IRON GOD | 2: Empyrean

[1] Kolo: Whispering Too Loud

 Kolo's eyes opened halfway. At first, she couldn't tell what had woken her. Then a cat's paw prodded her face. She grunted. Weeks of constant training had caught up to her now, and her limbs ached to the point they felt boneless. The last thing she wanted to do was get up before sunrise.

"Really?" she grumbled.

The cat jumped down and stood up on two legs, changing its shape into a familiar human. Channei flipped her blond hair back. "Sorry, Kolo. I know you're tired, but we all need to talk."

Kolo sat up, smoothed her white hair, then looked around the room. The red light from her eyes several others. Azvalath, Lalek, and Rizval sat on the floor in various spots around the room. Jai-Lag lay stretched out by the door, breathing in slow rumbling sighs. Kolo cocked her head. "What's this about?"

Azvalath cleared his throat. "Rizval, mind taking notes? We can share them with Yayaba later. She should know too." Then he looked at Kolo. "We all think there's something really wrong with Master Xigon."

"Yeah, me too." Kolo almost laughed. "What took you so long to figure it out?"

"You know, it would've made sense if he were just tired from...recent events." Lalek averted her gaze.

"No it wouldn't," Rizval corrected. "Do you really think a bit of back talk would do him in like that? He'd be history if that were true."

"Not that." The muscular woman scowled. "I was talking about –"

"See, but that doesn't make sense either," said Azvalath. "He kills people all the time."

"Maybe this time was different somehow," Kolo twisted her necklace around her fingers. "He never did tell us exactly what happened. Neither did Qila. She didn't tell me anything when I asked."

"Master Qila wasn't there. Of course she wouldn't know." Rizval stretched their arms and yawned. "Though I think you could be onto something. Question is, how could this incident be different from the others?"

"We should ask him, maybe," Kolo suggested.

"No way." Channei shook her head. "He and Master Qila shouldn't even know we're talking about this. Got it?"

Kolo swallowed hard and nodded.

"Not like we'd get an answer out of him anyhow." Azvalath looked down. "He's not one to divulge any kind of vulnerable information. But there is someone else we could ask."

Channei seemed to catch the implication at once. "It'd be cruel to pull Dakko and Ido into this. They're still grieving, and I can hardly blame them. No matter how much that monster hurt them, it can't have been easy to witness that."

"Hm." Kolo bit her lip. "Well, we have to know what might be wrong if we're going to stage any kind of intervention."

Lalek looked startled. "Who said we're staging an intervention?"

"What were you planning to do?" Kolo raised an eyebrow. "Just stand back and watch? No way. It's hard enough to watch."

"I agree," said Azvalath. "We should do something. Master Xigon has helped all of us at some point. Isn't it time we return the favor?"

Channei balled her hands into fists. "Yeah, but can't we help without torturing those boys?"

"It's probably worse to let them bottle it all up," Azvalath pointed out. "Let me go and get them."

The man stood up, stretched, then left the room, careful to step over the sabretooth cat's gently swishing tail. He left them in a lull of awkward silence. The only sound was the scratching of a quill on parchment as Rizval scribbled their notes down.