49

The armor stands and walks away, leaving without even a parting glance at Sion, still frustrated at his own weakness on the ground. With the armor gone, the motes of light crowd around Sion once more, now undaunted. He can barely hear his own thoughts with the flood of voices.

“Sion, are you okay!?”

“Be okay, Sion!”

“It’s alright, Sion!”

“We still love you, Sion!”

With all of them comforting him, Sion cannot find it in himself to continue wallowing. A slight smile on his face streaked with tears, he flips himself over and lies on the grass. For a while, he remains silent, watching the cloudless, unchanging sky.

“Thank you. You protected me too.” The motes seem happy.

“Of course!”

“It was scary!”

“He’s even scarier now!”

“That armor, is it really Ausus? He’s the man who protected Cenit, right?”

“He is!”

“Her daddy!”

“Even though we met her first!” Sion seems confused.

“Ausus was her father?”

“That’s what Cenit said!”

“She taught us that!”

“That’s what she told us about Ausus after they met!”

“That a daddy is somebody like Ausus!” Sion nods his head.

“I see. But is that armor really him? He seemed different when I saw him in the past.”

“We don’t know!”

“He showed up when we lost control of the spire!”

“He’s been protecting it, just like Ausus did!”

“And he didn’t hurt you!”

“He must’ve thought you were Cenit too!”

“I suppose I was lucky, then.” Sion sits up slowly, the motes of light making way as he moves. “Well, I can’t stay moping around here. I guess it’s time for me to leave.” The motes of light seem startled.

“Don’t leave us!”

“We don’t want to be alone!”

“Take us with you!” Sion smiles.

“Alright. Let’s go then.” Sion stands up and begins to walk, the parade of lights trailing after him. “Well, if you’re all going to be staying with me, is it alright if you’re not always this bright? I’m afraid that it might get in the way of reading and sleeping if you’re always glowing like this.”

“Okay!”

“Whether we’re shining or not, the most important thing is that we’re together!” The motes of lights dim themselves, only slightly discoloring Sion’s pale skin as they pass close by it.

“Thank you. Actually, if we’re going to be together from now on, then I should probably know what you are, shouldn’t I?”

“We’re spirits!”

“That’s what Cenit called us!” Sion laughs at the reveal.

“Is that it? Well, not that it really matters. Let’s go, spirits.”

Sion isn’t quite surprised at the revelation. The friends of the one loved by the gods should be just as remarkable, after all. But he had seen so many legendary things in such a short time that they barely even register anymore.

The spirits are the oldest beings of this world. The gods created the heavens out of chaos and resided there, and it was only after that they would create the world. To inhabit this world, before humanity, before the rich vegetation, before the smallest bacteria, the gods created the spirits. Crafted to be of their same nature, the spirits are pure energy given form. The energy they left behind was magic in its purest form, and it was only after this that the gods began to populate the world with material beings.

Sion knows all this, of course. This was one of the rudimentary lessons given to him by Father Cynde. Although he ought to be in awe, Sion can barely care. If they had the sort of presence you might expect of such ancient beings, then perhaps Sion would have seen it differently. However, they have no such presence. Sion no longer has the energy to care about such a thing. All that matters is that these spirits, the kind and energetic motes of light, are his friends.

At this, Sion’s mind shifts to his other friends. He’s tired now. He wants to see them. And he needs to know that they are okay. From how he spoke, it seems that Hyrtan had already attacked them. Sion figures that for him to be at the Spire rather than a battlefield, and for him to have blood streaking from an empty socket, he must have lost. However, given what he knows about the others in attendance to today, Sion also presumes that the injury was caused by Rebello, as the only other one he can imagine tearing out Hyrtan’s eye is Scima, who would have left a slash wound. In that case, Sion cannot know whether Anima, Scima, and Eva are okay. All he can know is that Rebello repelled Hyrtan.

Sion hefts his exhausted body over the fence with a clean jump. As he looks at the fence from the other side, he realizes that it was probably to keep people from entering Ausus’ territory. In that case, Sion again had his life saved by luck. But at that same time, though the outcome is not exactly what he would have wanted, Sion has stopped the experiments performed by Hyrtan. In that case, he figures, it was perhaps better that he did not know that he should have died, because it meant he had no fear and could put an end to things one step faster.

At the end of the day, Sion did good. He decides to believe that. And as he looks to the sky once more, he resolves yet again to get stronger. Strong enough to protect what he wants to protect. Strong enough to reach out to the ones right in front of him. Strong enough to live true to himself.

Sion looks around. Though he’s quite certain that he returned to where he came from, he cannot see Kreteo anywhere. Kreteo seemed to be stoic, so Sion does not question why he would leave without a goodbye. And aside from that, Sion knows that Kreteo has a place he is supposed to be, a place he has been forced away from for far too long. Sion doesn’t feel sad about their parting at all. He knows that as long as they exist beneath the same sky, they are connected. And as such it is only a matter of time before they meet again.

Sion spots Tenka running towards him. Sion begins to walk to meet him. When they meet, Tenka seems relieved.

“Sion, where were you? I was told by Sir Faegen to bring you to the rest of us.” Sion, having already realized the bizarre string of coincidences that led to this result, decides to hide the truth.

“I was following after Hyrtan. I defeated him. It’s over now.” Tenka, ever clever, picks up on the fact that Sion is hiding something.

“I see. That is good.”

“Is everybody else alright?”

“I wonder… Anima seemed to be mostly fine physically, but she still received some minor injuries. Scima is barely conscious, but he ought to recover quickly. Eva seemed perfectly fine.”

“That’s a relief. I got attacked by one of Hyrtan’s men, so I was a little worried.”

“Are you okay, Sion?”

“Yeah. He broke some of my ribs, but it’s fine.”

“That cannot be right. But really, how much of a kind-hearted fool can you be? To be so worried about others when you are the most hurt out of us.”

“It’s fine, isn’t it? This isn’t even that serious of an injury.”

“It is, but there is no reason for us to argue about this. Let us return to the others.”

“Yeah. That’s right.”

Sion, the spirits floating around him, barely visible, begins to walk forward. Each step is firm, another step towards his friends and the place where he ought to belong.