The fields outside the city were strewn with shattered clay, a forest of half-completed works. Faces and arms strewn across the ground like fallen leaves and branches.
The sculptor, Iris, was found at the edge of the expanse, her hands covered in dried clay and blood. Another statue stood before her, the sculptor muttering.
She was left after some time. The beast had come for her, the spirit of the Titan Pruzah, the ghost of perfection eating away at her mind.
Never good enough.
Tome of Malignant Spirits, V. 3
GREY
The autumn festival of Stinjul was a mix of different smells and sights. While the native plants didn’t lose leaves, the imported trees from the east common in the East Quarter were golden and brown, leaves drifting down to carpet the grass of Emancipation Park. The crowds of people gathered around large stalls of goods, trade ships from across the west having gathered for the occasion.
Grey paced, looking out across the crowd, then over towards Lahrii. Zelith had yet to show herself. She wasn’t sure what to expect: she had grown so used to Zelith just appearing like she did, in that flash of stars and blue light. But no sign of her.
A moment of disorientation, like she was about to fall over. When it resolved, vision and stability on the ground returning, Zelith was walking up towards her, waving and smiling. The expression was careful, guarded, but warm, and Grey felt a pang in her heart as a weak grin came to her face.
Zelith was dressed in her old outfit, the uniform of the school nowhere to be seen. As she got close, Grey felt her eyes drift to the metallic hand, the influence of Kein on the healing, before returning to Zelith’s face.
“Lily. You look nice,” she said, nodding.
Another moment of…fuzz. Like the sound of the festival got too much, but when she focused again, Zelith was still standing there, nodding.
“Thank you. You look nice too.”
There was an awkward moment, Grey frowning. Something was off, she could tell that. Zelith was never this stilted, this…tense. Things had flowed naturally before.
She grumbled, folding her arms.
“…How’s school?”
Grey shook her head, her nose being overwhelmed by a sudden surge of something coming off Zelith. Fear. Panic. Suddenly, Lily had grabbed her hand, starting to walk through the crowd, looking back and giving Grey a smile, although it wasn’t reaching her eyes.
“Good, good. Come on, it’s a festival! Let’s do…festival things,” Zelith said hurriedly, talking a bit loudly to be heard over the crowd.
Grey stumbled a bit, letting go of Zelith’s hand as they moved behind some of the inner ring of stalls.
“Lily, what’s going on?”
That blur. She swore she saw a blue flash, and…something else. Something white and black.
As her vision resolved, Lily looked apologetic.
“Sorry, stress. School, it’s…it’s a lot of stress,” Zelith said weakly.
Grey frowned more, narrowing her eyes, a pit in her stomach forming as she looked at Zelith. She looked…pale. Worn out, far more then she had been when she arrived.
Setting her jaw, Grey stared at Zelith, then at her casting hand. Distance. Making sure she was at the right position.
“I’m leaving,” Grey said, turning on her heel partially. As the blur hit, her arm shot out, grabbing Zelith’s hand. As the spell Zelith was casting was interrupted, there was a flash of white and black, as Grey’s mind was suddenly hit by a string of visions.
Zelith arriving in a flash of blue, in her uniform. The tension. Her casting a spell. Another arrival, the wrong words. Embarrassed. Another cast.
Again and again, until she arrived, the version Grey had remembered.
Every blur a memory, a loop of Zelith fumbling, of her seeing Grey’s face and…rewinding to get it right.
As the visions progressed, anger growing in Grey’s chest, one vision solidified. Back in the square, before Zelith had dragged her off. A woman, with extravagant hair and a smile like a shark, had walked up.
“It’s been a long time, Zee. Wherever you been holed up?”
Zelith had panicked. Started casting, looking like she was on the verge of screaming. Then, pulling Grey away, just before the woman had entered the square. Moving here.
As she caught up with the moment, her ears ringing, she looked over to see Zelith. She seemed even weaker, looking at Grey as crackling white and black fissures flared around her before vanishing.
“I’m sorry,” Zelith said, voice cracking, before she collapsed against Grey.
Panic overwhelmed the anger for a moment, Grey catching the witchblood as she fell, looking her up and down. Breathing was fine, but she seemed feverish. As Grey felt for a pulse, the annoyance at the situation began to creep back up on her, looking at the mage on the grass.
So unsure of herself.
Options rushed to her mind, her forehead furrowing as a small crowd began to gather, some bringing up water or asking what was wrong. One in particular stood out…the woman. The one who had thrown Lily into such a panic. Grey had seen Lily scared before, against the demon, but somehow this woman had eclipsed even that.
As the woman met her eyes, she grinned. That same predatory smile, only the lower part of her face moving.
“Oh! I didn’t know Zee had found a new…playmate,” the woman said, her voice sweet but raising every hair on Grey’s neck. “She okay? Never could handle much, you need to be careful with her. What’s your name?”
Grey didn’t say anything. Just stood up, towering over the shorter woman. Somehow, she was even shorter then Lily was.
“Leave,” Grey growled, clenching her fist. She had no idea who this woman was, but she had seen the fear. That was enough.
The woman’s smile didn’t falter, but her green eyes narrowed as she looked at Grey, seemingly unfazed.
“Just concerned. Zee always made very…rash decisions. Never thought things through, without me.”
Grey looked down at the unconscious mage at her feet, mind reeling. Whatever spell she had done. Lahrii. Everything. All of the annoyances, the anger at Zelith, began to take form, consolidating on this woman.
Grey snarled, low in her throat, as her claws began to extend.
ZELITH
Vision began to return, Zelith groaning as she looked around. Somebody had set her up against a tree. Her intact horn screamed in protest as her forehead drummed. A man was sitting next to her, looking her over.
“Ah, she’s awake,” he said, smiling. “You should be good. Just exhaustion, it’s common for mages. Just need some good food and drink and you’ll be right as rain.”
He looked over, frowning a bit.
“Your…friend, she’s going to need a bit more. You’re lucky, the guards aren’t usually as lenient on fighting like that.”
Zelith panicked, looking hurriedly to where he was looking, expecting to see Grey, only for her blood to run cold.
Her. That dreaded face, glaring, that false smile gone. A set of claw marks, freshly flesh-knit and red, went over her cheek and mouth.
Zelith looked away, jumping a bit as Grey slumped down on her other side. She looked a bit chastised, rolling her eyes as a few guards glared back before walking away.
“…So. Time spells,” Grey said simply, glancing over to Zelith.
“…Yes. Well, sort of. Professor Verin says it’s more like..prediction. Rapid use of future sight, the White Art,” Zelith said. “The events don’t actually happen, they’re just projections.”
“Seemed real,” Grey snorted. “What I saw.”
Zelith bit her lip, that same unsettling feeling from the office coming back to her.
“I’m sorry. I was…I was worried I’d mess up, that it wouldn’t be….it wouldn’t be perfect,” Zelith whispered.
“Don’t want perfect,” Grey said simply, putting her head on Lily’s shoulder. “Life’s not perfect. Grainy, twisted, like trees. That’s what make it life.”
Zelith smiled, a few tears of relief leaking out as Grey nodded her head over to the injured.
“Don’t listen to that bitch,” Grey said, growling a bit.
Zelith looked over, trying to decide what to say before:
“…She was a mistake. Young, wanted to leave home. She seemed nice at the start. But she wasn’t. Not at all.”
“She stays away, or I claw her,” Grey stated simply.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Zelith said, frowning more as she glanced back at her ex across the way.
“You are in my pack. Even when you make dumb mistake and leave for school,” Grey replied. “She hurt you. She stays away.”
There was a moment of silence before Grey chuckled.
“Can’t make you leave stupid school. But Stinjul has work. Can stick around…make sure you take free time. Maybe you come to your senses.”
Zelith sighed, leaning closer.
“…I’d like that.”
There was a long pause before Zelith laughed weakly.
“…Gods below, you smell like Kevyn.”
Grey snorted, sighing as she stood up, pulling Zelith to her feet.
“You smell like dust and paper. Nobody’s perfect.”
With that, the pair began to move through the festival market, the music drifting over the park and into the growing twilight.
The festival winded down. Leaves fallen, the people of Stinjul beginning to drunkedly make their way back home. Stalls stood silent and empty, all gathered having decided that was a task for tomorrow’s people.
The last of the sunset was dipping low. Above the West Quarter, a pair of blue-eyed lovers had found their way into a clocktower, months of separation breaking like a dam.
And, unseen to all but us, those trapped behind the wall, unable to warn them, something crawls through the street of Stinjul. A mass of red, bloody veins, moving like a horrifying spider, covered in malignant growths, eyes and teeth in no particular pattern. A hand, still warm and twitching, is dragged behind the beast, a trail of blood behind the crawling hunter.
Then, a flash. White, black. And the thing from beyond the stars is gone, leaving just the remains of a man, laying in the street.
The veil grows thin. Time is running out.
Strike The Horizon 