SunRider

[24] The Battle for Kazma-Part Two

—And now that we have left land and taken to sky, upon the wings we have sown on our shoulders, the lives we once had now seem so distant and strange. As quickly as we flap, our memories of who we were fade quicker. I hold my sister's hand and my father's arm. Both look up and not down. Their eyes already show no sign that they recollect that we were once Lenovan. Our entire town glides around us, pushing higher and higher. At first the children were shouting in joy and glee, twisting around us in the air, their mothers chiding, the fathers commanding. But now we are all silent, a cloud elevating onwards. Higher and higher we go. I no longer remember my name nor how I got these wings. Who am I? What am I? The hands I once held no longer touch and the people I once knew as family are no longer familial. I have lost sight of them among the crowds of others. We all gaze up with mouths open, straining to breathe the thin air. We must go higher. Why do I write this as I fly? Was I a scribe of some sort? What does that title even mean? Our whole town... What is town. What me be? Me no more. I go higher. I am sky. I am air. Wing. Flap. Higher. Higher. High. I see whole world.—

-Abandoned journal found in the middle of the GrassPlains of Faanda.

Finn entered the bottom floor of the Neck, feeling as if he'd been there only an hour before—which he had. No one waited at the large tower. All the crowds that'd rushed inside it before were now gone, leaving the block-wide space empty of any movement. It was suddenly eerie.

     His friends prepared for the fight that was sure to come. Altin strung a new bolt onto his crossbow, having scavenged a large quiver from a fallen soldier. Leeya checked her spear's wooden shaft for any cracks and jabbed out with the weapon, practicing. If he lived through the day, Finn would have to ask her how she'd learned to fight so well. Goblin swung his falcata as best as he could, more like a child with a dagger than a teen with a sword.

     They centered themselves near the DozDum Organ pipes and tried to calm their breathing, not speaking to each other but instead mentally preparing themselves for whatever might come.

     A few moments later, echoing footsteps sounded out as a figure entered the tiled chamber. It was the Star-Child himself, alone and with no troops to back him. He held his arms behind his back in a regal pose. His body demanded an air of confidence. He showed no fear, as if he could care less whether four faced him or a thousand.

     "Here we go..." Altin whispered.

     The man stopped a hundred meters away from them. He watched from behind his carved mask, breathing like a wild animal. The Star-Child grabbed his mask, setting it on the floor. Finn faced the enemy as he truly was.

     The man bore strange features. His eyes were slanted, nearly snake-like, yet widened crazily, showing tiny pinpricks where his pupils were. He grabbed at his face and rubbed it, muttering of too many visions to interpret. Finn suspected the man was insane.

     His face bore a linear jaw and a wide neck, yet was also foreign, pale as if he'd lived in darkness. The many veins Finn had seen pulsing along the man's scalp also ran to his eyes and mouth. It gave Finn the sense he was facing an undead, one who'd long passed into the void yet refused to leave the land. Even at their distance, Finn could tell the man stood a chest and head taller than them—a monster.

     "Bracer wearers!" the man hissed in pleased amazement. "I heard there were more—quite a surprise. Now I finally meet some." His voice was strange—there was a cutting accent to it. He looked genuinely happy to see them. "Tell me younglings, do you fear death? Or love it?"

     Finn's stomach churned and the man laughed. "Ah, Lenovans. You're all the same." He spread his arms and paced. "You should join me, not oppose me."