Broken Chains

“Fight or flight?”

It seemed like an intuitive question at first, but as Puck opened his mouth to answer, he felt Scarlet’s eyes drilling into him with great intensity. No, this question might have an intuitive component, but it was far from simple. Deciding to take his time, Puck signaled for Scarlet to wait a moment.

Just what kind of freedom was he seeking? It had all seemed so clear in that one moment when he had connected to his ideal of freedom. But now, it felt less so. Did he want to fight? Was that part of his vision?

Both yes and no. In that vision, he broke all the chains that held him down, but did this darkness hold him down? Surely there was another way to the surface of the eternal ice. Mulling things over, Puck tried to feel for that ethereal sense of the ideal of freedom and more specifically the ideal of wind he had connected with.

From his sense of freedom, Puck got the feeling that he should go against all that restricted him, and as such, it was up to him to determine if he was restricted. The wind even leaned toward the idea that if one way was restricted, it would simply take another path instead of fighting. If it were only up to these two influences, Puck might have chosen flight over fight, but this freedom still wasn’t his personal freedom, and as such, it didn’t mirror his own thoughts.

And among his own thoughts, there was no way he was fleeing. Wasn’t that exactly the creed he started to live by the moment he decided to fight back against his oppressors the first time around? That he would never cover again?

In his kind freedom, he would fight any opposition without covering.

Trying to impress this decision upon the ideals of freedom and wind in his mind and soul, Puck first got a feeling of resistance against change, but then finally acceptance. He felt something shift as his ideals changed their form and nature to fit him better. The still elusive freedom now truly seemed to include fighting all resistance, while it seemed like the wind had become less controlled and more destructive.

Trying to summon a small gust again, Puck felt less exhaustion creep in than before while a turbulent gust swept through his clothes. Feeling a little wonder over his own advancement, Puck decided to sit still a moment longer to think.

Apparently deciding to make itself noticed in that moment, Puck felt Zephyrian creating a bridge for communication. The thoughts committed through that connection were both a kind of relief that Puck hadn’t chosen to flee and an iron conviction in the need for honor above all else.

Zephyrian still often seemed to try to connect to lost pieces of his past, but one thing remained clear, even though Zephyrian hadn’t necessarily cared about good and bad, he had cared about honor.

Deciding to add something to this honor, Puck added the belief not only to fight for his own freedom but also for the freedom of others. Feeling like everything was settled, Puck sat there for another ten minutes in an unprecedented unity with his own thoughts, the ideals he had only so recently acquired, and Zephyrian.

Sometime later, he felt like it was time as he slowly stood up and summoned Zephyrian back out of his soul. Reading his intention, Scarlet too pulled out a weapon, or better said, weapons. For some reason, Puck had believed that Scarlet was also a sword fighter, but it seemed as if that wasn’t quite right. The two weapons she took out were two axes that loosely resembled those the Gremlins used for building purposes. They had a much longer edges, though, and were made of some kind of metal that gleamed in the darkness.

Noticing emotions through his connection to Zephyrian, Puck felt like Zephyrian both wanted to clash against those weapons to show his superiority and at the same time admired them for their beauty.

Puck, not really caring about that, already wanted to rush forward towards the unknown enemy before Zephyrian also started urge Puck on because he wanted to show his prowess to the “she weapons”.

Then Scarlet stepped in their way with a disappointed look on her face.

Sinking together a little, Puck felt like he was one of the small Gremlin children as Scarlet scolded him for wanting to rush into a battle without even knowing who his enemies were and where they were located. Puck, though, wasn’t the only one who got scolded. Scarlet also turned directly towards Zephyrian.

“As far as I can discern, you’re a completely sentient weapon spirit. Do I need to start assuming that you’re also a stupid one?”

Feeling something like crushed pride and shame from Zephyrian, Puck conveyed them to Scarlet before she ranted on. Now talking to Puck.

“By my own estimates, you have stumbled onto a weapon that once nearly knew no rival. But make no mistake. Time can blunt any edge, whether mind, spirit, or body. Zephyrian likely has been alone so long that he has lost nearly everything that once defined him, so act as such and don’t depend on him.”

Getting a true feeling of hurt and loss from Zephyrian this time, Puck instinctively wanted to protect his comrade and started to get angry on his behalf. Scarlet, though, already went on lecturing his sword directly again.

“Zephyrian, don’t let that stop you from trying to use your buried knowledge in the fights to come. You have likely fought more battles than Puck can count. Even if you start to remember more and try to help Puck, don’t become a crutch that stops him from learning himself and holds him back.”

Feeling Zephyrian still hurt from the memories of eons of loneliness that surfaced, Puck also tried to stroke Zephyrian’s ego as he transmitted his own feelings on the matter and how he had felt wielding Zephyrian in their last fight against Karak. All the while, Scarlet just talked on and on.

They started by going over the basics of how to act in a real fight and what to do when Scarlet gave him this or that signal. Then they went over the attributes of a heart of darkness, their minions, all the ways they could kill you and how to defeat them.

It just went on and on, and Puck started to get overwhelmed as the first anxiety of the fight started to creep in. Something though differed, from learning in the past weeks. Puck wasn’t alone anymore. For the first time around, Zephyrian was invested in learning and remembering his old knowledge too.