October Autumn: Daughter of the Dawn: Treaties of Love and Peace Part 1

There were people running in the street. A child cried over the body of his mother. Fires burned in all the windows, flames licking at the eaves. Toby sprinted between two mechs, slashing through them with her dagger, the holy metal parting the brass of the monsters like a long knife through bread. Toby ran up the side of a flaming wall and flipped over onto the top of one of the metal beasts, stabbing a marker into its forehead, right above the triangular glass eyes. She leapt from that mech to the other and performed the same action, and then summersaulted away onto the roof, landing with grace in a crouching position.

“Light them up!” she yelled, over the sound of screaming and burning.

Silver made a complicated motion with his hands. The objects Toby had impaled into the mechs burst into arcs of lightning, streaking up to the sky until they connected with the clouds and brought down the thunder of the gods. The very sky itself split apart and a dimensional rift into the astral plane lifted the two mechs by pure lighting and swallowed them up. In the distance, Silver’s dragon roared.

“Five more!” yelled Toby, jumping down to meet Silver in the street. Silver ran alongside Toby as they headed to the other end of town, where the last mechs were fighting against the city guard. Silver was running at the speed of a normal human and so Toby had to slow her pace to match his—however, Silver was a fast runner for a human, and they made it to the other side of the city in a couple of minutes. It was too late for many people who had already suffered the horrors of the invasion but Toby knew that there were plenty more people to save. She darted ahead the last few meters and jumped onto the shoulders of one of the mechs with a single, large leap. She seized the mech’s head and tore it off, punching deep into the mech’s torso with her free hand and grabbed the power core, ripping it out in a shower of sparks. The mech collapsed, and as it hit the ground Toby rolled off and recovered five meters away. Without stopping she broke into a run and kicked the feet out from underneath another mech. Just as it collapsed Silver blasted its core into pieces with a strike of pure white light. Toby avoided the falling shrapnel and targeted the next mech.

The two of them finished the last mechs in a couple of minutes, and then the town was silent except for the sound of burning, collapsing wood. The dawn was breaking in the distance, alighting the sky with reds and blues that only added to the stilted hue that the fires cast on the street and the people standing there. Toby knelt down to the ground. The weight of the situation pressed down on her chest. There were many people that had not lived to see this dawn. Many people were injured. Many more had lost their homes. And why? Was it her fault? What did the suited man, Maxwell, mean when he spoke of the choice? The path between white and black? And the ultimate judge? What was that? She looked up at the pink-blossomed cherry tree, the ribbons hanging and fluttering in the wind, some of them singed, some of them bloody. They no longer projected onto the city and aura of peace or ideas of happiness but now were a bitter reminder of the life that had been destroyed. Toby reached up towards one of the ribbons—her factory ribbon, she realized when she touched it, and she untied it from the branches. It was burned on the corner, and had a black hole halfway down the middle. However, it still retained its original sheen and luster, its factory-perfect qualities.

Toby tied the ribbon in her hair and let her hands fall to her side. With her hair out of her face, she could see clearly now. The fires were dying. Citizens of the city were recovering from the ordeal, beginning the restoration of what had been perfect and normal just a couple of hours before, small things here and there like a man clearing rubble and the guards taking care of the bodies that lay in the streets.

The sight stirred something within her. Something deep inside of her. A feeling that she had never felt before, and yet recognized intimately. A wonderful feeling.

She lifted up her arms and began to sing. A lullaby she had been taught by her mother. It was a simple song. Her magic circuits brimmed with ethereal power, overwhelming in its intensity, bright as the sun and whole as the moon when it was at its fullest. The beings of celestial power were shining on her. She sang.

Ceres shines on the city lights

Lumina watches over the river’s nights

The city of gold is one of love

That is not gold but the gold of above

Watch out, watch out, don’t let the moon cry,

Nor let the sun let out its wind to die

When you love you let those who love you love

And the moon watches over you from above

When you love you let those who love you love

And the moon watches over you from above

As her voice carried over the wind, throughout the entire city, people stopped working to look up at the source of the song. A bright light came down from above, clothed in white robes, and touched Toby on the forehead with its finger. Toby bowed before it. She did not know who or what it was, but she did know that it had come at her behest.

The being said nothing, only watched her as she kneeled, and then the city began to repair itself, slowly at first and then faster and faster as a whirlwind of debris collided to form a whole and completed city. It was as if time was being reversed. The dead would not come back to life. But they would be sacred, they would be protected, they would watched over by the powers of the heavens.

Toby began to cry. She had not let herself cry before, because she had wanted to be an adult, be had wanted to be strong, but now she knew that there was something more than strength to adulthood. There was something more than simply not crying when you had the chance to cry. She realized this. Her tears were warm, and they flowed faster and faster until she could not hold it anymore and began to sob.

The being of white light rescinded its hand and disappeared into mist. Toby knew she had been the only one to see it. Silver was watching her, and had not reacted as if the being was there. Her ponytail, tied by the burnt ribbon, fluttered in the wind that was picking up from the east. The fires were gone. The ribbons were restored. Only her own ribbon, the ribbon she had received from her mother, remained damaged like it had been before. She reached out and touched it. It was smooth. Still smooth. Even with the burns, even with the black hole that marred its surface. It was a wonderful ribbon.

She knew what she had to do. Silver met her gaze and nodded. She stood up, leaving him behind, and began to walk towards the cathedral.

“Meet me at the west entrance,” said Silver, still standing silently.

Toby nodded, without saying anything. She made her way through the streets—now like new, though they still radiated an aura of white holy light—until she made it to the plaza that graced the front of the cathedral. There was Rhythm’s body. Along with the bodies of the other dead, it had been restored to its original state. Rhythm looked so peaceful with her eyes closed. Toby knelt down beside the body and placed her hand over Rhythm’s mouth. It was cold. There was no longer any blood on the cobblestones, and there were no marks on Rhythm’s body or her clothes. Toby knew what she had to do. She touched Rhythm’s chest and, drawing upon the same power she had used to restore the city, she disseminated the particles of Rhythm’s body into the ether, spreading them across the time stream and the river of life, so that they would be everywhere, anywhere, remembrances of her. Toby had not known Rhythm for a long while. But the time she had been with her had been one of the greatest of her short life. She stood up and looked at the sun. It had finished its rise across the sky.

The west entrance. That was where Toby needed to go. She sprinted through the rebuilt city and, as she ran, she came to a decision. Whatever her choice was, she would make it, and she would make sure that it was the right decision. 

Questions: 

Is the opening too cliche? I know the hot bread through knife is kind of off-beat but I like the feel it gives. 

How is the pacing? If it's messy anywhere, tell me and give some suggestions on how to fix it. 

The song--is it too sudden? Does it, in general terms, work?

Do you like the mysterious power element or should I make it less mysterious?

Does the scene as a whole flow like it should? Are there any road blocks?