II - Sigh of Smoke

Chapter 19 - Whore's Burden

-Dareon Hallow-

"... Aleksandra?" He couldn't help but whisper, his words seeming to pass the air like a fog.

Their eyes had met, he was sure of it. He saw the flash of green and the recognition in her eyes, but before he could call her attention she had paled and glanced away, shoulders shaking as she was approached by two Zarkarians who clasped the shackles once more around her ankles. As she was taken away, she didn't even look back, as if she had never seen them. Or at least, hadn't wanted to.

Dareon would've been lying if he claimed he wasn't shaken. When Beat was strangling Snake it was hard not to look away, especially since the man's expression was so strained and lined with frustration. The Child of Wind had created such a huge whirlwind and had forced Smoke to land sharply on his back, snapping his spine. It was horrifying. Though those two, Smoke and Snake, had died by another's hand, the others had died to Aleksandra's.

Should he have been upset about that? He was happy she was alive, certainly, but how she was staying alive was another thing.

He bit his lip, trying to work through the conflict in his thoughts.

When a grip fastened onto his arm, he nearly jumped out of his skin. Looking up, he saw Lucan's black eyes staring at him.

"We must go," he said quietly, pulling lightly as he turned to follow Atlanta who had her arm wrapped around another girl's waist. It seemed that the girl Atlanta had been talking to had more for them to know, though he had barely paid any attention to their conversation when the fight in the ring had begun.

Dareon was stunned. "We're just going to leave her?"

Lucan stared at him. "We have confirmed that she is here."

"But we're not going to do anything? They're taking her out of our sight! Who knows where she is once she's past that gate!" His finger pointed at he rusty criss-crossing bars that had sunk into the ground at the beginning of the match, and would most certainly remain that way until the end of the day.

"What do you expect us to do? Jump down from here and chase her?"

"Well, no-"

"We have no plan. We have no means. We have an audience."

Dareon glanced around himself, feeling intimidated by the army of Zarkarians in the seats behind him. Of course Lucan was right, there was no chance if they were in the view of a thousand. They'd be dead before they could run a third of the way across the fighting ring. It just... It just felt absurd to leave her, especially after she'd seen them. Aleksandra was as confusing as she was blunt, and Dareon could not understand the expression she had given him, but now that he'd seen her it seemed he could not sit still.

He had wanted to run over to her and throw his cloak on top of her, covering her from the eyes of the sneering crowds. Especially after seeing her expression at the sight of the audience before her. For some reason seeing her standing there, bare for everyone to see, unnerved him. She was being humiliated, as if she was some animal on display.

Shivering, he faintly heard the gamekeeper announce another fight underway, but Dareon didn't want to be there to see it. Feeling defeated, he felt a sigh spill from his lips as the dark shade of her hair disappeared into the shadows.

Aleksandra had survived. There was enough relief in that for him to calm for a while.

He followed Lucan and pushed through crowds that had gathered at the railings to see as other keepers of the ring gathered the bodies and set them in a pile in the middle. For what purpose, Dareon had no idea, and had no need to know.