As Basil climbed the stones, he heard Touya starting to groan as he woke up, and then a snide laugh. “You hit hard! Commendable!” The laughter died down as Basil reached the platform Touya was laying down on.
“You idiot. What's wrong? You aren't acting like yourself.” Basil shook his head as he stood over Touya. The light from the jar was showing that now he was covered in dust and bits of dirt from the rubble falling from the ceiling, and from the blast of wind Basil just smacked him in the face with.
“No?” He chuckled dryly then opened his eyes. Basil saw that his orange eye, the incantation sealing his powers was still there. “It's not like I was possessed and a different person. I'm just sick of doing whatever that stupid lady wants.”
“What'd you mean before – are you really more powerful than the queen?”
Touya sat up, brushed himself off a bit, then stood up. “Think it over, Bas. If I wasn't, would she seal my powers?” No response came from the blond as he thought over the question. “That said, she had to seal my powers because she wasn't strong enough to kill me.”
“What were you able to do before?”
“Freedom.” Touya lifted his hands out in front of him. An arc of lightning lit up the area around them as it darted from his right hand to his left and then back. “Can't say I was a good boy. I had no, let's call it a moral compass. And I still don't believe there's one.”
“She's sending you off on adventures so you get one?”
“Maybe.” He shrugged his shoulders, then slumped his arms down. He refused to make eye-contact with Basil now. “I wasn't operating in the rules of right and wrong. I was operating under what is kind and what is cruel.”
“Like?”
Suddenly an uneasy yelp came out of Basil as Touya shoved him toward the edge of the platform. He kept a grip on the center of Basil's shirt collar just below his chin, but the blond's balance was knocked off completely that if Touya were to release him, he'd fall backwards and down a fair distance to the rocks below.
“Like this. I have a choice now.” Touya commented, his purple eye glimmered briefly before going dark. “I can let you go, or I can not. Ignore what's right and wrong, and ignore thoughts of evil. Which is it?”
“Wh-what?” Basil blabbered out. He was stuck in such a way that he couldn't easily move his arms to swing at Touya's. If he did, he'd likely be released and fall.
“Darkness, and her bright light that shimmers in the darkness; is her light the right path, or the right light?” Touya asked cooly. Then, he released Basil.
Yelping again as he fell, Basil swung his arms about frantically, wind coming out in all directions to stabilize him as he fell. He managed to spin himself so he landed on his knees and elbows, but it still was a fall. The wind he summoned made the dust fly up around him once more, clouding his sight and the little jar of light faded. He gasped for air to get his senses back, and immediately started coughing from the dust. Basil waved his arms about in a similar manner to when the rocks had fallen to clear the dust from his view. Once more the light from the jar flickered alive.
As Basil turned his head up to look at Touya once more smugly looking down on him, he saw that this time, Touya wasn't smiling.
“Is what I did just now wrong?”
“You dropped me!” Basil shouted at him rather indignantly.
Touya stopped himself from chuckling. “But what I did – I allowed you to regain your senses before dropping you. I knew you wouldn't be hurt once I did let go. So, is what I did cruel or kind?”
“Well it definitely wasn't kind!” Basil barked as he stood up, brushing himself off of the dust. “Get down here so I can show you what kindness to repay you with!”
Touya waved his hands up in surrender. “All right, all right. I'm just saying, think it over. Years of growing up with kind or cruel as your mentality, not right and wrong, it means that you're free. What I did – dropping you – wasn't cruel.”
“The lard it wasn't.”
“I knew you wouldn't get hurt.” Touya explained as he turned and started toward the crumbling stairs. As he climbed down and closer to Basil, he didn't need to shout to speak to him anymore. “So I wasn't cruel. If I had just dropped you as soon as I shoved you onto that ledge, then that'd be cruel.”
“Blah blah blah,” Basil gestured with his hand a mocking symbol of talking. “All I'm hearing is that you're a confused coward who just dropped me off a ledge as part of some stupid game cause you're bored.”
“I'm so bored!” Touya shouted, emphasis on the so. He slumped his shoulders forward to make his statement more dramatic. “I can't make lightning storms, I can't blast something and make it erupt into flames, I can't even defib someone if I needed to.”
“That's what the food is for.”
“What?”
Basil shook his head. “What does eating the food do for you? It increases your power.”
“Yeah, well, enough that I can break through the incantation's limitations without actually breaking it.”
“So without the food, you're at, what would you say?” Basil asked. When Touya straightened up to look at him, confused, Basil elaborated. “How much power do you have?”
“Dunno. Feels like maybe ten percent.” Touya opened his palm and made a small zap of electricity zip between his fingers. “It's so weak.”
“And at full power?”
“Zap, bam, boom,” Touya grinned at him right away.
“Well, now that you're all done whining, shall we get back to exploring the ruins?”
“Ugh,” Touya groaned right away. “Nothing phases you, does it?”
“I knew you were limited and a prisoner of some sort.” Basil exhaled with a proud puff to his chest. “So it's my job to take you where the queen says to, so you can get that moral compass.”
“Bah,” Touya looked away. “Boring goal. Can't it be something cool like save the planet?”
“No.” Basil walked past him. “Anyway, it's this way.”
“What is?”
“The wind.” Basil turned to look back at him. “You can stay here in the dark by yourself. Or come follow me.”
“I swear, if this whole adventure in the ruins turns out to be Queenie sitting on some throne at the end of it dressed in some sparkly star gown, Imma zap her right there.”
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