Esca And The Soul Stone

Some time later, after a slow walk through the winding paths, Sayane and Azag were at the edge of the encampment, facing an enormous scrap yard.

Colossal airships, once so proud and untethered, now lay crumpled on the ground, reduced to smoldering, shredded wastes. Most hulls had been hollowed out already, as Revolution members retrieved chunks of usable metal and crystal to reinforce whatever vessels remained. Captured Silence artillery and gunships hummed in slumber as their systems were slowly retrofitted to more honorable purposes. Sounds of labor and mechanical stripping danced between panels as the soft taps of Azag’s walking canes intermingled with their calls.

Azag was moving slowly, but with intention. Sayane sensed he had a destination. As they walked, Sayane noticed he was still flinching and tensing from strain.

“Is the pain any better?” she asked.

He paused, and she wondered if he was debating lying. But then he spoke truthfully.

“No. It’s quite draining. Worse than I’m used to. I’ll survive, though.”

Sayane frowned but did not press the matter. For now, she wanted him to be able to focus on his trek towards whatever awaited them.

Soon, they neared a grove of crystalline shards and strange craft Sayane could not place. Chunks jutted out from piles taller than her as unusual metalworks and gearboxes piled on themselves. There was no order to things here, as though the Revolution didn’t know what to do with them.

“Ah! Perfect!” Azag said.

Sayane looked up and gasped at a sight she thought she’d never see again.

There before them, broken and covered in dust, was what remained of Esca. Her massive hand was still there, still outstretched. Plates were missing from the fingers, and her chestplate was completely gone. Wiring and glowing cables hung like severed arteries.

“Your baby…” Sayane sighed as she reached out to touch the familiar gunmetal.

Azag didn’t speak. Instead, he slowly moved towards the former pilot chamber that was now crumpled in on itself. Her horned, domed headpiece was snapped in two, with the glowing monolens of her eye already removed or lost. Azag slowly removed his glove and then allowed himself to touch the plating. Rough, bent palms grazed along smoothed, bent panels.

“I made sure the engineers found her. I wanted to retrieve her soul stone so that she could rest. I was afraid someone might find it and try to awaken her. She deserves the slumber,” Azag said as he looked at his reflection in the scuffed glazing along her shoulder.

Sayane found herself longing to climb into the massive hand one last time. Those rigid machina digits had saved her and held her so many times; it was daunting to imagine a future without them.

“Will you build a new machina?” Sayane asked.

“I don’t know,” Azag pondered.

“I needed Esca to survive. But things are so different now, I’m not sure that’s necessary. For now, I don’t think so.”

He made his way to her back, partially disappearing from Sayane’s view as she succumbed to sitting in the broad palm for goodbye.

“Thank you for always holding me, Esca,” Sayane whispered.

Clinks chimed and metal shifted as Azag stepped back. When he returned to view, he was holding a smoothed cylindrical shard as large as Sayane’s hand. Calming green and turquoise light pulsed within its glistening body.

“Soul stone?” Sayane asked.

Azag nodded.

“Part of mine. You can imbue certain crystals with a piece of your essence. Similar to how The Silence binds weapons to individuals. I found this stone in a black market and used it to bring her to life after she’d been cast away. It’s how we were able to sync. It may have been me, but I also think it became hers as well.”

Wonder flowed as Sayane admired the visual representation of her love’s soul. There was a gentle, tragic glow to it that immediately felt like his voice. Tiny flecks of glowing cyan glittered and swirled like sparkles in water, and Sayane could see his eyes in them. Without meaning to, she slowly reached for the stone. Azag understood and held it out to her.

“May I?” Sayane asked.

This was the sort of moment she wished his temporary mask were more transparent. As she looked for his eyes, she only saw muted hints of the beautiful light that was hidden beneath. For Azag, this concept might have been simple or commonplace. Indeed, The Silence had leveraged such wonder to make its myriad weapons more ruthless. But for Sayane, the ethereal from a magic-less world like Earth, the idea of being able to see one’s soul or the soul of a loved one was beyond fascinating. She’d felt his soul in the touch of his fingers, in the warmth of his embrace, and the soft scrapes along the edges of his words, but she’d never known it like this.

Knowing it was his essence that was holding her all those times only made her fall further into the depths of his beautiful soul. She prayed she would never leave.

Fingertips met crystal, and the tears returned. Fear and doubt faded from her mind, and the tranquil sensation of safety permeated her being. So many infinite possibilities of existence stood before her as she contemplated how many multitudes of reality there may have been. This was already so far beyond anything she could have ever imagined. Yet somehow, through that, so many iterations and interruptions overlapped so that she could meet this wondrous, nurturing, wounded, protective spirit.

His thumb caught a tear as it streaked along her cheek.

“I’m sorry, I cry so much,” Sayane snorted.

“I think it’s beautiful,” Azag replied.

The soul stone shone slightly more radiantly for a moment.

“So are you,” Sayane replied.

Neither said it aloud, but they were not ready to return to the encampment yet. For a single moment, they were alone with Esca once again. So they sat down in her hand and faced the sky together.

The afternoon moved from mid-day to evening, and dusk arrived with the softened stillness of a memory already beginning to fade.

Light poured across the plains, gold at first but stranger underneath. Pale violets and electric blues threaded the vermillion clouds as pink light hung in the air like mist. Distant shards jutted from the ground like enormous translucent splinters that caught the light and fractured it into wandering geometries that littered the ground with soft, ghostly remembrances.

Sayane watched as traces of light bent and stretched in irregular movements as the aerial ribbons of light moved above them and cast their splendor down onto Esca’s warped frame. All the while, her hands held the soul stone like it was a sacred offering.

Far away, somewhere beyond the visible ridge, a low resonant hum sang out as winds moved through the crystal ranges and the world exhaled. The sound drifted across the landscape and settled in Sayane’s chest. For once, it felt like someone was singing to her. Her shoulder met Azag’s, and in that shining second, she felt a peace that she hoped might never fade.