Guardian: The Great Beginning

Chapter Nine - Conflict

Chapter Nine

Conflict

Asura's actions didn't go unnoticed in the Castle of Light. An emergency Council was called late in the afternoon; obviously, the boy had neglected to heed his siblings' warnings, and they had to act before things got out of control.

Akilah had her best interests when it came to her little brother, but if he simply refused to believe her every word and continue to defy her and her siblings, they might not have a choice but to attack him.

That was, of course, if he allowed his Element to take over. Unfortunately, at the moment, he was steadily underway to making that happen.

The fact that Asura was using his Element was bad enough. What made matters worse, was that he was doing it uncontrolled. He had no idea what he was doing, and that only worsened the effect.

In the meantime, the Spirits wasted precious time arguing at their round table in the throne room, rather than finding Asura and putting a stop to his actions.

"Akilah, this is your fault," Aharnish told his sister. "You were the one who wanted to train him, you awakened this Element inside of him."

Akilah refused to allow her brother to agitate her any further than Asura already had.

"You act like it's my fault alone," she told him, "and yet, you did just as much, if not less, to stop this as I did.

"This is just as much your fault as it is mine, Aharnish. The five of us are all to blame."

Aharnish groaned, a sound that sounded somewhat like 'you're right' and 'I'm sorry'. Clearly, he didn't want to admit it, but he knew his sister was right. Aharnish then leaned forward on the rounded table, hands far apart. "But blame doesn't matter!" he snapped. "Akilah, if Asura keeps doing what he's been doing for the past two days, the Darkness will spread through him, through all of Lunaria, and let me tell you, his desire to 'balance' the Light and Dark will be void when that happens.

"He will become a creature of Darkness, a slave, an addict. And there'll be no way to stop him without violence, or perhaps even death. "

"Don't say that, Aharnish," Aoife said. She disliked even so much as the sound of the word, even though it was part of her Element. With Life, came Death. Aoife wasn't the one to initiate Death, only to initiate Life, but she did feel it every time a Lunarian passed away. Death felt as though it left an empty spot in Aoife's heart, usually lasting two days, and there was nothing she could do to make the emptiness go away. It was the downside of her Element.

"We'll be able to save him, Aharnish," Aoife continued, "we won't have to kill him. But even I can't guarantee he will agree to a non-violent surrender if it comes that far."

The others seemed to agree with her on that matter, even though Akilah and Ince seemed hesitant to admit it.

Aharnish let out a sigh. "Fine," he said, "we'll try and save him. But if we want to solve this issue with as little violence as possible, we'll have to start getting into action now. There's no point in waiting until the darkness has already taken control of Asura's mind and heart."

Once again, the siblings seemed to agree. "The issue is," Aine said, "Akilah's already told Asura he needs to stop. We should allow him some time, see what he does. If he doesn't stop on his own, even after knowing the consequences that are hanging over his head, then he simply does not want to listen, and we'll have to force him to stop." She shrugged. "That's just my theory. I thought it might be something to consider."