cascade | kotlc

36. Against the Dying Light of the Gloaming

tw: bl/od 

Vespera left, her cloak swishing behind her.

Faye groaned. The pain, as Vespera had promised, had mostly faded, cooling to just a consistent throbbing in her back.

A mirror lowered, clicking into place and revealing a live feed of a room in the backstage. Pulleys and mirrors mounted by rope and to walls and on carts were littered all over, light bending and refracting and reflecting off the surfaces and forming Vespera's intricate illusions.

"You will see," Vespera said, "what I can do."

She moved into frame, followed by Fintan, and they were saying something Faye couldn't hear. She shifted her body, slightly easing the moderate pain as she slumped against a corner, waiting, waiting.

"Consider yourself as dead," Vespera commanded, adjusting her overly large gown and draping the silk onto her shoulders. "There is nothing left for you except to wait, and see, and bathe in my glory. You will see."

"No," Faye murmured, rather depressed. All she could see was stone walls, vast and extending, yet the room felt so cramped and barren, lacking anything of importance or even worth noticing. She wondered how badly June's claustrophobia would trigger if she was the one locked here.

If there was one thing she regretted, it was making fun of June for her claustrophobia. She understood now how painful it was to be left alone to rot in an enclosed space. The pain in her backside worsened slightly and she pressed her finger to the metal outjut, pricking her thumb and drawing flood. She scowled, sucking on the insignificant wound and staring blankly at the opposite wall.

"This is the end," Vespera whispered. "There is no escape. You will die here, today, and June will be there to witness it."

"I refuse," Faye mumbled, almost like she was in a trance. Her eyes watered, whether from sadness or pain or anger or even, perhaps, disappointment she wasn't sure, and she wasn't sure if she cared, either.

"Please," she breathed softly, feeling her breath warm against her cheeks.

As if a response came footsteps, echoing closer and closer. Vespera didn't seem to notice, and Fintan was still talking, his mouth moving strangely and indecipherably.

Faye shut her eyes, wondering who could be approaching. The gait didn't seem to match June's, who preferred a more light, bouncy skip, if she wasn't flying.

Vespera sneered at something someone said, her lips twisting arrogantly, before she deliberately stared at Faye's perspective, as if telling her, there is nothing I cannot do.

"Who's coming?" Faye murmured, pressing as close to the light projection as she could without disturbing the image, her hands groping around Vespera's figure as if she could affect her actions. The footsteps pressed closer, eerie and looming. They sounded feminine and familiar.

Tap tap, tap tap. Light and predatory, a cheetah stalking to its prey, obscured in the thick wildgrass bushes of the barren savannahs.

"Who is that?" Faye muttered again, squinting and ignoring the pain in her back, which had worsened to a series of somewhat agonizing jolts.

As if on cue, a figure leapt into action, tackling Fintan. Her hand climbed up Fintan's thinking cap, yanking on the white fabric, and with a loud tear the cloth ripped. The figure, Biana, Faye realized, kicked Vespera in the face as she scrambled to protect her headpiece, and Fintan's eyes froze, blanking away into white fog, distant and unthinking.

Biana's ring glowed with rebellious lushery, palely viridescent amongst the moon-sharp tones of the stone walls, pulsing warmly as a guiding light. Vespera snarled as she bolted her arms outwards, crouching down, a steely glint in her eyes.