Lunar Heart, Shadow Bound ✓ [when the moon lies]

Ch.35: Realizations

Note: Underlined parts are Kathula tail sign language.

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"We're not in the mood for your company," Daero growled. "Go acquaint yourself with Kalis."

"I've sent my soldiers on that errand. I have a proposition." The Saboteur poked his head all the way through. "One you would like to hear."

"I bet it's a lie," Pinti grumbled. He probably felt like he had the upperpaw because they were locked up in his territory.

Daero held up his paw. "Before that, a question."

The Saboteur grumbled. "Make it quick."

"Why did you let her live? Let her be the only Makiista?"

Why would you ask that? He just did it to play with my life. Pinti scowled and trailed her gaze to Daero's tail. It flicked back and forth in steady rhythm giving her a strange urge to pounce on it. To distract herself, she crossed her arms and looked at the Saboteur.

"Aesthetics," he answered after a pause. "She's my victim. There is a way I want her to die. You would understand as you are a Sorcerer."

Daero narrowed his eyes and scoffed. "Edglings follow aesthetic ethics? Really? I feel like that's not it. Really, why did you let her live all this time when you could have killed her any time?"

A guttural growl sent shivers up her spine. "I said, aesthetics. Will you continue to mess with me or let me talk?" Impatience tainted her Saboteur's voice. "I didn't come sneaking in here for you to play with me."

"Hm, I see. Very well. Go on," Daero said with amusement in his voice and a smirk on his lips. But Pinti didn't know why he was smiling about it. The Saboteur would kill her when he wanted to. That was all it was. Edglings were simple creatures in that regard.

What does Daero expect? She grimaced. Some deep, hidden, emotional reason? Highly doubt it.

The Saboteur sighed. "Our King died a year ago. Without a ruler, we suffer mentally. Insomnia, hallucinations, disease, we die in the hundreds without one to give us orders. Even I, one who is high-ranked, suffered greatly which is why Saboteur practices toward Kathula dwindled the years you lived in the First Ring."

That was why Edglings mostly left us alone? Not because we had finally evaded them? Pinti recalled that first year in Bairenshire City. The first few months she and the other survivors lived in fear of Edgling ambush, but hardly any came. If they did, it was just a fright and not a death. It was their second year in the First Ring that Edglings began to attack more.

"We need a King to give us order," the Saboteur pressed his lips in a tight line, "Desperately. We were getting weak. That was when Orvineau came to us. He said he knew where the scepter was hidden, and he told us that it was all foreseen that we would one day rule the world with his guidance. He told us a Kathula was needed to reveal the location of the scepter. We were to keep an eye on you and Kalis, and three others with strong Lunality potential. We couldn't force you. You had to come on your own accord. That is how it works."

Edglings die without someone to order them around? Pinti found that to be the strangest thing. She wanted freedom, but Edglings had to be bound to a dictator to live. She had heard once that Edglings needed rules to survive, but she didn't understand until now.

"You can still regain Lunality by going to the Dark North. It's beyond the tunnel. You know the way." He glanced at her.

"Hold up." Daero said, shaking his head. "I don't get it. You killed her loved ones, but you want to help her? Maybe it's still for your agenda, but you know we can go against you."