Chapter 378: Skyclad Observer, Part
This memory here wasn’t a pleasant one, that I knew as much.
The Magus, Caim, so desperately clinging to life, at the mercy of two individuals who lived beyond the point where the matter of life was a negligible afterthought.
Always over her shoulder, I watch Ria continue to fester in her simmering quiet that was steadily growing fierce.
Meanwhile, Terestra appearing satisfied with what had been relayed by him thus far, twirled her fingers in a flourish, and then at once the gasping Caim, the coughing Caim, inhaled deep, and began to breathe again.
He took in the air like a fish to water, his mouth wide open and his chest a large rising swell that wouldn’t fall – and for a moment fleeting and brief, in the tension leaving with the tears trickling down his face – all was well.
Then, with a smirk slightly parting, Terestra politely spoke again, “My dear Caim, did you ever think yourself despicable for what you’ve done? Your Church certainly doesn’t, humanity reveres you, and yet... just what is it that separates you from me? At the end of the day, isn’t what you did still simply just cold-blooded murder?”
The Magus was in a clumsy scramble for footing. He scoured through the grass, his frantic flailing coming upon his magic book which he held out wide open – turning – brandishing a glowing trembling hand at the both of them.
.....
“Forgive me, but haven’t we already danced to this tune before?” Terestra said to him drearily. “And here it is believed you Magi never make the same mistake twice. But very well, I suppose... do your worst, and then I shall do mine.”
A sudden act of defiance, of resistance, that just as swiftly crumbled to dirt, when the book in his hand spontaneously caught ablaze with vicious orange flames.
He howled once more in pain, and the flames were snuffed as the book landed with a hard thump to the ground and closed shut. The smell of burning flesh was pungent, enveloping the vicinity with its foul odor.
“Don’t touch him, I don’t want him dead,” Ria silently spoke, springing down from her stump and her feet crushing down onto the grass in a small explosive sputter of cinders. “Not yet...”
I could distinctly hear the anger spilling away from her lips like venom, as did Terestra too... shrinking once more into the shadows with a small complying bow.
“My, my, my,” She whispered with a smile. “Just can’t resist, can you?”
Caim stood frozen in place, stricken still by pure unbridled fear. He could watch helplessly, gripping his arm shining the red and raw of muscle, as the glowing crimson figure rapidly loomed closer before his eyes.
“So your name’s Caim, right? It seems I finally have a name. After all this time, I finally have a name.” Ria didn’t hesitate shoving him, stumbling him all the way at the back hard against the bark of a nearby tree, baring at him her teeth in a tight grit. “Caim. Caim Kles! Tell me this, Caim! Their names, those nine you murdered, those nine that have done nobody wrong, what were their last names?! You know it, you know me, so you know it – so say it, SAY IT!”
“Ignis!” Caim shouted out, his eyes clamped shut from the harsh blinding ferocity before him.
“Ignis!” Ria spat the word back at him, her smoldering locks of hair seemingly taking on a life of its own, hovering and swaying like burning tendrils lashing out in the air. “My name, my last name! You knew it, all of you did, and still you – !”
“They weren’t... yours!” He said, wincing and writhing terribly in agony. “You stole them... the Churches proclaimed... the dangers they... posed... the risk...”
“What dangers?” Ria demanded breathlessly, her eyes riddled in disbelief. “What risk? Tell me, what risk?! In the most secluded mountain in the realm, living their lives freely, did they look like a risk to you?! Did they?!”
Tears were pouring down, damping the grass. Ria blinked once, and more began to pour. She was shaking just as much as Caim was trembling.
“They told me... it had to be done...” Caim said, his lips refusing to fully close shut. “My family’s expertise... I was the only one that could... there was no other way...”
“Bullshit there was no other way!” She snapped, her talon-like clutch on his clothing momentarily erupting with flames. “You could have ignored the Churches’ request! You could have walked away! You could have just ignored us! You could have just left us alone!” Her breathing quivered. “Why couldn’t you have just left us alone?!”
“You didn’t leave us a choice,” Caim spoke quietly, stifling his fears, his stammers, and met her stare head-on. “After what you’ve done, after Prestes. What if Frieden Rike was to be reduced to cinders? Creekwood? What if Astra burns eternally next? Nine phoenixes astray... in your image! The Churches couldn’t... we’ve simply did what had to be done... for the good of all mankind!”
“For the good of all mankind,” a demonic giggle sounded in the distance. “The only truth you’ve ever spoken to us willingly and yet it’s still a lie. A tragic irony, my dear Caim, simply tragic.”
Caim glanced at the demon in confusion, but he couldn’t for long ignore the crimson eyes blazing mere inches before him, and soon his gaze was brought back to the front as Ria spoke again.
“What’s your father’s name, Caim?” She asked, and when faced with another bout of confusion from the Magus, she sent a jet of fire that singed more at his clothing and his skin, expelling a yell of pain from his wide-open lips. She asked again. “What is his name?”
“K-Kiellus!” He replied promptly, the stench of scorched flesh now more potent than ever. “My father’s name is Kiellus Kles!”
“And your father’s father?”
“Damien!”
“And the one before him?!” To that, Ria was met with gaping lips that only spoke silent, undaunted, she tried again. “How about the one before him? Or that one before that? What of his mother’s name, do you know? Do you?!”
“I... I...”
“Thieme, Hulm, Clena, Satamiel, Timothy, Mikael, Zielius,” Ria said, her anger rising with every utterance, her stare widening with every name. “And now there’s you – Caim Kles.”
She broke her grip, and immediately Caim sunk to the ground, his strength leaving him, the pain overwhelming him. Slumped against the brittle bark of the tree, his breathing was weak and soft. His book laid just mere inches by his feet but he didn’t try for it.
Like me, he already knew what was to become of him here.
Ria raised her hand before the Magus, a spark of light in her open palm combusting into a ball of raging fire. “I’ve killed eight of you, now I’ll kill nine of you. In a way it’s fitting, isn’t it? An eye for an eye? How fuckingly poignant of fate, right?”
The ball of fire swelled tenfold, at any moment ready to flare, ready to burn and smolder everything before it into ash and dust.
“Hey, Caim?” But then a voice, insidiously gentle evoking its words from its curled lips. “Bizarrely irrelevant question, but do you have a family that’s awaiting your return?”
For a brief second, the ball of light flickered and dimmed.
Caim softly wheezed and croaked. “Y-Yes... I do...”
“Precious,” From out of the shadows, Terestra began to cross the empty space between them. “You’ve any children?”
He feebly nodded, his heavy eyes falling against his will. “Two... a son... a daughter...”
“How old are they?”
“Yonah... is eight...” Caim swallowed the hot air. “Brent is... five...”
Terestra adjusted her gown, gently lowering herself beside him, a concerned frown showing as she angled to meet his eyes. “And tell me, would they be utterly devastated if you don’t return tonight or any night after tonight for that matter?”
Again, all Caim could muster was a weak and subtle nod. But that was enough of an answer for Terestra to turn towards the ball of flames, and beyond it, Ria’s gaze.
“Oh, what a conundrum this is indeed, Ria,” She said, batting her eyes at her in a knowing mischievous manner. “Caim has a family. He has children. He loves and is loved in return. According to you, that just won’t do, isn’t that right? How can one that knows what it’s like to love, to have a family ever murder a person in cold blood? How can you?”
Ria narrowed piercing eyes at the demon. “You cunning evil demon bitch lady.”
“To my very core,” Terestra responded, standing up and drifting at once to Ria’s side. “But you’re different, aren’t you? You won’t kill him, will you? After all, it’s like you said... you don’t see things the way I do, you won’t – !”
An explosion of light, a sweltering hotness scorching the air, and then a moment after, the ball of fire dissipated, leaving only a swirl of steam hovering from her palm... and a grey mound of ash piled against a blackened tree.
In silence, the remaining two watched as the mountain of dust crumbled away to a nothingness with the breeze of the wind that followed. Ria with her unfeeling stare, Terestra with her loving smile.
“Even with family, even with love, he didn’t bat an eye slaughtering your children, did he?” The demon said, peeking over at Ria’s shadowed expression. “So even if you knew love, even if you knew family, why is it that should you be any different, hmm? Why should I be?”
The phoenix didn’t respond, and the demon didn’t expect an answer.
“You see now?” Mom said, wrapping a warm, comforting hand around the dim glow of her shoulder. “You’re just like us, Ria.”
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