Essetia

The storm had blown in unannounced. I couldn’t detect its anger or its ferocity from where I waited nor could I predict what would come as a result… I was just an oblivious bystander to the horrendous events that would soon unfold from the swath of darkness that veiled the Basin, a stony vision of hurt and hate. However, a singular bolt sent earthbound from the heavens made me gasp… I’d never seen anything like it, as large and unyielding as it seemed. I had planned to remain hidden away from the violent torrent of wind and rain, but as my eyes trailed the length of the plains toward the –

No…

From above, a flash of gold-

No, please…

The fluttering of extended wings-

Gods help him!

The dim lighting casting a faint sheen over his metal collar-

Run.

The pelting rain forced me to squint as I bolted from beneath the overhang and into the wide range. I was clumsy, rushed, and at times a strangled cry burst from inside like a panicked shriek. Yet, I was no warrior this day… I was just a prisoner praying that the Gallant was still alive- that he would survive this. Was he not favored by the Gods? Was he not fucking blessed with immortality? I could only hope… I could only believe.


My hooves slid in the mud and the snow and for a moment I was forced to stop in order to regain my balance. Ulrik’s contraption made it nearly impossible to reach Midas as quickly as I’d wanted and somehow that was a pain so deeply felt that I was tempted to stop… I felt so defeated, so fucking deceived. I’d been made a mockery of and now I was facing the possible death of- FUCK! I couldn’t say it, I couldn’t think it… it was all too much.

I was frantic, I was scared, and I couldn’t determine if it was the rain that scorched my eyes or the tears that pulsed and pushed against my lids until they were required to spill. By the time I had crossed the open plains to reach him, the rain had caused my tail to mat around my hocks and mud had been splashed up under my stomach.


Yet the stillness… It was telling. It was heartbreaking….

My teeth chattered and the cold seemed to seep into my bones before the weeping commenced. They came in great, heavy sighs and loud, dissonant moans until I noticed that Phantom had come to observe the body. Ulrik too had come to witness the Gallant’s death and there was something infuriating about all of it… something so vile about the way they regarded him, even in death. “Get away from him!” I screamed breathlessly. “Just get the fuck away from him!”

As I drew nearer, I noticed the flames that Ulrik had claimed from one of his blasted machines. The heartless bitch I knew as Phantom suggesting burning him… burning Midas? The thought enraged me and only more tears came hot and heavy as I pushed my way toward the flame. “ARE YOUR FUCKING DEAF?! Get that away from him! You indecent animals! Just get away from him! Have you no hearts? Have you no souls? This is my kin, my leader, and my friend! Touch him and I will fight you with all that I am, until there is nothing left of us both!” I shrieked while tossing my head about in an attempt to drive them back. I was nothing, if captive, but they would not keep me from mourning and they would not keep me from preserving Midas in his final moments of glory.


He had lived and died for the Falls. He had pushed when everyone told him to pull. He had defied life itself, been given breath beyond death… This was no way for a King to die and he was in fact just that… a King to those he helped, a King to those he led, and a King to those he loved. Nothing about this would be forgotten, because just like Midas, his memory would go down in history. He would be remembered for his perseverance and for his strength… He would not be buried in the ice and snow… This was not his home.

With Phantom and Ulrik at my back, I moved slowly toward my fallen Czar. With as much grace and power as I could manage given my restraints, I kneeled at his side. The tears flowed freely now and my throat felt swollen with emotion, but I had to do this. I had to do this for those who waited back in the Falls for his return. I had to do this for those who loved him and knew him as Brother… I had to do this for Africa, for the one he loved. “You will never be forgotten Midas… I will make sure of that.”

Carefully, I turned to pluck a single gold tipped feather from his great appendage. His daughter would not forget… he did not abandon her, but instead fought for her and her mother. He was now… truly ascended.

Essetia

The Gallant was a glorious creature, even in death. Smoke lingered, smoldering, and tainting the wood with the unmistakable scent of charred flesh. Was it right that he had gone down in fire? It appeared to match his undying fervency… but, what a way to be remembered. Midas had once carried my own wellbeing in his hands and now it was I who remained earthbound, the only one left to protect him from the very flames that had robbed him of his immortal life. If even the Gods were incapable of tending to his wounds, then what made these mortal fools believe that they would ever be enough? What good was fighting or alliances if no one was ever truly awarded forever…? This life was as short as we made it and as long as we could fight for it. What was the use in tricking ourselves into thinking otherwise? There was no point to any of it. Safety was not something bought. It was sheer luck that kept us alive and well… that was it- that tender thread of hoping that everything would simply be okay.

Yet, nothing was okay.

Everything was wrong.

My mind attempted to busy itself behind the tears, and at times I tried to comprehend the fragments of conversation that drifted from one mouth to the next. But, I was too tired, or perhaps too numb, to decipher much else… After all, what was I supposed to think about when one died? I hadn’t been close enough to the Czar for my heart to ache with the loss of affection, but more so… just the loss of feeling. I was surrounded by disappointment and Midas had offered me light- light that had been stolen.

I tried desperately to face my onlookers, but it was impossible to imagine that I was here… crying… in the Basin. I was grappling my lowest peak, hoping to fly, and falling instead. How many times would I be tested until I was considered strong?

I was never strong.

They lied.

Anger and resentment pulsed throughout my chest and my breathing hitched in an attempt to quell the sobbing, but it only enhanced the lingering ache of absolute- was there even a word for such a feeling? I couldn’t imagine hurt or loss or pain as being accurate, because I was beyond those natural thresholds. I’d hit a fever pitch and crossed into a realm still unknown to me.


Now, I was content to drift away, lost to my own subconscious. I was completely and utterly satisfied by my own imaginings, my insanity, my sanity, my ideas-

What? What was Ulrik saying? Was he honestly apologizing for my loss? Did the Gods tell him about my life? Did they share with him my failures and my patchwork childhood? Surely not… Surely this was another of his cruel jokes meant to trick me into feeling some sense of false security.


Didn’t he know that I wasn’t safe anymore? “You are safe Essetia,” Romul whispered insistently. “No,” I bit back harshly. I would never find myself again. Everything I loved or valued or admired had all been taken by death. Perhaps I was its carrier, a parasite that could not protect its victims. Maybe I was a murderer. “Don’t. You can’t be sorry for my loss, because this is not my loss,” I breathed in response to the Engineer. It was true- I had lost nothing, because I’d had nothing to begin with.

It was with these thoughts that I felt especially guilty, because when a young hybrid girl came racing into my company, crying for her father, her blood… I felt as though I’d caused her pain. My mother had died, my father had abandoned me, and now my Czar had been killed in a strange land alongside me. What was the common factor here, you ask? Me.

Essetia.

Dammit. I couldn’t remain here. I couldn’t-

“I’m sorry,” I muttered to the young female with the gold-tipped wings. It was best I left her to mourn because I wasn’t sure I was capable of doing so anymore.