The townsfolk spent the day with them, clearing a space for all the dead and fallen that they could find. They dug the graves as quickly as they could. So many that were placed in the ground, that there was at least one person that knew each of those who lost their lives, and Kacyn was laid in the center of the graveyard as their fallen hero. A hero who gave her life for the sake of the many. Another divine logician to inspire hope.

  As the evening began to set, they covered the bodies and lit torches at the heads of each grave, and they gathered around the burial site with somber and solemn expressions. As they looked on, many wept and mourned the fallen. Parents mourned for their young children that were caught in the wreckages. Husbands and wives mourned for their partners caught in the firing line of the invading soldiers. Seeds of doubt and pain were sown…

  …Seeds of rebellion were planted and watered by the tears of betrayal.

  “Everyone,” Asher shouted, demanding everyone’s attention, “this is what our empire has become. A lawless, boundless, immoral group of bullies that use their power for experiments and dealings with beings they don’t understand! They hoard our wealth, slaughter our people, and perpetuate lies about what we are supposed to look like and act like!”

  Some of the people shouted in affirmation and raised their fists. They were angry, distraught, and wounded that they were treated so poorly. “They were afraid that the divine logicians have returned, and they had every right to be afraid! The hero among the fallen… Emira… She helped Majjai fight an aethril! Imagine what her legacy would mean if the survivors of an attack they launched – people they weren’t expecting to live – show up at the doorstep of the emperor himself and demand he answer for his crimes?!”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  “Yeah!” One of the men called out.

  “That’s what I mean! Keep that fire going! You all just survived an aethril attack! No one has ever done that so far! No one has survived! No one… Until now! Carry this fire, friends, and use it to set the entire empire ablaze!” He continued.

  Then Ayela stepped forward, and all eyes were on her. Her face was downcast, and she nervously brushed off the black lace dress she wore to the funeral. “…They were our friends and our families,” she began, tears falling from her cheeks. She knew that she didn’t know anyone besides Kacyn, but they were all feeling the pain she felt in her heart. “And the empire would have their deaths mean nothing… We owe it to them to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  “That’s right!”

  “Speak, Majjai!”

  “We will never forget!”

  She took a deep breath, and roiled all of her anxious tension. This was bigger than the darklings. Bigger than the wars they’d discovered. The empire declared an attack on its own people by slaughtering the innocent. They encouraged war with their own citizens by unleashing a chained god on them, and they would learn why that was such a mistake.

  “We owe it to the fallen from this town, and every place they attacked before this one! For Sümol! For the divine logician they claimed to have killed before! To every one of my kind they hunted down and slaughtered like animals! We owe it to them to take this stand here and now!”

  The proclamation did little to lift the heavy burden of their spirits, but it did feed the flame burning in their hearts. She wasn’t sure how she could continue forward herself, though. Kamille seemed to sense that, and placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked to the ground, and watched the droplets fall from her face to the dirt beneath. Why did the empire do this? Why did people of power align themselves with such horrible and wretched organizations? Was it the promise of power and security that drove them to treat the ones on the bottom with such disregard and contempt? Her heart was shattered to pieces, but most of all…

  …She realized how broken everything else in her life was.