Ch1-7: Crimson Tide
The souls of countless victims swept around her.
The salty breeze was strangely calm once the swelling tides subsided. The waves lapped gently at the shoulders of the tower-top where Joran perched. On all sides, the ocean breathed in a quiet rhythmic cadence.
Foam-licked forms drifted upon the water’s surface. Some had already gathered a trailing of seaweed.
One floated only feet away — an upturned face, tinged blue in the sallow sunlight. The skin was pock-marked, eaten away by the deluge of acidic rain that had washed down over the city only an hour ago. One eye socket was hollowed from the stroke of salt water fingers. The other eye stared glassily off into the sky, an expression of pleading agony captured forever within its hazel depths.
The face had once belonged to a young boy. His white robes were spread over the plain of deep blue-green in an angelic arc behind him.
Stretching to the horizon, many more figures ebbed and flowed. Eventually they became nothing more than dark patches of water in the distance. But she knew.
Incrytan held her testimony.
The soft glow within its heart had turned a deep, reproachful red. The peaceful melody that usually accompanied its light had grown doleful and somber.
The Crystal was weeping.
The ghostly screams of the dying still echoed behind her ears. The sound grew louder by the second. From within the chorus of torment, a lone voice chanted.
‘How is it you remain while the innocents suffered?’
The eddying waters churned long patterns of red drawn across deep azure. In slow deliberation, the boy’s corpse began to drift nearer. With the shifting of tide, the head dropped below the surface of the water. Sandy-gold hair fanned out, mingling with the oozing pool of dark crimson.
‘What gives you the right to live while they perished by your actions?’
The head bobbed up, breaking the surface of the waves once more. The pale face languidly turned. Its glassy eye fixed upon her.
‘How many?’
A growing sickness tore her insides, threatening to buckle her knees. Joran had never seen a dead person – Lunar or Human – so closely before.
‘How many have suffered?’
The eye focused, growing clearer.
‘How many have died?’
The throb of Incrytan increased in her hands. It became a jolting beat twinned in time with her own rapid pulse. Her breath grew ragged and short. It shook through every bone in her body.
‘And for what purpose?’
In a slow, conscious motion the boy’s head tilted, revealing a wormy underside of acid-eaten flesh.
‘Mourn for them now, though it means nothing. It is too late to undo what you have done.’
Joran gagged as the reek of decay struck her. Her throat constricted as a putrid taste filled her mouth.
‘You thought you could wield an instrument of power crafted from such a baneful heart? You have become no better than the Man of Darkness that you strive to transform.’
The ashen face contorted casting a skeletal leer at her.
‘Joran SuKi, you are a murderer!’
The girl staggered backwards, one hand over her mouth. Her eyes clamped shut. Still the image remained, burned into her memory. Dropping to her knees, Joran buried her face into her hands.
She threw her head back, a repentant sob bursting from her lips. Yet, not even the sound of her own cries was able to veil the anguished wails pounding in her mind.
***********
“Why do you waste your tears on those pathetic creatures?”Joran felt her head yanked up as a strong hand clamped onto the base of her braid and pulled sharply. Jerking away, the girl glared up towards the sound of a disdainful sneer.
Pren, the Leader of the Daear, was standing over her.
A welling retort rose in her throat but got no further. There was nothing more that Joran would have liked to do than lash out at the cruelly triumphant light that shown in Pren’s eyes as she gazed around at the sea of death. But in anger, the words simply eluded her.
“They are nothing more than vermin, an encroaching plague upon the face of this world. They do not deserve your remorse.”
Joran choked.
“What?” Pren turned, her steel-blue eyes scornful. “Does the Lunar have something to say?”
Teeth bared in a silent snarl, Joran rose, throwing her arms out to encompass the vastness of the ocean swells. “You told me nothing of this!”
One hand casually flipped back a straying lock of emerald-tinged hair in response. “Wasn’t it obvious enough this would happen?”
“An entire city was demolished in the matter of moments! And that’s all you have to say to justify it?”
“I thought the power of the Crystals came from the minds of your race? How is it that you can be so ignorant to the reaction the elements will have once they are released from their tyrannical grip?”
“This I was not informed of! This was not what I agreed to do!”
“Things upon the Blue Planet will return to their rightful state once the Crystals have been removed.” The statement was firm. Final.
“And that makes it acceptable to slaughter hundreds of people in the midst of it all?”
The Daear curled her lip. She plucked a wayward straw hat that had washed upon the shingled roof and cast it back out to sea with a flip of her hand. “Humans are not a significant consideration when placed next to the importance of this planet’s welfare.”
“They are living beings, for Trine’s sake!”
Pren’s slap lashed out, the sharp sound ringing in the heavy salt air. Joran staggered back from the blow, eyes wide, a trembling hand raised to her cheek in shock.
“Never speak that cursed name within my presence again!” Poised upon the edge of wrath, the Daear snarled, “Be we allies or not, next time you defile our land with such an utterance, I will see to it that proper punishment is carried out!”
“I… I’m…” Joran gulped, unconsciously clutching Incrytan tightly to her chest.
No, I will not apologize!
The Lunar instead turned her face away, biting down hard on her lower lip until the taste of blood pulled her back to her senses — that and the sound of distant rumbling far off over the waters. She found herself staring off towards the sea-hazed horizon.
The very ocean began to tremble, the reverberation rising up through the structure on which the two of them stood. Joran could feel the pressure of something immensely unnatural approaching in the gathering of the briny waves.
“Mordreigiau,” Pren said as if sensing the Lunar’s unspoken question, her voice lowered. It was the first touch of emotion that the Daear Champion had yet shown.
Dragon of the Ocean?
“That is what I came here to bring warning of,” the Daear continued, her expression growing cold once more. “I suggest that you return to Newidmynydd before its arrival.”
“What is it?”
Pren gazed out across the multitude of laden crests. “A beast of retribution. It was awakened from its sleep upon the annihilation of the Crystal of Water.”
“Retribution? Against whom?” Joran swallowed suddenly uneasy.
“Those who would defile this planet, of course. You Lunarians do know little next to nothing, don’t you?”
She bit back her urge to retort.
As Joran turned, she found herself face to face with the Daear. Pren stood very still, a chilling light in the depths of her eyes. The voice that rose was just as icy. “Remember this. You are only allowed to be here because you are of use to us. Otherwise, your life would have been forfeit the moment you set foot upon this planet.”
There was a moment of silence as their eyes locked.
“I suggest you forget your tears. If you don’t find a good bit more strength, I do not foresee you living much longer.”
With a sharp pivot upon one heel, the Daear Champion turned and vanished.