On Thin Ice (Prequel to Guild)

Chapter Forty-Three: Men of Many Faces

                 She knew that sound. Knew it like she knew the warmth of baba's hearth, like she knew Khasan couldn't stand to be tickled. That sound turned the organized chaos of the ballroom into something peaceful, something familiar. Skirts shed their sequins, but for a moment, the mess in the air became soft, Shiruban snow. The glint of masks morphed into the sheen of sunlight bouncing off crystalline towers. The rigid silence broke and children laughed and Yuina closed her eyes.

Relief came before rage. Calm filled Yuina Mongonai Kimsura before the whispering, screaming Phantom River could crash against her soul, collapsing the illusion. Melting the sense of peace that came with it.

It left dregs of terror on her shore.

She knew that sound.

She knew it didn't belong here.

She didn't remember moving. Didn't know how she escaped Dai and navigated through bodies- limbs that formed patterns intricate as a spider's web. She didn't remember whether or not she'd needed to separate Jia and Osamu, though that answer wasn't hard to guess. She didn't know what she'd thought she'd accomplish by stealing from her sharp-clawed friend. That was a mystery.

One of several.

But there was no time to consider them. All Yuina could do now was let the rage of the Sünsnii toli fill her, drowning her from within. Lungs, throat, mouth, until it overflowed from her eyes.

Garud spirit. Courage. Courage.

"Yuina!"

She spoke. The River spoke and she could do nothing but let it flow from every crevice.

Hand around wrist- crushing but not unkind. Those claws hovered just over flesh, but the pika always knew what came next. Painted lips parted. Run. She had to run.

"Trust me," she said again, her voice her own.

"Yuina!"

"Wifeling?"

"Please. Trust me."

This time, her pleas gained power. The shackle on her wrist fell loose, but the one within her heart urged her to run and when that happened, not even Ariun Aruuskhaan could disobey. Her heart ruled all.

Her heart split in two.

"YUINA!"

A Phoenix flew with grace, at speeds equal to that of a Wild Mare, of Bsha Kobyla who would not be tamed and fled to the stars rather than accept a harness weighed down by jewels. A Phoenix took up less room, but left a trail of sparks behind her.

Every moment, Dai found another.

"YUINA, STOP!"

But she couldn't let it catch.

They lived together in a city of light, a country that used its enemies for tinder.

Choose choose choose

Her beloved lived in a body fit to punish them beyond recognition. Incinerate their names and their memories until they were naught but dust. In a mind that knew they could not both be king, and had reminded her of it again and again.

Severed heads on a dinner table when she'd begged for mercy. A blade that sparked and licked its lips at the scent of fear. Demands that her father, her cousin, that she herself fall in line. Scrubbing crusted blood from calloused hands that should have been soft forever.

Alarms sounded and these people finally stopped spinning. Finally, they said what came to mind and not the words their grandparents had written.

Yuina saw understanding brighten their eyes and then-