The Beginning After The End

Chapter 501: Restless

As Naesia had promised, it took a handful of hours to complete our ascent up the cliffs. Although strenuous, the rest of the climb was uneventful. Twice, flying mana beasts circled around to investigate our hunting party, but they were kept at bay by warning flares of mana. The mountain itself, which had birthed golems to test us, was silent.

At the top, the four phoenixes began to shout and crow, their voices echoing through the thin air and the high mountain ravines, welcoming each member of our hunting party. When we’d all reached the dell, our group of twenty hunters stopped to look out over the cliff’s edge. It was impossible to see how high we’d climbed, as clouds covered the surface of Epheotus far below us. A pod of skyrays crested in and out of the clouds, swirling over, under, and around each other playfully.

Regis manifested out of Ellie’s dim shadow, and the armor cladding her melted away, returning to the aether. She immediately wrapped her arms around herself as a shiver ran through her.

Chul clapped my shoulder hard enough that I had to step forward to catch myself. “Just like the abyssal rays we faced in the Relictombs, aye my brother?”

“I don’t remember those ones being quite so cute,” Sylvie said, kneeling next to the edge. She picked up a smooth stone and rubbed it between her fingers, then casually tossed it off the edge, watching it plummet into the mist.

Riven Kothan gasped and clutched his horns in horror. “What are you doing? That could kill someone!”

Sylvie froze, her face pale with guilt. “I—”

The asuras began to laugh, Riven loudest among them. “I’m only joking! You may be archon in name, Sylvie, but you have the stiffness of a dragon.”

The dragons among us stopped laughing. “The rigidity of a basilisk, you mean,” one of the Indraths said.

Instead of taking offense, Riven and his basilisk companions’ laughter was renewed by the jibe.

Vireah Inthirah craned her back in a deep stretch, her long pink hair nearly spilling to the ground. Straightening, she turned away from the panorama and gazed up toward the mountain’s peak. “The light is dimming quickly. We should make camp.”

Naesia Avignis, who led the way out of tradition, gestured to the thickly forested, green swath carved into the mountain. “We’ll remain unmolested by the flying beasts if we move up into the treeline. Otherwise, pick a spot!”

Regis gave a throaty chuckle. “But what if we want to be molested by some flying beasts?”

“Then I suggest you do it privately behind a tree so none of us will judge you,” one of Riven’s basilisk friends said with a laugh.

Naesia’s cheeks flushed bright red, and her citrine eyes went wide as they jumped around the members of our hunting party. “That's not what I…”

I sighed. “Just ignore Regis. Your embarrassment will only encourage him.”

Despite the long day’s ascent, most of the asuras broke into a run, racing each other up the gentle slope and shouting about getting the best spots first. Chul joined them, forgetting himself, but I let him go. The grinning warrior was in good company as he and one of the basilisks pushed and shouldered one another, laughing the entire time.

The rest of my clan stayed close, and both Zelyna and Vireah lingered behind their own clans. We made our way more slowly, at ease.

“We’ll rest and recover our strength for the evening.” Zelyna, walking ahead of me, didn’t look back as she spoke. “Tomorrow, we scour the summit for our prey.”

“What exactly are we hunting?” I asked, watching the leviathan woman’s hair move out of rhythm with the cold, gusting wind that blew through the dell.

Vireah, who walked alongside Sylvie—but was careful to keep some distance between my clan and herself—answered. “Our prey will present itself to us. When you see it, you will know.” Her liquid silver eyes rested on me for a long moment, then skated away, inscrutable.

I frowned at that, but the conversation ended there. As we entered under the sprawling, gnarled limbs of the giant trees, Chul gave a shout and waved us toward a flat spot between three massive trunks.

“Take a moment to connect with your clan,” Zelyna said, breaking away toward the other leviathans. “Food and drink will be shared later, and then conversation and stories. First, though, settle your mind.”

I watched her go with a strange feeling of nakedness. She had a way of seeing right through me with a wisdom far beyond her years. The moment I finished the thought, I almost burst out laughing, reminded that she was twenty times my own total age, maybe even more.

‘They are all more than they seem,’ Sylvie projected into my thoughts. ‘The youngest of them is, what, half a century old?’

Ellie grabbed my arm and tried to drag me toward Chul. “Come on! I’m starving.”

Chuckling, I let myself be pulled along in her wake. Chul was already arranging a circle of stones to contain a fire, and Ellie wasted no time drawing equipment from her dimension ring and setting camp.

Throughout the wooded dell, campsites were being completed for each group of four. The different asuran races each favored a specific experience. The leviathans, for example, were quick to set up brightly colored tents made of dense fabric, while the phoenixes mostly roosted in hammocks or conjured beds outside. The basilisks were sharing a single large canopy tent in which they built their fire. The dragons, on the other hand, were taking their time in building themselves each a kind of small house from conjured materials, complete with indoor space for cooking and bathing.

As Zelyna had suggested, each group was comfortable engaging just with their own kind for the moment.

I withdrew a simple bedroll and laid it out by the fire pit as Chul finished arranging the large circle of stones. He had already dragged over a downed tree, and he began ripping dry limbs off with his hands, snapping them into several smaller pieces, and tossing them into a loose pile. He hummed as he worked, occasionally smiling to himself, and so I let him continue without interrupting.

When he was satisfied with the state of his pile, he summoned his weapon. Flames issued from the round, fissured head like a torch, which he stuffed into the wood. It caught immediately, roaring up ten feet high.

Above, the trees rustled as they leaned toward the warmth, dropping a few yellow leaves. Among the leaves were maroon flowers giving off a sleepy, sweet scent.

“Dream blossoms,” Chul said, catching me looking up into the canopy. “The flowers make a good strong tea, or so I learned in the Hearth. I’ve never actually seen one before today. It is said that resting beneath them will make you sleep like the dead. So dead, in fact, that some never wake. Even heard a story one time about how a young phoenix warrior was eaten alive by a beast while he slept.”

I scoffed in grim amusement. “Perhaps we should set a watch then, to make sure none of us sleep to death.”

Sylvie looked from her small but comfortable tent to the tree above it, which was covered in the maroon flowers. “Maybe we should move back down the slope a bit…”

Regis looked up from where he had been sniffing around the campsite. “Don’t worry, m'lady, I’ll ensure your beauty sleep isn’t interrupted.”

Sylvie snorted and tossed a handful of fallen yellow leaves at him.

Settling down on my sleeping roll beside the tall fire, Ellie wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. “Uh, that wind is like knives through these sweaty clothes.” Giving me a pleading look, she added, “Maybe I could get that armor again? Just to warm me up…”

Behind her, there was a faint pop, and Boo appeared as if from nowhere. He gave a deep moan and nuzzled my sister, lying down behind her. She leaned back, pushing into his fluff. “Oh, that’s better. Thanks for waiting, Boo. I don’t think you’d have liked that climb.” Her nose tipped toward her underarm, and she made a face. “Ugh. Maybe I’ll have to ask the dragons to borrow their bath, too. How come none of you sweat that much?”

Boo let out a moan of agreement, making Sylvie and I both laugh. “Asuras don’t sweat, sister.”

“Wait, really?” She gave me an uncertain look.

“The perfume and soap makers of this world would be out of business if that were true.”

We all turned to see Vireah approaching with a basket. She had changed out of the breeches and leathers she’d climbed in and now wore a simple teal and gray hooded dress. In the basket were a couple round loaves of bread and several glass jars that clinked together with each step. “A gift from the Inthirah clan. Prepared by my mother herself.” She held out the basket with both hands.

I took it in the same respectful manner. The jars contained honey, mustard, and jam to go with the bread. “Thank you.”

She nodded, then took a step closer to the fire. As she stared into its depths, the flames’ reflection danced over her silver eyes. “Your clan did well today, Lord Arthur. That climb was no mean feat, even for asura.”

Chul pulled the basket out of my hands, ripped off half a loaf of bread, and began to thumb through the jars as he chewed. “Ooh, fireweed honey. My favorite!” Offhanded, he passed the basket to Sylvie and walked off with his bread and the jar of honey.

“I wouldn’t blame you if this all looked like some kind of gimmick from your perspective,” I said in answer to Vireah’s comment. “I won’t pretend to be able to see events through your eyes.”

Her right hand drifted forward, seemingly an unconscious act. The flames flowed around her fingers, the heat itself twisting and moving to avoid burning her. “No, I don’t see it that way. If anything, it’s…exciting.” There was a quiver in her voice, and I realized suddenly that this noble dragon was nervous. “This is the first time in my life that I’ve experienced real change in Epheotus. Those who remember Agrona’s rebellion experienced such change, perhaps.”

Riven manifested out of the gloom around the campfire. “It wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, trust me.”

“Of course not,” Vireah was quick to answer. “I didn’t mean to imply that it was somehow a time of good change. Violence between asura is never good for Epheotus.”

“Hey!” The shout came from one of the other campfires. Long strides crunched through fallen leaves in the dark, and then Naesia appeared. Her smoke-gray hair tumbled about her head in a wild mane, unbound from her braids. “We agreed not to hound the great lord about you know who until everyone had settled in!”

“You know who?” I asked. As the words left my lips, I came to the answer on my own. “You want to know about Agrona.”

Vireah continued staring into the flame. Riven’s eyes jumped to mine and away again, into the darkness. His brows were pinched with worry. Naesia sat down in the grass, her legs extended forward with her arms stretched behind herself for support. At some point, Zelyna had joined us as well and was now leaning against a tree at the outer edge of the firelight.

Although they didn’t approach our fire, I could feel the other asuras straining to overhear what was said.

“Rumors spread like wildfire about Agrona’s defeat at the hand of a lesser,” Riven said, tense in both body and tone. “But even my father has been quiet with most of the details.”

I let silence linger in the aftermath of Riven’s statement. It was strange to me that Kezess hadn’t spread the story far and wide, but then, he wanted a living, conscious Agrona to parade through the clan homes of these young asuras. Suspicion built in my mind that this conversation—which had been started by a dragon—was somehow calculated.

“There isn’t much to tell,” I said at length. “Agrona had invested himself deeply into a separate source of power. I destroyed it, and he went into a kind of coma. Lord Indrath arrived shortly afterwards. Agrona and I never even fought.”

“Oh.” Riven’s face fell. Clearly he had been expecting—or hoping, maybe—for a grander tale.

While the others all seemed curious about the Agrona, there was something in Riven’s expression that told me this was deeply personal. His older siblings had died fighting the Vritra clan, he’d said. I also knew the basilisk race had suffered greatly following Agrona’s defection to Alacrya.

I couldn’t help but wonder if seeing Agrona receive a more public punishment would really help the young basilisk or only reopen old wounds.

“You were impressive today, Lady Eleanor,” Zelyna said, her tone suggesting she was intentionally changing the subject.

Vireah piped up, adding, “Your magic really is quite interesting. Pure mana techniques, yes? Not unlike how the dragon’s use mana. Do you have any talent with aether, like your brother?”

“Thanks!” Ellie beamed. “And no, I just use mana. I do have a spellform though.”

Naesia, who had eased back into a more relaxed posture again, frowned. “A spellform? What’s that?”

Pulling herself free of Boo’s fluff, she turned and lifted the back of her jacket and shirt to reveal the spellform tattoo. “It kind of, like…brands me with a spell? I can work a different kind of magic by channeling my mana into it.”

The asuras were enraptured, and began peppering Ellie with questions.

After a minute or two, she gave a nervous shrug. “Honestly, I’m not the expert. We have this master inventor, Gideon, who understands all this stuff. And my brother, too. The Alacryans use them, but they were invented by the djinn.”

I could tell immediately that none of these asuras recognized the term.

“I’ve never heard of the djinn. Is that another one of your lesser races?” Riven asked, scratching absently at the scalp around one horn.

I felt my teeth begin to grind before I took control of myself. They had no idea their entire civilization was built on the ashes of a dozen others. “We call them ‘ancient mages.’ They’re no longer here, but much of their magic still lingers in our world.” I shot Chul a warning glance not to explain further.

Zelyna finally stepped forward, coming to crouch beside the fire. The blue ridges along her temples shone iridescently in the firelight. To my sister, she said, “I noticed that you did not make use of Silverlight on the ascent. Why?”

Ellie withdrew the unstrung bow, causing surprised murmurs to ripple through the asuras. “I haven’t been able to use it.”

“How is it that a human girl comes to possess an asuran weapon?” Vireah asked, glancing around at her peers. “And the weapon of General Aldir, no less.”

“It chose her,” Zelyna said defiantly. “Whatever rumors you may have heard, know that Aldir of the Thyestes gave everything of himself for the betterment of both Epheotus and the world of the lessers.” She stared around at the others, meeting their eyes one by one. It was a challenge, one that none of the other asuran nobles were willing to meet.

“Your clan really is full of surprises,” Riven said after an awkward pause. “It’s too bad we have no titans among us. They specialize in this sort of thing.”

Vireah scoffed. “They aren’t the only ones knowledgeable about such things.” Circling the fire, she sat down next to my sister, heedless of the warning rumble that came from Boo. “Here, let me see.”

Quietly, Vireah began instructing my sister in the methodology used by the dragons to master such weapons.

Our conversation settled into comfortable small talk and jokes. Riven and Naesia had a lot of questions about my world, and I was too happy to answer most of them. The more the asuras knew about Dicathen and Alacrya, the more real those places would become in their minds.

Food and drink were shared freely, and I nibbled a sweet, frosting-coated pastry as Riven’s sister provided an impromptu lecture about basilisk cuisine.

Eventually, a friendly shout from the basilisk campsite drew Riven and his sister away, after which Naesia bid us goodnight and returned to her own people as well. Chul joined her, eager to spend more time with the phoenixes of Epheotus.

Zelyna stayed, although she retreated back to the shadows. For a time, we listened in silence to Vireah’s tutoring, but after a few minutes, Zelyna waved me over.

Sylvie’s mind touched my own. ‘I’m feeling…fatigued, Arthur. I’m going to rest.’

I gave my bond a worried look, but she waved it away, her eyes flicking to Zelyna. I nodded.

“Have you considered what the great lords said at dinner?” Zelyna asked without preamble when I joined her.

It was cool at the edge of the firelight. The wind wasn’t overpowering, but it was consistent and brought the cold down from the higher peaks. I turned my face into it and closed my eyes, enjoying the cold bite on my skin.

“We had a very long climb today, during which there was little else to do but think,” I said, dancing around her question.

“You’re uncomfortable with the idea.”

I met her eyes from the corner of my own. “I…already have someone.”

Zelyna crossed her arms, frowning. “What does that have to do with anything? You are a great lord, Arthur. And what’s more, you are the founding member of an entirely new race and regent of your entire world. You need to solidify your position. Form strong alliances. Even spawn heirs.”

I coughed in surprise.

She chewed her lip, suddenly reserved. “Listen, I know very little of how your people do things. You are a good man to consider your love’s feelings before making this decision. But the love of two may have to be weighed against the good of many.”

Her right hand snapped out in a lightning-quick punch that I only barely deflected. Her wry smile returned. “I said before that your kindness may be transformational here..” Glancing at Vireah, she continued more quietly. “Indrath will never uncurl his iron-clad grip on Epheotus. Not unless someone breaks his fingers. That someone is you, Arthur Leywin. But only if you have the strength and support necessary.”

She did not wait for my response, but turned and left for her own tent. She melted into darkness, but I followed the progress of her mana signature until it settled.

When I returned to the fire, Vireah was standing. “Good night, Ellie. I look forward to seeing what you can do with this knowledge.”

“Me too,” my sister said with a yawn, her eyes glazed over with exhaustion.

Vireah stopped to give me a respectful bow, her hair, dark in the dim light of the fire, spilling out from under her hood, then continued back to the cabin she had constructed earlier.

I sat down beside Ellie, patting her knee as she leaned against Boo, Silverlight still held in her lap. “I love this,” she said tiredly. Around us, evening continued to deepen into utter dark. I wasn’t sure how long I waited, but eventually the last remaining asura found their way to whatever bedding they’d prepared, and the camp settled and went quiet. Only the wind through the leaves and the low crackle of the fire could be heard.

Gently, I eased Ellie up from where she’d fallen asleep against Boo and took her to her own tent, where I tucked her in the way mom used to. Her eyes opened only long enough for her to give me a sleepy smile and say, “Thank you, Big Brother.” Then her eyes closed and she returned to sleep, never having fully woken.

Her tent was just barely large enough for Boo to fit in, and still his head poked out the front. He settled himself down, his chin on his paws, and closed his eyes as well.

“This place feels…unbroken,” Regis said quietly. He was sitting by the fire, his own burning mane moving like a dark purple shadow of the orange fire. “I like it.”

“Of course you do,” I chuckled, easing down onto the bedroll next to him. Sensing his drifting thoughts, I patted his back beneath the flames. “You’re restless. It’s fine, go. I don’t plan on sleeping this evening. I’ll keep the watch.”

He turned to face me, his tongue lolling. There was a wild light in his eyes. “You sure? It’s been a while since we’ve just hung out and bullshitted.”

I smiled and pushed him playfully. “We live in each other’s heads, Regis.”

He stood and loped off into the darkness, practically vibrating with the need to run. ‘Just think really panicked thoughts if you need me.’

I was still smiling as his connected mind faded into the background of my own thoughts several minutes later.

He was right about the mountain feeling untamed. But it was more than that. I could feel the border between Epheotus and the aetheric realm. It wasn’t visible, like at Ecclesia, but for some reason I couldn’t quite put my finger on, that made it feel even more real, like if I could reach the summit, I would be able to touch the edge of the world.

My eyes drifted closed. Inside the dusk of my own skull, I let the feeling of that atmospheric magic settle around me. Realmheart activated, enhancing my sense of mana within the aether. King’s Gambit lit up next, fracturing my conscious mind into a hundred parallel thoughts. A single, detached thread immediately jumped to the forefront.

How can a being live to be hundreds of years old and still act like a teenager?

It was a rhetorical question. Maturity was a factor of necessity, not simply age. And looking at the asura through the lens of human experience was largely fruitless. Largely, but not completely.

When taken in context with what I’d seen and heard from these young noble asuras, this question begged another, more important one.

How can a child grow into maturity if nothing is expected of them?

It wasn’t entirely fair to say that the great clans expected nothing of them, but the reality was that these expectations varied greatly from a human heir. The word itself told half the story. Heir. What is the purpose of a successor if the current lords reigned for ten thousand years or longer? These asura—all asura—were caught in a kind of stasis, but that couldn’t last. If I was going to save my world and Epheotus, then both would need to change dramatically.

Even without King’s Gambit, it had been difficult to prevent my mind from going constantly back to my conversation with the other great lords regarding marriage. Now I was beginning to see it in a different light. What Zelyna had said was true. It was a purely strategic choice, and one that worked directly into the necessity of a new vision for Epheotus’s future. But that did nothing to change how I felt.

More importantly, how would Tessia feel if she knew these conversations were even happening…

These thoughts eventually worked their way to the back as the forefront of my branching consciousness focused on my meditation and the mana. It was clearer, with my mind enhanced by King’s Gambit, that the mana and aether here on the mountain felt like that which bound the portal between Dicathen and Epheotus.

Although I’d seen the future in which I successfully relieved the pressure building in the aetheric realm, not every aspect of how this was accomplished was clear to me. I needed more insight into the barriers that kept it separate from the physical world and allowed Epheotus to float within.

God Step ignited, adding another layer of awareness to the many threads of my consciousness. My perception began to expand outward like probing fingers.

There was a twitch from Sylvie’s sleeping mind.

The first skill I learned with God Step was to move myself through the aetheric pathways. After much training and effort, I’d learned to weaponize the pathways, striking through them with my conjured weapons. But I was confident there was still more potential.

With the fountain in Everburn as my inspiration, I imagined a hole between the aetheric realm and Epheotus through which aether could pour in freely. Within the heart of our campfire, the probing fingers of my awareness reached for one of the infinitely interconnected points.

It was a clumsy effort. Like muscle memory, I started to pass through the pathways while simultaneously attempting to hold myself back. The result was that nothing happened at first. Religating a separate piece of focus to the disparate branches of my consciousness, I tightened my grip on the godrune’s power and my own stumbling manipulation of it.

The atmospheric aether began to move. It was only a trickle, but the point of connection was now emitting aether. Purple light swirled within the orange flames. I pulled hard, and the campfire glowed violet.

A claw tore through my concentration.

My hands pressed hard against my temples as my senses collided like ships in a storm-tossed sea. Realmheart, God Step, and King’s Gambit were ripped from my mental grip.

I watched as if from above as my fingers dug into my skull and I tipped onto my side, curling into the fetal position. Something was pulling me to it, absorbing me into itself. I resisted. Pain followed, incredible pain. A shared pain.

Wordlessly, Sylvie was reaching out for me, for Regis, for whoever could hear and answer.

I relaxed, finally understanding. The pain faded, and I found myself sliding faster and faster along the connection between our minds.

Suddenly, I was back on the shoreline near Ecclesia. The entire sky was a swirl of pitch black and deep purple. I was…not myself. Instead, I rode like a passenger behind Sylvie’s eyes. She was standing on the surface of the motionless water, staring at the horizon where Epheotus blended into the aetheric realm.

Sylv? What’s going on?

There was no response.

Her focus began narrowing as she looked down at her feet. Sylvie’s reflection in the glassy water was turned in the wrong direction.

Beneath the water, these arms—not a reflection—flailed as she tried to swim toward the surface. With each movement, though, she only sank deeper.

Slowly, as if in a trance, Sylvie—the one standing atop the water—bent down. Her hand passed easily through the surface. The Sylvie below grabbed her hand, and then was being pulled upward.

But the figure that rose out of the water was not Sylvie’s reflection.

Standing before us, Sylvie’s hand clasped in his own, was Agrona. He wore dark pants and a black shirt highlighted in gold and crimson. Golden chains and jewel ornaments hung from his horns. There was a smile in his red eyes.

“What is this?” Sylvie asked, her voice hollow. “A dream? A…vision? But it can’t be. You’re gone. Defeated.”

Agrona’s only answer was a wry, knowing smirk.

“This is nothing. Just the product of a stressed and tired mind,” Sylvie told herself. Her eyes closed, but I could still see. “Wake up.”

The coast, the ocean, Sylvie and Agrona, it all melted away. I was back on my bedroll beneath the dream blossoms.

Sylv, are you all right?

‘Fine, I’m fine,’ she answered immediately. ‘Did you see it too?’

I confirmed that I had. Maybe it was just the flowers, like Chul said.

‘Yeah, maybe…’

I sat up and looked at her tent, which was closed off so I couldn’t see her. You’re worried.

‘It was different from the vision about the Glayders, but it didn’t feel like a dream.’

You’ve got a lot on your mind, I offered in consolation. All this talk about Agrona today clearly brought something to the surface. It’s okay, whatever it is.

‘I still worry, sometimes,’ she admitted after a few long seconds. ‘He implanted that spell within me. Could take over my body. We’ve never fully understood why or how. I guess I just worry that…’

That he might have corrupted you somehow? I filled in, sensing the fear emanating from her.

‘I am his daughter, Arthur. There is more of him in me than just his experimental magic. I guess…maybe I just wish I could have gotten more answers from him before he—you know.’

I didn’t answer, but I didn’t have to. She knew how I felt.

‘I’m sorry. I’m tired. I’m going to try to go back to sleep.’

Chewing on my lip, I wished my bond goodnight. My senses remained on her aura until I felt it soothe as she eventually slipped back beneath the surface of consciousness.

My own mind was too unsettled to return to my meditation. Instead, I weighed our options in the dim light of my golden crown.