Legacies of light

“He saved you?”

“Quite, when he found out about my sister's condition he decided to take the both of us in. Apparently, that man had been gathering those born with a similar condition and had been sending them off to one of his faraway colonies to live.”

Smiling Craig said, “But guess what when he told me this, he just said I shipped your sister off to a plantation, where she will work and live till she dies.

Can you believe that! It made me think she was a slave, and when I later found out the truth, he said; what did you think I mean? Can you believe that asshole?”

Saoirse says, “It’s better than him telling you that your brother is being squished to death when in actuality he means your brother just got married and his wife can’t stop hugging him.”

A few others come towards us and say, “Once he told me that the food he was eating was so good it would destroy you, so I took a bite and it turns out it was poison. Then he looked at me as if I was strange for eating it!”

“He once told me to go on a quick mission where I had to fight off seventy-five humans who could use spirit arts, then when I came back to yell at him he said; I was talking about travel distance!”

Others come and share stories about Lugh, and as they do they laugh with all of their hearts, so I say, “Who are you people to Lugh?”

“We are those who he has helped, and we have all once sworn our lives towards him. Lugh was far kinder and much more humane than other beastkin.”

“Then why did you betray him!”

“Because he taught many of us something. That humans are no different than us Beastkin in almost every regard. He sent us on missions to assassinate horrible beastkin and spy on those who would bring shame to our empire.

Through many of these actions we saw the depravity of beastkin that we had always thought could only ever come from humans, and we also saw the smiles from the humans we saved.

Those who worked for Lugh all reached a point where they came to know the truths of humans, and after such a time we could not just continue to let them face their abuse.

So we turned to our compassionate lord, but in his heart he truly is a beastkin supremacist, and nothing could change that. In all honesty, if all beastkin were to follow the standard Lugh set, I am sure the humans wouldn’t suffer.”

“Then why won’t you help him? I have seen how the Faoláin work, they demand the best from all around them, so why couldn’t you have just worked with him.”

“Because he contradicts himself. Any world where beastkin look down on humans, even slightly will be a world where beastkin will always be one step away from falling back into their old habits.

At a time this was the best we could hope for, but during one of our assassination missions, we met someone who changed that, a man just as bright as Lugh with a child just as amazing as Setanta. A human, and it is within that human that we place our beats.”

Feeling anger well up inside me, I say, “Do you know how many of our men you killed!”

“All of those men came here to kill others for their benefit. Complaining because it happens back to them is foolish.”

“It isn’t foolish, if you truly served the house of Faoláin you would know how kind, and wonderful all of those men are. They would happily die for you on the battlefield, and they all put their lives on the line to better the future of those in our empire. They would give everything for you and your family, while these humans would stab you in the back when convenient.”

Staring directly at me, he says, “You talk as if those men going and killing random humans somehow makes them greater than the people they killed. I know many of those who I killed today and will continue to know them in the future.

Yet I won’t stop, because this path they are on, of blood and war for growth is one that harms the empire far more than it helps it. Right now all of them died for nothing, they lived their lives for the sake of making our people worse, and all they have accomplished today is brainwashing a child into thinking it is admirable.”

“HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT ABOUT THEM!”

“It is merely the truth. If you have an issue with my statement, then take it up with all of the people within the empire who push the idea that such a life is a good thing.”

“You’re a hypocrite. I have killed far more people today than those men have, on my chariot, I crushed far more humans than they have seen, yet you let me live, that is nothing but hypocrisy, so if you are so steadfast in your ideals kill me!”

Looking around at all of the beastkin, I say, “Come on you bastard take my life, end me a murderer of your precious humans right this instant!”

Craig said, “We won’t you idiot.”

“Why not?”

“First is to at least make it so those men died for a child’s feature.”

Walking up to me, he says, “And from the look in your eyes, I can tell that you haven’t killed someone directly in your entire life.”

“I have trampled over someone's body.”

“There is a difference between killing someone by poison and by one's own hand, the same extent to chariots. The truth of the matter is that you kill without understanding the value of a life, so you can still learn.”

As Craig walks away, I say, “Don’t look down on me.”

But he simply ignores me and says, “I am going to go check in with the leader keep an eye on that boy.”

-Break-

Location: Western side of the mountain

Φ On Macha, I race through the mountain range and as I do attack from wonderbeasts come against us constantly. So Setanta swats them all away with his spear, but from his breathing, I can tell it is getting to him.

There are many things I want to say to Setanta right now; stop, let’s go back, don’t push yourself, but I can’t bring myself to say any of that. All I can mutter is, “Setanta stay strong.”

With pride in his voice, he says, “Who do you think you’re talking to, this is all barely a warmup for someone on my level.”

He continues to fight as I move. The terrain is uneven and perilous, one misstep and I could injure Macha and get us stuck here, but I refuse to, right now I need to be at my best for the sake of everyone.

Throughout the night both Laeg, and Setanta continue heading towards Ibar, and Ferdiad's former location.

-Break-

Location: Human camp

Feeling some movement, I open my eyes, and brace for the morning sun shining down on me, then I notice that one of the armoured beastkin is untying me.

The moment the ropes around me are loose, I try to move but am quickly grabbed and restrained before I can move an inch. Then I heard Craig say, “Did you really think you could escape?”

“You never know till you try.”

“Spoken like a brave warrior, too bad you don’t have the power to back up those words.”

“SHUT UP!” I say annoyed by his words.

Looking around, I notice that the rest of the beastkin around me are all starting to pack up and move, so I ask, “Where are you taking me?”

“To the people we are going to protect.”

Soon he and the rest of the beastkin all put on their armour, and one of them covered me in a sheet, then all of us headed off.

About a minute later we come across a large gathering of humans. It is such a ridiculous amount of them that it makes the number I fought during this war look like child’s play.

Seeing this I am speechless, but before I can even say anything the beastkin move towards the humans.

The humans all are beaten down and bruised, they look like an animal that is overdue to be put down. In all honesty, many of them in terms of expression have what I would expect of Minagrain and Minabród, though they aren’t injured anywhere as badly.

Though the moments the humans see the beastkin in their black armour, their expressions change to one of hope. They all start to run towards them with the joy of a child that has just seen their parent again.

They gather and cling to each of the beastkin, and say, “We missed you!”

“We heard you pushed back beastkin who were chasing us.”

“You really are our heroes.”

“Thank you so much, you truly are helpers god has sent down upon us.”

The beastkin receives all of this praise while making an effort to ask about the humans' situation and comfort them.

But then Craig claps his hands and says, “This reunion is nice, but right now we need to go. We need to ensure that the beastkin won’t catch up to us.”

“Right!” The humans say as they joyfully prepare to leave.

Looking at me, he says, “Did those people look like beasts to you.”

“To an unassuming person a snake could look rather cute, but when has that ever made it less deadly.”

“Our culture really is ironclad, how annoying. Though since you won’t be returning to your people I suggest you get used to your new surroundings, I am sure you will one day realize how good those humans are”

“You talk rather highly about those humans, but the truth of the matter is that you are not even allowed to show the fact that you are beastkin to them if I am right.”

“You’re rather perceptive. The fact of the matter is that we can’t let them know we are beastkin, so we hide our faces and sleep where they cannot reach us.”

Scoffing, I say, “Humans are so wonderful, yet you know that they are so pigheaded that they couldn’t even recognize their saviours. I am sure that if you were to take off your mask right now, they would have animosity against you even if you acted the same.”

“You’re right. But I don’t really think such a thing is wrong, inside everyone's mind is a false idea of what others are like, some of those ideas are stronger than others, but at the end of the day the only way to change those ideas is to prove them wrong.”

“You are already an integral part of their lives, so why should you have to go through the effort to prove that you are somehow not a monster? Those that exchange seem fair or balanced to you.”

“Personally, I think it is idiotic to talk about situations being fair and balanced. Because it is a game where you will always fail to look at your advantages in life.

The truth of the matter is that the method I am doing works, and if it leads to a world where beastkin and humans can walk hand in hand, then I say it is far too fair in my opinion.”

I click my tongue at his remark, and then he says, “And not all humans struggle to understand us.”

A human man walks up to us, and he is wearing a pendant. It has one vertical line with a star on top of it, and through the upper part of that line is a downward arc.

“He is a member of the human religion, the ones who worship the messiah.”

The human says, “Craig, I would like to thank you and the rest of your men for helping us, I know how much it hurts to fight your people but I promise to always hear you out regardless of anything.”

“Thank you, but we will be fine Daniel.”

“I see.” Looking at me, Daniel says, “We won’t hurt you regardless of how many of us you hurt.” Then he walks away.

Craig looking at me, says, “I am sure that a day will come where you won’t ever want to harm a human will arrive.”

“You’re all crazy.”

Φ At 0600 hours all of the humans begin to move, and in around one hours time the war would come to an end.