I know that in my body is a fire. If I feel for it, I can feel it burning me. After so long, the pain of it comes to me even before my thoughts do.
Our parents warned us to take these flames we were born with and swallow them down, hide them away, and never let them be seen by anyone.
But I knew—how my sister would secretly burn whatever she didn't want, and then she'd get something better for it.
Can I do that too?
Loughshinny
Dad, can you take me to the bookshop?
That morning, I thought I'd try acting like her, talking to my parents in her tone of voice.
Every time she told them what she wanted, they'd agree with panic, like they were being burnt, yet with love.
She and I had the same appearance and voice, and wore the same clothes, so why couldn't I disguise myself as her?
Loughshinny
I want to read the sequel to the Steam Knights adventures... since—I don't want anyone asking me, how come a Victorian wouldn't like stories about the Steam Knights.
Father
...Tomorrow, Loughshinny. Your mum and dad are exhausted for today.
Loughshinny
Dad... did you recognize me?
Father
Of course. How could I ever mix up my own two daughters?
I followed behind her, running as fast as I could.
The bells to reunite sounded—yet—we no longer could go home.
Loughshinny
Eblana... Where... are we going?
Eblana
...Where do you want to go?
Loughshinny
I... don't know...
Eblana
Nowhere's home, so go knock on any old door.
Eblana
You just need to be honest to whoever opens it, and tell them that we have no home to go back to on this snowy, festive night.
Eblana
No matter how cold they are, surely they'll sympathize with two children.
Eblana
Go, Loughshinny, don't be afraid. I'm watching over you.
Under the glow of icy, purple flames, I knocked haltingly on the first door.
The flames had taken the lives of those we hated so only moments ago, but I wondered so badly—if those flames would come to kill me instead, if I did anything wrong.
Hah... have you been after me all this time? Since when?
Reed
No, I simply heard from Fionn—that you'd seen your brother, in the squad of parted Dublinn...
Reed
I guessed you'd come here yourself.
Selmon
It's not as if it's any of your business.
Reed
I've been searching... all this way, for these dead controlled by Arts. I want them to find peace.
Reed
And I can accomplish that. Just as you saw, just now.
Selmon
......
Gone are the marching footfalls of soldiers. The barrens turn silent.
Neither of them say a word. After a while, Selmon squats down, brushes the dirt off the mask, then carefully places it over the soldier's face.
Selmon
...Meddling little Fionn. Did he tell you about the first time I ever saw Dublinn?
Selmon
We were in the city, me and my brother. If we were in good moods, we'd line up to see if any of the pubs needed last-minute waiters or what-have-you. If we were in bad moods, we'd hit Viccies' windows with our catapults.
Selmon
Hah. Couldn't tell you if all the nobles were Viccies, to be honest, I just knew the one who drove us off the ag plate was.
Selmon
Then, one day, there was this injured woman lying in an alley who shouted at me in Taran, wanted me to deliver a letter for her.
Selmon
We guessed who she was. I delivered it, and found her a place to hide.
Selmon
I told her, of all the scummiest Victorians in this city, the number one would be that one with the tiny moustache who issued all the decrees.
Selmon
Bloody, Originium product taxes, alcohol taxes to 'target Taran drunks', ordinances to round up unemployed Tarans and house them in one place, he was the one on telly delivering all of that.
Selmon
And then there was the army man stationed in the alleys. I couldn't do nothing but watch him beat all those people to death, and if I'd stared at him a moment more, he would've taken me away.
Selmon
If she and her spectre force wanted marks to attack, then those two had to be on the list.
Selmon
But I was wrong, she responded, it wasn't Dublinn's aim to retaliate against Victorians in Tarans' stead.
Selmon
My brother told her which noble had the biggest house, which had the poshest dinner parties, which had a treasure hoard enough to arm an army, support a plate's farmers.
Selmon
That was even more wrong, she said. Dublinn wasn't stealing from the Victorians to give to the Tarans.
Selmon
And she said, if all we do is kill a few people, and seat ourselves in their positions, it won't make things better for the Tarans, it'll just make us become them.
Selmon
Just like how Tarans who learned Victorian etiquette, copied Victorian accents, could pass as Victorian nobles...
Reed
...Then, did she tell you—what it was Dublinn wanted?
Selmon
Hah, nope. But my brother had it all figured it out afterwards, so. We decided to join Dublinn, and went following them on the info they left behind.
Selmon
We left the nomadic city, heading for a settlement close by.
Selmon
It was along the way there I suddenly remembered how Dublinn disposed of their eyewitnesses.
Selmon
I was scared for my life, so scared I felt I had to run.
Selmon
It's not as if I hate every last Victorian, y'know. And if I don't hate them, I'm not prepared to make them bleed.
Reed
But... there's no alternative to it.
Reed
I—don't like saying this. But—Dublinn is an army, and the one thing armies face is war.
Selmon
I know, of course I know.
Selmon
Rationally, I know they're in the right.
Selmon
What's wrong is I can't do it.
Selmon
...How come I can't do what my brother could? How could he be so sure, while I had to run?
Selmon
How could he put up with dying, and burning after death, while I can't even stand seeing him turn out this way?
Reed
......
How can she stand up from the ashes, while I can only shrink into her shadow and weep?
Loughshinny, what is it you want?
Reed
...'I wrote, for you, what my life knew / In terms of love, and dreaming too,'...
Reed
...'But in your burning ecstasy, there was no place to hold them'...
Selmon
Wha...?
Selmon
You... you're not reciting poetry, are you?
Selmon
Are you serious? At me? Are you trying to show off your upbringing?
Reed
Sorry... I—don't know what I should say.
Reed
There's so much I could say to encourage others, or comfort others... but none of it is mine.
Selmon
Hah... you can stop reading...
Selmon
......
Selmon buries her face in her hands.
Her grief, like the Dublinn soldiers who no longer speak, is shrouded in a deep green silhouette.
'I dreamt...' they murmur.
Selmon
Years and years ago, we were working in a Victorian's manor.
Selmon
One day, my brother got me to drop everything I was doing, and slip out with him for fun.
Selmon
...We walked for ages, until we reached the edge of the ag plate, and we looked out down into the wilderness below.
Selmon
We couldn't see where the soil ended, it was all bursting full of wild flowers. My brother said, that there, that's Tara.
Selmon
He said so much daft, arrogant shite, he sang into the wind at the top of his voice.
Selmon
He said there was so much we wanted to say but couldn't, because the Victorians robbed us of our language. The only thing we could do was hide our love and sorrow away in our time-old folksongs.
Selmon
And he said we'd done something incredible today. We didn't work for the Victorians today, so we'd rebelled against them.
Selmon
He must've been absolutely full of it back then, full-on dreaming of becoming like a hero in the legends... hah.
Selmon
Same here.
Selmon
...They're very pretty, the flames you've left him. They're just like the flowers we saw that day.
Reed
But these flames aren't true flowers. They're just...
'From the moment we're born to the moment we die, it all runs past in the blink of an eye.'
Reed
...You aren't—even able to hold them.
Selmon
That's fine. I don't care.
Selmon
I knew for the longest time he'd die. Even I was prepared to die when we went looking for Dublinn.
Selmon
I never trusted he'd die like he bragged, like we dreamed, with a hero's death.
Selmon
But at least, Reed... I want to hear the truth. Your truth.
Selmon
Was the... future Dublinn promised, the thing he was chasing even once he'd died, was it made up?
