They had thought the savagery of barbarism, closely aligned with the evil within men's hearts, would win out after all and become the unstoppable force, the flood that would wash away the glories of civilization. They had assumed that the baser desires of man's nature, corrupted from the beginning, would overtake the higher nature man aspires to, though his flesh may fail time and again.
But as for the brilliant, searing light of divine Good, that they couldn't comprehend.
***
There was a stillness in the air, Thaen learned, right before the power of his brother ripped through space.
Thaen had leaped over a fallen cart when the blast clipped his leg, sending him flying and spinning to the side. It was the same sensation of swimming under a wave in the ocean, feeling it pass overhead, feeling the energy and force roll over him, but catch his leg and yank it back towards the shore. It was like that, but with tenfold strength and not nearly as gentle. The sea wave, on a bad day, would drag his face through the ocean floor and have him resurfacing spitting out sand and brine. This was a lot worse.
He slammed into a wall, and his head swam and ears rang. He must have hit his head or something, seeing as the ground was spinning and buildings were tilting left and right. He rose unsteadily to his feet.
Once the ringing in his ears subsided, he heard screaming.
Immediately, he whirled around. He had been lucky in only getting clipped by the blast of force. The house behind him, not so much.
Most of the roof had been blown off, and the house was covered with scattered debris and shattered chips of red roofing tiles. There were remnants of bottles and splintered shelves, and half of the lattice of a wine rack still hung.
Thaen focused, despite the pounding in his head. There, the sound was coming from below the store. A child screaming, a woman pleading, a man struggling.
There! A large chunk of that pale masonry lay across the floor, over a trapdoor. "Are you alright down there?" Thaen asked.
"What happened?" A man's voice struggled to get through the trapdoor. "Why can't I open the door?"
"Well... you know that monster and dragon that are fighting out here?" The man answered in the affirmative. "Well, you're roof's on the street behind you. I think this is part of your stone doorframe atop the trapdoor." The smell of spilled alcohol made Thaen's already-spinning head lighter.
"Oh. How bad is it?" The man seemed nervous. "Apart from missing the roof, that is,"
"Not good," Thaen said. "Stay below, but... actually, what do you have down there?"
"What, are you looking for money?" the man asked.
"Love, just give him the gold if that's what gets us out of here," Thaen heard the woman, presumably the man's wife, plead.
"I don't want money. Do you have a weapon down there?" Thaen asked. "Also, I'm going to need some blood."
"Blood? What, are you a witch or- no, you're a Vesperati, aren't you?" the man asked.
Thaen nodded, then realized that the man couldn't see him. "Yes."
"I... I have an old military pike down here. Will that be enough?"
"Perfect. Get under the trapdoor." Thaen had little time to help Karik'ar and Skaria, so he was glad that he heard shifting down below him without questioning. "Now, when I tell you to do it, push and open up. One, two, three!"
Thaen felt the strength surge through his arms, his core, his legs. He lifted, groaning with the weight. The stone was cold enough to bite into his hands, and the weight was almost too much for him to handle, but he lifted.
He threw the stone aside, and a wide-eyed man rose from the trapdoor. "Thank you," he said, looking down at Thaen as he climbed up. The man peered at his shop. "Why in the world would this happen?"
"I'll tell you quick, but I'll need blood and a weapon." He looked out at the two figures, fighting in a square. Masonry and fire flew up in a cloud around the dragon and the gray-skinned abomination, which seemed to have grown in size.
"That dragon is my brother. He took me in for a year. That monster is Kazalibad, one of the Eight. He threatened to kill my brother's beloved, and wanted to kill my brother. And me. And anyone else he felt like."
"Oh." The man looked down at his wife. "Stay down there, but grab the spear, dear." He offered his hand. "I'd rather not have my daughter see me bleeding. Don't want to scare her anymore."
"You're not going to. I still suggest staying below," Thaen said. "Take off the trapdoor though. Rip it out, keep it below, and just steer clear of it."
"Yeah. I'll leave it open so we don't get trapped." He leaned down and pulled up a spear, which he handed to Thaen. "Will this do?" he asked.
Thaen tested it, swung it around. "Yes. It'll do fine." The shaft was made of a strong, supple wood, and despite the flecks of rust on the spearhead, it was still sharp. "Now, blood."
The man offered forth his arm, and Thaen bit into it. The blood welled up in his mouth, and it made him relax, made him focus, and made his light head settle. "Thank you," Thaen said, and nodded. "Stay safe. Stay below."
"What about you?" the man asked.
"I have other things to do." With that, Thaen unfurled his wings, spear tucked behind his back in his belt, and leaped into the air.
***
From his vantage point atop the roof, Thaen could see everything. He saw the hideously-deformed creation of Karik'ar's, stalking over to the other shamans and their creations. He saw the green-skinned assassin approach Karik'ar, who somehow couldn't move. Was he exhausted? Was that it?
"While they die, I'll just kill you. Your spirits cannot last much longer past your death." He heard that, clear as day, through the air. And, for some reason, though he had braced himself to hear those words, they infuriated him. How dare they attack Karik'ar? How dare they?
And in that moment, what he had been told by the Vesperati elders made sense. They had spoken not of the Kai'Draen being savages, but possessed by savagery. They were slaves to their baser nature, slaves in service of evil ideas, glorifying violence, ignorance, and brutality.
Karik'ar was the stunning rebuke to them. He had a gentleness about him, a love of knowledge, and incredible self control. And in that moment, Thaen realized something. Karik'ar was what the Kai'Draen needed. Should they adopt his character, they would grow to become a unified empire, one that, instead of sending half-naked savages to assault the Vesperati, would be on equal par with them. But that was a future that Thaen wanted, because an empire raised by the might of the virtues Karik'ar possessed wouldn't conquer the Vesperati strongholds, but be worthy allies.
And this monster, this assassin, was going to kill off that future for the sake of what? Bloodline purity? A misguided attempt to keep peace? He was doing a grave disservice to all the Vesperati and Kai'Draen in the future.
But more importantly, he was trying to hurt Thaen's friend.
The Vesperati leaped into the air with one beat of his wings, screaming in rage. He had prepared his body to withstand the shock of landing from twenty feet, but he was planning on having something to cushion his fall a bit. Or rather, someone. Guided by righteous anger, fueled by wrath, he fell, like a missile thrown from the heavens, landing with all the accuracy of an arrow launched from the bow of a master archer.
The spear slammed through the assassin's neck and embedded in the pavements. The assassin slid down, painting the shaft red, before he let out his last breath. Thaen let the spear stay there, nodded to Karik'ar, and turned back to face the other Kai'Draen doing battle with the strange beast that belonged to Karik'ar.
He heard the Kai'Draen try to rise. "Stay down," Thaen said. "Keep your strength."
"Skaria... she's hurt." Thaen looked over and saw her, slumped against a wall. He could still hear her heartbeat, even from this distance, if he focused, but there was little time for that. He had a war to do, a battle to wage on behalf of his friend. The Vesperati picked up the discarded weapons. They were heavy, but tapping into some of his blood-enhanced strength would allow him to become deadly with them.
And deadly he would be.
He charged forward, running as fast as he can. Thaen leaped one of the impossible creatures doing battle and slammed into one of the shamans. An axe to the face put one down, but before that one fell, he drew a the Kai'Draen's stone dagger. One of the other shamans tried to grab him, but a cut from the dagger forced the shaman to recoil. It didn't last long as Thaen buried that blade in the shaman's chest. He shoved the Kai'Draen over as the shaman acted out his death throes.
A third shaman charged, and Thaen didn't even think. He grabbed the hand, dagger and all, and whipped the Kai'Draen around, using blood-enhanced strength to swing the tribesman around like a rag doll. At last, he released the Kai'Draen, and the man went flying, before crashing into a wall. He still breathed, but not for long. Thaen picked up a flint-tipped spear, the wood damp with blood. The Vesperati took aim, and with one calculated throw, slammed the spear through the Kai'Draen's skull. He stopped breathing.
All that death and violence happened in less than fifteen seconds.
At that moment, his blood ran out, and he sank to his knees. They were all dead, and the strange phantasms had vanished, all but the horrid husk of a man that had defended Karik'ar. It watched him now, but didn't attack. At this rate, he wouldn't be able to survive if it did attack.
Instead, he licked off some of the blood from his fur. It should have brought him some more energy, some more vitality to his tired limbs.
Instead, Thaen spat it out. He could taste their anger, taste their hate, a bitter and oily foulness that lingered in his mouth. Their lives had built up so much anger, and their hearts had been consumed by the greedy fires of rage, that it had corrupted the wine of their vein. It saddened him and sickened him at the same time.
He rose unsteadily, and walked over to Karik'ar, who had already gotten up and was holding Skaria. "Let's get somewhere safe, and keep her resting," Karik'ar said.
"What about Kazalibad? What about Laidu?" Thaen asked. "Are you asking me to just leave him?"
"No." Karik'ar paused. "I think he'll be fine dealing with Kazalibad. Seems strange for me to say it, but I do."
"Not that," Thaen said. "The other thing." He didn't even want to think about what Laidu asked him to do, but he had to. Thaen had to honor his brother's wishes, even if it meant doing the abominable act of ending his brother's life to protect Kyra. He had to fulfill that wish.
"I saw Laidu's soul. And the soul of the other one. Rhaedrashah. And you know what I saw?" Karik'ar asked.
"No, what did you see?" Thaen asked.
"Two souls united in singular purpose. Laidu is safe. And the madness has gone away from the other." Relief crashed over Thaen. He wouldn't have to fulfill Laidu's dreadful command. He sent up a prayer of thanks. "Now, we need to get Skaria somewhere safe, and pray that Laidu ends this quickly."