Kenku, Notebook

  ‘The beasts, sometimes, I think are right. They are doing the right thing by eradicating humanity, Kenku. We do not deserve to live. We are pitiful existences. The monsters are much more powerful than us, more alive.’

  ‘What do you mean? How are we not alive?’

  ‘Simple. We are the very evil that corrupted this world in the first place. The vileness, the ill. The sickening, a virus upon this once wondrous world. They merely came back to clean up our mistakes.’

  I reflected on that conversation a lot. I felt he was right, but also wrong. We are not evil. As a group, we may be, but as a singular person, we cannot be taught no wrong, unless we learn it from others, or some such beings.

  Heading back to the tunnels in mournful silence, everyone seemed down, like the speech had gotten to their heads, changed their thoughts and lowered the confidence they once displayed.

  “Everyone.” I said, as soon as we got back to the tunnels. They all looked up. Purple hair, red hair, brown hair, golden hair. All these people who followed me, maybe blindly, maybe willingly, naively, or nervously, all of us here for one reason or another. “I know you are feeling down, I know that you are quite the mess, I know that you feel nothing can be done.” Nods weave through the crowd, as I stand on a podium, my presence seemingly higher merely because of my words.

  “You all are brave, coming here in the first place, and so I will reward you for that. And we will win! But for now, all should quickly go to the tunnels, hide themselves from view.”

  However my speech was too late, my sentences well rehearsed in my mind to bring comfort to the masses, to quell their fears, was no use up against a piercing sound, the alarm that only humans can hear.

  It wasn’t magic, it was more than that. It was more the people. Something that was etched into every single thing down here. Fear.

  People ruffled, voices slowly rising as the panic alarm builded. “GO everyone! NOW!” Yelled Ash, his voice reverberated across the constricted walls, and the quiet murmurs rose to almost yelling, as footsteps echoed across the stone.

  I ran to where the commotion was, adults and children parting ways for me to pass, as they collected their stuff, looking hurried and scared. We ran for a while, and I feared that the breach was simply a distraction to a real one, but thankfully, we soon came across it. A group of knights, all with their houses brand, just showing how much the nobles got around with their money, instead of providing protection against monsters. There was fire, ice, speed, everything you could possibly imagine, all of it working against us.

  I didn’t want to fight. I hated it. It seemed to merely poison our world more, with the conflicts happening, but we had no choice. I looked at Ash, and he handed me a sword, no semantics like normal. He knew how desperate this was.

  I drew it, staring at the blade for a second, looking at the steel, forged expertly, something the magical never use anymore, just using their magic as a weapon, no steel. The metal was so shiny. And yet it was used for mass destruction. Something so sparkly and cool, was just a double edge, as it caused sadness and terror.

  Ice whirls around me, as I cut it down expertly, feeling like every cut was a breaking of a promise.

  ______________________________________________________

  Tukami and ???, Kenku too

  “No more fighting, right?”

  That would be how she would say it.

  They were gone though, and this was life.

  “Right? You promise? Do you truly?”

  Gone. gone. Here. GONE. GONE!

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Please?”

  I can’t.

  And suddenly, as I say this, my voice sounds like the one of my mentor, corrupted and wrong to my own ears.

  You can.

  This is a world ruled by violence.

  You know it isn’t.

  Yes. Yes it is!

  NO, it never was. Not here. We were forced. Compelled. Tukami!

  Violence. Violence. Violence. VIOLENCE IS THE ANSWER!

  Never. Never. NEVER WAS! NEVER WILL BE!!

  ___________________________________________________________

  Kenku, Notebook

  My head ached, throbbed like everything. The pain, though, grounded me, quietening the two opposing forces trapped in my mind. I could remember both of them. Her, and him. They were like my parents. Except they weren’t. Most definitely not.

  One was peaceful. The other a revolutionist. After that, she never came back. Headed out with her group, and never returned.

  That was the end of them two. The end of their time, and into the new age of purely Magicians.

  Blinding pain shoots through me, making my nerves alight with seeming fire. “Where?!” Asks one of the knights, harsh and rude, eyeing the tunnel entrance. “Where is it?!”

  This is something I haven’t told them. The heart of the revolution that I set up. Even through failure….’

  _____________________________________________________________________

  Kari

  The page had been torn out, and I couldn’t remember what it had said.

  But as my eyes lay upon him— as I see that look of wealth and power displayed so clearly, a figurehead of this city, cocky as he holds a glass of wine, uncaring to the world that the poverty may suffer, not minding when people die of starvation, or how they all kill the Null, for that is what the Puppeteer, he, decrees—my mind

  b r e a k s.

  The memories tumble out. The tunnels. Kenku. The whole of the revolution. The people who hid in the holes of the city. For me. For Kenku. He was only my age. 18.

  __________________________________________________________

  Kenku, Notebook

  ‘We will succeed. She was the revolution's seed. Kari. Last Void of the Shoul. And our last hope. For if I die, this diary is for you, Kari. No matter what. How can they hide it from you? We can always make it yours. Learn what you will, for thus once we leave, this world is yours to conquer.’

  __________________________________________________________

  Kari

  He. He had trapped my memories, enraptured my mind and thrown away details I needed to know. All in an effort to declare my birthright dead, my people away in the slums, hoping for someone who forgot they even existed. Someone who would’ve never come home, if I hadn't remembered.

  __________________________________________________________

  Kenku, Notebook

  ‘Nobles. Corrupt beyond belief. Their knights think they do good, while they make the people suffer. A crowd falling through the actions of one standing higher on a hill.

  Blood spilled onto the soil, and my shock was visible. I gripped my sword tight, and stood up, not caring how blood trickled down my cheeks, or how the people behind me looked worried beyond belief.

  Lunging forward, I let my blade swing, and they didn’t react in time.

  Red liquid spilled across the entrance to the tunnel, which was disguised to be a wall, and yet now broken.

  Null’s scrambled to gather themselves, knowing that the finale might happen faster than presented. And for that, I am sorry if I left you such a pitiful state of revolution.

  The knights whirled to face me, and yet it wasn’t just me, no. Others gathered behind me, and as I raised my sword, yells festered.

  We grew at first slowly.

  One or two, but slowly growing to ten, then eleven, then more, as all intertwined, and roared above the city.

  Exiting from our burrow. Rats driven out, and ready to fight. We were ready. And it, was time.

  Boots thudded against the ground, many knights gathering, however us, we were ready. Armed with steel, the humans, well. We are ready to take down the Magical.