The Light

Sybille rendezvoused with the surviving soldiers, out in the range of mountains spared by the devastation of the explosion of the Stone Colossus.

“You made it, Sybie!” said Leona. “But hey! Where is Bastion? Is he still in that tower?”

Sybille landed.

“He is looking for his body,” she said. “His original one.”

“I pray to Iona that he survives,” said Count Victor. “The tower is just about to…”

The mage tower crumbled.

It cracked with a ferocious echo striking through the range and went falling down into itself.

From the height of the tower, I broke through the wall. I leapt across the air, carrying a soulless human body wrapped with cloth on my shoulder, and landed before the gathering of soldiers. The crumbling ruin of the tower raised debris and dust, but little of it came to reach any of them.

“Bastion!” said Sybille. “You found it!”

“I did,” I said.

I laid down the body on the ground. When Sybille came close to see it, however, she raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“Bastion…” said Sybille. “Is that your body?”

“...”

“No? But then whose is… no. No, you didn’t.”

She stared at me with horror.

“Bastion…” added Leona. “You are not serious. If this is not your body, it can only be one other person’s. After all that he has done… WHY?!”

“I too, find this insanity,” said Count Victor. “Explain yourself. Now.”

I looked down at the comatose body lying on the ground.

“He never wanted any of this either,” I said. “I could have very easily become just like him. At the end of the day, he is just another victim of that man.”

Leona closed her eyes, then turned away.

“Bastion,” said Sybille. “What are you going to do with this?”

“The rune you had made,” I said. “Can it still catch a drifting soul?”

Siege had been destroyed by the explosion. I had no doubt that there was nothing left of his body to recover. However, souls in this world remained lingering on for a brief moment before they could cross to the afterlife… if it was still around, then there was still a small chance of this working.

“It can,” said Sybille. “But are you sure?”

“Sybille!” said Leona.

“It can’t be helped!” said Sybille. “I have seen the mind control runes that Master Croghan had put on Bastion before. It is a miracle he was even able to break free before… Bastion is right. This man… he was just another victim.”

Leona scoffed.

“I hate this,” she said. “But I will trust you.”

Sybille produced a scroll out from her back. She laid it out across the floor, in front of the body, and revealed a detailed schematic of a soul transferring rune. With that ready, she put it on the body’s chest and chanted her spell.

“Lost soul, return to this plane,” she muttered. “Born in a place of elsewhere, now astray in this world unknown. From one plane to another, we call for you, for a place where you may find a home. Let it be so… Soul Restoration!”

The rune glowed and burst out with a cloud of gray smoke.

Then, a gasp of air came from the once comatose body.

“Where…” said the body. “What happened? Bastion?”

The cloud dissipated, and now, the man was awake. I went down to my knee to get on eye-level with him.

“The Divine Scions had brought you to this world for a reason,” I said. “We are giving you back that reason. Look at your hands. Tell me what you are.”

The man trembled as he gazed down at his hands.

Tears came welling into his eyes.

“I… I am me,” he said.

“You are,” I said. “What is your name?”

“Konrad,” said the man. “My name is Konrad.”

“Then you will live with that name in this world,” I said. “You are not Siege any longer.”

“Then…” he said. “What am I going to do?”

“Join us. You will make a fine adventurer. I know for a fact you can throw one hell of a punch.”

Konrad closed his eyes.

“I am thankful, Bastion,” he said. “I… I will have to consider it.”

Sybille handed the man a piece of bread, then pulled me over towards a corner in the space.

“Bastion,” she said. “You lost your one chance at recovering your human body. With what happened to the tower… I don’t think there is anything left of it to salvage.”

“I know,” I said. “I didn’t want it.”

“What?” said Sybille. “Why not?”

“I have grown used to this body,” I said. “I can breathe. I can smell. I can taste. There are some things I still cannot do, but I still like it. I will be able to help more people with what I have now, rather than with a body of flesh and blood. That is what I think. I am Bastion now. Joseph Kraft is now just a man of the past. That is what I now realize.”

Sybille looked down at the ground. Tears were mustering in her eyes.

“Bastion…” she said.

“What is it?”

There was something bothering her. It was not something new. Rather, something that she had been welling inside her for a long time.

Sybille gulped.

“When we were transferring your soul into this body,” she said, “it was not easy. You were screaming. It was hurting you. Yet, Master Croghan just laughed when I said we should stop. I… I could not do one thing about it. You were so hurt. It was torture. After everything was done, you almost went on a rampage. That is why Master Croghan sealed you inside a wall, the one where you first woke up. Even when you calmed down, you were catatonic. I could not bear to see what we had done to you. So, I… I erased your memories of that day. I just did it. I did not even ask if it was okay. I just did it. I thought I could make things right… I hoped that maybe, someday, I could help you gain a human body once more to make amends. If you are comfortable with the way you are now, I am glad… but tell me, was I wrong? Did I make things worse? Did I…”

I held her. I held her into me, as gently as I could.

“You saved me,” I told her. “That day… I remember some of it, from time to time. I have chalked it up to bad dreams, but even if they are real memories, I want them to stay that way. I could have asked you to erase those memories from me if you hadn’t, even.”

Sybille embraced me back.

“Bastion…” she said. “I am sorry. For everything. Just for everything, I am so sorry. For all my mistakes…”

Truth being told, I was not entirely happy knowing that my memories had been tampered with. However, knowing why that happened… I was kind of glad it happened. Probably it was not ideal, but it was what it was.

Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe it was not.

“Mistake or not,” I said, “we will deal with it. Together.”

Sybille smiled and pressed her head against my chest.

“Let’s,” she said. “Let’s do that. Okay?”