Ash tried hard to get lost in the sound of the rain. It wasn't stinging in as many places anymore, which meant that his robes hadn't been too severely damaged in the fight. He would have a terrible itch for the next few days, and his already marred face wouldn't be better for quite a while, and he would have a few more dark blotches on himself as proof of this fight.
Martin's face had been exposed to the rain for quite a while now. The skin had begun to show signs of second-degree burns and blisters. He was an ugly, lifeless mess. No different than when a slave died and was left forgotten in the rain.
None of the other guards had come looking for them, and Ash wondered how long it would be before someone actually did. Would they be quick enough to come while Martin's face was still recognisable? Would they scrape him up once the rain finished eating him? This was a city. They would not leave a reminder of their own mortality to rot in the street.
Ash had killed a man; it had…. felt good. But what now? What would happen now? Would he be hunted and persecuted, would his family and friends suffer the same fate, would everything he was fighting so hard to protect be taken away from him because he had defended himself?
It was this cruel system, but who stops the system? It didn't care for Martin. It cared for what he represented.
Ash remembered he represented something too, the temple; they would protect their own, wouldn't they? Once he became a member of the temple, he was no longer bound to the Sovereigns of Mortrum's systems.
Ash didn't have much hope, but any hope would help him at this stage. First things first, he needed to get up and away from this scene. The Sun had almost set, and the two gigantic moons of Mortrum would have been visible had it not been for the Rain.
Miru had run deeper into the city as well; he had to find her. Knowing the clever little girl, Ash wondered if she had gone to the temple to try to convince someone there to come to his aid. So Ash decided to go to the temple first.
As he retraced his step to the temple, he kept repeating his fight with Martin, especially the final moments. And as he relived the one time, he had felt powerful enough to control someone else's fate the way many had controlled his, and what he had ultimately done. Ash started feeling sick. So he stopped focusing on it.
Instead, he thought about how long their fight had taken, and how much longer he had sat next to Martin after it. It was enough time for help or otherwise for investigators to come check up on them, but nobody had. Ash could only think of the worst. This world was cruel to his kind, and happy thoughts were not what came to mind when something irregular happened.
Ash quickened his steps. The familiar dark outline of the Temple was visible even in the rain, like a black monument against all else in nature. He entered the boundary walls of the Temple grounds, making his way to the entrance. There were no guards here; that was how absolute the authority and fear were in the Empire regarding the sanctity of the temples.
The temple was closed, which meant all the apprentices were sent back, and the actual initiates and above remained. It was forbidden for the uninitiated to stay in the temple after dark. Ash feared the repercussions that Miru could face for trying to enter the temple at this time.
The front door of the main building was shut tight. Ash tried pushing, banging, and otherwise looking for any intercoms or openings to make his case. There was no response, only the sound of rain.
Miru would have come up to the same obstacle; there was only one other place where she would go, the drill grounds for the Knights. Ash quickly circled around the building to reach them. He had been to them enough times during his time as an apprentice for the Knights to know that many of them stayed back after hours in the building, which was meant for breaks and housing their equipment.
'Please be alright.'
Ash was running now; he could barely see in front of him. He circled around the massive central temple building to the rear temple grounds, and he saw the Knight's buildings and training grounds. Ash was so focused on spotting signs of movement that he tripped over something and fell to the ground.
A little of the acidic water splashed his face and trickled down his neck in the process. Immediately, some of the wounds and the itching sensation he had on his body flared up again.
Ash ignored it and got up immediately. He circled the smaller compound for any signs of Miru. On his second circle, he noticed a door that was slightly ajar. Ash held his breath as he slowly approached it.
With shaking hands, he opened the door and walked into the dark storage shed. It smelled of wet cloth and something metallic, blood!
It was dark, the only source of light the thunderous flashes that decorated the rainstorm outside.
And in one of those blinding flashes, he saw a hint of someone on the ground. Ash couldn't breathe, "Please be alright, please be alright, please be alright."
It was Miru, the sweet, smart little girl everyone had doted on since she had been born. The girl Spark liked, the girl who called Ash her big brother.
The girl he was supposed to have protected.
Miru had a huge bruise across her cheek, likely from one of the Knights. The sheets she had wrapped around her body to protect from the rain had been cut at her arms, and her sleeves had been folded up; her arms were bare up to her elbows, and there were severe burn marks on them, the kind that came from prolonged exposure to rain.
Ash hesitantly brought his finger up to her nose. He couldn't tell whether she was breathing or not.
He put his ear to her chest to feel her heart. She was motionless, without a sign of life. Ash picked her up with a bit of effort; the fatigue from his fight and running all over the place was catching up to him.
He didn't know what to do in this situation. Should he strip off some of her layers? Then he remembered another lesson: you could check pulses by the neck as well. He gingerly put his fingers, right below her chin, drawing an arc until he found some sign of life, and right as he reached her carotid, he noticed it—the tiniest hint of a pulse.
It felt like Ash had been holding his breath for the longest while. He kept one hand right below her nose; still, he wouldn't be satisfied until he could feel her breath. It was slight, but he sensed it.
The faintest warmth of breath.
Ash sagged to the ground next to Miru; relief brought his adrenaline down a notch. He jerked back up into a sitting position and turned back to inspect Miru.
'Why was she unconcious in the first place?'
He had been so worried about finding her alive that he had almost forgotten the implications of finding her half-conscious on the floor, covered by…. "Wait, that cloak belongs to a Knight!". The discovery shocked him. He looked at Miru once more; it seemed not only was she blanketed by a Knight's cape, but another had been resting under her head as well.
He observed her face and the large purple bruise, the only wound he could see on her, not caused by rain damage. He lightly touched the bruise, prompting a light groan from Miru. He felt her skull and jaw for any signs of severe damage or further injury, but didn't find anything.
'Ok, so she isn't totally out of sorts,' Ash thought, as he gently pressed down on other parts of her arms, legs and torso to check whether she had injuries anywhere else. Ash did not want to take off the layers of protective film and her clothes beneath; they were acting as a perfect insulator for her, and he couldn't risk her getting a cold.
Why wasn't she waking up? Who did the capes belong to? Why was no one else here?
The questions kept popping in his head, with no answers in sight, and Ash beign too tired to contemplate the issue further, could barely keep his own eyes open.
"I'll just lie down for a short while," he whispered to himself.
'I wish Mama had been here; she would know what to do… she must be worried sick by now.'
He couldn't risk going back tonight anyway. He had told a little lie yesterday; now he had to make it a reality. He needed to get initiated into the Flamebound Knights first thing in the morning and get Miru's apprenticeship papers as well. He decided to stay with Miru in the storage shed for the night, despite everything; he just couldn't bring himself to pray to the living flame.
He had never seen his mother turn to the divine flame, but she did often talk about believing and hoping.
'Huh! What did she believe in… should ask her…' Sleep overcame Ash, and he welcomed it without further protest. Another burst of lightning shone into the room, lighting up even the darkest corners of the room, where it shone on several lifeless Flamebound Knights.
"Well, that was Interesting…" came a feminine voice from the back of the dark storage shed.
"Zain! New orders, looks like you're on babysitting these two." The voice came again, as a shadow stirred near the corpses.