Conscious, Conscientious

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Fewpar shot.

“Najinzu: stand down immediately!” commanded Layla.

But his knife remained one short thrust away from Zayza’s wide eyes. Raznizu’s dual blades barely held it back, scraping as he fought for a more stable angle.

“I am sorry, my Queen. I cannot obey this time,” grumbled Najinzu. “None of you seem to understand: Zayza still must die.”

Cautiously, Fewpar took a single step forward. “I told you the truth of the King and Queens’ deaths! Proscious is to blame!” His lip quivered before he gritted his teeth. “Najinzu…are you saying you don’t believe me? After everything?!”

Najinzu’s eyes peered in his partner’s direction behind his unruly dark hair, but almost as quickly, he returned his cold stare to Zayza.

“I believe you, old friend,” he muttered. “I would only believe such a thing if it came from your mouth.”

Lammy clenched his shaky fists, mustering up the courage. “Then why—” he started.

“Because it’s not that simple, boy!” snapped Najinzu. “Even if Zayza did it to save them from Proscious, she still killed Azvaylen’s King, Queen, and successor. We may understand the nuance, but how are we to convince the entire nation that was truly the only option? How are we to persuade them that the blood isn’t on her hands, when we’ve already told them it is?! They despise her!”

He tried to force his knife forward, but met Raznizu’s increased, desperate resistance.

“I’ll…I’ll find a way,” Layla promised. “They’ll know the truth.”

“No. There will be chaos…if not a unified rebellion, then a civil war,” Najinzu urged. “There’s already so much uncertainty around the state of the kingdom with the battle that’s unfolded today. The only way to quell the unrest—the only way to restore the stability of our kingdom—is to give the people of Azvaylen what they perceive as justice. And that is Princess Zayza’s execution.”

“Have you gone mad?!” seethed Raznizu, his voice rasping almost as much as his brother’s.

Layla tried to stomp towards the wrestling knives, but Zayza immediately grabbed hold of her shoulder and shoved her back. Tripping on her weak ankle, she fell over. Lammy dove to catch her from crashing against the wall.

“Don’t, Layla! Don’t…” Zayza pleaded.

The young Queen’s composure remained as she sat up. “Proscious is the one we need to destroy, not each other! As your Queen, I order you to stand down this instant!”

“Proscious is synthetic scum…they’re cheats…they fooled nearly all of us,” Najinzu agreed. “But though they caused our nation’s state, they’ve become the only thing holding it together. I hate it, but we must let them run their course, and we must appease our citizens. It is the only option left to preserve Azvaylen.”

“You are a disgrace to the Zinn,” Raznizu said before Najinzu’s speech even ended.

Though his words came lowly, somehow, they reverberated across the tower’s walls more than anything his brother had said.

He pushed back even harder, forcing Najinzu a step back. His eyes went cold.

“It is our sworn duty to protect the Royal Family at all costs,” he growled. “And now you wish to murder one of them?”

He gained another step.

“You defy the Queen’s direct orders for your own contorted conclusion.”

Another step.

“HAVEN’T THESE POOR GIRLS SUFFERED ENOUGH?!?!”

Lammy felt a shiver. That sounded nothing like Raznizu. The formal speech was totally absent. There was a tremble. His voice rose and fell like a man with everything to lose.

Only his heavy breaths filled the room with sound. Lammy noticed a clear drop fall from his face and splash against his boot.

“My brother…you seem to forget what the Zinn Promise is,” Najinzu muttered.

He shifted, and forced Raznizu a step back.

“It is not allegiance to the Royalty, but to the nation itself,” he corrected. “This is our home, too. And I am willing to do what is required to keep our home alive—even if it means sacrificing the Princess.”

This time, Raznizu grew unnervingly still. His heavy breathing stopped.

“I won’t miss this time,” he swore.

Najinzu vanished, reappearing against the wall far behind him. He pushed against it for momentum and charged straight at his opponent.

Their knives met and exploded into a fury.

Heart sinking into his stomach, Lammy lunged back up and tugged Zayza away with all of his might. They stumbled beside Layla, and the three crawled away from the unfolding duel.

“Najinzu, listen to me!!” Fewpar begged.

The Zinn brothers only sped their swings and attempted stabs.

“We’ll forge another way! TRUST ME!”

His pleas continued unheard. Fewpar seemed to hesitate, and then shoved his hand towards his belt. He ripped out a weapon Lammy had become all-too familiar with: the bladeless hilt of a light sword.

But his hand shook. Cursing, he returned the sword to its concealed sheath and he, too, backed as far away as he could.

When Lammy and the royal sisters reached the wall, he found himself rallying them close together and then turning to shield them from the fight with his own body.

He hadn’t remembered developing that instinct.

Eyes still glowing orange—by now, for a longer time than they ever had—he observed the deadly duel and stormed his mind for some sort of strategy.

“Don’t.”

Lammy found Fewpar watching him stiffly.

“This needs to be between them,” he stressed.

Lammy couldn’t read if he’d meant it on a symbolic level—that this fight was theirs and theirs alone—or more simply, that there was no use in trying to interfere.

But the latter certainly made sense: the last time Lammy tried to help Raznizu fight Najinzu, they were unable to maintain the upper hand for long. Raznizu forced him to retreat with Zayza as he sacrificed his own body to buy them time.

Yet with Najinzu’s speed, one mistake could be all it took for his blades to find Zayza’s head. Doing nothing would be just as hopeless.

Of course! Lammy decided. If I can remember how I imagined—

A knife clanged against the ground towards the opposite end of the room.

There was no time to remember.

Najinzu appeared just before them in a blink—but his knives, and then the rest of him, thudded to a stop against an unseen surface. He quickly recovered and swung again to find the same result.

Made it just in time…realized Lammy, frozen at the sight.

“Boy!” Najinzu hissed.

His newfound source of frustration was short-lived when he turned to narrowly to block a jab from the returning Raznizu. With his weapon recovered, their defender fended off Najinzu from the invisible barrier and resumed their faceoff.

“Excellent, Lammy!” Raznizu called back. “Keep the girls safe. Can you do that for me?”

For a brief moment, Raznizu’s question transported Lammy’s mind back to Tailpiece. He felt small.

Though their voices were nothing alike, somehow, Raznizu had sounded exactly like his father. Any time he tasked Lammy with something in the farm or garden, he would ask that question in that very manner.

Though the circumstances were entirely different now, somehow, Raznizu managed to instill that same warm encouragement. It was dependence and comfort all in one, delivered in a single question.

How did he share such a strange skill with a man in an entirely different reality?

Lammy refocused. He could hardly ever fulfill such menial tasks in Tailpiece without Deon’s help. Yet, he knew this was something he could handle.

He had to.

“I promise they’re safe with me!” he declared.

His reply had come much too late: by now, Raznizu and Najinzu had skirmished their way towards the start of the winding stairwell. A fierce kick from Najinzu launched Raznizu down the stairs, toppling out of sight.

“RAZNIZU!!” Zayza cried.

Najinzu followed in pursuit, leaving them alone in the top of the tower. The knives and rapid footsteps sang against the walls, echoing further and further.

“He won’t be beaten that easily, sister,” Layla huffed. “He won’t be beaten at all.”

But her motions immediately contradicted the assuredness in her words. Lammy felt her grab onto his shoulder as she tried to stand.

Similarly, Zayza shuffled to her feet behind Lammy.

“Huh?! Where are you guys going?” he challenged.

“Queen, Princess—you must stay back!” Fewpar agreed.

“Noble Lammy, follow me with your barrier,” Layla instructed as she stood. “I’ll see to it that this meaningless infighting comes to an end.”

When Lammy didn’t budge, the pressure of her expectant glare weighed down on him.

“Noble Lammy!”

“I…I can’t. I just promised him I’d keep you two safe,” Lammy refuted, recoiling from her anger.

His words seemed to soften her as she stood with her hand on the invisible surface protecting them. Then her frown shifted from one of sternness to increasing sorrow when Zayza approached and took her other hand.

“Lammy’s right. He’s doing this to protect us,” she said softly. “To try and interfere would be to jeopardize everything he’s stood for all these years. If something were to happen to us…”

“His duty is to defend the Royalty,” Layla argued. “As the Royalty, I will assist him—he has no right to override my wishes.”

“Layla…he’s not doing this to fulfill a duty,” Zayza uttered, her voice breaking into a whisper as she offered a sad smile. “I think you know that.”

The Queen’s hand shook against the invisible wall. At last, she lowered it, her eyes watery.

“But Zayza…” she muttered, her youth cutting through. “He’s already hurt…he won’t be able to keep this up…”

Zayza embraced her sister. Stiff, Lammy simply stared emptily at the floor and did his best to maintain the shield around them as he listened to them cry.

“Raznizu is strong,” Zayza assured. “We won’t lose him, too.”

Then somehow, she managed a brief laugh.

“What?” wondered Layla.

“It’s nothing…it’s just…‘the girls—’ Raznizu called us that instead of ‘the Queen and Princess,’” she observed. “He hasn’t called us that since we were little.”

Lammy heard Fewpar let out a frustrated, tight sigh. Like Lammy, he stood staring downward, gritting his teeth. His tall hair had fallen a bit uneven, but for once, he didn’t try to fix it.

“Najinzu…you fool…” he grunted to himself.

Strangely, Lammy could have sworn he heard someone reply from far away. The faint echo had come from the window.

No…it wasn’t a reply…

But someone was out there.

Fewpar noticed it, too. Alarmed, he hurried over to the window.

He went pale.

“GET DOWN!!!” Fewpar shouted.

Just as he dove to the floor, a chunk of the wall behind him burst. Dust filled the round room, and hadn’t even begun dissipating before another blast shot stone all around and shook the tower.

The dust and debris stopped at Lammy’s barrier, unveiling its full, orb-like shape. Zayza and Layla drew closer.

The room cleared just enough for them to find two massive holes in the wall, revealing the gloomy Azvaylen sky and the roofs of the castle far below them—a drop that would undoubtedly prove fatal.

Another blast decimated parts of the wall opposite to them.

“Fewpar! Get in Lammy’s shield!” Zayza screamed.

He’d been laying flat with his head covered, but the Dreamer shot to his feet.

With no true grasp on how his own shield worked, Lammy could only hope Fewpar would be able to pass through. It seemed that was all he needed, however, as Fewpar crashed to his hands and knees and joined them within the barrier.

“I…I don’t deserve your concern for my life, or your protection…” he uttered to all of them.

“Now is not the time for that!” dismissed Zayza. “What’s happening?!”

Yet another blast deafened them. This time, they found a hole where the wall met the floor only steps away. Large pieces of the floor collapsed deeper into the tower.

“The soldiers are firing projectiles from the ground outside!” Fewpar exclaimed over the rumbling.

“They can’t enter with my enchantment in place, so they’re trying to force us out,” Layla understood. She rose from Zayza’s embrace, standing tall again as her poise reappeared. “Then we’ve no option but to retreat closer to the duel.”

Another chunk of the floor burst into nothing. There was no time to consider it: the group leapt into action. Zayza helped Layla onto her back, and the group made a break for the stairwell.

“S—stay close to me, guys!” Lammy reminded them. He assumed his barrier would keep them inside as long as he willed it, but he wasn’t about to take any chances—not with shards of rock shooting around them in all directions.

As they began their steep descent, metallic clashing resonated against the narrow walls and returned to their ears. The fight was still very much underway.

Combined with the continued blasts from above, Lammy wished they could be anywhere but here.

If the soldiers forced their way through or blasted them out of the tower, there was no way Lammy and the rest could handle them—not with their full force now concentrated into one area. They needed Raznizu and Najinzu’s power to survive this. It was the only way they’d managed to reach this tower in the first place.

“Is there any way Raznizu can get through to him?” Lammy wondered, fishing for hope over the endless clamor.

Fewpar shook his head immediately. “That man is the most stubborn imbecile I know,” he said of his partner. “The only way he trusts is the swipe of his knives.”

“That is why he was assigned as the Pain Tolerance Trainer for the Royal Family,” explained Layla. “Violence is his most fluent language. He yielded the strongest results.”

Lammy tried to recall if he’d noticed any swirling, artistic scars on Layla’s body. But he was certain there were none—it seemed they were all hidden under her clothing, just as the ones Zayza originally received.

The knowledge that Najinzu had inflicted the same type of torment on Layla made him queasy—though not as much as the realization that it was a customary practice here.

But if they hadn’t, Lammy acknowledged, they wouldn’t have been nearly as prepared for today…

Another rumble almost shook Lammy off of his speeding feet.

“There!” Zayza exclaimed.

They’d just reached an opening on the inside wall of the stairwell. It was a small entryway leading to a storage room. While similar to the top floor, it housed many more wooden barrels and boxes Lammy could only guess contained weaponry—perhaps like the ones the soldiers were unleashing on them now.

But within that storage room, knives flew.

Raznizu and Najinzu exchanged strikes just as tenaciously as before. Some black daggers were lodged into the barrels the fighters weaved between and hopped over.

Abruptly, Zayza tugged Lammy backwards. A dagger spun their way and ricocheted off of his barrier. Immediately, he felt foolish for having stood right in the center of the doorway.

But although it was unsettling to accept, the Zinn brothers’ duel was utterly mesmerizing. If not for their efforts to tear each other’s bodies apart, it would seem more like a choreographed dance.

Aside from their equal physical skill, he knew their Sense-Enhancer abilities must have been a major cause: no subtle movement from either fighter went undetected by the other.

As Lammy struggled to accept he could find something this violent so beautiful, he and the others backed closer to the corner of the opening and observed the duel.

“He’s still alive and well,” Zayza whispered to her sister. “He can do this.”

Fewpar remained silent, gripping the edge of the doorway harder than he likely realized.

While Layla muttered her nervous agreement, Lammy’s heart sunk.

Blood was appearing all throughout the room.

He tried to lock onto Najinzu, but failed to spot any sign of injury. It was the same when he shifted to Raznizu.

But, however slightly, Raznizu’s movements were slowing.

Lammy prayed the sisters wouldn’t notice.

Another explosion pounded against the tower from the floor above. Unlike all the other times, a low creaking began.

It grew louder until suddenly, the ceiling above Raznizu and Najinzu caved in. Parts of the wall and floor from above came piling down and plowed straight through the floor. Lammy and the rest screamed as they watched storage boxes and pieces of the tower avalanche through the center of the tower.

Lammy could hear the decimation continue all the way down to the bottom floor, where the debris finally found its resting place.

Immediately, Zayza and Layla cried for Raznizu. But dust masked the now floorless room before them.

Then, the clashing of knives continued.

Through the billowing dirt and lingering bricks that tumbled from above, Lammy spotted brief sparks in the air with every strike of metal.

They survived…and they’re using sound and smell alone to find each other! he observed. But…how are they still fighting with nothing to stand on?

His answer arrived as the dust slowly settled. At first, he could have sworn the brothers were flying. But his mind managed to catch up: Raznizu and Najinzu were practically blurs once more, hopping from wall to wall and exchanging swings whenever their paths aligned.

Using a continued momentum, they both kept themselves suspended above the wreckage far below.

Lammy’s amazement made way for fear once more: as before, blood was staining the walls—this time more rapidly than before.

“You’re too weak to continue, old man.” Najinzu’s voice darted all throughout the room like a ghostly echo. “But this time, I cannot find an excuse to spare you. Azvaylen must survive.”

“It will, and not because of you,” came Raznizu’s labored promise.

Their airborne flurries continued for a moment until Najinzu came to a stop, grasping onto a dented brick in the wall. Raznizu was quick to reposition, finding an outer window of the tower and hanging from it by one arm. Its glass was shattered, and its originally thin shape was blown ajar by the damage in the collapse.

The two fighters watched each other, their long knives still ready. Raznizu gasped for breath.

“Ha. Don’t pretend you’re still fighting for Azvaylen,” Najinzu countered. “Your role has made you too biased to see what the nation truly needs. You’ve become soft and selfish, not noble.”

Raznizu’s eyes brightened as he smiled underneath his mask. “I admit: you are partially correct, brother,” he said. “I choose to fight, and to be loyal, for personal reasons alone. The girls will restore Azvaylen—I know it. But that is not why I will stop you. I will do it simply because I want them to find joy again someday.”

He winced and sucked in air. Blood poured from his abdomen and dripped from his clothing.

“RAZINZU!!” Layla cried. Fewpar attempted to hush and conceal her, but he knew there was no use anymore.

Instead, he opened his own mouth.

“Old friend, STOP THIS!”

Najinzu seemed to pretend they weren’t there. He twirled his knife slowly.

“It appears I shall be the last of the Zinn,” he decided.

“No. This is how the Zinn legacy ends,” Raznizu replied lowly. Without turning his head towards them, he raised his voice to the door. “Girls: do you remember that silly board game we used to play? And that loophole I discovered, so that any time I knew I was to lose I would throw the game for us all?”

As Layla gripped Zayza even tighter, her sister shook her head repeatedly. They both burst into tears.

“No…Razinzu, you can’t…” Zayza tried.

“All three of you would laugh so hard…those are my fondest memories,” Raznizu continued. “Zayza, Layla, please pardon my lack of professionalism for one more moment so I can say this: I am so proud of you both. I love you.”

Najinzu readied his blade. “Enough.”

He lunged through the air. Fewpar desperately jumped forward to cover Layla and Zayza’s eyes.

But Lammy couldn’t look away.

Raznizu waited unguarded, and Najinzu stabbed his knife straight through the right of his chest. The blood immediately covered Najinzu’s twisting glove as he pushed it further in and held onto the window.

But Raznizu didn’t fall—instead, he seemed to rely on this brief moment. Lifting his free arm, he plowed his own blade into Najinzu. It pierced through his back, having cleanly torn his heart.

They both grew weak in an instant. Najinzu’s weight pushed Raznizu back, and the brothers toppled through the window, disappearing behind the wall.

As Lammy dropped to his knees, the last of the Zinn fell to their fate.