Ral snapped his eyes open and dragged in a tortured breath of air. His body was soaked in sweat. It felt like he was on the edge of a cliff, just about to plunge to his death. He had awoken from a tumultuous dream of deadly smoke formed into spikes with the angry face of Aris with glowing green gemstone eyes looming above him in an empty black sky.
Four faces hovered over him and they quickly backed off to give him room while he struggled to sit up. He glanced over at his sister, her physical body still a frail and crumpled heap on the floor. Just as relief unwittingly filtered into him, he realized the runes on the floor were glowing menacingly. Pulses of lit up runes spread from her body like a heartbeat.
“She tried to kill me,” Ral gasped out. “Sun’s mercy, what did you do to her?”
“She’s stubborn and angry,” Camaz muttered.
“Yes, angry that our lives were prescribed to us,” Ral said. “She told me a Part created us as a response to the Gates - another Part is the one responsible for opening the Gates.”
Instead of disbelief, everyone around him simply looked more resigned, as if they were already expecting this.
“Rask, she would rather die and kill me to prove that we’re not at the mercy of the Parts,” Ral said, reaching to his mentor. “This isn’t… we need to help her.”
The pulsing of the runes grew in speed and intensity. Laell tore herself away from their conversation to continue scribbling on the floor with charcoal. “She’s trying to wake up,” she said. “B-before she tried to keep herself asleep but now she’s…”
“I’ll make another dose of sleeping potion.” Verne immediately set out to work.
“Ral is in danger, we cannot afford to lose him,” Rask said to the professor who looked as if he’s aged about a decade over the course of the last hour. “If Aris is set out to prove her point, she’s going to try to harm her own brother.”
“I didn’t think it would come to this,” Camaz said. A look of grief flitted across his face. “I thought you would be able to convince her.”
“I tried to tell her that she doesn’t need to take back Caelis. I thought… I thought she wanted to be free from the responsibility. It made her angry, so angry.”
“Enough to want to harm you.” Camaz shook his head in dismay.
“Ralos can close Gates,” Rask interrupted. The Laell and Verne both looked up from what they were doing. “He must survive at all costs. If what Aris claims is correct, this is what the celestial bodies intended to happen and he is instrumental in fixing the Gate crises.”
“Fate,” Ral said, almost bitterly.
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“Are you implying that we must disable Aris so we can protect him?” Camaz said.
“I am saying if it comes to it, we might have to kill her.”
Camaz visibly blanched at the words, but his brows sank down to a scowl immediately afterwards. “Do you have any idea what you’re talking about, Freerunner? Have you considered what it would be like to sacrifice Ralos instead?”
“I am not saying this is an easy decision,” Rask said, closing his eyes wearily. “And I’m sorry but there’s no time to argue about your feelings about this.”
The runes continued their increased pulsing. Laell made a distressed sound and more runes filled the room. Eventually the lines and characters drawn squirmed and moved to form something like chains and arranged themselves into criss-crosses across Aris’s unconscious body.
“And Ral? What do you think about murdering my ward so you can save yourself?” Camaz asked sarcastically. “I brought you here to save her, not butcher her.”
Ral broke out in sweat again, Aris’s face, both her blooded eyeless one and angry green-eyed stare burned in his mind. Aris had come to a deadly conclusion that one or both of their demise is the answer to whatever haunts her. That their deaths would mean pulling out of the clutches of the Parts and would result in…
What exactly would it result in? Did his sister equate freedom with death? Would ending this resentment fix anything within her? He should have talked to her more, reasoned with her. If he was just better with his words this wouldn’t have happened. Ral ran a hand over his face and shook his head, overwhelmed again. He couldn’t kill his sister but at the same time he knew she would come for him - and as guilty as it made him feel, Rask was right: he had to keep living. For those in Sansre. For what used to be Caelis. For Rask.
He needed to say it but he couldn’t.
“You’re not going to kill her,” a quiet, accented voice said. Everyone turned to Verne, who was still calmly preparing the sleeping potion. “I won’t let you. I will keep her from harming Ral as well.”
“I see you have the situation well at hand,” Rask said. “Will you be able to reason with her?”
“Perhaps.”
“Eliminating her is the last thing I wish to do, but the stakes are too high. I cannot risk Ralos’s life because of her tantrum.” Rask folded his arms across his chest. “She has no need to harm Ral to prove anything and Ral will not take part in this misguided attempt at rebelling against your gods.”
“I will not even consider taking her life. Our mission from the Academy was to ensure her safety. That is what we will do.” Verne cast a look at Camaz, who stared back at the young Sekrelli as if they were meeting for the first time.
Ral cast his eyes to the ground, chest burning with shame. He should be the one defending Aris till the end. Her own brother. How could he have even considered killing her, even for a moment? Sun curse it, why was he still such a child?
“No,” Laell gasped. Everyone turned just in time to see the ‘chains’ created by runes around Aris snapped one by one. Aris’s body slowly levitated off the ground, her dirty matted hair swirling and dissolving into a familiar smoke that looked too solid to be smoke. Aris rose to an upright position and finally settled in standing.
Ral noticed that the crust of rocky material receded. There were no longer streaks of it encompassing the upper half of her face. They only circled her eyes which remained closed.
Then she opened her eyes. Two green glowing gemstone eyes replaced her eyeballs and they stared at him. Laell screamed as the smoke coming from Aris solidified and shot at her. The smoke churned and roiled like angry storm clouds. Ral burst through the broken door of the tower before Rask shouted at him to run.