Uneasy Alliance (A Roleslaying with Roman story)

The Sacrifice

Noise doesn't know how to move on. It's a flaw he's had since he was a young child. He was always the one to hold grudges for petty things, to avoid people who so much as looked at him the wrong way, to blame himself whenever something bad happened.

Times like this weren't an exception. He watched as the only two people who had ever trusted and cared about him left him behind. He wanted to go with them, but he knew it would be too dangerous for them. Still, he couldn't seem to make the aching in his chest subside. He looked after the taxi for as long as he could before it eventually shrunk out of his view, then turned and started to walk around the walls of the destroyed city beside him.

He tried not to think about what he was doing, choosing to stay behind. After all, he shouldn't have been attached to those two at all. He was sure that he had hated Youngblood from the moment that he had abandoned him, and Roman was just the replacement lackey that Youngblood had found for himself.

"And yet..." Noise thought to himself as his walking slowed and the burning feeling in his chest spread to his throat, "It still hurts more than it did last time..."

He stopped walking and gradually started to laugh at the absurdity of it all. It wasn't humorous laughter, of course, more shrill and teetering on the verge of hysteria. He fell to his knees as his laugher devolved into sobs, covering his mouth with his hand and feeling tears settle against the side of his palm. He had only ever broken down like this once, when he had walked into his and Youngblood's dorm room to find half of it completely empty.

It felt the same as it had then, only somehow worse with the added loss of Roman and the fact that the two had seemed genuinely remorseful about leaving Noise behind. They had even offered Noise the chance to go with them, but he knew that he would only be putting them in danger if he had.

Once Noise could properly think again, he shakily pulled himself up and impatiently brushed his hand across his cheek. He couldn't be seen breaking down like that, especially when the Bard King would undoubtedly be furious with him for allowing Neon to be destroyed. A thought crossed Noise's mind as he resumed his walking and found himself looking down at the glowing purple markings showing the platform used to get up to the floating islands that harbored the bard college. If the Bard King found out that he was also responsible for Neon's destruction, not to mention the fact that he had been working with Roman and Youngblood...

Noise shook his head and activated the platform, which promptly rose up into the air and started to carry him towards the college. He knew the consequences of what he had done before he had even decided to do it. At this point, everything that had happened over the past day meant that he was staring death in the face from the moment he rejected the offer to leave. He was fully prepared to accept that if it meant that Roman and Youngblood could escape safely.

The platform gently slowed to a stop against the main island and Noise took a breath and looked around. The courtyard at the front of the college was strangely void of movement, which Noise found extremely unnerving. He knew that most if not all the guards had been down in Neon when it was destroyed, but he had expected the king to keep at least a few guards near just in case.

When he looked down over the edge of the island, he understood why. All of the guards were doing damage control outside of Neon. Miraculously, everyone, including the guards who had been captured and taken to the center of Neon, had managed to escape before the vines and foliage had completely claimed the city. Half of the guards who weren't severely injured were tending to the wounds of the ones who were, while the others were trying to calm down the citizens and assess the damage done to the city.

Noise sighed remorsefully before slowly leaning away from the quartz barrier blocking off the edge of the island and turning to face the college itself, dread slowly building up inside him. The tiefling tentatively walked back onto the stone brick path, having to refrain from sweeping his tail up in front of him and holding onto it like a stress blanket as he used to do when he was younger. He pushed open the heavy quartz doors and briskly walked down the front hall. His rush wasn't the result of a build-up in courage, but more a sharp spike of adrenaline. If he was going to die, he was going to do it bravely and on his own terms.

He knew these hallways like the back of his hand, having been raised in them. The unfamiliarity came from the stark silence blanketing the entire college. Even with the silence however, Noise could hear so many things. He heard the faint chaos of the citizens and guards in the town below, the loud clacking of his boots on the tile floor, the frantic racing of his heart, he felt as though he could even hear the vibrations in the air. He only became angrier and angrier the longer he navigated his way through the labyrinth of hallways.

But as he sharply turned the corner and came to face the silver-encrusted door doors that indicated the Bard King's... throne room? Office? (The king deciding that a college would be the best setting to raise and house his army often created some confusion about how the way things worked, and this was one of the most common conundrums among the guards), Noise' mounting dread overtook all his other emotions and he stopped. He tried to convince himself to go in, but knowing what was awaiting him on the other side made him want to turn and run all the way back down to the city. He wanted to run. He wanted to go crawling back to Roman and Youngblood and beg them to save him, to take him with them, to give him the freedom he so desperately craved.

At this, he came to his senses and scoffed at the thought. As if he would go crawling to anyone. He was much too proud and proper for that. He was also too proud to be afraid of a door. He felt his anger start to build up again and shoved the doors open with purpose, praying that Roman and Youngblood wouldn't do anything to get themselves killed.