Feudal Phase

Tussle

Before the sun rose, Darter lay, slouched but not sleeping, up against the wall. Aster, who was sharpening a stick in case things got brutal, kept glancing over at them. "You going to say anything?" asked Aster.

Darter shuffled closer to the wall.

Aster poked them with the unsharpened part of the stick. "Got something to say? No? Maybe? Darter? Darter, what's our plan? You're going to attract the biggest bug on the whole island, right? Wasn't it clever of me to suggest we do bug catching?" Dropping their voice, Aster said, "They have no idea that you can basically summon bugs. This is going to be so-o-o easy, and then we'll have three new panta working with us. Can you imagine how much we'll get done?"

"Or we could lose the house," Darter said.

"No we won't," Aster said.

"Yes, we could! I can't-- I can't do it under pressure," Darter said, and they pressed their hands against their head. "And I'm so stressed right now."

Aster put a reassuring hand on their head.

"I don't even want new panta in the group," Darter murmured.

"Well, I did," Aster said. "Did you really think we were going to live just the two of us forever?"

Darter, who rarely wore anything less than a sunny smile, looked absolutely mutinous. "Yes."

Aster withdrew their hand. "I've always wanted to have an empire. I thought you knew that."

"Why, Aster?"

Aster's back itched. "I get lonely."

Darter's eyes widened. They stepped up into the window, crawling through, and out into the first rays of sunlight, which were so dim they could have been confused for those of far more distant stars. The air was thick with a heavier humming than days before, something older and more sinister, and the obelisk loomed closer than usual. It was the first day Aster fight they might truly be able to feel its magnetism, the way it pulled the whole world in, like a black hole, a reminder that everyone would someday succumb to metamorphosis and leave.

"Don't go," Aster said. Their scars were burning now, emitting a faint light. Darter made a break for it. Aster dashed after, clamoring through the window, and after a trip onto the hard ground they made it halfway down the island before getting stuck in a snarled bush. Aster felt their skin alight with pain, and they took a long, strained breath. "Darter," they called to the darkness.

Nothing answered. Aster had already lost sight of them. Their eyes swam not with water but with sudden images of an old story. They broke free, coming clear to the beaches, and saw no other footprints in the sand. The water lapped peacefully in and out, and dozens of other islands floated in the morning's murk, just graced by the pink tongue of the new day. Aster, who was beginning to bleed, circled, holding themselves in their own shaking arms, back to the top of the hill.

Darter was not there, but the other three panta were. They bloomed with the new day, flowers bouncing as a breeze rolled over the assembly and chilled Aster's new wounds. Aster leered at them all.

"You're late," the first panta said.

"We were just scoping out the land. Didn't you do that on the way up here?" Aster asked. "I want to make sure this is even."

"We?" asked the second panta.

"I'm doing this alone. Darter doesn't want to," Aster said. "They're off alone today. I know I can handle this alone, so no big."

"Looks like you're outnumbered," teased the second panta.

"Say that again once you've won," Aster warned. "Can I at least get your names?"