by S. J. Wist
Sybl stopped fuming and caught his shoulders to keep him sitting upright. “Kas? Kas look at me.”
“I am sorry…you have to see me like this. I had hoped to be far away…when…”
“Kas!” Sybl shouted at him, catching him before he could fall against the bed. “Kas! What’s wrong? Someone help!” she cried at the door. Two dragoons ran in, before one ran back out to get a Healer. “Kas! Kas what do I have to do? Where are you hurt?” He didn’t answer, and she lifted his legs and lay him down on the bed. She couldn’t heal him if she didn’t know where he was injured.
His hand found hers, and he smiled as he set it down over his heart. “Do not cry. Just…listen. Please.”
“Kas!” Sybl cried, not knowing what to do. His body wasn’t absorbing her aeri.
Cecil ran into the room and quickly tried to figure out what was wrong with him. “Sybl, what happened?”
Sybl felt Kas’ grip let her go, and she sank to her knees as it felt like he was taking her heart into death with him.
“Sybl!” Cecil shouted at her, then shook her shoulders. “Sybl!”
She blacked out just as Cirrus reached them and took her from him. He immediately tried to somn with her, but something was blocking him out. “What happened!?”
“I don’t know—she’s going into shock!”
Cirrus pressed her against him as he closed his eyes and followed after her by the Mei they shared, praying that he could bring her back.
24: HEIGHT OF WARNING
Sybl stood on a dark rooftop in her city back on Earth. The same one that had started it all. A home and a life that had all been a lie. After all her time on Aster, she had forgotten what it felt like to stand out in the rain during a storm. The rain drops were surprisingly warm against her skin. The city took shelter, and she alone knew it to be not any normal thunderstorm. The clouds overhead rumbled, and she looked back up to see a flash of lightning. Sybl didn’t feel afraid despite being on one of the higher apartment buildings of her old city.
After a while, the rain turned into snow and she looked around for the enemy who was capable of challenging the weather in such a way. Her eyes caught sight of Damek’s golden armor and the unfailing glow of his green eyes. He was watching her from the rooftop of another building. This was where she saw it would end, and there was nothing he could do to stop her.
‘Between Heaven and Hell there are Fay.
Those in darkness have seen into the future.
Those blessed by the light would shine it on the past.
They see all destinies within the Threads that they touch.
There is a Heaven for each of us…
‘But I will not find mine here.’
She jumped and spun around as Damek appeared instantaneously behind her.
“You have disappointed me, Asil. I could have given you everything if only you would open your eyes to the truth of the power that I am. If only you would understand that my will is the only outcome that will come to pass.”
“Killing everyone won’t get you what you want,” Sybl replied.
“It is only a matter of time before they see,” Damek said, walking till he was next to her to take in the view of the city. “And that time is very soon.” He looked back at her as several bolts of lightning struck the buildings and towers in the distance. “Do you remember how the energy storms of the Dragon Moon tore the first Aster apart? Perhaps the remains of him will remember as well when I am done.”
Sybl let out a cry of pain, then grasped her left arm with her Mei. It felt like Damek had sent the angry fire of a thousand destroyed worlds through her body. She looked helplessly at her arm as Damek’s Curse returned to her, only this time he had intertwined it around her Mei to Cirrus.
“Shall I continue? I can make you suffer as much as necessary until you remember that there is no escape from me.”
Sybl didn’t have a breath to dodge him when he suddenly grabbed her by the neck and whipped her off of the side of the building as if she were a mere doll. She screamed before she hit the street. Only she didn’t hit concrete, but what felt like a soft bed. A familiar bed.
A loud rapping came at the bedroom door, and she looked up as her foster mother stormed into the room. She looked disapprovingly around, before leaving Sybl in peace to contemplate the madness that was getting more and more confusing.
But peace did not live here. It was a cruel joke that her first foster home was; a boy’s home. She wasn’t a boy, and she didn’t feel she deserved to be punished for what happened in her lie of a life, now that she knew the rooftop incident wasn’t her fault.
She touched her neck and found her golden fairy there. This was one of Damek’s mind games that he had no doubt designed to try and break her. Sybl could only guess this day of nightmares was about to get a whole lot worse. She left her room when someone collided with her hard enough to throw her down the stairs. She landed on the middle turn against its window bench with a squeak. Once everything stopped spinning, she looked up at the top of the stairs where the two boys had vanished. She squinted to make sure she was seeing right and reminded herself that this wasn’t real.
She pulled herself up and rubbed the back of her head where a bump wouldn’t get the chance to rise against the healing power of her aeri. Sybl headed down the rest of the stairs and towards the front door. Just a nightmare. Just a nightmare… She ran out the door and felt Cirrus’ thoughts touch her mind. He had followed her here. Sybl looked at her Mei that still had Damek’s Curse intertwined with it, and feared that Cirrus had no idea how to navigate Earth. It would be up to her to save him from this round of nightmares.
25: FALLEN FEATHERS
Cirrus stopped on the path in the city and tried to think of what Cecil would do in his situation, but that was obvious. He would turn around and run home as fast as he had arrived on Earth. Cirrus wouldn’t consider that option until he found Sybl.
He looked at the sunlight that cut a straight line next to the shadow of the building he hid in. Cirrus took a handful of his long, blond hair, and let the sunlight touch it first. It didn’t burn up, and he got a bit more brave and put his hand across the line. Satisfied that he wouldn’t be killed, he stepped all the way into Earth’s light.
Cirrus had complained that Atrum City and the Harbor were a mess of smells, souls and sounds back on Aster, but this city was a maze endless miseries. When a Tech on wheels nearly ran him down, he decided to step back and try to refocus, leaning his back against the hot brick wall of a tall building. He could feel Sybl getting closer. Trying to find her would be next to impossible in this place.
“Hey idiot, you’re on the wrong side of the planet.”
Cirrus jumped on hearing Hain’s voice, thinking that the heat might have caused him to start hallucinating inside a hallucination. “Hain?” The shadow came out of the alleyway, and it took him a moment to recognize the Awl.
“Looks like Serena wins the argument after all. Nothing but us dark angels here.”
“I saw you die…” Cirrus said.
“Well it would seem that Hino is in need of every Sentry he can get, so I didn’t get the oblivion ticket after all. But the question is, what the hell are you doing here?”
“I followed Sybl.”
“That can’t be good,” Hain said with genuine concern.
“Something happened to Kas—and she went into shock.”
Whatever color the Sentry’s face had seemed to drain away with the news.
“You have to show me where she is,” Cirrus insisted.
“You can look for yourself,” Hain retorted.
“Hain!”
“Don’t even try it, dragoon. I don’t owe you anything.”
“And Sybl? You sacrificed your life to save her to give up on her now?”
“She’s not my responsibility, dragon. She’s yours. So do something for her.” Hain turned to leave but then stopped. “Oh, and another word of advice, don’t touch anyone while you’re here. If the ot
her Sentry realize you’re a dragoon they’ll kill you on sight, with or without that Mei on your arm to Sybl that is keeping you from burning up.” He vanished into the rays of sunlight at that.
Sunlight. Cirrus didn’t think it would ever be something he could get used to. But what was even more improbable was the realization that this wasn’t a Vision or a nightmare, but the very present. As he looked around at the people passing him by, he suddenly felt as threatened as being locked in a small room filled with plumas.
Cirrus took in a deep breath and decided to wear a shroud of confidence instead, as he looked at his Mei and to where he could feel it lead to Sybl.
26: REFLECTIONS
Sybl woke in the middle of the night on the floor of her old apartment. She had come here looking for something, but found only emptiness.
She sat up quietly and looked at the balcony window as it was fogging over on the other side. Sybl nearly screamed when two sapphire blue eyes looked back at her from the glass. For a moment, she thought it was her own eyes, before their owner moved in the spot they were sitting in.
“You will cry for a brother from millennium ago, yet you will not so much as look at me.”
Now would be an opportune time to scream, as it could have only been Damek on the other side of the glass. But his eyes had changed to blue, and his voice had lost it assuredness. “Nafury?”
Her necklace went cold on her neck, and she caught it and pulled it off as its ice spread and threatened to freeze over her body. She dropped it to the wood parquet floor and looked back at Nafury whose glowing gaze was focused on it. “Why are you doing this? What do you want?”
He looked back at her with the expression of disbelief that she didn’t already know. “I already told you what I wanted. I want you to remember me, Sybl. Not the monster, but the one who saved you the day I left you that,” he finished, looking back at the necklace. “I want you to remember the person who will always be there for you, regardless of circumstances.”
“Who else did you kill?” Where does your slaughter end?”
“It ends when you come back to me.”
“If you are Nafury, you can’t keep this up—it will destroy Aster!”
“So what if it does?” he asked, as if the concept of the living population of an entire world meant nothing to him.
“Because there are people there who can forgive you. It’s your home.”
“Home is where those who love you are, and we are all beautiful to the ones who love us. But I am beautiful to no one and equally unwanted by everyone,” Nafury said.
“That isn’t true!”
“Then tell me what’s true, Asil.”
Sybl touched her necklace on the floor, but the moment she did it split in two, leaving the wings of the golden fairy on the chain, and the body broken away. She picked up the wings, and their iciness began to melt as her Sylvan energy came into focus with her emotions. “You haven’t given everyone a chance. You assumed the future with nothing but your sadness and Daath to predict it for you.”
One side of Nafury’s lip curled into a smile as he watched her. “You thought the same way once. You think the same way even now.”
“No, I don’t.”
Nafury looked at the Curse on her Mei. “You forget that I can feel everything that you do, and I know when you’re lying. I’m not your enemy. These worlds that hate and despise us, despite all our efforts now and in the past to help them, are the enemy. And I will break your false sense of morality as far as I need to in order to make you see this. I will break whatever it takes to return you to me.”
Sybl pressed her hand to the glass as his form suddenly shifted into a dark-brown dragon the size of a jungle cat, and he climbed up and leapt from the balcony’s banister and into the air. She looked at the glass that gave no reflection of herself back. She remembered when Kas had Dreamwalked in her room and how he could never be seen in the mirror. It was terrifying to have no immediate proof to being real. Sybl had no memory of Kas being scared, so neither would she be. Even if her soul was actually here on Earth Dreamwalking, and not stuck in a nightmare.
Kas. Her heart swelled to the point it might burst as she thought about him back on Aster. Was he alright? She looked at her Mei. Without it leading to him, there was no way to know from so far away. She had to find Cirrus and get out of here. But the closer she got to finding Cirrus, the further Damek would set her away from him.
Fear. Regret. Everything of her past was being made into her worst enemy. She left the apartment and took the stairs down, leaving at the side of the building. No doubt Damek would take all of the memories that Daath had accumulated from her mind and use them against her. It was an emotional circuit Damek was running her through. It was her darker emotions that fueled him through the Curse that she once again had on herself. She looked up as an electrical wire sparked over the street. Sentry. She focused back on finding Cirrus, holding the calm in her as she did so.
The spark followed her down the sidewalk, until it left the wire entirely and descended in front of her in slow motion. Sybl didn’t know what to do against the spark of energy, so she followed her instincts that screamed at her to run.
27: WINDS OF THE PAST
“Cirrus.”
Cirrus turned around and found a woman standing in the middle of the empty street. As he looked around, he realized that this world that had moments ago overrun his senses with its complexity and crowdedness had gone entirely silent and still. But her voice… “Who are you?” Her glow dimmed to reveal her face and Cirrus had to blink a few times to believe he looked at his own mother.
“You have grown up so much.”
“Mother?”
“Yes.”
Alexia was here. Cirrus looked around, and could only guess that souls who belonged to Hino, returned to Hino like Hain’s had. Which meant that his sins were standing right before him no less than if he had died to find others of them in Aragmoth.
“Why are you here? Have you come to find me?” Alexia asked.
No. He didn’t even think it was possible. “I…” Cirrus could see Alexia more clearly now. He shivered at the realization that all his questions had given him no answers to just who the Sentry was who they exorcised him of on Aster. My mother is a Sentry? How is that possible?
“Are you looking for Asil?”
Cirrus didn’t answer, fearing that he had yet to find the worst of his nightmares.
Alexia turned and looked down the street. “Strange how the last Threads of Fate that Aragmoth has woven has led you here. Back to the same world where you met the Fay for the first time. You are Dreamwalking, but if your soul dies here on Earth and in the present, then you will die on Aster. You must turn around and go back,” his mother said sternly.
“I’m not leaving without Sybl.”
“She does not love you,” Alexia said.
“She does, and nothing you can say will change that fact. Even if your kind kills me.”
“There are a million things on this world that can kill a dragon. You must not fall any further into Damek’s trap for the Fay. He will gain nothing by killing Sybl and everything by killing you.”
“A million things, eh? Odds aren’t as bad as I thought.” He walked past his mother, and she caught his arm and pulled him to a stop. It was in her sadness that he could see the extent of the truth. The pieces that Sybl’s heart wouldn’t allow her to tell him. Twenty-nine years of feeling sorry for himself. Thirteen of those years he spent with his soul frozen in Time and trapped in the body of a dragon. It all made sense now. His own mother had cursed his very existence. “Did Simera know? Did he know you were a Sentry?”
Alexia let go of him and then stepped back. “I was what I needed to be at the time.”
“You never wanted me to come back to life. You wanted a monster worthy of Dyaus’ Line, only Simera gave you me instead. But that wasn’t enough to stop you from trying to repeat history and destroy Aster all over again.”
“
I never wished for the destruction of Aster,” Alexia insisted. “I have always cared about you, even before you were born. You don’t remember that it was I who gave you the power to see Asil on the first Aster. That I was the one who allowed you to follow the Fay you had fallen in love with back to her world. Your jealousy for what you didn’t understand twisted it from there. Your jealousy turned into hate, and with that hate, you were the one to destroy the planet.”
“My jealousy?” Cirrus almost laughed it back at her. “You were the one who couldn’t accept that Asteria had taken Daath from you. Now Daath is back, and you claim to want to make it right from the monster you helped create? You tricked me into becoming the force that destroyed an entire world!” An image of Kas lying dead back in Toria flashed through his mind. “Maybe Kas was right—I should leave you and Earth to the Fate you’ve brought on yourself, because I’m not your son. I was never supposed to be your son. Now leave me be so I can save the ones who truly give a damn about me.” Cirrus continued down the sidewalk and away from her as a rush of wind was left behind with his mother. But just as she vanished, the grass began to grow through the stone ground, and vines and greenery quickly began to overtake the buildings and Tech around him. Then in one fast, unprecedented rush, everything was torn down into the form of a field of flowers. He looked across it as for a moment he swore he saw Sybl, but when the spirit looked at him, Cirrus knew that it was Asil. A memory buried—no—taken from him. Taken by his own mother.
