Survival of the Weakest

Part V - Intertwined Destinies

Along the perimeter of the old plaza, standing really closely to the facade of the houses, high white arches were exposed - four meters in height- and multicolored light bulbs were artistically woven into their floral metal pattern that flowed into each other like rivers. The pavilion of two floored modern building, where Sarah and Annabel had their first and last dinner, was turned into some sort of stage: tables, chairs and umbrellas were taken away and where replaced by speakers, microphones and floating candles. There was a smaller podium organized before that building, and there were only wooden pillars installed on them, six in total. 

"What's the deal with the pillars?" 

"You'll see." and Sarah didn't have to wait for too long: she observed from her hotel room's window, with Annabel standing by her side, how seemingly out of nowhere, a big group of nocturae appeared from the shadows to the unlit podium. Majority of them wore some kind of special uniform - as Ann explained to her earlier, they should have been the special force group commanded by the Venerable Atarrah - and dragged exactly six tied people on top of the podium.

Atarrah's "dogs" chained them up to pillars and stood by their side, each of them holding up hands with rings. 

"You know, Sarah,-" Annabel started to speak, accompanied by the nervous tapping of her nails on the window sill. "-every time I looked at the night sky, I was always filled with an endless sorrow. Especially when there were no clouds in the sky and the full moon shone brighter than the sun. Like tonight." 

Sarah did not know how to respond to this. She just followed Annabel's gaze up to the stars, and to the full moon that indeed shone brighter than the sun. 

"Sometimes I saw intangible facial features in it. Sometimes I didn't recognize that face, but sometimes... It's like I was looking at my own reflection. But I didn't see myself in there, no, I saw only mere fragments of myself. And, for one split second, on the edges of these fragments, I could even see my true Home." 

"Soon it will be over,-" Sarah turned to Annabel and smiled at her. She could feel her innards shaking from the fear of the unknown, but it didn't matter to her as long as she knew that this woman was on her side. "-and you will finally be free, in your perfect Home." 

Annabel first turned to Sarah not quite getting what she meant, so she replied 

"There is no perfection in this or any other world, sadly. Our very essence and existence is chaotic and unstable. There is no Ideal that will remain until the end: People, memories and grief will leave, disappear; every corpse will rot, every castle will fall, and every book will burn; even rivers will dry up, and mountains will split in two." Sarah was a bit unprepared for Annabel's big-talk-speech, but didn't judge her. If they all told her the truth, then this moment should be indeed the most colossal in their current life, and it was really unsettling that all their fates depended solely on her. 

"This is the will of time, Sarah. The will of the Equilibrium. It is also the border, it is also our beginning and our end..."

"... However, my nocturian brothers and sisters! There will always be a perfect moment,-" Constantin's mighty voice delivered a very inspiring speech, which Sarah didn't really pay close attention to. Her interest was still locked upon the six nocturae that were chained up to the pillars, and she even recognized familiar stance of Balthazar beside them. "-The moment when destinies are decided, and planets shudder; So fast, elusive and imperceptible, and therefore so dangerous. It can be both a blessing and a curse, but for us, Nocturae, this risk is justified. We, Nocturae,-" the head of the Council risen up his voice, and before he could finish, the enormous crowd roared all at once. "-will not succumb to the will of the Equilibrium so easily!" 

"Hey, Sarah,-" Annabel whispered to her, and the latter immediately noticed the concerned tone of the businesswoman. "-Step back from the edge, I have a bad feeling about this." She did as she was told, and questionable looks of other nocturae from the Council standing behind burnt her back. 

"Before the first Equilibrium,-" Constantine continued, "-our ancestors always walked on the edge of the blade and eventually conquered the stars and received their blessing. And so we will repeat their feat! The Equilibrium will be our perfect moment. And we will catch it, and hold it with an iron grip and will not let it go, even if it costs us our lives!" The wave of applause and cry shocked the plaza. They didn't care about the ordinary people in this or neighboring towns sleeping, or the entire world at this point. It was their night. The night when they will finally be free.

And me too, Sarah thought, but without real assurance. Maybe, the search for her own Home will last the lifetime, but it didn't matter to her. She just wanted to finally give them an opportunity to bring their millennia old pursuit to an end. 

"Now look at them," the pavilion was lit up in no time with the same floating candles, and the crowd started booing as if they noticed them just now. "the leaders of so-called "Resistance". The ones, who terrorized us, that done our society nothing but harm, and had the audacity to hinder our hunt for Souvivors!-" Constantin's speech powered the nocturae's fury, and they started throwing garbage at the captured. "-Before we step into our Promised Land, we shall execute those who kept us behind!" 

As if rehearsed, Atarrah's guards started shooting them one by one starting by the first person on the right, who twitched the most out of six. Constantin shouted the names of each fallen resistance leader, until... One fireball flashed right before Sarah's face. And the whole world seemed to fall into chaos.

Annabel grabbed Sarah's hand and pulled her to the middle of the roof, meanwhile other Council members were running and shouting something to their subordinates. 

"What is happening?!" 

"The resistance rats, they've come for their leaders...-" Annabel explained, "-It seems that we didn't get rid of them after all. Atarrah, you incompetent bitch." 

"Annabel!" Constantin shouted while he was attacked by the only remaining leader of resistance. Was it... Benjamin?  "Do the thing, we will hold them off!" Annabel nodded, packing Sarah on the shoulders and making her look businesswoman right in the eyes. 

"Don't panic, they cannot do you any harm. Concentrate." They rehearsed this moment a couple of times before, but for a brief moment, Sarah forgot everything, even how to breathe. 

"Repeat after me, Sarah: breathe in... Breathe out. Feel the wind." Sarah closed her eyes, waiting for the transformation. Ann came closer, and Tkach could feel her breath on her face...

Then she felt a sharp, burning pain in the chest. She opened her eyes and saw a knife sticking out of her, on the handle of which Annabel's palm was laying. 

"You promised it wouldn't hurt..." Sarah croaked. Her legs begun to give up; Sarah's complete lack of control over her own actions forced her to fall into Annabel's hands that handled her very tenderly.

 The last Souvivor began to disintegrate into pieces that turned into red butterflies. The huge swarm blindly reached to the sky - towards its broad wound - and burnt down with a white cold fire when their wings touched the boundaries of the Equilibrium. Annabel felt their ashes falling down on her cheeks. Annabel felt that she was becoming deaf; the noise of the turmoil was getting farther and farther away from her.

"I'm so sorry, Sarah..." Annabel teared up, looking up at the expanding hole in the sky. She fell down to her knees. Was it really worth it?

"I see you managed to become friends with her, Annabel." Constantin came up behind her, giving her a comforting tap on the shoulder. "Dearest ones are always difficult to let go. But you will definitely see each other again." 

The man's hand had shimmed with black and gold and turned into a blade that he pierced Ann through with. The woman twitched, and the last thing she saw was a bright light that filled the sky from Equilibrium's depths.

Everything perished, and everything went silent.
And the whole world turned into one blank sheet of white paper.