The Sun had fully set. The city revolved in an unspoken motion. Out into the streets, the Capitán had tried to hold onto the drifting conversations but the effort was in vain. What must have begun as rumors had spread like wildfire over all districts, pulling every citizen out of their homes to converge in front of City Hall. There, a few old citizens had erected his old altar, and the cleaners that carried him let his body rest upon it. The confused and animated chatter had abated, leaving way for a heavy silence, held by thousands of breaths. The Capitán wished she could have pitied them, but she had followed the same march. She stood where they were all standing, covering the plaza all around the altar. The younger ones, the children who had never heard him speak, they would have the luxury of not feeling the weight of the shadow who rested upon the altar. Even in lost traditions, there seemed to be an agreement, an unspoken desire to follow, so that all of Last Kunlun would come together once again, maybe for the last time.
“They are raising lanterns.” The Major commented.
She could feel that he was slouching his stance as much as he could, trying his best to not scare away the crowd. Regardless of his efforts, they had both naturally managed to carve a path towards the foot of the altar. The Capitán waited, not rising up the steps.
“Old funerary rites, from before everyone got sent to the Hearth.”
Was he looking up? Was he looking down? Was he looking at the altar? Was he looking for someone? People were still coming to gather to the plaza, from the deepest parts of the Hull to the far edges of the Fringes. They would be seeing as much as her by now, stuck in connecting streets but the Capitán knew it wasn’t about touching his face through the bag to be sure of his departure. The lanterns would guide their way, and his would be guided by their march, or so it was told.
“It’s the first time you’ve seen all of the city in the same place, hm?”
“Yes.” The Major answered, his voice low.
“Yet I’ll bet that someone is missing the party.”
The Capitán also bet that the Major shot her a look before she heard him straighten his back. He must have startled a few that stood close to them but she understood he had to see for himself. The world had started moving backwards, they stood in a reality of opposite polarity from the one they had been in an hour ago. Last Kunlun stood together, nearly two centuries later, around the spirit of the one who took them home. Calamity after calamity, surviving all and the fate of the world in tandem, they were all here. All except one.
“Maybe he is too far for me to see.”
“Maybe, but don’t you think he’d want to stand closer? It’s his old man after all.”
“I-”
“Go. I’ll be fine, now more than ever.”
He still hesitated, as he should, but he obliged. In his mind, would there be a difference between his own decision and the one she put on a platter for him to pick? It wasn’t her ordeal to manage now, she needed him to not widen her shadow. The Capitán felt the other hand of the Cors carve his way out of the crowd behind her. Even in his absence, the assembly didn’t collapse around her, leaving her to the silence. Speaking of closer, she had smelled an unpleasant touch of disinfectant. Wielding her cane with intent, the Capitán followed the scent into the crowd, her target easily identifiable as one who didn’t instinctively shy away from her path. Before he could rectify his trajectory, she grabbed his left hand, flashing her most natural smile. She felt it, the depression of flesh in his index, where Willow had noticed it. The rest of his hand felt unnatural as well, stiffer than skin but still passing heat through to her. How did he feel now? The Capitán wanted him to feel the rush, the danger of the maw he chose to dance over, playing in the smoke of her eyes as if it was a game.
“Why don’t you keep me company, Doctor? I’ve sent my other hand away and it’s such a grave day.”
His hand didn’t falter but he didn’t let it linger in her own. They made their way to the altar again, stopping just short of the first step. The cleaners had all left the Old Man where he rested, the altar was empty.
“Were you there?” The Capitán asked, lowering her voice so that the conversation would be only theirs.
“I live nearby, word spread fast. There is no conspiracy if that was what you were wondering, he took a pill this morning, dead of night of sunrise. A neighbor checked up on him since he hadn’t gone out for the day and here we are.”
“Price of having such a strict routine, neighbors won’t even let you rot in peace.”
“I take it you didn’t harbor much love for him.”
“Did you know him?”
“I never had the chance.”
“Probably for the best.”
It must’ve been less than an hour since the altar had been set up, music was starting to rise from further into the crowd. There was no assumption that this would be a silent ceremony, it meant that before long, the city’s sky up until the sunrise would only be filled with song. The Capitán’s hand twitched in her coat’s pocket, she was growing restless, her glassy eyes fixed upon where she knew the altar was laid.
“Don’t look away, Closer,” The Capitán whispered, “I want you to be my witness.”
Once she had spoken the last word, she forced her cane into his hands and reached for the altar. She laid a hand upon the steps on her way up, she didn’t need them to see her as higher than she would be. The altar wasn’t a towering structure, she reached the top before long and she rested a hand close to his head. She didn’t lay one on him, slowly brushing the altar itself so that she felt the stone and the plastic of the bag against the edge of her hand. The music had stopped, the Capitán could only hear her own breath, everyone was staring at her now, waiting for her next move. She reached in her pocket and attached a portable outspeaker to the side of her face, the same one she had used to address the city during the Stillborn incident. Had it been this long since her last public speech? She made sure the device wasn’t on and smiled at the body bag in front of her.
“Look at us, finally sharing the stage.”
With all the efforts she could conjure, she wrenched that smile out of her face, grimacing against the altar to show the city what she had never allowed them to see. Her breathing got steady, the smell of the body bag’s plastic and the lanterns cinders sobering her. She was once again alone with him, the times that they had shared in the Aery felt so far away. The Capitán faced forward and activated the outspeaker.
“I apologize, for standing here, on a day like this. The last time was to deliver unfortunate news, and now you already know about it. I wondered, walking here, how many of us truly got to meet him? The man who stayed nameless to everyone but himself? Who guided you to this altar? A parent? A neighbor? Have they met him themselves? Maybe you’ve seen him once, when the False Dusk broke, not knowing it would be the last you’d see of him standing where I am right now.”
The crowd stood still, silent as a tomb. Drowned in the haze of her eyes, her voice could have echoed through nothing, reflecting off of the Hull back at her. But she couldn’t be swayed by this delusion. She bared her soul to them, to that city, and they were all looking at her.
“I wanted to tell a story, about me and him. The first time I heard him speak was that day, when noone thought the Sun would ever rise again. All of you should know, right now the only thing I see is a sea of fog, concepts and colors cannot reach my eyes like yours. You see me now as I should have seen him then. I looked up to him for answers, I wanted him to reassure me, to promise again that everything would be alright, that the boundless unknown that had opened for us all wasn’t something to be feared. It was selfish, desperate, to expect him to hold the solution to all of my doubts. Maybe then, all he could see as well was an inscrutable fog.”
The Capitán clenched her fists, keeping her back straight, turning to face different parts of the crowd, losing sense of which direction she was facing. All around her, the Glassway, Byzance, Versal, Yama, and the Hull looming over them.
“Truth is… After that day, the Old Man simply stopped being a part of Last Kunlun’s life. None of us has the right to blame him. That burden, the one he bore for nearly a century was not something any of us could ever comprehend, but that burden had a deadline. His mission, his life’s goal was to make this city a safe and flourishing haven for everyone until the Sun gasped its last breath. And he succeeded didn’t he? Many weren’t here, many have forgotten, but we all standing here, in mournful vigil at his grave are proof that despite all the odds, the Old Man brought Last Kunlun the life he promised.”
The Capitán felt it in the air, something rising, a friction in the air, electric. Her skin felt the chill but her voice didn’t waver.
“However, our presence also means that the fated end he believed in did not come to pass. But what more could he have done? I do not choose to believe that he abandoned us. None of us should forget that, none of us should forget him but now is the time to look inward. His path led him here, to Last Kunlun, to turn the lights back on but it is our turn to keep the engine running. No matter how many calamities this city has suffered, no matter how many are still in our way, here is my promise. I will be here. I cannot pretend to be worthy of his mantle, but I shared his dream of protecting this city, the last city of Terra, the last breathing citadel of the Sol System. His dream is for everyone to share, now and every day forward.”
It rises. Voices starting to crackle in the air, movements in the crowd calling winds against the altar. It was time for Last Kunlun to choose. Would they step over each other, clawing desperately at the steps for a chance to plunge their fists against her face, tearing her eyes from their orbit to be sure she would only see darkness in her final moments? The Capitán yelled, raising her arms up, calling all of the dormant emotions in the deepest part of her body to rise with them.
“Do not forget the Old Man! Do not forget yourselves! Do not forget each other! And together, we will take every new day that the Sun gives us!”
Roaring applause exploded, carried by the voices of Last Kunlun matching the passion of the Capitán’s tone. She couldn’t hear herself breathe anymore, her arms slowly slumping back to her side. She panted, feeling sweat pearl on the side of her neck. She deactivated her outspeaker, a sea of cheers still roiling all around her.
“Can you hear this World-Eater? Are you here? Did you let your voice join itself to theirs? Don’t keep me waiting.”