Chris did not sleep in a void of perpetual darkness. He dreamed about that white marble city again, the one that he had dreamed about when he entered the Shade. He had not dreamed about it since then, and this was the first time since then.
He was once again on the outside of the city though this time he stood at the feet of its walls and looking on the massive white structures he could see engravings and patterns which looked like star charts.
Though Hamanymu and Ursa were not there this time, he was not along. Up on the city walls he could see a figure looking down on him. He could not make out the features of this individual and though he wanted to shout something out to them, he couldn't speak or move his body, he could only watch.
"Who are you, what is this?" he thought.
"A friend, an advisory or a ghost, the choice is yours." a foreign voice slithered into his mind.
"That dosent sound cryptic and confusing." he hated such cryptic nonsense.
The figure did not respond, they only stood silently and Chris felt some sensation across his skin for the first time and once more a wave of darkness buried him, it was only broken by the sensation of light hitting his eyes.
He slowly opened his strained eyelids and the light eliminated the great bed which he slept in with its warm velvet blanket that he slept underneath.
He studied his environment that appeared to be a room which made from a dull grey stone though in some areas Chris saw colourful paintings of warriors and drapes which had vibrat detailed images of battles, hunts and nature itself stitched on them.
He could feel his body and he knew that he had been striped of his armour and what he was in was a familiar pair of light blue pajamas. " These are mine... from back home."
The thought that he was home was certainly appealing but it couldn't be, this room looked nothing like his own or any from the palace and even recently awoken mind remembered the past seven days from Zodiac's attack to their arrival in this Nexus of Narratives or whatever the Mizihimo called it.
The door to the room roughly creaked as it was pushed opened and he tried to rise defensively but he halted as a woman very familiar to him stepped into the room and Chris felt his anxiousness be melted away and replaced with confusion.
"Little brother, it's good to see you awake," her voice was brimming with joy, but her face looked tired and weathered.
"Ishtar, where are we and what the hell is going on?"
"Oh, I have one hell of story for you," Ishtar smiled as she approached the bed and sat by it.
She told Chris about her crowning as Queen, about the new war with the Lunar Empire which was being fought. She told him about the arrival of the Mizihimo Lord, Manzi. She spoke about his revelations about their parents status and location.
She went on explain about how Lord Manzi had led a squadron of six flying carriers through the Shade and into the Nexus of Narratives.
"...and that is how we ended up here." Ishtar finished and Chris was dumbfounded.
"And here is?"
"It's... well, it's much easier to show you." Ishtar leaned forward to helped him off the bed that he lay down upon. "Come on lazy bones."
Chris shuddered a little as his feet touched the cold stone floor and he twiddled his toes a little to build up some heat.
" I need some socks and shoes before the floor freezes my toes off."
"Check under the bed." she responded.
He followed Ishtar's instructions and he leaned down before he pulled two black and blue leather boots with black socks, which he quickly put on to protect his toes from heat.
"So where to first?" He asked her.
Ishtar led him out of the room and into a corridor which led to a spiral staircase that led downwards. She the broke the silence asking him in a sullen tone. "Mother and Father are fine, right?"
Chris was confused at first but he quickly recognised what question this was, he had asked himself the same thing over those six days in which they had travelled the Nexus of Narratives.
"Of course they are, it's mom and dad, those two are the strongest beings on this or any other planet."
"Of course." Ishtar's smile returned.
They descended the staircase and down they went into another corridor which bore large tapestries depicting medieval artistry of various scenes from hunts, battles and image's mighty heroes slaying beasts.
Many large windows lined the corridor, all allowing the rays of the newly risen sun to touch his skin like the warm embrace of a friend that he gladly welcomed.
The sunrise took his breath away and beneath he could see a city with large walls with large walls which he remembered fighting under. The city itself was a large and twisting beauty.
" Amazing," he whispered in awe.
"I know, that's how I felt too when I saw it." she patted him in the back playfully. " Now let's go, we shouldn't keep our host waiting."
"Our host?"
"Don't worry you shall meet him soon, now come on." she motioned for him to follow her to the end of corridor.
A door with glowing green glyphs engraved upon it, awaited them. The door was a strange thing, as it led into nothing as two feet into it was a brick wall. As Ishtar neared it, the door began to let out a buzzing sound, like it had a nest of a thousand bees hiding behind it.
"What's that?" he nervously asked.
"It's a bridgeway, that's what they call it anyway. It's just a short length teleportation, kind of like our Archways, only more localized to this castle." Ishtar explained before she walked into the door and shimmered from sight, like some kind of mirage.
"Okay Christian... you can do this." he began to take deep breaths and slowly walked towards the door nervously.
He inched ever closer, his heart beating hard as he felt like a nervous like child trying to get into a pool by dipping their toes first.
"Come on." he heard Ishtar shout in frustration as her hand materialized through the door and grabbed him by his shirt before pulling him into the door.
He did not hit the wall, instead he stumbled into a hall so vast it would fit an entire city block. It was covered in vibrant colours, statues of solid stone and banners that bore all types of artwork's and finally the passionate sounds of a group of minstrels gave the hall a welcoming atmosphere.
Many large tables filled the hall with close to a hundred people on each table. These people were happily feasting on large delicacies of bread, vegetables, fruits, meats, eggs and all sort of beverages.
The chattering in the room was loud and merry like the great dinners his family usually hosted during the winter seasons back home.
"Come on." Ishtar tagged at his shoulder.
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Her touch pulled him out his trance that was brought upon by the sweet mouth watering scent of the mixed hot foods that assaulted his senses without the slightest mercy and left his stomach grumbling in hunger pangs.
"Alright, alright, I am coming." he followed her past many tables where he spotted many people with the golden dragon of Avalon adorned upon their clothing. They acknowledged his presence as well as Ishtar's with waves, polite greetings and salutes by others.
At the end of the hall, upon an pavilion which was elevated off the ground by a meter was a much larger table made of snow white wood.
At the said table sat ten people eating their meal with the grace and control expected from people of their great rank if their sitting position was anything to go by.
At the centre of the table was a man who Chris supposed was the leader here. The man had a mane of black hair and a slight stubble that granted him a youthful yet mature look. He was dressed in fine purple and yellow silks deserving of one who declared himself a king with a simple silver diadem acting as his crown. The man looked straight at him, having realised that Chris was looking right at him.
This man or king arose from his seat and cleared his throat, silencing everyone" I welcome you Christian Ambrosius Medrawd Ddraig, Prince of Avalon, Hero of the Battle of Three Armies and slayer of the Scorpion Knight. Please come to my table and let us break bread as friends in the eye's of the Sky Father, the First Daughter and the Ancients."
" Hero of the Battle of Three Armies?" he thought in confusion.
"Come sit with us and I will explain everything soon," Ishtar whispered, and he reluctantly he dragged his feet to the main table looking for a seat.
"Boy, sit here" a older man dressed in a red garments offered him a seat and Chris obliged sitting on the right with Ishtar sitting on the mans left side.
The man looked at Chris very intrigued and it caused Chris out of awareness to also look back at the man who he could tell was rather tall, with a tanned skin tone. His hair was a dark shade of orange and it extended downwards to his shoulders, he had a thick beard which was beginning to grey and his eyes, Chris could swear he saw literal orbs of fire within them.
"By the Sky Father himself you all look just like her." he whispered trying not to be heard but Chris had heard him. Before he could ask what the hell that was supposed to mean, he spotted some people in the crowd waving at him.
With the same type of grace that he had been taught, he waved back at Pyrrha, Hamanymu, Ursa and Thor who all grinned from ear to ear clearly just as happy to see as he was to see them.
"Hey, eat up," Ishtar ordered him like a nagging mother. " You need your strength and after this I swear we are going have things explained after this."
Chris wanted to argue with her but the saculent smell of the food made his stomach tightened even harder. That made up his mind and reached down, grabbed a piece of smoked fish that he bit into.
All of Chris's thoughts turned to ultimate bliss from the warm fresh bread, smoked fish, fried chicken, boiled eggs and hot milk mixed inside his mouth catching his test buds in a storm of flavours all mixed together perfectly. It was so beautiful that the Avalonian prince almost wanted to weep in pure ecstasy.
The meal lasted for two all hours and for Chris it was heaven. Though the tranquil experience would have been consistently uninterrupted if it wasn't for the man whose eyes were digging into him like he was some sort of oddity to observe.
"Leza and Sophia, what is his problem." he could almost feel the eyes.
"My friends!" the king declared his voice booming across the hall and silencing the voices.
"We have suffered many great losses at the hands of our mutual enemy, the Lunar Empire. We have lost our kingdoms and our loved ones, but with our new allies the kingdom of Avalon, we stand a chance to strike back at our enemies and regain that which they took from us!" his speech drew many cheers from the crowd. "Cavallonians and Avalonians standing side by side!"
The meal ended and the king with the entire table rose up to leave and discuss private matter's as was always the point to these kinds of events.
He arose from the table with them and for a brief moment he caught the questioning expressions etched upon his friends face asking him what was happening, he could only answer them with a shrug to show just how clueless he was as well.
The king led them out of the great hall and into one of those teleportation doors which sent them into a large library. It near equaled the hall in its size and in its magnificent splendor. It was packed with thousands of books and scrolls all neatly stacked in shelves that towered over them.
The only libraries that Chris had seen that could rival this beautiful structure were his parents library and the capital's library.
"I suppose you are in need of answers?" the king finally asked the question clearly directed at Chris.
"Yes, I do." he answered after clearing his voice and gaining back control of his wit. " I don't even know where to start. Are the civilians and safe, who exactly you and why was the Lunar Empire attacking you?"
"I am Artorias Pendragon, son of Uther Pendragon and king of Cavallon and protector of the realm" the pride and authority in his voice oddly enough reminded Chris of his mother. "The people are safe and now back to their homes, thanks to you. As for why the Lunar Empire is attacking us, I can't say I know."
Chris thought about the name Artorias Pendragon, a son of an Uther and he could not help but mentally chuckle at how this man's family truly loved Arthurian myths. But then who was he to laugh, his middle names were literally Ambrosius and Medrawd, didn't mean that he was above getting a little dig in.
" And let me guess, you have a wizard named Merlin and a sword named Excalibur and if I remember correctly a colourful assortment of knights."
"Oh, close but no cigar my child, its Marzhin " a woman's voice echoed through the library.
Chris almost jumped out of his skin but he managed to calm himself though the thought of how foolish he looked as he almost jumped made his cheeks red. "Who said that?"
The air above him shimmered like a lakes surface under the sun's rays as the air began bend and take a humanoid shape, which grew flesh, hair and cloth.
It was a beautiful woman with long grey locks of hair and piercing scarlet eyes. She was dressed in a blue and black robe with carved wooden staff in hand. As he got a closer look at her Chris could not deny that she was one of the most beautiful women who he had ever seen.
"It is I, Merlin or Marzhin" she answered his original question with a teasing wink that made Chris already red flustered face redder and his breathing shallower.
"Can someone please explain to me what is really going on here?" he demanded.
"Allow me to explain." an elf woman carrying a large book said as she shot a small glare at Marzhin who was laughing at Chris's embarrassment. " You might not know who I am, but my name is Olwen Margeston, I am or was a researcher from the Runith Institute."
" It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance professor" he said extending his hand.
"Like wise, though I never attained the rank of professor, I am still an acolyte." she shook his his hand slightly embarrassed as she corrected him. "Have you ever heard of something called the Nexus of Narratives."
He racked his brain for a few minutes trying to think of that but nothing came to mind. " I can't say that I have."
"Of course," she almost sounded disappointed. " The Nexus of Narratives is what we are in. It is a universe that many millions of years ago experienced an influx of light and dark energy completely altering it's existence."
"How did it alter it's existence. I thought light and dark energy cancelled it each other out. Such amounts should destroyed any universe if such a thing happened." he might not have been an expert on light but that was common knowledge.
" We know that there was interface from a third party, an Ancient One, we believe... But the effects are that the entire universe became a multiple layered planes of reality flowing with great amounts of energies that through the third parties interface affected it's development".
"Affected how?"
"Well, how do I put this... this reality is place were reality is shaped by the belief of its neighbouring realities."
"That is really vague." he didn't want to sound disrespectful but it wasn't that helpful to him or descriptive enough.
"Okay, think about this universe as onion with multiple layers that periodically connect with other realities at the will of the third party." and right now she was really losing him.
"That link connects to say another universes England in the middle ages when belief in king Arthur was strong. Now that third party begins using that belief to begin warping a layer of reality into the world of that king Arthur's myth. But it does more than that, the third force searches for every thought up king Arthur in that world's existence and begins uploading those copies here creating an entire layer of king Arthur's and their legends."
"So he is." he pointed at Artorias before him who had said nothing since Olwen Margeston began her explanation.
"A possibility of the once and future king" Marzhin answered for Olwen Maegeston.
"Wait, so is it just king Arthurs?" Chris could feel a migraine forming as he asked.
"Well no, the Nexus has multiple layers of reality for many things. There might be a layer for a cultures gods in the layers above or below us and even the legends of Avalonian folklore given flesh as well." she continued even as Chris mentally begged for it to end there. "And when this universe is connected, it is possible for someone to crossover from both sides. That's how I originally got here and that's how your mother got here as well."
"My mother?" he was praying that his mother hadn't killed an Arthur and stolen their sword because her Excalibur was leaving some very bad implications.
"Your majesty how much do you know about her years between ten and sixteen? " this question felt strange but it also felt like it hit a strange spot.
His mother never talked much about her past expect for her knightly adventures with his father. He had always assumed that it was because she grew up in some sleepy fishing harbour, there wasn't much to talk about.
" Not much... oh... she is a..."
"An Arthur, yes. But she wasn't created by the Nexus though " that oddly didn't calm the awkward atmosphere that was building up. " Besides I am sure you have met your grandparents from you're mothers side before."
He looked at Ishtar and she looked at him sympathetically " She must have gone through this as well. Leza, this awkward."
"Remember how I told you about the possibility of one crossing over."
"Yes."
"Well many people did crossover. My research team with your father did crossover nearly a century ago, back when he was a low rank knight interning who were escorting us on our expedition here."
Lady Margeston appeared to be hit hard by the nostalgia bus as she paused a bit and smiled to some far off memory. "Anyway, we found out that many other people from hundreds of other worlds had also crossed. Your mother was one such person."
"Then how did she became an Arthur." it sounded stupid when he said it out loud but this was his reality now. "This is keeps getting more and more ridiculous by the minute".
"We found out that most legends were forged incomplete either lacking an Arthur or some important element to them. Now if say someone interjected themselves into a story like a young girl of nine pulling a sword from stone when there was no one else to pull it out, that person would become that legends Arthur " Olwen finished her explanation.
"You should be proud boy" the knight from the dinner table spoke his voice beaming with pride " Your mother served as king of Gamalaot for a good six years before she left it for Avalon and as the Skyfather is my witness she was one of greatest kings I've ever known. No offence Artorias".
"Non taken" Artorias answered him.
"And you are?" Chris wanted to know what this man wanted.
"I am Cai Ceinfarfog, I served under your mother." the man responded with a jolly laugh. " I guess that makes me your uncle considering she and I swore an oath as blood brother and sister."
"Alright." having nothing to say to was beginning to become a norm today. " And the Lunar Empire how long have they been attacking you."
"A year ago they found a way to this world. And with the aid of a traitor named Nimue they began to attack my counterparts respective zones, leaving nothing but ash and the corpses of those who resisted or were too wounded to carry off as slaves." king Artorias answered grimly. "We are some of the few to hold out against them and we surely would have fallen yesterday if it wasn't for your miraculous arrival."
"And you don't know what they want?"
"No we don't, though we might finally learn something from the prisoners captured from the battle." the King's answer left a pit in his stomach.
"I need a moment," he whispered as thoughts of every kind began swarming his aching head as he clumsily stumbled out of the library.
He didn't know where he was going but he just needed time to digest the information given to him. He exited a large arch door leading him to a busy court yard filled with the citizens of Cavallon going with their day. The breeze and chattering of the court yard was welcome.
He was about to take an extra step when he heard Ishtar calling behind him. He would have just continued on and escaped this madness but something inside him told him to stay and listen to her. " You know, this has been a tough couple of days."
"I know." she seemed to also be thinking. " You are probably wondering why she never told us".
"That and many other things." he almost felt betrayed by the secret but how would she have told them about this. "I am not mad at her at them for lying if that's what you think. I just don't like not knowing things...".
"Good, because Joan was positively fumed when she found out" Ishtar said with a chuckle and Chris was sure that it must have been a sight to behold.
"Joan?" He thought with a pit within his stomach as he realized that he forget about his own twin sister.
"Joan..."he squeaked her name before he coughed trying to brush off that embarrassing moment ".... Where is she?"
Ishtar's laughter didn't really help him "Don't worry, she is in the cities jousting arena training. She didn't like the idea of seating still in some deplomatic meeting and the last thing we all want is her blowing a fuse in there."
"I probably have to go see her," he whispered in dread at the thought of meeting his hot-headed twin.
"Probably, you two haven't spoken in an age."
"It wasn't that long." he complained.
"Maybe, but you two need to talk. It might help you get something off your chest," Ishtar responded with a smile and a pat on Chris's back as she walked away.
Chris knew exactly what he needed to do and though it made his body feel light from here, he took steps to meet the person he was born alongside, Joan Ddraig.