With scraping talons, Seraphimus came to a stop beside a series of moldy mattresses. She lifted her silver helmet off her head, sighed, and held the item in her grasp. She examined it coolly with charcoal brown eyes as she spoke.
“I know you're a wise griffon, Lieutenant,” Seraphimus said. “Foolhardy, perhaps, but wise. So it would be redundant—if not absurd—to suggest that your mind is capable of terrible lapses in memory.”
“You have my agreement, whole-heartedly,” Keris said.
“Hmmmm... 'whole-heartedly.' There is a great deal of heart in that, Lieutenant. Tell me...” She pivoted her head sideways to peer at him, hawkeye leering. “Which have you been listening to as of late? The heart? Or the mind?”
Keris leaned his battered body against an empty oil drum. He sighed, his voice rolling quietly across the dim chamber. “In all that I've done, and in all of the decisions that I've made, I've relied on the wordless wisdom of our Goddess Verlaxion. Whether She chooses to speak to our minds or our spirits, that is up to Her divine will.”
Seraphimus squinted. “Then you mean to suggest that the Goddess Verlaxion has been deliberately instructing you to disobey my command?”
“No, Commander.”
“Do you or do you not acknowledge that I—as commanding officer of the Right Talon of Verlaxion—represent the wisdom and righteous judgment imbued in me by our Goddess and the Council in Her charge?”
“I do acknowledge it, Commander—”
“Then why have you openly defied me?!” Seraphimus' growling tone rolled off the rusted bulkheads. A spark or two flew from her talons as she pivoted—scraping—to face him with an iron glare. “Why did you allow the power struggle of the Barges to take precedent over my explicitly charged directions to seek out and subdue the Rainbow Rogue?!”
Keris took a deep breath, facing forward. “I conducted the investigation as ordered, Commander. My search brought me here—upon which I suffered injuries that made it physically impossible to properly arrest the Rainbow Rogue—”
“Polish your tongue before you use it to fling such filth at me.” Seraphimus crossed the distance between them on thundering paws. She stared him down, beak to beak. “Such an excuse might work on Sergeant Windburst or Starstorm or the lowly rookie. But I know you, Keris.” She took a seething breath, feathers rustling. “I gave you the mission to investigate the Quade because you are the most resourceful and wise among us. But—for some damnable reason—you are also the most stubborn and fickle guardian I've ever served with. However, when the Council chose—by Verlaxion's insight—to pursue the tragedy at the Quade, I assigned the task to you. I did this in good faith, Lieutenant. We live in a time wrought by terrorism inside Rohbredden and abroad. Our numbers are spread thin and I simply cannot afford to put such random tasks into the talons of a less-capable griffon.”
Keris gulped, staring ahead. “Commander—”
“I am not finished!” Her voice echoed like a gunshot across the chamber, echoing in the Lieutenant's ears. After a deep breath, she murmured: “You have served our kingdom for a long, long time. And yet, for all of your wisdom and fortitude, you never achieved the rank of Commander of the Right Talon. Now why do you think that is, Lieutenant?”
Keris' beak opened slightly, but he hesitated. At last, he stammered, “Do you wish me to be honest, Commander?”
She snorted. “I would expect no less from you, Keris.”
He exhaled. “The Council is wary of my skills in judgment. They see in me a soldier who is highly talented in the art of combat and diplomacy, but...”
“But what?”
He gulped. “...I have always displayed... inattentiveness in matters of spiritual intuition.”
“You choose your own interpretations of Verlaxion's commands, Keris,” Seraphimus said. “I understand that versatility in the field requires a certain degree of improvisation, but you have to keep in mind...” She paced around him. “There is no wisdom greater than Verlaxion's. The Council speaks for her. And—by proxy—so do I. When I was a young hatchling, I did not expect to someday hold such a lofty position... to be the leader of the Right Talon of Verlaxion. But—be it destiny or divine will—this task was thrust upon me. I've no choice but to do it just as thousands of guardians from countless roosts have performed it before me—in complete and faithful subservience to the Goddess of Thawing.”
She turned about, facing him across the rusted habitat.
“To perform our tasks outside of the Will of Verlaxion is counter-intuitive in preserving harmony for Rohbredden. It's dangerous. Self-destructive. Entire legions of the Talon have died by making the horrible mistake of defying Her will as expressed by the Council.” She pointed at Keris' bandages and sling. “Look at what such defiance has done to you.”
Keris clutched his other shoulder, shuddering. “There were ponies suffering, Commander—”
“There are always ponies suffering, Lieutenant.” She strolled towards him. “Especially out here... floating among the muck and filth of godlessness. Who caused this suffering to happen if not these very ponies themselves?” Seraphimus took a deep breath. “Scholars and philosophers have pondered through the ages precisely why our Goddess has chosen the Continentalists of Rohbredden to receive Her holy blessings. Well, such writers were never soldiers in the field. I've seen first-hand the kind of filth and destitution that befalls the tribes who choose—however foolishly—to live outside of Verlaxion's good graces.” She pointed one claw after another. “Cannibalistic midnighters—clinging to pagan rituals on the edge of the world. Apostate colonialists—fornicating and wasting their breaths along the fringes of the Blight. Pirates and privateers—enslaving and exploiting each other across the forsaken seas.” Her eyes narrowed. “At long last, you've seen the misery of the seven seas for yourself, Lieutenant. Can you now deny the depths to which these putrid souls have driven themselves?”
“I have seen misery, yes.” Keris pivoted his head to face her directly. “Do you know where we are standing at present, Commander?”
She blinked at him. With a disgruntled sigh, Seraphimus leaned back, rubbing her eyes. Nevertheless... after a few dull seconds, she murmured, “Do fill me in, Lieutenant.”
He waved his good talon at the rusted scenery. “This was once an orphanage. And by that, I don't mean a well-to-do foster home for needy foals... but a slave pit where children were forced to waste away in cold starvation.” He rapped his knuckles against the rusted barrel next to him. “They would burn pungent refuse here to warm themselves, night and day.” He pointed at a partially collapsed bunkbed. “Emaciated waifs slept, stacked on top of one another—like living lumber. Anything to keep warm.” He pivoted, nodding his beak towards the far corner of the room. “Just this morning, before you arrived, Elsaack and I came down here with a group of locals and... scooped up the dried-out corpses of fillies and colts who had perished in their sleep. They had long-decayed and their flesh reeked of deathstench... and yet the other orphans kept them there... rather than let them be tossed by Skagra's dredgers into the cesspool above deck. That way—they felt—the souls of their ill-fated friends would still hold a chance to join the dead drifts... and find their way to the Spring Havens.”
Seraphimus' eyes narrowed.
Keris saw it—expected it. “Does that surprise you? That the children of godless heathens would hold the most precious... most ardent faith in our great Deliverer?” He swept a talon through the air. “There are prayers hidden across the purgatorial lengths of this domain... etched into the walls... hidden in little scrolls behind bulkheads. Entire, fragile generations of children lived and died in here, praying to Verlaxion for deliverance. And when I found myself thrown into the dank brig of this place—broken and battered—it was one of these very same children who came to my aid... who rescued me... empowered by the generosity and kindness of the Goddess herself.”
“You were fortunate,” Seraphimus said. “You must still have a function in Her divine plan.”
“Not a day goes by when I don't think of that.” Keris took a deep breath, readying himself for the weight of what he was about to deliver next. “Nor does a second go by when I don't ponder... the plan that the Rainbow Rogue has.”
Seraphimus' headcrest lifted at that.
Keris continued, “She is... more than a mere pony, Commander. She is... a force... benevolent? Malevolent?” He shook his head. “Rather, I don't believe it is one pole or the other. It is something far more complex... something nebulous... something that no living guardian of the Talon has ever encountered before.”
“You mean to suggest that a morally gray creature was responsible for the holocaust in the Quade?”
“She does not deny what she did in the Quade.”
“Then you should have followed through with your orders,” Seraphimus said bluntly. “And committed every bit of energy to subduing her.”
“And even if I could have done that and succeeded, Commander...” Keris waved a talon. “...what would have become of the Barges? This very room could still be filled with suffering... with needless death of hundreds of souls still loyal to Verlaxion—even in spite of their misery.”
“You're right, Keris,” Seraphimus said with a nod. “Hundreds of muck-born creatures may have been suffering... dying. But instead, now that the Rainbow Rogue is free, she stands to threaten the livelihood of thousands... millions of holy citizens living all across Rohbredden. From the west coast to the edge of midnight.”
Keris gulped. “C-Commander—”
“You said it yourself, Lieutenant,” Seraphimus droned. “This Rainbow Rogue... this monster from beyond the blight is an unprecedented, 'nebulous' source of power. Such dark magic should not be trifled with. Bit now that she's escaped the boundaries of Red Barge... who can possibly... feasibly predict what she might be capable of?!”
Keris clenched his beak shut. Exhaling, he hung his head.
Seraphimus gazed towards the sun-lit entrance. With a sigh, she shuffled forward, then rested a talon on his good shoulder. “The Council is waiting in great anticipation for a report from the Right Talon—to explain what we've found in the Quade and beyond. It goes without saying that... they will not appreciate hearing what's transpired here, Lieutenant.”
“I understand, Commander.”
“And for that very same reason, you know that I cannot condone the fact that you aided the enemy, even in the least.”
“Yes, Commander.”
“And yet... at the same time...” Seraphimus leaned back. “They do not know you like I do. It... takes an experienced guardian to understand the tenuous balance between hunting and protecting. While what you did here was far from perfect...” She clenched and unclenched her beak. “...it was performed with the best interests of the immediate citizenry in mind.” She muttered, “Godless or not.”
Keris looked up.
“In addition, what you've observed here—in the presence of the Rainbow Rogue—will be priceless in the inevitable act of subduing her. Which—as you can well guess—we are now collectively charged with doing.”
Keris gulped. “I understand fully, Commander.”
“I need more than your understanding, Lieutenant,” Seraphimus said, eyes leering.
Keris blinked. Then, his magenta eyes twitched. Wincing—fighting the pain in his battered limbs—he nevertheless bowed low on one feline knee. He raised his good talon up, struggling.
Seraphimus met him halfway, placing her claws in his tender grip.
He leaned forward, pressing his beak to her limb. Kissing it.
“I am the Right Talon of Verlaxion,” Seraphimus quoted.
“And... I am y-your Claw,” Keris said raspily.
Seraphimus nodded. She leaned forward, helping him gently up into a standing position. However, the gesture didn't end there. As she exhaled, her claws lingered on his shoulders. She looked past his headcrest.
Keris blinked. Her feathers were close. At a glance, it almost resembled a hug. “... … ...Commander?”
“There are so... so very few of us left, Lieutenant,” she murmured quietly. “The righteous.” A gulp. “We lost Jordan to a fit of godless foolishness.”
Keris winced.
“I... would be remiss to lose you as well,” Seraphimus calmly said. “There is much... much strife in the Continent. Our enemies are invisible, and the presence of the Rainbow Rogue in our land does not bode well for a fragile kingdom.” She leaned back, staring him squarely in the face. “The Month of Thawing is almost upon us. I need you to be wise... to be strong... and—above all—to be faithful. Can I rely on you, Lieutenant?”
Keris slowly... slowly nodded. “You can rely on me, Commander.”
“Defy my orders again—no matter how benevolent the motivations may be—and I will have you stripped of all your rank and armor.” Her charcoal eyes glinted. “Do you understand me?”
Keris stood up straight, his feathers cresting back. “I understand you, Commander. You have my allegiance.”
“Indeed I do.” Seraphimus stepped back. “Rest. Mend. Once I have made a proper assessment of the situation here, I shall appropriate all tasks of restoration to Elsaack of White Barge. And then...”
“...we set out for the Rainbow Rogue?”
She nodded. “The hunt resumes. I will leave the briefing of the Sergeants to you. This can be accomplished while we take wing to make time.” She made to walk away, but lingered. Turning, she squinted at him once more. “I... trust that you will leave out no details concerning the monster's strengths and weaknesses.”
He gulped, then nodded back. “None whatsoever, Commander.”
“Mmmmm...” She placed her helmet on, pivoted about, and exited the shadowed stench of death.
Keris stood behind, meditating on the rust and detritus.