Blue waves crashed, cerulean, the whispering of wind brushing over all the works of existence, stretched out so far in either direction. Horizons bounded, forever looking out onto the waves and the sea. Gentle rocking, a ship falling up and down, rising on the swells and falling, darkness below…
They should be getting close now… the wind carried that faint land-scent, that gentleness that cut through the salty sea breeze, glittering sea crests and the expectation of journey… or maybe he was just imagining things.
Still, out on the open seas… he felt a lot better. Out on the open skies, away from the piercing eyes of God… No. The Eternity Falling. It felt odd, knowing that- knowing secrets that the whole of everyone else didn’t know. Secrets that could get him killed.
Secrets that decided the fate of the world…
A few sailors worked diligently on the deck, but for the most part it was smooth sailing now. Sun glittering, cool, fresh breeze- they were on their way to Paqaboōf, and he couldn’t wait. Soon he’d see the half-jungles of the northern isles, their beautiful, nascent cities. The ships as they sailed in and out of the harbors…
He’d missed that. He’d missed that so much…
A quiet stepping sound- he heard her before he saw her, gently walking over the deck as if the motions of the sea were nothing and the wind was little more than a botherance. She stumbled still, sometimes, but the long walk to Ilaial and the entirety of the voyage south had helped. Together, they were more confident now.
Together, they searched for Polarity Light. Together they defied the will of God… Iri stepped up beside him, draping silvery arms over the railing and peering with those bright eyes and the depths below. He wondered if she saw more than he did- what lay beneath those waves? What lay beneath those darknesses…
“I feel disconnected…” When Iri spoke it was soft, laden with all the tones of humanity. There was just something about the way she was… it was distinctly not human at times. A trick of mannerisms, a quiet difference that set her apart more so than even the silver skin and burning eyes. “I used to know so much. Then they…” A sailor looked at them out of the corner of his eye and took a wide berth around them. Despite Siqxhe’s assurances, they wouldn’t trust her.
She was something from beyond their knowledge, and so they’d prefer to just leave her be. Let the dead lie… he thought of, for the briefest moment, the Ilyaochi and their ill-fated rebellion. He could have… “Do you remember anything?” Her memory was broken, shattered almost beyond repair. They’d talked about it many times on the way over from Laytaihishu, but she hadn’t been able to speak of it much. Only recently had she put herself together enough to recall what had happened, and Siqxhe was curious.
Iri stared out at the waves, their undulating patterns and the way they sparkled in the sun. Sad, almost… “The… I remember what I was doing- flashes, only. I was hiding- the Eternity Falling had gotten wind of my discovery, and they were chasing me.” Iri shuddered, and Siqxhe dreaded to imagine that. The knowledge that God itself was chasing him. That immensity of blackness and silvery night, those infinities of orange… “It found me. I tried to hide in the ground, but… they were so strong. It destroyed me.”
Siqxhe wondered how long she’d been in there, buried beneath the ground where she’d hidden, mind ratchet by the immensity of all power. Darkness beneath the earth. Darkness beneath god… “Are they still chasing you?” He imagined God itself showing up over the ship, and couldn’t help but chuckle. “I- we’re almost there.”
“It’s…” Iri looked out over the horizon, a gaze that carried with it all the ancient years of her existence. She was so much older than Siqxhe, so much stronger. All of it, gone in the years beneath the shadow of God, years spent destroyed… “We’re almost there, if I remember correctly.”
“How can you tell? Other than time, but you’ve never taken a ship anywhere?” She hadn’t elaborated much about how she’d traveled before her injury, but Siqxhe had gotten the impression that it was fast. He’d asked if they could do that… Iri had just laughed, and asked if he wanted a quicker way to die.
That had been the end of that conversation… fond memories. Iri nodded slowly, tapping a finger against the railing in a distinctly human way. During these moments he couldn't’ quite tell if she was or wasn’t human. Couldn’t… “It’s the sky. The position of the sun, the winds… I remember changing those. I remember… not much.” She shrugged, and laughed her tinkling laugh. “But we're almost there.”
“Then we need to be ready to search. The Lord of Cold Places could be right on our heels.” She’d hadn’t told him much about that mysterious figure, but apparently the Eternity Falling was out of the picture for now. They wouldn’t have to compete against God themselves- according to Iri, they’d expended too much energy in the first hunt to do much more than sit there, watching.
Waiting. Siqxhe looked out over all the waves, the white foam possibilities that crested and fell, and thought of all the worlds that could have been. All the darknesses that might have come or went, all the darknesses that had- He thought of the Gallant wars, the Orroyelan-Nola split. Ancient history, but he thought for the first time of the men that’d died… “Iri?”
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“Yes?”
“You were there-” At Iri’s confused look Siqxhe elaborated- “back in the days of history. You existed for a time longer than memory… What happened? Truthfully, what happened in the days before time?” Iri was a treasure trove, a speaking history of the world, an eyewitness to everything ever… that is, if she could remember it.
For a long moment Iri was silent, and the only sound was the shouting of the sailors and the sound of the ship slicing through water, the crash of the wind against the sails, and the creak of the masts. “I… we were sailing.” Siqxhe perked up- it was the first time he’d ever seen her speak of sailing. Perhaps this was the means of transport she’d denied earlier. “Through the space beyond space… it is not something you could comprehend, at least not without a degree of mathematics you don’t possess… either way, we were sailing… and then…”
Silence. It stretched on for a second, then a minute. A single bird appeared in the distance as a speck on the horizon before rapidly fading away, bringing with it the hopes of hearing, of knowing- “What happened next?”
“I don’t remember much. This was when I was young, just a few hundred years old. Something went wrong. The Eternity Falling was rendered dead-ish, and before… then nothing. It wasn't something in my memory in the first place.” Iri laughed again, but this time it was a cruel laugh… “It’s funny. I can’t remember anything important, but I can remember what I don’t remember…”
“All’s well… I was just curious.” Still, his curiosity had been piqued. He’d never been much of a historian himself, but even so he recognised the importance of what she’d just been saying. “The ship crashed… onto the planet? And somehow broke the moon?”
Iri gave him a quizzical look. “How could you have possibly known that? I’ve said nothing about the moon breaking…”
“It’s part of folklore. Ilyoachi…” Thoughts of those people brought him only sorrow. Thoughts of those people brought him only memories of darkness, the cruel and bloodied beneath the mountain, sutured with hope and little else and left in the darkness to die- “They believe that the younger, newer god, Rō, destroyed an elder god called the Brother.”
Iri’s eyes glowed a bit brighter, a cheery radiance that spoke volumes of interest. “Really! That’s impressive… I’m surprised they remembered anything at all… I suppose it makes sense. The deepest memories of times before time would have worked itself into the deepest parts of your culture.” They talked about other things for a little bit, cultures and their remnants, possibilities and their expectations. Paqaboōf and their hopes… darkness….
………
Siqxhe woke in the darkness, still intensely exhausted and filled with all the hopes of their expedition. He’d felt something- a shifting, a quiet murmur, and slowly he pulled himself out of his cot, carefully maneuvering over to where Iri lay against the wall. She’d refused a bed, saying she didn’t need one, and the crew had tried to put her down in the hold with all the cargo. Siqxhe had argued them out of that one…
“Dark skies… I don’t remember, Siqxhe.” Those eyes, burning white orbs of incandescent light… they focused on him, and he had to remind himself that Iri didn’t sleep. Her unconsciousness before had been the work of the Eternity Falling, the work of scathing, mind destroying- “I feel it. Even from this far, I can feel the desperate search of the Eternity Falling.”
“I thought you said it couldn’t reach you?”
“It can’t… it can’t move, either. I’ve made myself invisible. Still, it reminds me of so many days adrift in a space of its making. Quietly watching….” She reached out timidly, and Siqxhe grasped her hand in his own. Cold metal fingers, as cold as the air- still, he didn’t let go. She needed the comfort.
They stood, walking carefully across the sleeping sailors, making sure not to disturb them in their sleep. Iri had toned down the brightness of her eyes- sometimes, when she was upset or afraid or just happy they would blaze like they had in Laytaihishu, but for the most part she was able to control their luminosity. She’d said that before…
Before, so many things had been different. Iri kept looking back to before, trying to remember some crucial detail, some location or definite fact relating to the location of Polarity Light… Siqxhe cared less about that, and more about her.
He got the distinct feeling that if Iri had to choose between herself, and Polarity Light, she’d choose Polarity Light every time…
They climbed up the ladder to deck, and beyond the sails, beyond the few sailors who watched suspiciously… beyond the waves and their dark domains, beyond all of everything there were the stars. This was what he’d missed most beneath the shadow of the Eternity Falling. Orange eyes were no substitute for starlight… Two moons floated peacefully above the waves, one whole and large and forever away, and another shattered. A thin line of debris- barely visible in the night sky- stretched across the whole of the sky, while most of the moon was clumped up in a streak of fragments, an artist's imagination. Ever changing.
Brother… to the rest of the world, it was the Shattered Moon but to the Ilyoachi it was Brother. Seeing it, he couldn’t help but think of Railoxhe and his smile, the way he’d always pushed for peace. Siqxhe hadn’t seen it, but Railoxhe had. A world that was different…
It was Iri who broke the silence with her soft breath, her voice that was nothing more than a whisper. “It’s… beautiful. Transient, but beautiful.” Siqxhe nodded, not quite understanding, motioning for her to explain. It was something they’d gotten used to… once, he’d been the master in his field. Now he knew so little… “Once, that moon was full. Just like you said… it wasn’t broken all at once. Rather, it was pulled closer, embraced by the planet. Then it cracked, and through that it was…” She didn’t elaborate, but then again she didn’t have to. Siqxhe could imagine it.
One day, the moon would just be a smear along the sky, and one day it would be nothing. He’d known this- the premiere astronomers in Abōeo had already predicted this from the movements of the moon… then, he supposed, Brother’s death would be complete. “It was powerful. The Eternity Falling.”
“Powerful enough to break my mind.” A second’s pause, laced with the sadness of someone who’d spent so long hidden from the eyes everything. Someone who’d spent so long apart from humanity, above it. “Powerful enough to break the world. It’s why we need to find Polarity Light. If we have Polarity Light… then we have the Eternity Falling.”