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Greyashe chapter 274

Page history last edited by Sakaki 10 years, 12 months ago

 

 

 

Greyashe chapter 274 is entitled 'Breaking your heart so no one else has the opportunity...'

Previous chapter 273: Luck.

Next chapter: 275: Successor.

Summaries page.

 

-Short summary-

 

The group finds their target, but is suddenly surrounded from all sides. To make matters worse, a new plan from Butcher seems to be under way....

 

-Long summary-

 

Guy charges straight through Wulf's gale force winds with Anna Rose's guidance, avoiding each razor strike with stunning accuracy. Upon reaching the magic user, he grins and without another word rams his fist into his face. Wulf flies back a few feet and lands on his back, K.O'ed. Anna Rose pats him on the back, congratulating him for a job well done. Guy insinuates another way he'd like to be thanked, in which the farseer replies she'll think about it. She then turns her head suddenly and stares intently at a building in the distance. Guy glances at her, and she nods solemnly. Her eyes are reporting that there is a strong field of agape in that place, all of it wild and dangerous. Guy grins again and replies that 'wild and dangerous' are what he eats for breakfast. He jogs back that way, passing Anu who just managed to catch up. She asks where the two are going, to which Anna jovially says 'to serve Guy breakfast'. Anu tilts her head inquisitively, but follows all the same.

 

As the wolf disappears, Kani realizes that Guy and Anna Rose must have defeated it. She strolls over to Reid and chides him. She expects this kind of stupidity from Guy, but not from him. Reid laughs and states that she can't just go lecturing him just because her boyfriend is not around. Kani turns and huffs to keep Reid from seeing her face turning red. She can't worry about all of her friends? Reid smiles and apologizes promising to never do it again. Candle watches this exchange for a moment, taken aback by how unafraid of death these humans seem to be. She doesn't know much about death herself, but from what she does understand it signifies the end. Even a sentient being like herself can't bring someone back from the dead, so once someone has died it usually marks the end of their journey, the end of their ambitions....everything. Yet these people keep risking it, despite overwhelming odds. Could this be what humanity's 'strength' is?

 

She suddenly shudders, and realizes that it isn't the thought of death that is filling her with dread, but an agape flare up. Why hadn't she noticed this before? This level of agape had literally appeared out of no where, but she can definitely tell that it's several people. Where had they all been hiding? She glances over at a nearby building and realizes that the flare seems to originate there. She beckons Reid and Kani to listen to her, and reports her findings. Kani is hesitant, as this set up has all the markings of being a trap. Guy jogs over with Anna Rose and Anu, and confirms Candle's report. Anna's eyes had all but said the same thing. Reid surmises if Baker were to be anywhere he would probably be there. Candle shakes her head, Baker doesn't seem to be there, but that's not to say that Reid doesn't have a point. Kani once again points out the very high likelihood that this is a trap, to which Guy and Reid reply that they've risked their lives a few times today, one more time won't hurt. Kani glares at them but throws up her arms in surrender. It's that 'one more time' that ends up being the most trouble, but she can't stop them, and the sun is beginning to wear her down anyway. She'd rather be at full strength if she's going to have to decorate her death bed with her body.

 

The gang proceeds carefully to the building and peer into the doorway, as there don't seem to be any windows much to their chagrin. The building has a pitch black interior besides the doorway they look into. Kani mutters that this doesn't seem like a trap at all, hardly hiding her sarcasm while Reid goes in to take a closer look. He clears it for the others to walk in, and they stand in the darkness for a few moments until Anna Rose quietly tells them that she has bad, worse, and good news. Kani's eyebrow twitches and she asks for the worst news first. Anna Rose replies cheerfully that they're surrounded.

 

Suddenly lights flash on from the ceiling and true to the farseer's words, the group is surrounded by magicians all with a dead look in their eyes, similar to Wulf and Ra. Reid then asks for the 'bad' news. Anna replies that they're all magicians. Kani and Guy both reply that should be under the 'worst' news shouldn't it?! The farseer shakes her head, and replies that Kani is unaffected by magic, so she could serve as a shield, worst come to worst. Candle is a sentient as well, so she's no slouch. Anu asks quickly what the 'good' news is, and Anna Rose once again replies jovially that for the time being they don't want them dead.......that is for the time being.

 

Right before their eyes a 'door' of sorts opens, and a young man steps into the room. Candle's eyes widen and she whispers 'Baker'? The others glance at her and then at the young man. Candle slowly walks over to him, her eyes wide in disbelief. She wouldn't believe it if she couldn't feel it, but this is Baker. The 'recall' had changed him into an attractive young man who looks to be no older than Guy despite him being alive for milena. Before the 'recall', he had looked older and more worn. She finally stands in front of him, and asks if he recognizes her, hoping for a response of some sort. Baker turns and extends his arm at her, his agape flaring up. Candle is too surprised to move, but that doesn't stop Reid from dashing over to the two of them. Unfortunately for him, someone else is faster. Reid barely sees more than a streak of legs before he is tackled into the adjacent wall, and pinned down by another man. He struggles against his captor and looks into the eyes of one Luge. The swiftest of the Kaiser Mage's elect team of magicians, the same group that Reid is a member of. Kani sees this and nearly drops her staff in despair. If even the council mage elect had been taken over by the 'recall', what could their group possibly hope to to do?

 

She's unable to revel in her despair for long as a giant stone hand picks her up and squeezes. Kani yelps and tries to get free, but doesn't have the strength to. She turns and realizes quickly that another council mage elect member; Grimm the rocksteady has used his powers of earth to change himself into a rock golem and now has her in his clutches. Guy glares at the unfolding situation and starts over to assist his friends when Anna Rose whispers in his ear, telling him that she needs a bodyguard right now. Guy calms down and clenches his hands at his sides. Anu realizes she's trying to keep him from getting captured by using what would appeal to him the most, and while she applauds her efforts, she realizes how powerless she is now as a human rather than a goddess.

 

Candle stares in horror at her friends, and begs Baker to stop. She reminds him of how they traveled together with Ivan, and what they've been through. She asks Baker not to throw that all away, and reveals her intention to help the humans. Baker stares down at her and does the one thing she never would have expected.

 

He replies in a clear voice that he 'cannot' stop. Candle staggers back as if he struck her; he had never once spoken since they have known each other. She had simply come to the conclusion that Baker couldn't speak for one reason or another. In a way it was relieving, as she figured she could just overwhelm him with words, but now that one refuge had been snatched away. Nonetheless, Candle doesn't back down; she reveals that she knows Butcher is for one reason or another unable to move, which is why Baker is doing his dirty work. She asks him if this is all he wants to do? He could be free to do whatever he wishes! Even if he refuses to help her save the humans, she begs him to at least stop assisting in their suffering. They've been through enough, especially those who for one reason or another cannot use magic.

 

Baker appears to be absorbing this, his eyes permanently gazing outward as if his body is the only one standing before her, that his mind is elsewhere. He replies in an equally absent manner that she is weak because she's making this choice. He has the power of the recall on his side now....he's able to do as he wishes because he has power. What had falling for Faulkner done for her, besides leaving a gaping hole in the 'heart' she has begun to develop because of her time with the humans?

 

Candle despite her name has tears on her face at this point. She asks Baker what she is to him, as she thought even when they shared hatred of humanity that he and Ivan at least were her friends. If that's wrong, if she's wrong then what is she to him? Baker turns to her and once again extends his hand, but this time upward. He replies simply that she is just a 'nuisance'. The air crackles, and a bolt dances in the air before hitting the sentient girl, bathing her in a beam of light.

 

Reid, Guy, Kani, and Anu stare in horror as Candle slowly falls to the ground. Baker's heartless actions shocking them all. Anna Rose however looks upon Baker with eyes of sympathy, remembering how lost and forlorn the sentient seemed every time she had talked to him.

 

Baker inwardly apologizes to Candle, recalling how they had first met. She isn't as old as Butcher and himself, a child who was taught to hate indiscriminately, and had only acted on what she knew. In his eyes she represents a future of endless hatred, loathing without reason or identity. Though on the contrary because of that, she has the most reason and ability to change. Even if he disagrees with Butcher at this point it doesn't matter, as his hatred for humanity has already eaten him alive, and replaced his innards, and his reason for living with itself. He can't look at a human with anything but contempt, because of the 'original sin'. The world is a harsh place, and Candle can't remain as idealistic and innocent as she is now. In a way, he's breaking her down so that she can rebuild herself anew, stronger than she is now. If he must be the fire to her forest, so be it. The deities thought that they had changed her with their plan, but the truth is she had always had curiosity that had made it impossible for her to completely hate humanity. The deities may have accelerated her maturation, but they can't accelerate something that didn't exist there in the first place. He silently tells Candle to come back stronger, wiser, and don't become someone like him. Butcher and he would have to be stopped, but she can't do it as she is now, for his plans have already become more insidious and twisted.

 

Candle collapses in a heap before him, and he regards the others before commanding the other magicians in the room to take the group away. Anna Rose quickly realizes what's going on and nods to Guy to give in, claiming that everything will be 'okay'. Guy begrudgingly raises his hands in the air, as Baker strides out of the room, only leaving upon glancing at Candle's lifeless form.

 

Meanwhile far away in the Republic of Shrewlund, the stronghold of the king is currently being occupied by Butcher who sits in a throne with a pained expression. Before him is the body of a woman; Mist the Silverwind. He growls at her and tries to step over her body, but a blue spark shocks him back into a sitting position. He glares at her body and asks himself why she'd do such a thing. He had given her immortality, but she had chosen instead to die again, and now for one reason or another her body prevents him from leaving. He notes that every time the spark appears, a bit more of her body disappears, and revels in the fact that this is just a small set back. The gears of his true plan have begun to move, and with it he would have the humans show their greed in a grandiose fashion before using that greed as the knife that he will have his enemies use to slash at their throats.

 

 

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