The Death of Friendship

by ~Amberspike-Sama

I highly recommend reading the deviation description before you read this, or else you might be slightly confused. =P



I know indeed what evil I intend to do,
but stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury,
fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils.
~Euripides


The snow was letting up as Nephry approached the door, worry etched into the contours of her young face. She glanced around nervously, as though thinking someone was following her, while in truth she was the one looking for someone. Standing on the front porch, she shivered with the cold, then extended one gloved hand and reached for the brass door knocker, bringing it down once, twice. Hugging herself in an attempt to stay a little warmer, she waited.

It was not long before she heard approaching footsteps and the door opened for her, letting out a rush of warm air. A woman with glasses and light blonde hair stood there, looking down at the shivering Nephry with arched eyebrows.

“Are you looking for Saphir?”

“I-I came to see if he’s coming to the party,” Nephry stuttered. “Is he here?”

The woman cast a backward, violet-eyed glance down the front hall of the house, to where the curving staircase stood under the light of a fonstone-fueled chandelier. “Saphir’s been in his room for hours. Lorelei knows what he’s doing up there…come inside, dear. You’re letting in the cold.”

Nephry stepped across the doorway and into the tiled hall, bending to unbutton her boots. She shed her fur-lined coat, handing it to the woman, who strode to a closet to hang it up.

“Thanks, Mrs. Neis,” Nephry said politely, smoothing her blue dress, whose sleeves only came down to her elbows. It wasn’t the kind of thing to run around outside in, even with her coat on top, but Saphir’s home wasn’t too far from her own and so she hadn’t bothered to don a sweater. Even so, as short a run over as it had been, the cold had still seeped into her bones, and she shuddered to shake it off as she approached the staircase and began to climb briskly up it.

Nephry had visited Saphir countless times during the years she had known him, but even so his house never ceased to impress her a little. The second floor hallway was wood-paneled, with finely carved molding lining where the walls met the ceiling. The ceiling was what always caught Nephry’s eye; with its light fixtures embellished with brass leaves and flowers, hanging between sections of polished woodwork.

You know someone’s rich when they can afford to have a fancy ceiling, Nephry thought.

She never could remember what business Saphir’s family was involved in, but she did know they were one of the richest families to remain in the snowy city all year round, instead of just visiting it as a winter resort. Not that Saphir expected to remain in Keterberg forever—he was planning on attending some prestigious college overseas after finishing high school the following summer. As he had spoken about it to Nephry, he’d sounded as though he had no plans to return to his hometown any time soon, which had saddened her a little. Indeed, how could it not be saddening, to have a friend leave that she’d known since she was five or so?

It was the thought of his parting in the back of her mind that made her more concerned about him than usual. Normally, she wouldn’t have wondered too much when he didn’t make a party, since he did have a tendency to forget about things like that, becoming lost in some project or other. But somehow, in light of the fact that he wouldn’t be in her life forever, she did find herself wondering quite a bit. Her mind ran over various unpleasant scenarios as she walked down the hall to his room, gripped the handle and carefully opened the door, not wanting to disturb him if he was busy, yet hoping nothing particularly disastrous had happened to cause him to forget about his appointment.

The house itself was very warm, but his bedroom was even warmer, startlingly so. Nephry gazed around, not seeing Saphir at first; surveying his large bed with its covers strewn about, and the roaring fire going in the fireplace in one corner. Her gaze settled on his desk, which sat turned towards one wall, covered in books and paperwork—that was where he was sitting, his lanky frame hunched over something, the fountain pen in his hand moving in rapid concentration. [1]

Seeing him in such an absorbed state, Nephry felt afraid to approach him, and walked with caution over the hardwood floor, careful not to slip in her stocking feet. Peering down at his work as he was, she could not see his face, but his posture seemed to bear the tenseness of either frustration or pain. She hesitated, then touched him lightly on the shoulder, jumping back as he turned his head to face her, his expression livid.

“Saphir!”

He blinked, her cry returning him to his senses in an instant. His face softened a little, but his violet eyes remained abnormally hard.

“…Hello, Nephry.”

“I’m sorry if I startled you,” she said quickly, feeling as though she was trespassing somehow. “I just—just—”

“It’s fine,” he muttered, putting a hand to his forehead as though she were giving him a headache. “What are you here for?”

“The party…you didn’t forget about my birthday party, did you?”

He blinked again, momentarily puzzled; then his eyes narrowed savagely.

“I’ve been waiting for Jade for the past hour. He was going to meet me to help with something, and then we’d come to your house, but he never showed up…have you seen him?”

Nephry shook her head. “He left a little while ago. He did say he was meeting a friend and bringing them back…”

“I’m guessing I’m not the friend in question, then,” said Saphir. “Honestly, your brother hasn’t been keeping his promises lately. He told me just two days ago that he’d meet me after school, but he must have found someone else to entertain him…”

“Maybe he just forgot,” Nephry remarked, gently brushing some of Saphir’s white bangs out of his eyes with one hand. He flinched at her touch, but did not move to stop her, merely casting her a steady, unreadable stare.

“You always think the best of people, don’t you?”

Nephry had to smile a little at that. “I try. It never hurts to hope.”

“Can’t say I’m in the mood for hoping right now,” responded Saphir.

He stood up and stretched, the legs of his chair making a slight scraping sound against the smooth floor. Sighing, he spun to face Nephry, and she blushed as she noticed that his collared shirt was unbuttoned. In the nearly stifling heat of the room, she didn’t blame him, but…the fact caused that odd sensation to return to her; the feeling that she was disturbing him, though he didn’t seem to dislike her presence all too much.

“What are you working on, anyway?” she asked, attempting to divert his attention away from her face.

Saphir retrieved the paper he’d been writing on. “Diagrams for some devices I’d like to build in my room. This one opens and closes the fonlamp’s valve from across the room…I was just labeling some parts.”

The drawing looked practically professional to Nephry, and she observed it in wonder. Each straight line seemed perfect, every circle flawless…obviously, the drafting class Saphir had taken the previous year seemed to have paid off. She found her gaze drawn to a group of gears in particular, with their tiny interlocking teeth, fascinatingly intricate. Saphir’s tiny, nearly illegible half-cursive writing was scrawled below each one, labeling the parts.

“That looks wonderful. I love the gears.”

“Gears are probably one of the hardest things to draw,” said Saphir, smiling faintly. “I bought half of the supplies for this little machine, and Jade promised to bring over the rest and help me build it…though, of course…”

He placed the sheet back on the desk and picked up his chair, turning it around so that he could sit down facing Nephry. To Nephry, it seemed as though he more of slumped into the chair than sat, suddenly appearing very aged and weary. She must have not noticed the dark circles under his eyes, or the way the bony curves of his face seemed more prominent than usual…kind of like when he was coming down with some sickness or other, but she could tell that that wasn’t the problem here.

“Are you all right, Saphir?”

He shrugged. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind. And now with Jade and all, I’m just tired, and pissed off…pissed off quite a bit. I just can’t believe him, doing this to me…”

Anger taking over, he straightened up and gripped the armrests of the chair furiously.

“What gives him the right to completely ignore me, anyway? What am I, the dirt under his feet? I sit here for an hour, waiting for someone I call my friend, and for all I know he could have run off to the other side of town! He must have a billion more significant things to do than to bother with me!”

Nephry opened her mouth to reply, but he cut her off.

“And I’m devoted to him, as a friend should be! I’m no self-serving pleasure seeker like that damned Franz! By Lorelei, how dare he abandon me like this! How dare he!”

“Saphir, calm down,” Nephry implored, frightened by her friend’s abrupt change in mood.

Saphir shot a glare at her and fell silent. Shaking his head at his situation, he reached under his desk and withdrew something that glinted in the light of the fonic lamp perched on the wall behind him. Nephry’s eyes widened.

“Saphir…” she said softly, with the air of a child who had caught sight of something they barely understood, yet knew they shouldn’t be seeing. “Where on Auldrant did you get that?”

“The cellar. My parents have quite a store, actually.” He lifted the bottle, laid back and surveyed it, his expression again weary. [2]

“Saphir, you’re not old enough—”

“Does it look like I care?” His tone was bitterly sarcastic.

“But, the law—”

“You want to know what I think of the law?” Saphir pulled the cork from the bottle, tilted his head back and drank deeply. “Screw the law. Who sacrifices themselves to do what others want of them; makes such commitments? Not your brother, Nephry, and I may just follow his example a bit. If my own dear friend won’t give a damn about me, who says I have to give a damn about anyone else if I don’t want to?”

“You’re not making any sense, Saphir,” said Nephry. “You shouldn’t take Jade’s actions too seriously; he just—”

“I do believe I’m making perfect sense,” he told her, setting the bottle on top of his desk. “Nephry, you have to realize that this isn’t the first time your brother has been disloyal to me. I’ve put up with it about four times before this, in fact. And considering that I do find myself giving quite a damn about him, it upsets me more than you know. I have half a mind to comb the entire town for that red-eyed fiend just to let him know exactly how I feel…”

“Maybe you do need to get out of the house for a bit,” Nephry suggested nervously. “You and I could look for him. Perhaps he’s up at school meeting those girls he and Franz wanted to bring to my party, or—”

Saphir lunged at her without warning, gripping her shoulders so hard that his nails dug into her skin. “He’s where?”

“I didn’t say he was there for sure!” Nephry cried. “I thought he and Franz had decided against it, but on Lunaday he said something about bringing dates—Saphir, please let go, that hurts—!”

Saphir clutched her still harder. “Could he be at school? Is it likely he’d be there?”

“Maybe—uh—sure! We could go see, you and I! Saphir, please, you’re acting completely ma—”

He shoved her backwards with surprising strength, causing her to stumble. She stared at him in shock and disbelief as he stormed out of the room, fueled by rage, slamming the door behind him while she was still gathering her senses. Her fear of him quickly turning to fear for him, she bolted for the door and swung it open, only to find that he was halfway down the stairs already, running as fast as his legs could take him.

“Saphir!” she called. “Saphir—stop—it’s freezing outside!”

The front door opened and shut. Nephry had heard no pause in his footsteps; in his fit of passion he’d left without his coat, as she’d suspected he would. She made a sound of frustrated helplessness and ran down into the front hall after him.

“Nephry? What’s going on?” Saphir’s mother’s voice sounded from a nearby room. “What were you screaming for?”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Neis, Saphir just—oh, Lorelei, he’s going to try and kill my brother or something. I’ve got to follow him—”

Nephry threw open the closet, grabbed her coat and pulled it on, then slipped into her boots and ran outside with their buttons still undone. Trying her best to sprint through the deep layer of snow coating the ground, she glanced across the white expanse for her misguided friend. Could he have decided to take the roads? No, of course not, he must have gone the most direct way, which would be—

Her gaze settled on a dense pine forest to her right. Squinting in the blinding sunlight, she saw the red of his shirt there; already at the trees…he was running faster than she had thought possible for him.

“Dear Lorelei, he’s completely lost it, he must have snapped or something—”

She pursued him, her breath coming in gasps and fogging out in front of her like escaping ghosts. If only he hadn’t had a head start, if only she didn’t have shorter legs than him, if only—

The snow began to fall again as she entered the woods; coming down in large clumps of flakes that caught on the fur of her coat and settled in her hair. The light breeze became a strong wind with her speed and grazed her icily, and it occurred to her as she stumbled over logs and uneven ground that what she had said to Mrs. Neis upon leaving did seem terrifyingly plausible.

“I have…to let him know exactly how I feel…”

“Dear Lorelei,” Nephry said again, and felt tears prickle at the corners of her eyes.


*


Jade Balfour was the kind of boy with an air of mystery about him, with his ever-present smile and unreadable ruby eyes. A top student in advanced classes, people of his sort normally were not popular socially, but the aura of mystery drew curious individuals to him like moths to the flame.

So it was that he found himself on this particular day with a girl’s arms wound around his neck and her soft giggling at his ear. He glanced at Franz and grinned as the girl’s blonde hair brushed his cheek.

“I knew you two would get along,” said Franz, resting his head on the shoulder of a second girl.

“Of course we would,” the blonde-haired girl said. “I always wanted to meet Jade. He has the most gorgeous eyes…take off your glasses, won’t you?”

She pulled at Jade’s glasses, and he sighed, slightly amused, and set them in his lap. He looked up into the girl’s blue eyes, accented with dark makeup, failing to see much intelligence there but not caring too much. The girl, like so many others, was simply on the level of a toy for him and Franz, something to be played with and then put aside when he became bored of her.

“Ohh, you look better now,” she remarked, bending in to kiss him. He shut his eyes, basking in the rush of pleasure until she parted from him; then he abruptly claimed her lips again, embracing her.

“Jade!” she cried in gleeful surprise as he broke off the kiss, only to begin another without a second’s pause. She shrieked with laughter as he made out with her, struggling but obviously thrilled, getting only a few words in between kisses that nearly—but not quite—concealed another cry some distance from the couple.

“JADE!”

Jade turned his head to look at Franz, wondering vaguely whether the voice had been his. Franz was whispering slyly to the brunette at his side, making a display of his experience in the art of seduction. A strange prickle running down his spine, Jade glanced around wildly across the snowy field contiguous to the school, searching for who had called him.

“Jade? What’s wrong?” the blonde girl asked, pouting from lack of attention.

“I could have sworn…” muttered Jade, feeling wary. The heat of passion was wearing off of him, and the cold breeze raked frigid fingers across his face. He reached for his glasses and put them on, gazing out towards the trees at the edge of the field.

His blood seemed to freeze in his veins.

“Is that Saphir?” Franz wondered, pointing at the running figure approaching them. “What’s he doing here?”

Jade cursed. “Damnit, he shouldn’t be here! I told him to wait for me, and…”

“Maybe he got tired of waiting,” said Franz, shrugging.

“I don’t want to speak to him right now. Let’s get out of here, Franz.” Jade got to his feet, pulling the blonde up with him.

Franz shook his head. “Too late…”

Saphir had reached the group and stood before them, panting. His white bangs hung in messy, windswept clumps about his violet eyes, and he stared up at Jade as he doubled over to catch his breath. Apprehension tightened its grip on Jade as he observed the steadiness of Saphir’s gaze…something about it spoke of resolve, the kind of resolve born of hatred and fury.

“Hey, Saph, what’s up?” inquired Franz, oblivious. “Where’s your coat?”

Saphir straightened, the hem of his unbuttoned shirt fluttering in the breeze. “I’m not cold.”

“Jade, who is this?” the blonde asked in a hushed voice.

The brunette looked disgusted, placing her arm around Franz’s shoulders as though for protection.

“That’s Saphir Neis. He’s in my psychology class,” she stated. “Is he a friend of you guys?”

“Yes, I am the friend of these two low-lifes, shamefully enough,” answered Saphir through gritted teeth.

“He’s in your psyche class, huh?” Jade’s smile flew into place, concealing his nervousness and radiating calm. “As the subject of study, I presume?”

“Oh, very funny, Jade. I think I might die laughing.” Saphir’s voice was cold, holding his anger at bay.

“What do you want, Saphy?” Franz spoke up.

“I think it should be very clear to you what I want, Jade, and what I’m sick and tired of.”

Jade gave a false smirk. “Both sick and tired? Quite an accomplishment for me to get both at once from you…”

“Sick, tired, exasperated, whatever adjectives you’d like,” Saphir snapped. “The fact is that I can’t take it anymore, and you know very well what I’m talking about.”

“Why don’t you fill us all in about it?”

Saphir was shaking with anger now, unwilling to be mocked. “Why don’t you start treating me like I’m actually worth something! You promised to come over and help me with the fonlamp linkages, and you leave me sitting there for an entire hour with no word on where you are! I’m your friend, Jade! Can’t you show me some smidgen of respect?!”

“Now, Saphir, don’t get all worked up about it,” Jade said carefully, with emphasis on each word to make sure Saphir was hearing him. “I just lost track of time—”

“Oh yes, because your time is by far more important than mine—”

“—there’s no reason to come running out here hysterically—” continued Jade, in vain.

“You condescending, arrogant bastard!” Saphir shrieked. “I can’t stand you talking down to me, like I’m some stupid, misguided child! Who do you think you are, Lorelei’s voice on Auldrant?!”

Jade’s smile weakened, the words biting at him. “You think we are the same, Saphir? On equal footing?”

“You’re no better than me!”

“You want to know what I really think of you?” The smile faded into a dangerous frown.

“Jade…” Franz warned, but his voice went unheard beneath Saphir’s scream of a reply.

“Say it! Keep nothing from me!”

“I think you’re pathetically immature!” Jade proclaimed. “I think you’re immature and I’ve outgrown you as a friend! I really am tired of catering to your insecurities, and I can’t believe that you haven’t figured that out on your own. I just have to shove the blatant fact in your face for you to get it, don’t I? Find yourself another friend, because I have better things to do than play with your stupid machines.”

Saphir stood stunned, wordless. His mouth opened and closed like that of a gasping fish. Franz and the girls stared at Jade, with similar expressions of shock at his cruelty.

“Good Yulia, that was nasty…” Franz breathed. “Saphy, you know he doesn’t mean all that—”

“—I do mean that you have to understand that I can’t spend so much time humoring you anymore,” Jade told Saphir in a softer voice. “Go play with Nephry or something. Say, we should all be getting to her party, shouldn’t we? She’s probably—”

The sound of sobbing cut him off. The eyes of the group turned to Saphir, whose Jade-centered gaze had become one of humiliated despair. Tears were running down the violet-eyed boy’s cheeks, and he was sniffling noisily. [3]

Franz gave a low whistle at Saphir’s state. The brown-haired girl hugged Franz closer to her, her expression a mix of pity and revulsion. The blonde girl took a step back.

“Ew,” she said, a little too loudly. “What is wrong with him? Someone get him a tissue or something…”

Jade did not move; indecisive over how to react. Part of him felt bad for Saphir, seeing how deeply the pronouncement had wounded him, while another part insisted that Saphir was being babyish and deserved what had been coming to him. What normal eighteen-year-old boy cried? Saphir had to be someone abnormal to be that emotionally screwed up…some kind of freak…

Saphir wiped his nose on his sleeve, causing the girls of the group to recoil. Jade himself winced a little at the grossness of that, and seeing the look on Jade’s face, Saphir squeezed his eyes shut and cried out in agony. [4]

“I HATE YOU JADE! I HATE YOU MUCH!!”

“Aww, Saph…” Franz said in a consoling tone. “Come here, it’s okay…”

“DAMN YOU, JADE! DAMN YOU FOR THIS!!”

“Saphir, calm down,” pleaded Jade. “The whole town will—”

“I’LL BE DAMNED IF I’LL CALM DOWN!” Saphir’s violet eyes opened again, now wide and wild, devoid of reason. His pale face was flushed with fury as he raised an arm and pointed accusingly at the friend who had betrayed him. His and Jade’s eyes locked, and for a moment they could only see each other out of all the world, neither of them noticing Nephry, who was gasping in petrified horror a few feet away.

Saphir murmured something under his breath, starting quietly, his voice gradually rising in volume. By the time Jade could make out what Saphir was saying, it was too late—the shining glyph had already blazed into hellish existence at Saphir’s feet, and his pointing arm shimmered with energy, deep reddish-pink in color, ghastly in intensity.

“Dear Lorelei..!” one of the girls said, recognizing what Saphir was doing. Jade put his hands up, attempting to gather his wits enough to summon a shield, but before he could a maelstrom of swirling energy appeared beneath him, and he felt stabs of white-hot pain pass through his body as he was thrown into the air, propelled by tendrils of radiation whose magenta tips danced like embers above the inferno. His breath caught in his throat; he could not scream, only flail helplessly as the arte seared his skin like thousands of white-hot, piercing blades until at last it had exhausted itself, and he fell flat on his back in the snow, the wind knocked from him.

He got up slowly, gritting his teeth against the agony, hatred alight in his eyes. Saphir was down on one knee now, clutching his chest and looking very much in pain himself…he must have forgotten to shield himself against the arte’s kickback in his fit of passion.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, Jade thought madly, and pointed at Saphir.

“If you’re asking for a fight, I’ll be glad to give it to you, you brainless freak! Felt like trying Bloody Howling out on me, hm? Well, see if you like this one!”

Whitish light shimmered around Jade, spurting up like luminous fountains from the snow and melting it, brightening quickly to a blinding flash as he spoke the incantation. The glyph appeared, then flickered out, and Jade felt a tingle of energy from where Saphir stood before him as the white-haired boy hastily shielded himself. Jade promptly did the same, then snapped his arm down as though delivering judgment, and at that instant a half-sphere of blackish energy enveloped Saphir, edged with churning fissures of violet.

Saphir screamed as the energy came at him from all sides, attacking every nerve in his body, causing him to collapse, twitching, like someone having a seizure. Still, as the sphere dissolved into sparks, Jade saw that the damage dealt was not as bad as it could have been. Saphir had protected himself well.

“Saphir!” Nephry screamed, finally finding her voice. Saphir sat up and turned for an instant to look at her, but Jade allowed him no pause—his mind fully focused on the battle, he raised his arm again. Points of white light shot out from beneath Saphir, like a target; and a crystalline-shaped dagger came down from above and thrust itself through the boy’s heart, sending waves of energy flying.

“Damnit, Jade, what are you doing?!” Franz yelled, aghast.

Saphir stood once more, wobbling on his feet, and managed a sickly smile. [5]“I’m not…going down…that easy. Not after I spent my childhood as the lab rat for your arte experiments…”

Nephry looked at Jade, startled by this revelation. “As your what?”

Franz didn’t look half as surprised, and sighed heavily at the thought.

“You always were quite a tenacious little rat,” said Jade, beckoning to Saphir. “Come now. Bite me.”

“Gladly.” Saphir gestured to the heavens, and a blast of violet-tinged energy came down, knocking Jade off his feet. Bolts of lightning shot out from the point of impact, with blue triangle-like shapes raking across the ground, edged with the lacy patterns distinctive to artes. Saphir stood still for a moment to reflect the kickback energy, then abruptly turned and began to run.

“What the hell is he doing? Get back here!” Jade cried, stumbling up. Nephry jumped forward and gripped Jade’s arm, stopping him from running after Saphir.

“Stop hurting him!”

Jade wrenched himself away from his sister’s grasp. “He started it and he’s going to pay the consequences!”

“Leave him be! You’re being an instigator! I came after him expecting him to practically try and kill you, and if he’s done with this, then don’t force him to continue it!”

Jade growled at Nephry and bolted after Saphir. Frustrated, she shrieked at him, then followed as quickly as she could, leaving a somewhat dazed Franz and the two girls behind.

Saphir ran from the school through another grove of pines, in the opposite direction from which he and Nephry had come. Angry at the head start Saphir had gotten due to Nephry’s intervention, Jade sprinted to catch up, but as he broke through the woods with Nephry at his heels, Saphir seemed to have completely disappeared. An empty street stretched before them, lined with dilapidated wooden buildings like those of an abandoned mining town, silent in the cold.

“Where are we?” Nephry wondered, glancing around at the wide porch of what appeared to be an old hotel, half wishing she knew where Saphir was and half hoping he would stay hidden.

“The outskirts of town,” said Jade, also looking around. “You know, from back before they deforested most of the area, and the economy moved to the ski slopes and all. Franz and I used to come here all the time and just—”

Something moved out at the middle of the street, a number of feet away. Nephry and Jade stopped and stared, watching as the distant figure stood up from behind a snowdrift, dramatically raising its arms to its sides. The blinding sunlight seemed to dim, and Nephry gasped as the buildings on either side of the figure abruptly burst into flame, their wooden frames crackling and snapping in the heat.

Saphir approached slowly, the fire following him as though being blown by a current of wind, igniting each one of the structures as he passed. His steps were methodical, savoring every moment, and as he came more clearly into view, the smoke billowing around him, a devious grin was on his face, displaying a sheer, vengeful insanity.

Jade grabbed Nephry’s arms and pulled her behind him. “Stay back.”

Numb with fear, Nephry did as she was told, peering out cautiously from her place at her brother’s back. She watched as Saphir brought his arms together sharply and clapped his hands, and glyphs appeared around Jade, the intricate circles adjusting in size like focusing lenses. Aware of the range of the arte, Jade spun on Nephry and shoved her further away from him, sacrificing a few precious seconds that could have been used to shield himself as concentrations like molten steel scorched the cobblestone street, and blasts of fire shot up at him, placing him in a whole new level of suffering.

When the energy finally dispersed with an orange flash, Jade crumpled to the ground. He lay unmoving, and Saphir stepped up to him, beaming with sadistic pleasure.

“Well, it seems that the one who started it is going to pay the consequences,” Saphir observed. He raised a hand, fingers splayed, ready to strike the final blow.

Abruptly Jade’s hand shot out and seized Saphir’s ankle, yanking him off balance. Saphir yelped and fell, and without warning a blast of air rocketed towards him, laced with green light, causing him to skid down the street, his back becoming dampened by the snow.

He got up shuddering, the glow of the licking flames around him casting eerie shadows across his features. A cloud seemed to have passed over the sun as Jade copied his movements, and the two stared at each other again, seething with hatred, knowing nothing more than how much in that moment they wanted each other dead.

Nephry took the opportunity to run up from behind Jade, sidling around a burning building in an attempt to approach Saphir, hoping that she could somehow make him see reason before he did anything more. Undoubtedly he would try something in retaliation against Jade now, and she didn’t know how much more of a beating her brother could take.

Saphir motioned with one arm; complex patterns of pink and golden light appearing below Jade. Jade motioned as well, and the same patterns appeared below Saphir. The two former friends smiled bitterly at the coincidence as they murmured identical incantations and put up shields, knowing that this would be the end.

Then, Nephry dived at Saphir, pushing him out of the way of the glyph her brother had summoned and cutting off Saphir’s preparations for the arte. Golden daggers of light came down, searing Nephry’s legs but leaving Saphir unharmed, and the glyph around Jade, no longer sustained, faded into nothingness.

“Stop it, stop it!” Nephry moaned, delirious with fear and pain. She crawled on top of Saphir and pinned him to the ground, and he struggled stubbornly against her.

“I could have beaten him! Let me go! I could have beaten him if you hadn’t interfered, I swear—!”

“Just stop it!” sobbed Nephry. “Just stop all the hating, and vengeance, and trying to prove who’s better! Get some sense back into you, both of you! For me, all right! For me on my birthday!”

Jade gazed at his sister, his ruby eyes softening, his battle-lust broken. “…Nephry…”

“Think about someone other than yourselves! Think about what I want! I only want you two to get along, like you used to, because it doesn’t matter who’s more mature or loyal or what! Let all your stupid grudges die, for me. Please…”

Saphir had stopped thrashing about in an attempt to get at Jade, so Nephry let go of his arms and rested her head against his chest, crying. His face reddened with shame and embarrassment and he closed his eyes. Off nearby, running footsteps and voices could be heard, one of which was distinguishable as Franz’s, calling Jade and Saphir’s names.

Jade stumbled over to Saphir, looking down at him and shaking his head. “All I can say is…you’re just so…pathetic.”

“You too, Jade…you too,” said Saphir.

Jade sat down next to his former friend and sister there in the snowy street, waiting for Franz to reach them, waiting to assure Franz that everything was fine, feeling obligated to say that everything was all right, despite the fact that both he and Saphir knew such a statement to be a lie.