Kaia the Argent Wing

I kicked one of the Pastor’s people in the knee, shattering the joint and sending him to the ground, then I followed up by ramming the butt of my axe into his face. Blood and teeth flew into the air, but I didn’t stop to finish him. I kept moving—I needed to find Chloe.

Out past the edge of the parking lot, another group was arriving—the Bandoner party. They came to a halt when they saw the carnage, except for the few in the group who were from Edgewood. They took one look at the chaos in the parking lot and rushed forward. It wasn’t hard to understand what was happening if you knew what the situation had been like with the Pastor and his people.

As soon as my healing touch was off cooldown, I used it on another injured chorister, then tried to get a sense of what was happening. Chloe had to be here somewhere, and there was no way one of these assholes could’ve taken her down. No way. She was too tough for that. I just needed to find her.

There was a knot of choristers back towards the main doors of the school where someone was organising them into a defensive blob. A mirroring mass of the Pastor’s people were trying to harass them, but it looked like nobody had the courage to challenge them properly. It looked like we’d arrived perhaps three minutes since the fighting had gotten started, because everywhere other than the two groups had the remnants of a quick and vicious combat. Most of the dead and dying were choristers, making me think the Pastor’s people had attacked without warning during a heated verbal confrontation. At least I couldn't see Chloe on the ground—she must be in the group of choristers.

Still struggling with the surge of fury I’d experienced when I first arrived, I moved to keep up with my comrades. They were hemming Pastor Thomas’ people in now—the ones they hadn’t injured or killed. Goddess, but there were so many of them too.

“Pastor Thomas!” the Captain bellowed, his voice seething with the same blinding anger that I felt.

Several of the people inside their group turned to look in one direction, signalling where the man in question was. I was honestly surprised when he strode to the front. He seemed like he was the cowardly type. I contemplated burning him with moonlight right there, but I didn’t because that was the Captain’s call, not mine.

“Captain Jameson! I am hereby relieving you of the responsibi—” the Pastor began, waving a strange golden sceptre around imperiously, but the Captain was having none of it.

“Shut the fuck up,” our leader all but screamed. “You evil son of a bitch, what have you done?”

“I am not the evil one here, I am the one who is standing against satan and his witch,” Thomas snapped back. Then, he raised his sceptre and pointed it at the Captain.

A beam of sunlight lanced out towards him. I tried to rush forward, I tried to take the beam myself, but there was no hope, I was too far back. The beam never landed. It hit a glistening shield of moonlight, and the two energies sparked and fizzled everywhere they made contact.

In my head, Cynath gasped, He has a god on his side. Through that god, he has gained enough power to challenge the wards directly. Hit him, please. Hit him, drive him back, force his god to protect him.

That was all the permission I needed. I raised my bloody axe and pointed it at the man that I very much wanted to kill. “Burn!”

Moonlight lanced down through the thinning cloud cover and hammered the Pastor. Just as with the Captain though, a shield of bright sunlight broke the force of my attack, leaving him unharmed. The man of God opened his mouth to scoff in amusement, but I pulled my axe back, imbued it with angelic energy and threw it.

It hit the sunlight shield with a sound like two bottles clanging together, and while the axe bounced away, my power did not. It splashed over the shield like napalm, but it was just as effective as the moonbeam. Until the corruption kicked in.

The sound of glass cracking could be heard by everyone in the parking lot when the black-green wisps of power made their presence known. Doubt flickered across the Pastor’s expression.

I called my axe back to me and stalked forward, teeth bared. “This land is sacred to the goddess Cynath and you have broken her ward-laws with senseless violence!”

I am not strong enough to challenge him and his god, my lovely angel, Cyanth whispered into my mind, her voice tired beyond measure. Force him and his followers to leave. The settlement is still burning.

She was right. Looking over, I could see more and more of the main school building was catching alight.

I glanced at the Captain, catching his attention, then over at the fire. Please man, please understand. To emphasise the point, I subtly shook my head.

I could practically hear his teeth grinding together, and his eyes flicked to a nearby dead chorister. Then, he seemed to steel himself, and his usual self control and confidence returned. “Pastor Thomas. This is more than you and your folks deserve, but I am giving you this one chance to leave. Take your people and go.”

“You think you can just tell me to leave?” the lunatic Pastor guffawed.

The Captain kept his cool as he responded. “Your shield is cracked, and either way, it does not extend over your followers. None of them are true fighters, they won’t stand a chance against my people and— there, look. The last of my teams has returned. Leave. You won’t win this.”

Everyone's eyes turned to follow the Captain’s gesture and sure enough, Quinton and his group were rushing over. I could see my friends, their faces pale with horror as they took stock of the carnage and the burning building.

After several moment’s thought, Pastor Thomas said, “We will need supplies, and our families…”

“The storm bird is gone,” the Captain said, slashing a hand through the air. “You can scavenge what you need. As for your families… Mel! Find a way into the school, tell everyone that if they want to flee with Pastor Thomas, they can. Keon! This isn't a Bandon fight, but… can you please take your people and start fighting that fire?”

“Yeah, we can do that,” the Bandoner leader replied, eyeing the Pastor and his people like he wasn't sure he wanted to let them out of his sight.

The Captain turned his attention back to Pastor Thomas with a hate-filled glare. “Acceptable?”

The other man gritted his teeth, but after glancing at his fearful followers, he gave a curt not. “Follow me, god's faithful. Today we begin our next journey, our next test. As he has done so already, god will reward…”

He kept preaching all the way over to the edge of the parking lot, and I couldn't help but watch them in a sort of dazed trance. So much senseless death, and for what? What had he and his idiot believers actually achieved for themselves?

Around me, loyal Edgewood people were rushing to help the wounded, or watch our new enemies, or fight the fire that was eating our main building… but I just stood there. So much had happened… the storm bird was gone and the clouds were already beginning to disperse. Smoke was rising to choke the sky in their stead, but it wouldn't be long before we had proper sunshine again.

A hand touched my arm, and looked over.

“Chloe!” I exclaimed, and instantly wrapped her in a tight hug.

She laughed softly and patted me awkwardly on the back. “Hey, Silver.”

Letting her go, I ran my eyes over her. “Are you okay?”

She looked exhausted, but otherwise unharmed.

“I'm okay. I… it's not me who… I mean, look around…” she said helplessly.

The wounded were now being cared for, at least, but she was right. A quick count gave me fifteen dead and twice that in wounded.

“What happened?” I asked, wanting desperately to touch her—make sure she was okay. “The wards should've…”

I distinctly remembered placing them so the parking lot was encompassed, but now I was doubting my memory.

Chloe's gaze drifted over to where Pastor Thomas and the other traitors were milling around, watched by several very angry Edgewood fighters. “The wards didn't work. Something about his sceptre… I don't know. But, uh, when we went to get more people, Pastor Thomas and his ‘faithful’ saw us leading people out. I honestly don't know what the hell set them off, but soon they were yelling and throwing shit… I think? It was a blur and I was concentrating. Then one of them hit me with a pebble and I lost the sigil.”

Instantly, I began to look again for signs of hurt, but she looked fine.

“I don't know… I started talking, trying to explain that this was important, that…” She looked up pleadingly. “Tell me it worked?”

Reaching over to hold her shoulder, I nodded. “Yes. That giant ball of fire was its last ‘fuck you’ before it left for the mountains.”

“Thank fuck,” she sighed wearily. She was quiet for a few seconds, then sighed again. “Obviously—since it was me—talking didn't work.”

Tears began to well up in her eyes, and she gestured limply to a dead body nearby. “I got them killed because I couldn't… because I suck at talking.”

“Pretty sure it was Pastor Thomas being a smooth brain bigot that killed those people,” I said, desperately holding myself back from hugging her. I wanted to comfort her so badly.

She didn't look or sound convinced, but she dropped the point. “Anyway, someone from his side threw a… I don't know what it was, but it was heavy and it badly hurt a kid from the chorus, and the kid's mother threw it back. Her throw straight up killed one of the Pastor’s people and… it just fell apart. I got everyone into a circle after the initial chaos and started healing those who got hurt… that's when you arrived, I think. I didn't see.”

I was quiet after she finished, and I found myself staring over towards the traitors. Already, some of their families were being escorted to them. A few had belongings, but most had been dragged out of the school with little idea of what was happening.

Another wave of white-hot rage burned through me, looking at them. Goddess, I wanted to just… to…

My fists clenched, I took a deep breath. “I want to kill every last one of them. Does that make me a bad person?”

Chloe gave me the side eye. “No? Maybe? Probably not… but with Pastor Thomas' new shield and sun magic, I don't think it would be a good idea. You might take him down, maybe kill all his followers, but the price in Edgewood blood would be steep. The Captain is right, for now—Kick them out and deal with them down the line, if they're still a problem.”

I disagree with Chloe and Carter. This is a time of seeds, Kaia, and I fear that this seed will be one whose harvest we are not prepared to reap.

Silently, I agreed with my goddess. The conflict here would be vicious and bloody… but if they survived then whatever they became might be far worse, and cost orders of magnitude more lives. At least we'd see that future, though. The bird was gone, and once the smoke from the fires cleared, the sun would shine again.