Rebirth and Second Chances

Chapter 84: Decision Made

The repercussions of Isolde's actions were immediate.

All fighting stopped, those not targeted by the curse scurried to put as much distance between them and those affected as possible. I wasn't sure why. The curse wasn't an airborne pathogen that could be transmitted like the flu. The only people who really needed to be worried were those individuals that had blood ties to the people that had been targeted.

Admittedly, in a closed system like the Kelpies seemed to enjoy, a small community probably all related in some manner or other, that number may be substantial. As I searched the faces of those gathered, I began to realize that the entire colony may be doomed unless countermeasures were enacted quickly.

Only three people had been cursed. But unless they were willing to expend their life energies to stop the spread, the damage would be catastrophic. The horror and desperation on the faces of those around me seemed to validate my reasonings. These people understood the serious nature of the curse, and for those that had been initially targeted, a sense of acceptance, an understanding that there was no choice but to act.

Perhaps their circumstances should have moved me. It didn't. I felt no pity, no sympathy, no understanding for those that would support slavery and treachery. I would like to blame the icy logic I was experiencing on my Cyronax bloodline, but that wouldn't be the truth.

The truth was, I felt they deserved their fate. They had ruined the lives of who knew how many. Profited in both monies and power. And were willing to slay or hold hostage innocent bystanders in order to influence a rightful challenge. And they had done this to friends and family. To children that had not yet Ascended and were blameless and innocent in whatever Politics or machinations were factors in those decisions.

Good and evil existed in any world it seemed. And selling children into slavery was evil no matter how you rationalized it.

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Belisama gave her children the ability to punish. Her gift was cruel, a nuclear option that could destroy entire communities. But the curse was in a sense, Divine retribution was not a gentle scolding. She had enabled those that had nothing left to live for, those willing to sacrifice the very core of who they were, the ability to dispense justice.

Her solution may seem barbaric, for if Slavery was evil, what was the wholesale slaughter and death of an entire bloodline? Death simply because one shared a common ancestor? There was no argument. The curse was an instrument of evil. A way to retaliate, to sacrifice everything to inflict retribution.

But the curse had an escape clause. The choice of what would happen, now the responsibility to be shouldered by those who would practice the evils that allowed them to enslave their brothers and sisters. These people were now responsible, and their decisions would decide the events that would follow.

They could expend their own energies, shatter their cores, a process of such pain to be unbearable. But the pain that would pass. They would sacrifice their lives in order to protect those they may care about, allaying the evil that they had done by this final sacrifice of good. Or they could allow the curse to seek and search, spreading to the next Kelpie and the next.

Three individuals. Drops of water in the vast ocean of life. Would decide the fate of this herd.

The truism that all life is precious, but we are selfish and desperate in our desire to live, must be balanced against the importance of those ties that bind.

Mates. Children. Friends.

These three had fought and attacked friends and family to safeguard policies they knew were corrupt. The choice before them would have them remember their morality, and to act appropriately. Would they have the character of will to turn back from the cliff of despair and incertitude and embrace this opportunity to be honorable once more and strike back against the corruption that had taken hold within this Herd?

Separate and unaware of the drama that was taking place outside the water arena, Blayney and Haygan continued their titanic struggle. Continued to rip and shred each other's flesh. Wounding and healing in a cycle of destruction and anger that was a fitting backdrop for the ignoble torment that was occurring amongst those that would support, disrupt, or influence their battle.

The dichotomy in actions was jarring. The stillness and despair of those cursed against the ferocity and mindless destruction of battle.

Still, their action was needed. And the three finally chose. Chose to save and embrace family. To perform this one last duty that would allow those whom they cared for to continue to prosper. The inglorious decision to sacrifice themselves so that others would not be infected with the ravages of the curse.

Almost as one, the three turned their life force and magics against the virulent energies of the curse. They allowed their inner cores to gather magical energies, to over-extend and compress those energies they gathered to expand and rage against the walls that constrained their cores and expend those energies that made up their bodies.

Life, magic, soul. All energies were sublimated to need. A desire to negate and shape their destiny. To change the fate of the community.

And as one, those energies resonated a disharmony that vibrated in countermeasure to the frequencies and vibrations of the curse. A cacophony of sonorous energies that culminated in a frenzied explosion, as multiple forces coalesced to suppress the intent behind the curse.

My ability to perceive, to see the ebb and flow of energies as they self-destructed allowed me fresh insight into the harmonies and workings of the Sidhe. I was able to more fully understand how life, magic, and soul energies worked together in concert. It was as if the curtains into the secrets of the Universe were contained in that one climactic explosion of forces so well balanced to give the lie to the claim that life was an amalgam of a happy coincidence.

No. Life, magic, and soul were of the Divine. A balanced synergy of intent and function. A gift that made the impossible, possible.

Their actions did not trivialize or mitigate the sacrifice Isolde made. She spent her life force to seek justice for Shaela, and she succeeded. Those individuals who would attack and claim the lives of the abused and enslaved those that trusted and loved them paid for their transgressions.

The coin for payment was the decision to sacrifice, to admit the idiocy and evil they had done, and pay for those decisions with their lives. But their choice was not singular, they were also given the chance for redemption. To understand in their last moments that ties of blood had a deeper meaning was more substantive than any transitive riches or political power they may have gained.

Money and power were fluid, but blood. That was a lasting testament to the resilience of society. Even the long-lived Sidhe recognized that any true heritage or legacy was only possible if people existed to pass that knowledge on. To build the social contract that recognized that the future was only possible because of the work that came before.