Xilanada - The Four Fold Dissonance/Part 5

Xilanada struggled and squirmed to break free of the men dragging her away. She was in a dress that entangled her and she was weak from her illness. It took three of them to hold her. But they had four.

Someone's fist crashed into her stomach and all she could do was hang there, suspended between them as they carried her. A breath, just one, please Father, just one breath. At last the air came like a rush into her lungs, but by then the dizziness that always stalked her, waiting to pounce, had taken the chance given to it.

Xilanada realized she couldn't see and had no sense of up or down.

And then she realized that it was clearing.

It was disorienting, to have gone from the mob fighting in the street to lying on a bench with a blanket thrown over her. And yet somehow, all of that had happened while she struggled to stay conscious. Perhaps she had lost after all and had not even known it.

The blanket tumbled to the ground and she sat up with a groan. The dizziness and fever beat at her, this time, for the first time, accompanied by harsh pangs of nausea that seemed to grind at her stomach. She coughed laboriously and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.

"I'm sorry to have taken you, little girl." She looked up blearily at the sound of the voice and blinked. The mountain of a man stood before her, taller even than Sen. She'd be lucky to reach his chest and he was almost as wide with his strength as she was high. Wrapped around all that tremendous muscle was a simple brown robe.

On his face he wore a strange mask, framed like a butterfly, gilded and gold, like a theater prop.

In his hands, he cradled a beautiful Moonsilver Daiklaive.

"I'm...sorry to have been mixed up in this," she said a little apologetically, managing a friendly smile. "I'm only a teacher at a school, taken out for the night by a...friend." She couldn't help but grimace at how that sounded. And protesting or clarifying would only make it sound like she was lying about it. "I'm no trouble, I promise you. There's little I could do against an Exalt."

"Me? An Exalt? Hardly." The man chuckled darkly, but with seeming good humor. He was rather bald and rather old, now that she looked closely, but he was certainly sturdy enough still. And now that she looked more closely, the Moonsilver sword was heavy in his hands. No Exalt or Godblooded with a Daiklave would pass on attuning with it, a simple process of bonding a fraction of your Essence with the weapon to unlock its full powers, also making any Magic Material weapon as light as a feather in your hand. He must be a strong mortal indeed to manage a weapon of its weight.

"My name's Xilanada," she offered.

"I'm Onyx Tooth."

"Onyx Tooth..." she said slowly, her eyes narrowing unconsciously in thought as she turned the name over in her mind. "There was a privateer of some fame in the West, out of the Coral Archipelago some years ago. Responsible for sinking 20 confirmed pirate vessels and earning the enmity of the Lintha Family. He was never caught. But he was known to wear a golden mask and carry...a silver sword." She looked him over once again as he rubbed his head with his free hand.

"A teacher, eh? Wouldn't have thought I would make it into the books. But sure enough, that's me."

"What are you doing here in Nexus?" she asked, curious.

"Making a statement. And apparently getting helpless school teachers kidnapped." He glowered back at one of the others occupying this large room.

For the first time, Xilanada looked about and noticed her surroundings. They looked to be stationed in a tavern's common room, probably down near the docks. Only a few knocked over stools indicated the state of disarray this part of the city was still in. From outside, the clamor of battle could still be heard and the half dozen or so men with Onyx Tooth looked eager to be back into the fray.

"What is it that you want from me?" she asked, as kindly as she could.

"The truth is, Xilanada," he said, drawing out his words. "I never meant for bystanders to get involved in this at all. But you can't expect every young boy who picks up a weapon to fight to know better. Never involve innocent bystanders. It draws more attention to the cause, but it sends the wrong message and it guarantees that they don't let up until they've killed every last one of you."

The raised timbre of his words made it plain that his message was for everyone else in the room, even if he was looking at her when he spoke. He seemed an honest, plainspoken man and his clothes were unassuming, even if his mask, sword, and role were not. She was surprised to realize that she was already relaxing around him. It seemed clear that he had no ill intentions toward her.

"Would you tell me what this is all about?" Her words seemed to dispel the tension between the men and their leader and his full attention came to rest upon her again. He dropped to one knee. Amazingly, that put them at eye level. Xilanada felt like a midget.

"It's simple enough. This is the Cricket and the Rainbow Movement, two groups that joined together to accomplish their mutual goals. Put simply, they want to eliminate the drug trade and forbid all slave traffic in Nexus."

Xilanada could only blink at him while searching for words to say to such an outrageous thing.

"You and your people are...trying to overthrow Nexus' entire commercial empire? By yourselves? What kind of a support do you have?"

"Not their entire empire," Onyx Tooth said, shaking his head. "Nexus would only suffer a 15% reduction in total volume of trade if they quit dealing in drugs. And the slave market's a bit more lucrative than that but they already don't allow slaves to be made here. We just want them to expand that to not allowing them to be sold here. Not even by that polite legal fiction they call law."

"And you think a show of force is going to accomplish that?" Xilanada said, shaking her head. "I'm a student of history, as well as a teacher. This form of protest has almost never ever worked. The Realm alone has a history of uprisings, every one of them put down by the Legions. And Nexus cares a lot less about what happens to its citizens."

"Don't be foolish," Onyx Tooth chuckled, shaking his head. "You are clearly a teacher, I can tell. But we don't really think we can force the Council of Entities to change policy. What we can do...is scare those who bring drugs and slaves into Nexus, like the Guild. We're not looking for new law. We're looking to discourage that kind of business, until they want to stop trading in those commodities because of the danger."

Xilanada turned over the idea in her mind, evaluating it. There were several obvious flaws, chief among them the fact that if this little uprising was put down as brutally as every other one had been, they would actually be strengthening the confidence of the Guild.

And yet there was a grain of appeal in the plan. Xilanada found herself smiling appreciatively. Whether they succeeded or failed, they were taking action. And that was more than most groups ever accomplished in centuries of history. Whether they won or not, they would have an effect. It could be a good one or a bad one, but at least it would be an effect.

"I admire what you're trying to do. But aren't you worried about your lives?"

"Ah, you're young," Onyx Tooth said, shaking his head and smiling as he spoke. A wistful look of longing crossed his face. "My life stopped mattering after the only part worth anything...died." His smile softened further as he saw her incomprehension. "My wife."

"Oh," Xilanada breathed. "I'm sorry."

"That's how Creation turns. I know my place and my part. She was just most of the reason I had for keeping myself safe. Now...it's easier for me to risk it, so that others can live their lives without being bound in chains. Whether those chains are without or within, I think it's worth risking my life for them."

"But why? Why did you spend a lifetime hunting pirates? Why did you come to Nexus in your golden years and choose to spend them like you are right now?"

"Because this isn't how the world's supposed to be, Xilanada," he said, pronouncing her name with a little difficulty. "You're a school teacher, right? Did you ever read in those books about the legends of the First Age? The world was supposed to be a paradise then. No one was a slave. No one was consumed by addiction. People were free, to live their lives in peace."

"The tales of the First Age are full of the Anathema as well," Xilanada said, but her words were half-hearted. For she knew the truth. That before the Solar had fallen into debauchery and sin, before they had become tyrants...they had been kings and priests of perfect magnificence. That for 2000 years, they ruled with a benevolent hand.

She'd read the reports herself. She had seen the writing of those Kings. The First Age had been a paradise. In this Second Age, the Realm was a shadow of itself, the Dragon-Blooded too self-involved to make a difference, and evil practices like slavery were Creation-wide.

It was not how it was supposed to be.

This world today was not how the Unconquered Sun had meant it to be.

"I don't know where the Anathema came from, or how they came to be, Xilanada, but before their tyranny brought down the First Realm...there was an Age of Peace." His words echoed her thoughts too closely for comfort. "That Age is gone now and never to return. Unless the common man stands up and makes of the Age what they will. I won't live to see it, I know that much. But I'll rest more comfortably when I die and smile at my rebirth into my next life, if I know I made a difference in this one."

Xilanada rubbed at the tears that stung her eyes and sighed. Such idealism. It couldn't possibly work. But was he so wrong to try? Was it wrong for them to make the world a better place?

Wasn't that what Final Starry Night had been trying to do, before that life had been left behind? The conquest of Creation, under the Solar, the restoration of the Solar Deliberative, the restoration of the Old Realm. His crime had been in rallying an army and trying to take Creation by force, killing tens of thousands of people without giving them a chance. Not because it was the right thing to do, but because he wanted to rule, they stood in his way and he'd crushed the opposition.

Onyx Tooth may be using force, rallying his army to get what he wanted. But his motives were pure. More pure than Final Starry Night's had been.

"Here's your chance," mocked a sneering voice.

As once, four of the six men in the room lifted swords and struck down the other two before turning a unified front to Onyx Tooth. In place of their eyes, a malefic blue flame burned. In depths of each fire mocked the same silvery mask and they laughed the same contemptuous voice.

"You have heard the stories, I'm certain," the voice seethed and hissed with an amused cackle. "Those who stand against our Council die. You have defied our edict to bring no army to Nexus. Additionally, you have disrupted trade. This is how we've chosen to thrown you down, Onyx Tooth. This is Nexus' judgment executed against you."

The four surrounded Onyx Tooth, even as he brought the beautiful moonsilver sword up to his defense.

"The Moon's Silver River hasn't tasted nearly enough blood tonight," snarled the leader of the Cricket and Rainbow Movement. "I didn't want it to be my own boys, but I would never submit to the Council either. Win or lose, the Movement continues. Did you really think you could bring down freedom by killing one man? I stand for righteousness, and in the end Heaven Itself will see my cause vindicated."

"Heaven isn't what it was, you fool," the voice mocked, and each of the four sneered at him. "Nor did anyone ask you to come to this city, Onyx Tooth. But now you won't leave either. We will not tolerate a threat to this city’s economy. You defied the Edicts of the Council. Pay the price."

Xilanada watched in horror as the four attacked. Onyx Tooth brought the Daiklave against them and felled one, then two of them. The third gashed him across the ribs before falling to the Daiklave. The last fought without emotion to stay alive against the skill of Onyx Tooth, but it was obviously a losing battle.

It was with growing amazement that she realized he was winning. Winning against the Council of Entities and their punishment!

And then the last fell, struck down by the Moonsilver Daiklave.

"You didn't get hurt, did you?" he asked, turning to face her. She shook her head and wiped again at the sweat that was coating her forehead. Damn this fever.

It was when she looked down that she saw the blue flame still burning in the eyes of each of the fallen men. Even as she recognized what that meant, the flame exploded forth from each of them, twining together and roping its way around Onyx Tooth.

"Our justice will not be denied!" roared the fire as it engulfed him. The golden mask fell away, skittering across the floor to bounce off her high heeled slippers.

"This...is not justice!" Onyx Tooth managed to cry out, even as he burned in the azure flame. "Someone...will avenge me...and save us!"

Onyx Tooth died as he had lived, bravely and without a whimper. And when his body was at last released from the blue fire, the mocking laughter ascended even as the fire rose in the air, twisting and burning through the roof. Ash sloughed off, revealing a perfectly preserved skeleton that even now pulsed with blue heat, a testimony to what happened to those who defied the Council.

And the woman stood on two shaky legs. The one survivor, the one witness, she brushed at her golden dress and let the tears fall unrestrained. She shed the tears of a Solar for man who had died more heroically than she had ever lived.

The last words of Onyx Tooth still reverberated in her mind, that angry plea for salvation and justification. The words of the mortal burned across her skin, hotter than the fever. All he had ever wanted was peace for all mankind, wanted it so much that he had lifted the sword to fight for it. He should have had a home to retire to, children to hear the wisdom of a lifetime of experience, and the reward of happiness for a long life of fighting the good fight.

In a perfect world, he would have.

But no mortal was strong enough to protect themselves and their fellow man in this Age of Sorrows. Not against hellish blue fire thrown by spiteful Powers that ruled the Council of Entities. Onyx Tooth's fate had been sealed the day he had lifted that sword, for though his will was pure, his strength was of mortality and of no use against that kind of magic. And so he died.

Because no mortal was strong enough. But a Solar was.

Xilanada lifted the gilded golden butterfly mask from the ground, as her other hand made a fist. At that moment, the full memory of the Eclipsing Ephemerality Prana returned and in that moment she broke it.

In the midst of battle, as Tecek Hawk's drove back the last few survivors of the Cricket and the Rainbow Movement, the combatants paused. Everyone stopped trying to kill each other for a moment, and if any had been asked, none could say why. All they knew was something had just happened.

Solitary Coil also stopped in her hunt, for unlike everyone else here, she could feel what had happened, felt the truth of it resonate within her bones and her mind. It felt like the Sun had risen through the shroud of night. It felt like love.

It felt like Final Starry Night.

And as the currents of Essence ruffled her long white hair, Solitary Coil knew a moment of ecstasy, for she knew why she was feeling him. Somewhere in Nexus, somewhere nearby...her Solar mate was channeling such a titanic amount of Essence that even these cattle could feel it. The raw release of power was typhooning through the local Essence flows. She didn't know why, but she could only imagine what use he could put that kind of power to. It wasn't Sorcery, she would have seen that from here, but it still meant what it did. Night had lost none of his power, no matter what form he wore.

Memories of the hellish green light that scythed an army like wheat danced in her mind and groin.

Solitary Coil went to find her true love.