cascade | kotlc

5. Moral (?) Dilemmas

 "Sophie," June whispered, leaning over her sister. "Sophie, please wake up."

Sophie blinked before she closed her eyes. "..."

"Sophie? Sophie. Can you hear me?"

Sophie shifted slightly, her fingers twitching. "..."

"Sophie. Nod once if you can hear me."

Sophie nodded. "..."

"Sophie, you're safe," June murmured, cradling her face.

Sophie nodded again.

"Sophie, sleep. Get some sleep."

Sophie nodded for the third time and drifted to sleep.

-

"She's safe," Faye said after Sophie's gentle snores filled the room, and they knew she was fully asleep.

June nodded, briefly, her chin dipping up and down, her pale-white hand clasped around Fitz's cold and rigid fingers. Her eyes were focused on her boyfriend's lips, eyes, hair, and she slowly curved her fingers and beckoned Tam over.

"What did you do. Do the same to him," she ordered blankly, and he nodded too, his shadows already creeping over his body.

A small ding, from Faye's pocket, where she'd stuffed her Imparter in a hurry. More insistent dings reverbrated around the wind as Faye extracted the silver square and tapped open the screen.

MISSED CALL FROM COUNCILLOR EMERY, 5:30 PM.

She looked up, examining June's expression, which had lost some of its previous anger, now blanketed with exhaustion. A stray strand of hair clung to her forehead and her doe eyes were narrowed.

"Hey, June. The Council's calling us."

"Hmm? Tell them I'm busy."

Another ding, followed by the sounding of her ringtone as Councillor Emery's crown-adorned face popped up holographically.

"You know I'll have to accept, June."

"I'm not leaving them."

Shadows stretched up the side of June's face and darkened her light blue eyes as she stared at the shadows Tam was controlling. These were wispier, floatier, as if splashes of ink on a watercolor masterpiece as light leaked through and glimmered on Fitz's face.

"I'm not leaving them," she said again, her finger gently tracing over Fitz's chest, where spires of gaseous darkness were rising from his heart and ribs. The umbras diffused off her fingernail and ascended as steam, boiling off and condensating as dark blotches upon the plastered walls.

The rushing of water covered the chorus of Faye's ringtone as Biana worked the shower wordlessly, lathering a mixture of body lotion and serum over her scars. Dots of multicolored light sparked around her as Elwin flipped on his goggles and switched between different hues that flashed like strobe bulbs.

MISSED CALL FROM COUNCILLOR EMERY, 5:32 PM.

"I should pick up," Faye told everyone, and her finger hovered above the ACCEPT button as her ringtone blared again.

She was met with no response. June was still frozen, as if encased in millennial ice, her eyes cold and unforgiving.

Faye's finger dropped down and clicked ACCEPT. "Hey."

"Miss Kiara," Councillor Emery said over background static. "Report to the Seat of Eminence at once with your team."

"Um." She chewed her lips. "Fitz is... incapacitated at the moment."