"That looks like an arcane... Astral-Phantom-Barrier hexagram," Agatha squinted at the sketch on the page as she held the book in her hands. "Instructor Rozaline showed it to us during an excursion to the catacombs beneath Nemendias. It supposedly blocked Phantoms from reaching Illatius. Thousands of these were inscribed into the catacombs beneath the city. They were pretty popular back in the day before the Hex-beacon towers were built."
"It is indeed a Barrier hexagram," I nodded. "Do you think your mother knows about it?"
"I very much doubt it," Agatha shook her head. "History doesn't interest her one bit. She boasted to me that she skipped out on all of the 'useless excursions' to seduce rich human idiots into absolute servitude."
"Has Baroness Amadea ever gone down into the catacombs beneath Illatius?" I asked.
"Not as far as I'm aware," my companion replied. "Mother hates confined, dirty, smelly places. It would take serious convincing to make her go down there."
"Convincing... like an order from her Master to find me, no matter where I am hiding?" I smirked at the blue-eyed chimera-hybrid.
"Can the arcane barrier really stop Mother? It's that strong?" She blinked at me. "Mother isn't an Astral Phantom... is she?"
"I'm absolutely certain that she is," I said. "All of the high-cendai are. Eunice made us out of old ghosts, guided her monwai to consume human souls. Barrie really hates us. He's not going to like Amadea one bit."
"I don't understand... The ancient Barrier was simply supposed to keep phantoms away from the city. Do you mean to tell me that it's grown beyond its intended function? That it's sentient... self aware?"
"More or less," I said. "The old shield of the city became a half-born manifestation of belief. Barrie doesn't just push phantoms away. If he’s sufficiently annoyed, he can rip a phantom right out of a human body, tearing a soul into shreds.”
Agatha's eyes grew wide.
"Mother won't come alone into the sewers," she said. "She will bring armed maids. You will need a..."
"An army?" I glanced back to the chimera camp.
"Right..." Agatha exhaled. "Right... this is our only chance to defeat her then."
"What happens to a body if it's deprived of a soul?" I mulled.
"Umm," Agatha nervously adjusted her armacus. "Rapid cellular decay. I was taught that a soul stabilizes the body into shape. Without the support of a soul, the Astral currents begin to wear away at the physical body until it slowly melts akin to a sandcastle being washed away by ocean waves."
"Can it be avoided?" I presented her with another question.
"A body with an Astral Phantom inside it does not decay as quickly," Agatha mulled. "Ghouls created by Novazem necromagi can sustain themselves for a ridiculously long time. A body of a ghoul is one dominated by a remnant of a soul."
"Hrm," I rubbed my chin. "What if we were to turn the soulless body of the Baroness into a ghoul under my control?"
Agatha's face turned green.
"W-what?" She gasped. "You can do that? You know the secrets of the Novazem necromagi?"
"Eunice taught me a lot of very nasty things," I said with a slight shudder. "How do you think I have two bodies? How do you think your mother controls her human body?"
"I see," Agatha gulped.
"I think that the chimera high-cendai have powers very similar to those of Novazem Necromagi," I said. "The ability to split our souls apart and to shove ourselves into bodies of others is quite natural to us thanks to Eunice. Has your mother not taught you any of this stuff?"
"No… she has not," the Amadea princess shook her head. "Plus, my Nemendias instructors have hammered into my head that Necromancy is wrong, monstrous and abhorrent. Soul magic is forbidden at Nemendias. I was told there are powerful wards that spontaneously combust anyone that attempts Necromancy.”
"Are there really?" I raised an eyebrow.
"The Instructors showed snapper-captured images of the charred bodies of students vaporised by this ward," Agatha said firmly. "Nemendias does not tolerate Necromancy within her walls."
"Seems rather convenient, considering that chimera cendai are in charge of Nemendias," I said. "Your mother's dominion saplings are all over you. You've been going to school for years. Why didn't Nemendias vaporize you?"
"I... I don't know," Agatha said.
"Either the necromancy ward is a lie," I shrugged. "Or Nemendias doesn't interpret chimera soul-magic as necromancy. Eunice brought Grogtilda from death, reanimated many of her ruined organs back to life. The Interviewee's tower didn't do anything to me. Nemendias doesn't do anything to Dawn and I'm certain that the shattered soul of Ambiss Huron resides within her paintings."
Agatha turned her eyes downward.
"The more I talk to you, the more I realize that many of the things I was taught were wrong," she uttered, shaking her head and looking distressed.
"Scientific progress isn't about knowing the absolute truth," I said. "It's about discovering new information, weaponizing it and being less wrong each time. Don't cling so hard to magical laws. Everything you know about magic can be trumped by Eureka hanging right above us."
I pointed my fingers at the infinite, dead planet in the sky.
"That's what I'm afraid of most," Agatha winced. "Didn't your one encounter with Eureka get everyone on Andross killed?"
"Not everything from Eureka is bad," I said, tapping Endy.
"Your knife is from Inaria?" Agatha blinked.
"Yeppers," I nodded. "Andross was made by Inarians long ago too, you know."
I thought of the last man on the desolate, frozen surface of planet Earth. A lonely human, doomed to roam the wasteland forever looking for other survivors. Charles Snippy. Maybe someday I could help save him. Maybe someday in the future I could somehow reach out to him, become his friend?
“I don’t think that the Dead Zone or Eureka are… necessarily evil,” I said. “They’re old, sure… and very broken in some odd way… but maybe Inaria can be fixed, you know? There was a person alive there. Maybe the last man on Earth can help us fix it? He was completely immune to the flesh-eating clouds of death.”
Agatha sighed as a response. This conversation was clearly way over her head.
"Juni! You're up," Alessi's voice resounded from behind us.
I turned around, spotting my sister, cousin, father and the other Amadea Princess.
"My cendai! The tribe is… nearly ready for relocation," my father announced, bowing his head slightly toward me. "From our calculations, it will take three trips for the hunters to carry all of the women and children around the Chasm to Lomb."
"So… everyone is on board? No issues?" I asked.
"There are indeed issues," Acadius sighed. "Some older chimera refuse to leave. I believe they're planning to form their own tribe to stay here. They reject your authority on the premise that you're too young and inexperienced to lead the tribe. They're led by an older female who was prominent in the meeting grove - the threat of force didn't seem to sway her."
"Take me to them," I exhaled.
My father nodded and I followed him to a large group of older-looking chimera that looked at me with hostility and concern in their eyes.
"Greetings!" I announced as I approached the disgruntled looking women and their hunters. "I was told there are chimera here who refuse to listen to the guidance of the tribe’s new arch-cendai?"
"How can you possibly be our new cendai?" A female chimera with a greying, blue, crystalline mane asked, stepping forward. "How can we know that humans didn't kill our old cendai to place you as our new ‘guide’?"
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"Were there not enough witnesses to my battle with Eunice?" I raised an eyebrow. "The humans I brought with me bow to me. I am their master."
"Eunice had many monwai," another older chimera declared. "She led us for a thousand generations! How could you have bested her on your own?!"
"You must have made a deal with the humans!" The silver-blue-maned one growled. "There is no doubt in my mind about it. How do we know that we won't be led to a slaughter, won't be made into pets or farm-beasts, collared upon arrival into subservience?"
"You know about farms?" I raised an eyebrow.
"My hunter saw human farms from afar," the approximately three-decades old chimera waved a hand at her husband. "I asked Eunice about it and got an explanation. She told us that if we ever reveal ourselves to humans they will hunt our men down and turn us into farm beasts!"
Other chimera gathered in the camp tilted their feline ears towards our conversation, listening in.
I frowned. She was right about one thing - I did rely on human magitek to bring down Eunice.
"What's your name and age, chimera?" I asked. “Do you have children?”
"I am Callionii," she replied. "I am thirty one winters old. I am a mother of seven!"
She looked very proud of her big family.
"What's your plan then? You wish to stay here without magical protection? You think another trained cendai will fall from the sky and save you from monsters?" I asked. "Eunice's body was vaporized into dust. The protection banners she empowered with her magic will fade now that she's gone and you'll become monster snacks."
"Urrm," Callionii frowned.
She clearly didn't plan this spontaneous rebellion very far ahead.
"Not only that," I said. "The village-protecting, anti-phantom barrier Eunice erected is gone too. It won't be long before one of you is critically injured and then the Astral Phantoms will get into your bodies, eat your loved ones and turn all of you into mindless ghouls. Is this the future you want for your children? Without magic the Chasm will devour you one by one!"
Callionii's frown deepened.
"Eunice taught me a lot," I said. "She was indeed a very powerful and ancient cendai. However, she made many mistakes over the centuries. Mistakes that accumulated beyond measure and led straight towards her downfall."
"What sort of mistakes?" Callionii inquired.
"She never cared for her tribe," I said. "She willingly sacrificed thousands of chimera to the Heart of the Twisted Forest."
"It's true," Alessi said. "I remember all of it with my chorus. There were thrice more of us before we crossed the Twisted Forest. Ten times more a hundred years before then. Twenty times more seven hundred years ago. With each decade less and less chimera remain. Eunice was keeping us docile and weak, weeding our numbers!"
"It wasn't enough for Eunice to live forever," I nodded. "She wanted to become a god - a monstrous, powerful abomination like the thing ruling the Twisted Forest. Century by century she devoured chimera souls, sapped at your strength. It wasn't enough for her to feed on chimera - she taught her monwai to feed on humans too!"
"It's true," Emerald declared. "My Mother is a chimera raised by Eunice possessing a human body! She feeds on human souls whenever she can and boasts about it!"
"Eunice planned to become a human god," I affirmed. "She was going to bind all of humanity with magical Vows into total subservience. Do you know why these human-chimera hybrids and humans serve me of their own free will, Callionii?"
The silver-blue chimera shook her head.
"Because humans aren't that different from us. They do not wish to be slaves," I said. "Eunice's master plan was to magically enslave everyone. The chimera that she could not pacify into inaction... she killed with the monsters she controlled or broke their minds with magic. Had I not stopped her - in a few centuries Eunice would turn humanity into obedient, magic-bound flesh puppets and then she would finish chimera off completely. As she fed on human belief more and more, she did not need chimera like you to exist at all, Callionii. This is why the chimera population has been going down with each season. Do tell me - if Eunice was such a wonderful leader, why has our tribe grown smaller and weaker over time? Ask your chorus - what does it tell you?"
Callionii gulped.
"I am not Eunice," I said. "I will not abuse my power to live forever and become a god. I acted differently from her other cendai from the start. Instead of eating human souls as prescribed by my Master, I collaborated, made friends with humans and human-chimera hybrids, made them into my allies, friends and... dedicated hunters that serve me!"
"I see," the silver-blue maned chimera said.
"You were right in your assessment," I said. "I borrowed a bit of human power to bring Eunice down, but they gave it to me willingly because Eunice made enemies of humanity. She feared and hated people instead of trying to understand them."
I stepped towards Callionii.
"I know that you're afraid of change," I said, offering a hand to her. "But I'm not like Eunice. I can hurt you with magic, force you into obedience with a pain ray... but I won't. I'm simply asking you to trust me."
"I heard you won't eat our souls at thirty three," the rebellious chimera said, staring at my hand. "You want us to sink into the cold embrace of the Still Forest instead?"
"No," I said. "I don't need your souls. I won't let you die from old age either. Technically there is an easy way to make chimera immortal."
"W-what?!" Callionii blinked. "How?"
"Alessi," I turned to my sister. "Strike a lovely pose and Still yourself fully!"
Alessi stood on her tiptoes, arched her body, lifted her non-broken hand up to the sky as if trying to grasp the sun and froze, crystalized. She stood there, as if suspended in time, not breathing, not moving a muscle, her heart stopped, her body completely and perfectly paused.
"See?" I waved my hand at Alessi. "All chimera can suspend, crystallize themselves indefinitely in this manner. It is our innate skill that we forgot millennia ago thanks to Eunice. Listen in with your sharp ears - my sister has no heartbeat! The blood in her veins does not move! Chimera are naturally immune to the ravages of time!"
Callionii and the rest of the rebellious chimera stared at the perfectly suspended Alessi, not believing their senses.
“Alessi will teach this forgotten skill to everyone, just as I have taught it to her! Once you get too old to take care of your hearth, you can simply begin to suspend yourself, turn into a crystal and awaken once every generation to check on your children's children. This way, you can meet your direct descendants and perhaps… guide them with some sagely, motherly advice!"
Callionii's mouth fell open.
"Truly?" She asked. "I can meet my children's children this way?"
"Yes," I nodded. "You can extend your life to ten thousand winters in this manner, guide a thousand generations of your descendants yourself!"
"This!" I turned to the throng of chimera surrounding me, waving my hands at the suspended body of Alessi. "This is the future that Eunice stole from all of you by consuming your souls at thirty three! You could have met your mothers’ mothers, talked to your elders in this manner - not as mere sparks in the chorus of memory, but here in the real world! All of you could have hugged your elders had Eunice not taken them from you!"
Gasps of indignation and angry growls resounded from all around me. I stood with my head raised high.
"Hail the arch-cendai Juni!" Isahcs bellowed, his bone-sword raised high into the air. "Hail the cendai that freed us from Eunice. Hail the girl-hunter who will teach us how to meet our descendants!"
Like a stone cast into a lake, his voice caused a ripple in the crowd. Hails resounded all around me, a brook, then a current, then an ocean wave that traveled around two thousand chimera.
I knew exactly what the tribe wanted and I struck at the hearts of their desires - to prolong their short lives, to create big, strong families. I had offered them exactly what they wanted, returned everything that Eunice had taken away from them long ago.
"Hail the arch-cendai Juni!" Callionii whispered, tears swelling up in her eyes. Her knees buckled as she bowed.
The camp moved, glittering with colorful crystal manes as chimera after chimera bowed to me.
Only one figure remained standing. She looked into my eyes with her amber-framed, dark violet slits. There was a smile on her face that matched mine almost perfectly.
"Hail, my little sunrise," my mother bowed to me, her eyes filled with pride.
Only I remained standing. The hidden tension that had been building in the air, finally released. There was still one concern left, though. One issue brought forward by Callionii. Something that could fester into future problems for me, unless resolved now.
"Stand up and face me, my hunters, hearth-keepers and children!" I ordered.
The tribe rose back up at my words.
"Eunice didn't care for you," I told the crowd, who had gathered at the broken cliffside. "But I do! I value all of you - your wisdom, your strength, your advice and your support! You aren't just souls that exist to extend my existence on Andross. Do you know why? Because I am already old enough! The truth is that I am not four winters old! I'm older than all of you, older than Eunice — the corrupt ex-arch-cendai who woke me from my millennia-long slumber! I am older than the mountain we stand on!"
"What? How can this be?!" Callionii gasped.
"In her greed for absolute power, Eunice reached deep into the Still Forest with her magic. She dug deeper than anyone had ever tried to, all the way down to the foundation of the Chasm! She found a truly arcane ghost there, stuck in a crystal gem - me!"
The silver-blue eyed chimera gaped at me.
"Yes," I nodded. "I am perhaps older than the Chasm itself! Wanting to know the truth about the past... Eunice brought me back to life to make me into a tool for her dark experiments. She wanted to use me to open a gateway to Inaria!"
I dramatically waved my hand at the infinite, dead world in the sky.
"However, she did not account for my ancient wisdom - did not think that I could simply make friends with the humans. Thanks to the aid of my human hunters, I broke free of her mind-control and destroyed her body!"
I glanced back at Voltara, Antoine, Anniya and Lambert standing around Galissi and the eyes of the chimera crowd followed mine, seeing the group of humans in a new light.
"The truth is that my battle with Eunice isn't over yet. Her broken, twisted soul might return to this world from the Still Forest as an Astral Phantom, but I will be here for you and defend you against her evil machinations. It took me a while to understand where I was when I woke up in a dragonskull of the current Tokimorimïtul as a newborn chimera. Know this - ALL of you are my tribe, my descendants, my future!"
Gasps resounded all around as I revealed the truth to all.
Chimera revered the Engrammatic chorus of memories, revered their ancestors, reached up to the soul-imprint-stars for answers daily. I was the oldest star of all, a ghost imprinted in Chernobylite, a shadow on a wall suspended in time by machine life that had forged and blighted the infinite city of Eureka.
"Older than the… Chasm? You're... the All-mother?" Callionii stared at me, her silver-blue eyes wide, an expression of absolute shock at my revelation.
I simply looked at her with a soft, knowing smile of an adult, without offering her an answer.
Callionii’s lips started to whisper a prayer, streaks of tears raining down her face.
"I am incredibly old, yes... but I was reborn here, grew up in Tokimorimïtul under the guidance of my new mother, Ambriia," I waved a hand at my mother. "I grew to love her, I grew to care for my new sister Alessi and her mother Belassi, a chimera broken by Eunice. Just like them, all of you are my tribe, my family and I swear to cherish each and respect every one of you! I bow to you as you have bowed to me - I swear to be your guide towards a brilliant future, towards the warmth of new hearths of vast families, towards the greatest hunt of all!"
I stared into the colorful eyes of my tribe and bowed to them just as they had bowed to me. The circuit was complete, the metaphorical key inserted and turned. In that instance, the cheers around me multiplied a hundredfold.
I had won their hearts, igniting the spark of their desires.
"Good luck trying to get the tribe back now, goddess," I thought sarcastically to my illusory nemesis as my ears rang from the resounding hails.