Roots | ONC 2024

III : Shatter

The sudden sharp ringing in his head feels like the crack of lightning.

The cold unease flows from his chest through his limbs and he knows he's freezing in one place, fallen out of step now.

An Elder.

Oh Heart, an Elder Soulbiter. Which of the five is it? Does that even matter? Oh Divine Beast, save them.

Umirin's sight mists over and he barely hears the other two men's voices speaking further over the merciless toll of their death knells rattling the hollow of his skull.

The five Elder Soulbiters are the first the curse ever took. They are the oldest, the most versed hunters. So versed that their ink black skin is nigh entirely striped and their sharp maws are nigh always blood stained when they're sighted.

It's how those beasts below feed. They bite a living being, draw its blood out, feed on its lifeforce to replenish their own. They spread the curse, they gain a new stripe.

And the circle starts again.

An Elder is the worst fate that may befall soil gatherers. Not just for their size, their speed or strength. Nor for the fact they have created most other Soulbiters, grown so densely silver striped the black of their bodies barely peeks through. No.

It is for their whispering, also.

"Umirin!" the frantic yelling finally cracks through the thick walls of the panic prison that had detained him. He blinks several times until his vision comes into focus, Shani's pale, wide-eyed expression of frenzied concern filling his field of view.

His husband's hands are on Umirin's shoulders, his grip so tight it's bruising.

"I'm here," he mumbles, drawing in a deep breath. He'd braced for the news and they'd still got to him so deeply. Now that feeling slowly returns to his body he feels his skin burn with sensation all over, flushed with the stinging heat of shame for his meltdown.

Shani's grip relaxes, and he lets out an audible breath of relief, "Oh Umi," he mutters, tension releasing his limbs. He sags a little, "you scared me, little one," his voice softens so, tender as it sweeps over Umirin. And as it does it sweeps all of his festering feelings away with it.

"I—I am so sorry, beloved," he gently slides Shani's hands off his shoulders by gripping his wrists, guiding them around his own waist instead as he draws him into a tight embrace, burying his face into his chest, "I don't know what came over me," he mumbles, quieter.

He mostly says it for the councilman's sake. He knows Shani knows.

Because Umirin had seen a Soulbiter ruin a life only once, but once is all it took.

And Shani had held him through every single nightmare over the years.

Shani curls into the hug and tightens his hold on Umirin even further, enveloping him closer, "Hush, little one, it's all alright, you're okay," he mumbles, sweet and soothing as always.

It does less to comfort Umirin than it usually would have, however, because this time it is a stark reminder that they are okay, yes. For now. And down there that could change in seconds given the magnitude of the threat even worse than a regular Soulbiter.

The younger ones do not speak. They do not hiss and crackle broken speech through malformed for it maws, words from a barely retained tongue that hasn't been their own for generations.

The councilor, who'd stayed quiet this whole time, finally speaks up again, "Please, retain your senses. It is highly likely the Elder has moved on from this area. Our scouts couldn't have missed it in the two nights since if it were around, given how unmistakable they are," his tone is steady and patient.

Umirin appreciates that approach despite himself, "Apologies, councilor," he lifts his head slightly from the embrace to speak to him, unwilling to step away from holding his husband close yet.

Bnirin isn't wrong. The stripes on the Elder Soulbiters are so thick their entire form often appears in flashing silver rather than its true black. It's impossible not to notice one if it's near. They glint under the moonlight.

Umirin shudders to imagine how many lives it took to earn so many stripes though.

Hundreds. Thousands?

He feels a shiver roll down the length of his spine.

"I'm sure the council is right and the monster is gone by now," Shani nods, his voice slightly shaky, but as ever lilting with hope.

Umirin does not argue this time however, because he needs to believe this too. He needs to clutch to something. He allows a final wave of trembling to wrack through him as he regains himself fully, before he straightens up and releases his husband.

"Very well, yes," he nods at Shani, closing his roiling emotions away under the firm framework of his mentor's training.

You will stay controlled. You will not feel calm, you would be insane to, but you will stay controlled. No matter how badly the situation is going.

He hears her raspy voice ringing out in his mind, doling out the unyielding advice as he pulls himself together. Often, Umirin misses her fiercely. She had been the closest thing to a parental figure he had had after his real family cast him out when young.

Shani seems put at ease when he takes in that Umirin's regained his focus, so he steps back and turns to the councilman, "We'll be okay to venture down now," he confirms with a nod.

A knot in the corner of Bnirin's grimaced lips unwinds, his troubled expression smoothing out, "Wonderful, I—am glad," he pauses his sentence unfinished then, waffling momentarily, though he gives in and continues after a brief second, "our soil stores have grown lower than is comfortable. We need this year's missions to go well," he admits.

Umirin is shortly thrown by that. The council never admits to these things aloud, even if there have probably been times where they were true. Likely to help with morale. It must of gotten particularly bad now though, for one of them to say it.

He does his best to smother the awful guilt overcoming his heart about all of his complaining over this mission then. What a fool he'd been. He cannot abandon his nation. His mentor would truly be ashamed of her favorite trainee if she could see him now.

No. Enough.

Umirin stops. Stops feeling. Stops thinking.

You will stay controlled.

"We won't let you down," he firmly says to Bnirin.

Shani smiles and nods in agreement, "You can count on us," he promises, his spirits clearly renewed.

Umirin steels himself. They can do this. They shall prevail.