Fall Festival 2: Tell Tail Heart

Whyrl entered the chamber with his daughter behind him. She hid behind his tail, not sure what to expect, before they entered a room with purple runes. It was otherwise gray and metal.

The Twayt who usually advised Owlis was in the room. She held up a staff in her talons. "Enter."

Their feet clacked on the floor, as Solarh said, "I will be performing a ceremony that will drain you of your dark magics, but it will require your father to hold you down?"

Bittersweet asked, "Will this hurt?"

"On the contrary, after this, you'll feel absolutely no pain at all," Solarh said. "Same with your father, okay dear?" Both assured, they laid down next to each other.

Solarh grinned.

"So, lemme get out the book." She brought out the Forbidden Book, and bit down on her own wing, to draw blood. As the blood dripped down, she said, "And now, I become all of Despair."

The rites needed had taken place before, and two hands surged from the book. Shadowy, dark hands. Bittersweet and Whyrl temporarily had second thoughts.

The hand ripped into Whyrl's chest, and he gasped. He struggled before the hand pulled out his heart.

Bittersweet shook, but the hand ripped into her, into her soul, and extracted a black orb.

Neither could move, absolutely paralyzed. "What are you doing!?" Whyrl asked.

"A heart must be sacrificed for me to steal Despair," Solarh said. "I must thank you two for your gifts, as they will advance my lead quicker than you'd expect."

"What are you talking about, you crazy bird?" Whyrl asked. The hand twisted around, before sucking Whyrl's heart into the book, sealing it away. He grayed out.

Bittersweet gasped, and let out a final breath, before a black orb was ripped from her. The orb went from her and entered the Twayt's chest.

"Good night," Solarh said, before sending dark lines into both, forcing them into Despair. Not that it mattered. Bittersweet would be in eternal despair, while Whyrl would be forever heartless, both abandoned. Darkness consumed them, and neither were ever the same again.

Owlis found them a couple hours later. Whyrl said, "It was Solarh. She..." He explained the events, and Owlis frowned.

"So now one of the dark qualities is back out of the kingdom. Hopefully, for good," Owlis said.

Bittersweet didn't bother to answer, and instead walked around in a circle. What was the point of anything? All sweet had been drained, leaving only the bitter.

Whyrl told Owlis, "I trusted you."

Owlis said, "The kingdom is to trust us. If any of this were to leak out, about the dark qualities..."

Whyrl said, "They deserve... honesty."

"Honesty brings panic," Owlis said. "We can't let a panic happen. Our operation is to make sure all dark qualities stay out of the kingdom... Or at least it was... Maybe it's best if we kept a single quality. At least one."

Whyrl said, "My heart..."

Owlis said, "You've already healed significant portions of your body, due to your dire blood." Dire blood had been known for its regenerative properties.

"Owlis... What are we to do?" Whyrl asked, gasping for air.

Owlis told him, "You are not to speak at all. I need you to keep quiet about this incident. No one needs to know one of our own betrayed us, or else they will get angry, and scared." Owlis paced around the room, and examined the details. "They absolutely cannot know about the dark qualities to any capacity, and if they find out about anything, it must be contained. They must be assured."

Whyrl asked, "Is that it?"

Owlis said, "My final order: Prevent panic under all circumstances. There will never be a word said."

"Yes." Whyrl said, and then nodded to his daughter. "What should I do with her?" He almost didn't care if she'd be healed or not.

Owlis said, "We'll hold her in a cell for her own safety..."

***

Baynana consumed his tale.

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"I've got to tell my family! They would know how to stop this, because Vanos is able to stop Despair!"

Whyrl's eyes twinkled. Owlis must not have known.

"Very well, if there's anything I can do, it's that I must trust you with this," Whyrl said.

"However, I am putting my job and liberty at stake now, helping you. I suppose I told you this in hopes you may know something, but I worried, as much as I could, you wouldn't be able to help."

"We may not be able to," Baynana said. "I don't wanna make any promises, now. But I will try my darndest to assist you." Baynana wagged her tail, and Whyrl patted her on the head.

"We need to get you back to your family then," Whyrl said. "You can go and lead the way. If we encounter any guards, I will have to be your muscle."

Baynana paced down the corridors. "What are you going to do if we run into Owlis?"

"Owlis never walks these halls," Whyrl said, "unless there's something specific she needs."

"Yeah, but one person still walks these halls."

Both turned, only to see Layf was staggering behind them. Whyrl said, "Guess you didn't put enough juice in."

Baynana sent the lines at him again, but Layf jumped away from the lines, before sending a barrage of wind. The gust hit Baynana and slammed her into a wall.

"She's just a kid," Whyrl said, as he ran at Layf. Layf slipped around him before going towards a door, a special reinforced door. He opened it, and slammed it shut.

"That's the guards room!" Whyrl said, before an alarm went off.

Red filled the area, and Baynana gasped, before she hightailed it with Whyrl. "If Owlis hears this, we're dead!" Whyrl said.

The door burst open again, and Layf sent out a new gust of wind, knocking both of them away.

"You run off!" Whyrl said. "Leave him to me. It's you that can fix this entire thing, not I."

"But you need to be healed!" Baynana said.

"You have to save the kingdom, or save my daughter, but leave me here."

Baynana frowned, and ran off, knowing it was all she could do. She ran up a flight of stairs, leading to a main room, until she saw a glowing jackal.

"Are you a guard?" Baynana asked with a frown, staring at her slender legs, then up.

This jackal was literally made out of light. Her congealed light form, it produced light, radiated it. "No, I'm not a guard little one. I'm simply someone who wants to meet an old friend named Lhyna." She smirked.

Baynana tucked her tail in and backed up. She was about to use Despair, when pink lines entered her via the jackal.

"Now, what do you desire?" the jackal asked.

A vision appeared, similar to when Mosor used her empathy. All of a sudden, it showed Baynana, with her parents, taking a walk down a stream. She had no lines around her body or anything.

"I just want to be normal again," Baynana said. "I don't want any of this! My dark powers, or any of it! I just want to be back with my mom and dad!"

"Well how about I arrange that, girl?" the jackal said. "My name is Lantorn. And I can take away your powers, and the powers of Lhyna simultaneously, I just need your cooperation."

"And then you'll leave me as a husk of myself!" Baynana said. "I'll be trapped in Despair, or in Worthlessness."

"You're right, I don't believe you'd agree to that. Too bad you're trapped. Your own family won't even know if something were to happen to you, right?" Lantorn asked with a fake frown.

Baynana unleashed Worthlessness into Lantorn, but a rush of waves entered Lantorn to counter them. All of a sudden, Baynana saw two figures, a crimson and a violat.

"These are Rhed and Blhu, and while I have Empathy as a quality, these two have Willpower, and my last associate is able to use Dependability. His name is Arber."

Baynana's head snapped back and forth, before something picked her up by the armpits. She stared back to see a Boh, before he powerbombed her into the ground.

Baynana was soon kidnapped.

***

Lantorn walked down the hallway, only to see Layf versus the literally heartless Whyrl. However, since Lantorn couldn't find herself caring too much about either of them, she used the sword affixed to her back to slash at both of them.

They whipped around, their bodies crackling with lightning, as she walked past them. Arber had Baynana stuffed under his arm.

"So, Lantorn, what if Lhyna's able to retaliate?" Arber asked.

"Tsk tsk tsk, always so thinking of the negatives," Lantorn said. "We're not afraid of Lhyna, as, after all, I almost killed her. And she's the one invading my dreams."

"You don't have any proof that's Lhyna who's summoning Lhyna, and not just some typical wight."

Baynana's ears perked up. What if she found some way to prevent Lantorn's current problem, by taking out the wight? Doubtless, if anyone would know how to defeat a wight, it should be Baynana by now, and the Nightmare.

"Don't argue," Lantorn said as they came to a giant vault, sealed with concrete. Only a single slot. Meant for food, and not anything else.

Her sword slashed it open, before it fell over. And in her own chamber, reinforced by barriers of all nine elements, Lhyna stood chained.

"Hm, they took a lot of precautions with you," Lantorn said. "And yet you still manage to invade my dreams day in, and day out."

"I've never been a fan of entering your dreams of giving you nightmares," Lhyna said. "In fact, these chains keep me from using my psychic magics on you."

"I don't believe that for a second," Lantorn said with a growl at the end. "Anyway, you still have the Fear Quality, and I'm here to take your Fear Quality, once and for all."

"I suppose I'll have no way to stop you," Lhyna said with a wicked laugh. "How are you going to extract it? Via the same ritual that stole for Solarh the Despair Quality? You know, Solarh is my cousin, we're very related. Goddess of Sun, Goddess of Moon after all."

"I will have all three dark Qualities to myself," Lantorn said, "along with the three Qualities of Willpower, Empathy, and Dependability."

"Except you won't," Lhyna said. "If you're looking for a power trip, you'd have to take out Solarh, and while I believe that's possible, you'd need someone who knows all her tricks. Remember, I was able to use gravity to force thousands in the air. I'm able to make tidal waves. What do you think someone who controls the very sun itself can do?"

"Eternal day?" Arber guessed.

"Exactly," Lhyna said.

Lantorn stared down at her blade.

Baynana mentioned, "Uh, the Quality recycles into the Forbidden Book if someone is killed. So you won't have to do a ritual, you'd just have to kill her."

Lhyna's eyes widened, and Lantorn said, "Very well. I suppose she has words left."

Lhyna said, "I will revive, and you will never have peace from me!"

Lantorn flashed her blade and said, "I will because I AM FEAR."

She raised her blade into the sky before swinging it.