Discordant Note: Crescendo | TBATE

Chapter 269: Icarus

Thank you to my beta reader and editor, GlassThreads!

Aurora Asclepius

Our soul-merger broke.

As the Bloodtie fell away, the beautiful balance of our spirits became null and void. Toren fell to his knees, Soulplume retreating back into his core as the light of his eyes winked out. He heaved for breath, his lungs making ragged, wet sounds. Sweat ran down his skin.

That sweat dripped down, running into the intricate mosaic of Faircity Zhoroa beneath him. Each drop of sweat seemed to refract any light that reached that impossible carving, twisting and distorting it.

I didn't know how to feel. Didn't know what to feel. My spirit and essence both were weary and strained from the balance of Toren and I. I blinked, my vision choppy and slow as I looked up, searching for the help of our clan. My soul burned, and I needed... I needed a balm. Something to ease that pain.

And I found my family recoiling in dismay. All those eyes that had gazed down on us with awe and wonder and hope were now stained with ash and horror.

They saw it, too, I realized. They saw Soleil's Bloodtie.

"You preach and preach about how to help the humans," Soleil said, floating down to the platform. His eyes burned with old grief. "But you don't understand what it means. You can't save every ant from an exterminator when your very boots tear apart their lives!"

"Then you won't even try?!" another voice interrupted. Roa. "Sure, you tried to fight the dragon head on! But Toren said we don't need to battle! We can teach and assist! We know so much!"

"And what would that do?" Aluthar cut in, floating upward as well. One of Soleil's more fervent supporters. "They'd track us down eventually. We can try and try to support as we are, but it all ends the same! The Indraths or the Vritra... they'll make examples of all those who receive our assistance!"

"Then we do it better! Hide it better! I thought you more than a coward, Alu!" another cut in.

Aluthar's eyes flashed with his intent, his skin reddening. "You saw! You saw what happened when Soleil tried to help!"

"And you saw what J'ntarion said!" another echoed.

The noises and arguing built around us as my family rose from their perches, hovering and shouting and clenching their fists. The sound washed around and through my disoriented form as our collective broke into arguments and sharp gestures. Fire mana popped around us as the world twisted in response to their rage.

I blinked, then hazily looked down at Toren. The swells of mana around us... I couldn't feel it. Not really. But Toren–he was gasping for breath, clutching at his chest as his hair clung to his skin. His heartbeat stuttered as the weight of two hundred angry asura closed in on us.

No! I thought suddenly, drifting down and wrapping Toren in an embrace as I tried to bolster his mind against the pervading effects. No, they need to stop! They don't understand!

Toren's mouth gaped, opening and closing as he struggled to draw in air. He slowly drowned beneath the emotions of his own clan.

"Cease your arguing!" I yelled, trying to be heard as I desperately clung to Toren's trembling body. "Please! Stop it! You must!"

My head whipped around desperately, my feathered hair turning as I frantically tried to find someone who could listen. Roa looked about ready to fight with Soleil, but they stared not at me. Aliara and Lithen were so close that I could taste the bloodlust. Diella was rushing about the room, trying to separate who she could, before another pulled her into an argument.