Dreamwalkers:

Chapter 6

Dyllan let out a sigh and scratched the back of his neck impatiently. “Geh… I hate this part. I always feel like such a coward, just sitting around waiting for Andie to finish doing all the actual fighting.”
“We’ve talked about this. Whether or not charging in like a brain dead lunatic ‘feels’ like the right thing to do, it isn’t.” Cedric’s eyes drifted coldly off toward a mildly interesting painting hanging on the wall. “My Virtue’s power is only really viable when my patient and I aren’t actively under attack. Your Virtue’s power would be extremely useful if Andie didn’t need to be within arms reach of her enemies to damage them. However, since she would need to keep popping out from behind your shield to attack, you’re really only helpful in certain situations. Most importantly, neither of us has any method of actually hurting the Nightmare. So unless there’s some aspect of our powers I’m wholly unaware of, all we’d accomplish going down there is distracting Andie and putting two more lives unnecessarily at risk.”
“I know all that, and I agree with your reasoning – as creepy as it is.” Dyllan glanced nervously toward where Andie had leapt out of the building. “Still… it doesn’t sit right with me. Maybe we should check in on her from here? I can use my shield to help us retreat if she’s in trouble.”
“Sound logic.” Cedric wandered over toward one of the office chairs and took a seat. “You keep watch from the next room over – pretty sure Andie left a hole big enough to see half the city. After exhausting my Virtue, I frankly couldn’t care less about Andie’s well being. So unless she’s in mortal danger – well, more so than usual – it’s going to be difficult to motivate me to do much of anything.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know…” Dyllan looked around for a good vantage point, something that would let him watch Andie’s fight from a safe distance.
“Besides, Andie’s the type of girl that wouldn’t die even if you killed her. So there’s nothing to -” A horrible shriek and a flash of light erupted from the streets below them. “Ahhh… My ears… Well, at least we know Andie is fine.”
“Unless this was some ‘heroic sacrifice I’m-taking-you-with-me’ type thing. I’m going to hop down and check on her.”

 

A note from the author ninja:

I’ve got two things to clarify this chapter.

The first thing is the reason why Dyllan wasn’t keeping a lookout from the very beginning, since he’s the retreat and rescue guy. The answer is that the current situation is pretty abnormal. Normally fighting nightmares is less of a fair fight, and more of a choreographed execution. the three friends don’t have roles on the battlefield, so much as a specific set of motions for that day’s specific plan. It never really sunk in for Dyllan that Andie was in real danger before, and now that it has he’s too panicked to react quickly and rationally. (It’s one or the other.) Cedric, on the other hand, is both calm enough and intelligent enough to immediately understand that Dyllan should be on lookout. Unfortunately, he couldn’t really care less about the well being of others when his virtue’s drained.

This brings me to point two, why Cedric becomes apathetic toward other people when his virtue is exausted, rather than spiteful. This one might take a while longer to explain.

See, bright is the opposite of dark. Brightness is “the presence of light,” and darkness is “the absence of light.” So, why is cruelty so often seen as the opposite of kindness when both are the presence of an emotion? Two emotions that can be experienced simultaneously, might I add. One can experience the desire to harm or maim someone, yet refrain because you care about aforementioned person. (Anyone with a sibling can attest to this.) So, to return to the metaphor of light, shouldn’t the opposite of both cruelty and kindness be apathy? It is, after all, the darkness of emotion – what remains after the reds of rage, the greens of joy, and the blues of misery have all faded.

When all the kindness is drained from a person, all of their ability to care about others, will there truly still be rage? What is there for them to be angry about? Humans only ever destroy for the sake of protecting or creating something else, to derive pleasure from destruction itself is abnormal. It needs a purpose, be it revenge, justice, or just a necessary evil.

Again, why would a boy who doesn’t care, whose ability to care has been exhausted by arcane means, fight? With words or with weapons, fighting is hard.

It’s so much easier to just walk away, and wash your hands of other people’s problems.

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