Dull Colours [EDITED EDITION]

Seven | Dead

Hera knew something was off. To start with, she felt no pain. She knew she had just died, but now she was alive. Also, she was staring into the face of the most powerful Conjured.

Minor detail.

Hera looked down at herself. She was one of them too, yet she felt no fear, no worry, and her stone weights were gone. In their place, was nothing. Hera felt absolutely nothing. She was dead. But she was alive.

She was a Conjured. Her breathing heavy, she looked back up at her new master. Feeling a sort of invisible connection to him, she wordlessly followed him out. She followed him, all the way to absolute chaos.

~~~~~

There was war. War and death. That's all Hera could see. Conjured and the Gialians were everywhere, dead and alive. Looking around, Hera saw May and Is and Jacob fighting hard to protect the injured. Still, Hera felt nothing but a whisper of her old emotions. At least she knew that she was still there. She hadn't fully changed over to evil yet.

That's when Hera had an idea.

She could kill them from the inside. The ashes were kept in a room near the rooftop, and she could get her friends to get them. Then her people would be free.

But who would rule them? The ashes would surely kill Hera too. After all, she was a Conjured. Still Hera felt nothing.

She knew this would be her last act.

She opened her mouth.

~~~~~

"The ashes!" Hera screamed. She put her all into yelling that, hoping that her friends would understand. They did, even though her voice was ragged and harsh. Jacob ran, pelting into the castle. Hera was mildly surprised he knew where they were.

It had been hours. Hera was sure of it. Logic said it had been seconds, but it felt like longer.

Jacob wasn't coming back.

Either he had used it as an excuse to run, or he hadn't found it, or he had been captured.

Hera felt a war inside her. Most of her conscious was telling her to kill them, kill the Gialans, they are bad, and the other small voice inside her was telling her there's one more thing left. Hera used the little bit of herself still inside her, and summoned The Blade of Giala. Moments later it was flying towards her with unimaginable speed, and she positioned herself behind the greatest Conjured of them all, the one who had brought her back to life, who she had stared in the face after her death.

It hit its target.

But also hit her.

The Conjured fell to the ground, but Hera knew it was temporary. The Blade had gone through and hit her too, but it didn't hurt. No pain at all.

And then Jacob appeared with the ashes.

He threw them.

And he missed.

And they fell.

The vase holding the ash shattered on the ground far below.

But something was rising. It looked like black smoke. But it was the ashes.

~~~~~

Hera watched the ashes rise through the air, whirling in an invisible wind. She inhaled sharply - the air had a sudden tangy taste to it. This wasn't how she imagined dying.

The ashes swirled up, and spread out. Everything was dead silent as it swiftly entered a screeching, panicked Conjured and extinguished the little blue light inside them that was their life force.