Harmony

146. Above All Else Part I


"You would turn him against me."

She wanted Ramulus out of her universe.

"What are you doing?"

She wanted them silent.

"Octavia, what are you doing?"

She wanted Stratos' love to herself, selfish as she knew the plea to be.

How do we do this?

I will be at your side.

It was all she could ask for.

Rani's eyes had never settled, still ablaze with judgmental luminescence. Even now, the little angel of death before her awaited her next move with utter patience and stilled fingers. "He, too, has not acted out of malice, Ambassador. If he has earned your rage, such is reasonable all the same. Still, you would embrace him?"

Octavia met her chilling, radiant gaze with all of the resolution she could muster. "He's my partner. I love him, and he loves me back. Nothing you say is going to change that."

"Such love is false."

"You don't know that."

"I, who have brought him to being, know it to be true."

It is that which shall be his downfall.

Octavia's eyes flickered upwards. Now, still, Stratos was patient above her. How he found the drive to stare down the Lord of All, bound to such a little body as he was, was admirable. She settled her fingers into position hesitantly. What do you mean?

What he has given, he may freely take yet again. All that I am is no exception. His threats are far from hollow, and that with which he would seek to strike you down would suffice.

She didn't want to do this. She so desperately did not want to do this. Even braced against the empty world below her feet as she was, the bow resting atop the strings once more, it was all she could do to battle the tears that threatened her vision. What do you want me to do?

You will have but one opportunity. Your actions must be swift and subsequent. You must not waver, even for a moment. Hesitate, and you will lose your life.

For as much as Octavia tried to steady her fingers around the bow, she couldn't fight the way they trembled regardless. Explain.

It will be rapid, by which neither your companions nor my Lord could intervene so quickly. Your execution must be threefold.

She held her breath, clinging to his every word for dear life. She cherished each soft syllable of his voice while she still had it, soaking up what love and attention he could give her even in the midst of the situation. She needed all that she could get. She wouldn't let a drop of it go to waste.

You will advance, and know all along that I shall be with you. When the time is right, I shall return that which he has given. In that moment, you cannot waver.

"I don't want to," Octavia pleaded, her voice cracking aloud.

You must. All that I do, Octavia, I do to atone.

She shook her head, oblivious to the eyes on her. "You don't need to."

I do so out of love, much the same.

Octavia bit her lip, trembling as it was. The rest of her was beginning to follow suit, much to her dismay.

Swear that you will be strong.

She could hardly summon more than a whisper. "Stradivaria--"

For me.

Octavia fought to swallow the sob she could feel surging in her throat. It was a trial, although not even slightly as much as what was to come. I swear.

Stratos paused. His peace did nothing to stem her tears, despite the way they threatened to destroy her crumb of focus. Only his voice was a distraction, as it had always been. You will have the briefest opportunity by which to bear witness to the toll. Once more, you must be swift and unyielding.

Whose toll will it be?

By possession, his. By that which you will witness, my own.

Octavia blinked heavily, squeezing what sorrowful tears she could out of her eyes as best as was possible. Are you comfortable with that?

There is no heart that could exist with which I would rather share my burdens.

And that, too, did little to ease much the same sorrow. He wasn't making it easy.

And…you said three things, right?

Octavia didn't need to see him nod. She could imagine it, whether wordlessly or outwardly. At this point, their quiet was surely suspicious, and the way by which Rani's radiant glare somehow seemed to sharpen was extremely concerning. For how malleable she knew the spider web to be, whether within the borderless borders of Silence or otherwise, Octavia had half a mind to wonder if her thoughts weren't truly private. It was a chilling concept, and she feared her time to strategize was running out. She feared the way by which she could treasure Stratos' love, too, was jeopardized all the same.

In the wake of the Witnessing, you must guide him across the boundary. Your safety will be ensured, and he will be granted his return. For what freedom you would surely grant to those who remain, I have no doubt that the ninety-five will reconvene in full. Even should his wish not be as expected, perhaps you may yet achieve your world of purity. Such is his obligation, for the perfect realm he so longed to craft. There are none who would be content with his resistance.

It was supposed to be ninety-six, she thought, her heart aching fiercely.

In a manner of speaking, it is. You have seen to that.

Ninety-six that made it there. Aren't you afraid? What'll happen to you?

That which would befall you in my stead, I would suppose. It is without precedent. Still, should you have my heart in those final moments, I would hold no fear.

Octavia had him, ultimately. She refused to let him go, gripping the neck of the violin ever tighter.

"For what reason do you hesitate, Ambassador? For what reason do you alone raise his vessel against me?" Ramulus spoke calmly.

Octavia was silent. She was shaking. Still, she slid one foot forward and adjusted the bow as was necessary. She didn't grace him with an answer in words alone, content to offer Rani only whatever resolution she could spill into her tearful eyes.

"Octavia, what the hell are you doing?"

"Stop it!"

"Knock it off!"

They were irrelevant, desperate and pleading as they were. She didn't so much as spare them an ounce of attention.

"That you would resist until your dying breath is nearly admirable," Ramulus offered quietly. "I will honor your valor. If you would come, Ambassador, then come. If the knowledge of true resistance would ease your heart in passing, I will see to it that your painless death is befitting of your courage."

Octavia had never once thought that her running speed would serve to save her life at the very border of two worlds, so unlike one another. She lowered her body and raised her head. She steadied her breath as best as she could. She channeled every ounce of love she could muster and pleaded with him for one final time, the words burning as they left her tongue.

"Give me everything you have," Octavia whispered.

And you will forever have my heart. [♪]

Her fingers were explosive, her blood much the same as Stratos' scathing love bubbled and boiled beneath her skin. She, too, was just as explosive, pushing off hard against the nothingness below as she sprinted with all that she had. Octavia played for her life, utterly indifferent to the cries and screams of those resisting her actions behind her. Every pounding footstep, inaudible as she knew them to be, was in stark contrast to the Heartful songs that crashed together beautifully in the air.

The indecipherable melody that poured from Rani's lips once more blessed her waiting hands in turn, pulsing and radiating with a predictable brilliance that Octavia couldn't hope to avoid head-on. She wondered if she'd be besieged with the same searing sea, cursed with waves of radiance that would surely counter her own. Still, she ran, every frantic note bringing his own loving luminescence bursting from her skin onto the strings. Each fierce slash of the bow brought with it the blinding, white-hot rays of wrath she knew would escape her shortly, and she relished the sensation of the stars Stratos blessed her veins with while she had it to herself.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

What she had to offer was of debatable prowess, for how the broiling suns and pulsating stars that erupted from Rani's own touch erupted towards her at inescapable speeds. Every subtle motion of her wrists was a loaded threat, every movement of her arms in turn an equal death sentence. Her merciless angel was undaunted by her speed, whether born of Stratos' borrowed brilliance or Octavia's own heated pursuit.

She liked to imagine it was both in tandem, every beautiful, swirling beam she could send sailing forth a collaboration born of love. Their Heartful radiance collided with a gentle boom time after time. Galaxies were birthed between them as their scattering supernovas tinted the air with sparkling debris. It was splendorous, and Stratos' power had always been equally so. Octavia couldn't fathom losing it this way. It was a gift to the universe, whether her own or otherwise--as was he, ultimately.

You have grown immensely since you have first touched my heart.

Octavia had no room to smile, not for how she battled so desperately and raced just as fiercely. She wished her heart could compensate. Her sorrow was overpowering, instead. You've given me so much.

I wish only that I could have given more.

She highly doubted that she was gaining ground by Ramulus' own will. Still, the Apex of Heart left his dead vessel standing strong, glaring into her soul as their brilliant bursts collided time after time. Octavia wanted to slow down. She needed to slow down. She needed every last second she could have with a Muse so beloved. She needed every note she could steal with her ears and every surge of scorching warmth she could feel sear her fingertips. She needed to steal all that he had while she had the chance.

Even as she is, I have always felt her love within.

Her heart was pounding ferociously, and the fight for her life had absolutely nothing to do with it.

For the love she had entrusted to me, I was a fool not to cherish you on her behalf.

Octavia couldn't falter. She couldn't slow her fingers, nor her footsteps, nor her song. Nonetheless, his words slowed time itself.

And yet, even now, there is one within my heart who adores you more than life itself.

If she tried, she could reach. If she pushed just a bit further, she could strike close. Octavia was playing with fire, each bursting boom leaving flaking embers of brilliance sprinkling against her skin. Their sting was irrelevant. It was her heart alone that burned.

I could never hope to match her love, Octavia, nor could words do it justice. All that I am and all that I could give would pale in comparison. Still, I have endeavored.

She didn't want to do this. She didn't want to do this. She didn't want to do this.

Above all else, know that Priscilla loved you with all of her heart.

And still, just feet from the Apex's vessel, Octavia ripped the bow across the strings as she screeched to a halt.

Above all else, know that I love you just the same.

And as Stratos became her shield, the most spectacular star that had ever sparkled in her life, the person born before her eyes was undaunted by the Apex of Heart. His luminescent arms were thrown wide before her, and it wasn't his vessel alone that protected her for once. For all he'd done to save her time and time again, he'd been correct.

At point-blank, given how quickly he'd intervened, Rani's assault was a reflex. Even the Lord of All had faltered, ignorant to his misguided attack as scathing radiance exploded with the might of one thousand bursting suns. From so near, Octavia knew well that they'd been meant for her. He'd promised her a swift death, after all.

It was an instinct to cling to Stradivaria for dear life. She treasured the sensation of her tingling blood as she pulled him close, her face pressed tightly against the warm mahogany. Her tears burned just as fiercely as she gritted her teeth, and her love, too, was instinctive. It always had been.

"I love you!" she screamed, her voice cracking instantly.

The supernova he became was the most gorgeous sight she'd ever seen. The iridescent ivories and golds that burst with an intolerable brightness before her were irrelevant to her pupils. She swore never to close her eyes in the face of his sacrifice. It was surely not Rani's assault alone that had blessed her with brilliance as Stratos became her dying sun. Her veins burned in one million ways still, her soul on fire and her heart much the same.

Octavia wondered how resplendent he'd been at birth. She wondered if the luminous touch that had brought him into being had intentionally crafted such a splendorous heart, the form she'd given him notwithstanding. For a moment, she couldn't see Rani at all--not with the blinding galaxy that exploded before her. Even like this, even as he left her behind, Stratos was every bit as beautiful. She loved him every bit as much.

He crumbled. She hadn't thought she'd lose a memento so precious like this. Where Octavia had long since come to believe she'd see him off to Above with a gentle touch and delicate sparkles as his vessel dissipated, it was not to be. The weightlessness that besieged her from atop her shoulder and within her pleading grasp was different altogether. She felt every crack, every spreading crevice, every creeping splinter that led him to utter obliteration in her hands.

Stradivaria was no more in the worst way, eviscerated in a manner that left the violin instantly reduced to scattering ashes. It wasn't as though she had them for long, and even her best attempts to cling desperately to the last of him were futile. They, too, escaped her, lost to the atmosphere of Silence in tandem with the fleeting rain of his radiant aftermath.

Octavia wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to rage.

And of the latter, she did, lest his efforts be in vain.

Her window was tiny, widened in the slightest by Rani's mild recoil through the overwhelming cloud of dazzling debris. Octavia had never once seen the Apex of Heart emote through his stolen body, and the sight was jarring. She had no time to dwell on it, torn somewhere between wrath and grief. She wondered if the former was misplaced. She didn't care. With her hands newly emptied, much to her unfathomable dismay, Octavia was free to do as she was told.

She outright lunged. Rani's hesitation was irrelevant. If the Ambassador was to be burned, she hardly cared. She was already burning enough.

"Rani!" Octavia screamed.

Even devoid of true acknowledgement, the girl's scathing eyes barely rising to meet her own, she was unrelenting.

"Your toll has been paid once over!"

Octavia came down with both hands. She thought to go for Rani's neck, given how grief stormed her veins still. Still, it was the girl's head that first came within range of her fingertips.

"Now, your Ambassador will see through the eyes of the one who paid the toll!"

And with her body nearly leaving the ground, the soles of her boots outright scraping the air, she had much to weigh her down to the place she'd so effortlessly learned to descend. It was with a true dive that she plunged into the depths of the dark. With her fingertips brushing against Rani's wispy hair, Octavia embraced the emptiness of a different death for the final time in her life.

It was the last thing she'd ever take from Stratos.

◆ ◆ ◆

Given what she couldn't perceive of the Lord of All, she was just as powerless to perceive that which he called home. It had taken her two tries in the dark to come to terms with the fact. For Stratos' sake, and for the paradise he'd described it to be, Octavia liked to imagine it was beautiful.

Every soft sound was a blessing, every gorgeous color a miracle. It was all she could steal with eyes not hers to possess, immaterial as they were. There was something almost sacrilegious about borrowing Stratos' sight, for how divine she truly found him to be. Octavia wondered why she hadn't felt the same of Mixoly. Even from what she was gifted with, she could come to adore Above regardless. She wished she would've asked Stratos more of his experiences, should he have seen fit to share them. She doubted he would remember being born. If Octavia couldn't do the same, she wouldn't put the feat on his shoulders--otherworldly or otherwise.

Do you take pride in it?

I could do nothing else.

Octavia knew that voice well, for how she'd heard it what felt like hundreds of times over.

Is it perfect?

It is all that it could be.

And, if nothing else, she'd treasure every last word he could give while she was down here--or up, if his gracious eyes were willing to share his beloved paradise even now.

Why do you watch with such sadness that which you treasure?

It could be better.

How so?

In every way.

Octavia had always wondered as to their relationship. She kicked herself for not asking. She praised herself for giving him the privacy he'd pleaded for.

It could be beautiful, Stratos.

It already is.

They both were. They always had been. In one toll, she had two Heartful Muses to love, unseen as they were. She liked the way they were gentle with one another, even in disagreement. She liked to imagine he was once happy, for all he'd said of Mixoly.

I…wish that I could empathize with you, but I truly do find it perfect as it is.

How will it become?

I could not fathom, and that is what makes it wonderful.

I could not stand to see it wasted.

Where it would exist, no matter the outcome, it would never be a waste.

Stratos loved where Mixoly couldn't. It was so like him.

The boundary is not to be crossed.

Yet still it exists.

Mixoly.

I will return. You have my word.

It was a cruelty Octavia had now seen from both sides, still clouded to her mortal eyes. Every word was just as damning.

You will regret your choice.

I will not.

Please, do not do this.

Await me, Stratos, for I will return soon.

Mixoly.

If it was possible to hear heartbreak upon one name alone, Octavia could find it in the tone she'd long since come to adore. In the depths of the memories she'd battled her way through again and again, it had been Mixoly's voice she'd fixated on. Loathing of Stratos as she'd been at the time, his pleas had been cast aside. It was a regret Octavia hadn't harbored until now, and she bitterly loathed herself instead for how often she'd taken the same voice for granted. Even pained, it was his, and she'd squandered it hundreds of times over. It was an irreparable folly.

She has descended?

It is true, my Lord.

I see.

She will…return.

She will not.

She has sworn upon it, my Lord.

She cannot cross the boundary once more.

To hear true panic in Stratos' voice, even muted, was toxic to Octavia's heart. Why?

In the wake of his fear, Ramulus was every bit as calm and composed as she'd learned him to be. She is tainted by the impurities of such a world. She cannot return harboring that which is imperfect.

My Lord, something must be done!

Know, Stratos, that in light of such a sin, she would not be granted passage regardless.

My Lord, please, he begged.

My word is unyielding.

Where Mixoly had struggled below, Stratos had struggled on her behalf Above. Even by proxy, his sorrow was contagious. Unseen or otherwise, it stung Octavia's soul.

And when she was robbed of a heavenly glow altogether, plunged into pitch-blackness to match his sorrow, Octavia initially found it to meet her true definition of a toll. There was the briefest moment by which she either expected to abruptly rise to lucidity once more or to experience a shift not unlike that which had poisoned Mixoly's memories.

Still, having seen what she'd witnessed of both Priscilla and Drey's tolls--the former in particular--she highly doubted their memories would've been compromised in the same fashion as Lucian's. The way by which the heavenly sounds of Above itself had been so jarringly replaced with the unmistakable chorus of agony incarnate wasn't lost on her in any capacity.

Stratos was silent. It was dark. Octavia had nothing--not even the soft lights she'd come to love. He didn't plead or beg, not as Mixoly had. In his place, uncertain and helpless, Octavia wondered if she would've been as calm. She wondered if he'd known of the form he'd taken, or if he'd been blessed with one at all by now. She wondered if he'd been scared. She wondered if he could even feel fear in the first place.

He wasn't truly alone.

You are secure.

What has come to pass, my Lord?

She has brought the world to ruin.

I do not understand.

Her agony becomes her, and such has compromised that which was perfect.

Where is this?

A realm not ours to touch.

And we have come to its surface?

Not of our own volition. It is she who has forced our descent.

I…cannot see.

You will not, of your own accord.

Once more, I do not understand.

We are not to touch this realm, lest it be further endangered.

Then wherein lies a solution? Are we eternally bound to such darkness, my Lord?

In time, you will have your sight once more. Grant me your trust, then, and I shall repair what has been lost.

And, without question, he did.

You…have my utmost faith, my Lord.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.


Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter