At first, Haru felt a blinding, excruciating pain that made him fall to his knees in agony.

Everyone around him had done the same thing. Some were even clutching their heads. Lady Himiko was groaning. Even Oda’s face was contorted in anger, and he was shouting from the pain. The look on Canute’s face, as his mind was wracked but his body was forced upward, made Haru’s heart ache.

It felt like a migraine—but only if a migraine was actually a mind-shattering earthquake. In a word, excruciating.

Ranmaru’s magic was strong, and with every moment that passed, Haru was even more sure that he wouldn’t be able to fight the siren off any longer. The pain was just too much to bear.

Haru needed to act fast. He placed both of his hands on the ground and closed his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm his mind.

Nature, as always, was speaking to him. He could feel the earth throb and move, every ebb and every echo of the plants, trees, and all kinds of flora in the world, slowly beginning to take shape and bring him focus. It was as if the world itself spoke through him, and he could feel every kami, every nymph, dryad, and nature spirit in the earth connect to him through the soil.

It calmed him down. It brought him a modicum of peace, and best of all, it loosened Ranmaru’s grip on him. The pain he’d felt, magnified as it was, seemed to ebb away, moving into the earth, as though the world around him was becoming one with his body.

A soft green glow appeared over his hands, spreading out through the ground.

Haru concentrated.

Please.

As Haru shivered and shook, and let the pain dissolve through his bond with nature, Canute continued to walk forward like some kind of disjointed marionette, one step over another, grunting as he tried to pry himself away from Ranmaru’s hold.

The earth shuddered and shook all around them. There was the sensation of the spirits of nature and the earth in his mind, a multitude of thousands of faces and voices, whispering louder and louder until it strengthened into a crescendo, and Haru couldn’t take it any longer.

Punish him.

Slay him.

Make him pay.

Ranmaru’s eyes shot toward Haru. “What do you think you’re doing?” the siren snapped.

Haru blinked. What was he doing? He slowly looked up at Ranmaru. Although the kami seethed, and he felt an inordinate amount of anger toward this person he barely even knew, Haru knew just what kind of a person he was. Manipulative and controlling, cruel and selfish, Ranmaru was a person who used people and discarded them when they were no longer necessary.

Don’t let him get away with this.

The universe punishes those who abuse its gift.

Our world cries for vengeance.

The voices in his mind grew stronger and stronger, and the magic that streamed through his body grew…angrier. That was the best way Haru could describe it.

Haru didn’t like that look in Ranmaru’s eye. Not one bit. “I’m making sure you can’t hurt anyone ever again,” he muttered.

Ranmaru raised an eyebrow. The look on his face was one of derision. Even now, his haughtiness oozed in each and every action he made. “And how do you suppose you’ll do that?”

Haru closed his eyes and pressed his hands even more firmly against the ground. The light his hand emitted grew stronger, emanating out into the surrounding earth. As the world trembled around them, Haru put all of his intentions into his magic.

Save him.

Keep him safe.

Guide him into the embrace of the world once more.

He wanted a future for himself and Canute. Even if he didn’t know his Kindred that well, Haru knew they needed a chance to make things work. As he saw the light, the life in Canute’s eyes, begin to dim out, Haru felt all of his hope, all of his need, all of his desperation spread out through his body, through his arm, through his fingertips.

The cool expression on Ranmaru’s face gave way to surprise, then ultimately anger. Perhaps even the slightest bit of terror. “No, you’re not going to do that,” Ranmaru said underneath his breath, almost as if he knew exactly where Haru’s magic was going. There was fear in his voice. Surprising, for someone who was so full of himself just moments before.

Even Haru didn’t know exactly where his magic was going, truthfully. It seemed that the universe had delivered this response.

Nevertheless, Ranmaru’s response was immediate. Canute was heading toward Himiko and Oda, but instead his body turned like some sort of robot, suddenly heading straight toward Haru. And although Canute couldn’t control his body, there was that sudden flicker of light and life in his eyes once more.

It was like Canute was apologizing to him, not that Ranmaru could hear his Kindred. His fangs were bared, and he looked like the quintessential monster, but there were unshed tears in his eyes. His body betrayed him, and he was a prisoner within his own physical shell.

Canute rocketed forward, and it felt like every split-second span out into an eternity. Every step Canute took felt like it tremored through the earth, ebbing through Haru’s body.

Haru needed to act fast. There was no time to think.

At this moment in time, there was only the feeling of saving his Kindred, added to exasperation at this entire charade of a war. People were fighting over imaginary lines in the sand about who owned what, and whether or not they had control over peoples’ lives.

All because one selfish person decided to blur the lines between what was acceptable and what wasn’t, and how comfortable he wanted his life to be.

In the end, it all came back to Ranmaru, and Haru couldn’t help but seethe.

Because of the actions of a single person in sufficient power, all of this happened when it could have been avoided completely. Magic existed to balance the world and to be a tool used by people, not to rule over them. And yet it could be so easily used and abused.

Haru couldn’t help but think about Ranmaru, and how his magic had caused all this. His intentions were selfish, and his magic unchecked, so much so that he had done this. Canute’s trials and tribulations, the way he had been sent here, and maybe to some extent, how Canute had met Haru, was all because of a single person abusing the gift given them.

There was this teeny, tiny voice inside of Haru that told him everything would have been alright if someone had just punished Ranmaru, and made him pay for his transgressions. Not just against Canute, but against Himiko, who he manipulated and used his magic on to make her believe she had family, and Oda, who Ranmaru was using to further his comfort and selfish happiness in the world.

The magic that came out of Haru was volatile. As abrupt as an intrusive thought, Haru felt his energies course through his veins and into the ground, taking fruit. Suddenly a wall of entangled vines burst forth from the ground right in front of Canute, the size of half a person, just enough to trip the larger man up and let him topple to the ground.

At the same time, Haru’s energies took form as a giant tree springing out from underneath Ranmaru. Nature moved according to Haru’s will, and entangling around the siren were branches and vines all slithering and sliding across the ground and around Ranmaru’s legs.

Everyone watched, immobile through Ranmaru’s magic, as their puppeteer was engulfed in the unforgiving wrath of nature.

“Get your filthy vines and roots off me!” Ranmaru snapped. He started waving his hands about, and one by one, as his concentration was weakened enough, his hold on the people around him shattered. “No—stop!” The siren swatted his hands at the foliage.

As soon as he’d shouted it, Haru felt an involuntary shudder wrack his body. He gasped. His eyes widened. He could see the light being emitted from his body, verdant green and full of life. It was like choirs of angels sang through his voice. The earth’s magic flowed through him, and he could see the images of other kami, other nymphs, dryads, and spirits of nature in his mind’s eye. Suddenly he saw his grandfather’s severe, frowning face, as though he was passing judgment to Ranmaru just as Haru was…and it happened.

A large tree sprouted from the ground at an angle, right behind of Ranmaru. Before the leaves could grow, thick, magic-strengthened wood pierced through the siren’s body. Ranmaru screamed as he was impaled from behind, and he was launched up into the air by a tree growing multiple stories high. Above them, the branches grew, splitting through Ranmaru’s body. It was like the tree coursed through Ranmaru’s veins and arteries before bursting forth from the inside—a punishment for crimes of his magnitude.

Within moments, the siren’s cries had become garbled, gurgling, until finally, there was silence. The people frozen who had regained control of their bodies seemed only able to pay attention to the grisly, macabre scene in front of them.

It was a surprisingly gruesome end that Haru, ever the pacifist, would never have wished upon anyone. One that made Haru’s eyes widen. Mother Nature truly was wondrous and terrible at the same time. And today, Haru finally saw just how terrible the natural world could be.

The spray of blood that would have coated each and every one of them had been siphoned into the tree that had suddenly grown in the middle of the yard. For a moment, it looked sinister. The tree still churned and grew, and as the blood trickled down its bark, it dried, turning the trunk into a soft shade of dark pink.

This time, it was Haru who was frozen in his place.

Magic was terrible. It was a horrible burden, and it had dire consequences. It could turn on a person so quickly.

Ranmaru was testament to that.

Haru heard a gasp as Canute crumpled to the floor. He was panting, trying to catch his breath, and clutching at his chest.

Haru unfroze and immediately went to his Kindred. He knelt down, wrapping his arms around Canute.

“Are you alright?” were the first words that came out of Canute’s mouth. Even if he’d been the one who’d just been kidnapped, presumably tortured, and he’d been the one used like some kind of mind-controlled puppet, Canute’s concern was ultimately for Haru’s well-being.

And that made Haru’s heart ache. Tears threatened to fall from Haru’s eyes. His lips quivered and his eyebrows knit together as he wrapped his arms tightly around Canute’s solid body.

It felt a little like Haru had forgotten what Canute felt like against his body, and how well he fit in the crook of the Nordic vampire’s form. Haru let loose a sigh of relief.

Haru pressed his fingers into Canute’s form, indenting the tips of his digits, trying to find more solace, more comfort, when everything around him seemed to turn upside down.

Did he just kill someone?

Granted, one could argue that the person deserved it. But did Haru’s magic have to be that volatile?

“I killed him.” Haru’s voice was quieter than ever before. His lips quivered. He looked at his palms, his fingers, the very hands he used to call forth magic. Every emotion that coursed through him the moment he’d thought of punishing Ranmaru…it was as if the world sought satisfaction for the sheer misuse and abuse of its gift to one of its gifted.

The world giveth, and the world taketh away, Haru thought, but it didn’t give him much respite from the overwhelming nature of the majority of his thoughts.

Only Canute’s body, his scent, his presence, anchored Haru.

But Canute remained still and silent, only wrapping his arm around Haru’s body even more firmly. Haru needed no words, just the feeling of something—someone—solidly grounding him.

“What did you do?” Oda said, his voice grave and low. “Ranmaru…he’s dead!”

“Don’t raise your voice at him,” Lady Himiko snapped. “He did you a favor.”

“And what sort of favor is that?” Oda groused right back. “He was my Kindred!”

“And oddly, you feel more anger than a sense of abject loss,” Lady Himiko responded. “He was not your Kindred, Oda. Has that not become exceedingly clear?”

Oda paused. The conflicted look in his eyes paved the way to confusion, then anger, then resolution. But still, he said nothing. He only gritted his teeth.

Haru turned away from him and pressed his face closer into the crook of Canute’s body.

“Ranmaru was a liar, a selfish person who used his magic for his own gains,” Lady Himiko said. “It does not come as a surprise that the world decided to punish him. What came as a surprise was that the world used dear, sweet Haru as a conduit for its reckoning, and for that, I am sorry. Not that it had to happen, but that he had to get caught up in all of this.”

That seemed to be the prevailing sentiment everywhere Haru went, but he kept whatever comment he had to himself. He looked up into Canute’s eyes.

Canute was the one who spoke first.

“Shall we go home?” the larger man asked.

Haru simply nodded in response. “Yeah,” he said numbly.

Canute turned to look at Lady Himiko and Oda, and started speaking. Haru could hear the rumble of Canute’s voice in his chest. The conversation was dying down all around him, and yet he could also sense tempers flaring up and anger course through each word. Still, Haru couldn’t bring himself to care.

He’d done his part.

For the first time today, Haru felt the exhaustion begin to creep into his body.

Indeed, it felt as though the world giveth, and the world taketh away.

Having been using his body as a conduit for magic almost the entire afternoon, he finally closed his eyes and felt the blackness of exhaustion wrap around him.