[XASTOL CITY, KĀNGZHÌYÙ GENERAL INFIRMARY — FOUR MONTHS AGO]
Banderd looked over his motionless father, the thoughts in his head as muffled as the voice of the doctor who stood next to him. Banderd stared unblinkingly at his father's grey beard. It was greyer than he'd ever thought grey could be — even with age. It was very rare for a dwarf's natural hair color to change after their birth. He wondered if Dwygrand would have been furious at the prospect that a part of him had changed, even in death.
"It seems Speaker Dwygrand had been hiding his illness for a while now," the doctor's voice said to him. It was vague, but a part of Banderd heard it. "We might have been able to save him before, but the events of the other night accelerated his condition to the point of no return."
Banderd finally turned to him. For the first time in his life, he was at a loss for words.
The doctor cast him a regretful look and glanced back at Dwygrand. "I cannot imagine how you are feeling, but I recommend that you make your family aware of this as soon as possible. His passing will come as an even greater shock to Xastol if you do not."
He waited for Banderd to say something, but once he realized the Councilman would not, he gave a short bow and excused himself out of the room. Banderd's eyes slowly shifted back to Dwygrand. He was the last of the previous generation of Xastol. He'd done much in service to the city and had raised the younger generation to follow in his footsteps. And now…
Banderd's legs buckled. He caught the edge of his father's hospital bed and knelt down beside it with a tremulous exhale. It was his fault, he thought. Everything that had happened in the past few days: The intruder ultimatum, Ruo's death, Ivan's framing — his father's death… He'd caused it all. Dwygrand had raised him to be better, and Banderd had failed him.
I'm a disgrace, he sobbed. He leaned into the blanket and cried as silently as he could.
…I… am not fit the bear the name Murong!
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[XASTOL CITY, YǍNMÀIYUÁN (GARDEN OF BURIAL) — THREE MONTHS AGO]
Banderd, Gido, and Huin stood above Dwygrand's coffin, each holding a black bell with a silver clapper. All three were dressed in silver mourning robes adorned only with the Murong clan crest on their backs. The only other hint of color was their blood-red collars and cuffs. Several yards behind them stood many other dwarfs who'd come to pay their respects.
Huin and Gido's eyes were sorrowful and filled with hate for Ivan, the man who destroyed their family, and they could barely look at their father. Next to the plot of land they stood at, sat a tortoise-mounted tombstone with three dead insense sticks. Below it lay the body of Ruo, whom they had buried just the day before.
Banderd stared at Dwygrand's closed eyelids. The ritual leaders had dressed him up silk, dark brown robe with tiny golden dragons glittering along his cuffs, collar, and zipper. It was silly, he thought. His father was never one to wear such striking clothing. Because of that, the brothers hadn't buried him with any ornaments or lavish seals. They knew he would have hated it. Instead, the only thing of note on Dwygrand's person was his obsidian pendant; the same one all of the Counselors wore.
After a moment of hesitation, Banderd reached down with his free hand and lightly pulled it from around his father's neck. He looked to his brothers and nodded. It was time to bury him.
Gido rang his bell first and caused the ground to split open into the shape of Dwygrand's coffin. Huin was next to ring; his bell lowered the coffin into the ground, still standing upright. They both turned to Banderd to ring the final bell.
DNG!
Banderd's bell shook stronger than the others and enclosed the open plot of dirt, covering Dwygrand and laying him to rest. All three then rang their bells together, erecting a slick, black tombstone from the ground made of pure Sanctum Energy. Similarly to Ruo's, a small donkey figurine appeared affixed to the top surface of the tombstone. Dwygrand would have thought it apt: his figurine being as hardheaded as he was.
"It's done," Gido said. He and Huin turned their backs and walked away, but Banderd lingered for a moment. He clenched his father's obsidian necklace and looked up.
A light snow was beginning to fall.
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[XASTOL CITY, KÙLÓNGYÁ (DRAGON VAULT) — THREE MONTHS AGO]
The golden-black fangs of the safe handle wheel stared back at Banderd with a frightening ferocity. It was shaped in the form of a dragon's head, but it felt alive. Banderd loved the vault. Though he was never allowed here, he felt an immense joy at the thought of being surrounded by every legendary item that had ever been in Xastol's possession.
By all accounts, the vault was just a repository housing ancestral items dating back to the days before Arsaes and the dwarves had migrated to the continent of Terrafei. The Great Hijra, they called it.
Only the dwarven Speaker was allowed to come into Kùlóngyá. Since Dwygrand's death, the people had been pushing for a new head of the Council. And despite his feelings on the matter, Gido and Huin had both pushed for him to succeed in their father's position due to his swift work in apprehending Ivan. "There is no one better suited for the position than you, Banderd," they'd said.
The happiness drained from Banderd's face as he recalled their words. If only they knew, he thought. If only they knew what he'd done — what he'd hid from them — they wouldn't look up to him as a model dwarf anymore.
LRRRRNNNNNNNNN!
The wheel lurched as Banderd let loose his dark brown Sanctum Energy. It responded to his call, turning and spinning until suddenly — click! The door opened, revealing a massive room of gold and silver. The pillars, constructed from Twinkling Pleoritite, shone with a magical sheen of jelly as he walked past them. The floor itself was made from liquid gold, something Xastol had an overabundance of. And the ceiling hung with the Murong banners and crest, as if declaring to any would-be intruder: "This is not yours!"
Banderd came to the center of the room, where piles of jewels and sacred minerals circled a few cobwebbed chests. He'd remembered the first time he'd been here: when he'd begged his father for the black book for pity that it would rot away in such a secluded place. Dwygrand had relented due to the argument that it wasn't in any of the chests. Banderd had found it on the floor, lying a few feet away from any of the more valuable things. After weeks of arguing that it wasn't worth as much as the other items that may have been in the room, Banderd finally managed to get Dwygrand to relent.
None of the chests in the middle had ever been touched by any Speaker of the council. Many records stated that they'd been placed there during Arsaes's time and that whatever it contained was too special and culturally important to allow just anyone to touch. Banderd felt that this would be the perfect place for his father's necklace.
Pulling the necklace and orb from his breast pocket, Banderd placed the last memento of his father atop one of the silver-brown chests and brushed it reminiscently. Then, he retrieved another object from within his robes: Arsaes' black book, and laid it onto the floor. Banderd buried the book underneath the mountain of treasures and stepped away only when he was sure it was fully out of sight.
Banderd rose and, with a turn, started for the vault door. He'd only made it a few steps before his shoulders shook with rage.
"No, I haven't read it. But I once saw an object just like it. It can only be read by those truly deserving of it."
The voice of the intruder echoed in his head and made him grit his teeth. Soon, the rage transformed into grief, and tears streamed down his face again as he spun and dashed towards the buried book. He couldn't let it go. He just couldn't. Maybe it was selfish of him to want it after all he'd done, but if the possibility existed that it might give him an answer — that it might justify what he'd done…
TSCCCH!!
Banderd knocked away the rubies and gold coins, sending them flying all over the vault's floors with no regard for how he looked. He cared only for the book, and once he'd gotten it, he pulled it close to his face, ready to bare his full soul into its contents. He'd barely noticed it, but the book started to feel heavier despite its slimness. Was it answering in kind? Or was he imagining it? Regardless of what it was, a falling tear soaked into its cover page and vanished within seconds as Banderd hugged the book.
As long as he held the book, whatever choices he made from now on had to be justified. An answer had to be found, and he needed to believe that.
What was a true dwarf? Banderd wondered: Was it someone who follows Arsaes's laws without regard for the destruction they might bring about? Or was it someone like Ivan, who stood tall in the face of the laws, able to disagree and find their own way forward?
Whatever the case, Banderd needed to know.
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[XASTOL CITY, OUTSIDE OF KÙLÓNGYÁ — A FEW MOMENTS LATER]
Something cold touched Banderd's neck as he stepped outside. He looked up, eyebrows raised, and lifted his palms. It's… snowing…
He closed his eyes and felt a chill creep up his spine as memories of the day Ivan had been framed resurged with the falling snowflakes.
"Hooo!" Something meek drew his attention to a small mound of rising snow. It looked as if something had fallen inside of it, imprinting a sizable hole. Banderd wondered if it was a rat or a dog, but after he peeked over the hole, he was surprised to be wrong.
"An owl," he breathed, cocking his head to the side. He inspected the grey, fallen animal. It's grey reminded him of his father's beard, of the death in it. His eyes then fell upon its broken wing. It was crooked, bent completely the wrong way, with tiny droplets of blood running down its feathers and into the snow underneath its feet. The bird gave Banderd a wary look and hollered again, scampering hard and slipping against the frigid ice so it could get away from the Councilman.
Banderd glanced at one of Kùlóngyá's rooftops and noticed a broken hanging lantern. "Did you fall from there?" he asked the owl. He leaned forward and stretched out his hand, curiosity getting the better of him.
"There are no owls in Xastol… Did you come from the Weeping Forest — ow!"
The bird nipped his finger, as though warning him to stay back. Banderd heeded the warning, cupping his bruised finger in his other hand and rising to his feet. Right… What am I doing? It's just an animal. It will die here soon.
Despite what he thought, he cast the bird a sympathetic look and turned away. It's not my place to help anything after what I did. It's better off without me–
"HOOOT!!"
Banderd paused, his face a mixture of conflict and guilt. Then, he slowly turned.
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[XASTOL CITY, BANDERD'S HOME — TWO HOURS LATER]
Banderd set a birdcage on his reading table and closed its small door. Inside, it was the injured owl he'd found earlier. In the end, he couldn't bear to see the bird just lying there, left to bleed out, knowing that he could have done something.
A small cloth had been wrapped around the owl's broken wing. He didn't want many people to know he'd found such a peculiar animal — especially one from outside the walls — so Banderd discreetly visited Daava's Children's clinic for some advice and help in salving the poor creature's wounds. Daava had been gracious enough to provide some hemostatic oil. She doubted it'd do much for the pain and broken wing, but it would stop the bleeding at the very least.
I'll have to thank her again another time, he thought.
He looked out of his round window and watched the falling snow. It was a day just like this when he'd lost his father and little brother to duty. Banderd wondered if some part of him was trying to atone for that by doing right — even if it was just for an owl.
He looked into the bird's silver-red eyes and smiled softly. "Starting today, you're my responsibility." The bird whistled and turned up its nose at him.
Banderd lowered his gaze and took a seat next to it. "I'll take care of you," he whispered. "I promise."
The bird, almost as if understanding what he'd said, ceased its jumping and looked deeply at Banderd for the first time.
The Counselor leaned back and let his eyes close, exhaustion finally taking over him.
"This world…" he said as he slept. "This world is much too dangerous for any of us to be left alone in it."
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[XASTOL CITY, DRAGONS BREATH TOWER — PRESENT]
Ivan's hands trembled as he closed the book. Gido, Huin, Hidemi, Hisagi — even Jacender and Aleximus were silent. Shock could barely be used to describe what they felt now. To read Banderd's own life so plainly and be dealt the reality of how tragic it all was…
Ivan clutched his pants and shed a tear. "You damn fool!"
Gido and Huin were of a similar mind. Gido tightened his fists until his knuckles whitened, while Huin buried his chin into his sleeve. To think that their brother had been going through so much — had known so much — and decided to shoulder the burden of Xastol by himself..? The deep sense of inadequacy such a revelation brought about made them question themselves and what they believed in.
Hisagi, by all rights, Xastol's future inheritor and the symbol of its laws, detected within himself his own sense of confusion. He'd already begun to question what was truly right when he'd first met Hidemi. The encounter with Esi in the park had forced him to abandon those feelings and choose his obligation to the city against all else. And yet, once again, it was due to Hidemi's interference that stirred doubts Hisagi had felt he'd long since buried. The walls he'd put up were breaking, but not yet had they fully crumbled. Banderd was the one who had urged him to be better for their clan and his people. Learning what he'd done, even if it was in service to Xastol, caused an imbalance within Hisagi unlike any he'd ever felt before. He wondered, then, was Banderd wrong? Or was his uncle telling him something else — something perhaps even Banderd himself didn't truly know was correct. But what was it?
Hidemi pulled the book from his father's hand and stood, noticing a creased page near the end. He opened it, and out slipped an obsidian necklace. Banderd's obsidian necklace.
"Owa," the boy smiled, running his thumb along its groove. Out of everyone there, Hidemi cared the least about the ramifications of what Banderd had done. Other than Hidemi himself, Banderd had been the one most affected by the choice. The young dwarf couldn't bring himself to hate someone who had saved so many lives.
Ivan glanced up at his son, seeing a flicker of Banderd's shadow on Hidemi's back. The proud Murong crest stared back at him as triumphantly as it had always been on Banderd's back.
His name had been cleared now, due to Banderd's confessions, but Ivan was unsure of how to proceed. He wondered if it would be best to tell the citizens of what Banderd had done. The city had nearly pulled itself apart after he'd been arrested months ago. They'd als suffered a terrible loss with Dwygrand and Ruo's passing. The three remaining Murong brothers all shared the same thought: should everyone know? Or should they protect Banderd's secret to keep Xastol safe?
Aleximus watched Ivan struggle with the answer and forced himself to stay out of it. Though their presence there had done much to create a difference for Hidemi, whether or not it was a good one remained to be seen. He and Jace still had limited knowledge of the outside world; his opinions could not be hasty or ill-advised. Aleximus understood that this matter was not for humans to meddle with. Besides, what drew his attention was a much more pressing matter.
Banderd said the intruder's coat had a ram's head and two crossed axes…
He recalled Hatagi's emblem and its dark, haunting imagery. Whoever he was works for Eclipse! They were here! But how?! Hisagi said the walls were impossible to get through! No, that's not what's important! The intruder said they'd be back on the day of the Dwanivit! That's today!
Unbeknownst to Aleximus, however, was that a flicker of recognition flashed across Ivan's face as well. Hidemi's father was more familiar with it than he could ever know. But before Aleximus could make a mention of it to his brother, the Council chamber's doors flew open to someone shouting, "EXCUSE THE INTRUSION!!", and interrupting his train of thought.
Every head turned in the direction of the door as a small platoon of Sentries barged in. Captain Upo, forehead bruised and all, wobbled in behind his men, an agitated expression on his face. Next to him shuffled a skiddish Esi, who cast Hisagi and Hidemi a wary glance.
Upo glared at Jacender as he walked past and set his attention on Ivan. "You monster!" the Captain spat. He drew his gun, prompting his men to do the same and aim it at the boys. "You have some nerve disappearing… Where is Speaker Banderd? The citizens said he brought you all with him!"
Ivan averted his gaze and stood up. "Banderd… He's gone."
Turmoil and confusion broke out amongst the men, but before anyone could say anything, something caught Jacender and Aleximus's attention.
TK TK TK!!
Another man burst into the room, his uniform stained with sweat. He ran past the guards and dropped onto the floor in front of Gido and Huin.
"C-Counselors!"
"What is the meaning of this?" Gido jumped. "Don't all of you know that this is a sacred place?!"
"I-I apologize," the man wheezed. "I-I wouldn't have come… if it weren't… important..!"
Huin took his place near Gido's side and raised a brow. "What happened? Is it because of the Dwanivit?!"
The man swallowed hard and regained his composure. "I-It's the underground mines! Something terrible has happened!"
Ivan felt his heart sink with the messenger's next words.
"We have an intruder!"