The Call of Crows

Chapter 26: Facing Hopelessness

On all accounts, Seang thought they had all done much better in Xinhou than they should've.

But group morale was at an all-time low. Worse than when they had to flee Aotearoa. Worse than when they left Jambudvipa. It didn't help that they were forced to stay underground days at a time, fearing Nikan patrols.

People barely talked to each other, save for a few murmured words each night to those each person was closest to. Shahla and Najeem talked only to each other, as did Vai and Lokapele. Shahla only spoke to Seang. Seang was the only one who spoke to everyone and the only person who spoke to Kameko at all.

Everyone practiced with their Shedim, but lacked any enthusiasm. Shakti drew random shapes with no passion. Lokapele hummed tunes that brought the mood down even more than it already was. Vai drew the same diagram in the dirt every day to guess the position of the stars.

At one point, Seang found Kameko quietly sobbing in the darkness and that's when she realized that, frankly, her allies had no experience in the real world.

Shakti and Vai had spent their days in a whimsical version of the world where they could go wherever they wanted. Shahla was a sheltered royal. Lokapele was a religious icon and thus, only knew peace. Najeem was a killer, but he wasn't used to failure. And Kameko, while a warrior, had just lost everything she'd ever known.

Most of these people were still young.

One night, as they were eating their supper of an incredibly light soup, Seang put an end to all their moping around.

"Listen up!" the volume to Seang's voice caught everyone's attention, "After tonight, all this sulking ends. I don't give a damn if you feel awful or tired or guilty! What are you going to do about it? You're going to make it through these tunnels, walk all the way to Koinelia and come back to kick Nikan's ass! Kameko tells me the tunnels will come to an end tomorrow, so I want you all ready to face whatever's on the other side of this ceiling, understand?"

Najeem scoffed before everyone returned to what they were doing, ignoring her.

Seang clenched her fist, "So what, you all just suddenly stopped caring about my authority?"

"What authority?" Lokapele muttered, "You just gave it to yourself, mother." The Aotearoan said that last word with a mocking ichor dripping from her lips.

"Maybe I wouldn't have to mother you all if you weren't acting like petulant children." Seang murmured.

"Wanna say that to my face, you glimmery bit-"

"I think what Seang was trying to say," Shahla interrupted loudly, then continued quieter, "I-is that moping around isn't really helping our situation. I know it looks bad, but...we can get through it. We've survived two massacres and a whole siege. I-if we don't rise to the occasion and put a stop to this, who will?" Shahla grew more and more bold with her tone as she continued, "I know we've lost a lot. All of us. And it's going to be a tough journey. But at least we have each other. We should take comfort in that. And since when has anything worth doing been easy? This world may be cruel, cold and uncaring to human life, but one thing we know for sure is that no matter what it throws at us, we can overcome it. We have to."

Seang nodded, "Well said. Don't weaken yourselves with isolation just because you don't know everyone that well. Bond with your allies. Know them, and they will be infinitely more helpful on the battlefield."

Everyone murmured in guilty agreement before the surrounding dirt started rumbling.

"Earthquake!" Shakti shouted.

"No!" Lokapele said, her eyes closed in intense concentration, "Hoofbeats. Footfalls. Explosions. There's a battle above us."

"Quick! Get moving! This whole tunnel is going to collapse on us!" Kameko urged.