The trees stirred overhead as the world swirled around Yun.
The sickening sweetness of nausea crawled up his throat, like his food was coming back up. But what food? He hadn't eaten anything yet.
His breathing regressed into a messy sputter of hiccups.
"Hic!"
Suddenly, the shadow restraints became too tight.
"Let me go… Take your fucking tentacles off me!"
I can't breathe.
"Now!"
Branwyn looked at him for a brief moment before dismissing the shadow restraints. Yun stumbled forward as his legs gave way beneath him. His hands caught the soil before his face could.
"Is this what she's lying about now?" His voice cracked. "She'd rather... hic!... ask her father to lie about her death than see me? Just once?"
The air was starting to thin. Yun's vision was blurring at the edges.
He was suffocating. Drowning, even. .Meanwhile, Branwyn stood still and watched with calm eyes.
"Where is she, Branwyn?"
The question hung unanswered. The longer Branwyn's silence stretched, the deeper this damn suffocating feeling sank.
"Bring my sister here. I need to speak to her. And Mother…uh… fuck."
Yun dragged a hand across his face. There was so much to think about; too much for him to handle at once.
Words piled up on his tongue by the second, spilling out of his mouth before his brain could catch up.
"You know what? Forget it. I've awakened the Curse too. How about I blast through these Visions and land right at her doorstep! Where will she hide then?"
He rolled onto his back, staring through the gaps in the canopy. The moonlight blurred.
"Why did they leave me? What do they want from me?"
Branwyn watched him for a long moment before closing the distance. His boots sank softly into the loose earth as he knelt beside Yun.
His voice, when it came, was quieter than the wind threading through the grove.
"Are you done?"
Yun blinked. "Huh?"
"Listen here, Yun."
The shadow tentacles emerged once more, though slower this time, lifting Yun back onto his feet rather than throwing him around.
"Divine Service is a lethal occupation. It's not unusual for us to die unheroic deaths. Pathetic, even. That's our penance as Descendants. Keeva wasn't an exception."
Yun stared at him. His chest still rose and fell unevenly.
"Leave this place and never return. You're not welcome."
Branwyn's words barely registered. There was one demand Yun had in his mind. He swallowed.
"Take me to her grave."
"She was not buried."
"Where is her body, then?"
Yun was ready to brush off whatever denial or excuse Branwyn was about to peddle, but none came. Nothing.
He searched the Divine's face for anything resembling an answer, but found only the same impassive expression.
"... What's wrong with you people?"
"Excuse me?"
"My mother was a Morrigan, was she not? And so was Keeva. Even if she's… she's dead, she's still one of you." Yun stepped closer despite himself. "For fuck's sake, give her a proper burial, man. She's your damn daughter."
A muscle twitched in Branwyn's jaw.
"My hands are tied. You know very little of basic rank and subordination, and you're grieving, so I'll let you speak out of your ass this one time."
Yun scoffed.
"How considerate of you. A Divine of your caliber and all you can do is threaten a kid. You know what, at least let me bury my sister's body—"
Branwyn suddenly stiffened, and his attention shifted.
The shadows around the grove rippled. Yun noticed the change a heartbeat later.
"What—"
"My, my, Uncle Branwyn. Is that you?"
From the direction of the compound, Erin appeared, now clad in dark robes identical to Branwyn's. There were a few stylistic differences, but they seemed to be a uniform of some kind. Mr. Greatsword and that wall of a woman followed a pace behind her, flanking Erin on either side.
A morningstar hung from the giant woman's hip, and the slab of metal resting across Mr. Greatsword's shoulders caught the barrier's pale light with a sharp glint.
"I suspected something like this would happen," Erin said. "You do tend to lose your composure when Aunty Adelaide is involved."
Branwyn shot Erin a dark glare.
"Herald Erin. Leave."
"Uncle." She sighed almost apologetically. "You know I can't do that. Orders came in from the Clan Lord." Erin directed her sly grin towards Yun, turning flat when their eyes met. Yun flinched. "It does not step outside the Stone District. It comes with me."
Erin's companions stepped forward, brandishing their respective Vestige weapons. The massive slab of metal slid from Mr. Greatsword's shoulder into his hands with a heavy scrape that echoed through the grove. Beside him, the wall of a woman reached for the morningstar at her hip, the weapon's chain giving a dull rattle as it came free.
Branwyn appeared undeterred. Calm even. Which made Yun feel even less confident about what would follow. "Leave."
This time, the word carried enough weight to still even the restless shadows.
"Hold," said Erin.
Four supernatural beings stood in an uneasy equilibrium, and nature was getting restless.
Leaves drifted lazily from the canopy, turning in the moonlight before settling soundlessly on the earth. The surrounding trees groaned as a stiff wind threaded through the grove, carrying with it the whisper of countless unseen branches. In response, the various shadows cast by the denizens of the grove gathered into a formation.
Every patch of darkness cast by trunk, branch and leaf crept across the forest floor, converging almost imperceptibly around Branwyn's feet.
Branwyn let out a long, tired sigh. "Would you take the words of a Herald over a Power's command?"
Neither Herald answered. Which was an answer on its own.
Mr. Greatsword and the wall turned to Erin, awaiting her word. She smirked. "Reida."
At the command, the wall woman lifted herself off the ground. She rose effortlessly into the air, as though gravity had forgotten about her, drifting upward between the branches without so much as disturbing a leaf.
Yun followed with his eyes, now convinced the hunger had eaten away at his sanity. "What?"
His eyes tracked her until she disappeared beyond the canopy. For one absurd moment, he wondered whether she'd simply... left. Beside him, Branwyn moved.
Without warning, he swept the loose folds of his robe around Yun and pulled him close. The world darkened as Yun was swallowed beneath the Divine's shadow.
He could still see, though. Weird.
Branwyn cursed under his breath. "I guess not."
The words had barely left him when light burst through the grove.
Mr. Greatsword vanished. One moment he was beside Erin, the next, a white streak was bearing down on Yun's throat, blade first.
Wait, wasn't the objective to capture him first?!