Nightly Mirage

8. Never Again

A terrifying roar echoed through the air, followed by a violent gust of wind. Surprised by the blow, Valhias lost his balance and fell forward on the snowy field. The ath'ar immediately threw to the side and drew out his sword, thinking he was under attack. However, the weapon slipped from his grasp as soon as his eyes turned around.

To the north of the valley, where the city of Nuvia was, a huge pillar of light was now standing, bright and dreadful. The images and the memories of two days before drifted like autumn leaves before the golden eyes of the ath'ar.

People he had conversed with. People who had helped him. People whom he had promised to return to.

People who were no longer.

For the first time in his life, Valhias felt the searing flame of vengeance burning inside him.

***

Many of the events Atorak had known from his stories went beyond his experience. Sometimes, it even happened that some of the most wondrous and unbelievable events in his stories also took place in the real world. But never before had he witnessed something so much beyond any story he had heard over his journeys.

"This storyteller ... doesn't know what it means."

The bird uttered those words aloud without realizing it, awestruck, and without expecting an answer. But the warrior's answer came right after, in a whisper carried by the wind.

"It means that what I did was for naught."

***

When Zavee managed to open her eyes again, the blinding light of the blast had already faltered in the pale morning.

What was left of the ath'ar city was just an ashen waste. Here and there, the dark silhouettes of its inhabitants could still be seen, their very shadows impressed on the livid soil. A moment had passed, and all those people had disappeared, like stars vanishing at the crack of dawn.

Zavee looked around, bewildered. All around her was a feast of satisfied reactions. A few applauded, others just nodded, some burst into sickeningly forced laughter. A picture so grotesque that it left her overwhelmed by dizziness.

To the contrary, the nymph had been petrified by horror for a few moments, until she had fallen on her knees and had broken down crying, amid widespread indifference and scorn. Zavee looked in silence at that girl, bowed by tears, and felt like it was the only detail which made sense from that surreal scene.

Amid her confusion, she tried to put together her recollections of what just happened, but could not.

What's happened? An entire city ... wiped out in an instant?

Her eyes blinked repeatedly, as if they were blinded by sweat.

Why did we do it?

Why? How come? To what purpose?

The same question, under a thousand different forms, chased itself inside Zavee's hallucinating mind, pressing painfully against her temples, gripping her bowels like a vice. But, no matter how hard they squeezed her, those questions all alike did not get any answer from her.

Do I really ignore the answer?

Zavee suspected that this was not the case. Probably, even the nymph would have agreed, if she had not been silenced by her own tears. But the nahz'reim, despite her best efforts, could not bright that answer to light. That dark place which held her answer, she actually was afraid of it. An undefined fear, like the shiver of awakening from a nightmare.