--- FORA ---
I was barely coherent this time when I came back, I’d lost count of how many times it had been, how many rebirths, how many deaths. I wasn’t sure if the space between them was getting shorter or if my mind was giving out.
But when I didn’t die immediately, I peeked an eye open, gaping at the scene in front of me.
The golden serpentine dragon stood proudly in one corner, glaring at a silvery woman with hard, stormy eyes. Between them and standing in front and above me was a third figure that glowed brightly to my eyes with a similar silvery color to the woman, but with more blue to it. He took the shape of something I’d never seen before. It was almost human, and yet it had feathers instead of hair. It was almost a bird in that sense except it had more scales than feathers. It was elegant, graceful, and almost beautiful. A tail hung behind him, swishing lightly in the air, hardly even disturbing it.
I stared up at him, my mortal eyes burning noticeably at the light of three gods.
“Gium you are overstepping.” The silvery-blue humanoid spoke, his hands clasped behind him like a general at war.
The golden dragon snarled, “Since when do you have dominion here, you copy? Can you never leave me to my own devices for even a century at a time?!”
The humanoid tilted his head, “There is BALANCE in all things, just as there is… order. You are putting your order above all else and infringing upon the balance of this world and those connected to it.”
The woman nodded, taking a step closer to the humanoid. “Unless you wish to make an enemy of us, it is time that you release her. She has paid the price for her arrogance and mistakes, JUSTICE is met.”
Gium glared at both of them again, his eyes nearly slits, “This is my domain! You cannot simply—”
“False.” The humanoid spoke, unclasping his hands from behind and reclasping them in front of him. “You are upsetting my world with your fervor, causing my Rendai and Atharian to start arguing again, and you know how they get when they argue. It’s upsetting the entire delicacy and I would much prefer to not have millions of mortals die because you are incapable of some simple self control.”
Gium looked like he was about to start attacking something. “You can’t do this to me, I’m a forth!”
The strange humanoid of silvery-blue light narrowed his eyes, “So am I.”
The woman folded her arms. “And I am a third.”
It was clear who was in charge here.
The humanoid nodded to the woman, taking a step to the side and holding out a hand toward me. Hesitantly, I took it and he pulled me to my feet as I watched him with wide eyes. “Who are you?”
He smiled warmly, “Astral, the god of Spatial Balance.” He gestured toward the woman, “I would listen to my mother if I were you. Kalteii appreciates that kind of thing.”
I nodded slowly and moved my gaze back to the goddess of Ice and Justice as she stared unamused down at Gium. “I propose a compromise.” She said, placing her hands on her hips. “Foralen will leave your world until your next… ‘reset’ is completed. And in return, you will leave the people she cares for alone.”
“That’s preposterous!”
“And yet it is the only thing she will accept, is that correct, Foralen?”
I blinked at her, my mind still racing. If I could never come back until he destroyed everything… then… they’d all be dead by the time I returned anyway. All of them except maybe Netun and Aymi, but how could I be sure? I closed my eyes and nodded. If I knew they would live the rest of their lives without this monster interfering, that would have to be enough. “I would… I would accept a deal like that.”
Kalteii nodded, focusing back on Gium, “and you? Would you accept?”
He glanced at me and then seemed to relax slightly, “I… suppose… but why can’t she leave forever though?! is that part negotiable?”
Astral frowned slightly, “No, it is BALANCED. Foralen will grow stronger in that time, it will give her enough strength to learn, to grow. You will do as you wish, without her emotional ties to you people prompting her to do something about your terrors.”
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He turned toward the higher authority, glaring, “It is negotiable?”
“No.” Kalteii responded.
I sighed, the strain of all this getting to me, “Can we just get this over with already?”
Astral nodded, and then slowly Gium followed suit.
Kalteii’s aura pulsed slightly, “Gium, please return the clone.”
I blinked, “My clone?”
The woman nodded, “She remained active when you died and has been attempting to guard your rebirth point for the last six years. It has been admirable to watch.”
Six. Years. That had been only six years?! I blinked at Kalteii and glanced at Gium, “Where is she then?”
He sighed and waved a hand, a figure materializing as if from a teleport. She still looked sixteen, so that answered whether or not clones aged… on that note, I felt a bit too tall for eight… When she saw me she gasped and ran over, grinning wildly, “It worked!”
I blinked at her, “what worked?”
“I managed to reset the rebirth age, as far as I can tell it significantly decreased the time between… ah… here I can tell you about it later.” She nodded.
“Alright.” Kalteii said, “We’ve come to an agreement, correct? Fora leaves Virna, she doesn’t come back until Gium’s next reset. In return Gium will stop trying to order his people to kill Fora’s friends and family.”
Gium thought for a moment before he nodded.
I nodded as well.
My clone nodded too for some reason. “Oh! Kalteii, please tell Netun and Aymi and everyone what happened, I don’t want them to do something stupid!”
Hah, yeah, that sounded like them. Kalteii smiled, “Of course,” and she disappeared. Gium followed her a moment later.
Leaving me alone with Astral and a product of my Geneseri.
-
“I find your dedication to achieving balance within yourself to be intriguing.” Astral finally spoke. “It attracted my gaze at first, though your tendency to disrupt the laws of space time certainly made me warrier of you.”
I nodded slowly, glancing awkwardly at my clone, what was this even about?
“Your clone has achieved a life separate from yours,” Astral continued, “Normally this is impossible, but I hear Taasen was involved somehow.”
My clone sighed, “and he said he didn’t do anything…”
“He likely didn’t realize the impact it had, he simply viewed you as a person, separate from Fora, and so that is what you became.”
I frowned, “Taasen has such a strangely powerful ability, why isn’t that regulated? Why isn’t Gium freaking out about that instead of my Rebirth?”
“He doesn’t like Taasen, that’s for sure, but in the end Taasen is still mortal, he might be immune to most of what Gium can do to him, but in the end Gium knows that time will take him. Time won’t take you though, and as far as any of us can see, there is little else that could stop you permanently.”
I sighed, “I didn’t ask to be born with this, why did Gium even let it happen if he’s so scared of Rebirth? What about the dragons who have it?”
Astral nodded, “An apt question, but one that you need to answer for yourself. I cannot tell you everything, such is a BALANCE.”
My clone raised her hand for some reason, “Can we get back to settling my existence? I tried already and I can’t dismiss myself anymore.”
“I can fix that in a moment, Eliax. You will return to Fora, and then come back once she makes a new clone. You aren’t entirely separate beings, but there is a divide between you now.”
The clone paused, “Eliax?”
Astral glanced between the two of us, “That is who you’ve become. The part of her that was once that girl. Fora has been drifting between the two, and yet you both have very different methods and ideals. You are real. Ever since Gium first cracked your soul.”
I stared at Astral, eyes wide. “So… we’ll stop drifting between each other now?”
Eliax’s eyes were hopeful, “I’d sure love to be able to acctually get things done without… ah…”
I smiled, “without this idiot constantly getting in your way?”
“Yeahh…” she smiled though, which wasn’t something Eliax did often. Apparently she was happy with this. Perhaps that was most of the difference between us. I knew that I would never have been happy with an existence that could just stop like that at the whims of someone else and then come back also at the whims of… ah… okay maybe we weren’t so different after all, that was essentially just a weird version of Rebirth.
I frowned, “I suppose this isn’t really that different from what we had before.”
Eliax nodded. “I agree. We are still connected though? When I dismiss myself we’ll… recombine? How does this work?”
“That’s something I’m going to let you figure out yourself. I did balance out your spell somewhat,” he handed me a piece of paper, “Please cast it this way from now on, the odd way you were doing Geneseri was very annoying to watch.”
I took it, glancing over it for a cursory moment before handing it to Eliax. “Thank you, is there… anything else?” I hesitated, “Am I supposed to act differently now that we’re bound to you, Astral?”
He shook his head, “simply keep in mind that if you break things, I will force you to fix them.” Astral nodded to himself, apparently satisfied. “Alright then, I’m taking you to Arithren, there’s plenty to explore there and it will be easier for all of us to keep an eye on you.” He made a face before shaking his head, and I imagined he was cursing himself, though he could have just remembered something unpleasant. He pointed at Eliax and her body melted away, reverting her to her dismissed state, “Alright, let’s go.”
I took his hand, and we were gone.