Blowing Embers

Chapter 42

          Kallai had no time to shield, let alone brace herself. She flew through the air, sliding to a halt a few feet away, her back already complaining about its sudden introduction to the ground. She ignored it, scrabbling to her feet, eyes frantically searching for Shuu.

            He wasn’t hard to find.

            Shuu hovered a few feet up, the air around him dark and almost visible as the winds roiled around him, sending his clothing and hair to flapping in every direction. His eyes were still wide, their blue colour seeming brighter in his pale face, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. A drop of red fell from one to splash against the ground.

           Kallai bit her lip, worried that he wasn’t even feeling the pain of his nails digging into his skin and breaking it. She had only managed a few steps towards him before the other people around her also got to their feet. Their movements drew Shuu’s gaze.

            “Magi!” he howled, his voice ripping through the air like a knife. “You it was? You it was who my people did destroy?”

            While Kallai could only stare, her face draining of colour until she matched Shuu, he held the gaze of the first to look at him, the headmaster herself. “W-what are you talking about?” the woman quavered, taking a step backwards.

            His winds blasted outwards again, sending those closest stumbling back. “Games not do play! This our Song Tower is! Its form I do see, underneath this monstrosity you over it have built! I, a member of the Horisha, am. No Horisha, no matter the reason, desecration of our tower would allow, if still alive were. So you my people have killed!”

            Kallai gasped, her body freezing in place as her mind tried to accept the enormity of what Shuu had just said. If his people were dead, if this tower, which had been part of the school for as long as it had been a school, then…

            “What are you talking about?” the man in the military uniform demanded, one hand resting on the pistol at the side, the other on the long knife he wore. “None of us have any idea about any Song Towers or Horisha, whatever they are.”

            “Lies,” Shuu hissed, his winds swirling more tightly around him.

Seeing the way he leaned forward, the way the air around him grew darker still, Kallai knew what was about to happen. “No!” she cried, even as she reached for the heat, that despite the dear, still burned inside her chest. Just a second before Shuu’s winds lashed out at the General, Kallai’s flames formed a wall around him. The air splashed against it, making the fire rise higher, but didn’t extinguish it.

            Shuu turned slowly to face her, his eyes not properly seeing her. “You have to stop this, Shuu!” she shouted, feeling tears start sliding down her face as her hands folded into fists. “No one here had anything to do with your people dying. This tower has been this way for centuries. I-I’m…I’m so sorry.”

           Even as her voice broke, as the sobs that were filling her chest fought to break free, Kallai raced towards him. Her words almost seemed to weigh him down, his body slowly sinking back down to the ground, his eyes unfocused on her. Kallai threw her arms around him as soon as she’d reached him, holding him as tightly as she could. “You can’t do this,” she half-whispered, half-sobbed. “It’s not their fault. I know you’re hurting, I know you want them to suffer for it, to make the pain more bearable, but it’s not going to change anything. Please, please, don’t. If you attack them, you’ll die. I can’t lose you. I just can’t. So please, don’t do this. It won’t bring back your people either.”

            Kallai could feel Shuu’s winds wrap around them, swirling but not directly touching either of them. Shuu didn’t move for several seconds, just stayed in the same position, staring blankly ahead. Then he shivered.

            As his tremors got stronger, his arms closed around Kallai, his face dropping into his shoulder. She could feel the spreading warm dampness that told her he was crying, just before the sobs ripping through him were audible. Her own tears still pouring down her face, Kallai held him as he wept.