The Thousand-Eyed Crow (#Wattys2020)

Chapter 10 (The Duality of Man)

"Unfortunately in this case it's stupid and bad logic. They asked Thronakkhar to free them and they became one of its devotees, knowing that it intended to bring on the end of the world," Kallias explained, shaking their hair out a bit. "I know being coerced by a supernatural being is scary, but selling out everyone just because you believe it'll keep its word about resurrecting your loved ones is just ridiculous and selfish."

Fane pondered this, wiping a stray tear from her eye. "Well I don't know about you, but we can't just abandon them. And I know you like to act like you're okay with just pretending that things are fine, and that Caoimhe is no longer important to you, but I know I still love them, and I want to find a solution that's beneficial to all of us."

"What, pray tell, do you think we can do when there are literal demons taking over the city, hm?" Kallias retorted.

"Well, didn't we come here to chat to Vanya about what she knows? Maybe she can offer some insight," Rain interjected, pointing to the door of the infirmary. "I mean, she's right there."

Shrugging, Kallias wheeled over to the infirmary with Fane and Rain in tow, and they arranged themselves around Vanya's bed.

"We hope you're all right," Fane said to Vanya, patting her shoulder gently.

"I don't mean to interrogate you, but we want to know all you know about the Tribe of the Thronakkh and about Thronakkhar," Kallias said bluntly, crossing their arms over their body.

All of the members of the group eyed Vanya, and she avoided all of their gazes. Sighing, she recounted what she knew.

"But I think the reason you're skeptics," Vanya said, pointing at all of them in turn, "is because you don't have the piece of Thronakkhar in you, the way Caoimhe and I do. So for us, devotion is inevitable."

"That doesn't make sense, though. Why did I see it in my dreams, then, if I don't have a piece of it?" Kallias asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The water of the womb is very powerful and it can mix some of these things together. Just being close to Caoimhe for those 9 months rubbed some of it off on you, it seems," Vanya responded. "And it explains why your mom would know about Caoimhe and be able to warn you, too."

"How did you know that?" Kallias said in disbelief. "I literally only spoke about that with Caoimhe in the astral plane..."

"Because we're all technically parts of the same body, we can hear each others' thoughts, and I've heard Caoimhe's from time to time. But it doesn't happen very frequently. Especially in here, these things are a bit cut off," Vanya explained. "We don't have a lot of time before Thronakkhar gets so powerful that it destroys this place, though. It was stupid of me to think I could just hide in here forever. I'm starting to hear some of what my siblings are saying again..."

"London is the last stronghold, after all. And it looks like it's falling..." Fane muttered. "So I'm guessing you have no idea what we can do stop things from going even more wrong?"

"Really the only thing it looks like we can do now is to just watch the world end..." Rain said solemnly. "I don't care for this shit at all."

"If you're asking to prevent the end of the world, Fane, you're delusional. This is not really something humans are capable of doing," Shuang noted. "Besides, we might as well have fun in our last hours instead of trying to stop the inevitable."

The group sat there in silence, contemplating Shuang's words.

"I hope Caoimhe was right about us being reincarnated," Fane said, trying to sound lighthearted but failing miserably.