CHAPTER 5: HER NAME
The girl floated on her back in the shimmering waters of her pool. Her arms and legs relaxed, she breathed softly as if sleeping even as the brilliant sun beat down on her upturned face. Even under the bright and blinding light of the blazing sun, that false sleep soon turned into a real one, the first since a certain throne crumbled on a certain world. And as she slept, so too did the girl dream.
Dreams of light, and heat, at first. Then dreams of the red light in her closed eyes, dreams of crimson skies and dying suns. Deeper and deeper the girl slipped, into dreams of blood, and fire. Dreams of war.
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The girl walked through an endless hallway, metallic walls sealing every direction but straight ahead and straight behind. Every so often it shook, thunderous sounds muffled by great distance resounding through its endless length.
She paused, turning about to see the infinite darkness swelling behind her, darkness so devoid of light not even she could see into its depths. But she felt malice from it, hidden malice threatening to devour her entire. Ahead was little better, bare walls of solid steel preventing escape from the path she walked, but at least there was a light in the distance. A tiny spark flickering weakly in the shadows, barely seen at all, but still existent.
She knew she was dreaming, of course. Cursing herself for the mistake of allowing it, the girl found herself interpreting her subconscious thoughts displayed so plainly before her eyes. The spark of unknown hope in the distance, the great horrors in her past, the impossibility of retreating, complete inability to choose her own fate, and approaching danger that could destroy all of it including her. She hated these thoughts, this linear maze from which she could see no right answer. But as far as her dreams went, this was rather tame, to be honest.
Then everything was burning.
Gone was the tunnel and the darkness, instead it was the spark that had swelled to overcome all things. At first she thought this too was a metaphor for her fear of the dangers of that faint hope, but then she realized that what she had feared originally was starting.
It was time for memory to overcome thought.
The blazing plain roared, flames licking at the air itself as if to devour it. She choked on the fumes, trying to create air but failing, all her vaunted power unable to help her whilst she was trapped in her own mind. Screaming for salvation, she reached out for something, anything to rescue her.
She found only corpses.
Melting, flesh and skin falling away from bone under the extreme heat, were countless faces howling soundlessly in the flames. They stretched out to her, chanting over and over again,
“Egalite. Liberate. Familate. Egalite. Liberate. Familate.”
She screamed, pushing outwards and casting both them and the flames aside. In a circle of clear space she fell to her knees, blocking her ears as the chant continued, even now more and more people throwing themselves into the fire with the same three words on their lips.
“Egalite. Liberate. Familate.”
“Stop… Stop, please stop!” She sobbed, pulling the people walking past her and pushing them away from the flame, but they just kept on going. She found herself suddenly on a ridge, looking down on the line between the flames and a peaceful, bucolic plain from which people shuffled mindlessly as zombies.
“Egalite. Liberate. Familate.”
They chanted, walking into the devouring flames and burning alive, chanting on even as the flesh fell away from their bones and their skin turned to blackened dust.
“Egalite. Liberate. Familate.”
“NOOOOOO!!!!!!” She screamed, covering her eyes and trying not to see, but the image was seared onto her retinas and the sound into her brain. No matter where she ran or how she pleaded, that endless chant pursued her.
“Egalite. Liberate. Familate.”
Furious, she sent blasts of power to decimate the hordes of zombie-like people, crushing them into paste and forcing them to be silent. Even then they stared at her, their mouths moving pointlessly, soundlessly, twitching as they crawled towards the greedily expanding fire.
“Stop it stop it stop it!” She chanted to overwhelm them, crushing more and more until there were only corpses around her in every direction, all crushed by her might and not consumed by the flame.
“So this is still your choice.” A female voice came from behind her, very similar to her own but cold and unfeeling, empty of emotion and yet more judge mental than any other. The cyan haired girl turned slowly, stiffly, her eyes wide as she stared at the newcomer. They looked like twins, although one had hair and eyes of cyan blue and the other’s were as pale as death. The pale girl stared without moving as the cyan girl started shaking.
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“Fate…” The girl said as she looked at the newcomer, reaching out a trembling hand.
“You chose this, sister.” The pale girl said, holes opening in her dress through which red blood began to pour. “The price, must, be paid.” She shook as a massive explosion struck her from behind, limbs flying every which way and body arcing through the air towards the other girl.
“Fate!” The cyan girl shouted, dashing forwards and catching the falling pale girl in her arms. “I didn't know.” She sobbed, cradling the limp body in her arms. “How could I have known!? Please, please forgive me. I didn't mean for any of this to happen, I didn't mean for you to die. Wake up, Fate! Wake up!”
Her howls of grief and despair went unanswered by the glassy, pale eyes of the already dead corpse in her arms. Even as she held it, the blood continued to flow until the entire body had liquidated and ran out of her arms, leaving her hands stained red with blood.
“Egalite. Liberate. Familate.”
From all around her even more of the zombie-people came, chanting endlessly even as they brought with them the dread fire already consuming their bodies. Most collapsed long before they could reach her, but they kept coming in endless numbers, bringing with them the terrible flame that caused unimaginable pain. On and on they chanted their terrible slogan, marching over the melted juice of their fellows, crying out their perpetual desire.
“Egalite. Liberate. Familate.”
The cyan girl stood up, her hands already red with blood and her eyes betraying flickers of it. She held herself back this time, knowing the end result of slaughtering the zombies, knowing all too well what fate that brought. Even so, she felt the desire to kill, to slaughter and eradicate these zombies with their mindless chant.
Even without conscious choice, it occurred anyway. Great blades of metal conjured by her dream struck out, reaping their lives and lashing out in every direction. Most of the corpses melted, but one remained in their midst. Another girl like the cyan one and the pale one, this one blazing red in hair and eye.
“You caused this…” She said through a torn throat.
“You killed us…” Another, this one brilliant green in color continued, appearing on the other side.
“You started this fight…”
“You just couldn't leave it alone…”
“This is all your fault…”
“Why did we have to die?...”
“You let us die…”
“You failed us…”
“You failed us…”
“You failed us…”
More and more started appearing, girls and boys of every color and of none, some human, some not. Each was grievously wounded, each was struggling to say a few final words, and each was cursing her with that last breath. Over and over they called, a far less repetitive and mindless chant than the zombies but far more accusing, far more devastating. And over their accusations more voices were added, far fewer in number but still a vast wave hurling themselves towards the slicing blades and destructive force around the girl.
“Murderer…”
“Egalite.”
“Demon…”
“Liberate.”
“Monster…”
“Familate.”
“Destroyer…”
“ENOUGH!!!” She screamed, terrible force ripping away from her to annihilate everything around her, destroying the dream world entire.
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“ENOUGH!!” The girl’s scream reached the outside world, her howl entering reality as she forced herself awake. Her eyes flew open, gazing up at the starry sky high above. Panting, she saw the present for the first time with her own eyes.
And it did not survive.
Immediately on realizing what had happened the girl slammed her eyes closed, but even the few milliseconds they had been open was enough. Her body had released in those thousandths of a second power surpassing that of a small star. The air around her was supercharged with energy, of every kind imaginable. Qi, mana, divine energy, and so on changed the essence of the air and water to fluid power, all of it spreading in a burst of multifaceted energy. Space warped, strengthening and weakening interchangeably as even time itself bent in myriad ways, showing distant past and countless futures.
On the world the animals and plants stiffened, instinct warning them that the power was a terrible sign but neither individuals nor species having any memory of such power being released before, not even during the ancient Age of Gods. The mortal race felt the burst and some few felt curious enough to investigate, though most dismissed it as imagination or a mere fancy for how distant and unnatural it was.
Deep in space, feeding among the asteroid belt, four dark beasts froze as power sufficient to crush their creators swept across their senses, turning as one towards the source and beating their giant flippers to approach the inner system and seek it out. The great sun in the other side of the world shook, it's corona resonating with the energy released and changing slightly, heightening the magic of life it distributed through its rays.
On the planet, the girl reached out and grabbed the energy that had remained to change the nearby matter, pulling it all back into herself and making it vanish behind her closed eyes. The water was purified repeatedly, the air destroyed and recreated, the sands similarly replaced. Her quick work destroying any permanent evidence of her mistake, the girl pulled herself out of the pool and lay naked next to her dress on the sand, flipping herself onto her back and looking up once again.
“Tch.” She clicked her tongue, laboriously weaving barriers of incredible complexity around her mind to prevent a repeat of this incident. Yet even as she did she saw a face appear in front of her, the same pale girl that had appeared in her dream. Slowly, deliberately, the face closed its eyes and shook its head.
“You cannot run away forever, Arcane.”
The soprano voice of the long dead girl resounded in the cyan girl’s ears. She stopped weaving her barrier and released her magic as the face vanished. Sighing, she lifted her hand to the sky and held it open, caressing the space where the illusory face had been.
“Fate…” She whispered, tears running from her closed eyes.
“I'm so sorry.” After a long silence, that was all she said, letting her hand drop and taking a deep breath.
Arcane, the cyan haired girl who had outlived most of the known universe, forced herself to stand up and removed most of the barrier she had managed to install around her memories. Fate was right, as always. She couldn't keep sealing away her memories forever.
Her dreams, though, she could certainly do without.