Closing the door, I say, "No point in thinking about pointless things." I can't control my feelings or thoughts, but I can decide what matters more, and this peace we have and the smile on my little brother's face will always weigh more, and I will act on those two things.
Location: The path to the beastkin Village
ΦStepping off the beetle brothers' back, Iancu says, "This is why I told you guys to behave instead of fight."
Proteus says, "We wanted revenge against Suzuka."
"AND SHE BEAT YOU TILL YOU WERE BOTH INJURED AGAIN. And now our journey has to be delayed for the 7th time."
Turning to Suzuka, I ask, "You couldn't go easy on them."
With passion, Suzuka says, "A half-hearted fight is the worst sin of them all!"
Iancu says, "Then you carry us all home, you meathead."
"I would have you know that I eat balanced meals, so my head isn't just composed of meat!"
Iancu looks full of disbelief and says, "You really are an idiot!"
"You're an idiot!"
As the two of them clash, I turn to Malachy and say, "I want to go make sure my gift wasn't damaged during our journey."
"Ok, but you should get some space, these two's fights can be rather destructive."
"I know."
Running for a little bit, I eventually reach some trees where I see nobody. Sitting down, I unwrap the gift I got for my brother, a statue of a Kola. "This was the type of Fanalis dad was, so I am sure brother would like this."
I start to wrap up the gift again, but hearing a sound, I turn to the right and I notice someone.
ΦAs I am about to hit Iancu again in his big idiot face, I stop and say, "Someone is nearby."
"What?"
"I hear their thoughts."
Suddenly, a scream comes from close by, and moments later, all four of us run to the source, and when we get there, we are greeted with an awful sight.
-20 minutes later-
Φ"Can I hold your hand?" Orb asks while slightly delirious.
"You really are a needed child," I say as I give him my hand.
After fiddling and examining my hand like some weird science experiment, he asks, "Hey?"
"What?"
"If you die, can I mess with your corpse?"
I strike Orb on the head and say, "You truly need some corrective punishment."
Getting up, I say, "Well, before any of that, I might as well get dinner started."
As I walk out of Orb's room, I hear someone scream, "ABBÁN!" From outside.
Hearing the panic in the voice, I rush outside and say, "Wha-." But I stop speaking before I can finish because the sight in front of me brings me to a state of Stupor.
In front of me is Suzuka with Dillion in her hands, with one of his arms ripped to shreds, wounds across one side of his body, and his ant head is cracked open.
I walk slowly towards him, still not fully understanding how to feel, but then Proteus says, "ABBÁN SNAP OUT OF IT!" And I come back to my senses.
Not wasting any time, I say, "Bring him in."
We lay Dillion out on a table, and I start to cover up all of the haemorrhaging parts. As I do, I say, "WHAT HAPPENED!"
Iancu, being the most level-headed in this situation, explains, "I don't know, we let him out of our sight for just a little bit, and then moments later we heard him scream. There were no wonderbeast around, so we left Malachy to search the area."
"Why did you even let him out of your sight?"
"We're sorry we didn't know this would happen," Proteus says.
Holding back my anger, I look at Dillion and say, "His body is completely unresponsive; he is losing too much blood."
Iancu then makes a cut in his arm and throws it into Dillion's blood, causing me to say, "What the hell are you doing!"
"Any blood that comes into contact with mine falls under my control, due to my curse. So I can stop him from bleeding out, but that's the limit of my ability. Suzuka, I know you can help as well!"
Calming down from her state of panic, she grabs Dillion and says, "Gozen battle arts; Spirit therapy."
Throughout his body, the girl sends shocks with her spirit energy, which gets Dillion's spirit energy to respond in his body. "He is still unconscious but is now covering his body in spirit energy."
Suzuka says, "As long as this is going on, his soul won't leave his body."
Looking at both of them, I say, "Thank you." Now turning to Proteus, I say, "I need you to find wonderbeast meat for my brother."
"On it!"
Iancu ask, "Will that help?"
"All Beastkin can regenerate faster with the flesh of wonderbeasts, so right now what we need more than anything else is food."
Our operation on Dillion went on for quite some time, and eventually, we were able to bring him to a stabilised point, but he still didn't wake up.
-3 hours later-
Sitting in my house surrounded by a bunch of other adults who came to check on Dillion, I simply stay quiet, going through my memories.
The memory of when he first was born, the memory of when he first walked, the memory of when he first spoke, the memory of how he used to sleep beside me, the memory of when he first asked about our parents, the memory of his first day at school, the memory of his first time eating dinner, the first time he said he loved me.
Suddenly, Malachy runs into the room, and I get up and say, "Did you find who did this?"
Malachy says, "No, but I found this."
What Malachy handed me was pieces of my brother's ripped-off flesh sown together, and on it, the words; child of sinners, were written.
Everyone hearing this starts to talk around me, but as if time had stopped, I can't even perceive their actions. I apologise, we all apologised.
We were treated like shit every day, and then we were put in a situation where we would all starve to death. So, we fought back like anyone would, but still we gave up, we stopped, we didn't want war.
We gave up our land, we gave up our food, we gave up our destinies, and we lost much more family than they did. We all lived lives stuffed inside this tiny village where we were shamed every day, and we didn't even complain about all of this.
Because the only thing we wanted was our families, but we couldn't even have that, we weren't even allowed to have this little space, this little happiness.
Are we such vile existences? Are we such mistakes of creation that we deserve this? Were we truly meant to be born to be treated like this? Is this truly the goal of our lives?
Because if so, I reject this. Shaking tears fall as anger swells up inside me, and I say, "Enough."
All of the people around me fall silent and look at me. "The only reason the war ended is because of our kindness, the only reason they can hug their children is because of our kindness, the only reason they can eat is because of our kindness, the only reason they have beds to lay on is because of our kindness, the only reason they know peace is because of our kindness, and if they think we are monsters, then we will treat them with the kindness of monsters. A quick death."
The surrounding beastkin says, "Abbán, you don't mean."
"I do, because if we don't do this now. How are we going to tell the kids to sleep at night, knowing that any moment someone will kill them for being a monster?"
Everyone's faces become determined, and as they do, Orb listens in from the other room.
-Break-
Location: Abais Castle
ΦStaring at me, Amadán says, "My men have reported back, they have struck the target."
"Now, Abbán should be eager to attack us."
Dúr says, "Then my men will sneak into his house and assassinate Orb."
"Then we can blame it all on the Fanalis, and now that we have removed the leader of the humans, Maple will be next in line and with my guidance will be extraordinarily easy to control."
Turning to Leisciúil, I say, "If it wasn't for your recognisance, we wouldn't have been able to pull this off."
"You shouldn't be thanking me, but thanking Danu for letting the boy be ill. Now we should be able to successfully bring him to an end. But we should be careful we don't need Amadán men getting caught."
Olc says, "I have already prepared a hideout for them, one of the food storage houses. No one without express permission would be able to get in."
"Wonderful, now tell Ganthrú to get troops ready, and I need you to spread the word of the incoming Fanalis attack. If some angered citizens go to meet them and get slaughtered, we would have even more wonderful backing."
Dúr, sitting up, says, "I should get going."
Olc asks, "Don't you think your assassination will have a higher success rate with Dumnorix joining?"
"I would rather die than have him join me on anything. I have already sent him on a wild goose chase, so we won't be hearing from him till today is over."
Sighing, I say, "Well, at least that idiot won't be able to make anything worse now."
-Break-
Location: Abbán house
ΦSitting down on a chair as Abbán and all of the other beastkin prepare their plan, I say, "Suzuka, I am going to join them."
With a fright, she says, "But that means you will have to kill people!"
"SO WHAT!" I shout. "Back in Elpída, horrible people always got away with their awful nonsense. Even now, I have no idea what those bastards are doing to Morrigan, but if I have a chance to do something about it, I will no matter how far I have to go."
ΦStanding up, Iancu walks away into the crowd of people and starts to talk, and as he does, I hear the never-ending thoughts of resentment from everyone's heads. It is so intense and painful that I can barely move, but it reminds me of my time in Seirei.
Suddenly, I hear Orb say, "What the hell are you guys doing?"
Staring at Orb, I see his hair is back, and he looks much sicker than he did when we first arrived at Abbán's house.
"You idiots somehow think going to war will fix anything? The first time you guys went to warn, you almost lost everything."
Iancu, angered, tries to say something to Orb, but Abbán stops him and steps up. "Orb, shut the hell up because you don't know what you are talking about."
"I am sure I do because right now you're not thinking straight."
"My mind is clearer than it will ever be. Because I refuse to live like a bug, to live like I shouldn't be alive, to live like I am the monster when they assault our children, I am tired and have decided to strike back. Is that not fair for all we have been through, or do you agree with them and think we deserve this?"
Orb jumps up and headbutts Abbán, then says, "Not a single fibre of my being believes you deserve this, but just because someone says something wrong doesn't mean any idea in retaliation and opposition to that is correct. Abbán, are you aiming to be less wrong than your enemy, or are you aiming to be right?"
Orb's words make faces of doubt appear on everyone's faces, but then Abbán says, "I don't care anymore, I simply refuse to show any form of kindness and compassion because if any or all of us Fanalis were to fall, no compassion would come for us, only cheers of our destruction, so I simply don't care and am bringing an end to this."
Getting up, Abbán turns to the Fanalis and Iancu, then says, "So would you all like to join me to end this suffering?"
They all shake their heads in agreement, and as they do, Orb falls to the ground. Then Abbán says, "His health seems to have gotten worse. Suzuka, take him back to his room."
Picking Orb up, I see he is trying to struggle, but is too weak to do so. "Please, Orb, just come with me."
"Suzuka, are you truly ok with this?"
"I don't have any right to tell them that because to this day I still think about hurting those who hurt me."
"Then why are you crying?"
Using my tail to wipe my tears, I say, "Because everyone is so sad, and I can feel it intensely, I don't want it to get worse, but I also don't think they are wrong."
Pressing himself against me, Orb says, "Suzuka, if they go ahead with this, their sadness will increase, so I need you to stop this."
"But I already told you, I don't have the right or the will to."
Looking at me dead in the eyes, Orb says with a confident voice despite being weak, "I have a plan that can stop this completely before any blood has to be spilled, and it relies solely on you!"