And like all good things, our story must near an end. Hope you enjoyed the experience, please share this cautionary tale of wonder woe with as many as humanely possible.
“Humility is not an option for our proud race! It was never an option! After this unforgivable strike on our great capitol, we, the people of Deltora-”
I clicked the radio off and sighed.
“Are you ready to go?” Mei called from the other room. “You uncle’s brought ‘round the car downstairs.”
“I’m ready.” I shuffled into the next room, my dark funeral clothes reflecting my mood rather poetically.
“You need an armband!” Mei gasped, fussing with my hair and tie.
“Why? I’m not a Nexus Party member...”
“Just... I’ll buy you one in Prokovenia. Come now let’s go...” We rushed out the door, Mei locking it behind us as I started trodding down stairs. “I’d say perk up, but considering we’re going to your cousin’s funeral... Okay keep it on the down low on the way there, you know how Boris gets.” She paused, chewing on her words, before continuing: “What happened, the night of the raid? Did anyone from your school- You know, die?”
“No,” I shook my head, “not that I know of. They’ve been posting casualties all week and our school somehow survive unscathed.”
“Thank the gods...” She sighed, and dabbing her lipstick while opening the street door. “So, what then? Girl trouble?”
“You don’t know the half of it...”
“Try me.”
We both sat in the back and I filled her in about what transpired in the Nexus shelter a fortnight ago. My uncle grunted occasionally throughout my account, to either add emphasis or show amusement. The drive out to Prokovenia was very solemn, pushing through the city traffic and rushing by the cratered countryside. After I’d finished speaking there was hardly a word said between any of us in the car, we were all too caught up in our own minds. I, predictably, was netting into sulking about my own misfortune, and hardly paid any mind to the slight gasps Mei gave as we passed the gruesome omens of the coming years.
I wasn’t totally blind to the first effects of the war, of course, none but the literally blind could ignore the signs. On the way to my cousin’s funeral we passed a few sites where the flying bombs had been highly effective, one had come down on a railway line, and the train had come across the severance in the tracks by surprise in the night. The carriages were all strewn about like scattered toys, and the bodies of the passengers had all been dragged out from the wreckage and covered by white sheets in the fields facing the road. Here my uncle sped up, so as to pass the whole scene faster. Mei covered her mouth and gave a little gasp, I simply cringed at the bloodstains visible through the dozens of white sheets, evenly spaced in the field.
There were other signs too, hinting at our nation’s vulnerability. More trucks full of soldiers, more boarded-up windows, and younger and younger faces lining up to receive their black uniforms.
Prokovenia was mostly empty when we arrived. An old tourist town, it’s mainly known for its’ impressive ancient ruins. One of the Demon-Age pillars has been magically carved into the shape of a soldier from an era of warfare long-past. Nobody’s there to sightsee today, most in the town’s square are dressed in black, presumably waiting around for the same mass-memorial service as I was there for.
And indeed, they mostly were. On the far end of the Death goddess’ temple grounds, there was a vast field of black tombstones. All them were thin obsidian pillars, topped with the symbol of the god of their choosing. I wonder which god’s sign my cousin had inscribed on this dog tags. Most likely the god of the sea or goddess of fortune, both popular among sailors. The service was too large and impersonal to have any lasting effect on me. Call me heartless, but from way in the back of the black-clad crowd of mourners, I felt a tinge of boredom and restlessness after the third hour of inaudible eulogies and tearful processions.
I kept this to myself, of course, and slowly shuffled forwards as our turn to approach the small monument to the entire crew of the ship my cousin had served on. Eventually, though, I slid my nonchalantly slid my hand into my jacket pocket and clasped a familiar cold gem in my fingers.
User: Say, Elaine, are you busy?
Ela: ...Yes.
User: Oh, pardon me.
Ela: You’re forgiven.
User: Wait, you forgive me?
Ela: Wait- No. I meant I pardon you, for interrupting me while busy. I’m still very cross with you for everything.
User: I said I’m sorry. I had no idea things would turn out so... Badly.
Ela: You seemed lacking in any sensible idea to begin with. Now, as I’d said, I’m quite busy so...
User: You’re not really busy are you?
Ela: ...So what if I’m not?
User: And you’re even responding to me now...
Ela: Yes, I’ve noticed. Now is there something else you’d like to bother me about or...?
User: Well, I at least want you to not despise me.
Ela: Oh, I don’t despise you. I’m just rather disappointed.
User: Disappointed?
Ela: Feeling sorry for you, really... Taken in and duped by that lowerclassman. It must feel painfully embarrassing, how she led you on like that...
Now this really stung. I flinched visibly at her scalding words, and Mei, walking in file behind me, placed and hand on my shoulder and patted gently.
“There, there...” She sniffed, clearly shaken by the depressing atmosphere of the funeral.
User: We’re you taken in by Ausrine’s boyfriend as well?
Ela: I hadn’t expected Danylov to be so... Oh, shut up.
User: Sorry, we both made mistakes.
Ela: We both... No, YOU asked her out after I’d bent over backwards to show you a fair time and even kissed you for gods’ sake! No matter if my date to the dance was a snake, your sins are far worse.
User: I realize that now, and I feel terrible, I can’t even begin to tell you how sorry I-
Ela: Save your pleas. I’ll get over it when I’m ready, for the time being I just hope you learned something about being so impetuously foolish.
User: So, I’m forgiven then?
Ela: No, not at all. In fact, this very conversation’s going to cost you as well.
User: What?
Ela: That’s right, you’re back to square one with me, Vladinova, only now I know better than to expect much out of you.
User: That hurts to hear, surely you can’t just accept my apology and let us be friends?
Ela: I could... It’s been two weeks after all, and I’m not one to hold a grudge.... But where’s the fun in that? No, I don’t quite want to be friends with you Mr. Vladinova, so I won’t forgive you, you’ll have to make it up to me.
Here I drastically misread her intentions and said:
User: Don’t want to be friends? Am I that despicable?
Ela: Oh Dmitri, you don’t quite follow do you...?
User: I’m afraid I don’t- In fact I don’t even know where to start making things up to you...
“Hey, move up, it’s our turn.” Mei whispered in my ear, and stepped forwards to the front of the crowd. I followed my uncle up to the black stone monolith commemorating the brave crew of the light cruiser Nenalev, and took my hand out of my pocket and placed it on the the death goddess’ sigil, muttering the only prayer I knew to her. With the other hand I fished out a match and placed it in the ground amongst the forest of other matches and needles placed in the ground surrounding the monument. My uncle stood, for nearly ten minutes, head bowed in silence while other families came and went. Mei and I stood behind him, unsure of what to do for the time being, and both started to fidget. I reached for my glassheart once more, but Mei slapped my hand away from my pocket and pointed to my uncle, who’d turned, sighed, and motioned for us to leave.
There was meant to be a memorial meal and a few hours to mix and mingle with the other families afterwards, but my uncle insisted we leave ahead of the crowds. I tried my hardest to sympathize with him, and his loss, but the truth was none of us really knew my cousin Anselov Vimitrilev. As Mei later told me, he was born to a woman my uncle had met just twice. Once at a party, and a second time to be informed of the birth of a son. Of course, that was nearly eight turns ago, and he was arguably a different man back then. My uncle had fled my hometown and made for the big city, and been fairly successful in avoiding my family’s scorn and his son’s search for him. Anselov’s mother had died a few turns ago, which explained why we hadn’t run into her at the funeral. This must have meant that my cousin was able to track down my uncle’s name and address but chosen not to contact him, only signing him up as his next-of-kin.
All very tragic, and oddly influential to me later on. I figured all of this heartache was in part at least due to several people’s hesitation to act on emotion, and so I took to heart the ideal of action. Indeed, I didn’t have any situation quite as severe as an estranged family or lost son, but I was resolved to never let myself slip away from anyone simply due to inaction.
And so, as the weekly eclipse began, I fished out my glassheart and saw how Elaine proposed I begin making things up to her.
Ela: Well, you can start by taking ME out for a change. I hope you’ve got somewhere good in mind.
Her idea of very upset with me was very confusing to me at the time, to say the least.
It was difficult, at first, breaking the ice with Elaine. She was clear aware of my guilty conscience and confusing, and gleefully took advantage of my repentant attitude. The first few dates, I paid for everything, mostly with money borrowed from Mei and favors for my uncle. This meant they were hardly upscale trips to the theater or even the Nexus bazar, but Elaine didn’t seem to mind. We took the trollies all across town over the next few months, and when they cut off the trams for civilians, we walked.
She did forgive me, albeit indirectly, one day- She started paying for everything, which was of course well within her means, especially compared to the meager wages I’d acquired doing odd jobs around Sakahlin street. After that, it was very enjoyable, though that may be a great understatement on my part. The entire time I’d felt a creeping sense of contentment which I’d refused to acknowledge about the entire relationship.
Being paired with Elaine was delightful to be sure, but I’d been entirely ambiguous about my true feelings to anyone the entire turn. Inside, I wasn’t so sure myself, it felt strange to forsake Ausrine under any circumstance, and the brisk conversations we shared in class and the searching looks exchanged in the halls somehow served only to confuse me more. Elaine never showed any doubts about us, but I think she could tell that I had futile romantic notions about that mysterious bashful Ausrine now and then.
A full turn and a half after moving to Blackheart I didn’t regret a thing. The war a lost cause by then, and school had been suspended indefinitely in response to the student draft. Sitting on the curb in my tarnished black uniform, I watched with a smile as Elaine wiped her brow and sauntered over to join me in our break. She discarded her shovel by the pile of rubble we’d been clearing, and plopped down beside me, reaching across my lap for a bottle of water in my left hand.
“Hey, I was drinking that!” I reached for the bottle but she turned away from me, holding up a hand and downing the contents in a few gulps. Gasping, she wiped her mouth and spoke:
“Sorry, haven’t had anything to drink all day... This assignment’s sure a bore, where’s the commander anyway?”
“She’s on the telephone with someone, I think new orders are coming down.”
“Oh, joy. Say- it’s been a few days since an air strike or an enemy raid, think we’ll get some time off for once? I heard from Tolstoy there’s a dance hall set up in the aerodrome shelters, you’ll take me once we’re off duty, won’t you?”
“Of course,” I leaned in, with a grin- “I’d be glad to.” I tilted my head in anticipation for a kiss, but was quite rudely interrupted by the unfortunately familiar whine of the neighborhood's klaxon. “Ugh, speaking of air strikes...”
“Quick, let’s get underground,” Elaine hopped up to her feet, tugging on my arm and motioning down the ruined street. “we can leave our posts, nobody cares about a couple of
draftees.”
“What happened to your ‘devotion to the empire’ spiel?” I shouted over the siren, standing and brushing the dust off of my Nexus armband.
“Oh, silence- We’ve got to make sure you stay alive, first and foremost- But we can help direct civilians to the shelters on the way if it makes you feel better.”
“I need to stay alive? What about you?”
“Better I die than you. Besides, I can run faster, whereas you need someone guiding your every step.”
“To the contrary, I’d much rather I perish than you- Besides, who’s going to keep you from running straight into trouble?”
“I won’t hear any talk of either of us dying,” Elaine resolved, taking my hand was we broke into a run down the ash-strewn way.
The frequency of flying bomb strikes in Blackheart had decreased as of lately, but only to be replaced by increasingly destructive raids by Kragos Union forces from the East. That day was one such raid, with fierce black shadows spawning out of the clouds over the city- the Union bombers able to fly freely in broad daylight at that point in the war. The rattle of ground fire was weak and dim in the distance, with all guns relocated to surround the palace, very little of the greater Blackheart area was left under any sort of protection from bombs or raiders.
As we clambered across a burnt-out omnibus, we heard the shrill cry of the first bombs falling. Elaine looked up and flinched as the silver streak of a flight of Union airships slipped by overhead.
“Hurry,” She panted, tearing free her sleeve from a snag in the wreckage. “the closest metro access is by the school, let’s go!”
“Right, but what about the rest of our squad?”
“Forget them,” She held out her ruby-red glassheart, “I already sent Anya a message, she knows where we’re going!”
Hurriedly making our way towards the school, we traded nervous glances as the waves of bombs fell closer and closer to the Aerodrome district. At the stairs to the metro there stood an anxious crowd of civilians milling about the entrance in despair. We pushed to the front of the crowd, our dirty black uniforms granting us more authority than we’d earned. A few other student draftees held back the crowds as we broke to the front.
“What’s going on here?” Elaine demanded, her voice cutting through the panicked murmur of the crowd. A weary cadet in a faded blue uniform staggered forward:
“The stairs are blocked, down there, see?”
“Oh,” Elaine frowned, noticing the pile of debris in the darkness of the stairway. “Well let’s get digging!”
“No, we’ve sent for a witch, she should be here any moment...”
“A witch? Still here in the city? Why aren’t they at the front, or in the air fighting!?”
“I don’t know, some girl said her mother’s a witch and ran off to fetch them... Perhaps they’re, oh- Look.” The crowd grudgingly parted and stood aside, muttering in confusion as their savior approached. Elaine gave a frustrated groan and approached the witch and her daughter.
“Miss Romanov. This is your mother, I take it?”
“Y-yes, we can help, just stand back...” Ausrine was visibly terrified, shaking with fright every time a wave of bombs touched down elsewhere in town. The shadow of a sleek steel bomber passed over us and the entire crowd held its breath...
“Yes, I’m Ausrine’s mother- And Aza and I are here at last. Now, stand aside.”
I looked on as Ausrine and her immediate family followed their emotionless demon up to the top of the stairs and paused. Ausrine held still, her demon stepping into her body and melding with her skin in a haze of red. Her posture suddenly became very rigid and her hair took on a blood red shade... The elder Novacore looked on with pride as her daughter and demon twisted the lights and shadows of the street, all the darkness around us concentrating around the blockage in the stairwell.
Elaine watched with concern, squinting at the void that was the metro entrance. I looked at her for her response and missed the exact moment the rubble vanished- But suddenly amidst another volley of bombs, Azanaxalphrion emerged from Ausrine, leaving her gasping in pain to fall to her knees. Her mother patted her on the back and helped her up, and the crowd around us only hesitated for a second before another explosion, closer this time, shook them into pouring underground.
“Thank you,” Elaine muttered, bowing stiffly at Ausrine as she stood, stunned and shaking, staring off into the darkness. “Come Dimitri, let’s get underground.”
User: Thank you, Ausrine. Good to see you again.
I turned about and rushed downstairs, following the crowd.
Ausrine Novacore: You’re welcome.
...
And Dmitri?
User: Yeah?
Ausrine Novacore: I’m sorry.
The last I ever saw of her was her mother and demon leading her away from the shelter, back towards Sakahlin street and past the ruined gates of our school. I’ll never know what became of her, I couldn’t even find record of her family after the war. Still, Elaine and I survived the raid, survived the war infact, and courted for a few months before the East-West split.
After that, I met your mother of course, at university, like I’ve said, but as for how I came up with you name, well- Now I hope you’ve got a better idea of why I chose that name for you, Ausrine.
“Does mother know that’s why you named me that?”
The end
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