Teeth bearing the transgressions of the past pierced through the High Priest’s lips. His molars ground together at the very thought of the word.

“We have been wrong in the past. Prematurely declaring newly marked children as prosperous ones. Saviors among prisoners.” The High Priest said with a loose gesture toward another tapestry.

It was horrible. Vivid depictions of slaughtered children lined the hide from top to bottom. Kiyo didn’t know what to make of it. His mind was caught between loyalty and confusion. Pulled back and forth, he tried to find reason in what the high priest meant, how one could carry the weight of all his people. Kiyo pressed his right palm against his forehead, thoughts too burdensome to bear.

“Don’t fret over it.” In a swift motion, the High Priest bent over and pat Kiyo on the back. “Just know we’ll see how you grow. How you change with time.”

Kiyo nodded hastily, feet antsy as his heels tapped against the floor. As his mind descended back down to reality, a frivolous energy rippled throughout his body. A calling to go find Daisuke, to get back to the way things were before today, to forget all he was just told.

“That is all I have for you today. I will check back in on the next rotation. Until then, may the Sun bless you.” The High Priest tilted forward and offered a slight bow of respect.

Kiyo bowed in response, more cautious this time around to not mess up. Sweat dribbled from his locks onto the ground around him, stress on display for all to see. With a single motion, Kiyo spun around and headed toward the door. Quick on his feet until he reached for the notch in the door, but something caught his eye.

“Can I ask something, if that’s allowed?” Kiyo muttered over his shoulder, his gaze locked onto the scrapes on the floorboards.

“Of course, please ask.” The high priest eagerly responded as he eased back into his seat.

“What’s that one mean?” Kiyo pointed toward another tapestry hung across the room in a darkened corner. One of a few that was left unexplained, but Kiyo couldn’t seem to ignore it. Drawn in by its isolation, a frigid tension shot down his spine. Hairs stood on end he grew unnerved the longer he stared at the inscription of an unknown history.

The High Priest followed Kiyo’s outstretched right arm to the tapestry hung on the left side of the door in the far corner. A descriptive depiction of a single man standing in a massive crater. A mountain worth of bones and bodies surrounded him, the entire scene encapsulated in a pillar of smoke that billowed up into the sky. The tainted cries of the dead. Beyond the desolate horde nothing more than a barren wasteland.

“Oh.” The High Priest blurted out as he gripped the armrests. His nails scraped at the wood, his face torn back in disgust at the acknowledgment of that wretched piece. Rage contained behind his clenched teeth, he huffed out the anguish in a single heated breath. 

“Don’t worry about that one. It’s just a relic from the past.” The high priest spat out slickly through the gaps in his teeth.

Kiyo nodded able to understand that much but he couldn’t turn away from it. Something about the figure in the center of the storm resonated with him. An odd feeling he couldn’t pin down. Left to stare at it in pure wonder.

Clap-clap.

With two abrupt smacks of his bare clammy palms, the High Priest yanked Kiyo’s attention away from the tapestry.

“I believe it’s time for you to leave. Your friend should be awake by now.” The High Priest called out as he shook his right wrist loosely in the air.

Daisuke. A glimpse of his ruptured and bleeding body popped into Kiyo’s mind. The last time he saw him.

With a hasty shove, Kiyo dashed out of the room into the hall. He glanced both ways to grasp the slightest idea of where to go, but manners seeped back into his mind. Face masked with a solemn smile, he slid the door back close with care. But he just wanted to run off, head heavy from the flurry of emotions that flooded in.

A mix of worry and excitement crowded out his thoughts. But there was no time to dabble. With a violent headshake, Kiyo refocused back on the goal at hand. Wasting no time, he flicked down both ends of the hall, unsure which way to go at first. But then he saw it.

Well, saw them.

Daisuke, Aiko, and Takeo all stood at the right end of the hall. Aiko from the look of it attempted to keep the other two back, her arms spread out wide to form a human barricade. But being pint-sized, her teeny palms failed to persuade them otherwise. She was gently forced back step by step, all her might nowhere near enough to hold them still. Short of breath, she wavered in her stance as salty glaze permeated her rosy cheeks.

“You—aren’t—-allowed—-up—here!” Aiko wheezed out between grievous breaths.

“We told you. We’re just waiting for—Kiyo!” Daisuke shouted as he waved his hands wildly in the air.

Daisuke shoved Aiko into the wall and rushed over to Kiyo with a burst of newfound energy. His teeth cut through the wind, bandages uplifted with every stride toward his friend. Kiyo flashed a modest smirk that instantly shrunk the closer Daisuke came. Each bumbling step sent a shiver down his spine. It was like watching a speeding truck charge at you head-on, Kiyo a deer in headlights.

“Daisuke, can you just—” A sudden tight squeeze constricted Kiyo’s words. Shoulder blades jammed into his spine, all the air wheezed out of his lungs. Pain his true friend.

Aiko sat on the floor and buried her face in her hands, on the verge of tears for failing the High Priest. For failing as a maiden, unable to do such a simple task. Shame was all she knew as she slumped down onto the floor, palms pressed against her eyes.

“I just heard you were with the High Priest and—I didn’t think you’d come back!” Daisuke whimpered out, head buried into Kiyo’s shoulder.

“Not. . . come back?”

Why wouldn’t I come back? Kiyo pondered as Daisuke continued to squeeze the life out of him mercilessly.

“Because most don’t,” Takeo butt in.

Releasing Kiyo, the two boys glanced back to Takeo who stood above Aiko with a perplexed squint. His intrigue centered on Kiyo, someone who under normal circumstances would’ve been removed for this behavior. Yet here he was. Free and rewarded with a personal discussion with the High Priest.

Aiko wiped away the tears and glanced between Takeo and the two boys. Her disillusioned and pathetic little self collected her wits together as she snuffled back her self-disappointment.

“Kiyo,” Takeo uttered as he waved Kiyo over to him. “Walk with me.”

Takeo eased down the hall, his steps calm and collected. At the top of the stairs, he planted his feet and glanced back toward the boys. With a welcoming wave of his hand, he motioned them to follow behind. 

Kiyo and Daisuke exchanged confused glares and sprinted past Aiko to catch up with Takeo. To figure out what he wanted from them. Why he saved them in the first place?

“P-please don’t come again,” Aiko murmured as she watched them walk off from the floor, hands rubbing her teary cheeks raw.

The duo sped off after Takeo, paces slowed to a steady stroll as they crept down the stairs altogether.

“What did you-”

“Tell me. What all happened in that room?” Takeo cut in over Kiyo.

Can I say it? Kiyo debated it for a moment, stopping his pursuit behind Takeo as he paused on a step. Daisuke looked at him with an anxious glare painted across his face, unsure of what all happened to his friend.

Peering back up the stairs, an empty rickety hall lined Kiyo’s gaze, no one in sight. The narrow descent to the first floor was a tight enough space to let it all out. To whisper what he was told to him. To get it off his chest.

So he did.

Kiyo explained it all, at least what he could. The prophecy and expectations the High Priest put over him. All the tapestries, what the High Priest looked like, what he asked him.

A brief hush swept over the group as they passed through the sanctuary’s main room. An attempt to avoid the bishops listening in. Lips sealed and breaths stagnant they crept through the room in a hushed manner. Exiting through the front doors and down the crumbled stone steps, Kiyo continued once they reached the bottom of the stairway.

The acid storm passed over as night settled in. With it, luminous dotted darkness gleamed down on Nippon, all Paladinian’s nestled away in their homes. Above the pitch-black blanket, the moon shone high in the center of the sky. Its luminescence cast over clusters of clouds that whisked by on the wind. Peace maintained in the absence of the day.

Approaching the housing district where Kiyo and Daisuke lived, the story came to an end. Nothing else left to relay Takeo threw up his right hand. Kiyo fell silent at his gesture, mind infatuated with the scarred and weathered skin held up in front of him. A true telling of a life spent in the field.

“For now. Keep this to yourselves.” Takeo said in a firm tone, his face utterly emotionless.

Daisuke and Kiyo both popped a timid glance at each other and nodded in sync. Seeing that they understood, Takeo bobbed his head and gestured ahead.

“Can you both get home from here?”

“Yeah. I can.” Kiyo responded instantly, already backing away from them. 

With approval from Takeo, Kiyo took off toward his home. One motivation resonating with him through it all was that his father would be there waiting for him. His short-term joy was sequestered by the reality awaiting him. But he had to get over it. What else could he do?

“See you next sunrise!” Kiyo called out as he ran.

“Oh. Yeah, see you then!” Daisuke called back as he waved Kiyo off.

An awkward silence settled in between the two left behind, the conversation dead and buried. Daisuke was resistant to leave as questions cluttered his mind, curious to prod the mind of someone who would know so much of the outside world. Takeo his link to uncovering it all.

“Uhm, Takeo.” Daisuke tugged Takeo’s right sleeve as a gracious smirk pinched his cheeks. Takeo glanced down at the squeamish child, he snuffed a hefty sigh out of his nose. The fickle hope Daisuke was about to say he was going home died in an instant. Why couldn’t he just say goodbye?

“Well, um. How does one become a Sun-”

“Daisuke!”

Uh oh. Daisuke flinched at the visceral cry of his name, an invasive clamor that echoed throughout his mind. That fierce voice was too familiar to forget. To not fear.

Slowly, Daisuke peeked over his shoulder, a single glimpse taken to see Ayame stomp her way from his house up toward him.

“Where have you been? Your parents have been worried sick, do you know that!” Ayame yelled enraged, face beat red and dripping in sweat.

“You see, what happened-”

Before Daisuke could even get a word out, Ayame picked him up by the ear. Twisting it wildly as Takeo just watched with a muffled chuckle. A little flutter of joy erupted in his chest, glad to be freed from the dead-end conversation.

“Ow-ow-ow!”

“I think that’s it then,” Takeo said as he swiftly backed away from the two.

“Thank you for watching him. I’ll make sure to punish him for whatever—stupid thing he did this time.” Ayame said in an irritated manner as she fiercely yanked back toward the house.

“TAKEO! HELP ME!” Daisuke cried with outstretched hands swiping at the plumes of dust kicked out beneath his feet.

Already turned away, Takeo simply ignored the childish plea, hand raised above his head as he waved himself off. Pace picked 

Left on his own, Daisuke tried to wiggle free. Ayame dragged the panicked Daisuke back to the house by the pinch of his ear. He flailed his arms to no avail, Ayame’s pissed-off vigor far beyond Daisuke’s will to free himself.

“Not even a warning. You were gone for a whole descent. A whole descent!” Ayame declared.

“Lo–look. It was an accident, I swear, I do!”

Ayame snickered as a sinister smile crossed her face. Fangs gnashed in the air as she hauled the boy back to their household. Her neon green stare locked onto Daisuke with cruel intent, the only way to make the boy listen. To teach him a lesson.

“Oh. I guess what I’m about to do will be an accident too.”

“NO!”

…

The night refused to pass with ease.

Kiyo and Daisuke were punished and tucked away to bed in their own regard, but neither could sleep a wink. Minds racing from what they found out remained entranced in their mind, heads full of questions they wished to explore further. But they couldn’t, their curiosity held down by the Paladinian’s strict culture. 

Punishment wasn’t enough to forget what Kiyo had experienced as they each went to bed. Wide awake through the night, a restless pull at their attention to uncover the truth. What it all meant.

The words hung over Daisuke’s head. A prophecy and unforeseen future he couldn’t handle to think about. Kiyo tied up in something greater than both of them. The next few weeks' meetups would step over the thought as they sat atop the wall. Time spent burying the strange stories crammed into their heads. Each mutually chose to ignore it as they refrained from venturing past the walls. From the town. Chained down under the watchful eye of the High Priest.

Never left alone.

Their childhood was something to relish as it passed them by. Gone far sooner than expected as their training departure drew near day by day. The time they would be forced to prove their use.

The Sun’s judgment soon to fall upon them.