Scales and Swords ✓

53: Life

Flames danced in the air and faded into the night. Like a brief flicker of life, it ended as suddenly as it came to being. I trailed my fingers through the blaze like fire wasn't something so innate to me. But who was this me? A guard? A rebel? A daughter and a sister? An orphan?

My feet dangled over the edge, another step and I'd drop. Drop. Drop to my death. Disappear. And no one would know.

The gem hanging from my throat burned like fire I've never felt before. And only for a moment I wished that I didn't have to do anything. I wished it wasn't so tiring pretending to be something I wasn't to so many people. I wanted to stop. But to stop meant to give up and to give up meant to lose everything that gave me meaning. And I thought, only for a second, that maybe that wasn't so bad.

"You know what."

My gaze snapped up to find Rapio staring down at me with a smile. A smile. I've always wondered where she found a source for those every second of the day. She seated herself beside me swinging her legs playfully.

"I know when I'll die." She beamed so brightly you'd be excused for misunderstanding her words. Her blue-brown eyes like earth and sky in pools beside each other. Her chubby cheeks dimpled and her head bobbed. "So I spend at least a minute of my day, enjoying everything there is about living."

My brows creased as I shifted to regard her smiling countenance. "Aren't you scared?"

"Once you accept its inevitability, it is just as trivial as waiting for a flower to blossom tomorrow." She stared off into the distance. With a straight face she spoke. "Death is natural. We only fear the unfamiliarity of it. What is beyond life? One can never be certain because the bridge between living and death is one you can only cross once. And for that reason, you have to make life count. Don't pass like a breeze. Be a tornado not a zyphyr."

"Is that why you follow Cyr?"

She smiled slightly. "I can't choose how and when I'll die but I can choose how I live my life. And that's something we shouldn't ever let anyone decide for ourselves. Because only you and you alone can live your life. I chose to follow Cyr because even the faintest of flames can burn the world."

The stars sparkled between the dark branches, against the twilight sky. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because when we are born, we exist like sparks. Warm and vibrant. Brief and dangerous. But danger is only a consequence of purpose. And a purpose is significant. You are precious." She finally met my eye and only then did I see the benevolence of her bizarre eyes.

A tear stabbed me through the palm like a cold knife. I didn't realize it was mine till each trickle turned to steam as they landed on my palms.

Her words made every sense allowed by the universe but so little to be plainly comprehended.

"I'm sorry." I pushed away the tears. I had no right to cry.

"It was never your fault."

She held my gaze, an understanding passing in her eyes and then I knew she knew but it didn't bother me as much I had imagined it would. Instead the burden of it was alleviated in a way.

"I don't know what I'm doing anymore." I try not to but then I'm blabbering. "Every choice I make I know I'll hate it. I don't know what to do. I don't know who I am."

Without warning she slammed her frame against mine. She rubbed my back and held me in embrace. "You're precious, remember." Her words sugary sweet, her tone tender.

"That's hard to believe." I sniffed.

"Whatever happens." Her tone sterner now, her grip tightening around me. "Whichever path you choose. Remember this, you're worth more than all the gems and gold of this land combined. Protect yourself, it is not safe out there. She will find you again."

I eased myself out of her hold and held her by the arms. "Who will find me?" Though I had a bugging feeling that my guess was good enough.

But she was no longer looking at me. Her eyes caught on something behind me. I followed her line of sight to find Xon. A desperation swirling in his eyes.

Brise.

"It's Vanut," he said, gulped, "She...I don't, I don't know what to do, I—"

I jolted to my feet, darting past him before he could finish. He was already on my heels. My first thought had been, Brise had killed someone. And will probably always be my first thought when someone so much as mentions Brise.

But this time, I knew it wasn't. Xon wouldn't have been so rattled if she had. But if not that then, something worse must've happened to her. And though the wound of our last conversation was still fresh and stung when I thought of it, I pushed it out of my mind.

She was huddled in a corner, hair splayed over her small trembling body. With every wail she looked less and less like the Brise I had come to know. Or the Brise I thought I knew. The Brise who could cut down a man and leave them for dead, who didn't blink an eye when plunging a knife into someone's throat. She looked now more like a frightened child, begging for help through her tears. Weak and vulnerable, helpless.

Without thinking twice I dropped to my knees and took her in my arms. Her body shook violently with every wail. She could be heard as far as the admin building, as far as the space between the first and second level of houses. We weren't the only ones who'd heard her that was for sure.

Her cries conveyed pain like no other. A pain nothing but death could create.

"Brise, I'm here," I murmured against her. "It's me Mo, December. December Jones."

She responded with another sharp scream that rivaled an ogre's roar. A knot formed in my throat as I tried my best not to tear as well.

"It'll be alright, it'll all be alright. I'm right here. And I'll be right here, for as long as you need me."

But yet again another wail escaped her. I was crying with her now. But I had to be strong when she couldn't be.

I pulled away to wipe her tears, when I found empty black eyes staring back at me. The last time I saw her like this only one thing could break her from this trance.

"They turned black and then she started crying like this," Xon said, making his presence known. "Is this normal? Is she alright?"

I ignored him. She wasn't wearing her baldric over her dress. A quick assessment showed no sign of her baldric in the room either. I pressed a hand to her chest, to feel the handle of her blade.

"I'm taking off your dress don't get mad," I said.

"Should I leave?" Xon asked tentatively.

I slipped the dress up and over her head, thankful she wore another dress beneath. Her blades laid arrayed across her chest. The ebony blade sheeted over her heart.

My fingers tingled at its touch. It fit perfectly in my hand. Light but steady. Staring at it a moment too long, I suddenly felt light headed.

Then they came, in herds and flocks, suffocating us in their presence. My hands trembled. Brise's cries grew louder.

"What's happening?" Xon's voice was the anchor to my conscienceness. "What is that dagger?"

The blade became a thousand times heavier, weighing down on me by the bones. Biting away at my muscles and nerves. It hurt all over but at the same time I felt nothing at all.

"Let go," a hundred voices coaxed at once, "it hurts, does it not? Allow us, to lighten the weight."

But I didn't listen. I made myself deaf to their murmurs. Just like she told me to.

I hefted the dagger over Brise, groaning at the tremendous exertion that it was, and brought it down in a steep swoop that tore the air in two. Flanking the blade was light and darkness. And then there was nothing.

A/n: This chapter is dedicated to Mica_Potter. Thanks for reading and voting!! I'm sorry I haven't finished Scales and Swords and I'll understand if you will give up as you wait for me to update. But I just wanna thank you for being so invested in this story of mine 😊