Ash & Iron

Whenever I hear flames, my heart sinks deep within my chest.
I go to shout for help but I bite my tongue as I realize that we are not being attacked.
I taste iron in my mouth.

My blood.
It steadies me.

The night that the Promised Land was set ablaze is not a night I shall soon forget.
I saw the fires burn at the Tree of Life.

A fluke, I thought to myself.
It had to be.

I continued my work.

I looked down from the wall I was constructing and saw the flame.
The Clock Tower. The Library.
I set to putting out the fires, but did not see the perpetrator.
I trusted the guards to end this menace.

I continued my work.

The palisades. The Builders' Guild.
The farms.
An embassy.
Several embassies.

Fire after fire after fire after fire after fire after fire after fire.

There was new work to be done.

I set to finding the perpetrators.
Any perpetrators.
The numbers began to run together in my head like the blood in the streets.
People were dying, ash fell from the sky like snow.

I remember what Red once said:
"It never rains in the Promised Land."

I was in the farms when the axe hit my chest for the first time.
I did not see a face, only armor.

Iron armor.

I came back and heard him bragging about destruction and murder.
I was angry.
I had a new job.

I set about my work.

I killed.

And when I was done, when we were done, all that stood were burnt timbers and hollow stones.
Death had befallen us all,
Fear had been struck into our hearts,
And hope had all but burned away.
In the end, we had nothing left but to rebuild.
And so...

I returned to work.

-Builder176