They all left Styzia together. It had seemed like a good idea until all of them were crammed together on the lift, halfway down the mountain, packed like pickled fish. Azvalath found himself sweating even though it was bitterly cold. "Lalek, can you bring us down any faster?"

"Not safely." Lalek sounded out of breath.

Channei groaned next to Azvalath. He shot her a glare. "Shut up. You could fly down and meet us at the bottom."

"I hate waiting." She fumbled with her ponytail. "This is terrible. I wanted to go with you and Kolo."

Azvalath raised an eyebrow. "Since when do you like going with me?"

Rizval giggled. "Don't fall for it, kittycat. She only wants to be with Kolo."

Channei elbowed Rizval. "Shut your trap."

Kolo looked up from where she sat with Ido and Dakko. "What's going on?"

"Have you not been paying attention?" Azvalath snapped. "Any of you? You're fussing about who's going where, but you're missing the point." He rubbed his forehead, then sighed. "Isn't it unusual that they're sending all of us out at the same time? Even Dakko and Ido?"

"Not missing anything. It's fairly obvious they're trying to keep us distracted." Channei crossed her arms. "Hey Ido, Dakko – you really have no ideas about what might've happened to Master Xigon?"

"What? You think it's contagious or something?" Ido half-laughed and half-yelled. "Probably not."

"What's contagious?" Azvalath pressed.

"Rager." Ido shrugged. "Master Qila said that's what made Haode sick and then broke his mind. Said Ami poisoned him."

"Well, if it's Rager, I can just destroy it." Kolo clenched her hand into a fist. "Wasn't hard that one time."

Ido froze up and went quiet.

Dakko shifted. "You're not thinking what I think you are, are you, Ido?"

"I...whatever." Ido looked down. "I'm trying not to be angry anymore. It's Ami who ruined all our lives. But I..."

Azvalath crouched down to Ido's level. "Hey. Spit it out."

"If Kolo's right about destroying Rager, maybe she really could have saved Haode." The boy tensed up. "What if she did?"

"No." Dakko shook his head. "Those wounds were never going to heal."

"You're probably right, Dakko." Azvalath nodded. "And Ido, I doubt Haode suffered much. It was probably a huge relief for him."

"In any case, why would I want to help him?" Kolo scoffed. "He treated you two like punching bags and almost killed Channei. And even if he hadn't, I'm sick of people trying to make me theirs."

Ido leaned his head into his knees. "Yeah, I guess."

Azvalath met Kolo's eyes. "I wouldn't have let him take you either."

Kolo huffed. "You weren't the first, you know." She smoothed her short white hair. "Hell, you weren't even the scariest."

Azvalath cocked his head. "Huh?"

"Never mind." Kolo stood up and looked down. "Hey, we're almost down!"

"Just a minute." Lalek paused to catch her breath, then lowered them the rest of the way. The platform thudded to the ground, jolting all of them. "Phew. My arms kinda hurt."

Azvalath vaulted over the guardrail. One by one, his companions followed. "Any idea where we can find a bluehole to Morning, Jai-Lag?" He looked down at the sabretooth cat, who stared back at him with the silent judgment only a cat could muster. "What? I haven't been there in ages."

Kolo ran up next to him. "What's it like?"

Before he could answer, Channei gave Kolo a pat on the back. "Good luck. Don't you die out there, you hear me?"

"We won't," Azvalath assured.

"You'd better not." She elbowed Azvalath as she left them.

Rizval waved. "See you around."

Lalek picked Dakko up in one arm. Ido clung to her other sleeve, careful not to shock her.

Azvalath watched them all leave before turning back to Kolo. "Morning's beautiful," he told her. "I think you'll like it. But the masters said we're supposed to meet someone named Talin as soon as we get there, so I don't know how much we'll get to explore."

Kolo shrugged. "Who's Talin, anyway?"

"Don't know. Never met him." Azvalath noticed Jai-Lag walking away and started to follow her. He beckoned Kolo along. "We've got a few contacts in a few different places. Usually people we've helped before. But I never remember meeting a Talin."

"Hm." Kolo looked at her feet. "Maybe you met him and don't remember. Not impossible. I forgot a lot."

"Yes, but you..." Azvalath wasn't sure where he was going with that sentence, so he paused. "What happened to you, anyway? Did you ever find out?"

"Mm-hm." The girl hummed. "Kind of wish I hadn't."

He didn't know whether it would be wiser to press the matter or to remain silent, but curiosity got the better of him within seconds. "So what's the story?"

Kolo reached to scratch Jai-Lag behind the ear. "I don't want to talk about it right now."

Azvalath found himself unable to accept that answer. After all he'd gone through, he couldn't simply remain ignorant about the one he'd fought so hard to bring to his side. "Now tell me the story."

Kolo ran up next to Azvalath and punched his arm. He recoiled with a yelp.

She cleared her throat. "Once upon a time, there was a cat who thought the world was flat. So he tried to push everything off the edge. All he ended up doing was pushing things in big circles forever. He wasn't a very smart cat. The end."

Azvalath stared at her, dumbstruck.

Kolo looked back at him with the biggest shit-eating grin. "What? I told you a story, just like you said." She whacked his arm again, but not nearly as hard. "Now make a snow angel."

"I don't know what that is," he grunted.

"Fine." Kolo looked crestfallen for a second. Then she smiled again. "How about you learn to live a little? Come on. You can't tell me you've been trudging through snow for twenty-something centuries and you haven't ever played in it."

Jai-Lag veered off to the right. Azvalath sped his pace to follow her. "I'll be honest, I haven't really even thought about it." He looked up at the clouds. "Live a little? Feels like all I live for is a job well done. And even then –"

A snowball hit his shoulder with a thwump.

"Ow!" Azvalath exclaimed even though it didn't actually hurt. "What was that for?"

Kolo beamed. "Your turn."

"No." He turned around. "We have a job to do."

"Mm-hm." Kolo stooped down to wad up another handful of snow. She tossed it in the air, caught it in invisible hands, then threw it at Azvalath. It whizzed past his head and pelted the ground in front of him.

"You missed." Azvalath didn't turn to look at her.

"Yeah, and you're missing the point." Another snowball flew past his left ear.

Azvalath rubbed his eyes. "You're annoying."

"And you're broodier than a bird in the nest." Kolo sounded closer behind him than before. "Aza, come on. Throw one at me. We both know you want to."

Azvalath stopped, pinched the bridge of his nose, and sighed. "Fine. You're clearly not going to leave me alone if I don't."

Jai-Lag stopped, licked her paw, then watched.

Azvalath picked up a handful of snow and tried to pack it into a ball. Most of it crumbled between his fingers. What he ended up with wasn't even vaguely spherical, and he didn't so much throw it as simply drop it on Kolo's head.

Kolo giggled like a child. "Ah, you got me!" Then she met his eyes. "See, that was fun."

Azvalath felt what seemed like the first shred of warmth in a very long time. "Yeah." He managed an awkward half-smile. "It was."

The warmth lingered. It made every step feel lighter, soothed the ever-present ache in his bones. Jai-Lag finally brought them to a bluehole. The water, miraculously unfrozen, lapped at smooth gray cobbles on the shore. But before any of them could enter, Jai-Lag's head snapped up and to the left. Her ears stood erect.

"What's she doing?" Kolo asked.

Azvalath pressed a finger to his lips. "Shh. Listen a second." Sure enough, an unmistakable sound permeated the oddly stagnant air.

It was the sound of a crying child.

He and Kolo locked eyes for a second. Then she turned. "I think it's coming from over that way." She pointed over to a rock formation some ways down the shoreline.

Jai-Lag snarled. Her massive fangs glistened.

Azvalath nodded. The crying grew shriller, panicked, as if the child were being attacked.

All at once, they bolted in that direction. Azvalath stumbled over the stones and nearly twisted his ankle several times, but gods be damned – he was a monster, but not the kind of monster to ignore a child in need. Jai-Lag jumped up onto the formation, then down to the other side. Azvalath and Kolo ran around to join her.

What they found wasn't a child at all.

It was the black-and-white-haired woman who'd been with Ami before. She sat there leaned against the stone, mouth open, mimicking the sound of a child being attacked with uncanny perfection.

Magpie stopped, cleared her throat, then smiled and waved. "Hey there. Ami said she thought you were coming this way. You're going to Morning, right?"

Azvalath could only stare at her, speechless.

"Well, if you're going to Morning, there's something we thought you should know." Magpie scratched her head. "Ami and I were just there last week. So before you hop through that bluehole, remember – if you think you hear a screaming baby, don't go toward it. Understand?"

Kolo kicked a cobble. "What are you talking about?"

"The ones who try to be heroes are the ones who get brought home in pieces." Magpie stood up and brushed her coat off. "Gnarly. You'd best be cautious. And I'd best be going now. See you around."

Before Azvalath could ask what the hell Magpie was going on about, the woman took off into the woods. Kolo hunched slightly and rubbed her forehead. He looked down at her. "What's the matter?"

Kolo mumbled something.

Azvalath cupped a hand behind his ear. "What?"

"I swear, she looks really familiar." Kolo glanced back in the direction Magpie had fled. "Like...from before I lost everything." She shook her head. "Probably coincidence. Let's get going."

It was with profound dread that Azvalath followed Kolo and Jai-Lag into the depths.

[3] Azvalath: Missing the Point

0 Comments