Evan's boots fell heavy on the steps as he descended into the bowels of the ship. The corpses of the fallen haunted his mind, and instead of retiring to his bunk where he knew sleep would evade him, he decided to get answers.

The acrid stench of vomit tinged the insides of his nose as he stopped a few steps away from the lowest deck. Evan reared his head to the side as if it would avoid the smell. When it didn't, he continued. There, on the stool beside Tahlia's cell, sat one of Evan's crewmates. The silver oak leaf with one chevron pointing down the neck that was pinned to the man's lapel told Evan he was a private. The silver open-palmed pin on his other told him he was a medic.

"Private Cobbs, you're relieved of duty. Get some rest, Leaf. I'll take over."

The boy looked up. He was pale, with a greenish tint to his skin. The bucket that sloshed beside him confirmed he was the one who'd been vomiting. Evan wrinkled his nose at it.

The boy couldn't have been much older than he. His eyes were bloodshot and pinned wide open. It was clear his nerves had been frayed from the battle.

Evan watched the boy convulse once more. He held his hand to his mouth, but nothing came of it. Seemed he'd already emptied everything he had.

Cobbs stood to attention once his body allowed him. "Sir... but it's my watch."

Evan waived his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it, private. I can't sleep, but you should."

Cobbs moved to salute Evan.

"At ease."

The private held himself half between attention and salute. He was unsure of what to do while waiting for the command to register. Evan noticed the red stained hand, covered in the dried blood of others. He wondered if he was one of the medics to attend to Riza, or perhaps prepare her body.

"There was..." the private's hand began to shake as he too took notice of it. "So much blood, sir. I tried to stop it; I really did, but her leg was gone!" His voice jittered as he stared at his hand.

"Whose?"

"My Sergeant's, sir. It was taken while we worked on another Leaf. I saw it happen. It was there one moment, then..."

"Did you save either of their lives?" Evan interjected.

Cobbs looked at Evan. His lips curled against their will and tears spilled over the boy's eyes. "I tried to stop it. I put my knee in her groin like they taught us, but I'd already used all of my chord on the other Leaf. It couldn't have been more than a few seconds before her eyes grew—" The boy wretched and grabbed his bucket. He dry-heaved over the thing.

Even turned away, closing his eyes. Once the boy stopped, he looked at him again. He noticed his armor was stained the same red as his hands. "Go get some rest, Cobbs. That's an order."

"Y-yes, sir," Cobb's responded.

"And clean yourself up first. You look like crap."

"Yes, sir." Cobbs pushed passed Evan towards the stairs.

"Private." Evan groaned.

"Sir?"

"Take your damn sick bucket with you!" He grated through his teeth.

"Right, sir!" Cobbs jogged back passed Evan and grabbed the bucket's handle, taking care not to spill any of its contents as he returned up the stairs.

Evan turned his gaze toward Tahlia. She sat on her bed, staring back at him with her crimson eyes. Evan couldn't look into them—their resemblance to similar to what he'd witnessed today. The door to her cell hung open. It was clear the private had been too busy freaking out to pay any attention. Evan was impressed he'd held it together enough to at least man his post.

Had it still been this morning, Evan wouldn't have cared that the cell door swung ajar. However, after learning she'd known of his father and didn't tell him, he felt any trust they'd built had been smothered.

"Evan!" Tahlia chirped as a smile grew on her face.

But Evan's remained cold.

"Evan?" Tahlia's grew confused.

Evan walked over to the cell and closed the door. He took the keys from his side and fastened a new lock to it.

"What are you doing?"

"I want the truth, Tahlia, about my father. If you can manage to tell me it all, I'll consider letting you out again."

Tahlia's head sulked on her shoulders, "Right... I do owe you that... I'm sorry, Evan."

Evan grabbed the stool and moved it behind him, sat and crossed his arms as he waited for Tahlia to gather her words.

"I knew your father for only but a day," she began. "He was my mother's Guardian, coincidence, I know... that we would be walking the same path they once did." Tahlia wrapped her hands around the bars. She sighed because she knew the truth she was about to tell Evan was a heavy price. "He came to our isle shortly after the war. He protested the cruelty your government bestowed upon us by them for the few years of peace it purchased. We, of course, shunned him, but he kept coming back whenever he had a mission that brought him near the isle.

"Eventually, after about fourteen years, he finally gave up trying to make amends and begged us to tell him what he could do instead to apologize for his government's sins. My mother took his pleas and told him if he wanted to truly make amends, to follow her into the forest." Tahlia's grip on the iron tightened. "The whole village followed. We could feel the light fading from the world. We knew it was time for the ritual to be performed."

"She took him to Ifirit's shrine, didn't she?"

Tahlia nodded. "She told him to kneel and summoned Ifirit. He gawked, much like you did, when Ifirit showed himself. Then, she told him if he truly wanted to make amends, he would need to become her guardian and face Ifirit. He hesitated, like any would."

Thunder shook the ship.

"My mother told him if he did not become a Guardian and honor a pact brokered between the humes and falceit long before the fracture, that this world would fall to ruin. She asked him if there was anything worth keeping from that ruin, and he spoke two names before drawing his sword."

Evan's eyes grew wide. "W-what are you..."

"We celebrated his victory, but your father just sat there," Tahlia continued. "There was great sorrow in his eyes because of the price he had to pay to protect you and your sister, Evan. Ifirit had given him the same condition as he gave you, but he also told your father he would never be able to return to his family for he would be branded a traitor by your government."

Evan's brow furrowed and his lips curled. He slammed his hand into the bars. Tahlia jumped, but held her head down. "Liar! There's no way my dad abandoned us for some noble cause!"

"He was branded a traitor, was he not?"

Evan opened his mouth to speak, but the memory of when they received the news flooded his mind. They'd called him a deserter. But that word had meant something different to Evan. He still refused to believe it.

"The night he became a Guardian was the only time I ever spoke with him. Some of our kin joined his ship and crew and fought with them. I heard my mother perished at the hands of the Empire not long after that."

"I still don't believe you," Evan spat.

"Then don't!" Tahlia faced him with narrowed eyes. "But you wanted the truth, so I'm telling it to you!"

"From what my mother told me of him, and the few years I did know him he wouldn't have abandoned us just because someone said he had to or was branded a traitor!"

"He's dead, Evan! Don't you get it? He's not coming back because he died!"

"He what?" Evan stepped backwards.

"When my mother was killed, he took her mantle. The price the blessed pay to keep this world alive, the price my people have paid for hundreds of thousands of years is their lives! The price I have to pay to uphold our queen's promise is give my life, so that this world may live..." Tears filled Tahlia's eyes.

"So..."

"So he gave it for her. He got blessings from all the gods and gave his own life... Your father is hero, Evan, and you punish him for it. He was a good man. And he knew it hurt you, but he did it to save you all..."

"He gave his life?" Evan looked at Tahlia, his eyes wide, her tears running down her cheeks. "He didn't abandon us?" He felt his own tears well up from within. "I hated him all this time... because..." Evan fell back onto the stool and hung his head in his hands.

He'd hated his father only because he thought he was out there somewhere—somewhere he could find him and confront him. With the revelation that his father had given his life so this world could go on broke his spirit.

Tahlia reached for him through the bars. "It's not your fault, Evan." She knew the pain he'd felt far to well. Her tears fell as freely as his, staining the wood beneath their feet.

She collapsed to her knees; her hands stretched for him on the floor. She hoped if she could just touch him that it would take some of the pain away. When she'd learned his name, she'd never wanted to be the one to tell him his father's fate, to watch his heart tear itself to pieces just as hers had when she learned of her mother's death.

"So," Evan sniffled. "If I do my job, you'll die, and the world will go on living for how long?"

"I don't know. Sometimes it lasts many years, sometimes only a few. I don't know why."

"And if I fail and you die before then, I have to take your place or what?"

"Suffer the curse of the gods."

"So either way I'll loose another person I care about to this war," Evan seethed.

Tahlia looked up at him. "What?"

Evan gave a single laugh. "Damn him. He was right."

"Who was right? About what?"

"My father. He told me when I was young that war steals that which we care most to protect."

Tahlia's cheeks flushed rose. "What did you say?"

"Doesn't matter now. It won't change anything." Evan tossed the keys to the floor.

They slid across the boards and rattled against the iron. Tahlia grabbed them and fumbled with the lock. Evan rose to his feet.

"No, it does matter! Say that again!"

"Don't tell my sister any of this, okay? I know she looks strong, but this will tear her apart and we need her to be okay if we're going to do this," Evan said as he turned away.

Tahlia darted her head from the lock to Evan as he took a step forward. Finally, the key turned in it, and it clicked. It rattled on the floor as she burst through the door.

She grabbed Evan's hand, forcing him to stop. "What did you just say, Evan?"

The ship lurched forward, and Evan and Tahlia stumbled. Tahlia gasped as her back hit the wall. Evan caught himself on it, his hand pushed against it next to her head. She cupped his hand in both of hers and stared into his eyes. The blue in them sparkled much like the sky she loved. The edges of them; however, were red and stained with his sadness.

"I said don't tell—"

"Not that..." Tahlia whispered as she clutched the edges of his breastplate and pulled him towards her.

Evan's eyes narrowed. "That war steals that which we desire most to protect?" His heart began to quicken in his chest as he realized how close he was to Tahlia.

She closed her eyes and continued to tug on his armor. "And what it is you wish most to protect?"

"You, Tahlia."

Tahlia pushed her lips into his and wrapped her arms around his neck. Evan's eyes shot wide open, then, as if he'd known all along, they closed. Her lips were soft against his. The world around them seemed to melt away, and neither wished for the moment so fleeting to pass. Thunder rolled around them outside the ship. Each held the kiss a second longer until their lungs burned for air—the very thing the kiss had stolen from them both.

Tahlia gasped and pulled Evan even closer, pressing her cheek to his. "Don't let it steal me then."