[h2]A Palace Inflamed[/h2][hr]
[color=Lightgray]Labored and shallowed breaths filled the artist’s ears as he dragged Zarina and another out of the palace. His magic flickered back, revealing each injury to the binder. [color=734960][i]Her lungs are collapsed, her spine is severed, bowels are punctured. Lead scattered through their bodies.[/i][/color] His once steady hands shook, his magic grew sloppy, a piece of the pauldron thinned as he failed to filter the platinum from lead, [color=734960][i]You cannot risk error now, you have come this far.[/i][/color] he told himself as he pulled the rest of the lead out of their bodies, now prepared to form their flesh anew. 

His hands no longer shook, he had distanced himself so far from the situation that was at hand. Blood spilled out in a wave and Tku dropped a vial of clear oil into it. Quickly, it was pulled back through the wound, mending the piercing and lungs leaving not even a scar in its wake. These were easy wounds, unlike the one who has disconnected her spine. 

A cut rope was all that could describe it, spindly threads unbound and messily strewn through bones and blood. Tku grabbed hold of these with kinetic, pressing them into a rough shape as he reconstituted their connections. The most tedious of details like he was weaving a royal carpet. It tired him so but he completed the restoration cleanly and while the wound was still open, he poured another vial in before closing and massaging it to distribute.

Now they lay there, magicless and at his mercy. It was a sickening feeling to have done this to a friend, even the woman who he had known nothing of fed the pit in his stomach. He could smell the burning bodies behind him that were left in the palace. Had Mahal’s mother escaped? What of Aira and Fiske? The whole world felt so surreal right now. [color=734960]”Why am I in Palapar, fighting my loved ones and breaking my oath?”[/color] he said on his knees looking toward the last bit of sky before the smoke consumed it as well.

He lifted himself up and called Marci. [color=734960]”Zarina has made it out and she is alive. she…”[/color] his was racked with pain at what happened. How she would choose to die protecting scum overtaking the hand of a friend. [color=734960]”She resisted in front of the leader of the revolution, in front of so many burning hearts. She will be allowed to live, I will make sure of that. But her time will not be easy.”[/color] his voice was slow, slightly trembly, and held much lower in tone than his normal voice.

The exchange was quick and scattered, not even proper enough for a send-off, just an end. Some agreement would be met, Dani was more reasonable than the veneer he wore, Tku was sure of it. He placed them in a subspace, somewhere safe from the wandering eyes. Tku’s job had come to an end and he wanted to leave. The pain he felt in his heart was unbearable to him. 

But his labor wasn’t done. Deep down Tku knew that. He brought Keearah here, to an unstable nation that he helped spark a revolution. He could run, forget about her, and everything else he built for himself. It was so easy for him, Calanast was a small boat away and he could continue the journey as he had before the school. He wanted to so badly but he knew he couldn’t.

He was no child anymore. He was no longer foolish enough to believe running was viable. People still needed him so he would stay here, enduring the hardships he had not expected. He was a man now, and he would not be a coward. 

[color=734960][I]”Verusand, I pray that I am right in my justice and that Forticand provides me strength to continue,”[/i][/color] he prayed by himself with the warm glow of the palace behind him.[/color]