Harmony

To close her eyes was a reflex. To open them was even more of a struggle still. To prop herself up on her elbows was a nightmare, her body aching from an impact with what was--essentially--nothing at all. Octavia wasn't alone, and there were many who still remained bound to that which lie below. They, too, were severed from their partners, more or less defenseless. Some fought to reach for what was needed. Some didn't, still disoriented in the wake of Rani's radiant assault. Octavia's blood rushed through her ears, and she leapt to her feet in a panic. Stradivaria was irrelevant, cast aside and useless.

And as Rani lifted her fingers, finding five sparkling tips to be enough for a singular Maestro, the panic that ripped through Octavia's heart was unlike any she'd ever felt. The first notes out of the girl's mouth, a deceptively-lovely melody tumbling from her lips in time with the starlight in her palms, were enough to bring the Ambassador's pumping blood to a halt. They were enough to still her lungs, to squeeze her soul, and to threaten every last ounce of focus she could hope to garner.

The terror she found in their eyes as they raised their head slowly, unable to rebel in any capacity, broke her from the inside-out. It was all they could do to watch what was to come. Octavia refused to do the same, and her aching body struggled to move before her thoughts could catch up.

"Stop."

She never made it a single step. She was greeted with steel, instead, taut against the skin of her throat. She felt the cold sting of metal before she found the drive to look down, and she heard the demand in her ear before she'd placed its meaning or speaker.

Rani did as she was told.

Her song ceased, as did the radiant sparkle that had boiled in her hands. Slowly, she turned her head, fixing Octavia with a look veiled in full by a different flavor of luminescence entirely. It was still a relief that she couldn't see the child's hollow gaze. It took her more than a moment to realize it wasn't meant for her at all, rising instead just beyond her shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Ramulus asked calmly, even in the wake of battle.

The metal against Octavia's throat was uncomfortable. It was sharp, pressing just a bit too deeply for comfort. She didn't enjoy it. She didn't particularly understand it. She wished it would stop, and it hurt each time she swallowed. She feared breathing. Her heart, confused as it was, slowed rather than raced. It was an odd feeling.

The breaths so close to her ear were labored, a stark contrast to the low and steady voice that countered the Lord of All. "One more move, and she's my toll."

Octavia's eyes widened. She couldn't turn around. She couldn't move an inch, really, still bound as she was. She liked to imagine that the Maestra in question was bluffing. It didn't make her acting any less painful, for how forcefully she was pressing the knife into Octavia's skin. In her peripheral vision, she recognized the hilt.

"You would not harm one for whom you have battled so desperately," Ramulus argued.

"If she's going to die anyway, I'll kill her and then myself," Viola spat.

Breathing was starting to hurt. Octavia could hardly bring herself to, regardless.

"Viola?" she croaked, her words pained in more ways than one.

"Viola, what the hell are you doing?" she heard Josiah cry.

"If I kill her," Viola tried, "she's mine, isn't she? I've figured that much out. If I kill her before you do, you're stuck. You'll never have her."

Still, Octavia's heart slowed further. It wasn't out of calm, but rather a raw and chilling fear she could barely pin down. It would not at all have been how she'd expected to go. She wondered how long it had taken Viola to come up with a plan like this, let alone to gamble with a life that wasn't hers. Octavia had bet much the same life with the Lord of All before. It was the most dangerous bet that she could imagine, and Viola knew so little of the spider web.

"You would accept a world plagued by Dissonance evermore, then," Ramulus reasoned.

"We've already accepted that, if it means she stays," Viola spat.

"You would forsake others for the sake of one alone."

Viola hesitated. "She's our world! We've already done so much for you all! You're telling me there isn't a single other way you can get back? Nothing whatsoever? You're the Lord of All!"

Rani shook her head. "It must be the blood of the Ambassador that stains my touch. The Ambassador is to become my toll, and that is all that is to be done. There is no alternative. I say once more, this is not a choice made out of malice."

"Then forget it! Stay here and rot with the rest of us!" Viola growled.

"You would not kill her."

Octavia yelped in pain as the pressure cracked her skin at last. The searing sting beneath the knife was more than enough to leave scarlet bubbles kissing the edge of the steel. Her heart dropped into her stomach. For how she could feel the vibrations of Viola's hands shaking around the handle, her vision outright blurred. The world was spinning far too fast.

"Vi…ola?" she practically whispered.

She got no answer. The labored breaths that continued to plague her ears only quickened, and the blade only continued to tremble against her. Octavia didn't beg. She refused to let it settle.

"Are you out of your mind?" she heard Renato scream.

Harper was just as frantic, distant as his voice was. "Knock it off!"

She didn't want to cry. She didn't want to so much as consider the possibility that Viola was being serious. Still, she could feel the tears beginning to prick at the edges of her eyes. She, too, was having trouble thinking of an alternative. Maybe it wasn't the worst way to go.

"It's…okay if it's you," Octavia murmured, struggling to keep her voice from cracking.

Viola didn't answer. Every breath in her ear rattled on its way out.

Octavia's best attempts at composure didn't last long. "I just don't want you to get hurt."

It was rapid. Viola was more or less choking, and every further press of the knife only brought with it more bleeding beads that rushed to meet steel. Octavia hated it. She closed her eyes.

"Would you stand for her, should you know what she has unleashed upon your world?"

Octavia froze.

The blade at her throat relaxed, the taut pressure weakening enough to leave red helplessly dripping down her skin. So, too, did the Maestra behind her find a startling calm.

He wouldn't dare.

"Would you still struggle on her behalf, knowing she has undone that for which you have risked your lives?"

It was Octavia, instead, whose breath quickened against her will.

"What are you…talking about?" Viola asked hesitantly, her voice still painfully close.

"You will have your world of Dissonance, as you have requested," Ramulus spoke. "The Ambassador has ensured it, whether now or upon the distant future."

At the mention of her title, the eyes of every Maestro that traveled to her burned fiercely. The sting of their confused gazes against her skin hurt more than any knife at her throat ever could.

"Octavia, what's he talking about?" Harper repeated.

"A world of…Dissonance?" Madrigal pressed much the same.

For how hard she'd battled to escape the grasp of the spider web, the Lord of All dragged her into it in full. No amount of writhing was working. Octavia pleaded with every ounce of desperation she could summon in her heart for him to stop.

Ramulus did the opposite.

"In defying that which was meant to keep your realm safe, she has instead endangered it for all time. It is an irreversible choice, one of which she was warned time and time again. She has unleashed that which had once brought the world to ruin, and will do so yet again. You will live in fear, then, for how the wrath of she who has sinned is unpredictable still. For what peace you claim to pursue, the Ambassador has squandered it in favor of one alone. For what love you claim to protect, the Ambassador has sentenced it to death."

Their silence, too, burned. Four painful sets of eyes ran her through, perplexed and anxious in equal measure. One didn't. It was the one Octavia feared the most. He, too, had touched that puzzle long ago.

"She…Who Brought the World to Ruin?"

Words spoken so softly, tinted with the same disbelief, were in stark contrast to the sharpness in his eyes. He didn't quite shred her to pieces. Still, he pinned her down. It had been some time. This was the worst possible place he could've done it.

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"Wait, who the hell is that?" Renato asked.

It was Josiah alone, though, to whom Octavia offered her wide eyes and terror. "I-I…"

"You…found her?" he pushed.

"I--"

"Did you…guide her?"

"Josiah, listen--"

He tensed, crossing his arms more so with discomfort than in confrontation. "What does that…actually mean?"

"Josiah, please, hear me out!"

"Does that mean she's going to do it again?" he tried, the pressure in his voice more than notable.

Octavia shook her head desperately. "That's not true!"

He wasn't quite frantic. Still, even beneath his calm demeanor, she wasn't ignorant to the way his hands were trembling. "Why would you take that risk?"

"Josiah, she won't do it!" Octavia cried. "She's not going to do it, I swear!"

"How are you so sure?"

"I know her! I know her heart!"

"So she's just out there now?" he nearly cried right back. "Just…whenever she wants?"

"Josiah, she's not going to do anything, I promise! I swear on it!"

"For the rest of our lives?" he shouted.

"What are you guys even talking about?" Harper interrupted loudly.

"Josiah, please, don't!" Octavia begged, tears at last dripping down her cheeks in earnest. "Please!"

For how badly she'd feared unraveling the spider web before them, he did so surprisingly quickly. It was so like him. It was instant.

"All the Muses are here because one Muse screwed up," Josiah explained sharply, gesturing with immense distress as he did so. "That Muse wrecked everything, and that Muse is the reason we have Dissonance in the first place! Apparently, that Muse still exists, and apparently, Octavia guided her, and now she can do it again whenever she wants!"

Madrigal flinched. "But how can one Muse--"

"She ended up Dissonant, and she destroyed the entire world!" Josiah yelled, his voice shaking.

"Josiah, she didn't do it on purpose!" Octavia sobbed. "It really was an accident!"

His eyes struck her with the lightning she'd thought she'd grown immune to. Even in panic rather than ire, it still shocked her to her core. "Did she make it to Above this time, then?"

Octavia swallowed what sobs she could. The effort was futile.

Josiah's trembling voice rose as he aimed one pointed finger squarely into the nothingness beyond. "Octavia, did she make it across the boundary?" he repeated hurriedly.

Octavia squeezing her eyes shut briefly was all the answer he needed, if his reaction meant anything. When she opened them once more, his fingers were tangled tightly in his hair, and his labored breaths betrayed the calm he struggled and failed to reclaim.

"So this Muse is just…out there somewhere? Where did she end up?" Viola murmured.

Renato did the same. "And she's…gonna do all this stuff again? Hold up, how the hell did she destroy the world if we're right here? I mean, not including all this mess, it looks fine to me!"

Even as innocent as she knew Madrigal's question to be, it still tore Octavia's heart in half.

"Why would you do that?" the Spirited girl asked softly.

Octavia didn't bother restraining her sobs. "She deserved to be free, too! She deserved a second chance! She used to love the world, and everyone hurt her! She didn't do anything out of hate, and she's still capable of love! There's things out there that she loves, I just know it! There's people that she loves! What kind of Ambassador am I if I pick and choose who's allowed to go?"

She was well aware of Rani watching her break down, silent and content to drink in her desperate rationale. She didn't care. "She had a Maestro that loved her, and she loved him right back! She's not evil, and she doesn't hurt just for the sake of hurting! If you really think she's going to do it again, then just…kill me now!"

"Does that mean that's gonna be hanging over our heads for the rest of our lives, though?" Harper asked hesitantly, his voice more so tinged with fear than judgment.

"I wouldn't have done it if I didn't trust her!" she argued.

Ramulus' voice, of all things, burned. "She is deceptive."

"Stop it!" Octavia snapped, her face still blighted by tears.

"She had erred."

She'd almost missed his voice. Her sorrowful eyes darted high. It was a reflex.

"She had…truly strayed from a rational path, and her heart was veiled by poisonous curiosity."

For how his vessel still languished beside her, he was the last one she'd expected to intervene.

"Know, though, that she is…hasty. She is stubborn and hurried in her every action."

For how he stared down the Lord of All, bound to a child as he was, she was enraptured by him.

"If she were to have brought the world to ruin twice over, she would have already done so."

Rani didn't waver, nor did she move. "You would defend her?" Ramulus spoke.

Stratos nodded, high above Octavia as he was. "I know of her heart. In her darkest moments, she was yet pure. If the Ambassador has led her to peace upon this world thus far, then she will embrace it forever more. If the Ambassador, pure of heart as she is, has placed her faith in such a misguided sinner, then I, too, will trust in that faith."

The two Heartful Muses were silent for a moment. Octavia held her breath. It had been so long since she'd considered him beautiful. It had been so long since she'd looked. Stratos didn't shirk or shy away, and she had his resplendent visage in full.

"I believed you to be more rational than this, Stratos."

"I speak only of what I have witnessed with my heart, my Lord."

It was not Octavia alone who was an audience to their disagreement. Every Maestro's eyes had risen just as high and were just as wide as her own, although she highly doubted their hearts pounded equally as fast. She doubted they were filled with something even she couldn't fully describe.

"Would you stand against me as I claim your own?"

Octavia didn't want to hear his wordless answer again. The longer he was silent, the more confident she became in his dismissal of her life's worth. Her soul hurt.

Octavia.

His words weren't for the Lord of All. They weren't for any Maestro but the one who'd once carried his vessel with such love and care. She eyed him silently.

There is exactly one alternative.

Octavia clung to his every word. She didn't need to respond. She knew that he knew her heart inside and out.

I will beg of your trust to save your life. This is the only way.

She couldn't decide whether to answer him from within or aloud.

What…do you mean? she ultimately decided.

For how still Stratos was, and for how they stared down one another without words aloud, Octavia wondered if the others knew what was happening. She doubted two mutual gazes could escape Rani's own.

Let this serve as my apology, by which I have wronged you in every way.

She battled fresh tears. She didn't want to hate him. She didn't need to hate him.

I'm not mad at you.

Stratos shook his head, somewhat indifferent to her own apology. Our Lord can do that which we cannot. Of this, I am certain you are aware.

Octavia nodded silently. I know.

Nonetheless, Stratos continued, it is true that it must be the Ambassador who pays the toll. For what power our Lord possesses, it is imperative that the blood of the Ambassador carries him across the boundary. For he who has shaped this realm, it absolutely must be so.

Where are you…going with this? she asked.

He paused, eyeing her with the faceless gaze she'd never hated. I carry within me the blood of the Ambassador.

Octavia only watched him. I don't understand. Me?

It is not you of whom I speak.

She tilted her head in the slightest. Stradivaria?

She…lives on, within my heart.

And the thought of her alone, too, flooded Octavia's.

I will…transfer the toll.

Her eyes widened, and she recoiled beneath the striking weight of his words. You can do that?

For he alone, who can do what no other can.

But I've already witnessed it!

I am aware.

Then how is this supposed to--

You will do so again.

Octavia's thoughts slowed. She turned his words over again and again, and still they didn't click.

That doesn't make sense. The only toll I've ever seen more than once is Mixoly's, and that was by accid--

You will have a new toll.

And when it sank in, it did so with the grace of acid seeping into her veins. It seared her heart and melted down into every last ounce of her blood. Octavia shook her head slowly.

Is that even possible?

Once more, I say, for him and him alone.

And he'll agree to that?

He will not.

Then how?

We shall be swift, and not for a moment shall I leave your side.

Stratos never did, to be fair.

Can I even…witness that?

You have done so for Mixoly, and of that, I am proud.

Octavia couldn't fight the way by which her eyes watered again. That was just her memories, though!

It shall be much the same.

She wondered if the tears that spilled, fresh and tinged with sorrow she couldn't control, were equally as confusing to those who didn't understand. Stradivaria, I don't want to do this!

I had never wanted this path for you. I hope this will serve as your truth.

Stradivaria--

Time and time again have I spoken of what she would have desired. Octavia, above all else, this is what she would have desired most. I swear this on all that I am.

"Stradivaria," she whispered instead, her voice cracking instantly. It wasn't subtle. She was well aware, for how many eyes fell to her at once.

You are beloved.

Taking hold of him was a nightmare.

You are adored.

Rising to her feet, too, was just as such.

You always shall be.

And for the last time in her life, Maestra or otherwise, she felt his warmth as she nestled him upon the safe haven of her shoulder yet again.

It was where he'd always belonged.