“I have been asleep for how long?” Dad shouted in surprise. He hid his head in his hands as he collapsed in a nearby chair. “It only felt as if I closed my eyes for a minute.”
“Do you remember anything from when you were asleep?” I asked.
Dad rubbed his head hesitantly. “I… remember colors, a sea of bright swirling colors. It’s difficult to describe but it felt so… overwhelming.”
I placed my hand on Dad’s shoulder in comfort. “I can explain what happened to you in detail.”
Dad nodded. “I would like that, but first I think it is more important that I understand all that transpired while I was asleep. Why are we back at the army encampment and why is there no fighting.”
“Oh, do we have a story to tell you!” Charly said excitedly.
I smiled as Charly explained all that had happened this past week in great detail. He talked about how we killed the Demon that injured Mom as well as the fall of Berith. He told him about the army’s preparation to march into the blood mist and the threats we would soon face.
Dad’s hands clenched into fists as he learned of the Leviathan and of how we would have to face both it and Envy directly if we wanted to save this land. He stood up. He looked over at my mom and closed his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he straightened his back. “I have spent enough time lazing around. I need to find General Arthur and assist in the preparations. Look after your mom for me, ok Charly?”
Charly nodded somberly. “There is not much I can do about her injuries but I will make sure she is not in pain.”
“That is all I can ask for,” Dad said as firm steel filled his gaze, “We will retake Ater-Albus and get her the help she needs. No Demon or beast will stand in my way.”
I followed Dad as he marched out of the room. I was surprised and worried by the determined look in his eyes. “What are you planning?”
He looked at me and smiled. “I remember the moment I fell asleep clearly. It is as if that moment was forever etched into my mind. Making such a massive glyph without the use of Demonkin blood should be impossible but I did it… and I think I can do it again.”
“Hold up!” I shouted, “We only just got you back. There was a good chance that you would never be able to return to us. There is no way I am going to let you risk your life like that again.”
Dad reached out and ruffled my hair. “Relax, I am not going to do anything risky. However, an entire army marching into the blood mist will take an extravagant number of resources. If I can recreate such a massive glyph again but this time as a protection glyph, I might be able to cover the entire army. If I succeed, we will be able to march on the capital without stretching thin our few soldiers capable of using glyphs. Before that though, I need to do a few experiments to make sure my theories are correct. Only then will I try a large-scale glyph again. General Arthur is just as skilled with glyphs as I am, if not more so. He should be able to help me devise what we need.”
“The void you were drawing energy from is not that simple,” I tried to explain, “Even I am not confident in how it works. I don’t want anything else happening to you, Dad.”
“I promise I will be careful,” Dad said. Without looking back, his large strides carried him out of Dragon's Nest. I was left behind, looking at his back as he walked out.
I looked down at the floor. An internal war raged in my mind. On the one hand, I wanted to keep my dad safe. On the other hand, I could understand Dad’s reasoning. He wanted to do everything in his power to help Mom as quickly as possible.
I remembered the tips I was told while within that sea of colors. They did not answer even a fraction of the questions that still plagued my mind about the strange place but if Dad was really determined to experiment on his own, they could help him.
I turned back to the library in Dragon’s Nest. I would write down everything I had learned in a concise manner. That way, it might not be as dangerous for Dad or anyone else that might one day find their way into that void.
Sitting at one of the desks, I began to organize my thoughts and write my experiences down. I did not want to miss a single word said by Mare’s original. I may not know much about the void, but it was clear she knew more than I could even fathom. I wrote down each and every phrase exactly as I heard it, careful to keep the words as close to the same as I could remember. After all, it was sometimes the most innocuous comment that held the deepest meaning and I did not want to miss anything. It took several hours for me to organize everything I had been told into a coherent lesson.
My hand started to cramp and I leaned back in my chair. Looking up at the ceiling, I let out a long sigh. “This would be so much easier if I had my Chronicle.”
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As I stretched, I felt something sharp poke my leg through the cloth of my pants. Frowning in confusion, I reached into what should have been an empty pocket to pull out the offending item.
I stared blankly as a crystal the size of my finger rolled across my open palm. The crystal glowed with a vibrant purple light, more brilliant than anything I ever found in nature. It was a very familiar purple light…
“How did this end up in my pocket?” I asked in bewilderment, “Does it have something to do with the sea of energy?” I looked around the empty room for a moment before shouting at a blank wall. “Mare, are you there? Can you hear me?”
The walls pulsed with purple light identical to the glow of the crystal in my hand. “I can hear you just fine. There is no reason to scream, shorty.”
“Can you tell me what this is?” I asked, holding up the crystal.
“What are you talking about? You are not holding anything.” Mare replied with a lazy sigh.
“You can’t see it?” I remarked in surprise. I then remembered back to the rift stone I had once had in my possession. Mare could not see that either. She said it was because the stone was made of the same material as the walls. Was this crystal the same?
“Can’t see what?” Mare said with obvious irritation, “If this is a joke, it is not a very good one, shorty. It might finally be time for us to get your head checked. I think you might have fallen on it one too many times.”
“No, listen. Delved into the void of the realm and I met a part of your original today. Now, after I am back, I find a strange crystal in my pocket. It is the same color as when you control Dragon’s Nest and the same color she radiated.”
Mare fell silent for several seconds before finally responding. “Did you tell her I used the name Mare?”
“Yes, she almost crushed me when I said it. Is that name important to you and her?”
“I… No. It is not important. Bring the crystal to the core room. If one of my shadows gave it to you, I should be able to see it clearly there and tell you what it is.”
I nodded and started walking towards the core of the floating island. “So, how did she get the crystal into my pocket if she did not have a physical body?”
“Did she flood your spirit with energy at any point after learning who you were?” Mare asked.
I thought back to my conversation with the shadow. “Yes, when she created a body for me. It felt like lightning was rushing through every part of my soul.”
“That is when the crystal was put there,” Mare responded, “It's simple to do if you are skilled enough. Depending on what type of energy was used to create the crystal, they can have a wide variety of applications. I mostly used them to play tricks on people. You can set the crystals to explode after a certain amount of time has passed, quite literally blowing the pants off people. It was hilarious.”
“You are worse than Esther of the Calamities,” I mumbled, “Wait, this one is not going to explode in my hand, right?”
Mare hesitated for a moment. “… Probably not.”
“What do you mean probably? I would rather not have my hand blown off as part of some joke gone wrong.” I complained.
“Don’t worry about it. I am ninety-nine… ninety-five percent sure it is not going to explode…” Mare said with far less certainty than I would have liked. “On second thought, maybe you should walk a little faster.”
I hurried to the core room, dreading the crystal might explode at any moment. Luckily, it never happened. I made it to the core without incident. I gave a sigh of relief and quickly set the crystal down on the pedestal in the center of the room, only a few inches under the floating core.
“It’s your problem now!” I shouted in relief.
“Some friend you are, shorty,” Mare mumbled, “Give me a minute and I will see what this thing is.”
I nodded and moved away from the pedestal, just to be safe. As I waited, I looked at the murals that decorated the walls of the core room, detailing the rise of Dragon’s Nest. I had a good look at them back when Donte first activated the floating island but I had not cared much about it since then. Now that I knew a bit more about Mare and the girl she was copied from, I saw the murals in a different light. I ran my hand across the hacked-up slash marks that completely destroyed any image of the girl. How much must they have hated her to destroy her image so completely?
I soon found myself looking at the other seven figures in the mural. What had happened to them? The Preateritum may have destroyed their records in every archeological find we made but people at the level of power I had seen from Mare and her original should not have been insignificant figures. Even without written records, some sign of who they were should still exist. I admit, I am no expert in Preateritum history but I was not completely clueless either. As an Ace of the Thirteen Divisions and a member of the Aevus family, I had access to information the general public would never know, and yet I had never heard of any of them.
I was broken from my thoughts as the lights in the room suddenly dimmed. I looked over at the core and the small crystal I set by it.
Joyous laughter echoed through the room. “Hahahaha! This is better than I could have ever dreamed! How many centuries did that shadow spend to create this?”
“Mare, what is it?” I asked but even as I spoke, the crystal on the pedestal started to melt like ice. I instantly felt a wave of power that forced me to my knees. It felt as if my organs were being crushed. Power stronger than Sebastion, Svend, and Vissna combined swirled through the room. My domain was powerless to resist. A hurricane of energy smashed into my body, causing me to cough up a mouthful of blood. I collapsed to the ground, unable to move. My body felt as if the weight of a continent was weight down on my head.
I could do nothing but lay on the ground as the cyclone of energy raged around me but as bad as the cyclone was, it was only a drop in the ocean compared to the power I felt radiating from the now liquid crystal.
I watched as the liquid swirled around the core, absorbing into it like a sponge. Within just a few seconds, all the liquid vanished from view and all the energy swirling around the room with it. With the last drop of the energy absorbed, the entire building of Dragon’s Nest began to chime like a ringing bell.