by S. J. Wist
“Why does she hate Awls so much?” Kas asked.
“Because we were the last four fragments of a hope for peace from the first Aster. Along with its means to bring it about, being your soultwin. The memories of the Four Generals spread to the other Awls here on Aster. Now all remember that we left Earth not to come back to destroy it with a larger army, but to forever escape it. We stayed on Aster in peace. But Alexia’s jealousy and hate for Asteria taking Daath knows no end.
“Eventually her hate spread enough over the Earth to make Hino cause the Great Flood thousands of years ago that in turn created the Dragon Moon. Then that calamity of jealousy, hate and fear went straight for the first Aster. She hasn’t stopped since. But within that calamity was Cirrus, and it was those first Threads of love that saved Asil. And ultimately the rest of us.”
“Aragmoth saved my sister, Master Gei.”
“Aragmoth was able to save her body and soul, but she would have never awakened if it were not for Cirrus’ voice calling her out of his darkness.”
“And Damek?” Kas asked.
“Damek has lost his hope for peace. It is a hope only Sybl can return to him if his vengeful spirit is to stop. No one else can. But his hate has grown wings.” Gei looked back at the dragon. “I will not ask again. Remove yourself from that body, or I will tear you out myself.”
The white dragon’s eyes glowed back in defiance.
“So be it. Restrain her,” Gei ordered the guards, and they somned and dropped their weight, teeth and claws on the dragons limbs, neck and tail. Gei expanded in size, and he sent his teeth into the dragon’s right wing. The sound of bone and flesh being torn made Kas look away, as the smell of blood consumed the air of the room. Gei did the same to the other wing, and the dragon stopped struggling as its blood flooded the floor.
Kas dared to look back at the shadow the red blood held within it as Cirrus had unsomned into his human-like form, unconscious. His reflection wasn’t of an Awl, but who looked like a human woman, also lying down. Then with a ripple, it was replaced with only his image.
“She will sleep, unless her wings touch an unholy one capable of restoring the hate she needs to sustain herself on Aster. Cirrus is now free of his own self-loathing for the death of his mother that he was in no way responsible for.”
“Will he return to normal?”
Gei shrunk to the size of a cougar and walked over to Kas. His white face and neck was stained with blood. “Only Sybl can help him recover now.”
“Is this what happened with your wings?”
Gei trembled from the memory. “I removed them shortly after I had found your mother for the first time, before we built all this.” He looked around the room, as some of the golden Threads trembled. “But it was not enough to save her life from Vanir’s wrath in thinking you and Sybl were mine. It was not enough to change Fate and stop Aragmoth from taking her into death and from me.”
Gei stood quiet for a while. “Kira was so upset. She told me that I was too beautiful to do such a thing. For a while, she had me convinced that what I did was a sin. I pray that she understands now that I tried. I pray that you can forgive me one day as well. I only did what I could to change the Fate that Aragmoth’s will imposes on us to a tolerable level.” He looked away, before walking out from the dungeon.
The unholy, now-black wings of Alexia were dragged out of the room behind him, and the doors closed. Kas looked to where Cirrus lay with the blood around him having dried up. It was cracked and in shards, as if his soul were a mirror that had fallen to the soil of the wrong world.
34: REGRETS
“You back to your old self yet?” Loki asked, as he went into the prison cell they had given Cirrus to recover in.
Cirrus looked back at him from the stone brick floor he sat on. His long, blond hair was stained red with blood, and his light blue eyes had lost their brightness. “I would be better if they let me out of this cell.”
“Sybl could still die because of you.”
Cirrus looked away from Loki as the dragoon circled around to face him. “I wasn’t in my right mind. You know I would never hurt her.”
“But you did,” Loki added, weighing his words down with as much guilt as they could hold.
“What do you want from me, Loki? Why are you here?”
“Kas has ordered the evacuation of the Sanctus, and that leaves the question of what to do with you.”
“So that’s why it’s so quiet. Did they move Sybl to the Efereal Mountains as well?”
“I’m flying back to the Torian Continent,” Loki replied, changing the subject. “I think we owe the others of our Line the decency of determining and recording their deaths.”
“And you’re not going to bring me along, are you?”
“I never said that.”
“Cut the bullshit, Loki. When two dragons want the same female, only one gets her. You’re just trying to find an excuse you can stomach to get rid of me. Just go.”
Loki stepped back. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry that things turned out like this.”
“And I’m sorry that I didn’t leave you to drown during your Trial of Somn. It’s always the weaker ones who crush the hearts of others the most.” Cirrus looked then to the puddle of water on his side of the bars that gave no reflection of Loki.
The dragoon turned and left him at that.
Cirrus looked back at the wall, as he thought about what his cousin had said. He touched his necklace that was Sybl’s, as it had been switched when Daath had given Sybl his after stealing it at the Casus Beli fields. Lintrance had taken Sybl’s back from Fevre, and he had taken it from him. She still slept, and Cirrus had guessed that they had forced her to stay unconscious, for she had never slept for so long at once. There was no telling what else he had done to hurt her while he was possessed by the Sentry.
The loneliness in his heart was a tearing that wouldn’t stop if he didn’t try and set things right. He stood up and went to the bars of his cell, grabbing them with both of his hands. He felt weak without a somn as he tried to bend them, and the heavy estus energy from being on Suzerain Continent didn’t help.
Cirrus tried to think, before his eyes went back to the puddle on the floor. For a moment, he thought he was seeing things, as to make a Rift from solid rock was impossible. Or at least, it was supposed to be impossible, as the water stretched across the floor in blackness. Now all that was left was the risk of going through, and finding what waited for him on the other side.
His mind thought back to when he had gone after Sybl to rescue her. The monster of fire was what had done all this. If he had been faster, stronger, then they would have been safe and together on the Torian Continent, away from all this madness. He cursed himself for being so stupid before to have the curiosity to want to see this side of the world. This wasn’t the other side of Aster; it was the edge of its oblivion.
He continued to watch the Rift as it stopped expanding. It stayed with what seemed like an eternity of blood in it to wait for him. It made him remember the Fay Wall collapsing and killing so many of their daorans and younglings. It made him think of Nafury, and how his blood was what had made the Aeger plumas tear it down.
Perhaps it was the monster that had taken his Prince that awaited for him in this abyss. Patient and cold. With his only other option to wait and be burned alive by the Phoenix.
35: GARGOYLES
Kas walked over to where Sybl lay in the Efereal Mountains. He had her body sent here to be preserved, until it was safe to wake her. He looked up at the ceiling that concealed the gargoyles in its shadows. Some were stone statues, and some were real, as the eyes of the active ones looked back at him with yellow eyes. The winged, monkey-like creatures of grey skin, climbed slowly through the stone. The rectangular rocks hung like upside down forts for them to rest and move about in. He didn’t trust them entirely, mostly because they were simple creatures in nature. If anything entered this cavern that was not Xirel or Kas, it would be quickly swarmed and killed.
Xirel had her body laid on a block of ice, and her life Threads delicately woven about her to keep her in a coma. She was pale, if not almost blue now, and he was left to question himself of whether he had done the right thing. But he couldn’t risk Damek using her against them at this critical time. Once the Sanctus had taken the Atrum, there would be the time and resources to deal with him.
“Master Kas, will you be alright?” Xirel asked as he walked into the cavern. His long, white cloak followed his steps.
“Is she comfortable?”
“Yes, I have overlooked no detail. If she does become restless, it will take her a lot of time to find her way back to consciousness.”
“Just do not leave her anywhere in darkness, she is still scared of it.”
“I understand, Master Kas,” Xirel replied. “The labyrinth I designed is brightly lit in all its passages.” His eyes looked up then, following where Kas’ went. “You are concerned about the gargoyles?”
“The Falls have these creatures as well...”
“Yes, but the ones from the Falls are much more stupid and bulky. I have hand-raised these ones, and they listen very well.” Xirel lifted out his arm, and one fluttered down like a bat to land on it. “My Luna is who makes these gargoyles special.”
Kas looked at the ugly creature, trying to find something about it that set it apart from the rest of the ones in the cavern. When he couldn’t find anything, he stepped closer and took in her scent. It was of sunlight. “It is from Earth.”
“It…! You calls me an it? I am not an ‘it,’ I am insulted!” the gargoyle replied. Its voice was like the scraping of a chalkboard.
“Luna is a very old, and an educated gargoyle from Earth,” Xirel said, trying to calm her back down. “I found her when Nephena sent us to Earth. Well, it was more of her finding me.”
Kas scratched his hair, as he didn’t see the beauty Xirel did in the creature.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails...”
Kas stood surprised for a moment, before his mind tried to figure out what Text the gargoyle had quoted. He knew all of them but this one.
Xirel smiled as Luna danced on two legs in one circle of victory on his arm. For she knew a Text that the High Priest did not. “Do you see why she was, in my opinion, the perfect gift?”
Kas furrowed his eyebrows at Luna, as there was one thing that set it apart for sure. It had riddles he couldn’t solve, and that alone would have made it his sister’s most fascinating creature. Both in the past and present time.
“A Priest should attend church more often,” Luna mocked, then jumped into the air to fly back up to her upside-down stone city.
“I thought about giving Luna to Sybl as a present—”
“No!” Kas replied, louder than he had intended. “I mean, no. Please. My sister has already given me a riddle that I might never solve.”
“Oh?”
“Her humanity,” Kas replied, and Xirel smiled in understanding. “Is the evacuation of the Sanctus complete?”
“The last are coming through as we speak.” Xirel lifted his head to confirm by psi.
“I will return then to the fight. Seal the Gate behind me. There will be no one using it afterwards.” Kas turned and left the cavern, heading for where they kept the Gate that connected to the one that Gwa had fixed at the Sanctus. The chimera somnus changed the settings as the last of the civilians stepped through. Kas waited, and then walked back through the clear Rift to his home.
36: NEPHENA
Sybl looked up at the walls of the ice cavern around her. Everything was frozen, but it was strangely warm. Yet she had no idea where she was.
She walked through the hallways and caverns in circles for some time, until coming across a corridor that was blocked by a massive bear. Its size took up the space into it. “Could you move over by chance?”
The bear only continued to sleep.
She looked around for something that would have more effect than her fists, and found a wooden stick. Going back to the giant butt, she struck it as hard as she could. But the black bear continued to sleep.
“What are you doing, Sybl?”
She glanced back at Xirel, before striking the bear again. “I’m beating this bear with a stick!”
“I can see that. But Geolan only speaks Chimerian.”
Sybl held back her next strike, as Xirel asked the bear to move in his language. Immediately it stood up and took one step to the side, before lying back down to fall asleep. Only then did she recognize the bear as the one who attacked Gwa.
“Yes, Geolan is very grateful for you having cured him of the Aeger,” Xirel said on hearing her thoughts.
“But the cure only lasts when I’m nearby…”
“Chimera are not effected by the Aeger the same way eminor and Ancients are. It’s more like a passing cold of depression for us. Likely because we are not entirely of Aragmoth.”
“A cold? So far this ‘cold’ has sent people I know to the grave, and the one I love most there and back again with madness.”
Xirel nodded his head to the side. “I understand that you are hurt, even if my metaphor missed it entirely.”
Sybl peered down the hallway that had a faint light at its end. “Where am I?”
“You are in the Efereal Mountains.”
“Unconscious,” Sybl added.
“What makes you say that?” Xirel asked.
“Because I don’t remember waking up after Gei planted my face in the floor.” She walked down the hallway, and Xirel followed.
“You are safe here, Sybl.”
“You call this safe? The Phoenix will cook this mountain like an oven if it finds out I’m here. Let me out.”
“It is freezing outside, and there are many angry spirits about. You are not ready for warfare in this lifetime.” He moved like his stag somn had in the realm of death, slow but with strength in his steps.
“I’m not ready to sit here and talk while my brother dies on the battlefield.” Sybl reached the end of the corridor, only to find another cavern. There wasn’t going to be any getting out of this labyrinth if Xirel had specifically designed it to hold her.
“You need not walk in circles, Asil. Come to me. Free me and I shall show you the way out.”
Xirel turned his head in concern, in the direction of the psi that had found Sybl.
Sybl recognized the voice in her head. She headed down the hallway of her next best guess, before coming to a much larger cavern that was supported by massive statues of chimera. Livry stood as a giant pegasus sealed in ice, holding much of the ceiling up with his wings. Beside him were statues of several other of the first of Nephena’s children, all equally as huge. “Are they alive?”
“No,” Xirel replied, keeping his thoughts and ears keen for the unaccounted voice of moments ago. “Livry died at the Casus Beli Canyon, from Nephena’s wrath. The others died from various circumstances.”
“I remember now. I killed some of them.”
“It was a different Time, Asil. But you have reincarnated with understanding and an open mind. You do not hate us as you did before.”
“No, now you bow to the ones who were made to serve you. You punished the imperfect, but imperfection lies not only in appearance. Free me and I will help you purge those of my children who betray you in this Time. My own children who have imprisoned me in here!”
She looked then at Xirel. “What is your abnormality that makes you a chimera?”
Xirel blushed in response, then retreated into his mind of complex wording to find just the right way to explain it. On sensing her lack of courage to enforce the strength behind her question, he decided to turn it on her. “Would you like me to show you?”
Sybl
pondered on the consequences of saying yes, but she wasn’t going to chicken out. “Please.”
Xirel pulled his white robe off of his shoulders, exposing only his pale chest.
Sybl went over to him, and started to count his ribs that went through his thin physique with her fingers. “You only have eight pairs of ribs...”
“I was not much of a runner in my younger days, either.” Xirel put his robe back over his arms.
“We were all different back then. You would have killed me if you found me on a battlefield.”
“No, I don’t think that even back then I could have hurt you. I understood your reasoning, even if I did not agree with it. I knew that you thought like you did because you felt alone for too long. Loneliness is a room that caves in when the spirit gives out.”
