Post by Vash, the Angel's Moon on Nov 17, 2011 11:17:36 GMT -5
Hey everyone!
First off?
This chapter is... holy crap it's huge. Fourteen pages huge, to be precise. It's also incredibly important. There was a lot of emphasis used to important effect in this chapter, so for your reading pleasure, it's all been italicized as originally written. You'd better appreciate it
(JK)
I want your feedback. Gimme feedback
Especially on characters, since this chapter introduces a ton of them
Also note that this chapter includes some moments of extreme descriptive FAIL.
----
-Chapter the Second: Dreams and Tests-
As I slept, I had a dream.
Once again, I was surrounded by the black void, but this time, I was on my feet. Hundreds of multicolored lights swirled around me, and I lifted a hand to touch one. It curled around the offered hand as though it was nuzzling me, like a pet happy for the return of its master.
It felt… strange. It was somewhat insubstantial, but I could touch it, feel it. It felt warm, and where it touched my hand, it tingled with energy. I could hear a voice – no, many voices – in the darkness.
“Is it him?”
“Our new brother?”
“He’s different from us.”
“Who are you?”
“Big brother…?”
I couldn’t see the sources of the voices, but I could identify at least three – a man’s voice, deep and powerful like thunder; a woman’s voice, calm like the waves; and a girl’s voice, which crinkled like snowflakes across my skin.
Part of me wondered how I knew what waves sounded like, or how snowflakes felt, but I pushed those queries aside.
“Who are you?” I asked the voices. “Where are you?”
The girl’s voice laughed, sounding like water, dripping from an icicle. “Silly. We’re your siblings. I’m Kelcia, and I’m the Wintermoon.” I felt a cold breeze across my cheek.
“Wintermoon? What’s that?” I asked. “And I can’t see you!”
“Of course you can’t see us!” The voice giggled. “You’re strange, brother. Why do you look like them?”
“Kelcia,” warned the man’s voice. “That is not your place.”
“Leave her be, Raiden,” said the woman’s voice. It sounded patient, collected. “She does not know any better.” I could feel her attention turn to me, then; it felt like… it’s difficult to describe. Have you ever looked out across the sea and felt as if it were looking back? That’s how the calm voice’s attention felt. “Brother… what is your name?”
“Astran,” I replied. “Why… why do you say I’m your brother? I’m alone, aren’t I?”
“No,” she said, “far from it. There are only us four, now – but there will be more of us. Astran, you have much to learn.”
“Who are you?” I asked her. “And who am I?”
“Close your eyes, Brother. See with your heart.”
So I did. I closed my eyes and reached out to the blackness around me. Soon, I became aware of three presences – three, and then myself. I wasn’t truly here, I realized – just an image, and thousands and thousands of those multicolored lights swam through me. I was simply another light in this darkness, I realized, one that shifted through every color of the spectrum. The other three lights were each a single color; a deep blue, a sparking yellow, and a frosty, icy color halfway between blue and white.
“I can see you,” I said, surprised. I felt the blue presence respond, resonating with the calm voice’s answer.
“We are not like you, Brother. We have no physical bodies. Our bodies are cold vessels, created simply to transport our souls. You are different.”
“Lots different!” said the icy presence, the girlish voice. “Not even Kiran knew how different, I think.”
“You knew Kiran?” I asked.
“He created us,” responded the yellow presence. “He, and the others. But he was the first to create our souls and speak to them.”
Here, in this dream world, in this world of the heart, I could feel truths that I had not known in the waking world.
“I killed Kiran,” I whispered. “I’m… I’m sorry.”
“Foolish human killed himself,” Raiden retorted.
“Raiden!” snapped the girlish voice – Kelcia. “Don’t say that! ‘Sides, he was lots older than us anyway, stop acting like an old man when you’re not even older than Astran!”
If my eyes had been open, I’d have blinked. “He’s… not older than I am?”
“You were the first of us to be created,” said the calm voice, whose name, I realized, I hadn’t received yet. “Your soul is the oldest of ours.”
“Yeah, it’s like Rasen said! But… you were sleeping lots longer,” Kelcia replied.
Rasen, who must have been the calm voice, continued. “Ask the woman who has helped you for the true story. Astran… you are not a murderer. Take that to heart.”
“All… all right,” I replied. I sighed, felt a sadness in my soul. Suddenly, I realized – it was time for me to leave.
Kelcia must have noticed it too. “Is it time for him to go already?” she asked sadly.
“I’m afraid so,” I replied. “I… I don’t know how I know, but… I just do.”
“You’re needed in the waking world, Astran,” Rasen replied. “Go now…”
I nodded, opened my eyes…
---
…truly opened them. I lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling of Kiran’s room. The dream had felt just like reality.
Someone knocked on my door.
“Astran? Are you awake?” Shiira’s voice called out from the other side. I stood up.
“Yeah,” I called back. I went to open the door. Shiira stood there; she tossed me a fresh set of clothes.
“Get changed,” she ordered. “The others wish to perform some tests on you.”
“Tests?” I asked, confused.
“Yes,” she said. “Tests, to see if you truly are who you say you are, what happened to Kiran, and how to prevent it from happening again.”
“Um… okay.”
“Get changed,” she repeated, and closed the door.
“Touchy,” I muttered, quickly stripping out of the previous day’s clothes and putting on the ones Shiira had given me. As I was about to put my shirt on, I caught sight of my back in the mirror. For most people, that wouldn’t be something incredibly special; I took notice because of what was on my back.
A large, intricate design played out across my back and shoulders, a crescent moon with folded wings. I had my suspicions that it wasn’t simply a strange ‘tattoo’ (again, those new words that came out of nowhere), that it had an important meaning. I made a note to ask Shiira about it later, pulled my shirt on, and, because Shiira had been wearing hers, I pulled on the white coat before opening the door again and stepping outside.
“Better?” I asked.
She looked up, and froze. It was only for a second, but for that second, her face was completely unguarded – shocked, surprised… grieving.
Then, she clamped down on it, returning to the gruff demeanor she’d shown me the day before. I realized that for a moment, she’d thought I was Kiran.
“A-Astran. Good. Come on; they’re already impatient with me.” She turned and walked off without another word.
I followed her; there wasn’t anything else I could really do or say.
---
Shiira led me through the ship’s corridors into a white room with several tables set up in the center and several scientist mages readying strange objects which I assumed allowed them to channel and focus energy to different purposes.
“Ah, Shiira; there you are.” The voice belonged to a man with shoulder length black hair that fell in his eyes. He wore a pair of glasses that reflected the room’s harsh light, making it difficult to see through to his eyes beneath.
There was something subtly off about those reflections, too, but I couldn’t figure it out.
He turned toward me, smiling. “And this must be Astran… it’s a little spooky, you look just like Kiran. I mean, I’d heard the rumors, but I wasn’t actually there when you woke up. You scared half the ship half to death; it’s an honor to actually meet you.” He held out a hand; whatever instinct had been providing me with words the whole day before now informed me that I should shake that hand, so I did. His smile looked like it was ready to split his face in two.
Shiira rolled her eyes. “Eriks, if you’re finished?”
He coughed, shoved his glasses back on his nose. “Sorry, ma’am,” he said. He cleared his throat. “I forgot to introduce myself; I’m Soroe Eriks, a doctor and researcher who works under Shiira. I’ll be the one in charge of the examinations.”
Nervously, I asked, “What are you going to do to me?”
He chuckled. “Nothing drastic, I promise. First, probably a simple physical. We’ll test your reflexes, heart rate, that kind of thing – to make sure that body’s holding up alright, for one, and for another, to see if there’s any change from Kiran’s last physical. Then, we’ll draw blood for individual testing on that, and afterwards, we’ll do a magical probe that will tell us a number of things about you. The blood-drawing will likely be the most difficult part for you.”
“Alright,” I said, nodding. “What do you need me to do?”
He nodded to a table. “Take your coat off, and sit on that table there.” I did so, and he washed his hands, pulling on a pair of gloves before beginning.
I won’t bore you with all of the details; he listened to my heart, shone lights in my eyes and ears and down my throat, poked and prodded and nodded and mumbled and wrote things down on a sheet of paper he carried with him. Afterwards, he set the clipboard down and removed the gloves, depositing them in a bin marked with a special symbol that was most likely important.
“Well, you appear to be in good physical condition,” he said when he had finished, checking his notes. “Actually, I’d say you’re in excellent physical condition. If anything, you’ve improved Kiran’s last physical – to be expected, honestly.”
“Why?” I asked. “Why is it to be expected?”
He shook his head. “I’d explain, but… it’s quite a lengthy explanation, and I don’t think that now is the best time. You should ask Shiira later; she and Kiran were the head researchers on the project.” He motioned me over to another section of the room; I watched as all kinds of other activity went on; the place was rather large, and I wondered if this was where they conducted a majority of their research. It was divided off into sections by hanging curtains or sliding panels, and the different sections had different equipment. He drew a curtain back, and inside, I could see a large chair, although it didn’t really look like a chair; whatever it was, you sat in it, and it looked official.
“This is where we’ll draw your blood,” he explained. “It’ll sting a bit, but it won’t be too painful.”
I nodded, then sat down in the chair. He had me lean back, readied a needle, attached it to a long tube, then attached the tube to a glass vial. He swabbed something on my arm, wrapped a strip of cloth around my arm and tied it tightly, then inserted the needle.
He was right; it stung, but I could deal with the pain. I could feel it drawing my blood out; I watched the vial fill with blood, dark red and thick. I looked down at the needle in my arm, then quickly back up at where the vial was filling. When it got full, he removed it, putting another vial on the tube; I wondered how many vials he was going to take. I closed my eyes, and time moved strangely around me. I reopened them; he was removing another vial, but this time, he didn’t put another on.
“We’re done,” he said, removing the needle and strap – tourniquet, my mind supplied. It altered the way the blood flowed to aid the process. I watched as the hole made by the needle closed on its own; Soroe blinked, inspecting the area more closely.
“Well, that’s distinctly unusual,” he said, writing something down on his notepad. “That was… that was paranormally fast. I wonder what it could mean…”
I looked at my arm, confused. I realized, somewhere, that that was unusual for a human’s wounds. And, yet, part of me was unsurprised at it. Why?
I shrugged. “I don’t know,” I confessed.
I admit, I said that a lot back then.
He chuckled. “Well, that’s one of the reasons you’re here. Come on; after I took that blood, you should be feeling a little woozy. It’ll help if you eat something.” I got up from the chair, and he led me over to another area; someone had set down a tray with food and a glass of liquid. I realized that I was starving, and, as he’d predicted, just a little unsteady on my feet. I sat down and devoured the meal gladly.
Soroe laughed. “Well, boss,” he said, “looks like his appetite’s pretty healthy.” I looked up, noticed that Shiira had been watching me eat like a hungry wolf. I felt my face heat, flushed. I was… embarrassed. That was the feeling.
Shiira, however, just chuckled. “No surprise. From your notes, I’d say that he has an extreme metabolic rate; he appears to be using that body of his hyper-efficiently. That means that he would naturally eat more and more often than any normal human.”
Soroe gave her a strange look. “Shiira…”
“What is it, Soroe? Are you questioning my analysis?” Her voice would cold.
“No… I’m just worried about you. You seem to be taking this rather… coldly.”
She glared at him. “Of course I am! I’m fine, Soroe. We can’t suspend our work for something as insignificant as a little grief; we can’t let it get in the way. Queen Kedar is counting on us, if you don’t recall, so stop hovering over me.” She turned around and walked off, sharply and precisely.
He sighed, threw up his hands. I watched, interested. He turned back to me. “Sorry, Astran, but it looks like the boss wants us to get back to work.”
“I get the feeling she doesn’t like me,” I confessed.
He laughed. “The boss? Nah, she’s just doing that to keep everyone out. Once you get to know her, you’ll realize that she cares a whole lot more than she lets on.” He beckoned me to follow him, so I stood, wiping my face, and did so.
Again, he led me to yet another area of the large room. I was still getting a sense for the size of this place, but I was beginning to realize that the Valkyrie was huge.
The area he led me to was a larger one, the central area. Several tables were set up, and all kinds of tools, equipment, and foci were scattered around the room in a kind of ordered chaos that I suspected was much more like order to the people who worked here. Several other people in white coats stood around, and I could feel their stares – some curious, some angry, some afraid. The man who had called me an abomination yesterday was working in a corner, but he turned to give me a baleful glare that probably could have frozen fire. I shivered.
“You’ll need to take off your shirt,” Soroe said. “We need to be able to touch your skin to channel the diagnostic magic through your system.
I nodded, stripped it off. As I stepped forward, assuming that he’d want me on the table again, he gasped.
“Astran… your back…”
I turned back toward him. “What?” I asked. “What is it?”
“That design…” He hesitantly touched it, leaning over to inspect it more closely. “Kaera,” he said, turning to one of the women. “Can you tell me what this looks like?” He gestured her over, turning me so that my back was to her.
I could hear her gasp. “Soroe! That’s… that’s…”
“Ah-hah,” I heard him say. “It’s just as he says, then… just as I thought.” I turned back around, a confused look on my face, just in time to see him grin. “I knew it!” he said, sounding more than a little triumphant. “I knew it!”
“Eriks, if you’re quite finished?” asked the harsh-voiced man from the corner. “We do have work to do?”
Soroe glared at his back. “Fine,” he snapped. “Astran… we need you on the table.” He pointed. I nodded.
I climbed onto it.
“Lie down on your back,” he instructed, “and close your eyes. Slow your breathing; if you’re in a calm state, it will help us.”
I did as he instructed, feeling myself slip into that place in my mind, dark and empty, but comforting. My breathing slowed on its own; I could hear my heartbeat, rhythmic and calm. It was soothing, and as they – probably about four or five of them – laid their hands on my arms and chest, I could feel something enter my mind, tingling through my arms, and I fell slowly, softly, into that abyss once more…
---
I stood there again, in that dark place, but I was seeing with my soul from the beginning, this time, and I could feel the scientists’ presence within me as I stood in that place, filled with nothing but the soft lights of my siblings’ souls.
“Is this… alright?” I asked.
“Silly,” said Kelcia, giggling. “Of course it is! We’re not worried about them. Besides, I doubt that they can see us like you can. Feel us, maybe, with their strange magic, but not see us.”
“Yes,” Rasen said. “Do not worry yourself, Astran; we’re capable of protecting ourselves, and such isn’t necessary.”
I shook my head. “I’m not so sure… that dark man, with the harsh voice…”
“Kelsan,” Raiden said, “will do us no harm, no matter his opinions.”
“Kelsan?” But I knew the answer. He was the harsh man, the one who had told me I was an abomination.
“He never understood,” Kelcia put in. “And now… maybe he never will…”
“He must choose his own path,” Rasen said, “no matter where that leads. All that we can hope for is that someday, he and the others will understand.”
I started to ask what she meant, when I felt their power shiver through me again, reaching me even here, in this deepest world. Rasen’s light engulfed me, and I could feel what she was trying to show; I let myself pull apart, disappear into the darkness, each fragment of me one of those colored points of light. As their touch withdrew, I rewove myself out of the wisps of color.
But their minds withdrew even further, then further; I could feel them pulling their awareness out, and I could feel my mind returning to wakefulness.
---
When I opened my eyes, the room was abuzz with excitement, researchers jotting down notes all around me, whispering in frantic tones.
“It is, it really is-“
“But how could this happen?”
“With the explosion…”
“You think maybe it was drawn to the energy?”
“Why did it pick Kiran?”
“Did you see those signatures?”
“Astran, it said its name was Astran… I didn’t believe it, but it’s really true…”
“A miracle…”
“Maybe something else…”
I looked around; Soroe was one of those sharing excited data; I don’t know if any of them realized I was even awake. I sat up, tried to listen to what they were saying, but I was interrupted by Soroe coming over and grabbing me by the shoulders.
“Astran!” he cried in glee, shaking me slightly as emphasis. “Astran, you beautiful, beautiful…” He trailed off, as if unsure of how to identify me. “Doesn’t matter what you are, you’re incredible! Beyond anything we ever imagined could be done or created! I mean… this data!” He flipped through pages of notes. “I don’t think the others even fully understand it yet…” He looked back at his colleagues. “It hasn’t sunk in.” He released my shoulders. “I don’t think it’s even really sunk in on me. We’d wondered if you weren’t somehow simply confused, or even if you were exactly who you said you were, that it was only a temporary possession, but…” He flipped through more pages, almost crowing with delight. “…but this… this is far more than possession, more than any of us ever imagined could have happened in dreams or nightmares…”
In dreams or nightmares. What did that mean? Was this something… bad? But if it were, then Soroe wouldn’t be so happy about it.
“A full ensoulment in a living body. It’s too bad that Kiran isn’t here to see this… I wish that this had happened in some other way…”
Part of me resonated with what he was saying – I knew it was absolutely, utterly correct, despite the fact that my waking, conscious mind had no idea what he was talking about.
“What does that mean?” I asked. “A… ‘full ensoulment’?” It had something to do with how I was there, I knew that. Ensoulment… did they… put me in Kiran’s body? Is that what had happened?
He gave me an odd look, then smiled. “I keep forgetting that you don’t know anything. The others did, I think… it’s likely a form of amnesia from the trauma.” His smile faded, then he shook his head. “Anyway, we’d better go report the findings to the Boss,” he said.
“‘We’?” I asked.
“Yeah; we. As in, you and me.” He grinned. “Come on, let’s get out of this crowd of harpies before they decide to open you up to see how you work in person.”
I shuddered. “Yeah,” I said, standing up. “That sounds like a good idea.”
“She should be over here,” he said, and led me back into the original section of the room. Sure enough, the white-haired scientist was standing there, watching as excited researchers flurried in and out with notes and orders. Soroe cleared his throat, and she turned around.
“Eriks. Do you have anything to report?”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. First of all – Astran is indeed who and what he claims to be; the embedded signatures and energy levels are unmistakable. He also has the Mark – the one that Kiran created for each of them. Astran’s is… it looks like a tattoo, ma’am, but it...”
He turned me around before I could protest; Shiira gasped, just like the others had. “Is this… it’s real, isn’t it? It’s not embedded under the skin…” She touched my back, and I could feel her probing the design with her mind. “…no, it isn’t… it literally is the skin. It’s been magically imprinted there…”
Both her words and her probes were hesitant, as if she almost didn’t really want to know what the result would be; still, something drove her to learn. When she withdrew her hands and her mind, I turned around again.
“What does it mean?” I asked.
“That we have succeeded,” she whispered. “Beyond our greatest dreams and deepest nightmares, we have succeeded.”
Soroe’s eyes widened behind his glasses. “Beyond greatest dream and deepest nightmare; from tragedy’s ash creation’s fire returns, and a Phoenix defies Death and takes wing not once but twice, fall of nation and fall of king, fall of life, Death life re-brings...” The words sounded strange, formal and mysterious to my ears, and Soroe’s voice sounded as if he were reciting something.
Shiira nodded. “Marked with Death’s Brand and engulfed in flame which does not burn, Weapon of lore…”
Soroe shook his head. “Shiira… do you really think?”
I just looked between the two of them. I could feel something resonating inside me at the words.
She shrugged. “The pieces all fit… we all had thought the Valkyrie was the Phoenix, but perhaps…”
“What does it mean?” I asked.
“It is the last hope of our people,” Soroe said quietly. “The night Ketuluna fell to the hands of the servants of Allorum’s gods, the Archangel of Prophecy appeared before Queen Kedar and asked her to summon certain people from across our world. When all were gathered, we were given that prophecy. There are several more parts, and no one knows what they mean; we’ve been able to piece a few things together, but…” He shrugged. “It’s prophecy. There are no certain answers.”
“What have you been able to figure out?” I asked. I knew, deep down inside, that the answer was incredibly important.
Soroe looked to Shiira for support; she returned his glance, then sighed. She tossed me my shirt and coat.
“Come,” was all she said, and I did, pulling my shirt on before going after her and Soroe.
“Soroe,” she asked, and I noticed that she was using his first name again. “What were the other findings? While we walk. It will keep all our minds off the mission.”
“Well,” he said, seemingly set off-guard by the question, “it appears that your earlier guess was correct. Astran is using Kiran’s body at hyper-efficient levels… and there is no mistaking the energy radiating from him. Honestly, it’s been getting a little difficult to See while he’s around.” He chuckled.
“Huh?” I asked. “I’ve been affecting your sight?”
“I can See mana,” Soroe explained, tapping his glasses. “Strong sources of mana and magic can interfere with my ability to see smaller sources. Anyway, when you first walked into the room that day, for some reason, there was no emanating mana; when we started to probe you, however, you began to give off mana at incredibly high rates. And then… well, we’re still trying to figure out what happened. You did something incredibly odd with your soul; we thought we’d killed you.”
Shiira turned sharply back to him. “Eriks, that wasn’t in the reports that were handed in…”
He coughed. “Ah, well, I’d wanted to talk to Astran about it before it got reported inaccurately. For a very brief moment, our probes touched something, a kind of inner group consciousness, then it all vanished; I’d describe the feeling as touching the surface of a vast sea of energy, then having it all pour out between your fingertips and scatter on the breeze.”
I remembered in the dream; when the scientists had touched that inner core, Rasen had shown me how to hide from them. I’d dissipated into those tiny fragments of who I was, then stitched myself back together.
I shrugged. “I don’t really remember exactly how I did it… I just felt like you were getting too close to something incredibly important, and I… washed it all away.”
Shiira gave me one of her patented sharp looks, then placed her hand on a panel – another mage lock, I assumed – and the door before us slid open.
“Ah,” Soroe murmured, “I’d wondered if she were taking us here.”
“Where is ‘here’?” I asked, but as soon as I watched the panel expand, opening outward and outward, allowing me to see past Shiira, I knew. She was standing in a huge doorway created by the folding panels, and I had the strange feeling that it wasn’t just the panels that had folded, but something else. I stepped through the entrance, gazing into the gigantic room in which I’d woken.
“This is the Hall of Moons,” Shiira said, waiting for us to come in behind her. “This is where the most important work on this entire ship is done.”
I realized that the ‘room’ I was standing in really did look more like a hall, but instead of walls confining the long space, like I could have sworn had been there yesterday, it was open. Actually, not open; it was surrounded by a clear barrier, likely magical in nature, judging from the way that, just for a moment, it glinted in my vision.
Outside the barrier, though, was huge, empty space. Well, not quite ‘empty’; three objects hung suspended within, spherical and glaring with colored light that was gone the moment I blinked my eyes.
“This used to be the ship’s cargo and shuttle bay,” Soroe said. “When the refugees fell, most of them took our escape shuttles; the bay was emptied. It’s the largest open space on the ship, so we took it and converted it to our purpose. You’re standing inside a space warped by Void mages to be larger inside than it could possibly be on the outside; there’s several spaces like that within the ship and most of them were commandeered by the researchers.”
Shiira nodded. “When the prophecy was given, it was determined that we were to create a gift of peace for the people of Allorum, and the prophecy spoke of ‘Ketuluna’s children’, thirteen Moons of change that would usher in a new era for our people. Queen Kedar decided that creating those Moons was our charge, and that they and the gift we gave the Allorans would be one and the same. So, here we are, in the Hall where we discharge that sacred duty.”
Soroe closed his eyes. “Ketuluna’s children, the sons and daughters of the Mothers of the Moon; go forth and change, alter and destroy, preserve and protect; thirteen Moons to carry the world, fourteen spirits to change the Planet, hearts and minds join, separate, join once more, thirteen Knights save the world from war.”
Shiira looked back at him; I turned to face him. He looked distinctly uncomfortable.
“No one who heard that prophecy will ever be able to forget it,” he said. “And I’ve always had a good memory to begin with.” His voice was quiet.
“You were there?” I asked him; he nodded, but didn’t elaborate.
Instead, Shiira waved us over to near where she stood, looking over the edge of the railing onto two of the three spheres. The closer I got, the more of that flickering light I could see, the more of it that I could feel. And it felt… familiar.
I looked up at Shiira. “These…”
She nodded. “These are the fruits of our labor, three Moons, each tied to an Element – for why else would there be thirteen of them?” She gazed over at them. “In order to channel their power most effectively, we created spirits to dwell within them… we’re not finished yet, not by a long shot. These were the first to have their spirits joined to them, but not the first to be created.”
Stop acting like an old man when you’re not even older than Astran!
Your soul is the oldest of ours.
But… you were sleeping lots longer…
My sisters’ words came back to me, and the realization of what Shiira was saying slammed through me like a physical jolt as I suddenly realized why the energies and the lights of the spheres were so familiar.
We have no physical bodies. Our bodies are cold vessels, created simply to transport our souls.
I could feel her energy washing over me. Rasen’s calm, running through me, smoothing down the edges of my panic.
“My sisters…” I whispered. “I…”
She nodded. “Yes, Astran. You were created to be one of these; a child of Ketuluna. A Lunar being.” She looked down over the frozen, crystal forms of my sisters once more; I assumed that Raiden was within – ensouled? Was that what that word meant – the sphere, the Moon, on the other side. “But… something went wrong. You… you are not like these, not anymore.”
“It’s… because of this, isn’t it?” I held out a hand and hoped she understood. As I did so, I could hear the answer from two places.
“Yes,” she said.
And, in my soul I heard, “So… you understand, now.”
“What happened?” I asked, and I wasn’t really sure who I was asking, Shiira or Rasen.
“We don’t really know,” Soroe answered before either of them got a chance. “All we know is that… for some reason, you wouldn’t ensoul.”
“That’s… how you bind the souls to the vessels, right?” I asked. The words were difficult for me to say; I didn’t want to say them because I didn’t want to admit that I was supposed to be a thing. Didn’t want to admit that that’s all my siblings were.
He shook his head. “It’s obvious that you’re uncomfortable with that, Astran,” he said, “but, yes, that’s what it means.”
“Am I… what that man said I was? Am I… an abomination?” I asked.
“You were never supposed to exist the way you are,” Shiira said harshly, and it hurt, but she quickly moved on. “However… that doesn’t change the fact that you are. And it doesn’t change the fact that your ‘siblings’ are the way that they are. All four of you have souls. All four of you deserve to exist as such, no matter what vessel carries you.” She shook her head. “All four of you – yes, and the nine more being created, as well – are alive. Maybe not the way that Soroe or I are alive, not the way that…” she paused, “…the way that Kiran was alive, but you are alive all the same. Kelsan will never understand that, but no one, not even he, has the right to take it away.”
Those words would stick with me forever. That I was alive, that I had a soul, and no one had the right to say that I, or anyone else, shouldn’t be. It was a principal that I decided, right then and there, to live by.
I didn’t really know what to say. I felt Soroe’s hand on my shoulder.
“If you want,” he said, “we can take a break. It’s obvious you need time to get over the shock.”
I shook my head. “No. I want… I need to learn more. I can’t live without knowing what I am… I can’t live in fear of the truth.”
I made a fist, drew it to my heart.
“I don’t know why, but there’s something telling me that that isn’t the right answer. That I need to… move forward.” I looked back up. “I have to know what happened to Kiran and me.”
Soroe nodded, and I turned toward where the spheres – the Moons – floated below.
“What I am…” I whispered, a question coming into my mind. I looked back at Shiira. “The Moons you created… each is bound to a specific element, right?” She nodded. I looked down over the railing. “I… I spoke to them, in a dream last night,” I said. “Rasen, Kelcia, and Raiden… Water, Ice, and Lightning, correct?” I asked.
Shiira nodded. “Kiran was the one to give them their names,” she said. “He said anything with a soul should have a name, not just a project number.” She laughed sadly.
“What am I?” I asked. “And… what exactly happened before I woke up yesterday?”
She sighed.
“You wouldn’t ensoul,” she said. “We actually tried with you, first, but… you refused. That’s the only way Kiran and I could explain it. The others thought we were nuts. Kiran suggested that we try again, with a less difficult element; Rasen’s soul was finished, at that point, so we readied her vessel. The process went flawlessly, so we tried again with yours. Again, it didn’t work. We tried again after Raiden, and then after Kelcia, but…”
I felt my siblings’ touch on my soul once again, and I slipped past that barrier, that abyss.
A dark void, feelingless, substanceless, formless, simply floating. But something wasn’t right; I felt something pulling at me, but the pull was subtly wrong…
“…nothing worked,” I finished. “It was all wrong…”
She gave me a strange look, but continued. “The others were getting impatient. Kiran insisted on waiting until you were ready, but there was a group, led by Kelsan, that insisted that his methods were nonsense. They insisted that we force the ensoulment.”
I shut my eyes tight. Suddenly, I could remember…
Something pulled at me, but again, it was somehow wrong. But suddenly, I had no choice… I was being sucked in, pulled and pushed and forced and twisted. I didn’t know what screaming was, but my soul did it anyway, a terrible cry of pain from a being that could feel none…
I shuddered. I hadn’t been aware of that particular memory before, and I wished I could get rid of it.
“You did, didn’t you?” I asked.
She nodded. “It was… terrible.” She waved me over to the other side of the bridge, and I looked in horror as I realized that one railing was buckled and twisted by incredible force; Raiden’s side was cut with a deep scar, and below, not floating, just lying on the floor however very far it was, was a twisted, melted, broken shape of twisted stone.
“Our theory is that the vessel couldn’t take your energy; perhaps it wasn’t suited to you, or perhaps, it simply wasn’t strong enough. Whatever the case, it shattered and exploded, and all of the energy used in the ensoulment whipped back onus. Kiran was the one controlling the channeling; he insisted on heading the spell himself. As the primary focus, he took the brunt of the energy…”
Her hands gripped the railing so hard that her knuckles turned white. I could tell she was in incredible pain, but Soroe shook his head; this was a pain she’d rather face alone.
“Most of us weren’t even really fazed. It was like having a horrible headache, but we’d dealt with mana burn before… Kiran, though, he just stood there…” She shook her head. “In the end, I think he deliberately cut the channel, keeping the mana from lashing back too hard on us. He was like that… that idiot,” she growled harshly, “that Twins-damned idiot!” A tear hit her knuckles. “He was experienced enough to know what that would do. It would have burned out his mind, severed the ties between his own soul and his body. He just… stood there. One of the other researchers had caught me, to keep me from collapsing or being blown off the catwalk, and he stood, frozen, hands outstretched as if to catch whatever had happened… then, he… crumpled. Slowly, he fell to the floor, and lay there, not breathing…”
I remembered. The weightless void, the feeling of something rushing past me; the sound of a heartbeat, slowing down to nothing…
“I was drawn to it, somehow,” I said.
She nodded. “We thought, last night, that maybe you would be. Death is, after all, one of the strongest powers in the universe. The death of a human being outputs enormous power; with the level of mana that bound itself to that power, it’s no wonder…”
Death.
That word again.
One of the thirteen elements, just like I was. And I’d known from the beginning that it was important to me.
I’d been drawn to Kiran as he’d died, bolstered and kept from fraying into oblivion by that fading heartbeat.
He’d caught me. Given me nowhere to go. The energy of that resonating, piercing scream, that massive, incredible blast, all caught within him; of course he’d died. And in doing so, he’d done exactly what he’d intended – trapped me. Not in the original vessel, like he’d planned, but with the sacrifice he’d made, he’d made sure that their work wasn’t in vain. I could feel it in my blood and bones and soul, the resonating power of that final decision.
The last wish of a dying man is almost as powerful as his death itself. And to a spirit, bound by the power of death, it was as good as any spell.
Death.
“That’s what I am,” I whispered. “You created me… and bound me to Death itself.”
First off?
This chapter is... holy crap it's huge. Fourteen pages huge, to be precise. It's also incredibly important. There was a lot of emphasis used to important effect in this chapter, so for your reading pleasure, it's all been italicized as originally written. You'd better appreciate it
(JK)I want your feedback. Gimme feedback
Especially on characters, since this chapter introduces a ton of them Also note that this chapter includes some moments of extreme descriptive FAIL.
----
-Chapter the Second: Dreams and Tests-
As I slept, I had a dream.
Once again, I was surrounded by the black void, but this time, I was on my feet. Hundreds of multicolored lights swirled around me, and I lifted a hand to touch one. It curled around the offered hand as though it was nuzzling me, like a pet happy for the return of its master.
It felt… strange. It was somewhat insubstantial, but I could touch it, feel it. It felt warm, and where it touched my hand, it tingled with energy. I could hear a voice – no, many voices – in the darkness.
“Is it him?”
“Our new brother?”
“He’s different from us.”
“Who are you?”
“Big brother…?”
I couldn’t see the sources of the voices, but I could identify at least three – a man’s voice, deep and powerful like thunder; a woman’s voice, calm like the waves; and a girl’s voice, which crinkled like snowflakes across my skin.
Part of me wondered how I knew what waves sounded like, or how snowflakes felt, but I pushed those queries aside.
“Who are you?” I asked the voices. “Where are you?”
The girl’s voice laughed, sounding like water, dripping from an icicle. “Silly. We’re your siblings. I’m Kelcia, and I’m the Wintermoon.” I felt a cold breeze across my cheek.
“Wintermoon? What’s that?” I asked. “And I can’t see you!”
“Of course you can’t see us!” The voice giggled. “You’re strange, brother. Why do you look like them?”
“Kelcia,” warned the man’s voice. “That is not your place.”
“Leave her be, Raiden,” said the woman’s voice. It sounded patient, collected. “She does not know any better.” I could feel her attention turn to me, then; it felt like… it’s difficult to describe. Have you ever looked out across the sea and felt as if it were looking back? That’s how the calm voice’s attention felt. “Brother… what is your name?”
“Astran,” I replied. “Why… why do you say I’m your brother? I’m alone, aren’t I?”
“No,” she said, “far from it. There are only us four, now – but there will be more of us. Astran, you have much to learn.”
“Who are you?” I asked her. “And who am I?”
“Close your eyes, Brother. See with your heart.”
So I did. I closed my eyes and reached out to the blackness around me. Soon, I became aware of three presences – three, and then myself. I wasn’t truly here, I realized – just an image, and thousands and thousands of those multicolored lights swam through me. I was simply another light in this darkness, I realized, one that shifted through every color of the spectrum. The other three lights were each a single color; a deep blue, a sparking yellow, and a frosty, icy color halfway between blue and white.
“I can see you,” I said, surprised. I felt the blue presence respond, resonating with the calm voice’s answer.
“We are not like you, Brother. We have no physical bodies. Our bodies are cold vessels, created simply to transport our souls. You are different.”
“Lots different!” said the icy presence, the girlish voice. “Not even Kiran knew how different, I think.”
“You knew Kiran?” I asked.
“He created us,” responded the yellow presence. “He, and the others. But he was the first to create our souls and speak to them.”
Here, in this dream world, in this world of the heart, I could feel truths that I had not known in the waking world.
“I killed Kiran,” I whispered. “I’m… I’m sorry.”
“Foolish human killed himself,” Raiden retorted.
“Raiden!” snapped the girlish voice – Kelcia. “Don’t say that! ‘Sides, he was lots older than us anyway, stop acting like an old man when you’re not even older than Astran!”
If my eyes had been open, I’d have blinked. “He’s… not older than I am?”
“You were the first of us to be created,” said the calm voice, whose name, I realized, I hadn’t received yet. “Your soul is the oldest of ours.”
“Yeah, it’s like Rasen said! But… you were sleeping lots longer,” Kelcia replied.
Rasen, who must have been the calm voice, continued. “Ask the woman who has helped you for the true story. Astran… you are not a murderer. Take that to heart.”
“All… all right,” I replied. I sighed, felt a sadness in my soul. Suddenly, I realized – it was time for me to leave.
Kelcia must have noticed it too. “Is it time for him to go already?” she asked sadly.
“I’m afraid so,” I replied. “I… I don’t know how I know, but… I just do.”
“You’re needed in the waking world, Astran,” Rasen replied. “Go now…”
I nodded, opened my eyes…
---
…truly opened them. I lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling of Kiran’s room. The dream had felt just like reality.
Someone knocked on my door.
“Astran? Are you awake?” Shiira’s voice called out from the other side. I stood up.
“Yeah,” I called back. I went to open the door. Shiira stood there; she tossed me a fresh set of clothes.
“Get changed,” she ordered. “The others wish to perform some tests on you.”
“Tests?” I asked, confused.
“Yes,” she said. “Tests, to see if you truly are who you say you are, what happened to Kiran, and how to prevent it from happening again.”
“Um… okay.”
“Get changed,” she repeated, and closed the door.
“Touchy,” I muttered, quickly stripping out of the previous day’s clothes and putting on the ones Shiira had given me. As I was about to put my shirt on, I caught sight of my back in the mirror. For most people, that wouldn’t be something incredibly special; I took notice because of what was on my back.
A large, intricate design played out across my back and shoulders, a crescent moon with folded wings. I had my suspicions that it wasn’t simply a strange ‘tattoo’ (again, those new words that came out of nowhere), that it had an important meaning. I made a note to ask Shiira about it later, pulled my shirt on, and, because Shiira had been wearing hers, I pulled on the white coat before opening the door again and stepping outside.
“Better?” I asked.
She looked up, and froze. It was only for a second, but for that second, her face was completely unguarded – shocked, surprised… grieving.
Then, she clamped down on it, returning to the gruff demeanor she’d shown me the day before. I realized that for a moment, she’d thought I was Kiran.
“A-Astran. Good. Come on; they’re already impatient with me.” She turned and walked off without another word.
I followed her; there wasn’t anything else I could really do or say.
---
Shiira led me through the ship’s corridors into a white room with several tables set up in the center and several scientist mages readying strange objects which I assumed allowed them to channel and focus energy to different purposes.
“Ah, Shiira; there you are.” The voice belonged to a man with shoulder length black hair that fell in his eyes. He wore a pair of glasses that reflected the room’s harsh light, making it difficult to see through to his eyes beneath.
There was something subtly off about those reflections, too, but I couldn’t figure it out.
He turned toward me, smiling. “And this must be Astran… it’s a little spooky, you look just like Kiran. I mean, I’d heard the rumors, but I wasn’t actually there when you woke up. You scared half the ship half to death; it’s an honor to actually meet you.” He held out a hand; whatever instinct had been providing me with words the whole day before now informed me that I should shake that hand, so I did. His smile looked like it was ready to split his face in two.
Shiira rolled her eyes. “Eriks, if you’re finished?”
He coughed, shoved his glasses back on his nose. “Sorry, ma’am,” he said. He cleared his throat. “I forgot to introduce myself; I’m Soroe Eriks, a doctor and researcher who works under Shiira. I’ll be the one in charge of the examinations.”
Nervously, I asked, “What are you going to do to me?”
He chuckled. “Nothing drastic, I promise. First, probably a simple physical. We’ll test your reflexes, heart rate, that kind of thing – to make sure that body’s holding up alright, for one, and for another, to see if there’s any change from Kiran’s last physical. Then, we’ll draw blood for individual testing on that, and afterwards, we’ll do a magical probe that will tell us a number of things about you. The blood-drawing will likely be the most difficult part for you.”
“Alright,” I said, nodding. “What do you need me to do?”
He nodded to a table. “Take your coat off, and sit on that table there.” I did so, and he washed his hands, pulling on a pair of gloves before beginning.
I won’t bore you with all of the details; he listened to my heart, shone lights in my eyes and ears and down my throat, poked and prodded and nodded and mumbled and wrote things down on a sheet of paper he carried with him. Afterwards, he set the clipboard down and removed the gloves, depositing them in a bin marked with a special symbol that was most likely important.
“Well, you appear to be in good physical condition,” he said when he had finished, checking his notes. “Actually, I’d say you’re in excellent physical condition. If anything, you’ve improved Kiran’s last physical – to be expected, honestly.”
“Why?” I asked. “Why is it to be expected?”
He shook his head. “I’d explain, but… it’s quite a lengthy explanation, and I don’t think that now is the best time. You should ask Shiira later; she and Kiran were the head researchers on the project.” He motioned me over to another section of the room; I watched as all kinds of other activity went on; the place was rather large, and I wondered if this was where they conducted a majority of their research. It was divided off into sections by hanging curtains or sliding panels, and the different sections had different equipment. He drew a curtain back, and inside, I could see a large chair, although it didn’t really look like a chair; whatever it was, you sat in it, and it looked official.
“This is where we’ll draw your blood,” he explained. “It’ll sting a bit, but it won’t be too painful.”
I nodded, then sat down in the chair. He had me lean back, readied a needle, attached it to a long tube, then attached the tube to a glass vial. He swabbed something on my arm, wrapped a strip of cloth around my arm and tied it tightly, then inserted the needle.
He was right; it stung, but I could deal with the pain. I could feel it drawing my blood out; I watched the vial fill with blood, dark red and thick. I looked down at the needle in my arm, then quickly back up at where the vial was filling. When it got full, he removed it, putting another vial on the tube; I wondered how many vials he was going to take. I closed my eyes, and time moved strangely around me. I reopened them; he was removing another vial, but this time, he didn’t put another on.
“We’re done,” he said, removing the needle and strap – tourniquet, my mind supplied. It altered the way the blood flowed to aid the process. I watched as the hole made by the needle closed on its own; Soroe blinked, inspecting the area more closely.
“Well, that’s distinctly unusual,” he said, writing something down on his notepad. “That was… that was paranormally fast. I wonder what it could mean…”
I looked at my arm, confused. I realized, somewhere, that that was unusual for a human’s wounds. And, yet, part of me was unsurprised at it. Why?
I shrugged. “I don’t know,” I confessed.
I admit, I said that a lot back then.
He chuckled. “Well, that’s one of the reasons you’re here. Come on; after I took that blood, you should be feeling a little woozy. It’ll help if you eat something.” I got up from the chair, and he led me over to another area; someone had set down a tray with food and a glass of liquid. I realized that I was starving, and, as he’d predicted, just a little unsteady on my feet. I sat down and devoured the meal gladly.
Soroe laughed. “Well, boss,” he said, “looks like his appetite’s pretty healthy.” I looked up, noticed that Shiira had been watching me eat like a hungry wolf. I felt my face heat, flushed. I was… embarrassed. That was the feeling.
Shiira, however, just chuckled. “No surprise. From your notes, I’d say that he has an extreme metabolic rate; he appears to be using that body of his hyper-efficiently. That means that he would naturally eat more and more often than any normal human.”
Soroe gave her a strange look. “Shiira…”
“What is it, Soroe? Are you questioning my analysis?” Her voice would cold.
“No… I’m just worried about you. You seem to be taking this rather… coldly.”
She glared at him. “Of course I am! I’m fine, Soroe. We can’t suspend our work for something as insignificant as a little grief; we can’t let it get in the way. Queen Kedar is counting on us, if you don’t recall, so stop hovering over me.” She turned around and walked off, sharply and precisely.
He sighed, threw up his hands. I watched, interested. He turned back to me. “Sorry, Astran, but it looks like the boss wants us to get back to work.”
“I get the feeling she doesn’t like me,” I confessed.
He laughed. “The boss? Nah, she’s just doing that to keep everyone out. Once you get to know her, you’ll realize that she cares a whole lot more than she lets on.” He beckoned me to follow him, so I stood, wiping my face, and did so.
Again, he led me to yet another area of the large room. I was still getting a sense for the size of this place, but I was beginning to realize that the Valkyrie was huge.
The area he led me to was a larger one, the central area. Several tables were set up, and all kinds of tools, equipment, and foci were scattered around the room in a kind of ordered chaos that I suspected was much more like order to the people who worked here. Several other people in white coats stood around, and I could feel their stares – some curious, some angry, some afraid. The man who had called me an abomination yesterday was working in a corner, but he turned to give me a baleful glare that probably could have frozen fire. I shivered.
“You’ll need to take off your shirt,” Soroe said. “We need to be able to touch your skin to channel the diagnostic magic through your system.
I nodded, stripped it off. As I stepped forward, assuming that he’d want me on the table again, he gasped.
“Astran… your back…”
I turned back toward him. “What?” I asked. “What is it?”
“That design…” He hesitantly touched it, leaning over to inspect it more closely. “Kaera,” he said, turning to one of the women. “Can you tell me what this looks like?” He gestured her over, turning me so that my back was to her.
I could hear her gasp. “Soroe! That’s… that’s…”
“Ah-hah,” I heard him say. “It’s just as he says, then… just as I thought.” I turned back around, a confused look on my face, just in time to see him grin. “I knew it!” he said, sounding more than a little triumphant. “I knew it!”
“Eriks, if you’re quite finished?” asked the harsh-voiced man from the corner. “We do have work to do?”
Soroe glared at his back. “Fine,” he snapped. “Astran… we need you on the table.” He pointed. I nodded.
I climbed onto it.
“Lie down on your back,” he instructed, “and close your eyes. Slow your breathing; if you’re in a calm state, it will help us.”
I did as he instructed, feeling myself slip into that place in my mind, dark and empty, but comforting. My breathing slowed on its own; I could hear my heartbeat, rhythmic and calm. It was soothing, and as they – probably about four or five of them – laid their hands on my arms and chest, I could feel something enter my mind, tingling through my arms, and I fell slowly, softly, into that abyss once more…
---
I stood there again, in that dark place, but I was seeing with my soul from the beginning, this time, and I could feel the scientists’ presence within me as I stood in that place, filled with nothing but the soft lights of my siblings’ souls.
“Is this… alright?” I asked.
“Silly,” said Kelcia, giggling. “Of course it is! We’re not worried about them. Besides, I doubt that they can see us like you can. Feel us, maybe, with their strange magic, but not see us.”
“Yes,” Rasen said. “Do not worry yourself, Astran; we’re capable of protecting ourselves, and such isn’t necessary.”
I shook my head. “I’m not so sure… that dark man, with the harsh voice…”
“Kelsan,” Raiden said, “will do us no harm, no matter his opinions.”
“Kelsan?” But I knew the answer. He was the harsh man, the one who had told me I was an abomination.
“He never understood,” Kelcia put in. “And now… maybe he never will…”
“He must choose his own path,” Rasen said, “no matter where that leads. All that we can hope for is that someday, he and the others will understand.”
I started to ask what she meant, when I felt their power shiver through me again, reaching me even here, in this deepest world. Rasen’s light engulfed me, and I could feel what she was trying to show; I let myself pull apart, disappear into the darkness, each fragment of me one of those colored points of light. As their touch withdrew, I rewove myself out of the wisps of color.
But their minds withdrew even further, then further; I could feel them pulling their awareness out, and I could feel my mind returning to wakefulness.
---
When I opened my eyes, the room was abuzz with excitement, researchers jotting down notes all around me, whispering in frantic tones.
“It is, it really is-“
“But how could this happen?”
“With the explosion…”
“You think maybe it was drawn to the energy?”
“Why did it pick Kiran?”
“Did you see those signatures?”
“Astran, it said its name was Astran… I didn’t believe it, but it’s really true…”
“A miracle…”
“Maybe something else…”
I looked around; Soroe was one of those sharing excited data; I don’t know if any of them realized I was even awake. I sat up, tried to listen to what they were saying, but I was interrupted by Soroe coming over and grabbing me by the shoulders.
“Astran!” he cried in glee, shaking me slightly as emphasis. “Astran, you beautiful, beautiful…” He trailed off, as if unsure of how to identify me. “Doesn’t matter what you are, you’re incredible! Beyond anything we ever imagined could be done or created! I mean… this data!” He flipped through pages of notes. “I don’t think the others even fully understand it yet…” He looked back at his colleagues. “It hasn’t sunk in.” He released my shoulders. “I don’t think it’s even really sunk in on me. We’d wondered if you weren’t somehow simply confused, or even if you were exactly who you said you were, that it was only a temporary possession, but…” He flipped through more pages, almost crowing with delight. “…but this… this is far more than possession, more than any of us ever imagined could have happened in dreams or nightmares…”
In dreams or nightmares. What did that mean? Was this something… bad? But if it were, then Soroe wouldn’t be so happy about it.
“A full ensoulment in a living body. It’s too bad that Kiran isn’t here to see this… I wish that this had happened in some other way…”
Part of me resonated with what he was saying – I knew it was absolutely, utterly correct, despite the fact that my waking, conscious mind had no idea what he was talking about.
“What does that mean?” I asked. “A… ‘full ensoulment’?” It had something to do with how I was there, I knew that. Ensoulment… did they… put me in Kiran’s body? Is that what had happened?
He gave me an odd look, then smiled. “I keep forgetting that you don’t know anything. The others did, I think… it’s likely a form of amnesia from the trauma.” His smile faded, then he shook his head. “Anyway, we’d better go report the findings to the Boss,” he said.
“‘We’?” I asked.
“Yeah; we. As in, you and me.” He grinned. “Come on, let’s get out of this crowd of harpies before they decide to open you up to see how you work in person.”
I shuddered. “Yeah,” I said, standing up. “That sounds like a good idea.”
“She should be over here,” he said, and led me back into the original section of the room. Sure enough, the white-haired scientist was standing there, watching as excited researchers flurried in and out with notes and orders. Soroe cleared his throat, and she turned around.
“Eriks. Do you have anything to report?”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. First of all – Astran is indeed who and what he claims to be; the embedded signatures and energy levels are unmistakable. He also has the Mark – the one that Kiran created for each of them. Astran’s is… it looks like a tattoo, ma’am, but it...”
He turned me around before I could protest; Shiira gasped, just like the others had. “Is this… it’s real, isn’t it? It’s not embedded under the skin…” She touched my back, and I could feel her probing the design with her mind. “…no, it isn’t… it literally is the skin. It’s been magically imprinted there…”
Both her words and her probes were hesitant, as if she almost didn’t really want to know what the result would be; still, something drove her to learn. When she withdrew her hands and her mind, I turned around again.
“What does it mean?” I asked.
“That we have succeeded,” she whispered. “Beyond our greatest dreams and deepest nightmares, we have succeeded.”
Soroe’s eyes widened behind his glasses. “Beyond greatest dream and deepest nightmare; from tragedy’s ash creation’s fire returns, and a Phoenix defies Death and takes wing not once but twice, fall of nation and fall of king, fall of life, Death life re-brings...” The words sounded strange, formal and mysterious to my ears, and Soroe’s voice sounded as if he were reciting something.
Shiira nodded. “Marked with Death’s Brand and engulfed in flame which does not burn, Weapon of lore…”
Soroe shook his head. “Shiira… do you really think?”
I just looked between the two of them. I could feel something resonating inside me at the words.
She shrugged. “The pieces all fit… we all had thought the Valkyrie was the Phoenix, but perhaps…”
“What does it mean?” I asked.
“It is the last hope of our people,” Soroe said quietly. “The night Ketuluna fell to the hands of the servants of Allorum’s gods, the Archangel of Prophecy appeared before Queen Kedar and asked her to summon certain people from across our world. When all were gathered, we were given that prophecy. There are several more parts, and no one knows what they mean; we’ve been able to piece a few things together, but…” He shrugged. “It’s prophecy. There are no certain answers.”
“What have you been able to figure out?” I asked. I knew, deep down inside, that the answer was incredibly important.
Soroe looked to Shiira for support; she returned his glance, then sighed. She tossed me my shirt and coat.
“Come,” was all she said, and I did, pulling my shirt on before going after her and Soroe.
“Soroe,” she asked, and I noticed that she was using his first name again. “What were the other findings? While we walk. It will keep all our minds off the mission.”
“Well,” he said, seemingly set off-guard by the question, “it appears that your earlier guess was correct. Astran is using Kiran’s body at hyper-efficient levels… and there is no mistaking the energy radiating from him. Honestly, it’s been getting a little difficult to See while he’s around.” He chuckled.
“Huh?” I asked. “I’ve been affecting your sight?”
“I can See mana,” Soroe explained, tapping his glasses. “Strong sources of mana and magic can interfere with my ability to see smaller sources. Anyway, when you first walked into the room that day, for some reason, there was no emanating mana; when we started to probe you, however, you began to give off mana at incredibly high rates. And then… well, we’re still trying to figure out what happened. You did something incredibly odd with your soul; we thought we’d killed you.”
Shiira turned sharply back to him. “Eriks, that wasn’t in the reports that were handed in…”
He coughed. “Ah, well, I’d wanted to talk to Astran about it before it got reported inaccurately. For a very brief moment, our probes touched something, a kind of inner group consciousness, then it all vanished; I’d describe the feeling as touching the surface of a vast sea of energy, then having it all pour out between your fingertips and scatter on the breeze.”
I remembered in the dream; when the scientists had touched that inner core, Rasen had shown me how to hide from them. I’d dissipated into those tiny fragments of who I was, then stitched myself back together.
I shrugged. “I don’t really remember exactly how I did it… I just felt like you were getting too close to something incredibly important, and I… washed it all away.”
Shiira gave me one of her patented sharp looks, then placed her hand on a panel – another mage lock, I assumed – and the door before us slid open.
“Ah,” Soroe murmured, “I’d wondered if she were taking us here.”
“Where is ‘here’?” I asked, but as soon as I watched the panel expand, opening outward and outward, allowing me to see past Shiira, I knew. She was standing in a huge doorway created by the folding panels, and I had the strange feeling that it wasn’t just the panels that had folded, but something else. I stepped through the entrance, gazing into the gigantic room in which I’d woken.
“This is the Hall of Moons,” Shiira said, waiting for us to come in behind her. “This is where the most important work on this entire ship is done.”
I realized that the ‘room’ I was standing in really did look more like a hall, but instead of walls confining the long space, like I could have sworn had been there yesterday, it was open. Actually, not open; it was surrounded by a clear barrier, likely magical in nature, judging from the way that, just for a moment, it glinted in my vision.
Outside the barrier, though, was huge, empty space. Well, not quite ‘empty’; three objects hung suspended within, spherical and glaring with colored light that was gone the moment I blinked my eyes.
“This used to be the ship’s cargo and shuttle bay,” Soroe said. “When the refugees fell, most of them took our escape shuttles; the bay was emptied. It’s the largest open space on the ship, so we took it and converted it to our purpose. You’re standing inside a space warped by Void mages to be larger inside than it could possibly be on the outside; there’s several spaces like that within the ship and most of them were commandeered by the researchers.”
Shiira nodded. “When the prophecy was given, it was determined that we were to create a gift of peace for the people of Allorum, and the prophecy spoke of ‘Ketuluna’s children’, thirteen Moons of change that would usher in a new era for our people. Queen Kedar decided that creating those Moons was our charge, and that they and the gift we gave the Allorans would be one and the same. So, here we are, in the Hall where we discharge that sacred duty.”
Soroe closed his eyes. “Ketuluna’s children, the sons and daughters of the Mothers of the Moon; go forth and change, alter and destroy, preserve and protect; thirteen Moons to carry the world, fourteen spirits to change the Planet, hearts and minds join, separate, join once more, thirteen Knights save the world from war.”
Shiira looked back at him; I turned to face him. He looked distinctly uncomfortable.
“No one who heard that prophecy will ever be able to forget it,” he said. “And I’ve always had a good memory to begin with.” His voice was quiet.
“You were there?” I asked him; he nodded, but didn’t elaborate.
Instead, Shiira waved us over to near where she stood, looking over the edge of the railing onto two of the three spheres. The closer I got, the more of that flickering light I could see, the more of it that I could feel. And it felt… familiar.
I looked up at Shiira. “These…”
She nodded. “These are the fruits of our labor, three Moons, each tied to an Element – for why else would there be thirteen of them?” She gazed over at them. “In order to channel their power most effectively, we created spirits to dwell within them… we’re not finished yet, not by a long shot. These were the first to have their spirits joined to them, but not the first to be created.”
Stop acting like an old man when you’re not even older than Astran!
Your soul is the oldest of ours.
But… you were sleeping lots longer…
My sisters’ words came back to me, and the realization of what Shiira was saying slammed through me like a physical jolt as I suddenly realized why the energies and the lights of the spheres were so familiar.
We have no physical bodies. Our bodies are cold vessels, created simply to transport our souls.
I could feel her energy washing over me. Rasen’s calm, running through me, smoothing down the edges of my panic.
“My sisters…” I whispered. “I…”
She nodded. “Yes, Astran. You were created to be one of these; a child of Ketuluna. A Lunar being.” She looked down over the frozen, crystal forms of my sisters once more; I assumed that Raiden was within – ensouled? Was that what that word meant – the sphere, the Moon, on the other side. “But… something went wrong. You… you are not like these, not anymore.”
“It’s… because of this, isn’t it?” I held out a hand and hoped she understood. As I did so, I could hear the answer from two places.
“Yes,” she said.
And, in my soul I heard, “So… you understand, now.”
“What happened?” I asked, and I wasn’t really sure who I was asking, Shiira or Rasen.
“We don’t really know,” Soroe answered before either of them got a chance. “All we know is that… for some reason, you wouldn’t ensoul.”
“That’s… how you bind the souls to the vessels, right?” I asked. The words were difficult for me to say; I didn’t want to say them because I didn’t want to admit that I was supposed to be a thing. Didn’t want to admit that that’s all my siblings were.
He shook his head. “It’s obvious that you’re uncomfortable with that, Astran,” he said, “but, yes, that’s what it means.”
“Am I… what that man said I was? Am I… an abomination?” I asked.
“You were never supposed to exist the way you are,” Shiira said harshly, and it hurt, but she quickly moved on. “However… that doesn’t change the fact that you are. And it doesn’t change the fact that your ‘siblings’ are the way that they are. All four of you have souls. All four of you deserve to exist as such, no matter what vessel carries you.” She shook her head. “All four of you – yes, and the nine more being created, as well – are alive. Maybe not the way that Soroe or I are alive, not the way that…” she paused, “…the way that Kiran was alive, but you are alive all the same. Kelsan will never understand that, but no one, not even he, has the right to take it away.”
Those words would stick with me forever. That I was alive, that I had a soul, and no one had the right to say that I, or anyone else, shouldn’t be. It was a principal that I decided, right then and there, to live by.
I didn’t really know what to say. I felt Soroe’s hand on my shoulder.
“If you want,” he said, “we can take a break. It’s obvious you need time to get over the shock.”
I shook my head. “No. I want… I need to learn more. I can’t live without knowing what I am… I can’t live in fear of the truth.”
I made a fist, drew it to my heart.
“I don’t know why, but there’s something telling me that that isn’t the right answer. That I need to… move forward.” I looked back up. “I have to know what happened to Kiran and me.”
Soroe nodded, and I turned toward where the spheres – the Moons – floated below.
“What I am…” I whispered, a question coming into my mind. I looked back at Shiira. “The Moons you created… each is bound to a specific element, right?” She nodded. I looked down over the railing. “I… I spoke to them, in a dream last night,” I said. “Rasen, Kelcia, and Raiden… Water, Ice, and Lightning, correct?” I asked.
Shiira nodded. “Kiran was the one to give them their names,” she said. “He said anything with a soul should have a name, not just a project number.” She laughed sadly.
“What am I?” I asked. “And… what exactly happened before I woke up yesterday?”
She sighed.
“You wouldn’t ensoul,” she said. “We actually tried with you, first, but… you refused. That’s the only way Kiran and I could explain it. The others thought we were nuts. Kiran suggested that we try again, with a less difficult element; Rasen’s soul was finished, at that point, so we readied her vessel. The process went flawlessly, so we tried again with yours. Again, it didn’t work. We tried again after Raiden, and then after Kelcia, but…”
I felt my siblings’ touch on my soul once again, and I slipped past that barrier, that abyss.
A dark void, feelingless, substanceless, formless, simply floating. But something wasn’t right; I felt something pulling at me, but the pull was subtly wrong…
“…nothing worked,” I finished. “It was all wrong…”
She gave me a strange look, but continued. “The others were getting impatient. Kiran insisted on waiting until you were ready, but there was a group, led by Kelsan, that insisted that his methods were nonsense. They insisted that we force the ensoulment.”
I shut my eyes tight. Suddenly, I could remember…
Something pulled at me, but again, it was somehow wrong. But suddenly, I had no choice… I was being sucked in, pulled and pushed and forced and twisted. I didn’t know what screaming was, but my soul did it anyway, a terrible cry of pain from a being that could feel none…
I shuddered. I hadn’t been aware of that particular memory before, and I wished I could get rid of it.
“You did, didn’t you?” I asked.
She nodded. “It was… terrible.” She waved me over to the other side of the bridge, and I looked in horror as I realized that one railing was buckled and twisted by incredible force; Raiden’s side was cut with a deep scar, and below, not floating, just lying on the floor however very far it was, was a twisted, melted, broken shape of twisted stone.
“Our theory is that the vessel couldn’t take your energy; perhaps it wasn’t suited to you, or perhaps, it simply wasn’t strong enough. Whatever the case, it shattered and exploded, and all of the energy used in the ensoulment whipped back onus. Kiran was the one controlling the channeling; he insisted on heading the spell himself. As the primary focus, he took the brunt of the energy…”
Her hands gripped the railing so hard that her knuckles turned white. I could tell she was in incredible pain, but Soroe shook his head; this was a pain she’d rather face alone.
“Most of us weren’t even really fazed. It was like having a horrible headache, but we’d dealt with mana burn before… Kiran, though, he just stood there…” She shook her head. “In the end, I think he deliberately cut the channel, keeping the mana from lashing back too hard on us. He was like that… that idiot,” she growled harshly, “that Twins-damned idiot!” A tear hit her knuckles. “He was experienced enough to know what that would do. It would have burned out his mind, severed the ties between his own soul and his body. He just… stood there. One of the other researchers had caught me, to keep me from collapsing or being blown off the catwalk, and he stood, frozen, hands outstretched as if to catch whatever had happened… then, he… crumpled. Slowly, he fell to the floor, and lay there, not breathing…”
I remembered. The weightless void, the feeling of something rushing past me; the sound of a heartbeat, slowing down to nothing…
“I was drawn to it, somehow,” I said.
She nodded. “We thought, last night, that maybe you would be. Death is, after all, one of the strongest powers in the universe. The death of a human being outputs enormous power; with the level of mana that bound itself to that power, it’s no wonder…”
Death.
That word again.
One of the thirteen elements, just like I was. And I’d known from the beginning that it was important to me.
I’d been drawn to Kiran as he’d died, bolstered and kept from fraying into oblivion by that fading heartbeat.
He’d caught me. Given me nowhere to go. The energy of that resonating, piercing scream, that massive, incredible blast, all caught within him; of course he’d died. And in doing so, he’d done exactly what he’d intended – trapped me. Not in the original vessel, like he’d planned, but with the sacrifice he’d made, he’d made sure that their work wasn’t in vain. I could feel it in my blood and bones and soul, the resonating power of that final decision.
The last wish of a dying man is almost as powerful as his death itself. And to a spirit, bound by the power of death, it was as good as any spell.
Death.
“That’s what I am,” I whispered. “You created me… and bound me to Death itself.”
