Tearha: Titan War

Chapter Thirteen: Umbra

Talia shrugged. "Don't know. One day, the sentinels teleported. And they just never came back. All of them. Thousands of them just vanished without another trace." She paused and even from behind, Adelle could tell she was reminiscing the past. Finally, she continued, "There were theories, you know? That they returned to their own planet or that they were simply mass hallucinations. All hogwash, of course. We knew. We were just trying to make ourselves feel better. It was the same feeling we had throughout this stupid war. They were gone because they were dead. Nothing speaks more to someone's death than never hearing their voices again."

She stopped walking, and everyone halted, waiting for her to speak again or make the next move.

"I'm thirsty," she noted. Taking out her bottle, she drank the last of the water within and turned to a nook in the wall next to her.

It was then they noticed a rope on the wall tied onto a hook, running down the ground into a hole the size of a man's head. Talia started pulling at the rope.

Luce asked, "What are you doing?"

"Refilling my water. There's an underground lake here." The end of the rope came up to a clip and Talia tied her bottle onto it. "This will be the last water point for a while, so drink up while you can."

"What happened to the story!" Adelle exclaimed. "That was seriously anti-climatic."

Talia shrugged. "That's all I know. The sentinels disappeared. We never heard from them since, and no one had managed to cross the Helm after to find out more. At least, that was until you three showed up."

Grumbling at being blued, Luce and Adelle emptied their water-skins into their bellies and passed the skins to Josh who sat next to the hole, pulling the rope up and lowering it back down to fill the containers. Adelle took a seat, leaning against the wall, light from her flashlight dancing against the opposing dirt, painting murals of shadows.

Luce sat down next to her. "What are you thinking about?"

Adelle scoffed. "None about anything. I'm not much of a thinker."

"The sentinels?"

She shrugged. "What am I suppose to think? Never met them. Never knew them. As far as I'm concerned, I'm a wood elf. I'm curious, but what can I do?"

"Not your war?"

"Not my fight," Adelle agreed.

They sat together in silence for a while. Talia squatted down beside Josh and muttered about the changes to the road ahead. It seemed she had been slowly updating Josh on the differences to the continent, getting him ready to take over the lead once they had reached Citi.

"What about back at the mine?" Luce asked. It was the one question Adelle had been quietly trying to dodge.

"What about it?"

"Saving those people."

"I killed them. I thought you were against killing?"

"It's... not that simple. I've killed out of mercy before. It doesn't feel any better, but it's definitely not the same thing as murder in cold blood." Luce looked her way. "You've killed people. And so did those guys."

"Weren't you the one who told me "Murder is murder."?"

"Did it feel the same?"

Adelle shook her head. "No. I don't do it for fun or resources. It had always been for survival. As quick and painless as possible too. We only get to live once. It's... important to protect that life for as long as possible. And when you're about to die, it shouldn't be slow and painful without a sense of self. That bitch, she stole the hearts from those people. Turned them into resources, into... things."

"You'll kill her?"

"If I get the chance? Yes. Definitely."

"Even though it will make you the last of your race?"

"If this is what my kind does, then yes. I'll be more than happy to be the end of it." Just thinking of the level of manipulation Lachesis had put in place got her blood boiling. She decided to change the subject before it cooked. "What about you? You haven't really been yourself since you came back."

The Titan Ranger let out a sigh. "It's... difficult coming back. I ran away from here because I didn't want to fight any longer. But the first thing that greets me when I'm back is being asked to fight again."

She held back wanting to say the deaths were mostly from Titans. "What's it like? I've been through the civil war and revolution, but nothing like this. Nothing as... big in scale."

"It's... horrible. These creatures. These Titans. We give them life, either from machine or magic, then send them out to die. Maybe it's no different from war horses or drakes, but we've given them minds and intelligence to act. Even free will, maybe. Enough so that when they see themselves in the reflection of glass or still water, they'd touch their own faces, as if understanding their own existence."

"They're..."

"Alive," Luce punctuated earnestly. "I'm sure of it. The way they look at us sometimes, as if questioning why they were being sent to death. There aren't as many Titans as there are mortals. So every time we kill a batch, it just feels like genocide."

They lapsed into silence again. Not able to continue, the two simply waiting for Josh to finish filling the water.

Adelle was about to doze off when a small vibration in the ground shook her awake.

"What's that?"

Talia turned with a questioning look. "What's what?"

"That rumbling." Adelle stood to her feet and listened, but could not hear anything. She placed a hand on the wall and felt the tremors again. "There! It's like the ground's shaking."

Luce got to her feet. "I felt that too."

Talia thought for a moment, then exclaimed, "Excavator golems!"

"Minesweepers?" Josh questioned. "But we're barely into Graveyard territory."

"Seracue's been sending out Excavators whenever they've got a footing on Titan's Graveyard. It's an on again off again thing. I think they're not clearing mines so much as trying to dig something out of the dirt."

Josh asked, "Any ideas what that might be?"

"Don't know," Talia shrugged. "Might just be a Titan."

Author's Note: Hi everyone. Thank you for reading Tearha: Titan War, which will continue to release a new chapter every week on Friday until its completion. If you like what you've read so far, and would like to support my writing, you can buy one of my books at my website. Or you could check out my Patreon to help out for the long run. Of course, just sharing, commenting, and reviewing helps a bunch as well!

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