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“Hiiiii!”
Serena greeted me in my office—the thought briefly passed me by as to why she chose my personal space of all places to linger, but surely she figured it’d make most sense to find me here. I closed the door behind me as I walked over to my desk, where Serena sat in a chair.
“Oops, uh…” She jumped out of the seat, face flushed with the vaguest hint of red. “Sorry, aha, I wasn’t—you’re not angry, are you?”
“No, it’s fine!” I laughed, crossing my arms. “How did everything tie up on your end?”
“Oh! Uh, pretty smoothly, if I do say so myself,” Serena said. “I secured Kaleo in one of our cells, and tied up all the short term forms! So like, all you really need to do is get some rest and get ready for tomorrow. Then you can worry about paperwork.”
“Really?” Hah, was I ever not proud of her. Serena lorded over the other planetary forces members as the most hardworking one in the building. “Thank you very much! Feel free to get a good, long rest—if I ever need anymore assistance, I’ll call on you. You’ve made a great mentor for the others so far, so I’ll be sure to rely on you as needed.”
“Aw, Erna.” Serena smiled, before she began to move to the door. That was, before she stopped, turning back to me. “Oh, wait, I really wanted to tell you: thanks for handling this. I know all you soul stone wielders got called in for a publicity thing this news company wanted, but you actually stayed here to help with a tough case instead. It means a lot to us, y’know?”
…
Serena smiled. “I’m glad to know someone’s telling the truth when they say they care about the citizens here. That’s all.”
And with that, she opened the door and left.
What—news? Meeting for soul stone wielders? All my concerns were wiped away at her parting words. No one informed me of anything regarding a gathering.
No, surely I missed it! I meticulously checked every message in my texts and inbox, but found no mention of any news report. Moments later I scoured the internet, landing on an article detailing more about this special Serena mentioned in seconds.
As she implied, it detailed the individual histories of the planets and every soul stone wielder since the empire came into existence—and the smattering few which came before. It specifically addressed the fate of Maia at the end—climate collapse brought up the topic of evacuating and re-shifting its climate over the process of hundreds of years, though concerns about where to house nearly a billion people impeded such plans. Not to mention the people that resided in the waters had nowhere suitable to go—it was a mess, one the Delta Six personally took upon themselves to solve. A council of six wise immortal gods, each tasked with looking over one planet in the Lestaria Empire. They learned from the past, carrying knowledge into the future.
On paper.
Working with them became frustrating. It took a lot of convincing simply to allow us—
Or.
No.
Bella and Sunny specifically. They hadn’t wanted anything to do with me for a couple thousand years. Not like I miss those times; I recalled the last hundred of those years to be filled with pointless arguments over my personal research.
Regardless, though, we worked together. We formed an empire together.
They…
Why didn’t anyone tell me of this? I grabbed the remote that sat in my drawers and rushed to turn my TV on. I utilized this odd gizmo Bella built me to get it to connect to the right channel, and once I found it I sat right in front of the screen and waited.
The feature played within the hour. It appeared to be quite a popular one, it seemed. The room felt as if it melded into the shadows, with the light of the old monitor burning into my eyes until I saw nothing else.
I almost forgot about my foolishness today. My curiosity, my stress, all the unknowns which plagued me. But as the show played, I recalled the one thing the world can’t deign to let me forget.
It wouldn’t let me forget…
But…
“…Right.”
They would be happy to forget you.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The din of static filled the room as the old TV spat out barely coherent pictures of the news special airing across the Lestaria Empire. It was dedicated to the current happenings of all soul stone wielders—all gods remaining. Their lists of accomplishments could fill several volumes of books. They all made history, they all revolutionized our society and made it what it was in the present day through hard work and dedication. This special merely showed why they managed to earn the power and immortality they so deserved.
And there they all stood, in the final shot: a group photo dedicated to greatness.
One that I caught not even a whisper of until it was already long since captured. Not even from Bella.
When my voice left my lips, I raised my hand and pressed it over the glass. Static electricity clung to my gloves, but I hardly minded. Who cares. Who cares!
I laughed.
My laugh became louder, as my hand curled into a fist. I lifted it up and swung at the glass screen.
It shattered, and my hands burned from the force of the punch and the small shards of glass that bit through my gloves and ripped blood from wounds. Who gave a shit. TV wasn’t good for you anyways! This thing was garbage, old, useless junk. It deserved to be disposed of post-haste. Old things—worthless things, it all ended the same, if it didn’t perform as expected, then it ended up discarded.
That was how the world worked. I knew very well.
And that explanation was exactly why I wasn’t standing there with them. I failed to achieve even the most basic goal of a soul stone wielder. No concept to claim for my own, no special powers, and so…
“So you’re all simply going to forget about me.”
My fist remained clenched as I straightened my back, glaring at where the broadcast used to be. My other hand tightened, and before I knew it, I stormed out of my office and down the hall, towards the stairs.
“They’re simply going to forget about Erna Dee Belmonte!” I began to rant—to who? To myself, to the world, to whoever the fuck was and wasn’t listening. The night casted a dark shade over my surroundings, but that didn’t stop me as I ran upwards, not missing a step. I would never, I could never.
“They think they can—they think they could possibly escape my greatness!” Another laugh ripped out of my throat. “They think they can erase what I’ve done. Magic exists because of me! I’ve expanded the potential of Lestarians everywhere, it wasn’t Bella or Sunny that did that, not even Menace. It was me! All me! I made us what we ARE! I made this world a bastion of magical power, of destruction, so no one would dare tear us down ever!”
I grinned, throwing open the door that led to the rooftop. “They’re jealous, aren’t they? I really do pity those small minded fools who refuse to remember their own history. Acting as if magic just appeared out of thin air! As if I never wielded the miracles that are now shared with the world! They may be called gods now, but I was the original, true god!”
I raised a fist at my invisible foe. This memory rang in my mind, clear as day, as though it were mere moments before and not thousands of years in the past. The sensation of pure power, power enough to change this world with only a thought, it never left my mind. Of course, I’d never do such a thing arbitrarily, but if I still held the chance to wield the stones by myself, I would…
“I would…”
I stopped right at the fence, staring up into the inky black sky. Not a star could be seen—stars disappeared under the many lights on Maia for decades now.
“What would I do?”
I gripped the fence. It was an easy question. I would do something amazing no one could ever forget, of course! Nothing less for Erna Dee Belmonte.
“I would…revolutionize magic as we know it!”
But didn’t I already do that? Didn’t it already happen without me? Isn’t someone like Ale capable of mastering potentially unknown strains of magic, despite his cowardice? His clueless nature?
No, no, that’s…that was different. I would do something different.
“I would expand our knowledge of the soul—expand our limits past what we’re capable of!”
But they called you mad for doing that.
Experimentation on your own soul was strictly forbidden, I knew. Even my little act of defiance oh-so-many years ago had been quickly shut down, and I buried all my research in exchange for keeping the peace between us gods.
Ha, only for it to be demanded years later for archiving, for some reason for other. How quick I was to hide those books in my base. To be renowned for such a thing would make me a villain in the eyes of the people. It would be the opposite of what I’d worked so hard for: a peaceful empire where there were no threats looming over us.
“Then—I would—I would—”
I slammed my head against the fence. “If I could…I would become the greatest defender for the Lestaria empire. One beyond what anyone has ever seen. I would be a hero to the people, the champion they could call on whenever they felt scared or threatened. Ever a whisper of fear drifts, the hero will arrive by the next breath.”
A hero.
Someone that could be trusted by anyone.
Someone that’d listen to any plea, any request.
That was what I wanted to be.
No. That was what I’d always been.
“Who needs your stupid news report!?” I yelled and kicked the fence, my now designated foe of the hour. “Not I! The great Erna Dee Belmonte hardly needs such accolades! I’m far too busy lending my ear to those in distress. As long as I do what I can to help the people, glory is only a step away from my name.”
I spent too long being idle, wallowing in these irrelevant thoughts. I needed a lead—a hint of some wrongdoing, a monster to best. What good is a hero who gets dragged down by every little thing? Ha!
Crossing my arms, I turned around and went back down the stairwell. As I carefully made my way back down, a thought itched the back of my mind. No, not a thought: a person.
A memory.
“If you were really some hero, Erna, you’d go after the Society of Xaviais,” Kaleo said and spat at my feet. “Not me. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Now, what he said must be held under scrutiny, but that was only based on what I knew. If there rose a new evil to best, then I would be there. I knew there existed a chance he may not cradle the seeds of truth I craved, but the bud of a new plan took root in my mind, and it wouldn’t leave easily.
I had an urgent visit to make. A hero never remained idle for long.