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Arc F1.8 | Chapter 29: to regret a death than will not be; to never mourn a predator

White lightning crackled through the aether, leaving scars across the surfaces of the surrounding buildings, each towering grey monstrosities, each filled with heartless souls, all seeking fame and glory through death and destruction. Too much lightning—too much power—would affect more than the buildings’ facades, instead reaching in and cracking their structural integrity apart, but what did Polianna care? The pieces of shit hidden within their darkness, surging at her from their doorways, were either actively involved in at least part of what was happening within the city—it still remained annoyingly unclear how much of the situation was various groups and factions taking advantage of the situation and how much was a purposeful collaboration—or were perfectly happy to sit by and watch the situation play out, hoping to gain something from the chaos.People were dying, didn’t they realize that? Their new —not that Polianna was putting much faith in every single Lüshanian not stabbing them in the back—had confirmed through the criminal network’s xphern chat logs that hundreds of criminals and civilians had already lost their lives as conflicts large and small split through the city. Of course, most people might not realize things were that bad, especially here, in the bougiest area of the lower city.

Polianna couldn’t imagine hunkering down within her home as her city—her —was racketed by attacks. It would be one thing, had the people within this district been ; they weren’t. Some were Drinarna, and even those who seemed to belong to another department were well-trained—not as well-trained as she herself was, but still trained enough that they have been surging out into the city and offering aid.

Pieces of fucking shit, hiding away in their homes and leaving others to do their dirty work, leaving their fellow citizens to die in a conflict they had nothing to do with.

her mother had once said, her soft voice floating through an ancient memory as Polianna erected a defensive barrier, the attack that had been aimed at her shattering out of existence.

Polianna, then young and miserable—it had only been since Coral had come into her life that she’d been less miserable, even if her misery was a near constant pull upon her, so much of her time and effort spent attempting to pull herself free of that suffocating self-hatred that had existed within her for most of her life—hadn’t had an answer for her mother as to she disliked the little silverstrain girl who smiled and laughed and wrought chaos wherever her feet found purchase. Eventually, she’d found it, years later: Emilia was bright and shining and made friends so easily. Polianna herself was miserable and hateful and demanding. Until Coral, every friend she’d ever had was only with her because her family had influence. They tolerated her, but even for as much as Leerin Emilia half the time, Polianna knew the girls loved one another.

None of Polianna’s friends loved her, and she hadn’t wanted Emilia to fake it—hadn’t wanted that shining little girl, who hadn’t known what to do with the entitled child Polianna was because her own life before being adopted had never been anything but accepting what she was given, to have to choose between her and her other friends, who would never like her. Coral was friends with people, so they tolerated Polianna being around them, and she hated it—hated that perpetual reminder that she was unlikeable, that her very presence in her girlfriend’s life put her other friendships at risk.

What happened when, one day, they finally grew sick of even her lingering in the background and Coral had to choose?

The worst thing was Polianna knew what Emilia would have done, had they become managed to become friends and Emilia had been forced to choose between her and everyone else: the silverstrain girl would have chosen her because Emilia didn’t accept ultimatums.

Coral—

Polianna’s mind split off, unwilling to entertain those thoughts when Coral’s empathy was already so firmly wrapped around her. Usually, when she asked for privacy with her thoughts, her girlfriend was good about only gleaning the barest of information from her. Usually, Polianna didn’t care what her girlfriend took from her mind—mostly, she just didn’t want to bury her girlfriend in all of her self loathing and control issues.

Coral had asked, early in their relationship, back when Polianna had just been opening her mind and heart to the other girl and hoping that it wouldn’t break their fledgling romance. Coral had continued, her fingers brushing through Polianna’s blonde pubic hair, tugging occasionally, fingers gliding lower every so often to brush against her sex,

So, Polianna controlled Coral. It was all in tiny ways: what she wore; how she styled her hair; when she showered—Polianna loved forcing her girlfriend to remain damp after sex, loved watching her squirm when the reminder of their time together slid between her thighs; how much she drank and when she could use the bathroom.

It helped, sometimes. Not entirely, but a bit—and when it didn’t, her girlfriend was there, taking her out to eat, bringing her calorie-heavy, calorie-light foods, unhealthy, healthy foods to eat. Anything to break the flow of impulses raging through her nervous system. Back when they’d first started dating, Polianna would have already broken a short streak of eating before her girlfriend was there, offering support. Now, Coral could tell when a storm was coming. Polianna had no idea what the other girl saw within her mind—and to be fair, Coral did occasionally miss the signs—but there were signs of some sort that her sweet love saw.

The threat of her calories vanishing into bareness. Fingers down her throat. Stuffing herself with junk, junk, and more junk because it wasn’t enough and she was out of control before her food collapsed into nothing but healthy substance—that last urge to eat nothing but perfectly was likely to kill her, at least, even if the level of control she wound up exerting over her food was so excessive it became all she thought about.

Coral said into her mind, and yes, Polianna was aware she was spiralling. High-stress situations weren’t ideal for her, sending hormones surging through her that led her body to —and the fact that this situation was completely out of control wasn’t helping, nor was the strain on her Load Levels. That was the big one, when it came to her relationship with food: her brain could hold back the tidal wave of and as long as her brain had the energy to do so. When her Load Levels collapsed? When the walls of hormones and chemicals and focus broke down, then, she was reaching for food, water, pressing fingers into herself and purging, purging, purging, exercising until she was collapsed on the bathroom floor, vomiting for a whole other reason, and she needed to focus on something else—control something else.

What Polianna could control, as she shifted through the streets, letting Coral and the remaining clones map out every potential enemy for her, was rather morbid, unfortunately.

Oh well—these shits didn’t deserve her kindness when Coral’s readings were increasingly showing that they had at least encouraged those of their faction who were at work, far above them in the buildings that reached around the spire, to take advantage of the situation. It wasn’t such a clear thing that any of them were willing to blow a couple blocks up, nor enough for Halen’s group to outright accept that they should put down anyone they came across who worked for a few of the departments Coral was connecting to the people who were attacking their own group. It was still enough for Polianna to close her heart and make a game of killing those who dared strike out at her, of those people lingering within the buildings around her, just waiting for their chance to strike.

Had she already worked her way through over two dozen of the district’s residents, leaving their bodies speared through? Leaving them with burnt out veins and meridians from her lightning? Yes, but those people had attacked her first. Perhaps some of those coming for her now were innocent when it came to whatever the faction who called this district home was doing, only coming at her for revenge for her actions in a conflict they didn’t understand.

Heart closed, Coral wrapping her up in her abilities—pulling her heart into a state of emptiness akin to that of a black knot—Polianna smiled.

An attack surged towards her—not the perfect core abilities Polianna was used to dealing with, thanks to training with the Drinarna, the Yu siblings, and even occasionally with the Blood Rain General’s students—but something sloppy.

Lüshan really needed some better combat training—not that Baalphoria was much better. Everyone needed to do better, perhaps.

Microsparking to the side, Polianna twirled her willbrand, lightning crackling off of it. Emilia was supposed to make her a new one, using some bit of information she and Simeon had learned a few months before they graduated. Given her legal issues, Polianna hadn’t pushed—as much as the silverstrain girl and her weren’t friends, even she had never fallen into the category of Out of the people Emilia knew well, Stellarium Baxter was, as far as Polianna knew, the one person who had ever fallen into category.

The rest of Halen’s —terrible, terrible boys, and Polianna would rather be alone than friends with them—fell into the category of people as well. Considering most of them had once vowed to never have sex with Emilia, lest she sunder their friend group with her cunt, Polianna wasn’t convinced any of them had ever been stupid enough to risk asking her to make them one.

For her, however? She was someone Emilia had to travel with quite often; as a result, Polianna had actually been one of the first people Emilia had made a willbrand for.

Emilia had said, handing over the first of what would eventually become three willbrands to her, each just as perfect as the last despite the girl’s then lack of experience in willbrandsmithing.

The first boy Polianna killed had been for Emilia, the pair of them cornered by a trio of thirty-something-year-olds in Lu Ros only half a year later. While Emilia slit the throat of one, Polianna had sent her spear striking through another boy’s chest. The look in his eyes wasn’t something she would ever forget, nor was it something that would ever haunt her—those boys had made it clear that they were not the first teenage girls they had cornered, intent to force themselves on them.

The third had been grabbed by Grenner, who had finally tracked them down after Emilia had come looking for her—his first experience being dragged into chaos as her newly appointed babysitter. That was the sort of person Emilia was, though: someone who would claim she hated Polianna and wouldn’t risk her life for her, yet, had noticed she was missing from a party almost immediately and come to find her. Then, she’d had threats levelled at her for her effort.

Polianna didn’t know what happened to the last boy, vanished into the embassy by Grenner to be tortured by the clones, perhaps. That wasn’t something that bothered her either, with or without Coral tugging her ability to care so soft it was barely a whisper.

Three turns of her spear through the world, and the lightning of it finally caught on the lines of the aether she had been looking for, sending surges of white heat down those lines and crashing into five of the Lüshanians currently attacking her. They screamed, their heads thrown back as their eyeballs exploded out of them from the power of her attack. Even against their dark skin, the searing burns of their rupturing, sizzling meridians and blood veins became visible—a grotesque display of what happened when lightning wound through the human body. Could she kill them in a less horrific way? Ramp up the power of her attack so they were struck dead instantaneously? Send a violent skill their way and use her willbrand for physical attacks only?

Yes.

Polianna wasn’t going to be doing them—not entirely, anyways.

{Rising Tides} shimmered out of her as a group of ten people exploded out of a building, each screaming obscenities as the finally silent bodies of her last attackers collapsed to the ground, their strings cut. Two had been in the buildings above, trying to sneak attack her—it wouldn’t work, as long as Coral was monitoring every mind in the vicinity.

Water pulled from the aether, droplets colliding together to create a wave that grew and grew down the street. This new group only had eyes for her, not a single one of them possessing Awareness enough to feel the surge of power, the weight of aether condensing for her, to look behind them.

A dozen attacks, all so small Polianna could have stopped them with the most basic of defensive skills alone, meandered her way. So slow—slow and stupid; had this group really thought they stood a chance against her?

{Rising Tides} loosened itself as she moved, microsparking past the group and through the small gap she’d left for herself within the swell of the skill. It collapsed over the group, just as Polianna flicked her lightning-clad willbrand through it, sending the entire group screaming, a million lightning bolts shattering through the skill as its water pushing into windows and open doors, seeking out all those disgusting humans whom Coral had marked as holding animosity towards them.

A drop of blood slid down Polianna’s lip as her Load Levels threatened to shatter. It was fine if they did—she’d already set {Rising Tides} to evaporate if she lost control of it. Had she been willing to kill everyone within the buildings, it would have been easy—would have required little more than letting the skill fill the world, her willbrand a continuous circuit of power through it. Coral’s abilities cycling through her or not, Polianna was unwilling to kill innocents.

Perhaps one day she would regret not killing everyone—not splitting over the hearts of even the babies tucked away within the surrounding buildings. Polianna would rather regret it later, when a now-grown child came for her, when the new wife who hadn’t understood her husband’s cruel heart come seeking revenge for his death, than live with the guilt of snuffing out lives that may yet be guided in a better direction for the rest of her existence.

Her mind bubbled, her Load Levels functions giving out as Grenner appeared behind her, defending her back so she could focus on letting her skill run rampant in the most controlled way possible.

—there went another function.

—there went her connection to the aethernet.

—there went {Rising Tides}, the wet world suddenly dry. For the barest of seconds, her lightning extended through the dry world, and had anyone been stupid enough to stand in front of her, they might have died.

Low-dev that she was, it took barely more than a minute for her Load Levels to recover, Grenner giving her updates on what was happening with Coral and the others while they waited, tucking themselves into a nearby building in an attempt to stay a little safer. By the time she had recovered, Polianna both had a plan for how to deal with more of the people Coral had found lingering about, intent to kill them at the first opportunity, and had drafted a message to Emilia.

[Polianna:]