Unknown to Life

Through all of Pride the girl wouldn’t let up. Not even taking a risk for the luxury of a brief pause for explanation. Any attempts to begin a conversation were short. She would simply reiterate that it was imperative for us to leave the tower immediately. Her resolve for silence persisted until we’d exited to the heat of the desert.

I’d delivered my address with a lowly heart, feeling the bitter weight of it all. All of their expressions darkened before me, making for an even more solemn atmosphere among all of them.

“It’s going to be very difficult when it comes time for me to tell his daughter about his passing.” The priest I’d met first when I’d made destination in the desert speaks, sullen of spirit. “She was so very hopeful in praying for his return. We all were. He was a man like no other.”

The image of his slit neck and the expression he’d worn as he’d perished flicks before my mind. I had failed to gather his body and return it in the rush to escape I’d been taken into.

I release the pressure that builds in my heart as quickly as possible. My fists clench tight and I feel every ounce of the fury that had burned in my heart since the Day of Eclipse.

“Though I’ve failed to deliver him, I promise you that I’ll make his killer pay. For the kingdom and for all of you, his death won’t be for nothing.”

“But it wasn’t for nothing, my son.” The priest places his hand on my shoulder, a knowing look directed my way. “He had sealed these doors. If it was not for him, there would have been more blood in the sand.”

“But any loss of life to Eclipse is a loss. And it’s my duty to make sure that there no other will lose their life to that monster.”

“It’s your place and your honor to fight for all of us, but I see something in your eyes. It’s troubling.”

“It’s fine. I’m just discontent that he couldn’t be saved. Of course I am.”

“It’s more than that…” He keeps his soul searching, wise eyes in my own. A delicate, sympathetic smile follows shortly. “Even if there are those that have been lost, hatred is a burning flame that will only lead to death. I hope you understand… On our path as the priests to these shrines, we can’t let a moment like this stay with us past the setting sun. Though we will have our time to grieve, we will continue in light. Don’t let a black flame stay with you for long or it will become your greatest enemy. All of its flames may someday turn from without and cinder what you have within.”

“I appreciate your concern. I hope that every one of you will find comfort in this trying time. Until we meet next.”

I offer him a quick bow of the head and step into the train with the girl. She offers me a sincere glance as if to tell me that she knows my trouble.

Within, we take our seats opposed to each other and watch the priests diminish as the rails take us home. I offer them a parting wave and hold my vow deep inside of my heart.

✩ ✩ ✩

The girl was silent the entire ride back. She had been deep in thought with a heavy look in her eyes as if the weight of the world was her burden to bear. The mystery that surrounded her was like an unbreakable veil as she was stuck in her contemplation.

Even among the lot of the scientists of the lab upon our return, she was tight lipped. Yet as Urania had come to meet us, the girl had been quick to request that Urania and I would be the only ones that would be in the briefing room with her. Thankfully my place as Celestial Knight allowed me the power and leeway to make it happen.

I’d recounted the events of my expedition to the point of mine and the girl’s meeting. While I stole quick glances towards her during the discussion, I’d come to notice how youthful her appearance is. It’d be hard for me to believe her to be anything more than perhaps 16 years of age, yet her eyes told a far different story. In them I can see they carry the woes of a veteran who had suffered many hardships.

“And during the confrontation with Pride, you ear piece was destroyed?”

“It had ended up crushed during first contact. I apologize that I’d lost it in the encounter. I’d imagine that it must be quite an expensive instrument.”

“You’ve made it back in health. That’s our mission beyond anything else. We have a wealth or resources designated specifically for the Celestial Knight’s campaign. We can afford much, but never the loss of our kingdom’s hero.” Her response is cool and understanding.

Having made her point, she retrains her attention towards the girl.

“Now as for this mystery character you’ve met with. I’d appreciate it if you would tell us about yourself and your part in this situation. You have only myself and the Celestial Knight present as you’d bid would be. I hope this will suffice to gain your confidence.”

“Thank you, Uria. I’m grateful to have your help.”

At that misremembering her name, Urania’s brows raise in a definite intrigue.

“Uria? Was it by mistake that you’d called me by that name?”

The rosy haired girl takes a pause. For the lapse of a second she appears distressed, but she breathes it out in stride and answers.

“No. It wasn’t a mistake. I’d meant to call you that and it was out of habit.”

“Out of habit?”

What was at first an easygoing intrigue now doubles into incredulity. So much so that I find Urania wearing an expression more emotive than I’ve seen.

“Uria is my birth name that I haven’t been referred by for years. Though it is quite similar to my name, there’s little chance you’d have known about it. That is unless you’re playing us for fools and are capitalizing on the circumstances.”

“I would never do that to you.” The girl speaks boldly and try as I might, there isn’t a single sign I can detect that she’s lying. “I couldn’t speak with the Celestial Knight in such spaces for plenty of reasons. I’d needed him out of Pride as quickly as I could and it would be a bad idea to speak what I must where others than those I trust can hear me. During the train ride, I’d had much to think about but I’ve made my resolve. What I’m about to say will likely be difficult to believe, but I hope that you’ll give it all fair trial.”

Her verdant eyes are unrelenting as they dive into Urania’s own. Slowly with an immense intensity, she then traces them to be still in mine.

“You’d saved my life, it’d be the least I could do to listen to what you have to say. I’ve been hoping for an explanation since we were in Pride. I’m all ears.”

She nods to me in understanding. Grasping onto the hilt of her sword, focusing deeply, she traces her way to her starting place.

“In this world, I was never born.”

With her opening statement alone, both Urania and I are already left in awe. We exchange brief glances before giving her our attention once more.

“While you were both speaking over your mission, I’d heard so many terms that weren’t right to me. They weren’t the terms that were used in the world that I’d come from. My original world, my home.”

A scientist’s own eye reflects well Urania’s question that is held in silence, but it’s swiftly picked up by the girl. As if knowing Urania’s character down pat.

“You’d called Pride a Dark Seed and ‘Lucifer’ Pride. You’d said that Lucifer was a Root. The dwellings of the Roots – what we’d called Sinners – weren’t Dark Seeds; they were Sins. And these Sins hadn’t generated so suddenly and randomly. Before they were sins, they were peaceful, divine shrines. Shrines which were created to protect all of Celestia.

“In my world Bootes wasn’t a desert. It was a beautiful plain filled with life and greenery. And up in its hills was the sacred Regal Shrine. When Pride had appeared with Lucifer, it was then it’s beauty had been cursed to become a barren desert.”

“Sinners and Sins.” I speak my thoughts aloud. “Something about that sounds so… familiar to me.”

“It should. You were the one who’d overcome all of them.” The severity in her eyes saves no room for jest. “You were successful in your campaign and had saved all of Celestia. I was by your side through most of the trials and tribulations you’d faced along the way.”

“I think I’d like to take this back a step before I wind up getting lost. Up to this point, even, I have so many questions.” When the girl nods her approval for my continuation, I go ahead. “First, you’d started by saying that you were never born in this world… What did you mean by that?”

“I’d meant exactly what I’d said. I’m not from this world. Even if this world you’re in may have its similarities to mine, they’re both vastly different. So strange to each other that the events had prevented my birth from ever happening. It made it impossible for me to exist.”

“I’ll trust you on this talk about another world. I’ve… seen other worlds myself. I’ve been to one before.”

“Khiron, you don’t mean to say that you’ve hidden this from me?” Urania is quick on the uptake and, though tempered, gives off an air of displeasure.

“That’s one apology that I need to make. The truth is that when I’d died… I’d found myself somewhere beyond words. A place that was nothing like Celestia. I wouldn’t even know where to begin with explaining it.”

“Please don’t get too worked up over the Celestial Knight’s secrecy. The truth is that he’s a very secretive person. One of the Celestial Maidens in my world had told me just as much. That even if she had known him for so long, there were things that he’d kept hidden from her. It took him a very long time to finally entrust some of it.”

Shock is just the first layer of the emotions that hammer down on me when I hear her reading me like an open book. Embarrassment is a close second.

“Then you know about…”

“I know. I know about the truth of your sickness. That maiden’s life had quickly turned to finding a cure for you the very moment she had become a mage knight. She had devoted countless days and hours with Uria and Hyla seeking for it.”

“Was the cure… ever found?”

The light in the girl’s youthful but experienced eyes is encumbered with a darker shadow. She peers down to the table and breathes a deep sigh.

“It hadn’t been found. If it would… then…” She trails off and stares out towards the posted notes and documents lining the tack board hanging on the wall.

“Then I suppose that’s the end of that.”

“It seems that my first suspicions had some foundation.” Urania’s admission breaks through the saddened silence. “I’d felt that Khiron had much about him but shared so little of it. I’d been informed that he was ill but had been firmly commanded that I shouldn’t pry nor ask for anymore information on that topic. Given this talk about a cure, you’re both speaking about the Mark of Eclipse. Undoubtedly.”

I shoot up in my seat and snap to face Urania. A panic seizes me and I feel the scar slashing its agonizing sting across my chest. I quickly gasp it and reflexively hold my chest. Fear encumbers me and brings my heart to race.

“So I’m correct. But that’s…” She strains for her words, touching her fingers to her temple as she relieves herself of her spectacles. “Nobody has ever lived through The Mark. There are records upon records of deaths by its affliction in our archives. Never once was it written that there had been a single survivor.”

Further perplexed, finding trouble to cope with the absurd reality that she’s come to know, Urania sits in silence and ponders it all. But when she wagers to speak, the most honest and straightforward question she could ask lances through me like a spear.

“Then how are you still alive and with us, Khiron?”

A question that I know the first answer to, but not the second. I reminisce on the manor, on Solus’ kind smile. Then I see the bloodied piece of glass that laid upon the floor.

Taking a deep breath, I push past all of the fear and insecurity that savages me to give the best answer I can as a cold sweat begins to run across my skin.

“I’m alive because Solus and the previous maidens loved me. At the darkest moment of my life, when the pain I’d felt had became too much to bear, I’d tried to let myself go. But they’d refused to let me.” The memory brings a somber knowing to my soul. “They’d cared for me and brought me back when I was near death. And all the love they had to give to me brought me to promise that I would never loose my heart again. I’d simply learned to live with the pain.”

The girl continues looking at me with understanding, knowing, while Urania is at a loss for words. She stares towards me with an awe. An admiration, even. All of the opposite that I had ever expected to come to me with a revelation of my affliction with the curse of Eclipse.

A new age comes to me hand in hand with this mysterious girl. And every bit of it troubles my entire outlook on reality.

Yet something feels sickeningly wrong. A confusion that wracks me deeply.

“Wait… Hadn’t I never known about the manor and the maidens until after I’d become the Celestial Knight?” I grab hold of my head and ride through the echoes of nausea that begin to assail me. “My memories… they’re contradicting each other. Yet… Yet I… know that I’d… lived in the manor when I was a child…”