by S. J. Wist
Sybl didn’t know how she remembered Asteria, but as she looked at Kas, his first name, Erebus, came back to her memories as well. She looked back at Asil, but didn’t see how she could be the reincarnation of such a spirit creature. Asil’s hair was a pale white, and the Fay was very frail-looking.
“Can we send them some of the Feharin?” Asil asked.
“No, my daughter. They do not welcome that which they do not understand. Too many have been separated from their spirit guards for too long to so much as recognize us anymore. They would not accept our help—or us.”
Sybl could see that Asil felt bad as she looked at the flower. The Fay tried to hide her feelings, even as Erebus looked to feel it as well.
Asil touched the pink flower, petal by petal as she began to think of what she could do to help. “Then I want to give them more than enough flowers to cure all their sufferings.”
The apparition of Asil vanished as the darker mist of Erebus did the same, leaving only Asteria and the flower in the darkness. It drifted side to side before reaching the cold ground in a ripple that extended its light across the room.
Sybl walked closer, as Asteria’s bright, light blue eyes that moved like air and water within a glass sphere watched her. She looked at the flower at the base of her feet then as it began to wilt quickly, before it dried up and vanished in pieces under the light of the floor.
“You cannot continue to seek redemption for the past, Asil.”
Sybl looked up as there was no mistaking that the spirit was talking directly to her. “Is this the first Aster?”
“It was,” Asteria said with a voice like tiny chimes in the wind, “very beautiful once. Now this emptiness is all that remains of my perfect world.”
“Why are you still here? Why haven’t you come to the new Aster?”
“There is a history that you should never have to remember. I want you to be able to live free of sins, and the answers you seek will only pull you further away from both.”
“So what do you want me to do? What can I do like this?” Sybl asked and looked over her human self in comparison to the spirit.
“You must trust your soultwin, Erebus, who is called in this lifetime, Kas. You were both reborn together, but a tragic twist of Vanir’s wrath colliding with the Iynx known as Gei, killed you. Gei was only able to save your soul and place it in Serena, so you might get another chance to be reborn. And you were, but because Serena was a human, you were also reborn as a human. It is why Nafury, the reincarnation of Damek, is now your twin. He refused to have such a tragedy kill you again. He also took as much of the Aeger that he could from your spirit into his own before you were reborn. But not all of your memories have healed yet.”
“I have a brother…you mean that demon is?” Sybl stopped there as she didn’t want to believe any of it anymore.
“Yes,” Asteria replied to the rest of her thoughts, before pulling her psi away from Sybl’s mind. She left within it only the reality of her past as many more timeless memories that they once shared.
“What about my father?”
“That you will have to determine for yourself. Fay are not born as genetic copies of their parents’. You are Asil. You will always be Asil. Your father is merely a means to allow your immortal soul to exist in a physical form again.”
Tears began to swell up in Sybl’s eyes, as the realization that she would never see Nafury as he once was swelled in her mind. She thought about Cirrus and how it all made sense to why he had taken such good care of her. She was his best friend’s sister. Sybl didn’t so much as know if he knew just that. Princess. They knew. She was the only one left out of the loop. “How did I end up on Earth?”
“Those are answers you must find on your own. First you must help Daath remember who he is. The Aeger has taken many of his memories. He doesn’t remember you, or even me, and he believes he is still a Sentry of Death in servitude to Hino.”
Sybl could see the sadness hiding behind Asteria’s eyes. “How do I make him hear me?”
“He is already listening to you.”
“Is there a cure for this Aeger?”
“The Aeger is the result of the Sylvan Threads of Aster disappearing. When the Sylvan Aur went down, the very balancing axis of light and dark, it left only one possible side for the world to fall into. The estus energy of Aragmoth. Estus uses sadness, hate, jealousy and fear to channel its spread.”
“What about that unicorn?”
“He is Sial, an Ancient of the first Aster reborn through Nephena. You must retrieve the festra he protects with the names of the Eminor. You must do this before our enemies find a way to utilize the Aeger to their advantage. They will make the Ancients and Eminor into slaves. With their help, you will be able to stop the Aeger’s continued destruction and raise the Sylvan Aur once again.”
“Are you saying I have to save the world, while avoiding going crazy by the Aeger, and get a bunch of Eminor and Ancient spirits to listen to me?” Sybl gulped.
“It will not be difficult if you remember who you are, Asil. Now wake up. The time of self-doubting your inborn abilities has passed.” Asteria turned around and began to walk away from her then.
“Wait! Asteria!” But the spirit evaporated and was gone. Sybl looked at the ground where the flower had vanished and knelt down. The light began to drain away like water, revealing where the flower had stopped sinking on top of a layer of darkness below. But it was still dead.
Sybl touched it, and a reflection appeared before her, but not of herself. It looked like the unicorn, Sial. “So what are you, my spirit guide?”
The unicorn shook its brown coat out, and she focused back on the flower to find that it had turned into a festra. She could see now that this one was different from the one Lintrance had given her. Its crystal handle sparkled like a jewel asking her to pick it up.
Sybl reached for it, before stopping midway. “What’s the catch?”
The floor of light dimmed to show the crowd of shadows underneath to answer her question.
Sybl stepped back, only to find that there was nowhere to retreat from the Eminor. Before she could panic, a familiar shape appeared near her feet and looked up at her with light blue eyes. It was the dragon she had seen before in the Texts. “Moon?”
‘Asil.’
Sybl looked back at the weapon and immediately picked it up. But he didn’t attack her in the memory, and it seemed unreasonable that he would try now. “How do I free you from there?”
‘Have you forgiven me so easily?’
“Huh?” Sybl tried to remember what he might be talking about, but nothing came to her. “What do you mean? Forgive you for what?”
‘You are dead because of me. I could not see how much you trusted me to stop myself from harming you through it. I am nothing more than a Curse.’ Moon began to sink behind the other shadows.
“Moon, wait!”
The dragon stopped.
“Not all of us can start again, free of our sins. But we can start with forgiveness. Isn’t that the only hope immortals have of moving on?”
‘Forgiveness…’
“Yes, forgiveness.”
‘Is it truly forgiveness when your heart doesn’t believe it?’
“Your heart?” Sybl didn’t know what he was talking about, as she remembered only a little of Moon’s wish to have a soul. He had existed like he understood what it was to be with one, though he was still an Eminor. At least, he should have been. Then she remembered the Texts. She had healed his soul when he somned with her after the accident. “Where is your soul now?”
Sybl was answered when another shadow appeared, but this one was cast from someone standing behind her. She turned her head around slowly, as the presence sent a cold chill down her spine.
35: MER CITY
Sybl woke to the sound of approaching footsteps. When she tried to move, her hands that were tied behind her back made that impossible. Her head now throbbed to indicate where it had collided with the cold
, white floor that felt like glass.
“So you finally chose to wake up.”
Sybl peered up from her side to the woman who looked down at her with eyes like a demon’s. They were black spheres of darkness pressed into the pale face of a human. Her black hair hung straight about her face as several strands moved about from the intensity of estus energy that she was. It didn’t take much to guess this mermaid was not going to rescue her.
The boots stopped only a meter from her face, and Sybl feared the man might step on her. But what she feared even more was the realness of the Vision. If it was real, then there was nothing on Aster that could come close to scaring her more than she was now. “Who are you?”
“I am Lord Vanir. You would be Sybl.”
Sybl blinked as if to remember what she was called in this life, as the memories Asteria had flashed her remained. It wasn’t a dream if she still remembered all of it. “What are you going to do with me?”
“We have no intention to harm you if you co-operate with our efforts to send you home.”
“Home? You mean to Earth?”
“Of course. My Awl brought you here over the fear that there was a, how do I say, unforgiving power in you. But it would appear to be a false alarm.”
“A false alarm for what?”
“It matters no more.”
“Yet you have me tied up like a criminal.”
Vanir walked behind her and knelt down, before taking hold of her bonds. With a snap, he freed them from her wrists. His skin was like a cold leather.
Sybl pushed herself to a sit and rubbed her sore wrists, then looked back at the mermaid. A painful psi hit her sore head even harder and sent the world spinning. Any secrets she might have held in her mind were cut free in the shattering force of telepathic power. When the dizziness cleared, she decided to keep her thoughts and eyes to the floor, in hopes it would hurt less to think less.
“Follow me.”
Sybl followed after the phelan somnus as his particular red eyes didn’t look to be as tame as Kas’. When she nearly collapsed from the toll the pain in her was dishing out, two mer guards she didn’t see until now tried to catch her.
“Don’t touch her!” Vanir shouted at the mer soldiers, and he brought his hand back as if to backhand them. It had the effect of straightening Sybl into a straight board of fear as well.
Whatever he spoke to them by psi afterwards, sent them running down the hall in concern. She learned just what concern it was when Cirrus’ psi called to hers before it was violently shut off by the mermaid guarding her.
Vanir continued walking. “Fascinating creatures the dragons are. They will be of great use to the Order.”
“For warfare,” Sybl added, before glancing back to where the mermaid watched her every movement and thought. Another tragic case to believe this crap from Vanir, no doubt.
“I am hurt that you would judge what you have not so much as seen up close for yourself. You have only heard one side of all that the Order is.”
“I would like to think that a Continent that enslaves humans would be one created by a monster.”
“And what would us monsters be on Earth? Friends? Allies? Perhaps our kinds could co-exist in peace and bring an even greater existence for life everywhere. But you are old enough to realize that would be impossible. Just as humans do not share, phelan, dragons and chimera do not compromise the essence that we are. And we are all fragments of the first Aster. Fragments of a perfect world and a perfect balance. Fragments that will never stop to regain all of it.”
Sybl looked at his red eyes as they seemed to bleed through her weaknesses. “You’re right. The military alone would stop at nothing to control all of you. Weapons of war that can think and react with a greater intelligence and unheard of power. But that doesn’t mean that the hope of peace is impossible. As long as it exists, no one, not even you, has the right to disbelieve it entirely.”
“Your optimism is less than inspiring, much like my son’s. There can be no peace. Earth chose to destroy Aster. When they did, they refashioned the Eminor and Ancient spirits that were later reborn through Nephena into creatures of vengeance. Our very evolution has been for all aspects of battle and war. We are all but tools for a greater purpose of Aragmoth.”
“A god chose to destroy the first Aster. One who pretends to have the final say in everything, much like yourself.”
Vanir stopped walking and turned to look at her. “And you would know of Hino? You make it sound as if you have met him in person.”
“Can your mermaid not see what I do?” Sybl said as she turned and looked at Nyx, who she finally remembered. “Or will your Nyx simply not tell you who he is?”
Vanir’s eyes looked dangerously at Nyx, but the mermaid was unmoved by the simple emotion of fear. Then the topic changed to the glass as something white struck it.
Cirrus. “You’ve been so occupied trying to kill the reborn caels of Aster, that you’ve missed the most important one. For that, you have already lost.”
Vanir shot his eyes at the glass, as Cirrus’ blue ones threatened to decompress all of Mer City if it meant getting to him. “You are greatly mistaken, Sybl. I have much hope for the future. You see, I do not intend to become one of these tools of Aragmoth. I and those who serve me believe that we have evolved and grown free wills within ourselves. It is this free will that I intend to protect.”
“Killing me won’t allow you to keep your free will.”
“You are not a cael. This dragon,” Vanir sneered the word, “is not a cael either. If you were, in all likelihood you would have had the power to kill me already. You alone have escaped the test that tests everyone else. You should be content with being that fortunate. Free, by being one of the fortunate who are unaffected by the Aeger.”
“The Aeger effects me too. I can see it now—see how you tried to remove it all from me, before separating me from my brother and banishing me to Earth. But now I’m here, and I don’t need the Aeger to hate you for all that you did. But you can still stop what you’re doing and go back. You can still be forgiven. I am not content with being this fortunate one as you call it. I will never forget, nor will I ever forgive those who are incapable of it. You will be just as much a victim to the Aeger you wish to control.”
Vanir laughed. “All the caels are connected directly to Aragmoth.” Several hallways later the alarms flashed and sounded. The mer soldiers rushed past to deal with the dragon intruders. They stopped at a large metal door, and he touched the panel on the side of it. It split open to reveal what looked like some kind of laboratory.
Sybl walked inside as the lights came on, only to stop after a couple steps. Before her, rows and rows of glass cylinders were stacked across the entire room. Inside, were the bodies of mer and mermaids in their somned forms. Their green and grey fish-like tails were wrapped around them, immersed in water and wires. “What happened to all of them…?”
“These are the first victims of the Aeger. At first it started with some mer losing their long-term memories. Then they lost their short-term. After that, they lost the ability to function and became mad. With that madness, they become unstoppably violent. Unstoppable tools of war. Phelan, dragons and some species of chimeras have an increased resistance to the Aeger. But it is only a matter of time before that wanes. You speak of monsters and uniting worlds, when you can see clearly before you that it is the monster that you would follow who does this. But now you have given us the cure.”
The festra…
“Yes, your festra. With it, we can control and contain the Aeger.”
“How do you hope to contain what you don’t command? No Eminor or Ancient will listen to you.”
“Once you have returned to Earth, and the Gates to it have all been sealed, I believe they will. On the first Aster, the most powerful ruled. So it will again.”
36: RESCUE
Cirrus had heard Sybl’s psi for a brief moment before it was cut off. Sybl!
“They got the mer
blocking her psi. I can’t get through to her, either.”
Cirrus circled around the glass hallway of Mer City, before backing away to attack it. When he saw Vanir next to Sybl walk out from an attached room, he stopped.
“Don’t! The place will decompress and crush her!”
So where’s the door?
To answer him, Lintrance swam for it, and he followed.
Cirrus swam under the city and emerged from the pool leading into it as his cousin took the lead. When he tried to unsomn, he found he wasn’t able to. “No, not now!”
“Cirrus! You coming?”
I can’t unsomn! He set his claws before him and out of the docking pool, trying to calm down. But all he could think about was how he would tear Vanir apart.
