My Mindspace was the same as it’d always been; an exaggerated version of the central hall of the Fallen Star facility. It was a dark, dank room made of brown brick lit by orange lanternlight. Reddish-gray mist filled the halls as a shallow pool of water gathered at my feet up to my ankles. In the center of the room, caged to five-foot posts in the ground and trapped in a birdcage that took up the whole room was Fallen Star.
It was fitting he was in a birdcage given his appearance. Fallen Star looked like a red, feathered, humanoid with massive wings on his back and a crown of horns. Along its entire body were boulder-sized eyeballs that glanced around independently of one another. This wasn’t Fallen Star’s current form, though. This was its sixteenth iteration: XVI Iteratio Stellae Lapsae. I hosted the twenty-third, and its current form was a lot more… monstrous. Fallen Star always preferred this body for himself, though, for reasons he’d never explained to me.
He looked down at the three of us, not saying a single word. Archie looked around the place, observing each nook and cranny like a scholar. Somnia, however, stood still as she kept her eyes trained on Fallen Star.
“I’m surprised you haven’t gone insane. I’m Unbound and even I can feel the overwhelming amount of Curse Aura in here.”
“Feel? I can see it!” Archie shouted. “The red mist, right? Good thing I didn’t bring Lochness in here. She’d be sneezing like my mom during allergy season!”
“IN WHAT WAY WOULD RUI’S DEATH SERVE ME?” Fallen Star remarked from his cage.
“I guess it wouldn’t,” Somnia shrugged, a half-smile tugging at her lips. “My name is Somnia Galerose. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Fallen Star inclined his head in an approximation of a bow. “THE PLEASURE IS MINE.”
“Hey! Don’t forget me! My name is Archie. I’m part of the Burnchester Bakers!”
“I RECALL HEARING OF YOUR FAMILY DURING MY NINETEENTH ITERATION. THEIR RENOWN REACHED FAR EVEN BACK THEN. I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT IT HAS GROWN SIGNIFICANTLY SINCE THEN.”
Archie puffed his chest out. “It sure has! Y’know, I had to get rid of my Burnish accent because people outside of Minashire pay less when we use it! Can you believe that rubbish?!” He said, hints of his Burnish accent threatening to escape. He coughed. “Still, we made a lot of money selling internationally. In a few years, we’ll be richer than the Mamoru Clan!”
“PERHAPS WHEN I AM FREE, I WILL VISIT YOUR SHOP MYSELF?”
“Ah! When you’re… free?”
“SURELY YOU DON’T EXPECT ME TO STAY IN THIS CAGE FOREVER?”
Somnia and Archie both gave me uncomfortable glances at that. It’d been hard to pay attention to their conversation, stuck in the room’s ambiance as I was. The actual room my Mindspace was a replica of was much smaller and a lot more cramped, and there was no cage large enough to hold Fallen Star. It was the room I’d been born in. The room I’d trained in for most of my life. And it was the room where I’d been forced to kill my mother. Where I’d awakened to Fallen Star. Where I’d “Leveled Up” for the first time. It was sickening, and regret ate away at me with each passing second. I’d sworn to distance myself from Fallen Star, and here I was preparing to ask it to work more closely with me. How could I have allowed myself to forget what it’d done to me? There was no way I could–
“Forgive me!” An unfamiliar voice croaked, speaking in a thick Burnish accent. I turned to find Yugo, except his hair was brown, his eyes were a little too big, and he had wings growing from either side of his head like mailbox flags. He stood with a notepad in one hand and a pen in the other.
“My name is The Historian! My natural form is that of the Great Horned Owl. In this Shifted form, well… I take the form of a philandering oaf with wings for horns.” Historian Yugo bowed at the waist. “I apologize for taking so long. It’s been a while since Master Yugo and I have Shifted.”
Perhaps it was because of the Mindspace, but I could feel Fallen Star’s keen interest. He’d always been amused by me and my actions, but there was always an air of smugness surrounding it. When Fallen Star looked down at Historian Yugo, though, his amusement was a lot more childish. You would’ve never guessed it from the tone of his voice, though.
“I SEE. I AM CURRENTLY KNOWN AS VICESIMUM TERTIUM ITERATIO STELLAE LAPSAE. YOU MAY CALL ME FALLEN STAR. EXPLAIN TO ME WHY YOU ARE HERE.”
Historian Yugo described everything that regular Yugo described outside. It needed to work out an arrangement in Contract to where Fallen Star would cycle Myth Aura and allow me to use more of its Curse Aura. The issue, as both Fallen Star and Historian Yugo noted, was that Fallen Star would be doing twice the work while I did nothing new. Because I could feel Fallen Star’s emotions, I knew every word he spoke was pure theater. He would’ve happily agreed to that, and he knew it. Fallen Star was putting on a show for no other reason than to piss me off.
I’d attempted at several points to interject, but Historian Yugo would cut me off each time to allow Fallen Star to speak. He’d made it so that both of us had set times to talk, and Fallen Star hadn’t interrupted me once so as to make me look like the unreasonable one. It worked, too, because both Somnia and Archie had started looking at me like an old person causing a scene at a department store. The entire time, I could feel Fallen Star’s amusement as though it were my own.
“Now Fallen Star,” Historian Yugo had been saying. “You say you want Rui to use more of your power. How does it make you feel when shuts you out?”
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“UNDERUTILIZED.”
Sure. Next time I get in a fight I’ll [SACRIFICE] my legs and [REINFORCE] my arms. That’ll make you happy, won’t it?
“That isn’t an emotion; that is a state of being. Tell me the emotion you feel when you are underutilized.”
“DISAPPOINTED.”
“Disappointed?! You have two abilities, and they’re both harmful to me! What the hell do you–”
“Master Rui, you agreed to let us in and help you, did you not? Please, allow me to help you.”
I buried my head in my hands.
Things went back and forth like that for a while longer. I could tell what Historian Yugo was trying to do; find a common ground that allowed me to do something on Fallen Star’s behalf that wasn’t dangerous to me or the people around me. Knowing that didn’t make it any less agonizing to listen to Fallen Star speak, though. Thankfully, things started to wrap up around the time Historian Yugo asked Fallen Star about his goals beyond me.
“These Horsemen, you say. We’ve established that you want them dead and that you want Rui to be the one to kill them. Is that correct?”
“THAT IS CORRECT, YES.”
“Okay. Imagine this: You wake up tomorrow and lo! The Horsemen were killed! Rui woke up in his sleep and killed all four of them! The Princess asks for his hand in marriage and he rides off into the sunset. What do you do?”
“I RIDE OFF INTO THE SUNSET.”
“No!” I interrupted. “As soon as the Horsemen are gone, you’re gone too. Don’t over–”
“I WOULD LIKE TO AMEND OUR CONTRACT THUSLY: I WILL CYCLE MYTH AURA AND PROVIDE MORE OF MY CURSE AURA TO RUI. IN EXCHANGE, I WANT TO DEEPEN MY CONNECTION WITH RUI PAYNE. I WANT TO SEE THROUGH HIS EYES. HEAR THROUGH HIS EARS. TOUCH WITH HIS HANDS. TASTE WITH HIS TONGUE. SMELL THROUGH HIS NOSE. SO LONG AS THE TWO OF US ARE INSEPERABLE, I WILL PROVIDE HIM WITH AS MUCH AURA AS HE DEMANDS. SHOULD THE TWO OF US BE SEPARATED, THEN THE BOTH OF US WILL DIE. I WILL NOT NEGOTIATE FURTHER. THIS IS MY ONE AND ONLY OFFER.”
Anger boiled up within me, but I found that no words came out of my mouth. A sullen, pathetic wave of resignation washed over me as I registered the true meaning of those words. Something that only the two of us would understand. Somnia and Archie looked at me like audience members of a game show, waiting with bated breath as I made what seemed to them to be the best decision of my life.
Historian Yugo turned to me with his entire upper body. “Rui Payne, do you agree to the terms of this Contract?”
I stared up at the ceiling. Above us, above Fallen Star’s cage, was one of Ares’ runic symbols. It was the same one my mother used to have on her door. The same one that’d been in the lavish ceiling of my old room. The very brand I had burned into my chest. I took a deep breath, refusing to even repeat the words Ares spoke to me that played around in my mind.
“Yes, I do.”
“Perfect!” Historian Yugo crowed. “I was getting a bit peckish.” He bowed to Fallen Star, said “A pleasure,” and beckoned for Archie and Somnia to follow him. A door made of pure white light formed behind him. As Somnia and Archie walked through it, they turned and nodded at me and gave me a thumbs up respectively, leaving me alone with Fallen Star in my Mindspace.
“I hope you had fun with that little performance.”
“YOU HAD YOUR FUN WITH THE JIKININKI KING, AND I HAD MY FUN WITH THE HISTORIAN.” Fallen Star laughed. “I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW THE HISTORIAN IS ONE OF MINASHIRE’S LEGENDARY MYTHS. IN THE SAME REALM AS THE DEMOGORGON AND KIRIN. HOW OFTEN DO YOU GET TO TOY AROUND WITH LEGENDS?”
“Why did you do it?”
“YOU AND I ARE CONNECTED. YOU TELL ME WHY I DID IT.”
I took a deep breath. I’d lost my fight for the day. “Because it wouldn’t have mattered either way. There’s nothing to negotiate because there is no Contract.”
“PRECISELY. SHOULD IT MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER, THE HISTORIAN UNDERSTOOD THIS TRUTH AS WELL. THAT THEATER EXISTED TO SERVE YOU ALONE, AND I BELIEVE IT HAS WORKED AS INTENDED. YOU FELT THE MOMENT IT DID ITS JOB, DID YOU NOT?”
I did. That resignation. That vital understanding of the bond between us that I refused to acknowledge was pivotal to my growth. I denied it vehemently, but I couldn’t continue to lie to myself.
“No matter where you go, you’ll always be Fallen Star.”
I turned to the bright door behind me. Chains rattled behind me as I did. “As long as you stay in that cage, we won’t have problems. Stay out of my way and I’ll kill the Horsemen. After that, I’m going to attempt the Contract Termination Ritual. It’s going to work. It has to.”
“AND IF IT DOESN’T?”
“Then I’ll keep you in that cage forever.”
“IT SEEMS YOU MISSED THE POINT OF THAT PERFORMANCE, THEN. DO YOU KNOW WHY IT WORKED? WHY YOU ARE THREE TIMES MORE POWERFUL NOW THAN YOU WERE AN HOUR AGO?”
“Enlighten me.”
I turned to face Fallen Star, only for the Curse to be knelt right behind me. Uncaged. Unchained. Right behind me. Fallen Star was as tall as Galerose Tower, and if it’d stood to its full height it very well could’ve broken through the ceiling. He lowered his face and bore his red eyes into mine. The countless, boulder-shaped eyes on its wings and body each stared directly into mine like a chameleon staring down its prey.
“IT IS BECAUSE YOU HAVE ACCEPTED OUR UNITY. REMEMBER WHAT I SAID EARLIER: ‘BABY STEPS’. THE MORE YOU ACCEPT OUR CONNECTION, THE STRONGER YOU WILL BECOME."
I dashed back, drawing my sword and summoning chains from their posts to drag Fallen Star bag into its cage. He shouldn’t have been able to get out. How the hell did he do that?! I refused to allow fear to take hold of me for the sole reason that Fallen Star would feel my terror.
“Stay… in there!” I said, slamming the cage shut once again. My heart pounded, and it took effort just to breathe. “Don’t… leave…!”
“OH, RUI. I DO LOOK FORWARD TO THE DAY YOU REMOVE THESE CHAINS AND DESTROY THIS CAGE OF YOUR OWN VOLITION. THE DAY YOU FULLY ACCEPT ME AND FILL YOUR ENEMIES WITH THE HORROR YOU FEEL RIGHT NOW WILL BE A GLORIOUS DAY. UNTIL THEN, GET USED TO THE BOON I HAVE PROVIDED YOU. I LOOK FORWARD TO PROVIDING YOU WITH ANOTHER. YOU NEED ONLY ASK.”