The forest swallowed them, all light- an intensity of verdancy, very nature of trees and plants and dense undergrowth. Siqxhe felt as if they must have left an obvious trail, but there was just so much… it wasn’t obvious. There was so little, here, such greenery so it was overwhelming.
He knew his way, though. This had been where he’d grown up, these jungles- he remembered the trees, the streams and the clear places, and most importantly the dense places. Little hideaways where he’d spent his time as a child, running around what had been his world-
Running.
They ran, through the darkness and the light that was Iri’s eyes, dimmed as much as she’d been able to- Iri grabbed onto Siqxhe’s arm, hauling them behind a tree as an explosion rocked the forest, brilliance of light and illuminated shadows, orange-brightness… “They’re following us… he’s equipped for a chase. We need to move faster.”
Move faster they did, following the streams and the contours of the land up in elevation as the mountains beckoned, little slips of water and caverns, jagged volcanic rock from mountains long since rendered dormant. The lush life crowded every area, every single moment of their journey as they covertly slipped over the ridge and down again onto the other side.
Behind them, Arctic continued his pursuit. It was an endless race, pounding feet working as they slipped through the undergrowth, verdancy- a mask of life, a bewildering away of green beneath black, burning stars above through a dense canopy.
Water.
They skidded to a stop beside a volcanic cliff, the ocean lapping so gently at a shore so far below. Siqxhe gave a quick glance to Iri, then back to the black sands beneath. “What now? Do you have a ship?”
“The Eternity Falling knows where all the ships are. If I were to call one…” Then she’d call god itself, and that would destroy her. Still, they were between two problems now- Arctic behind, a precipice in front. “...I know what to do?”
Siqxhe frowned, looking out over the waters which gleamed in the silver-white of moonlight. “What? I-” Strong hands grasped him, and then they were running, a single, powerful leap that propelled them so far away from the cliff before they started to plummet. Death-
Blackness rushed up toward them and Siqxhe just managed to angle himself into a dive before they hit the water with a numbing slap, slipping away into the darkness of a channel between islands. The waves crashed so tumultuous around him, deceptively still waters revealed as rough currents, pushing, pulling.
Iri was all that kept him centered. He could swim and fairly well at that, but this was beyond anything he’d ever had to do. Iri just kept pulling, making sure he didn’t drown and yanking him beneath the water when Arctic had come to the precinct to look.
Safe, for the moment- but stranded in the depths of sea and blackness, moving away… wind, the howling of wind and a pale starlight, two figures set adrift… So long. It was so long, on those waves, an incessant struggle to stay above surface, living, falling, rising on the breath of the waves and their power. How long could he do this? It was so…
Exhausting-
Waves played against his feet as he woke on black sands beneath an outcropping of stone, shafts of sunlight spearing through the jagged volcanic rock and warming him. Beautiful vines crawled across the stone as he rose, shaking out sore muscles, feeling cold despite the warm summer air. Soaked clothes clung to his body amidst half-darkness and silence.
The gentle sound of waves, and silence. Beneath the earth there was only silence… “Iri?”
The shifting of sand against sand, metal against rocks. A whisper, as soft as the pad of feet, Iri walked over to kneel beside him. “Are you feeling better? You were unconscious when I dragged you in here.”
“I… no, not really.” Siqxhe rubbed at the back of his head, which ached furiously. Pain… this wasn’t how things were supposed to go. “Who was… Polarity Arctic? Like… Polarity Light?”
“It’s meaningless. Gibberish. Names that have definitions, but which don’t even make sense.” A moment of silence, infinitely more sorrowful than he’d ever seen from the sibilant before. “He was… a brother. The firstborn, with me, child of a ship not yet named Eternity Falling. We remembered the dark places… he remembers home.” Home? What was home to a sibilant… Siqxhe couldn’t imagine something like that.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The Eternity Falling was so far beyond the scope of his imagination that he couldn’t even hope to comprehend something beyond it…
“But he hates you now. Or at least disagrees with you.”
Iri nodded softly, eyes gleaming. Sad- “We disagree on the finer points of what we should do with Polarity Light. What the Eternity Falling should do- it’s a disagreement across time. Roughly half the sibilant follows me, and half him… he is powerful. So powerful.”
“Powerful enough to break the world?” He’d heard that threat, but Iri didn’t respond… she didn’t need to. He’d seen the power of God. He knew it was true…
“Let’s get going. Arctic isn’t going to stop searching until he finds us… at least he’s dragging around a human too. We’re both constrained by anatomy.” She helped him to his feet and they stumbled into the jungle, dark branches, filtered, dappled sunlight overhead draping it across their skin and making them so much more, silences beneath an expense of forever-
Darkness within darkness, twinned creatures searching. They moved as silently as they could, but at a slower pace. The Arctic wasn’t near them, and there was nothing to suggest they were being chased as they continued onwards, deeper into the forests, the far reaches of the Nola hinterland.
………
It was a particular darkness, a shadowed, deep-forest verdancy sort of darkness, thick vines draping themselves over everything and almost obscuring the carefully wrought stone that had long since been buried beneath the weight of massive trees. Roots flowed over the temple grounds like water, massive limbs pushing aside the stone with little effort.
Still, some remained. A weary Siqxhe trailed his hand across the stone, marveling… It was a beautiful find, something left in the forest over all these years, forgotten yet not destroyed… volcanic ash had built up over parts of it, but for the most part it was left barren in the radiant illumination.
Stone monuments, for ages- “How old do you think it is.”
Iri stepped closer, looking at the weary stones but not quite touching it. “I wouldn’t be able to tell. Not without equipment. Old enough for the forest to have consumed it entirely.” White light gleamed off rocks before here, a totally different sort of illumination. He couldn’t help but feel it was harsh, compared to the sunlight’s gentle glow. “Wouldn’t you be the one who knew the history? Tell me how old it is.”
“I… maybe.” Siqxhe stepped forward, less looking at the inscriptions on the stone and more looking at the building itself. It was a deceptively simple construction, just stone blocks stacked on top of one another, beautifully wrought together… “The locals of Nolabo didn’t build with stone, but this is certainly a local ruin. So… after the first Nola arrived, but not by much.” He paused in front of a particular inscription, a beautiful description of some… being, sowing the earth.
He looked closer, frowning. It was… similar to something he’d seen before, the little tears, falling onto the stone-forests, the brown detritus of so long spent existing, here away from everywhere. “It’s Ilyaochi.”
“It can’t be Ilyaochi. They never left Xhyolok until recently. Even now they don’t really leave Xhyolok.” Iri spoke with conviction, and Siqxhe believed her- he’d never heard of an Ilyaochi migration to Nolabo, now, or ever-
“It…” He traced the path of the tears, an arc which must have once been prominent but had now been worn away until it was almost nothing. A simple line of stone, the work of hands. Memory- “The seeding of the earth. By seeds, or tears, or… it’s a memory of the Eternity Falling.”
Iri nodded. “It was how humans originally came to the world, through the escape vehicles and the cryo-stasis.” The line of an arc. Falling, from the hands of god as it crashed into the broken- skies. Dark, places, shattered wills… the burning orange.
A resurrection, Eternity reformed… he wondered what it all meant. Everyone had a connection to god, some deep cultural tie that called back to the origins of so much, those beginnings… “It… if everyone was on the Eternity Falling at the-” Sound. He heard it, a soft breaking as something forced itself through the undergrowth so far away. “We need to go. Now.”
Iri nodded mutely and then they were running, slipping as quietly as they could through the forest and its beautiful grasp, verdant bushes around them and sunlight- so far away, the silver-brightness of the Eternity Falling, the power of creation. Humanity’s final lord…
A ruler over the surface of the earth, the power to break planets… and they ran. Away from a temple left in shadows, and toward what was, hopefully, safety.
They ran...