Suikoden VI

Chapter Eight: Part Eight

I suffered a knee injury this past week. Luckily I wrote most of this chapter before said injury, but updates might end up slowing down for awhile due to this. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I'm giving another trigger warning for this chapter for dark content.

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Part Eight

What? What? What's going on?

The air felt thick and hot. Daunte couldn't breathe. He tried to open his eyes; he strained with all his might, but couldn't get them open. He thought he saw the light of the Rune of Restoration behind his closed eyelids, but it was then replaced with darkness. His body felt paralyzed. What's going on? What happened?

"How do you feel?"

The familiar voice sent a sharp cold through Daunte's body. He tried opening his eyes yet again and this time it worked. He was in a brightly lit hallway, and he saw two people before him. One was seated on a bench and one was standing, but Daunte recognized them both and took a couple of steps back in fear.

"'How do I feel'?" Sloan Faakhir was seated. His Sheikh hood was pushed back and his face...he looked angry, but it wasn't the murderous rage Daunte was used it. It was raw, ugly, and pained. His teeth were clenched as he shook his head. "My Lady, there are no words that could possibly describe what I'm feeling."

"You are angry," the Matron told him, her tone but...comforting? "But you feel helpless."

"Of course I feel helpless!" Sloan burst out, jumping to his feet. "Over a hundred people were burned alive! Men, women, and children died! All they did was go to Chapel to pray, and those bastard New Dawn terrorists killed them!"

New Dawn? Daunte gasped, his mouth hanging open in shock. Oh no...

"You do not need to feel helpless," the Matron told him. "Kõrkus is Sheikh Keha Hale's domain, not yours. This is not your burden to bear, Sloan."

The Kõrkus Massacre! Roen's father! He set a Chapel on fire with a Rage Rune! They're talking about the Massacre!

"I s-saw the bodies, my Lady," Sloan said. His words were slurred as though he were fighting back tears. "I went there—all of the Sheikhs went there, you know that! And I saw—my Lady, I have seen terrible things. Monstrous things. I-I thought I could stomach anything, but..."

"It was the children, wasn't it?" the Matron said softly. "The corpses of those choir children. You are not the only one who was affected by them. I personally witnessed multiple grown men weep when they saw those poor children."

"That could have been Esther and Ciana," Sloan murmured, collapsing back onto the bench. "My girls, they—they attend services at Chapel too. Tidur loves to sing in the choir. Have you heard her sing, my Lady?"

"She has a very moving and tender voice," the Matron responded.

"I-I can't shake the feeling," Sloan confessed. "This fear I feel, that something like that could happen to my family. That they could be—taken from me and I would be unable to stop it from happening."

Sloan stretched out his arms before him, staring down at his hands. "I've worked so hard to build my body to be strong. Strong for my family and strong for my soldiers who serve under me. I—can't let that happen again. Not to my family. Not to my soldiers. But how I prevent this from ever happening again, when I couldn't prevent it from happening in the first place?"

Daunte tried to close his own mouth but it remained gaping. This is the same Sloan who saved Tidur from an unwanted marriage. Who prevented Adalgiso from committing suicide. This is not the man with the uncontrollable rage and bloodlust.