Past the Shattered Sky

Kyr’s eyes were... pulsating. 

He saw. So much. 

What was this? It was like staring at the sun.

No.

No, make it stop!

“Aaagghhhhh!”

He felt Leatrix and Nowe hold him by the shoulders. He was on his knees and his body trembled and burned.

He saw his makeshift hat fall before him. His forehead cracked open... and he saw.

The world beyond the sky. A realm different from their own. A place of eternal light. It had clouds that billowed in red and yellow, rivers that flowed upwards, and the people… the people lived and breathed mana. It poured out of their eyes and mouths like white fire. Not all of them had wings, but those that did soared across an endless sky of ash.

In the middle of that sky wasn’t the sun. It was a blue rock that barely hung on, surrounded by cracks of red.

Was that the world they lived in?

Kyr breathed a large gulp of air. Suddenly he was back in the cavern beneath the spire. The others surrounded him with horrified expressions.

“What’s… going on…” he managed to say.

Leatrix clenched his hand and shoulder tightly. “Your third eye, Kyr,” she said. “Just like that time outside of Serenti Prison. Remember? We talked about it.”

“You were fine then,” Cinza followed. “You will be fine now. Just relax. Your mana is agitated.”

Third eye…

Right, his horn. It opens. His head did feel lighter. And his vision… was this the reason he didn’t need glasses anymore? He could see every detail of every ruby that lined the walls if he wanted to. This was too much.

More than that, he could see mana all around him. Even past the onyx-infused walls. He could see it in the land, above them into the open sky, everywhere.

He remembered vaguely feeling the same way when he fought those reaper knights. At the time he was blinded by rage until the memory of Aven saved him. 

The memory of Aven...

“Come on, sorcerer,” Aven said. “We all have our quirks. Morick’s the most resilient. Vysa’s the most adaptable. Radon’s the best looking, I guess. Jessa’s the kindest. And I’m the most charming! As for you... you're the smartest of us. Not the cleverest, mind you, but you passed all those exams in the academy. You know what you’re doing. You got this.”

Aven said the words in this exact spire. Kyr made solving the puzzle upstairs look easy, but the first time definitely wasn’t.

“I can stand,” he said.

Kyr nodded to Leatrix, then did as he said.

“What happened to you…” Vysa whispered in awe.

“Are you still Kyr?” Roy asked as he stepped closer to him. He waved his hand over his forehead. “Can you see this?”

“I can,” he replied. “And I am, Roy. You have way more mana than you let on. I see you’ve mastered the art of compression. Even I struggle with that.”

Roy blushed. “Well, I gotta get ahead somehow, you know?”

Kyr looked around. Everyone had mana in their bodies. Even those who never used them.

He always thought he was a master at sensing mana, but he’d never seen them so precisely in others before. They were like grains of sand, pulsing with every breath they take and every little move they made.

This was a dangerous power.

If he could see this much mana, did that mean he could control it too? Swing people around like puppets?

What was that other name the warden gave him? He had so many. Was it Dark Sorcerer? It was more pretentious than terrifying, but if he could control this power... it could easily lead him down that path.

But who or what gave him this ability?

“The wings on your forehead,” Cinza said. “Don’t you think its similar to that giant?”

Everyone finally tore their gaze away from Kyr and back to the creature they all came for.

Wings were a common enough picture across Vastille. From the sacred order’s bird to old paintings and iconographies. Heck, even the cover of the key’s spire had them. It was probably why Leatrix found it interesting the spire itself didn’t have the damned things.

“I take it you’re all familiar with the legend?” Kyr asked. “It’s what you think it is. It’s real. They’re real.”

“This doesn’t look very benevolent now, does it?” Nowe said, lowering her head as if ashamed. “Our ancestors were given magic, but… we’re supposed protect that gift. Spread it to everyone.”

“Not everyone,” Roy whispered. His home of Deera had the least channels of mana in the land. Today it was nothing more than an empty desert.

For what it was worth, Vastille welcomed foreigners all across Feonas to study in its kingdom. It was because of the Benevolence Creed they remained open and in most cases indiscriminate.

As for the land itself… could they control how mana spread? That was just nature, wasn't it?

“Why kill it?” Leatrix said under her breath. “Does this have anything to do with the apocalypse?”

“Hard to say,” Nowe replied. “If the carvings are true, then they’ve built this tower nearly a thousand years ago. The exact time is lost to us.”

“If we believe the legend, then the winged giants came to Vastille to help us fight the great evil,” Leatrix said as she paced, fiddling with her hat. “The Specter as some stories claimed. After we won, we were tasked as stewards. They gave us the towers to call them again if evil ever returned.”

“The sacred rites,” Cinza said.

“Right. And now evil returned. It shattered the sky, summoned great beasts and poisoned the land.”

“So Aven, and now Ilara, performed said rites,” Nowe continued. “With one tower left. But why is there a dead giant? I assume it’s the same in every spire, but how is that calling them?”

“That’s what I wanted to learn by coming here,” Leatrix said. “But I don’t know if I can just go over there and examine its body. Or know how the tower itself works.”

“In the end it all comes back to that missing codex,” Nowe observed. “That’s the key and its tied to the hero. It’s what calls the winged giants, isn’t it? If I were to guess, having a new codex is the reason the rites had to be performed again in the first spire. But if what Ilara has is an imitation, then who knows if the apocalypse will stop after she was done with the final spire.”

“What if we freed that thing?” Roy asked. “I know it's dead, but if the giants are supposed to help us, then maybe we should help their friend rest in peace or something.”

Kyr blinked at that. An interesting thought.

But there was a reason they pinned the giant beneath the tower. Was it the Specter? That did not make sense.

Still, Kyr could relate to wanting freedom. Even if the giant was already dead, he could…

Wait a minute.

Mana. The giant’s body still had mana inside it. It was faint, but with his third eye, he could see—

Suddenly, a jolt of lightning circled around his skull.

His vision changed again to see beyond the skies. In that other realm with yellow and red clouds. But it was a slightly different place. Directly to his left was a tall architecture with many pillars and golden walls. Like a temple of sorts. To his right, people gathered in droves, staring at him with eyes of burning ivory. 

Why was he seeing this?

Why—

That’s when Kyr realized something. His actual set of eyes were still back on land. If he focused, he could see the cavern simultaneously. The others all turned to him in worry.

Leatrix was shouting something.

“Kyr? Can you hear me? What happened?”

“I… I can see…” he managed to say. “My third eye sees… where they came from…”

“They?” Roy asked in worry. “The giant?”

Another sharp pang.

He felt his third eye move independently. It was searching around. Looking around.

“Someone… is… looking through the eye…”

It found what it was looking for.

The dead giant pinned beneath the crater.

Its people.

The thing—person—whatever it was that looked through his third eye… screamed. Kyr saw it himself in that other realm. It lashed out in anger at the surprise of its fellows.

Suddenly, several winged peoples flew down to reach this person. They were shouting at him. He was shouting back. They became angry, full of rage. Familiar rage.

Vengeance.

They want vengeance.

“No!” Kyr shouted. “Stop it! Close my third eye! Stop it!”

“What’s going on, Kyr?” Leatrix held him by the shoulders. “What are you seeing?”

“It saw!” he shouted. “It saw the dead giant!”

Kyr released the mana he’d been holding in his body into the air. “Roy! Nowe! Cinza! I know it’s difficult but pull the mana away from me! Take it if you can!”

His third eye saw several winged peoples swarming in that ashen sky of theirs.

Until eventually, all the mana inside his body was gone.

His third eye closed and his horn returned to what it was.

He breathed heavily… and then the land rumbled. A loud crashing sound echoed from up above.

Somewhere past the Spire of Knowledge.

Somewhere past the shattered sky.