After the death of a king, you'd expect the world to stop—to try to patch the great void he should have left. But everything just... tinued on.

  The uptown merts hustled uhe bright sun, and kids frolicked through the busy streets. Don't they care? Why doesn't the sky weep for our king, just the same way I want to so badly?

  But this isn't any pce to cry. I would only ruin what little of an image King Sakari had left.

  "Our King Sakari is dead. Lockwood Sakari is... dead," Lasory bowed and spoke slowly and delivered this message, the st message a Messenger will ever tell, with dignity and posure on his tired, dirty face as he told of our homend's final moments.

  I'd have thought people would hold their breaths, gasp, cover their faces with wide-eyed looks of horror. The same way I felt.

  But Donthaar's king merely nodded.

  Snap pop.

  That was all it took to leave my gaze empty and lifeless, fixated on the fire as I remembered my time in the great hall just minutes ago. In a room full of people, most of whom close friends, partners, allies, with arms around each other and carefree glee filling the room, I couldn't feel more isoted here by the firepce.

  "His Majesty and his three heirs, Laurie Sakari, Kino Sakari, and Myui-Renee Sakari, were all sin in a successful raid upon the Kingdom."

  Myu. I once again remembered her long, purple hair. But then I remembered the building crumbling all around us, how she reached out her bloodied hand, barely able to breathe.

  I felt bad that only someone like me was there to take it.

  But that touch was long gone, and my hands were full only of my own flesh as I held myself in a hug, hunched over in this chair with my greasy ginger hair falling in front of my face.

  All I could do was stare at the fmes ahose events over and over. It felt like I was watg my life through a television s in a dark room, with no trol of myself and e to ge the el.

  And all they had on was reruns.

  "You may take refuge here," I recalled the King saying as he directed one of the men to escort us into the gallery. It felt pin and ft. Minimal at best.

  He thanked Lasory and I for our message, then waved us on discuss matters of war. I guess my greatest loss was just another piece of information for him. A mark to check off on his agenda.

  Ba-tch, pop! The fire raged on.

  The great hall of Donthaar's pace acked nearly shoulder to shoulder with people. Lasory and I were squeezed between them so that the so-called "Hero-Knights" could address the room.

  It made me almost as sick as the fear of death from arrows and spells decimating my home, and I couldn't focus on what those knights were saying. Something something war something. Nothing ever ges.

  Leaders sit atop their cushy pedestal and abuse all the power they're given. I absolutely despise leaders. Rulers. Top-of-the-food- gluttons. Well, truth be told... I hate being here again. In this loop. Finally thinking I'm at home, like I'm safe, and just watg everyone around me die. Worst of all, doing nothing about it. I mean what I do?

  The people that should be doing the right things in the first pce - putting their followers before anything and making sure none of this happens - they're off basking in the glory and soaking up all their privilege. They're the whole reason I'm at the bottom of this cycle again, scared, helpless, and bowing up to the food .

  And boy could I feel it. Ead every spectator, seemingly even the king himself, had their eyes trained on me, not meeting my gaze, but around it, where my Scar soaked up their hate and began to burn. A mere mark on my eye paints me here, too, as less than. Of course, who would I be to expect human decy here, when I struggled to find it in Sakari?

  They didn't have to care about my issues... my king... my family...

  But that damned mark on my forehead drew every eye.

  My insides felt a lot like the fire. Or perhaps the logs that fueled it. How infihose fmes were, with no beginning or end. A a fihing, still and lifeless, could create something so...

  Monstrous.

  CLAP CLAP CLAP!

  That's not the sound of the fire.

  I snapped my eyes wide open and gasped, shaking my head frantically.

  "Jeez, I was almost afraid you were gonna start drooling for a sed there." I khat voice. It made me feel safe.

  I tered my gaze at a soft-skinned young woman with long, wavy brown hair. It had a shine and luster to it, a smoothhat reflected the light so uniformly. I've never seen anything like that before. She was standing right in front of me.

  I got a sense of prissiness, kinda goody-two-shoes-ey and stuck up. She led me to this room after the meeting with the King, or at least I think she did. They separated me from Lasory, and everything after is a blur.

  "I show you how to make it like this if you want," she giggled awkwardly as she noticed me staring at her hair.

  I looked away to the warm fire behihe whole room, well-sized and lined with tables, sofas, a bar, and packed with people, was warm. Its deep hues and deeply-colored dle lights should have felt homely and fortable.

  It could only feel cold here. All I could think about was what was happening to Lasory, and what would be happening to me. I mean, it really get worse?

  "Girl, you are cold," said the woman whht me here. She grabbed my arm and looked at its bluish-purple tint, givihe faded navy blue sweater she had on, which I promptly zipped up and tried to warm up in, scooting practically right in front of the fire.

  "Yonna burn alive if you're that close," she joked, letting out an ho ugh, then sat down in her chair and drummed ohighs for a moment. She had this cheery, unbreakably upbeat vibe about her that was uling to me. It's hard to feel down when someone like her's o you. Even prissy as she seems to be.

  I gave her a lighthearted smile, but didn't know what to say, and just awkwardly looked back to the pretty bze. It brought me back to... to Sakari...

  Burn alive...huh? Sometimes I wish I had... instead of them.

  I felt my heart start to pick up.

  The fmes ed everything there. Her purple hair... Ayami... the Rai Tree... everything.

  By now I was starting to shake, looking at the fire. It could jump out at any sed, and just like that, we'd all be gone, and none of us could do a damn thing about it.

  The fmes would spread, lig across the wood and spiraling outward like a parasite that exists only to e and take. Just the same way the delier fell. I heard Ayami scream out.

  She never made noises like that... she was always so dignified and hardened.

  My breaths were shallow and my eyes wide as my mouth began to open in horror.

  It burned everything! The castle... ash! Their bodies.

  Everyone's dead. They're all gone!

  "Hey!" I snapped out of it to the sound of the girl shouting. "You okay?"

  I looked her in the eye and tried to muster out a "yes", but I couldn't do it. I shook my head as my eyes filled with tears. I think she made the e, and swiftly came to my side, and ed her arms around me.

  "I'm sorry," I apologized as my throat tightened up and my voice began to strain. I don't know if it was because she seemed so familiar... no... it's not that. I just 't hold it in anymore.

  My chest started to boun vulsions as I began to cry, but I sniffled hard and tried to make it stop, which wasn't very successful.

  "Nono, don't be sorry." She moved me so my back was to the bze. I was staring at the warmly-lit room full of food and loud, cheery people. The noise and joy all seemed so far away, like this fire in the dim er was a se off from the festivities. "It's okay to cry if you o cry."

  I returned a smile, though it didn't e out very much like one, and wiped away my tears, taking deep breaths to try and calm myself down. I really didn't want to cry. Not in front of people.

  But then I thought about Myu again. She had her hands behind her back as she twirled around with the purest, happiest look, giggling and beaming at me. It was a distant memory, the trebles of her ugh eg faintly, as though even the memory, too, was dead.

  But that ugh will never be heard again.

  And just like that, my lips tightened and puckered, and my lungs seemed to freeze in pce as I grabbed this random girl, pced my head in her chest and cried silently - screaming wordlessly as nothing but raspy breath could muster its way out.

  And there she held me for a minute as I felt just as anxious as I did sad, trying to force myself to calm down. It's not that I don't like being vulnerable, I just don't want to get made fun of f ever again.

  "Hey, Lydia?" Myu's voice came bato my mind as I sat with a tear-soaked fa this girl's arms.

  "Yeah?" I sobered up from my ugh.

  "Do you still want to leave us?"

  I remember there was a time when I didn't pn on living with her forever. I had another home to return to. People I o know were okay.

  But I forsook those people. This was the path I chose, and now I'm paying the price.

  The girl grabbed a chair to put o mine and sat far too close, pletely disregarding my need for some personal space, especially now. But I guess we're past that point.

  "The King of Sakari is dead." Lasory's words echoed in my mind, ricocheting off the bones of my skull and creating a miserable cacophony that made me nauseous.

  All these people made me nauseous. So careless and oblivious. I guess ignorance is bliss, right?

  I don't even know where to go from here... They're all gone. My whole life. All the goals I'd finally learo make, burned away and indistinguishable among a sea of ash.

  I mean, what else is there to do? My home is gone... my family... my life. I'm surrounded by so many people I don't know. And every single one of them is totally oblivious to the death of my home and family.

  The sery kept my mind occupied as I tried to drown out this overwhelming wave of nihilism that left me feeling like I should turn around and jump into the firepit.

  There used to be hope. My faith I pced in Lockwood as a leader - knowing him to be a truly amazing king... Kino...

  Oh Kino...

  My face fell impossibly low and my hands grew limp.

  "What's going on?" She asked. "You picked an awfully festive pce to be so sad. Why not pick your up a some food?"

  Well don't put it too bluntly now. Of course, you wouldn't kher. None of these people even had a clue what I was going through. How ignorant you all be?

  "Nothing, I'm sorry. Just been a long day." I said at barely a whisper.

  That awarded me a rather bnk face, ohat betrayed how little its owner knew of how to deal with this mess in front of her.

  "Well, I'll hang out here with you and you let me know if you wanna talk about it." She was trying her best to be upbeat, and I wasn't giving her anything. Sorry, I guess.

  With a little nod, my eyes drifted ahead.

  "You sitting here won't really help me any," I shot at her, wishing I could just be left aloo my devices. She was really up in my bubble.

  My unwanted pany tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. "Something happen?"

  "It just doesn't matter."

  Wow. Buzzkill much, aren't you, little ol me?

  "Talking about it might help a little," she suggested as she pced a hand on my shoulder.

  God you are just so annoyingly persistent! Would you take a hint?!

  "I just lost someone close, I guess," I muttered.

  This hand on my shoulder became a side hug as we both watched dozens of people ugh and talk and py party games.

  I sighed dramatically. I guess I'm not getting rid of her and her bubble-poppiering.

  "I've lost a friend, too," she said sympathetically. "I get it."

  Sure you do.

  I was almost disgusted by that ent, and had to fight the urge to throw her off me and find a new pce to sit.

  But my deep-rooted irritation was interrupted by another woman - a taller, more collected, sharp-faced brue wearing a fur robe dress and an impossibly bright face - approached with a pte of cake in her hand.

  "Give the pirl some space," her richer, yet sweeter voice scolded. "Ahat fire, would you Nuvire? You might be able to break a few of her fingers off and use them to chill dessert if she gets any colder."

  The girl did as she was asked as the woman in the fur approached.

  "This is Sage," she cheerily introduced, pointing at the girl, who happily smiled. "She's one of my students, training to bee a Knight!"

  I took another look at her, too. Prissy-looking, maybe, but there's more to her than that. Friendliness in the softness of her face. Blessed with a well-curved, feminine figure and a glow shining in the subtle hardness in her eyes that crept out behind any face she made.

  "And this is Fezege," this Sage halfheartedly pointed back, her smile turning to irritation just as quickly as it appeared. "She's a teacher." Something in me panicked when I saw her, though this was the first time we'd met.

  I was silent, staring at all the people sitting around tables and chairs, standing around, talking and gathering.

  "You should eat something sweet. You know stressed spelled backwards is dessert, right?" Said Sage.

  "She's right," Fezege agreed, handihe slice of cake in her hands. "I'll grab some tea."

  She promptly returned with a pte full of steaming cups, along with a man wearing a dirtied white cloak following closely behind her.

  I shot up and ran towards the man, leaping through the air and throwing my arms and legs around him like a child. He ughed in what sounded like relief aurhe hug, swaying and twisting side to side as he pulled oightly.

  Then followed a sincere, wide smile, despite how much I'm sure he was hurting. Seeing him with the face of rown bck hair he had - the ers of his eyes droopy and weary with fatigue at the back of his expression - made me worry deeply, but the look he gave reminded me that everything would be okay.

  "I'm okay, Lydia."

  ~

  [A/N]

  Hey!

  It's a bit unruly to put an author's note in the first chapter. I know. But today's the big 2-0 for me. Even though by teicality I'm already 20, I haven't goo bed yet, so it's not tomorrow! And even more teically, I wasn't born until like 9am or something.

  It still doesn't feel real. That my age starts with a 2 now. I'm not a teenager anymore, or at least I won't be by the time I pass out. I'm fighting sleep but figured it wouldn't do any good to go off without doing some writing.

  For those that don't know, this is a revised version of this story. Midnight Wings itself is a redux of my first isekai. It's evolved and ged so much, and its main character has helped define me as a person. Truly. I 't spoil anything, of course, but everyone in this story is so grown up now in their own way and it's precious.

  So, before I'm off to sleep I wao jot this down. Cheers to the st 7 years of writing. They've been tumultuous and irregur, as has been the writing itself, and I'd be foolish to think life will be any more predictable and kind. But I've made a lot of itments as far as this story and many of my others, and my inability to stick to them dies with my teenage years. I'll be doing NaNoWriMo this year, 55,555 words in 5 weeks! And this awesome tale, along with a few ones I've got mapped out, will be out and rog in full swing.

  Cheers to you, to any of you straer people whose reads and votes I hold on to so dearly.

  Cheers to ten more years of writing, and to Midnight Wings~

  -Kitsuu/SireSwag