The Heavens Shall Fall

It was past midnight already, but nobody looked tired or counted the hours that had already passed by. The disciples' conversations were still ongoing, maybe even a bit louder than before, laughing more now that the drinks everyone had access to were starting to take effect, loosening everyone's tongues. Some of them may even have had a thought that this party should pick up some intensity and continue for way longer than whatever Siu had intended. Of course, they hadn't voiced their ideas... yet.

It was these people who also noticed the change, too, how Siu was stepping away from the table he had finally been allowed to sit at. Then... they caught that the Wardens began moving too; clearly, something was happening. Watching him, the way he walked... they could read that something was about to happen. Someone from another group nudged the person next to them, and another turned their head, and another… until, one by one, everyone was looking at him, trying to see what was up.

Did Stone Ward finally show up? Yet no matter how they all tried to find anyone from their ranks, leaning their necks, trying to catch them, nobody could see them. Not to mention, Bren, he would have stood out the moment he got close.

In the end, Siu stopped where everyone could see him clearly, stood up on one of the tables, and waved a hand, and people began looking at him intently. As if he were a conductor, Arya leaped from her table and landed lightly on his shoulder, her tail grabbing onto Siu's neck, and... He almost laughed out, because he could see how full she looked, her belly bulging... No wonder she didn't make it up to the top of his head and needed to use her tail to hold still. A moment later, Marly followed suit, gliding and landing on his other shoulder with a thud, her cheeks bulging, her mouth just as full as her belly. If she opened her mouth... Siu was sure that many things would start falling out of it.

"Had enough?"

"No!" The two answered, but it was through a massive belch coming from Arya that echoed loudly and made everyone laugh, causing Siu to just shake his head.

He stood there for a moment, letting the last of the laughs die down on their own, his gaze moving slowly across the gathered disciples. Even he was surprised at their numbers... Hundreds of them. He remembered his first time in a sect as a small child. There was nothing even close to anything like this in that place. It was... more of a place made of only Brens... Maybe it was only him who saw it that way, and maybe it was because of how they looked at him after years and years of 'failures.' He couldn't tell, but the present moment still made him smile, because his current experiences, despite some setbacks, were... much more lively. Putting his thoughts away, he exhaled softly, his voice carrying over everyone else's murmurs when he spoke up.

“Seems like everyone’s enjoying themselves.”

A new set of chuckles answered him as many of their heads nodded. He even heard Kae'Lin's shout coming from somewhere to his right.

"We need more wine, though! But it's fun!"

“That’s good,” he continued, waving a hand towards her, “That was the point. I mean, having fun, not the getting drunk part! But, before we crack open another barrel and continue, I need your attention for something important. You do remember... I did say that everyone was invited. As you just heard, Ember Circle came,” he went on, his eyes scanning their group with a smile, nodding at Cal'Fia and Tian, before turning towards the opposite direction, “smaller groups had also come… people without groups came, too.” His smile widened, nodding once again at the different groups. “Even those who weren’t sure why they were coming… came.”

"For the food!" Someone shouted, which, once again, earned some laughs, and Siu let it play out fully.

"Then I hope you really liked it! Well... No matter why you came, I am happy you are all here. We are disciples of the same sect after all. Yet, I need to address something important... That some, whom I personally invited, didn’t arrive.” Even without dropping their name, their clamor told enough that they understood what, or who he meant, “I won’t dwell on that,” He added, “They made their choice. Even if it is disappointing to see...”

"Cowards!" Someone yelled, and Siu didn't shoot the voice down or refute the accusation; instead, he just smiled.

“I gave them a chance. It was not my intention to make them bow or to make them submit to me, believe me when I tell you this. As I have been saying... We are disciples. I just wanted to end things properly.” His gaze swept across the crowd again, ignoring Arya's chortle in his ears, but even she felt that what Siu was saying had his beliefs ingrained into it. It was why it sounded so convincing for everyone else, too. “We’re in the same sect, yes, we fight, and we constantly compete, and that’s fine. That’s how we grow. That is why no Elders step in to stop it. But dragging things out?” he stopped, looking over everybody present. “Acting like one group owns the rest? Like one man stands above everyone else here? What does Bren think he is? An Elder?”

When he asked that question, unintentionally, a faint scoff left his lips, which soon made everyone else start to talk, yell, and nudge the others beside them, agreeing with him.

"Elder? Him?!" Someone laughed sarcastically.

"He is not even someone who broke through to be an inner disciple! He is just a brute!"

"A bully at best!"

“That’s not how this works! Bren and Stone Ward went too far!”

The yells kept growing, right until Siu once again waved his hands, silencing the crowd.

“We already have something above us,” He continued, sweeping them with his eye, “and it's called The Hollow Song Sect. We don't need Stone Ward, as we didn't sign up to be part of them... Or am I wrong?”

"Of course not!" A voice yelled, again, and Siu was sure it came from Lorean... Which surprised him for a moment, but he knew why she said it, because that alone caused everyone to immediately yell the same thing, starting to agree with everything he was saying.

“We’re disciples of the sect,” he went on, raising his voice so they could hear him. “Not disciples of Bren Tarr. It seems like they think we are beneath them... Well. We. Are. Not! We’re equals here,” Siu said simply, yet his voice was stronger than ever. “Every single one of us. Ember Circle? Spirit Wardens? We are just disciples within the Hollow Song, and we are not the authority; we can't command each other, because we are all just disciples!” Then, he smiled, but his eyes did not, and everyone could see that, “And if someone forgets that? Then it’s up to the rest of us to remind them.”

He couldn't tell who started it, but someone began clapping, which soon spread to everyone, giving him applause that lasted for multiple minutes before finally dying down. Siu let the silence sit for a few breaths before he continued, in a much softer, mellow voice.

"We can argue, we can disagree, and we can settle it like proper disciples. But we can't start and dictate the rules over each other, because none of us are Elders... Don't forget that, not now and not in the future. Bren can't tell you what to do, and neither can I, so..." He chuckled, clapping once, “That’s enough about that,” he said, dismissing the topic just like that, leaving the conclusions up to everyone else. “This isn’t a war council.” A few chuckles echoed when he said that, easing the tension again. “This is still a celebration. Which brings me to something else.”

Now, the attention returned fully to him again, because many of them thought it was finally about the recruitment into the Wardens.

“Spirit Wardens,” Siu began, glancing toward his group, “As I said before, we are going to evolve. From tomorrow onward, we’re tightening things inside. The current members, who have stayed and seen us through it all, will keep their subscriptions at the initial rate, but anyone new wanting to join will have to pay the new pricing. As for what it will be, it will all be posted by the morning in our tower.”

"..." Not many knew how to react to... that. Many weren't even used to the idea that a group was asking its members to pay to be in it. Siu knew this too, so he simply continued, ignoring their slight confusion.

“Next, I want to grab the opportunity to recognize the actions of a few key members. Some of you have earned... rewards.” He said pretty mysteriously, as he looked towards the Wardens, “Kira, and Varren. Please, come forward and stand before me.”

Everyone watched as the two walked forward, and, naturally, Kira was recognized as the girl who 'injured' Siu, but Varren was... not as well-known yet.

"Who is the guy?" Someone asked, but nobody could answer him because Siu was already speaking.

“From today on,” he said clearly, “both of you are core members of the Spirit Wardens. There is nothing else I could reward you with for what you did for the group.”

Kira blinked at first, then straightened, her expression shifting rapidly between surprise and pride. Varren, on the other hand, froze for a fraction of a second before lowering his head slightly, doing his best to hide his tears, before raising his head again, grinning, becoming just as straight as Kira.

“They earned it,” Siu added simply, looking towards the crowd, without much of an explanation. “And…” his tone shifted again, cooling slightly, surprising everyone, “some didn’t.”

"Oh...?" Someone exclaimed, unsure what that meant.

“Baun,” Siu called, adding the rest of the Stone Ward spies' names to the list, watching them step forward from within the crowd, while the man's expression already filled with fear of what was coming next. “You’re out.” He said simply, pointing towards the edge of the clearing, “You’re no longer part of the Spirit Wardens. Take this feast as our goodbye gift. Now... Please leave."

“What?!” Baun’s voice came out strained, utterly disbelieving, and then shifted to be enraged. “You’re joking, right?!”

“No.” He said simply, staring down at him with cold, blue eyes that were strangely bright against the backdrop of the burning bonfire, “You came in as spies.” Siu continued, not raising his voice or changing his tone, but it wiped out the heat from the fire, “I have waited enough for you to come clean... neither of you did.”

“You what—?” someone whispered, and before Baun could say anything, Siu continued, still watching them without blinking.

“I knew, from the start. I didn’t remove you immediately because I didn’t need to. I didn't fear Stone Ward and their lackeys then; I don't fear them now, and I will never fear them in the future either. I was giving you a chance to change sides, to grab the chance for freedom... none of you did.”

"You—!" Baun’s face twisted, trying to say too many words at once, failing to press out anything else besides that one word.

"Why are you still here? You’re free to go,” Siu said, dismissing him with a small gesture. “There is no punishment. Just... go already. You are no longer welcome here."

“You think this makes you look good?!” Baun suddenly snapped at him, his voice shaking, both desperation and his newfound hatred bleeding through his tone, “You think you are exposing... Me?! You think you... CAN SEE EVERYTHING?!” His finger shot out, pointing straight at Varren as he kept yelling, “Then what about him?! Varren IS the biggest spy here!”

The crowd exploded the moment his accusation was yelled out.

“What?!”

“No way!”

It was the Spirit Wardens who shouted back first, but then other voices asked whether it could be true, excited to see such fine entertainment.

“Is that true...?”

By then, all eyes snapped toward Varren... then back at Siu, and they watched as he smiled, nodding his head.

“I know.” He said evenly, suddenly making Baun falter.

“Wha… What?” he stuttered.

“I said,” Siu repeated calmly, “I know. Unlike you, he came to me,” he continued, his voice stabbing at Baun's eardrums. “The first time he joined.” As he kept speaking, Varren’s fingers tightened slightly at his sides, yet his face was never before so satisfied... so... proud... and relieved. “He told me everything, what he was doing, why he was doing it, and most importantly... He asked for our help.”

By then, everyone was looking back and forth between Siu, Varren, and Baun, seeing the latter as an extension of Stone Ward, of Bren. Turns out... they did come, just not as anyone else had expected them to.

“He had debts,” Siu went on after a brief pause, looking at the crowd, “I guess many of you know how that feels. So..." He glanced at Varren, nodding at him like a friend, "We helped him.”

“You’re... This is—!” Baun gasped, trying to speak, but he was almost hyperventilating by now.

“He did what the rest of you failed to do,” Siu cut him off, his tone finally carrying a faint edge as all the Wardens now surrounded the exposed spies. “He’s not anyone’s tool. He’s free, and you could have been too."

“This is bullshit!” Baun groaned, his voice very much hollow now, before finally turning away, pushing through the crowd without another word. He didn't want to risk it... and get thrown out.

No one stopped him or any of the others; they simply parted, but only enough to let him go through, giving them multiple aggressive shoulder-bumps on the way out.

“That’s all,” Siu said the moment the spies had disappeared into the night, his tone easing again. “Well! We should get back to enjoying ourselves and celebrate! Who knows how to make some music? This is a party, is it not?!”

It was the first time anyone had seen him act like that, and true enough... Soon, someone, somewhere, got an instrument out, and the wish that so many disciples had had an hour before was granted... as the party had resumed, being even more lively than it was before.