[KoJ] Chapter 96: Confrontation

Sapients scatter in terror. No matter the settlement, chaos reins below; disturbed both before my appearance, and reaching a fervour after.

I cannot hear them, but my desire for silence isn’t welcomed. The inescapable screech of wind rushing over my scales no matter how slow I seem to move is vexing. Never before has it felt that way. Now, I wish air was solid enough to sink my fangs into and rip to imperceptible shreds.

Cities and other hives no longer shine with wonder. Dull, repetitive milestones blot the landscape, counting down the distance before I reach the site I left Ceph. They come too fast. My flight slows, but no matter how I trudge, the surface always advances.

After half a day from our separation, I finally reach the battlefield. It comes too soon. A part of myself wants to turn around and scamper into a hole never to return. I quash it.
Ceph will not go unpunished for her betrayal.

Small pockets of warrior castes rush around in no less discord than the rest of the nations, but their very existence proves Henosis’ advance was a failure. Because of me. Because of Ceph. They should be dead; for a moment, I consider fulfilling that fate. Give both sides of this conflict the mutual defeat they deserve.

But that contradicts my determination.

No. When I find where Ceph is hiding, I will remove her from existence along with all the beasts involved with her. Whoever hides her. Whoever helped or encouraged her to take this path. Only they will die. And only with their deaths will this war devolve to the dregs that they deserve.

Silence comes when I reach the battlefield proper.

Blood-soaked muddy plains beyond what the eye can see. Pits of organs. Sickly, mutilated corpses lay splayed and rotten. Death reaches its putrid clutch from the earth, staining the sky.

The vision is no different from what I witnessed not a day ago, yet it is no longer interesting. All wonder and curiosity, gone. The foul nature hidden beneath the surface has been revealed.

Or maybe my eyes have simply opened.

Ashen rain pelts Ceph’s kneeling form when I finally reach her. A storm rumbles overhead, but the thrum of thunder doesn’t reach my ears. Filth carried by falling water mars the membrane of the dohrni’s head, continually washed away and recoating her in the dusty remnants of the bomb that started all this.

My body coils in the air far above her. Not a single scale falls to her height. A deep, hateful, but mostly pained hiss rolls out from my throat unwittingly. Presence so thick the wet earth folds away from the target of my discontent.

She doesn’t move. Sitting there in the mud, Ceph sits with her eyes facing away. She knows I’m here; there’s no way she couldn’t. Yet she holds her silence. No explanation. No blaming someone else. Ceph doesn’t even beg for her life.

I hadn’t expected her to actually be here. She should have fled already. She knew well enough how I would react to her betrayal. By all means she should have fled and hidden within the narrow buildings of the sapients.

But here she is.

Coming across her so soon has my mind stumbling all over itself once more. The chase has been taken. Gone is the hunt. Her lack of fear has disrupted my expectations. But now that she’s here, right before me, I have to know.

“Why?”

Why did she do it? Why not simply ask for my help? Why go through all that effort to show the good of sapients and the surface they live… if she was only going to throw it all away?

I don’t want to regret my time here. It may not have been exactly why I rose from the depths, but I have learnt so much about so many peoples. How they live together. How they overcome tribulations with creativity beyond their natural forms. Now, I can only see it as a waste. Soured time.

Why did she betray me?

Are our kinds simply so distinct that cooperation and cohabitation is impossible? Is it impossible to close the rift between predator and prey? Am I incompatible with civilisation?

“Orm… I am sorry.” Ceph’s eyes finally roll within her head to gaze up at me. Pain, regret and sincerity flowing freely through her orbs. She makes no attempt to flee. Her body slumps, accepting her coming death without complaint.

This is wrong. Ceph is the one who betrayed me; she can’t be in pain. I’m the one who had to deal with the agony of the Titan-Killer and her betrayal, not her.

“Why?” I hiss again.

She stares up at me in silence for a while longer. Her unbroken gaze contains more emotion than I’ve seen from her, yet the scent of fear is barely present. For so long, I’ve wanted her to stop feeling terrified around me. Did it really have to take her turning against me for that horror to recede?

Her silence lingers long enough without an answer that I get the sense that I’m the one being scrutinised, not the other way around. But before my simmering fury can build and unleash on her, Ceph speaks.

“It was unavoidable,” she admits, not breaking eye-contact. “We were going to lose this war. It was the entire reason I went down into those tunnels: to find you.” Ceph lets out a breath. “I have done you wrong, and I understand that what comes next is also unavoidable. But before I die, I want you to know that I am sorry. This was something I did alone.”

Her gaze finally breaks and she bows her body low, eyes in the mud.

Why does nothing ever go as expected. Ceph was supposed to run from me; she was supposed to make this fit into the mould of a predator and prey. She knows she wronged me, yet instead of running and hiding, she’s welcoming her own death. She’s supposed to fight. Even if she has betrayed me, that dohrni I’ve come to know so well was never a lie.

It makes it so hard to crush her in my jaw. I want nothing more than to lunge forward and punish her, but my body doesn’t move.

“You could have asked,” I say, voice devoid of presence.

“Maybe,” she says, her eyes returning to mine. “But I couldn’t take that chance. If you said no. If you decided to remain completely uninvolved. If you so much as became aware of my intent, I could never have fooled you.”

“I still don’t understand why?” My body coils tightly. “Why are you willing to betray me to win this war? If death is the only outcome for remaining in this war, then why not give up this territorial dispute and find a new home?” The surface is massive, after all.

“I would do anything for my family,” she declares, eyes wide with conviction. “If we surrendered, some of my people might live fulfilling lives under Henosis’ iron grip, but many would suffer. People who can’t fight. We cannot run. Our north and west are blocked by sea and Alps, while our southern neighbours are not so welcoming.”

Ceph’s expression softens. “Have you ever cared enough about someone that you were willing to do anything to keep them safe and give them a prosperous future?”

I remain quiet. My fury still boils under the surface, but my body and mind clash whenever the anger tries to snap. Ceph continues after a moment.

“For the longest time, I never did. At least, not enough. Then they died. Because of my lack of action… my weakness, I was powerless to save them. Since then, I’ve sworn to go to any length to keep my people safe. Even if it meant throwing a friend into the fire.” Her eyes flicker to my damaged scales with regret. “Thank you for saving my people.”

Simmering frustration flares pain through my wounds. I did not want an apology. I wanted Ceph to flee in fear, and double down on her betrayal so I could disregard all the enjoyable memories of exploring the surface with her as a mere act. The longer she talks, the harder it is to actually understand what she is.

Prey? An enemy? A curiosity. A friend?

She is none.

“You put me through agony to destroy your enemies. They are gone now. Reduced to the point they cannot fight the pact nations any longer.” I’m only barely able to hold in my pressure. “It is only fair that I do the same to your side.”

“No!” Ceph leaps to her tentacles, ash and mud whipping off each limb as she readies herself to fight. Her strength only lasts a moment before she realises the difference between us and sinks back to the earth. “No, please. It was only me; nobody else was involved in this. I can’t stop you if that’s what you’ve decided, but I’m the only one who deserves death.”

“You are right. You deserve death.” Not only was she the reason I felt such intense physical agony, but also the pain of shattered trust. Only Scia’s death hurt more.

I rise higher, the scales along my head stopping short of the territory of bodiless creatures. Ceph is tiny. Kilometres below, and a fraction of my size, she is less than a bug… yet my attention remains entirely on her. My body hooks through massive bends, readying myself to strike. It would take a brush of my tail to squash her, but anything less than all my power, and I fear I won’t follow through.

So small. Slumped and defeated. Suddenly, a figure with a broken wing and a bright, determined gaze takes her place.

My wailing hiss rolls down over my target with the full brunt of my turmoil. Anger, frustration and despair. Earth ripples around her. Mud hardens, yet folds away in a ring as if hiding from the subject of all that tumult. Lightning strikes somewhere in the distance, and freezes in place as the heavy hiss imbues it with the pain of inhibition.

Forget using all my power; I can’t even will myself to strike. I cannot kill her.

In a wave of frustration and discontent, I disappear through a rift to get her out of my sight. I may not be able to kill Ceph because of the time we have spent, and the regret she shows, but forgiving her for that betrayal is impossible. If I never have to see her again, it will be too soon.

Barely any time passes before I find myself in the churning tunnels of the Other Side. I glance back at the rend that connects this land to the warped tunnels and the sapient’s surface.

Why did I flee, when any other non-Titan that has attacked me with any sort of malicious intent has ended up dead? Ceph destroyed the joy I had in exploring the new land. She was in the wrong, yet I was too weak to do anything but flee.

The rend is as stable as it was months ago. My only connection back to the territory I spent most my life. The only connection back to the surface, with all the sapients that live, and communicate there.

The rend collapses.

Too long have I been distracted. If there was anything Ceph was right about, it is the desire to do anything for those I care about. I will bring Scia back. Even if it means hunting Titans.

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Was slamming my head against a wall with this chap, but i hope it turned out well. Really considered killing Ceph off here... but I think this is better for Orm's character.

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