Solace and Nox: A New Light

Chapter 20

Was he coming?

She stayed up all night, waiting. Dawn had finally approached and she was waiting for Raiden. He said he would be there the next morning. Well, the next morning had come, and he wasn't there.

Was he running late? Had he forgotten? Was he caught up in work? Or had he given up?

There was no way for Cytra to know. She would just have to wait and see if he showed up.

Cytra absorbed the darkness around her and shot into the air. She decided she was going to practice some of the skills Moldark had taught her. If she was going to go through with his plan, she had to be ready.

In the air, she used a shadow off to the side drag her safely to the floor. She had the power to manipulate the darkness, bend it into special uses. The shadow literally caught her, and placed her safely on the floor.

She traveled through the shadows and immediately warped to the floor above. If Cytra was in the darkness, always connected with it, it could do anything she wanted it to. She could warp from shadow to shadow, stay hidden inside one, and manipulate it to her advantage. In the darkness, no one could stop her.

"Cytra?" Raiden called from the bottom floor. "Are you here?"

Cytra looked down at him. She remained in the shadows, but was prepared to show herself.

"I came... again," he said.

Cytra close her eyes, and in a pillar of smoke, she appeared in front of Raiden. When she opened her eyes he beamed. She could tell that his magic hadn't been activated, but he almost glowed with joy. His blond hair almost covered his ears, but weren't even close to his shoulders. If he kept it growing, it would begin to stretch down towards his shoulders, however. His nose looked slightly crooked, probably broken once or twice in his line of work. But his skin was flawless. Like she noticed earlier, it almost glowed in the sun's rays.

But the most captivating thing about Sunshine were his sapphire eyes. They were full of love, joy, happiness, and any other bright emotion Cytra could think of. She was proud of herself for coming up with that nickname. It fit him perfectly.

"Cytra," he said, relieved. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't ever come out. I came to see you yesterday..."

"I know," Cytra said bluntly. "I saw you."

He looked taken aback. "You were here the whole time? Oh boy, you heard all that?"

She nodded. He looked totally embarrassed and she was enjoying every second of it. She didn't show it on her face, but inside she was laughing uncontrollably.

"Well, before I embarrass myself further..." he started.

Cytra cut him off again and said, "Let's talk." He was surprised to see how straightforward she was.

He shrugged and replied, "Okay. Where do you want to start?"

Cytra held up a finger, signalling him to wait, and disappeared. She had warped to one of the higher floors, where there were two old and rickety chairs. She grabbed them, and warped back down to Sunshine.

She set one down next to Sunshine and she sat down in the other. It creaked as she sat, but when Raiden sat on his chair, it nearly fell apart underneath him. She wasn't that much smaller than Raiden, but with him being a soldier, he had a lot of muscle, which made him weigh more.

He looked concerned as he sat down. He sat up unusually straight and looked very uncomfortable in his seat. When he realized that Cytra was watching him the whole time, he smiled awkwardly and pretended to like the seat.

"How did you discover your powers?" Cytra asked, getting straight to the point.

Raiden looked uncomfortable with that question. "Wow, straight to the deep questions. Why can't we start with something like, 'What's your favorite color'?"

Cytra shrugged, but didn't answer his new question.

"Well, my favorite color is blue," he said. He waited a minute for Cytra to answer, but she remained silent. He sighed. "You're a lot of work."

Cytra shrugged again.

"You don't talk much do you?"

Another shrug.

Raiden finally gave up. "I've had my powers for as long as I can remember. It was so unnatural, that I had to keep it a secret. Until Moldark attacked last week, the king didn't even know about my powers. Markis and Direl were the only ones in the army who knew."

"Why keep such a beautiful thing a secret?" she asked.

"Well, I guess it's because I was scared of what people might think of me," he answered. "Would they treat me differently? Would they make me an outcast? Or would I be praised like the Knights of the Revenant? Those were questions that constantly ran through my mind."

"You never considered the possibilities of what you could do?" Cytra asked. "Your powers could help a lot of people, but if you don't ever use them, how are you going to know how to react?"

"Well, as a soldier, we are trained to act on instinct. I never considered what I could do because I had faith that my powers would do what I need them to do when I needed them to do it. I know that might sound strange, but when I chased you here, I never tried an enhanced jump before, like the one I did off the balcony. But, I was successful. I knew what needed to be done, and I acted, rather than stopped to think it through. Yes, that can be dangerous, but living the life of a soldier was living a life of danger."

Cytra nodded, watching him as he talked. He was so fascinating. From the moment that she saw him stand up to Moldark, she had become captivated by him. He was so unique, and different than any other soldier that she wondered how she hadn't seen him before.

"When did you discover your power?" he asked.

Cytra, like Sunshine, didn't like to talk about her past. It was clear to her that he had a dark past, but whatever happened back then changed him for the better. He was living a good life. He was living the way he should, a life of light, a life of truth, and a life of right.

"I was born with this power," Cytra explained. "Like you, I hid it for as long as I could. The moment it overwhelmed me is the moment that I began living on my own. I knew that I was dangerous, so I isolated myself from society."

Raiden nodded. It was his turn to listen. He watched with interest, soaking in every word she said.

"For several years, I've been avoiding people, knowing that they would inevitably betray me. I have been betrayed, and that is why I am the way I am. I lost everything, including my faith in others, and that's when the darkness truly took over."

"And what are you going to do about it?" Raiden asked.

Cytra cocked her head. What was he talking about?

"You seem to have control of your powers," Raiden said. "So why haven't you done anything to change this lifestyle? You can do anything, I've seen it. So why don't you?"

Cytra thought for a moment, then said, "Maybe I'm trying to do something now."

In that moment, they looked into each other's eyes and said nothing else. In that moment, everything was exactly how it should be. In that moment, everything was... right.

How was Cytra ever going to kill such an amazing man?