Cycles of Entropy

The air was ripe fruit on low branches. Crisp, clean, and sweet. Colors swirled around me and organized themselves like an impressionist painting. Someone stood in front of me, but they weren't there. Not like the hateful, judging eyes but with a kind presence. It was all mist, like a wish peeking into reality. It kissed my skin then let me breathe it in and taste its promises. All too soon, it started to fade. "No, no don't go!" I cried out loud. A warmth wrapped itself around me, just for a moment, but faded to ice seconds later. Then it was over. It was gone and I felt so empty.

I stood where I had been, surrounded by the ruins of homes I couldn't save. I was faced with the empty stares of survivors, too broken to ask me who I had been yelling at. The contrast was oil in a glass of water. It soured it. For a brief moment, I had been... well, not happy, but, I'm not sure. At peace. Like everything was alright and I'd never have to feel ashamed again. Or at least like the shame I did feel was a scar I could live with rather than a sickness that crippled me. It had been a lie. As soon as it faded reality hammered against my shoulders like hail and forced my posture back to that of a guilty dog.

For a moment I thought the teal sparks had all been absorbed. Sacrificed to a brief moment of relief. They no longer flew through the air nor marked the limits of my spell as they circled Harrison's home. But as I frantically scanned the scene, I realized they weren't all gone. Some were left, sparking along the ground in a few different directions. They were faint, barely perceptible, but they were there. And they flowed, not in a straight line but like a creek. Winding and turning but undeniably traveling toward something. Several somethings, considering how many of these mana streams there were.

I reached to touch one, my fingers touching the cold ground instead of absorbing them this time. "Mars, what are you doing?" Harrison called after following me out into the open.

"I- I don't know. Something... I saw something," I answered.

"We need to get the girls somewhere. They... they can't sleep here, and it's only a few hours until morning," he said and I blinked. The streams seemed to fade if I stopped focusing on them for even a moment but... they were important. To me, and maybe to Beddenmor. They shared a color with my shared spell and they... promised better things. But Harrison was right.

"R-right. We'll have to go to the inn," I replied, shaking myself. The streams were gone. But... I didn't feel like they were gone for good. I had found them by helping the girls, I thought maybe they would lead me to them again. I wanted to feel like they made me feel again.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Harrison questioned. "There are a lot of people at the inn, aren't there? What happens when..." He was right, I realized. Eventually, people were going to die. If all of them became violent after they did, a crowded inn could become... well it wouldn't be pretty for a couple of defenseless children. Then an idea came to me, but I worried Harrison would not care for it.

"There is... one unoccupied home I know of," I ventured before giving him a guilty look. His face fell as he realized I was right.

"Right. Well, we should get going then," he agreed. We went inside to collect the girls. Junia reluctantly allowed me to hold Millie for her since it was going to be a longer walk, but she stayed close to me. Well, after we got far enough from the carnage behind us. Harrison made sure she kept her eyes shut until the ash and death were out of view. As we walked through the winding streets of the residential quarter, I watched both carefully, wondering if the sparks would appear again. They didn't. "Where do you think they went?" Harrison asked and I jumped.

"What? You saw them?" I asked hopefully and he looked over at me like I was some kind of idiot.

"Of course I saw them. We both did, right before we, very unwisely, barricaded ourselves inside a soon-to-be burnt home," he answered. I cursed to myself. Of course he didn't see the magic. He meant the bodies. That was... a good question. Where had they gone? I thought maybe further into town, but the damage had been too localized. They had done what they could and left.

"Oh, uh, I don't know. Back wherever they were before I suppose," I ventured. "We should have followed them, but..."

"But we were trying to survive," he finished, nodding grimly. Junia looked back and forth between us in confusion.

"Who are you looking for?" she asked and I thought for a moment before answering. Finally, I landed on the truth, if only the partial truth.

"We want to find the people who started the fire, so we can stop them from hurting anyone else," I answered and her mouth opened in shock.

"P-people started that on purpose?" she gaped and I winced. "W... Was mommy one of them?" she immediately asked.

'Luna's Gift, children are perceptive,' I cursed internally. I didn't know for sure, but she probably was. But how exactly was I supposed to say that to this kid? I paused and Harrison stopped and then turned to look at me. I rubbed one hand on Millie's back. "No, Junia. Your mom's spirit has moved on. The people who did that... they looked scary, and maybe even familiar, but no. Your mother wasn't with them." It was the best honest answer I could give her. It wasn't much. but I believed it. That her mother's soul was wherever Aethon had brought her. Those people... they weren't who their bodies implied.

"You mean mommy might have been there, but it was scary mommy, not real mommy?" she asked. My heart ached and again I had to curse the perceptiveness of children. But I nodded. She was quiet for a long moment, then she held her hands out to me.

"I'd like to carry Millie now," she said. A stone tied around my heart and pulled it into my stomach but I agreed, kneeling down and handing the child over. She still looked so large in her big sister's arms, but the two of them together managed to look stronger. This slowed our walk down and Junia consistently had to adjust to keep her sister up, but there was no greater comfort I could offer. I knew that better than anyone. So I didn't protest. Finally, as we trudged through the quiet night, Harrison spoke again.

"How did you stop the fire?" He asked and I shrugged. Those familiar eyes glared at me, daring me to answer honestly.

"It was... nothing. I cast an old spell, any mage could do it. To douse fire, it was nothing," I lied and he looked at me skeptically.

"I've... never heard of anything like that. Aren't mages restricted to spells within their focus? How can all mages have a fire-related spell?" he challenged and I looked away. "Besides, whatever you did laid you out for hours. You looked like you had run for miles without rest or water. And you snuffed out all the fire in the house, in an instant, but none of the fires in surrounding buildings?"

"I told you I wasn't a very good mage, alright!? I couldn't do more than the one house, I'm sorry, alright? It was all I could do!" I burst out and he startled. Millie woke up and started crying, which earned me a glare from Junia.

"No, that's not what I mean. I meant it looked like you had done... something a lot more impressive than a standard spell everyone knows. You know you don't have to be humble about this. You saved our lives, Mars," he suggested and I looked at him sharply.

"You don't know what you are talking about, Harrison. Just... drop it," I snapped and he held his hands up to placate me. It wasn't fair to him; he was trying to encourage me. But the more he spoke, the closer those eyes grew. Until I couldn't see past them. I couldn't stand them breathing down my neck, so I earned their approval by punishing him.

"Sorry, you're right. I won't bring it up again," he apologized with irritation in his voice. I immediately felt guilty but... not enough to tell him he was right. I figured it had probably been a fluke anyway. Just a lucky attempt at altering a spell. And it had taken everything I had. I couldn't be too proud. I couldn't.

Finally, we emerged in the courtyard between Hadley's home and the garden. Harrison looked queasy as we approached his father's house, and we both paused in front of it. He clearly wanted me to enter first, but... I shuddered as I looked at the brick wall I had been battered against. I didn't want to go in first. Junia looked at both of us, awkwardly standing outside, and gave us that beleaguered sigh children save for tiresome grown-ups. She walked in front of us with her sister and we both immediately felt foolish.

Harrison moved first and I followed, entering the once welcoming and quaint home. It was stained in my memory by the sound of cracking bone and the red hue of blood. I could see Harrison had his own emotional war to work through as he swallowed more times than made sense and tried to blink away the water trying to flood his eyes. He hadn't had time to process what had happened to his father and was not more ready to confront this home than I was.

But it's where we were. "There is only one room," Harrison finally said. "Junia, you and Millie can share the bed. Mars and I have to talk for a bit." Junia nodded and took her sister into the next room, then Harrison looked at me. "So. What now?" I let out a deep breath and sat at the table. Then quickly stood as I realized I had chosen Hadley's seat. I held my arms up next to my head and closed my eyes.

"I don't know. We can't just wait around. Not if something like that is going to happen again. We... we have to find something else we can do. An actual lead we can follow. If something like that happens tomorrow night, or the night after... things will be..." I trailed off.

"Because you think there will be more people, next time?" He asked and I nodded.

"A lot more people. But... that does raise questions. Why? Why did they do that? I know we already wanted to know why they were violent, but that was... organized. Targeted. Why did they do that?" I wondered out loud.

"I don't know," he answered. "I don't understand anything, and I don't know how to move forward from this. What do we do here, Mars? How do we move on from this? People are dead!" I paled as I realized what he wasn't saying.

"You think... it's because of us?" I asked and he gave me a look with a thousand words behind the eyes. He did. But... we couldn't stop. I couldn't. Because everyone was going to die. Everyone.

"They came right for us, Mars. We went around asking questions and they came right for us," he panicked. Strangely, with him spiraling, I didn't. Instead, I focused on the ground. I didn't have an answer for him. He wouldn't believe me about the spell. He wouldn't believe everyone was dead anyway. But I realized it might not matter.

As I stared at the ground, I saw one again. A tiny stream, running along the ground. There were teal sparks trying to lead me somewhere.

End of Day 1