‘Maker!’ Seteal cried when Seeol bounced off the glass and hit the floorboards. She scooped him up and was relieved to find him shocked but otherwise unharmed.
‘What happened?’ the bird asked.
‘It’s a window.’ El-i-miir strode across the room and tapped on the translucent material.
‘Right,’ Seeol shook his head, feeling somewhat embarrassed. ‘Can open it?’
‘Oh, I don’t know.’ El-i-miir frowned.
‘Could we try and see?’
‘I meant . . . I don’t know if we should,’ El-i-miir explained.
‘Why?’
‘Oh, go on,’ Seteal urged. ‘He’s been fine every other night.’
‘That’s true,’ El-i-miir nodded, ‘but until now we’ve been in the middle of nowhere. What if it happens here in the city?’
‘I is hungry,’ Seeol pleaded. ‘I’ll be good.’
‘We can’t very well let him starve,’ Seteal said with finality. She snatched at the handle and pushed the window open. ‘Just be careful to take note of where you’re going so that you’ll be able to find your way back.’
‘I will.’ Seeol tilted his head, golden eyes glowing with appreciation before he opened his wings and disappeared into the night.
‘Do you know where Far-a-mael is?’ Seteal asked as El-i-miir sat down on the bed, an expression of preoccupation on her face. ‘El-i-miir?’
‘What?’ She turned abruptly, but avoided eye-contact. ‘I think he’s gone for supper.’ She waved her hand dismissively.
‘Are you all right?’ Seteal asked, unnerved by the contortion of El-i-miir’s features.
‘No I--’ She cut off, doubled over, and gasped loudly. ‘Oh, Maker.’ She raised her eyes, chin quivering. ‘Seeol!’ El-i-miir raced across the room and leaned out the window.
Seteal rushed over in time to see a monstrous figure erupt out of thin air. City folk screamed and ran in terror as the winged beast swooped over them, snapping its mandibles and scratching out with sharp talons. The events taking place soon became too horrible to bear and yet Seteal found herself quite unable to move, transfixed by the devastation below.
The monster that was Seeol spotted a small girl in a frilly pink dress. The child had lost her parents in the pandemonium and would make an easy target. She ran and cried. Seeol banked toward her. She screamed and wailed. Seeol raked his talons forward. She died. Only when Seteal felt the pain in her throat did she realise she’d been screaming. She didn’t care. She couldn’t stop. She watched in dismay as Seeol tore the child to pieces before rolling about, bathing his feathers in her blood. He enjoyed it.
What have I done? The panicked thought invaded Seteal’s mind.
People abandoned their stalls and began to run in terror, before spewing out onto the street and continuing their journey. Seteal put a hand to her throat as she watched Seeol picking off the stragglers one by one. He landed heavily to loom over a disfigured man in a hooded coat, but a woman running along the roadside armed with nothing but a shovel stole his attention.
‘My daughter,’ she howled. ‘Mary!’ Seeol snatch her from the roadside and flung her into the air. The woman screamed until she hit the earth many strides away, her body split and twisted.
The creature beat his wings and launched himself into the air in pursuit of the crowd, whilst Seteal watched on from the safety of her window. She couldn’t bear it, couldn’t watch. It had to stop. It had to. She fell to the floor sobbing.
This is my fault, Seteal thought bitterly. It was her fault and she couldn’t let it continue. She refused. She turned her focus to the Ways. Seteal’s vision doubled, momentarily splitting everything in two. The room vibrated and the air rattled out of her lungs. Her knees buckled.
‘Seteal!’ El-i-miir cried, her face filling her vision.
‘I can’t--’ Seteal began to reply, but thereafter her lips refused to function. The entire world shuddered and then exploded with blinding light. Seteal twisted sideways and the room plummeted away from her. Her body toppled to the flooring and she fell disembodied into the sky.
Seteal had fallen unconscious. She knew that she was in shock because she could still feel the floorboards beneath her head. In her dream, she found Seeol, where the beast was doings its best to destroy the city and everyone in it. She pleaded with her imaginary Seeol. She begged him to stop. But she was only dreaming. There was nothing she could do.
Please Seeol! she cried desperately. Stop!
Having dropped the man he’d been about to tear, Seeol turned to stare at Seteal, or stare through her, given the fact that she had no body.
With a loud shriek, Seeol tumbled into himself, his various parts shrinking back down to their ordinary proportions. The bird’s face became a picture of horror as he tried and failed to shake the blood from his feathers. He leapt into the air and faded into the long shadows of late afternoon.
Seteal opened her eyes for the slightest moment and smiled. Seeol had stopped. It was finally over.