"But some people can't tell where it hurts. They can't calm down. They can't ever stop howling."
― Margaret Atwood
“Three… two… one!” The Minder opened her eyes to find the Giant, hunched before her like a dog. She heaved a sigh and patted its nightmare face. “You’re supposed to hide, you know?”
The Giant tilted his head and blinked. He wasn’t the most stimulating company, but the simple minded beast was an uncomplicated soul. Everyone else in this place was filled with varied emotions, twists of thoughts and emotions that she couldn’t process. Even Ooulin, calm on the surface, was a complex knot of inner thought.
“Let’s go visit the deep fire,” She scratched the Giant’s chin and summoned a croon from its throat. She laughed and dived under the surface of the star, into the embrace of the flame. “You can eat, and I’ll visit Older Sister!”
The woman who lived at the centre of the star called to the Minder like a beacon in the night. She rarely came out to talk, but she was kind. More importantly, the Minder couldn’t sense anything from the Woman of the Sun. She was a smooth blank, free of the noise that came from all but the Giant.
“Sister! Are you here today?” The Minder swam toward the barrier that held the core, faithful Giant at her side. “I’m trying to teach Giant to play hide and seek, maybe you can help me…”
She came to a halt, swirled by Giant as he struggled to avoid a collision. Her Older Sister stood, locked in conversation with the dark man. A shiver battled with the warm caress of the sun’s flame, a discordant buzz that ripped through her limbs and down her spine. Vendak… the master of the realm.
“Let’s go, Giant,” She turned away, reluctant to get closer to Ven. He filled space with more noise than all the others, chaos of the heart and soul. “We can visit Brother Brull, he always has a good story.”
A sharp pressure found the spot between her shoulders, a knife that jerked her around. Vendak’s eyes met her own, black voids that drained the heat from her face. She scampered away, a terror in her bones that pushed her to the surface and beyond.
----------------------------------------
“Jumpy, isn’t she?” Ven raised an eyebrow at the strange girl’s reaction. He’d noticed her approach, but when he looked her way, she’d fled. “What’s her name, anyway?”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“I’m not sure she has one,” his system’s avatar shrugged, a small smile on her lips. “She’s like me that way, nameless and broken…”
“You’re broken all right,” Ven snorted as he pointed to himself. His very existence was due to the overpowered nature of his system. “If you want a name, then pick one… or I can, if you like?”
“If you’re naming things, then name the girl,” the system rolled her eyes and gave a lazy stretch. “Why did you wake me up… I need at least a couple hundred years to get my beauty sleep.”
Ven waved his hand and projected a series of runes. They danced together and reformed. A detailed illusion of the floating continent he’d dubbed ‘Eden.’ He zoomed in and showed a close up of both the trees and their fruits.
“What is this realm that you’ve bonded me with exactly?” Ven wiped away the image and held out a Fruit of Life to his system. “Is there anything else hidden in here?”
“Figure it out on your own…” his system stifled a yawn as she drifted back toward the core of the star. “Kalina has a magical device that might help you, but I’m going back to sleep!”
Ven resisted the urge to try and follow. The barrier opened at her will, not his. He swallowed sigh and searched for Kalina’s spark of life. He was about to teleport when a sleepy whisper tickled the back of his neck and filled him with a reluctant fear.
[Don’t wake me up unless you’re about to die, or I’ll cut off your feeding privileges…]
----------------------------------------
“Call Ven already,” Syy rolled Kalina out of bed and stripped her of the blankets. “I want to go explore and this tiny planet is super boring!”
Kalina gave a lifeless groan, body and mind still locked in the depths of sleep. Syy snorted and sifted through the pile of clothing at the end of the bed.
“Where is that communicator…”
“In the pocket of her pants, under the nightstand on the left side of the bed.”
Syy jumped to the roof, a rush of movement as she covered both herself and Kalina in a wall of blankets. She poked her head out in a glare, face reddened as she met Ven’s mirth filled stare.
“What kind of creep walks into a girls room uninvited?” Syy struggled with her clothes under the mass of bedding. “How did you know we were about to call you…” She squinted around the room, covered enough for modesty. “You can’t see and hear everything in here, can you?”
“No… not yet anyways,” Ven rolled his eyes and tossed the woman her pants and raised his voice over Kalina’s snores. “I didn’t know where I was going, just that Kalina was here.” He gave the unconscious nymph a shake of his head. “I was told she has a magic item that will help me explore this realm…”
“Explore…” Syy’s face tilted, brows pinched tight together. She snapped her fingers and dove into the chaos that was the floor. “I think I know what you’re looking for, but you have to do us a favour before you run off again!”
A laugh slipped past Ven’s lips as Syy rummaged through piles of abandoned bottles and half eaten takeout. He waved a hand and extended his aura. Black smoke wrapped up all the expired food and other trash. Ven compressed the mess into a small orb and tossed it into a bin.
“Thanks…” Syy shrugged and snatched a small, black compasse from the wooden floor. “Here it is!”
A memory flashed in Ven’s heart. A desiccated Ooulin at the end of his life. He’d given him this compass long ago, but Kalina had snatched it up. It still spun without direction, decorated with an ouroboros of runic scripture.
“What favour do you want? Ven muttered, eyes on the compass in Syy’s hands.
“Easy,” Syy tossed him the magic item and pointed to the imagined sky above. “Take us to a land with a lot of interconnected water and a wealth of spiritual energy!”