Jun snuck through his barrier on autopilot. He didn't really remember walking to where he stood or how much of the first part of the presentation was left before the barrier lifted and people would pour in, where he planned to personally present to the world his greatest masterpiece and his vision for the future.
He had felt that he had created something of significance that he could leave with the university that had given him so much before he moved on to the next chapter of his life. One that was bright and beautiful and filled with lots of babies.
His chest tightened.
This was... so.... painful. Jun couldn't breathe. He was feeling lightheaded, and bile kept threatening to make a scene.
Then he saw where he stood and what lay before him.
Although the Garden was beautiful and he was very pleased with it, in terms of effort, the most difficult had been the sculpture of his beloved. The crystal rune flora had been difficult to form at first, but once he'd worked out a proper work flow, along with his enhanced body, it had gone by surprisingly fast. As his proficiency increased with repetition, the faster he was and the more creative he had been. It was fun.
Desi was hard.
The original composition was easy. If there was one person Jun could easily visualize, it was the love of his life.
When they had first met, he had only just started learning what it meant to be in civilized society and had just begun his healing process with the help of Aunt Mary, who held him like he was her own child. Lily and lil Davie were constant companions that taught him how to be a kid, while Uncle Juan's few but sincere words showed him what a father was, which was a strange comfort.
But it wasn't until he met Desi that he had started becoming human again. She was like sunshine. She was warmth and happiness that Jun hadn't imagined possible after losing his light.
They were twelve, an age where the world was new and mysterious and adventures lied just beyond the horizon, but not for Jun. He had seen too much of the evils of the world at too young an age. But he'd been lucky.
The first people to offer a helping hand to Jun, who had less than nothing, were two families of angels and he'd met his soul mate before he knew what love was. She helped heal his wounds and became the center that had previously been torn out with his own hands.
With the feelings of love and gratitude to the universe, he carved. The first iteration was fast. It was beautiful. But it wasn't right. Something important wasn't captured correctly and Jun couldn't identify it.
So he tried again.
Desi's playful spirit got Jun to enter the world and learn to be social. Her generosity filled the void in his soul and then, years later, the night they made love for the first time, she made him feel whole again.
She was the one that brought Jun to art and sculpture and his first fan as an artist and encouraged him to chase his dreams. Her constant adoration gave him confidence in himself and only affirmed that she was his future. The year prior, when he had proposed a dream where the two of them formed a bond so tight that it would last a lifetime, she said yes.
He worked again, with the love and excitement of a new future he carved.
It was beautiful.
But again, it wasn't right.
So he tried again.
Desi and Jun had a lot of fun planning for the future. Wedding and honeymoon ideas led to career plans and where they would live and what kind of home, which led to more important considerations, like how many babies. She would laugh her twinkle that he loved so much as she'd tell him all the ideas for baby names and all the things they would experience together.
And then when she held Jun with trembling hands and told him she was pregnant.
That had been a joy bomb.
With the bursting love for the happy future family that was now guaranteed, he carved.
It was the best he had ever done.
But something still wasn't right.
He then concluded, with a tired sigh, that his overwhelming love for Desi wouldn't allow even his art to perfect what was already perfect. He was going to have to learn to be satisfied with having someone with a beauty that couldn't be replicated as the mother of his child. What a terrible hardship.
Thinking about what Nicole had told him, he knew what was missing from his sculptures of Desi.
He couldn't help but laugh a little weakly.
“Jun,” Nicole had said through repressed sobs. “Desi and Danny… they’re eloping...”
“....I'm sorry. What?”
“She sent me a message before disconnecting her com. She...sniff sniff... she said that Danny got an opportunity with the Vaults Family in Fortress city and that she's going to marry Danny and enter with him....”
“....where is she now?”
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“They already left. They might have already gone through the Gate.”
“...what about our baby? She can't go through the Gate with a baby... Nicole. Please answer me.” Jun asked in a small voice. Nicole was barely hanging on. She was so distraught while Tiana, who was supporting her from the side, was only a bit better. Through the numbness, he wondered with a twisted amusement what they were so upset about. It was his pain, wasn't it? He almost wanted to laugh.
“Jun... she said she… got rid of it.”
“…”
He understood the words. They weren't difficult words, but they didn't make sense.
Got rid of it? What was she talking about? She said it like she took out the trash. Not their child, right? That couldn't be right.
No matter how long he looked into those cold white stone eyes, he couldn't understand. His mind was a chaotic inferno of emotions, reflections, and questions, but as if fate were mocking him, he finally understood what was missing from this piece.
Doubt.
There were moments where Jun could see a layer of uncertainty in her cheerfulness and in her love, but he always attributed it to something happening at the time. Was that look for him?
For instance, the time he asked her to marry him, did she look as he had remembered?
The time she said she was pregnant... was she happy?
When was it, Jun wondered as he looked into the lie that gazed back at him, that she fell out of love?
How didn't he notice when he never stopped looking at her?
And with Danny?
His mentor?
His best friend?
His brother?
The one that had always stood by Jun's side?
But they had just spoken.
When had he contacted his mother's family? Did uncle know?
Jun felt himself losing it when some of his senses detected people were all around. He couldn't think about anything like presentations or the whispers that seems to know too much. He didn't care.
All he cared for was right in front of him, but just like the eyes that professed loyalty and love, it was a lie.
Did he hate Danny?
Did he hate Desi?
Was he capable of hating Desi?
Familiar voices murmured words he couldn't quite make out, but he recognized who stood behind him. Uncle Juan had finally made it, and his voice was filled with a soft strength as he comforted his Aunt Mary. They were hurting, too. He wasn't the only one that was left behind.
Jun took a step closer.
Desi and Danny were responsible for who he had become today.
A step closer.
Desi and Danny gave him a family that he had lost and allowed him to live a blessed life for ten years.
A step closer.
But Desi and Danny had left behind too many emotional debts. They all had to heal.
And their child... family... future........
He stood still. The girl, resting on her perch, leaned ever slightly forward where her longing gaze met hollow eyes.
A deep, tired sigh breathed out.
His right hand moved up slowly, to gently caress his lover's cheek one last time, but when his hand touched stone, there was a tremble in the air that was visible to the naked eye.
And then a lie disintegrated into dust.
Today he lost many things. The two of the most important people in his life were dead to him now. And one eagerly awaited laughter of new beginnings would never be heard. He mourned their loss.
Jun's outstretched hand was hard to withdraw. Though the image in his eyes was gone, the one in his heart was hard to set down.
“Don't be silly. She made her choice. Now we must live with it.” Jun chastised himself.
With that thought, Jun waved his hand and a great wind gushed and blew the stone dust into the trees.
The branches swayed in stress as chaotic choirs of twinkling crystal leaves shone with the light of runes that quickly purified the massive amounts of stone dust out of existence.
No traces were left behind. Another small voice in the back of his head mumbled how that wasn't a good thing to do. Secrets had been exposed.
But he didn't care.
Jun stared blankly at the now pristine void between the roots of the tree that he had spent hours designing and crafting.
Leaf by leaf, branch by branch, he had crafted it with custom rune-smith tools to process materials and then inscribed enough runes to classify it as a masterpiece of basic rune mastery.
Everything had been designed to be child friendly through the use of durability and softness runes. He wanted her to enjoy this garden with him alongside their child that was on the way to meet them. It was all for them. He was so excited to meet em...
Now it wasn't for her. It wasn't for a family that had its future clipped.
It was for.....
Jun closed his eyes as he thought of a face.
A face that was getting harder to remember with time. The most beautiful smile was fading from his mind.
But when he stilled his heart and thought of those few precious moments that the world gave them to be together... he could hear her laugh.
And if he could hear her laugh, he could hear her sing.
And if he could hear her sing, he could almost.... just almost remember how it felt when she held him.
She smelled like home.
And if he could bring it all together.... he could see her smile...
Lost in a trance of emotions, Jun didn't hear the growing astonishment around him. He had revealed a peek of a truth he'd long promised to keep till he was ready.
It was probably fine.
Without opening his eyes or removing his focus, he gave a second flourish. A complex weave of runes glowed below his right eye and a crack in space formed with an audible snap that could be felt in the air. A black abyss widened its jagged maw and a giant block of natural stone towered where once there was nothing.
The soft voice in the back of his mind felt like he should care that he did that.
It was probably fine.
All that existed for Jun was the image in his mind and all the love he knew she wanted to love him with. Of his many doubts, his mother's love was never one.
Crack
Crack
Two smaller cracks formed above Jun's outstretched hands as familiar tools fell into his grasp, completing him.
A love so strong that it transcended death for her to deliver a final, painful gift for her child.
Tap
A hammer hit a chisel and a stone's shape was changed. The first tap silenced the agitated crowd.
Tap
The second tap resounded in the silence and was felt in their core.
Tap
The third tap resonated with their hearts and they became captives to the hammer's cry.
Tap
Tap
Tap
Hammer met chisel, and an artist conversed with his canvass. Stone constantly crumbled, sometimes
in chunks and others as dust.
Tap
Tap
Tap
Jun let go of everything and just rode the waves of memories of the one that taught him what love was. It had been his first lesson.
Tap
Tap
Tap
Life had been about surviving the day and worrying about tomorrow, tomorrow.
Tap
Tap
Tap
The constant dance of life and death had been his daily routine, as was existing beyond even the Fortress's eyes.
Tap
Tap
Tap
But the first lesson that was taught from the day of his birth was that his mother loved him.
Tap
Tap
Tap
The way she smiled every time she looked at him, no matter her great sacrifices, told him how much.
Tap
Tap
Tap
Enough to come back from death’s grasp.
Tap
Tap
Tap
Even if it was for only a while.
Tap
Tap
Tap
She never stopped loving him.
Tap
Tap
Tap
That was a mother's love.
Tap
Tap
...Tap
It was when Jun made his final mark that he realized that the world was on fire.