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Sunshine was supposed to live a quiet life after she ran away. She was supposed to be married to Bramble, traveling around the world and helping people wherever they could. Him and his medicine, her and her stories.
But here she was, cradling a broken general fighting a war she should have no part in, and behind them a man trapped in his own mind, all alone while the gods decide his fate. Sunshine’s eyes dart between Captain Thaylor’s watery golden eyes, and Buckner's broad unmoving chest. She feels as though they’re both suffering because of her, even when she knows their pain isn’t necessarily her fault. Standing in a room of gods and comrades, she feels as though she doesn’t belong. She isn’t even supposed to be here. She barely remembers how she got to this room.
As if the gods could hear her, she feels the room around her vanish. The coldness of the marble floor is replaced by the itchiness of fresh cut green grass. Thaylor’s shaking figure slowly fades, as if her warm shaking figure is blown away in the breeze. The darkness that surrounded her is suddenly lit up by a bright beaming sun. At first, A feels her heart rate slow down, and she begins to calm down. The pressure of the mortal world is too much to bear at the moment, and she believes she nodded off into a comforting dream world. But as she looks around and she sees those familiar ruins, her heart sinks.
Captain Thaylor just told her the home fleet was destroyed, being sent here couldn’t be a coincidence.
Seeing these ruins again after so long reminds her of the fact she still hasn’t told anyone of these dreams. She just ran away. She ran away from Bramble. From her friends. From Captain Thaylor. From her fate.
As she collects herself from the shock, she starts to absorb her surroundings. She sees the ruins in the distance, the dull gray contrasts beautifully against the greenery of the oak trees. Beneath her is bright green grass, with every gust of wind she can smell it, and it reminds her of home. When she looks up, there’s barely any clouds in the sky. The sun is beaming down on her, warming her fur, a stark contrast to the cold of the room before. She also notices 4 gloomy giants walking around, dragging their feet as if they knew of Sunshine’s heavy heart.
As she stares at the pillars, she knows what they represent. Sunshine starts to stand and she prays that she’ll be taken back to that cold dim room, that someone else will have to bear the weight of this news, not her. She knows it’s a fool's wish.
Sunshine balls her fist, using the pressure of her nails to ground herself. She inhales a deep, shaky breath as she takes a step forward. Each pillar represents another world. Another person who heard the same news as her, and failed.
As she walks by the first pillar, Scylla’s face flashes in her mind. She wanted to be a healing sorceress, but has found nothing but death. Part of the reason they’re even here is because Scylla wanted to learn magic from one of the region's best healing mages. But now he’s dead and Scylla’s barely been given the opportunity to learn. While Sunshine doesn’t know Scylla too well, she doesn’t think this is what Syclla had planned for herself. Scylla’s always been a bit more calm compared to the rest of them, and she seems much more fitted for a quiet life. One where her hand is covered in ink, not blood.
As she passes the second pillar, she thinks of Esmeray. Esmeray already has so much on her plate, from the stress of Elrin, her family, and this war. She’s watched the light slowly leave Esmeray’s eyes, her shoulders are always tense and her eyebrows never seem to truly unfurrow. Sunshine wishes that she could do more to help, but she understands that there’s more going on than she can understand. Like that gem, and the blue orb that came out after she touched it. She saw it on the floor while eavesdropping on Esmeray and Elrin’s conversation, she hopes that her messing with it has nothing to do with its destruction. As much as Sunshine doesn’t want to admit it, she thinks Elrin’s helping. But she can’t shake that feeling that he’s hiding something important.
Maybe her mom would understand what she was talking about.
As she walks past the third pillar, she thinks of Brick. She thinks of her last real conversation with him. He’s taken punches to the face, magic blasts from enemies, and still he has never looked more hurt than when Sunshine told him she doesn’t reciprocate his feelings. Sunshine is upset that she hurt him that much, especially since his feelings have probably been growing since they first started traveling together. But she knew it would hurt more if she never said anything, and just left the poem he wrote for her unspoken. Brick is finally starting to right his wrongs, and has started learning how to read and write. He’ll never finish his studies if he dies in war.
When she reaches the fourth pillar, Captain Thaylor flashes in her mind. Captain Thaylor has no reason to be involved in this, and yet she has had to take on way more responsibility just for associating with Sunshine and the party. She had agreed to let them stay on her ship, and continued to support Sunshine and them even when it meant sacrificing herself. Sunshine was upset that Captain Thaylor willingly accepted that position, but she knows it’s because it’s partially her fault. Sunshine should have never opened her mouth in that damn courtroom. Sunshine can now recognize it was a trap, it was in no way a fair trial and they just wanted more people to execute. But if Sunshine had stayed quiet, Captain Thaylor maybe wouldn’t have felt the need to kill that slimy general. And maybe Sunshine could have convinced her to not get involved in this war.
She aches that she’s gotten attached to Captain Thaylor, especially when she flirted out of boredom and thought she was cute. The more she’s known Captain Thaylor, the stronger she’s felt about her. She and Sunshine have shared deep conversations, gotten to know each other. She’s helped her in her moments of anxiety, and protected Sunshine in moments she didn’t deserve it. Captain Thaylor has proven to be such a kind hearted, strong, and brave woman, it’s hard to not fall for her. It seems that those feelings Sunshine has for her are reciprocated. This isn’t the first time Sunshine has seen her cry, or let her guard down, it seems like she trusts Sunshine enough to be vulnerable around her. Out of everyone in the group, Captain Thaylor should have never been involved. She should have been sailing the open sea with her crew, finally enjoying her life away from her past. But instead she keeps getting dragged into these messes, she never complains, she just helps. It breaks Sunshine’s heart.
She feels her fist tighten more as she approaches the fifth pillar. Her mind is empty. The weight of the pillars before sticks in her mind. This pillar represents her world. It represents everything she has ever known and loved. She thinks of her first time here and remembers her conversation with Athena.
How if she doesn’t do something, her world would be destroyed. Her friends wouldn’t get to achieve their dreams, live a life of peace like they all deserve.
Sunshine has to do something.
She starts investigating her pillar, starting her gaze at the bottom. She needs to make sure she understands everything, and doesn’t miss a single detail. As her eyes keep going up, she notices words across it, telling stories from her lifetime. Stories she has told during her shows.
As her gaze approaches the top of her pillar, she notices that it’s breaking. There’s a crack and if she watches close enough, she can see that it keeps getting deeper. She doesn’t know if she wants to throw up, cry, or run away into the woods. Athena told her if she did what she thought was right things would be ok. A lot has happened outside of her control, but she thought she was making the right choices. Her mind flashes with memories of her life, from when she was a kitten, ran away with Bramble, met Brick, when she met her new friends, and met Captain Thaylor. She thinks of the random people she’s seen, from shopkeepers doing whatever they can to provide for their town and little kids running around playing with their toys. She wonders what they would do if presented with the information she was given, would they just give up. Run away?
Sunshine breaks out of her trance, feeling warm liquid glide down her paws. Looking down she notices it’s her blood, but she doesn’t- she can’t care.
How could you care when you just learned your world is going to be destroyed? When you know you’re the only creature who knows this. If it weren’t for her tight fist, she would be panicking right now. But instead she takes a deep breath and gapes at the pillar a little longer. As she stares, she feels her hope dying as the mental images of all that she loves dying takes over.
She’s just one person. What could she possibly do to stop this?
But you aren’t alone, the back of her mind yells. In her head, she’s greeted with the images of her friends, their moments of triumph playing in her mind. Sunshine can still save them, and the pillar isn’t destroyed, only cracked. This war was going to happen no matter what she did, Sunshine just has to make sure she can stop it.
Shaking the blood off her paw, she looks at all the giants. Sunshine figures she should talk to them, as much as she doesn’t want to. She doesn’t see or feel Athena around her, so she figures these creatures may be her best bet. She doesn’t even know if she has the mental strength to hear what they have to say, her brain and soul already broken just from seeing the pillar. Upon further investigation, the giants seem to relate to the gods in some way. In what way Sunshine does not know.
Luckily, she doesn’t need the mental energy because 3 out of the 4 ignore her. She doesn’t know if they just don’t hear her, or if they simply don’t want to deal with her. Unfortunately or luckily, Sunshine doesn’t know, the last giant she approaches does talk to her. But much like the gods, it’s vague and doesn’t offer her much insight. It tells her that she has the means to stop this war, she just has to play her cards right.
When she reapproaches the pillar, all she feels is confusion. Why will none of the gods give her a straight answer if they’re trying to protect her world? Why even show her any of this in the first place? As she feels herself start to wake up, she feels two hands rest on both of her shoulders. Without turning around, she recognizes their presence to be the 2 of the giants that didn’t speak to her. Their appearance is identical, both wearing helmets, and standing at the same height. They only talked to each other before and did not seem interested in Sunshine. Before her soul leaves this plane, they utter a final thought,
“It has awoken.”
Sunshine eyes dart open and her chest starts heaving as she takes in her new surroundings. She’s back in the cold dark room, and the weight on her side that she had missed so much has returned. She sees Captain Thaylor still next to her in the same position as when she had left. It seems as though she has calmed down a bit, even though Sunshine wasn’t mentally present to help her. Speaking of which, Sunshine was surprised that she hadn’t moved much while she was out of it, but the mysterious hand on her waist seems to be the reason. She was about to panic until she noticed Buchner holding both her and captain mom right in front of her. Maybe she’s more out of it than she thought, how could she have possibly missed him?
She’s grateful that he’s holding both her and Captain Thaylor, Sunshine would have felt horrible if Captain Thaylor also had to deal with her unconscious body while going through her own internal battle. Buchner is probably confused as to where he is, how he got there and why Captain Thaylor is crumpled up on the floor with Sunshine at her side. She only met Buchner yesterday, and yet he has been nothing but kind, especially when Sunshine doesn’t deserve it. She feels her cheeks heating up as she thinks of their bet, and their playful fight earlier. It isn’t often she’s immediately swooned, but it was a welcome surprise. It was ruined by Elrin, of course it would be him.
As soon as it darts, reality comes crashing down on her.
What do we do? We need to run. How can we possibly save anybody? We can run away and be safe.
Sunshine is scared. She is so utterly terrified and doesn’t know what to do. She wants to run and hide, she wants to save everyone, and she just wants to stay in this moment. Supported. As she begins to hyperventilate she feels Buckners grip tighten, and it sends butterflies all through her stomach. Their combined weight helps ground her as her thoughts keep racing, and reminds her about all of life in this world. Sunshine has to do something. As she let’s herself calm down, theres a booming voice in the back of her mind.
Tell your friends. They can help you. They will help you.
She takes just one more second to soak up their warmth, to appreciate the love that she had missed so much. Before she darts out of Buckner's embrace. She thanks him for the comfort and requests that he stays by Thayler She shivers as she stands next to their crumpled forms, hyper-aware of their warmth and their life.
She tells him that she’ll be back, trying hard to keep the panic out of her voice, she just needs to tell her companions something very important. He lets her go without question, and remains by Captain Thaylors side as she had requested. As she starts to walk away, she turns back towards them. Every fiber of her being is telling her to run away, save it for another time, or just hope someone else is given this same vision and warning. But as she lingers on Thaylors wet face, and Buckner's moving chest, she knows that's not an option.
Once she’s out of their sight she starts running, not towards the forest, but towards Esmeray and Scylla. She knows that Thaylor and Buckner would better understand what this all means, but she knows she can’t burden them with this. Especially Captain Thaylor. She picks up her speed. Her heart beating wildly in her chest reminding her of the importance of her dream. For the first time in a while, Sunshine isn’t running away. She’s running towards it, and she will not fail.