Moonrise ✔ [Complete]

28 Glow (Part 1)

Reo had received the message not too long ago: Maeyune and the others were in Nomenia.

How or why she was, he could not fathom. He could only assume that Shivra had had something to do with it. Regardless, she was going to make her way back to Bera. He could now concentrate on his mission at hand.

Hours ago, the last living Council member - Daylana Hart - had given the order to evacuate Bresnian citizens into the city's underground shelters in case of an impending attack. It had taken Reo and the others all night to assist in the evacuation.

The moon had already set. Every once in a while, Reo caught the slightest shimmer of jade in the sky from the planet's shield.

It continued to amaze him.

He pressed his hand to his brow, shielding his tired eyes from the morning sunlight. Now that day was upon them, he could finally take in the full scale of the Council Hall's destruction.

The explosion had obliterated the top portion of the building. The Room of Light and a few floors below it were gone. Rubble lay in heaps around the base of the hall, but it had only taken the celestials a few minutes to clear the entrance and to free the trapped politicians inside.

His eyes discovered a hand that poked out from underneath the rubble. Sighing, he cleared the rocks, uncovering a woman in a pale blue suit. He did not need to press his fingers against her wrist for a pulse. His energy could not detect a life force.

"Found another one!" he hollered.

A few men rushed over to his side, a cot slinging between them. Reo watched as they carried her away. He had lost count of the dead a long time ago.

"Mr. Castell!"

A city guardsman ran out from the Council Hall, waving an arm. "There's something you should see!" he called.

When Reo waved back, his gaze landed on Sera and Oren. The two fire celestials were sitting at the top of the stairs leading to the Council Hall's entrance. Whatever their conversation, they were absorbed in laughter and had disregarded their task for cleanup.

"I'll be there in a minute," Reo replied to the guardsman. The latter returned inside, and Reo made his way toward his two teammates.

"Guys, can we focus here?" he admonished.

Their laughter faded. Sera scoffed over her shoulder. "We've been working all night," she lamented. "Can't we take a break?"

"We still don't know what happened."

Oren shrugged and leaned back on his hands. "They said it was Ristoff."

Reo clenched his jaw.

They all knew Ristoff was the prime suspect, but he was dead now. Cameras had captured the explosion just seconds after he had entered the Room of Light. Witnesses claimed he had been carrying something that resembled a bomb. Reo wondered why no one had bothered to stop him.