Seang got almost no sleep last night for a multitude of reasons.

Foremost were the unnecessarily giant explosions Najeem had set off in the Nikan war camp. While a tactically sound move, she didn’t have to like it.

When she got to sleep, her head was full of nightmares again. She was at the advent of a siege or back on the fields of Palowang.

So she’d resolved to sit on the edge of the patio outside their lent house to see the sunrise.

Ironic that she, who possessed the very soul of the goddess of dawn, an incarnation of the great goddess and consort of the Creator, was never sure whether the next day would come.

Well, it made little sense to an outsider. But in her mind, it made perfect sense.

She was bonded with the very essence of dawn. That meant, in a way, she alone was responsible for bringing about the sunrise the next day. What a terrible burden it must be to be a god. As a human, you could be free of all cosmic worries like whether the rivers flowed or if spring arrived.

Humans like…

Shakti plopped down beside Seang with her sketchbook, not hesitating to capture the sunrise with her charcoal.

She seemed to never worry about anything. Not even human matters like war. She was content to capture the world around her, not influence it.

Seang asked the Creator to stop her from straying into bad thoughts about her friend. Shakti still was her friend, right?

“What’s on your mind?” Shakti asked, not looking up from her drawing.

“Nothing.” Seang muttered.

“There’s always something on your mind. And usually you voice it.”

“Then my silence should be an indicator that I have no present thoughts worth sharing.”

“Yeah, but you have this weird scowl-thingy on your face. Like you’re trying to see the heavens from the ground.” Shakti said.

“Scowl-thingy?” Seang asked. She sighed, “We haven’t necessarily...caught up since you returned home, have we?”

“Not that I know of. But I mean, what’s there to catch up on? I sailed around filling sketchbooks. You became a nun and took over your temple. Well, I guess you did close it.”

“Do you know why I closed it?” Seang asked, “Did you ever ask yourself where all the other sisters were?”

“I...no.” Shakti said, “What happened?”

“All devotees of the Creator are trained extensively in Muay, the fighting arts. Most know that. But not even we knew that when Jambudvipa made their call to arms, that extended to the warrior nuns and monks.” Seang said.

Shakti’s lips parted in shock, “You...you went to war?”

Seang nodded. “They deployed us to Palowang, one of the fiercest sieges in Nikan’s initial invasion. We couldn’t even fight them...they were just too overwhelming of a force. I only got out alive because I had The Promised Light of Dawn.”

“Your Shedim?” Shakti whispered, “Gods, Seang...I had no idea. It makes sense now, though.”

“It’s alright. It was a long time ago. I just needed time alone, time to think things through.” Seang said, “That’s why I closed the temple down.”

“I don’t think it’s as alright as you believe it to be, Seang.” Shakti said, “I saw you the day we had to flee our home. Even yesterday on the wall you had this...this fear in your eyes that I’ve never seen before.”

“It’s battle weariness.” Seang lied, “I can’t really help it, but most of the time I can push through.”

“Oh.” Shakti mumbled.

“Have you had any time to discover your abilities?” Seang asked. Shakti seemed relieved to have a change of subject. It was better not to burden the others with things so depressing.

“Oh, yeah!” Shakti flipped through her sketchbook. “I wasn’t happy with a drawing of a squirrel I did, because they look really funny here. I tried to rip it out, but instead I did this.”

Shakti flipped to a page with a detailed sketch of a bird on it. She whipped her hand away from the page, peeling the bird off with it.

The drawing was given a form with depth in an instant and started flapping its wings as it was more or less thrown into the sky.

“So...you can create small animals?”

“Well, maybe other things, too. But I can tell the animals what to do.” Shakti smiled and looked up at her bird, mentally commanding it somehow.

The bird made designs and shapes with its flight pattern.

“Can they communicate with you?” Seang asked.

“Communicate? It’s a bird, Seang.” Shakti chuckled.

Damn. She hoped it could spy for them, allowing her to keep Najeem close by, as he was obviously the only actual soldier among them.

Speak of the Damned. Najeem exited out onto the patio right at that moment.

He stretched, clearly satisfied with himself. He squinted towards the south. “Those fires are still burning, huh?”

“What exactly did you do?” Shakti asked.

“You should ask what they did to themselves. All I did was point their weapons in the wrong direction.” Najeem said.

“Well...whatever you did, it worked.” Seang muttered, “Just...don’t do stupid things like this without letting me know next time.”

“Eh. You’d impede my fun.” Najeem chuckled. He turned to gaze out at the city of Xinhou and took a deep breath, sighing in satisfaction. He seemed uncharacteristically optimistic. “I think we might actually have a chance. Seang. You know Muay by chance?”

“Yes. All followers of the Great Creator know something or other.”

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“Care to join me for a warm-up form?”

Seang considered. She hadn’t done her morning yoga exercises lately. A kata was close enough. It was said starting one’s day with exercise brought the body closer to the spirit.

She pushed herself off of the patio and out to the courtyard, “Only if you let me pick what we do.”

“Fine with me. But I’ll warn you the Qahtanad Muay differs from the original.” Najeem said, “Choose wisely.”

“You know Typhoon Form?” Seang asked. It was a fundamental kata that shaped the foundations of skill in the fighting style, specifically with kicks and agility.

“Of course.” Najeem said, lowering into Monkey Stance.

Seang did the same, but aligned herself with him so they didn’t end up kicking each other in the face during the forward-moving portion.

Typhoon Stance was an elegant yet simple form. It was made up of sweeping, showy movements that were pretty to look at, but would never hold up in actual combat. The real purpose was to teach the student what muscles to stretch and the core principles of kicks and jump kicks.

Seang immersed herself in the motions, synchronizing with Najeem to a nonexistent beat that sounded in each of their minds. As the form continued, they sped up. But the rhythms they moved to remain largely the same.

The beating drum of the typhoon’s thunder with each strike, the chorus of rain that dictated the calmness of the mind and the melody of the wind that steered the force and momentum of their bodies as they endlessly spun through the storm.

Sweep, turn, kick, jump, hook, turn, sway, reverse. It all came to a head, with both of them going for the most advanced move in the set.

Together, they leapt in the air, kicking their front leg out for momentum and after two spins, hooking their left heels out, completing the tornado kick and returning to their resting Monkey Stance.

Najeem and Seang turned to each other. She offered him a gesture comprising her hand covering her fist in a sign of respect. Najeem returned the same sentiment.

“Thank you, Najeem.”

“I just wanted to start the day off right.” Najeem smiled.

Shakti applauded from her seat on the patio.

Seang and Najeem looked at her, brows furrowed.

“That was an impressive dance!” Shakti shouted.

“Dance?” Najeem asked.

Seang put a hand on his shoulder before he could retort as the two of them returned to the patio.

“I got a pretty nice still image from it.” Shakti showed them a page in her sketchbook. It was an incredibly detailed, but still half-finished image of the both of them performing one of the many turning roundhouse kicks in the form.

“Say, you think you could bring those to life too?” Seang asked.

Shakti shrugged, “Can’t hurt to try.”

“Bring what to life?” Najeem asked.

“Her ability lets her give life to her drawings.” Seang said.

Shakti tried to peel the draw out, giving birth to two monochrome versions of Seang and Najeem, who did a turning kick in the air before dissipating into fog.

“Hm...I probably need more practice.” Shakti muttered.

Seang glanced up as a bleary-eyed Lokapele with frazzled brown hair stomped out of the house and punched Najeem in the arm.

“Hey!” Najeem said, seeming to take more offense personally to the hit than he was reacting to physical pain.

“I woke up not an hour after midnight because of you and haven’t been to sleep since.” Lokapele grumbled.

“Look, the explosion wasn’t that loud.” Najeem said.

“Bullshit. You woke up half the city.” Lokapele muttered.

“Again, I ask what the hell did you do?” Shakti said.

“I may have found their supply of hand cannons. And set one off in that tent.” Najeem said.

“Well, no wonder it was so loud. He set off at least a thousand explosions all at the same time.” Seang said.

“I also set one off near the incendiary ammunition for their mangonels. So they have...I’d say 75% less firepower than the day before. Also, that fire was gigantic.” Najeem said.

“You’ve really outdone yourself.” Lokapele scoffed, “First you steal from a temple, now you’re committing arson. Thinking about hijacking a kingdom next month?”

“Maybe you’re just a light sleeper. Are the other two sleeping well?” Najeem asked.

“Unfortunately, yes. Asses, what with their deep sleep.” the Aotearoan growled.

“Najeem I forgot to tell you, but I think you should go check up on Shahla when she wakes.” Shakti said, “She was kind of...out of it yesterday when you left for your mission. Not herself, you know?”

Najeem nodded. “Probably because of the siege. I’ll make sure she’s alright.”

_____________________________________________________________________________

Shahla had gotten no sleep last night.

But it was not because of any explosions.

She had to be sure. Sure that her Shedim had abandoned her. She’d spent the entire night absorbing power from the moon. And she could still use her powers to send people to sleep, as she had Vai, who’d woken up to Najeem’s explosion.

But no matter what she tried, she couldn’t manifest her Shedim.

She had tried to force the chill of power out from her body, but to no avail. Instead, she felt a different coldness. Not a chill like a stiff breeze. More like...apathy. As though her Shedim was still there, but held resentment towards her.

A part of her knew that like this, she couldn’t grow. She’d be stagnant in her powers. Their bond had been damaged, the Inevitable Wake had said. By an act of weakness.

What act of weakness? Of not throwing herself to her death?

Shahla had ‘let despair infect her’ apparently. That a tad overdramatic. She had never once said she was giving up. She just wasn’t helpful during the siege and should’ve focused her efforts elsewhere.

Damn that oversensitive, foolhardy spirit to hell. If their bond meant throwing herself into death’s path, Shahla wanted no part of it.

She had a mission to complete. Who knows what kind of awful things Ahmed’s brother was doing to him. She was the only one with the power to stop it.

Well...she didn’t really have the power. She was free to ask a senator for his help.

More of the apathetic chill filled her body.

“Shut up, you.” Shahla growled.

A knock came from her door.

“What?” Shahla responded with harshness.

“Hey, be glad I bothered knocking. I could’ve just appeared in your room without warning.”

“Najeem? Come in. Sorry about that.” Shahla flushed.

Najeem opened the wooden door to her quarters. “You seem...less than okay. Which is understandable, but...you know, I’m worried.”

Shahla shrugged.

“Wanna talk about it?” he asked, sitting on the floor next to her.

“I...I should. But I don’t think I’m ready.”

“In time, then.” the Asasiyun shrugged, “Seang wants us all on the patio.”

“Odd how she fell into the leader role despite being the newest member of our group.” Shahla muttered.

“Right? Don’t worry, though. I still have some influence.” Najeem chuckled, “But this has to do with the siege, so let’s not make them wait.”

Shahla followed Najeem out of the house and onto the patio, where the rest of the group was sitting at a wooden table, along with Kameko and her superiors.

“Is this all of you?” the man Shahla recalled as the Commander asked.

Seang nodded.

“Good.” Jia Long said, “We want you to be involved in our next steps. It’s clear to us they outmatched us. The efforts of your Asasiyun spared us this day, but they will be back.”

“Are you considering negotiating surrender?” Seang asked.

The Commander shook his head.

“Why?” Seang asked.

“The Nikan won’t accept any terms of surrender that aren’t in the realm of ridiculous. If I give up and they win this battle, they will slaughter these people. The Nikan train their men to view dissenters as less than human. They will be cruel with their murder.” the Commander explained, “Captain Iseri.”

“Sir!” Kameko stood at attention.

“I’m putting you and these Shedim masters of yours in charge of the city’s defense temporarily. My chief concern is ensuring our reinforcements come. If Ducas gets cold feet in this annexation deal, we really will be helpless.” Jia Long said, “I trust in your abilities to earn us a victory, captain.”

“Yes, sir.” Kameko nodded.

“My peers and I will tend to emissary Ducas. The scouts and wall guard are at your disposal.” the Commander, along with his followers, left their spire.

Once they were out of earshot, Kameko dropped her weapon. “Is he crazy? Wh-wh….what the hell am I supposed to do about this? I’m little more than a girl! I’ve never even fought as a soldier!” She took a deep breath. “It’s fine. Everything’s fine. C’mon, Iseri.”

“So,” Seang looked at Kameko awkwardly, “You have a plan?”

Kameko nodded, rubbing her temples. “I think. The Asasiyun took out their black powder weapons and their mangonels, so they wouldn’t have much in the way of covering fire to breach the city. I want them to be completely defenseless if they try to attack.”

“I assume I’ll be needed for this?” Najeem asked.

Kameko shook her head, “It’s too much for one person to do.”

“You’d be surprised at what I’m capable of.” Najeem said.

“Nevertheless, after last night, they’ll probably be guarding their supplies extremely well. Maybe even with Bane Knights.” Kameko said, “I want to send a small group with you. But I also think it would be worthwhile to try to divert their attention with a second sabotage operation.”

“And this is something you just now came up with? Not going to consult anyone?” Seang asked.

Kameko nodded. “I’ve been thinking about this in the back of my head since last night and talked it over with some of the other captains. I won’t let this city fall. No matter what.”

“What would this second operation entail?” Najeem asked.

“While you would destroy their supply of ranged weapons and mobile roofs, myself and a sizable force could hit their food stores, which they’ll pay far more attention to.” Kameko said, “We should do it tonight while they’re still reeling from last night, so get yourselves ready. I want as many of you on the mission as possible. Anyone stealthy, put with your Asasiyun. Anyone with more straightforward abilities goes with me. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go oversee the digging of a lot of new murderholes.”

War was ruthless. Shahla knew that now. But not the way most people thought. The endless demands made of her were wearing her down. One clash after another. Barely any time to process previous skirmishes.

Even outside of this city, she’d paid her share of blood. But God demanded more. Well...was it God? What was it that made the world so full of suffering? And how could she end it?