Eyes in Darkness

by RangerOfRhudaur

Epilogue: The Stylite

"The fools, they've doomed us all."

He paced his cell, strides heavy with ire. Not at the disbelief in his keeper's eyes when he'd asked to see Captain Armor, nor at the sneer on their face when they'd countered with an offer to speak to a messenger, he knew those were half his curse's delusions. No, what so enraged him was how nonchalantly his keeper had doomed their world, how they'd let the armies of death enter with less than a shrug. Yes, he might've been delusional about his "urgent" message, but that logically meant that he might not have been, and even a chance at receiving a warning dubbed "urgent" should've warranted more than a desultory attempt at forcing him through bureaucracy. Loathe as he was to allow any unnecessary individuals the opportunity to meddle, he would've been willing to accept speaking to a messenger like his keeper's words had offered, provided they would truly bear Captain Armor his message instead of simply listening in an attempt to calm a madman down. But his keeper's words had not matched what he knew they were planning, they would only provide him with the latter, and so his warning remained trapped here, locked in his cell.

He picked up the newspaper again, reading once more its tidings of doom:

RATS IN A TRAP: ROYAL GUARD CLOSING IN ON UNMARKED IN HOLLOW SHADES

"It is a trap, you idiots," he growled as he crumpled the paper with an iron grip. "Starlight showed us that she knows to pick where you fight, or at least deny your enemy that choice. She chose Hollow Shades, she wants us to fight her there. Armor's marching right into a trap..."

Radiant, insufferably radiant, Celestia appeared before his eyes, an angel of justice with a ceaseless scourge in her hand. Even now, she glared at him as if he were a demon, thinking that the sweat of his students was actually their tears, or that his possessiveness over his treasure was greed instead of adoration. Her triumph over mad old Provost Discord had filled her with a zealot's fire and a knight's conviction, turning her into a crusader against injustice wherever she thought she saw it, heedless of prudence or jurisdiction. Her self-righteous criticisms had been the unknowing hammer on Cinch's anvil, scourging him for what she'd judged as his misdeeds until he broke under the lash.

And yet, for all that, he knew she was still an angel. Even in his darkest hour, he'd known that, known that she was a different kind of foe than Angon or Cinch. Where he'd closed his heart to the latter two's lies and misleadings, he'd kept himself open to Celestia's naive, imprudent judgements; whatever her faults, he knew she wouldn't lie to him. And, of course, he wouldn't have been willing to trust anyone less than an angel with his treasure; even Stygian, for all his qualifications, wasn't worthy of keeping his treasure safe. But when the courts had sent him here, he'd trusted his treasure to Celestia's care, a trust that his treasure's testimony said was well-placed, and if he couldn't trust his treasure, who could he trust?

And so he wept, for a realm condemned, for a fool marching to his doom, and for an angel dead. "Armor is marching into a trap, and Majesty will be the first blow."

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Alas, poor Sombra, always defined by the darkness within and how he handles it. We'll see if his dread prediction holds true. I imagine the unquiet dead may throw off those calculations. If nothing else, there are definitely some variables Starlight didn't account for. Shining may surprise all of them... though I doubt it will as clean as the guard claims.