Once: a Songs of War Oneshot Collection

Part 5: Farewell (Prologue)

A/N:

night-time rambles from scrambled ideas in my tired brain. kinda a trailer for what I write next... anyways, enjoy.

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When Ingressus revealed himself as Voltaris after winning the Prime Song tournament, he had expected... well... he didn't know what he had expected. A celebration, perhaps a welcoming of the Voltaris back into the midst of the other Ardoni... even nothing would have sufficed. Not a ceremony, not a mention of the new colours he wore, simply the Masters handing him the Prime Songs like they would for an Ardoni of any other clan.

But no. As Ingressus was led to the holding cells in chains, he realized how stupid his expectations were. Perfect fantasies, a dream, a hallucination, even, of what could never be. The iron chains clanked around his wrists and ankles, and while they could never contain him, they still symbolized what did.

But... they shouldn't. Nothing should contain me.

Like the moment the sun slipped below the horizon, like the instant where the blue of the sky suddenly transformed into a warm red, how it spread like the blood spread in the snow when one of his own fell, Ingressus felt his thoughts turning down a different path, a path of anger, of hate.

And the blue... blue like the markings of one Sendaris 'champion' whom Ingressus had recognized and took pleasure in beating when the time came. And much like the peaceful sunset, that blue, and all the other colours besides, would turn red. Or black.

Nothing can contain me.

But first - the two Nestoris who had cared for him, who he had lived with, ate with, even... loved? What would become of them? Aegus - like a second father to Ingressus, he had a compassion for the young Ardoni like no-one else had. Well, no-one else in the other clans, at least. And... Achillean. The Nestoris who had begun his journey, reluctant as Achillean may have been, Ingressus still had to thank him for not leaving him to drown. Like a brother to him, no, a brother to him, Ingressus couldn't imagine a life without him.

A childhood, at least. Ingressus could manage on his own now. Come to think of it, had Achillean even cared about him?

"You should enter the tournament, Ingressus,"

An earnest suggestion, or a death sentence? Both of them would be, had been, fools to believe the other Ardoni would ever react the way that Achillean had spoke of them to react.

"You could reveal yourself as Voltaris, and show the people you mean them no harm,"

But Achillean, he wouldn't- no, no, Ingressus could not deny the cruelty of others for any longer. That cruelty existed in each and every heart of each and every Ardoni, and couldn't be pushed away to the little corner of dark thoughts that had ever so slowly, or could it be quickly, drifted to the forefront of Ingressus' mind.

Regardless of Achillean's intentions, Ingressus still had to do what needed to be done. But, almost as an afterthought, he would still leave the Nestoris a... parting gift. If he was an ally, it would at least provide some form of closure, and if he was an enemy, it would simply twist the dagger further.

As Ingressus reached the cell that his captors had chosen for him, he made a strange request. "May I have a pen... and some paper, please?" His guards, well the ones standing nearest to him (he had a lot of guards) looked puzzled.

"Well what harm could it do?" said one, turning to another.

"Very well then," the one who had been spoken to agreed, and hurried off.

And as Ingressus was chained to the floor in a cell that was assumed to have the capacities to hold him, he pondered what he would say to the one he had once called a brother, before he either was joined by Achillean... or destroyed the world he knew.

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A/N: dUn dUn DUN!!!!!!!!!

bahahha im back to the angst arent i