Chapter 11

Back inside the void, Sunder met with Alexia. “I never thought she would be like that…” she said. “I can barely grasp the loneliness she feels, by herself for so long, it hurts to think what she has been through.”

“Were you not alone in this void for about the same time?” he asked, now with a wooden chair of his own, only on his second journey to this place, Sunder had already grasped some of the techniques he had inside his mind.

“No, it was like a long sleep for me, I woke up the moment both our souls intertwined. But she spent ages here, closed in that chrysalis.”

“Regardless, she is completely delusional.” Sunder anxiously tapped his foot, “I just keep thinking, all she did, how pompous she acts, meanwhile she lives in a complete illusion, secluded from everything else. I still want to be angry, but when looking at all those scribbled stories around the walls…”

“She must be afraid of forgetting those stories. There is not enough space in those walls to store everything, she must have kept only her favorites.” Alexia looked up, clenching her teeth, “But right now, we should simply focus on how to bring her back.”

“I am not sure if we can.” Alexia’s eyes turned sharp, and her small frame darkened as small strands of fire surrounded her. “What I mean is, I saw through her, when she looked me in the eyes.”

‘And?’ her thought echoed as she maintained her threatening expression.

“She knows she is lying to herself.” Alexia’s frown faded slightly, waiting for a clearer answer, “For just a second, it was like she was speaking with me. Like she was saying ‘I know this is all fake, but please, let me be.’”

“No.” she got up from her chair, with barely any effort this time, and snapped her fingers, creating once more a halo of flames above her “No, I will not allow that. What was the name of the scroll she was reading?”

“Master of the Steppe.”

Alexia spun around the room, like a dog sniffing for its prey. Her head quickly snapped to the scroll she was looking for and she drifted through the room, as if carried by a gust of wind. A small piece from the wall behind the shelf slid out, pushing the scroll down. The scroll was thick, and Alexia could barely hold it, but with the help of the soft wind, she sat back on her chair. “This is a heavy one.” she said as she threw it at Sunder, who barely caught it before it hit the ground, “Memorize it.”

“I’m sorry what?”

“Language, and I will not repeat myself. If by chance you are correct, reciting this might break through her illusion, even if just for a moment.”

“Did she not know you?”

“I was one of her closest friends.”

“Then I can just mention you, she is bound to at least be somewhat nicer afterward.”

“It would advise you against that. I am… a soft spot in her history.” she looked at the scroll Sunder had with a somber smile, “Pretend you know nothing about me, at least until she starts seeing you through eyes that are not drowned in hatred.”

“What happened to her?”

“I can tell you, but I fear you will step over the line. Not pitying her completely might be for the best right now.”

“Unless I know why I’m help-” Alexia interrupted Sunder, throwing a small scroll at his head, which opened up and unraveled over Sunder, falling on him like a cloak. “Apologies, but as I said, I refuse to help Gaia unless I know why she became like this.”

Alexia sighed, “Alright. It is not much of a tale, but I will oblige.” Alexia cleared her throat, taking a second longer than normal as she remembered Gaia’s tale. “I first met her when I had only twenty years on me. I was brought to the library not long before that, as a slave, so unfortunately, I was not allowed to see her birth.” Sunder’s eyes immediately widened, but Alexia quickly lifted her finger before a single word was uttered, “You will be allowed to ask whatever you want after I finish speaking.” Sunder answered with a nervous nod, a large wave of nostalgia flowing through him from this short moment. “The first months with her around were like having a pet, she just wandered around the library, never knowing where to go or what to do. We occasionally bumped into each other. It was like smashing headfirst into a wall, but it was worth the pain, because that was when we could exchange a fleeting pair of words, before she had to hurry back to her studies.” Alexia stopped for a second, looking down at her hands.

“Is everything all right?”

“Apologies, my mind drifted to other thoughts for a moment, but let us focus on Gaia. As I was saying, it took maybe a month until she began talking. She read nearly everything that we had in the library at that point, so her first words were as eloquent as those of a well-traveled philosopher. But despite that, her speech lacked substance. She knew how to recite the teachings of any person who had put ink to paper, but she never quite knew what those words meant.” her eyes opened up for a second, her drifting gaze quickly returning to Sunder, “You are old enough to have been with a woman, correct?”

“Yes– I mean, I am of age for that, yes.”

“Well, Gaia never did care for those sorts of things, preferring to spend her time reading old manuscripts as she waited for new batches of scrolls to arrive, thinking she had to learn everything there was to be learned. I took the pleasure of teaching her several things she never saw in our scriptures.”

“But-” Sunder quickly silenced himself, scared of getting hit with another scroll.

“Yes, she does not have everything a woman has, but she had enough for me to show her that knowledge sometimes has to be experienced, not just read. As the members helping around began to drift away, Gaia and I started handling most of the work around the library. She began practicing her powers on her fifth birthday, and finally started looking over the notes left behind by her father. It took her maybe a year to leave after that, more than enough time for me to finally recruit new people into the library. I was around fifty when I saw her once again. She was still as perfect as the day I met her. She was still so youthful, so excited about going to Greece, even invited me to come. Twenty years passed, and eventually, I stopped hearing from her. Then, she appeared out of nowhere and gave me these powers. Time began to pass much slower after that. One day I went to sleep, and woke up in your mind.” Sunder could not contain himself in his chair, his leg nervously twitching as he eagerly waited his turn to talk. “Go ahead, ask whatever you want.”

“How did you die?”

“I do not know. I grew sick shortly after Gaia left, and the endurance this gives us was unfortunately of no help, but I died warm, and thinking of her, I was happy.”

“How was she born?”

“As I said, I was not there to see. The few people I talked to were not allowed to say, and by the time I grew closer to Gaia, I stopped caring about that.”

“Who was Gaia’s father?”

“He was an alchemist, apparently the greatest in the world, at the time. I rarely talked to him before Gaia was born, and he died on that same day.”

“Last question, for now. What did she do while away from here?”

“From what she told me, she sired dozens of Elementals, but they barely lasted one year before trying to use those powers as a weapon. Most of the time she did not even have to intervene, their actions led them to fall on their own.” Alexia then got up from her chair, approaching Sunder and patting down the scroll on his lap, “Now, time to start reading. The sooner you are done memorizing it, the sooner you can be taught how to use those powers from people with much more experience than me.”

Sunder nodded and looked down at his scroll. The paint was vivid but the paper itself was rough, he could see where they had stitched the parchment together in an attempt to create a single scroll. He unraveled it, but quickly overpowering the scraping sound of the old paper, a shrieking scream caught him off guard.

He was forced awake, nearly jumping off his bed. The echo of the scream still lingered through the walls, which was more than enough for Sunder to rush toward it. With the layout of the library still unconsciously memorized, he reached Yeng in a matter of seconds, crawling away from Gaia who was backed up against a wall.

“You fucking monster!” screamed Yeng, her left arm painted red. A large chunk of her shoulder was gone, her bone cracked, and the wound reached all the way to her neck.

“What happened?” Sunder stepped in front of Yeng, his raised hands creating a wall of fire between them and Gaia without his command.

“She wandered where she was not allowed to!” screamed Gaia, from behind the flame’s veil, it was still clear her confident expression was gone, replaced by fear and regret.

Sunder’s muscles relaxed. Unable to feel any anger coming from her, the wall of flame also vanished. He turned around and picked up Yeng with ease, who could only gasp for air in pain. In complete silence, he walked back to their room and gently laid her down on the bed. He took a deep breath and tried making a small flame over his hand, managing a steadily increasing ember.

“All right, Yeng, this is gonna hurt a lot.”

“No it won’t, you’re not doing that, stop.” she said in spastic breaths.

“That cut is too deep, we can’t just let it stay like that.”

Gaia stepped into the room, her head laying low, “Sunder get her out of here now!” screamed Yeng.

“He has yet to learn how to heal someone.” she said meekly, “Please, let me fix what I have done.”

“If you think I’m letting a piece of-” Sunder grabbed Yeng’s leg, pleading with his eyes for her to trust him. After a long moment of hesitation, Yeng forced a sigh “Just do it.”

Gaia approached Yeng, who flinched with every sudden movement coming from her. Slowly, Gaia raised from the ground a thin sharp rock, like a large cleaver, and slammed her hand onto it, cleanly chopping it off from her arm. They both stood in shock, uncertain how to react as Gaia’s arm began oozing a green liquid, as dense as tree sap. She cupped her hand, collecting some of the blood, and moved it over Yeng, letting it slowly drip over her wound. Despite Yeng’s anxious gasps, the fluid felt cold, and it quickly began hardening, like burning wax. As Yeng’s wound was completely sealed, Gaia got up and walked out of the room, her head still slumped over and her blood dripping onto the ground.

“You have three days to leave and never return,” she said, almost in a whisper.

As the sound of her footsteps faded, Yeng looked to Sunder, “When do we kill her?”

“We… We can’t.”

“What?” Yeng tried to move, but the pain in her body was still present, impairing her movements. “Look down and you’ll see a dismembered hand.”

“Her own hand,” he spoke slowly, thinking too hard on everything that he said, and still conflicted with every word coming out of his mouth. “That she cut off to help you.”

“After she threw a rock at me hard enough to rip out part of my arm! Which, might I add, happened because I stumbled on her standing around in a room full of bones!”

Sunder thought how to retort, but the words escaped him. ‘Make use of that time child. If you fail, then I will let nature run its course. But please, you can save her.’

“Yeng. Give me a chance. Alexia and I can fix this.”

“What has she done to make us trust her?”

“Nothing, but she’s the only chance we have left. You saw how my fight with her ended, this is the only other way. If I fail, we leave by the end of the third day.”

Just as she was about to think of more arguments, she saw in Sunder’s eyes he was not going to budge, “Please, just don’t get yourself killed.” she said before looking back at Gaia’s hand on the floor and closing her eyes as she threw her head against the wall.