"This... this better work."
"Yeah."
Daddy and his new friends have been talking for so long.
Mommy looked sad. I don't want Mommy to cry...
"Mommy... Please don't cry."
"O-oh, baby..." She won't let me go. Her hug is warm… but too long. Like she doesn't want to let go.
I can walk now, but Mommy won't let me go so I can walk on my own.
Mommy has been hugging me for so long.
"When will we go home, Mommy?"
"O-oh, sweetie, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I don't think we will be able to go home now."
"Is it because we are going to live in a new house?"
"That's right! You are so smart!"
"...Will there be a big tree, Mommy?"
"Of course, there will be a big tree for you."
"Ahaha! I want to make a tree house with Daddy when we live there."
"..."
Mommy is sad again. Why is Mommy sad?
The door opened with a scary noise. A big man stood outside.
"Hey, baby girl!" Daddy pinched my cheeks and kissed my forehead many times. "Daddy will be going now okay, baby girl."
"Daddy? Where are you going?"
"Oh, I'm just going for a quick talk with your uncle, that's all."
"Oh, okay, Daddy."
"Let's go!"
"I love you so, so much, baby girl. I love you so much."
***
Connor
"Connor, please just listen—" Cody's voice cracked as he reached for me, desperation clinging to every word of his.
"NO!" I snapped, cutting him off. "No—fuck that! YOU listen! YOU should've listened to me!! You said you were just going on a vacation, Cody! A fucking vacation!" My chest heaved, and I was shaking. "What the fuck did you think was going to happen??!" That bitch's plan was just going to work? Just like that?! That it'd all go smoothly? HOW DOES IT WORK OUT NOW, HUH?!" My breath hitched as the words clawed their way out of my mouth. "I'm about to let those executioners kill my own fucking brother, his wife, and his daughter."
"..."
"You get that?! YOU AND YOUR FAMILY WILL BE FUCKING DEAD JUST LIKE THOSE MEN OUT THERE!!!"
"Connor..." He said softly, "That's not important anymore. Please—just listen to me." He begged again, pathetically, reaching out to me.
My eyes immediately looked away towards the door. I dragged a hand up to my face, fingers catching in my hair as I staggered back a step.
I couldn't even look at him anymore.
"..."
"...Fine," I muttered at last, "Go ahead. Talk."
"You still have access to that room, right? With the portal thing. You can take my family with the rest of the people there. Let them go through. They can escape through that."
"And then what?" I shot back. "Send them to Dicathen? They'll be slaughtered there too! Do you even—"
"No!" he cut in, more firm than I expected. "They're not ascenders, Connor. They're just regular people. Just women, children and elders—"
I scoffed, bitterly. "Oh my—this is your plan, Cody?! You think those people on that continent will simply take them in?"
"YES!" he shouted, startling even himself. "Yes, Connor. It's possible! And if they don't… if they don't take them in and kill them on the spot—wouldn't that still be better than dying here, after being tortured...?"
"..."
"Please, brother." He kneeled down with his hands gripping tightly on my uniform as his head dropped down low. "Help me."
***
Cylrit
"Please... please wake up... please..."
"...Ah..."
The world returned not with light but with voices crashing over each other like waves of storms, frenzied and panicked as if they could drown out thoughts.
So noisy...
Then came the lurch.
The floor rocked beneath me, shuddering with each groan of the carriage over the uneven earth.
My eyelids finally stirred. The narrow slit of my vision gave me a splintered view of a wooden plank above me, old and splintered, pressed together into what passed for a ceiling.
The air still smelled of damp rot and something faintly metallic.
As my sight cleared, I saw walls of rough timber that were just as bleak as the ceiling. Rusted bars choked the windows on each wall, allowing only the streaks of pale daylight to slant through.
I sat up slowly. Every muscle ached, but worse than that was the pressure around my core. My gaze dropped to the metal cuffs clamped around my wrists while at the same time suppressing my core.
Across from me, the carriage door radiated mana. Strong enchantments pulsed beneath its frame—likely reinforced with artifacts. Escape would be difficult—perhaps impossible in my current state.
I raised my cuffed hands to my forehead, checking for my horns. Of course, they were gone.
Dragoth must have taken them for himself, I supposed.
"You're awake...!" The child sobbed. He scrubbed at his cheeks, trying to hold back the sobs.
"Yes," I murmured. "I'm awake."
I glanced around the rest of the carriage.
Women. Children and elders, dozens of them, huddled into corners as though trying to disappear into the walls. Some eyes stared back at me, wide and empty. No one spoke. No one dared move.
"Where are all the men?" I asked, though a part of me already feared the answer as I saw the way their gazes turned away.
"..." None answered.
My hand found the wall. I leaned into it, slowly pulling myself to my feet as the carriage swayed beneath me. Using it for balance, I lifted my heels—just enough to reach the small, barred window. And as I got closer, my vision came in flashes when the outside world reflected its horror into the pit of my soul through the bars.
Bodies hung on crosses like wet laundry—like skinned rabbits. Men mutilated, hunted, and murdered. The shortest distance between any two points separates violence and ruined hatred.
Crowds of people lined the road, cheering before every reek of death and fear. Tears and coppery blood, flesh decomposing to rot.
As if it were a parade.
As if this was something to be proud of.
How can people do such a thing to their own kind...
Are these really the people that she wants to save?
These brainwashed fanatics...
A crack could be heard when the carriage door opened behind me. A man in uniform stood in the doorway with a chain of keys clinking in his hand.
I... Am I truly going to be killed by these animals? Being tortured and used as their punching bag before being killed and then hung on one of the crosses they've prepared, all while being powerless to do anything about it...
"..."
Whether out of selfishness or lost faith, I wonder if at that time, I refused to work with her and worked alone. I wonder if I could be able to kill Agrona myself. Assassinate him myself.
"If you people want to live..." The man said as he began to unlock everyone's cuffs.
"What...?" I asked, confused.
"Then be ready. Because we only have one shot at this."