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Dark clouds swirled overhead. Thoma raised his head to watch them gather. The sky rumbled with thunder and lightning. Small droplets of rain fell from the heavens to land softly onto his face, rolling over his cheeks and dripping down off of his chin.
Coarse rope dug into his wrists. His knees ached from when the Doushin had pushed him down, forcing him to kneel. They stood on either side of him now, each armed with a spear. Above him, in front of the Statue of the Omnipresent God, stood the Raiden Shogun. A crowd of people had gathered to watch the seizure of the 100th vision under the vision hunt decree.
As the Shogun raised her hand, gathering electro, his vision shook on his belt, then loosed. He lunged forward instinctively, as if to grab it, forgetting he was bound. The Doushin grabbed his shoulders to hold him still. Thoma was helpless to watch as the small orange spark flew through the gloomy air straight toward the hand of the Raiden Shogun.
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, the Traveler, shrouded with electro, grabbed his vision right out of the air. Thoma hardly believed his eyes as he watched him land in the center of the wooden platform, staring defiantly up at the Shogun. She seemed confused as she shifted her focus from Thoma, to the Traveler, the electro in her hand dying out.
The Doushin beside Thoma charged forward, he barely had time to shout a warning before the Traveler had summoned his sword and turned to meet them. He easily dispatched them both with electro, and raced towards Thoma. He reached for the rope binding his wrists, but was interrupted by a bolt of electro fired from the Shogun.
Thoma hissed in pain as electro hit his bare skin. He felt it run up his arms, causing his muscles to spasm and twitch. The Traveler snapped his head up, watching the Shogun step down into the air, and start descending towards them. “Capable of wielding elemental energy without a vision.”
Thoma glanced toward the Traveler. He seemed unsure, nervous.
“You are an exception, it appears. Exceptions, the enemy of eternity.”
The Shogun reached their platform. The Traveler put a hand on Thoma’s shoulder and stood in front of him. Thoma is the only person who will ever know how his hands shook.
“You will be inlaid upon this statue!”
The Shogun summoned her blade. The Traveler stepped forward, having steeled his nerves and prepared to face her, but, almost instantly, Thoma noticed a change. He looked up at the sky in confusion, his head whipped around, seeing something invisible to everyone else. He turned to Thoma, running toward him with an outstretched hand. Thoma will never forget the look of terror on his face as he vanished into thin air.
Thoma breathed heavily. He spotted Paimon floating down from the crowd, searching in the spot where the Traveler had vanished. She looked up at Thoma, a question in her eyes. He shook his head.
It was only a few seconds later that the Traveler reappeared, but something was clearly wrong. He was lying on the ground, unconscious, and clearly injured. His body twitched with sparks of electro. The Shogun stood over him with a blank look on her face.
Paimon went to him, her small hands landed on his chest, shaking him as hard as she could. “C’mon, wake up, wake up!” The Shogun pointed her blade at the small fairy, and she yelped in fear.
The Shogun raised her blade above her head and Thoma’s eyes widened in realisation. He ran to one of the Doushin’s abandoned spears and began frantically trying to cut through the rope tying his wrists. Faster, please!
In the end, he was helpless to watch as the Shogun’s blade sliced through the air, sparks of electro dancing off the metal. Time seemed to slow as it approached the Traveler’s unconscious body, and plunged through his neck, into the wooden platform below. The platform shook violently as electro shot through the wood, thunder roared across the sky, it began to rain harder.
For a second there was only terrible silence.
Following it was an absolutely bloodcurdling scream. “NO! No, no no no!” Paimon was sobbing, kneeling next to the body of the Traveler, clutching the remains of his braid. Thoma stared blankly, in shock, his blood pounding in his ears. How had this happened? It shouldn’t have been possible. He looked upon the Traveler’s face. His eyes were closed, muscles relaxed. At least he wouldn’t have felt anything. The rope tying Thoma’s wrists fell limply to the ground, having now served its purpose.
Paimon’s sobs echoed through the air, small hands hovering above his body, as if she wanted to touch him, but was unsure if she could, or even where to touch him. She ended up grabbing his hand, holding it to her chest as she cried.
The people in the crowd were panicking, most trying to get away from the scene while others watched on in horror. Thoma wondered dumbly about how many of them the Traveler had probably helped with some chore or another. He realised that they had to leave, before the Shogun remembered the original purpose of this gathering. She was currently watching Paimon cry, a small frown on her face.
He stood, grabbing the spear that lay abandoned to his left, and started running toward the Shogun. She watched him approach, but made no move to stop him. When he was a few steps away, he threw the spear. It made enough of a distraction for him to grab Paimon and make a run for it. As the Shogun deflected the spear with her blade, he reached for the small fairy, grabbing her around the arm, pulling her quickly to his chest and running to the edge of the platform.
He jumped across the gap to the grass on the other side, rolling on to his side as he landed to avoid squishing the fairy that was currently squirming in his arms, trying to get back to the Traveler. “Let me go! Let me go! I can’t just leave him there! Please! Please! ” She hit her fists against his chest as she cried, begging him to go back.
Thoma held her to his chest as he ran, quickly and quietly, until he reached a spot near a tree where they should be safe for a short while. Paimon had stopped fighting him, going limp in his arms, silent tears running down her reddened cheeks. When he stopped, she grabbed onto his jacket with a small hand, the other still holding tightly onto the remains of the Traveler’s braid.
+++
They arrived at the Komore Teahouse just as the real storm started. The clouds burst open and rain poured down from the sky in sheets. Thoma was soaked within seconds. He rushed into the teahouse and leaned against the door in relief. As soon as he released Paimon she floated down to the ground and sat against the wall.
The sound of footsteps put Thoma on alert, but he relaxed again once he saw Ayaka come around the corner. Though, the hopeful look on her face was enough for him to dread the next conversation. As she looked around the small entrance, the hope slowly faded into confusion, she kept looking around as if the Traveler would suddenly pop out and chase away her worries. “Where…?”
Thoma simply shook his head, walking toward the bar and sitting down, holding his head between his hands. Ayake stood in the doorway for a minute longer, hoping for something, anything really, to prove him wrong. She glanced down at Paimon, and caught sight of the Traveler’s braid in her hands. “No…It can’t be.” She looked back at Thoma and their eyes met. “Surely not.” He looked so tired, so terribly tired. She went to the bar and sat down on his right.
“How?”
“The Shogun.”
Ayaka exhaled heavily. “What do we do now? Now that the Traveler-”
“Aether.”
They both looked up at the interruption, Paimon had come to sit on the stool Thoma’s left, still holding onto the braid. “His name is Aether.” Ayaka nodded slowly in understanding. “What do we do, now that he’s… gone?”
Thoma sighed heavily. “I don’t know. I really don’t.” All their plans to fight the vision hunt decree were constructed before they met Aether, so they should work without him, but everything suddenly seemed so hopeless.
“And… What about your vision?” Thoma shook his head. His vision was the last thing on his mind after seeing Aether die. He had forgotten all about it. I left behind the very thing that he died for.
Paimon looked up at him, she seemed to be contemplating something, then lifted her hand and placed his vision down on the counter. “I- How?”
“He died for this. I couldn’t let it be for nothing.”
He stared at the vision in silence. He slowly reached for it, closing his hand around the familiar warmth. “...Thank you.” He ran his fingers over the glassy surface, watching the way it reflected the light. He then attached it to his belt again, back where it belongs.
He glanced at Paimon on his left, holding onto the braid, staring out at nothing. He reached out and softly put a hand on her head. “Hey uh- We should tie the other end of that, so it doesn’t come undone.” She looked warily at him as he held out a hand, before hesitantly handing him the braid. It was soft, he’d never touched Aether’s hair before. He ran his hand over the overlapping layers of silky hair until he reached the jagged cut at the end.
He reached for his own hair, pulling the tie free and letting it fall loose. He carefully tied up the end of the braid, making sure not to disturb the careful plaiting. Once he was done, he handed it back to Paimon, who had kept a close eye on him the whole time. Once it was back in her hands, she held it close to her chest and ran her hands along the length.
Ayaka cleared her throat, looking over at Paimon. “Do you, um, have a home in one of the other nations you visited? A place where the two of you used to stay?” Paimon shook her head. “Okay then, I suppose you can stay with us then, at the estate. I”m sure Ayato won’t mind.” She gave Thoma a weak smile. “I’ll go and talk to him about it. You two should probably stay here for now, just until we can be sure that it’s safe for you to leave.”
She stood from her seat, nodding to Thoma, and left. She didn’t even take an umbrella to protect herself from the rain.
Thoma stood up as well, stretching his cold, aching muscles. He went into the back room of the teahouse and got out of his wet clothes, putting on the spares that he kept for emergencies. He also grabbed a blanket for him, and a smaller one, for Paimon.
He went back to the front, walking up to where Paimon sat in the same position, with her knees to her chest, staring blankly at the ground. He opened up the smaller blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders. She barely reacted to him, only briefly glancing up at him before zoning out again.
Once he had gone to a room of his own, she grabbed the edge of the blanket and pulled it tight. Settling in for the first night of many that she would spend holding onto that braid, the only thing that remained of her dear traveling companion.