by Ivan Kal
They made their way up the streets of Tourran, and as they did so Vin was reminded of the past. He had made many mistakes, but now was not the time to dwell on them. He knew where the gate was, and he needed to convince Kyarra that they needed to strike now before it was too late.
Finally, they made their way to the palace gates.
“Uh, Vin… You were serious?” Jirross asked slowly as Vin walked up to the gate.
He didn’t even notice the guards that barred his path. He looked at them and frowned, wondering why they had stopped him—and then he remembered that things were different on this world.
Before they had the chance to say anything, he spoke. “I am Lord Kai Zhao Vin. I need to see the Queen right away.”
He felt Jirross and Teressa look at each other behind his back.
The guards looked unsure, and Vin knew that they didn’t recognize him. They looked at him, then down at his clothes. Vin grimaced—he realized that he didn’t really look like he belonged in the palace, especially not after a few months at sea. He had been known to the entire guard of Tourran before he left, but these two were young. Most likely they had joined after he left. Vin could get by them easily enough, but he didn’t want to cause any more problems for Kyarra.
“Get Commander Atiok. He can vouch for me,” he said in a tone of voice that left no room for disobedience.
The guards looked at each other and whispered between themselves for a moment, then one of them turned and jogged off.
“You will need to wait here until the Commander arrives,” the other guard told him.
Vin simply nodded and then dropped to the ground in a cross-legged position and started cycling. He could feel the eyes of everyone around them on him, but he didn’t care. He had no time for games, but if he had to wait, at least he could do something productive.
It was almost ten minutes later that the Commander arrived. Vin sensed him before he even reached the gate, and so he stood up suddenly, startling the guard and his companions. Just then, Atiok walked out of the small gate of the palace walls.
“Vin! You’re back!” The man had a large smile on his face and he stepped up to Vin before grasping his hand.
“Commander,” Vin said as he took a moment to study him. The last few years had changed the man—he had gray in his hair now, and his eyes were framed by wrinkles. Mostly he looked tired. “I need to speak with Kyarra.”
Atiok nodded his head, looking around them to the people that were openly staring at Vin and his casual use of their Queen’s name. “Come with me.”
“These two are with me. I would like it if they accompanied us.” Vin added.
Atiok just waved his hand, exchanged a few words with the guards and then gestured for them to follow. Vin turned to his two shocked companions. “Come.”
They looked at each other and then followed, he heard Jirross whisper to his sister. “Gods, he was serious.”
Vin fell in step with Atiok and the man glanced at him. “She is in a meeting. I’ll take you to the north garden and then inform her that you are here.”
Vin nodded.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Atiok asked, lowering his voice.
“I did,” Vin answered.
Atiok cursed. “We’ve been seeing strange movements from beyond the pass, which couldn’t have come at a worst time, as we just cut our mercenary army to half. The Queen is speaking with Master Galera, hoping that they can get the Council to pressure the Lashians to move their Legions away from the pass.”
Vin didn’t say anything to that. He didn’t think that this Council would be able to do anything—Vin still remembered their dismissal of Kyarra’s words about the Arashan. They made their way through the palace until they finally reached the gardens.
“Wait here, I’ll go and see if she is done,” Atiok said, and walked away, leaving Vin and his companions alone.
After a minute of silence, Teressa cleared her throat. “So, uh…you know the Queen. The Eternal Soul.”
“Yes,” Vin responded simply.
The two were understandably taken aback. In this world they were on the bottom, people who could never aspire to stand in a palace waiting for a Queen. Yet another thing that Vin didn’t understand about this world: how they could be so in awe of someone they never met. On Orb, spirit artists ruled with strength, but the divide was not as stark as here—there were no people who were looked down on as somehow less, because it was known that all had the potential to become great.
They waited for a while more in silence, the two obviously struggling with the shock of being in the palace.
Then Vin felt her. He didn’t have his net deployed, but his flesh had been forged as a sensory body, and he was a spirit artist of the sixth step. He could feel his surroundings even without it. She was walking quickly, in a rush, and Vin felt his heart speed up. He wondered if she was angry or happy. Was she rushing to greet him or kick him out? The two hadn’t parted on the best terms.
Vin turned his eyes to the stone arc leading into the palace, just as she walked out. She was as beautiful as he remembered: her dark skin flawless, her eyes shining as she searched the garden for him. She had cut her hair—it was shorter now, coming just about her shoulders. She was standing tall, proud, confident. She hadn’t been that before; she had worried about every single one of her decisions. For a moment, time stood still as they looked at each other. He wondered what she was thinking, and her face gave away nothing. He wished he had went to his estate first, cleaned himself, changed clothes. But he knew that he hadn’t wanted to let himself delay seeing her.
Then her face changed as her lips turned into a smile. She ran for him—Vin took two steps forward, and then she was there, her lips on his.
He heard Jirross speak somewhere behind him. “Fuck me, and you thought that you had a chance,” he said.
“Shut up!” Teressa hissed at him, but Vin wasn’t really paying attention.
His arms were around Kyarra and he held her tightly. He never should’ve left as he did. Then she pulled back, and looked at him.
“I’m sorry for what I said,” Kyarra whispered.
“Me too,” Vin said.
“You stink,” she said, wrinkling her nose at him.
“A few months on a ship will do that to you.”
She stepped back, then looked around realizing that they weren’t alone in the garden. He saw a blush spread from her neck to her cheeks and she tried to hide it by acting like nothing had happened. Her guards had spilled into the garden along with Atiok and were all trying to keep their gazes averted.
Kyarra cleared her throat. “We should probably go to one of my meeting rooms. I assume that you have something important to discuss.”
Vin nodded, then turned to look at his companions, who looked spooked out of their minds. “These are my companions. I would appreciate it if you could have people take care of them until we are finished.”
Kyarra glanced at them and they bowed low, murmuring something that sounded like a cross between, “My Queen,” and, “Your Majesty.”
“Of course,” Kyarra said with a smile, then motioned for one of her guards.
Vin looked at the two as they straightened up. “I’ll find you before I leave and you’ll be coming to my home with me.”
Then he turned and Kyarra led him into the palace. Her guards surrounded them and they walked slowly in silence. He could tell that Kyarra wanted to speak but he could also tell that she didn’t want to in public. Vin was comfortable in the silence; he always had been.
They reached one of her meeting rooms and she instructed her guards to stay outside. Vin followed her inside a small cozy room, with bookshelves on one side, a desk at the end and a few couches on the other side. She led him to a couch and he sat as she took a seat across from him.
“So,” Kyarra said slowly, looking him in the eyes. The Kyarra that had rushed to him in the gardens was now replaced by a more composed woman: a Queen.
“I found it,” Vin said immediately.
“The gate?” Kyarra asked tiredly.
“Yes. I don’t know how much they have until they finish it, but I do not think that it will be long now.”
Kyarra leaned back and covered her face with one of her hands. “Damn it.”
“I told you that they were building it,” Vin remarked.
“I know.”
“They were keeping it a secret. It took me years to get even the smallest whisper of it. They value their secrecy highly… The moment they realized that I had been spying on them, they chased after me. They really don’t want the knowledge of it getting out.”
“You escaped, obviously.” She lowered her hand and looked at him.
“They sent a fragment-bearer after me.”
Her eyes widened. “Do you know which one?”
“He wielded a sword with fire-based attacks, and he identified himself as Arc Commander Danir Nou Reiff,” Vin told her.
“The Sun Blade,” Kyarra whispered. “You fought him?”
Vin nodded. “We leveled a hill and carved up a mountain. The rumors about it will spread soon,” Vin said—there was no way for the Lashians to keep that a secret. Too many people had seen it.
“Once the world learns about that, they will be nervous. They’ll think that someone else’s fragment-bearer attacked them. They won’t know that you, someone without a fragment, stood against the Lashian bearer…”
Vin shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. The gate does. We need to stop them, Kyarra.”
She sighed and stood up. “Nothing’s changed from how it was before you left, Vin.”
Vin looked at her as she walked over to the window and looked out of it at her city. “I am one man, Kyarra. I can’t stop them alone.”
Her shoulders sagged. “Didn’t we already have this conversation?”
Vin closed his eyes. She was right—they had had this conversation before. “I know that you feel like you can do nothing, but all you have to do is make a choice.”
“It isn’t as easy as you think. The nations of the world, the Council, none of them believe. They think that this is all just a simple Lashian aggression. They think that they can stop it with words.”
“And you know differently.” Vin walked over to her, putting his hand on her shoulder.
“I can’t do anything. I have a responsibility to Tourran,” Kyarra whispered.
Vin sighed, the fight going out of him. He didn’t want to fight again after they had just reunited. “If none of them will believe, then the Arashan will come, and your world will burn.”
Kyarra turned around, looking at him intensely. “I know that your world fell, but Enosia isn’t Orb. You’ve been to the Empire, you’ve seen just how many people there are on our world. Do you really think that these Arashan can conquer us so easily now?”
It was the same argument she had used before, and one he could not entirely counter. He hadn’t seen this world, how many people there were. Perhaps he was wrong; perhaps they could fight off the Arashan.
“I don’t know, Kyarra. The only thing I do know is that if they are allowed to enter your world, many will die.”
“Even if we destroy the gate, what then?” Kyarra asked. “What’s to stop them from just building another?”
“I don’t know, but I cannot do nothing.”
She sighed. “If the Arashan really come, then we will have all the proof we need. The world will unite and fight against them.”
“I hope that you are right,” Vin said. He had many plans about what to do once he found the gate, yet somehow it seemed like none of them were viable. He couldn’t fight his way through alone. He had no army that he could lead against them in the heart of the Lashian Empire.
“At least we now know where the gate is,” Kyarra said. “We will know where to strike once we have that proof. You said that it won’t be constantly opened in the beginning?”
“No, it took almost two years for it to stay open constantly on Orb, but that could’ve been because there was not much aura on my world.”
“So we’ll have time,” she said softly.
Vin didn’t want to correct her. She had been saying the same since the moment Vin told her that they would be building the gate here. First she’d said that they would have time before the gate was built, and now she was saying they had time before the connection was permanent. He could see that she just didn’t want to take action, but rather wished to only hope for the best. Vin knew that to her the Arashan were not yet real, no matter what she knew, and Vin couldn’t force her to open her eyes—he couldn’t force anyone on this world to do so. He was nothing here but a single person, one ill equipped to navigate this world’s politics.
The two of them lapsed into a silence, the fire of their reunion dimming in the light of the things still left unsaid between them. Vin didn’t know what to say to her. It had been so long, and he still hadn’t figured out what he wanted. So, after a while, he finally spoke.
“Have you heard anything about her?” Vin asked.
Kyarra turned around and looked at him, a pained expression on her face. “No… I tried to find her, but…there is no sign of her. She probably went across the ocean, to Kahaldia. That had been her original plan.”
Vin nodded, wondering how they could’ve missed so much that they had pushed her away, but there was nothing that they could do about it now. “Kyarra, I…”
“I know,” she whispered as she moved to take a seat next to him. “We should’ve seen it, her pain. We made a mistake.”
“We did,” Vin admitted as her shoulders leaned into his. “I worry that she isn’t coming back.”
“If she isn’t, then we will go and find her. The three of us belong together.”
Vin nodded. He just didn’t know if they would ever have the chance.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ASHARA
Five Years Ago
Ashara walked through the god’s doorway and stepped somewhere else. The first thing she noticed was the massive fortress in front of her, surrounded by a red sky. It had three towers and tall walls that prevented her from seeing much else. The god stood next to her and seemed content to wait. She wondered what would happen now, but before she could ask, the god spoke almost as if he knew that she was about to do the same.
“Come. It is time for me to fulfill my promise,” Khalio started, walking toward the fortress.
Ashara followed. Inside her head, she was filled with doubts. She wondered if what she had done was the right thing. By being powerless she had finally admitted that she had, in fact, desired power. She wanted to be strong enough so that she never had to rely on others to protect her, never be at the mercy of someone stronger. She had wanted power all her life; she had always gravitated toward the powerful, wanting to stand in their shadow. But she knew nothing about Khalio, except that for some reason he took an interest in her. She wondered what his price would be for the power he promised—she wasn’t foolish enough to believe his words when he’d told her that there would be none.
At this point, she didn’t really care. Her throat still hurt from the collar, her hands and feet ached from being forced into a tight compartment, her clothes were wet and dirty, and her face hurt from where the slaver hit her. She shivered as she thought about what could’ve happened to her—what would’ve happened to her if the god hadn’t taken an interest in her. If he hadn’t offered her power.
It wasn’t like she had anything of true value to give to him.
They reached the fortress and entered through a open gate. Inside, Ashara saw people walking around. Some were familiar to her, humans and Darji, while others were not. She couldn’t help but stare as they moved out of their way and bowed to the god. Khalio led her inside the largest building and through a long hallway, then down beneath the ground. For a moment she worried that she had been tricked, that he was going to take her to some kind of a dungeon, to do horrible things to her, but she put those thoughts asi
de. She had seen his power, and if he had wanted to simply kidnap her, he could’ve done it at any point.
They reached a large ornate door crafted in gold and black, with golden dragons that almost looked alive engraved on it. As they approached, the dragons moved and the doors opened, letting them enter a large, long room filled with all kinds of things placed on racks and pedestals, from weapons to paintings to suits of armor. Ashara could tell that many of these were magical in nature, and she even saw a few fragments of power. Khalio led them through it until they reached an opening leading into another room. This room was smaller, and it had only two things in it. On the left was a pedestal with a crystal suspended above it, a pure white orb that glowed. As she put her eyes on it, it almost looked like the light inside of it pulsed, but then her attention was taken by the thing next to it.
It was a large crystal, tinted orange but see-through, and inside of it she could see a naked male body. Khalio stopped in front of it and looked at it with a strange look in his eyes.
“Well, Ashara, behold your way to power,” Khalio said, gesturing at the body.
Ashara looked at the crystal, not understanding. “What do you mean?”
Khalio turned to face her and smiled. “This is the body of Kai Zhao Vin, and I am going to give it to you.”
Ashara’s eyes widened as she realized what that meant, and she took a step back from him. “You are the Arashan god.”
Khalio inclined his head. “I am.”
“What do you want with me?” Ashara asked, as the pieces fell into place. This had never been about Ashara—she hadn’t been someone special to be noticed. It was all about Vin.