#dkfjkdsjf full disclosure i had the idea for this one instantly

[sezja]

one word prompt:

41. — insanity

One Word Writing Prompts

"But that's..."

"The gods' own truth," Bekwyl gasps out, dropping heavily to sit on the stairs, winded - he'd all but sprinted all the way from Garik, by the look of him; Thaffe offers him some water, which he gladly accepts. Anyone born and raised in Amh Araeng ought to know better than to run during the hottest part of the day; even he and Jeryk had retreated from their work on the tracks into the old offices to pore over the same old books and papers left behind by the Stoneworks.

Nothing new to be found there, but at least it passed the time.

At least until they'd heard Bekwyl shouting outside; that got them back outside in a hurry. Their friend had all but collapsed halfway into the railyard, and together they'd hauled him toward the offices.

"The Warrior of Darkness is just a faerie tale," Thaffe hears himself say, wondering if the man might not have a touch of heatstroke. "There's no-"

Bekwyl wipes his mouth on his sleeve, handing Thaffe's canteen back. "I'm telling you what I heard. Night's come to Lakeland."

Overhead, the sky shimmers with unrelenting Light - just as it has for a hundred years, ever since the Warriors of Light had slain the Shadowkeeper and brought doom to the world. And the Flood of Light, frozen in its tracks over the ruins of Nabaath Areng and Amh Malik, stands as a testament to the ironclad hold Light has on Norvrandt. If night has returned to the skies over Lakeland, then surely... surely something would have changed; something would seem different...

"It sounds like madness," Jeryk says, with his usual cheer, taking his own seat on the stairs. "Just run-of-the-mill insanity-"

"If it'd been just one person, mayhap." Bekwyl's caught his breath now, but his face remains flushed with excitement. "But it wasn't just one - it's every merchant out of Lakeland these past few days, according to Zhun Zun, and he's got no reason to lie."

Thaffe finally takes a seat on the man's other side, satisfied that he won't need to sprint back to Twine to fetch a doctor.

Probably.

"Did anyone say how the night had returned?" And don't say the Warrior of Darkness.

"Oh, for sure. They say the Lightwarden was killed during an attack on Holminster Switch."

A Lightwarden was- "But killing Lightwardens only-"

"Makes another Lightwarden, right." Bekwyl smiles, lopsided; the scar on his cheek tugging at it - he rarely smiles. This has got him excited. "It seems the Crystarium's found a way around that little problem."

"Or maybe," Jeryk pipes up, green eyes sparkling. "Maybe they've found the Warrior of Darkness!"

Thaffe eyes Bekwyl. "Now you've done it."

But Jeryk bounces back to his feet, sweltering heat be damned. "What else could it be, Thaffe? Someone who can slay Lightwardens and restore darkness to the world? That's got to be the Warrior of Darkness!"

The Warrior of Darkness is just a faerie tale, Thaffe knows; just a bedtime story mothers tell their children... and a comfort to the dying, when they meet their end beneath that blazing sky. But if it's true that night's returned to Lakeland, then... then is it possible it could return to the rest of Norvrandt, too? The rest of the world?

"It could be anything," he replies, struggling to stay level-headed against the onslaught of Jeryk's enthusiasm. "The Crystarium's always coming up with new things - who's to say they didn't find a way to neutralize the Lightwarden's aether, and who's to say it'll work anywhere else?"

But this does little to quell Jeryk. "And who's to say it won't? What if the Warrior of Darkness - or whatever - comes here, and..." He beams. "And they need the trolley to defeat the Lightwarden of Amh Araeng? Magnus would have to see the logic in that-"

"That's patently absurd."

Bekwyl, having thoroughly stirred Jeryk into a frenzy, rises and brushes sand from his clothing. "Best I go share the news with everyone else."

"And leave me to deal with-" Thaffe gestures, amused, toward Jeryk, who has already hurried off to continue working, doubtless dreaming about the Warrior of Darkness striding into Twine insisting upon taking a trolley - of all things - into battle.

"He's your problem," Bekwyl replies, grinning. "Good luck."