Blarney felt like he was losing his mind. Maybe he was, a little bit. He'd never been this excited, or felt this useless, about anything before - he was full of ideas that everyone was so quick to tell him were terrible or impossible, but he couldn't find it in himself to actually snuff out the hope that they were wrong. That there was a way to do the things he wanted to do: give Order some organization, develop a list of rules that both sides of this stupid war could abide by (
how hard was it to not kidnap people??), and maybe, if they were extremely lucky, find a way to call a cease-fire that didn't depend on a giant space-snake bearing down on all of them.
He was just one person. Even Aruna, who wanted to help him, was looking at him the way people looked at kids who said they wanted to be president or an astronaut when they grew up - like he was cute to dream so big, but eventually, the real world would catch up with him and he'd set aside the childish fantasy he was living in. Everyone who'd been doing this a while, from Celadon and Aruna up to Mr. V, they all seemed - so tired. It was so hard not to let their exhaustion and fear creep up into his own heart. They
couldn't just let evil out-last them. Evil was
corrupting cats, for pity's sake, and if that wasn't enough to spark anyone's rage beyond whatever tiredness or anxiety they had, well, Blarney didn't even know what to tell them.
He was just one person, but he had magic. Sort of. Not magic to attack with, but magic nonetheless. How could they all still be so rigid in their ideas of what was possible when
magic was literally real?
Blarney sighed to himself as he leapt onto the next rooftop - he was distracted. He either needed to focus up or go home; he wouldn't be any good to anyone like this. Maybe he should call someone for backup--someone to talk to, ramble at, might help get some of this frustration out of his brain.
He was just lifting his ring to message Halle, or Aruna, or
someone, he hadn't gotten that far yet, when he heard the strangled half-yell from somewhere below him, followed by a sound that was becoming a little too familiar: a body hitting the ground.
It was about this time that Blarney realized what else was bothering him: there was a bad guy around. A big one.
Don't do all the stupid things I did, Aruna was always telling him. But--if this bad guy was hurting a civilian--which it would be since he didn't sense any other good guys nearby--then wasn't it on Blarney to save them? Or at least
try to save them?
He couldn't run. Not yet. Not without at least
trying to do the right thing.
So, without looking down or in any way allowing himself to think it over any further, Blarney ran for the edge of the roof and jumped down, aiming with his stick for the bad guy energy signature below - maybe, maybe, maybe, he could get lucky, knock the bad guy out, grab the innocent and book it.
As plans go it wasn't the most filled-out, but, hey - it had worked before, hadn't it?
