The crowd, engorged in feverish rage and righteousness, began shouting policies, politics, and more ways to ruin the tied suearis.

“The portals have to close!”

“Shut down all the Opals!”

“Kill all suearis!”

“Kill him!”

In a moment of exhaustive quiet, a human man yelled out boisterously, “Cut off his demon ears!” The mob echoed his words ferociously. “Cut them off!” “Cut his ears!” The man pumped his fist passionately, proud of himself for his contribution.

The priest, servant to the people, obediently flipped out his pocket knife, still wet with blood. He stepped up the moveable staircase positioned behind the cross, and reached to grab the suearis’ left ear. 

His finger barely brushed against it, but the suearis’ eyes flashed open. Teeth whipped and snapped at the priest’s hand, and the priest shrinked backwards, almost falling off the stairs. The crowd gasped. The suearis snarled as if galvanized back to life, but then his eyes rolled back, and his head lolled down again. 

The people roared.

The man in priest costume, angered by the insolence of an animal, violently grabbed the suearis’ ear, and sawed away. The screams of the suearis man will haunt Forti throughout her life. 

Her imagination was powerful, but it was a double-edged sword, a curse as much as a blessing, for seeing what was before her had her mind conjure what it must’ve been like for the tail to be sliced off. She scrunched her eyes as if it would erase the mental image. The ear was lifted triumphantly like a war prize, and the crowd went crazier than ever.

“You’re a smart girl, Forti.” Forti flinched imperceptibly, remembering Mir. Bargel. “As much as you’re enjoying the show, you know as I do that it’s also not a very… Pahthian thing to do, more like Old Testimonial style, but Deodunge is much worse.”  

Anything that lessened the number of senses focusing on the atrocity, Forti couldn’t help but feel thankful for. She faced Mir. Bargel, eager to hear more of the harsh voice. She was met with the man’s side profile. He was enchanted by the spectacle, smug from thinking that all of this could only be possible because of his directive.

“I think you’ll be fine in Deodunge,” he added. “Seeing that you’re not queasy from this.”

The priest pushed the staircase to the other side, reaching for the other ear. Forti grit her teeth. It will be over soon. I’m sorry, man on the cross. I’ll get you out of here. Once I’m out, I’ll send a tip to the police, to the Diapo. We just need to get through this. Just a little longer. Stay alive. We’ll get through this… But what about Deodunge? 

Forti was disgusted with herself. A person was being tortured in front of her eyes, but the following thoughts still ensued. I came here to go to Deodunge. If I let the police know about what Sempirege is doing here, I’ll lose my way there. But if I wait to report this until after I go, it’ll be too late for him– 

What’s wrong with you?! Of course you have to save him! I’ll just find another way to get to Deodunge. Riel should know other routes.

Mir. Bargel was about to say something else, when a soft noise pierced through the cacophony. Mumbles almost like humming floated in the air, and a hush swept over the crowd. What should have been barely registered was being magnified by the mics. It was coming from the suearis.

The priest stopped his movements to listen. No one could understand the language, but the gentle, tired murmurs were too soothing to be threatening. A particular word was spoken over and over. Lyetasii. Lyetasii.

“What are you saying, suearis? Are you cursing us?” The priest interrogated accusingly. The muttering stopped. Then the suearis weakly looked up and a chill ran down the priest’s spine. The suearis’ right eye was swollen, festering like a rotten plum. Blood fell in teardrops down the beastman’s chin, dark gashes marred his cheeks and lips, and his thick hair that once traveled down his nape was cruelly cut near his scalp. Yet, his glare was vicious. It was as feral as his outburst. After this day, whenever the fake priest closed his eyes, he saw two others shining back at him, and a ghost would seem to grip his very soul with icy hands. 

For now, the priest only froze. 

The suearis flexed some of his muscles to regain feeling, a testament to his vitality, but all he received were aches and pains. Even he had no idea how he possessed any remaining energy coursing through him, but he was still alive and that was enough.

“I was praying to my goddess,” the suearis said slowly. 

The priest scoffed, composing himself. “Pffft, you animals have a god? Some goddess then to lord over stinking beasts that defecate and urinate all over.” 

“Do you not do either? I thought humans did, too, like us, or else where does all the waste go? Does it stay in your brain?”

The priest pressed the knife on the suearis’ throat.

“You can’t compare us to the likes of you,” said the priest venomously.

“We are both people,” the suearis retaliated. “We all bleed red, is that not enough proof that we are the same? Our gods may even be the same god.”

“How dare you!”

“HOW DARE YOU!” The suearis bellowed and the priest recoiled, thinking to avoid another bite. The denizens of the cave were startled. Forti’s heart never felt more elated, and more fearful for the suearis’ life, than this moment.

“If your god is as grand and glorious as you say he is, then why does he need you to attack the people who don’t believe in him?”

The man in religious robes, Forti, Mir. Bargel, everyone was speechless.

“My goddess, Lyetasii, was once a jealous god. But She loves us. She loves Her children, Her people. You. Me. All of us. We are Her people, and She forgives us even if we believe in another or come from other wombs across space and time. And my Pahthian friends have said their god, your Pahth, is the same. He loves and forgives all. Maybe we believe in the same being, just by different names. That is what I thought. But I was mistaken. My goddess would never order Her people to hurt others. 

“And it was your people who came to my homeworld! Your people used the Opal to conquer and destroy! My great grandparents had to run from their homes, and died before they could return. And their children, my parents, were forced to go back to a world they barely recognized. I came here for a better life because you people ruined all life that could have been had there! I did not ask for your world to take responsibility and give me compensation. No, I earned my education, and I worked for my job. Nothing you can offer would ever atone anyways!”

The fervid suearis remembered to breathe. His energy was fizzling out rapidly, but weariness couldn’t extinguish wrath passed down from generation to generation, fueled further by his own plight. With his remaining strength, he cried an anathema that shook the walls of the cave and the resolve of every being inside.

“Lyetasii will bring down retribution on you all! And if not by her hands, THEN YOUR OWN GOD WILL!” 

Soundless as a dead crew on a ship in the doldrums, the people mindlessly blinked and faintly breathed. They were incensed. They wanted to fight, to argue, to retaliate and scream, but their throats were squeezed shut. The knife felt bulky in the false priest’s hands, like a child wielding in their small fingers something they shouldn’t. He swallowed, but his dry tongue clogged his mouth, and he wiped his forehead with the back of the hand that held the blade. He blamed the harsh spotlights for his discomfort, his paleness, even his apprehension. He didn’t know what to say, what sermon to give, or what to do. Forti wasn’t certain either, but she hoped they would untie the man from the cross now.

“We are the chosen people,” a grating voice declared very close to Forti. Her heart sank, and she, like everyone in the cave, turned to Rula Bargel.

“We were blessed with superior intelligence and a superior world, all by a superior god. To our almighty Pahth, your goddess is nothing.” He walked forward and the people parted. He headed for the empty space between the cross and the crowd.

“Humans are the ones who created the Opal and traveled between dimensions. Not ichthyians, not suearis, not volators. Once fiction, now reality, all because of us. And then we came across your world. In exchange for exploration and peace, we shared our technology, our advancements, the word of Pahth, but you freaks took advantage like monkeys given guns. No wonder all of you still have your animal ears and tails. You’re all nothing but a bunch of rabid and ungrateful savages! 

“It was you who attacked first and caused the ensuing wars! You animals stole our weapons and massacred us! And then you have the insolence to try to take our world because of what you brought upon yourself? Don’t blame us for your stupid barbarity. We aren’t the ones to receive retribution. We ARE the retribution, to be given to you! To all suearis!”

The young spectators cheered as if their country won a battle, regaining their zealotry, pouring praise on their savior and vitriol on the wicked creature that had hexed them in such an awful and uncomfortable mood. Like a dam split open, the crescendo of exultation and relief burst out and flooded the cave. Rula reveled in the pious ovation, warmed by the luminosity overhead like sunlight beaming down through storm clouds. The priest snatched the remaining ear more fiercely than before, enjoying the suearis’ wince, and Forti was left alone in the fringes to hear, for a second time, a man’s petrifying lament.