The Thousand-Eyed Crow (#Wattys2020)

Chapter 10 (The Duality of Man)

With tears in their eyes, Caoimhe looked away. They knew when it was simply banter between siblings, and then they knew when it has escalated beyond just a fight. Not only had Caoimhe paid with their life, they paid the price of the love shared between them and Kallias. "You can't just disown me... we're blood, aren't we? I thought you would understand... I couldn't do anything in there, and now I'm free. Isn't that what you were trying to do, to help me?"

"No, Caoimhe, that's not how it works. We may have shared a womb, but we clearly don't share anything else. I warned you about going searching for Thronakkhar, and what did you do? You got yourself fucked up and now you're trying to make me feel sorry for you being a dumbass. And you might have freed yourself from your mind prison, but you aren't free. You still have to do Thronakkhar's bidding, and all of that," Kallias shouted, gesturing around animatedly, "is because of you. I can't believe you played yourself like that. But I guess I can believe it because you're a complete dumbass, in the end. And no amount of reading books can fix that, nor can it fix your fucked up, selfish set of morals apparently. You're even more of a coward than Vanya."

Lip quivering, Caoimhe could not stop their tears from flowing down their face. They reached out to hug Kallias once again, but Kallias simply pushed them away coldly. "We'll all be reincarnated... Thronakkhar promised..."

Sighing, Kallias slapped Caoimhe across the face, and Caoimhe instantly stopped sobbing. "I can't believe you think Thronakkhar is telling the truth. You actually trust this thing, that kept you hostage?"

Nodding meekly, Caoimhe wondered where the rational part of their brain had gone in all of this. Kallias gritted their teeth and rubbed the bridge of their nose with their thumb and forefinger. "Thronakkhar is such a dick..."

As soon as the words left Kallias's lips, the lights in the flat began flickering quickly until the point where several of the lights burst, sending pieces of glass flying in all directions. Caoimhe looked up, jumping at the noise. Narrowing their eyes, Kallias announced, "I guess this just means we're going to have to kill god."

Suddenly, the flames from outside the flat increased in size and intensity tenfold, seeping into the living room and raising the temperature to intolerable levels. Caoimhe smacked Kallias on the arm and then gestured at their surroundings. "Why did you have to do that?!"

"I'm done being scared of this bird twat. Someone's got to do it," Kallias yelled over the roaring sound of the flames as they were both engulfed, and everything went black.

-----

When Kallias opened their eyes and came to, they simply did not speak for a moment. They looked straight ahead solemnly while allowing Rain to embrace them; the feeling of Rain's arms around their body made Kallias more acutely aware of their surroundings.

"We have some good news, but we have more bad news," Kallias began, their face unreadable. "Good news: Caoimhe is no longer trapped in their mind prison by Thronakkhar. But the bad news is that not only are they helping Thronakkhar, they bargained with it and got their freedom in exchange for their devotion. Oh, yeah, and the entirety of central London has been consumed by hellfire, and those actual monsters I saw on the astral plane are apparently real now and they seem to have a taste for human flesh."

Fane stared at Kallias and then at Rain, swallowing loudly. She backed up against one of the walls of the corridor and sank to the floor, crumpling up in the fetal position with her head against her knees. "I don't believe that... Caoimhe wouldn't betray us like that..."

"Well, that's just reality for you. They can and they did," Kallias responded, their voice cracking.

"Is that what they told you? There has to be a good reason for it," Rain said, rubbing his chin in thought. "We know Caoimhe isn't always the most rational person, but they don't do things for entirely stupid or selfish reasons, you know this better than anyone. There's always logic behind it."