1 And She Breaks

The waters are closing over my head. And the current slowly pulls me in. The sun is a distant speck above that seems toxic. It will burn away this beautiful darkness that cocoons me. The corals sing a lullaby that refuses to be ignored. Then when my chest hurts and my body struggles instinctively for a breath, I wonder why should I wake? What do I have any more? All I ever cared had gone in flames. The ones who claimed me have fallen in blood. Oh, red dark blood that spilled when sweet Kanya's throat was slit. The ones who loved me are gone. And there is no one who deserves my love and this wretched creature I'am deserves no one's love.

No. The world above holds nothing for me. The world may let me sleep again peacefully. Without this terrible pain that feels like a thousand needles against my heart. My ears still ring from the screams of poor Druvak, the empath boy whose mind felt clean like a morning star's dew. Oh, poor Manisha whose blades sang a song pure as her voice. And I close my eyes to let go, in anticipation that the merciful death may carry me away to the dark depths from my personal hell.

But then I felt my tattered dress snag against something, I looked again around me. My dress was stuck on a pair of pearly white pair of twin blades held by a skeleton. I turned my head around. I was in a bone grave created by a long-forgotten battle. Then I wondered, will I be forgotten so soon. That did not matter, but will those I loved to be too will lie like this, forgotten and their sacrifice unknown? Will their pain be washed away by the vast oceans and their memories lost to the sands of time? Will no remember the way Kanya's laugh shrills through the wind like a melody, or little Druvak's antics and the Blade mistresses' skills? Are their deaths meaningless? Will no one call for justice?

No. I will not allow that. My worthless life can be forgotten but not those bright souls of Kambrya, the Hall of the blade songs. I tried to move but found that I don't have enough air left. I began to despair. Then my gaze fell on the swords. I may not have a powerful gift but I am a rapture after all. Half at least. I must be able to do the easiest Vidyai a Rapture is Taught. So I twisted my body that my long hair spun behind and grasped the twin sabers, not by hilt but by the blade. I bled onto them and cried, using the pain I felt as an anchor and reached for the gift that had not been touched in more than 12 years. Self Mesmerizing. A gift that is instinctual to full raptures as soon as they can walk but one a half-breed like me had to learn with difficulty. I reached in to call my music, the raga that raptures used to entrance and to convince. Power flooded me and sounded like a high note piercing silence. So I used it to convince myself I was not in pain, that my muscles were all right, That I can breathe well. That was the easy part. Then I tried to convince myself I was More than alright. That I am powerful, stronger than my frail body. This was just as difficult as I remembered. Come on, I thought, You need to believe in yourself. But I felt no sudden power flooding me.

I laughed bitterly inside. But I also felt peaceful. That I no longer need to carry this burden of avenging Kambrya. I had tried to fail in the first step. I can join them in peace now.

Then things started to get Weird. When I tried to leave the white blades, they started to glow and an ancient voice said "Contract accepted via the right of blood. The pupil shall be anointed as one of the Song Blades. The first test begins.

And then the hilts exploded. I screamed as I was thrown out of the water. I felt my back hitting something before the world darkened.