Gilded Ashes-Chapter 30: Second arc: Will

The sun climbed from behind the everlasting clouds. From the Spire’s high window, Neoshima reflected the light in pieces - glass first, then steel.

A short silhouette watched it and said nothing. He let his gaze rest on the horizon a little longer.

He remembered the sound that followed the silence, when Division One vanished. Not screaming. Not thunder. Just the sound of radios clicking to static and staying there. The heartbeats, going flat. One after the other. He remembered the monitors blinking red, with the word nobody wanted to see.

[TERMINATED]

Suddenly, the door opened without a sound. A woman slipped in with a half-smile and a tablet tucked under her arm.

"Staring at nothing again, huh, Solomon?" she said. "Dangerous hobby."

"I’m not staring, Alteea" he responded. "I’m... Waiting."

"For what?"

"Today."

She stood beside him, a careful arm’s length from the glass. "I know you’ve been waiting for the Academy entrance exam. But why are you so anxious? We do this every year."

"It’s different."

"Aaaand... You say that every year."

He didn’t look at her. "Division One... They dispatched, like any other mission. Fortitude a bit higher, that’s right. Almost 9.3. Then nothing. They still walk out in a straight line when I close my eyes."

"It’s been quite a long time" she tried, softer.

"Not long enough."

"You care deeply about every single Vanguard..." she stated the obvious

"Of course I do. They’re... The light that keeps pushing the night away... And some... Some fall under my command."

She lifted the tablet. "No anomalies since then, though! No spikes. Horizon’s clean. The numbers like us these days."

"Numbers lie" Solomon answered. "Silence is just the beginning of something worse."

Silence. The kind that listens back.

Alteea let it breathe, then tapped the screen awake. "Fine. Feed your worry something useful. I got applicants."

"How many... Interesting ones?"

"Around Ten" she smiled. "More interesting than last year, I can tell you that!"

"Surprise me."

She let each name hang a second in his mind.

"Esen. Feris. Lynea. Ichiro..." A flick of her eyes. "Then, we’ve got... Saffi. Iris. Arashi. Keahi. Hikari. Raizen."

Solomon repeated the last four under his breath, as if testing their shape. "Arashi. Keahi. Hikari. Raizen..." He waited for a memory to rise in his mind, but found none. "Where did they come from?"

"That is the part I can’t dress up" Alteea exhaled. "They have blank files. Stuff that circles back to nowhere."

"...Ghosts" he completed.

"Or simply misinformation" she tried to calm him down. "Probably overseas. Border towns with bad records, who knows? Ships that changed names twice. The world is bigger than our papers can reach."

He finally turned from the window.

"The last time we trusted a dark corner" he said "we fell into it."

"And climbed out" she answered. "Mostly."

Silence. Not even the clock on the wall dared to tick loudly. Down below the city, steam drifted from vents like breath on a cold morning. Far to the east sat the Lotus Academy, Mysterious and beautiful.

"Tell me why today is different" she said.

"Because quiet moments make people too kind. It makes them forget." Solomon answered, with a cold look on his face. "Because I still owe the ones who did not come back."

"Or" Alteea said, "because you cared too much about them, and days like these just... Catch up."

"Both can be true."

She nodded once. "Do you want quick notes? Esen is... Hm... Eplosive. Feris is pretty damn strong, for a girl like her. Saffi’s head is a workshop, I’ll personally take care of her. Iris... She can heal. Not sure where she learned that from... The others... They don’t have much on paper."

He looked at the Academy again. Light crept over its towers, then stopped, as if the morning was also waiting.

"They’ll be fine" she said. She wanted to sound like she believed it and almost did. "I think."

"Let’s see who will walk through" he raised his eyes. "And who will try to decide who they really are."

"They have to decide first" she answered. "That’s the point."

"Division One decided..." he answered.

"Oh, come on! Enough with that! That was war" she rolled her eyes. "This is... Preparing for war."

He did not answer.

Alteea slid the tablet under her arm. "We can stand here and try to make better sentences and poetry, or we can go be useful." She said, because 4 individuals with no identities on paper sounded worse.

"Patience, dear."

"And... About the last four. Overseas seems like the cleaner answer."

"It’s an answer" he said. "Clean isn’t the same as true."

She smiled slightly. "You’ll have your truth soon enough."

He spoke the names again, steady, like laying stones. "Esen. Ichiro. Feris. Alteea. Saffi. Iris. Arashi. Keahi. Hikari. Raizen. The exam won’t be too nice" he sighed. "And kindness isn’t what they’ll need."

"What will they need, then? Enlighten me" she asked.

He watched the clouds accept the light without changing.

"Pure Will. Will, to fight against this cursed world."

Alteea’s voice was a whisper on the edge of a grin.

"Then let’s see who has it."

✦ ✦ ✦

Somewhere, far from Neoshima, far from the Academy...

The Queen watched patiently, and asked herself a question she had never truly answered.

What is will?

It’s what bargains with pain - a smaller hurt now for a larger strength later?

Does it return after failure, quieter but firmer?

Is it made in victories, or hammered into shape by every attempt that almost broke you?