71: The End

Fire. Fire. Fire.

Time was on fire.

Flames trickled down tree trunks. And the ground was like lava.

The sky was still dark when Tsiho woke me. I fed her and held her till she fell asleep.

...they live...

The words came with the wind. But lingered like a chill. Darkness had yet to subside. I laid Tsiho in her cot and lit a candle.

...you dare replace them...

"Who's there?" I swung the candle round, lighting the corners of our room. But Tsiho and I were the only ones present.

I wouldn't sleep. I didn't dare. But my eyelids weighed heavy. And soon they were falling close.

Purple flames consumed Time's Playground. My eyes snapped open and my gaze fell on the flickering purple flame of the candle.

The breath left my lungs and the candle left my grasp. At once, purple flames consumed the room. My first thought was to grab Tsiho. She didn't wake but she was breathing.

The walls and floor were hidden behind flames. The door as well. I searched for an escape. The flames may have felt like nothing but a warm breeze on my skin but Tsiho wasn't immune to fire like I was.

I wrapped her up in my scarf and made for the balcony door. We plummeted at once. My wings arriving a moment too late. We fell through a pool of rippling space and back into the purple flames.

My bare feet met earth. Time's Playground was on fire. Violet flames climbed trees and crawled across  rotting logs, consumed fallen leaves across the forest floor. And destroyed Time's property.

Off in the distance a figure arrived. A human silhouetted against the violet blaze. She carried a sword. A sword with a glowing green gem at its hilt.

"Why," my voice faltered, overwhelmed with anger, confusion, desperation. "Why?!" I resisted the urge to step forward. "Why are you doing this to me? What did they do to deserve this? Why am the only one who has to fight for a family?"

"You poor thing," she cooed. Her voice like ice and feathers, coming at me from all around. "Abandoned by the woman who birthed you. Then those who raised you. Whose to say that child won't leave you next."

I hugged Tsiho close. I wouldn't let her words decieve me, as true as they were to my own thoughts. "I'll never lie to her. She'll know of her parents."

Her figure flickered through the flames, trailing around me. "I see her leaving you. I feel the hate. Even after everything you do for her, she will despise you."

"Then so be it! I still choose to love her." I wouldn't abandon her. No, I'd never.

"You're such a fool." She cackled. "Everyone who has ever loved you have only ever struggled. You bring misfortune and misery. You are a curse to this world!"

I crumbled to my knees. I couldn't believe her words were anything but true. Loving me took sacrifice. Loving me brought pain. I was a curse.

Her small eyelids fluttered open. Her small lips stretched into a smile. Her small fists reached up and caressed my scales. One day she wouldn't look at me like this. But she'd always be my light on the darkest of nights.

I may have escaped Death and Time but I'd never escape Life.

"Pain is only a consequence of life." I searched for her eyes in the darkness. I hoped she met my gaze and felt everything I felt. "I am not a mistake. I was put here for a purpose. I am precious."

The fire breathed and grew. It's claws reached for us but my wings shielded us from its flare.

"Your life has only brought disorder and destruction." Her voice filled my ears and consumed my thoughts. I saw so many terrible things.

The people of Kreatier were at war with each other. No one was exempt, everyone had made an enemy of another. They took their anger and hatred to their village streets, slaughtering their neighbors mercilessly and moving on to their next victim. Then I saw the capital. And my friends.

Brise killed and killed and killed. Till I  couldn't take it anymore. But when I opened my eyes I saw KB. She tried to run, she tried to flee, but they didn't stop. One after the other they each turned to stone. I blinked and then I saw Rowan, bolt after bolt he shot, till he was out of breath. He was pale and sickly looking. He hadn't yet fully recovered.

Berenice stomped through the streets. Roots burst through the ground and took everyone in her path hostage. Ingram swept waves up and onto the capital streets dragging whoever was caught down and into the depths of the river.

Lucius was unarmed. But that didn't stop them from attacking him. He was only able to fend them off for so long. It happened so quick, I didn't see the blade move towards him. Through his heart and to the other side.

"NO!" I shouted. But he didn't hear me, no one did. "No, this isn't real!" I felt myself writhe but I was stuck in place, unable to do anything but watch.

Lucius crawled his way to the river bank. And then he was gone. Light exploded from the river, throwing shadows all around. But it flickered out just as quickly as it came to being.

Then I was watching Philip. He dared not raise a sword against them. He knew they weren't themselves. He tried his best to keep them from him. Vines and tendrils held them in place or dragged them away. Their bodies froze in place, as they writhed against the magic that stifled their nerves. But as many as he restrained more swarmed towards him. He slowly reached for his sword.

"Philip," I called. I wanted so desperately to pull him out of the mess he was in. I wished I had never let him go.

Then I was met with a strange sight. Embedded in the earth was a person. Eyes blood red. Skin lined with glowing red veins. She whispered chaos and terror into existence. Her words inspiring men to go against men. The longer I looked the clearer it became. This was Eve.

I looked away. I tried to convince myself it wasn't real. Everything I had just seen was all but a bad dream. None of this had actually happened.

"You see what you have caused." Her voice pulled me back to the burning forest. "This is all your fault."

"You're lying," I spat.

"This started when you were still in your mother's womb. Your father defended you, and in doing so led him to his own ruin. And to Kreatier's downfall."

None of what she said made any sense. I didn't know these people she spoke of. But I knew those whom I had just seen.

"Please," I begged, "please let me go."

I never saw her face. I didn't know if she had one. I didn't know who she was and why she had made an enemy of me.

She stabbed me through the throat with my own sword. I didn't know why she did that as well. The gem returned to my throat. The flames receded.

"Go. Take your family and go. But know that I will be back."

I soared up and above the forest. The sun had just escaped the horizon. Tsiho reached for the gem, fascinated by its glow. I took the gem from her hold and tried to find the fault. The difference. But it looked just the same as every other gem in the stream below.

I pressed a kiss to the gem. Then I let it slip and fall, back into the flames. She wouldn't have given up my family so easily. Or so I wanted to believe.

My wings clapped against the air and soon Time's Playground was far off in the distance. Tsiho whined in my arms. I murmured apologies and descended into what looked like the ruins of a village.

Silent and desolate, the village stood at the edge of a forest. The remains and wreckage of war. Tsiho's cries ended as immediately as we landed. Her bright jade eyes gazed up at me.

"You don't like flying huh?"

She giggled in reply. Her smiling face warmed me like how I'd imagine a fire would on a chilly night: everything pleasent. Uta may have been the reason Tsiho came into my life but I didn't need a reason to love her.

I fashioned a sling from my scarf and rocked her to sleep. But as I walked to and fro the strange sensation of being watched made my nerves buzz.

There was a figure flickering in the corner of my vision. But it revealed itself soon enough. As long as a house was tall. Sleek black scales lined its thick body. Eyes, so familiar, I knew who he was immediately.

"Hoku?"

But if it was truly Hoku, he didn't care to respond. He slithered across the hard dry ground, cutting the distance in mere seconds. I took a step back and then another. But he didn't halt nor hesitate. I sprang into the air at the flap of my wings.

Hands caught me by the ankle and slammed me back into the ground. My back took the impact while Tsiho laid safely in my arms. But safety was a brief luxury.

A blade cut deep into my shin. Pain flared through me like lightning. The next cut would sever my leg. I scrambled back on my arms, but his long strides followed me easily.

It was most certainly Hoku. And he most certainly wanted to kill me. But there was something foreign about his gaze.

He raised his two pronged sword over my heart and lunged. I caught the blade with my bare hands, holding it an inch from my death.

My own blood dripped into the crook of my neck. My eyes must've looked like his in that moment as pain surged through every inch of me. "Uta, wouldn't want you to do this."

He hesitated. The haze over his eyes cleared. Recognition lit his features, briefly. "It's, you..." He pulled his sword away.

I carefully took Tsiho out of the sling and raised her to him. To her father. "Tsiho."

Something snapped in him. Tears flowed past his cheeks. He raised his sword over his head. I saw him fight for control over himself. I saw his love fighting against the urge to kill. I saw the pain caused by the conflict within him. I saw myself.

"Kill," he struggled to let the words out, "me."

"No." I took Tsiho back into my arms. "I can't. I can't do that to Tsiho."

But the desperation overtook the poison that was hate. "You must." He fought to voice his own plea. "Please."

He knew he'd lose to hate. He knew he'd only bring destruction and pain to the one he loved most. He knew he would fail himself.

I stood against the pain in my leg. And brought out the sword that hung from my throat, despite the throbbing gash along my palm. My hand trembled, not because of the ache but because of what I was to do next.

His sword fell from his graps. His hand lunged for me but his other hand intercepted, holding himself back. His neck snapped away and he fell back, flat onto the ground. His feet twisted against their owner's will and he writhed like a snake.

"Do—it!" He shouted.

I raised the sword over his heart and thrust.

Gradually his limbs stilled, frozen in conflict with one another. But his eyes were his own in death. A tear escaped him and dropped onto a budding flower.

Tsiho was loved, so much more than she would ever know. And so I swore to remind her that every single day of her life.

~~~

The capital was in shambles. Everywhere I looked I saw bloodshed and destruction, just as I had in my vision. Hatred embodied and violence possessed.

I raised my sights and headed for the royal castle and straight for the head mage's tower. Where Tsiho would be safest.

It was empty just as I expected it to be. I searched for a comfortable place to place her when the door creaked open. I turned round to come face to face with the head mage herself.

She donned a look of bewilderment and wonder as she took in Tsiho and I. "I've been searching for you all this time." She stepped towards us. "And here you are in my tower." Something alike grief welled in her eyes. "You look so much like her."

I stepped back. I knew she didn't want to harm me. Because if she had, she would have done so as soon as she laid eyes on me. But why hadn't she? "Why were you looking for me?"

"Because—"

A scream pierced the air, pulling our attention away from each other. It came from the direction of the throne room. I placed Tsiho in her arms. She took her, dumbfounded and without question.

"You don't want to kill me, right?" I asked.

Lady Higgins looked from me to Tsiho to me. She shook her head.

I nodded. "Then will you watch over her for a moment." Without waiting for her response I dropped off the window ledge and flew to the throne room.

I promised Cyr I'd be there when he needed me. Except I didn't know when that was. I'd risk my chances anyway. He promised I would live. And I would. I would. I had to.

I burst through the glass ceiling of the throne room. Everything seemed to slow as I took in the scene before me. Cyr had an arrow nocked onto his crystalline bow. The king held his sword over his head.

At once, Cyr's arrow was released and the King's sword was thrust through the air. Each blow would be fatal. And Kreatier would be left without a leader.

I descended.

Maybe I wouldn't live. I only wished Tsiho would always know that she was loved. And for Philip to find someone who would love him better than I could. I thought of both their faces in that moment and hoped they would forgive me for what I would do.

I reached out, blocking both their attacks from reaching the other.

I felt my last breaths leave me.

I was on my knees then on the floor.

The last words I heard before darkness took over were, "you fool..."