Resolution

Chapters

Chapter One - Verse
Chapter Two - Chorus
Chapter Three - Bridge
Chapter Four - Coda

Chapter One - Verse

Caught in the swirling coastal wind, Forza’s long hair twisted and writhed around him. It clutched at the air, then fell, rose, and fell again. In the middle of it all, his eyes blazed like embers when he shot a glance back over his shoulder. “Hurry up! We have no time for your nonsense!”

“But I’m tired!” Adagio dragged her foot up yet another of the seemingly endless stone stairs that had been carved into the towering cliff. Twin fires smoldered in each of her legs, flaring up again with each step.

Forza’s mouth twisted into a hard sneer. “You’re tired. I’m sure that will be a big comfort to your brother.”

Reaching out a hand to steady herself on the cliff’s clammy wall, Adagio dropped her eyes to the ground. She hated it, but her mother was always telling her that she’d get farther with her father by not pushing things so much. “I just want to stop for a second. My feet—”

“Well, that’s too bad.” Forza snatched Adagio’s hand from the wall and pulled. “I let your mother coddle you for twelve years—two years too long—but it’s finally time for you to do your part!” His flinty eyes bored into her. “If you’re able.”

Adagio’s lower lip trembled.

Forza worked his tongue around his mouth, then spat at her feet. “Poor Adagio. Here she suffers the Joining while her brother risks death daily at our border.”

“Well, then you do it!” Adagio said, her face hardening. “I didn’t ask—”

Adagio let out a small scream when her father’s hand shot out and grabbed a fistful of her voluminous hair. Growling, he dragged her up several stairs. “Didn’t ask? As though you ever would have! You! Born with power, yet you squander it singing to birds while wasting time with your friends. We face extinction, but poor, precious Adagio—”

“Let go of me!”

“Poor, precious Adagio,” he continued, raising his voice, “can’t be bothered! Practices when she feels like it. Helps out at home only when there’s nothing better to do. Talks back. Well, no more! You’ll—”

Forcing her head up, Adagio inhaled, then sang out a quavering note. The air between them rippled like the surface of a wind-blown pond.

Forza’s eyes slid out of focus for only a second, but in that moment, his hand spasmed and released his daughter. His mouth fell open, then twisted into a furious snarl.

Adagio lifted her foot to step away, then stomped it back down to the ground. Her fingernails dug into her palms as she she balled her fists against her sides. “Oh, I’m so sorry I’m such a disappointment to you!” Her eyes flashed. “I’m sorry that eight hours of practicing every day isn’t enough! I’m sorry that I have to stop when my throat gives out. I’m sorry I’m not perfect like Marcato!”

“Your brother was never perfect, but he knew what was at stake!” Forza reached out again, but pulled his hand away just before touching Adagio, settling instead for shaking his fist in her face. “His teachers never had to come to me complaining that he just didn’t feel like singing that day. He never lazed in bed while the rest of the house sweated. No, when Marcato was able, he performed his Joining without complaint. He went to defend us because that’s his duty!”

“Well, I don’t want to!” Adagio trembled, but refused to look away from her father’s hard, hateful eyes. “All you want me to do is force people to do what you want them to do! I’m sick of it!”

“All I want you to do is fulfill your obligations!”

“They aren’t mine!” Lips pulled back into a snarl, Adagio leaned into the argument that had simmered between them for twelve years. Her mother had carefully tended to the escalating heat, diffusing the aggression where she could, but here, away from her soothing voice and gentle touch, Adagio found herself eager. She would not be silenced again. “No one asked me! I didn’t agree to anything! Maybe I don’t want to spend the rest of my life fighting things and waiting to get killed! You don’t care about me or Marcato! All you care about is that everyone knows you sent your son and daughter off to the war because you’re such a great citizen! It probably got you a bunch of new business when you packed Marcato off, didn’t it? You probably—”

“How dare you?” Forza’s face drained to bone white, then ugly blotches of red blossomed on his cheeks. His whole body shook. “You have no idea what I have sacrificed for—”

“I know exactly what you’ve sacrificed!” Tears welled in Adagio’s eyes, but she wiped them away hard with the back of her hand. “Us! It’s always us! Everyday, you use me and Marcato and mom to get what you want, and when we’re all used up, you’ll find someone else and do it again!”

Forza’s hand clenched into a fist, and he half-raised his arm before taking several steadying deep breaths. Still trembling, he fixed his daughter with his narrowed, iron-grey eyes. “Use. What a curious way of putting it. I’d love to find some use for you. We live in a society, Adagio, and each of us has a function. Each of us but you, who spends her days doing as she pleases because no one knows better than she. You’d speak to me of using? Your mother and father provide for you, and what do we get in return? Your teachers and trainers spend countless hours, and what do they have to show for it? You stand on the backs of multitudes, yet give nothing!” He leaned in, thrusting his finger into her face. “Now tell me, who is using whom?”

Adagio slapped the finger away. “Fine! You want me to help out so bad? You want me to be a ‘contributing member of society?’ Let’s go do your precious ritual. You think I’m bad now? Just wait until—”

“What? What are you going to do, Adagio? Bring us all to heel with your new-found might?” Forza snapped, turning his back on her and ascending the stairs again, “You’d have to succeed first, and quite frankly, I have my doubts about that.”

Seething, Adagio growled and slammed her fist into the damp, cold stone wall beside her. “I hate you!” she whispered.

~~~

Buffeted by ferocious gusts, Forza’s hand wavered wildly while he struggled to point to a worn stone dais. “Stand in the circle.”

“I’m going!” Adagio wondered if her father could even hear her. The howling winds at the top of cliff tore the words from her mouth and sent them tumbling back toward the mainland. She screamed louder. “What do I do now?”

Forza motioned to faint indentations in the circle’s center. “Put your feet there.”

Adagio continued to glare at him while she stomped into place.

“Don’t look at me, idiot girl! Look over—” A smirk wormed its way across his face. “Ah. Do you feel it? There’s no turning away from your responsibility this time.”

“What are you—”

A rumbling growl shook the earth beneath their feet. Adagio whipped her head around and stared off into the foggy ocean air. Despite everything she’d said to herself in the past few weeks, she found herself trembling. A white hot bolt of panic shot through her.

Something was coming for her. Something big.

“No…” Adagio took a step off of the dais.

“Do not move!”

Adagio found herself back in position. Turning to catch her father out of the corner of her eye, she swallowed hard. Several feet away, he’d dropped to one knee, clutching his throat. Fear mixed with a kind of smug satisfaction warred within her. Like most of their people, her father had only been born with a faint touch of the gift. Adagio could feel his jealousy and greed each time he came to hear her sing. His own voice, so common and flat, held very little of the power to command and control that she’d been born with. To influence her as he had, he must have had to strain to his very limits. He was probably in a great deal of pain, and that made Adagio want to smile.

But it also meant that whatever this was held incredible danger. The ground trembled again, and the beginnings of Adagio’s grin fell away. She wanted to run, but her feet refused. “What is it? What’s going on?”

“Tame it, Adagio.” His voice rasped out, barely audible above the whipping of the winds.

She twisted around to face him, her teeth bared. “You didn’t say anything about fighting!”

“It’s forbidden!” he croaked. “The ceremony’s secrets must be kept.”

Adagio hummed low and felt the glamour of his song break. She stepped off the dais again, but nearly fell when the thing roared out in a strange, keening voice. Somewhere below them, a section of cliff cracked and dropped into the sea. “Well, I’m not—”

She froze when she met her father’s eyes. They were wide and desperate. For once, any trace of scorn had left them. “It’s an Ancient that you’ve called!” His finger stabbed back toward the dais. “Get back into position! The ritual has begun. You cannot end it! The creature will devour your mind!”

Her knees buckled when vicious laughter exploded inside her head. Reeling, Adagio tried to find her bearings, but the seaside whirled around her. Something was filling her consciousness: A presence equally malicious and contemptuous.

You have finally come. Even whispering, the voice slammed into her mind with sledgehammer force. So strong. So weak. So many glimmering facets. Which parts to consume first?

In the fog, a hulking shadow rose before them. Where the haze allowed, Adagio caught glimpses. The flash of a golden scale. Saliva glinting from a yellowed tooth. The narrowing of an eye.

“Master it!” her father said, rising to stand beside her. “If not for me—if not for our people—tame it for yourself. You must win this or become its slave, and to become its slave is to become the enemy!”

Adagio shot him a glare filled with loathing before stepping back onto the dais. “You didn’t tell me.”

“It is forbid—”

“You didn’t tell me!” Adagio felt the presence in her mind retreat from her anger. Half-snarling, she allowed her rage to fill her. “You! All of you! Everyone is always just… just trying to get everyone else to do whatever it is that they want. It’s all lies and plots and whatever you can do to force people into your plan! Well, I’m not going to be a part of it! I’m done!”

Are you now? the voice purred. Perhaps you would walk a new path? Others have stood within the circle and found that they desired more. Your brothers and sisters, weary of their chains, have joined with us. Will you? I can free you from your people…

Adagio focused on her anger, imagining it as a white-hot ball. The voice hissed and shrank away. “Get… out… of my… mind!”

Adagio shuddered when the thing chuckled. It was a thick, viscous sound, as though it laughed through a throatful of blood. Idiot girl. They really have kept it all from you. It laughed again, and Adagio felt its power build. The truth is, I will never be out of your mind. We are Joined. What did you think you were here for? All that is left is for you to open yourself to me. Submit, and we will tear down everything you hate so ferociously.

“I will never give in to you or anyone else!”

Hopeless, but amusing. Come then, crawling creature of land. Fight, and know that you will be mine in the end.

~~~

Jagged pain sliced through Adagio’s head again, and she staggered. Trembling, she dropped to one knee. The skin there burst apart and bled when it slammed into the stone dais, but she hardly noticed. The world around her dimmed as the monstrous presence in her mind continued to thrash and buck. Hate flowed over her like a tsunami, and she vomited again.

“Get up!” Forza hooked her under arm and dragged her back to her feet. “You must do this!”

Her eyes squeezed shut, Adagio slowly shook her head. “C-can’t,” she said. The muscles around her jaw jumped when she clenched her teeth. “I—”

“Do it!”

She sagged again. “It’s too—”

Tightening his grip on her arm, Forza struck her across the face with the open palm of his other hand. “Do it!”

Adagio’s eyes flew open, and she cried out. In the distance, a discordant roar echoed her pain. As she brought a hand up to cup her stinging cheek, the keening howl grew. Adagio and Forza both stumbled when sub-harmonic bass waves shook the earth beneath them.

Forza squeezed her arm more tightly still, dragging Adagio just inches from his face. “Master it, or you are of no use to our people.” He pushed her to the dais’s edge. Below, past the cliff’s drop, the churning ocean pounded against the stones. “Don’t think that I won’t give you to the sea if you become its thrall!” Adagio windmilled her free arm when he tipped her over the edge. “Death will be your only refuge then, and don’t think that I’ll hesitate!”

Teeth bared, Adagio snatched as much of Forza’s long, greying hair out of the swirling winds as she could and wrapped it around her hand several times. “If I go, you go!”

“That’s it! Fight!” Forza pulled Adagio back from the cliff’s edge. “Again! Sing!”

Adagio lingered on her father’s face for a moment, and her mind flashed to the statues that lined the boulevard leading to the grand concert hall. Cold. Unyielding. Flawless, but in a way that separated rather than inspired. Her father admired those statues. He and they were the same: Rigidly obsessed with glory and the past.

The creature howled again, and both Forza and Adagio slapped their hands over their ears. Their clothes snapped and popped, rippling as the pounding sound hammered at them. For a moment, eyes flared out in the fog, then squeezed into dagger-like slits.

“Sing!”

Adagio leaned into the pulsing sound waves that beat against her, fighting to keep them from pushing her out of the dais. Squeezing her hands into tight fists, she opened her mouth and sang out a single sustained note.

The glowing eyes widened, and the atonal keening lost some of its bone-shaking power for just a moment before slamming back into the pair with renewed fury.

“Sing!” Ropes of strangely viscous blood flowed freely from Forza’s nose, and the capillaries around his now crimson eyes had burst. Dark bruises spread out along his cheeks. “Sing or be destroyed!”

The twisting, thrashing presence in Adagio’s mind rose again, but she refused to back away. Breathing in through her nose, she forced the air down into her burning lungs and transformed it there into power. Adagio let the world fall away, until she was alone with the creature before her.

Opening her mouth wide, Adagio belted out the note again, holding it this time.

In the distance, the creature screamed. The outcropping shook as the beast’s thrashing sent towering waves crashing into it. Snarling, the enormous golden beast surged toward them and continued its assault. As it neared, the hippocampus reared back and kicked its hooves, and rocks crumbled to dust on each side of the dais.

Standing firm before it, tiny Adagio held the note.

The air between the combatants buckled and bent away at desperate angles. Bits of color and strange shapes were born, then died within it. For the briefest moments, windows into other places flickered into view. Strange lands filled with the curious, the hungry, or the malevolent, only to disappear just as suddenly when the warping power between the siren and the hippocampus would shift. Great cracks split the rock below them in concentric rings. Their muscles locked to rigidity, the hippocampus and Adagio channeled their remaining might into their songs.

At the edge of Adagio’s field of vision, Forza threw a hand up to shield his face only to have the skin flayed from his palm. Once richly appointed, his ceremonial robe now flowed away from him in tatters. His face was so swollen that Adagio wondered how he could even see, but he still managed to fight his way behind a sheltering rock. He yelled something out to her just before disappearing behind cover.

Adagio couldn’t hear him, though. She was holding the note.

The creature’s will slammed into her mind. It bit and kicked and tore at her. She fought back, demanding obedience. Slowly, painfully, she created chains. She shut doors. Walls sprang up and penned the snarling, rampaging beast inside of them. Sweat poured down her face, then streamed out behind her as it fell into the hippocampus’s sonic attack.

Eyes blazing, Adagio held the note while reaching for the beast with clutching fingers.

Waves of sound, so potent now that they had become visible, battered everything around the combatants. Below, fish floated belly up, and birds too slow or too foolish to leave the battlefield dropped from the sky like stones. The stony outcropping that had been the site of the Joining for time untold was crumbling away.

Still, Adagio held the note.

Her lungs were on fire, and jagged knives stabbed into her throat, but she sang on. Before her, the hippocampus drew itself to its full height and poured everything it had into its countersong. Though her eyes were squeezed shut, she could still see the shimmering thing. Her eyelids did little to block the dazzling light that played off of its scales. Adagio could feel the seaside’s ambient magical energy sweep by her as the beast drank it in, and with each passing moment, those scales glowed more brightly.

That’s it! Adagio tossed her head back and spread her arms wide beside her. That’s the answer! Adagio mentally reached out for the arcane power flowing into her opponent. Imagining herself as a being with many arms, she grasped the pulsing ley lines and yanked.

The hippocampus slid forward, pulled off balance by the unexpected attack. Eyes wide, it roared, but collapsed into coughing gasps when Adagio pulled again. Nearby, stone cliffs that had stood for millennia crumbled into dust. Ocean boiled away into nothingness, its vital essence ripped away by the siren.

Adagio’s mouth curled up into a smirk. Her lungs didn’t ache quite so badly anymore. The cutting lines in her throat eased. She could go on forever, it seemed. In her mind, two golden, grasping hands clenched around the hippocampus’s raging will. A twisted smile flashed, and the hands bore down on the beast. Chains looped around its limbs while cage doors slammed. She barely noticed when the strange tingling sensation flared on her back. As naturally as walking, she rose into the air on gossamer wings to meet the beast in its element.

There, she held the note, then built it into a crescendo.

Her power washed over the hippocampus. Scales buckled and fell, slicing through the air briefly before dropping into the sea. The creature kicked and bit at the sound, desperate for some way to fight back, but the siren’s force of will was too great. Slowly, the hippocampus’s song changed. Instead of a discordant countersong, it harmonized.

Together, they held the notes.

Siren and hippocampus rose high above the ocean. Arcs of pure magic jumped between them, and with each crackling leap, Adagio felt her power swell. Her whole body seemed to vibrate like a plucked string. She smirked at the hippocampus. “Now—”

Adagio gasped. The incredible power that had been building around her suddenly shot through her limbs and up into the sensitive skin around her throat. Her hand flew up to the choker that had materialized there. Beneath her fingers, a jewel pulsed like a heartbeat.

The voice whispered in her mind again, but gently this time. I submit.

Chapter Two - Chorus

As she floated just above the churning, white-capped sea, Adagio’s smile was radiant. She’d lost track of the cliffs some time ago, but she could hear the waves crashing against the rocks somewhere off to her left. Her father was there, and their next talk was going to be very different from their last.

I have underestimated you, it seems. The creature’s massive eye flared off in the mists. Its scales caught what dull light was available, glistening and gleaming in confusing patterns. Legions of your forbearers have knelt before me, but you hold power they did not possess. I wonder what you will do with it?

Adagio blinked, wavering in the air for a moment. “Huh?” It was so hard to take her eyes from the way the beast shimmered.

The hippocampus chuckled. All of that rage within you, yet no desires? Was that your sire I saw clinging to you on the cliffs? Our races have warred for untold generations, and through that conflict, I have come to know your people. If you have no desires of your own, then he surely does. I am surprised that one with your strength is content to do as she is bid. I had taken you for a fighter.

“I am!” Adagio said, her fist tightening. Somewhere inside her, a bloom of anger flared, but weariness quenched it almost immediately. “I-I mean, just when I have to, but I don’t want to fight. That’s what he wants.”

Eyebrow arched, the creature slowly circled. Adagio was forced to twist in the air to keep her eyes on it. As ever, the sires and dams of your race sacrifice their foals in a bid to remain safe for just one more day. We have exterminated thousands of your kind, did you know that?

“Of course,” Adagio said through gritted teeth. “It’s all my father ever talks about!”

But I am curious to know if he told you how.

Adagio jerked away when the creature’s scaly tail brushed up against her. Somehow, she’d lost track of it for a moment. Her head was spinning. “Stop.” Her voice was low, but it thrummed with power.

As you wish… Master, it said with a hint of mirth. Floating on the cold ocean breeze beside her, its fins rippled gently.

Pursing her lips, Adagio drifted back to what she felt was a safe distance from the smirking thing. She shook her head briskly to clear it, then inhaled a few times. Her lungs felt good. Powerful. “Are you going to fight me again? Because I can—”

The hippocampus rolled its eyes. I will never understand how your race has survived for so long when most of you are stumbling through the dark. I cannot rise against you. We are Joined until one of us expires. You are the hand. I am but the sword. The question isn’t if I will fight you. It’s who will we fight together?

Adagio’s brow furrowed. “I don’t want to fight anything. I want everyone to stop fighting.”

The hippocampus stared at her for a long moment, the corner of one side of its mouth turning up in a crooked smirk that revealed a hint of razor-sharp teeth. There is nothing worth fighting for, then? Is the world so perfect in your eyes?

“Of course not.” Adagio rose to the creature’s eye level and leaned over its snout. “But all we ever do is fight, and it’s not working! It’s a big waste of time! All day long, I have tutors telling about this battle and that battle, on and on. I don’t want to go off to some war and get killed!”

Yet you are fine with others going in your stead?

“No!”

The word erupted from her, slamming into the hippocampus and blowing it back several yards. For just a moment, Adagio caught a flash of pure hatred from its eye while it tumbled through the air, but it was gone once the creature regained control of its flight.

Come now, foal. Control yourself—

“Quit twisting things around!” Adagio darted toward the beast, then mirrored its circling. “You think you’re really smart, don’t you? Trying to make me do what you want me to do. I’ve spent my whole life with people pushing me around. You’re nothing compared to what I’ve been through!”

Is that so, foal?

“This foal just took you on and won. I'm not a foal anyway! I'm a girl. Don’t ever call me that again!”

The hippocampus’s eyes slid to the left to track Adagio. Then do not act as one. I am bound to you, but my mind is still my own. I will speak as I desire. Only a foal in a tantrum throws her toys. It held up a hoof, and Adagio paused. Think back on your words and of your situation. Your sire. He is the great manipulator, is he not?

Adagio crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes, but said nothing.

The hippocampus let out a theatrical sigh. Adagio, I can see the truth of things in your mind. We have no secrets from each other.

The siren closed her eyes and concentrated. “What are you talking about?” she said after a moment. “I don’t see anything!”

It will come in time. Your lives are brief, land-thing. I have had centuries of practice.

Adagio hovered silently for a moment, then put her hands on her hips. “Tell me what your name is.”

The hippocampus tapped its chin with a hoof. Hmmm. What a difficult request… He smirked at Adagio when she glared at him. Oh, no. It is not defiance that you see, land-thing. My race has no need for names. We know each other from the shapes of our minds. That is all that is necessary.

“What should I call you, then?” Adagio said.

What indeed? I suppose you will have to think of something. I wonder what that will say about you?

“How about Minor Scale?” Adagio said, aping his grin.

The muscles at the hippocampus’s jaw jumped and bunched. Adagio winced as the jagged teeth ground against one another. Somewhat clever, but juvenile. I thought that you desired to be seen as an adult.

Adagio crossed her arms and looked away.

This will become tiresome very quickly. When the hippocampus drifted back into her view, its scales once again caught the light. We can be the best of friends or the greatest of enemies. It all depends—

Adagio threw a hand up between them, shielding her eyes. The confusing pattern of the creature’s shimmering scales was making it hard to concentrate. “Dazzle,” she said after shaking her head forcefully. It was so hard to look away. “I’ll call you Dazzle.”

Dazzle. The creature’s jaw worked as though rolling the word around in his mouth. Yes, that will do, but I wonder if you have considered the nature that it suggests? Will you harmonize still?

“What?” Adagio said, her face screwing up.

Dazzle pointed the end of his tail at himself, then at her. You and I can operate as extensions of one another, or we can be limiting factors that reduce our collective output to nothing. Within you, I see a soloist. You see this as your greatest strength, yet even the most powerful soloist will be drowned out by the chorus should they collectively wish it to be so. Can you join another in song and purpose, Adagio? It is evident that you have strength, but are you truly strong? Can you master yourself as you have mastered me?

Adagio pursed her lips. Dazzle’s probing words were rolling over her like the relentless tide. They left her feeling dizzy and unsure. “I’m tired. W-we need to go back now.”

Back? To your sire? The voice was winding black silk: Soft and smooth, but with the ever-present threat of suffocation. It seemed to constrict, then release her just as she noticed. Back home where you’ll be shipped off to join your brother in your kind’s hopeless struggle against mine? Back to where you can slaughter your kin by the score?

“Slaughter my kin?” The discordant thought sliced through her consciousness, and Adagio shook her head. It felt thick, like it was full of cobwebs. “What are you talking about?”

She clutched her head as Dazzle’s laughter boomed through it. O blind and crawling creature of land, you are amusing! Your kind and their secrets! Let me show you that which you do not know. I will help you step into my mind, and you will finally see the truth of things.

~~~

The breath caught in Adagio’s throat for just a moment before she yelled out a warning, but the squad ran right by her. She reached out for them, but in that instant, concentric rings of sound, so potent that they glowed, washed over the ground and blew them backward. A fiery-haired girl not much older than Adagio crashed into the cracked earth by her feet. She did not move again.

Ahead, a snarling black hippocampus moved into the area it had just swept the siren squad from, only to be trapped when several heads popped up over the surrounding ridge. The sirens’ voices joined together in a cascading harmony. Each note hammered at the hippocampus, sapping its strength and pinning it to the ground. A spear flashed, and the hippocampus screamed.

Rising from behind a nearby copse of trees, three more hippocampi snarled, then dove for the group.

“No.” Adagio whipped her head around, but each place she looked was worse than the last. She screwed her eyes closed. “No! Stop!”

Hovering overhead, Dazzle sniggered. Stop? Oh, no. This will never cease. At least, not as things are now. Open your eyes and look again, creature of dirt. It is time you learned that which your leaders hide. Or do you lack the courage?

Adagio glared at the creature for a moment before looking back over the battlefield. “You’re wrong. They always told us the battles were bad. I… I just didn’t realize that it… that it was so...” Adagio forced down a lump in her throat with a loud swallow. “That it looked like this.”

Look past the stories of your elders. There is something wrong here. Dazzle wound his tail around her body, slowly turning the siren. Forget the histories and lessons that they have forced onto you. What is the truth here?

Biting back an argumentative response, Adagio took a deep breath and stared out into the carnage. Ruined bodies lay draped over broken trees and shattered rocks. A lucky few still moved. Lines of her people, armored in enchanted coral breastplates and greaves, lined a beach so battered by the colossal forces that large swaths of it had turned to glass. Behind them, several bodies floated in the water. Still others struggled weakly to climb the dunes just ahead. Adagio’s eyes widened, and she gasped. “Why are they going the wrong way?” She took an involuntary step toward the beach. “Why are they coming out of the water?”

Adagio shivered when the low growl rumbled through her mind. Why, indeed? His lip pulled back into a slight snarl, Dazzle pointed to a far-away patch of ocean, then to a tree-covered hill nearby. Watch. I think that this will interest you.

Hippocampi burst from the patch of ocean. Their sinuous bodies twined around one another for a moment before they broke apart and snapped into a rigid formation. Oriented on the battlefield, they roared, and the jewels at their breast flared to life. Each shot out a pulsing beam, and from it, a siren formed and dropped onto the beach just beyond the crashing waves.

On the other side, several scarred sirens rose from the hill and joined hands. Blinding magicks erupted from them and coalesced into wild-eyed and fang-baring hippocampi that dove for the beach. The squad of sirens grinned and began to sing.

Adagio squinted at the hilltop, then gasped. “No!”

Yes.

Marcato rose from his place in the center of the group. Hovering above, he threw a hand out and pointed toward the spellbound sirens that were slogging through the sand at the water’s edge. The hippocampi circling overhead leapt into action. Mouths wide, the creatures fell on the sirens, who responded with keening wails that sliced like knives. Both sides tore into each other, and soon the waves lapping up against the beach ran pink with foaming blood.

“No!” Adagio sprinted out onto the beach. “Marcato, no!” She stumbled, then fell face-first into the sand when laughter boomed in her mind. Fighting back to a kneeling position, she held her aching head in her hands.

Do you see the truth now, crawling thing?

Adagio’s hands were balled into tight fists at her sides as she whipped her head around to stare at the mocking hippocampus. “You have to do what I say, so go get Marcato and bring him here!”

Dazzle rolled his eyes. How quickly they forget. Perhaps this is why so few of you are entrusted with the secrets of your kind.

“What are you talking about?” Eyes narrowed, Adagio took a step toward Dazzle. Her hair billowed out behind her as the whipping coastal winds tore at it. “Go get Marcato like I told you and then tell me everything!”

No. The voice shook with barely contained mirth.

“Go!” Adagio took a deep breath, then focused her magic into it. “Now!” The word rolled out like thunder, but broke apart against the sneering creature before her.

I’ve already told you. I can’t, Dazzle said, smirking. Remember where we are.

Adagio froze, her pointing finger wavering for a moment. “Where we…”

Ah, the rusty gears at last begin to turn.

Her hands dropped to her sides, and she dropped her eyes to the ground at her feet. On it, a piece of shattered white coral gleamed. She nudged it with her toe, and it rolled over. The underside was cracked and dull. “Your memory. We’re in the past.”

Yes. I am there. Dazzle pointed a hoof toward the forest, and Adagio caught a flash of gold between the trees. Your mind is going to need to be much more nimble than that, Adagio. Much, much more nimble if we are to succeed.

“Succeed at what?” She tried to force some anger into her voice, but numbness was creeping into her bones. She’d lost sight of the warring sirens and hippocampi, but just over the hills, explosions sent debris flying into the air. Her brother was somewhere in all of that, fighting. At least, she hoped he was.

Freedom. For once, the mocking tone of the creature’s voice was missing. He swept his hoof across the beach. Freedom from all of this. Freedom from lies and secrets and shackles. Look at it, Adagio. This is the truth of the Joining, but not the whole truth. It is merely the tip of things.

Adagio’s eyes twitched over the battlefield. “So that’s what we do, then? Two of us battle for control on that cliff, and whichever one of us wins then uses the loser to kill our own kind? The ones that lost?”

Yes. My kin control thousands of enslaved sirens that we unleash on your people, who then fight back with my ensorcelled brethren. With each battle, we are both defeated. It is a cycle without end. Each side is too invested in the system and too frightened to walk away. But we can change all of it, Adagio.

Adagio shuddered. The voice in her head was both hypnotic and unctuous. “Why should I believe you? Y-you could be making all of this up.”

Dazzle smirked at her with his infuriating, lop-sided smile. And what would be the point of that?

“You said it already! You lost, but you’re still you, and you can still say whatever you want.” Adagio felt her anger flare up suddenly. Hot and bright against the war-torn gloom, she welcomed it. “I’m strong! You could be using me to get to my father, or… or to get me to do something to the city once I go home.”

Oh, of that you can be certain. The creature drifted just beside her, never quite touching. But I’m not going to need any secret plans like the ones your people do love so.

Adagio put her hands on her hips. “Oh, yeah?”

Yeah, the hippocampus said, his nose butting up against hers. I have a more persuasive tool. Come and see. He flew to the top of the nearest dune, then beckoned. Join me.

Adagio crossed her arms and worked her tongue around her mouth for a moment. None of this felt right. She was supposed to be the one in charge, but the creature seemed to always have her off balance. She pursed her lips for a moment. “Carry me.”

The hippocampus arched an eyebrow. What?

“Carry me over there.”

Are we really going to play—

“Do it!”

Dazzle snarled for a moment, then flew back to her. Growling softly, he landed in the soft sand a few yards away and flattened himself. How very like your sire. Climb on and we will get this bout of foalishness out of the way.

Adagio glared at Dazzle, waiting for a long moment before settling onto his back. “Don’t compare me with him.”

I could just do this, you know. I could just fly over here and pretend that your power compelled me. You would never know the difference.

“Yes I would,” Adagio said, staring down her nose at him. “You’re not as clever as you think you are. My father’s forced me to make people do what he wanted all of my life. Do you really think I can’t see what you’re up to?”

Dazzle’s eye twinkled for a moment. Of course you can. Why would I bother showing something to you if you could not see it?

Adagio’s brow furrowed before she caught herself. “Huh?”

Your sire has left you with the impression that power and persuasion are evil things. The truth of it is that they are neither good nor bad. They are tools. In his hands, they seem as evil because he stands in opposition of two great truths.

“Enlighten me,” Adagio said, rolling her eyes.

Dazzle rose into the air. Firstly, it is not that he is making a case that chafes at you. It is the case that he makes. He refuses to believe that others can see the greed behind everything he does. In doing so, he denies a truth: His talent does not match his ambition. This he will not face, so he lies to the world by pressing those of greater talent into his service.

Adagio found herself nodding.

Secondly, his pattern is wrong.

Though the words rang out clearly in her mind, Adagio found herself leaning forward to hear. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

It means that he is part of a fundamentally flawed society. His thoughts. His beliefs. His values. All wrong because the system he is part of is wrong. He walks a path that leads to nowhere. Dazzle motioned to the ground below. He believes in this…

Adagio gasped, and her knuckles whitened as she gripped the spines on the Dazzle’s back. Below them, the valley was filled with the torn and battered bodies of the siren and hippocampus armies. Nothing moved, and Adagio realized that the sounds of their battle had all died away some time ago.

“Marcato!” Adagio swung her legs over Dazzle’s back and dropped several feet to the ground. “Marcato!”

It is useless. Dazzle flew in a tight circle just over Adagio’s head, pointing down with a hoof. On the ground below, Marcato lay in the jaws of a dead hippocampus. His arms had fallen away, but Adagio could see the bloody handprints he’d left on the thing’s snout as he’d fought to free himself. Now, with his head lying in a tufty patch of coastal grass, he stared up at the sky, mouth gaping.

Your sire thinks that this is just and good, and he is far from alone. He believes in the society that made this happen, and that is why you hate that which he makes you do. The falseness tolls discordant against the soul, but you must be listening to hear it. Both of our races long ago stopped trying to hear. Dazzle landed and gently ran a hoof over his kin’s ruined face. I once knew her. We were friends, but we have been apart for many, many years. She lost her Joining, and from that time on, she has killed many of our kind. Once joined, we are free again only when the other dies. Her master lies somewhere in all of this. There must have been just a moment of freedom, and in that moment, we all lost. Your brother was just another victim. Dazzle lifted his chin to the carnage. They all are. All victims of two societies gone mad.

Adagio knelt down by her brother. She tried to close his eyes, but the lids wouldn’t stay down. “My father didn’t do this. He was proud of Marcato. He didn’t want him dead. Marcato being in the army helped my father’s reputation.”

Dazzle lifted his head, and their eyes met. Of that you can be certain. None of us ever mean for terrible things to happen. We just want a little more, and to get it, we have to push a little harder. We convince everyone else to go a little further for us. Our leaders apply a little pressure, and their seconds apply their own. On and on, it goes. By the time it reaches the bottom, this is what it looks like. He pointed to the bodies with his hoof. This is greed, Adagio. This is what happens when power is used for personal gain, and that is why you hate.

Adagio sat silently for a moment before her eyes narrowed. “Prove it.”

The hippocampus’s eyebrows shot up. He swept his hoof around the pockmarked beach. What further proof is necessary? The truth is evident for those—

“No it’s not.” Adagio stood and dusted off her knees, then winced. Several tiny rocks and grains of sand fell from them and onto her brother’s face. One blood-red pebble bounced off his unblinking right eye, then tumbled out onto his face and slid back down to the ground. Swallowing, Adagio looked away. “It’s just a battle. Prove that you’re not some kind of spy or something. You’re saying they’re all mad with greed, but you want my power just like everyone else does. You keep talking about how important the truth is. Well, show me the truth. Show me your truth.”

Eyes wary, the creature floated back a few feet. What are you talking about? We have no—

“Our minds are linked right? That’s what you said.Show me or I’ll find it myself.” Adagio squeezed her eyes closed and pushed hard against the presence in her mind. Feeling it give way, she focused her will into razors and tore into the alien consciousness. “Show me!”

The hippocampus screamed and thrashed, his tail whipping sand and bits of rotting kelp into the sky. H-How dare you?!

Gritting her teeth, Adagio lashed out again, and the beach writhed and flowed, running like melting candle wax.

And in the spaces it left, teeth flashed.

Chapter Three - Bridge

Liar!

Traitor!

Adagio clapped her hands over her ears as the words exploded into her mind. The beach around her melted away, replaced by a nightmarish whirling of flashing color and formless shape. Adagio occasionally caught glimpses of hooves, or of narrowed, glowing eyes. Mostly, though, there were teeth. They came from the darkness, snapping, then drawing away bloody.

Adagio’s legs trembled. Her muscles felt too loose, as though they’d been stretched and were now larger than they ought to be. She was suddenly far too warm, and the air seemed heavy and thick. She found herself panting.

Impudent! Your frail mind cannot—

Forcing her lungs to draw air, Adagio sang out a low note. Her eyelids fluttered closed, and she tipped her head back. The sound gathered in her throat and rolled out of her open mouth and down her body in pulsing waves.

Beside her, Dazzle leaned away, baring his teeth at the display.

The song calmed Adagio’s racing heart and quivering legs. The presence in her mind felt small and weak again, and she had no need to rip and tear. Merely pushing aside the curtain would do. Adagio took a deep breath, then brushed away the mental barrier.

The beach was gone, replaced by a vast cavern. Walls slickened with moisture gleamed as they reflected the soft, phosphorescent issuing from beetles hanging from stalactites. Hippocampi, too numerous to count, flew in agitated circles below them. Several guards tried to keep the mob away from a cage hanging from the ceiling, but for each that turned back, another slipped by to thrust its muzzle into the cage. To bite, and to tear.

Somehow audible through the din, the flat sound of spattering blood drew Adagio’s attention to the cave’s floor. Below the cage, rows of sirens stood, silent and unblinking. Adagio winced when another snarling hippocampus tore into the prisoner. The new wound spurted, but serene expressions below didn’t change at all when the steaming blood fell onto the siren’s faces.

Does it please you? The words rasped across her mind like a knife over a whetstone. Does it fill you with joyful purpose to see what my kin can do? What monsters we truly are?

Adagio gasped when the creature in the cage roared and slammed against the bars. “It’s you!”

Beside her, Dazzle twitched and jerked, reacting to each bite that his caged memory suffered. He snarled at Adagio when she tried to turn away. No! With all the subtlety of a hurricane, you somehow managed to batter your way into where you do not belong. Now you must look. See them, Adagio! See their blind obedience. Their unthinking mania. You wanted proof? Well, here it is!

Adagio’s hands shook, but she forced them to remain at her sides. “Why are they doing that to you?”

Because I refused to obey. Because I dared to speak out against the way things were. Dazzle pawed at the air as if to wipe away the assembled mass below them. In your brief life, you have already deduced the truth that these fools deny: Our societies are throwing lives away. We have warred for hundreds of years because neither side is capable of winning. We are too evenly matched, and the war’s purpose has been lost to the ages. It is war without a true direction. We fight only because we have always fought.

Dazzle sat silently for a moment. Below, the guards struggled again to move the crowd away, but to Adagio, they didn’t seem to be trying all that hard. “And they did this to you because you told them that?”

Yes. That and much more. Their response was this and much more. Adagio shivered when Dazzle coughed out a grim burst of laughter. I was young then, and in my naivety, I thought that reason and logic would win the day. I failed then as you do now. I did not understand that the powerful in our societies want to continue this. It is the environment that they have grown strong in, and perhaps a new one would not be so generous. Better to throw more lives into the whirlpool than to risk personal loss. So here is your proof, creature of land. Here is the price that I paid in flesh and blood. What you witness is my final day among my kin.

Adagio nearly put her hand onto Dazzle’s shoulder, but pulled away at the last moment. She settled instead for crossing her arms. She’d been so sure that he’d been some kind of spy. Now, she didn’t know what to think. “They banished you?”

Sound familiar? Dazzle shot her another of the lopsided grins that she found so irritating.

“You know it does.”

Then I won’t have to point the parallels out to you. This is your future should you speak the truth to ears that won’t hear it. Dazzle twisted around her again. Never quite touching, but uncomfortably close. At least, it will be without my help.

Adagio felt herself scowl. “I don’t need your help. I’m stronger than you are!”

Rolling his eyes, the hippocampus sighed. But you are not stronger than the combined might of your elders, Adagio. You have power, but your thinking is too direct, as are the thoughts of all foals. Your leaders’ plans are like the tangled nets of your fisher-folk. They branch, then branch again, twisting and turning in unexpected ways. And most importantly, their thoughts are traps within traps. You cannot simply march before your elders and demand change. Dazzle motioned to the cage. They have no interest in what is different, and they will do whatever they must to silence you. The creature paused, now eye to eye with her. Tell me, did logical discussion or displays of power ever move your sire from his path? Were you ever clever enough or strong enough to change his mind?

Adagio bit her lip for a moment, then opened her mouth, but the caged memory screamed.

Dazzle pursed his lips. Take us away from here.

“How?” Adagio said, taking the opportunity to fly out of Dazzle’s coils. “How do I do it?”

The lopsided grin again. You were clever enough to break into my mind. Surely you can find the way out on your own…

Adagio glared back, her teeth tightly clenched. “Of course I can, and probably… how did you say it? ‘With the subtlety of a hurricane?’”

The hippocampus grin broadened. Improvement already. I’m so proud.

Adagio’s jaw muscle twitched.

You see it now, do you not? Why display your might when the mere threat of it will do? The girl on that cliff blazed with power, squandering it needlessly, but now she is holding back to see if that use will be necessary or not. We have a long road ahead, and you will need all of your strength.

“I never said anything about doing what you want!”

What we want, Dazzle said. The oily purr was back. I will show you the way out, and then we will talk. When you look at me, you see a serpent because you have lived among serpents. Set aside your prejudices and listen. You recognize the truth that I speak. Otherwise, you would have ordered me away long ago.

Adagio started. “I… I didn’t think of that.”

You must look past messengers, Adagio. The message is what holds importance. What I offer to you, and through you, to your entire race, is freedom. Will you hear the truth that they would not? Dazzle nodded his head toward the assemblage below. Holding her eyes with his own, he held out his hoof to her. Do you dare?

Adagio’s hand trembled as it wavered in the air between them. Then, after a deep breath, she laid her hand on the worn, chipped hoof.

And, again, the world melted away. Adagio’s breath quickened. For a moment, she was lost, but soon recognized the flat, featureless grey for what it was. She was back in the seaside fog bank.

How apropos. A blank canvas, so to speak. Dazzle drifted closer, much of his body still obscured by the mists. Here, without connection to your people or mine, we are born anew.

Tipping her head back, Adagio searched and found the lightest part of the cloud. She sensed Dazzle reaching for her, but she ignored it. Willing herself to rise, she flew up toward the sun.

Tiresome, Adagio.

“I want to be able to see.” Adagio accelerated. The fog’s touch was cold and clammy, and she was eager to be rid of it. “If you want to talk, then I guess you better follow me.” The corner of Adagio’s lip twitched up when a flicker of anger rippled through her mind.

Why do you fight this? It is what you desire.

Adagio burst from the fog, and the thousands of water droplets caught in her hair glittered in the sun. Warmth crept back into her aching bones. “It’s what you desire, not me.”

Dazzle punched through the fog beside her. Foal—

Adagio fixed him with a flat stare. “I told you not to call me that.” She formed the image of three discordant notes in her mind, and Dazzle’s consciousness shrank from the dissonance.

This is counterproductive, Adagio. We need—

“I don’t think so. In fact, I think this might be exactly what we need.” Here, in the sun, she finally felt warm again, and her head was clearing. “If you’re so good at looking into my mind, you already know all of this isn’t going to work.”

Dazzle arched an eyebrow. All of what?

“All of the stories. All the sly words and hidden meanings.” Adagio set her hands on her hips and glared at the monster. “I keep telling you, I’ve lived with that all my life. I’m tired of it! I’m not going to be like them!”

Adagio, you—

“I’m not!”

With a deep sigh, Dazzle swept his hoof down toward the clouds below him. You think that you see clearly, but you lack the proper perspective, Adagio. Many things are hidden, yet you seek to blunder directly into them… like a foal.

Adagio gathered her power and focused. “Don’t call me that!”

Waves of power blew Dazzle back several feet, but he gritted his teeth and leaned into the hammering force. Scores of golden scales tore from him to fall in a glimmering rain. Once the waves passed, he shot toward Adagio, stopping inches from her shocked face. THEN GROW UP!

The words ripped through Adagio’s head. She felt a trickle of warmth slide down from her left nostril and delicately touched it with a finger. Blood. “You… you can’t—”

You have far too much confidence in your raw ability. You would go back to our races like a tumbling boulder, but they are as water. When you struck, the resulting splash would be impressive, but water flows. It would give before and around, and when the boulder slammed into it, the water would move in behind. In an instant, the boulder would sink below the waves, and once the ripples passed, the water would again appear untouched. Dazzle snapped his jaws closed just past the tip of her nose. The waves hunger, Adagio. They feed on the land constantly. Water will always wear away the stone. Tell me true, creature of land: Do you have the power to hold back the tides?

Adagio drifted backward, away from Dazzle, but she couldn’t escape the hammering in her chest. In an instant, he had gone from sullen to savage to clever. Hand on her racing heart, she took a deep breath. “M-maybe. I don’t know. I won’t know until I try.”

Snarling, Dazzle followed. And you will fail! We— He moved his hoof back and forth between them —are the greatest hope that our people have! There are thousands like us, but they are not ready. The seeds of courage within them must be guided and nurtured. All of their lives, they’ve been forced into molds. The shapes of their minds will not be easily changed.

“That’s why I’ll show them!” Adagio clenched her fist in front of the hippocampus’s huge eye. “They’ll see that you can fight back! That they don’t have to do whatever they’re told to do.”

It will only help our opponents, Adagio!

“But—”

Let me show you.

Adagio pursed her lips, then let her hands fall to her sides with a dull thump. “Fine, but you’re wrong.”

I have never been more right, and you will see the truth of it.

Dark clouds boiled out of the air around the pair, then dissipated. Behind them, grand columns of white marble shown against the meticulously maintained green grass. Arrow-straight streets paved with interlocking grey stone cut between the residences and led up through a market district and toward a monolithic building high on a central hill.

“The Grand Forum! We’re home!” Adagio smiled despite herself, but the grin slipped a moment later. “But… but they fixed it. The side’s not broken anymore.”

It’s not fixed because it hasn’t been broken yet. Since you’ve intruded into my memories, I thought I might take us a little deeper. Dazzle tipped his head toward her, rolling an eye sideways until it locked onto hers. Your passions run deep like the fissures that run along the ocean floor, and like those cracks, roiling magma is found within. Fueled by that heat, you feel that you can ignite all that you touch. It is untrue. He held up a hoof to ward of her protest. That is not meant as an insult. All thinking beings want to believe that the strength of conviction means truth, but it is a dangerous thing for those with power. Observe.

~~~

The scuffed and bleeding siren stumbled, nearly fell to a knee, then received the whip again. Adagio winced, half-turning from the vicious blow. She was sure that he’d cry out, but when he turned to glare at the guard, she saw that the lower half of his face was bound by a metal shackle.

You believe that your voice is the greatest weapon, Adagio. Dazzle pointed to a stage set inside the Grand Forum. On it stood several bearded figures dressed in richly appointed robes. But your elders know better. Silence is where true power lies. Not their silence, of course, but yours. He flew down to the crowd lining the street. Some were booing, and several threw things at the prisoner, but most stood, heads slightly bowed and eyes staring at the street. And his. And hers. Silence born of fear.

Adagio’s hand twitched as the prisoner struggled to continue. His foot skidded sideways in a patch of his own dripping blood before he caught himself. He twisted away as the whip fell again. She found herself drifting closer, ready to lift him from the ground were he were to fall again. Frowning, she forced herself to relax. “And that’s what he did? He tried to break the silence?”

Nodding, Dazzle glided backward just ahead of the prisoner. He thought as you do. That all the people needed was a shining example. Someone to stand against and inspire. Dazzle grinned. What do you think, Adagio? Are you ready to rally to his cause?

“It’s not the same—”

It is the same thing! Dazzle threw his hooves out wide at his sides. This is what you will receive should you choose to continue along your path. Your kin will not help you. You will sing to them, but they will not join with you. They know only the songs the elders have allowed them to hear. Yours will be frightening and blasphemous. Learn from him.

Adagio set her hands on her hips. “I don’t even know who he is! He probably just made a bunch of dumb mistakes, or… or maybe he wasn’t powerful enough!”

The hippocampus’s infuriatingly superior smile widened. Your near total ignorance never fails to amuse, land-thing. It is part of the silence your leaders value. You cannot speak on matter of which you know nothing.

“I’ll show you who—”

Her jaw snapped closed when Dazzle’s hoof shot up. You are too impatient, Adagio. The truth is here for you to see. Just observe. Then we will speak on it.

The prisoner lifted a weary foot onto the shining marble stairs that led up into the Grand Forum. With each plodding step, he left a set of bloody footprints behind him, and Adagio gritted her teeth against the squealing scrape that his chains made.

When he entered into the open air amphitheater, the most highly decorated of the elders stepped forward. “We, the Grand Council, have found the accused guilty of high treason. However, in light of the accused’s noted status within our community, we are willing to extend mercy.” The elder stood at the edge of the stage, looking down his nose at the bloody prisoner. “Bravura,—” Adagio gasped, but Dazzle waved her back into silence “—we are prepared to let you live in exile. Your voice is the coin with which you will pay for this mercy. Otherwise…” The elder lifted his arms, and the jewel at this throat flared with golden light. A second later, the ranks behind him joined, and growling hippocampi erupted from them to circle overhead.

Adagio gasped again, pointing into the air about the High Councillor.

Yes, it’s me. Dazzle pulled his lip back into a snarl. I’ve only lost two Joinings in my time. You now see my other… master. The word hung in the air between them, thick with loathing. Now pay attention.

The prisoner stared up at his captors for a moment, then motioned impatiently at the metal contraption squeezing his jaw shut.

“As always, you overestimate your cleverness. No, I believe a simple nod will do.” The High Councillor crossed his arms across his chest, tucking his hands inside the voluminous sleeves of his robe. “The choice is simple. Accept our mercy and live, or perish in accordance to the laws of our people. Answer now, and we will…”

The High Councillor’s brow furrowed. The stage beneath his feet was trembling. Behind him, rows of his fellow councillors turned to each other uneasily. The surrounding crowd began to murmur as the quaking increased, and they edged away from the towering columns as dust rained down from them. The High Councillor turned in jerking bursts, trying to look everywhere at once “What—”

The low rumbling drew inwards, rising in pitch when it neared the center of the arena. As all heads turned to the prisoner, his eyes twinkled. The cage clamping his jaw closed was vibrating so rapidly that it was a blur. Rivulets of blood poured down Bravura’s neck as the metal erased layers of skin.

Adagio touched her throat lightly with the tips of her fingers. “How…”

It is the way of elders. They cannot imagine others are more clever or powerful than they. Their device would have held the greatest of them, and thus they believed it foolproof. On this day, your forbearers erred, but they are capable students, especially when the lesson furthers their own interests.

The councillors were just beginning to recover from their shock when the harness blew away from Bravura’s face. Shards of twisted shrapnel whistled through the air to embed themselves into the wooden stage.

“You dare?” The High Councillor’s jaw was firmly set, but he took two steps backward until he was in the midst of this peers. “We offer you unprecedented mercy, and you throw it back into our faces?”

“The mercy was never yours to give.” Grinning, Bravura’s eyes flared. Nearly transparent membranous wings erupted from his back and he rose. “You’ve stolen the choice from our people for too long. You’ve asked for too much.” The jewel at his throat gleamed, and a charcoal-grey hippocampus burst from it. Bravura spread his arms wide and turned in a slow circle. “This is your moment, my friends. Now is the time for you to make the changes you’ve ached for. Throw off your chains, as I’ve thrown off mine!”

Below, the crowd stirred. Here and there, eyes blazed. Others narrowed, sweeping back toward the Council. Hissing whispers traveled through the on-lookers. Feet shuffled, uncertain of their destination.

“Order has been kept for centuries before your birth, Bravura!” The High Councillor lifted his arms and the memory of Adagio’s hippocampus shot high into the air. “Hear me, my people! He would call them chains, but society is made of laws. Look well upon this! We stand united and uncowed. Before us, a madman raves, heedless of the blood he is spilling at your feet. His words tear at the very laws and customs that shield you from obliteration!”

“LIES!” Bravura’s muscles stood out in chords, and the air around him crackled with untapped energy. “Obliteration comes from your hands! Everyday, we are sent to fight in your war. Citizens, how often have you questioned our purpose? How many of you have wondered why we fight? I know you—”

“Enough!” The High Councillor pointed, and the squadron of hippocampi circling above shot forward. “Since you’ve rejected our mercy, the sentence is death.”

The grey hippocampus drew in a deep breath, then screamed. The approaching squadron scattered like leaves, tumbling out of control through the air. Below, crimson arcs of magical energy shot out from Bravura’s jewel, and with each of them, his hippocampus swelled with power.

The crowd pushed and shoved. Those in the back bulled forward to get a better view. Those in the front tried to back away. Anger and confusion rippled their way through the citizens as they argued among themselves.

“Friends, our time has come!” Bravura held his hand out to them. “Join with me, and—grmf!”

When the squad of hippocampi broke from their attack and dove for Bravura, his hippocampus dropped like a stone and wrapped itself around him. Moments later, the hippocampi fell on them, biting and tearing.

The High Councillor folded his arms back inside his sleeves. “Thus, justice is—”

The ground lurched as an explosion rocked the building. Hippocampi tumbled through the air to slam into the stage and the crowd below. On one side of the Grand Forum, a gaping hole in the wall smoked. Below it, citizens screamed and ran from the corpses of their neighbors, smashed to pieces beneath several tons of ruined marble friezes. On the stage, councillors fought to untangle themselves from the heap they’d fallen into.

In the center of it all, Bravura and his hippocampus flew back to back. Torn and bleeding, they growled, teeth bared, at the scene around them. “You see?” Bravura said through rasping gasps. “They are not all powerful. You can fight! You—”

“Hear me, citizens!” The High Councillor swept his arms left and right, and the army of hippocampi responded. In moments, they’d positioned themselves between Bravura and the dust-covered crowd. “This is what comes from the breakdown of order. Look around you! Your neighbors lay bleeding! Our buildings crumble! That is what this man would have us descend into!”

Bravura hesitated for a moment, his eyes falling to and jerking away from the carnage. “My friends, the change may be ugly, but it will be worth it! I’m sorry for your losses, but some sacrifice is—”

“You said that you wanted to stop the sacrifices!” A voice called out between fits of coughing.

“Help! My wife! Someone help!”

“My leg!”

A dazed woman in a tattered robe wandered out into the open circle beneath Bravura. Blood traced down the side of her face from a gash in her forehead. “What’s happened? Where am I?”

The High Councillor held his hands out to the murmuring crowd. “He is corrupted! You all see the truth of it now! He would destroy everything that you know!”

“No! My friends, please!” Bravura drifted to the ground and moved to the confused woman’s side. As she began to fall, he wrapped his arm around her waist. “They say that they’ve kept you safe, and all they’ve asked for in return is everything else! Your lives are not your own! You’re told what is allowed and what isn’t. Which child will go to fight and which won’t. Who can advance and who will be held back. Now is your moment! Stand with me and free yourself from—”

“Who are you? Let go of me!” Already most of the way to the ground, the woman snatched up a large chunk of jagged marble and smashed it into Bravura’s temple. “Let go of me!”

Bravura reeled away, and his screaming hippocampus dove. In a heartbeat, it snatched up the woman and tore her in two.

“Do you see?” The High Councillor pointed to the wild-eyed hippocampus. “This is the danger we face everyday! This is our enemy, and that is your neighbor in its jaws! I would have you all bear witness. Once a hero, Bravura has turned against you! He is working toward the destruction of our entire society! ’Ware the bloody teeth! They come next for you!”

“No! It’s not—”

Another stone slammed into Bravura’s jaw. “Liar!”

A second opened up the skin above his left eyebrow. “I believed in you!”

His hippocampus angled in toward the advancing mob, but a wall of opposing hippocampi rose to protect them. They crashed into each other, snarling and biting.

Bravura tried to back up as stone continued to hammer into him, but he tripped over the slashed and mangled body of the female citizen. Sprawling, he threw up arms to cover is face just before the crowd fell on him.

There, Dazzle said. I think that will do.

Chapter Four - Coda

“Th-that’s not how it happened.” Still trembling, Adagio blinked rapidly and pressed a hand to her roiling stomach. The sudden return to the sunny, serene cloudtop left her feeling queasy and unbalanced.

Oh? I had no idea you were an expert in ancient history. Pray tell where my memory errs.

Adagio gritted her teeth and fought back a wave of nausea. “Bravura wasn’t killed! He left on a quest to get some secret weapon and never returned.”

Is that not what you saw, land-thing? Dazzle drifted in and out of the cloudtop in front of Adagio, but somehow his luminous eyes never strayed from hers. Bravura left this world and gave to your elders their greatest weapon. Did you not see the people and how they raced to tear him apart? How do you think that they felt on the next day? During the next week?

“What?” Adagio said, her brow furrowing.

The crooked smile flashed out from behind the cloud. Whatever else our elders may be, they are crafty, Adagio. They win because they know how to turn situations to their greatest advantage. In the memory, you witnessed it first hand. Turn the citizens’ fear into rage. Rage drives thoughtless action. Actions such as these lead to regret, and regret fosters lies.

Adagio swallowed back another heave, but it was easier this time. The slow, steady cadence of Dazzle’s speech seemed to calm her twitching nerves. “So… so you’re saying that they all just… what? Pretended that something else happened?”

In a way, though it is not quite that simple. You see, the truth stands only with those that bear witness to it. To another, whatever words they hear are their truth, and that is the one that spreads. Dazzle rose from the cloud. Coiling his lower body, he sat opposite of where Adagio hovered. The next day brought hand wringing and finger pointing. Some blaming others in the community for hastiness. Others confusing vital details in the heat of the moment. Still others, the ones in the back, remembered offering words of caution and restraint. Did you hear those words?

Adagio shook her head.

Neither did I, but it is amazing how many apparently said them. For the next few weeks, the stories were full of tragic heroes. The hippocampus laid the back of his hoof across his forehead. If only someone had listened to them.

“But why would they do that? They wanted him dead, so why pretend that they didn’t?” Adagio slowly sank to the cloud top and sat upon it. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she rested her chin upon them.

Why do you suppose all of those good citizens were there in the first place?

Adagio tipped her head to the side and looked away for a moment. “Well, because of the trial, I guess. It was an important one, right? Bravura was a big war hero.”

Any war is overflowing with heroes, Adagio. Both your kin and mine care little for them, truth be told. Bravura was a hero, but not of war. He was a hero of the people. The kind of champion that you aspire to be.

A shiver went up Adagio’s spine.

Those citizens were there because Bravura had spoken against the elders from his newly acquired position of power. He’d proven himself by leading fighters to victory in several key battles. Dazzle rolled his eyes. That the war rages on even centuries later tell you just how very important those battles were in the scheme of things.

Adagio found herself nodding. Frowning, she forced herself to stop.

Heroes are tricky things, Adagio. The elders brought him back in order to display him, a trophy meant to amplify their own glory, but he didn’t cooperate. Instead of working to reinforce their message, he decided to use his standing to change things. On the day that he was awarded his medal, he stood before your people and spoke to them. He talked of the futility and waste of the war. He spoke of independence and change, and when the elders tried to silence him, he fought back. At first, the elders tried polite recommendations on behavior, followed quickly by firm insistence. All dismissed by Bravura as he continued to speak over the next few weeks.

“They were starting to listen, weren’t they?” Adagio said after swallowing loudly. “The people were beginning to think he was right.”

Perking up, Dazzle’s smile spread. Exactly! And that is why they were lining the streets. Not because he was some hero of a battle they barely understood, but because he was saying and doing things that they dared only in their dreams. He was their dreams!

Adagio shot to her feet, fists clenched at her sides. “Then why didn’t they fight? They would have won!”

Dazzle curled his lip. Have you ever wonder why bravery is admired, Adagio?

Her face twisted as she attempted to follow the abrupt question. “Huh?”

Of course not. Courage comes as natural to you as drawing breath. He pointed to a passing seagull. But consider nature. When the osprey tucks into a dive, does the gull ready itself for the impending attack?

Adagio watched the gull wheel slowly, drifting on the strong coastal breeze. It cried out, then disappeared behind a cloud. “No,” she finally answered.

Dazzle licked his lips. I can speak from experience. Gulls are not ready to meet you in battle. They flee. They hide. They duck behind their peers, hoping that they will not be the one that the predator takes today. Your kind and mine are no different, Adagio. Most of them would prefer to run. They will fight only when backed into a corner.

Adagio’s nose wrinkled, and she worked her tongue around her suddenly sour mouth.

Oh, how that galls you, Adagio! Dazzle tried to lift her chin, but she batted the hoof away. For a girl who wants to end all the fighting, you gravitate so readily toward it. It is second nature to you. Do you understand why? Has the gull taught you anything?

“Stop smiling like that.”

The hippocampus blinked several times. That’s not—

Adagio stood, and her hair bristled out. “I said stop it! You’re just like them. Always acting so smart, like I’m some kind of idiot.” The hippocampus opened its mouth, but Adagio stepped forward and poked it in the nose with her finger. “I fight with them because no one else will. It’s not like I like it! I just want them to leave me alone so that I can sing and be with my friends. Everybody wants that!”

Blind girl! Will you not see? Dazzle unwound itself and rose. Undulating, the hippcampus climbed, and twisted through the air until he towered before her. He snarled when she stood firm, her jaw set. They are unlike you! They don’t want to be free! Not in the way that you or I do. They want freedom without sacrifice. They want it handed to them. That is why you will not succeed! You fight, Adagio! It is who you are, but you must learn to pick your battles if you wish to win. Right now, you are fighting education. I offer you a hoof, but you swat it away. You would march down to your people and squander all of your potential in a single, breathtaking display of power. Save it, Adagio! Conserve your power for when you can most effectively use it, and by doing so, save all of our people!

Adagio set her hands on her hips and glared back at the hulking monster. “Then what am I supposed to do? I won’t fight in the war. You’re saying that no one will listen to me, and that I can’t beat the elders, so—”

Your mind draws too many straight lines. Dazzle flowed through the air before her, twisting and turning. You must swim through unexpected channels. Set plans within plans. Enlist aid where you can. Make allies. He stopped, suddenly very close to Adagio. Quietly dispose of enemies.

Adagio’s reflection in Dazzle’s massive eye seemed uncertain for a moment before her brows angrily knitted together. “But that’s everything I’m trying not to do! I don’t want to lie and trick people like my father and all of his friends! I don’t want to do that stuff!”

Snorting out a small cloud of moisture, Dazzle edged closer. His maw was inches from her nose. To win, you must be flexible. This system can only be dismantled from within.

“No!” Adagio whirled. Crossing her arms tightly across her chest, she tossed her head. “I’m not doing that.”

Behind her, the hippocampus sighed. Then what will you do?

“I don’t know, but not that. I’ll figure something out.”

Well, you had better think fast, crawler-of-land! Your sire awaits your return, and within him, hunger burns. You are to be offered up to the elders as a magnificent weapon, and you can be sure that he expects to be showered with rewards beyond measure. Dazzle’s voice suddenly felt cold and dark in her mind. You are but a tool in a society that values utility over lives, and what do we do with tools that do not function as expected?

“I won’t let them!”

Adagio took a surprised step back when the hippocampus leaned in, nearly banging his forehead against hers. And you will be as Bravura was: an ineffectual footnote! Another chain clamped around the neck of your people! Floating backward, he looped in tight circles and bared his teeth at her. All because Adagio cannot look out and read the way the currents run!

Swallowing hard, Adagio fought back against a rising tide of anger. “There’s got to be another way,” she whispered through clenched teeth.

Dazzle stopped his twisted, agitated path through the air before her. His eyes clouded for a moment, and he looked away. Know this, Adagio. I have navigated these murky channels for centuries. I once thought as you do. He turned and held her with his intense stare. There is no other way. The currents run too deep. You would stand with your hands out to stop the water’s flow, but it is so much stronger than you imagine. It will take you. You either swim in its flow, or it drowns you.

Adagio let her hands fall back to her sides with a disgusted sigh. “And the only answer is to just do what they want? Somehow that’s going to change things?”

Again, you think only in straight lines! Change does not come from a single action. It is an accumulation! Adagio, this will be your life’s work as well as mine! It will take decades or more!

Adagio’s eyes bulged. “Decades?”

We are Joined, Adagio. Decades will be as nothing to you. It is but one reason why your elders are so jealous. He rose into the air and waved with a beckoning hoof. Come. Join me in song and things may become clear.

Adagio tapped her foot on the cloud as the monster soared above her. She wished that she had something to throw. “What are you doing?”

A low baritone rolled out in response. The rich melody flowed around her, and sent her hair streaming out. For a few moments, it traveled through scales and simple octave shifts, then settled into one side of a well known duet.

Adagio winced. The effect was jarring without the proper accompaniment. Each time the female voice should have joined the song, a terrible, gaping silence grated at her bones. Almost against her will, she rose.

And she sang.

~~~

Rising, Adagio spread her arms wide. Dazzle undulated through the air below her, and their shadows seemed to dance together across the cloudtop. When her stanza came, the words, clear and vibrant, rolled out of her.

Dazzle pointed to a nearby cloud. Maintain the song, but observe.

Adagio wasn’t sure she could have stopped if she’d wanted to. Her pulse was pounding in her ears. Her heart raced. The song was intoxicating. It had always been her joy to sing, but Marcato had been her only worthwhile partner. Only he could match her in range and power, but their harmonies were imperfect. His register just wasn’t low enough.

But this! The pairing was so complementary that tears stood in her eyes. Adagio fought to sing through her wide grin. Tilting to the side, she cut over the hippocampus to get a better look at the clouds he’d motioned to. Below her, they twisted and flowed as though sculpted by the hands of a skilled potter. At first, they were but basic shapes, but soon transformed into people and buildings.

Dazzle dropped his voice slightly, and she responded automatically. What had been a simple, stirring tune now felt as though it carried secrets. The cloud below them split into several sections, the largest of which bore a striking resemblance to Adagio. A tiny cloud hippocampus curled up on her shoulder and whispered into her ear.

There we are, Adagio. And see what comes for us.

The vaporous image of Adagio’s father pulled himself from a nearby cloud and walked toward them. His chest was puffed out, stiff with pride. He towered above Adagio, but when the cloud hippocampus whispered into her ear again, her father seemed somehow less impressive. His stance was suddenly comical.

Perception is a matter of perspective and experience. Your sire’s wrath once terrified you because it was all that you knew, but now I have shown you greater threats. I will tell you which ones are worth worrying about…

Adagio watched herself draw her misty hands to her breast and bat her eyelashes. Her father drew back, surprised, but soon nodded and puffed his chest out even further. Turning on his heel, he motioned for her to follow.

Adagio had to fight to maintain her composure. She didn’t want to spoil the song, but his stride was so self-important that she nearly burst out laughing. Instead of leading, he seemed to be merely escorting her as she walked with regal purpose behind him.

… And which threats can be neutralized and used to further our goals.

Clouds on all sides melted into familiar faces. They were crowding around her father, and he was introducing Adagio to them. All the while, Dazzle continued to whisper. Adagio dismissed some with a toss of her head, and followed others to still more richly dressed sirens. She laughed with some. Argued with others. Here, she stood firm. There, she nodded meekly and danced as they did.

And where does this lead us, Adagio? What have we gained?

Adagio blinked, then gasped. The clouds around them trembled as the music wavered, but Adagio forced her voice to begin again, and when it did, the song swelled. What had seemed sly and secretive now blossomed into a stirring battle hymn.

There is no need to speak, Adagio. I can read your thought, and you are catching on.

It had been so subtle that she hadn’t noticed at first, but the crowds that she had been walking toward had over time fallen behind her. Now, as she continued on, they followed. With each encounter, their numbers grew.

Time. Patience. Cunning. These will be our tools. Raw power is not always the key to victory. Leaders are seldom crowned after a single battle. Lifetimes are spent tending to the coral so that it grows in accordance to plan. See them, Adagio! See how they follow! You can be the one to light the path that seems so dark. They are frightened, but each of them hungers as you do. They just need time to become brave. They need to be shown that it is possible. Both of our races are dissonant, and dissonance always seeks to resolve. Together, we can be their resolution, but these changes won’t come overnight. Remember Bravura. Remember his failure and do not repeat it!

Arms spread wide, Adagio felt her hair streaming away behind her. Her heart hammered in her chest. Their song had reached a crescendo, and the air around them rang with their voices. Below, the clouds had formed into ranks, and they lifted their hands to Adagio. She reached out for them, wishing she could hold them all in her palms. The air trembled with power as the song concluded.

For a moment, all was still. Adagio realized that she was crying, but for once, she didn’t feel like hiding it. Below her, the crowd adored her. They needed her, and she loved and needed them.

And then they fell away. Caught in the chaotic swirling of the returning coastal breeze, the clouds began to pull apart. The wind tore at their arms and faces, and for just a second their expressions of love transformed into fear and desperation. Instead of trying to embrace her, they were reaching out desperately for help. Their mouths opened into unheard screams.

In seconds, they were gone.

“No!” Adagio shot forward, but Dazzle snaked his tail around her waist and yanked her back.

That is the wrong way. He motioned in the other direction to a hole in the clouds. Through it, Adagio could see the ruins of the ceremonial dais and the shattered cliffs they’d left behind. Our path starts there. If you truly wish to save both of our races, you must return.

Adagio pursed her lips and shot the dais a hard stare. “Back to my father.”

Dazzle nodded, but shot her his lopsided grin. Yes, but as the master this time. Your sire is rigid and dull, yet considers himself endlessly clever. I have planned and executed schemes the likes of which he could never understand the basest element of. I will guide you. He will be humbled without even knowing it. In such a time as will draw your breath away, he will be working for us. They will all be working for us, and once they are, we will change everything!

She felt an unfamiliar grin creep across her face. It twisted up on the left side in a way that her smile never had before. It felt good, but it disappeared when a thought flashed through her mind. “But they’ll exile us if—”

Then we must ensure that we do not get caught. Dazzle’s eyes flared red for a moment. Adagio squinted when he transformed into crackling energy and disappeared into the gem at her throat. I have erred many times and learned from each one. Let me show you the way! Your elders await your return with a servant’s chain to clamp around your neck. They will seek to limit and control you, lest you turn on them as Bravura did. Capitulate. Let them think you are their tool, and exile is unlikely.

“But what if they do?”

Is that fear that I hear? The oily, mocking tone was back. And I thought you to be brave.

Adagio stomped her foot. "Well, what good is any of this if we aren’t there anymore?"

You cling to your world because it is all you have known, but beyond these lands, life goes on. Our cause would, as well. I have secrets they would gladly kill for, Adagio. There are ancient rituals. Lands beyond our borders where easy prey lies. Gates to other worlds. Strength is gained in many ways, and a barred door can only hold for so long against those who return with power. One way or another, our people will be free as long as we continue to fight for them.

Something clicked. “They… they exiled you. Back there in that cave, the other hippocampi banished you for life.”

Yes, but that—

“What would you have done if you’d won?”

The presence in her mind seemed to draw back, confused. What?

Adagio paused her descent and crossed her arms. “If I’d lost the Joining, then I’d just be some thrall for you to use, but you’re not with your kind anymore. You can't change them. So what would you have done with me if you’d won?”

If I had won? Adagio, you are learning, but you still have a long way to go. The waters through which we are to swim are dark and their currents treacherous. You must learn to read the flow. If I had won? Dazzle chuckled, so low that it was almost a growl. We are now joined in mind, body, and purpose. You and I are working together to make real all of the changes that I have ever desired.

A twisted smile flashed in her mind’s eye.

Adagio, that is the very definition of winning!

~~~

As she descended, Adagio angled to the left. Back to the sun, she spread her arms wide. Below, her shadow fluttered across the rapidly approaching cloud top.

No. Not here. Farther to the left.

“Why?” Adagio gritted her teeth for a moment, but forced herself to relax.

The silky voice in her mind sniggered. You’re still a soloist at heart, trying to make a grand entrance. But who benefits from that?

Adagio pursed her lips.

Correct. No one would benefit from it. What kind of entrance would help our cause?

Adagio paused, her feet just inches above the cloud. Cupping her chin in her hand, she thought for a moment. “One that makes my father feel important.”

Exactly. You desire to see him humbled, so you would fly out of the sun. You would see his eyes smart while he squinted up at your brilliance, but that does not advance our cause. Let him think that you are weak, and that his scheme has worked. As long as his plan and our plan swim alongside, it suits us.

The grin crept across Adagio’s face again. “Should I fall?”

I’m sorry?

“Should I fall?” Adagio dropped to the cloud’s surface in a heap. “I could fly down like I’m hurt, then just fall right at the end. I could land at his feet.”

The hippocampus sniggered again, and in a moment they were both laughing. Yes, I think that will do nicely.

Adagio allowed herself to sink into the cloud, picking up speed as she fell. For a few minutes, the world was dark and featureless. The vapor’s chill touch embraced her. She was shivering, but it was pleasant this time. It felt like anticipation.

The air tore at her hair, and she couldn’t help but gasp as she punched suddenly through the bottom of the cloud. She was falling face first toward the ocean.

Remember, true strength often appears as weakness. Let him believe that your spirit is broken and your body helpless.

Wiping the grin from her face, Adagio let herself go slack. She tumbled through the air, only to fan her wings, stabilize, then lose control again. Falling and regaining control, she angled for the cliffs.

Good. Now find your final reserve. He must believe this is the old Adagio. She is tired and bloodied, but still willful. She will attempt the grand entrance, but will fail.

Adagio nodded. Setting her jaw, she spread her wings wide and shot for the outcropping on which her father stood. Fresh blood still glistened on his face and neck, and it had streaked down the remains of her father’s tattered ceremonial robes.

Maintain the act! the hippocampus growled when she opened her mouth. The blood is still fresh because we have only been gone for minutes in this world. Our time spent together has happened at the speed of thought. To him, we have only just disappeared.

Below them, Forza’s arms twitched as if unsure whether to try to catch his daughter or not. Adagio did not make it an easy decision. Her face was fixed into a rigidly regal expression, but she allowed her eyes to sink slowly closed several times, and with each, she dropped several feet in the air. While her father fidgeted, she twisted left suddenly, and plummeted the last few feet to slam into the ground in front of him.

The hippocampus whispered something to her, but the pain blocked it out. Very real tears leaked from her eyes, and her mouth was suddenly bloody. She’d somehow bitten her tongue.

“Get up,” Forza growled, hooking his hand under her armpit and hauling her to her feet. “Your battle with that monstrosity has left the cliff unstable.”

“I… I can’t.” Adagio let her head loll to the side and her eyes droop halfway shut. Her voice sounded thick around her swollen tongue. “I’m too tired.”

Forza pursed his lips for a moment. “I suppose I’ll have to carry you.” Kneeling he wrapped his arms around her and lifted.

Remember our goals, Adagio. He is full of pride. Feed it. He will be so busy basking in his own glory that he will fail to notice that he stands alone. That is the course. Be rational where you can be. Speak honeyed words where necessary. Above all, use what you have been given in unexpected ways. Each must believe they see the true Adagio. We must ensure that none are correct.

Adagio forced a theatrical tremble into her arms, then wrapped them around his neck. Swallowing, she mumbled something into his chest.

Forza stopped abruptly and looked down at his daughter. “What was that?”

“I said that… that you were right.” She turned her head to stare at anything but him. “About some things. I saw it all in the battle. They’re monsters, and we have to fight them.” Adagio felt her father tense. “Put me down. I can walk now.”

Forza cleared his throat. “I think not. You’ll only slow us, and that I cannot risk.” With a small grunt, he settled Adagio into a more comfortable position. “I’ve carried you this far through life…”

Adagio’s hand gripped his shoulder tightly, then relaxed. “I just didn’t know. No one told me how terrible it all was. It was… confusing. That… that thing wanted to tear me apart, and when it couldn’t, it started telling me about our races. It kept talking about secrets and plans and stuff I just couldn’t understand!” Adagio worked a small shake into her voice. “I… I…”

“But you mastered it?” Forza’s eyes were hard, but they sparkled like rubies.

Adagio touched the jewel at her throat. “Yeah.”

“And what will you do with it? Terrorize your teachers? Use it to guard your door while you sleep the morning away?”

Calm. The word enveloped and cooled her anger when it flared. Let him lead for now.

“I don’t know, okay?” Adagio made a show of pulling away, but collapsed against him when he resisted. “I don’t know what to do anymore.”

Silence stretched out between them as Forza picked his way down the broken steps. Adagio let her head bounce against his chest. “What you will do is serve,” he said suddenly.

Adagio did not reply, and he grunted. She grinned into his chest at the added spring in his step. “Are… Are Sonata and Aria, you know… going?”

“It could be arranged. Their families won’t be pleased, of course, but it can be done.” Forza turned a corner and slid against the wall as the pathway narrowed. “Duty to society comes first in all things, Adagio. Remember that.”

Adagio fought back against rising bile.

Yes, do remember this moment. We all live in a society of individuals. Each paying lip service to the whole while tearing down everything that might help anyone but themselves. But we will be the mortar that holds, Adagio! We will bind them! We will be the resolution of the dissonance! Remember that when their hypocrisy makes you ill.

Adagio nodded, then smiled when her father grunted again. He’d thought she was agreeing. “I’ll… get to see Marcato?”

Forza stiffened for just a moment, then swallowed. “I can make sure that you are placed in his unit.”

Adagio clamped her jaw shut.

Did you think he did not know? Marcato died years ago, but it is the spur with which he has driven you. Too useful a tool to be discarded.

The sour taste of rage filled Adagio’s mouth, and she swallowed hard. Taking a deep breath, she focused on the plan. “Then maybe I’ll go.”

She felt her father tense. “There is no ‘maybe’, Adagio! It is your duty!”

Adagio tilted her head back to glare at her father. “I said I’ll think about it!” She allowed her eyes to flutter closed for just a moment and added some extra weariness into her voice. “I’ve got to think about a lot of things. I was wrong...”

“What?”

Good, but be careful. Never too much at one time.

Adagio yawned. “Nothing.”Laying her head on his chest once more, she closed her eyes and let him carry her down the mountain.

Author's Note

If you are interested in a little more, there is an unused epilogue in my scraps story.

It can be found here.

Keep in mind that it's unused for a reason, though. I didn't end up caring for it, so your mileage with it may vary. A little bit of it ended up getting moving into this final chapter, so some of the dialogue might feel repetitive.