Chapter 472 (1/2)
Chapter 472
Chapter 470: Caught
The Scythe, Melzri, drifted forward through the thick clouds of dust The front wall of the Earthborn Institute was a ruin beneath her, the rubble streith prone dwarven warriors Her stark white hair was pink with blood, and she supported one arm with the other even as she flew She was entirely focused onso terrible about the simple math of her bloodlust that I had to look away
Seth and Mayla were nearby, half trapped under a pile of broken stone tiles, a quivering bubble shi+eld holding back the heavy chunks of cruht, sweat scoring little lines through thehis face Mayla was tucked into the crook of his ared himself free of the rubble The Alacryan student, Valen, was in the hollow Boo’s body left behind I couldn’t tell if he was alive or dead
I didn’t see Caera, Claire, or Enola anywhere
Rocks sliding beneath unsteady feet drewherself up off the ground, her oide eyes tracking quickly across the chamber until she found me She seemed to shrink as she let out a breath, then her focus shi+fted, and her face transforht
My head snapped back around Melzri was flying just above me Bivrae’s spiderish silhouette was visible behind her, lurking ominously in the dust-choked void
There was a roar fros bared She vanished, only to reappear on the other side ofaround the front of ht line of silver that appeared above arded the manifestation with so out of her hand and sending her reeling back
Boo stepped over ain Molowing around her hands Bairon, leaning on the crimson spear, appeared in the corner ofeased as the scrapes and deep bruising of the explosion ashed away by Mom’s touch
“It’s okay, Eleanor, we’re here,” Caera said from somewhere behinddown on Seth and Mayla, freeing the toward Bivrae, stillme Do you all really plan to die for this brat?”
No one moved No one spoke Pressure built and built in my chest until it threatened to push tears fro Silverlight like a cane, I pushed myself up Mom tried to move in front of me, but I rested my free hand on her shoulder She searched my eyes, an emotional alchemy of terror, acceptance, and desperation reflected in her own It was a look that told h she knew she couldn’t protect us fro, and she was at peace with that
But I wasn’t
With a gentle but fired her to move aside and stepped forward A low moan like a whine quivered from Boo, but he stayed where he was My left hand balled into a tight fist around Silverlight, still in the shape of an unstrung bow; I had no idea whereyour sister back”
Melzri regardedher back?” She scoffed “You misunderstand I have no love for Viessa, nor she for me Your death simply balances the scales It is a duty, not some wrath-filled pursuit of a broken heart I a across both continents seeking revenge”
“I a even if her nature radiated weakly “But there is no need to be a slave to the Vritra clan’s selfish wishes just because their black blood runs in n’s bidding, did she not? Blame him for your misfortune, not—”
“Oh shut up,” the Scythe snapped A htly crazed “I’ht Either let the girl die, or die to prolong her life by mere moments Either way, do so quickly and quietly because your whining exhausts h the chamber, like a dark cloud had just crossed over the sun I felt an outpouring of power fro of mana As I instinctively focused more fully on natures snuffing out like soto her knees One of her spellforht butrapidly behind the lids “The battle, it’s—”
I’d felt people die before, but this was different So out…
“Tell her,” I urged Mayla, taking another step toward Melzri I knew the Scythe could snap me in two before I’d even see herinstead of fighting Seris and Cylrit were still out there, along with Lyra And an entire army of beast core-powered Dicathian warriors If I could just delay her long enough… “Tell her what you see, Mayla”
“Clouds of blackfrom Lady Seris,” Mayla said at once, her voice raspy “Like an ar their mana”
Mezlri’s expression darkened, and she turned away, looking out through the smashed entrance
Only then did I notice that a different silhouette was standing where the retainer had been only a led lu nopoor Bivrae in the back? How dishonorable of you”
“I co forward His black hair indblown and ashes in it “She would like to speak to you herself, and asks that you wait until she has resolved her current task before you do anything that can’t be undone”
Melzri blinked at hi around the tords she carried She spoke , “I’ll do my duty”
Cylrit fleard, his sword a dark blur Both of hers came up to deflect the blow, then Cylrit slid to a stop between her and us “You need not wait long,” he said, his voice as level as if they were having this discussion across a desk, not at the point of each other’s blades
“Scythe Melzri Vritra”
Yet another person appeared, li clouds Her pearl hair and white robes see the dust as she passed through it
Melzri turned again, watching her approach with an inscrutable expression “Seris, unna her teeth in annoyance
With her focus on Seris, I letwould appear if Silverlight had one
“Stand down, Melzri,” Seris said warily
“You don’t give orders here,” Melzri replied in the saertips pinched the air, searching for a string I couldn’t see Please, Silverlight You chose me, so help me I wouldn’t just stand there like frozen prey if Seris couldn’t talk Melzri down
Pearl hair spilled over the bright white shoulder pads of Seris’s battlerobes as she shook her head “If your heart beats so fiercely for blood, why didn’t you kill the Lance?”
“Because you have interruptedin the catch of her voice toldthe truth
Bairon stiffened, looking affronted “Our battle wasn’t finished yet, Scythe”
“You have not killed hi to you,” Seris said in the sa and she had to explain my own childish decisions to me “You crave adventure and exciteed It’s a trait you haven’t been able to escape since even before your blood manifested To kill him would be to cut the thread of fate on his potential”
My fingers plucked at the air again, futilely searching for a string that didn’t exist, expecting and hoping that I could h sheer force of will alone
“You knohat your problem is, Seris?” Melzri asked, her back fully turned to us now, alotten ere there “You think you know everything, all the time Of all the Scythes, you’re actually the most like him”
Seris nodded in acceptance “Perhaps this is why I can see what you have not yet accepted: in a future where Agrona has dominated both this world and Epheotus, what role will Scythe Melzri Vritra play? What, in that future, would there be to excite you—if Agrona had a place for you at all”
This tirona’s hold over you and show you a different vision of the future One in which you help e of the world born”
“You—” Melzri cut herself off with a huhter “You claim to know me so well, and yet you expect ht for my entire life? To abandon my purpose? I take back what I said, Seris You are a fool”
My fingers snagged so silver mana manifested beneath the for an arrow, and pulled back
The string wouldn’t budge
“You strive for a purpose that is and has always been an illusion Has this war not already proved it? At every step, some neer has been revealed that has nificant We were made redundant by the Wraiths, ill in turn fall to the asura If this continues to its natural conclusion, in the end, all that will rerona hi to ensure his future at the cost of your own”
I couldn’t help the surprise I felt as Melzri appeared to actually listen to Seris, but I did not give up on h, Silverlight refused to bend further
“You can’t resist hiht, and our entire lives are e anything The result is the saht for”
“The proof that it is possible to resist Agrona stands right there,” Seris said, indicating Caera “Tell her how you’re still alive, Caera”
“It was Eleanor and her ly explain some of what had happened
Seris sular teenage girl with only a single spellforrona himself These people here, Alacryan and Dicathian alike, have risked everything to stand against hiainst the most terrible odds Do not tell them the result of this war doesn’t rew so quiet that I could hear the distant shouted orders andof the mana beast suits’ti on me I couldn’t read the look we shared, but after a tenseover Seris’s head and vanishi+ng into the distance Her n of her was left
Seris turned to watch her go, her expression blank After a few seconds, she looked back at all of us, and it was like the breaking of a spell