon of the city past the central pillar. He couldn’t see it very well, but he could see a bit of greenish glow light up the sky and then he heard another loud boom shortly thereafter.
People inside Yorais’s mansion rushed outside to see what was happening. Rinas came to stand by them along with several others including Yorais and Abigail.
“The pillars,” Kiran said loudly towards Rinas and the others as they all watched the giant beam of green light surging from the central pillar towards the sky. “They’re all being destroyed.”
Explosion, after explosion, after explosion rang aloud from the pillars outside the city. Every single one of them was being destroyed causing an unfathomable terror to take hold within him.
However terrifying the sound of pillars being destroyed terrified him and others, a more terrifying sight demanded his attention.
The central pillar itself with the beam of energy grew at least triple in size becoming almost blinding to look at. Violent strands of green energy began to redirect itself from the sky and begin hurdling towards the inner city. One strand alone caused the ground to shake even though it hit a faraway part of the city. Debris lifted up above and fire surged as the strand wove its way throughout the city.
More and more strands began to destroy everything they touched. One strand managed to reach just a few blocks away from Yorais’s mansion making them fortunate it hadn’t hit them but unfortunate for whoever lay within its path.
Screams of anguish erupted nearby and the harrowing cries of those dying or those gravely injured penetrated his ears.
He held his breath becoming unable to move or even speak aloud. His eyes became fixated on the central pillar that suddenly went completely dark.
And then subsequently burst alight.
From the very top of the central pillar, the entire structure ruptured as that energetic force forced its way down it. Giant chunks from the pillar began flying out all across the city and more and more strands shot out destroying everything they touched. The outer walls protecting Liall crumbled and the city and its people came to understand that if they hadn’t died yet, that death was coming for them.
The powerful energy that surged through the central pillar must’ve eventually reached the bottom because at that point, the entire ground shook to an almost unfathomable degree. Kiran wound up falling over to the ground hitting his head against one of the steps he had been sitting upon becoming unconscious.