The Warthings

"Sometimes, my love, Death picks budding flowers and we never see their blossoms.”

-letter to Adila Kastani from Gadi Kastani, c. 534; translation by Gregory Strout-Friar

Casimir Alecto Belynneda

The Utrad Wastelands, Utrad

Novembre 23, 646

He brushes snow from his hair. The train is no more than a twisted mess of smoke and metal. The front three cars are on fire, leaping high into the otherwise crisp air.

The other passengers are screaming, bumping into one another, herding children like cattle and crawling over the train like ants.

He's alone. Unharmed, cold, and alone.

Casimir starts down the crumpled train. He counts off down the cars. The seventh is mostly devoid of people, the able survivors trying to stop the fire before it alights the coal.

The metal walls are sharp on his hands, all jagged edges and high peaks. Blood wells over a scratch on his arm and drips onto his boots. Sounds are static and his nose aches with the smell of burning bone and a bruise spotting his cheek.

“Oh, Casimir!” He recognizes Kiyoko’s voice. Her hood is tattered and ripped back onto her shoulders, exposing her hair that shines more pure than the gray slush they call snow. Nasim is with her, his sword dangling at his hip and a few lone sparks stitching a cut across his lip.

“We need Kouki and Acacia,” Nasim says. “You haven't seen them, have you?”

“No. Ghouls, the Regulus Force crashed a train!” He laughs. “If Vailisa Miloslavskaya doesn't get fired, I don't know what to do!”

“Who?” Kiyoko asks.

“She heads the Regulus Force.”

“And,” Nasim offers, “isn't she Carson Fallsway’s superior?”

“Bingo,” Casimir grins. “Now let’s look for the rotting, disgusting corpses of our twins.”

Kiyoko gasps. “They- They cannot be dead, right?” She turns her bicolored eyes desperately to Nasim.

“They’re children of gods,” Nasim assures. “It will take much more than a train crash to kill them.”

“Besides, if I know Caci,” Casimir throws a grin over his shoulder as he tosses a jagged bit of metal into the snow, “and I do, she loves you too much to leave so easily.”

“I love her too-”

“You’re Amarata,” Nasim interrupts.

“I love everyone.”

“We’re both ghouls, yes.” Casimir grunts as he pulls on a length of collapsed wall.

“Amarata is supposed to love everyone.” Nasim steps forward and helps Casimir drag the wall a safe distance away.

Kiyoko peers into the empty space, curling her arms around herself and shivering. “Casimir?”

“Yes?” Casimir trots over the wall. It makes a clanging noise under his boots.

Kiyoko leans down and plucks something from the ground. It spins slowly just under her wrist, all glittering pale silver and flashing ruby eyes. A silver snake on a silver chain.

Instinctively, Casimir reaches into his shirt and untucks his matching one from over his heart.

“We got them on our seventh birthday. Our little sister saved for months-” he cuts himself off, panic settling in his throat. “She never takes it off.”

Her brows knit together behind her wind-whipped hair. “We need to find them.”

“Help me lift this, Nasim,” Casimir calls, tugging on a sheet of corrugated metal. Nasim offers his own strength, and together, they pile it atop the last one.

Kiyoko collapses into the gray slush. Nasim skids forward and presses a palm to her cheek. She jolts to life and Nasim slumps sleepily over her head.

“What in Death’s army just-” Casimir laughs, but Kiyoko sits up. Her mouth falls open.

Casimir is almost scared to look.

The sludge soaks into the knees of his trousers.

Is this what people have felt when they come home to find his victims strung from the ceilings like the playthings they were? Dripping blood and twisted, spotted with bruises and crisscrossed with slashes from his knives.

But she's a hero. She's a ghoul, Brekess, she caused this whole wreck in a way.

Acacia is sprawled across Kouki, his head framed in her small arms.

Nasim lifts his head and lifts them both from the bed of hard metal. Her head lolls over Nasim’s shoulder. Her mouth hangs open and her hooded eyes are murky.

A plaything.

“Nasim?” Casimir asks. “Let me.”

“That isn't a good idea.”

His hand instinctively draws his knife. Nasim yelps and drops them both when Casimir buries the blade halfway into his arm. He lets Kouki drop to the ground and crumples under his sister’s weight.

Kouki wakes up.

Acacia doesn’t.

*****

"So tell me, why do you fear Death? She is our only escape.”

-Alexandra, by William Calypso

Acacia Megaera Belynneda

Death’s Realm

Novembre 23, 646

My eyes snap open. I'm in a chair, or rather, a throne. The room is dark and still, an eerie balance. Nothing but neutral. The silence is tense, like a stretched strip of dried tangrope, frayed and easy to cut.

“Brekess.”

I assumed she was a statue. She looks just like one. Her skin is pale and her dark curls tumble to the floor, disappearing into shadows. Her mouth is blood red and her eyes are the color of water moss. Her robes are purple, the color of impurity. She looks exactly like me.

“Death,” I greet.

“You have finally come home. I am so glad to see you.” She rises from her throne next to mine and walks slowly, evenly. “I have been waiting.”

“I'm dead then,” I state, settling back into my chair. “That's unfortunate. How did I die?”

“Life wanted to take you, but I would not let her.”

“I was going to get a second chance?” I laugh. “Why?”

“You saved the angel Regenade’s life.” Her blood red lips quirk down. “You gave your life for him.”

“Kiyoko would have been sad if Kouki died, yes?”

Her frown deepens. “You have grown to love Amarata, Brekess. I cannot have a repeat of last time you went to the surface.”

“Last time?” My ears start to burn and I reach for one of my knives to play with it.

“Yes. When you locked me down here so Life and her angels could rule.” A brief flash of anger passes quickly. “Where is Sulstel? I expected to see him too.”

“Alive, hopefully.” I stand from my chair. “I wish I could say it was nice to see you, but I have to go now, yes. Where’s the exit?”

“You cannot leave me so soon.”

“Watch me,” I taunt, drawing my other knife and breezing past her. “I'm half of the best fighter Kiocrostas has to offer.”

“Who do you think granted you that power?”

I stop pushing at the huge double doors and turn to face Death. “What do you mean?”

“When I sewed your body together, I gave you a drop of my blood so you would not be bested in physical combat.” Death folds her hands in the sleeves of her robes calmly. “I created you, Brekess, and I can take away your power.”

“I’m mortal,” I argue. “Life created me from stone.”

Death clicks her tongue sympathetically. “If you want to pretend to be mortal, I will not stop you. The exit is on the other side of the ocean.”

“You're letting me leave that easily?” I ask, not able to manage more than a mutter.

“There is one condition.”

I groan.

“You must bring Sulstel with you the next time you visit.”

“Fine, okay,” I brush her off. “I'm leaving now.”

I lean all of my weight into the seam of the door. It opens with a huge bang and I fall through it onto a railed balcony.

Death’s tower looks high over a stout city bathed in sulfuric yellow light that doesn't seem to come from anything. It's not cold, or hot, not dark or light, not loud or quiet. It's neutral, a perfect balance.

Ocean. I'm looking for an ocean.

It hangs above me, a dark cotton gray. It's quiet, and dark shapes crisscross the empty space. I spin around. The spire of the tower just brushes the glassy surface.

I sheath my knives, and with a deep breath, I start to climb.

The tower itself is littered with elaborate trimmings and statuettes. I climb past a crouched dog, a cat with wings, a life sized horse. There are humans too, an Utradish woman with long hair blowing in an imaginary breeze, a little Seij boy with amber set into his eyes.

When I reach the top, my arms trembling, I am looking into my brother’s face. Brekess and Sulstel stand back to back, their fingers intertwined behind them, and each of them holding a knife above their heads, as if holding up the still ocean.

Casimir. I made a promise I would kill him.

I sit on Sulstel’s head and use his arm to steady myself. When I stand up fully, my head dips into the water. I take a moment to catch my breath before taking another deep one and jumping.

The ocean is cold and dark. As I kick, something starts to drag me upwards. The dark shapes send bubbles swirling into a nonexistent current. My chest never gets heavier.

I see more of them as I continue, until it seems they’re accompanying me to the surface. The water almost disappears completely as the dark shapes close in.

Something hard and cold hits me flat in the back. My breath finally fails, and I fall forward into darkness.

I open my eyes expecting to see the gray ocean. Insidesd, I see Casimir, dripping tears onto my neck.

“Hi there,” I laugh, burying my face in his shoulder.

“Ghouls!” Casimir swears. “Acacia?”

“Bingo.” I squirm in his arms, but he doesn't let go, so I settle for twisting around and sitting in his lap. “Death said Life was going to take me because I saved Kouki.”

“You- what?”

“Your eyes are leaking.”

“I wonder why,” he sneers at me. Casimir takes one long look at me and lets his head fall onto my shoulder. “Acacia, you died.”

“I escaped.” Casimir’s shoulder starts to shake. “I'll tell you about it later.”

“You crashed a train, saved Kouki, and escaped Death’s realm?” He laughs, muffled by my hair. “If I didn't know you were a ghoul, I'd swear you were Life herself!”

I look around while he’s laughing off his stress. We’re sitting in what looks like it may have once been snow. The train is crumpled like an old scarf and smoking at one end.

Nasim looks like he’s just seen a ghoul crawl up from under six feet of dirt. Kouki is laying in the slush, his chest moving erratically. Kiyoko looks awestruck.

“You saved his life, Acacia,” Kiyoko says, the wind almost whipping away her quiet voice.