Prophecy

by Kyle West

  “Isaru? Fiona?”

  I knelt down to try to shake them, but their eyes were closed. Both had been completely knocked out.

  At the same moment, though, I turned to see the surface of the ichor shimmering all the brighter, its surface flashing in steady pulses. The eerie liquid crept up the xen like a rising tide. Within moments, it would cover Fiona’s boot.

  I heaved on her with all my strength, successfully pulling her away from the ichor. At the same time, however, it was nearing Isaru’s feet. The lake was rising too quickly for me to ever hope I'd save both of them.

  Before I could decide what to do next, a deep exhaustion overwhelmed me. I fought against the heavy spell of sleep, and I could do nothing but helplessly watch as the ichor continued to rise. I fell to the ground just as both Isaru’s and Fiona’s legs began floating in the shimmering pink. The tide only continued its upward crawl.

  With the last of my strength, I pulled myself up the incline, but could only manage a few inches. There was nothing I could do...all of my muscles were immobile, and I couldn’t move an inch. I relaxed against the now glowing xen, feeling a curious tickling at my feet.

  Within seconds, the lower half of my body was floating, and the feeling was mirrored in my consciousness, which became a black plane. Warmth surrounded me as I sunk below the surface, and it felt as if I were hanging in midair. I forced my eyes open to see endless pink, the swirling colors blazing brighter and brighter until all was white...

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  “SHANTI!”

  I OPENED MY EYES to find myself lying on a craggy shoreline. My mind was muddled and my limbs weak, but all the same, I forced myself to get up. Someone helped me up, after which I saw that I stood at the edge of the ichor lake.

  Only...it looked different. The shore was rocky and uneven, and save for the light of the ichor, all was dark. The air was cool and damp, and the sky dark.

  I then noticed Fiona and Isaru standing to the side, looking at me with concern.

  “Are you all right?” Fiona asked.

  I nodded. “I think so. What happened?”

  “We don’t know,” Fiona said. “We believe...we’re somewhere else.”

  I looked around and could see what they meant. What lay before us was definitely not the same lake. It was an entire sea of ichor that ended only on the far horizon. Above, there was no sky, only a distant ceiling of rock.

  “We can’t be somewhere else,” I said. “That would be impossible.”

  “Then where are we?” Isaru asked.

  I watched the sea, remembering my final memory of trying to save Isaru and Fiona from the lake. Eventually, we must have all been taken under. Had it put us out on the other side of the lake? If that was the case, then where were the auroras? Why was the sky so dark?

  “I think I might know,” Isaru said, “but I don’t like the answer.”

  “What is it?” Fiona asked.

  “We are in the Xenofold itself.”

  “Wait,” I said. “What?”

  “The Xenofold is nothing more than the collective consciousness of all Elekai, past and present. The vast network of the xen creates it. Who’s to say what it is, or isn’t, capable of?”

  “We’re inside the Xenofold,” Fiona said. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. Where is this, then? A memory?”

  “I don’t know,” Isaru said, looking at the sea. “Perhaps.”

  And then I was struck with realization. I remembered Isandru telling me about the Sea of Creation. Could this be that place?

  “There’s only one place I think this could be,” I said. “It tells me we are inside a memory, because it no longer exists.”

  “The Sea of Creation,” Isaru said, coming to the same conclusion.

  I walked forward to where the ichor lapped the rocky shoreline. Suddenly, though, I was met with an invisible barrier, making it impossible to proceed.

  “What are you doing?” Fiona asked.

  “I can’t go on,” I said. “Something is barring me.”

  I moved backward from the Sea, then went to where Fiona was standing, Isaru following suit.

  “None of this is real,” Fiona said. “But it feels real. None of my past prophecies and visions have been like this.” She went quiet for a moment. “This is different.”

  “Being in a memory,” Isaru mused. “It seems impossible.”

  “Or,” Fiona said, “this could be a hallucination, and...” She trailed off, not wanting to go on. “I was about to say we might be dead, but that’s not too cheery, is it? It’s to the Xenofold that all Elekai return, when they die. And if we’re in the Xenofold...”

  I swallowed. That was something I hadn’t considered.

  “Before we came here,” I said, “the two of you were knocked out. The lake rose, and I tried to save you...but I grew weak. It covered us all, and I remember myself, floating...and then this.”

  No one said anything for a long time after that. It was surreal to watch both Isaru’s and Fiona’s faces as they came to grips with what I had said. I wondered if mine looked the same way.

  “Is this what death is like?” Isaru asked. “And if we’re dead...what now?”

  “No,” Fiona said. “We can’t be dead. We were brought here for a purpose, a purpose for which it was necessary to draw us into the Xenofold.”

  I caught some movement from in the distance. That was all I noticed before I warned the others.

  “Something’s coming!”

  We scrambled to hide behind a nearby boulder. We peeked over the edge, only to see a large Radaska – larger than even Jorla – landing close to the shore of the sea.

  Much to my surprise, there was a rider on the Radaska’s back, small of frame, with long, dark hair. It was a woman, judging by her shape, but she was too far away to make out the finer details. Some strange recognition stirred in me, as if I knew this person.

  The dragon’s wings unfurled and the woman slowly dismounted. She carried a blade, but it was sheathed at her side. She wore strange clothing – a plain white shirt, and a long skirt of many layers that went past her knees. She wore only sandals on her feet, but from the way she moved, it was clear that she was skilled with that blade. She walked as if it were a part of her.

  She went to the edge of the sea, pausing just a few feet away. She heaved a sigh, and it seemed as if the weight of the entire world were on her shoulders. She stared at the sea for a while, doing nothing else, while the massive Radaska watched.

  “What do we do?” Isaru asked.

  “Just wait,” Fiona said.

  And then, a voice resounded in my mind.

  Are you sure?

  It was the same voice I had heard in my dreams, and with a start, I realized that this was the same dragon I had seen. However, I knew that the dragon was speaking to the woman, not me.

  The woman’s response shortly followed.

  The Xenofold has revealed its will, and this is the only way to save humanity. I’ve written everything down so that the world will not forget; the manuscript is to be guarded in perpetuity by the Seekers. The Senate and the People of Colonia know my words must be preserved, a testament to the Elekai’s future. Much of that future is dark, but we will not be swallowed by the night. We did not fight to give up now, but our greatest battle is still to come. If all is preserved and remembered, we will survive long enough to fight the next Xenofall...and with luck, we will survive even that.

  She was quiet for a long, drawn moment, but the dragon said nothing in response.

  This is why I must leave, Quietus. This is why I must return to the Xenofold, while there is still strength left in my body.

  And what of him?

  Yes, I suppose I’ll be seeing him, soon. I’ve settled everything I could in this world. I don’t expect everyone to understand, but the Xenofold has spoken. This is our last-ditch effort to give humanity a chance. Evils have already been committed, but the Xenofold has shown me that greater evils are yet to come. Wh
en I return, yes, I will be alone. Such is as it must be, for the Nameless One’s sense of balance to be satisfied.

  The Nameless One is dangerous, the dragon said. No one knows his mind. I do not think he even knows his own mind.

  This is my path, the woman said. Could I risk this world falling again, when we sacrificed everything? Friends. Family. Husbands...

  And your son?

  My son is strong, like his father. He knows what I must do, more than anyone else, even if he doesn’t like it. Alex is grown up now, and he leads the Seekers and the Senate of Colonia. And Ruth is still here. When I go...she will be the last of us.

  The woman said nothing more, not for a long time. Quietus didn’t say anything, but I sensed unease from the dragon.

  You know I would stay, Quietus, if any choice were left to me. But I have seen the future, and without me, the second Xenofall will prevail. I have written everything for the world to know. I have instructed the Seekers to never forget. And when the time comes...they are to find me. I have no doubt that I will return; the Nameless One cannot renege on his guarantee. But often, I wonder about the nature of my return. Will I return as I am now, or as I was over two decades ago, during the war? Perhaps I will come back as I was born. I suppose only time will tell. Everything has been mapped out, according to my revelations from the Xenofold. I’ve already told you about this. The fall of Colonia. The purging of the Elekai. A great betrayal. A growing need to prune humanity from the Xenofold. And the great city that could destroy us all...

  Darkness indeed comes, Quietus said. Already, the Xenofold desires no more humans by assimilation. The greatest enemy of humanity, as it has always been, will be itself.

  If Alex asks anything more of you...please, explain it to him as best you can. Though he’s a man now...I don’t think he understands completely, or accepts what I must do. There was a pause. I’m not sure he ever will, and that worries me most of all.

  Your son’s thoughts are still of this world, Anna, Quietus said. He is young, just tasting life for the first, as with a dragonling who first takes wing. It will be some time before he understands your need. There are some things the young can’t understand...not until youth and memory fade and old age enhances wisdom. So it will be with your son.

  Anna nodded, sadly. I’m not a bad mother, then?

  A bad mother will do what is wrong, but feels right, while a good mother has the courage to do what is right, but feels wrong. The heart can be deceitful above all things, and often when we feel we are doing good, we are doing just the opposite.

  That is how I feel now, Anna thought. I feel as if I can’t trust my own feelings. When you can’t trust that, then what do you have? You become lost. The only thing to have remained true is my love for my son...and his father. Tell him that, Quietus, above all things. That I do this because I love him. He must know that.

  I will do this, Quietus said.

  Both Anna and the dragon stared at the Sea, neither speaking for a long time. I watched rapt, unable to break my gaze away.

  Have you heard them in the streets, Quietus? Some believe me a goddess. I’ve done everything I can to dissuade them, but nothing helps. A glimpse of our future, perhaps?

  People will tell stories of the war, but you have written everything as it occurred. The full truth of it. As long as that survives...someone will know the truth of things, though almost four centuries will pass until your return.

  And if my words don’t survive?

  Quietus went silent, and it was some time before she answered. Then the dragons will preserve what humanity has forgotten. This I swear, by the Xenofold itself.

  Anna waited a moment before speaking again. Thank you, Quietus. For your friendship, your service, and your belief in us. Our war is far from over. Over twenty years have passed since Ragnarok. Twenty years since I last saw my husband. I’m going home. To see him again... She gathered herself before continuing. The greatest threat to our future is forgetting. And if we humans forget...please, Quietus...find a way to forgive us.

  Quietus gave no answer to that. I could feel, though, that the dragon was troubled.

  Finally, I was able to look away, turning to Fiona and Isaru to see their reaction.

  “What do you think?”

  I waited for a moment, but both of them were completely still. Frozen.

  “Isaru! Fiona!”

  Neither moved. It was as if time itself stood still. I backed away, not knowing what this was, or what it meant. I looked toward Anna and the dragon to see that they, too, were frozen. I was the only thing moving in the entire memory.

  “What is this?”

  My voice died in the air.

  It is time, the voice said.

  This was a different voice than the dragon, though. Deeper. It belonged to another consciousness, one that watched even now, but was not present.

  I managed to find my voice. “Time for what?”

  Go forward, the voice said. Look her in the face.

  Perhaps the voice I had been hearing had not been the dragon at all, but this...whoever this was. I wanted to ask why, but I knew that everything had stopped just so I could do this.

  “Alright.”

  I walked across the rocks, none of them so much as moved beneath my feet. Truly everything had been frozen in place but myself and the clothes I was wearing.

  I kept walking until I was just a few feet from her. We were of a similar height, and I couldn’t force down the feeling that I knew her.

  Anna. Annara. The names were eerily similar. Could they be the same person? Did Anna become Annara, over time? She had mentioned that she wasn’t truly a goddess, but hinted that she might be considered as much in the future.

  This, I realized, could be the memory of Anna when she departed from the world. If so, then why was this scene so hauntingly familiar?

  I dreaded circling around to look at her. Until now, I had not gotten a look at her face, and I did not see why it was so important that I did. I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat, and took another step forward, until I was standing right in front of her. Everything remained still.

  My eyes were still on the rocks below, and I couldn’t bring myself to look at her directly.

  These strange feelings waged war inside me, and I knew they wouldn’t go away until I forced myself to look.

  So, I did. I looked up.

  At first, nothing registered, such was the shock. Then, it all came in a burst of lightning, and it felt as if someone had punched me right in the gut. Anna had green eyes, and a few light wrinkles creased the corners of her eyes. She was the same height as me – the exact same height. She had the same eyes, the same nose, and the same face. Besides the fact she was a good twenty years older, it was like looking at a mirror of myself in the future.

  No, not a mirror. This was me.

  Anna and I were the same person.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  “NO...” I SAID. “IT CAN’T be...”

  One more look at the face confirmed everything. I ran right away, tripping and falling once I was halfway to the rock I had left behind. Once there, I crashed to the ground and started crying.

  This was all some trick. It had to be. I looked so much like her that the only conclusion was that I was her, or that she was me. Only that was too ridiculous to be true. I could not be Anna.

  Anna. Annara. They had to be the same person.

  Judging by the lines on my...her...face, this had to be at least twenty years in the future. But why had I spoken of the Ragnarok War as if I had experienced it myself? That suggested that this had happened four centuries ago. Both propositions seemed equally incredible. How could I be older in the past, or how could I be Anna in the future? That begged the question of my parents as well. If I were Anna, where did they come into the picture?

  I was still missing a piece and I was too confused to make any sense of it.

  That was when everything suddenly started moving again, and I was too startled to ev
en react. Anna...the real Anna...did not notice. The dragon, Quietus, merely stared after her as she waded into the Sea of Creation.

  I ran forward, and once the ichor had reached her torso, I called out. “Hey! I need to talk to you.”

  Anna didn’t slow. She kept wading into the Sea, as if it were her mission to be immersed in it.

  I looked at Quietus, who still stared after her. Quietus, please. You talked to me in my dream. Tell me what this is.

  But like Anna, Quietus was only part of the memory, and did not interact with me.

  By now, Anna had sunk beneath the surface of the Sea. Her body faded into the shimmering light, until nothing was left. She did not reemerge.

  The dragon watched and waited for a while longer before rising from its place. It pushed off from the rocks while spreading its wide wings to take flight. It flew over the Sea, and I watched as its form shrank with distance.

  I fell to my knees, the tears coming to my eyes again. The Sea was a blur in my vision. Why was I shown this? What did it mean?

  That was when the sound of running footsteps came up from behind.

  ***

  I turned to see both Isaru and Fiona rushing forward.

  “Shanti...what happened?” Fiona said, her eyes widening upon seeing my state. “You just disappeared.”

  “Where’s the dragon?” Isaru asked. “And the woman?”

  I pointed toward the Sea, my finger shaking. “In there. She walked in there.”

  They both looked to where I had pointed, but already, the dragon had faded into the distance. Of Anna, there wasn’t a sign.

  I felt Fiona’s hand on my shoulder as she knelt down beside me. Her touch just made me sob again.

  “Shanti...what happened? We’re here, now. It’s alright.”

  I swallowed, wiping the tears from my eyes. “I...this is all too much.”