All around them the old structures made of silver and serpentine marble stood as tall and proud as the day Kahl walked among them. This was the first city that had ever been constructed on AzzaNation, and it had been maintained by the angelics for millennia. Most of the buildings had been destroyed or collapsed during Grindaull’s decimation of the city, but a select few had remained upright, giving Leo an idea of what the whole city must have looked like. The buildings had been designed to stay in the air, considering their main occupants had the ability to fly. Each house, each chamber or building of any kind was built on a large center column that stretched into the sky, and then when it reached its desired height, they had built the rest of the structure to rest like a bird house upon a tree. The architecture alone was enough to overwhelm Leo—but then he started thinking about the history that had taken place on the ground beneath his feet, and he had to grasp a piece of debris to keep from falling. Every single species that came to AzzaNation had met with the angelics here. Kahl himself had stood here. The old Galactic Alliance had met in the famous council chambers. Every important decision was made here.
And now he was standing on the hallowed ground.
“You’ve never been here before?” asked Zane, nonchalantly.
“No,” replied Leo, “You have?
“A couple times to lay low. Me and Ravez know the layout pretty well, at this point.”
Zane winked at his partner, who gave a nod. A moment later, Ravez called Jynn to him, became invisible, and disappeared into the ruins.
“Where’s he going?” asked Leo, a little suspicious.
“We’re not the only ones who know this is a good place to lay low. Ravez is just going to check the perimeter and the usual hiding spots…but we should be good to carry on.”
Leo walked over to Diandra, who was still sprawled out on the ground. “Need a hand?”
She smiled up at him, and gave him her arm. He helped her up, and took a second to get lost in her beauty. The sun hit her face, making her shine like a painting, and it took all his strength not to pass out. When she looked at him, he nervously grabbed his ELC pistol, checking if it was still operational. Surprisingly, he found that it still had power, even after being soaked in sea water. As he checked it out further, he found that it wasn’t in perfect condition though. The weapon had been a little damaged and was now jammed on the lowest possible setting.
“Everything okay?” asked Diandra, her wet hair making her look like a shiny goddess.
“Uhh…ya—yup…My ELC is just a little damaged is all.”
“Well at least it wasn’t your head!” said Zane, smacking Leo, playfully, on the back. “We should get going though. There are a few places that would make a great camp for the night.”
Diandra smiled at Leo, before turning to face Zane, “Lead the way.”
They began walking through the ruins, climbing over debris and collapsed buildings. Nature had overtaken most of the city as well—leaves and vines growing along most of the stones. They took their time, making safety a priority, but as they moved deeper and deeper into the ruins, Leo couldn’t help but relive a familiar feeling—one he hadn’t felt since the Forbidden Desert. The pit of dread grew in his stomach once again, and the back of his neck began to tingle. At first, he thought that he was only imagining things, but as they reached the center of the ruins, in what used to be the courtyard of the whole city, sat a small pool of silver water.
Leo jumped back in shock, terrified. “Do you two see that?”
Diandra and Zane looked ahead to where he was gesturing. By their looks of confusion and awe, Leo knew they were seeing the water as well, and it was not just his imagination. He wished that he could take comfort in the fact that he wasn’t crazy, but it would have made things easier if he was. Now, as he faced this mysterious but deadly silver water, he knew the potential evils that were contained within it. The pool had hypnotized Darrod and drove Len insane when they were in the desert. He didn’t want that to happen again—He couldn’t face it, and lose his new friends in the same way!
“Is that water?” asked Diandra.
“It looks like it, but I’m getting a strange feeling from it,” said Zane, taking a few steps closer, and holding one hand up to his temple. “Almost like someone is in there.”
“Well maybe they need help?” said Diandra, as she began walking towards the water.
“D-D-D-Don’t! S-S-Stop!”
Diandra turned to face Leo, and could now see the terror in his eyes.
“Leo…such fear,” said Zane, sensing the speedster’s thoughts. “You know what this is.” It was not a question.
“Y-Y-Yes,” muttered Leo, trying his best to compose himself. “I saw it in the Forbidden Desert before I was arrested. I-I can’t explain it, b-but the water seemed to hypnotize anyone who looked into it. I watched as it made my friend turn on us.”
“If you can’t explain it, would it be alright with you if I took a look for myself?” asked Zane.
At first, Leo didn’t know what Zane meant, but as the psychic knelt beside him and presented his open hands, Leo realized that Zane wanted permission to enter Leo’s mind—his memories to be more precise. Reluctantly, Leo took Zane’s hands and watched as the psychic fell into a trance. Zane’s head tilted back and his body contorted. Tears fell from his closed eyelids, and Leo knew that the psychic was watching his memories of the Forbidden Desert. Then Zane went completely still, before letting go and falling to the ground.
“Zane! Are you alright?” asked Leo, moving quickly to his friend’s side. Leo didn’t know how much of the memory the psychic had witnessed, but as Zane sat up, fear and sadness draped across his face, Leo knew that Zane had seen it all.
“Leo is right…we should stay far away from that—that, thing!” exclaimed Zane, uncharacteristically frightened and angry. Rubble scattered from his vicinity, as if the debris itself shared his fear.
“You’ll get no argument from me,” said Leo, “I say we get out of these ruins as fast as we can.”
“Hold on a second,” said Diandra, clearly annoyed, “Now, I understand that there is something strange about this water…and it clearly has you both terrified but—”
“You don’t understand,” said Zane, cutting her off, “It’s dangerous beyond belief. Leo’s right, we should leave right now.”
Zane and Leo started packing up what little they had and began to head towards the east side of the ruins, moving quickly and efficiently.
“Look at you two! You’re pathetic!” said Diandra, chastising the two men with her voice. “I understand that I never experienced it…or used some weird psychic powers to see it—but I refuse to believe that there is anything in this world that would make me run away like this. If King Grindaull himself stood before us, I doubt we would run like you want to now.”
“Nice speech Di,” said Leo, not turning back to face her. He didn’t know how to make her understand. He hoped that his desperation was enough to convince her. “But the problem is…I don’t know if we can fight this thing—”
“Zane said there was a presence in the water, right?”
Curious, the two men stopped in their tracks.
“Well, if there is someone controlling it then we can fight it,” she continued, “That’s if it decides that it wants to fight us. If this thing is so horrible, how did you survive the first time?”
Leo opened his mouth to respond, but he had no answer. “I—I don’t know…I passed out and it didn’t kill me, but I guarantee that it could have.”
“So, that raises the question of why it didn’t…” said Zane, “From what I saw in your memories, it had the opportunity to hypnotize you, and the creature could have easily killed you after you had passed out.”
“Shit—I forgot about the creature.”
“What creature?” asked Diandra, she was clearly annoyed at the lack of shared information and wanted to know as much as possible. Zane and Leo looked at each other and wordlessly decided t
hat it was best not to go into details.
“Let’s just say that it’s extremely dangerous,” said Leo.
Diandra scoffed and crossed her arms in frustration. “Okay, well at least that means we can fight something.”
“I don’t think that we can,” said Zane, flatly.
Diandra let out a restrained scream in frustration, “I can’t believe what I’m hearing! The brilliant speedster and the would-be savior of AzzaNation are too afraid to fight. Well I guess that’s why I’m here—to protect you boys!”
The Egon groaned, letting out all her frustration. Then her eyes filled with determination and she started walking towards the water. She gathered energy as she walked and held it in her hands. Zane and Leo chased after her, trying to calm her down, but it was no use. She sent blast after blast at the water, with no effect. Then as she began to gather another wave of energy, the ground began to shake around them. Diandra tried to keep her balance, but she stumbled and fell to the ground a few feet away from the silver water.
Leo and Zane each grabbed a piece of debris to hold on to, and as the ground began to settle down once again, Leo looked to the silver pool and saw a figure emerging from the water. The figure was dripping with thick silvery liquid, and as it walked ashore, Leo could see that the person was a man. He was dressed in thick brown and black robes. His hair was long and black, except for two white streaks, and it flowed down behind his back. This man looked nothing like the blood-creature Leo had met before—the one who had emerged and started devouring his dead cohorts. This man seemed gentle and wise at first glance. He looked at Diandra and smiled.
“Who are you?” she asked, bewildered.
“My name is Eli, my child,” he said with a gentle smile. He spoke with a low, soothing tone.
As they all moved closer to the man, they could now see that his eyes were milky white. Diandra quickly dropped to the ground in awe as she realized who she was looking at.
“You’re a Sage?!”
He picked her up off the ground, “Indeed I am,” said Eli, with a smile, “Now my dear Diandra…could you please tell your friends to come closer. I promise that no harm will come to them.”
The Egon looked towards the top of the courtyard and saw Leo and Zane cautiously inching forward. Leo had his ELC pistol drawn and Zane had one hand placed upon his head, and the other reached out towards Eli. The fear they were feeling before was now replaced by a determined readiness. They weren’t going to let anything happen to her.
Diandra laughed and yelled to them, “Guys come on! He’s friendly.”
The two men exchanged wary looks with each other. The psychic gave a nod, and Leo gave one of his own, both men agreeing to proceed with caution. After they were in unspoken agreement, they slowly moved closer and closer to Diandra and Eli, their weapons still drawn and ready.
“How do you know he’s friendly?” asked Leo.
“Well for starters…he hasn’t murdered me.”
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
Diandra rolled her eyes once more at Leo’s stubbornness. “Okay, well let me ask you something. What exactly did the creature that attacked you look like?”
“He was weird and covered in blood,” said Leo, creeping closer and closer, still with his ELC pistol ready to fire at the first sign of trouble.
“Alright, well…is this man weird and covered in blood?” said Diandra, sarcastically.
Leo was about to retort, but he decided against it. Whoever this man was, he wasn’t the creature who killed his old gang in the desert. There was still a lot of intrigue and mystery surrounding this man, but Leo couldn’t help but feel safe as he got closer. The pit of dread, in his stomach, began to dissolve. He saw the man’s pure-white eyes—the eyes of a Sage, and saw wisdom in them. The kind of wisdom you could trust with your life. After all, this man—if he really was a Sage, had the knowledge of space and time at his fingertips. If he wanted to kill them, they would already be dead.
Leo lowered his pistol and looked over at Zane who was also calming down.
“So, if you really are a Sage, why are you here…with us?” asked Zane. The question wasn’t meant to be accusatory, but there were still many questions that this man had to answer before they could fully trust him.
“Well I would love to answer your question Zane, but before I do, I would like the final member of your party to join us—officially that is.”
The three looked at each other, realizing that they hadn’t seen Ravez since he went on his scouting mission of the ruins.
“Where is Ravez?” asked Leo, turning to Zane.
“I’m not sure. Usually I can sense him, unless he’s cloaked himself,” said Zane, “Ravez! Come out love, we’re all safe!”
“Oh, I am sure that he is quite confident in that fact,” said Eli, turning to look over his shoulder, “Isn’t that right, my friend?”
A shimmer of light appeared behind Eli as Ravez de-cloaked and revealed himself. His sword was drawn and hovering inches away from Eli’s neck.
“You can put your sword away Ravez,” said Zane, blushing out of slight embarrassment.
Ravez looked at his love, giving him a quick nod before sheathing his blade. A moment later, Jynn flew from a nearby building on to Ravez’s shoulder.
“There…now that we are officially all here—we can eat! I don’t know about you all, but I’m absolutely famished,” said Eli, smiling knowingly at them.
No one said anything, but Leo could tell that everyone—including him were relieved. When Ravez brought up the few junton fish that he caught, it had reminded Leo how hungry he really was. They hadn’t had a real meal in days, and were surviving off rations. If Eli wanted to feed them, no one would refuse.
The Sage sat down and began pulling out various fruits and dried meats out of his bag. Diandra sat down next to Eli and thanked him for the food. Leo and Zane took a few extra moments before joining the meal. Leo wanted to stay cautious, but his stomach was calling the shots now. Ravez, for his part, never lost his suspicion. He remained standing, never taking his eyes off Eli, but when the Sage turned to him, smiled and handed Ravez a few pieces of exotic fruit, Ravez accepted the offering and ate them graciously.
“Would your feathered friend like some as well?” asked Eli, reaching for another helping.
Ravez gave a simple smile, “Jynn prefers to catch his food himself.”
Eli smiled at the raven, who stared back at the sage from his perch on Ravez’s shoulder.
“Well my friends,” said Eli, turning back to face everyone. “I know I must have startled you, and I apologize for that, but I’m afraid that there was no other way to appear to you without using the Time-Stream.”
“Time-Stream?” asked Leo. “…You mean the silver water?”
“Yes,” replied Eli, calmly, “The Time-Stream is a beautiful, yet dangerous thing. It is filled with all that was, all that is, and all that will be. I’m afraid that your minds would not be able to handle the intensity of what you would see. It would likely hypnotize you or drive you insane.”
Leo remembered Darrod and Len staring into the water, when the group encountered the Time-Stream in the desert. They had lost their minds completely, and Leo was lucky that he didn’t as well. After all, he had stared into the water with them, but was able to pull his mind free of its hypnotic power.
“How long would it take to hypnotize someone?” asked Leo, trying to figure out why his mind was able to break free, while a more experienced intellect like Darrod could not.
“Only an instant,” replied Eli, matter of fact.
“—But Leo, you looked into the water for at least a minute before your mind freed you,” said Zane, remembering Leo’s shared memory.
“Is this true?” asked Eli, his head curving towards the speedster with curiosity.
“I don’t know if it was that long,” said Leo, trying to remember the exact details. He had spent so much time trying to erase those memories from his mind, and now he
was forced to relive them. “…But yes, I looked into the Time-Stream when it appeared to me before.”
“Fascinating…but frankly, not surprising,” said Eli smiling confidently, “You have an incredible mind Leo.”
“…Thank you,” said Leo, not knowing how else to respond. How did this man know him or his mind? Just when he was beginning to trust Eli, the Sage went and said something that utterly confused him.
“Forgive me Eli,” said Diandra, cutting in with her own curiosity. “But if the Time-Stream contains every time and every place…does that mean that you know it all as well?”
Eli laughed, “Hardly my dear, I am simply a traveler and guardian of the vast wonder that is time and space.”
“But you know the future?” asked Diandra, flatly.
Eli sighed, his smile disappearing. “Yes. I do. Well to be more precise, I know possible futures…many possible futures. Time is not a fixed entity, it is moveable and always changing, forever molding to our actions. Sometimes the slightest change can spiral into something completely different…and sometimes you won’t see the result of that change for generations.”
Diandra was ecstatic. She looked like she was about to explode, “Can you tell us our future?”
Eli looked at her with a forced smile—looking skeptical. “I will admit that I came to see you for that reason.”
Everyone shared looks with each other, with various reactions. Diandra looked overjoyed, Zane seemed curious, Ravez remained indifferent, while Leo was entirely confused. Why would this man appear to them, just to reveal some message about their future? There had to be something more to it, in the speedster’s opinion.
“I’m afraid that all I can tell you is bits and pieces,” continued Eli, looking at each of them. “For some, my visions will be vague and confusing…for others, it will be heartbreaking.”
“Yes! Absolutely!” blurted out Diandra. She couldn’t contain herself, as she looked back to the rest of the guys. “Come on, it’ll be fun!”
“Ya sure. Why not,” said Zane with a smile.
The Chronicles of AzzaNation: Dawn of a New Age Page 22