Rheon

Special piece of guest work here! Enjoy!

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By Rachel Vaughan

"Do you trust me?" Caleb's voice was hollow, his slate grey eyes fearless and haunting. He did not move from the edge of the shattered cathedral, his feet hanging over the stone of the broken floors that parted way for a drop that would be sure to end his life. The evening's sunlight had by now started to filter through the stained glass - a whole wall of it in fact, stretching close to a hundred feet high, and scattering a rainbow of orange tinted colours across every inch of the ruined building. Holo stood still, backing away from the boy she barely knew. She didn't utter a word in response - just watched, waiting. Caleb never turned to face her; his eyes were too fixed on the non-existent floor infront of him to pay attention to the shaking that was clearly visible in her hands.

"You wouldn't." Holo finally muttered, finding the silence uncomfortable. "You'd be insane to do such a thing." Her voice was quiet and strangled in shock. Caleb chuckled and removed his hands from his jacket pockets.

"Then call me insane."

For a second, Holo thought she was imagining that Caleb had vanished from her view, but as she raced to look over the side of the drop, she was terrified to learn that she had indeed watched the shadowy boy fall to what would be his death. No thoughts burdened her mind after her realisation, no words escaped her mouth. Instead she stood still and wide eyed, coming to her senses that this was the fifth death she had now witnessed happening before her. She could hear nothing but her own thin breath, hurrying in and out of her lungs and fighting to keep her from crying out in horror or shock. What has that stupid boy done, she thought to herself, running her hands through her long dark hair and pulling at the strands in distress. What on earth was he thinking. Holo found her body weaking, her legs giving way underneath her and inching her closer to the ground. She obeyed, naturally, finding her palms pressed against the cold stone flooring that had been all but completely demolished in the great war.


Holo had no clue how much time had passed when she finally found the strength to lift her head and stare down at the black abyss before her. She searched the darkness for Caleb's body, presuming of course that he had no chance of surviving such a fall. She scoured every inch of the depths, but nothing, nothing but a faint white glow that seemed to rise out from the darkness. Holo squinted hard, leaning over the ledge a bit too close for comfort to try and get a better look at the peculiar light. With the light came a low whimper, more animalistic than mortal, but still, she couldnt find the source from which it came. Frustrated and thinking she was imagining things, Holo climbed to her feet, sighed, and then turned away. Death was the last thing she would want to worry herself with in a time like this. Caleb was just another body lost to the gods. Another face she would be forced to forget.

But just as she adverted her misty blue eyes from the darkness that consumed the troubled boy, the most shrill, deafening sound sliced through every particle of her being, forcing her to the ground to shield her ears.

Bright white light. That was all she saw at first. It was blinding like the sun, but cold like snow. It was unnaturally artificial, so clean and crisp that she could think of nothing that even compared to its brightness. The shrill shriek was so deafining it soon became to high to be audible, but the low base hum still rung out and entered the distressed girl's ears. Holo's heart beat hard, still feeling the base of the shriek in her throat. She rolled onto her back, hoisting her body up and leaning back on her trembling arms. At first, she couldn't quite take in what she was looking at. She had never seen anything like it. The light it emitted blanketed the darkness, turning the disgrace of a cathedral into a place that seemed almost ethereal. A creature quite unlike any other that floated effortlessy before her, white as milk, its barely visible scales looking as soft as silk. It was large, but to compare it to any living animal would prove impossible. It looked somewhat reptilian, but its slender face and sleek blue eyes seemed almost felline. It hovered in place above the darkness, no visible wings to explain how it remained in flight. Its limbs looked powerful, but delicate and graceful, and the way it flicked its head and thin tail seemed almost robotic and manual. The creature whispered noises, almost as if it were communicating, but the sounds were so incomprehensible they sounded more like mews and purs of a house cat. Too fascinated by this strange creature, Holo was unaware of the smiling form that clung onto the creature's back. It was Caleb - unharmed and quite obviously pleased with himself. Holo walked towards both creature and boy, reaching out her hand to feel the cooling light on her scuffed palms.

"What is it?" she asked, her eyes full of whimsy.

"Don't you know?" Caleb chimed back. "She's the weapon of our rebellion."

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This here is the piece of concept art which inspired Rachel, published here courtesy of http://danbooru.donmai.us/post/index?tags=munashichi