When the door opened, the Champion couldn't help but startle in complete nervousness. He wasn't sure of how to act toward the one that practically spat in his face.
"You won't regret it, I swear!" a male voice promised, belonging to Radean.
The first to enter was Nightstrider, who had her arms crossed and eyes narrowed. She immediately took her position against the wall right beside the door, leaning against it with one leg bent backward. Her brother followed, scanned her, then sighed. He soon faced the Champion with a sparkle in his eyes, though there was apparent weariness beneath the surface.
"It was very hard getting her to come, but I managed to persuade her," Radean declared, his sister rolling her eyes and snorting.
The Champion rested his gaze upon the girl, neither of them speaking a word. She wouldn't look back at him, even despite the long, awkward silence she was accustomed to filling in the past.
"Hello, big guy?"
"Use your foolish tongue no more," the Champion requested, as he pounded his fist on the table. Nightstrider finally peered at him in irritation, but her arms remained crossed to hide whatever she was feeling. "I want to hear from her, not you."
"I don't think she'll speak; she's quite pissed—" Radean began, though Nightstrider finally pushed herself off the wall.
"I really, really didn't want to come here," she plainly stated. Her new position had her hands gripping the table's edge and leaning forward. Her eyes stared into the Champion in an assertive manner. "But it seems my mind can be changed. It just takes a lot of work." She looked over her shoulder at her idle brother and scoffed. "Like... a lot."
"It took hours to get her to even acknowledge my words!" Radean complained. He was always a background noise, really. In all the encounters, he was just there. He existed. It was almost as if he was a leech that tried to steal his sister's spotlight.
"You can get on my nerves so easily sometimes," Nightstrider murmured, and shifted her gaze onto the Champion again. Irritation in her brown eyes immediately turned into frustration. "I hope you remember what I told you last night. I seriously do—that your thick skull can handle such jarring news."
The Champion was uneasy at her foul language, but showed nothing of it. Instead, he fumbled with his gauntlets in a calm, poised state. As per usual; the king never showed any signs of hesitation or nervousness. Or at least they hid it well.
"I had a meeting earlier with the council—"
"That despises your entire existence?" Nightstrider remarked, amused, shaking her head. "They hate you to the point of sending assassins. And it's not like you don't hate them either, so what's the point? Why even bother confronting enemies that only wish for your downfall?" She leaned further in, her red stroke of hair falling down upon her face. "Hm? Are you that desperate? Has it come this far so soon?"
"I am not desperate nor will I ever be," the Champion answered as boldly as possible, his visor rigid in providing a cold stare. Usually those that met it would cower and look away. Nightstrider did no such thing.
"Really now?" She laughed and let her gaze slide onto the table beneath her. Black hair was already pouring out of the hood, nearly touching the surface. "Using pawns to do your dirty work. Killing supposed traitors to appease your insecure state." She moved her head back up to reveal bored eyes. "You are desperate. Very much in fact. Don't even try to deny it."
"I. Am. Not. Desperate," the Champion spelled out, as he was forced to slide his right gauntlet out of sight to suppress its thirst to rip her tongue out in an instance.
The two stared at each other until Radean appeared beside his sister and gripped her right shoulder.
"We're friends here, aren't we?" he asked, looking at both of them. Neither would meet his gaze back.
"Ugh! You're so miserable sometimes!" Nightstrider exclaimed, suddenly stepping away from the table. She pulled her mask down to reveal red lips forming a deep frown, and a button nose that impatiently snorted breaths. "It's so hot in here. I can't even breathe."
Silent, the Champion watched her pant in such a way that made her glare at him.
"Okay, you really need to stop that," she demanded. "It's extremely uncomfortable and I just want to gauge your stupid eyes out. And then I'll—"
"She doesn't mean any of that," Radean interrupted her. He walked to her side and brought her into a side embrace, which she didn't seem all that content in having.
"Oh, I do. I mean every word of—" she began, only for her mouth to be covered immediately.
"No, no, we're all good here," Radean promised. He nervously chuckled as his sister groaned and eventually stomped on his foot to make him yelp and back away. Her eyes were absorbed in utmost hatred, the type that the Champion had seen in orcs. A very disturbing and unwanted one.
"You're supposed to be backing me up, Radean," Nightstrider requested, disgusted at who stood before her. "No, even more than that—you're supposed to be the one starting this. The one seizing control of the conversation and forcing your opponents into submission." She thrust a finger at her brother as her other hand went to her side. "Why aren't you? Why are you so cowardly? Why in the name of God did you have to be my brother—"
"You don't mean that!" Radean protested.
"I mean every word of what I say, and I intend for it to stay that way until I die," Nightstrider replied. Her finger slowly drifted downward for some of her aggression to fade away. Eventually, she brought her other hand to wipe aside the hair messily strewn across her face that obscured the Champion from even seeing her facial gestures.
"You... think I'm not a good brother—"
"You're a terrible one, yes!"
Radean let the words sink in, though it took a while for him to register them. He let his eyes fall onto the floor, and then he slumped into one of the chairs. He couldn't even bring himself to face his sister, much less respond; however, somebody else was quite eager to do just that:
"At least he did not kill his family for the sake of aimless power."
Nightstrider jolted as if she had been punched in the gut. Her eyes suddenly darted over to the Champion in a bout of rage.
"What did you just say?"
"Your family did not die by starvation, by me not being a good king," the Champion claimed, leaning further in. "No, they didn't die that poorly. Instead, they were killed coldly. Brutally. Without reason. And their murderer wasn't just some bandit or psychopath." He shook his head in pity. "It was their own daughter, rather, that killed those that raised her, loved her—"
"How cruel and idiotic can you be?!" Nightstrider screamed, and pushed herself onto the table. She had already drawn daggers in both hands, her eyes mimicking the gleaming blades for a show of bloodthirst. "I told you the truth, and this is how you react? By making up false rumors? By blaming me for the tragedy that had taken my life away? Do you wish to crush my soul; is that how truly evil you are?"
The Champion didn't move a muscle as she approached. Step by step, she looked more and more like a broken girl with nothing left to live for. A hopeless, desperate predator that hunted prey far more dangerous than it could hope of even becoming. A delusional fool. It was all that she would be known for being after her untimely, forgotten death.
"Please stop, Blossom!" Radean pleaded, reaching out for her from the side of the table. At his action, Nightstrider thrust her attention onto him and swiped a dagger at him. She only missed by a few inches, so precise and swift that it was surely intentional.
"Don't try to stop me, Radean," she growled, through clenched teeth. "You have already done that enough. You have already held me back. That is all you've done. You've never helped me. You've never taken my side. You just watched me crumble apart and allowed yourself to succumb to the same fate."
"I was in shock! They died so fast and I didn't know what to do—"
"Be a man," Nightstrider interjected, her voice somber and grave. "Be a brother. Take me into your arms and tell me it's alright. Tell me we'll be fine on our own. Tell me we have to move on. Tell me you would be there if anything would go wrong. That you wouldn't end up like them, and I wouldn't be all alone..."
Silence overtook the bunch as the once fierce, assertive, dominant girl began to do the one thing she would never do: cry. She let her daggers fall onto the table, bouncing around aimlessly, until she fell on her knees and brought her hands to her face. The suppressed sobbing made the Champion remember his soldiers all those nights ago. After they had witnessed the slaughter of innocents. It was true, utter hopelessness and devastation. They were helpless and doomed to suffer.
"Blossom..." Radean began, but he couldn't formulate anything. The only thing he could do was step onto the table and kneel where Nightstrider was crying, as if she was trapped and couldn't escape. He tried numerous times to move his hand or speak, yet his attempts were all for naught. Accepting his defeat, he heavily sighed and wiped his eyes of potential tears.
"I'm truly sorry, Blossom, for everything. If I hadn't been such a coward, if I was just the brother you wished me to be, it would've turned out alright." He shook his head in dismay, while Nightstrider slowly ceased her crying. "All I can now is say I promise to be that exact brother: I will take your side, I will help you, I will not mess up, and I will hold your hand in such times as these."
Radean pulled his sister into his embrace in a way that muffled her crying to an almost abrupt halt. It was soft now, like she was falling asleep. Like exhaustion had settled in.
"Emotions," Jewel commented, leaning behind the Champion's chair. "It amazes me how weak it renders people, brother. They appear so strong and mighty, but then this happens. How? It's the most amount of vulnerability I've ever seen. It's like they're naked and unarmed on the battlefield in the middle of a winter storm. There's no possible way they could ever survive."
The Champion studied the embrace closely, which was so still and quiet that it felt as if time had stopped.
If only he had done this to Shimmer when she had come to him with tears soaking her face and clothes. With a voice so broken and lost that she couldn't even speak. All she could do was sob and look for relief in his arms. For him to tell her it would be alright in the end.
But he didn't.
She would embrace him, her head buried into his chestplate, but he wouldn't do anything. He didn't even hug her back, nor did he say anything at all. Whenever she had stopped crying, she always gave him a little smile and then left. Of course, it was fake... or was it? Was him just being there—a body to hug—enough?
"Oh, can't you stop that?" Jewel demanded in annoyance. "These thoughts are a plague! Don't let them linger. Kill them immediately!" He rushed over to the Champion's side and prodded his shoulder with a spiked finger that drizzled black particles onto his onto the floor.
"Shimmer has no place in your mind. Look at what she has done to you!"
The Champion paid no heed to Jewel, who continued to speak worthless venom, as he instead watched Radean soothe his sister's back. Slowly, gently, they just sat there. It was silent. None of them spoke. The crying had ceased. It truly seemed as if Nightstrider had fallen asleep to a kind lullaby.
He wished he had done that for Shimmer, that she had fallen asleep in his arms. He had failed, then. He was never good enough. He didn't satisfy her; he lacked the words and experience. He could blame the lack of emotions as well, but he knew he had them. He just didn't want to use them—they made him weak.
A commander needed no emotions. A king needed none. A hero didn't, either, for they were all roles with tasks to complete. They were best accomplished without anything holding him back.
But he wanted to be there for Shimmer, to tell her it would be alright. He knew emotions were bad and far from essential, but he didn't care. To make her happy was all he wished to do. Without emotions, it was nearly impossible. No, it was impossible. She would leave him, go to her bed, then continue to cry. It wasn't enough to be a hollow shell. It was embarrassing for her to have her expectations so heavily averted.
"Are you listening to anything I'm saying?!"
The Champion shook his head in clear defiance to Jewel's words, his gaze trained upon the two siblings that he had wished for him and Shimmer to be in the past.
"Blossom would never do such a thing," he decided in ignorance to Jewel's pointless arguing. "Nobody would feel this way unless they truly cared. A coldhearted, ruthless killer would laugh and feel joy at the recollection. But she is not one. She did watch them die. She did suffer."
He sighed, his gaze falling to the floor where the puddle of void particles could be found in its hopeless, immobile state.
"All because of me."