HTG - Chapter 194

Kalon

Chapter One-Hundred-Ninety-Four: Anakor - Part One

Planet: Etheria

Ioquin’s words asking what I will choose play on my mind as I look at the crashing waves of the Realm of Dreams. My soul’s realm. The chaos represents my past perfectly. How many times have I been left without choice? I’ve lost count.

Choice… an elusive thing that I have seldom known.

“You need to decide quickly,” Ioquin says, eyeing the fractures in the periphery.

“Is there even a choice here?” I ask, turning to look at her.

She frowns at the remark, and turns back to the raging waters, “There is always choice. Whether one gives up is a choice, whether one fights like the fury of the hells is a choice. Protecting those one cares for… they are all choices.”

“And who taught you that inaction is a choice?”

She does not turn as she says, “You did.”

Her green eyes turn to look at me softly, “In life every action or inaction is a choice. We are the harbingers of our own fates, of our own destiny.”

“I understand that,” I say, looking at the waters again, my thoughts drift to Barnak and others I have seen in the realm. Those who died because I was not strong enough to protect them. Clenching my hands, “But many died to give me the strength to break the bounds that I have. To forsake the bounds would be to forsake their sacrifices.”

“You are afraid that if you forsake the bounds you will be powerless to help those you love?”

I nod, “That as well.”

She sighs, “One thing that brings me hope each time I meet you is how much you care for those around you. Even those you do not know. You always project a hard exterior, but inside,” she smiles warmly, “You are like spring. Warm and full of life.”

“I don’t feel like that,” I admit, unfurling my hands, “There are many that I see in my dreams, many that haunt me. They make me wonder if I am a monster… and the golden eyes, the one you must know. I have seen the futures they can bring. Destruction that could swallow stars…”

She smiles, “Were one a monster, one would not be bothered by the blood that one has spilt. Nor would one worry about what one’s power can do.”

In a way I know she is right. Still, it is wrong not to consider the ramifications of my life continuing. In my chest lurks the Cursed Edict. Dashkatul… Fate’s prison. I have seen visions of star systems falling to the wrath of the golden eyes. Such power, am I really worthy to wield it?

The ones that survived the hells of the Colosseum are safe now. My friends for the first time have a path that looks hopeful. I can’t help but feel like I don’t belong on it. Like I’m a liability for their happiness.

Even still… there are millions of my people still in chains… House Helenius still needs to fall before I do.

Resolve builds as I broker deals with the demons of my worries. An exchange for the danger that my presence may bring. Until my people are free, I cannot fall. Even if it means I must battle the fates to do it.  

Which means… I must evolve. I must become more than the pride of my people. I must learn the ways of the Etheric bounds and rise using their stairs so that I might blend in with the masters. So that someday I can cut out their fucking hearts, and the hearts of their pitiless gods.

Thane… all of them. I’ll kill them all.

Lightning strikes the ground at my feet, my realm feels the wrath that simmers.

Thoughts cross my mind as I stand on the precipice of change, “Ioquin, you said that you saw me in my past lives balance the mana. Do you think I struggle because of the imbalance of the Netheric bounds in my body?”

She tilts her head curiously, “I do not know, you had already learned to before I met you. Such an answer should be sought from the inside, not the outside.”

I squint at her remark. Does she mean to say that I can commune with the golden eyes?

“What have you decided?” Ioquin asks, looking out at the chaos, “Time is short, young one.”

My eyes trace into hers and I measure the emerald glow as I say, “Anakor. I will take your legacy.”

Light blooms brighter as she nods, “Then I will show you the path. Though I make no promises that you will survive the ordeal, my Starmaker legacy is normally done when the soul is calm and balanced.”

“What do I need to do?”

“You must release everything all at once. All the power that lurks in your body, you must empty it all into your soul until the connection to your soul wanes. Until it nearly severs, not so much that it is lost into the Well of Souls, but it must feel the pull. Only then will it compress its potential and become more than it was.”

“Like I did with Amon’s legacy?”

“Yes, but you must compress it so tightly that it changes, like a gas becoming a liquid. It is hard to describe, but once you feel it… you will understand the difference.”

“So instead of expanding and pushing past the bounds I should contract and compress?”

She nods.

“I think I understand…”

She turns and looks at everyone else still trying to balance it all, “They will need to leave.”

“Why?” I ask, yet it is not because I am wary of her. Something tells me that she is true in her intentions.

“Krotha will not agree when she sees how my legacy works.”

“Why not?”

“Because it will completely reset your soul’s realm. Her work will be undone completely, the mountain she made as a foothold will become nothing once more. She will not wish to have this happen, not while you’ve been rebellious of her wants.”

I look at her squarely, “If you had told me this before, I would have decided sooner. I will tell them to leave.”

She holds up a hand, “No, not yet. Not until you’re ready. Right now they are all that is keeping you alive. Only when you are ready should you expel them, and me.”

“And you?”

“When your soul realm resets, it will be malleable for a time. Do not ever let anyone influence it during that time. Especially someone like Krotha. Echoes of their own wants may shape it. Even though I have the best intentions, they are just that, intentions.”

She is worried she will taint me with her own desires. I wouldn’t have even known. Were she Krotha, I would have never known. Trust begins to make roots. If I survive, then it may grow more. Perhaps even as much as I have with Amon.

“Will the Cursed Edict leave me once I do this?”

She shakes her head, “It may covet your soul, but it is attached to your body. We can discuss this more when there is time, in short though… I do not think there is anything you can do to remove it, except shattering it and its power.”

I nod understanding and she motions for me to follow. We kneel in front of each other, eyes locked in tandem as she places a hand on my chest again, “Take my memories and find my truths, feel the Starmaker Legacy as your own.”

Time halts but maka continues to shift and hum. It vibrates at such a wavelength that my thoughts fall into it. Complex feelings that I don’t understand breathe into my body as I am swept into the tides of her memories. Her hand guides me towards her studies of her Legacy. Hundreds of thousands of words and thoughts meld into my own.

I see her as a young woman, skipping across starlight and dancing in the energies of the cosmos. She is wild, this younger version of Ioquin. There is happiness in her to discover the secrets of the universe. Eons pass in a flash and her curiosity never falters.

She does not hide the bad memories that flicker by as her Legacy is transcribed into my mind. Her reasons for seeking a darker path remind me of my own… perhaps that is why she does not hide it.

In her memories I see a man with a black beard and black hair, his eyes are dipped in yellow and gold. Even though our faces are not the same, it is eerie to see him, as though I am looking at myself. A great battle that shakes reality appears in fragments, and I see him combining the flow of mana interchangeably.

It is beautiful… so much finesse, so much fluid control of it. I feel the rhythm that she felt in her memories, and my own realm begins to quake from it.

Like the chords of my soul’s first song they strum a beautiful melody…

I know why I failed before, I know why it did not work. It must not be forced, it must be allowed. Mana does not want to be separate… it wants to be together. Something else tells it not to… something deep in the recesses of existence. If you remove that influence… if you let it breathe… if you let it flow.

Her memories fade slowly and I hear her voice.

“Expel us now, and remember what you have learned… remember what you can do…”

Her touch releases and I feel all the energy in my body rushing to meet my soul as the rhythm of her memories pulse in my existence. It is only now that I see her arms are ablaze with burning runes, like when Amara protected me. So too has Ioquin.

Pain becomes my muse as I feel the static vibrations of energy rising. I must expel them… and myself.

Black flames rise from the ether of the Realm of Souls and expand rapidly pushing back all in their path. Krotha screams in frustration as she tries to claw toward me. Chaos from my soul’s turbulence presses her from my thoughts immediately. Like trying to grip a lightning bolt I feel my realm ripping asunder. Quickly I press myself from it back into reality.

***

Realm of Reality

***

Heat that boils under my skin causes me to writhe on the ground. I see stars colliding in visions as I focus all of my will to press outwards. Memories of my own life ricochet in my thoughts. Memories of Luna. Of Arrum and the brothers, even Korra and Fennec and the twins, Ralia and Salia. I see them all standing around me, like ghosts or phantoms. And then I see him, clearer than them, as though he never died, as though he is really here with me.  

“Sage…”

He smiles warmly as he kneels next to my fracturing body, and he speaks softly just as I remember, “Do not fight the changing tide, embrace it, relinquish all into the fires of change… become the phoenix and rise from the ashes.”

Light glows brightly from his skin in runes that look more like a god’s than a man’s.

Calm waves glide across the pain, giving me enough sanity to focus on the memories of Ioquin’s legacy.

Push everything from my body, become empty, like I was before I found the bounds. Compress it into my soul…

Even though he is a hallucination, seeing him brings a lost joy to my heart. It gives me the strength to finish the task. I feel the changing… the bounds collapsing inward, the foundation becoming wider and stronger. It’s working…

Light fades from my eyes and the darkness embraces me. Where it takes me, I do not know.