by Kyrja
“What if she is trying to steal control of the seas for herself?” a voice challenged the silence.
“She speaks the truth!” Ceirat spoke up. “I have the gift of knowing when a thing has the potential for danger, and she is telling the truth.
Other voices started speaking up, with chaos quickly following. Raito wanted to stop this nonsense. They needed to come to a resolution quickly. He could feel time running out. Suddenly he heard the girl who accompanied Giya – Sina was her name – scream.
“He’s coming! I told you he would! Ozahm is coming!”
* * * * * * * *
Almost! Denit thought to herself. A little lower and a little longer. She had found what she needed within the crystal to free Giya, but she still had to get out of the cave. She had been trying to recreate the sound the Singer, Youni, had made when she had left Denit here by herself and knew she was almost there. Once more, she told herself, reaching out to the Universe around her. Moving her jaw, while opening her mouth as wide as it could go, and pursing her lips at the same time, she started the vibration in her diaphragm, letting it move up through her throat, then released it in a tone that she knew was exactly right. The Universe responded immediately, freeing her from outside of time … and placing her in all times at once. Everywhere. Everywhen.
Chapter Thirty-Three – Sea God Rising
Nieva knew her Grandmother the Goddess would be fascinated to hear the things she was learning here today, and wondered if that’s why she hadn’t argued against her coming, even though she knew it would be dangerous. She doubted anyone present would have welcomed her grandmother to this gathering, and rightfully so, Nieva realized. She would use whatever information she would have gathered against people, even though everyone here seemed to want to do nothing more than to help. When she saw movement out of her right eye, she turned quickly to discover the tortoise was coming closer and would soon be walking amongst them. In fact, Giya and Raito would have to move back a bit or they would risk being stepped on. Then again, she considered, they were both gods, so maybe they wouldn’t be hurt? She was finding out just how different all the gods were, and knew her Grandmother the Goddess would be pleased she had noticed so much. She shook her head, internally frowning at herself. She would have to learn how to stop measuring what she did against whether her grandmother would like it or not. Since she’d done it as long as she could remember, she wasn’t sure whether that was even possible.
Rajesh was Deiserin’s son, and he was a god too. She sighed then, wondering if he would actually have to die in order for his mother to be released. She wondered, too, what her own mother was doing, and if she was still with Grandmother the Goddess, in the City by the Sea, or if she had returned to her husband, Moyo, in the desert. She hadn’t seen him in a very long time either. Let alone her sister, Aidena, who was supposed to be in Bila, helping the new Empress. But if Rajesh was the God of Bila, and he was here, did that mean Aidena was in trouble too? She knew she had too many questions, and not enough answers.
So, too, had her one-sided conversation with Deiserin given her more questions than answers. She had tried to imagine what it would be like to be Deiserin, but wasn’t able to make her imagination stretch quite that far. When she had first approached her, she had talked to the tortoise as if she was speaking to a small child who would probably be afraid of her. Feeling foolish for having done so, she talked to her about her own life, telling her that she lived in the City by the Sea, and a little bit about her own family. She had purposefully not mentioned her Grandmother the Goddess, because she thought that maybe, after having been turned into a tortoise by one goddess, that Deiserin might not be very fond of goddesses at all. Once she had started talking, Nieva found she wanted to keep talking, even though she knew she wouldn’t have if she was talking to another person, instead of a person who had been turned into a tortoise. Mostly, she wanted to help Deiserin not to feel lonely. For her part, the tortoise seemed to ignore her altogether, simply moving one slow foot in front of the other.
Even now, surrounded by all these people, Nieva felt lonely. Or maybe just sad. She wasn’t sure, but she knew she also wanted to explore all of Jikangai, to see what it was really like here. She was thrilled when Giya appeared, and even happier when she saw there was girl with her. Giya had said her name was Sina. She couldn’t wait to talk to her to find out what it had been like to live here. Sina was probably close to sixteen, Nieva thought, just a couple of years older than she was, so she wasn’t sure whether the other girl would want to be friends or not, but she hoped so.
* * * * * * * *
“Tyran!” Ceirat whispered, fiercely, shaking her. “Tyran! Come back to us!”
“What’s wrong with her?” Vory asked, remembering to keep her voice low.
“It’s the mist,” Ordan told them. “As soon as it appeared, she started acting like this, just staring off into space. She is not afraid, but …” he paused, considering. “It’s very strange,” he said, frowning. “She isn’t afraid, but she very much wants to be.”
“It sure seems like she might be, if she’s not responding at all,” Vory offered. “Kind of paralyzed?”
“It’s more than that,” Ordan replied, reaching up to put his hands on her shoulders.
“It’s the Singers,” Baya told them, having overheard the exchange. “She is a Joojinta.” When they didn’t respond, she asked, “Do you hear music in the mist?”
“Yes,” Ordan answered right away.
“I do too,” Vory agreed. Ceirat nodded.
“But what does that mean, Joojinta?”
“She hears the Song of the Earth,” Honsa told them, reaching out to rub Tyran’s arm, as if that would somehow help her to stay with them, instead of surrendering to the Song.
“Yes,” Baya agreed. “But she hasn’t surrendered to it yet.”
“Ah,” Ordan immediately understood. “She has always been terrified of being buried alive, and this is why.”
“She complained of her bones hurting just before she started staring into space,” Vory told them.
“Joojinta are those who hear the Song, but who haven’t yet surrendered to it,” Baya explained. “But they don’t really hear it so much as feel it.”
“What happens when someone surrenders to the Song?” Honsa asked, his voice laced with fear.
“Their body dies,” Yakuza told them, coming closer to the group gathered around Tyran. When they looked up at him, he looked at the ground. “And they become a part of the most beautiful life anyone could ever experience. But you probably won’t agree with that, because you are afraid of losing your friend.”
“The Song is a danger to Tyran,” Ceirat told them, flatly. “We must make this stop.”
“How do you know what happens?” Vory pressed, her eyes narrowed.
“I am a Singer,” Yakuza told them. “But you should know that already. You heard me sing. You heard the Song. That’s how I brought you all here, using the Song. It needed you to come here, so it brought me above the mantle – what you would call the surface of the planet – to my grandfather. He sang too. And now your friend wants to sing. You should not take her choice away from her. That is cruel. She will always hear the Song of the Earth, all of her life. She will always want to join in the Song. Always. It will hurt her to stay away.”
“But the Song is hurting you,” Ordan said, a puzzled frown on his face. “Right here. Right now. I can feel it. Why do you not surrender to ease your pain?”
“The Song brought me here, to my grandfather, to you. My task was to bring you here. I have done it,” he replied, his voice rising a bit. Ordan could feel his anger rising.
“But now it will not take you back,” he guessed.
“How can we help you?” Honsa asked.
“You cannot,” Yakuza shook his head sadly.
“Can you help our friend Tyran?” Ceirat pressed.
“The rooster made the mist,” Aku chimed in. “The mist stopped our time.”
/> They all jumped a bit, startled by his loud voice when they heard Rajesh announce he was the firstborn child of Deiserin, followed by his insistence that they find a way to help the Sea God escape the barrier once he had received the powers necessary to control the seas.
“Let Giya come out!” Honsa found himself shouting. “Shio can give her life force to Giya instead of the Sea God!” A cheer went up at the suggestion, with smiles shared all around, but the idea was quickly dismissed when Raito explained that Lumas had specifically keyed the magic in the barrier so that Giya could not escape if she had ever decided to imprison her there.
Then the girl screamed, “He’s coming! I told you he would! Ozahm is coming!”
Raising her hands, Giya called for calm. “I am the one he wants to destroy …” but before she could say anything more, Jarles ran through the barrier, almost running Giya down before he came to a stop.
“Hurry!” he admonished, holding out his hands to her. “What do I need to do?”
* * * * * * * *
As he appeared in the Second Circle of Jikangai, Ozahm’s self-satisfied chuckle was cut short when he saw all the people gathered together. As they all turned their faces towards him, a small voice inside of him told him to ignore them, to enter the circle at another point – there was nothing they could do. It was already too late. And almost did he obey that directive, but when he saw Giya standing there, so very close to the barrier, he was instantly furious. She must not escape! She must die! All humans must die!
Throwing the Candentis Vine he held in his hand downward in such a way to ensure it would immediately plant itself and being to grow rapidly, Ozahm felt a sneer steal over his face. Maybe he would leave one or two of these would-be-saviors alive just so he could hear their screams as the vines covered their bodies, ripping their limbs and organs to pieces!
* * * * * * * *
As the energies Giya was feeding him engulfed him, Jarles cried out. This! This was what he had both been waiting for and what he had been running from all of his life. It was life itself! He could feel the pulse of every individual close to him, could almost feel the air moving in and out of their lungs, could feel the grass, the trees, the flowers, and more, within the inner circle of Jikangai as it was already beginning to die within the dictates of its own life cycle – as a part of the natural environment of this particular place. Too, he could feel the flora on the other side of the barrier, its own lifecycles healthy and natural. There, though, that beetle – it was near the end of its life. There, that moth was just emerging from its cocoon to begin a new phase of its life. The differences in time between the inside of the circle and the outside was natural and healthy. No wait … it had become so, after many centuries of acclimation. And Deiserin too. Her human life force was still within her. Ozahm, he could feel as a bright beacon against a dark night. His power was magnificent. And yet pale compared to Giya’s. Jarles felt as if he could stand in this one spot for many years, simply absorbing the life surrounding him. And there was Nieva’s pulse. He smiled to himself, his heart glad they were friends. Next to her was Oculis. He could feel everyone and everything, like he used to when he was underwater. Only this was more. So much more!
He remembered all of the times he had found himself suddenly immersed in bodies of water which simply didn’t exist outside of the environment Amphedia had created specifically for him. He remembered the terror, but also the wonder and beauty. He remembered his own stubbornness at refusing to be manipulated, and also all the times he explored places otherwise inaccessible to humans. He had seen plant life nobody else ever would, and creatures which were both fascinating and terrifying. He had taken the measure of each body of water in which he’d been immersed, immediately knowing whether it was healthy or not. Whether it was brackish, fresh, or salt water. He had automatically known where each shoreline or river bank was, no matter how near or far. At this very moment, he knew where the water was beneath him and where the river ran not so far away. It was exhilarating. And … he could feel it … as the mantle of Sea God settled within him – the responsibility. And … he could feel each and every True Child of Amphedia. They were each – all! – on their way to him now. He could feel the wonder in their hearts, and even a bit of the disdain some of them felt for having to answer this unexpected summons. It was the magic of the bond, he knew. There was so much to know!
“Giya,” Jarles gasped, immediately falling to his knees in front of her. “I have long hated what you made me to be, but on this day, I am grateful beyond measure. I will do you proud,” he said, looking into her eyes as he spoke the last.
“Go, my son, you are needed elsewhere. If I am able, I will come to you one day. If not, watch for Eruitt and … be as kind to him as Amphedia and I never were to you.”
With everything he wanted to say left unsaid, Jarles turned, took four steps, then jumped through the barrier, hoping to get far enough away from the barrier on the other side that Shio would be able to reach him. When his body hit the hard earth on the other side, Jarles was dead.
* * * * * * * *
“Come, Lord of Death!” Gaku bellowed, “I have been waiting for you!”
Ozahm turned to find a man standing with his arms spread wide, as if he would embrace him. He felt a smile spreading across his face. One man? What could one man hope to gain by challenging him? Did he have a death wish? No matter, he thought, moving towards the man, he was more than happy to grant the man his dying wish.
* * * * * * * *
“Quickly!” Shio commanded the people around her, “help me to turn him over. I have to press my Tear to his heart!”
Baya appeared by Shio’s side, ordering her brothers and sisters to help, “Jikan! Manawa! Help Shio turn him over! Payhar! Samaya! Wakati! Clear a space around them. Aku and Sharun, work with the Singers to see if they can help!
“Move out of the way!” Baya heard a voice demand. “I am a Diviner, I can call water to the surface and I have Tear too. I can help!”
“Let her through,” Baya told her sister, Jikan.
As soon as she was by the Sea God’s side, Vory brought the water forth she’d been calling, knowing Jarles would need it to heal, even if it wasn’t from the sea. She had died enough times herself to know how to be helpful here. Watching the water spread under him, she shouted with alarm when it suddenly fountained, spraying straight up over her head, drenching everyone standing anywhere near Jarles.
“Watch out!” she shouted when she saw a man-sized figure stepping out of the water, followed by another figure even taller.
* * * * * * * *
“There’s no time to waste,” Rajesh said, as he walked through the barrier, knowing he may be taking his mother’s place forever. Or worse. “I don’t know what to do,” he said to Giya. “Do you?”
“Lumas made you, much the same as she made me, but without the help of Sov, my father,” she said, thinking. “Do you know if she had any help in creating you?” Giya asked him without the hesitation he would have expected at such an intimate question. “Did she ever mention your father at all?”
“If she did, I never heard it,” Rajesh admitted. “I just never really thought about it, to be honest. I just always thought of Deiserin and Zemer as my parents, even though I knew Zemer wasn’t really my father,” he shrugged.
“All I know is that the blood of Deiserin’s firstborn son is the only thing that will stop her “slow march,”” Ratio added. “I really don’t think that means you have to die or take her place,” he added. “That’s not what it feels like.”
“Feels like? “Rajesh asked, frowning at him.
“I have taken Lumas’ place as the moon of this world, and there are still … remnants and fragments … of what she did and created echoing through the moon itself, and within me,” Raito tried to explain. “It’s like … “ suddenly he felt the pieces to the puzzle snap into place. Pieces he hadn’t known were in play. “Wait!” he said, holding up one hand, closing his eyes, remembering �
�. remembering …. when he was still a boy. When Lumas had created him. That’s why there was so much chaos! Everything had been so unnerving and frightening because everything that Lumas had already created before she made him poured into him from his connection with the crystal. Just as she had intended. The connection she had created from Sov’s “Crystal Seed” because she had been jealous! How dare he keep something from me! He could hear her thoughts right now. In this moment in time. She had wanted the crystal seed from him, but he had refused her this one thing, knowing he needed it in order to be reborn! Lumas had stolen Sov’s memory of the crystal seed when she had created him as Sear Caeli, and his sister, Siri Ventus! No wonder Sov had been so terrified of dying! Raito was both fascinated and disgusted. He had been Lumas’ crystal seed!
“Yes!” Ratio suddenly shouted. “Give me something sharp! I need just a bit of your blood. Hurry!”
As Oculis handed him a stick he’d found on the ground, Raito stated with absolutely confidence: “Zemer was your father, Rajesh. Lumas had tried to steal him away from your mother, Deiserin, but the blood bond between them wouldn’t let him leave her. Lumas was furious, because when she wants a thing, she feels she must have it, no matter what it is.” He paused to pick at the stick, hoping to sharpen it, but Giya took it from him, touched it, and handed it back to him, with a perfect point at the end. “Here,” Raito said, holding out one hand and holding the stick with the other, “give me your hand.”
“Lumas was always very, very kind to me,” Rajesh told him, “but terrible to my mother. And now I know why. Now what?” he asked, once Ratio had made a deep enough incision that he was bleeding.
