by S. J. Wist
Jru made sure he was alright, before going to the phelan who had come from the Efereal Mountains. “Where are the rest of you?”
“We left them in the mountains, hoping that you would come to escort us and not the other way around. But please tell me that the Caelestis is with you.”
“No, she is not,” Kas replied, but he alone was grateful that she wasn’t in harm’s way.
“There are many chimeras who need to be healed before they resort to killing us like these ones,” the phelan continued. “I think the only reason they haven’t already is because Nephena has taken control.”
Kas let out a long sigh, fearing that his peace made with the Tribe might not exist anymore without Xirel in charge.
The Callers they had brought with them slowly began to restore order to the phelan and some of them resorted to purring to create the calm they wanted. But they went silent when a lion-like roar went out from the direction of the Efereal Mountains.
“Oh that’s bad. I think Nephena is officially and irreversibly pissed,” a brown phelan said with a shudder.
“Nephena,” Kas confirmed. He feared that if she lost the fight against the Aeger, they might never return to Atrum City without the whole mountain coming down on them first. Just what extent of a mess has my sister made this time?
11: DRAGGED FOR A CAUSE
Gwa was still half asleep when he realized that Sybl was dragging him down the halls of the Atrum by his foot. “Um…Sybl? Have you gotten stronger? Cause I have to be heavier than you…”
“We’re going hunting,” she replied, without so much as looking back at him.
“Wha…? I can’t go hunting with the phelan and dragons—they’ll eat me!” Gwa prepared his pride to cry if necessary to get out of this one.
“No,” Sybl said, setting his foot down at the stairs so he could sit up, “they won’t.”
“Why do you want to go? It’s dangerous, and you remember the last time—?”
“It’s important. Please, Gwa.”
Gwa melted into a puddle of goo when she pleaded with him, before resorting to the obvious excuse to get him out of this. “Why don’t you just ask Cirrus to take you?”
“This is something I have to do without him, and I need your wings to do it.”
Gwa got to his feet and brushed the dirt off his butt from being dragged along the floor. “Alright, whatever, you’re the boss. But if your dragon kills me for doing this, I’m coming back to haunt you for like—forever.”
“Deal.”
Sybl smiled and it had the effect of making him even more uncertain. He led the way downstairs and outside, before somning into his griffin form. Gwa crouched down so that she could climb on, but instead she just stared at him.
Gwa looked himself over on all sides, fearing he was missing some feathers somewhere. When he was sure that he looked like he always did, he brought his face closer to her and tried to figure out what her eyes saw. It was when he tilted his head on not seeing what Sybl was thinking that she moved again. Gwa was getting concerned by how she was acting and pondered calling her Bond for her. But it was hard enough to spend some time with his favorite friend because of the dragon, so he decided to take full advantage of the time given to him.
She climbed up behind his neck and in front of his wings, and he spread them and took to the air, before the phelan guards could stop them.
“This Hunt isn’t going to include any bears this time, I hope?”
“No bears. At least, I don’t think there will be any bears.”
Gwa flicked an ear in worry. “So are you going to at least tell me what this is about?”
“When I was born, and just before they sent me to Earth, they took a bunch of my memories from me. But they didn’t just break them, as they would have healed by now. They tied the Threads to someone else.”
“And you think the kyrie has these Threads?” Gwa asked.
“It won’t come to me because it’s trying to keep those memories from me. But at the same time it has to, because it’s the only way it has been able to manage the Aeger it’s infected with. So if it is completely infected with the Aeger, that gives us a chance to snag him.”
“So we catch him, get the festra and memories back and go home, right?”
“And there is the plan.”
“Alright, Beautiful.”
Gwa flew a few miles more before setting them down on a solid sheet of ice. “I should have brought a blanket.”
Sybl climbed down from him and patted his neck, and he puffed out like a giant feather duster.
“Aren’t you cold?” he asked in worry, before sitting his chest feathers down on her like she was an egg.
She giggled and then sneezed from the fluff of white feathers she was now covered in. “I’m great, really. But stop looking at me and find Sial.”
“Right right,” he said and began to scan the snowy landscape for their target, turning his head like an owl might in search of a mouse. “Soooo…is everything between you and Cirrus okay?”
“Yeah, why do you ask?”
“Just curious. I can’t help but get the feeling that these missing memories might have something to do with him.”
“The last thing Asil remembered was Moon killing her. In case these memories are just that, I don’t want to be near Cirrus in case I lose it for a moment.”
“What if these memories are all your warring qualities? You won’t kill me, will you?”
“No, Gwa. I couldn’t kill you if I tried. Asil had a weakness for cute, too.”
Gwa puffed up even more and continued his scan for the kyrie with more enthusiasm. “Okay, but Sial is avoiding giving these memories back for a reason. He’s what? Three hundred years old plus his previous existence on the first Aster? That’s old enough for an Ancient to grasp common sense.”
“I think they’re memories of Damek.”
“Good memories I’m assuming?”
“I won’t change my mind,” Sybl assured him. “He has to be stopped, regardless of my past with him.”
“Well, Sial is here. I’ll be higher up while you lure him in for the tackle.” Gwa quickly checked the sharpness of his talons, before springing into the air.
Sybl looked around and it was clear that Gwa’s eyesight was ten times better than her own, as it took a few minutes for the kyrie to be visible to her through the snowdrifts. Sial was limping, and she walked towards him at the same time. When they were within meters of each other, she could see that Sial had become something out of nightmares. His skin sagged around his purple eyes. On other parts of his body, his flesh was missing right down to his bones. Sybl held her mouth to stifle a scream. Sial suddenly lunged forward, only to collapse to his knees in the snow as his blood spread around him.
Gwa didn’t descend to attack the creature and landed next to her in disbelief of the same sight. “I’ve never seen an Aeger like this.”
The kyrie collapsed to its side, breathing irregularly through lungs that just barely held any air within.
“Sial.”
“Must…not remember. It is…what Damek wants. It…is what he needs.”
“I don’t understand. Sial, what of memory are you keeping from me?”
“Must…not remember.” Sial closed his eyes then, and his breathing stopped.
“You sure you still want to do this?” Gwa asked in worry.
“There is nothing that can change my mind about Damek.” Sybl went over to Sial and touched the festra of his horn, before pulling it free in one swift movement.
Gwa looked more closely at her.
“See? Nothing to worry about,” Sybl said, as she didn’t feel or remember anything new.
He looked back at the kyrie. “Poor bugger. So this means I win the Hunt, right? What do I win, anyways?”
“I have no idea. The Caelestis for a day, I guess?”
“Accepted.” Gwa watched as she tucked the festra in her white sash behind her. He crouched down so she could climb onto his
back. Then he clutched the kyrie in his talons to carry it back. “It won’t hurt my bragging rights if I look like I caught this.” Then Gwa sprung into the air to fly back to the Atrum.
12: ATRUM OF THE PAST
“Asil, what are you doing here alone?”
Sybl opened her eyes to find herself in a Dream of what could have only been the past, as she turned to look at Damek standing behind her. She looked then to dark castle of the Atrum and saw that the city around it did not yet exist. This was where most of the eminor on Aster lived three hundred years ago. She remembered as this being the place where she had apologized to him for overreacting with fear to the phelan he had created. After he had brought Kas back to her by sacrificing one of the giant, wolf-like spirits. “I wanted to see you,” she said simply.
He stopped walking a meter from her and didn’t say anything in turn.
“You’re not wearing your armor,” she said, noting that the golden chest, gauntlets, pants and helmet he always wore was not on him. Plain clothing combined with his light brown hair that fell over his green eyes made him look ordinary and not like the enemy he had become.
“After what happened between us, I didn’t feel like fighting anymore,” Damek said, and then he looked at the shadows that hid nearby.
Sybl reminded herself that this was just a memory and that starting a fight with him here would give her nothing for answers. “I had no right to get angry at you like that. The phelan are beautiful and powerful creatures for battle. If anything, they are even more magnificent than the Nightmare Eaters of the first Aster.”
“They are yours,” he said, pulling his festra from his back and handing it to her.
“They’re your army,” Sybl said, but took the weapon anyways. Three thousand names enslaved for the purpose of warfare was not something she wanted him to keep, even if this was just a memory.
Damek shook his head. “All this has shown me that the choices I would have made on the first Aster are not suitable choices for this one. This is your world. I gave this to Asteria once, so the names bound to this weapon are now your army. You can make new wishes, but you cannot alter the ones made in your past. My most significant wish will always be for the happiness of my most beautiful Fay, for you will always belong to me.”
Sybl stood her ground as he touched the side of her face and kissed her forehead, sending a freezing chill down her spine. Then she woke up in a bed with her bladed, staff-like festra lying next to her.
“Morning, Beautiful,” Gwa said from the chair he sat reading a book in. “You alright?”
Sybl sat up and looked around her room, before looking back at him. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Did you see any of your memories?”
Sybl shook her head.
“Well it was worth a try. Maybe Sial didn’t have them. But you might want to get a move on, as your Bond already left for Toria.”
“He what?”
“I tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“This is bad. I don’t suppose you can fly me over?”
“I’m sorry Beautiful, but I can’t fly that far and that fast. If we got caught in the Aur storm, we would be roasted over an open ice field.”
“What about to the Harbor?”
“The ships can’t sail on ice—”
“I know,” Sybl said and picked up her festra. Then she ran past him and out of the room.
Gwa followed her downstairs and somned when they got outside, only this time the phelan soldiers were ready for them.
“Where are you going, griffin?” one of the phelan somnus asked.
“Get out of the way,” Sybl said threateningly.
“We have orders to keep you here, Caelestis,” he stated.
Sybl lifted her festra and caught the Threads she wanted from the soldier around its end. Then she pulled the weapon back harshly, and the somnus buckled in pain when his spirit did. Sybl quickly grabbed onto Gwa’s feathers and pulled herself onto his back, where he then sprung into the air for the Harbor.
“I’m glad I’m not bound to that weapon,” Gwa said. “But what are you planning to do, Beautiful?”
“Catch my Bond and skin him for leaving me behind.”
Gwa laughed and set them down on the docks. Most of the Harbor was hiding in their homes from the cold.
Sybl jumped down from his back and walked towards the edge of the frozen waters. She began to sing, and after a few minutes, several True appeared on the ice in the distance. “I’m heading over with them.”
“You sure about this?” Gwa asked as he looked up at the massive phelan spirits that could likely swallow him whole if they wanted to. One lay down, and Sybl climbed onto its back.
“I’ll be right back.”
Gwa didn’t feel like he was in a position to argue as the True stood up again and started across the Eternal Waters. “Be safe.”
Don’t worry.
He sat down and watched her go, knowing that was all he would be able to do in the meantime.
13: TEMPEST
Loki silently watched Yri’s psi as she woke to the smell of smoke, and looked across the white marble floor. The slow-drifting blackness was swirled about by the aeri wind, and it took a moment for the daoran to realize that her surroundings were no longer under attack. The main gate was still down and the breeze that entered soothed over some the violence that had hit them. She looked for her Ancient, but it was hiding somewhere else.
Yri got to her feet and fixed her gold and green dress the best she could, but it was irreparably ruined. As she looked around the main hall of Toria, much of it was ruined as well, with the walls blasted black by gunfire and explosives. Several drapes and tapestries were still on fire.
“My Queen, are you alright?” a dragoon asked, and came running from the stairs at the far side of the main hall.
“Where are the griffins?” she asked, no longer concerned with herself as much as she was for the state of her kind.
“They’re all dead. That swarm of plumas hit them so hard, they didn’t so much as have the chance to call a retreat. We killed the few trying to escape.”
Yri didn’t look to remember what had hit her. She lifted up her dress from the floor and went up the main stairs, as the few dragoons who were still alive from the surprise attack started to get back on their feet. She reached the throne room and pushed open the doors. Yri looked around it, only to find a dragoon cloaked in black standing near the window. “Loki?” she asked in disbelief.
The dragoon turned around, but he didn’t take off the silver mask that he wore. “All of you deserve to die for your transgressions against Aragmoth and the Caelestis.”
“It was you controlling all those plumas? How?” she demanded.
“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is what happens now.” He walked over to Yri and caught the Threads to her lungs, suffocating her. Loki then ungently pulled the High Priestess to her knees before him. “Renounce yourself as Queen and allow me to take my place as King of Toria, or I will call every one of my plumas back to strip the skin from your bones.”
Yri’s eyes came back into focus as some air returned to her. “You will never be King.”
“Then allow me to sharpen your reasoning,” Loki said, then pulled Yri behind him as he left the throne room and headed downstairs. He dragged the struggling High Priestess behind him and only stopped on reaching the main gate. Then he grabbed her by the throat and held her over the side. “Renounce your title, or I will see to it that you fall without your wings.”
“You’ve gone mad!” Yri hissed at him. “No one will listen to you. You are nothing but the wretched, weak son of my pathetic sister!”
Loki’s grip tightened as he wanted nothing more than to strangle her with Thread to prove just how weak he wasn’t anymore. “I am tired of being the weaker one.” He took his mask off his face with his free hand. “The only question now is will I let you near my Princess?” Loki looked to one of the Regals who had landed on the gat
e. He threw Yri to a sliding stop at the winged cat’s feet.
The other dragoons who had followed the commotion froze, as there was no saying what the Regal would do next. Yri slowly got to her feet and backed away while facing it. But the Regal didn’t attack her, it simply stepped back and dropped back into the air.
Loki looked for what had frightened it off, and saw the High Guard flying towards Toria. If they were back so soon, then there was no war on the Suzerain Continent. He would have to get rid of Yri in a quieter manner and at a different time.
