Xellous finally told his wife, Kora, the truth about her lost memories. Curious about the mother she could no longer remember, Kora asked to go back to her mother, Threen, who still lived at Xellous's childhood home, the farmhouse. But things got complicated. They've been running into random humans who all claim to be "Charles". The eldritch horrors known as the Nameless lie in wait between them and Threen. And they just killed 7-of-10, one of the most important members of the horrific race the khen-zai. Xellous passed out in the attempt. This could very well be the end.
The first question out of Xellous's mouth when he regained consciousness was how they were still alive. They were in the wagon, which was stationary. Kora told him they'd all been asking that question. The instant they'd gotten Xellous's unconscious body back into the wagon Telos had driven it with a will that seemed to be aimed at killing their horse; they'd cleared twenty miles in three hours, due south, until they'd almost lost the horse. Telos was still jittery. He said as much.
A lightbulb went off in Xellous's head. He asked Ikuinen Lampo why the khen-zai hadn't bombed the planet to ash. An orbital bombardment hadn't struck them after killing 7-of-10. Why not kill all life and start all over, just in general? Lampo said the khen-zai had never shared their logic for doing anything and this was no exception. They'd never razed any planet they'd returned to. No guesses had ever been held to over the millennia. But Xellous was right: the khen-zai were not going to rain fiery hell on the planet.
Xellous's next question was why the Nameless hadn't eaten all life already, as well as why they were on this planet in the first place. Lampo told him the Nameless normally didn't just "show up" at planets: they had to be summoned. The dark elves of the planet Heranyt were able to summon and channel the Nameless. Kora asked how any of the elves could survive such an experience. Lampo told her that the elves could withstand the the Music of the Nameless extremely well. This was because of how strong emotions, typically Grief, were a part of their very genetics. Elves sometimes turned to dust if they were overwhelmed enough by whatever emotion they had chosen to embrace! But because of this dedication to a single emotion elves could resist the Nameless like no other creature; they even hunted the Nameless from time to time, and their Sword Singers were feared acrost the solar system.
Xellous and Kora were curious. Could Lampo find out what had drawn the Nameless here? Lampo told them that being in Genevieve's body (she had taken the body of Xellous's dead sister, Genevieve, to travel with them) she could not find out. She was a descended star and thus had no innate contact with the heavens anymore. But she could get in contact with an ascended star, a star still up in the heavens. Provided that someone could provide the ascended star with good enough directions the truth would be revealed pretty quickly. Xellous volunteered. He had a lot more power than Lampo did in her limited form and he wanted to see for himself. Lampo warned him that no mortal had ever interfaced with a star the way Xellous was talking about. But then again, no one had ever learned Aura Manipulation as Xellous had. If any human could do it Xellous was the one to accomplish it. Walking up to him, Lampo apologized to Kora.
Ikuinen Lampo passionately kissed Xellous. And all of a sudden Xellous was way up in space, right next to a pulsating star. Music, soft, gentle, and overwhelmingly powerful pressed upon him. The sheer power was staggering, but Xellous found that he could withstand it if he applied all his strength to it. He could hear Lampo and the star singing to each other, harmonizing in a soft but quick cadence. And all of a sudden Xellous could hear a whispered voice, asking him where he wanted to look. Xellous asked the star to show him the planet Pyheeta, his planet. The star obliged. There was Pyheeta and the atlases that held up Xellous's continent standing upon it. On a certain continent there was a patch of nothing, confirmed by the star to be the presence of the Nameless. Xellous asked if it was possible to see that patch in its past. The star told him that since light was time yes, he could been shown what the "patch" looked like in the past, including at its very origin. At Xellous's request star "rewound" time to nine months previous, shortly after Telos and Michael had left to find Xellous. The void was coming out Xellous's farm house. Alarmed, Xellous asked if they could go inside the house, if they could follow the light down. The star warned Xellous that would sap Xellous of his remaining strength, but Xellous pleaded so insistently the star relented with a gentle sigh.
They were looking at Threen, Kora's mother. She was weeping at being left behind by Telos, Michael, and Xellous. She was mourning how she had drowned her firstborn, Charles, and screeching that none of this was her fault. It was the khen-zai who had influenced her and destroyed her family, not her! And now she was alone, left by those who she had loved most. The void opened up, she looked into it, and asked "Charles?"
The void swallowed her up.
Xellous fell over in the wagon and threw up, sobbing. Kora held him as he apologized, over and over and over. Finally he told Kora what had happened. Xellous had failed Threen! She was dead, the Nameless had defiled Charles's memory, and it was all his fault, for not taking her to find Kora in the first place. Kora wept with him, in shock. Lampo couldn't contain herself either. Kkora finally told Xellous, after finally drying her eyes, the he couldn't have known any of this would have happened. Lampo agreed: there'd only been one other time when she was ascended that a human had summoned the Nameless with no help. Xellous couldn't have known. Kora told Xellous that it was the khen-zai who'd done this. they had targeted Kora's family, killed Xellous's father, schemed for a planet they'd abandoned. And Kora swore: they would pay. She had a bow that could even hurt the gods, thank to Xellous. And she was going to use it.
After a moment Lampo spoke. The Nameless had swallowed her husband whole, millennia ago. She had come to Pyheeta to make something herself into something more than what she was, and she hadn't gone and sacrificed her eternity in the heavens for the Nameless to come and just wreck the planet. Or the khen-zai. It was time to fight. It was time for all of their foes to pay.
Xellous stood. He agreed. The khen-zai would pay. But first they needed to save their planet from the Nameless, without the khen-zai.
Telos came in from seeing to the horse, which had recovered enough to go at a slow trot. It was time to go, but they needed a plan.
Xellous said he had one. He'd met elves before. He remembered what their auras were like. He could change their human auras to mimic elven ones. Which meant that stupid Music wouldn't hurt them.
Something was different as Xellous began to reach out to everyone's auras. He was different. Stronger. Meeting the ascended star had changed Xellous somehow. And that change let Xellous reach deep within himself, within his friends and family, to find that grief that the elves had used to cloak themselves, and he pulled it out of all of them, to be as if they were elves. It would hurt him to do it, to finish the process, but that was a sacrifice Xellous was happy to make. And they could all the feel the difference at the end. Xellous sank onto a bench, exhausted. He'd done it. They could withstand the Nameless.
Telos hopped into the driver's seat, and Kora pulled Xellous into a close snuggle, helping him ground. They were going back north. Back to the farmhouse. They would drive out the Nameless with a bow that could hurt gods, mighty magic from another planet, and the bond that had become so strong betwixt them.
It was time to wage a war.
No comments:
Post a Comment