Zalia had only been transported by Nateysta’s power once before, the day she had returned from Cormaine to Endaria. As the land around them whipped by, so fast she couldn’t discern any details, memories of Delphi came back to the forefront of her mind.
It had been a long time since she had thought about them and the collective, though their combined knowledge and memories of the past, present and future were stored away safely in her vault.
She reached out a hand to touch the side of the bubble of power surrounding her, feeling a perfect smooth shell. Outside the transparent bubble, the only visible forms in the blur were the rest of her family in their own bubbles, similarly looking around in awe.
Even her sight of them vanished as they plummeted down to the ground, then through it. The earth opened up to swallow them before closing up behind. She could feel them slowly decelerate before bursting out into a cavern deep, deep underground and landing.
The massive cavern was lit by numerous green, glowing crystals that grew from the stone of the floor, walls and ceiling, which was supported by thick pillars of stone. There were small, many-legged, soft-shelled creatures wandering about the place, the biggest of them barely reaching Zalia’s knees. The strange crabs were tending to a type of vine that grew over everything, creating a soft underfoot foliage and drooping masses from above that, combined with the pillars and glowing crystals, created a space filled with cast shadows.
Aylie and Ember both pulled closer to Zalia, while Boreal dashed away to investigate the nearest crab creature. She sniffed at the thing as it stared up at her with curiosity and raised one paw before Nateysta appeared, growing from the bud of a vine.
“Do not touch them, Boreal. This is not a place created with predators such as you and you will respect it.”
Boreal did something that Zalia could rarely get her to do and listened, stepping carefully back towards Zalia while a slowly growing group of crabs followed her, their footsteps sounding with soft tick, tick, tick’s across the floor.
Nateysta turned and walked away, heading toward the far end of the cave down a gentle slope.
“What is this place?” Zalia asked, a little awed.
The slope led to a big pool of water, perfectly still and lit from within by the same green crystals as the rest of the cavern. Their path wound around the side of it to a small clearing upon which sat a giant throne of wood covered in bark like the trunk of a tree. Growing over it were hundreds of different plants, some of which Zalia recognised but most unknown to her.
“It is a place of pure, unadulterated nature, one without predators. It is a place of me and of peace.”
Nateysta stepped over to the throne, growing in size to fit to its size before perching on it. The plants all over it grew up the trunks that were his legs even as they grew to meld into the throne, making them seem as one. The way he stood there without even a twitch of movement gave the appearance of a statue that Zalia struggled to see past, even though she knew better.
There was a splitting sound from further back in the cave where they had come from as two more bubbles of Nateysta’s energy dropped through the ceiling to deposit an Astar each. Zalia watched them carefully as they observed their surroundings and, strangely, walked down the same path to the throne. Zalia was so used to the Astar floating or even teleporting everywhere that the sight of them actually using their legs was a little disconcerting.
Zalia and her family stepped to one side of the clearing as the two Astar took the other, each of them looking at each other warily.
? - Diamond rank
? - Diamond rank
A shudder went down Zalia’s body at seeing both Astar were Diamond rank, though Nateysta could deal with both with ease. Neither group spoke for a long time, with Nateysta the first to break the silence.
“I will make this clear, if it wasn’t already, to all of you. There will be no violence, nor anger here. Any to break the sanctity of this place will be expelled.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, Ro.”
The Astar both gave Zalia an odd look at the nickname but each bowed deeply to Nateysta in acknowledgement of his words.
Each of the Astar were much different to Zalia’s experience of the rest of their kind. Where the Astar were usually uniform in their apparel, wearing clothes in dull colours of greys and blues that matched their skin and runes, with long hair that reached past their feet, these ones were very different.
They both wore clothes that included colours of blue, green and brown, matching a more earthy appearance than their otherworldly kin. The runes inscribed in their skin were also varying in their colour, rather than a uniform light blue. They wore bracelets, earrings and necklaces, each piece crafted with deep, rich brown wood and gold.
The most disconcerting part of their appearance was the twinkle of emotion in their eyes, the expression on their faces. Though, while it put off the idea of what an Astar was in her mind, it was also strangely comforting to know that these two were so different to their kin. All in all, they looked more like spirits of nature than alien creatures, even their auras blending into the environment rather than the usual hard bubble Astar maintained.
Zalia could see them inspecting her much in the same way she was inspecting them, feeling the gentle but polite touch of aura against her own even as she did the same to them.
A reverberating voice, much like Nateystas, deep and gravelly, resounded through the air.
“To begin, I extend an apology from my people to yours for the actions of our more… violent kin.”
Then, shocking Zalia even more, the two Astar put their hands together as if in prayer and kneeled, bowing their heads. She looked over at Nateysta, who remained stone still, before gauging her family’s reactions.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
With the others looking just as shocked as she felt, Zalia moved toward the Astar. They raised fervently anxious looks towards her as she approached and it occurred to Zalia that they might be just as, if not more, in need of an alliance.
Feeling a hint of goodwill towards the Astar at the show of humility, she held out a hand to help both Astar up, though neither needed it.
“There is no need to apologise for the actions of your kin if you had no hand in deciding their course. You are of their blood but it is they who must answer for what they have done.”
Despite having heard one of them speak, Zalia hadn’t been able to discern which of the two it was. She listened closer as they spoke again, yet couldn’t discern from which of their auras the words came.
“And they will.”
The Astar each took one of her hands and stood. Zalia took a step back so as not to be towered over by the tall Astar.
“You may call me Zalia, how can we address both of you?”
Watching Zalia put her hand to her chest as she introduced herself, both Astar copied the action.
“I am Het’jel.”
Zalia looked at them both, waiting for a second name before realising she wouldn’t get one. It was a stark reminder that despite being at war with the Astar, they knew next to nothing about them.
“You are both Het’jel?”
She undoubtedly massacred the pronunciation of the name, unable to put the meaning behind the word that the Astar did using their odd aura speech.
“We two are one.”
Zalia looked back at Ember, who shrugged.
“Alright then. Let’s begin then, shall we? I have many questions and am hoping you have answers for them.”
A feeling of affirmation came through the auras of Het’jel and Nateysta’s head tilted ever so slightly. Chairs grew from the ground, two for the Astar and three for Zalia, Ember and Aylie. A small padded pedestal grew for Boreal so that she had somewhere to sit too.
As Zalia took her seat, a small table grew from the space between them, separating the two sides with Nateysta at the head of the table.
“I guess the first question I have for you is, what are you looking to get from us?”
“I shall need to provide context to answer this question.”
Het’jel waited and Zalia nodded for them to go ahead.
“As I’m sure the venerable Nateysta has informed you, I am part of a rebellious faction of the Astar. Each Astar amongst our number has different reasons for being part of this rebellion, but there is one thing that ties us together. That thing is our common dislike for the course that the Monarch takes for our people. They lead the Astar down a path of weakness and of hate. Many of our number grow complacent and lazy, lacking the motivation to strive for strength and their own mixture of complacency and sense of superiority is what causes them to strike out against your people. They see your people fight and grow stronger by the day, just as we do, and it is this strength we see in you that has led us to reach out.”
Zalia frowned.
“You say that the Astar have grown complacent, yet there are many powerful members amongst them. We had to fight two of them at Emerald rank just days earlier.”
The two as one, Het’jel, both shook their heads.
“Things are not as they appear. The loss of Ven’kal has had a large impact on the strength of the Astar. In truth, Ven’kal was one of two of Emerald amongst the Astar number. We know of only one of Mythical and one of Diamond. There is also the Monarch of course.”
“When you say one, do you mean the two bodies as one, just as you are?”
Het’jel cocked their heads.
“You do not know of the duality then?”
Zalia shook her head.
“The duality?”
“Each Astar is born with two bodies. We are two minds and two bodies thinking and acting as one. It is this very nature of our people that has caused the Monarch to go astray. One of two became Ascendant while the other remains Mythical. A disconnect has formed between the two, causing them to be disconnected not only in body but in mind. I warned them not to follow this course, yet they would not listen. Now I must fight to have them removed, less their condition ruin the Astar people forever.”
Zalia sat up straight to reply, yet it was Ember who got there first.
“Wait, you knew the Monarch before they ascended?”
There was a sad expression in the eyes of Het’jel as they replied.
“Things were not always as they are now. The Monarch thought that allowing only one of two to become Ascendent would give them the power to ignore the rules that encompass the others of that rank, and it did. They did not foresee the problems of the mind that would come with it, they cannot see them even now. Only I and a few others who can see from outside their minds have seen the changes.”
Everyone turned to Nateysta as he spoke.
“I understand now. An Ascendant locked to the physical plane not by an avatar but by the other half of their soul. That would indeed warp their minds.”
Het’jel nodded their heads.
“Yes, venerable one.”
Then they turned back to Zalia.
“Now, to answer your question. We look to you and yours to assist us in removing the Monarch. Not only would this solve our issue and allow the Astar people to thrive again, but I believe it will fix yours as well. With the Monarch gone, the Astar will no longer follow their decrees out of fear. There will be civil war as those who have profited from the Monarch’s ways fight those who have suffered from it, but that is not an issue that your people need worry about. If anything, it will give you reprieve from Astar focus and allow your people to recover and grow stronger.”
Zalia sat back heavily in her seat, breathing out deeply.
“I must admit, I’m tempted by the offer. It won’t be up to me to make the final decision on this but I have a feeling the council will be tempted too. How do you plan on actually removing the Monarch? Do your people have the strength to fight against all the high ranked Astar?”
Het’jel shook their heads.
“No, we do not. The rebellion will launch an all out attack on an edge city and the Monarch will send all the high ranked Astar to deal with us. It is likely that many of our number will be wiped out during this fight, but it will be worth it if we succeed. With no defenders, I and your strongest will go to fight the Monarch and remove them from power. It is a gamble, but one that our people have considered for a long time. The only reason we have decided it is a good course of action now is we believe you have the strength to assist us in removing the Monarch.”
Zalia stared at the Astar, mind turning. Could she really trust Het’jel? Nateysta seemed to think so, yet she wasn’t sure how well he knew how to read people.
“What makes you think we have the strength?”
“You managed to kill Ven’kal, did you not? You must have some amongst you who are powerful enough to stand up to the Monarch having achieved that feat.”
Zalia tapped her leg a little nervously as she glanced at Aylie.
“Well, you could say that.”