A murmur in the dark...was that her name?
"Kage-"
Kage jumped awake, batting away the hand in her shoulder.
The panic dissipated as she saw who had woken her. Mytha. Just Mytha. This was Islestar, not...
"I'm sorry. Are you alright?" Mytha asked.
Kage sat up, regaining her composure. "Um, yes. Sorry.” She apologized. "I didn't mean to hit you."
Mytha shrugged "Don't worry about it. Will you come with me? The Council wishes to speak to you."
Kage's stomach tied in a knot. That was not a good sign. How long had she been asleep anyway? Still, she got up and silently took Mytha's outstretched hand.
The light shimmered around them as they teleported out of the cellar.
The two of them reappeared in a sizeable space that lay above the rest of Islestar, on an isolated platform made like the rest of the world’s buildings of marble with greenery wrapped around wherever it could reach.
The podium formed a circle with decorative pillars rising up towards a ring that connected them all, leaving an open celling above where ten marble thrones sat, each with the same, plain design and shape.
Kage and Mytha stood in the center of the half-circle where sic of the elders sat.
There were four seats empty, luckily this time didn't warrant all ten of the Council.
These were the Elders who ruled Islestar and all the Mythsians who came from there. Their clothes were standard for Mythsians, variations on white robes, but their necks were adorned with a thin necklace wound around and around into the appearance of many threads, symbolic of the threads that connected all of the many worlds in their part of the universe.
Kage recognized most of them. One of them was new, a short-haired woman with a soft expression. One of the Elders must have recently passed on.
Mytha released her hand and stood off to the side.
Kage fidgeted, tapping her index finger against her leg. She had been here before, and it wasn’t a good memory. It probably wasn't for them either.
Her eyes darted around. Were they waiting for her to say something? If so, she didn't know what to say. Apologize?
"I'm not going to do that." She thought.
One of the Elders to her left , a wiry woman with white hair braided around her head broke the silence instead.
"What happened on that world?"
That caught her unprepared.
"I-" She stammered. "I lost control." What else could she say?
"Why?"
"Why?" Anger sparked in her voice. "Because they were killed, they were all killed! And I-"
"No, that was afterwards. You let your emotions get ahold of you even before that."
"And you began to revert to your physical form." A soft voice spoke up from to her right, a man with a white beard.
"A couple of them saw it, too. Luckily that world had enough magic that the cause was ambiguous. If that world had less magic that could have been disastrous."
Kage didn't speak for a moment. She felt smaller than (something) in front of them. This felt like a judgement.
"-And because I could have saved them." She finished.
A couple of them exchanged glances, and a few kept their eyes on her. Kage wanted to sink into the earth. It wasn't out of her abilities.
"Kage, we've been discussing this amongst ourselves, and with Mytha as one who has been looking after you." Another one spoke, a sharp, red-eyed man who if human ages applied would have been in his mid-thirties.
"This life is no longer suitable for you. We had hope for you the last time you were in front of us, but we were mistakes, as much as we may not like to admit it."
Kage gulped. Where was this going?
"And so, he continued, we shall send you to a random human world where you will live out the rest of your days."
She stopped breathing. What did he say?
"...what?" She got out, inhaling a sharp breath.
"I understand it is a shock." Another female elder said. "But this is best for you. Your actions will not be restricted as a human, you will be able to act as you see fit."
"Did you forget what happened to me last time? Why I was in front of you last time?" Her voice rose in volume as her pulse quickened.
"Of course not. One could argue we would not have this problem if not for ____'s actions. Which is why we have selected a suitable world, with a safe place for you to land." The red-eyed man continued.
Kage's fingers began tapping again.
Now what? She didn't know what to say, her mind was spinning.
"Do you have anything else to say?" He asked.
"What? Y-yes, I-" she stammered, then stopped.
"There's nothing I can say." She thought, eyes searching the passive expressions of the Elders. "They've already decided. They're just telling me."
"I can just stay here, on Islestar!" She burst out, a last-ditch attempt.
There was a hint of panic in her voice, and they all took notice.
"You could not spend your life here. It would be the same as isolation, the other Mythsians don't talk to you, we are far too busy to deal with distractions like that. No, Kage, we cannot trust you even with the responsibility of caretaking."
He nodded to Mytha, and she stepped forward to Kage's side.
"Wait!" She recoiled. "Now? Just like that?"
"Kage-" she began.
The Elders rose from their seats in one fluid motion.
"There's nothing here for you. I think you know that too." She placed a hand on Kage's shoulder.
Kage looked around in horror as each Elder raised their right hand.
"May your humanity grant you peace in the other world." The man said.
With that, Mytha opened the portal beneath her feet, vertigo hit her as she fell straight down into space.
A sharp spike of pain hit as her figurative umbilical cord was cut. She felt it's end flapping behind her as she shot through space.
Thoughts raced though her mind as she fell, too fast for her to pick them out.
The rush as she fell made her instinctively try to curl up, but she didn't have enough strength to pull in her limbs against the speed of the fall.
Then, the tunnel ended and clear blue sky appeared overhead as she tumbled out and hit the ground.
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