Honor of the Lost

> ”There will be no one to record my defeat. But I will acknowledge it, nonetheless.” ~Alphazzel, Faunel of History and Disasters

Frein was surprised to see Alphazzel still in his overly aged Tryvinal form. Cleaner now, but his beard, along with his comically long braid, made him look a thousand years older.

And wiser. Not to mention, the faunel’s silent and stoic expression dispelled most of his malevolent antics. He simply stood there by the foyer of Frein’s Mind Palace, observing a canvas painting by itself.

“You’re quiet,” Frein said.

“A loser has no right to speak ill of the victor,” Alphazzel said. He finished at that, though his expression indicated more words that had been stifled by his self-control.

“Fair enough,” the Visitor replied, gesturing over to the door across them. “She’s waiting in my Exhibit.”

Alphazzel stood still, despite Frein’s urging. He shuffled about, stiffening and keeping his hands behind him.

“You don’t want to meet her,” Frein stated. “But she wants to talk to you.”

“I’m not exactly fond of what our discussion will entail.”

“No child enjoys being scolded by their parents.” Frein crossed his arms. “Grit your teeth and get it over with. You’re already dead anyway.”

“You’re a comfort of a companion.” Alphazzel frowned. “Must be a joy being in your presence all the time.”

Impressed, Frein acted hurt by the faunel’s dry wit. “Where was this Alphazzel back then? Your words actually bite!”

“It’s the method of attack, that’s different,” the faunel explained. “My words then were fueled by my knowledge of Destiny. Now, I simply infer from what you provide. And I must admit, I was not myself back there.”

“You were roped in by a different Destiny,” Brymeia said, appearing from the door of Frein’s Exhibit. She still looked like Catherine, a more mature and serious version of her. “I tried to wait, but clearly, you’re not going to approach me.”

Immediately, Elizzel’s strong emotions towards her mother became evident within the Tether. Frein almost longed to hug Brymeia just as much as she did. But the self-restraint was there for the both of them, and he wondered if it was more because of him than her. She stayed where she stood.

Brymeia, fortunately, wasn’t oblivious to her daughter’s emotions. She turned and gave a smile, signaling to catch up later. Just this was enough to elate Elizzel to the clouds. This time, Frein was sure, he used everything he had on the Tether to keep her in place.

“There’s no need for me to answer your questions, Mother,” Alphazzel began. Whether he was aware of the subtle exchange between mother and daughter, he didn’t appear to particularly care. “Just let Frein fulfill his Contradiction and let me pass on. I’ve been stretched thin for long enough.”

“Please, Alphazzel,” Brymeia begged. “Help us, just this once.”

The faunel’s face contorted into full disdain. “Just this once? What? Everything I’ve ever done for you was nothing? From all the millennia I’ve served your Concept, the only thing you see now is my failure?”

“It’s… That’s not what I meant.”

“Of course, not. When have I ever understood what you meant?”

“Calm down,” Frein said, noticing the sparks coming from the faunel, and the desperation coming from Brymeia. He didn’t appreciate the fact that the face of his little sister could look so hurt.

“You don’t like your mother, that’s clear enough,” he continued. “But the both of you are here to answer my questions while we can still hide from Destiny’s gaze. If you don’t want to reconcile, that’s fine. Just honor your loss so we can all get a move on.”

“That’s not what I want!” Brymeia yelled, stomping her feet. Her angry face was familiar, much to Frein’s annoyed memory. “I want… I want to make amends.”

Alphazzel scoffed. “After all this time, I don’t think—”

“I’m sorry,” Brymeia interrupted. “I know it’s my fault. I don’t have any excuse. I can’t handle everything on my own. I should’ve paid more attention. To all of you.

“When I couldn’t reach you anymore, I thought you were gone. I thought I was betrayed.”

“Why’s that?” Frein asked. At this point, he summoned seats for all of them, but the moment wasn’t warm enough to warrant any drinks. Fortunately, they all sat down.

“It’s the Divine Severing,” Brymeia explained. “Before, the powers of this world were handled by gods. Favors, deals, contracts, Blessings, Curses, what have you. These were all channeled through the divines. My task was completely unrelated.”

When she stopped there, Frein gave her a look. Many times he had allowed for the truth to slip by, understanding that higher powers involved preferred to keep him in the dark until he was ready.

But in this moment, whether he was ready or not, Destiny was not involved. And so, observers from afar were completely out of the equation.

Now it was only whether Brymeia was willing to share it or not.

She sighed.

“Becoming a world, a planet, was the only way to stop the Nightmarish Void from completely consuming my sister.”

“Your sister?” Frein asked. He noticed Elizzel was just as curious, but Alphazzel looked on without interest.

“You’ve heard of her. Having lost her command over her own being, she calls herself The Entity now. She was a Stellar, like I am. Before this world existed, her corruption had led to the destruction of numerous worlds and planetary systems. She was convinced that it was for a good cause, that she was getting rid of Nightmare-consumed worlds. But she was wrong. She was tricked. The planets she destroyed were untouched by the Nightmare.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I tried to stop her, but combat was never my forte. Our battles led to too much destruction, and my conscience could no longer take such needless deaths. I embraced my sister and enclosed her within me, turning myself into a planet while I tried to reason with and cleanse her.”

“Doesn’t look like it went well.”

Brymeia shook her head.

From there, Alphazzel took the reins to continue the story.

“The gods saw the power within this planetary Stellar, and knew that it would eventually bring life. With mother’s permission, under the pretense that they would assist in cleansing the Nightmarish Void, the connection was made. And so mortals began to wield divine powers.

“Eventually, they forgot their initial cause, vying for the powers brimming from the planet in order to make themselves even more powerful.” With a gesture, he allowed Frein to process his words.

“Meiyal,” was his only answer.

“Correct. The Stellar’s lifeblood. One that allowed for the gods to create connections with mortals in order to bolster their pantheons. Without meiyal there could be no divinity. Mother wasn’t some stray resource found in the cosmos. She was a Stellar, the source. You can see how such power can corrupt even those that delve within their own Destinies. This allure, the Nightmarish Void didn’t miss.”

“The gods abandoned their deal with me,” Brymeia continued. “They allowed for the Nightmare, the Void Region, to expand, deeming parts of my world as training grounds for their own armadas. It was not until a great seer found my predicament and allowed me to reach my kin.”

“Great seer?” Frein asked.

“She goes by the name, Liang. Liang Apocalypse. It’s a story for another time. And not for either of us to tell.”

“Fine.” The Visitor observed the two, Brymeia and Alphazzel. Now that they had begun to tell the same story, it seemed that the feud between them had temporarily subsided. But he could feel the friction, still. “Go on, then.”

“It’s evident enough, I reached out for Zerax’thum,” Brymeia continued. “It took many years, but he eventually found me and tried to help. At this point, however, the gods had been scheming against me. They did all they could, even going as far as bargaining with Evanclad, to create a Contradiction, and made my beloved succumb to the Nightmarish Void.”

“I penned the events myself,” Alphazzel said. “But after the Divine Severing, my texts were changed, and no evidence of this remained. Not even the First Monarch remembered any of this.”

“It was then that my people’s dependency on divine power became a problem. Without powers to fight against the Nightmarish Void, they would have been instantly destroyed. I had to step in and become a substitute, losing my ability to create more faunels. At the same time, it became more difficult to reach them.”

“So all this was because the gods tricked Evanclad?” Frein asked.

Brymeia nodded. “In his mind, he was trying to stop Zerax’thum, not realizing that he had caused the bridge between the Nightmare and the Stellar. It was only after he had ripped himself out of Destiny did he realize he was coerced into—”

“Wait,” Frein interrupted. “I’m not exactly following all of this, didn’t Evanclad and Zerax’thum start the Visitor Project together? And that was way after the Divine Severing.”

“Yes,” Alphazzel confirmed. “It’s because Zerax’thum never died. Stellars have command over Destiny that even gods could never comprehend. For them, they had succeeded, but the Fallen Dragon they had defeated was simply a strand of his being.

“It was after Evanclad sealed the Four Sealed Ones did Zerax’thum mention the truth, and initiated the Visitor Project.”

“But what about these Fragments, then?” Frein followed up. “Are you saying these Fragments are from just a strand of Zerax’thum? And it’s this powerful?”

“The Fragments are from the whole,” Brymeia replied. “It’s a last ditch effort Zerax’thum made to initiate the Visitor Project. Now, he’s not exactly a Stellar anymore. Not exactly dead either. He is… beyond restrictions.”

“So he’s stronger than a Stellar now?”

“No, not exactly. He doesn’t have a way to meddle anymore. So his strength doesn’t really mean anything.”

Frein crossed his arms. “But why do that?”

“Because this world doesn’t matter,” Alphazzel said. “Not in a way that you think. There are countless worlds beyond ours. And if we can isolate the Nightmarish Void from the rest, then we can ensure that there’s one less corrupted planet in the future. Zerax’thum sacrificed himself to keep it here, regardless of whether The Entity escaped or not.”

“This can’t possibly be isolated in just one world,” Frein guessed. “The one you contained was The Entity. It can’t be just that one case.”

“Unfortunately,” Brymeia confirmed. “But that doesn’t change what we’re fighting, and what we’re trying to do.”

“You still want to cleanse her…”

“Ours is beyond Destiny, Frein,” she said. “There’s no definitive proof that we’ll fail. But this is not a burden you have to carry. Not yet. Your task is to complete the Fragments, and manifest Zerax’thum’s final charge into reality. Only then will you have a chance to actually fight the Nightmarish Void.”

“And you want me to do this within the year I have left…” Frein passed his stare from Brymeia to Alphazzel. “Why did it have to be a Visitor? Why do they have to die? At this point, I don’t buy that it’s this planet’s atmosphere that will cause my death. If this Destiny and stuff can be controlled, if this Contradiction allowed me to survive, why do I still have to die?”

“We…” Brymeia began, but she stopped and turned to Alphazzel. The Faunel of History and Disasters, now cleared of any influencing Destiny, faced his mother.

Frein recognized what was happening. Despite the years, the centuries, and quite possibly the millennia apart, their ability to converse with mere eyes had never gone away.

“We don’t know,” Alphazzel said, finally.

Frein didn’t know whether to be shocked or not. He was expecting for this information to be kept away from him. The fact that they gave a straightforward answer, albeit not one he expected, stunned him out of his words and reactions.

“How’s that possible?” Elizzel asked for him.

“It was Zerax’thum’s choice,” Brymeia explained. “We weren’t involved in the Visitor Project. I told you before that he wrote your Destiny as the Visitor in such a way to prevent others from taking interest. But that’s all I have. If any, Evanclad would have more answers for you.”

With that, they had tackled everything Frein wanted to know. The time for the Contradiction to be fulfilled, for Alphazzel to replace Frein’s death, came nearer. Brymeia was expectedly anxious.

“I don’t mean it,” Alphazzel began, much to everyone’s surprise. “It was my fault.”

“I’m sorry,” Brymeia said. “If I had known sooner…”

“It’s fine, Mother.”

The faunel rested a hand on his mother’s shoulder, and immediately she leapt for an embrace. There were no further words. Just two family members crying on each other’s shoulders.

Elizzel, who had been on the side this entire time, could no longer stop herself and joined the two. They stayed there for a while, until the time to depart finally came.

“I have one last gift, before I go,” Alphazzel began. “Aside from my meiyal core, that is.”

Frein felt the faunel’s stare. “What is it?”

“Talendrym Isle.”

Immediately, Frein and Elizzel were attentive. “That’s where she stored her memories.”

“Correct,” Alphazzel said, his voice clearly impressed. “On Day 369 of Monarch Denis’ Calendar, Talendrym Isle, the Vanishing Lands, will appear northeast of Northsnow, across the sea. It’s south of the Oh’strol Continent, and well within the clutches of the Nightmare Lands. It will stay there for three days. After which, your next chance of finding it will be well after you’re dead.”

“How did you know?” Frein asked purely out of curiosity.

“I was the one who always helped Eli store her memories. And I always erased my part with Time’s Eye. It was my way of protecting her, in case Destiny wanted to make fun of me.”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot,” the Visitor folded his arms, not really expecting an answer. “Can you tell us who’s pulling the strings behind the scenes?”

Alphazzel began to vanish, dispersing into motes of meiyal residue. But with one final effort of his will and sanity, he gave Frein an answer.

“Kielmera.”

----------------------------------------

As soon as Alphazzel vanished, Frein found himself lying on the ground of Aderis’ Tower, or whatever else remained of it.

“Help’s on the way,” Katherine said, lying beside him. “Sam had Atlas Sid on standby just outside the Incursion.”

“That’s good,” Frein said, and was immediately hit by a tidal wave of a headache. He clutched his head, making sure it wasn’t split apart.

“What’s wrong?” Katherine was immediately up, Drawing Samesia. “It’s like what happened with Rindea’s…”

“I’m integrating with Alphazzel’s meiyal core, while finishing the one from the Fragment,” Frein tried to explain. “I think it’s the Contradiction doing work, but—”

Frein coughed up blood and immediately fell to the ground. The ringing in his ears, as Katherine kept calling his name, became a distant blur.

Then darkness…

Darkness opened its eye.